Dola, if LBJ wants to stay in Cleveland, he'll sign a new deal by what, January 1st? I am not sure when next years cap is set but if he is going to stay in Cleveland I have no doubts he'd do it during the year. The longer that drags out, the less likely he is a Cav and the Cavs go back to irrelevance.

lol, why is Bosh put up there with LeBron?

Glad you said it. No one believes me but I'd absolutely not want to throw a ton of money at Bosh. For a "superstar" his teams never do much. He's a great stat sheet filler but watching him play, I don't ever see anything from him that wows me. If he doesn't have the ball, there's no point in covering him because he doesn't do anything.

I hope LeBron leaves because the Cavs have utterly failed to surround him with talent. If they haven't gotten him help yet, why should he think they will over the life of his next contract?

By winning six titles in Cleveland? I don't know. I don't know that he can get to that level, even if he wanted to. I don't think he'd get it by going to the Knicks or the Nets.

Heck, I'm not big on him either. Our nickname for Bosh is "Mr Vagina" because he plays like he's got one. Having said that, I'm sure he'll get a max contract and would be one of the guys that the Knicks or whoever would like to sign along with LeBron.

Do you truthfully think he even could win 1 title in Cleveland with the awful talent they've assembled for him up until this point? The Knicks are building a team specifically for LBJ with a coach he loved playing under at the Olympics. He is going to go to a team with has some nice younger players, though by no means great, but also a team that will be able to afford another big time player to complement Bron. Meanwhile Cleveland has what exactly for him?

I can understand that. Bosh will get big money but I personally think a guy like Al Jefferson blows him out of the water. Bosh though seems to be Bron's BFF so I could see a situation where Bosh takes less to play with him in a place like NY.

I disagree. They've surrounded him with some decent players. There isn't a Pippen (Larry Hughes didn't work out so well...) to his Jordan, but there's enough talent to win a lot of games. The problem with the Cavs is coaching IMO, far more than it is talent. They are so inept in a halfcourt offense 70% of the time that it's a wonder they win as much as they do (or did).

Again, I don't think the talent in Cleveland is awful. They aren't the Lakers (or Celtics, or Magic), but they have a pretty solid group of roleplayers, lacking only a 2nd "big name" player. That's a pretty big piece, sure, but they've tried to bring in guys to help them, most haven't panned out.

There are lots of reasons for him to go to the Knicks, but I think it's far from a sure thing that they'd be able to field a team better than the Cavs are today. They've got some young guys, none of whom are certain to be a #2 guy on a great team, and they also don't have their lottery pick next season. What they do have is cap space, but that doesn't always work out for you either.

No argument there. If Al Jeff stays healthy, he's one of the best bigs in the league. Bosh reminds me of Amar'e Stoudamire in a few ways, but mostly in the way that I don't consider them to be the focal point on offense for a "winning" team. They both get their numbers, but I don't think either of them does enough outside of that to warrant their status.

100% agreement. Ask either of them to shoulder the load and it's going to be a disaster. That said, put one of them with a Bron, Wade or Kobe and you have a 70 win team.

Celtics - 92
Sixers - 59

with like 6 minutes to go in the game

LOL

NBA teams have always been rewarded for tanking it. How do you think the Nuggets and Cavs tied for the worst record the year of the Lebron draft? They tanked it, won as few of games as possible.

As for the sign and trade, who does that benefit? The Cavs. That's it. Lebron can get some more money in an S&T, but Lebron wouldn't agree to go to the Knicks and have them trade Gallarni or the Nets and have them trade Lopez. He'll want the most available talent around him as possible. If Lebron leaves Cleveland, the Cavs are left high and dry.

Celtics with another blowout. Nuggets with a blowout as well. (though they played pretty poorly)

Two weird things from the 10 minutes I watched between hockey periods - the refs were having a weird Donaghy-like contest to call all fouls non-shooting, leading to a Sheed technical, and Rondo actively passing up uncontested layups out in front of everyone to pass back to Pierce between multiple defenders. Pierce still made the contested layup, but I'm not a fan of the decision.

Speaking of Lebron, Sam Smith had an interesting view on what could happen (on TV and an article he wrote). New York would almost be a step down surrounding cast wise. New Jersey has a lot of question marks with new ownership, stadiums, etc. So what about the Lakers? He said he's heard from some sources that the scenario has been battered around by people.

Essentially Lebron tells the Cavs he wants to play in LA and that's it. A sign and trade ensues. Lakers give up Bynum and a slew of other young guys and draft picks (and an expiring contract or two). It leaves the Cavs with a 23-year old Center to build around and some draft picks which is better than nothing. Kobe's getting up there in age so Lebron takes the reigns from him in a couple years after they win a couple championships.

I personally think he stays in Cleveland because there aren't really any good options out there. New York is a disaster and will waste his prime years for nothing. New Jersey is interesting but as I mentioned, lot of questions on the direction of that franchise. I don't see him going small market. The Lakers and/or Clipper make some sense.

