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Agreed w/ qualifications. I think if you'd watched him earlier in the year you'd be surprised by how far he has come especially offensively. He certainly isn't carrying the team on offense. But on Defense, while maybe "carry" isn't the right word, he was instrumental in shutting down the Mavs.
Sucks. He's been a beast this year, obviously. Hopefully he can play through it and keep the series competitive.
It's not even on his shotting hand.
Barnes did indeed pick up his player option to remain with the Lakers next season. He's a guy who should benefit from Brown becoming coach, except that his knee is still swelling up when he does anything.
Brown says the triangle is out, but they still will run sets at times. He sort of contradicted himself though saying it's still Kobe's team and they will get him to his sweet spots, but at the same time saying the offense will be tailored to the two 7-footers similar to the Spurs with Duncan and Admiral.
Check out #9 all time, Quentin Braxton.
Except every single piece of empirical data and statistics evidences the opposite. The league is flurrishing and interest is sky high. The players didn't break the rules and they've played the "right way". The NBA is blowing up and if they can get out of their own way stand to make bank for the next 5-10 years.
That effect could be peaking though. The diversity of the good teams is in decline. Lakers, Spurs, Mavericks are only really looking to be replaced by OKC in the West. Surely they'll be playoff teams for a few more, but the age of the teams will take a major toll to those once marquee franchises for a little while. OKC is small market and will not hold the interest of the coastal fan. Most of the rest of the West is a complete mess. The East is a crapshoot depending on how a few free agents fall.And there seems to be a lack of quality in the draft as well. Couple this with a CBA dilemma and it's not good.
Yeah I disagree. I think the Lakers, Spurs, Mavs, Bulls, Celts, and OKC are all in the same ballpark as the Heat. OKC is on the rise and Lakers are older but not old yet. Either way, if the Heat end up being a dynasty they shouldn't be any less revered than Celtics or Lakers of old.
They're going to draw a ton of casual fans and viewers with this strategy over the short term, no question. But will they sustain long term interest? To keep the league profitable you need to have all the franchises- or at least most of them- feel like there's hope for the future. That's one of the main things the NFL has going for it, and it's obviously the model for successful sports league.
Man, this has disaster written all over it.
hasn't really harmed the game to this point.. lots of examples throughout the years of loaded teams.
The NBA is the league with the least amount of parity if by parity you mean "any team can win it in any given year". But when you get to the creme de le creme you have 5-7 teams that are all very good. Very hard to parse out on paper who is better amongst heat/lakers/spurs/mavs/okc/bulls/celts. The Heat having Lebron, Wade, and Bosh doesn't effect parity b/c there was none between the haves and have nots to beginw ith.
Check out #9 all time, Quentin Braxton.
also, Raivio, father of the Gonzaga guard from a couple years ago? What I meant was less of a tangible thing. It's more about "hope for the future." We can spend 350+ pages debating the nuances of various role players and trade moves and cap space and defensive schemes and late-game playcalling, but the simple fact is this: if you're not lucky enough (and it is basically pure luck) to have at least one and in most cases two Hall of Fame caliber players on your roster, you're just not winning a championship. That sucks for fans of the other 20 or so teams in the league, and it shouldn't be like that. A hard cap will help- the current structure allows for too many exceptions that allow every team with a superstar the flexibility to build a quality supporting cast around him.
That's how I feel about it. I don't think he has a clue how to run an offense, and his top of the rotation perimeter players are a collection of old, injured and slow guys - is he really going to ask Kobe to kill himself on D for 40 minutes a night? Plus Brown sounds like a blithering idiot when he's not reading from a prepared statement. But as a Laker fan I have to hope for the best.
I don't think the problems of the NBA in the 70s had to do with parity. I think they had to do with the quality of play and terrible marketing and management and lingering racial issues.That said, I understand your point about the nature of a 5 man game. But there needs to be a reason to think that your team can excel even if you don't stumble into a Hall of Famer by pure dumb luck. A hard cap would help.
