Analyzing the Effect of Trade Rumors on NBA Stars

Note:  this article will be published on FanSided's Saving the Skyhook blog.

With the March 15^th NBA trade deadline looming, many players league-wide are wondering what jersey they are going to don by week’s end.  Although it’s hard for the average sports fan to feel sympathy for multi-millionaire athletes dealing with uncertain futures, you have to wonder just how much the psyche of these players are being affected by swirling trade rumors.  One would think that the growing shroud of uncertainty constantly hanging over them has to wear on them in one way or another – both on and off the court. 

We’ve seen several high-profile players being shopped around over the last few years.  This season has been no different; rumors involving Dwight Howard Rajon Rondo, and Pau Gasol have been under the most scrutiny.  How have they been personally handling these rumors?  And what can we expect from them going forward after the trade deadline this Thursday? 

Gasol (left) and Rondo (right) have been saying all the right things,
but how are they really handling the constant trade rumors?

We recently heard Kobe Bryant stick up for his teammate Gasol by calling out GM Mitch Kupchak and the Lakers’ management.  He was publicly trying to relay just how difficult it is for Gasol (or any player being shopped around) to put his whole heart into playing for a team that’s actively trying to trade him.  Due to the sensitive nature of trade rumors and the private manner in which teams address them to the media, we have a relatively limited idea of how much of an effect they have on the implicated players.  We just saw the Lakers management tell their players to cut the external chatter short, in an attempt to minimize the drama caused from trade rumors.  So unless players publicly speak about their feelings, our opportunities to gauge their psyche are limited.  For that reason, the performance of these players in the midst of trade rumors may be our best way to make an assessment. 

Now, let’s examine a sample of prominent players that were involved in trade rumors and blockbuster trades over the last 10 seasons.   Whether these players were driving the trade talks themselves, or their respective teams put players on the trading block against their will, here are some of the more notable cases below.  The blocks highlighted in green denote a 10% improvement after the trade, while the red blocks indicate at least a 10% decline in the respective stats as shown.  For better resolution quality, please click on the figure.  Special thanks to ESPN TrueHoop blogger Ian Levy of Hickory High, who was a great help in putting these numbers together. 

If you go by a case-by-case basis, some players on this list wanted to be traded, and some didn’t.  And some, well, could have cared less.  Obviously, every player’s situation was different, and many variables factored into each player’s performance.  Nonetheless, the before/after comparisons are something very interesting to look at in light of Kobe Bryant’s aforementioned assessment on the impact of trade rumor drama.

Vince Carter made the biggest improvement of any star traded in the last ten  years

Bar none, Vince Carter gained the single-most benefit from the resolution of his situation after being traded from Toronto to New Jersey – and his gargantuan improvement shown in these stats reflect that.  But as he admitted, this was largely attributed to his half-hearted effort during his waning days in Toronto.  More than any star player in the last decade, Vince’s performance was directly correlated to how motivated he was.  In Toronto, he publicly criticized Raptors management for failing to put together enough talent around him to build a contending team.  When traded to New Jersey, he did all the things he failed to do during his last couple years in Toronto:  attacking the basket, playing some defense, and just putting in more effort overall.  Playing alongside Jason Kidd and Richard Jefferson was a huge motivator for him, as he spent years being the lone star in Toronto.  All of this led to a vast improvement in nearly every statistical category.  Of course, this was all short-lived, and Carter was not always engaged in subsequent years to date.  To learn about his ups and downs some more, take a look at my in-depth take on his career as a whole, which tries to explain his sporadic effort over the years. 

C-Webb (right) did not find greener pastures in Philly
playing alongside AI (left)

In contrast to Vince’s case, some players didn't exactly benefit from being traded.  Of everyone listed here, Chris Webber seems to be the one who suffered the most from changing jerseys.  Of course, injuries played into his decline (and eventual retirement) more than anything.   Nonetheless, then-Sixers GM Billy King’s experiment of pairing him up with Allen Iverson was obviously a failiure – as the Sixers only managed to obtain a 7^th seed and only win a single playoff game that season.  But given Webber’s and Iverson’s respective situations at the time – as two perennial All-Stars yet to win a title – both felt it was an experiment worth attempting.  I’m not entirely sure if Chris Webber was forcing his way out of Sacramento the same year he was traded, even though he did express a desire to leave before he became a free agent in 2001.  But I suspect that his decline was due to a combination of his injuries, his lack of cohesion with Iverson, and the realization that he had a pretty damn good team in Sacramento compared to his new team in Philly.

