The homework that we do for our NBA picks almost never ends
because as soon as the finals are over with the NBA draft gets under way with
free agent signings and trade deals in the works all summer long. By the
time the season hits we want to be as prepared as possible knowing each team
inside and out. If you are on top of things early then you will know which
teams are going to come out of the gates swinging and which teams are going to
coast their way until the second half and the real season starts. One of
the things to watch for when looking at who is going to thrive right away are
teams with a large number of international players who spent all summer playing
for their home countries. If guys do not get a break then chances are they
will start the season a little more in their groove than other players but may
run into a wall by season's end. I think that is one of the problems that
the Spurs had at the end of the season as they had been through many consecutive
deep runs into the playoffs and then watched foreign players never stop playing
all year long.
Basketball and baseball are different from football in that
a player can be traded and pretty much make an immediate impact. In
football you have extensive playbooks to learn but in basketball they just throw
the ball on the floor and say get after it. So I don't put as much stock
in the lot of new players take a while to get gelled together routine.
Rookies however start out a little sluggish and then if they ever do get going
have a tendency to hit the inevitable wall towards the end of the year.
Even guys who went and played a lot in college go from running 35 games tops in
the NCAA to 82 plus the playoffs in the NBA. The legs just aren't going to
last that long if you aren't used to it so you are going to want to factor that
into your NBA picks. Rule changes are another key factor you must consider
to start the season and we try to constantly stay on top of what David Stern and
company have cooked up for the year. There have been a lot of changes in
philosophy lately towards the offense and taking away hard fouls, hand checking,
and all out physical play. Guys who can really thrash their way to the
basket have been able to help their teams out a lot more than they used to so
remember that when making bets in today's NBA. If you are willing to stick
it out through the long haul with John Martin then you are going to find great
success in betting his NBA picks. We do not put out more than 3 plays per
night on the hard court, and that is when there are a lot of games and a lot of
them are showing us some value. There are more times when we just have a
single winner that we have spotted out, but by being selective we can keep our
winning rate high and the NBA picks cashing in.
