*NBA THREAD* Abe will be missed (11 Viewers)

[Cliff Clavin]

How do people tolerate a league where there are teams like the bucks and Charlotte which simply cannot compete?

there's been 8 different teams (if i count right) that have won championships in the last 30 years

in the nfl there have been 8 in the last 11 or 12

its a by product of a small number of players on the team, you really only need 2 studs to win, The Lakers, Celtics, Spurs, Pistons and Heat hold most of the titles the last 33 years.

Plus the league likes to feature the marquee teams , and its odd that the marquee teams always get the marquee players

Orlando, New Orleans, Seattle and Cleveland are marquee teams?

 

[B-Deep]

How do people tolerate a league where there are teams like the bucks and Charlotte which simply cannot compete?

there's been 8 different teams (if i count right) that have won championships in the last 30 years

in the nfl there have been 8 in the last 11 or 12

its a by product of a small number of players on the team, you really only need 2 studs to win, The Lakers, Celtics, Spurs, Pistons and Heat hold most of the titles the last 33 years.

Plus the league likes to feature the marquee teams , and its odd that the marquee teams always get the marquee players

it just makes the bucks fans seem like Don Quixote

 

[dutch]

How do people tolerate a league where there are teams like the bucks and Charlotte which simply cannot compete?

there's been 8 different teams (if i count right) that have won championships in the last 30 years

in the nfl there have been 8 in the last 11 or 12

fyi, # of different organizations to win championships since 1980:

NFL- 19

NHL- 16

MLB- 15

NBA- 9

 

[pollardsvision]

CLE just signed their best free agent ever.....Andrew Bynum

 

[B-Deep]

the tanking thing sucks too

i mean SUCKS hard

what do people think of giving extra weight to teams that have been in the lottery for consecutive years? Or time in the lottery in the past X years?

that may keep teams like the lakers or celtics from mailing in a season to try and get the one key player, as the perennially bad teams will have a greater chance

 

[TobiasFunke]

How do people tolerate a league where there are teams like the bucks and Charlotte which simply cannot compete?

there's been 8 different teams (if i count right) that have won championships in the last 30 years

in the nfl there have been 8 in the last 11 or 12

How do people tolerate leagues where the playoffs are such a complete crapshoot that mediocre .500ish teams like the 2011-12 Giants, 2011-12 Kings and 2006 Cardinals can win the championship?

There are a number of reasons that there are fewer champions in the NBA than in other sports. Some of it has to do with the smaller rosters/lineups. Some of it has to do with the impact of market size. But a lot of it has to do with the nature of the sport and its playoff system. When you build an elite franchise, you win a lot of titles, because you have a seven game series and each game has about 100 possessions on each end, so the cream always rises to the top. Contrast that with the NFL, where we've seen 10-6 and 9-7 teams win the Super Bowl over the last few years. Or the NHL, which is just fundamentally flawed. 8 seeds beat 1 seeds all the time. Come on. That's dumb and everyone knows it. "Our shots bounced off skates at a more fortunate angle than yours! We are the champions!"

If you like sports where the championship basically amounts to a spin at a roulette wheel, cool. To each their own. Personally, I like sports like baseball and basketball where the only way to build a champion is to slowly and patiently accumulate talent until you're one of the best teams in the league.

 

[Cliff Clavin]

Monta and the Mavs working on a 3 year deal...

Seriously, what they #### are they thinking in Dallas?

 

[bicycle_seat_sniffer]

How do people tolerate a league where there are teams like the bucks and Charlotte which simply cannot compete?

there's been 8 different teams (if i count right) that have won championships in the last 30 years

in the nfl there have been 8 in the last 11 or 12

its a by product of a small number of players on the team, you really only need 2 studs to win, The Lakers, Celtics, Spurs, Pistons and Heat hold most of the titles the last 33 years.

Plus the league likes to feature the marquee teams , and its odd that the marquee teams always get the marquee players

Orlando, New Orleans, Seattle and Cleveland are marquee teams?