Dwight Howard has his eyes set elsewhere,
but is still playing well in Orlando

Unlike Rondo and Gasol, we know Dwight Howard has publicly requested to be traded.  Since he has been under the most scrutiny as far as trade rumors are concerned, let’s compare his situation to other superstar players demanding a trade in years past:  Shaq, Allen Iverson, Ron Artest (BTW, I still refuse to call him by his new name), and Carmelo Anthony.   Shaq showed slightly greater improvement and efficiency after being traded, which was to be expected after a bad situation (the most memorable part being his feud with Kobe Bryant) got worse in LA prior to being traded.  But of course, pairing up with the young but highly-gifted Dwyane Wade had something to do with that.  Iverson and Artest welcomed a change of scenery, but their +’s and –‘s in their stat comparisons were a relative wash; Iverson’s shot attempts went down, but he had to get used to having a high-volume shooting teammate in Melo.  Years later, Melo benefited from more shot attempts being in Mike D’Antoni’s system, but overall has been playing at about the same level since the trade.  So in the end, the superstars we’ve seen publicly demand a trade have neither improved nor regressed on a significant level.   

While we don’t see too much of a distinct pattern (at least, not to the same degree as with Vince Carter and Chris Webber) with most of the players on this list – at least in terms of individual performance –  this analysis does show that there is some precedence to the situations of Howard, Gasol, and Rondo.  In terms of a prediction, it’s tough to see any of them improving from their already-solid productivity with their current teams.  All three have been able to put up stellar numbers regularly, but they have all expressed disdain over the lack of resolution on their respective situations.   Their individual performances have not suffered, but their uncertain futures have had an effect on the success of their teams as a whole.  We saw the 2010-11 Nuggets improve significantly after Melo’s departure, even with Melo maintaining his productivity in Denver.  So while trades and trade rumors do not have a huge overall effect on individual performance (with a few exceptions), teams as a whole are put at ease upon resolution of the trade talk.  

Best Defenders of the NBA

You could describe yesterday’s Thunder-Lakers and Heat-Knicks games with one word:  defense.  Despite all four of those teams being known for their offensive firepower, these games were really about a terrific display of defense.  As any coach will tell you, close games come down to defensive stops.  In the case of these two games, the Lakers and Knicks were able to come up with stops, and the Thunder and Heat were not.

In the final possessions of the Thunder-Lakers game, LA made three crucial defensive stops: Gasol took a charge on Westbrook’s drive, Ron Artest deflected a pass intended for Kevin Durant that led to a steal, and of course LA contested the desperation 3’s in the last five seconds by KD and James Harden to perfection.  On the other end, OKC’s Thabo Sefolosha played tremendous defense (as usual) on Kobe all night, but was unable to stop Kobe’s dagger fade-away in the closing minutes. 

In the Heat-Knicks game, LeBron James was seemingly scoring at will against the Knicks defense.  But in the closing minutes, he failed to convert on a driving layup – thanks to Amare Stoudemire making a great block coming from the weak side (yes, I complimented Amare’s defense – but he deserves credit for this one time) – and he missed a potential game-tying three pointer in the closing seconds thanks to Carmelo Anthony’s contest (and LeBron’s inability to hit clutch jump shots, as I’ve pointed out earlier).   On the other end, Chauncey Billups made some clutch plays, including draining a serious long-ball from about 33 feet after catching D-Wade off guard - tricking him by picking up his dribble and looking to pass to a teammate.  I bet Knicks fans don’t miss Raymond Felton anymore after the last few games since the trade. 

Melo was locked in defensively vs. LeBron

Great offense beats great defense, but that is what makes making defensive stops that much more challenging.  As Charles Barkley says, there are two sides of the court, and you need to judge teams and players at both of those ends.  If there was only one side of the court, the Mike D’Antoni era of the Phoenix Suns would have been a dynasty.  But that’s what leads to the saying of the cliché that everybody in the basketball world has come to learn:  Defense Wins Championships.

There are several ways a player can help his team on the defensive end of the court.  Perimeter players can play great one-on-one defense and contest shots as best they can.  They can also be active on the passing lanes and create easy offense and transition plays.  Big guys can either play great post defense one-on-one, or they can anchor the paint and help on opponents that drive to the rim.  All of these examples of contributions are critical to team success.  In other words, there’s a reason why guys like Sefolosha, Anderson Varejao, Ben Wallace and Jason Collins are in the NBA; they all are extremely skilled defensive players and are very valuable to any team, despite their limited offensive abilities.  Since there are so many different types of effective defense, it doesn’t make sense to crown one person as the league’s best overall defender.  Instead, you look at several categories and aspects and see who excels in those areas.  Keeping this in mind, I will break down the league’s best defenders in some of the major areas for both perimeter and post players.

