f13.net

The season is actually approaching pretty quickly now.  ESPN has their new power rankings out for 2013 (http://espn.go.com/nba/powerrankings/_/year/2013/week/-1).  As expected, the Heat are on top.  Also, not surprisingly, the Lakers are second and the Thunder are third. 

After that you see a real dearth of good teams.  The Knicks have a ton of talent, but I don't see the Spurs, Celtics, 76ers, Clippers or anyone else even coming close to the big three in the title race.    The only one of them that has a big addition is the 76ers, and I have a feeling that Bynum will be more of a distraction than he is worth.  Even though it looks to be a pretty top heavy year, I expect it to be fun. 

I'm picking the Lakers as the title winners. 

Awesome!  Looks like we'll have some anti-flopping rules (http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/8457259/nba-establishes-new-anti-flopping-penalties-fine-players) to start the season.   :heart:



We'll see if it has any teeth. 

I'm picking the Heat. Again.

Nothing I've seen suggests there's any competition left in the East.

Out of the big three there aren't any contenders at all.  The Eastern Conference is absolutely atrocious though, you're right.

It's going to be Heat/Lakers in the finals and being from Orlando that's kind of like aliens vs predators.

Jeremy Lin is going to be a huge bust for Houston.  I know preseason games are pretty much bullshit, but the guy has seriously struggled. 

How can Lin be on a bust on a team that has no stars? I mean their highest paid guys is Kevin Martin. Outside of Jeremy Lamb, I've never even heard of anyone else on their roster.

Houston's going to be a disaster because they will get dominated down low, will be forced to play on the outside with a bunch of shooting guards, they don't have a coach, and they are relying on a shitload of young talent.

By shooting 25% and being a turnover machine?   :awesome_for_real:

Commentary from ESPN insider article by Chris Broussard:

Broussard's fishing for eyeballs. Key things to remember about Lin:

1 - Preseason games... I could almost make an AI reference to practice here.
2 - He got burned by Russell Westbrook. Yeah? Get in line. He's going to burn a shitload more people than just Lin this year.
3 - Preseason
4 - Ownership pushing for Lin over basketball people. OF COURSE THEY DID. The basketball people in the organization don't worry a team of nobodies can't draw dick to the stadium.
5 - Fucking preseason.

I'm going to have to agree with Broussard.  There was too much good shit going on with the Knicks for Lin to justify not matching for his contract.  I sense bad mojo and think the guy's going to completely fall on his face once he starts getting doubled regularly, people have time to gameplan for him and, most importantly, he's not being coached by Mike D'antonio or in his system. 

It's stupid though. Of course he will fail. He's on a completely shit team with a bunch of rookies or 1st year talent.

That's like saying Mark Sanchez will struggle to win games. Duh. He's got nothing around him, and even if he plays well he can't win games on his own.

This.  Also, I work in Lakeland, let's do lunch sometime. 

I'm not talking about his ability to "win games".  I'm talking about the fact that he'll shoot 25%, be a turnover machine and probably end up on the bench by the end of the year.  There are plenty of very good players on shitty teams that still manage to get things done in the NBA (the NFL is not  good comparison, IMO).  Kevin Love is a good example. 

I guess we'll see. I don't expect him to be a disaster. All he has to do is be entertaining and put asses in the seats. Houston has no shot at winning anything.

Royce White is shaping up to be a very predictable dumpster fire (http://www.usatoday.com/story/gameon/2012/10/04/royce-white-scared-flying-houston-rockets-training-camp/1612515/). 

That's a little harsh to term someone who has a diagnosed mental illness.  Sounds like he's being responsible and trying to make it work.

I mean that the pick is shaping up to be a dumpster fire.  Yeah, the guy seems to be doing the right things, but it isn't going to work out for him.  He'd be better off going back to school and studying hard to find a different career. 

He can do that anytime.  Why not make bank while he can?

Well of course he should.  He's got a 3 year guaranteed contract because somebody in Houston was fucking stupid enough to draft him.   :oh_i_see:

I'm talking about for the rest of his life.

Everyone drafted outside the high lottery is either likely kind of crap or has some sort of issue.

The Rockets general philosophy during their rebuilding has been about bringing in guys with high upside and seeing if they can develop. If White's illness can be worked around well enough, that's a lot of value for where the pick was.

So yeah...


(Woj (http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba--thunder-trade-james-harden-to-rockets-27481909.html), also Stein (https://twitter.com/ESPNSteinLine/status/262384250853138432))

This is a bit different from the Rockets going after Howard as Harden is an RFA so they definitely have him for his next contract. Presti gives no fucks, and Morey picked up his All-Star.

WTF? Doesn't this make OKC worse? What's the incentive to do the trade now?

Yeah, that's leaving most people I'm reading scratching their head. As a total guess, Houston's offer may have become significantly worse after the extension deadline that comes up this week (reports are they'll give Harden a max deal ASAP) and/or these negotiations got super ugly.

Yeah, but it saves them the trouble of trying to negotiate with Harden and potentially have a morale sapping feud in the middle of the season.  Plus Jeremy Lamb is quite a prospect.  

Edit:  This (http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/8562868/sources-oklahoma-city-thunder-trade-james-harden-houston-rockets) tells me it wasn't really about the money.

It makes sense, OKC drafted too well, you simply can't afford that many stars and solid rotation players/borderline stars.  Jeremy Lamb has the potential to be a great player in this league and they got two first rounds picks for next year, one from Houston and one from Toronto which is guaranteed to be a lotto pick (between 4 and 11 or it goes to the next year until it falls in the lotto, if i am not mistaken).

Let's get ready to rumble!  :awesome_for_real:

Hmmm.  What to watch.............what to watch?  Heat-celtics or Wizards-Cavs?   :why_so_serious:

I may have to rethink my selection of the Lakers to win it all. 

And what a fucking awesome debut for James Harden in Houston.  They could be decent this year after all.

Lakers have to gel. That's why the regular season doesn't matter. They could go 0-10 and still make the playoffs.

Well, Nash left last night's game with a leg injury.   :oh_i_see:

And D Howard still can't hit free throws. 

Harden is making Sam Presti look like a fool.  Also Orlando 1-0, Lakers 0-3  :drill:.

Hardin put up a shitton of points, but he was playing a brand new undersized Hawks lineup (who apparently forgot that rebounding was important).

Still, the Hawks kept it interesting.

I don't expect Hardin to do that every night, but it's still an impressive first game.  It makes up for Jeremy Lin's shittiness. 

 :Love_Letters:

Atlanta loses to Houston at home, doesn't take Josh Smith to OKC on the road, and proceeds to pants the Thunder.

What?

I was under the impression that Josh Smith was a pretty well known locker room cancer. 

Eh, sort of. He's well known for taking shitty outside jumpers when he's supposed to be going to the boards. As far as the locker room, I think he's actually SUPPOSED to be the leader. We'll see how that works out.

I don't think they'll miss the playoffs and still have a great shot at winning the title, but it's pretty awesome watching the Lakers suck. 

Rajon Rondo is a pretty cool dude (http://www.tmz.com/2012/11/06/rajon-rondo-high-school-algebra-math-celtics/).

Laker's coach Mike Brown gone (http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba--lakers-fire-coach-mike-brown--search-for-long-term-replacement-09551809.html)

That's a pretty wild overreaction for a 1-4 start in the NBA.

EDIT: Nevermind, I just realized that Jerry Buss has put his son in charge of the team. I wonder when major franchises will stop doing this. I'm struggling to find a situation where handing over the keys to your priviledged offspring netted outstanding results in pro sports.

My thought: they wanted to get rid of him anyway, and they're doing it now with the easy stretch of home games coming up so they can start winning and say "see? right move."

I hear Stan Van Gundy is looking for a job...

I would laugh and laugh and laugh.  :why_so_serious:

That has to happen.

I don't know why they didn't just fire his ass over the offseason.  They clearly wanted to dump him, so why not do it at a more reasonable time.  I doubt Phil Jackson is walking through the door.  Dantoni may not be a bad choice for them, though. 

D'Antoni is apparently going to be recovering from knee surgery for rather a while apparently.

It's not like that would hinder him from sitting on the bench.   :why_so_serious:

They hired D'Antoni.

Mike Brown's offense made no sense. You have two great pick n roll big men, good slasher/long range shooters in your wingmen, and a point guard who can create on the pick n roll. There are a ton of great offenses you could run with these guys, but you tell them to read and react? That's the kind of offense you run when you have too many superstars and you are too afraid to bruise egos.

They went back to basics and won two in a row under the interim coach. Let's see what D'Antoni come up with.

By the way, I despise the Lakers. At least until Kobe leaves. But even hating the team, I love basketball enough to see what the problem was. I had hoped that Brown would have stayed at least half the season to really run them into the ground.

Yeah, I know what you're saying.  I don't care for Koby much (although he has grown on me as he aged), Ron Artest is a screaming, roided up douche and Dwight Howard appears to be a whiney pied of shit.  I do like Steve Nash though, and was hoping that the Lakers would give the Heat a decent opponent in the finals.  I am also excited about Dantoni, but he's an odd choice.  He's been better at getting good results from a team with lesser talent and when he had it (in New York) he tanked.  I'm a big fan though, so hoping he does well.

Well no shit, Mike (http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/story/_/id/8629020/mike-dantoni-discusses-los-angeles-lakers-coaching-job).   :oh_i_see:



 :awesome_for_real:

Can we call Jeremy Lin a bust yet?   :oh_i_see:

Early in the season, but Rondo got in to a shoving match (http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/11/29/rajon-rondo-suspended-two-games-for-fight-with-nets/related/) with Kris Humphries. It was anticipated that he might be suspended for up to 10 games. Looks like he only got 2 games. Garnett and Gerald Wallace got fines.