1 title among them teams ever, and how many finals appearances? 5 counting the sonics & OKC as a 1 franchise?

any marquee player those franchises get are gone soon

 

[B-Deep]

How do people tolerate a league where there are teams like the bucks and Charlotte which simply cannot compete?

there's been 8 different teams (if i count right) that have won championships in the last 30 years

in the nfl there have been 8 in the last 11 or 12

How do people tolerate leagues where the playoffs are such a complete crapshoot that mediocre .500ish teams like the 2011-12 Giants, 2011-12 Kings and 2006 Cardinals can win the championship?

There are a number of reasons that there are fewer champions in the NBA than in other sports. Some of it has to do with the smaller rosters/lineups. Some of it has to do with the impact of market size. But a lot of it has to do with the nature of the sport and its playoff system. When you build an elite franchise, you win a lot of titles, because you have a seven game series and each game has about 100 possessions on each end, so the cream always rises to the top. Contrast that with the NFL, where we've seen 10-6 and 9-7 teams win the Super Bowl over the last few years. Or the NHL, which is just fundamentally flawed. 8 seeds beat 1 seeds all the time. Come on. That's dumb and everyone knows it. "Our shots bounced off skates at a more fortunate angle than yours! We are the champions!"

If you like sports where the championship basically amounts to a spin at a roulette wheel, cool. To each their own. Personally, I like sports like baseball and basketball where the only way to build a champion is to slowly and patiently accumulate talent until you're one of the best teams in the league.

you mean the only way to build is to be a favored franchise and spend more money

 

[bicycle_seat_sniffer]

How do people tolerate a league where there are teams like the bucks and Charlotte which simply cannot compete?

there's been 8 different teams (if i count right) that have won championships in the last 30 years

in the nfl there have been 8 in the last 11 or 12

How do people tolerate leagues where the playoffs are such a complete crapshoot that mediocre .500ish teams like the 2011-12 Giants, 2011-12 Kings and 2006 Cardinals can win the championship?

There are a number of reasons that there are fewer champions in the NBA than in other sports. Some of it has to do with the smaller rosters/lineups. Some of it has to do with the impact of market size. But a lot of it has to do with the nature of the sport and its playoff system. When you build an elite franchise, you win a lot of titles, because you have a seven game series and each game has about 100 possessions on each end, so the cream always rises to the top. Contrast that with the NFL, where we've seen 10-6 and 9-7 teams win the Super Bowl over the last few years. Or the NHL, which is just fundamentally flawed. 8 seeds beat 1 seeds all the time. Come on. That's dumb and everyone knows it. "Our shots bounced off skates at a more fortunate angle than yours! We are the champions!"

If you like sports where the championship basically amounts to a spin at a roulette wheel, cool. To each their own. Personally, I like sports like baseball and basketball where the only way to build a champion is to slowly and patiently accumulate talent until you're one of the best teams in the league.

there is nothing slow about how basketball builds their championships. The Heat? the Lakers? they bought em. please TF.

 

[B-Deep]

over the long term if you are not a lakers or celtics fan you are probably being foolish, unless you live in an NBA city and your location drives your loyalty

over the shorter term the heat make sense

hey, i grew up a lakers fan (and probably will be again after Kobe leaves), so i always thought it ruled, but for bucks fans and wizard fans it has to be a tough pill to swallow

 

[TobiasFunke]

How do people tolerate a league where there are teams like the bucks and Charlotte which simply cannot compete?

there's been 8 different teams (if i count right) that have won championships in the last 30 years

in the nfl there have been 8 in the last 11 or 12

How do people tolerate leagues where the playoffs are such a complete crapshoot that mediocre .500ish teams like the 2011-12 Giants, 2011-12 Kings and 2006 Cardinals can win the championship?

