The NBA MVP Race

            There are ten candidates for this years NBA MVP award. Only one can win this honorable and amazing award. We got Stephen Curry from the Golden State Warriors who is just stupid good. Second is James Harden from the Houston Rockets, third my man Chris Paul from the L.A. Clippers, fourth is Russel Westbrook from Oklahoma City Thunder, fifth is Anthony Davis from the New Orleans Pelicans, 6th Lebron James from the Cavs, 7th Blake Griffin from the L.A. Clippers, 8th Jimmy Butler from the Bulls, 9th Damian Lillard from the Trail Blazers, and lastly we have LaMarcus Aldridge. This is your top 10 NBA Candidates for the 2015 MVP award. By looking at the stats its between the top 6. The MVP award almost always goes to the best player on the best team. I think it is between Westbrook, Harden, and Curry. Many people have their own opinions, I believe Stephen Curry will win this year. Steph Curry can lead his team to an NBA title, Russel Westbrook can only go so far without Kevin Durant. Once Westbrook starts playing tougher teams he can only do so much! Steph Curry closes games in the THIRD quarter, not fourth. He should get credit for this by winning that MVP award. Curry should win the MVP because he doesn't play meaningful fourth-quarter minutes; if you look at why he doesn't it is because he destroys teams in the third quarter. Curry is No. 1 in Real Plus-Minus and has been almost all season and that is just a great, great stat. (Harden is second, LeBron James is third.)Curry is +1.81 in Defensive RPM, which, among the top candidates, is second-best behind only Davis’ +3.88. LeBron is at +1.68 and Harden is +0.90.Curry has made an NBA-best 241 three-pointers (in 564 attempts), while Harden has made 180 (in 485 attempts). In 79 more attempts, Curry has made 61 more three-pointers than Harden. I know Curry doesn’t have dominant individual stats, and some of that is because he doesn’t play as many minutes as the other top candidates, some of it is because he has very good teammates who also carry consistent offensive loads.Still, although Harden and Westbrook have had great seasons, often with lesser talent around them, Curry can match or come close to them in other areas. Plus, he’s doing it at a more efficient rate, and again, I won’t go point-by-point on this, though I know many will.He also is winning more games. A lot more.

Main theme: I don’t see where Curry gets overwhelmed by anybody in individual statistics, and I just don’t buy that Harden or Westbrook have to get the nod because he has had a lesser group around him for most of this season due to Houston and OKC injuries.That would be a better argument if the Warriors didn’t have 10 more victories than the Rockets, but they do.Or if the Warriors didn’t go 4-0 vs. the Rockets in the season series, but they did.Or if Curry didn’t play defense, but he does.Or if Curry wasn’t clearly the best player on the Warriors, but he is.

(One little stat-dive: Curry currently is an incredible +12.1 in raw plus-minus per game. Every game, in the minutes he plays, the Warriors out-score opponents by an average of 12.1 points. And the Warriors are +10.9 as a team this season. So they’re -1.2 in the minutes he doesn’t play. (Harden is +4.6 per game, while Houston is +3.2. So the Rockets are -1.4 in the minutes he doesn’t play. Great stats for harden. But Curry’s are historic on the plus side.)

To some team arguments for Curry’s MVP candidacy. The Warriors currently have a +10.9 point-differential this season. The next-highest are the Clippers at +6.2.
Teams with this kind of historic point-differential tend to produce MVPs, for good reason: They deserve it. The Warriors are on pace to register the sixth-best differential in NBA history and would be only the eighth team ever to finish above +10.0 in this category.Of the seven other teams that had > +10.0 season point-differentials, five had players who won the MVP that season (and one that didn’t win the MVP happened to lose the award to a player on another team that had a > +10.0 differential. Steph Curry will win this year. End of story.

