Top 100 NBA Players: #96

Walter Davis

(BBR: #179)

When Walter Davis entered the league in 1977, it looked like he was destined to be one of the all-time greats. Hw was named the Rookie of the Year and was named to the All-NBA 2nd team twice to begin his career, but only made 4 more All-Star appearances in the remaining 13 years of his career. So what happened that  kept him from reaching his potential? Why is he stuck at #96 on the all-time list? The answer is cocaine.

By looking at his scoring average early in his career, it's easy to see that something was wrong. Here are the scoring averages from his first five seasons:

1978 - 24.2 ppg
1979 - 23.6 ppg
1980 - 21.5 ppg
1981 - 18.0 ppg
1982 - 14.4 ppg

At this point Davis entered a drug and alcohol rehabilitation program, and for a little while he started to bounce back, averaging 19.0 and 20.0 ppg in his next two seasons, but then he relapsed. He missed the majority of the 1984-1985 season battling back injuries and going through drug rehab again, then got caught up in the largest drug scandal in sports history up to that point in 1987, when he testified against 3 current teammates and 2 former teammates to avoid prosecution in a drug distribution trial. The Phoenix Suns, the team with which he had starred for over a decade, decided to cut ties with him and allowed him to walk away as a free agent to the Denver Nuggets after that season.

This chart makes it very easy to find the points in his career in which drugs had decreased his value. His final decline was thankfully due to old age rather than another relapse. Even after completing a disappointing career, there is no denying that he at least deserves mention as one of the all-time best players. For the first two seasons he was in the NBA, he was the sixth best player in the entire league, and had he maintained that level through his prime, he would be considered one of the top 30 players of all time.

 The greatness of his first two seasons alone still would not have been enough to get him on this list, but luckily he led the Suns on a run to the Western Conference Finals in 1984, while he was clean for a while. In those playoffs he averaged 24.9 points and 6.4 assists before they lost to the Lakers in 6 games. He makes it ahead of the players below him because none of them ever played at the level that Davis reached in his first 2 seasons, and he is now the cutoff man for guards making the all-time top 100.

Top 100 NBA Players: #97

Bob Dandridge

(Simmons: #79, BBR: #182)

Bill Simmons refers to Bob Dandridge as his "favorite lost great from the seventies." The reason that Dandridge is "lost" is that he was a great player but never the best on a good team. He spent the entire decade of the 70's as one of the league's best players, but he always had better or more famous teammates overshadowing him. In Milwaukee, where he started his career, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Oscar Robertson took the spotlight. In Washington, where he had his career peak, people still paid more attention to Elvin Hayes and Wes Unseld. The two seasons in which he took over as the best player on the Bucks turned into the two worst seasons of his career, which says to me that he was better as a second banana.

Dandridge played in 4 NBA Finals during his career, winning the NBA championship twice. In each of those Finals appearances he raised his scoring average, something the previous entrants on this list haven't been able to say. Here are the playoff numbers from those seasons.

1971 - 19.2 pts, #3 player on champ
1974 - 19.3 pts, #3 player on runner-up
1978 - 21.2 pts, #2 player on champ
1979 - 23.1 pts, #2 player on runner-up

Dandridge's career in the 1970's looks very similar to Lamar Odom's in the 2000's, with several very solid years in a row. The thing that sets Dandridge apart is the way he always stepped up in the playoffs, while Odom faded. The big playoff dip in the middle represents the time in which he was carrying the Bucks, and the cliff on the right side was caused by injuries that derailed his career right when it appeared that he was about to take over as the star in Washington.

Not only has he been forgotten by the majority of NBA fans, he has also been left out of the Hall of Fame by voters for decades, who obviously have failed to recognize how big a contributor he was to some of the best teams of the 1970's. The least I can do is give him a little recognition today as one of the top 100 players of all time.

Top 100 NBA Players: #98

Jerome Kersey

(BBR: #256)

Jerome Kersey may not be a name that would normally come up in the conversation of best players ever, but when you look back at what he accomplished in the early 90's, he reminds you a lot of Lamar Odom today. Odom won two championships as the third or fourth best player on the Lakers, while Kersey lost in the Finals twice as the second or third best player on the Trail Blazers. Let's take a look at his career graph.

