2014 NBA Power Rankings, Week 2: You Cannot Be Serious

Seriously, if I can't update this post more than once every 6 weeks, why bother calling it a weekly Power Ranking? Just pathetic on every level. Teams have played almost 20 games since the last Rankings. I'm better than that (well, maybe not).

Actually, maybe this will give an interesting snap shot in comparison to where we thought we were in the NBA in mid-January. Yea, let's turn it around and talk it up that way. Now, I don't feel pathetic anymore. I'm officially hyped. Let's do this!

1. Miami Heat (41-14, PR=3)...Being a 3 time repeat Finals participant, B-Court All-Star kind of gives Miami the benefit of the doubt most weeks over the past few seasons. Even if they appear to be on cruise control and muck things up for a few weeks in a row, you always kind of get the sense that that championship fire is burning right there beneath the surface. Well, they've turned up the heat (pun totally intended) the past couple of weeks, and they appear to be gearing up for playoff form after completing a 5-1 West coast road trip. They've also now officially won 9 of 10 and 12 of their last 14 overall, LeBron just completed one of the most efficiently dominant months in the last 50 years, and D-Wade is actually in the lineup (and effective) more than every other game.

And that's probably the most bada** protective mask I've ever seen.

2. Indiana Pacers (44-13, PR=2)...Miami is hot on their heals for the league's best record, but they are still just hot on their heels...they haven't caught up to their heels or whatever the expression would be. Point is, Indy just keeps trucking along winning 9 of their last 12. Should be interesting how Turner and Bynum get integrated into their rotation as well.

3. San Antonio Spurs (41-16, PR=1)...Always the forgotten team in a bevy of Western Conference heavyweights, I'm not convinced that there is a better team out West than San Antone. While the Clippers, Blazers, Rockets, and Warriors all are trying to make that leap from very good team to legit title contender, at this point I still have the Spurs in a series in 5 or 6 games over any of them.

4. Los Angeles Clippers (40-20, PR=5)...They're currently 4th in the West right now, but only a game behind Portland for that 3rd spot, and with Blake Griffin continuing to show his expanded game and CP3 back, they are as dangerous as anyone. Moving parts are a concern with injuries to Reddick and Crawford and new pieces in Big Baby and Granger, but this is a team that stacks up well with most of the other top teams out West (other than the Spurs). An early round matchup with the Warriors or Grizz should be avoided at all costs though.

5. Oklahoma City Thunder (43-15, PR=5)...Putting the better conference's current #1 seed 5th might be troublesome to some, but I don't like the look of this Thunder team right now. KD's having a MVP-caliber season, but I'm starting to worry about Russell Westbrook on a couple levels. Are his knees going to be a chronic issue now? How long is it going to take for him to feel his way back into his usual role on the team? Also, maybe it is just rust, but you get a weird vibe watching OKC right now, like despite keeping up appearances the KD-Westbrook power struggle is going to come to a head at some point. Also, Perkins being out oddly hurts this team from a minutes standpoint, thinning out the team's bigs, and causing them to use small lineups more often.

OKC's lost 3 straight home games since Westrbook's return.

6. Portland Trail Blazers (40-18, PR=4)...Oh, how expectations change with an unexpected hot start. Rip City has cooled off slightly over the past couple weeks, and now everyone wants to know what's wrong with the Blazers. Well, legit title contenders I don't believe they are, but they need to get LA back in the lineup soon regardless.

7. Houston Rockets (39-19, PR=none)...As hot as they've been, I still don't know if I trust them in a 2nd round playoff series. They can beat anybody on a given night, but they still depend on a lot of 3's going in and Dwight Howard.

Harden may have officially taken over the title of best 2-guard in the game though.

8. Golden State Warriors (35-23, PR=none)...Honestly, I would have guessed the Warriors would have moved up higher on this list at this point in the season. They seem to have the right blend of offensive firepower and solid team defense, but consistency remains a problem.

9. Chicago Bulls (31-26, PR=none)...Maaaaaan, don't ask me how the Bulls have done this the last 2 years. Would love to see a Pacers-Bulls 2nd round playoff matchup though.

10. Phoenix Suns (33-24, PR=none)...Was actually tempted to put my red-hot Wizards here, but couldn't bring myself to do it since they would only be in 10th place in the West right now. The Suns are probably the shocker of the NBA season so far. Let's hope Dragic and Eric Bledsoe get back on the court soon.

The 2013 Redskins in Review, Part 3: One More Time Around the Coaching Carousel

Parts 1 and 2 of this series went pretty bang-bang in my fury once the NFL regular season had ended, but time constraints and work obligations caused my blog posting to come to a screeching halt sometime around mid-January. If Part 3 happened in quick succession of the 1st 2 posts, it would have had an entirely different tone. As it is, it's going to come off lukewarm. In fact, so meh am I about Part 3's subject matter that I almost considered scrapping this idea altogether. This was supposed to be a scathing memorandum of Mike Shanahan's time in Washington, DC...a commentary on his ego, his shadiness, on his inability to perform at a player personnel level like he had as a coach, on his inability to coexist with his boss and those he was the boss of alike, and (most importantly) his record as head coach of the Redskins. A record in 4 seasons outside of a 7 game hot streak in 2012 that could only be described as miserable. For the record (rimshot, please), he departed with a mark of 24-40, leaving owner Dan Snyder perfectly within his rights to give him the boot on performance and merit alone. If you just take out that 7 game run of perfection, that leaves ol' Shanny a whopping 17-40.