As a darkhorse, I'll throw out my Bulls. He'd step in with Derrick Rose entering his 3rd year and on the verge of becoming one of the elite point guards in the game. Luol Deng is a solid #3 option. Noah gives some good energy and can run the floor. They also have some decent young guys like Taj Gibson who look like they could be a starter. I'd have to say that it would make them the favorites.

This ain't going to happen.

But...it has been tossed around that the Clippers--except for the fact that they are the Clippers--would be an excellent fit for LeBron. They have cap space and more coming off, and a lot of very good young talent. They should be able to pay LeBron a max contract. Plus, they're in LA, and LeBron can go head to head with Kobe.

Like I said, ain't gonna happen. Still, none of the above is not true.

Clips in a few years with Griffin, Gordon and Lebron... damn. Like you say absolutely 0 chance he goes to a franchise with the history of the Clippers but it's an intriguing thought. The Lebron vs Kobe story would be insane.

Don't see any way Kobe is happy sharing the limelight with Lebron unless he decides he can't win another one without him. Plus you just spent on Odom and Artest, where is the money coming from unless somebody takes them off your hands for expirings or picks.

I still think staying with the Cavs makes the most sense It will come down to the front office guaranteeing him a second star player and Mike Brown being fired and he will stay. The lure of NY is nice but he's smart and neither of those franchises are well run.

If Detroit played Orlando 82 times, they'd be 82-0. Too bad they have to play other teams.

Orlando gave Detroit the win today though, attempting 35 three's and only hitting on 10. It was a record for 3's attempted in a game vs Detroit.

fucking OT, I had the under in the Lakers game nailed

As interesting as it would be, I'm in agreement with much of the media thinking Wade is most likely of the Big FA Crop to land in Chicago. Highly doubt they'll get a legitimate shot at any of the others.

I think Bosh would be a major option too. Might even make more sense since Rose and him can pick and roll all day.

How about that Dirk Nowitzki. 29 points in the fourth quarter, killer...

he´s just awesome and despite being german i´m not even following him or the Mavs during the season, so it´s a nice mixture of not being a homer and still being amazed when he has a game like this :)

What is really impressive : He didn´t have a single Turnover. His career numbers are ridiculously low as well at 1.9 considering his play style and him being the focal point of the offense every game. I mean, he´s a 7 footer playing like a 3 a lot of the time, putting the ball on the floor and going for scoring opportunities all the time, often against smaller, quicker players that have the specific goal to harrass him and force him into turnovers.

Suns win in Miami, Nash with 30 points on 11-15 shooting :) Apparently busted out a zone defense in the 4th and won that quarter 29-15.

Nash´s TOs are very high through 4 games (4.5), but that´s allways the case early in the year for him, generally takes his running mates a few weeks to get used to his more adventourous passes again ;) Other than that 21.5 ppg, 12.5 apg, 54/56/100 for shooting. Good start for the old man i declare.

Quentin ("I thought zones were only for college teams") Richardson is a pussy, especially because a zone would seem to work perfectly to his advantage.

Celtics finally have a close game, but pull out the 2-point win @Minnesota. Oleksiy Pecherov? with 24 and 8 for the T'Wolves.

Sheed now has 40 attempts from 3 compared to 13 from inside the arc, so that seems to be a pretty clear-cut job description ... Right now he´s hitting at 43% though, so more power to him.

There´s quite a few Euros playing above expectations right now, although admittedly i don´t see Pecherov performing constantly good in the future. He has a very "shaky" game, jump shooter without a particularly efficient release, very errativ moving with and without the ball, bad rebounder ...

Nelly Lineup Watch : 3 in 3 games.

Ok, admittedly Turiaf was injured and they won

played Jackson/Magette at PF and played with Biedrins or Moore at center (Biedrins foul trouble).

Morrow is a sniper, 24 points on 10-12 shooting after Nelly said he needed to get more shots (hey, he does get some things right).

Rockets loose to the Lakers in OT . Crap game from Ariza in terms of shooting the ball.
Kobe took over late and had 41 points on 15-30. Bynum 17/17 but almost matched by Chuck Hayes who got 14/14 :eek: Scola 16/13, Landry 20/8. Again 7 guys with 8+ points.

The Lakers not getting much from the bench early in the year.

nice to see the C's gut one out - they were definately looking tired (hence all the front-rimming on their jumpshots that they make any other night). Strong defense down the stretch and in the bits that I saw.

Nuggets and Celtics only two unbeaten teams left.

Nuggets slaughtered an overmatched Nets team. Ty Lawson had a monster game. 9/10 from the floor, 23 points in 28 minutes. In 106 minutes played, he's shooting 59% (including 5/8 from the three point line) and has 5 turnovers. An assist to to ratio nearing 3 to 1.

