AGRI Biz

Anyone who truly follows NBA basketball knows the regular season is a poor indicator of how a team will perform in the postseason, and there are many variables that usually determine a team's playoff fate. One of these variables is experience and another one is focus, and in the case of the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers, the latter has been hard to grasp in the final stages of the regular ...

So it has come to this. We have reached the last week of the NBA regular season, and although most of the teams qualifying have been determined, the order of their seeding remains a mystery. In the Eastern Conference the top four seeds are locked up, but Boston and Atlanta remain in a fight for the crucial third seed which could be important if the two teams meet in the playoffs. The ...

Even if Sacramento Kings' guard Tyreke Evans wins the NBA's Rookie of the Year award, one would be hard-pressed to discredit Golden State's Stephen Curry for that same honor, especially after his virtuoso performance on Wednesday night. The Warriors' made coach Don Nelson the winningest coach in NBA history and Curry delivered a pure gem of a game which included 27 points, 14 assists, eight rebounds, and a career-high seven steals. For ...

The Los Angeles Lakers are entering the 2010 NBA postseason with concerns about their consistency, desire, point guard play, and their reserves, but forward Ron Artest has provided a temporary reprieve with his play in recent weeks. Artest has quietly began to round into the type of defensive presence the Lakers envisioned when they acquired him from the Houston Rockets, but his performance has been overshadowed by the team's recent struggles. Los Angeles ...

The Los Angeles Lakers will begin the 2010 NBA Postseason as the number one seed in the Western Conference, but after the Lakers, every other spot is up for grabs with at least four teams who have a legitimate shot at claiming the second seed. The Utah Jazz are currently 51-27 and hold a half game lead over Dallas, Phoenix, and Denver, who all share identical 50-27 records, and all have ...

The Los Angeles Lakers' reserves were outscored 20-4 in their latest loss to the San Antonio Spurs, and the poor performance continued a season-long trend for the horribly inconsistent bench players. It's no secret that the Lakers depend less on their reserves than any other NBA title contender in the league, because their top six players may be the most talented to roam the hardwood. In Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol, Los ...

Games like the Los Angeles Lakers' victory over the Utah Jazz serve as a reminder why forward Pau Gasol is such an integral piece of the Lakers' rotation and a legitimate second option behind Kobe Bryant. Gasol has had to endure constant criticism for his lack of toughness, and the team of analysts covering the game last night made the issue a point of emphasis, as they equated Gasol's love of ...

Kobe Bryant has signed a three-year, $90 million contract extension with the Los Angeles Lakers. It will ensure his tenure ends with the same team it began with, and it should put to rest any talk of LeBron James coming out west. Some Laker fans have been guilty of romanticizing about James as the next great player in the history of the storied franchise, and even possibly sharing the court with ...

Before I begin, I would like to make it clear that I fully anticipate that the Cleveland Cavaliers will most certainly mount a serious push for the NBA Finals. Once again, for the second year in a row, they have clearly been the best regular season team in the NBA and should be considered by everyone to be one of the favorites to win it all in June. But, if there is ...

Contrary to popular opinion, the importance of capturing a NBA championship still far outweighs any regular season individual awards, even if the attitude of fans around the league has shifted towards placing a premium on success over 82 games. It perplexes me to ever hear a person make a statement that says championships are not really that important, and have no true bearing on the legacy of a great player. I struggle ...