I would like to see Nash on a team other than the Suns too, (and for that matter, Grant Hill, who I have been a huge fan of since I first started following the NBA in 1995) but I don't think it will be the Heat; they have no assets to trade for him unless they want to give up Bosh, which is not going to happen this year for a variety of reasons. Ideally, he would re-unite with Dirk in Dallas, but I doubt it.
Grant Hill ignited my love for Sprite. Uh, can anyone else see this Bulls Wizards game on WGN? Kirk Hinrich is playing with a vengeance. I never thought I'd utter those words. But he basically locked down Rose for the first half, and put up 13 / 5 / 4 rbs. I'm not sure if he's sat down at all either. This shit is scary. I liked him on the Bulls, if he played with the attack mode he's playing with now he probably wouldn't have been traded. Makes the Wizards look much better, but they're still the Wizards. If he can find a way to play with Wall, they'll be good to go. Chicago is one piece away from allaying all my fears. Man, if we could get Rip Hamilton that would make my fucking day. If we could get rid of Brewer, a pick and some cash for Rip that'd be awesome. It'd be nice for someone with a ring to be on the team to get Rose even hungrier than he is. Oh and for Christmas I want Tom Thibodeau to either shave his head or get rogain. Solid coach, terrible hair. He's in a big market city, that shit can't fly.
All white guys would like to see Nash on a contender. Grant Hill is 38 I can't see teams taking a run at him. Although amazingly I'm pretty sure he has avoided injury the last two seasons when he had been hurt almost every year before them. These guys would be a perfect addition to a team right before playoffs start. Both have plenty of money so they would take paycuts for a ring, I wouldn't mind either player jumping on with a frontrunner to try and get a championship.
My boy Grant Hill (yes, I just called him that) has a body of a 31 year old because he hasn't played for 6-7 years. He's basically a spring chicken! Him and Nash need to go to like...the Clippers. Make them a playoff contender immediately. Blake Griffin and Nash. Yes and yes. (I'm partially kidding.)
There's no risk in "taking a run at him"; a contender can sign him to a one-year veterans minimum contract, with no significant commitment. It's a testament to Hill's tremendous natural athleticism that despite having an injury-ravaged, 38 year old body, he has enough speed and jumping ability to be an effective starter in the NBA. Speaking of the Clippers, I have been watching a few of their games, and wow, they are awful. They have very good individual talent, but absolutely no cohesion or effort on either defense or offense. Guys are just out there free-lancing, pumping up their individual stats, instead of helping out teammates and trying to win. (And yes, that even applies to a certain extent for Griffin, Eric Gordon, and their rookies) In the NBA, where a good team averages only 3 more points than they give up, and a bad team averages 3 fewer points, that's the difference between winning and losing on a consistent basis. It's funny to compare them to Houston, who soundly beat them the Clippers' court last night, a team with a fraction of the talent, but energy and togetherness on both ends of the floor, and well developed plays on offense. But then again, it's no surprise when one team is coached by Rick Adelman, and the other by Vinny del Negro.
Okay now. Against the Spurs a now 24-4 team. Watched this game on and off. Hedo 27 Min 5-10FG 1-3 3PM 1RB 6 AST 11 PTS +24 J Rich 31 Min 7-14 1-4 3PM 4RB 1 AST 1 STL 15 PTS +11 And...really? Really? A Gilbert sighting? 29 Min 6-14 / 2-5 / 6 Reb / 9 AST 14 PTS + 21 Not bad, not bad at all. J Rich played as expected. The way Hedo looked lobbing alley-oops to Howard, he's back where he needs to be. I just feel like if a player just didn't do shit and wasn't injured the degradation of their skills is minimal. Arenas needs more examination. But then again, this was against the fucking Spurs here. Not like they tore up Charlotte. They blew them out by 20+, this is a positive trend here.
