NCAAB Premium Card 12/07

NCAAB - 793 Vanderbilt @ 794 Davidson

***SINGLE DIME PLAY***

PROJECTED LINE: Davidson -5

Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 794 Davidson (-1) @ -110 / 1.91 on Bookmaker



NCAAB - 745 Virginia Tech @ 746 Rhode Island

***SINGLE DIME PLAY***

PROJECTED LINE: Virginia Tech -9

Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 745 Virginia Tech (-5) @ -110 / 1.91 on Bookmaker



NCAAB - 749 Alabama @ 750 Dayton

***SINGLE DIME PLAY***

PROJECTED LINE: Alabama -8

Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 749 Alabama (-5) @ -110 / 1.91 on Bookmaker



NCAAB - 799 Buffalo @ 800 Niagara

***SINGLE DIME PLAY***

PROJECTED LINE: Buffalo -12

Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 799 Buffalo (-7) @ -110 / 1.91 on Bookmaker



NCAAB - 741 Temple @ 742 Toledo

***SINGLE DIME PLAY***

PROJECTED LINE: 145 Points

Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 741/742 Over 139 @ -110 / 1.91 on Bookmaker



NCAAB - 797 Illinois St. @ 798 Morehead St.

***SINGLE DIME PLAY***

PROJECTED LINE: 130 Points

Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 797/798 Over 124 @ -110 / 1.91 on 5 Dimes



NCAAB - 759 Wichita St. @ 760 Tulsa

***SINGLE DIME PLAY***

PROJECTED LINE: Wichita St. -7

Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 759 Wichita St. (-3) @ -110 / 1.91 on 5 Dimes



NCAAB - 761 Green Bay @ 762 Wisconsin

***SINGLE DIME PLAY***

PROJECTED LINE: Wisconsin -25

Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 762 Wisconsin (-20.5) @ -110 / 1.91 on 5 Dimes



NCAAB - 807 Iona @ 808 Denver

***SINGLE DIME PLAY***

PROJECTED LINE: Iona -7

Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 807 Iona (-3) @ -110 / 1.91 on 5 Dimes



NCAAB - 787 San Diego St. @ 788 San Diego

***SINGLE DIME PLAY***

PROJECTED LINE: 135 Points

Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 787/788 Over 129 @ -110 / 1.91 on 5 Dimes

Philadelphia 76ers NBA Season Preview 2011-12

PHILADELHIA 76ERS

Advanced Stats:

PACE: #16 94.0       

OFFENSE: #18 104.0         

DEFENSE: #10 102.5

  

Tom Thibodeau deserved to win the Coach of the Year award, but the trophy could have gone to Doug Collins as well. Collins took care of a team with no real superstars, who had heavily struggled early in the season by going 3-13 on their first 16 games, and improved them massively by allowing them to have a 38-28 record during the rest of the season. Collins knew he had no superstar available on the roster and therefore he had to maximize the whole roster. The outcome of that saw five different players averaging double digits points during the season! Elton Brand with 15 points per game was their leading scorer, while Iguodala, Young, Holiday and Williams all averaged more than 10 points per game.

Watching the Sixers offense on the floor was a bizarre exercise, as the Sixers were the 3^rd best team in the league in scoring in transition with 17.6 fast break points per game, but they were just #16 in the pace factor. Because they were used to be a sum of bad shooters, the Sixers used to traditionally attack the paint, but last season they were just 16^th in scoring in the paint with 41.3 points in the paint per game. At the same time, the Sixers were the 7^th team with more “long twos” attempts! Finally, the Sixers were used to be on the top of teams that go to the free throw line, but last season they were the 3^rd team with fewer FT attempts per game, with a free throw rate of just 27.3%!

If we think about it, it becomes easier to explain how they struggled so much earlier in the season, as the Sixers did things last year very differently from what they were used to do! Andre Iguodala was the one of the players who most benefited from this new system as he stopped being the team’s obvious go-to player. He attempted less 2.4 FG per game than in the previous season for example, but at the same time, he had a career high of 6.3 apg! Only Lebron James had more assists per game than him from all the non-PG players in the league!

Jrue Holiday has been learning quickly from a 20 years old player. Thanks to the system of sharing responsibilities, Holiday doesn’t need to carry the ball in every single play, however he still finished the season with 6.5 assists per game. On the other end, Elton Brand is still overpaid, but at least he is now being productive. Last season, he hit the 50% mark from the field for the first time since his monster 06-07 season. He had 15.0 ppg, while shooting 51.2% FG and grabbing 8.3 rpg, numbers which are quite decent, with Doug Collins having some credit for Brand’s comeback.

