***Official NBA Thread***

[duffer]

Hey prowler what the hell are you guys doing? Hughes for Tim Thomas, Jerome James and Anthony Roberson!?!?

Hughes is a major bad contract but he is a 2 who defends and doesn't kill their dream of having 2010 cap space but Thomas is just a fat lump with a jumper and James is terrible. Roberson would make a laughable Euroleague player let alone an NBA player. You'd obviously have a better idea of what your team needs but I can't get my head around it.

Knicks also managed to get rid of Malik Rose and get Chris Wilcox in return which is a good trade because he is a big who can run, finish and board well. Really like what Donnie Walsh is doing. He's getting rid of bad contracts while bringing in D'Antoni players without hurting their Lebron dream.

Good deal for Orlando as well getting Rafer in while getting rid of Brian Cook's deadweight.

 

[Anil]

Hey prowler what the hell are you guys doing? Hughes for Tim Thomas, Jerome James and Anthony Roberson!?!?

Hughes is a major bad contract but he is a 2 who defends and doesn't kill their dream of having 2010 cap space but Thomas is just a fat lump with a jumper and James is terrible. Roberson would make a laughable Euroleague player let alone an NBA player. You'd obviously have a better idea of what your team needs but I can't get my head around it.

Knicks also managed to get rid of Malik Rose and get Chris Wilcox in return which is a good trade because he is a big who can run, finish and board well. Really like what Donnie Walsh is doing. He's getting rid of bad contracts while bringing in D'Antoni players without hurting their Lebron dream.

Good deal for Orlando as well getting Rafer in while getting rid of Brian Cook's deadweight.

yeah the magic deal was good...everything else was just meh...if the cavs win or nearly win this year, the chances of the knicks landing lebron recede significantly, if they just clear cap space for lebron and then are unable to land him, walsh will just look ridiculous...

 

[nightprowler10]

The deals are all about finances I'm afraid Duff and not much else. Hughes never really got any minutes anyway as Rose and Hunter were always preferred over him to give them experience, so I wouldn't be surprised if he wanted out as well. I'm a bit disappointed at losing Thabo as I feel he has great potential as a big defensive guard who can play forward, but that's exactly what they now have in Salmons, only better, so Thabo would have gotten next to no minutes. As far as the players they acquired in the Hughes trade are concerned, I'd be very surprised if any of them get any substantial amount of minutes the rest of the season. Its just a big salary dump leaving them with something like 6 million to shop for a FA next year.

 

[duffer]

Anyone see the Hornets-Lakers today? Kobe shows Lebron what he can't do, the way he went head to head with Paul and came out on top was incredible. James has to beat him in a playoff series to take his crown.

The Rafer trade is starting to make sense for me now after seeing Aaron Brooks play today. He's younger, better off the dribble, better defensively and has excellent shot selection. Rafer is a better distributor but Brooks has a lot of ceiling to improve there too. Looks like a kid who'll be a balla sooner or later.

 

[Anil]

Anyone see the Hornets-Lakers today? Kobe shows Lebron what he can't do, the way he went head to head with Paul and came out on top was incredible. James has to beat him in a playoff series to take his crown.

james was pretty good against the bucks as well..anyway the pistons now look like they might even drop out of the playoff picture...

 

[Anil]

the pistons getting absolutely crushed by the cavs...they are really in a freefall...

 

[duffer]

Clueless coach and novice point guard = no direction. Pistons fans bitched and moaned about Flip because he couldn't get them over the hump but the guy understood team balance and Chauncey managed the ego's in the locker room. So much talent being so misused.

 

[Anil]

Clueless coach and novice point guard = no direction. Pistons fans bitched and moaned about Flip because he couldn't get them over the hump but the guy understood team balance and Chauncey managed the ego's in the locker room. So much talent being so misused.

yeah but stuckey is surrounded by experienced, accomplished players...it is comparable to rondo's situation in boston i feel, anyway detroit looks clueless right now...

 

[duffer]

Worst coach in the league right now. I saw them against Spurs and some of the plays he drew up and changes he made were incredible. When you have Reggie Miller schooling you from the commentary stand then you know you are in trouble.

Listening to guys like Avery, Larry Brown and Phil Jackson talk about how dangerous the Pistons could be if they used the right system is really annoying. At least Steve Kerr realised he screwed up and got rid of Porter, not sure Dumars is man enough to accept his mistake though.

 

[Anil]

the lakers continue their winning ways but their defense has gone down since bynum was injured....that could prove to be the difference against the spurs, the cavs or the celtics...

 

[duffer]

Damn, did anyone see Devin Harris' game winner today? Craziest buzzer beater I've seen for ages.