His career followed a somewhat normal trajectory, peaking in his late 20's, after which he held on for another 10 years chasing a championship. Because he was not a major contributor to the Spurs 1999 title team, it didn't contribute to his placement on this list. What got Kersey on this list and ahead of Lamar Odom was his playoff performance between 1990 and 1992. Let's compare these two players' regular season and playoff peaks:

Regular Season (5-year peak)

Jerome Kersey - 16.0 pts, 8.0 reb, 3.0 ast, .479 FG%, .701 FT%

Lamar Odom - 13.2 pts, 9.5 reb, 3.9 ast, .486 FG%, .682 FT%

Playoffs (3-year peak)

Jerome Kersey - 18.3 pts, 7.7 reb, 2.9 ast, .476 FG%, .719 FT%

Lamar Odom - 12.0 pts, 9.2 reb, 2.2 ast, .495 FG%, .634 FT%

As the above numbers show, the two players are pretty even as far as regular season performance goes, but when the playoffs came around, Kersey upped his game, while Odom struggled. Kersey may not have continued playing at his peak level for as long as Odom has, but he was the one who played better when it counted, even if he wasn't able to turn those playoff performances into championships.

One final point. In Elliott Kalb's Who's Better, Who's Best in Basketball?, while explaining why he left James Worthy off his top 50 all-time list, Kalb writes, "Put Jerome Kersey in Worthy's spot and Kersey has the rings." While this was clearly meant to say that Worthy was not worthy of the top 50, there's no doubt that he's a top 100 level talent, and if Kalb feels that Kersey was basically his equal, shouldn't that mean Kersey is also good enough to be considered among the top 100 players of all time? I say it does.

Top 100 NBA Players: #99

Lamar Odom

(BBR: #144)

That's right. The 99th best player of all time has never even made an All-Star team. The greatest honor he has won in his professional career is the Sixth Man of the Year Award in 2011. So what makes him so great? Is he really good enough that he should be ranked ahead of a man who was the best player on a championship team?

What helped Odom climb this high on the all-time list was that he has been a solid player for 8 straight years, which includes being the 3rd best player on an NBA Finalist, the 3rd best player on an NBA Champion the next year, and the 4th best player on yet another champion in 2010. That's 3 straight years of being a solid starter on a championship-caliber team. 

When Odom was a senior in high school, he was named the top high school prospect in the country by Parade Magazine, and after a solid freshman season, he jumped to the NBA, where he was immediately a starter. His career has been very up and down, with numerous injuries hampering his effectiveness early in his career, but with 4 straight healthy seasons behind him now, he appears to have found his niche in Los Angeles. 

The ups and downs of Odom's career are immediately visible in the above chart. He finally broke the pattern in the 2009 playoffs, when he improved upon his previous playoff appearances and helped the Lakers win the title after losing in the Finals the previous season. He may not have ever reached the level that Hagan achieved at his peak, but he has remained relevant for longer than Hagan's entire career lasted, and he may not be finished, as the upward slope of his career over the past few years shows. The career averages of the two are not even that far apart.

Odom - 14.6 pts, 8.9 reb, 4.0 ast, .469 FG%, .699 FT%

Hagan - 18.0 pts, 6.9 reb, 3.0 ast, .450 FG%, .798 FT%

Odom holds a slight edge over Hagan in 3 of these categories, while Hagan has a decent advantage over Odom in the other two, which makes then pretty much even. As far as championships go, Odom has the advantage 2-1, while Hagan holds the edge in Finals appearances 4-3. I give the slight edge to Odom because he has remained a very good player for longer than Hagan was.

Top 100 NBA Players: Intro, Snubs, and #100

I have finally finished analyzing all of the data available from all 65 NBA seasons, and have compiled my listing of the 100 greatest NBA players of all time. As I mentioned in my previous post, players are awarded points based on their performance in each season of their career, as long as they are in the top 10 percent of players in that season. The factors that define these players are most often domination, longevity, all-around skill, and playoff success. Missing games for any reason counts against a player, meaning that several players whose careers were cut short by injuries are either ranked lower than you might expect or may have missed the top 100 altogether.

