NBA Playoffs 2012: 15 Things We've Learned in This Year's Postseason

We're just past the halfway point of the 2012 NBA playoffs, with only four of our original 16 playoff teams still competing for an NBA championship.

While there's plenty of time for postseason narratives to change, there's been no shortage of lessons to be learned from the first two rounds of this year's playoffs.

From the possible end of the Clipper Curse to injuries wreaking havoc among playoff teams, let's look at 15 things we've discovered thus far during the 2012 NBA postseason.

1. Father Time Isn't So Scary Anymore

To date, one of the most impressive playoff storylines has been the resurrection of two 36-year-olds, Kevin Garnett of the Boston Celtics and Tim Duncan of the San Antonio Spurs.

It wasn't all that long ago that both players appeared to literally be playing on their last legs, struggling with their bodies' inability to maintain the athleticism they possessed earlier in their careers.

In Duncan's quest for a fifth NBA championship and K.G.'s quest for a second, both players seem to have reached back into the fountain of youth, looking 10 years younger at times during the postseason.

For proof, look no further than Duncan's dunk against Serge Ibaka of the Oklahoma City Thunder during Game 2 of the Western Conference finals. Ibaka finished second in Defensive Player of the Year voting this year, yet Duncan paid him no heed while storming to the basket.

If this becomes the new normal for being 36 in the NBA, sign me up for the nearest NBA training camp. 

2. This Year's Spurs Aren't Boring

Remember the mid-2000s, when the defensively-oriented San Antonio Spurs won an NBA championship every other year by seemingly lulling their opponents to sleep? They were willing to ride Tim Duncan's fundamental post game until that well ran dry...which it rarely, if ever, did.

This year's Spurs, though? No need to fear their likely appearance in the NBA Finals. This year's Spurs can score with the best of them.

ESPN's David Thorpe tweeted that the Spurs' half-court offense might be the best he's seen in over 20 years. The Spurs have been running a pick-and-roll clinic against Oklahoma City, finding wide-open shooters time and time again.

Thus far in the playoffs, the Spurs have only managed an undefeated 10-0 record.

The presumptive Spurs-Miami Heat NBA Finals matchup shouldn't be short on scoring, as both teams have few problems generating offense in the transition game or in their half-court offense.

Get ready for some superstar shootouts, folks.

3. The "Big Three" Model: Overrated?

When LeBron James and Chris Bosh took their talents to South Beach, many feared it would usher in an era of Big Threes, with superstars clamoring to team up on a few chosen Super Teams.

While all four remaining playoff teams have their own versions of a Big Three, the NBA Finals may end up being a referendum on how to construct a championship franchise.

The Celtics assembled their Big Three through trades in the summer of 2007, while the Heat relied on free agency in 2010. In the West, both the Spurs and the Thunder largely rely on drafting smart and allowing their talent to develop. 

Still, if the Spurs have proven anything in these playoffs, it's that teams may need more than a Big Three to win an NBA championship these days. Teams' supporting casts need to provide legitimate support too.

4. Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook Can Coexist Just Fine, Thank You

By the time the eventual champion Dallas Mavericks ushered the Oklahoma City Thunder out of the playoffs last year, the rumblings about the relationship between Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook had erupted into a roar.

Westbrook's too selfish! Durant's not selfish enough! Those two can't win a title together! And that was only the start of it.

One year later, it's as plain as day that many NBA fans and writers may have jumped the gun on that declaration. The Thunder have booked a return trip to the Western Conference finals with both Durant and Westbrook thriving at points in the playoffs.

The Thunder may not survive the buzz saw that is this year's San Antonio Spurs, but that's not a reflection of the compatibility of Durant and Westbrook. Those two will have OKC in championship contention for the next half-decade with their powers combined.

5. There's No Overrating Depth in the Playoffs

When Derrick Rose went down with a torn ACL in the Chicago Bulls' opening game of the playoffs against the Philadelphia 76ers, it changed the entire complexion of the East. Suddenly, the Miami Heat looked to have few (if any) obstacles on their way to a repeat appearance in the NBA Finals.

Conventional logic often dictates that depth matters more in the regular season than the playoffs, because coaches tend to play their stars for longer minutes in the playoffs, knowing they'll get at least a day of rest in between each game.

As we've seen in these playoffs, depth may be one of the largest determining factors in who takes home the Larry O'Brien Trophy in the next few weeks. Chris Bosh's injury gave a stark reminder as to just how fragile the Miami Heat's championship chances are without one of their Big Three.

The San Antonio Spurs' Big Three has been playing phenomenally throughout their 10-0 playoff run, but their bench, led by Manu Ginobili, may ultimately separate them from the rest of the teams left in the playoffs. They don't just have three guys who can kill you; they've got 10.