There are a number of reasons that there are fewer champions in the NBA than in other sports. Some of it has to do with the smaller rosters/lineups. Some of it has to do with the impact of market size. But a lot of it has to do with the nature of the sport and its playoff system. When you build an elite franchise, you win a lot of titles, because you have a seven game series and each game has about 100 possessions on each end, so the cream always rises to the top. Contrast that with the NFL, where we've seen 10-6 and 9-7 teams win the Super Bowl over the last few years. Or the NHL, which is just fundamentally flawed. 8 seeds beat 1 seeds all the time. Come on. That's dumb and everyone knows it. "Our shots bounced off skates at a more fortunate angle than yours! We are the champions!"

If you like sports where the championship basically amounts to a spin at a roulette wheel, cool. To each their own. Personally, I like sports like baseball and basketball where the only way to build a champion is to slowly and patiently accumulate talent until you're one of the best teams in the league.

there is nothing slow about how basketball builds their championships. The Heat? the Lakers? they bought em. please TF.

You have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.

The Heat- who are a special case- started clearing cap space 3-4 years before their current title run to set up their free agent binge. And that's by far the quickest build for a champion in recent years.

The three best players on the Lakers' most recent two titles were (1) drafted in 1997, (2) acquired by virtue of a savvy second-round pick made in 2007 who ultimately turned out to be good enough to be traded for an all-star power forward from another team, and (3) drafted 10th overall as a 17 year old high school project in 2005,

Any other dumb examples?

 

[Cliff Clavin]

How do people tolerate a league where there are teams like the bucks and Charlotte which simply cannot compete?

there's been 8 different teams (if i count right) that have won championships in the last 30 years

in the nfl there have been 8 in the last 11 or 12

its a by product of a small number of players on the team, you really only need 2 studs to win, The Lakers, Celtics, Spurs, Pistons and Heat hold most of the titles the last 33 years.

Plus the league likes to feature the marquee teams , and its odd that the marquee teams always get the marquee players

Orlando, New Orleans, Seattle and Cleveland are marquee teams?

1 title among them teams ever, and how many finals appearances? 5 counting the sonics & OKC as a 1 franchise?

any marquee player those franchises get are gone soon

I was simply countering your point of "Plus the league likes to feature the marquee teams , and its odd that the marquee teams always get the marquee players".

 

[bicycle_seat_sniffer]

How do people tolerate a league where there are teams like the bucks and Charlotte which simply cannot compete?

there's been 8 different teams (if i count right) that have won championships in the last 30 years

in the nfl there have been 8 in the last 11 or 12

How do people tolerate leagues where the playoffs are such a complete crapshoot that mediocre .500ish teams like the 2011-12 Giants, 2011-12 Kings and 2006 Cardinals can win the championship?

There are a number of reasons that there are fewer champions in the NBA than in other sports. Some of it has to do with the smaller rosters/lineups. Some of it has to do with the impact of market size. But a lot of it has to do with the nature of the sport and its playoff system. When you build an elite franchise, you win a lot of titles, because you have a seven game series and each game has about 100 possessions on each end, so the cream always rises to the top. Contrast that with the NFL, where we've seen 10-6 and 9-7 teams win the Super Bowl over the last few years. Or the NHL, which is just fundamentally flawed. 8 seeds beat 1 seeds all the time. Come on. That's dumb and everyone knows it. "Our shots bounced off skates at a more fortunate angle than yours! We are the champions!"

If you like sports where the championship basically amounts to a spin at a roulette wheel, cool. To each their own. Personally, I like sports like baseball and basketball where the only way to build a champion is to slowly and patiently accumulate talent until you're one of the best teams in the league.

there is nothing slow about how basketball builds their championships. The Heat? the Lakers? they bought em. please TF.

You have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.

The Heat- who are a special case- started clearing cap space 3-4 years before their current title run to set up their free agent binge. And that's by far the quickest build for a champion in recent years.