First, let’s go through categories of perimeter defense..

PERIMETER DEFENSE

1.       Most Pesky Perimeter Defender – also known as the best “Edward Scissorhands” (aka the Bruce Bowen award) player who uses quick and disrupting hands the most effectively when guarding the NBA’s prolific perimeter scorers.

2.       Best “Post” Perimeter Defender – the perimeter player who is the toughest to score on in the post.  This category includes defending bigger guards, and guarding bigs when caught defending them on a pick-and-roll switches. 

3.       Best Help Defender on Perimeter – player most effective with pursuing double teams on the perimeter and helps off their man to create turnovers in the passing lanes.

4.       Best Help Defender in the Paint – perimeter player who most effectively helps off their man to protect the paint against players making driving or post-up moves

5.       Best Ball-Denying Perimeter Defender – player who makes it the most difficult for players they guard that try to free themselves to get the ball.

6.       Best Charge-Taking Perimeter Defender – perimeter player who is the best at taking charges versus driving players.

7.       Best “Kobe Stopper” – player who guards unstoppable perimeter scorers the most effectively one-on-one without help.

Most Pesky Perimeter Defender (the Bruce Bowen Category) – Rajon Rondo, Boston

Rondo is a real pest against players with the ball.  When he guards you, you better make sure you have a tight grip on the ball.  Always among the league leaders in steals, Rondo uses his hands to take swipes at the ball and also is good at waving his hands around to deter the vision of players he’s guarding.  Pesky play is very effective at getting under the skin of great scorers.  It’s the reason why Doc put him LeBron during their last game in Boston.  It was very difficult for LeBron to facilitate the offense and get in a rhythm with Rondo playing him that way. 

Runner-ups for this category are LA's Derek Fisher and San Antonio's Manu Ginobili.

Best “Post” Perimeter Defender – Kobe Bryant, LA Lakers

Even great post-up scorers like Melo have a hard time scoring on Kobe

This one’s easy.  Kobe is a perennial All-NBA defender, even at this stage of his career.  When coaches design pick-and-roll plays, they tend not to design them even for their big guys to post up against Kobe.  Why?  He’s hard to score on for anybody, both perimeter and post players.  If you’re a guard that likes to post up (e.g. Andre Miller, Jason Kidd, Chauncey Billups), forget about posting Kobe up.  He’s very strong and can body up on almost anybody.  If you do want to post him up, you gotta be both stronger and taller than him.  Even then, he’ll make it tough on you. 

If you want proof, just go back and watch any playoff series they had with Phoenix.  D’Antoni tried running some pick-and-roll plays with Kobe switching on to Boris Diaw, and Diaw couldn’t make Kobe budge in the post.  Also, one of the major downfalls of the pre-Redeem Team Olympic squads was their defense against the pick-and roll.  Chris Paul, Allen Iverson, and other small guards were constantly abused by bigger defenders that they had to guard at times.  When Kobe joined the Redeem Team in 2008, opponents had no such luck in those situations.

Runner-ups for this category are New York’s Chauncey Billups and Miami’s LeBron James.

Best Help Defender on Perimeter –Chris Paul, New Orleans

Using his speed and quickness to his advantage, Paul gambles off of his man fairly often and makes very effective double teams on both post and perimeter players.  Whenever opponents face the Hornets, they always have their mind on Chris Paul, whether or not he is guarding them individually.  He is everywhere on the court, and every opponent is extra careful in both perimeter passes and entry passes to into the post.  Because he’s so good at this, he creates tons of fastbreak opportunities off steals by creating havoc in the passing lanes. 

Runner-ups for this category are Boston’s Rajon Rondo and Miami’s Dwyane Wade.

Best Help Defender in the Paint – LeBron James, Miami

I am giving LeBron this category almost solely because of his signature chase-down blocks on both fastbreak and half-court drives to the rim. This feat makes every player second-guess themselves on driving opportunities, even when they’re wide-open.  If LeBron’s nearby, it’s hard for anybody to make a layup without him chasing it down and swatting it emphatically into the backboard.

