*NBA THREAD* Abe will be missed (7 Viewers)

[Short Corner]

oof

He needs to be stopped.

Love how the bench did all of the heavy lifting to get them in it just to hand it to Kobe for the brick.

A leopard can't change his stripes [/EmmittSmith]

 

[Cliff Clavin]

Stephenson benched now?

 

[Craig_MiamiFL]

Dunno why they'd take on that contract after letting Isaiah Thomas2 walk for nothing, but Kings in talks with Nets about Deron Williams

 

[Craig_MiamiFL]

Stephenson benched now?

Lance Stephenson (hip) will not play until Christmas.
He is dealing with an injury to his pelvis and the Hornets won't have him for at least two more games following today. He should be considered questionable for Friday Dec. 26 against OKC. While he's out, Gary Neal, Gerald Henderson and Marvin Williams will benefit. None are worth owning in standard leagues, though. Dec 20 - 5:19 PM
Source: Rick Bonnell on Twitter

 

[General Malaise]

Blazers win again. Back to back road wins against the West.

 

[General Malaise]

oof

He needs to be stopped. Love how the bench did all of the heavy lifting to get them in it just to hand it to Kobe for the brick.

Glue factory time. This is worse than Brett Fabre's final year. Painful.

 

[AAABatteries]

Good game going on in Houston with the Hawks leading by 2 over Rockets.

 

[AAABatteries]

Not saying the refs are right or wrong but I'm not sure I've ever seen a road team get so many calls as the Hawks are getting.

 

[AAABatteries]

Wow - Hawks with back to back road wins against the Cavs and Rockets without Jeff Teague. I don't know how to feel about having a competent NBA team to root for.

 

[thecatch]

Dunno why they'd take on that contract after letting Isaiah Thomas2 walk for nothing, but Kings in talks with Nets about Deron Williams

I read the Kings offered Jason Thompson and Derrick Williams for Deron and Plumlee. That'd be a great deal for Sac IMO. Thompson has been a decent defender this year but he's overpaid.

 

[No. 16]

Dunno why they'd take on that contract after letting Isaiah Thomas2 walk for nothing, but Kings in talks with Nets about Deron Williams

It's pretty well established that Boogie didn't like playing with Isaiah. That's why they didn't try so hard to keep him around.

 

[Craig_MiamiFL]

Dunno why they'd take on that contract after letting Isaiah Thomas2 walk for nothing, but Kings in talks with Nets about Deron Williams

I read the Kings offered Jason Thompson and Derrick Williams for Deron and Plumlee. That'd be a great deal for Sac IMO. Thompson has been a decent defender this year but he's overpaid.

That'd be a fantastic deal lol. They'd be getting the 2 best players in the deal.

I don't see any way they get Plumlee personally.

 

[Cliff Clavin]

Dunno why they'd take on that contract after letting Isaiah Thomas2 walk for nothing, but Kings in talks with Nets about Deron Williams

I read the Kings offered Jason Thompson and Derrick Williams for Deron and Plumlee. That'd be a great deal for Sac IMO. Thompson has been a decent defender this year but he's overpaid.

That'd be a fantastic deal lol. They'd be getting the 2 best players in the deal.I don't see any way they get Plumlee personally.

To get rid of Williams and the $43M he's owed after this year, I'd be kind of surprised if they didn't have to give up Plumlee. They certainly won't get anything good for him and they don't have a single asset to send along with him other Plumlee.

 

[thecatch]

Dunno why they'd take on that contract after letting Isaiah Thomas2 walk for nothing, but Kings in talks with Nets about Deron Williams

I read the Kings offered Jason Thompson and Derrick Williams for Deron and Plumlee. That'd be a great deal for Sac IMO. Thompson has been a decent defender this year but he's overpaid.

That'd be a fantastic deal lol. They'd be getting the 2 best players in the deal.I don't see any way they get Plumlee personally.

To get rid of Williams and the $43M he's owed after this year, I'd be kind of surprised if they didn't have to give up Plumlee. They certainly won't get anything good for him and they don't have a single asset to send along with him other Plumlee.

Yeah Plumlee seems pretty critical given Collison has been as good or better than Williams at a fraction of the cost.

 

[Instinctive]

Monta have it all against backups too. Monta. Have. It. All.

 

[thecatch]

Kobe a solid 8/30 tonight.

 

[saintfool]

Kobe a solid 8/30 tonight.

you know it's a solid night for kobe when the sound of the "good job, good effort" kid can be heard throughout the arena.

 

[Premier]

I had to go look up the Magic score tonight to see what cliff was referring to in the thread title.

You may be overestimating my level of concern gb. They're at least two years and a new coach away.

 

[Moe.]

