Basketball Thread

[Maaaaaaaaaan]

Well, you have to remember that commentators are paid to be prideful and make bold predictions. I agree 100% that picking against Miami was the popular choice and it shouldn't always have been such. Stephen A. Smith didn't pick against them if I remember right. But I wouldn't knock the analysts who went overboard on their picks, it's their job to be confident and borderline ignorant.

But, everything else is correct x 10. LBJ is still relevant because his skills are still relevant.


Oh, and as for Kareem's career, he definitely is one of the greats regardless of his move to LA. He wasn't a franchise creator, but he was nigh on unguardable in the post. The Dream Shake is used by almost every player that gets back to the basket nowadays. Unfortunately, his hook isn't.

 

[Johnknight1]

Well, you have to remember that commentators are paid to be prideful and make bold predictions. I agree 100% that picking against Miami was the popular choice and it shouldn't always have been such. Stephen A. Smith didn't pick against them if I remember right. But I wouldn't knock the analysts who went overboard on their picks, it's their job to be confident and borderline ignorant.

But, everything else is correct x 10. LBJ is still relevant because his skills are still relevant.

Oh, and as for Kareem's career, he definitely is one of the greats regardless of his move to LA. He wasn't a franchise creator, but he was nigh on unguardable in the post. The Dream Shake is used by almost every player that gets back to the basket nowadays. Unfortunately, his hook isn't.

I know that opinion people on opinion shows talked about it. That makes 100% sense. But I don't understand why on Sports Center or at halftime every game they went after the Miami Heat. Heck, I have heard "Miami Heat this, Miami Heat that" so much anytime I hear the word Miami my brain automatically thinks "HEAT!" or "not another Heat rant!"

I don't mind them talking about LBJ, but don't go after him every time. Now all anyone complains about is him going through spells of sucking in the clutch. I've been saying he can go through awful streaks of under performing in late games since he arrived in the year! Most of his career on the Cavilers everyone would be like "Oh, but he shot good all game" or "No one else can shoot," and that is fine if he misses even up to 2/3rds of game winning shots. LBJ carried the Cavs in late games no more than anyone else on the team in his time on the team. Although his playoff game against the Pistons where he scored like 20 something straight (and missed only one shot) was insane.

Stephen A. Smith I think is a paid associate there. He's actually a newspaper columnist, and is hired for his opinion. He seems a little crazy!

I agree that Kareem is one of the greatest of all-time, but I don't think he's the greatest. All his championships in L.A. he won with one of two of the best point guards ever (the logo of the NBA Jerry West, and Magic Johnson, the face of the NBA in the 80's). The sky hook needs to return to the NBA. So many players could use this effectively.

If Dwight Howard mastered the sky hook, got more mid-ranged moves, improved his mid-range shooting percentage, improve his free throw numbers considerably, got more steals, and continued his streak of not missing a game (or getting injured [much]), he could become the all-time leading scorer. GOAT status could then be possible. I went there.

 

[theeboredone]

Stephen A Smith is my boy. I enjoy watching him on First and 10 with Skip Bayless. Those guys keep it rather real, though I would appreciate it if they didn't talk about the same things over and over. I don't know if the public decides or if they have someone making the questions, but I'm sick and tired of hearing about Tebow, Rodgers vs Brady, rarely anything about the lockout, or love for other football teams.

 

[Johnknight1]

Yeah I don't mind Stephen A. Smith most of the time (he can be smart), but urgh! He gets annoyingly arrogant sometimes.

Skip Bayless talks about Tim Tebow too much. I mean way too much. I don't think Tim Tebow has ever talked about himself that much. Aside from that and going on about Rodgers vs. Brady (which seems to have replaced Brady vs. Manning from the last decade) he does make good points.

Honestly, I get tired of hearing about the lockout. I want to see Dwight Howard dunk on someone's face so hard that an international televised funeral is held for that person's face in that poster. I want to see Derrick Rose attack the basket at light speed, flying past the greatest defenders in the world, all while eating a burrito. I want to see Stephen Curry shoot that jump shot that makes women cry from its' awe-inspiring beauty.

Above all, I want to see my team, the Warriors actually make it to the playoffs. Last time they made it and upset the Mavericks as the #8 seed the Bay Area was mad. My dad won a company raffle and got two free tickets to a Warriors game. To make it more awesome, he invited me. To make it more super awesome, the game was on my friggen birthday! To make it even more super extremely awesome, it was Game 3 of the Western Conference Semi-Finals.

I got to see Baron Davis do this dunk on Andrei Kirilenko face live. Seeing a man dunk over another man nearly a foot taller like that should be absolutely illegal.