Runner-ups for this category are Miami’s Dwyane Wade and Portland’s Gerald Wallace.

Best Ball-Denying Perimeter Defender – Ron Artest, LA Lakers

Artest has aged and his ability to stay in front of defenders has declined a bit.  Still, no matter how many picks are set for an offensive player, Artest takes tremendous pride in staying on him and denying him the ball by being physical and using his quick hands.  By doing this, he deflects a lot of passes (as with the aforementioned stop vs. Kevin Durant) and frustrates scorers that try to get the ball.  He is also good with the dirty veteran tactics, such as holding players jerseys before they try running away from him.  To this day, very few players have had success against Artest.  

Runner-ups for this category are LA’s Derek Fisher and OKC’s Thabo Sefolosha.

Best Charge-Taking Perimeter Defender – Derek Fisher, LA Lakers

No longer very good at guarding quick point guards, Fisher still knows how to step in front of driving players and taking charges.  His flopping ability helps get him the calls, as well.  It's tough for a defender to draw charges, especially since referees tend to favor superstars on their drives to the rim.  But Fisher is able to deter their reputation by drawing those fouls very effectively, even when he doesn't have position.  By the way, Fisher is the third Laker on this list.  If you wondered why even the best perimeter players struggle against this team, that fact reflects the reason behind it.  

Runner-ups for this category are Memphis’ Shane Battier and Utah’s Raja Bell. 

Best “Kobe Stopper” – Tie:  Dwyane Wade, Miami AND Thabo Sefolosha, OKC

Sefolosha has great defensive one-on-one instincts

I know I’ve previously declared D-Wade as the best Kobe defender.  But after watching Sefolosha yesterday, he reminded me how great of a one-on-one defender he really is.  He NEVER falls for pump fakes, reading his opponents’ moves extremely well.  We saw Kobe burn him on this day in the end, but that was as tough a shot as he could have taken and Kobe still only ended up 8-22 from the field.  Jeff Van Gundy raves about what a world-class defender he really is - and Jeff knows good defense when he sees it.  With his defensive talents, Sefolosha is asked to guard every opposing team’s best perimeter defender, and he does an outstanding job at it.   We never hear of him because he is not much of a scorer, but he has relished the role of a defensive stopper.  For now, I’ll say he’s on par with D-Wade, who is no slouch himself.  Wade averages the most blocks per game of any guard, and those come from both his one-on-one and help defense. When he doesn't get the rejection, he does a great job of at least contesting every shot he can.

When the playoffs come around, these two guys will be guarding the best offensive players in the league in their respective conferences.

Runner-ups for this category are Detroit’s Tayshaun Prince and Memphis’ Shane Battier.

POST DEFENSE

Now, let’s give the big guys some of their own defensive categories:

1.       Best “Perimeter” Post Defender – the counterpart to the above category of perimeter players that guard post players – the post player most effective at guarding perimeter players, particularly after pick-and-roll switches.

2.       Best "Hedger" – the post player best at hedging, or trapping, perimeter players off pick-and-rolls and returning to the post.

3.       Best Weak-Side Shot Blocker – player most effective at coming from the weak side – off their man – to block post or perimeter players.

4.       Best Overall Anchor of the Paint – player who is the best at protecting the paint and intimidating any intruders, particularly when helping their teammates on the perimeter get beat on drives to the rim by opponents.

5.       Best One-on-One Post Defender – player who is the most effective at individual post defense. 

Best “Perimeter” Post Defender – Kevin Garnett, Boston Celtics

Garnett is arguably the league’s most versatile defender who can guard all 5 positions.  He has a deadly combination of length and quickness, and is the main reason why Boston became a defensive powerhouse when he arrived for the 2007-08 season.  KG combines his natural defensive abilities with his infamous verbal jousting playing normal one-on-one defense, but also uses it to intimidate perimeter players from coming his way.  Perimeter guys like Steve Nash feast on mismatches when a big switches to guard him on the perimeter, where he can blow by his bigger, slower opponent.  But if you’re a perimeter guy facing a big, long and scary dude who’s clapping in your face and stays in front of you, it’s intimidating.  Just watch this clip of him guarding Toronto point guard Jose Calderon.

Runner-ups for this category are Miami’s Chris Bosh and Atlanta’s Josh Smith.

