Heels in the NBA post season…

NBA Playoffs

With the National Basketball Association’s regular season over it is now time to check out which ex Tar Heel is going to keep playing and which one is staying home. As we all know there were fifteen North Carolina players in the Pro’s at the beginning of the season, one of them, Brandan Wright, starting off the season with a major injury and never got to play in the `09-`10 season. Two ex players from Chapel Hill began the year as free agents, with Jerry Stackhouse finding a team and Rashad McCants not being able to. Two Heels moving to teams with high expectations, with Vince Carter “going home” to the Orlando Magic and Rasheed Wallace going east to the Boston Celtics. And of course with last year’s NCAA national champions now being rookies in the NBA…

Looking at the Eastern Conference there are six out of the eight teams in the post season with a touch of Carolina Blue, two of them being head to head match ups, with all the four top seed having at least one player that once played in Chapel Hill. This means that if the first round went chalk the Conference Finals would have two squads with ex Heels on it. The other two teams from the East with an Heel on it are ranked 6th and 7th.

#1 – Cleveland Cavaliers

Antawn Jamison: 66 Games (64 started) ~ 36.5 MinsPG ~ 18.7 PPG ~ 8.4 RPG

Jawad Williams: 54 Games (6 started) ~ 13.7 MinsPG ~ 4.1 PPG ~ 1.5 RPG

Danny Green: 20 Games (0 started) ~ 5.8 MinsPG ~ 2.0 PPG ~ 0.3 APG

#2 – Orlando Magic

Vince Carter: 75 Games (74 started) ~ 30.8 MinsPG ~ 16.6 PPG ~ 3.1 APG

#3 – Atlanta Hawks

Marvin Williams: 81 Games (81 started) ~ 30.5 MinsPG ~ 10.1 PPG ~ 5.1 RPG

#4 – Boston Celtics

Rasheed Wallace: 79 Games (13 started) ~ 22.5 MinsPG ~ 9.0 PPG ~ 4.1 RPG

#6 – Milwaukee Bucks

Jerry Stackhouse: 42 Games (0 started) ~ 20.4 MinsPG ~ 8.5 PPG ~ 1.7 APG

#7 – Charlotte Bobcats

Raymond Felton: 80 Games (80 started) ~ 33.0 MinsPG ~ 12.1 PPG ~ 5.6 APG

On the other side, in the Western Conference, the number of ex Tar Heels is a lot less. However they are all in the top seeds of the first round, and could easily see one of the teams in the conference final.

#2 – Dallas Mavericks

Brendan Haywood: 77 Games (67 started) ~ 30.6 MinsPG ~ 9.1 PPG ~ 9.3 RPG

#4 – Denver Nuggets

Ty Lawson: 65 Games (8 started) ~ 20.2 MinsPG ~ 8.3 PPG ~ 3.1 APG

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