The Nuggets have 2 games left without JR Smith. @Miami on Friday and then @Atlanta on Saturday. (4th game in 5 nights) JR comes back for yet another back to back set on the road against the Bulls and the Bucks. (the Nuggets will have played 4 back to back sets in out of their first 9 games after that one, thanks NBA schedulers)

I don't think the Nuggets get through the next two without a loss. Teams are doubling and tripling Melo and leaving Anthony Carter as the free man. that's not a good thing. The Nuggets are still scoring, but Miami is going to be a step up in talent from our last three games. I'd be more than happy with a split and not bothered a lot if they drop 2 here.

i always knew lawson was going to be a steal...idk why so many people passed on him

I don't know about elsewhere but in Detroit everyone was saying at the time he had a terrible workout which caused the Pistons to take a 6'10, 175 SF instead.

God Dumars sucks.

No discussion about the AI situation in Memphis? Grizzlies finally have something going for them, pretty good young team with two bonefide scorers, a could-be-decent PG and Gasol looks much better than everyone thought at center, when the owner decides he needs to sell some more tickets and signs AI, who proceeds to bitch and moan his first two games because he thinks he should be starting and he didn't get the last shot. Should be fun to watch AI and Randolph completely destroy this team over the next couple of months.

Really all the Grizzlies needed to do was a) resign Gay and b) continue Conley and Mayo's development and they really had a solid core for the future, possibly even a contender if you get another high draft pick this year (and maybe c) see if you can make Thabeet look anything like an NBA player). And they fucked it up - failed to sign Gay who they will now either have to give a monster contract to in the offseason or let a budding superstar walk, and signed a guy who will either hamper the development of one (or both) of those guys or destroy the team because he's not getting the minutes he feels he deserves. Great job by management, Hollins must be tearing his hair out.

I would rank the Thabeet pick right up there with the AI signing in terms of things the Grizzlies royally screwed up. You're telling me you couldn't have gotten #8 plus something out of the Knicks for #2?

You are right, its a shame what the Grizz did with a nice young franchise. Look at a team like Atlanta - they've sucked for years but piece by piece they have built a playoff quality team. Memphis could have been on the same path. I'm not even going to go nuts on the Randolph trade - they got him for nothing, he's a talented guy and only has this year and next on his contract. Plus they needed another low post player who could score and rebound. Yes its going to probably result in some kind of headache but maybe not as bad as the mess that's coming with AI added in and at least Randolph isn't taking time away from promising young players.

Too bad Iverson went the way he did - he had such an amazing career and he's going to Stephon Marbury himself right out of the league. Rather than embracing a sixth man role while he still has some game left and latching on with a team that could win a title he ends up with a crappy team who didn't even need him but just wanted a name to sell more jerseys and seats.

The Grizz traded Pau Gasol to the Lakers for virtually nothing, and are now spending the same money they did on Pau to pay Zach Randolph.

The NBA: It's Amazing.

Virtually nothing turns out to be a better than average 24 year old NBA Center who´s averaging 18/13 (and looking like it when seeing games) through 5 games (and should be a 15/10 guy for many years) while being improved on defense due to increasing his mobility again, just saying in the interest of full disclosure, not to defend the Grizzlies management ;)
As for Thabeet, i´ll give him a pass for at least this and next season before labeling him as anything ...

Yeah I don't hate the Randolph trade either. He's insanely talented and on his own he's not going to blow up a franchise, plus he's still only 28. If he gets his head screwed on that's a great trade for the Grizzlies.

Thabeet, yeah it looks bad when you think what they could have got for moving down. I guess we'll never know whether the Knicks actually wanted to move up or whether they were happy to get Curry at #8 (LOL) but if they were it's pretty bad when you think you could have had Jordan Hill and either another good young player or a future first and you took one of the biggest projects the league has ever seen. But let's give him a couple of years, if he can put on 40 pounds of muscle he's going to be an insane defensive force even if he never develops an offensive game (and with Mayo, Gay and maybe Randolph there he's not going to need to score much)

I had blocked out the horror of the Gasol trade TBH, yeah Marc turned out pretty good but not really the point. For a player that good who is the final piece to a championship puzzle for somebody else, you better get an absolute haul of young guys and picks and they got 1.

Aye. I overlooked Marc Gasol. :) He is a nice piece for the future.

I used to be a big AI fan. Then he came to Denver. I was sick of him within the first year. I will never, ever forget Denver's first playoff series with AI. You think Carmelo and Nene had their playoff breakouts last year? No, actually it happened in 2006/07 against the Spurs.

Melo owned Bruce Bowen in that series. He averaged 27 points, 8 boards and shot an adjusted 52% for the series. Nene averaged 15 points, 8 rebounds and played great defense on Duncan.

So what happened for Denver in the series? AI average 22.8 points and 22.8 shot attempts per game. Melo and Nene combined for 30 shots a game, AI took 23 himself and shot an adjusted 38%. That series kills me to this day.