There are several players you would expect to find on this kind of list that did not have enough impact during their NBA careers to make an appearance here. I am highlighting a few of them here, along with some of the reasons each one is not in my all-time top 100.

Snubs

Dennis Rodman
Rodman misses out on this honor due to the lack of an all-around game. He led the league in rebounding 7 times during his career and won 5 championships, but he was lacking in most other areas. For example, his career averages of 1.8 assists, 0.7 steals, 0.6 blocks, and 58.4% free throw shooting show that rebounding was his only area of strength. Early in his career he led the league in field goal percentage once, but in what should have been the prime of his career, he was so focused on grabbing all the rebounds he could that he only hit over 50% of his shots twice in his final 8 seasons, which includes his 3 years with the Chicago Bulls. If this were a list of the greatest rebounders of all time, he would definitely make the list, but he doesn't make the cut as one of the greatest basketball players of all time.

Bill Walton
Bill Walton is an example of a great player who never reached his full potential due to multiple injuries derailing his career. He missed 3 complete seasons during his prime, and missed at least half of 4 others. In fact, the only time that he missed fewer than 15 games in a single season was 1986, when he was way past his prime and coming off the bench for the Boston Celtics. When he was healthy briefly in 1977 and 1978, he was a dominant player, winning an MVP award and a championship with the Portland Trail Blazers, but two seasons aren't enough to define a player as one of the all-time greats.

Willis Reed
Willis Reed is another former MVP who failed to make my top 100, and with good reason. When he was given the 1970 MVP award, there were several players more deserving of it, most notably Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who missed out on several MVP's for the same reason Michael Jordan did: because they were tired of giving the award to him. Reed also won the Finals MVP award that year and again in 1973, but in both cases the most dominant Knick was not the big man but was in fact their point guard, Walt Frazier. He may have provided the emotional charge the team needed to win in 1970, but Frazier led them to victory.

Tiny Archibald
In 1973 Tiny became the first and probably only player ever to lead the league in scoring and assists during the same season, but his accomplishment is overshadowed by the fact that the Kansas City Kings failed to make the playoffs that season. In fact, they only made the playoffs once with Tiny on the roster, so his big numbers don't really mean that much, do they?

Pete Maravich
Pistol Pete is kind of a combination of Dennis Rodman and Bill Walton as far as this list is concerned. Pete was a great scorer with great shooting range, but that was about it. His career lasted only 10 seasons, and the majority of those years saw numerous games missed due to injury. His teams only reached the playoffs 4 times, and never advanced very far, and his career shooting percentage was only 44%, which is kind of strange for a person whom many consider to be one of the greatest shooters ever.

Wes Unseld
The third and final MVP to miss my top 100, Unseld suffered from extreme overrated-ness. He led the Bullets to a huge turnaround as a rookie, for which he was named Rookie of the Year, but for some reason he was also named the MVP of the entire league that year also. I don't have an argument with him being awarded ROY that season, but there were at least 20 other players in the league that outplayed him that season, including immortals such as Don Kojis and Zelmo Beaty. His popularity earned him another award late in his career, the Finals MVP he was given in 1978, but he was probably only the 3rd-best player on that team, behind Elvin Hayes and Bob Dandridge. For some reason the voters loved the undersized and overrated center.

Robert Horry
I mentioned earlier that playoff success was an important piece of my formula, but it's more than just winning championships. Leading teams to the championship, or at least being a significant contributor to it, means much more than just getting a ring. Horry may have more rings than anyone who didn't play for the Celtics in the 60's, but he was never one of the top 2 players on a championship team, and he only made solid contributions to 5 of those 7 winners. In addition, he was never once among the top 10% of NBA players during a single regular season in his career. I guess that the number of championships won is not the only argument you need for greatness.

Now that I've run through several of the players who failed to make the cut, I'm now ready to unveil the final player who did reach the exclusive club consisting of the 100 greatest NBA Players of all time. I realize that several others have compiled similar lists in the past, and I have included rankings from 3 other sources for comparison's sake. Those 3 rankings come from Who's Better, Who's Best in Basketball by Elliot Kalb (top 50), The Book of Basketball by Bill Simmons (top 96), and the Elo-Player Rater at www.basketball-reference.com (top 500).