Did you watch the whole game? I didn't, so I have no idea how any of those guys looked, but I don't like using only stats for a single game. Also, I could write an entire post on why the plus/minus stat is useless. Hedo is still a very good passer in the pick-and-roll, that much was obvious from their first game. But the issue was his scoring, which seems gone for good. And honestly, a statline of 11 points on 10 field goal attempts doesn't seem to indicate otherwise. A Spurs team that had finished a hard-fought, gritty game against the Denver Nuggets only 18 hours earlier halfway across the freaking country? Again, I didn't watch it, so correct me if I'm wrong, but the scoring by quarter seemed to indicate the Spurs were dead tired by the middle of the second quarter against the Magic. On a different note, there's a surprisingly small amount of posts from you about your two favorite teams in the NBA, the Bulls and Lakers. I could write a bunch about the Jazz, but I doubt most people are interested.
Oh God, I really need to check the daily NBA links before I post. This is absolutely hilarious; <a class="postlink" href="http://www.sbnation.com/nba/2010/12/23/1894035/lebron-james-birthday-power-point-presentation" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.sbnation.com/nba/2010/12/23/ ... esentation</a>
I watched the game from the second quarter on. The best way to describe the three in one word Hedo: Comfortable. Arenas: Excited. JRich: Smooth. I think Hedo is system guy, through and through. I think in that system, he's going to bring up the scoring just a little, but his two teammates are going to balance that out. If the Magic play a .500 team, that aren't defensive specialist, I see him with a higher percentage. They didn't look uncomfortable or jittery, and yes the Spurs did play a hard fought game across the way, but it's not a guaranteed loss. The Magic played well, people got some defense, but the Spurs were a little tired. I don't talk much about the Lakers, because living in Chicago, I see one out of 10 games if that. You'll hear from me more during the playoffs where I'll catch ever game. And most of my Bulls debating takes place with other Chicago fans because Chicago has a lot of die hard Chicago fans, bring up any other team and most of them are lost. I did have a debate the other day with a family member because he told me something I'm still looking into but he said "No team has ever won a championship with the PG averaging 25 points a game." I think he's right. But it can be done because now D Rose has full range, Boozer is back and Deng has been making appearances it is possible. I'm loving this Knicks Bulls game right now. Great basketball because no one can pull away, I love games like this. The Knicks had a lead at first, but then as he's lovingly referred to in Chicago "that white boy" hit a 3 and closed it off. It's been close since, both benches are playing well, and the Bulls are looking solid even with Kurt Thomas playing. We need to win games like this to be official contenders. I expect the Bulls to be a 3rd or 4th seed with everyone healthy, anything less will be a disappointment. On an unrelated note: I wouldn't mind Doris Burke CC'ing on more games. Something I like about her, I don't know what. It's interesting how her and whoever is doing the play by play who I should know actually have nice 3-5 second stretches of silence. You get to hear the players shouting shit more. I like that a lot.
Didn't see their game against Boston today, but again, solely going by the box score, it was two miserable games for Arenas and Richardson, and the best one yet for Hedo. Richardson, unlike his first 6 years in the NBA, seems to live and die by his shot. As for Gilbert, he could just be way more gone with all the knee injuries than people thought, and being out of shape doesn't help. (And why is he out of shape considering he was mostly healthy in pre-season? Was this guy just that depressed?) I just use <a class="postlink" href="http://www.atdhe.net/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.atdhe.net/</a> and watch whatever I want. I agree that a team can win with a high-scoring PG, and it's definitely been done before, with Wade back in 2006 (over 25 ppg to boot), Isiah Thomas in the late 80s, and Magic Johnson towards the latter part of the Lakers' dynasty, when Kareem was breaking down. However, it's funny to see you pin so many hopes on Boozer and Deng. Deng is a decent, solid player, no more than "good" or "okay" in any part of the game. He's a reliable guy, okay for the fourth best guy on a contender, but troubling if he's the third. As for Boozer, he puts up consistently great stats, but the issue has always been his defense, especially against the other elite power forwards, who are all a minimum of 2 inches taller than him. Really, I think the best thing the Bulls have going for them this year are Rose, Noah, and an amazing bench, in that order. And in the future, probably add Taj Gibson to that list. Was it only on the Boston jerseys? If so, it's probably a sign of respect for Red Auerbach, the patriarch of the Celtics franchise, who was Jewish.
