Every October, while you are trying to figure out a quirky name for you fantasy football team (the name of my historically bad team is "Ochostinko"), NBA GM's are filling out their annual survey. And very often, these surveys follow the lines of conventional thought. Which makes me wonder if (a) these GMs are actually filling these things out or (b) they are just putting down predictable answers for whatever reason (paranoia? putting pressure on a rival?).
Regardless, conventional thought rules once again in the survey. Some of it is absolutely warranted, some of it is head scratching, and a signficant portion of it involves love for Miami and the Lakers, both of which have been selected as this year's Finals participants.
LeBron James has been selected as the MVP frontrunner, the best small forward, and the guy 24 of the 30 GMs would select to start a team (Kevin Durant and Dwight Howard are the others). The Lakers have the best shooting guard in Kobe Bryant (67%), the best center in Dwight Howard (93%), and almost 90 percent of the GMs say the Lakers have made the best moves of the offseason.
All in all, not all that ground breaking stuff. But the love for Miami does reach the occasional ridiculous level. When asked which team had the biggest home court advantage, the Oklahoma City Thunder got 70% of the vote… which is understandable considering its raucous college atmosphere… and Miami got 10 percent of the vote, tied with Utah.
Now, the Jazz have a rabid home crowd. I can see that. But Miami's fans are notoriously late to games, often not filling the arena until the second quarter. And this isn't like "Los Angeles Late," Where traffic and 7 p.m. starts often prove to be a difficult obstacle to overcome. This is "sections still filling in during the first TV time out of a weekend playoff game" late. How that provides an advantage is beyond me.
Still, that is supposedly what a couple of GMs think. If you want to see more of the survey, there are nearly 60 questions answered here.