Rondo... still a douche.  :oh_i_see:

Lin... not a bust, but I'd like to see him get 1-2 more assists per game, get into the top 10 in that category, and add maybe 2-3 more points a game to his average.

Lin can never possibly live up to the hype he received last year, because who could?  That said, he has come out of absolutely nowhere and made a name of himself in a league where it basically never happens like that.  Not a bust.

Rondo is good enough to be a douche though.  The guys is a triple-double machine.

And he's a better guy off the court (http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1400434-rajon-rondo-teaches-math-at-boston-area-high-school) than many of the other douches in the league.

And for one glorious quarter everything is right in the world.

Also surprisingly, Atlanta.

Tony Parker just got his first career triple-double (http://www.cbssports.com/nba/gametracker/recap/NBA_20121210_SA@HOU/parkers-first-tripledouble-leads-spurs-past-rockets-in-ot) in an OT win over the Rockets. He has been in the league 12 years according to the story and only just now got his first one.

Jeremy Lin also finally had a good game with Harden out. He scored 38 with 7 Assists. 11-21 from the field with a career high four 3-pointers made. Also 12 of 12 from the FT line.

I'm pretty shocked that Parker never had a triple double before.

So I was driving to work and heard on the radio the Lakers lost again.

 :Love_Letters:

Particularly considering he's in the paint so much.  But he is very short and usually hits his shots when he gets into the lane.

 :awesome_for_real: :awesome_for_real: :awesome_for_real:

You're happy now, wait until tomorrow when the Lakers play the wizards after Kobe had to go 40+ mins tonite while having back spasms.  They lose that one and i fully expect Kobe to start alienating Howard.

I was celebrating the Warriors win over the Heat, so yes I will be even happier if the Lakers continue to fail.  :grin:

The Lakers really are a mess.  I'm not sure why they ever thought that Howard would be a huge upgrade over Bynum.  Sure, Bynum has knee issues that could seriously hamper his career long term, so it was a wise move, but when healthy it's not like Howard is significantly better than Bynum.  They need to get rid of Gasol and get themselves some young, athletic players to complement the geezers and get Nash healthy.  They need to move Gasol tomorrow and get a couple of pieces that will fit Dantoni's style of play a little better.  I'd shop Artest, too. 

Hawks are 14-6! Tied with the Heat for now. :awesome_for_real: :awesome_for_real: :awesome_for_real:

I have tickets for the Hawks/Bulls game on the 22nd. Should be fun.

Or you know, hire Phil Jackson when you have the opportunity and run an offensive for which you already have a pretty much ideal lineup.

I wonder if they fired another coach and hired Phil right now if that would set some kind of record?  :grin:

Jackson could break his own championship record?  Sure!

I really don't think the answer is 'get rid of one of your best players', the answer is 'stop trying to force players into jobs they're not suited for'.

I mean, you wouldn't trade Tom Brady because you desperately wanted to run the wildcat and he just can't run fast enough, you'd just not run the wildcat. The coaching/gameplan is like 95% of their problem. Having Gasol play a perimeter game is just bafflingly dumb.

Why would anybody try to run a scheme at all? If you have any modicum of ball-movement and just let players do what they do, the offensive part of the NBA isn't rocket science.

Phil Jackson's rings would like to have a word with you.  Yes, MJ was an amazing player, but the triangle (and to a lesser extend, pick and roll) dictate who you draft.

Phil Jackson never liked Kobe, though, and couldn't coach him.

I'm not going to pretend to be a Jackson/Bryant expert, but I don't see how placing a bunch of pieces on a team and throwing them on a court makes sense without a scheme in mind.  It's like pulling a bunch of 3 4 people and asking them to run Tampa 2.  It just works differently.

Also, I totally wrote extend instead of extent.  The d isn't even close to the t!

Well he wanted the Lakers to trade Kobe back in like 03-04 or somewhere around then. He hates the idea of the "selfish" player in the NBA, which totally destroys the triangle offense.

Outside of a guy like Jackson though, there's several statistics out there that describe how NBA coaches, with few exceptions, are generally useless.

http://www.sfandllaw.com/Articles/What-Wins-Basketball-Games-a-Review-of-Basketball-on-Paper-Rules-and-Tools-for-Performance-Analysis.shtml

Stan Van Gundy would have that Lakers team at the best record in the NBA right now.  He'd get murdered by the All-Star break though.

Those wounds won't heal if you keep rippin' 'em open.   :awesome_for_real:

Lin looked pretty solid back in Madison Square Garden.  :awesome_for_real:

And while playing with Harden which is nice for the Rockets. Each had been playing better when the other wasn't on the court at the same time.

So, are the timberwolves specifically going after white players? Apparently they were the first all white starting lineup to win a game since 86 a few days ago.

Could be a way of boosting attendance? The demographic in that state is like 90% white and over 35. They might be looking to identify with their base? They've been a horrible squad for the last 5 years with shitty gate numbers to match, but the attendance is now on the rise, and things are getting better on the court.

They have a pretty decent one (when healthy) if so.

While Jeremy Lin may not have been worth every cent of the money Houston paid him, Omer Asik has been fucking amazing.  The guy is rebounding like Rodman. 

How can you not give Lin credit for that Christmas game? Come on man.  :awesome_for_real:

That was a huge game.  He has actually been very good in the entire month of December and a gigantic game versus the Spurs which seemed to go largely undocumented.  He still sucks.   :awesome_for_real:

Asik is the guy that came from Chicago, right?  If so, I remember seeing him coming off the bench in several games and thinking "OMG THEY SHOULD TOTALLY PLAY THAT GUY ALL THE TIME".   He fights in the paint like a hero.

Apparently it's coach firing day. Avery Johnson out of Brooklyn. People need to stop hiring him.

You can make a good living by being a shitty coach in the NBA.

I'm sure Phil is going to jump all over this opportunity (http://espn.go.com/new-york/nba/story/_/id/8785395/brooklyn-nets-establish-phil-jackson-top-coaching-target-sources-say)......

It will be his big shot to get back at the Lakers.   :oh_i_see:

No name coach will go anywhere near that job.

Having seen Joe Johnson up close, he's a coach killer. I can't believe our GM unloaded him. So awesome!

Joe Johnson sucks.  I can't believe some of these guys can still get gigs in the league.  These guys that score a ton of points but don't play defense are a real liability.  I don't love the Spurs, but they have shown how it can be done with a somewhat meager roster-  it's all about defense. 

Over the last 10 years, if you weren't top 10 in defense, you didn't win the NBA title.

The most recent exception to the defensive mindset was the 08-09 Lakers who were putting up 107 a game on offense. Another is the Miami Heat from 05-06, who did it by outrebounding everyone.

Warriors trampled the Clippers.  :heart: Granted, it was a bad spot in their schedule, but I'll still take it. Barnes is turning out to have been a pretty good pick.

He's bee a lot better than I expected, that is for sure.  He didn't look particularly athletic at UNC.  I don't think he could step in and be "the man" for a team, but he may be a very nice Tayshaun Prince type complementary player for the Warriors. 

Sounds like the Maloofs have finally figured out that they are too broke/stupid/pimptastic to run an NBA team any more, and are selling to the Hansen/Ballmer group in Seattle. The best thing about this is that it makes NHL in Seattle a real possibility. I can't bring myself to give a shit about the NBA any more.

Sounds like it's still in the discussions phase, but there are sure a lot of rumors swirling around about it.  That doesn't change the fact that the Kings still have a shittastic team right now.  They need to get rid of Tyreke Evans while he still has a shred of trade value left in him and get Demarcus Cousins to get his head out of his ass long enough to play some ball.  There may not be another big guy in the league with the talent Cousins has.  I think he trumps Howard and Bynum when his game is on.

Hawks have decided that their New Year's resolution is to shit the bed. They lost their 3rd in a row last night to a .500 Timberwolves team. Now they head to shitty Cleveland. Lose a 4th in a row against an absolutely DREADFUL Cleveland squad, and there will be massive shakeups in the starting 5 when the homestand starts.

Road games are tough in the league unless you're elite and Atlanta is clearly not that. 

Not yet, no. The moves they made were to build for that elite team, but they are missing an inside guy. Too many shooters on this team, and nobody willing to get dirty on a daily basis. Fuck, that's the problem with most of the league.

Josh Smith and Al Horford average 17 rebounds between the two of them. It should be about 20, but it's still passable.  What they're really missing isn't that but a wing scoring presence.  It's almost a requirement to have a 6'5" to 6'8" guy that is very versatile on offense, i.e. scores inside and out, and has the ability to play some lock down defense. 

Kyle Korver is that guy right now. 6'7" SG who puts up 11 a game and shoots 44% beyond the arc.

I think he's been in the paint a time or two.  He's dunked before, also.  I've seen it.   :awesome_for_real:

Exactly. He's not an inside guy. That was my issue.  :grin:

I'm really kindof surprised he's bounced around the league so long.  He can't guard a stop sign.  Anybody can put up points in the league it seems, you gotta have someone that can stop the other guy on a regular basis.  All of the big names are good defenders.  Some are better on a consistent basis, but even Carmelo can shut people down when he puts his mind to it.  Scottie and Michael were terrors.  LeBron is great.  Kobe is pretty good too. 

No, i think they just get away with a lot more.  In December Lebron went over three weeks without being called for one single foul, that is not amazing defense and he is not a finesse player, he is just allowed to do whatever the fuck he wants to other players.

Hawks got destroyed by Cleveland.

What. The. Fuck.