 

[Anil]

Damn, did anyone see Devin Harris' game winner today? Craziest buzzer beater I've seen for ages.

yeah but that was just a hopeful heave that he got lucky with...i don't know whether anyone needs anymore proof that iverson is not "the answer" for the pistons? they even lost to the one-man team of the heat(dwayne wade and sundry others) for their 7th consecutive loss....it wasn't hard to predict that a defense-challenged, ball hog like a.i would be a total misfit for a team like the pistons...they gave away a legit leader in billups and the nuggets have been reaping the rewards this season...

 

[duffer]

Heh, seeing as though he's taking less touches and shots than at any time in his career just so Rip doesnt have a cry to say his selfishness is breaking that team is laughable. And if you want non defending look no further than Sheed, Tayshaun and Hamilton who havent turned up for two months now. They are missing Flip every bit as much as Chauncey and Curry is proving to be completely inadequate at handling the egos in that lockerroom since Buddyball was officially ended.

Billups helped Denver big time but the fact that they have had a healthy and compatible frontcourt for the first time in 4 seasons is the real reason they are where they are. You see how easy it was for the Celtics last night when Nene was out. Their offence is so much more balanced now with Kmart and Carmelo is taking a lot more responsibility and breaking teams down a lot more since he came back from injury as well.

 

[Anil]

Heh, seeing as though he's taking less touches and shots than at any time in his career just so Rip doesnt have a cry to say his selfishness is breaking that team is laughable. And if you want non defending look no further than Sheed, Tayshaun and Hamilton who havent turned up for two months now. They are missing Flip every bit as much as Chauncey and Curry is proving to be completely inadequate at handling the egos in that lockerroom since Buddyball was officially ended.

Billups helped Denver big time but the fact that they have had a healthy and compatible frontcourt for the first time in 4 seasons is the real reason they are where they are. You see how easy it was for the Celtics last night when Nene was out. Their offence is so much more balanced now with Kmart and Carmelo is taking a lot more responsibility and breaking teams down a lot more since he came back from injury as well.

that's what i am saying though...the entire team chemistry was destroyed when billups left and if dumars expected iverson to make detroit a championship contender, both he and a.i have failed miserably...and i know he is your favourite player but he is a defense-challenged ball-hog...he has always been a volume shooter and continues to be...if the volume has reduced so has his output...and is there an increase in contribution elsewhere to compensate? i don't think there is anything significant...in short billups could lead the team in more ways than one, was a great defender and clutch shooter and the switch weakened the pistons considerably...there's really no two ways about it...and the entire team is demoralized now that they realize they have slipped a couple of notches down in quality so it is natural to see lower-quality performances from everyone...certainly the lower standard of coaching hasn't helped the situation...

 

[duffer]

Their team chemistry and confidence was fine when they had won 7 on the bounce and sat 22-12 with Iverson hitting big shots and game winners down the stretch. They seemed pretty good with him in there at that time. He was building some nice chemistry with Stuckey and Afflalo who's a very good defensive guard was getting a lot of minutes.

You know what happened next? Rip came back from injury and Curry had no idea what to do. He doesn't have the tactical nous to be able to give Iverson, Stuckey, Hamilton,Prince and Wallace their minutes and shots while still keeping competitive lineups in the game. Now that Stuckey has hit a wall no-one on the team is a proper playmaker and the only guy in the lineup who can create his own shot is having his shots reduced so that the other guys can jack up their quota for the night. That's what I see every game form them, it's someone else's turn to have a shot every trip up the court rather than running a play to create a good shot. Curry's other problem is that he has a veteran lockerroom and as such doesn't have the authority or charisma to influence them and get them to buy into what he wants to do. No chance in hell you'd see a team with this type of talent be like this if you had a proper coach.

Curry is just a stop gap though, he 's right at the bottom of salary earners of NBA coaches which is perfect since they are still paying Flip's wage for this season and after that I'm guessing all bets are off.

To say AI has failed miserably is a laugh. He's been their second best player after McDyess this season and all his haters are happy to put this all down on him when the other starters who've mailed it in are getting a free ride. This is what gets me seeing as though I've watched pretty close to every Pistons game since the trade, it's a whole team failure and Iverson wasn't the catalyst.

It's a moot point however, I honestly doubt Dumars was expecting a ring this season anyway, the whole deal was geared towards capsize and Utah's three expiring bigs in the off season.

 

[Anil]

Their team chemistry and confidence was fine when they had won 7 on the bounce and sat 22-12 with Iverson hitting big shots and game winners down the stretch. They seemed pretty good with him in there at that time. He was building some nice chemistry with Stuckey and Afflalo who's a very good defensive guard was getting a lot of minutes.