The three best players on the Lakers' most recent two titles were (1) drafted in 1997, (2) acquired by virtue of a savvy second-round pick made in 2007 who ultimately turned out to be good enough to be traded for an all-star power forward from another team, and (3) drafted 10th overall as a 17 year old high school project in 2005,

Any other dumb examples?

rollseyes

Yeah the garnett and Gasol trades are totally legit.

Ill give the spurs some credit, they lucked into the #1 pick twice, got once in a generation talent at the 5/4 spot and drafted well internationally.

How did the Lakers get Shaq again refresh my memory, oh yeah, he just waltz over there.

 

[Moe.]

over the long term if you are not a lakers or celtics fan you are probably being foolish, unless you live in an NBA city and your location drives your loyalty

over the shorter term the heat make sense

hey, i grew up a lakers fan (and probably will be again after Kobe leaves), so i always thought it ruled, but for bucks fans and wizard fans it has to be a tough pill to swallow

Is the only goal to root for a team that wins a title? What if you just really like basketball and enjoy watching it played at the highest level?

 

[B-Deep]

sorry, didn;t mean to start a mini war

i legitimately thought people would think a little more parity would be good

 

[Slapdash]

sorry, didn;t mean to start a mini war

i legitimately thought people would think a little more parity would be good

Meh. I mainly follow european soccer and college football who seem to have even worse parity.

 

[B-Deep]

what about my anti tanking idea?

 

[TobiasFunke]

How do people tolerate a league where there are teams like the bucks and Charlotte which simply cannot compete?

there's been 8 different teams (if i count right) that have won championships in the last 30 years

in the nfl there have been 8 in the last 11 or 12

How do people tolerate leagues where the playoffs are such a complete crapshoot that mediocre .500ish teams like the 2011-12 Giants, 2011-12 Kings and 2006 Cardinals can win the championship?

There are a number of reasons that there are fewer champions in the NBA than in other sports. Some of it has to do with the smaller rosters/lineups. Some of it has to do with the impact of market size. But a lot of it has to do with the nature of the sport and its playoff system. When you build an elite franchise, you win a lot of titles, because you have a seven game series and each game has about 100 possessions on each end, so the cream always rises to the top. Contrast that with the NFL, where we've seen 10-6 and 9-7 teams win the Super Bowl over the last few years. Or the NHL, which is just fundamentally flawed. 8 seeds beat 1 seeds all the time. Come on. That's dumb and everyone knows it. "Our shots bounced off skates at a more fortunate angle than yours! We are the champions!"

If you like sports where the championship basically amounts to a spin at a roulette wheel, cool. To each their own. Personally, I like sports like baseball and basketball where the only way to build a champion is to slowly and patiently accumulate talent until you're one of the best teams in the league.

there is nothing slow about how basketball builds their championships. The Heat? the Lakers? they bought em. please TF.

You have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.

The Heat- who are a special case- started clearing cap space 3-4 years before their current title run to set up their free agent binge. And that's by far the quickest build for a champion in recent years.

The three best players on the Lakers' most recent two titles were (1) drafted in 1997, (2) acquired by virtue of a savvy second-round pick made in 2007 who ultimately turned out to be good enough to be traded for an all-star power forward from another team, and (3) drafted 10th overall as a 17 year old high school project in 2005,

Any other dumb examples?

rollseyes

Yeah the garnett and Gasol trades are totally legit.

Ill give the spurs some credit, they lucked into the #1 pick twice, got once in a generation talent at the 5/4 spot and drafted well internationally.

How did the Lakers get Shaq again refresh my memory, oh yeah, he just waltz over there.

Oh, sorry. I mistook you for someone who has the slightest ####ing clue what he was talking about. My bad.

 

[Bogart]

Monta and the Mavs working on a 3 year deal...

Seriously, what they #### are they thinking in Dallas?

Rebounding and defense are underrated.

 

[fatguyinalittlecoat]

what about my anti tanking idea?

Getting rid of the draft and just making everyone a free agent would also eliminate tanking.

