Pistons have the playoffs locked up …

by Matt W on Dec 7, 2007 3:38 AM CST Comment 5 comments

... at least, they do if you believe John Hollinger:

That's from this page, which I encourage you to not only check out but also bookmark for future reference. I know some people aren't the biggest fans of Hollinger or statistical analysis in general, but I've always found him interesting, even if I don't always agree.

Personally, I happen to agree with his assessment that a playoff spot for Detroit is a foregone conclusion. I'm also confident they'll win the division, but 100% "bet my life on it" confident? This early in December? That's kind of tough, even if the second-place Pacers are playing sub-.500 ball.

Conversely, I'm intrigued by the Bulls, who Hollinger has pegged for a 13th place finish. That stands in stark contrast to what some of fans are thinking. The Bulls blog Thank You Isiah thinks Chicago will right their ship by January 25th:

I've been looking over the Bulls' upcoming schedule, and the above date is when I think the Bulls will beat the Bobcats at the United Center to reach .500 for the first time this season, at 21-21. Take a look at the East standings and you see that a .500 record gets you the 5th seed, and you'd be nipping at the heels of Toronto for home court advantage in the 1st round. Not what I'd envisioned for this season, but after this opening nightmare, I would gladly take it.

I'm more inclined to believe TYI than Hollinger at the moment (minus the part about getting home court advantage), but time will tell.

Also, in the picture above I included the first three Western teams for a reason: look at that second-to-last column on the right. Hollinger (or his formulas, to be 100% accurate, since this is supposed to be objective) is predicting the eventual champion will come out of the east. (Golden State, who Hollinger has ranked fourth, is listed as having a 3.3% percent chance.)

Granted, the East is still incredibly top heavy, but the conference will get more competitive once Cleveland and Chicago (currently ranked fourth and fifth in the Central -- and in real-life standings, mind you, not just fancy statistical ones...) get right, which has to happen sooner or later ... right?

0 recs | Comment 5 comments

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

And remember, it’s all based on how teams are playing right now, and if they continue playing that way. Also interesting is how the Predictor is put together.

by Brad Bice on Dec 7, 2007 9:18 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

This playoff predictor is rediculous. It is only going to be usefull for about one month, probaly around February or March. Before than its just going to have crazy projections (see above) and after that its going to tell us what we already know from the standings.

Since tonights game is nationaly televised that means that Flipper is going to be mic’d up for the game and that there will be video from the locker room before and after the game. Last night they had mics on Stackhouse & Najera… I wonder if the League would have the balls to put a mic on Sheed for a game or are they going to have it on Tayshaun and get a total of 20 words for the whole night??

If that put one on Rip, how many “yesssirrss” would we get?
If they put one on Max, would he say “mmmm… baby” 3-5 times a game?

by JesseC on Dec 7, 2007 11:38 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

i’d be worried that if we heard what sheed was saying we’d suddenly realize the refs have been right all along.

by Kyle on Dec 7, 2007 1:38 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Any one else read the article where Rodney White (yes, the #9 Piston pick in the 2001 draft) is averaging… get this… 36 pts/game in China.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2007/dec/07/tomasson-pivotal-big-guys-back-in-vogue/

by Brad on Dec 7, 2007 2:02 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

HAHAHAHAHAHA.

This is HILARIOUS and SAD all at once.

It should be called Hollinger’s Hoodwink, in light of the fact that he’s actually being paid for restating the blitheringly obvious fact of the current records and standings, in conjunction with publishing the results of the elementary school math required to extrapolate what the results would be in the wholly unlikely, monumentally improbable event that every team continued to generate the same offensive and defensive results for the remainder of the season, without deviation. Which would be in spite of the stupendous weight of the facts that the rotations, schedules, player fitness, etc are all in constant flux.

I mean come on. How freaking asinine can it get? Any more at all?

Oh wait. Yes it can. His “power” rankings, which basically equate to… wait for it… THE TEAM THAT SCORES THE MOST POINTS, WINS.

Shazam! I about fell out of my chair when he dropped THAT bomb…

Who knew?

ESPN: Extremely Stupid People’s News

by g on Dec 7, 2007 5:23 PM CST reply actions 0 recs