As a displaced Seattleite, whatever energy I use for rooting for basketball (which isn't much) is still aimed at OKC.  I really like that team.  I don't know how to wrap my head around the possibility of another team filling that spot, least of all the Sacrafuckingmento Kings.

This is part truth but mostly bullshit.

I now know what an abortion looks like in basketball form thanks to the Hawks tonight. It hasn't hit the national media yet, but when it does, the world will see the fail in all it's hideous malformed glory.

Wow.  You weren't fucking around.   :ye_gods:

Share.

The Hawks set a record for futility, scoring 58 points total, and only 5 points in the second quarter.

Edit: in

 :ye_gods:

And here's your culprit:

Josh Smith, locker room cancer (http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/8849599/josh-smith-atlanta-hawks-suspended-one-game). 

Yeah that was a delightful message on my twitter today. Fucking idiot.

I wouldn't care normally, but I really wanted to win this game for two reasons. First, Joe Johnson is coming back to Atlanta, and I want to see him get owned in his $20M face. Second, the long time radio announcer for the Hawks, Steve Holman, is going to announce his 2000th consecutive game. He's been calling every single Hawks basketball game without fail since March of 1989. The man has the patience of a Saint. Also, he's one of the most funny, honest, say whatever type announcers in the game.

Good god, this year's NBA draft is going to be miserable (http://www.nbadraft.net/ranking/bigboard).  Expect to see a lot of furriners taken out of the blue and left to sit in the Euro league.  This is probably the weakest draft in my lifetime and looks to be even worse than the 2000 and 2001 classes. 

I don't really follow college basketball, but usually I at least know the first 5 or so names, I have literally not heard of anyone on this board.

There's a reason. 16 of the top 20 are underclassman players. The one and done thing has made this draft process ridiculous.

Cody Zeller and Nerlens Noel will probably be the most famous guys when this season is over.

That may be part of it, Paelos, but the biggest reason that the draft stinks is that this year's recruiting class for college basketball is awful.  There's no Kyrie Irving or Kevin Durant or even a John Wall.  I don't even think Zeller will stick in the league.  He's a stiff.  Noel probably will, but he'll be a defensive role player.

Zeller won't most likely, you're right about that. Malakili's statement about not knowing anybody is telling though. There are 11 of that 16 I mentioned freshmen there, so unless you followed high school ball, how could we know their names?

I'm sure that the NBA executives know who is going to be great.  Last year you had Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.  This year you have Nerlens Noel and Ben McLemore.  That's a huge dropoff.  And while you can blame the one-and-done rule for the lack of a "big name" coming from college, I'm not sure you can blame it for the lack of talent in this draft.  There have been plenty of stinker drafts prior to this one, some of them even in the four years of college days.  I think 2000 was probably the worst draft ever.  Either that or the one that had Doug Collins as the #1 pick.

Oh for sure, and I think that's going to be the case in both the NBA and the NFL drafts this year. Both are going to be extremely underwhelming.

I haven't looked at the NFL draft lists too much.  I know that the skill position players are weak, but I never really know what to think about linemen.  Picking out the really great ones is above my level of expertise. 

Looks like Rondo blew out his knee and is done for the year. Doc says that he's not willing to write the Obituary for this team.

I am. They were under .500 with the best assists guy in the league. Without him? They are a bunch of old ass guys whose best scorer is a 35 year old forward who shoots 41% from the floor.

This guy disagrees. (http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/01/28/the-extra-pass-how-the-celtics-can-survive-without-rajon-rondo/related/)

Specifically, "Boston’s third most used lineup this season is the group of Lee/Terry/Green/Sullinger/Garnett, and they’ve absolutely killed it in 95 minutes together. That unit has posted an offensive rating of 115.8 and a defensive rating of 90.9 for a net rating of +24.8. To put that in better context, no lineup in the NBA that has played at least 95 minutes has a better plus/minus per 48 minutes than that group."

So, he is essentially saying that the best lineup the Celtics have will have a chance to show if they can carry the team to victory.

I'm not a Celtics fan, but they did just beat the Heat. We'll have to see how the rest of the season plays out.

It sucks that Rondo got injured though. This article (http://www.celticslife.com/2013/01/taking-look-at-acl-injuries-and-why.html) points out that it will probably be only until the start of next season though.

Rondo is probably the 4th or 5th best player in the league.  You can't lose that and survive, particularly when you have the all geriatric squad otherwise. 

That guy is grasping at straws with those numbers. When Rondo was out on the road, Boston got smoked in 3 games against the Bucks, Warriors, and Nets.

Yes, they can win at home without Rondo. They don't have a prayer of winning on the road without a real PG. Also that lineup he references has played together for 95 minutes, and we don't know against whom, or when it was in the game. It's easy to put up massive numbers when you're in mop up duty against Cleveland at home.

Yeah there's not enough to even base a guess on there. 95 minutes, spread across how many games, and how much of the time was spent facing the back end of other teams benches?

Rondo has arguably been as complete a player as Lebron over the past few years (http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/42037/rondo-etches-name-in-nba-record-book).  You don't lose a player of his caliber and make it work. 

Just no.  Not even close.  Yes, he's capable of getting triple doubles.  That doesn't mean he's a top 10 player in the league, because he absolutely isn't.  He can't shoot, and Boston has been constantly worse offensively with him on the floor over the past few years.

That said, Boston is in deep trouble.  They've been in deep trouble this season anyways.  Now they are clearly in worse shape.

He's absolutely a top ten player.  It's not all about scoring.  When is the last time a PG was as versatile as he is, and he's a defensive nightmare. 

You can't be a top 10 player in the NBA if you struggle so badly in certain areas.  inhttp://www.basketball-reference.com/players/r/rondora01.html#advanced::none

Look at the last 3 years.  PER of 18 (above average but definitely not great), TS% around or below 50% (quite bad), poor offensive rating and win shares.  KG and Paul Pierce had both been more important for the Celtics than Rondo until this year.  Unfortunately, father time has finally caught up with them, which is why the Celtics have sucked this year.  If Rondo was really a top 10 player the Celtics wouldn't be this bad with the drop off of KG and Pierce.

[ur=http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/8423104/2012-nba-player-rankings-11-15l]ESPN has him at number 12[/url] for 2012.  I think he's better this year than several of those ranked ahead of him, including Howard and Nowitzki. 

Fair enough, but some others have probably jumped him.  I'd say that Irving, Duncan, Carmelo, and Parker all were having better years than Rondo before his injury.  Even Steph Curry has a good argument for being above Rondo.

Rondo is clearly a great player, but if he's the best player on your team you are going to see what you were seeing before his injury with the Celtics.

As a random aside, my team just lost by 45 at home to the Rockets.  Stupid Jazz.  Terrible coach, bad rotations, with all our most promising players on the bench and an incredibly boring starting line up that gets all the minutes for no deserved reason.

Duncan is having a resurgence, sure.  I think that Rondo's defense gets overlooked, as does his rebounding.  He doesn't score a lot, but he doesn't have to to control the game.  Curry, Parker and Carmelo aren't exactly defensive wonders.  The NBA is less about points scored these days and more about defense and teamwork, both of which Rondo excels at.  I'd love to see him on a real team.  The Heat should trade Bosh for him.  That would be a great move. 

That would be a move that the Celtics would laugh out of the room, too. While we're at it I'd like to trade Klay Thompson for Chris Paul.  :grin:

EDIT: Or maybe not.  :-o

I wouldn't trade for Chris Paul right now. 

And clearly the C's wouldn't do a straight up trade.  It would have to involve picks, other players, and probably other teams to make it work. 

Okay, so the NBA player's union is just now suspending Billy Hunter (http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/8904880/billy-hunter-head-nba-players-association-placed-indefinite-leave)?    :awesome_for_real:

I don't know if any of you guys are paying attention, but Lebron is having a fucking amazing streak here lately.  The guy is shooting almost 70% from the field in February. 

Yeah, he's been scary good lately.  If he keeps this up Miami repeating is pretty much a foregone conclusion.

Don't look past the Spurs this year.

The Spurs won't win the title.  They are typically badass during the season because they have a good system and a good coach, but they don't have the talent to hang with Miami or New York or even the Lakers once the playoffs hit.  I'm seriously bearish on their postseason prospects.

I hate the NBA and basketball in general, but this gif is too hilarious to pass up not posting it somewhere...

https://i.minus.com/ibfGACq50lur2k.gif

It's the face at the end that makes it. It just screams "DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMNNNNN!!!"

Bye bye streak.

I don't hate the Heat, but I do hate what ESPN has become these last 5 years, and they were knob gobbling too much about this thing. Their announcers can barely mumble their approval with the amount of Heat cock in their faces.

I don't hate the Heat all that much either but after they were blatantly handed the Orlando game a few weeks back i wanted their streak to end before breaking the record.

Jay Z is selling his 1/15 % stake in the Nets.  Apparently his total investment was about $350,000.  Why was he ever even associated with the Nets?  I don't think that even qualifies you as "part owner".  That is minor shareholder status, at best.

He was involved to say he owned part of the Nets, and because managment wanted a celeb in the stands to drive up ticket sales. The NBA thrives on celebrity on and off the court. That's what makes it a terrible product from a basketball standpoint.

That "celebrity" that you're talking about really rankles me.  The sad thing is that we're seeing some of the best basketball that we've ever seen in the NBA. 

It's debatable. From a scoring/entertainment standpoint? Yes, it's the best in a long time. From a pure talent depth standpoint? It's the worst in a long time. The league is concentrated around stars, and the parity of the league is completely laughable.

There is better basketball being played, all around.  The teams actually play defense.  There are plays other than the pick and roll.  I feel that the entertainment value has lessened.  Showtime era was entertainment.  Jordan was entertainment.  There was no defense in either of those eras unless the Pistons or Jordan/Pippin were playing it.

