NBA Season Thread 2013-2014

Nuri Sahin

Paully D wrote: »

Durant misses two free throws (:eek:), Crawford sinks a three on the next possession (should have been a four point play) and that was essentially the winning of the game. Superb game.

Now hopefully the Bulls can do the business against Miami. It will be very interesting to see how Oden does and how the Heat perform without LeBron.

If you's could cover the 7.5 spread and keep it to less than 94 first half points, I'd appreciate it.

Paully D

Nuri Sahin wrote: »

If you's could cover the 7.5 spread and keep it to less than 94 first half points, I'd appreciate it.

You can start spending that now I reckon mate. Awful game this. 3 minutes into the 2nd quarter and neither team has scored :pac:

Dublin Red Devil

Well done to the Clippers. You can't rule them out in the West. Hoping the Bulls beat a Lebronless Miami

Aw never mind. Bulls have sh1t themselves in the 3rd quarter

Dublin Red Devil

Anybody see the reason behind the Collins 10 day to Brooklyn. Is it a publicity stunt?

GoldFour4

Dublin Red Devil wrote: »

Anybody see the reason behind the Collins 10 day to Brooklyn. Is it a publicity stunt?

Nah and he'll stay there for the rest of the year I'd imagine. He should be able to contribute. Defo not a publicity stunt anyway.

D2D

This is such a contrast from the Thunder/Clippers game. I mean 65-52 after 3 quarters............

Paully D

Very, very disappointing. Defence has been great as usual but the offense has stunk. Augustin gave us nothing off the bench, he's currently 0-10. That, coupled with 19 turnovers is just not going to get it done. Bosh and Wade were excellent.

Nuri Sahin

16 2Q Points.

12 3Q Points.

Cheers Bulls.

D2D

7 24-second shot clock violations for the Bulls in the game. That a new record?

BQQ

Dublin Red Devil wrote: »

A bit concerned about Hibbert. his production has gone way down in recent week.

Hmmm! Where did you get such a notion?

BQQ wrote: »

Sorry Pacers fans, but Roy Hibbert is not an All Star.

He started the season well, but he's been average for a good while and recently he's been downright poor.
He's averaging 7.5 pts in his last 6 games. And it's not like he's rebounding to make up for it - (averaging 7.7 for the season)
I mean c'mon! The guy is 7 foot tall and he's averaging 7.7 rebounds.

His season averages are:

11.8 pts on 46.4% shooting
7.7 boards
1.3 assists
2.5 blocks
0.4 steals


That's about equivalent to Marcin Gortat. (Although Gortat's numbers are slightly better in every department bar blocks)

NufcNavan

Roy more than justifies himself through his defense. Any offensive input from him is a bonus, although he has been awful offensively this season bar the odd game.

I'm just hoping that he turns into Roy Abdul Jabbar like he did last year in the playoffs.

Dublin Red Devil

BQQ wrote: »

Hmmm! Where did you get such a notion?

Unless you work on collecting statistics for ESPN. You can't have any credit

buyer95

Dublin Red Devil wrote: »

Unless you work on collecting statistics for ESPN. You can't have any credit

What does this even mean

Nuri Sahin

The Slam Dunk Champion leads the Wizards to a road win against Superstar Kyrie and co. in Cleveland. Nene went out of the game with a potential sprained knee however.

Probably going to DVR the Rockets - Suns game and watch it tomorrow instead of live.

PizzamanIRL

buyer95 wrote: »

What does this even mean

I think he means you can't have access to player's stats unless you work with ESPN

Nuri Sahin

PizzamanIRL wrote: »

I think he means you can't have access to player's stats unless you work with ESPN

I thought he was accusing him of not giving any credit to the likes of ESPN Stats database and the like.. which would be funny given his posts rarely give credit to the original source in stories, tweets and the like he posts here. Who the **** knows. :pac:

GoldFour4

Back on topic

Dublin Red Devil

No games that really jump off the fixture list for tonight

Bucks v 76ers. The two worst teams in the league. Philly will probably win at home. Verdict: 76ers

Warriors v Pistons. Should be a good contest. GSW will be favorites,
But I'll go for Detroit on home court. Verdict: Pistons

Mavs v Knicks. Dallas are having a good road run. Knicks are in terrible form.
I think the Mavs will cap off a 3-0 road tonight Verdict: Mavs

Clippers v Pelicans. LA should win this one. New Orleans have lost all 3 since the All Star break Verdict: Clippers


Celtics vs Jazz. Operation Tank, Playin sorry for Jabari, Riggin' for Wiggins. Verdict: Jazz

Dublin Red Devil

Anybody want to join our Boards Bracketology pool for NCAA March
madness?

