They all participated in the survey, to some degree. Even the GMs of teams that are no where near being associated with the best of anything in the NBA.
Actually, they probably had fun with it. It's probably like taking part in an Oscars pool at the office.
Danny Ferry, among others, probably abstained from answering some of the questions. You aren't allowed to vote for your own team, so loyal GMs on contending teams (and delusional GMs on horrible teams) will leave some questions blank.
Like: Which team will win the East? Or which team will win the NBA Finals?
The Eastern Conference breakdown was: Boston 50%, Cleveland 43% and Orlando 7.1%. (Whatever you're feeling right now . . . take a breath, and put yourself in the shoes of a Magic fan.)
The Lakers, not surprisingly, came out on top in the Finals poll. They had 61% of the vote, Boston and Cleveland were tied with 18%, and San Antonio picked up 3.6%.
97% said Cleveland would win the Central Division, while 3% . . . or, one GM . . . chose the Detroit Pistons over Cleveland. Either Ferry decided to vote in this category, and picked Detroit (?), or some GM out there has some pretty incredible expectations for the Ben Gordon / Charlie Villanueva signings.
[If you are that GM, and you are a betting man, please send me an email at the link at the top of the right column.]
Cleveland got some love, here and there, throughout the survey, but one thing stood out: NBA.com asked "Which team has the best home-court advantage?" . . . and the Cavs easily topped that category.
The Q is the most intimidating arena for 38% of visiting GMs . . . Utah came in second with 31%, and the L.A. Lakers and Portland tied for third with 10%.
(Sacramento had 0% of the vote, which is interesting since I always found all the dark, empty seats at Arco Arena to be a little haunting.)
That's pretty exciting.
Not necessarily because of this survey, but because it really HAS been an extremely difficult place for opposing teams. Last year, the Cavs were 39-2 at the Q in the regular season, and that second loss was the last game of the season when the starters were out resting for the playoffs.
It's also great to hear national TV broadcasters talking about the "insane atmosphere" at the Q.
That being said, I know a lot of Cavs players like to talk about how racking up regular season wins isn't their goal. (That being a championship, of course.) But shouldn't it be one of them?
I know it couldn't get us past Orlando last spring, but home-court is a huge advantage. I think it'd be OK for Cavs players to say that their ultimate goal was winning a championship . . . and their mini-goal is coming out of the regular season with the best record in the NBA . . . and their mini-mini-goal is taking it one day at a time and winning their next game.
It's like a goal-oriented matryoshka doll.
If you'd like to flip through the entire GM survey, you can start here.
I will never understand the rational that thinks KG at 75% and a washed-up Rasheed Wallace is the magic elixir that's going to return the Celtics to the top.
Posted by: DocZeus | October 12, 2009 at 07:19 AM