Stockton, Payton, DJ, Olajawan, Dumars, Mutombo... The Jordan era was OUTSTANDING for defense.  If you look at the top NBA defensive players of all time, many were from the Jordan era.

Yes, but it wasn't a great era for team defense.  Each of those guys was excellent by themselves, but only the Bulls and Detroit were teams that I would consider truly excellent defensive teams.  Hell, any guy from last year's Memphis team would be a top 10 defender in the Jordan era.

Half the teams in the league give up 98+ a game on average this season.

That number a decade ago was half the teams giving up 94.5+ on average. If anything I can argue defense is unchanged/worse.

This.  Especially if you add in that zone defense is now legal. Ghost, remember that you had to play man-to-man only in the Jordan era or get called for a technical (after a warning).  There wasn't much team defense for that reason beyond playing simple help defense.

That's basically the result of rule changes that have made it damn near impossible to stop someone one on one. 

The continuation rule in the NBA alone has led to more scoring.

PPG is a very misleading stat.

And the 80s were the pinnacle of the era when it was impossible to stop someone one-on-one.  Hell, a quarter of the teams in that era shot above 50% for the year.

You know, the most interesting thing about Jordan was that he was a defensive nightmare.  He really changed the focus of the superstar player back to being a defensive stopper.  The league has been pretty tight on defense since that time, particularly in his second run of championships. 

In a vacuum, yes. In a combination analysis of league parity, not so much. When taking into account the changes in PPG along with the fact that only 8 teams have won a championship in the last 25 years?

The league has moved towards scoring and stars. Defense is important, for sure, but not a prerequisite for winning (see Dallas).

I think you're wrong about league parity.  We are exactly where we were in the Jordan era and in the Showtime era-  2 to 3 really good teams, the rest stink.  The mid-late '00s stunk, partially because there was parity.

But then again, you and I disagree on the point that parity means that play is good.  I much, much, much prefer to see standout excellent teams rather than a mishmash of crap

Edit-

The NBA has never been a league that could be considered to have parity (http://espn.go.com/nba/playoffs/2012/story/_/page/Finalists1-10/ranking-nba-finals-teams-best-worst).

No, it's never had parity, and that's part of the issue holding it back as a product. The best parity product in the US is the NFL.

But, again, why give a shit about parity?  People want to see MJ and Pippin dominate, not Dirk Nowitzki eke out a lucky win in a down year.  And they don't want to see the Tampa Bay Buccaneers or the Carolina Panthers win, either. 

Nobody watches the last place team.  They watch winners.  The more winners you have in your league (parity), the more people will fill the stands.

I'm not sure that the NFL is even comparable to the NBA or MLB if you're simply considering people in the stands.  MLB has 81 home games, the NBA has 41 home games and the NFL has 8.  The NFL has an almost exclusively weekend schedule whereas the others do not.

The other side of this is television deals.  Who is in the stands is becoming more and more irrelevant.  Hell, half of baseball stadiums are barely filled during the week, yet MLB still rakes it in hand over fist.  People want to watch winners on television, which means the big teams.  Nobody wants to watch Bucks-Bobcats, and I doubt many people will be tuning in to see Jacksonville play Detroit. 

Scoring is up because someone finally sat down and did the math and realized that hitting 34% of your 3 point shots is better than hitting 50% of your 2s. Want scoring to go down? Move the line back again and take away the corner 3.

The best teams are hitting up to 40% this year. 

Dunno about that.  5 of the 32 teams have won half the super bowls.  Almost half the league has never been in one.  The Steelers, Pats, Ravens, or Colts have been in every super bowl since 2000 except for one.  It certainly has the best revene-sharing, but it's not clear that it cashes out as parity, at least at the top.  

To get back on topic: it's too bad we won't get to see if Kobe could pull the team together for a playoff run.  Go Spurs. 

Well in the NFL in the last 20 years, you've had 12 different teams win Super Bowls.

The NFL is a much different sport after the salary cap, and if we use 1993 going forward, that's well representative of the shift. These past two decades under the cap have been the most equal in terms of representation in the Super Bowl trophy list. I believe 22 different franchises have been in the big game in that time frame.

I'm pretty sure I ran through this recently and discovered that MLB actually has the best competitive balance now, but I was counting world series/finals/superbowl appearances, not just winners. It was a couple years ago though so maybe the repeat appearances of Cardinals/Giants/Rangers/Tigers in the last 2 let the NFL pass them.

The NBA is the worst and will always be the worst, because you just don't need very many dominant players to be on one team to become essentially unstoppable.

I hate competitive balance.  I could give a shit if the Memphis Grizzlies or the Jacksonville Jaguars or the Kansas City Royals ever win (or sniff) a title.  I want to see the big boys duke it out, the Steelers and Cowboys and 49ers and Yankees and Cardinals and Red Sox and Celtics and Lakers. 

Balance is only good if it involves a traditional team versus an up and coming team in the championship. If it's two newbie teams, then it sucks. Fans don't like that.

When you really come down to it, fans want the two best teams in the game. That's why the Super Bowl this year wasn't the marquee matchup. Most fans wanted Denver and not Baltimore in the finals. SF or GB could have made it and people would have been happy, but they absolutely didn't want the Falcons, even though their record was better. The reason was that everyone knew the Falcons record, just like the Houston Texans, was mostly a smokescreen of shit teams.

That's why a single game playoff system sucks ass. 

Yeah I'm not really a huge fan of the NFL's playoffs, but you can't make them play a series of football games logistically. We've had some really shitty "champions" of the NFL as a result.

Super Bowl champs like the Giants who barely squeak into the playoffs, and couldn't manage to beat a 5-11 Redskins team at all. Clearly they were the best in the world.  :oh_i_see:
A team like the Ravens, who went 10-6, lost 4 of their last 5, and should have been busted out of the playoffs but for a bone-headed safety failure by Denver.  :facepalm:
A 10-6 Packers team that backdoored the playoffs by winning their last two games.

The last champion we had that performed well in the regular season was the Saints, and before that the Steelers.

You've just listed the reasons I am not interested in a playoff for college football. 

Slightly different. The reason a college football playoff makes sense in a limited form (8 teams as a max), is that you're pulling from a pool of 120. That's about 6.5% of the league if you take 8, and about 3% of the league if you take 4 teams. The chances of you getting an "undeserving" team in those small percentages are ridiculously small, unless you rig the thing to take conference champions regardless of overall record.

In the NFL, 6 teams on each side make it, which is almost 38% of the league in the playoffs. The chances of pulling in a bad team that gets hot are about 6-10x more likely. Were you to take 6.5% of the NFL, you'd pull the AFC best record, the NFC best record, and immediately put them in the Super Bowl.

Maybe, but if you're only taking 4 teams it's a sham anyway.

I agree for the most part. In the last 5 years, very little would have changed by adding two more teams. The exceptions would have been this year (I don't think ND would beat Oregon in the semis), and 2008 (adding Texas to match up with Florida, and Alabama to match up with OU in the semi's would have been awesome to watch).

One of these teams is not like the others; the Royals have won a world championship in living memory, have a history that includes some really awesome players, and I think it would be cool to see them win again. Bring out George Brett and Hal McRae and Willie Wilson out to throw out some ceremonial first pitches. Just too bad Quiz is dead.  :heartbreak:

True, but I didn't give a shit about them then, either.   :awesome_for_real:

Spurs-Lakers in the first round of the playoffs.  I'm expecting a Lakers win in this one. 

I really wish the Warriors had drawn the Clippers round 1.  Oh well, playoffs at all is a novelty!

The Hawks tanked the final two games on purpose to stay out of the Heat trap in round 2. The fact they actually thought they'd get past round 1 to worry about that is adorable.

Better to play the Heat early.  That way you can be having umbrella drinks somewhere fancy that much quicker.

No way, without Kobe that Lakers team is no better than the Magic team of the last few years.  Dwight isn't going to carry the Lakers past the Spurs, he needs volume scorers around him.  Boston/NK and Denver/GS are gonna be fun to watch, Pacers/Chicago not so much.

I think it's chalk all the way in the East TBH.

Got to love the Bobcats.  They have fired coach Mike Dunlap after one season (http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/9203383/charlotte-bobcats-fire-coach-mike-dunlap-one-season).  His most famous accomplishment to date probably has been getting hired for an NBA head coaching job after being an assistant with a mediocre Saint Johns team for 2 years (part of it as interim head coach).  However, Dunlap took a very, very shitty Charlotte team from 7 wins last season to 21 wins this season. 

In summary, Michael Jordan is as bad of an NBA executive as he was good at being an NBA player.   :oh_i_see:

131 points.  :drill:

Westbrook out with a torn meniscus, surgery soon.  Might as well hand the trophy to Miami at this point.

Up 3-1 yessssss

Golden State is a fun team to watch.  I think they'll struggle against the defensively minded Spurs, but it's tough to beat a team when they hit everything they throw up from behind the three point line. 

The Clips are in deep shit.   :oh_i_see:

If Griffin is not game ready by game 6, they are so screwed it won't be worth watching.

Don't ever change Metta (http://deadspin.com/metta-world-peaces-reaction-to-jason-collins-coming-ou-484696678?utm_campaign=socialflow_deadspin_twitter&utm_source=deadspin_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow)

I... how... what...

Man, that motherfucker is just plumb crazy.

Well, his name is Metta World Peace...

"I don't have the balls to come out dressed as cookie monster and here is this guy coming out as gay" does make some kinda weird sense as a way to give props though.

I clicked on the link absolutely certain that he was going to be a complete douche about it.  His Cookie Monster analogy was kind of touching, in a crazy sort of way.