Click the link bellow

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057154261

Nuri Sahin

Nene could be out for the season. Wizards season is over. One person rejoices.

Dublin Red Devil

Nuri Sahin wrote: »

Nene could be out for the season. Wizards season is over. One person rejoices.

I wonder who that person is you're referring too. In all honesty The Pacers have only 2 men to worry about in the Eastern conference. Mr James and Mr Wade. Because they are the only men who, if they produce what they're capable off. It's game over. The Pacers are setting themselves up to exploit the major weakness of the Heat. Size inside. Hibbert, West, Mahinmi, Scola Bynum, Allen will be tasked with protecting the rim. Blocking and forcing missed shots, grabbing defensive rebounds, defending the post, forcing Miami to resort to an outside Game George, Lance, Hill, Turner will be tasked with making sure that outside game is unsuccessful. Defending the perimeter, forcing bad shots, making sure their shooters don't get open looks and covering the passing lanes I believe The Pacers, with all due respect to the West, Are the only thing, bar injury to Lebron, that can stop the 3peat.

Nuri Sahin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzlAvPZT2nA

ButtersSuki

More a place that I go to to look at sneakers more than anything else but I read this today in the airport and found it relatively interesting, complex magazine's take on the Knicks:

On Saturday, Metta World Peace broke the news that, after just seven months and 29 games played with the New York Knicks, his agent was seeking a buyout to release World Peace from the team. Nearly 15 years after he was passed over by New York in the 1999 NBA Draft, World Peace’s decision to leave the Knicks stands as yet another indicator of how far the franchise has fallen in its post-Ewing malaise. More importantly, the moment is further proof that the team no longer belongs to the city. Marred by scandal, bloated contracts, spoiled stars, and poor performance, they’ve become just another one of James Dolan’s blown-out sideshows, a fantasy-turned-nightmare thought up by some rich kid with too much money and not enough sense. For all intents and purposes, the Knicks are dead to New York.

There’s something viciously cyclical about World Peace’s forthcoming departure from New York, namely, in the way that it corresponds to Dolan. Around the same time that the Knicks snubbed World Peace in the draft, Dolan was beginning to take a more hands-on approach with his franchise. Up to that point, Dolan had been known as the CEO of Cablevision, a position granted to him after his father stepped down from the role in 1995. Cablevision owns numerous sports properties, including the New York Knicks, New York Rangers, New York Liberty, and the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack. But, reportedly, it wasn’t until 1999 that Dolan, “started really getting more involved with the Knicks...when George Steinbrenner and other people suggested he should get more involved.” The intersection of Dolan’s increased participation and the Knicks’ eventual decision to pass on World Peace foreshadowed the franchise’s eventual death. Almost 15 years later, we can still trace back the pains of today’s Knicks squad to this exact moment in time.

The intersection of Dolan’s increased participation and the Knicks’ eventual decision to pass on World Peace foreshadowed the franchise’s eventual death.

The failures of the New York Knicks from the 1999 NBA Draft to today can be recited as litany. Frederic Weis. Isiah. Marbury. Steve Francis. Larry Brown. Isiah. Jerome James. Eddy Curry. Isiah. Antonio Davis. Zach Randolph. And, of course, Isiah. This is not even to mention the Anucha Browne-Sanders scandal—a disgusting sexual harassment fiasco that revealed how internally fractured the franchise had truly become.

Despite all their headlines and attendant grief, controversial players like Stephon Marbury and Steve Francis weren’t the problem. They were a symptom of diseased management and ownership. Great front offices are unwilling to be defined by media hype and attention, and because the Knicks have never closed themselves off to this pervasive influence, they’ve been beaten by the press time and time again. Marbury and Francis weren’t honest attempts to build a cohesive, winning team. They were quick fixes who could sell tickets. They were half-hearted stabs to continue the legacy started by Bernard King, Walt Frazier, and every other player deified by New York sportswriters and fans. As one of the NBA’s foremost franchises, the Knicks have continually refused to bottom out and rebuild by shedding bloated contracts and hoarding draft picks. Blinded by pride and fear, they’ve instead been forced to rebuild on the fly, often stitching together bands of misfits that never resemble a team.

But these moves are unsurprising. If you’ve ever read anything about James Dolan, then you know that he’s famously self-conscious about how the media perceives him and, by extension, his team. Dolan’s personality isn’t suited to lead. He wants to be beloved. But instead, he looks desperate and egotistical on an annual basis. The nepotism that bought Dolan a seat at the table of his father’s company couldn’t prepare him to take over a team like the New York Knicks.