Without further ado, let's begin the fun with today's featured player, ranked at #100......

Cliff Hagan

(Simmons: #84, BBR: #189)

Many people today are probably not even aware of who Cliff Hagan is. This is probably due to the fact that he retired from the NBA in 1966, long before many of today's fans were around. Hagan's career didn't start until the age of 25, because the served 2 years in the Air Force before finally making his way to the NBA, and before he had even played a single game, he was traded, along with Ed Macauley, from the Boston Celtics to the Saint Louis Hawks for the rights to Bill Russell. That was only the start of his connection to Russell.

During his first 5 seasons in the league, Hagan and the Hawks made it to the NBA Finals 4 times, each of those times facing off with the man he was traded for and the team that traded him, Bill Russell and the Boston Celtics. Even though they won only one championship in those 4 tries, the fact remains that they were the only team to defeat Bill Russell in the NBA Finals. Much of the credit for that championship has always been given to Hagan's more famous teammate, Bob Pettit, but I believe that Hagan was the true catalyst behind their title. To prove my point, let's compare the two players' statistics for the 1958 playoffs.

Hagan - 27.7 pts, 10.5 reb, 3.4 ast, .502 FG%, .838 FT%
Pettit - 24.2 pts, 16.5 reb, 1.8 ast, .391 FG%, .729 FT%

These categories, along with personal fouls, were the only statistics recorded back then, and they tell the story very well. Pettit outperformed his teammate in only one category in the playoffs, while Hagan dominated Pettit in most of the others. Pettit may have been a better player for longer, but in the 1958 playoffs, it was Hagan who reigned supreme.

Hagan's career peak came in 1960, his 4th in the NBA, when he averaged 24.8 pts, 10.7 reb, 4.0 ast, .464 FG%, and .803 FT%. While those averages are all very good, they still don't compare to what he did during the Hawks' title run. Today a player with those averages in a single season would be considered a superstar, so there is no reason that Hagan should not also be added to that group. His total value is summarized in the graph below.

The value assigned in this chart refers to an adjusted version of all of a player's bad contributions subtracted from all of his good ones. It is adjusted for the player's position, and also for his shooting percentages and games missed. A value of 30 or more is generally enough to place a player among the top 10% for a season. Hagan reached this value for 5 straight regular seasons as well as 3 playoffs during his career, which is more than any of the snubs can say, which is why he is here at #100 instead of them.

My Latest Project

Several years ago I put together a project in which I ranked every player in NBA history statistically, and for my work on that project and the resulting formula and presentation I was awarded First Place at the BYU-Idaho Undergraduate Research Conference. But even with the success of that formula and the recognition I earned, I have always felt that it was slightly flawed. Over the past year I have been developing a revision of my player ranking formula, and my MVP rankings this year were based loosely on that new formula.

In the past few weeks I feel I have finally found the final piece to the puzzle, a way to make make winning count more naturally in favor of each player. I used to use winning percentage as a multiplier in order to make winning a part of the formula, but overall winning percentage means nothing if you lose in the first round of the playoffs (like this year's Spurs). That's when I realized that the best way to give players credit for winning when it matters is to add in their playoff statistics as "extra credit," so that the longer a player keeps his team in the playoffs, the better his overall stats look. I also decided to count missed games as 0's, since you are not helping your team if you are not on the court, no matter the reason.

Another twist that is new to this formula is that different positions are judged differently. All players were sorted by position, then averages for each statistical category were calculated by position. Guards were given more credit for doing well in "big man" categories, and vice versa. This includes shooting percentages, where players were given bonus points for shooting above their positional average, or docked points for shooting below the average. I took each season separately, and gave players points based on how far they performed above the 90th percentile in each season. These points were added up and totaled to rank each player in history.

The result is that players are awarded for performance, winning, and longevity, and players who peaked for a short time (like Bill Walton) don't quite do as well. I plan to start revealing the results of this project countdown-style in July, so keep an eye out.