Anthony Davis was very pedestrian tonight. I think he's a little overrated.

 

[Moe.]

Put this kid in the dunk contest.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=1-7XvOoJ3cw

 

[Cliff Clavin]

I had to go look up the Magic score tonight to see what cliff was referring to in the thread title.

You may be overestimating my level of concern gb. They're at least two years and a new coach away.

Yes, but, Sixers.

 

[Good Posting Judge]

I had Orlando in teh Survivor for this weekend. Buncha jerks.

 

[TobiasFunke]

oof

He needs to be stopped.

Love how the bench did all of the heavy lifting to get them in it just to hand it to Kobe for the brick.

A couple weeks ago I said Kobe was the worst player in the NBA. You all thought I was kidding.

There are plenty of lesser talents of course, but there is nobody who does less to help a team win/more to make a team lose than Kobe. I'm not even sure it's close. Not really sure who's number two. Josh Smith maybe? Kendrick Perkins?

 

[Capella]

I had to go look up the Magic score tonight to see what cliff was referring to in the thread title.

You may be overestimating my level of concern gb. They're at least two years and a new coach away.

Yes, but, Sixers.

Yes, but, Jacque Vaughn.

 

[TobiasFunke]

oof

He needs to be stopped.

Love how the bench did all of the heavy lifting to get them in it just to hand it to Kobe for the brick.

A couple weeks ago I said Kobe was the worst player in the NBA. You all thought I was kidding.

There are plenty of lesser talents of course, but there is nobody who does less to help a team win/more to make a team lose than Kobe. I'm not even sure it's close. Not really sure who's number two. Josh Smith maybe? Kendrick Perkins?

Even a measured, pragmatic smart guy like Zach Lowe is just about there with Kobe

 

[SWC]

oof

He needs to be stopped.

Love how the bench did all of the heavy lifting to get them in it just to hand it to Kobe for the brick.

A couple weeks ago I said Kobe was the worst player in the NBA. You all thought I was kidding.

There are plenty of lesser talents of course, but there is nobody who does less to help a team win/more to make a team lose than Kobe. I'm not even sure it's close. Not really sure who's number two. Josh Smith maybe? Kendrick Perkins?

brandon jennings is one whole stinky bag of crapola brohan

 

[TobiasFunke]

oof

He needs to be stopped.

Love how the bench did all of the heavy lifting to get them in it just to hand it to Kobe for the brick.

A couple weeks ago I said Kobe was the worst player in the NBA. You all thought I was kidding.

There are plenty of lesser talents of course, but there is nobody who does less to help a team win/more to make a team lose than Kobe. I'm not even sure it's close. Not really sure who's number two. Josh Smith maybe? Kendrick Perkins?

brandon jennings is one whole stinky bag of crapola brohan

Yeah he belongs in the mix. He's basically the PG version of Kobe this season.

 

[SWC]

oof

He needs to be stopped.

Love how the bench did all of the heavy lifting to get them in it just to hand it to Kobe for the brick.

A couple weeks ago I said Kobe was the worst player in the NBA. You all thought I was kidding.

There are plenty of lesser talents of course, but there is nobody who does less to help a team win/more to make a team lose than Kobe. I'm not even sure it's close. Not really sure who's number two. Josh Smith maybe? Kendrick Perkins?

brandon jennings is one whole stinky bag of crapola brohan

Yeah he belongs in the mix. He's basically the PG version of Kobe this season.

one special thing that both brandon and kobme have is that no only do they hog the ball and take to many dumb shots but they also make the rest of the team disinterested in playing that is a special skill to ruin the will of your team and i think it places them above and beyond anyone else take that to the bank brohans

 

[Cliff Clavin]

oof

He needs to be stopped.

Love how the bench did all of the heavy lifting to get them in it just to hand it to Kobe for the brick.

A couple weeks ago I said Kobe was the worst player in the NBA. You all thought I was kidding.

There are plenty of lesser talents of course, but there is nobody who does less to help a team win/more to make a team lose than Kobe. I'm not even sure it's close. Not really sure who's number two. Josh Smith maybe? Kendrick Perkins?

Even a measured, pragmatic smart guy like Zach Lowe is just about there with Kobe

oof

He needs to be stopped.

Love how the bench did all of the heavy lifting to get them in it just to hand it to Kobe for the brick.

A couple weeks ago I said Kobe was the worst player in the NBA. You all thought I was kidding.

There are plenty of lesser talents of course, but there is nobody who does less to help a team win/more to make a team lose than Kobe. I'm not even sure it's close. Not really sure who's number two. Josh Smith maybe? Kendrick Perkins?

