NBA Playoffs 2012

Off Topic
721

[quote]scj119 wrote:
on is the better shooter and passer.

  1. They’ve shot similarly from 3pt range the last 2 years and Lowry is an INFINITELY better defender. [/quote]

Agreed.

[quote]scj119 wrote:

Also one of the hardest working guys in the NBA from what I hear[/quote]

I don’t care. I’m sure there are a lot of hard working bench warmers too.

[quote]scj119 wrote:

  1. Remember that the pick they gave for Lowry is protected. You aren’t getting a Kevin Durant without a top-3 pick, so they aren’t changing their odds of landing a star talent because they won’t give up the pick if it’s a good one. Still not seeing anyone reporting on how protected it is though, if it’s full lottery protection it’s an awesome trade… if it’s top-3 protected, not so much.[/quote]

The chances are lower but this is untrue. There are plenty of stars who weren’t drafted in the top 3.

Let’s see…

Kobe
Ginobili
T-mac
VC
Dirk Nowitzki
Paul Pearce
Tony Parker
Gilbert Arenas
Amare
Wade
Chris Paul
Deron Williams
Andrew Bynum
Brandon Roy
Rondo
Kevin Love

[quote]scj119 wrote:

  1. Don’t forget, now that they have Lowry, they can use Calderon’s 8 mil expiring deal to bring in something without leaving a hole at PG. I have a feeling this will command more value than what they gave up for Lowry. You can get a nice building block for an 8mil expiring contract that belongs to a player who actually produces somewhat.[/quote]

Ok

722

[quote]scj119 wrote:
IMO Lowry/Valanciunas/Bargs is a playoff team in the East, plus if they get a good pick for Jose they have a nice core they can build on.[/quote]

You’ve made this call quite hastily. TWO of the players in their rotation are lottery picks. Valunciunas hasn’t even played an NBA game and you’re already declaring he’ll be a regular contributor?

[quote]scj119 wrote:

I don’t really like the “bottom out and hope you get lucky strategy”.[/quote]

I don’t like it either but I consider it the best option available for small and mid-market teams.

[quote]scj119 wrote:

You can’t get higher than 25 percent odds of the first overall pick, and even if you DO get lucky, you can’t even guarantee there will be a guy good enough to justify the strategy. It has a really low chance of working, and you can piss off your fans and drive attendance down for years trying to get it right.[/quote]

I know the odds are poor. From a revenue generating perspective you may be right. However that’s not something I’m concerned about. Although nowhere near as popular as hockey, basketball is still very popular relatively speaking. So no real worry of leaving town either.

[quote]scj119 wrote:

OKC got lucky with Durant. How many other teams have succeeded with this strategy? Think about recent champions, Heat (Free Agency), BOS (free agency/trades), Lakers (Kobe alone wasn’t enough, Pau/Bynum were trades/draft, Shaq wasn’t their draft pick), Spurs (draft).[/quote]

First off small sample size. Secondly, I am not saying you have to get every key piece from the draft/on draft day/early in their career while still raw, but only your main piece. Lets look at how each team that made the NBA Finals over the last 10 years how many acquired their best player through the draft or early in their careers:

2012 MIA (no) OKC (yes)
2011 MIA (no) DAL (yes)
2010 LAL (yes) BOS (N/A -Pearce?)
2009 LAL (yes) ORL (Yes)
2008 LAL (yes) BOS (N/A)
2007 SAS (yes) CLE (yes)
2006 DAL (yes) MIA (yes)
2005 SAS (yes) DET (no)
2004 LAL (yes) DET (no)
2003 SAS (yes) NJN (no)

13 of those teams acquired their star player through the draft/early in their careers while still raw compared to 5 who didn’t. I didn’t count the BOS years.

[quote]scj119 wrote:

IMO the better strategy is to put a good core together and hope you get lucky in the draft, so that once your lucky hit is good, you already have the surrounding cast in place. You can bottom out and get a number 1 pick but then you are just adding one good player to the worst team in the NBA (look at the Wizards). By the time you have the right TEAM he’ll be a free agent.[/quote]

It doesn’t matter if he becomes a free agent because star players generally resign with the team that drafted them the first chance they have to hit free agency. So long as you can build a good core around your stars within hi first 5-6 years in the NBA, you’re okay.

Rose
Durant
Kobe
Howard
Melo
Wade
Lebron
Bosh
Amare
Deron Williams
CP3

Shall I go on?

723

Oh boy, now the Mavs have lost Kidd to the Knicks. I highly doubt Kidd will be good for 2 years let alone three.

But my online NBA 2K12 team has been absolutely demolished after losing Terry and Kidd :stuck_out_tongue:

724

[quote]sam_sneed wrote:

[quote]Gettnitdone wrote:
Do they actually think they can win a championship with those three guys? [/quote]

Yes and I agree with them. Not saying they’d do it the first year together but there’s enough talent between the 3 of them to get it done. Maybe Howard will pull his head out of his ass if he plays for a very good chance of getting to the Finals and more.[/quote]

Well we’re in disagreement then. You’re basically saying Howard, Williams + JOE JOHNSON are better than LeBron, Wade and Bosh, which isn’t the case. Then you factor in what team has better role players and the Heat are better again. If the heat get Ray Allen then you can forget about it.