I know, I know, Mike...that's awful.

This post was supposed to be about how Shanahan always seemed more concerned with power struggles within his own organization than with winning games. His years can be marked with the Albert Haynesworth implosion, the Donovan McNabb firestorm, and finally the RG3-pocalypse. Shanahan seemed to obsess more over making everyone else bend to his will than anything else. And yet if the Redskins happened to choose to bring Shanahan back for the last season of his contract, I would have at least been ok with it. He presumably would have had a healthy Griffin in 2014 and a couple replacements to some of their substandard level players

I know that's a meh reaction, but it's hard to get ecstatic about any coaching move that Washington makes anymore. They've pretty much run the gambit of hiring types since Danny boy has owned the team, all with similar outcomes. They've gone for old school defensive coach (Marty Shottenheimer), the hot offensive minded college coach of the time (Steve Spurrier), the bring-back of the most beloved and legendary coach in their own franchise's history (Joe Gibbs), the unheard of potential diamond in the rough (Jim Zorn), and the splashy multiple Super Bowl winning coach (Shanahan). I can't lie...other than Zorn, who I had never heard of previously, these all sounded like great hires at the time, and they all either fizzled-out eventually (at their best) or blew up in their faces at some point (at their worst).

So, excuse me for not being anything but meh about the team's decision to hire Jay Gruden. This isn't meant to disparage him at all. He appears to be a fine coach. He has pedigree, being the brother of another Super Bowl winning coach in John Gruden. The offenses he coordinated the last few seasons in Cincinnati were somewhere between good to very good with a quarterback who was average at best. He appears to be earnest, bright, hungry, and most other attributes you would want in a coach. But if the other guys who came before him are any indication, he's likely to last in Washington between 2 and 3 years before he gets canned with an overall record below 0.500. More meh from me, but it's tough to come up with another honest emotion regarding the coaching situation based on past history. Aside from prove me wrong, there's really not much us for me to say. Godspeed, Jay Gruden...Godspeed.

Looking good already, Jay.

5 Quick Observations About This Year's Super Bowl

1. This year’s Super Bowl commercials seemed especially tame. I mean, there were a couple worthy of smirks or awwws, but nothing all that memorable. Nothing "Ad Nausem" worthy at least…just saying. Also, Bruno Mars was just fine. Leave Bruno Mars alone, people.

Hate, hate, hate!

2. Enough with all this 12th Man bulls***. Yes, Seattle is loud. It’s a very cool stadium. Northwestern people go nuts for their sports. Stop telling me about the significance of the fans at the neutral site Super Bowl and the significance of the Seahawks scoring 12 seconds into both halves. Stop it!

3. I’m still not sure why so many of ESPN’s talking heads picked Denver to win. I'm not saying everyone picked them, but it seemed like there were a lot. Maybe they were wishing it instead of actually analyzing the teams…or history even. If anything, it should have been split closer to 50-50 I think (For the record, I picked Seattle). But the old adages of defense wins championships and great defense beats great offense have become old adages for a reason: because a great majority of the time, they hold true. And I think people gave Seattle a chance to win, but I think out of the possible outcomes people thought that if one team had the potential to deliver a blowout, it would be the Broncos with their high-powered offense. The Seahawks could win, but their style of play would probably make it a close win. Historically though in the Super Bowl, if great defense plays great offense in the Super Bowl, it’s the team with the D that does the sha-lacking. (The game that immediately comes to mind is the whooping the Buccaneers put on the Raiders in 2003.)

4. The outcome shows us that at the end of the day, talent and athleticism still trumps almost everything else in sports. Denver had a very talented corps of position players on offense this year, highlighted by Peyton Manning. That talent combined with Manning’s ability to read a defense and dissect the area of weakness made them almost impossible to defend this season (hence, the numerous offensive records). But none of that matters when the pocket collapses around the quarterback before he has a chance to throw or when a receiver can’t get separation from a defender or when the offensive player is hit and tackled immediately after getting the ball. The Seahawks aren’t the Pittsburgh Steelers or New York Jets. They didn’t give the Broncos a bunch of exotic looks or go blitz-crazy. They did pretty much the same thing every play, and yet there was no play Denver could call to make Seattle change their scheme (or even make them feel threatened). When you have athletes as good as that, you don't need to get all fancy.

A common theme from last night...

5. Finally, this almost certainly seals Manning’s fate as 1 of the all-time greats, but definitely not the greatest ever. As great as his numbers are going to wind up being, he’s just been too mediocre in postseason play. I’m not saying to discard all of his other accomplishments, but you can’t overlook his playoff record either.