Best "Hedger" – Chris Bosh, Miami

Say what you want about Bosh’s lower-than-expected contributions on the offensive end as the third fiddle behind D-Wade and LBJ.  On defense, he is one of the main reasons why Miami is a great defensive team.  Bosh is particularly good at trapping perimeter players on pick-and-rolls, and is very effective at cutting off passing lanes to cutting bigs. He was very effective at this during in the 2008 Olympic Gold-Medal Run.  Team USA had sorely lacked someone like Bosh in their losses from 2002-06, despite having several prominent bigs (e.g. Duncan, Lamar Odom, Carlos Boozer, etc).  Bosh isn't the greatest one-on-one post defender, given his small frame. But he sure makes up for it in many other defensive facets.

Runner-ups for this category are Cleveland’s Anderson Varejao and Boston’s Kevin Garnett.

Best Weak-Side Shot Blocker – Tyson Chandler, Dallas Mavericks

Chandler gives the Mavs some much-needed help D

Before this season, I would automatically gives this award to Josh Smith.  But Chandler has come into his own on the defensive end this year.  When healthy, Chandler is always among the NBA’s best post defenders.  He has proven to be a great asset to Dallas and a perfect complement to Dirk Nowitzki, whose defensive shortcomings were constantly exposed in recent playoff losses.  With a healthy Chandler helping Dirk from the weak side, Dallas should be a championship contender.

Runner-ups for this category are Portland’s Marcus Camby and Josh Smith, Atlanta.

Best Overall Anchor of the Paint – Dwight Howard, Orlando

A perennial Defensive Player of the Year contender, Dwight is always among the league leaders in blocks and rebounds.  This is solidified by his command of the paint on the defensive end.  If you’re a perimeter defender on the Magic, you have the luxury of Dwight protecting the paint against anybody who beats you off the dribble.  Therefore, it allows defenders to press up against players on the perimeter instead of backing off (i.e. they don’t have to fear their opponent blowing by them as much).  

Lately, however, Howard has publicly expressed frustration with teammates for abusing this luxury and not putting any effort in keeping perimeter players in front of them.  Howard is great at anchoring the paint, but even he can’t guard everybody.  A final straw for Magic GM Otis Smith to pull the trigger on trading away Vince Carter and Rashard Lewis was for this very reason – particularly against Denver, when Carmelo Anthony absolutely torched Orlando for 35 points on 14-21 shooting.  Now in Phoenix, Carter has been getting benched in favor of Mikael Pietrus, a much better defender who Orlando misses dearly.  Dwight is the one guy you can’t blame for players getting points in the paint, so instead people question Vince Carter and Rashard Lewis’ defensive deficiencies (and rightfully so). 

The Two-time defending Defensive Player of the Year is a beast on the low block

Overall, Dwight makes it intimidating for any opponent to drive to the paint.  NBA coaches’ offensive schemes generally are designed to avoid dealing with D12 in the paint area.

Runner-ups for this category are San Antonio’s Tim Duncan, Portland’s Marcus Camby and Boston’s Kevin Garnett.

There are certain players who are among the league’s elite in more than one category.  But this really shows that there are multiple ways to be effective on the defensive end.  There really aren’t any stats you can use to quantify these categories of skills.  But NBA coaching staffs do notice great defensive qualities, which is why you sometimes see offensive juggernauts benched in favor of better defenders when the game is on the line. Some great defenders aren't the flashiest or most exciting players, and thus are seldom talked about outside of their home fan base.  But take a look at the best defenders from the last three years - these guys do get recognition.

Rivalries

The word "rivalry" is being thrown around a lot.  Oddly enough, it always gets mentioned whenever the Knicks are playing a good team.  Tonight, they happened to have just beat Miami the day after Amare boldly said "Nobody's afraid of the Heat."  Then came the clips from the famously games in Heat-Knicks history, defined by several heated incidents during each of their playoff series from 1997 to 2000 (PJ Brown flipping Charlie Ward into the stands in 97, Alonzo Mourning and Larry Johnson causing a huge brawl with Jeff Van Gundy hilariously hanging on to Mourning's leg in 98, and Allan Houston's one-handed runner to lift the Knicks in 99).  In that timeframe, the two teams faced each other all 4 of those years and each series went the distance.  This NEVER happened between any two teams in the league.  Back then, this WAS a legitimate rivalry.

Here's my criteria for legitimate rivalries.  All 4 rules apply when it comes to judging whether two teams have current, legitimate rivalries:

1.  The teams should have played head to head in more than one playoff series.
2.  The head-to-head matchup should not be completely one-sided.
3.  At least one or two noteworthy fights or heated exchanges must take place to define the rivarly.
4.  The two teams must have faced each other at least once within the past 5 years.
5.  The teams have to be good (i.e. playoff teams).