As for the rest of the Grizzlies, they are a mess. I like Gasol. Hate Thabeet. They play zero defense. (giving up a stunning 56% adjusted FG% for the year) They are a -5.8 in turnover differential.

And now they are giving Allen Iverson 28+ minutes a game and teaching the young guys how cool it is to yell at management from the media.

Pathetic.

Last year, the Clips got Randolph for practically nothing (poor Cuttino Mobley and Tim Thomas), and I said at the time, good trade, look at the numbers he has put up. Others as the time disagreed, pointed how he got his points, but his teams never win and he makes boneheaded plays way too often.

I thought they were mistaken after the first few games, where he looked very good.

They were not mistaken. Glad he's not on the team anymore, and sorry the Grizz have him, although that trade was great for the Clips. Not only did they lose Randolph and his cap clogging contract, but they turned the return (Quentin Richardson) into Sebas Telfair and Craig Smith, who are now valuable role players with upside.

Suns take down the celtics tonight, very impressive win for a team that is really exceeding my modest hopes for this season!

JJ Redick and Ryan Anderson are taking advantage of the increased playing time they're seeing from the absent Vince Carter (injury) and Rashard Lewis (illegal substance suspension). Keep slangin' them threes boys.

i didn't watch the whole game but apparently the reffing was extra-shitty tonight, and Sheed was hucking up ill-advised 3's late in the game. ah well...they weren't going to go undefeated and they've had a busy start to the season

The Warriors were missing Biedrins and Turiaf, sure, but, boy, the Clips really put a hurtin' on them tonight, and in Oakland, to boot.

Well, you couldn´t expect otherwise seeing how his style of play developed over the years ;)

As long as he´s hitting them you watch and are like "great, he stretches the floor, surprises the defense and gives us another dimension" but watch out for the games where his long ball isn´t falling ...

Pretty good night for me personally, a lot of teams and players doing good that i like.

- Bobcats beat the Hawks handily, Bell in his first game back from injury with 24 points on 9-12 shooting. Wallace with another huge rebounding night to counter his ongoing shooting woes. Now averages 14,8 rebounds through 5 games (12,15,9,20,18 the single game numbers) but is shooting 31% for his 14.8 PPG (no typo) . And he has 2 assists against 17 TOs . Has got to be a frustrating fantasy player right now ;)

- Magic beat the Pistons. Howard again with a good game from the FT line (8-9, was 7-8 the game before and 14-16 3 games back), now at 69% for the year . Redick was impressive the 2 games i saw the Magic, not just his shooting but he also has improved his ballhandling/penetration by leaps and bounds really.

-Phonix beats the Celtics

-Toronto beats the Hornets who imo will miss the Playoffs. Everybody but Paul, West and Okafor is well below average on their position/role ...

- Gallinari with a good game against the Cavs

- Lakers win handily, Bryant with 41 points on 19-30 shooting without a TO (well, only 1 assists as well, seems like he just got where he wanted with little help defense) . Mbenga 13 boards and 4 blocks !

- Blazers shake things up starting Blake and Miller with Roy moving to the 3. It is a freaking joke how Oden is refereed ... Seriously, if that´s the direction the NBA continues to go in regards of defensive minded big men than i´m not happy ... I mean, the guy is silently having a monster year outside of scoring with 9.5 boards and 2.5 blocks in 22 minutes a game. Przybilla has 8 boards in 17 minutes btw.

- Ginobili looks like shit out there right now :( Parker goes down with a sprained ankle and Spurs get beat by the Blazers.

- as far as the Clippers : Kaman is owning, 23/10 after 6 games :eek:

- Last but not least : Rockets beat the Thunder with yet another balanced scoring game. Ariza has 21/5/6 , Scola has 19/10, Landry 21/9, Budinger scores 16 and Brooks has 11.
Their offense is so nice to watch :)

CDR has swine flu...

Suns beat the Wizards and are now 6-1 to start the year :) Nash is just awesome. Definitely the best passer in the league. Others may come close in terms of Assists numbers and of course you can point to the Suns pace and so forth, but in terms of seeing angles and being able to execute the sheer amount of different types of passes from every spot using either hand with equal accuracy is just incredible with him. If you´d cut a tape of just him passing, dribling and doing layups you couldn´t tell wether he´s right or left handed.

And another late-call here : Just finished watching the Rockets-Lakers from a few nigth ago and found again that the Kobe/Battier matchup is propably the highest quality offensive/defensive matchup in the league.
That game Bryant hit so many amazing shots and displayed such great footwork for so many great moves while Battier was on him like glue every single time getting as close as you possibly can get without fouling and he hardly ever gets caught out of position.
Really, really fun to watch those 2 go at it.