Predictions - 18 Jun

Most Likely MLB Blowouts

Diamondbacks over White Sox

Red Sox over Brewers

Dodgers over Astros

Reds over Blue Jays

Twins over Padres

Most Likely MLB Upsets

Athletics over Giants

Angels over Mets

Prediction Results - 16 Jun

MLB Blowouts: 1-2 (.333) 16-12 overall (.571)

MLB Upsets: 2-0 (1.000) 11-9 overall (.550)

MLB Rankings - 16 Jun

The Toronto Blue Jays are the only team to make a repeat appearance on the hot/not list this week, but they have switched to the other side of the spectrum. The top and the bottom of the standing remains unchanged, but there has been plenty of shuffling in the middle. Each team's name is followed by its weekly record, overall record, and previous ranking. Gaps between groups of teams represent gaps in performance.

1. NY Yankees (5-3) (38-28) (1)

2. Boston (6-1) (40-27) (7)

3. Philadelphia (7-1) (43-26) (4)

4. Detroit (4-4) (37-31) (5)

5. Atlanta (5-3) (38-31) (8)

6. Washington (5-2) (32-36) (13)

7. Milwaukee (5-3) (39-30) (9)

8. Texas (2-5) (36-33) (3)

9. Cincinnati (5-3) (37-33) (14)

10. Toronto (3-4) (34-34) (2)

11. Colorado (5-3) (33-35) (12)

12. San Francisco (5-2) (39-29) (15)

13. Arizona (4-4) (37-32) (10)

14. NY Mets (5-3) (34-34) (22)

15. Pittsburgh (5-3) (34-33) (11)

16. Saint Louis (1-6) (38-31) (6)

17. Chi Sox (3-4) (33-36) (16)

18. Seattle (4-4) (35-34) (17)

19. LA Angels (3-4) (33-37) (18)

20. San Diego (2-6) (30-40) (24)

21. LA Dodgers (2-6) (31-39) (21)

22. Baltimore (2-4) (30-35) (23)

23. Tampa Bay (4-3) (36-32) (19)

24. Cleveland (2-5) (36-30) (20)

25. Oakland (2-5) (29-40) (26)

26. Florida (1-8) (32-36) (25)

27. Minnesota (5-1) (27-39) (29)

28. Kansas City (4-3) (30-38) (28)

29. Chi Cubs (4-4) (27-40) (27)

30. Houston (2-6) (25-44) (30)

Hot

On Sunday the Boston Red Sox finished their third straight series sweep with a 14-1 pounding of the Toronto Blue Jays, their second straight double-digit victory. The biggest reason for their success has been Adrian Gonzalez, who batted 10-23 (.435) this week along with 7 RBI.

When the New York Mets had Chris Capuano, Dillon Gee, or Jonathon Niese on the mound this week, they came out on top. In the 33 innings pitched by the 3 starters, they gave up a total of 4 runs while striking out 27 batters and combining for a 1.09 ERA.

The Washington Nationals have won 5 straight, and Michael Morse has been their strongest player over that stretch. He hit 3 home runs this week while batting .391 overall and knocking in 7 runs. In more than 50 games entering this week, he only had a total of 9 home runs for the season.

Not

Toronto was hot last week, moving clear up to #2 in my rankings, but the Boston Red Sox embarrassed them this week over the course of three games, outscoring them 35-6 in those games. Over the past week 6 of Toronto's regular starters (including Jose Bautista) combined for a .142 BA.

St. Louis has lost 5 straight and 6 of 7, and in the 4 losses this week that were taken by the starting pitcher for the Cardinals, St. Louis' starters combined for a 6.86 ERA in just 21 innings pitched.

Texas has lost to the Yankees by a score of 12-4 on consecutive nights, but it gets even worse than that. Before that, they lost two straight to the Minnesota Twins by a combined score of 14-2. Even ace Alexi Ogando got rocked by the Yankees, giving up 6 hits and 6 runs in just 1.2 innings while taking his first loss of the season.