Oracle Arena is usually loud as can be, but it blew up after that. I think my ears are still bleeding from that crowd screaming over that awesome dunk. The screaming, cheering, and "OHHHH!!!" yelling after that dunk went on for more than 15 minutes after the final buzzer. That raw awesomeness needs to come back. Seriously NBA and NBAPA, can't you do a 1 year bargaining agreement to sort out the future of said game=??? After such a great season, playoffs, Finals, and several late game, offensive explosion of Dirkatrsophic proportions, we want more!

 

[Xsyven]

Sorry about that playoff run.

 

[theeboredone]

HOLY **** on a ****.

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/7281052/nba-owners-players-get-tentative-agreement

 

[Masmasher@]

merry Christmas lmfao

 

[NTA]

Came to this thread as soon as I read it xD
Can't wait for the next All-Star Weekend

 

[CableCho57]

awesome

10awesomes.

edit: great timing too (if majority of owners and players agree) to start on dec 25. Whats Christmas without the Lakers playing??

 

[Maaaaaaaaaan]

Yesssssssssssssssssssss

I would like to point out this is before January, like I had originally said. XD

 

[theeboredone]

I still wanna see the intricacies of the deal. Mainly the salary cap system.

 

[Jane]

^seriously. wtf did they agree on? i want to know haha.


anyways hypeee the first three games are gonna be great!

 

[theeboredone]

Doubt, I'm gonna be that hyped. From a general perspective, who knows what players are in shape, what players need practice. From a Laker perspective, we're gonna have to listen for half the commentary be about "They haven't gelled" or other stuff. While true, will get annoying. I mean, I don't expect Mike Brown to install a system and for the players to get used to it in a few weeks.

 

[The Real Gamer]

Best news I've heard in weeks!!! TOO excited for words right now!!!

EDIT: The Heat get to watch the ring ceremony in Dallas on their opening night. Nothing like a little early season motivation, huh? Lets get this thing started!!

 

[#HBC | Gorf]

Now that I know this thread's going to have NBA involvement it's time to frequent it :D. Just throwing this out there... So much for any team having a 60+ winning season

Obtw yea we got us a Miami local here, can't wait to hear the crap I heard all last season from non-heat fans

 

[The Real Gamer]

Obtw yea we got us a Miami local here, can't wait to hear the crap I heard all last season from non-heat fans

Where in the hell were you last year?

 

[#HBC | Gorf]

DGames mang, never really looked through many of the forums until relatively recently

Actually I remember being here on rare occasion, but then I forgot and left lol.

 

[SharkAttack]

Awsome! There will be a season afterall, even if it is only 4/7th of a season. I really wasn't expecting there to be one at all. I don't quite remember the lockout hype back in 1998, but this seemed a lot worse, yet more games will be played this season than the 1998/1999 season.

I wonder how this will effect players come playoff time? In the NBA Finals in 1999 it was the San Antonio Spurs who won the championship against the 8th seeded New York Knicks. I forgot what seed the Spurs were then, but it almost makes me wonder if seeding is going to mean a whole lot come playoff time.

 

[theeboredone]

Seeding didn't mean much in the playoffs last year out in the West unless you were talking about "match ups". Spurs got wrecked in that department. The East is still gonna be lolwut.

West is still gonna be tight. Mavs, Lakers, Spurs, Thunder, Grizzlies, Nuggets, and Portland if they are healthy.

Also, according to Chris Broussard, Players agreed to 49-51 BRI, while gaining some key system concessions such as mid-level exception rulings, no escrow system for owners, among other things.

 

[SharkAttack]

Oh yeah, The Spurs were a 1 seed and the Grizzlies had the 8th seed last season. I seriously can't believe I forgot that, especially after that epic Game 5.

 

[The Real Gamer]

The East is still gonna be lolwut.

The East is going to be terrible this season compared to the West. I'm looking forward to another Heat/Bulls showdown though.

I'm also interested in seeing who the Heat can pick up with their MLE.

EDIT: Oh and I'm also wondering what will happen with CP3 and Dwight.

 

[theeboredone]

I'm not sure how the MLE is gonna work this season, and I'm not sure if I understand anything about the agreements...but if I'm right, Miami is only gonna have 3 mil to spend on a MLE. Granted, there's a stiffer salary cap in place (not sure if it's hard cap), so 3 mil might not sound so bad compared to last year's 5.5.