I've caught some shit for it, but I actually like Doris Burke on the CC. She started doing a bunch of college bball last year and I found her refreshingly on point. Once you get past the automatic "woman doing announcing for a men's game, she must suck", and actually listen, she is solid. I think she realizes she is fighting uphill so she stays away from the dumb bluster of guys like Bill Walton or Vitale (for college), and just inserts quality game related commentary. I don't really like her for play-by-play (only heard it once or twice), but otherwise, game on.
And as for the Orlando game, looking at the stat line it looks bad, but watching the game it didn't look as bad. They weren't shitting the bed, the defense was solid. I care nothing for those three men and/or the Magic, but from what I saw, tales their demise may have been exaggerated. Wade was/is a SG, but we were really focusing on the 25 ppg which is where Rose is hovering. As his assists aren't that high. Fuck fuck fuck that Bulls Knicks game. couldn't sit down and watch because my family wanted to have Christmas dinner, what the hell was their problem? We were doing so fucking well, then the D'Antoni storm kicked in and everyone and their fucking mom started shooting threes. The Knicks scare me now, looks like D'Antoni finally got someone to help him with defense and his offense has always been his offense. If we had Noah, we could have won that game. Kurt Thomas fouled out too early and we had a rookie on Amare. Boozer couldn't stop him, it was just ugly. The Lakers played Bynum way too late in the game against the Heat. By the time he got in the game was over. Also they stuck with the triangle way too long and got blasted in the face by the transition and fast break points. That and Kobe was the only one on the team who really gave a fuck about the game, and he didn't start to care until the third quarter, and stopped caring 5 minutes later. Pat Riley's defense kicked in and that was really that. The Heat put on a pick and roll clinic and the game was over. Also there was a Bosh sighting, and let me say without his dreads he looks like a retarded dinosaur. Bosh vs Mr. Khloe Kardashian was a terrible match-up for the Lakers. Good, I'm not crazy. More Doris Burke. She definitely doesn't stop and try to put bullshit in there for personality, and she brings some of that sideline reporting into it. I feel like all broadcasts should be like that.
That's wrong. His first few seasons with Miami, Wade was the Heat's primary point guard and distributor. By the time of the 2006 Finals, he was probably more of a combo guard who played both positions. He didn't become a full-fledged shooting guard until around 2008. Initially though, he was very much a point guard. I've watched the Knicks, including part of the Bulls game, and honestly, they're just not that good. They're a 48 win team in the pathetic Eastern Conference, which is an enormous improvement over the last decade of futility, but that's about it. Their defense and rebounding is the same one that gave up a 31/31 to Kevin Love, allowed Blake Griffin to score 45+, and is ranked 21st in the league based on points given up per possession, but is even worse when you consider how many offensive boards they give up. It's obvious you haven't watched them play by the bolded part above. What would Bynum have changed? Have you seen him play since he came back? He's slow, awkward, and actually hurts the team more than helps when he is on the floor. Guys don't suddenly come back from major surgeries in the middle of the year and instantly make a huge impact, especially huge centers. As opposed to suddenly changing their entire offense in the middle of a game? Wow, yeah, Phil Jackson sure blew it by not doing that! Where are you getting any of this? The Lakers, for the most part, seemed to give a solid effort.