 

[Abraham]

Like cliff, in absolutely fine with the best team winning most of the time. It makes the season feel a bit more important. I won't remember the 2012 Nfl season with the ravens being the best team. But I'll remember the heat and their war with the spurs for a long time. It's all relative - sure, cheering for a bad team isn't fun all the time, but the nba more than other sports allows you to see amazing play even from bad teams. For all his flaws, monta Ellis is fun to watch a few times each year when he's feeling it.

 

[TobiasFunke]

sorry, didn;t mean to start a mini war

i legitimately thought people would think a little more parity would be good

Nah, your questions were totally reasonable. People forget about the role the playoff structure and the nature of the game play in deciding the champion. Basketball is the only sport of the four major ones where the elite teams are pretty much guaranteed to roll through anyone who isn't an elite team in the playoffs. Hockey is pretty much a crapshoot, as is baseball (although baseball makes up for it by having a more selective process for making the playoffs), and football only has one-game playoffs in each round. Parity is just as much about the nature of the game and the playoff structure as it is about certain teams having certain advantages.

It's the trolls who come looking for an argument like BSS that are the problem, not posts like yours.

 

[B-Deep]

what about my anti tanking idea?

Getting rid of the draft and just making everyone a free agent would also eliminate tanking.

that would just make the elite teams more elite

 

[B-Deep]

sorry, didn;t mean to start a mini war

i legitimately thought people would think a little more parity would be good

Nah, your questions were totally reasonable. People forget about the role the playoff structure and the nature of the game play in deciding the champion. Basketball is the only sport of the four major ones where the elite teams are pretty much guaranteed to roll through anyone who isn't an elite team in the playoffs. Hockey is pretty much a crapshoot, as is baseball (although baseball makes up for it by having a more selective process for making the playoffs), and football only has one-game playoffs in each round. It's just as much about the nature of the game and the playoff structure as it is about certain teams having certain advantages.

It's the trolls who come looking for an argument like BSS that are the problem, not posts like yours.

my issue is the elite teams stay elite for long periods, and i am not certain it is quality of the front office as much as name/location of the team that makes them elite

i think hockey and the NBA have too many playoff teams, and i think the nfl is going there

 

[Abraham]

what about my anti tanking idea?

Getting rid of the draft and just making everyone a free agent would also eliminate tanking.

Yup. Give the worst teams a greater allocation of rookie dollars so the worst team gets a pool of 50 million to assign to rookies for the life of the deal while Miami gets 3 million. So the sixers (worst team) can offer wiggins a 4 year, 50 million dollar deal while the heat could only offer 4/3.

 

[Leeroy Jenkins]

I think the fact there are max contracts, a salary cap that is now a bit harder, and much bigger tax penalties, should help smaller market teams attract and keep their FAs more often.

 

[B-Deep]

what about my anti tanking idea?

Getting rid of the draft and just making everyone a free agent would also eliminate tanking.

Yup. Give the worst teams a greater allocation of rookie dollars so the worst team gets a pool of 50 million to assign to rookies for the life of the deal while Miami gets 3 million. So the sixers (worst team) can offer wiggins a 4 year, 50 million dollar deal while the heat could only offer 4/3.

i have trouble evaluating this idea because the intricacies of the nba cap rules are not something i have studied...they frighten and confuse me

 

[B-Deep]

I think the fact there are max contracts, a salary cap that is now a bit harder, and much bigger tax penalties, should help smaller market teams attract and keep their FAs more often.

i suppose evaluating the league on the old ways when there is a new CBA is not fair

i can just see the lakers or celts falling into the lottery and hitting it big and setting themselves up for long term success again and it'll seem very odd to me

but as people pointed out, in most other sports 1 player cannot make quite the impact, that is a huge part of this dynamic

 

[bicycle_seat_sniffer]

sorry, didn;t mean to start a mini war

i legitimately thought people would think a little more parity would be good

more parity would be great, this just isnt the league for it

 

[Cliff Clavin]

Monta and the Mavs working on a 3 year deal...

