More foolishness among NBA analysts.

I was going to comment on this earlier--like when the current NBA season began at the end of October--but, obviously, decided not to. However, I was listening to Sporting News Radio this morning and the two commentators (Matt Spiegel and Patrick Cortez) where yapping about how the Phoenix Suns are the best team in the NBA and how only they and Dallas are the clear favorites in the West. This reminded me of various predictions made by NBA analysts at the beginning of the season on who they thought would win the conference championships and the NBA title. It seems Phoenix was the popular pick by the analysts to win it all.

They call themselves analysts? Analysts are supposed to analyze data! There was no analysis here, just picking favorites ("I like the way Phoenix plays.").

The Suns do not play defense. They rank in the bottom half of the NBA in defense. Over the last thirty years, only one team that ranked in the bottom half of the league in defense won the NBA title. Add to that the fact that unless you have Michael Jordan on your team it is unlikely you can win an NBA title without a hall-of-fame caliber big man. Oh, there have been a few exceptions. But going all the way back to the days of Mikan, exceptions are few. Great big men don't always win championships, but NBA champions almost always have a great big man (or two). Check it out in the west: It will be Dallas (good defense, though Nowitski isn't the standard hall-of fame caliber big man I'm talking about), San Antonio (Duncan is what I'm talking about) or Houston (Yao Ming and squad have a better shot than Phoenix no matter where they end up seeded). A little knowledge of basketball, NBA history and championships goes a long way. People thought Jordan (and to a lesser extent, Isaiah Thomas and the Pistons of '89 and '90) were ushering in a new age of the NBA where the great big man was no longer needed to win championships. Those years proved to be exceptions. Since Jordan's retirement, Duncan and Shaq have led seven of the eight eventual NBA champions to titles. And the other team had Big Ben Wallace and Rasheed Wallace! It is all about the big guy.

Phoenix is not a contender. San Antonio, Dallas or Houston in the West; Miami, Detroit, Chicago or Clevelend in the East. Take it to the bank: Phoenix won't be playing in June.