Right, but assuming the Knicks match on Lin (which everyone assumes they will) they're not being asked to do anywhere near the same thing. Kidd is being asked to be the backup and play Obi Wan to Lin's Luke, whereas Nash is going to be playing a ton of minutes and in charge of that offense (or at least until he annoys Kobe). Plus, he can't be worse than Baron Davis.
Heat owner Mickey Arison just tweeted: Its 2:30am in London and I was just woken up with great news. Welcome to the family #20!!
I might have to start rooting for the Heat now. Ray Allen has been my favorite player in the NBA for about the last 12 years...
Dont give up hope yet....you can still drastically overpay for Omar Asik. And if the Heat get Allen and Lewis and the Nets get Howard, the Bulls wont be relevant again until the can dump Boozers contract and bring in some scoring.
That's adorable. Yes, the best team from the regular season will become IRRELEVANT because of 37 year old Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis. Straight from #1 to irrelevant. What this actually all means is that the league has simultaneously become more and less competitive. More, because the number of legitimate title contenders has increased (I count ten teams that consider themselves title contenders in 2012, and about 6-8 that really have non-negligible shots). Less competitive, though, because with the exception of the Nets, it is all the rich getting richer. The talent has generally moved away from the bottom of the league and the lower half of the playoff teams. This has to make the Spurs kind of sad. the Spurs are probably going to get worse with each passing day, while everyone around them appears to be getting better. I hesitate to say this ends the era, though, because people have prematurely buried the Spurs a million times before. The Nets will be fun, but I have a lot of questions. I've always had doubts about how good Williams really is, and Johnson is in decline at this point. Does merely having Howard actually make them a good defensive team when he's surrounded by two stars who have traditionally half-assed it on the defensive end? Is Gerald Wallace actually a really good player, or merely a menagerie of filled-out-box-scores that tended to be the best player on bad teams? Who starts at the 4, or fills out the remaining 7 roster spots? I think it'll need 20 games or so to really evaluate them.
You're forgetting the entire Bulls offense aka Derek Rose is out next season. I was factoring that into the equation. I am not sold on the overall power of the Nets Little Big 3, but who else is going to step up? Celtics? Pacers maybe? The East is a wasteland.
I don't know where you get your news, but it apparently is from an entirely different source than Derrick Rose, his doctor, or the Chicago Bulls, all of whom expect Rose to return midseason. The Pacers and Celtics have potential be every bit as good as they were last year if not better. There's the new Nets. The Knicks fancy themselves in the hunt; they probably aren't, but Lin will be healthy and the team played noticeably better under Woodson. I'm uncertain, but it's possible that Philly will show improvement if Evan Turner develops enough to replace Lou Williams (I'm curious what they're planning on doing with all this freed up Elton Brand money). There are 3-4 legit contenders in the West, three of whom project to be better than last year. So it's entirely possible that four of the teams in the East will be better than last year. And the Heat didn't exactly storm through the East unimpeded last year. It's amusing that you've gotten one trophy and now fancy yourself a fan of the 1992 Dream Team. The Heat are certainly the favorites, but let's not go overboard here.
Even if Rose comes back after the break, and even if it doesnt take him half the 2nd half to get back into form, how far behind are they going to be? Who else are the Nets going to have besides Williams, Johnson and Howard? They have to trade everybody else away. The Knicks? Please. The Pacers? The 6ers? And if everybody is as good as they were last year, so what? Not good enough is still not good enough. You cant win 2 til you win 1. The Thunder have 1 more year til Harden leaves for a max contract with the Kings or somebody.
I think you actually want the opposite with Rose. The idea of them finally getting their shit together right at season's end and becoming an 8 seed should be terrifying. I think that's luckily unlikely, as they're more likey to slide into a 5 or 6 seed in this scenario. If they were a 5 seed, you'd be seeing them in Round 2. Also not desirable. The Nets still have Gerald Wallace, an All Star and former Defensive All-NBA first-teamer. The trade for Howard, as currently structured, also brings along Jason Richardson and Reggie Evans, who would be solid contributors for that squad. You say that like the Heat weren't a cunt hair away from losing the Eastern Finals. And didn't temporarily seem in grave danger against the Pacers. Of course they won, so everyone gets to forget. I clearly think the Heat are the team to beat, but you either have a really short memory or are overrating what you're getting in Allen. He makes you marginally better, but it's going to be really tough to find playing time for him without either putting Wade at the point or exposing yourself to all kinds of defensive liabilities with this Chalmers-Wade-Allen-LBJ-Bosh lineup that's being discussed. Personally, I'm happy because there will once again be a ton of really good teams, and a good shot at 3 or 4 truly elite ones. Lewis certainly has been burning it up the past few years in DC, so I can see why you are excited. I don't see why you're talking about assistant coaches. Oh. Wait. You meant Grant Hill was going to play. Jokes aside, I'm legitimately curious to see where the Rashard Lewis development goes. That could be really interesting, or he could be even more useless than Eddy Curry. Hill I think is largely a non-factor; he's not a super helpful NBA player these days, and there's also reason to think he is very interested in LA or OKC with LA being at the forefront.