 

[Masmasher@]

I was wondering how it wouldve worked and if the nba didnt have a season.
would the cavs gotten more first round draft picks since technically we did have the worse record last year

I think well be alot better this year then last
some of the players are seasoned and stand hopefully as a testament that we dont wanna go through what happened last year again.

heres to a good season gentleman

 

[tko112]

http://www.nba.com/2011/news/featur.../27/winners-losers/index.html?ls=iref:nbahpt1

some teams and people are set, and some teams and people may be screwed, thoughts any1?

 

[NTA]

What about practice? How often do they usually practice after the playoffs when they are close to the next season?

Has anyone watched every nba game of the past seasons? I attempted but it didn't work out

I just thought I'd watch my favorite teams but then I'd miss out on other good stuff

Didn't the NBA youtube channel remove a bunch of their older videos like the highlights or were they just made private? People were raging about disliking all the videos available xD

 

[frotaz37]

Practice?

We talkin' about practice? Not a game...not the game I go out there and die for, and play every game like it's my last. Not the game.

We talkin' about PRACTICE.

 

[The Real Gamer]

LOL I hope these aren't ESPN's official predictions! http://espn.go.com/nba/bracket

 

[theeboredone]

What about practice? How often do they usually practice after the playoffs when they are close to the next season?

Has anyone watched every nba game of the past seasons? I attempted but it didn't work out

I just thought I'd watch my favorite teams but then I'd miss out on other good stuff

Didn't the NBA youtube channel remove a bunch of their older videos like the highlights or were they just made private? People were raging about disliking all the videos available xD

Season is over after the playoffs, but they open up training camp towards the end of summer. It lasts until Halloween...so 2 months?

Watching every game is impossible unless you got one of those giant tvs that divide into other tvs, and then you got the NBA package to access all the games. I'll just stick to watching my Lakers. I watched around 60+ games last year, but I'm gonna take it a bit easier this year.

EDIT:

So some interesting tidbits to the new CBA and start of season.

1. Free Agency and Training Camp will start at the same time (as predicted.) Teams like the Hornets and Nuggets currently have 6 players under contract, so that would require them to sign FAs day 1 to have legitimate practices.

2. The 1 and Done rule for college kids will most likely be bumped up to 2 and done.

3. Miami plays at Dallas opening day...Miami watches Dallas get their rings. Conspiracy theorist in me says, Miami wins that game and the championship.

4. Nene is the top FA, but chances are he resigns with Denver. Chandler will be the next one in line, but I don't think Miami has enough money to pull him in.

 

[NTA]

Has anyone read this?

China could block NBA players return

 

[The Real Gamer]

Heat are forced to cut Mike Miller under the new deal:

Spoiler

it’s likely that the Heat have come to the conclusion that they’re still probably going to have to use the amnesty clause on Mike Miller and release him.

For months the Heat had believed this was inevitable knowing they badly needed to use their mid-level exception to help out some holes on the roster. This information made it to Miller’s ears, he put his house on the market. This was with the understanding that teams paying the luxury tax, which the Heat will, wouldn’t be permitted to use an entire mid-level exception of $5 million.

A de facto hard salary cap is probably going to force the Heat to release Mike Miller. Cutting Mike Miller won't be an easy pill to swallow, but here's why the Heat may have little choice.

The most important item is that any team that uses its $5 million mid-level exception and goes over the luxury tax line cannot exceed the $4 million apron for the entire season. In layman’s terms, it means that if the Heat use the mid-level exception they cannot spend over $74.3 million this season. In effect, this is a hard salary cap even though neither the union or the league sold it that way. Simply, the Heat need to add some free agents and they can’t keep themselves under that threshold with Miller’s $5.4 million on their books.

As a Heat fan I'm really upset about this news because Miller never got the chance to fully recover last season and I was looking forward to how he would do this season now that he's a lot healthier. Looks like he won't even get that chance now... Really sucks a healthy Miller would have been the Heat's 5th best player behind the Big 3 + Haslem.

Plus on top of this (if my memory is correct) Miller got offered the full MLE last year by a few teams but took a pay cut just to play for the Heat. Now he's getting cut after being injured for the one season he's with them. The guy just can't catch a break, huh? I hope he at least ends up on another contending team.

 

[theeboredone]

Vegas has the Heat as the favorites. Followed by LA, OKC, and Chicago. Mavs no where to be found.

 

[theeboredone]

Stephen A went hard on LBJ. Skip to 59:06

http://espn.go.com/espnradio/play?id=7298979

 

[Heart Break Kid]

Time for Ny to step up...I havent really looked forward to a season in a real long time.

 

[SharkAttack]

Stephen A went hard on LBJ. Skip to 59:06

http://espn.go.com/espnradio/play?id=7298979

Stephen A did go hard on Lebron, and I agree. If Lebron can step it up at the end of games in the 4th the Heat should be dominant and win the title. Lebron could also silence some critics in the process.

