NBA Lockout

Off Topic
81

[quote]Gettnitdone wrote:

[quote]scj119 wrote:

[quote]chillain wrote:

[quote]therajraj wrote:
To the 3 posts above:

Problem is, for me to watch a sport I need to be a fan of a team.

I can only become a fan of a team organically - I was born and live in Toronto, so by default all Toronto teams are the ones I root for.

I went to school in Canada so my alma mater does not play in the NCAA.

I guess I could start following the Leafs again (use to follow hockey up until the end of high school - 2004), but the sport has too little strategy. Seems like I’m watching random chaos.

BTW I like baseball just as much as basketball if not more. [/quote]

raj - we can’t accept that alma mater argument. its not like the big east conf tourney at msg is best enjoyed by that small handful of alums, that’s just the big east tourney at msg

And that’s the thing about college sports - it’s so much more about the schemes and the game itself vs the pro level which is much more focused on individual players and personalities (and the insane talent/genetics/etc)

And even if you just really can’t get into football, at least give the LFL a chance (not joking at all)
[/quote]

They can focus on the game all they want, it’s still a crappy version of it. If I wanted to see missed layups and jumpers I’d go play pickup ball down the street.

I am NOT saying I’m as good as a D1 player, but the difference between Joe Schmoe and a D1 player is about the same as a the difference between a D1 player and an NBA player.
[/quote]

Damn and I thought you were a true basketball fan. Derrick Rose is exciting to watch both at Memphis and the Bulls. Don’t tell me he somehow got so much better in one year by picking up an NBA Spalding basketball.

nods head at scj[/quote]

Of course he was exciting. I meant the sport in general, I didn’t mean some players in it aren’t good. The pro game is just a different game.

And let’s not pretend like Derrick Rose was an MVP candidate his first year in the league. Exciting as hell sure, but 17pts/4reb/6ast per game was a far cry from last year’s 25/4/8 mark (when he also got to the line more than twicec as often and shot it better from there).

It’s only been 3 seasons, and if you put D Rose in college now he would average however many points a game he wanted to average. He was already awesome and has gotten light years better.

82

Hate to break it you Matty, but CP3/Melo/Amare is NOT LBJ/Wade/Bosh. LBJ and Wade are two of the best four players in the league (with DH and Kobe).

83

[quote]MattyXL wrote:
Honestly they NEED a big man, to man the paint, grab boards and protect Amare so he doesent get beat up, it is absolutely vital that they have a player like that. If they get Chris Paul, a big if, they are on the level potentially of those teams you mentioned.[/quote]

Biedrins might be amnestied, you could get him cheap and he can rebound and block shots decently. Mavs might not keep Chandler but no way can NYK afford him and Paul.

In fact, NYK can’t afford Paul unless he takes a monstrous paycut (way more than LBJ/Wade/Bosh did). Per this article ( NBA -- Chris Paul to the Knicks highly unlikely ) he would have to sacrifice $40 million over the life of his contract to play there. Forty fucking million!

Also, Amare/Melo are not allowed to restructure their contracts for less money per the CBA.

84

[quote]scj119 wrote:
Hate to break it you Matty, but CP3/Melo/Amare is NOT LBJ/Wade/Bosh. LBJ and Wade are two of the best four players in the league (with DH and Kobe).[/quote]

Is Kobe really the 3rd-4th best player in the league still? Come on…

He’s still great, but he’s getting on in years.

85

[quote]therajraj wrote:

[quote]scj119 wrote:
Hate to break it you Matty, but CP3/Melo/Amare is NOT LBJ/Wade/Bosh. LBJ and Wade are two of the best four players in the league (with DH and Kobe).[/quote]

Is Kobe really the 3rd-4th best player in the league still? Come on…

He’s still great, but he’s getting on in years.

[/quote]

Depending on how you define it.

He still has top-4 talent, but he can’t maintain that intensity for 40 minutes a night, game-in game-out; he has to pick his spots (on O and D). Maintaining it is admittedly part of being great. He’s definitely fourth of those four though.