Bryan´t seems to go into the post alot more this year, doesn´t he ? Just read about him taking a lesson with Olajuwon (although what you learn in 2 hours is kinda limited really) over the summer and working on that facet a lot and the 2 games i´ve seen back that up as well as the numbers (only 13 threes in 6 games but a ton of FTs).

The Lakers looked solid tonight. Mbenga and Brown stepped up big time.

Kobe is a beast. He almost always asked for the ball in the post, and it didn't matter who was guarding him. He would do all his work on positioning himself without the ball, and once the ball got to his hands he would unleash the killer turnaround with precision.

Big Aussie Nathan Jawai had a good game against the Bucks yesterday. T'Wolves got blown out, but Jawai finished with career highs in points (16) and rebounds (6). Hopefully he's in shape, because the guy the Jawai that I saw playing for Toronto and Dallas was not the Shaq-esque Jawai I saw down here in Australia. When he was forced to miss all that time with the heart-scare he really got out of shape.

The entire team has already quit on the season. They can't stand Nelson/ownership. We already know Jackson wants out. Ellis does, too, but he won't go on record as saying so. Nelson has relegated Anthony Randolph to 3rd string center, playing Mikki Moore over him. Any significant minutes he's gotten have come via garbage time. There is no semblance of a consistent rotation. It's a complete and utter train wreck, even more so than I think just about anyone had anticipated. Nelson won't be fired, so nothing will change. The personnel might change, but nothing noticeable will happen until Nelson is gone in two years. It's sickening.

It's one thing to play small-ball, but you still need to play D. Warriors are built to just run and run, but if you're not getting stops, how can you run?

You can't reasonably expect them to play half-court offense though, can you? I mean seriously, who sets the screens? You've got two pint-sized guards and a swingman playing the 4 spot. Just an absolute trainwreck.

I love watching Golden State play. Up by 25 and they are still jacking up threes with 21 seconds left on the shot clock.

I have never, ever, EVER seen Stephen Jackson play that unselfishly. Curious that it happens the day after his agent rips into Nelson! Any teams out there thinking about trading for him, don't fret, he's a total team player! Pretty transparent to anyone paying attention, but if it gets him out of here any faster, I'm all for it. And if he played with that mindset every game, I'd never want him to leave.

It's nice to know the Warriors aren't the worst team in the league, so there's that. And Nelson pretty much had to play Randolph with both Biedrins and Turiaf out. Craziest thing happened, too. He put up great numbers! Azubuike had another fantastic game. He's been their most consistent player so far. I still think they'd be an interesting team with a starting 5 of Ellis/Azubuike/Jackson/Randolph/Biedrins (when everyone's healthy). Nelson will never play two bigs who can't shoot, though. Well, not unless he absolutely has to. Hell, he's started Mikki Moore at C and Jackson at PF since Biedrins went down. We'll see if that continues since neither Biedrins or Turiaf seem like they'll be back anytime soon.

Next week we have the Cavs and the Celtics back to back, and on the road to boot. That'll be so exciting!

pretty wild night around the league :eek:

Suns beat the 76ers 119-115. Nash with 21/20. The first 20/20 Points/assist game since January 2006 (by him as well).
Turnovers a little high again but A/To ratio is ok, considering the type of pressure he applies and the type of passes he´s plays/has to play (on the season it´s now 13 assists and 4,5 Tos). Richardson is on fire right now, shooting at an ocean.
Suns 7-1.

Spurs beat Raptors 131-124 without Duncan and Parker. Manu has a big game with 36 points and 8 assists.

Warriors take the cake, scoring 146. 77 points from the bench. 22 steals as well.

not sure how i feel about this : McGrady planning Nov. 18 return - NBA - Yahoo! Sports

hope he buys into adelman´s schemes and learns how to move off the ball a bit more ...

The Suns have been amazing.

Nash seems to have found the fountain of youth.

Interesting note about Channing Frye, in his first four seasons in the NBA (278 games), he hit 20 of 70 3pointers. In his first eight games with the Suns, he is 22 of 50 from three point land. Ridiculous.

yeah, i know. In a weird reversal, Shawn Marion has hit only 18 3s in 90 games since leaving Phoenix and none this year on only 4 attempts.

Gentry is now the 2nd coach giving Nash the free reign and it just creates such a great flow offensively that it is just incredible to watch. It´s like a motion offense combined with a dominant ballhandler if that makes any sense.
It´s not him doing sth and others waiting for him to hit them with a pass, it´s him starting a move and the other players making themselves available because they know he can hit them on the move and at the exact right moment. It´s unreal how many times each game he hits someone in motion for a wide open dunk or layup.

sorry for that, i´m just a big fan of his play ... Ig there´s one guy i would want to win a championship it´d be him propably because of his persona on and off the field and the way he plays.
Yeah, he can´t defend but not even that can be blamed on him nescessarily. He´s just ill-equiped on that end, the effort is there (and his team defense is good).

