- OCD Hoops -

Underrated NBA Players who balled up at age 35 or later : Wilt who averaged 13.2 pts and 18.6reb to go with 4.6ast and who knows the blocks shooting 73%FG... At age 36 in his lasy season, Russell, Oscar, Baylor, and other older players like Jordan and Bird I won't be listing as I'm trying to stay as modern as possible. So much talk about Lebron being the only 35 year old to play at an elite level this past year got me curious. There's plenty of guys that were good NBA players in their mid 30s like 36 year old Marion on Dallas starting at forward for 30 minutes a night and averaging 10.4ppg 6.4rpg 2apg, is something any player at the age of 36 would be more than happy to put up. But over the past 25 or so years there have been some great elders that had wonderful seasons, even an MVP season from the mailman at age 35. But more importantly are guys like Detlef Schrempf, whom are normally not discussed or brought up. Lebron can match that but Giannis makes a toug...

2014 MOST IMPROVED PLAYER Anthony Davis 2012-2013: 13.5 points, 8.2 rebounds, 1.2 steals, 1.8 blocks 2013-2014: 21.3 points, 10.3 rebounds, 1.4 steals, 2.9 blocks This was definitely the toughest award to give out actually.  While I basically had two guys for Defensive Player, there are many a  players having breakout seasons. From Paul George sustaining his level of play from last years playoffs and improving all around to Eric Bledsoe becoming a Sun and putting up great numbers finally getting to start and play bigger minutes to Al Jefferson, a 30+ year old veteran putting up career numbers (as a result of the Bobcats offense). Add D-League/NBA bounce-around guy Gerald Green having a great season with the Suns as a starter/6th man Shooting Guard, and almost any Sun player (Dragic, Plumlee, Morris). Andre Drummond finally started and was able to stay out of foul trouble in his second season, putting up great numbers and showing how good he will be. This year was simply...

2014 DEFENSIVE PLAYER DeAndre Jordan wins over Joakim Noah I feel both deserve it, though I ultimately will give it to DeAndre Jordan for also being someone I could "shout out" as a Most Improved Player award too. Doc Rivers has turned DJ into a monster, utilizing all his skills and turning him into a full time starter, anchoring the defense, talking, protecting the rim. The only player with more Defensive Win Shares is Paul George, who while being a great all around player and defender, is simply a part of a team full of good defenders like George Hill and with Hibbert anchoring Indiana's top 5 defense.  Paul George get's the definitive "shout out" though, and probably another "shout out" for Most Improved player. DeAndre Jordan:  1.0 steals, 2.5 blocks, 13.8 rebounds Joakim Noah : 1.2 steals, 1.5 blocks, 11.1 rebounds Both players have been amazing for their teams defenses, both top 10 individual defensive ratings as well as impacting ...

Every season the NBA has so many awards it's ridiculous. We all know about the MVP Award, but did you know there are Players of the week and rookies of the week. Player of the month and rookies of the month. Why not defensive player of the month? Well I guess it's hard to measure, making it more subjective than other awards.  The awards to me are very interesting, some more objective than others, all somewhat "known" because of the media's influence as well as other hype. But to boil it down OCDhoops style, I have spent far too much time coming up with the winners, and then "shout outs" for players that could of also possibly won the award.  I thought today's Hawks trumping of Indiana by 30+points in the first half took forever, but I've been pondering who wins each award for too long.  So here we go.... 2014 NBA MVP Kevin Durant Stats - 32.1 points, 7.6 rebounds, 5.6 assists, 1.3 steals, 0.8 blocks, 38.5 minutes Finally, someone has ...

GamePlay:  9/10     The Negative-The passing has gone from one extreme to another; why Jason Kidd isn't capable of making a post entry past to Dirk who's wide open more than 50% of the time is not "sim style", especially when I make the dribble towards Dirk to create the passing angle.  The computer/AI is a bit weird, sometimes they are extremely stupid and sometimes they are genius... and of course the 3pt shooting is a bit overloaded for the CPU, it's just worth mentioning.  And the last complaint would be the "collision detection" when trying to close out and play on-ball defense.  The animations get weird and often trying to play on-ball defense (when playing against someone online) causes the guy to easily drive past you, hoepfully a patch will fix some of that.    -The Positive: Best offline simulation style Basketball game created to date.  Love playing 12 minute quarters, 48 minute games and having a real box score, real player st...

TOP: Lebron James, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh, Mo Williams, Josh Howard BOTTOM: David West, Leandro Barbosa, Kirk Hinrich, Chris Kaman, Kendrick Perkins, TJ Ford    Now it's hard to say with any definite tone that this upcoming NBA Draft of 2014 is going to be as good as 2003's, as I've read in numerous articles from respected reporters and scouts (Lebron, Melo, Wade, Bosh, and others noted in picture above).  Now I'm trying to do my best to stay objective, but it's hard to beat that class after reading it might be as good as some 80's draft that had so much talent and stars.  But I like comparing this years draft to 2003's (as they are similar in the young talent as well as depth) and think they are actually quite right on about the talent coming out for this year's draft, including the young freshman class that has dominated the NCAA landscape. March Madness is looking to be played at one of the highest levels it's ever been pl...

Stephen Curry is one of my top 5 PG's this season indefinitely, but who are the other 4?  Normally, I don't like to "rank" players as much as the media, who never gets it right, but I decided to take a look at who are really the best PG's in the NBA this season.  I figure we can objectively find the top 5 PG's in the NBA this year, based on this years performance.  Notice that means most great PG's have their teams headed for the playoffs in my opinion, as they are essentially the second coach and the position has become so powerful the last half decade.  Also allows us to assess their season 3/4 the way in and see who finishes strong and whom let's us down. Steve Nash! Derrick Rose! Rajon Rondo! Russel Westbrook! Sorry guys, as you have all been in the top 5 multiple times in your career, this year you missed the cut for either aging or injury. Westbrook has missed almost half the season with Durant carrying the load (and doing i...

     Why don't we hear "All Dwight Howard does is dunk"? Well, in that defense, (no pun intended) Howard is the best defensive "big-man" in the game, period. Dwight is one of the top 2 rebounders in the league (Kevin Love competition) averaging 14.0 boards per game (compared to Griffin's 12.1 per game). This is what Howard can do and does best in the entire league: anchor's the defense and blocks/alters shots better than anyone in the entire NBA, thus his current third consecutive Defensive Player of the Year Award a portrait of his impact on the game defensively. Offensively speaking, in his 7th, hopefully (this year) to be 8th season in the NBA at age 26 he is far behind Griffin even in many aspects overall.  Both players, though, are Franchise Tag players, and will be leading teams to the Playoffs and more depending on whatever happens with the team that's put around them. I am just curious why the internet's sports population aren...

While the title is negatively toned at the NBA labor dispute, this site will update the status of the situation, but rather than focus on the events going on around the NBA, discuss the possible season ahead of us.  Yes, even a shortened season still counts, which I assume this whole things will result in.  Can we say 40 game season? But let's act like all things were running smoothly.  There was a solid draft, plenty of solid trades, and the landscape of the NBA and it's teams look rather solid.  Of course, there remain many "free agents" in the NBA now, even plenty of players are under contract in Europe, but with NBA "out clauses" in their contracts, so we don't have to worry about them once the season starts... say in January. Hah. Some players are going to China, much less, as they are no longer giving contracts with "NBA out clauses", so we'll have to see if any of the role players/starters/stars end up signing there for a year to...