Yesterday was a great day for the NBA. It's exciting to have the new Heat team as well as watching Stoudemire's performance and ejection!! Don't go hailing Magic the new beast's of the east quite yet, that team without Rondo is very, very different. Rondo's ability to drive and dish makes Boston's other shooters so much more potent. Ray Allen can not manufacture shots, however if someone gives him quality passes he can drill you. Paul Pierce is a stud but he also benefits from Rondo demanding defensive attention. I thought Turkalo looked great. Despite being a step slower his basketball IQ is quite evident, always in the right spot for a rebound and making perfect spot on passes. Not a bad shooter as either. Again I have to agree with KImaster although I have been dying for Arenas to have a big game and kind of prove his worth, but he flopped one more time. Jameer Nelson despite having six turnovers won that game. Can I also point out what a worthless player Shaq is? My thought is that Boston got him to slow down and tire Dwight Howard. If you didn't watch the game and looked at the box score you might say "but Mike Howard only had six points! I assure you Shaq had very little to do with that. It was Howard's own foul trouble that hurt him offensively. Shaq ended by fouling out in 12 min. of play with two points. He is just to slow to be effective anymore, especially now that the league is enforcing defensive three seconds. A couple more points on Howard, his block on Paul Pierce was one of the best plays I have seen all year. That guys athleticism is unreal. In all my years as an NBA fan I have never seen a player get a technical for taking to long to shoot a freethrow, never. Last point about that game, at the end of the fourth quarter Paul Pierce had one of the worst non-called travels in NBA history. Is it an unwritten rule that All-Stars can travel? I know Jordan was famous for it. I'm not saying I want traveling strictly enforced but the obvious one's should be called. Laker-Heat Parker, I'm not sure if you and I watched the same game but I saw a Laker team get beat, not quit. Injuries had nothing to do with the loss either. Watching the Heat is an absolute pleasure, Wade and Lebron are without question the best transition duo in basketball. When they both go sprinting at the basket they can easily take three defenders and sometimes four, allowing their teammates to rest on their side of the court. LeBron's control is amazing. He had a play when he drove baseline was bumped, had the ball swatted at and still regained control and scored. The thing that impressed me was the Heat's defense. James was doing an excellent job one on one against Kobe, that was causing the Lakers a lot of problems. LA is used to Kobe drawing the double and freeing up another player. At heart, I'm a lowly sixers fan and always will be. I do hope the Heat make it deep into the playoffs simply because they are a pleasure to watch. I'm tired of Boston, LA, and San Antonio. Bring on Miami, Oklahoma, Dallas and Utah!!! The changing of the guard is looking good. p.s. The sixer fan in me refuses to allow me to cheer for NY, but i do enjoy Stouemire. P.P.S. At 11-18 a good run could still snag Philly the 8 seed in the East, unlikely but not impossible. Well, close to impossible.
What are people's thoughts on the new competitiveness of the Magic? Does this trade now make them a full-fledged contender?
Absolutely not. They beat two very tired, veteran teams at home, both of whom who had an exhausting schedule before traveling to Orlando. And one of them was missing their best player. I looked back over the Magic-Celtics game, and Arenas is still out-of-shape and playing awful, Richardson is okay, but doesn't give the team much if his three-pointer isn't falling, and Turkoglu alternates good and bad shooting games with good passing. People always overreact to recent, small sample sizes in sports. The Heat start out 9-8? "Oh my God, Bosh is terrible, trade him...Miami is barely above a .500 team!! They have no chance against someone like Boston or LA!" Heat go 22-9, drub the Lakers by 20 on their home court, while LA has lost two in a row by that margin? "Oh my God, the Heat are serious title contenders, Bosh is amazing! The Lakers look awful and in disarray; will they get it together?"
Not yet at least. If Arenas plays to his potential, Richards shoots 3's like he did two years ago and Turkalo continues good all around play they could come out of the east. That's a lot of "if's" for a team that would have to beat a Miami or Boston right now, they are barely better than an injured Chicago for that matter. I think the Magic are still entirely dependent on Howard and Jameer Nelson.
I agree KI... As a knick's fan i'm very happy with the huge jump of talent and production coming from them this year compared to the last ten, but they are still not very good. The team is just too all over the place with to many different types of links.. Yeah, some can argue that they have the facilitator, the driver. the big man and the three point shooter which generally is the mold for a great team (celtics), but I just don't see them going barely past the first round, if that and it sucks to say that, but they are just way too inconsistent. I was never huge in watching Amare before he came to the knicks, but I feel like more so now he has a MVP mentality in which he thinks he can take over the game simply by himself. I've watched him blow a game single handedly while they were still in reach, because he took the ball himself for about five possessions in a row and missed every single shot. He's definitely a play maker, but he's no durant, james or bryant.