That was my take on it as well. He was being as legit as he could be.

Chris Paul is a little douchebag.   :oh_i_see:

That was a fucking amazing comeback by the Spurs last night.  Golden State was unstoppable for much of the game. 

Also, I love the fact that Phil Jackson is the first name mentioned for any head coaching job.  Yeah, he's going to take your shitty Nets job (http://espn.go.com/new-york/nba/story/_/id/9248946/source-phil-jackson-contacted-brooklyn-nets-coaching-vacancy).   :oh_i_see:

The Bulls are semi-scary.

Why do you say that?

They've won two games on the road in which they were heavily underdogged. They might have some sort of fire in that team.

Joakim Noah is a really critical cog on all the teams he's been on.  He brings a lot of emotion to the floor and is tough as nails.  It does not surprise me to see a team that he plays on do well. 

Nate Robinson has been balling and extremely clutch in must win games.

Very true.  He's important too, but he doesn't seem to affect teams like Noah.  I'm really impressed with that guy from a team mate perspective.

I still expect Heat in five. There is literally zero chance they shoot 3X% for a half the rest of the series let alone under 40% for the game. It would have been better for the Pacers chances against the Heat had the Bulls not done that in game one.

The Spurs are getting exposed in the playoffs, yet again.  I don't see them winning this series.

Klay Thompson is having the game of his life, I hardly think that counts as getting exposed.

The combination of this game and the first game shows me that they are terribly unathletic, out of shape and overrated on defense.  I will be very surprised if they win a game in SF.

First win in SA for us in like 15 years.  :awesome_for_real:

Golden State has clearly been the better team.

It definitely helps when 42 of the 62 pts Golden State scored in the first half came from just Curry and Thompson. They had almost as many points between the two of them as the entire Spurs team did. Spurs had 43.


That last game was epic to watch. At the end of the third, the Heat were up by almost 45. The starters didn't even play for the rest of the game for the Heat and they still won by 30.

9 technicals and two ejections is pretty nasty in one game too.

Anybody who thought Miami wouldn't come out guns blazing in Game 2 was a lunatic. They absolutely couldn't afford to go down 0-2 and head on the road, nor did they want to miss the chance of making a statement about their game.

That being said, it's still a series split heading to Chicago, and home court is always a big deal in the NBA.

Miami is tough as nails.  I'm not surprised that they are up 2-1.  Chicago is bitching about the refs but they are the ones playing brawl ball.  Fuck them.

I'm very, very surprised the Spurs pulled their shit together enough to win game 3.  Their defense looked lost and horribly under athletic as compared to GS.  It will be fun to see how Mark Jackson counters.

Spurs are still going to win that series in my mind. I think you wrote them off way too soon. Not that you are the only one, LOTS of people are also on that wagon.

Chicago is trying to get into a street ball fight, and Miami doesn't want any part of that. It will cost them another game at some point, but I think Miami wins in 6 if they play smart.

EDIT: Still Chicago does have a point about the refs. There were 50 combined fouls called in that game. They need to ease the hell off the whistle.

Knicks  :why_so_serious:

Yeah......they're awesome.

JR Smith looks like a real smart dude.   :oh_i_see:

Have I mentioned fuck David Stern and the NBA recently? I hope his private jet flies into a fucking tornado and is driven into the OKC arena at Mach 3. Fuck everyone.

Yeah, I'm not sure about the decision to leave the Kings in Sacramento.

Bulls choked it.

The Bulls had absolutely no business even being competitive in any of those games, you can't call anything they did a choke.

I'm pretty happy that Memphis finished their series against OKC and advanced to the next round. OKC without Westbrook is very clearly not as competitive as a team that has all of its starters intact.

I think Memphis would prefer Golden State in the Conference Finals over the Spurs. As the last game showed, if you can stop Curry and Thompson, you can stop the Warriors. The Spurs have a better defensive interior, so the Grizzlies bigs would definitely be tested against them.

They made 14 points in a 4th quarter, with a lead, in an elimination game.

I don't really care if you are or aren't supposed to win a game, 14 points in an NBA final quarter is a joke.

Durant looked very, very weak in that series.  Westbrook is pretty clearly the gas that runs OKC's engine.  I have a suspicion that the Thunder would have been much better off if it had been Durant out instead of Westbrook.  The team looks lost without their PG.

Almost no team can afford to lose their PG and remain successful.

The Celtics did pretty well this year.  It all depends on your backup and how much of the offense originates through that PG.  Some teams are more point forward oriented, like Miami. 

If by some miracle we get past the Spurs I can't see us beating the Grizzlies. We match up really poorly against them.

Both the Spurs and the Warriors will match up poorly.  I am a bit torn.  The Spurs are the local team and I like to see them win (although Parker is a raging dick).  I love Manu.  But the Warriors are so fun to watch.  I love that team. 

I don't see New York coming back vs Indiana.  So, Memphis, SA/GS, Indiana and Miami.  Not exactly a big market "final four."

Pacers v. Grizzlies in the finals would give Stern a heart attack. I can root for that.

Stern needs a heart attack.

I think Pacers/Spurs would be worse.

Spurs have a championship, several star players, and they sell out their arena. Plus they can draw the Texas audience.

Memphis draws really nothing, they have no star player to speak of, and they don't sell out the building. In fact, the Pacers and Grizz would put two small market teams in the zone with no stars and zero national appeal. The Pacers are an embarrassing 25th in the league in attendance for a season where they may go to the Conference Finals.

The Spurs are a small market team, but they are well supported.  Think poor man's Steelers or Packers. 

The Pacers are going to have the league's next big star, I think, in Paul George.  That guy is pretty damned amazing.  He's pretty well made Carmelo look like a complete invalid with his defense. 

The Spurs immediate market is small, but their national draw is much larger. Tim Duncan is a household name.

I think that's what I just said, but thanks for the support.   :awesome_for_real:

If Memphis advances further, I supect that the other Gasol might gain some recognition. I mean, he did win Defensive Player of the Year (and All-NBA Defensive Second team *boggle*).

If you guys are any indication, the NBA is DOOOOOOMED.   Paul George and Marc Gasol? OK. Sure.  David Stern is filling up his adult diaper as we speak.

I don't think I'd even watch an Indiana / Memphis final. 

Yea, Indiana/Memphis I wouldn't even bother.  I guess the best case scenario is Miami v. San Antonio and would actually not be too bad.

That's the one everyone at the front office wants. I'd watch all of it.

Miami v. Grizz? Maybe watchable. Pacers v. Spurs? I'd watch when it got to an elimination game.

Miami is no sure thing anymore with Wade gimpy.  These playoffs has really been impacted by injuries.

Miami versus anyone will be interesting. 

Exactly. Miami is good enough to be fun to watch, and polarizing enough that it grabs the lovers AND the haters.

Grizz looked completely overwhelmed in game 1.

That was a serious beat down. 

Yep. Zach Randolph finished with 2 pts and he is the Grizzlies leading scorer. The Spurs also hit a franchis record 14 3-pointers. The Grizzlies help defense is just leaving three shooters wide open over and over again. In the OKC series, they were getting burned by Derek Fisher. In this series, they will get burned by everyone unless they learn to stay at home on those shooters and let the big men handle the drives to the basket.

Dwight Howard has to be the whiniest douchebag in the league in the past 10 years (http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/story/_/id/9296662/sources-dwight-howard-voiced-displeasure-mike-dantoni-gm). 


Maybe it's because Howard is a fucking idiot?  If any team resigns his ass they deserve what they get.  :uhrr:

He's the very definition of coach killer.

I'd love to see him and Josh Smith on the same team, just to watch the implosion.

You may get that wish.   :awesome_for_real:


Ferry is going to go after him hard.

It's a rumor. Local media says that's extremely unlikely.

And there's no way Atlanta keeps Josh Smith.

Is he a free agent?

Yes, finally.

He seems like a good fit for the Knicks.

It's pretty bad when you lead your team to a franchise record in wins and still get fired.   :awesome_for_real:

Del Negro let go (http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/story/_/id/9298675/vinny-del-negro-los-angeles-clippers-coach-according-sources). 

Crashing and burning in the first round will get almost anyone fired. That's for sure.

Never mind that Blake Griffin was hurt and hadn't played up to his potential all year.

LA and logical basketball decisions parted ways when Phil Jackson left town. We can just add this to the list.

The Clippers have always been looney.

Glad to see that Charlotte is going back to the Hornets.  I like that name for them. 

And I absolutely love the Pelicans new name and logo.  It's great. 

(http://sinbapointforward.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/new-orleans-pelicans-logo-2.jpg)

I stilll think the crawdads would be more apropo, but it does look neat.

I think the Crawdads would also be cool.  Both Crawdads and Pelicans have some local/cultural meanings for the city and are unique.  The other nice thing about them is that they are a tangible thing.  The worst names ever are the vague sorts, like the Wild and the Predators.  I'm also not a fan of names that just don't fit, like the Raptors.  Seriously?  Raptors?

If Utah would just give the Jazz name back to NOLA, we'd be set.

Then they could rename themselves the Utah Bland.

How about the Utah Saints?   :awesome_for_real:

Even better!

I'm not a big fan of the Jazz as a name for New Orleans, either.  It's one of those vague names that it's tough to place a face on.  I much prefer a tangible object, such as an animal or type of American Indian. 

Utah Saints? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixMWhpg0iXU)

Yep.  I love those guys.

So cleveland gets the first pick again, that team might get scary adding Nerlen Noels.  As a magic fan I'm happy with the second pick, and hope we suck again next year.

We couldn't have gotten it next year? Fuck.

This is a hilariously shitty draft class, so it really doesn't matter.

Well, the Spurs squeaked by yet again. 