Rule 1 is kind of implied by Rule 2 - it's not a rivalry if the teams have only met only once OR if one team has won every matchup.  Remember the so-called Cavs-Wizards "rivalry" a few years ago? They had one good playoff series in 2006, but since then?  Cavs swept the Wizards in 07 and ousted them in 6 games (fairly lopsided despite going this many games) in 08.  The famous Kings-Lakers series in 2002 was one of the most competitive (and controversial) playoff series of all time.  But the Kings never beat the Lakers before or after that series.

Rule 3 is almost kind of a byproduct of what happens when Rules 1&2 are satisfied.  When teams face each other so many times, heated exchanges are almost inevitable.  They're virtually a guarantee when you have to go up against guys like Kevin Garnett for just one game, much less for multiple playoff series.  Controversy off the court counts as well, such as verbal jabs at press conferences between coaches and players.

Rule 4 eliminates pairs of teams that USED to be rivals, but one team or the other started sucking since.  The aforementioned Heat-Knicks rivalry is one of them.  As for Rule 5 - well, nobody cares about crappy teams that have a rivalry with one another.  Otherwise, we might as well put high school team rivals on the list.

That said, here's my list of current legitimate rivalries:

1.  Lakers/Celtics
2.  Spurs/Mavericks
3.  Suns/Spurs

Lakers-Celtics
Head-to-head:  Celtics 9-3
Recent Matchups:  2008 Finals, 2010 Finals

One of the many promos for the league's most famous rivalry

This is undoubtedly the league's juiciest rivalry, with a storied history between the NBA's two winningest franchises.  With the most star power and no shortage of trash talkers (KG, Pierce, Sheed, Kobe, Artest), these two teams could very well face each other again for at least a couple more years and add to their rivalry.  This is the NBA's premier rivalry with tons of history and promising battles to come.

Spurs-Mavericks
Head-to-head:  Spurs 3-2
Recent Matchups:  2006 Conf. Finals, 2009 First Rd., 2010 First Rd.

The 2006 matchup was by far the best series between the two teams, ending in a Game 7 OT in favor of the Mavericks.  If Ginobili did not commit the worst foul of the century on Nowitzki, the Spurs would arguably have gone on to win the championship (yes, they would not have had an epic collapse against D-Wade's Heat the way Dallas did).

Suns-Spurs
Head-to-head:  Spurs 6-4
Recent Matchups:  2005 Conf. Finals, 2007 Conf. Semi-finals, 2008 First Rd, 2010 Conf. Semi-finals

If it weren't for the Suns 4-0 sweep of the Spurs last year, this would not be a rivalry per Rivalry Rule #2.  Before that series, the Spurs appeared to have Phoenix's number, despite a number of grueling playoff series. There was plenty of drama between the two teams, with Phoenix seemingly never getting any breaks.  In 2005, Joe Johnson fractured his left orbital bone on his face.  In 2007, Steve Nash's nose couldn't stop bleeding in Game 1, and as a result he was unable to stay on the court consistently in crunch time.  In Game 4, Robert Horry decked Steve Nash into the scorer's table in Game 4 of the series, leading to suspensions of Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw (forever changing Horry's nickname to 'Cheap Shot Bob' in my mind).  In 2008, the Suns were a popular pick to beat the Spurs as they shook up their roster, bringing Shaq in as their center.  Despite signs that the trade made the Suns match up against the Spurs better, San Antonio quickly dismissed them in 5 games.

By then, it appeared that Steve Nash would never be able to get through the Spurs.  But the most unexpected turn of events happened after Phoenix won their first two home games to go up 2-0:  Goran freakin' Dragic scored 23 of his 26 points in the 4th quarter of Game 3 to give the Suns a 3-0 lead.  Freak things like this tend to happen to in back-and-forth rivalries.

Runner-ups but not quite rivalries yet:  Celtics-Magic, Celtics-Bulls
Rivalries in the last 10 years that aren't really rivalries anymore:  Spurs-Lakers, Cavs-Pistons and Cavs-Celtics (obviously because of LBJ's departure), Suns-Mavs

The Eastern Conference is in need of some rivals, but there is hope for them.  Among the top four teams in the East (Celtics, Heat, Bulls, Magic), rivalries promise to form in the near future.