You know what happened next? Rip came back from injury and Curry had no idea what to do. He doesn't have the tactical nous to be able to give Iverson, Stuckey, Hamilton,Prince and Wallace their minutes and shots while still keeping competitive lineups in the game. Now that Stuckey has hit a wall no-one on the team is a proper playmaker and the only guy in the lineup who can create his own shot is having his shots reduced so that the other guys can jack up their quota for the night. That's what I see every game form them, it's someone else's turn to have a shot every trip up the court rather than running a play to create a good shot. Curry's other problem is that he has a veteran lockerroom and as such doesn't have the authority or charisma to influence them and get them to buy into what he wants to do. No chance in hell you'd see a team with this type of talent be like this if you had a proper coach.

Curry is just a stop gap though, he 's right at the bottom of salary earners of NBA coaches which is perfect since they are still paying Flip's wage for this season and after that I'm guessing all bets are off.

To say AI has failed miserably is a laugh. He's been their second best player after McDyess this season and all his haters are happy to put this all down on him when the other starters who've mailed it in are getting a free ride. This is what gets me seeing as though I've watched pretty close to every Pistons game since the trade, it's a whole team failure and Iverson wasn't the catalyst.

It's a moot point however, I honestly doubt Dumars was expecting a ring this season anyway, the whole deal was geared towards capsize and Utah's three expiring bigs in the off season.

iverson has the lowest field-goal % of all the starters and all important bench-players this season so far...which is not a surprise for a volume shooter like him but my point was he is a misfit in the pistons side which is a mostly unselfish set of players with their focus on defense and my take was that his inclusion would not improve them any and it has come true, in fact they are worse...i don't hate a.i, he is a great scorer and will go into the hall-of-fame, i am just not as impressed by his mostly one-dimensional skills...curry has probably contributed a lot to the fix they are in right now, however trading billups for iverson certainly hasn't helped them any, to put it mildly...

 

[duffer]

He might not be the best fit but they have done nothing to make him a good fit, that is the players or the coach. You know what you get when you trade for Iverson and they haven't done anything to get the most out of his abilities which is a shame because he is comfortably the most talented player in that team who has scored high volumes and let SG's in assists quite a few times in his career. Also no-one is playing defence on that team anymore, they've been dogging it for the whole year basically making the whole situation just a big power play over there now.

Fwiw I never said I thought they'd get better by the trade, I said they weren't winning a championship anyway and it was worth a go as Dumars could get rid of Billups' 4 year contract to get Stuckey in there ASAP and they get huge cap space this summer when there are a lot of teams in financial binds. Iverson could've worked big time for them but the players or the coach havent done anything to try and make it happen.

 

[Anil]

He might not be the best fit but they have done nothing to make him a good fit, that is the players or the coach. You know what you get when you trade for Iverson and they haven't done anything to get the most out of his abilities which is a shame because he is comfortably the most talented player in that team who has scored high volumes and let SG's in assists quite a few times in his career. Also no-one is playing defence on that team anymore, they've been dogging it for the whole year basically making the whole situation just a big power play over there now.

Fwiw I never said I thought they'd get better by the trade, I said they weren't winning a championship anyway and it was worth a go as Dumars could get rid of Billups' 4 year contract to get Stuckey in there ASAP and they get huge cap space this summer when there are a lot of teams in financial binds. Iverson could've worked big time for them but the players or the coach havent done anything to try and make it happen.

i am not so sure about a.i working big-time for them ever...iverson at his age is good for 20-25 points a night if given enough shots but he is certainly not a high-impact player anymore...did you see how easily and effectively the lakers blunted his offensive weapons in the playoffs last season?

 

[duffer]

The Nuggets had zero post presence last year. Martin isnt big enough to post anyone up and Camby hangs around the perimeter shooting ugly jumpers all day. In those instances it's easy to clog up the lane and put a big guard on Iverson and force him to shoot jumpers all day which isn't his strength. This year the Nuggets are hitting the outside shot a lot better because they have a player in Nene who can hurt you in the low block and draws a lot of double teams and since Carmelo automatically draws the best perimeter defender + another it's a lot easier for Smith,Kleiza and Billups to get better shots up.

Their inside game has made them an infinitely better team. The only thing Denver really lack now is a guy who can grab offensive boards and some more scoring off the bench.

But watching the Pistons tonight just proved my point, their effort was outstanding all over the court which shows if they want to they can still be an elite team. It's ludicrous that one player going out of the lineup for another can make that kind of difference to the effort unless the players really want it to. They've been dogging it and it wouldn't surprise me if today was a "prove a point" type of game rather than a sign of things to come.

 

[Hoggy31]

Haha Pistons, yeh wanna see 'em hold on for the playoffs because you'd have to say they'll be pretty dangerous. Some immense playoff experience amongst the side.

How ****ing gun is NBA 2k9, could lose 3 months of my life here.