I haven't watched a lot of the Knicks given I don't have NBA League Pass and just started using that nifty website you have. But their defense from a D'Antoni standpoint against the Bulls was better than I've seen one of his defenses play. I didn't say it was a lockdown defense, I said it was better than his defenses before. Is there still room for improvement? Yes. Did D'Antoni get help with defensive schemes? Yes. That's all I'm saying. Please don't blow out what I say. And you are talking about two guys on track to be superstars. Not like they gave those numbers up to Andrew Bogut and Boris Diaw. Lakers game: I agree with the Heat playing well and putting together a solid game. But even Kobe said what I saw. "They wanted the game more." Did they get outplayed? Yes. Did they get outplayed blown out? Well they shouldn't have. The Heat went in there with more of a "We have to prove something" mentality and the Lakers knew that the game didn't mean much. James raped them last year on Xmas, but they still got rings, so they didn't have the same fire the Heat did (see what I did there?). Also, even though Phil Jackson teaches and uses the Triangle, he has two or three other offensive plans to go to if the Triangle completely fall apart. Going in with one offensive game plan and no options is a bad idea and he knows it. Bynum is beat up yes, but he could have got in there with some quick easy layups inside the paint. Who would stop him Johnson? You could say he'd be a defensive liability, but the speed the Heat were moving it wouldn't have been much of a factor anyway. I'm least surprised about the Heat defense, their offense has always been the problem. Eric Sproelstra/Pat Riley's defense has always been solid, they just were getting outscored because they didn't get it done and were confused. Now that they are were they finally should be, it'll be interesting to watch the rest of the games now that I have this wonderful website link. Then again, I'm just totally biased because even though I like Wade, I don't want LeBron winning.
I don't see this. Phoenix's defense in D'Antoni's last few years there was no worse than New York's defense now, both visually and statistically. That's actually surprising considering his personnel in both places, and indicate New York's defense is underperforming worse than Phoenix's did. (Felton is a much better defender than Nash) Obviously, I don't need to go into why basing opinions about a team's defense from a single game, where their opponents are missing easy shots is faulty. I don't understand this, either. "Get help" from where? He's the head coach. This isn't football, with offensive and defensive coordinators. Well yeah, I'm pretty sure the first 30/30 game in 27 freaking years isn't going to come from a bench scrub. That's not an argument; the fact that they gave it up at all just shows how weak the Knicks are against interior scoring and opponents' offensive rebounding. That's a common postgame player quote, and even if it's true (in this case, probably), does not mean the Lakers didn't play with effort, or "no one gave a crap except Kobe for half of the third quarter!" The Lakers' loss had to do with a very difficult, swarming Heat defense that leads to unstoppable transition offense, not guys not trying hard. Tell me, why is this a "bad idea"? There are many coaches, including ones as great as Jackson, who, when their team is down double digits, will continue with the same offensive gameplan they have for the whole game. Rather than panicking, they will trust in the system, or only make adjustments on the defensive end. Two of the best examples are Sloan with the Jazz and Poppovich with the Spurs. And in the exact opposite of your argument, Utah is number 1 in the NBA in double digit comeback victories this year with 10, and the Spurs are tied for second with 7. Bynum has been playing exactly 17 minutes for the last six games since he came back. Rather than playing him more and re-injuring him, Jackson is taking it slow and easy with a fragile younger center with a history of injury. Bynum's long-term health and career is more important than a regular season game they were going to lose anyways. Of course, none of that stops message board experts who haven't even seen Bynum play this year from berating Phil Jackson for "bad coaching". If you had, you would also know how awful he looked against Philadelphia, Indiana, and Washington. And if he couldn't score against them, how would he get "quick easy layups" against Miami, one of the best defensive teams in the league?