Grant Hill is averaging 8.6 boards through 8 games btw (in just 30 minutes).

The scary thing is that Stoudemire is playing really out of sync still, has no timing on his moves and seems to have blinders on instead of goggles so bad is his play recognition at times.

"I'm Steve Nash, bitch."

Bulls got fucked tonight.

Here is the shot in question. Backboard is not lit up yet. The initial call was good so they actually overturned the call after 10 minutes (league rules state they have 2 minutes to make a decision). Maybe Tim Donaghy still has some friends in the league.

Was there .3 seconds on the clock? It could be due to that arbituary ".4 seconds for a catch-and-shoot" rule that gets thrown around.

Theres an actual rule saying youre not allowed to shoot as quickly as youre able?

I always thought if it was 0.3 or less you had to tip the ball in for it to count, but this game got me to research the rule. Apparently you have to tip it if it's LESS than 0.3. It's the Trent Tucker rule.

That's a great photo. This was the closest buzzer beater I can ever remember. Literally one frame his fingertips were touching the ball with no light, then the next frame the ball was out with the light on. There was pretty much no way to tell for sure via replay.

If it's not certain, the call (or non-call) on the court should stand IMO. Bulls win.

You can do a catch and shoot with .3. The .4 rule is if there is a pivot included.

Don't forget the corollary "you can turn and do a full shooting motion shot as long as you're Derek Fisher and the Spurs' timekeeper is a dumbass."

You might not think that corollary would come into play too often, but it has yes, oh yes it has.

The Cavs schedule kind of sucks. Play a back to back. Then they were off 4 days. Now they have another b2b @Orlando/@Miami. Then another day off. Then @utah.

By the end of November they'll have 7 b2b games in, with only 8 left the rest of the season.

Then again, maybe this will give Shack time to get his fat worthless ass into some kind of shape. And he could possibly contribute to the offense.

dola-
I never realized Turd Fu missed an average of 15 games/season throughout his career.

I did! I did!

That's actually not that bad considering his massive size. Most guys that size miss longer stretches. He has done a good job of always being available for the playoffs.

Hmm, very close call.



Was the ball still in his hands?

That's a tough angle, the picture I posted above is the best shot and clearly shows the ball out of his hands in time. It was a bad call and should never have been reversed. NBA continues on with their fine tradition of officiating.

There was also another atrocious call in the final minute. Loose ball and Nene held Deng's leg while he was going for the ball. Ball went out of bounds. Ref was standing right there and everyone in the stadium clearly saw it (Deng jerked backwards when he was grabbed). This led to a huge bucket for the Nuggets.

There was some other stuff that affected both teams. The travelling violations on both teams was bizarre and they went from calling the game real touchy to letting anything go at times. Completely inconsistent. While the bad call at the end of the game cost the Bulls the most, both teams got shafted throughout the game and it was one of the poorer officiated games I've been to in years (been to probably 100 over the last 3-4 years).

The other thing that did piss me off a bit was it took 10 minutes to review the last shot. Completely took all the air out of the crowd and most people just wanted a call one way or the other so they could go home. If it takes 10 minutes to review a call, the call on the court should probably stand.

While I disagree with you on whether this shot was good, I agree wholeheartedly with this statement.

I have gone from thinking replay was a no brainer to hating it. The NFL system has made officials eunuchs, afraid to make a call on the field and be wrong on replay. Nobody applies the standard of reversing "indisputable" calls (of which last night's clearly does not qualify). Tennis, they look at a fictionalized account of the call.

I think if sports are going to use replay, they should be able to view the play twice. If they don't see enough to overturn it, move on.

I didn't know what you guys were talking about with the Bulls/Nuggets until this morning.

I thought it was bullshit that Fisher "got his shot off" with 0.4 seconds left, so I think it's bullshit that someone gets a shot off with 0.3 seconds left. Unless you do some kind of inbound volley shot, it's impossible.

The shot wasn't good. the backboard in the back did not light up correctly. (you can see this on virtually every replay of the game. In fact, the two pictures in this thread show that. . . the ball was out by a two feet in your picture and the other light wasn't on, it was clearly closer in the second shot with the light being on) The shot was NOT out of his hands. the Denver feed had it perfect and you could clearly see the ball on his fingers with the backboard light on.

As for the reffing, I thought it was equally garbage for both teams. Chauncey had a layup go off the backboard and then blocked that was not called a GT. Chauncey was mugged two possessions prior to the final shot without a call. On the huge shot the Bulls hit to tie the game, Kenyon Martin was held by Noah which allowed Hinrich to get the rebound. (in fact, i think it's the play you were talking about with Nene. Martin gets mugged, the ball gets tipped out, Nene grabs Miller, Hinrich ends up with the ball, somehow no foul is called on either team resulting in Salmons getting a wide open three pointer that he hit to tie the game up. Every single thing in that possession went the Bulls way, if they'd called the foul on Nene, it is two shot and Denver still has the lead at the end of the possession.)