Honestly, I can see Rashard Lewis being a nice surprise. He can play, properly motivated. And nothing motivates quite like the possibility of another big contract. He's still only 32 and has proven he can hit 3 pointers. In my opinion, Lewis is a younger, bigger, poor man's Ray Allen without the gimpy ankles.
So the rumor is that the Nets-Magic trade fell through because Kris Humphries wants a multiyear contract and the Cavs were only willing to take him for one. Is anyone out there going to offer him a multiyear contract at 8 million a year? I seem to remember him not getting a sniff last year until the Nets resigned him to get to the salary floor. That sign-and-trade has him being overpaid for that one year in an attempt to make the trade numbers work.
http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/8...ta-timberwolves-discussing-nicolas-batum-deal From the article: No! No! I'm so fucking sick of the Wolves trading 1st rounders for building blocks. They better not fucking do this.
I thought the Heat beat writer brought up an excellent point on the radio last night. Steve Nash going to the Lakers is being heralded as a brilliant move for the Lakers and for Nash, while when the Heat sign Ray Allen, he's viewed as a traitor and a coward. Even his old coach and GM rip him in the media, which is classless. Considering the Celtics tried multiple times to trade Ray Allen, even to Memphis, reduced his minutes and took his starting job, then signed a FA that plays his same position, when he signs elsewhere he is a piece of shit and "dead" to the Celtics fans. But Nash "just wants to win". Wow. And considering they got Lewis for the veteran minimum, who cares if he works out or not? The only way for him to steal playing time, and he even addressed it, is to bulk up and play more 4 than 3. He needs to rebound and defend the post and at 6'10", thats something he is capable of doing. Still interested to see what they do for a big man. They said theyre done with FA, so maybe this year's 2nd rounder Hamilton or last year's Varnado might fill that role. And for the record, I dont think the Heat are going to win 72 games and roll to another championship, but I do think that knowing what it takes and having a TON of pressure removed from their shoulders is going to make a world of difference next season.
Kobe has said that this year's Olympic Team could beat the '92 Dream Team. Really? Maybe with Howard and Wade and Bosh and Rose, but not with the current lineup.
And certainly not without Blake Griffin: Blake Griffin hurt his knee in a Team USA scrimmage Wednesday and is returning to LA to be examined by team doctors, sources tell Y! Sports. - Wojo
Do you have a link for this? If true, I have just lost a lot of respect for both Danny Ainge and Doc Rivers. It's such a mute point. Honestly, I don't even know whether this year's team can beat Spain. That's a question up for serious debate. Yet, before playing a single game together, let alone winning the gold medal, they compare themselves to the '92 Dream Team? Look, basketball players today are generally stronger, faster, and more athletic than ever. However, relative to their era, the 1992 line-up was head-and-shoulders above the present squad. They had 9 Hall-of-Famers in their absolute primes including Jordan, two of the greatest PFs (Barkley and Malone), and the second greatest PG (Stockton). They also had the greatest SF ever (Bird) and greatest PG ever (and in my opinion, greatest player period, Magic Johnson) who were past their primes, but still very good. Oh, and Christian Laettner, but who cares? So yeah, in a straight-up game, the 2012 team would have some chances. But comparing yourself to teams 20 years ago like that is stupid. You compare them against their eras. And in that sense, the 1992 team is light-years better.
Except that it's not. Doc Rivers responded exactly as anyone would have expected: All this silly talk of being a traitor is being fueled by the Skip Baylesses of the world and keyboard warriors on Celtic-oriented blogs. It's the kind of stupid subplot that develop in every major sport's off-season, when people don't have as much to talk about. It's an interesting choice for a new team, especially after the ECF, but can anyone blame him? My reaction was the same as it was last year when Battier signed there: good for him, I hope he gets a ring (or another, in Allen's case).