NBA Chat With Susan Bible 4/28/12

Please join Susan Bible for her NBA Chat each Saturday at 11:00 am EST. Susan is a Newlines Editor and a member of the fantasy team at HOOPSWORLD. She covers the Oklahoma City Thunder and the NBA at large. Drop in your questions now.

  1. Connor C.

    Susan! Its been a while since I dropped a question in your chat.
    I’ve read it every week for about a year though! Anyways, I have two questions for you: 1) Do you watch any other sports besides basketball? What are they? 2) I know you like to look at stats and think things over, but off the top of your head, which teams will be in the western & eastern conference finals this year?
    Thanks: )

    • Susan Bible

      Good morning NBA devotees! What’s on your minds?

      Glad you dropped in a question…and thanks for the support!

      Next to basketball, I watch college football (specifically, OU) and if I have time, the NFL (I used to be a diehard 49ers fan) and tennis.

      True, I’m one of those anal stats geeks. You know what’s funny? I’m terrible with numbers. I even had to get a tutor to get me through college algebra. So I can’t even explain why I love to immerse myself in players’ stats, either just for my enjoyment or fantasy basketball (and I won my league this year for the first time!) or research for an article. Anyway, to answer your last question…I’m going to say Chicago/Miami in the East and San Antonio/Oklahoma City in the West.

  2. LSO

    Hey, Susan – I know Steve Nash has long been one or your favorites. Where will he play come next season? Look into your crystal ball…….and offer your prognostication.

    • Susan Bible

      I have to believe Steve Nash is ready to move on to a contender for the last couple years of his career…he says he can see playing for three more years actually. Of course, the Suns will look to re-sign him as a free agent in July, but I can’t help but think he signs with either the Knicks or Miami.

      Nash was the first player I ever spoke to in a locker room. I had been a fan of his for a long time, and I was sure nervous approaching him. He’s the only player who ever stood up to shake my hand when I introduced myself. He was tying his shoes and clearly anxious to get to pre-game warm-ups, but he patiently answered my questions. That simple move sealed my respect for him.

  3. Connor C.

    Hey Susan, when does the NBA announce the individual awards (MVP, ROY, All-NBA teams, Defensive teams, etc.) for the season?

    • Susan Bible

      Normally they start rolling out the NBA awards during the first round of the playoffs. They just sort of trickle in. We media usually get an email advising us of the time/date of a certain teams’ press conference, so we make pretty safe guesses from that.

  4. calvinzero

    How pressure the OKC now that they will face Mavs once and for all??

    • Susan Bible

      Not entirely sure I understand your question. I think you’re wondering how much pressure OKC feels in this first round vs. Dallas. Honestly, this is the perfect first-round opponent for the Thunder. The satisfaction they would get from taking down their nemesis early in the postseason is huge and confidence gained should carry over to the following series. Dallas is a different team from the one OKC saw in the Western Conference Finals, and the Thunder has grown considerably from that series. OKC is is 3-1 vs. Dallas in the regular season; that helps. Still, the Mavs are the reigning champions, so there is pressure and a possibility that it affects them mentally.

  5. Ron

    In your opinion who do you think is the best player in the upcoming draft at creating their own shot/offence for themselves?

  6. Cliff

    Hi Susan! No worries about the Thunder! I don’t doubt them for a moment, and hope to see a Spurs/Thunder WCF! Exciting stuff.

    So, how do you see that playing out, “IF” both teams make it? I see the Thunder right now as a bit undisciplined and maybe buying into the hype about how good they are. I see the Spurs just chewing teams up and spitting them out like they used to, parking the starters in the 2nd or 3rd quarter, game in hand.

    Do the Thunder have it yet, or are they one more year of play-off experience away? I think they are, as it was in the old days, the Bulls, Pistons, etc., having to figure it out a couple seasons before they could advance.

    Probably the same way now, with teams needing to experience a couple of years of play-off bball to know how to handle the intensity of play.

    The Spurs have been there forever, the Thunder, not quite yet.

    Thanks..have a great day!

    (P.S. “Metta” should have been parked for the remainder of the season, and into next year to include a full 25 game suspension….JMO, but there is NO place in bball for that. Clearly no accident! I have reffed a thousand games, and that is beyond unacceptable!)

    • Susan Bible

      Morning Cliff! You hit on several things here. Your theory – and I agree – is that rising teams need a couple years of playoff experience before having a real chance at success. OKC has that; they were eliminated in the first round in 2009-10 and they went to the WC Finals in 2010-11. The next step then is, arguably, an appearance in the Finals. Being around this team so much, I have to disagree that they have bought into the hype of their greatness. I don’t see that at all. A bit undisciplined? Yes. I sure didn’t care for the way they ended the season. It seems fatigue finally caught up with them in this truncated season. I hope, but I’m not convinced, they find complete focus to close out each playoff game. The Spurs scare me.

      I haven’t made my thoughts on the MWP hit on James Harden “public” yet, so I will now. Simply put, it wasn’t a basketball play. Durant said that in an on-court interview, and that summed it up. Harden could have been hurt really bad, like really bad. Metta didn’t set out to intentionally bring down the Thunder’s third-best player, but he’s got to exercise control of his emotions. I thought the penalty was too light.

  7. D.

    Hi Susan! Greets from Germany.

    Any ideas how to bring fairness back to the game? For the third season in a row Houston gets punished with a late lottery pick for playing a decent year in very tough Division, while the Bobcats now may get highly rewarded for playing the worst season in history. Looks pretty unjust to me…

    • Susan Bible

      Greetings to you! You ask a tough question. The system could be better, I agree. I think a lot of people agree. Keep in mind that in the past 18 years, only two teams with the worst record ended up with the No. 1 pick: Cleveland/LeBron James and Orlando/Dwight Howard.

      Have you read this article by Kyler?: http://www.hoopsworld.com/nba-am-tanking-isnt-all-bad Definitely a good read.

  8. Charlie

    Who do you favor in the Denver Nuggets / LA Lakers series? And how many games do you think it will go? Many experts have LA in a romp, but I think this Denver team could surprise. Your thoughts.

    • Susan Bible

      Nuggets will want to run and try to minimize the Lakers bigs. And of course, the Lakers will want to slow the thing down. They don’t have World Peace, but they still have Kobe. I think this series will be a grind. Lakers in 7.

  9. Chris Hall

    If Boston’s Avery Bradley were in this draft, where would he go?

    • Susan Bible

      The same as 2010, maybe lower since we didn’t really know what we had. Expectations weren’t all that high.

  10. Ryan

    If you’re an OKC fan, are you more worried about the Mavs or Lakers?

    • Susan Bible

      Lakers…because of the big men. And Kobe. He was pretty effective on Westbrook in their last match-up.

  11. ralph lawrence

    Hi Susan!! seeing the current draft positions, are those really the final positions been given out to the teams? or is there still a chance that those teams could go to another order??

  12. Mac

    How big of a factor is a missing Metta World Peace in the first round? Do you believe this could play a significant role due to the lack of depth on the Lakers?

    • Susan Bible

      It’s a factor for sure…mainly since they counted on him for a hand in the face of Gallinari.

  13. Frank

    Now that the playoff bracket is set, what is your prediction for the biggest upset in the first round? (if you believe there will be one)

    • Susan Bible

      Not a ton of questions this morning – I think everyone’s getting geared up for the big day. I answered everything I got though! See you again next week…

      I really gave this some thought, and I just don’t see any upsets in the first round. Do you?