 

[theeboredone]

Time for Ny to step up...I havent really looked forward to a season in a real long time.

Just wait until you guys get Cp3 next year...your roster will have only 4 players signed and cap space filled lulz.

 

[The Real Gamer]

Another interesting player comparison I came across the other day... Would a current straight up Westbrook and rondo swap be beneficial for both teams?

KD is the best scorer in the league, and as we just saw in last years playoff series, Westbrook has a bad tendency to take shots away from him when he needs the rock the most. He can be very ball dominant at times. Plus now that James Harden is showing a lot of promise in terms of becoming a great scorer himself, a lot of people feel as if Westbrook's "score first" mentality is a hindrance to the team at times. As much as I personally dislike the guy, rondo is easily one of the best pure point guards in the league right now, and one of the more underrated players in general. So his high BBIQ combined with his facilitating abilities would (in theory) lead to a more efficient thunder offense. Durant would undoubtedly get higher quality shots with Rondo, and the rest of the Thunder role players will only get better as a result of a more efficiently run offense without 2 ball dominant stars that currently suffer from the same "who's Batman and who's Robin?" syndrome that plagues the Heat. People always want to point out how rondo can't score at all but the guy has proven over and over that he can put up superstar-like numbers in the playoffs. Westbrook is the better overall player but Rondo is (currently) the more reliable playoff performer which is exactly what the Thunder currently need from their floor general. Rondo is also an excellent defender so the Thunder would arguably only get better in that aspect as well. His offensive game will develop over time and I personally think Rondo is good enough to successfully run any offense as long as it has good shooters. In that aspect, you pretty much can't get anything better than a Durant and Harden combo.

In terms of the Celtics, they currently have a big problem that's only going to worsen over time without proper changes; they don't have enough offensive firepower. As great as rondo is at running that Celtics offense, he has a very hard time scoring on a consistent basis. KG and Allen can't create their own shots as efficiently as they once could as a result of their age, and the problem will only become worse. The Celtics currently need young players that can create their own shots and alleviate scoring pressure from pierce. Westbrook however is a great fit for a future Celtics team since, unlike rondo, he is a superior scoring pg that isn't afraid to take big shots. On top of better scoring, he has shown great potential at becoming a great facilitator as well. He probably wouldn't run the offense as efficiently as rondo but his ability to run the offense won't be a problem while playing alongside the 3 HOFers. He is still fairly young so his BBIQ will undoubtedly get better overtime, and when that happens, Westbrook will easily be one of the best PGs in the league (arguably already a top 5 PG). The Celtics will soon have to go into rebuild mode once their Big 3 is gone. Because of this, I think Westbrook is not only a better all around player than rondo, but a player with more upside. He would be an all around better player to build around. One last note is that we all know how badly Westbrook would love to be "the guy."

Ik this trade isn't realistic but it's all just fun speculation, so what do you guys think? Good trade for both teams or no?

God damn these posts never seem this lengthy on my phone...

 

[theeboredone]

No, because why trade for Rondo when you can offer Westbrook + something for CP3? A guy who is a better passer AND can shoot?

Rondo is so overrated as a passer. Yeah he has his moments, but when you have Ray Allen running off screens and your job is to throw him the ball at the right moment so he can take hsi shot...that's not on Rondo, that's on Allen. The same when KG gets deep in the post, turns around and does his signature fade away. Pierce can take any shot on the court he wants. You help each of these guys get a bucket 3 times, that's 9 assists. Boom. Great passer.

Giving the rock to KD would be the same philosophy...have him come off screens, throw him the ball at the last second. KD is a great scorer, but his true 1 on 1 skills need a lot of work. I wish there was some statistic from the playoffs that showed his fg% when he was running off screens vs doing a 1 on 1 iso play.

Besides, if you put Rondo on the squad, it changes the philosophy of how you defend. At least Westbrook has some danger of hitting from the outside. With Rondo, you are sagging 5-8 feet off, and that can easily result in more trouble for KD getting a shot off.

 

[The Real Gamer]

CP3 is obviously the best choice but this is strictly a "what if" situation between WB and Rondo. Obviously the Celtics would get the better deal but I guess the whole scenario with the thunder comes down to how much faith you would have in rondo to perform at a high level on a different team.

 

[theeboredone]

Wow, this is downright pathetic. LBJ and Durant playing flag football and LBJ does the Plaxico shot himself TD celebration. Good ****.

 

[The Real Gamer]

It's official... Chris Paul wants to be a Knick. The era of superstar teams has just begun folks...

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=ys-chris_paul_hornets_knicks_nba_trade_120111