Even a measured, pragmatic smart guy like Zach Lowe is just about there with Kobe

Wow. That is shockingly terrible. I knew he was terrible but I didn't expect it to be that bad.

 

[TobiasFunke]

oof

He needs to be stopped.

Love how the bench did all of the heavy lifting to get them in it just to hand it to Kobe for the brick.

A couple weeks ago I said Kobe was the worst player in the NBA. You all thought I was kidding.

There are plenty of lesser talents of course, but there is nobody who does less to help a team win/more to make a team lose than Kobe. I'm not even sure it's close. Not really sure who's number two. Josh Smith maybe? Kendrick Perkins?

Even a measured, pragmatic smart guy like Zach Lowe is just about there with Kobe

Wow. That is shockingly terrible. I knew he was terrible but I didn't expect it to be that bad.

You actually have to give Kupchak and Scott a little credit for the bench and for the team's 8-19 record despite having no choice but to play an atrocious basketball player 30+ minutes a game and to let him take as many terrible shots as he wants.

 

[Juxtatarot]

oof

He needs to be stopped.

Love how the bench did all of the heavy lifting to get them in it just to hand it to Kobe for the brick.

A couple weeks ago I said Kobe was the worst player in the NBA. You all thought I was kidding.

There are plenty of lesser talents of course, but there is nobody who does less to help a team win/more to make a team lose than Kobe. I'm not even sure it's close. Not really sure who's number two. Josh Smith maybe? Kendrick Perkins?

Even a measured, pragmatic smart guy like Zach Lowe is just about there with Kobe

I suspect garbage time in blowouts impacts this to a decent degree -- when other teams' scrubs are playing the Lakers Kobe-less scrubs. Still, pretty terrible.

 

[TobiasFunke]

oof

He needs to be stopped.

Love how the bench did all of the heavy lifting to get them in it just to hand it to Kobe for the brick.

A couple weeks ago I said Kobe was the worst player in the NBA. You all thought I was kidding.

There are plenty of lesser talents of course, but there is nobody who does less to help a team win/more to make a team lose than Kobe. I'm not even sure it's close. Not really sure who's number two. Josh Smith maybe? Kendrick Perkins?

Even a measured, pragmatic smart guy like Zach Lowe is just about there with Kobe

I suspect garbage time in blowouts impacts this to a decent degree -- when other teams' scrubs are playing the Lakers Kobe-less scrubs. Still, pretty terrible.

You'd think so. But the few times I've watched the Lakers play they've been clearly better with Kobe on the bench regardless of situation. When you're shooting as poorly and as frequently as Kobe is and you're as awful defensively as he is, sometimes the noise that impacts the stats on the margins isn't really that significant.

Here's the one Lakers game where I watched every single possession carefully- check out the +/- numbers. And there was no garbage time in this one- in fact it was a four point game late in the fourth before Kobe happened. And you can do the same with other games too- here's last night's +/-, another close game where he was on the court until the end and closed with four straight turnovers or missed shots. In fact it's been a while since the Lakers had a game with a lot of garbage time.

I know people think we're talking about it too much but it's really fascinating considering the dynamics at work. It's a historically bad season, one of the worst in history, definitely one of the big stories of the season so far. The number of incredible searches you can do with it at basketball reference is limited only by your creativity. Lots of respected analysts have been discussing it at length, too.

BTW that Iverson season in that search was the "we talking bout practice?" one, so that's the company we're talking about.

 

[Good Posting Judge]

Where would Kobe rank himself amongst nba players, currently?

 

[Ted Lange as your Bartender]

Whoa

@SpearsNBAYahoo: The Pistons announce that they have waived Josh Smith. Wow.

 

[Captain Quinoa]

Where would Kobe rank himself amongst nba players, currently?

He's getting humble. So only twice as good as LeBron

 

[TobiasFunke]

Whoa

@SpearsNBAYahoo: The Pistons announce that they have waived Josh Smith. Wow.

Stan Van Gundy has some serious cojones

Team statement is excellent. Very generous of them to be so fair to Josh and give him his freedom to move forward.

 

[TobiasFunke]

Already seen Clippers and Cavs as suggested destinations once he clears waivers. I don't think Cavs would work- no way a first year head coach is gonna be able to rein him in and LeBron's mentoring plate is already too full. Clippers is a thought. They need to do something to mix it up- I don't think they're a contender this year as currently constructed, got a veteran coach and a solid core, might be worth a try.

 

[rodg12]

What about Houston? He could play the 4 in Houston next to Dwight.

 

[Gawain]

oof

He needs to be stopped.

Love how the bench did all of the heavy lifting to get them in it just to hand it to Kobe for the brick.

A couple weeks ago I said Kobe was the worst player in the NBA. You all thought I was kidding.