When the player formerly known as Ron Artest was signed this past offseason, it reminded everyone of the lengths that the organization will go to to make a quick headline. What was management’s aim here? Sure, Metta had just played his best season in about four years, but he was also taking more shots than he ever had with the Lakers, the exact type of stat inflation that’s more indicative of a Mike D’Antoni offense than player turnaround. On top of that, the Knicks were the oldest team in the league last season (another obvious example, by the way, of the team’s failure to build through the draft) and at 34 years old, Metta wasn’t helping that problem. Once again, it was just another thoughtless grab for attention by the Knicks. Bring the hometown kid in. The story sells itself, right? But, as we’re seeing with Metta World Peace, you can’t just go back on a decision you made 15 years ago. An entire career happens in 15 years.

Now, with Metta World Peace’s buyout on the way, another nail is being hammered into the coffin of the long-deceased Knicks. For a franchise that has been plagued by chaos and incompetence for years now, it’s glaringly symbolic that a man with the last name “World Peace” can’t find a place on this team. The joke is staring at us all in the face. Unfortunately, with the New York Knicks, we’ve heard it too many times before to laugh again.

After all, what’s funny about Mike Woodson, a man who isn’t a coach so much as he is a professional handler for Carmelo Anthony? What was funny about the inclusion of Chris Smith on the 15-man roster at the beginning of the season? What’s funny about a team that has been unable to play defense since Jeff Van Gundy left 13 years ago? In the decade-plus since JVG was fired, the team has had a top-five defense just once. All of this is about as funny as when Dolan forced Donnie Walsh out of the front office because Walsh was (rightfully) getting credited with the Knicks’ turnaround in the post-Isiah era. It’s about as funny as the fact that Dolan wants to be a rock star, literally.

Many of us have seen James Dolan before. He’s the loaded, overbearing type who flashes his money in the hope that it’ll impress everyone. He talks the loudest, but pouts when things don’t go his way. He’s surrounded by yes-men, the type of people who can only be bought. His antics and grand-standing have built him a fake empire inhabited by people who are more worried about keeping their job than doing what’s right for an organization.

But what’s standing in the way of that progress? An organization with blinders on, sitting atop the heap, crowing like idiots, insisting that nothing ever really changed at all.

As such, the team has lacked an identity for over a decade now. Carmelo Anthony may be a better player than Marbury or Francis but without a coach to keep him in line, he’s just as stubborn about demanding the ball in order to pile up points. Stats are the goal here, wins are a secondary benefit. We cringe every time that Melo pushes the ball up the court, only to stop at the perimeter and bring the offense to a screeching halt along with him. We scratch our heads when—after taking an ill-advised three-pointer—J.R. Smith admits that he didn’t even know what the score was at the end of a game. And Bargnani, well, you know.

Respect and nostalgia can be troublesome, old-timey concepts, but in this matter they’re crucial. These ideas are supposed to separate the Knicks from their inter-borough rivals, the Nets. When Brooklyn came to town, switching allegiances was supposed to be blasphemy. Now, the Nets are just a convenient (and much-needed) excuse to get the hell away from Manhattan.

Furthermore, a franchise that was once based around the unwavering swagger of players like Charles Oakley or John Starks or Patrick Ewing needs to look to the past in order to figure out its future. We all know that defense still wins championships. It’s unclear whether we can say the same for the Knicks. Since the 2000-2001 season, only one title-winning team has finished outside of the top 10 in defensive rating. It was the Lakers of the same year, who famously coasted through the regular season before losing just one game in the entire playoffs. New York has no such excuse. If a stop needs to be made, who—aside from Tyson Chandler—will make that happen for the Knicks? When New York made the NBA Finals in 1999, it wasn’t because they had guys like Carmelo leading the way, or role players like Bargnani at his side. Patrick Ewing was their leading scorer that year with 17.3 PPG, over 10 points less than the average that Melo is currently putting up. It was New York’s fourth-ranked defense that pulled them to the top of the Eastern Conference in 1999, spurred by a yard dog attitude and a refusal to even bend, much less break.

Now, the Knicks have traded in their old personality for...well, it’s hard to say exactly who they are. But let’s at least see what they’ve gotten in return: six playoff appearances in 15 years, four of which ended in the first round. Nine losing seasons with no. 10 fast approaching. A countless number of misguided jumpers. $1B in renovations to house a team that no one should be paying to watch. Any filled seat in the Garden isn’t a testament to the good will that the organization has engendered with a string of winning seasons over the past four years, it just shows that, at best, the Knicks are a team that can get people talking. After that, it’s just all hot air. As for Metta, he’s done some pretty crazy stuff over the course of his career, but even he knows that staying with this team is ludicrous. A guy like Metta can add a crucial element to a championship-caliber squad. He has been a tenacious defensive presence and in Los Angeles, he had the perfect personality to negate some of Kobe’s (at times) overbearing self-seriousness. But with the Knicks, he’s just another example of the franchise’s inability to rein in their players and exert some type of control over their stars. He’s another voice in a room full of people screaming at the top of their lungs.