But I don’t know who I can definitively put over him. Rose? He takes too many bad pull-up threes, isn’t great on D, and was neutralized in the ECF by someone begging him to take open threes and jumpers (a top-4 player whose a guard makes you pay for that). A healthy Chris Paul is better, but his knee worries me (great in playoffs, but I think he has to pick his spots like Kobe… at least last year). Durant is too easy to defend, by pushing him off his spot Memphis-style… also weak on D and his 3P% is mysteriously getting worse each year instead of better. Dirk? Maybe.

86

How can you not put Dirk above Kobe? The guy took a bunch of old guys to the 2nd best record in the regular season, sweeps the Lakers and beats the Heat in 6 (without HCA) and STILL gets no love from anyone.

My ranks

  1. Lebron
  2. Dirk
  3. Dwight
  4. Wade
  5. Durant
  6. Rose
  7. Kobe
87

[quote]scj119 wrote:
Hate to break it you Matty, but CP3/Melo/Amare is NOT LBJ/Wade/Bosh. LBJ and Wade are two of the best four players in the league (with DH and Kobe).[/quote]

Im fully aware of this, however if this were to happen this year (Amare, Melo, CP3 although unlikely) and other players broke right for the Knicks (i.e. Billups has another year left in the tank, they find a big man that can defend and rebound in the paint for the mid level exception, Shumpert impresses, Fields and Douglas take another step forward) they would definitely be on a similar level and healthy comp for them. Other than arguably Dirk, the Mavs had no players better than LBJ and Wade but they had a better team.

88

The only way the Knicks get Paul is a sign and trade, in which Paul would sign an extension at 2 years 37 million, which I would pray would happen but aint since the Knicks have nothing to trade.

The likely deal is Paul signing as a free agent where the Knicks can sign him for 4 years 58 million.

If he does this he would obviously get a lot less money, but if he wanted the money he would just resign with the Hornets.

http://knickerblogger.net/chris-pauls-options/

89

I haven’t looked at the stats but…

On the discussion of Kobe, it just seemed like he was missing a lot of the shots he normally would make and he really didn’t have the explosiveness in his game we saw in past years.

90

Knicks have nothing to trade in a sign-and-trade, and no money to give in free agency. Keep in mind, even if he did take a boatload less cash to play there, they could only offer minimum contracts to all 12 players on the rest of their roster. Meaning their supporting cast would be substantially worse than even the Haslem/Miller/Chalmers/Ilguaskas crapbuckets on the Heat.

91

[quote]therajraj wrote:
I haven’t looked at the stats but…

On the discussion of Kobe, it just seemed like he was missing a lot of the shots he normally would make and he really didn’t have the explosiveness in his game we saw in past years.

[/quote]

He actually did pretty good last year on a per-minute basis (played a lot less minutes than usual, 34min/game). Playoffs notwithstanding he had a good reg season.

92

[quote]therajraj wrote:
I haven’t looked at the stats but…

On the discussion of Kobe, it just seemed like he was missing a lot of the shots he normally would make and he really didn’t have the explosiveness in his game we saw in past years.

[/quote]

Take that back! WF and randman might be lurking…

93

[quote]scj119 wrote:

Of course he was exciting. I meant the sport in general, I didn’t mean some players in it aren’t good. The pro game is just a different game.

And let’s not pretend like Derrick Rose was an MVP candidate his first year in the league. Exciting as hell sure, but 17pts/4reb/6ast per game was a far cry from last year’s 25/4/8 mark (when he also got to the line more than twicec as often and shot it better from there).

It’s only been 3 seasons, and if you put D Rose in college now he would average however many points a game he wanted to average. He was already awesome and has gotten light years better.
[/quote]

College hoops is awesome because the fans make it great. College hoop games generally have livelier fans compared to NBA regular season games. Maybe that’s because the venues are smaller but you still feel the energy even in the middle of the game when you’re watching a solid college game. The NBA has gone backwards with the fan excitement. I was just watching a replay of Game 6 of the NBA east Conf Finals between Det and Chicago the other night and the fricken arena in Chicago was banging even when the Bulls were trailing by 10 in the last minute. I remember watching the Lakers-Kings series in 2002 and those conference finals had passion you could appreciate.