And I’m not basing these comparisons on stats and individual aggregation. I think the Heat have ‘figured it out’ and are a better team overall. Plus, I’m sceptical on how good Deron Williams is.

725

Lowry shits on Calderon in every possible way. He was putting up MONSTER stats before he got injured, and his stats took a dive when he came back. The kid can play.

726

Protection:

“?Rockets won?t get top-3 pick next year, top-2 pick next two years or No. 1 pick the next two. Otherwise lottery pick goes to Houston.? So it appears the Raptors keep the pick if they make the playoffs five years in a row. Hey, it could happen!”

727

After flip flopping with it in my head, I like the Kidd signing as long as they resign Lin.

  • While he is ancient, he can still be effective at 20 minutes again.
  • While the whole mentor thing is a bit overblown, he can still be a positive influence on Lin.
  • They keep Shump.
  • He should be able to get Stat and Melo the ball effectively and will not take any shit from them.
  • This was a team that during the regular season was not expected to make any big moves in the off season, this makes there backcourt better, Lin, Kidd, Smith, Novak and Shump is solid. Though Im not crazy about Smith being a starter
728

Kidd made sense for the Knicks. Frankly, they are what they are. They are financially committed to Melo-Stat-Chandler and that’s not going to change anytime soon, so they have to improve around the edges. I don’t think that core is good enough to win the title but that’s sort of immaterial at this point because they can’t move Melo or Stat, so they have to work within that reality.

They’re one LBJ or Wade injury away from being a potential finals team (assuming Rose doesn’t immediately return to 100 percent after returning from ACL surgery, which would be surprising if he did).

729

Agreed, I do believe they can challenge for a 2-4 seed depending on Rose

730

I’m thinking of buying an NBA jersey but undecided on who.

If you guys were going to buy an NBA jersey today, which team or player would you choose?

731

[quote]therajraj wrote:
I’m thinking of buying an NBA jersey but undecided on who.

If you guys were going to buy an NBA jersey today, which team or player would you choose?[/quote]

I like retro jerseys because in today’s world of Free Agency and player movement, your jersey could look dumb and be a waste of money a year from now. As a Bulls fan, that would mean a Jordan/Pippen/Rodman type jersey, someone who you know is most remembered for the specific team you bought the jersey of. Think how many people bought LBJ Cavs jerseys for example.

The main thing is to make sure that the player will be remembered mostly as playing for the team whose jersey you bought, so you can wear it a long time.

Next best would be a player who’s already locked up a long time, or is a bit past his prime, and in either case is likely to be remembered for playing his peak years at his current team. Durant would be a good example of the first example, Dwyane Wade would be the second.

I would probably go Rose due to personal bias, next choice would be KD or Tim Duncan (giving him props because the boringness of his game has made him criminally underrated among average fans). Similar arguments could be made for jerseys of Kobe, Dirk, lots of guys depending on who you like.

Or you could go for the total dick move and buy one ironically… Smush Parker, Kwame Brown, etc.

732

[quote]scj119 wrote:

Or you could go for the total dick move and buy one ironically… Smush Parker, Kwame Brown, etc.[/quote]

lol

I actually have a friend whose offered to sell me his authentic (he paid $250+) Greg Oden Jersey for $50.

733

Maybe I’ll buy a Raptors Olajuwon jersey… I’ve seen a guy lift weights in that jersey.

734

I’m not going to drop a bunch of money on an authentic jersey until the Raptors have a star… could end up waiting 10 years.

For a replica I was considering Kyrie Irving actually… but maybe that’s a bad idea. Probably will settle on an away Durant replica.

If I wasn’t an actual NBA fan and just wanted a jersey 100% for style, I’d probably go Washington Bullets away jersey.

735

[quote]scj119 wrote:

I would probably go Rose due to personal bias[/quote]

Are you really that confident he’ll still be a superstar type player upon his return?

736

498×600 93 KB

[quote]therajraj wrote:
If you guys were going to buy an NBA jersey today, which team or player would you choose?[/quote]

[quote]scj119 wrote:
I like retro jerseys… [/quote]

737

.

738


Best looking and favorite player.

739

1280×1638 227 KB

[quote]scj119 wrote:
The main thing is to make sure that the player will be remembered mostly as playing for the team whose jersey you bought, so you can wear it a long time.[/quote]

This. Plus mix in a touch of obscurity, something that reflects a better-than-casual understanding of the game.

Just imagine how tight a Nuggets’ Fat Lever jersey would be. Or a Sonics’ Dennis Johnson. etc.

Somewhat similarly, here’s the only NFL jersey I own:

740

They made Baylesz an UFA. Interesting