Predictions - 16 Jun

Most Likely MLB Blowouts

Brewers over Cubs

Phillies over Marlins

White Sox over Twins

Most Likely MLB Upsets

Tigers over Indians

Athletics over Royals

Prediction Results - 12 Jun

NBA Playoffs: 0-1 (.000) 56-25 overall (.691)

MLB Blowouts: 2-3 (.400) 15-10 overall (.600)

Predictions - 12 Jun

Most Likely MLB Blowouts

Phillies over Cubs

Rangers over Twins

Braves over Astros

Pirates over Mets

Tigers over Mariners

NBA Finals

Mavericks at Heat - Heat by 2

Prediction Results - 11 Jun

MLB Blowouts: 3-3 (.500) 13-7 overall (.650)

MLB Upsets: 2-3 (.400) 9-9 overall (.500)

NBA Finals Odds - 11 Jun

Dallas won 2 out of 3 games on their home floor to put Miami up against the wall for the first time this postseason, but Miami still has the advantage of playing the final two games on their own court. Should Dallas hold on to win the Finals, they will be only the second team in the past 27 years to win the championship after trailing 2-1, and they are very familiar with the first, because they were on the losing end that year against Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat. Will history repeat itself, or will the Heat hold off Dirk and Dallas again? Here are the odds of each team winning the championship as of today.

Odds of Dallas in 6 - 38.3%

Odds of Miami in 7 - 38.1%

Odds of Dallas in 7 - 23.6%

The most likely scenario has Dallas closing out the series tomorrow night in Miami, but if they should happen to lose, the odds swing squarely in favor of Miami, who would be playing at home and coming off a do-or-die victory to keep themselves alive. If Dallas wants to win the title, they need to have the killer instinct tomorrow, and Miami must play like they have nothing to lose. Whichever team wants to win game 6 more should win the title.

Predictions - 11 Jun

Most Likely MLB Blowouts

Athletics over White Sox

Blue Jays over Red Sox

Royals over Angels

Brewers over Cardinals

Yankees over Indians

Phillies over Cubs

Most Likely MLB Upsets

Athletics over White Sox

Blue Jays over Red Sox

Royals over Angels

Brewers over Cardinals

Twins over Rangers

Prediction Results - 8/9 Jun

NBA Playoffs: 1-0 (1.000) 56-24 overall (.700)

MLB Blowouts: 3-1 (.750) 10-4 overall (.714)

MLB Upsets: 1-2 (.333) 7-6 overall (.538)

MLB Rankings - 8 Jun

Baseball season is about 40% over, but only one team is paying their way ahead of the rest of the field. Whoops, I meant playing their way ahead. This week's hot and cold teams are all located in the region surrounding the Great Lakes, while the rest of the league was reasonably stable all week. Here are this week's updated rankings, with team name followed by weekly record, overall record, and previous ranking in parentheses. Spaces between groups of teams represent gaps in performance.

1. NY Yankees (5-2) (33-25) (2)

2. Toronto (4-4) (31-30) (13)

3. Texas (6-3) (34-28) (5)

4. Philadelphia (3-5) (36-25) (1)

5. Detroit (7-1) (33-27) (22)

6. Saint Louis (5-3) (37-25) (3)

7. Boston (4-3) (34-26) (10)

8. Atlanta (3-4) (33-28) (4)

9. Milwaukee (5-3) (34-27) (6)

10. Arizona (4-4) (33-28) (15)

11. Pittsburgh (5-3) (29-30) (11)

12. Colorado (3-5) (28-32) (8)

13. Washington (5-4) (27-34) (20)

14. Cincinnati (5-3) (32-30) (9)

15. San Francisco (6-3) (34-27) (18)

16. Chi Sox (6-2) (30-32) (21)

17. Seattle (5-4) (31-30) (19)

18. LA Angels (2-6) (30-33) (17)

19. Tampa Bay (4-5) (32-29) (12)

20. Cleveland (3-6) (34-25) (7)

21. LA Dodgers (5-3) (29-33) (28)

22. NY Mets (5-3) (29-31) (24)

23. Baltimore (4-4) (28-31) (29)

24. San Diego (6-3) (28-34) (25)

25. Florida (1-7) (31-28) (16)

26. Oakland (0-8) (27-35) (23)

27. Chi Cubs (0-8) (23-36) (14)

28. Kansas City (3-6) (26-35) (27)

29. Minnesota (5-4) (22-38) (30)

30. Houston (4-4) (23-38) (26)

Hot

The Detroit Tigers lost only once this week, and swept the Minnesota Twins before that loss happened. They started out this week in style, winning two straight blowouts against the Texas Rangers. They have won 8 of the last 9 games after losing 3 straight to the Boston Red Sox two weeks ago.