Fifteen years in the making, here’s how the story of Metta World Peace and the New York Knicks is coming to an end: when the hometown kid finally found his way back, he was greeted by a broken home, a pile of rubble sitting where his house once stood. It’s been that way for years now but, for some reason, fans and media have stuck around, thinking that something can be made of the ruins. But what’s standing in the way of that progress? An organization with blinders on, sitting atop the heap, crowing like idiots, insisting that nothing ever really changed at all.

D2D

Big Baby signs with the Clippers

GoldFour4

Nuri Sahin wrote: »

Nene could be out for the season. Wizards season is over. One person rejoices.

2 day ban for ignoring mod instructions and trying to cause an argument.It's unnecessary. Stop the baiting or a more severe ban will follow.

great post butters. i think the knicks are the same as the dallas cowboys in that there owner is the issue but he wont fire himself (i know thats not very insightful) but one of the bigger issues now to them is the brooklyn nets the fact that with the nba salary cap the Knicks couldn't be successful with the best market in the nba to themselves shows a level of incompetence that is hard to fathom. now the nets are there and have the big spending owner and the "swagger" the knicks are well and truly ****ed.

D2D

President & GM Steve Mills announced that the #Knicks have waived Beno Udrih and Metta World Peace.

Oh and Sources confirm Yahoo! report of sprained MCL for Wizards center Nene. Out 4-6 weeks; team had feared injury was season ending.

Paully D

Dublin Red Devil wrote: »

I wonder who that person is you're referring too. In all honesty The Pacers have only 2 men to worry about in the Eastern conference. Mr James and Mr Wade. Because they are the only men who, if they produce what they're capable off. It's game over. The Pacers are setting themselves up to exploit the major weakness of the Heat. Size inside. Hibbert, West, Mahinmi, Scola Bynum, Allen will be tasked with protecting the rim. Blocking and forcing missed shots, grabbing defensive rebounds, defending the post, forcing Miami to resort to an outside Game George, Lance, Hill, Turner will be tasked with making sure that outside game is unsuccessful. Defending the perimeter, forcing bad shots, making sure their shooters don't get open looks and covering the passing lanes I believe The Pacers, with all due respect to the West, Are the only thing, bar injury to Lebron, that can stop the 3peat.

Dangerous to forget about Bosh IMO.

While he does get a lot of stick he's a big part of that team too and an extremely capable one at that. He's averaged 17.6 points and 7.5 rebounds over the course of his Heat career. When you add that to what LeBron and Wade produce, it's a significant contribution. There's very few occasions when LeBron, Wade and Bosh all have off nights and if one or two do the other(s) generally produce enough to still give them a great chance to win.

No team in basketball has a third man as good as Bosh and he has come up big for them when needed. See his defensive play on Ginobili with about 20 seconds left in game seven of the Finals which forced a turnover and allowed the Heat to go up 6, he came up with that huge rebound and found Ray Allen for that 3 in game 6 on top of some other key defensive plays, he's hit some clutch threes to win games with the clock expiring too. There's plenty more examples.

I agree the Pacers seem to have what could be called the Heat's kryptonite, but there's a big difference between that and going out and beating them over a 7 game series. They are an extremely experienced team full of winners while the Pacers are a relatively very young team.

Home court advantage is going to be huge in this one. In the "Big Three" era, Miami are .811 at home in the playoffs and .533 on the road. .533 is not a bad road playoff record at all, but I feel the Pacers really need home court advantage to take a 7 game series. There's a good chance the second seed team will have to face Chicago too, a team that won't beat them over 7, but will put a serious amount of wear and tear into either of those sides, so it all adds up.

Home court advantage for me is key but I'd have a lot more confidence in Miami being able to go on a run between now and the end of the regular season to secure it than Indiana.

Dublin Red Devil

Dare_2_defy wrote: »

Big Baby signs with the Clippers

I wouldn't completely rule out the Clippers. They are one of the best poised to challenge OKC in a western conference. I think DJ's free throw shooting is a problem. But they have weapons. Paul and Griffin are superstars. Crawford is a scorer. On their day they could beat anyone

Felexicon

Dublin Red Devil wrote: »

I wouldn't completely rule out the Clippers. They are one of the best poised to challenge OKC in a western conference. I think DJ's free throw shooting is a problem. But they have weapons. Paul and Griffin are superstars. Crawford is a scorer. On their day they could beat anyone

I just don't see how the Clippers can beat OKC in a 7 game series. They don't have to perimeter defense to hold KD and Westbrooks.