Friday, May 05, 2006

Defying Expectations?

The NBA All-Rookie team was announced with the first team comprised of Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Charlie Villanueva, Channing Frye and Andrew Bogut. In making a bid for Celtics rookie Ryan Gomes, Dan Shanoff makes an amusingly silly argument. Of course this constitutes more of the usual from him, and he cements his place as arguably the silliest man to ever attend Harvard University:

“Gomes was a lightly regarded 2nd-round pick; after the All-Star Break, he became a rock for Boston at small forward, routinely putting up double digits in points and rebounds at the most competitive position in the NBA. Defying expectations should be a bigger factor in rookie team voting.”

If defying expectations meant anything then Atlanta’s Mike Woodson should get Coach of the Year honors because I’m sure everyone predicted the Hawks to finish with the league’s worst record (the Hawks overachieved to a 28th place finish out of 30 teams). Why stop there? Maybe the Defensive Player of the Year Award should go to Steve Nash because, hey, every once in a while someone he’s guarding doesn't score. Or, why not just make the All-Rookie first team the five lowest-drafted players that averaged 10 minutes per game? I mean, if you can find five second rounders that average 10 minutes per game then, hell, they must be better than lottery picks because they defied expectations.

Where on earth does he come up with this stuff?

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