Good luck defending that.

6. Pau Gasol's Time as a Laker Is Likely Over

Had the L.A. Lakers defied the odds and won the 2012 NBA championship, there's no way the team would break up their core of Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum this summer.

Instead, the Lakers lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder in the second round, looking only slightly less overmatched than they did against the Dallas Mavericks in the 2011 playoffs.

This being Los Angeles, someone will have to take the fall for this fallen season. That someone, in all likelihood, will be Gasol. At only 31 years old, he'll still hold plenty of trade value for L.A. as one of the rare big men who can average 20 points and 10 rebounds per game.

NBA.com writer Sam Smith wrote earlier this week that Gasol would reportedly prefer being traded to the Chicago Bulls, according to Lakers sources. Something tells me the Lakers wouldn't be hot on swallowing the poison pill known as Carlos Boozer's contract, though.

7. The L.A. Clippers May Have Actually Broken the Clipper Curse

Back in 2009, ESPN's Bill Simmons penned an epic article that explained, in painful detail, the so-called "Clipper Curse." Long story short: Since 1976, the franchise had a total of three winning seasons.

Right after the Clippers drafted Blake Griffin with the No. 1 pick in 2009, he blew out his kneecap and missed his entire rookie year (the Clipper Curse!). Thankfully, Griffin came back healthy last year to average 22 points and 12 rebounds a game, winning the NBA's Rookie of the Year award in a landslide.

This past December, David Stern vetoed the Chris Paul-to-the-Lakers trade for "basketball reasons," and the New Orleans Hornets shipped CP3 to the Clippers days later. The Clippers recorded their fourth winning season (40-26) since 1976—the first time they weren't a doormat in years.

By beating the Memphis Grizzlies in a knock-'em-down seven-game first-round series, the Clippers proved that with CP3 and Griffin healthy, these aren't the same old cursed Clippers.

Instead, they're not far away from true title contention.

8. Traditional Big Men Still Have Their Place

Besides Orlando's Dwight Howard and Andrew Bynum of the L.A. Lakers, the NBA has been dealing with a dearth of traditional big men in the mold of Patrick Ewing, Hakeem Olajuwon or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

In this year's postseason, Roy Hibbert of the Indiana Pacers and JaVale McGee of the Denver Nuggets proved just how valuable a traditional back-to-the-basket big man can be for a team.

The Pacers couldn't feed Hibbert the ball consistently against Miami, despite Chris Bosh being sidelined after Game 1 by an abdominal strain. In the one game they did pound it to Hibbert, he registered a 19-point, 18-rebound, five-block night against the Heat, likely earning himself millions this summer in free agency.

McGee, like Hibbert, played a critical role in his team's playoff success, helping the Nuggets extend the Lakers to seven games in their first-round series. In the team's first two wins, McGee registered 16 points and 15 rebounds in Game 3, followed by a 21-point, 14-rebound night in Game 5.

Look, big men: You can't be DeAndre Jordan, completely unable to hit a shot outside the paint. But you don't have to be strictly a jump shooter like Ryan Anderson either. Find a happy medium and you'll carve out a long-term NBA career.

9. Utah's Frontcourt Could Soon Be Scary Good

The Utah Jazz got blitzed by the San Antonio Spurs in the first round, succumbing in a four-game sweep to the West's top seed. As we're quickly learning, that may have been more a reflection of the talent level of the Spurs than anything else.

The Jazz entered that series with a supposed advantage in the frontcourt, anchored by Al Jefferson, Paul Millsap and second-year player Derrick Favors. While the advantage didn't lead them to a series win, it showed the rest of the country the potential that Utah's young frontcourt could soon realize.

Jefferson and Millsap are the elders of the group at 27 years of age, backed up by a pair of promising 20-year-olds in Favors and Enes Kanter. That much solid big man depth gives the Jazz solid trading pieces if they decide to explore that route.

If they decide to keep all four bigs, the Jazz could become an even more dominant version of the Chicago Bulls' big man rotation, with little drop-off in quality between starters and bench players.

10. The "Stop the Flop" Campaign Has Reached a New Peak

ESPN's TrueHoop has been on a campaign the past few months to put an end to the egregious flopping that tends to occur in today's NBA. Analyst and former coach Jeff Van Gundy has been sounding the same alarm for years.

As we learned earlier this month, the flopping epidemic has caught the attention of NBA commissioner David Stern too:

"

I think it's time to look at (flopping) in a more serious way, because it's only designed to fool the referee. It's not a legitimate play in my judgment. I recognize if there's contact (you) move a little bit, but some of this is acting. We should give out Oscars rather than MVP trophies.