Travels were horrible. The Nuggets attacked the hoop all night long and didn't get any calls for it. (beat the Bulls in the paint 46-34, yet only shot 5 more FT for the game)

I don't care how long replay takes, get the call right. The right call was made on the final shot. Denver wins.

Bulls play in Denver in 11 days, they'll have their shot for revenge.

One last note on the Bulls -

They are a much better team than I thought they were. They need Rose to attack the basket more. He was mainly a jump shooter last night and did well. . . but their inside game is essentially rebounding a miss and putting it back in. I know they don't have a true post presence, but with that being the case, they need to play some pick and roll dives at the basket. If they have an off night with the jump shot, they can be beat by any team in this league. (assuming the style I watched them play with last night is an accurate portrayal)

Also, I've said this before, but I love Ty Lawson. I'm fully convinced he's going to be a star in this league.

I'm a huge believer in Ty Lawson and expressed that in the draft thread. I thought he was the 2nd best player behind Griffin. Denver got an absolute steal with him and he should be the starting PG and possible all star in 2 years.

I agree. They are a really good defensive team. We missed Deng a lot last year. I think he did a solid job on Carmelo last night as well as Lebron the week before. While the loss of Gordon hurt us offensively, it made the team much better on defense. Gordon would just get abused night in and night out. Our problem right now is depth. With Tyrus Thomas and Aaron Grey out, we don't have a deep rotation inside. Will really hurt us on back to back nights.

I've been most impressed that they are winning while being a rather poor shooting team. Hinrich and Salmons have both been off their game early this year and can only get better. It'd be real interesting to see what happens if we are able to plug a guy like Wade or Bosh into the team next year.

And I agree with Lawson. Great spot for him to play behind Chauncey for a year or two. Never understand why NBA teams ignore college performance in these drafts. Lawson was a stud in college and made that NC team what it was.

The backboard LED lights are tied in to the official time. They aren't human controlled.

The rule states clear and conclusive evidence to overturn the call. It also states they only get 2 minutes to do so. The rules weren't followed in the decision, but hey, it's the NBA. We've seen the integrity of their officiating over the last few years.

The lights and shot clock are only active on the end of the team with the ball. They swap back and forth each possession.

I've honestly never paid attention to that, but it was clear that's what it was last night.

RainMaker,

I'm sorry, but there was no question that shot didn't get off last night. The top angle confirms it. The Denver feed had a perfect picture showing it.

I hate the refs in the NBA. Always have. I've even been on record as being a conspiracy theorist on NBA officiating.

Last night? On the final shot, they got it right. Period. I don't care if it took 10 minutes, 10 seconds 5 minutes. . . the job was to get the call right. I'd be saying this if it went the other way. In an NBA game, there are always about 8 calls a game a blind man could see that the refs miss. There are another 15-20 subjective calls that even themselves out unless you are playing the Lakers, in which case they get 75-80% of them. :) Then there are the ones they have the capability to use replay to look at.

They got this call right. I don't know how you can view it any other way. At the end of the day, I never would want the Nuggets to win simply because it took them too much time to look at the replay or they didn't have access to all the angles involved. That's cheap. Take your time. Look at every angle. Get the call right.

If that's the case, then it's my bad. Not sure why ESPN kept showing the photo as evidence of whether the ball left his hand before the lights went on.

I think the Nuggets should have won due to the fact I think it's impossibe for them to grab a rebound and call timeout in 0.3 seconds. But I don't think that shot should be overturned as it was simply too close and not indisputable evidence in the two minutes the refs are allowed to use.

The first part is a rule. If a rebounder catches the ball cleanly, .3 goes off the clock.

As far as the second, I'll say it one more time, get the call right. Look at every angle. Look at every replay. Take 5 minutes or 10. When you are done, make sure the right call was made.

I want to make sure I understand what you are saying here. Are you saying that you'd want the Bulls to win a game simply because the replay booth couldn't get the right angle to the refs in 2 minutes? That you'd rather have the Bulls win a game when a replay angle clearly showed they shouldn't have won?

If that's your opinion, I'm ok with it. I'm also very much against it. The refs got the call right in this case. That's all I care about. I don't care if it's the Lakers, Celtics, Nuggets, Bulls or Magic involved. Take your time and make the correct call.

No, I'm saying I want rules to be enforced. For instance, the Hinrich foul on Billups happened at 1.1 seconds, not 0.6. They never reviewed that despite reviewing the time on the rebound/timeout and a tipped ball on the previous series.

Listen, I don't care about the result, I just want the rules to be in place and universally enforced. The NBA has had a lot of issues with officiating and even had an official alter outcomes of games years. You would think that they would want their rules to be universally enforced.

I agree that the refs should make the right call no matter how long it takes. But that is not what is in the rulebook. What happens next week if officials do follow the rules and it screws over a team?