Starting to reevaluate your stance on them yet?  :awesome_for_real:

Not really.  They've been winning on smoke and mirrors.  Let's say they do get to the finals-  I think Lebron and Co. will sweep them. 

I picked Miami to win at the beginning of the season, but you throwing the Spurs under the bus in every series has given me the chuckles.  :why_so_serious:

WHERE'S THE LOVE MAN!

You know I'm not good at predicting outcomes.   :awesome_for_real:

The Spurs are still dominating Zach Randolph. Shook his confidence enough that he started 1 of 6 from the free throw line too.

Good game, good defense from both teams, but the Grizz really shot themselves in the foot at the end of the game and OT with poor clock management and bad offense. They also played out of control at times which led to missed passes to open players and turnovers. And they are still not covering the 3 point shot effectively. Too many wide open threes that are making Danny Green look like a sharpshooter.

They had one funny moment in the game when I think it was Matt Bonner and Zach Randolph had a jump ball. The announcers called it the lowest jump ball in the history of the NBA.  :awesome_for_real:

The Spurs probably have a serious chip on their shoulders from being ousted by the Grizzlies recently when they were supposed to be the number one overall seed.  They are OLD though, and only have so much gas.  Well, non-intestinal gas, anyway.

Phil Jackson is such a badass (http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/story/_/id/9301671/phil-jackson-told-los-angeles-lakers-gm-mike-dantoni-hire-laughed). 



This is hilarious. 

That's gold. It shows exactly how inept things have gotten in LA.

You take Howard off that team and they probably win 10-15 more games.  He's a cancer. 

Yet more Phil Jackson funniness (http://www.theonion.com/articles/phil-jacksons-new-book-reveals-coach-considered-mu,32511/). 

 :awesome_for_real:

Heat did their best to lose that game, but thems the breaks Pacers.

Exciting finish.  Without Hibbert in the game Lebron is just going to out muscle anyone to the hoop.  Good play to call there. 

Heat have a pretty mediocre game to go along with very bad officiating, losing their starting point guard, being in foul trouble, and they still win.  I predict series over in 5.  And I'm kinda glad Chalmers is gimpy because I do believe there are better matchups with Cole in there with Miller providing backup.  Cole and BIRDMAN BIRDMAN have pretty deadly chemistry btw, which works well for game 2 since I do believe Birdman will get a lot more minutes.  The Pacers have no answer for him; the Heat's Dennis Rodman basically...only with offense.

Regardless, Lebron can just play point  :oh_i_see:.  I mean really, the guard play the Heat have is ridiculous.  Fuck, Miller could play the point easily. (handles the ball even better than Wade does)

BIRDMAN is a difference maker for the Heat. They haven't been playing him enough but he's a monster on the boards.

 :awesome_for_real:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xS8COIzQg_g

Read Birdman's lips:  "let's go boy"
Tyler was all like: "uhhh, pass"

Spurs proving me wrong, yet again.   :awesome_for_real:

Idk man, they barely squeeked by in that 4 game sweep of the conference finals.   :grin:

2 games that went into overtime. They did a great job of shutting down the Grizzlies leading scorer, Z-Bo. Only 1 Grizzlies player scored more than 20 pts in any of the 4 games. It was the same guy and he did it in games 3 & 4. (Quincy Pondexter)

It was surprising to see the Grizzlies get as far as they did without having any outside scoring except Pondexter. The Spurs just have too many inside defenders and the Grizzlies just were not defending the 3 point line. They weren't doing that in the OKC series either, but Kevin Martin is no Manu Ginobili and Serge Ibaka doesn't have the range of Bonner or Leonard.

The Spurs are the only team in the NBA that I think can legitimately push back against the Heat. I'm glad they are in the finals. They have size, shooters, and play the best defense in the post-season out of the West.

I've gotta say it.  The Heat are going to sweep the Spurs.   :why_so_serious:

I can't remember an NBA playoffs where injuries had such a huge impact on things.

I mean, assuming it's Heat v. Spurs in the finals, I don't think it would have been that huge of a shock with or without injuries, no?

You could say Westbrook getting injured was a pretty big deal, but trading Harden was just as big a problem for OKC.  Durant/Westbrook/Harden was a dynasty waiting to happen, Durant/Westbrook is an injury away from being an afterthought.

Maybe not the East so much, but just about every matchup in the West minus the finals has had critical injuries that probably affected the outcome.

I thought the Rudy Gay trade was just as big as any injury. I think the Grizz play hard with the Spurs with Rudy on the team. Without him, they didn't have the offense to play with the Spurs D at all. The best they could hope for was to drag the Spurs down into the high 80s, and even that didn't work since they had to play OT.

Jesus this series has been the worst officiating the entire playoffs; culminating in this game 4.  Absolutely abysmal. 

What part? I didn't watch the game because I just assumed Miami would coast.

Lebron James fouled out in a game they were down by 4 in with 2 minutes to go setting a screen. Not a moving screen or one of those grabby screens that Lamar Odom sets, he just planted and hip checked Stevenson. It's only the second time he has fouled out in 128 playoff games. The stats at the bottom of the screen said he had 0 fouls in the previous game.

All 3 refs missed the ball hitting the rim on a shot by the Pacers in the 3rd. The Pacers got a shot clock violation. It cost them 2 points and the ball. Even at full speed it was very obvious that it bounced off the rim.

Only 2 technicals called, but a total of 55 fouls called combined. Of course Crawford was officiating...

Lebron fouling out is a good thing, imo. He gets soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo many calls it's time somebody didn't cut him a break. Controversial or not, he's been flopping a lot in these playoffs, AND calling it a strategy. He's not the only one on the Heat, either. If the NBA heads that direction we might as well give up. It'll turn into the soccer bullshit we hate.

It doesn't matter though, the calls will go back the Heat's way in 5-6. They win in 6. Stern would never allow this to get to an elimination game.

They literally shoved Chalmers into the stands during a shot and they didn't call a foul.  Hibbert raises up for a block, jumps and body checks the shooter - no foul.  Bosh does the same... foul.  LeBron did the same, perfectly (following the verticality rules)... foul.  There was just zero consistency from the officials throughout the whole game, and it cost the Heat in the end because that's their style. (they're aggressive and take chances)  Shit, Birdman got a foul with his face against Hibbert's elbow the other day... but LeBron does even less (not even leading with the elbow ala Hibbert) and it's an offensive foul.  They throw techs for dumb crap like talking or disagreeing with the official.  Docked the coach a timeout 'cause he was on the court giving a play (I'm pretty sure that's not even remotely legal per the rules); just give the tech like you're supposed to.  And somehow in this series it's a defensive foul if the offensive guy initiates contact, pushes off, then shoots.   :oh_i_see:   In the 2nd half that was Hill's MO; worse than a flop imo.

There was a lot of stuff miscalled on the Pacers side also, but their team is more setup for that.  They dont foul much and they prefer slower play; so if the officials get whistle-happy it's better for them.

I mean, just look at the stats and you can see.   It was horrendous.  The LeBron offensive foul thing was just the coup de gras; 56 secs to go and they call that.  Earlier in the quarter Hibbert literally annihlated someone with a moving screen and no call.  And the Wade "travel?" LoL

It was so bad that the league is actually investigating the game.  Seriously. 

I believe it. I just think it's hilarious the league looking into a game going against their glory boys when bad officiating in the NBA is an epidemic. That same thing goes against the Pacers? Oh well, tough break boys that's why we play 7 games. Against the Heat? INVESTIGATION! THERE'S MONEY AT STAKE!

The "0 fouls the previous game" is the biggest travesty here.  Lebron James is a very physical player who uses his strength very effectively and goes months at a time not getting called for fouls, in games were fairly officiated he SHOULD regularly be in foul trouble.

Lebron just got a $5k fine for flopping along with 2 of the Pacers. Finally! :why_so_serious:

Yep, double flop on him and West.

Then Stevenson got one for a flop against Ray Allen.

Also, Stevenson foul on Wade got upgraded to a Flagrant.

I'm only a casual fan of basketball and never played it, so I can't say I know what I am talking about, but the amount of contact allowed in the NBA seems almost entirely arbitrary to me.  I have no sense of what is or isn't going to be a foul until it's called or not most of the time.  Sometimes a literal slap on the wrist has a guy going to the foul line, sometimes lowering your shoulder into someone and pushing them gets no call either way.  

The only thing that bothers me about that traveling call is that they don't call it every time.

NBA officiating is arbitrary by nature, because it's subjective and the flow of the game is so fast. It's akin to holding calls in the NFL. They happen on every play, but you only have to call what you deem obvious versions.

That being said, flopping should continue to be pointed out by the league and fined, especially on their best players. There's no place for that in a sport of 7 foot giants.

Initially, I was mad about it, but on the replay you can see that he came to a stop with both feet behind the 3 pt line and picked up the ball, then stepped forward and planted his left foot and his right foot comes off the ground, then hops backward to his right foot and throws the pass. If his right foot hadn't left the ground, then it wouldn't have been a travel.

Moe Williams and Antawn Jamison did better in the 09 playoffs than Wade/Bosh are doing in this one.

2009 Mo: 16-4, .530 TS%
2013 wade: 14-6, .499 TS%

2009 Jamison: 15/7, .540 TS%
2013 Bosh : 13/6, .570 TS%

This series is a sham. Bring on the Spurs already so we can get a real match.

Alright.  I'm taking the Pacers tonight.  Now you can place your bets as you see fit.   :grin:

You don't believe that for a second lol

What's the over/under on Wade/Bosh combining to score more than Lebron?  :awesome_for_real:

Over under on Lebron is 30.5
Over under on Wade is 16.5
Over under on Bosh is 13.5

The way Wade has been gimping around I can absolutely see Miami losing. Too close to call for me to bet on it.