Doug Collins has also transformed the 8^th worst defensive team in the league into the 9^th best defensive team with basically the same roster! Their perimeter defense was supposed to be good due to the Iguodala factor and they were 6^th in opponents 3PTS% with 34.0%, but they were also a tough team to score and rebound, despite not having a real strong inside presence in the roster.

Spencer Hawes was the team’s weakest link and the team addressed this weakness in the draft by selecting Nikola Vucevic, who may not be the prototypal big man that entered the league because of his athleticism and size, but this young man can shoot the ball and he’s a quite skilled offensive player.

The Sixers will have an interesting collection of young talent. Holiday, Evans, Vucevic and Meeks are all talented players. The problem for Philadelphia is that this will be a special season without a full length training camp and with a short schedule. They cannot afford to start tge season 3-13 once again! Doug Collins’ system is fully installed on the team and now it’s up to the coach to coordinate the roster full of young talent that the team possesses.

NCAAB Premium Card 12/06

NCAAB - 541 Massachusetts @ 542 East Carolina

***SINGLE DIME PLAY***

PROJECTED LINE: 140 Points

Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 541/542 Under 146 @ -110 / 1.91 on Bookmaker



NCAAB - 545 Missouri vs 546 Villanova

***SINGLE DIME PLAY***

PROJECTED LINE: Missouri -12

Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 545 Missouri (-7.5) @ -110 / 1.91 on The Greek



NCAAB - 547 George Mason @ 548 Virginia

***SINGLE DIME PLAY***

PROJECTED LINE: Virginia -15

Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 548 Virginia (-10) @ -110 / 1.91 on 5 Dimes



NCAAB - 567 Tulane @ 568 Wofford

***SINGLE DIME PLAY***

PROJECTED LINE: Wofford -2

Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 568 Wofford (+2.5) @ -110 / 1.91 on 5 Dimes


NCAAB - 553 Evansville @ 554 North Carolina

***SINGLE DIME PLAY***

PROJECTED LINE: North Carolina -29

Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 554 North Carolina (-24) @ -110 / 1.91 on 5 Dimes



NCAAB - 555 Iowa @ 556 Northern Iowa

***SINGLE DIME PLAY***

PROJECTED LINE: Northern Iowa -12

Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 556 Northern Iowa (-8.5) @ -110 / 1.91 on 5 Dimes



NCAAB - 561 Memphis @ 562 Miami - Florida

***SINGLE DIME PLAY***

PROJECTED LINE: Memphis -2

Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 561 Memphis (+2) @ -110 / 1.91 on 5 Dimes



NCAAB - 559 Long Beach St. @ 560 Kansas

***SINGLE DIME PLAY***

PROJECTED LINE: Kansas -9

Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 559 Long Beach St (+14) @ -110 / 1.91 on 5 Dimes

NBA Schedule 2011-12

Some thoughts:

- There won't be 3 back-to-back-back spots, all teams will have one back-to-back spot but 10 teams will have 2: Atlanta, Detroit, Indiana, LA Clippers, Minnesota, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland and San Antonio

- Boston will face Lakers, Dallas and Oklahoma City twice;

- Houston will play 7 of first 8 and 8 of 10 against playoff teams. They won't play at home against Miami, Boston, Orlando or Chicago;

- Dallas has a tough early schedule!  The Mavs has 4 stretches of 4 games in 5 days and one stretch of 5 games in 6 days. After the All Star Game they will play 9 games in 12 days! 

- Detroit's toughest spot will be a five-day road trip (Jan. 28-Feb. 1) with four games in those five days;

- Indiana will play 5 of its first 7 games on the road, including games @Miami and @Boston;

- Miami will play LA Lakers, Mavericks & Thunder twice. They have eight games in 11 days in April.

- NY Knicks won't play @Denver - No Melodrama there! 

- LA Lakers' first 12 games will be at home or on the road against West teams - not big travels for them; toughest part: six-game trip in early February including back-to-backs in Boston and NY Knicks;

- Philadelphia will play 9 of their last 11 games on the road, also the  five games of the season will be on the road;

- Phoenix are the only West team to not play at home against any of the East's potential top five teams: Boston, Chicago, Miami, New York and Orlando. On the other end, Golden State and Oklahoma City will play against those 5 teams at home;

- Portland starts the season with seven of their first 10 games at the Rose Garden. Then they hit the road to play games in 9 days, they will not play @Miami or @Orlando;

- San Antonio have 4 games in 5 days to open season, 

- Sacramento will play 21 of their first 33 games on the road;

- Utah plays 6 games in the first 8 days, biggest road trip: 5 games in 7 days:  @Dallas, @Cleveland, @Charlotte, @Philly, & @Chicago;

Oklahoma City Thunder NBA Season Preview 2011-12

OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER

Advanced Stats:

PACE : #13 95.0
OFFENSE: #4  108.6
DEFENSE:  #18  104.0

The improvement of the Oklahoma City Thunder through the last few years has been amazing. We all know that their roster is full of talented young players, but going from a 23-59 record in the 2008/09 season to a 55-27 record and a conference final in just two seasons was something that very few people were expecting, including people within the organization.