Shack is Baq!!!

I guess the Cavs beat the Magic. Nice to see JJ Hickson crack the starting lineup. He's in line to be the Franchise player in about 8 months.

I guess the Raps are gonna be a very frustrating team to watch this year.

Hornets fire Byron Scott today. He shouldn't have been back this year at all after that 58-point figurative middle finger to Hornets fans in the '09 playoffs.

Hmm. Apparently for the past 3-5 years Shaq has been banging Gilbert Arenas' woman.

Even so, it's pretty amazing that they'd been able to win at all with the shitty, shallow talent they have had in uniform, save a couple of pieces.

The win/loss record for his entire tenure was about where it should be given the talent and given average/above average coaching. In many ways the depth of talent has been shallow under his tenure, but a uniquely elite PG makes those kind of players better even with mediocre coaching. Scott lost this team, and there was more than enough talent for the team not to tank in the playoffs last year and to start this regular season. Scott can be a great coach at times, but his extreme stubbornness adds to his teams' inconsistencies, rather than serve as an anchor for team success.

I realize the NBA has had these rules for years and there's no point arguing about them.... but there's no way you can catch and shoot in 0.3 seconds, or grab a rebound and call timeout (which can't happen until you have possession) in 0.3 seconds.

Yes. Scott was not a bad coach, but only the great ones escape the "team stops responding after a certain amount of time" syndrome. He is definitely not great, and we had a classic case of that syndrome on this team. I think Bill Simmons pegged its origins as early as last November when he sat behind the Hornets' bench at a Clippers game. Move had to be made -- should've been done in the offseason.

I get the firing and agree it should have happened in the offseason. I can't for the life of me understand bringing back Tim Floyd as an assistant. So is Bower just a figurehead while Tim Floyd coaches the team behind the scenes?

Yay to the Lakers beating the Suns handily.

Kobe and Bynum are damn impressive so far, i really love watching this this new non-chucking (in terms of long range shots) version of Bryant :)
Best perimeter scorer in the game still.
And Bynum looks hella confident, let´s see what happens when him and Gasol have to share the space again.

It's really ridiculous to watch Kobe now. He does all his work without the ball, and when he finally gets that entry pass, it's all just a matter of him making an easy shot.

I get the impression Floyd will have a larger role than the typical assistant, even top assistant. Bower was an assistant coach under Floyd in 2004, and having never been a head coach, he hired him back for guidance.

Basically Scott would've been fired after last season but Shinn didn't want to pay the last year on his contract as well as a new coach's contract. So this was always going to be a wasted year -- either with a lame duck, tuned-out Byron Scott, or now with the Mickey Mouse temporary combo of Bower + Floyd. They will need to make a serious hire this offseason or risk Chris Paul's wrath.

Now we really get to see the depth on the Hornets. Chris Paul was carried off the court with a injury.

Darren Collison, thrown to the fire?

Well, the Cavs have been banging everything else Wizards-related for the last 3-5 years, so now we know why they picked up Shaq.

He got game:

hxxp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWkhvdCjUSs

Also good to see melo not go 8-25 again. No Anthony Carter helps. Also helps that JR has found his stroke. Lakers off a b2b, but the Nuggets have already had 4 back to backs this year. (overall record in them is 5-3, both games with at least a day of rest are wins thus far)

Important stretch for the Nuggets coming up. 7 of 9 games at home and they'll likely be favored in 9 straight games. (the road games are the Clipper and TWolves)

FWIW: I know Kobe was tired, but Afflalo defended him as well as any Denver Nugget I've ever seen. He didn't foul, contested every shot, didn't go for the pump fakes, kept him out of the lane. Thanks again to Dumars. I love this guy.

Nellie lineup watch : Curry played 2 minutes (!!) tonight off the bench.

I hate Don Nelson :) And this is only partly fantasy game related ;)

Randolph plays 6 minues ... Now, Moore played 16. That´s 22. That leaves 26 minutes with Jackson as your tallest player. Only in Nellie-land ...

They beat the knicks though, who are just laughable, period.

Greg Oden is kinda good. Still not exactly heavily featured and the numbers might seem modest still but he´s definitely playing smarter more alert basketball, has a few nice looking Post moves, is actually showing to be a good passer, doesn´t throw it away and of course is among the best rebounders and shot blockers in the league.
As for the cold, hard facts : 10/9 with 2.3 blocks in 24 minutes, only 1 TO in the last 4 games where he was in foul trouble only once (2 of the other 4 games were blowouts thus less minutes there)
If he can get his minutes into the high 20s, low 30s consistently he could end up at about 13/11 with 2.5-3 BPG for the season i reckon :)
But Przybilla averages about 8 boards in under 19 minutes a game as well and is a top notch defender, so he propably won´t play a ton in the regular season no matter what and i approve of that.