Friday stuff.

I like that work has slowed down just in time for the weather to get nice and sunny!

Great episode of Survivor last night... Yao-man was awesome... great strategizing by Cassandra and the rest... hopefully they can keep Boo and Stacey in-line and get Alex or Mookie out next... The preview for the next show seems to indicate that Alex/Mookie will probably survive, but those things are always deceptive... Still, wouldn't put it past Boo/Stacey/Alex/Mookie/Dreamz to vote together... particularly if they reveal that Yao-man has the immunity idol... plenty of opportunity for many many turns of events... not sure why Edgardo hated Cassandra so much... he should be pissed at Mookie and Dreamz!

Raps/Nets start off tomorrow... it's going to be a crazy series... my fear is that it will be Nets in 6 if the Raps don't shore up their defence... but I'm going to be a homer, and say that the Raps will pull it out in 5... Everyone is saying this will be a long 7 game series, so I'm just saying 5 to be different... The Nets have been playing well lately, but can they withstand the Raptor juggernaut? It really depends on the Raptor bench (Bargnani/Dixon/Calderon/Humphries/MoPete/Jackson)... if they can come out shooting well, then we should be fine... What happens if they have to shorten the bench though (which they should in the playoffs)? Who are the odd guys out of a 7 or 8 man rotation?

If it were me, I'd play Rasho, Bosh, Graham, Parker, Ford to start, and sub in Calderon, Bargnani and Humphries on a regular rotation. They need to run Graham and Parker like crazy to get Carter/Jefferson tired... so throw out Dixon, MoPete, Jackson and get them running for a couple minute shifts... force those two to play defence... Anyways, I trust Mitchell will come up with a decent gameplan going in... we'll see how the Raptor inexperience will factor in...

My picks for year end awards:

MVP - should be Steve Nash, will be Dirk Nowitski
Coach of the Year - should be Sam Mitchell (gasp!), will be Jerry Sloan
Exec of the Year - should be Bryan Colangelo, will be Bryan Colangelo
Rookie of the Year - should be Brandon Roy, will be Brandon Roy (sorry Andrea)
6th man of the Year - should be Leandro Barbosa, will be Leandro Barbosa

My Ranking of MVP candidates:
1. Steve Nash - he's just amazing... led the league in assists by more than 2 per game?! and he makes everyone better... Stoudamire has slowed down, but still looks awesome because of Nash's passing...
2. Dirk Nowitski - doesn't make his teammates better, but he does shoot the lights out, and he leads the best team in the league... big fan of disco Dirk...
3. Tim Duncan - offence/defence runs through him... he is the best interior player in the league on both ends of the court... he makes his teammates much better
4. Tracy McGrady - has Yao, but showed he can lead a team without Yao... doesn't make his teammates better though... Shane Battier deserves a lot of credit - look at Memphis without him
5. LeBron James - has mostly nobody, and ended up with a pretty darn good record...
6. Kobe Bryant - has nobody... turned his teammates into better players in a good system
7. Chris Bosh - he's the man, but he doesn't make his teammates better... Parker, Ford, Garbo, Calderon, Rasho all made him look better than he is... but he's still getting better and better...