Offensively, the team was the 4^th most efficient in the league, but the way they achieved such efficiency wasn’t in the most orthodox way possible, as they were just 13^th in the league in terms of eFG% with 50,8%. So, how were they so efficient last season in the offense? The answer is through the free throw line! They were the 2^nd best team in the league with more free throw attempts with 29.3 per game and the 1^st team in the league in FT% with 82,4%! That was possible with the big contribute of both Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, who were in the top 10 of players with more FT attempts last season. Durant was 2^nd with 8.7 FT attempts per game (only Howard has more attempts than him), while Westbrook was 8^th with 7.7 FT attempts per game.  This explains quite well how aggressive are the Thunder in their offensive movements, always trying to get easy points from the line.

Kevin Durant was the scoring champion with 27.7ppg last season and there are people who already consider him as the best player in the league. Not so fast, please! In comparison with the previous season, Durant regressed in FG%, 3PTS% and FT%! He shot 46,2% from the field and that’s not enough for a player like him, especially considering his size, as a 6’9 player, Durant should look for better spots to shoot the ball and not continuing to insist to make himself a perimeter player. He shot just 3.6 FGA per game at the rim (vs 5.3 FGA per game in the previous season), 1.8 FGA per game from 3-9 feet and 2.2 FGA per game from 10-15 feet. This means that from his overall 19.7 FGA per game, about 61% of his attempted shots were from 16 feet or more! That was quite visible in the playoffs vs Memphis, when a 6 ft 4 Tony Allen was able to slow him down. In normal conditions in that matchup, Durant should have used his size advantage to punish Allen down low, but as he is so perimeter oriented, OKC struggled to beat MEM and was only able to do it in the 7^th game of the series.

In order to be the best player in the league, Durant needs to develop his post up game! Besides that, every year on my previews, I criticize Durant’s A/TO ratio and this year is no exception to that. For a player who is constantly double teamed and has great hands and speed, Durant can’t finish a season with 2.7 APG and 2.8 TO per game!

Durant’s problem with the turnovers is amplified by the fact that Westbrook led the league last season in turnovers with 3.9 TO/game! During the playoffs, we saw the Thunder making innumerous mistakes down the stretch, but the team was bringing this track record from the regular season. Unlike Durant, Westbrook was able to improve his shooting numbers, with 44,2% FG and 33% 3PTS. These numbers aren’t exactly elite numbers, but at least he improved them in comparison to his first two seasons as a pro. So, in order for the team to improve even more, they need to be more careful in handling the ball.

The team’s frontcourt isn’t offensive minded at all. Perkins is worthless offensively and Ibaka is the only offensive threat in the frontcourt. Ibaka played more 10mpg last season in comparison with the previous season and he managed to finish the season with 54.3% FG, which is an acceptable number considering he attempted 7.5 shots per game. With a reliable mid-jumper, Ibaka may be a contender to have a breakout season.

Also stay tune for Harden, who is a contender for the 6^th man award if he keeps improving!

Defensively, OKC stopped being an elite team, which is weird considering they had been 8^th (101.6) in defensive efficiency in the previous season. Last season, the Thunder were just 18^th (104.0) in this department and maybe because of that, the Thunder needed to go for the market and trade for Perkins.

So, the key question in here is to know if Perkins was an X factor on the defensive end, because if he wasn’t and due to his lack of offensive skills, he would be practically useless on the team. And the answer is yes! On February 25, OKC was allowing 102.27 ppg. But since Perkins joined the team, the Thunder allowed just 97.92 ppg, having the 2^nd best mark of the league during this span, only worse than the Bulls, allowing almost less 5ppg! During the season, OKC was just 25^th in the league in points in the paint allowed with 44.9 ppg. So, a full season with Perkins anchoring the paint will help the team in this department.

Westbrook and Durant should keep improving and with that, OKC will continue to be one of the best offensive teams in the league. The X factor will remain on the defensive end. If OKC is capable of showing the level of defense they started showing since Perkins joined the team, then OKC will surely be one of the major forces of the Western conference this season.