"

Only days after Stern's comments about flopping, the NBA announced the members of the league's new Competition Committee. One rumored agenda item this summer? Flopping.

11. The Memphis Grizzlies Need an Identity

In the 2011 playoffs, the eighth-seeded Memphis Grizzlies upset the top-seeded San Antonio Spurs by continuously ramming the ball in to their dominant frontcourt of Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph. Rudy Gay, their max-contract star, was sidelined by a dislocated left shoulder.

In this year's playoffs, the script was flipped. Gay had returned to health, but Randolph never looked 100 percent after tearing the medial collateral ligament in his right knee in January.

The Grizzlies never managed to get their frontcourt humming as well as they'd have liked in their opening-round series against the L.A. Clippers, largely explaining their early exit from this year's playoffs. It wasn't a coincidence that Randolph's two best games in the series coincided with two Memphis wins.

Gasol, Randolph and Gay are all inked long-term for the Grizzlies. This summer or next season, they'll need to decide whether the Gasol, Randolph and Gay triumvirate can bring them to the promised land of an NBA championship.

12. The Philadelphia 76ers Have Heart, Need Talent

The Philadelphia 76ers' postseason run may have been the definition of overachieving, as coach Doug Collins admitted in exit interviews, but as Collins said to the media on Sunday, "To be a champion, you can't overachieve."

No one's pretending the Sixers would have beaten the Chicago Bulls in the first round if Derrick Rose hadn't torn his ACL at the end of Game 1. And yes, numerous injuries to the Celtics helped the Sixers extend the conference semifinals to seven games.

With that said, neither the Bulls nor the Celtics rolled over to the Sixers because of injuries. The Sixers displayed a tremendous amount of heart in their 13 playoff games in extending their run as long as they did, extinguishing some of the late-season questions that popped up during the team's slump.

In the playoffs, though, talent typically ends up trumping all. The Sixers may have proved they're at no shortage of heart, but they're in desperate need of an infusion of talent if they hope to stay relevant in the Eastern Conference in coming years.

13. Carmelo Anthony Is No Franchise Savior

When the New York Knicks traded for Carmelo Anthony in February 2011, you'd have thought he was the second coming of Michael Jordan the way New York fans and media reverentially described him.

Outside the New York area, the hype machine wasn't much more in control. Anthony would often be lumped into the "superstar" category along pals LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Dwight Howard.

Melo may be one of the league's elite scorers, but franchise savior he is not. When Amar'e Stoudemire went down after Game 2 due to a lost fight with a fire extinguisher, Melo had his chance to put the team square on his back.

Instead, Anthony struggled through a 7-of-23 shooting night in a Game 3 loss and needed to pour in 41 points to help the Knicks eke out Game 4 by two points. Despite scoring 35 points in Game 5 (on 31 shots, mind you), Anthony couldn't counter the star power of James and Wade and saw his playoff run end after five measly games.

14. The Orlando Magic Will Be Plenty Fine Without Dwight Howard

The second the uber-awkward interview with Stan Van Gundy and Dwight Howard went viral, it became clear that Van Gundy wouldn't be returning to the Magic as head coach next season. Superstar players always trump superstar coaches.

In Van Gundy's last hurrah as Magic coach, he proved that the team can get along fine without the services of their superstar center, who was sidelined for the playoffs with a back injury.

No matter, Van Gundy said. He simply managed to coach his team into a Game 1 road upset over the Indiana Pacers in the first round of the playoffs, with Glen Davis showing the potential to develop into a legitimate starting NBA center for arguably the first time in his career.

SheridanHoops.com reported last week that the Magic are finally likely to end their long-standing DwightMare this summer by trading their All-Star. No matter what they get in return for Howard (and top-10 NBA players don't come cheaply), the Magic have some legitimate assets to build around in the post-Howard days, as we saw this postseason.

15. The Indiana Pacers Aren't Far from True Championship Contention

It may seem like a distant memory now, but it wasn't all that long ago that the Indiana Pacers held a 2-1 series lead over the Miami Heat, with a chance to land a near-knockout blow in Game 4 in Indiana.

Then LeBron James and Dwyane Wade happened to go on a simply Herculean tear in the next three games (one that hasn't stopped yet), putting an end to the Pacers' upset dreams.

The Pacers had the advantage of not facing Chris Bosh for most of their series against the Heat, but they proved, Bosh or no Bosh, that they weren't afraid of standing up face-to-face with Miami.

With a few minor roster alterations and a year's more experience for their young core of Danny Granger, Paul George and Roy Hibbert, the Pacers should be a dangerous force in the Eastern Conference for years, provided they can re-sign Hibbert to a long-term contract.