There are plenty of lesser talents of course, but there is nobody who does less to help a team win/more to make a team lose than Kobe. I'm not even sure it's close. Not really sure who's number two. Josh Smith maybe? Kendrick Perkins?

Even a measured, pragmatic smart guy like Zach Lowe is just about there with Kobe

I suspect garbage time in blowouts impacts this to a decent degree -- when other teams' scrubs are playing the Lakers Kobe-less scrubs. Still, pretty terrible.

You'd think so. But the few times I've watched the Lakers play they've been clearly better with Kobe on the bench regardless of situation. When you're shooting as poorly and as frequently as Kobe is and you're as awful defensively as he is, sometimes the noise that impacts the stats on the margins isn't really that significant.

Here's the one Lakers game where I watched every single possession carefully- check out the +/- numbers. And there was no garbage time in this one- in fact it was a four point game late in the fourth before Kobe happened. And you can do the same with other games too- here's last night's +/-, another close game where he was on the court until the end and closed with four straight turnovers or missed shots. In fact it's been a while since the Lakers had a game with a lot of garbage time.

I know people think we're talking about it too much but it's really fascinating considering the dynamics at work. It's a historically bad season, one of the worst in history, definitely one of the big stories of the season so far. The number of incredible searches you can do with it at basketball reference is limited only by your creativity. Lots of respected analysts have been discussing it at length, too.

BTW that Iverson season in that search was the "we talking bout practice?" one, so that's the company we're talking about.

That's impressive. Kobe currently is the only player in NBA history to average more than 20 FGA a game while posting a -W/S number.

 

[rodg12]

Or Dallas, maybe? Coming off the bench? Rondo is his best friend in the NBA.

 

[Kraft...]

how will the cap hit work for the team that signs him? Would it just be whatever he signs for or is there some residue from the Pistons deal?

 

[tom22406]

I thought the Kings were interested in him a few weeks back?

 

[rodg12]

how will the cap hit work for the team that signs him? Would it just be whatever he signs for or is there some residue from the Pistons deal?

Whatever he signs for. Pistons contract won't come into play for the team that signs him. Pistons can use stretch provision to distribute remaining money...

Zach Lowe ‏@ZachLowe_NBA 10m10 minutes ago

If no one claims Smith (ha!), I believe DET pays out his full salary this season, can stretch remaining $27M over 5 years -- $5.4M/year

 

[TobiasFunke]

Or Dallas, maybe? Coming off the bench? Rondo is his best friend in the NBA.

Kinda like this too. The defense and rebounding could use some help and the offense/spacing is so good that maybe he wouldn't mess it up too badly. Plus they're thin at PF after moving Wright. Plus you've got a solid veteran corps and coach in place to rein him in.

 

[Kev4029]

Or Dallas, maybe? Coming off the bench? Rondo is his best friend in the NBA.

Kinda like this too. The defense and rebounding could use some help and the offense/spacing is so good that maybe he wouldn't mess it up too badly. Plus they're thin at PF after moving Wright. Plus you've got a solid veteran corps and coach in place to rein him in.

I've always viewed Rondo as kind of a diva too, I don't know if they want to try to incorporate both those two at the same time.

 

[TobiasFunke]

Or Dallas, maybe? Coming off the bench? Rondo is his best friend in the NBA.

Kinda like this too. The defense and rebounding could use some help and the offense/spacing is so good that maybe he wouldn't mess it up too badly. Plus they're thin at PF after moving Wright. Plus you've got a solid veteran corps and coach in place to rein him in.

I've always viewed Rondo as kind of a diva too, I don't know if they want to try to incorporate both those two at the same time.

Also a good point. Would we weird to shake up team for the second time in a span of a week or two.

Sounds like the Kings are interested, which seems like a nightmare.

 

[Capella]

Why would a contending team want to add him? He's a lunatic and he sucks.

 

[Abraham]

He lives in Houston in the summer and is friends with Dwight.

 

[TobiasFunke]

Why would a contending team want to add him? He's a lunatic and he sucks.

He's a talented defender and rebounder and he's cheap. If it doesn't work out, no harm done.

That actually kind of makes me wonder if one of the 5 Eastern Conference playoff locks should take a shot on him, since they really have very little at stake in the regular season. Not sure he fits with any of them, though. Need a veteran coach, a strong locker room and room in the frontcourt. Unfortunately that only leaves the Wiz, which would be a nightmare pairing. Smith on a team with poor shot selection is not what either side needs.

 

[Bobcat10]

Why would a contending team want to add him? He's a lunatic and he sucks.

That's the best part about this thread. He's one of the most bashed players here, right or wrong, but now that's he's released all these contenders will benefit from all the baggage he brings with him.