NCAAB Premium Card 12/05

NCAAB - 743 Brown @ 744 Providence

***SINGLE DIME PLAY***

PROJECTED LINE: 132 points

Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 743/744 Under 140 @ -110 / 1.91 on Bookmaker



NCAAB - 745 Wis.-Milwaukee @ 746 DePaul

***SINGLE DIME PLAY***

PROJECTED LINE: DePaul -7

Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 746 DePaul (-3,5) @ -110 / 1.91 on The Greek



NCAAB - 747 Elon University @ 748 NC-Greensboro

***SINGLE DIME PLAY***

PROJECTED LINE: 137 points

Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 747/748 Under 142,5 @ -110 / 1.91 on Bookmaker



NCAAB - 751 Idaho State @ 752 Boise St.

***SINGLE DIME PLAY***

PROJECTED LINE: 147 points

Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 751/752 Over 141 @ -110 / 1.91 on The Greek

Atlanta Hawks NBA Season Preview 2011-12

ATLANTA HAWKS

Advanced Stats:

PACE : #27 91.8
OFFENSE: #20  103.2
DEFENSE:  #16  104.6

It was quite a surprise that a worse version of the Atlanta Hawks than in the previous season was able to beat in the Playoffs the same exact team that annihilated them one year earlier by an averaging difference of 25 points per game!

Without any hard feelings, the Atlanta Hawks was the best team of all the mediocre teams in the NBA last season!

The Hawks entered the playoffs with a negative average margin per victory of -0.69! Only the Pacers had a worse ratio from the postseason teams, which was understandable as the Pacers finished the regular season with a 37-45 record.

Basically, they limited to beat the lowly teams of the league (30-12 record vs. below .500 teams), while they couldn’t be competitive against the upper class of the opponents: 14-26 record vs. above 0.500 teams. We must also not forget that they finished 7-1 in games decided by 3 or less points! Bottom line, we are talking about a 44-38 team that could have easily finished the regular season with a 42-42 record!

Despite changing their head coach, the Hawks didn’t change at all their principles of the game:

They were a mere jump shooting team that didn’t attack the rim! They were last in shots attempted at the rim with 25.5% of their total shots, while at the same time they led the league in “long two’s” shots with 30.1% of their total shots.

Because they were the second worst team in the league in Offensive Rebounds Rate with 23.45 per game, the Hawks needed badly to hit their perimeter shots in order to be competitive.

The problem was that their best perimeter players Joe Johnson and Jamal Crawford had down seasons: Joe Johnson shot only 44.3% FG and 29.7% 3PTS, while having a tough season with multiple injuries and Jamal Crawford shot an even worse 42.1% clip from the field and 34.1% from the three point land. Obviously we can expect a better season from a healthy Joe Johnson this year…

With such bad play from the perimeter players (I’m including Mike Bibby’s stint with the team as well), the Hawks needed big numbers from Josh Smith and Al Horford to make up all the deficiencies and be real inside players however the outcome didn’t look good.

After shooting more than 50% from the field for the first time of his career, Josh Smith regressed last season as he shot just 47.7% FG. More concerning was the fact that Smith was (once again) a more a perimeter oriented player than he needed to be. Suddenly he attempted 2 treys per game for the season!! Because he was so far from the basket, he grabbed a career low 1.7 offensive rebounds per game! His other numbers were solid but for the sake of this Hawks team, Josh Smith has to be near the basket more often!

Al Horford went to the All Star game for the second consecutive year and he was clearly the best player of the team! His 15 points and 10 rebounds per game numbers are a lock for this upcoming season, but just like Josh Smith, Horford plays a lot on the perimeter! However note that he was extremely efficient by shooting 2.6-4.8 FGA/FGM from 16-23 feet – a ridiculous 53% FG!

The X factor for this season could be the development of Jeff Teague. He was forgotten during the regular season before becoming a starter during the playoffs. His numbers in the postseason were great: 29.8 min/gm; 11.8 ppg; 51.4% FG; 3.5 apg and 1.0 to/g.

However I just can’t ignore the fact that both the Magic and the Bulls simply “ignored” him when he was on the court, so Teague enjoyed some friendly space on the offensive end. Certainly this will change if his role on the team keeps growing.

The Hawks aren’t a young team on the rise anymore. They are still a talented team, but things are now tougher for them, especially with Miami on their division. The team’s main core have been playing together for years now and nobody expects to see them struggling early on the season. However, Larry Drew needs to make bigger changes on the team, not only on the system but especially in changing the mentality of some players! Nevertheless, the Hawks will be a team that has great chances to be on the playoffs, but they are not a contender for the championship at all!


NOTE: This is the first preview for the upcoming NBA 11/12 season. Later, I will make an analysis of my future goals and especially reviewing my results from last season. Also, if there is any significant change in the team during the offseason, I'll add the proper information on the article.