Wade had some legs tonight, I wonder how much cortisone they shot him full of before the game/at half.

Nobody actually thought it was going to be a Heat loss, but that was just terrible. The second quarter was all I could stand. The Pacers had nothing, and you could tell at half the game was over.

Well, almost no one.  Quick ghost, give us your prediction.  I'd like to place a bet before you change your mind.

The Heat will sweep the Spurs.   :awesome_for_real:

Yep, those Spurs. Never gonna do it.  :grin:

Sweep, I say.   :awesome_for_real: :awesome_for_real:

You know the Heat are in trouble at the end of the game when they start to settle for jump shots. And Battier has totally lost his touch. If I remember right, he didn't even play game 7 against the Pacers because of his abyssmal shooting. Now he has a chance to prove it was a fluke and misses key shots at the end of Game 1 of the Finals. He needs to play earlier minutes so he can find his shot again.

The best thing is the Spurs did not play all that great, they missed a fuck ton of wide open three pointers.

There is a pattern here though. The Heat will crush them in game 2.

The Spurs may let them crush them in game 2.  They have home court advantage now.

I don't believe there's such a thing as home court advantage in this series. Both teams are finals tested, both teams have heavy veteran presence, and both teams have won rings. Nobody is going to be intimidated by fans.

Certainly not by these fans. I mean the Miami fans are pathetic fake assholes but the Spurs fans don't create any kind of imposing atmosphere at home either.

Pretty good article from Cracked (http://www.cracked.com/quick-fixes/3-reasons-people-think-nba-as-rigged-as-wrestling/) about the NBA being rigged.


I guess all sports probably have some degree of shenanigans going on behind the scenes.  Baseball is probably the most rigged, although it's the players rigging themselves.

Yar.

Maybe you've just broken David Stern's code.   :oh_i_see:

Next game is a tossup. Neither team has gone down 2-1, neither team has lost a game 3.

Heat in a tight game.  It's Stern's game now.   :awesome_for_real:

What a fucking beatdown.    :ye_gods:

Vegas knew something. They had the Heat as a two point dog. They were setting everyone up.

Why do you say that?  I mean, it's pretty clear from Stern's actions and some of the shitty playoff refereeing in the past that some of these games are fixed, but you just don't fix a 36 point win.

This game is a good example of why Lebron doesn't get the credit that some of the guys like Jordan and Kobe get.  He just faded.  There was a point at the end of the third quarter when James scored 7 or 9 straight points and I thought that he was going to start asserting himself.  Instead he just wilted into "making the extra pass" mode, which is why he's still got a ways to go to be at the super-elite level.

Incoming LeBron triple double leading the Heat to a 20 point victory.

Just sayin', with your predictions, generally the guys on the floor seem to read your posts so they know to do the complete opposite.

I don't think the Heat are going down 3-1 in the series. I do believe Stern puppets the game a bit, but when the Heat realized they weren't going to be in the game, they quit. Normally, I hate that in a team, but this is the NBA. They quit all the time in games that are out of hand.

I don't really put stock in how much you lose by, except on my bets. I had no action on the game because the +2 on the Heat screamed too good to be true, which is usually the case.

This is true-  if you gamble, bet the opposite of what I predict, particularly in games where I have some personal stake.

It should be noted, however, that there was no prediction in my post.   :oh_i_see:

Addendum-  Lebron had a triple double in the first game and the Spurs won in Miami.  He can't beat them by himself, at least not unless he's willing to score 40 plus points (which he's not). 


Paelos-  Spoelstra took all the stars out of the game, which made it appear even more egregious.  They were a bunch of limp dicks from the beginning of the game though.  

I know you might be saying this in reference to a single data point but overall within a season a team's +/- is one of the better predictors of how good a team they actually are.

I'm on Miami in this game. I think with an injured Parker, an angry Lebron, a Heat team that can't afford a loss, and a wild Stern appearing, this should be a Heat win.

Depends on if we get Oh Shit Everyone Is Staring At Me Lebron or I Just Remember I Am a G.O.A.T. Lebron.

The Spurs do a pretty good job of stymieing him.  I'm expecting a closer game.  It's rare for a team to shoot threes that well two games in a row.  But if the Spurs do shoot well again they could beat the Heat pretty easily. 

Maybe Green will finally regress to the mean and stop shooting 70% from 3 O_o

It wasn't close. Barring the Spurs going on a run at the end of the half, the game would have been completely out of hand.

If Parker is hurt this is already over.

The Spurs are actually playing their best with him on the bench. 

Well you could say that it is because he is hurt.

I think the Spurs win today. They seem to do very well when there are 3 days between sames instead of just 2. Maybe it's age, maybe it's prep, or maybe it's just weird luck. However, it seems to be a good trend that they win when they have more time.

That train stops after Game 5 though. The next 2 games are in Miami and on 2 days apiece.

Wade smells blood.  They go for the jugular tonight and the Heat win.

If Wade smells blood it's probably because he is bleeding from somewhere, last game was the aberration not the new normal.

That got ugly real fast.  If the Spurs win Green is the finals MVP.

I'm not sure the Heat can really get up for a game unless they know it's all-or-nothing. When they play a good opponent, that means they lose.

They've been trading paint all series. I think it's Heat in Game 6.

I think that the Heat are going to destroy the Spurs tonight. 

Series is over folks. Been nice while it lasted.  :why_so_serious:

Grats to the Spurs!

It won't work now.   :oh_i_see:

We saw through your clever ruse!

It has to go 7 games. Otherwise the NBA is over for the year and no more money will be made outside of merchandise.

The ratings have been awful. The NBA might as well just cut it's losses and let the Spurs win the damn thing.

Which is a shame, because it has been a pretty decent series. 

In terms of the games going every other back and forth? Yes.

In terms of the play on the court, it's been extremely boring imo. With the exception of Game 1, none of these last 4 games have been remotely close. It's just trading blowouts.

The last game was a little closer than a blowout. 

Spurs went up by 13 in the first quarter. While the Heat made a run in the third, they never led the game after the opening tip. It was closer than a blowout, but way far off from competitive.

EDIT: I'm on the Heat tonight. This goes to 7.

There's no way the Spurs win.  The officials will see to that. 

History isn't on Miami's side. Good Simmons article about that today.

Simmons is a great writer, but he has the on-air personality of a limp noodle. He needs to stick with the written word.

I actually have no idea what he sounds like at all.

They shoved him into the ESPN NBA pregame and postgame stuff.

I love Bill Simmons' writing, but yeah, he sounds like a geek in person. He's not an on-air personality.

25 at halftime for Duncan, guy's trying to go out like a legend.

This is a hell of a game.

If that doesn't get ratings, nothing will. Best game of the series.

Also another one in the W column for me in this. Game 7, I have no idea.

This is the first year I've ever given basketball an honest shake, I've had time because fuck the nhl and I've been interested because the warriors weren't dogass and I've always followed Lebron at least casually.

Any of you people who watch this shit every year are retarded. There is no sport where the refs decide more of the game based on more ridiculous and poorly written judgement call rules. The rules are apparently so bad in the nba that I've never once in the dozen or so regular season contests or these playoffs heard an announcer read them or discuss them. Yeah yeah in football there are long stoppages so we have time for that but I'm sorry they find time in hockey they should have time in the nba to cover a few of these calls. But they won't because if you actually did this sport would be revealed for the complete fucking sham it is. I don't even blame the refs I doubt its humanly possible to even come close to calling this game correctly with the naked eye at full speed the way the rules are currently set up.

The basic contact foul is written in a way that makes it akin to NFL holding rules, in a way where everything everyone does every play might be a foul. But there is no established, this kind of hold you can't get away with and this you can system in the NBA. Instead its flip a fucking coin every time down the court. The analysts don't know what's happening but they are clearly coached to not talk about it much. The players don't have a fucking clue when something will or won't be called. Neither do the coaches themselves unless they are all tremendous actors because you can tell that sometimes they really can't believe what's going on.

Its fucking stupid. I'm watching game seven because of sunk costs but I hope I'm smart enough to ignore this stupid sport in the future.

Every time Crawford refs a game you get a post like Hoax'.  Welcome to the NBA brudda.   :grin:
Tbh the 2 games prior were reffed extremely well, especially game 5.  Then Crawford steps in and boom - instant controversy.  Spurs fans are up in arms mostly because the blown calls that went against the Heat earlier in the game became blown calls late in the game against the Spurs.  Tit for tat and all that.  Really, the Heat win that game in regulation if the game is called correctly - no doubt... similar to game 1.

We'll see if the league office fines Parker for two HUGE game-changing flops also, like they did Bosh.  I'm sure they won't do that to their blessed Tony Parker though - such a nice guy.   :oh_i_see:

And if they ever decide to call the game based on actual rules then Duncan won't be allowed to wipe defenders out with moving screens in the lane like he does, EVERY GODDAMNED POSSESSION practically.  They rarely call him on it in this series, when in games past (during the regular season) I've seen him called on that all the time.  Is a moving screen is somehow magically different in the lane during a Finals?

Lastly, it really gets old watching a foul get called when a defender is merely standing there with his arms up, the offensive player initiates contact, yet the defender gets called anyways.  Yet I guess if the defender jumps straight up instead it's not a foul?  I have yet to understand those rules this year.  It's fuckstupid.

How can they have been game-changing if the Spurs lost?

EDIT: Refs or not, you wonder if Duncan gets that rebound at the end of the 4th quarter if he isn't on the bench.