Seriously, what they #### are they thinking in Dallas?

Rebounding and defense are underrated.

And having anything other than guards. I think they're up to 6 FA guards already.

 

[Abraham]

Harris, Ellis, Calderon, Mekel... Who else?

 

[TobiasFunke]

sorry, didn;t mean to start a mini war

i legitimately thought people would think a little more parity would be good

Nah, your questions were totally reasonable. People forget about the role the playoff structure and the nature of the game play in deciding the champion. Basketball is the only sport of the four major ones where the elite teams are pretty much guaranteed to roll through anyone who isn't an elite team in the playoffs. Hockey is pretty much a crapshoot, as is baseball (although baseball makes up for it by having a more selective process for making the playoffs), and football only has one-game playoffs in each round. It's just as much about the nature of the game and the playoff structure as it is about certain teams having certain advantages.

It's the trolls who come looking for an argument like BSS that are the problem, not posts like yours.

my issue is the elite teams stay elite for long periods, and i am not certain it is quality of the front office as much as name/location of the team that makes them elite

i think hockey and the NBA have too many playoff teams, and i think the nfl is going there

I think that's only true of the Lakers, and even there it's probably to a lesser degree than casual fans realize- I used to think the same thing about their unfair advantages and the dumb lack of parity until I started following more closely. Like I said, they still had to do things like draft Kobe (although he kind of forced his way to them), then choose him over Shaq, which at the time was against the conventional wisdom, and then draft Marc Gasol, one of the all-time second round steals, for the trade with his brother. They've really only tried the route where they are simply trying to "buy" a title with money and their cache twice- 2004 and last season- and both times it failed

Who else has been elite for a long period? I think for most of them it's savvy front offices and lucking into superstar talent more than the cache of the names.

Anyway, I do hear you, I used to think about the NBA the exact same way, and said some of the same things in this thread. But the more I learn about it, the less I think that's the case. The Lakers still have an advantage over the field, but it's not THAT great of an advantage. A few others like the Knicks/Nets and the Heat also have small advantages in recruiting free agents, but its really not that much of an edge, and the new CBA really limits it.

 

[fatguyinalittlecoat]

what about my anti tanking idea?

Getting rid of the draft and just making everyone a free agent would also eliminate tanking.

that would just make the elite teams more elite

I'm unconvinced this is true. It would make smartly managed teams more elite. Teams with the most cap room would be able to get the best rookies. It wouldn't depend on ping pong balls or tanking or anything but talent evaluation.

 

[Cliff Clavin]

over the long term if you are not a lakers or celtics fan you are probably being foolish, unless you live in an NBA city and your location drives your loyalty

over the shorter term the heat make sense

hey, i grew up a lakers fan (and probably will be again after Kobe leaves), so i always thought it ruled, but for bucks fans and wizard fans it has to be a tough pill to swallow

sorry, didn;t mean to start a mini war

i legitimately thought people would think a little more parity would be good

Parity would be great but it is all but impossible in the NBA. As a Raptors fan, I know there is no title, or even title contention, on the horizon. I just like watching the game so much that it really doesn't matter. Basketball (and playoff Hockey) is the only sport that I can sit down and watch any two teams play and be entertained.

 

[Cliff Clavin]

Harris, Ellis, Calderon, Mekel... Who else?

Ellington... and I'm either missing one of that is it.

 

[Premier]

How do people tolerate a league where there are teams like the bucks and Charlotte which simply cannot compete?

there's been 8 different teams (if i count right) that have won championships in the last 30 years

in the nfl there have been 8 in the last 11 or 12

its a by product of a small number of players on the team, you really only need 2 studs to win, The Lakers, Celtics, Spurs, Pistons and Heat hold most of the titles the last 33 years.Plus the league likes to feature the marquee teams , and its odd that the marquee teams always get the marquee players

Orlando, New Orleans, Seattle and Cleveland are marquee teams?