Just across the border, the Toronto Blue Jays have also been hot, but it's not as easy to see, since they only went 4-4 over the last week. The losses were all either close games or against good competition, and the wins were all by a minimum of 3 runs. That's how they rose to the #2 spot even with a record just over .500.

Minnesota started the week the way everyone expected, being swept by the Detroit Tigers, but then they did something totally unexpected: they won 6 out of 7 games, including a sweep of the Kansas City Royals and a series win over the Cleveland Indians. They won the 4 games against Kansas City by an average of 5 runs per game, and removed themselves from the bottom spot in the rankings for the first time since April.

Not

Going into today's game, the Chicago Cubs had lost 8 straight games, including a sweep at the hand of the last-place Houston Astros, and another to the Saint Louis Cardinals. They closed the week with consecutive 8-2 losses to the Cincinnati Reds, and played themselves completely out of the playoff picture yet again.

The first game Cleveland played last week set the tone for the entire week, losing 11-1 against Toronto. They spent the weekend getting pounded by the visiting Texas Rangers, then lost to Minnesota on Monday before finally breaking through and winning a game against the hopeless Twins 1-0.

The St. Louis Cardinals lost 3 of 4 to the San Francisco Giants to start the week, but the Giants are not the team they were a year ago. They followed that up with a weekend sweep of the Cubs, but the Cubs were undeniably the worst team of the week, and their final game against the last-place Astros also did nothing to prove that they are really an elite team.

Predictions - 8 Jun

MLB

Most Likely Blowouts

Blue Jays over Royals

Giants over Nationals

Phillies over Dodgers

Angels over Rays

Most Likely Upsets

Angels over Rays

White Sox over Mariners

Rangers over Tigers

Prediction Results - 4-7 Jun

NBA Playoffs: 1-1 (.500) 55-24 overall (.696)

MLB Blowouts: 2-3 (.400) 7-3 overall (.700)

MLB Upsets: 1-4 (.200) 6-4 overall (.600)

Predictions - 5 Jun

MLB

Most Likely Blowouts

Astros over Padres

Yankees over Angels

White Sox over Tigers

Nationals over Diamondbacks

Cubs over Cardinals

Most Likely Upsets

Astros over Padres

White Sox over Tigers

Nationals over Diamondbacks

Cubs over Cardinals

Athletics over Red Sox

Prediction Results - 4 Jun

MLB Blowouts: 5-0 (1.000)

MLB Upsets: 5-0 (1.000)

NBA Finals Odds - 4 Jun

After Dallas made their huge comeback and stole game 2 in Miami, all the talk was about how Dallas could close out the series at home without having to return to Miami. While that is now a possibility, what are the odds of that actually happening? I've broken down the odds of each potential finish to the NBA Finals, along with the overall odds of each team taking the title with every game from the entire season taken into account, with more recent games weighted more heavily.

Odds of Winning in 5

Dallas - 17.7%

Miami - 8.5%

Odds of Winning in 6

Miami - 20.4%

Dallas - 15.3%

Odds of Winning in 7

Miami - 24.0%

Dallas - 14.1%

Overall Championship Odds

Miami - 52.9%

Dallas - 47.1%

Change Since Beginning of Finals

Dallas +8.5%

Predictions - 4 Jun

MLB

Most Likely Blowouts

Brewers over Marlins

Rangers over Indians

Cardinals over Cubs

Rays over Mariners

Pirates over Phillies

Most Likely Upsets

Brewers over Marlins

Rangers over Indians

Rays over Mariners

Pirates over Phillies

Rockies over Giants

Prediction Results

NBA Finals: 1-1 (.500) 54-23 overall (.701)