San Antonio didn't deserve any breaks from the refs down the stretch.  They played hard, physical basketball all game and got away with a lot of close calls.  When it came to the end, they wanted calls that Miami didn't get the first 3 quarters.  It was pretty balanced and I prefer a game where the refs let the players play.  A physical team like San Antonio shouldn't cry about not getting calls after beating people up for the first 40 mins.  Utah learned this in the Malone days as well.

I did learn something watching the finals:  James is no Jordan.  NOT EVEN CLOSE.  For his size, strength, and skill level the guy didn't take the game over when he had the chance.  Too many missed shots and turnovers.  He also whines... a lot. 

I'm pulling for San Antonio in this series.  They just need to stop giving games away like they did last night.

Well, they only have one more shot to not give the game away.   :why_so_serious:

I'm not expecting the Spurs to win.  When the Heat exert themselves they are just so much more talented and athletic.  I suspect the next game won't even be close. 

Didn't watch the game, but hearing about it this morning on the radio. Apparently large swaths of Miami fans left early thinking it was over. Then they all tried running back in to the arena from the parking lot once it went to overtime. They wouldn't let anyone back in.

That brightened up my morning for some reason.

I heard an interview with Sam Mitchell, the Coach of the Year when he was at the Raptors, and he believed that Pop overcoached that moment. He said that often he felt pressure in his games to make moves from a strategic standpoint when the best decision was to leave your best players on the floor.

Well, that is Popovich's style.  Most of the time it works for him.  Sometimes it doesn't.  The Spurs are at a deficit in regards to athletic ability in many instances, both due to old age and personnel decisions which are made to ensure that they have players who fit the mold they are looking for, i.e. team players, not the glory hounds.  Guys like Stephen Jackson (http://espn.go.com/nba/playoffs/2013/story/_/id/9345575/2013-nba-finals-stephen-jackson-formerly-san-antonio-spurs-miami-no-regrets) don't stick around long with the Spurs.

That's not to say that they can't win this. A while back this was the matchup I wanted, specifically because I didn't see anybody else out of the West that I thought could defensively frustrate Miami. They've done that twice now in Miami, and there's no reason why they can't do it again on Thursday.

I'm still undecided on my pick.

I'm going with the Heat by 10-15. 

Congrats Spurs. 

Hey, I was right last night.  For once.   :oh_i_see:

Heat wins if James plays without his headband :awesome_for_real:

He looks better without it. 

It's funny, after watching the Ginobli and Green no-calls about a million times in slow-motion, it's pretty apparent that they actually weren't fouls.  The refs got it right there.  Ginobli should get no respect from the refs anyways trying to "run" (if you can call that running) into the teeth of the Miami defense set in the lane, covering the ball up, traveling, etc.  Allen deserves more credit for that defensive play imo.
And Green?  :awesome_for_real:   Yah, raising up at the 3-point line against a 7-footer who's in your hip pocket deserves a foul call every time.

Spurs fans need to shuttup and take the loss with some class.  And Bayless should diaf.

To be totally fair, he's a better defender than MJ, and a better get-other-guys-involved type player as well. To me he's more like Magic than MJ.

If you are talking about Skip Bayless, this is true in all situations.

Not a fair comparison at all.  They are a very different style of player. 

Example: MJ had 2.3 steals and 0.8 blocks over his career at the 2 position.  As a shooting guard, MJ was the best defensive player of all time.  LeBron is a 4 (PF).  LeBron has 1.7 steals and 0.8 blocks as a small forward.  Probably top 5 for his position, but not the best.

That's been the most frustrating thing to me when people compare great players in the NBA. They compare totally different positions. It's like comparing stats of an inside linebacker with a defensive end because they are both on the field at the same time.

But LeBron can effectively defend every single position, you can put him on just about anyone and he'll be effective. You couldn't put Jordan on a center, reasonably. Also, my recollection is that Scottie Pippen was the go-to guy for defending the best player on the teams the Bulls played, not MJ.

1) A good center would destroy LeBron.  You don't see LeBron defending Duncan well and Duncan isn't a great offensive center.

2) Magic could defend everyone... he just suffered against centers and quick pg's.  Being able to defend every position is not the same as being good at defending every position.   

2) About Pippen... ask yourself why?  Phil Jackson wanted MJ to save his energy for offense and the 4th quarter.  Good call imo.

The best defensive players in the NBA all time are almost entirely centers.  Big men have far more influence in the paint than a little guy.

(http://cdn.bleacherreport.net/images_root/article/media_slots/photos/000/924/203/bosh_original.gif?1371615324)

(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/82533/cMP7p.gif)

You lost me.

Again.

Why is there a video of a foul?

This could have been messy.  (http://tracking.si.com/2013/06/19/tim-duncan-illegally-substituted-game-6)

tl;dr: Timmy shouldn't have been on the court for the final play in regulation.

God I wish he would have won the game for them and this became a huge controversy...shit all over LeBron AND the NBA all at once? Yes please.

It wouldn't have been any messier than the Tim Donaghy situation, which has been all but swept under the rug.  

I'm taking the Heat. Picked them in the beginning of the season, and I'm sticking with that.

I don't really want it to be the Heat, but Tim Duncan played an awful lot of minutes recently for an old guy and I think he might be dragging too much today.

Heat win. James is more marketable than either Parker or Duncan.

First time I've picked a preseason winner! Wheee!

I went out on a limb with this one.  :awesome_for_real:

I don't think you're alone.  Facebook this year had very little Lebron taunting, even with this series being no lock.

Better team won.

Duncan and the Spurs just missed their last opportunity for a championship.  If they make it to the finals again, it will be with a new (younger) cast.

I was impressed by Kawhi Leonard.  The guy is very athletic and has a lot of potential.  This experience should help him grow as a player.

As much as people compare LBJ to MJ, tonite D-Wade had a pretty classic MJ (in his later years) type game.  Little banged up, tired, they're collapsing the lane, so start draining those 18ft jumpers fading.  He got it done the best way he could, considering.

Also, kudos to Spo for having the sense to leave in his best bench rotation longer and giving Battier more minutes.  The Heat played possessed with those lineups, and to me Battier was the most important piece of tonite's puzzle regardless of his 3's.  His presence on the floor really threw the Spurs off, and he's just a wickedly smart player (especially defensively).

I still have yet to figure out why he stuck with Chalmers so much through this series though, making Cole ride the bench.  Chalmers as expected almost cost them the Finals.  He is NOT a "star" point guard.  If I had to guess, I'd say they're planning to trade Chalmers and wanted to let him go out in style and with some value.  Cole is the future.

Spurs?  They were gassed.  As I've said before; Heat have too many talented bodies to throw at them.  Wore them down to the point their best player (Parker) sat out the final minute of the 4th quarter.  I'm sure the talking heads will wonder about that tomorrow, but the man was just done; having been guarded by Bron all night.

Surprised the game was that close tbh, but the Heat turnovers and missed FT's made it closer than it needed to be.

The Spurs really missed a productive Manu Ginobili for most of the post season.  He had a decent (likely) last game.  But really, the guys that killed them in this game were Boris Diaw and Gary Neal, who just didn't hold their own on defense. 

Honestly, I think the credit goes to the Heat for just making the jump shots they had to.  Any 2 or 3 of those shots don't go down (and most of the series they weren't) and the game goes the other way.

I think the credit goes to Parker, Duncan, and Ginobili.  None of them made a key shot when the team needed it.  Duncan missing both a layup and a putback in the final minutes followed by Ginobili throwing the ball away was the exclamation point on their season.

If those shots weren't clicking then they had other ways to beat you.  It wasn't the be-all-end-all.  They can do whatever they've got to do to win aside from pound you inside.

You know in stealth video games when you get caught and decide to go down in flames because you'll just restart anyway? Did Manu do that on his last possession?

So glad that UNLV forward Anthony Bennett got picked first in the draft. That is one crazy ass trade between the Celtics and the Nets though!

This was such a shitty draft.  He was probably as good a pick as there was, although he's a bit of a tweener. 

I think Noel was horribly overrated.  In any other draft he would have been late first round. 

Nobody really wanted to be in this draft from an NBA standpoint. Even Cleveland was looking to trade out of their #1 pick (which of course nobody wanted because it was a shitty draft). That's how lackluster the pool of picks turned out. Nobody in that top 10 was franchise changing. In fact, I'd dare to say the guys that make the biggest impact will be guys that they found in the second round. I think guys like Glen Rice Jr, Lorenzo Brown, and Peyton Siva have much better upsides than most in the top 10. I think they were all overrated, and the picks made no sense.

The good picks:

1.  Otto Porter
2.  Trey Burke
3.  Ben McLemore
4.  Gorgui Dieng

I don't know much about Shroeder, Giannis Antetokounmpo or Livio Jean-Charles, but I know that the Spurs have a ton of luck with their foreign guys, Ferry at Atlanta was with the Spurs for a while and knows how to evaluate foreign talent, and the Greek guy apparently has a lot of upside. 

Bobcats taking Zeller was the biggest  :why_so_serious:

They have no idea what the hell they are doing.

I like Nedovic as a potential replacement for Jarrett Jack, who I don't think we're going to be able to bring back. He'll be able to get an offer to start somewhere I think and he'd only be coming off the bench for us still.

We are taking over your league!!!11@!

So, I'm hearing that the Warriors somehow managed to trade their shitty contracts (Biedrins and Jefferson, along with Brandon Rush) to Utah and are signing Iguodala with the freed-up cap space. Very interesting, not sure what Utah gets out of this.

A few picks from GS apparently.  And Howard choses the Rockets, which officially makes Orlando the winner in the Dwight Howard trade.  Yay.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/nike-releases-new-greg-odens,33262/ (http://www.theonion.com/articles/nike-releases-new-greg-odens,33262/)

Mean, but funny!