You had some great players going in the 70's. I don't get the complaints about quality of play. Watch a Bobcats/Timberwolves game and get back to me.I agree parity wasn't the problem. I just threw that out there to show parity != popularity. For the NBA the peak of popularity has coincided with when you had the biggest stars in the biggest towns winning big. When S.A. was winning championships, people were turning off the league. The Heat are going to be great for the league, just like Jordan and the Bulls were.'TobiasFunke said:
Great for the league short term, yes. But great for the individual franchises? What's the motivation for a fan of an Eastern Conference team to buy season tickets or follow their team closely for the next three years when there's virtually zero chance of even appearing in the Finals? Spend thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours on the off chance that there's an injury to Wade or James? If you get rid of the exceptions, at least a fan can hope that the Heat's lack of depth will give them an opening, but with those silly exceptions we all know that the Heat are only going to get better over the next couple years.
The Heat will obviously never be thought of like the Lakers or Celtics. If they somehow managed to win 6 of 8 titles, they would fall more in line with the Bulls of the 90s. Nobody is ever going to mistake them for one of the great all-time franchises in NBA history. That all said, things can change quickly. Wouldn't shock me to see Lebron win 2 or 3 rings, but Durant, Howard and many other great young players aren't that far behind. Things change fast. This time last year the Heat were just a non-descript first round loser.'shake zula said:
End of an era. I thought he had one more year left in that body (he was decent when healthy this year) but I guess not.
Why limit it to those 3 when there are teams in far worse shape than Houston right now.
He should have retired a couple of years ago. I wonder what he'll do next. Gotta believe he's going to balloon up faster than Barkley did now that he's done playing.Thanks Shaq for those 3 Laker titles! Those were good times.
Because they are solid teams without a star.
Shaq hasn't "played" in three years. I think he may get bigger but not much. I think he'll be dead in 10 years or so.
I can't get that line and "You got the wrong TV, Sillyhead." out of my brain.
If I were the NBA's alltime leading scorer, and there was a discussion about the best scorers of all time, I would sig a letter as such as well. Good for Kareem.Kareem writes an open letter scolding Scottie Pippen for not knowing that Wilt was a better scorer than Jordan. Kareem also reminds everyone that he's the nba's all time leading scorer.
If I were the NBA's alltime leading scorer, and there was a discussion about the best scorers of all time, I would sig a letter as such as well. Good for Kareem.Kareem writes an open letter scolding Scottie Pippen for not knowing that Wilt was a better scorer than Jordan. Kareem also reminds everyone that he's the nba's all time leading scorer.
Nothing wrong with tooting your own horn from time to time. It's not like this is Shawn Bradley pimping his work in the NBA. Kareem has earned the right to do things like this.
The first step to that is getting a real center so Bargnani can slide over.
That is true but not happening anytime soon. There just isn't many centers out there. Maybe they make a run at Chandler or Nene in free agency but they'll still need to play Bargnani at the 5 with the Amir and Davis both being undersized. Just getting to put in the effort on the defensive end would be a bonus. Getting him to box out his man or learn how to slide over and help are the key things.
Teams need superstars. Now I'm not convinced Derrick Williams is a superstar type player, but if the TWolves feel he has a good percentage to be then they should keep the 2nd pick and draft Williams. Doesn't matter if they have Love at PF.When you're not competing for a championship getting that first superstar is key. However, if they feel they could get players who have the potential and reasonable chance at being superstars at #4 then it makes it worth while to trade back and pick up the #8 pick.Basically, when you suck you should draft Best Player Available instead of need. This assumes they can separate their draft board into tiers with the Tier 1 consisting only Irving and Williams. The Wolves suck so acquiring quality assets is the most important thing.
Davis is 6' 10", 215. He could add some weight if they needed him at center, but he's a PF - and certainly not undersized there.
I meant undersized to play center; perfect size for PF. Davis has a pretty small frame. I don't see him bulking up very much.
I doubt a team with a high pick wants anything to do with him. He's got 4 years left at about $10M per. Not exactly what a rebuilding team is looking. He'd be a good fit on a team like Boston, Memphis and especially Orlando. Memphis being the only team with some assets that would interest Toronto (Mayo or Gay).Does Memphis laugh at Bargnani + 5th pick for Gay?
Bad deal for Raptors, IMO.