1 title among them teams ever, and how many finals appearances? 5 counting the sonics & OKC as a 1 franchise?any marquee player those franchises get are gone soon

The Magic signed Grant Hill and Tmac when they were major, marquee free agents.

 

[Abraham]

"Parity would be great but it is all but impossible in the NBA. As a Raptors fan, I know there is no title, or even title contention, on the horizon. I just like watching the game so much that it really doesn't matter. Basketball (and playoff Hockey) is the only sport that I can sit down and watch any two teams play and be entertained. "

Agree 100%. I love baseball but only a few teams will draw my interest for more than an inning or two. Nfl? Same. But I'll watch any nba game. Even the two worst teams playing have some talent worth watching. For example , the last game of the year between the lowly cavs and lowly bobcats featured kyrie going for 24/10 and Kemba posting 24/7. The worst nba play is still entertaining 99% of the time.

 

[Good Posting Judge]

Bucks and Mavs need to make some deals.

 

[Leeroy Jenkins]

The Nets' payroll is around $101 million and their projected luxury-tax bill is around $83 million? So $184 million for the team next year excluding all other costs.

 

[Yo Mama]

Harris, Ellis, Calderon, Mekel... Who else?

Ellington... and I'm either missing one of that is it.

Not a FA, but they drafted Larkin.

 

[Slapdash]

The Nets' payroll is around $101 million and their projected luxury-tax bill is around $83 million? So $184 million for the team next year excluding all other costs.

Jay-Z has $184 million problems, but a lottery team ain't one.

 

[Kev4029]

Monta and the Mavs working on a 3 year deal...

Seriously, what they #### are they thinking in Dallas?

3/25 with incentives to bring it up to 30. They have made nothing but awful moves since they won the title.

 

[Good Posting Judge]

The Nets' payroll is around $101 million and their projected luxury-tax bill is around $83 million? So $184 million for the team next year excluding all other costs.

Jay-Z has $184 million problems, but a lottery team ain't one.

He actually sold his share, which was so small that it amounted to like $350,000. He's an agent now.

 

[Leeroy Jenkins]

The nets roster actually is pretty solid. Their window is short and staying healthy may be easier said than done, but that's a team with size, experience, ball handling, and shooting plus a decent bench with similar skills.

 

[Premier]

Yea getting AK is a big thing for the Nyets. I didn't think they could take down the Heat but I'm kind of re-thinking things now. That's a pretty great guy to have coming off your bench and he can definitely keep KG and PP rested now. They should all play about 30 minutes a game now.

 

[Good Posting Judge]

Yea getting AK is a big thing for the Nyets. I didn't think they could take down the Heat but I'm kind of re-thinking things now. That's a pretty great guy to have coming off your bench and he can definitely keep KG and PP rested now. They should all play about 30 minutes a game now.

Bosh/Wade healf and effectiveness will be a big factor. It's not like the Heat cake-walked past everyone this year.

 

[Leeroy Jenkins]

Yea getting AK is a big thing for the Nyets. I didn't think they could take down the Heat but I'm kind of re-thinking things now. That's a pretty great guy to have coming off your bench and he can definitely keep KG and PP rested now. They should all play about 30 minutes a game now.

Yea, they should have the second best odds to win it all, maybe 3rd behind SA, but on paper they are better than OKC, HOU, LAC, NYK, GSW.

 

[Instinctive]

Monta and the Mavs working on a 3 year deal...

Seriously, what they #### are they thinking in Dallas?

3/25 with incentives to bring it up to 30. They have made nothing but awful moves since they won the title.

:(

ETA: (That means I agree, and it makes me sad. I love Dirk and it makes me more sad.)

 

[Abraham]

Carlisle and Cuban aren't just signing guys for kicks. There has to be a plan - maybe super fast pace with dirk at center?

Right?