Thinking about the recent Miami-Mavs Finals I never really saw or felt that, especially the games in Miami. That conglomerate of fist-pumpers couldn’t wait for the game to finish so they could head to the club to do what they do best.

94

[quote]Gettnitdone wrote:

[quote]scj119 wrote:

Of course he was exciting. I meant the sport in general, I didn’t mean some players in it aren’t good. The pro game is just a different game.

And let’s not pretend like Derrick Rose was an MVP candidate his first year in the league. Exciting as hell sure, but 17pts/4reb/6ast per game was a far cry from last year’s 25/4/8 mark (when he also got to the line more than twicec as often and shot it better from there).

It’s only been 3 seasons, and if you put D Rose in college now he would average however many points a game he wanted to average. He was already awesome and has gotten light years better.
[/quote]

College hoops is awesome because the fans make it great. College hoop games generally have livelier fans compared to NBA regular season games. Maybe that’s because the venues are smaller but you still feel the energy even in the middle of the game when you’re watching a solid college game. The NBA has gone backwards with the fan excitement. I was just watching a replay of Game 6 of the NBA east Conf Finals between Det and Chicago the other night and the fricken arena in Chicago was banging even when the Bulls were trailing by 10 in the last minute. I remember watching the Lakers-Kings series in 2002 and those conference finals had passion you could appreciate.

Thinking about the recent Miami-Mavs Finals I never really saw or felt that, especially the games in Miami. That conglomerate of fist-pumpers couldn’t wait for the game to finish so they could head to the club to do what they do best.[/quote]

I think it has a lot to do with prices. They are designed to pack club seats and luxury boxes and stuff… though it’s also location dependent. Those OKC crowds were pretty ridiculous in the Western Conference playoffs. Miami, not so much.

95

Oh and the GSW series when they beat the no.1 Mavs. That was pretty crazy too.

96

[quote]scj119 wrote:
Knicks have nothing to trade in a sign-and-trade, and no money to give in free agency. Keep in mind, even if he did take a boatload less cash to play there, they could only offer minimum contracts to all 12 players on the rest of their roster. Meaning their supporting cast would be substantially worse than even the Haslem/Miller/Chalmers/Ilguaskas crapbuckets on the Heat.[/quote]

Again I was simply giving the options, I do not think a deal will be getting done, unless Paul says in no uncertain terms, I am not resigning I am only resigning with the knicks so get something rather than nothing. Honestly Paul would automatically become my fave knick if he decided to play for less for substantially less. I would rather have Paul Amare and Melo than Amare, Melo and the basic crap they have now.

97

[quote]MattyXL wrote:

[quote]scj119 wrote:
Knicks have nothing to trade in a sign-and-trade, and no money to give in free agency. Keep in mind, even if he did take a boatload less cash to play there, they could only offer minimum contracts to all 12 players on the rest of their roster. Meaning their supporting cast would be substantially worse than even the Haslem/Miller/Chalmers/Ilguaskas crapbuckets on the Heat.[/quote]

Again I was simply giving the options, I do not think a deal will be getting done, unless Paul says in no uncertain terms, I am not resigning I am only resigning with the knicks so get something rather than nothing. Honestly Paul would automatically become my fave knick if he decided to play for less for substantially less. I would rather have Paul Amare and Melo than Amare, Melo and the basic crap they have now. [/quote]

Interesting idea… trade Melo for Paul. Paul/Amare pick n roll would be NOICE.

98

[quote]Gettnitdone wrote:
Take that back! WF and randman might be lurking…[/quote]
What I would give to see Randman back in an NBA thread LOL. You guys think he’s still a Lakers fan or did he switch his allegiance completely to the Celtics… haha

99

[quote]johnman18 wrote:

[quote]Gettnitdone wrote:
Take that back! WF and randman might be lurking…[/quote]
What I would give to see Randman back in an NBA thread LOL. You guys think he’s still a Lakers fan or did he switch his allegiance completely to the Celtics… haha[/quote]

He’s definitely a Mavs fan now

100

Honestly, The NBA will become downright unbearable if Paul and Howard go to the Lakers.

Might as well just cancel the season and have a Heat/Lakers best of 50