Top Candidates

Rk	Player	Tm	W	L	W/L%	G	GS	MP	FG	FGA	FG%	3P	3PA	3P%	2P	2PA	2P%	FT	FTA	FT%	ORB	DRB	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	PTS		Prob%
1	Stephen Curry	GSW	60	13	.822	71	71	32.8	8.1	16.8	.482	3.5	8.1	.431	4.6	8.7	.529	4.0	4.4	.916	0.7	3.6	4.3	7.9	2.1	0.2	3.1	2.0	23.7		42.8%
2	James Harden	HOU	50	23	.685	72	72	36.8	8.0	18.1	.439	2.5	6.8	.369	5.4	11.3	.481	8.8	10.1	.867	0.9	4.8	5.7	7.0	1.9	0.8	4.0	2.6	27.2		24.7%
3	Chris Paul	LAC	49	25	.662	74	74	34.9	6.9	14.4	.483	1.6	4.2	.388	5.3	10.2	.522	3.3	3.7	.888	0.6	4.0	4.6	10.1	1.9	0.2	2.4	2.5	18.8		9.8%
4	Russell Westbrook	OKC	42	32	.568	59	59	34.0	9.1	21.4	.425	1.2	3.9	.297	7.9	17.5	.453	8.2	9.7	.846	1.9	5.3	7.2	8.6	2.2	0.2	4.4	2.6	27.6		6.7%
5	Anthony Davis	NOP	39	34	.534	59	59	36.3	9.6	17.8	.541	0.0	0.2	.100	9.6	17.6	.545	5.4	6.7	.812	2.6	7.8	10.4	2.0	1.5	2.9	1.4	2.1	24.7		5.5%
6	LeBron James	CLE	48	27	.640	64	64	36.3	9.2	18.8	.489	1.8	5.0	.353	7.4	13.8	.539	5.6	7.8	.717	0.7	5.2	5.9	7.3	1.6	0.7	4.1	2.0	25.7		4.3%
7	Blake Griffin	LAC	49	25	.662	59	59	35.2	8.5	17.0	.501	0.1	0.4	.364	8.4	16.6	.504	4.7	6.5	.721	1.9	5.7	7.6	5.1	0.9	0.5	2.2	2.9	21.8		1.9%
8	Jimmy Butler	CHI	45	29	.608	58	58	38.7	6.5	14.1	.463	1.1	3.0	.353	5.5	11.1	.492	6.1	7.2	.840	1.8	4.1	5.9	3.2	1.7	0.6	1.4	1.6	20.2		1.5%
9	Damian Lillard	POR	47	25	.653	72	72	36.1	7.1	16.6	.430	2.4	7.0	.340	4.8	9.6	.496	4.4	5.1	.866	0.6	4.1	4.8	6.3	1.3	0.3	2.7	2.0	21.1		1.4%
10	LaMarcus Aldridge	POR	47	25	.653	64	64	35.7	9.4	20.0	.468	0.5	1.4	.360	8.9	18.6	.476	4.3	5.1	.845	2.5	7.9	10.4	1.8	0.7	1.0	1.8	1.8	23.6		1.3%

Norton high football team looking good

     Norton high schools football teams future for 2015 season is looking good. During my freshman year here we went 6-5 not making playoffs, I did not play varsity. During the next season, I was a sophomore and ready for varsity. We went 8-3 and made a playoff run losing in the first round. It was a pretty successful year wish it brought more to us but that is okay. Junior year we went 6-5 again it was a decline and we did not have any leadership. For the upcoming year we have 5 captains, 4 TVL all stars returning, 3, 3 year starters returning. We also have a bunch of our starters returning. This should be a successful year seeing how when we were freshman we went 9-1 for the freshman team. We also have some talented juniors and sophomores that will have some kind of impact on the varsity game. We are hoping to get past the first round in the playoffs. This year coming up should be a good one and I hope we have good support. I project we go far in the playoffs, come out and watch us make it far.

Brady and Patriots Best Team Ever? 

          In all of NFL the Patriots team over the last 15 years. Tom Brady, Bill Belichick, and Robert Kraft have been apart of 6 super bowls and have won 4 out of them. If you look in the stats book, no team has come close to winning 4 out of 6 with the same owner, head coach, and starting quarterback. Tom Brady is the best quarterback to ever live. This Patriot team is just so good it is unbelievable. Their 2007 season was an undefeated season and even though they lost in the Super Bowl they should have won. The Patriots became the first team to do it since the NFL expanded its schedule to sixteen games in 1977 and thus broke the record for victories in a single season that had been shared by the 1984 San Francisco 49ers, the 1985 Chicago Bears, the 1998 Minnesota Vikings, and the2004 Pittsburgh Steelers who each finished with fifteen victories against one defeat.

   Brady has won three Super Bowl MVP awards, two league MVP awards (2007, 2010), has been selected to ten Pro Bowls, and has led the Patriots to more division titles than any other quarterback in NFL history, with twelve. Brady is fifth on the all time list for career passing yards and fifth for career touchdown passes. His career postseason record is 21–8; his playoff win total is the most in NFL history. He helped set the record for the longest consecutive win streak in NFL history with 21 straight wins over two seasons (2003–2004). He also set the record for most consecutive playoff wins with 10, and in 2007 led the Patriots to the first undefeated regular season since the institution of the 16-game schedule. He has thrown for more passing yards and touchdowns than any quarterback in NFL postseason history, and has the sixth highest career passer rating of all time (95.9) among quarterbacks with at least 1,500 career passing attempts.

Tom Brady is generally considered among the greatest quarterbacks of all time. He and Joe Montana are the only two players in NFL history to win the NFL Most Valuable Player and Super Bowl MVP awards multiple times. Brady is the only quarterback to lead his team to six Super Bowls, and holds the record for the most total Super Bowl touchdown passes. He was named the NFL MVP in 2007 and 2010 (becoming the first player since 1986 to be unanimously chosen as MVP) as well as the 2007 Male Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press, the first NFL player to be so honored since 1990. After the 2010 season, Brady was ranked as the top player in the NFL Top 100, a poll of league players. He also became the first quarterback to throw for 50 or more touchdowns in a season. In 2010, he set the NFL record for consecutive passes without an interception (358), and broke his own record for the highest season touchdown:interception ratio, among players who have started a full season, at 9:1.

Brady and Bill Belichick have combined to form one of the most successful quarterback-coach tandems in NFL history,winning 160 regular season games and 21 postseason games together, as well as appearing in six Super Bowls together, all NFL records. There for the Patriots are the best team ever.