NBA Season Thread 2013-2014

NufcNavan

Lots of ifs and buts, but D Wade is going to have a hard time guarding Lance/Turner for 48 mins. Lots of twisting and turning on those banged up knees.

Dublin Red Devil

Paully D wrote: »

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.

Bosh is a quality player but I feel he's not on the same level as the the other two. He's an excellent complement to Wade and James, But he's a distant 3rd. For his position, He doesn't have near enough physicality to bang with David West and Roy Hibbert.

Paully D wrote: »

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.

Well The Pacers are set up to have kryptonite on the floor at all times. When Hibbert or West are resting or in foul trouble. They can bring in Bynum or Mahinmi. Even if they produce little or nothing offensively it's two 7ft bodies under the rim. Luis Scola and Levoy Allen are also options. 6ft 10 guys who can cause problems for the Heat and can step outside and knock down a mid range jumper.

Paully D wrote: »

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.
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.

I agree Home court is key. But I don't believe it's the end of the world if we don't get it. That being said In a game of such small margins it could be a deciding factor

Dublin Red Devil

NufcNavan wrote: »

Lots of ifs and buts, but D Wade is going to have a hard time guarding Lance/Turner for 48 mins. Lots of twisting and turning on those banged up knees.

Here's when the youth of the Pacers takes over. Wade is 32, He's been playing basketball constantly for 11 years regular season, Playoffs, USA Basketball, Olympics in the summer. He hasn't stopped

Lance is 23, Turner 25, George 23. There nobody on the heat bench that can even come close to Wade. Pacers can move around/rotate 3 guys who can play the 2 or 3 spot with equal effect

Alfred Borden

Richard Sherman ‏@RSherman_25 2m
@Paul_George24 man we love the way y'all play defense with technique, communication and passion... We gonna come check y'all out in person

really cool tweet

Dublin Red Devil

Raf32 wrote: »

really cool tweet

In a way The Pacers are like the Seahawks of the NBA. Young team, Defence 1st.

Carcharodon

Great finish to the Knicks game, it always pleases me to see Dirk do well even if it was on th ugly side.
The team that finishes 9th in the West is going to feel very unlucky, it's a bit of a toss up at the moment, Warriors have given themselves a bit of breathing room but have a few tricky games coming up on the road. A full strength Memphis team are hard to beat so they could put some pressure on the pack.

Dublin Red Devil

Raymond Felton arrested

New York Knicks point guard Raymond Felton was arrested early Tuesday morning on three counts of criminal possession of a weapon, according to a New York Police Department spokesman. Felton is expected to appear in criminal court in Manhattan later Tuesday morning.

For Forks Sake

Dublin Red Devil wrote: »

Raymond Felton arrested

New York Knicks point guard Raymond Felton was arrested early Tuesday morning on three counts of criminal possession of a weapon, according to a New York Police Department spokesman. Felton is expected to appear in criminal court in Manhattan later Tuesday morning.

Having failed to find anyone stupid enough to take him in a trade, the Knicks resort to new tactics to get rid of him

padraig_f

The Knicks are such a train-wreck, you'd think it'd be the easiest franchise in the NBA to make a success of. Must be pretty depressing to be in the lottery positions and not have your own pick as well.

For Forks Sake

padraig_f wrote: »

The Knicks are such a train-wreck, you'd think it'd be the easiest franchise in the NBA to make a success of. Must be pretty depressing to be in the lottery positions and not have your own pick as well.

I'd say Denver are laughing themselves silly.

Dublin Red Devil

True Its a big bonus for denver. I bet they never though when making that trade that this pick could be a high lottery pick in what many say is the strongest draft since 03.

Felexicon

Dublin Red Devil wrote: »

True Its a big bonus for denver. I bet they never though when making that trade that this pick could be a high lottery pick in what many say is the strongest draft since 03.

Is the draft pick completely unprotected?
Crazy stuff from the Knicks if it is

For Forks Sake

Felexicon wrote: »

Is the draft pick completely unprotected?
Crazy stuff from the Knicks if it is

Yup. Idiots. http://www.nbadraft.net/nba_draft_trades/2014

Dublin Red Devil

Felexicon wrote: »

Is the draft pick completely unprotected?
Crazy stuff from the Knicks if it is

Yeah it's a open pick. Right now the Knicks lie in the 8th spot in the draft, should the order go in the most likely way.

There will be significant talent at the 8th pick this year. They could pick up someone like Arron Gordon, James Young, Garry Harris etc. Guys who could be real stars in this league.

PizzamanIRL

Nuri, where art thou? King Perk is out 6 weeks with a groin injury. Luckily he's done enough to get them in a good position and now he will return just in time for the playoffs.

http://www.nba.com/2014/news/02/25/thunder-perkins-out.ap/index.html

For Forks Sake

PizzamanIRL wrote: »

Nuri, where art thou?

He's cooling his heels for 48 hours , he's being forced to watch Pacers games, complete with hometown commentary for the entirety.

Felexicon

Felexicon wrote: »

Is the draft pick completely unprotected?
Crazy stuff from the Knicks if it is

most incompetent sports team in the world?

NufcNavan

Nevaeh Nervous Lip wrote: »

most incompetent sports team in the world?

Have to be up there.

It takes some doing to be 17 mill above the luxury tax and be 9 games out of the playoffs, in the East..

NufcNavan

NufcNavan wrote: »

Have to be up there.

It takes some doing to be 17 mill above the luxury tax and be 9 games out of the playoffs, in the East..

Also and I know iv said this but it has to be emphasised they had New York City all to them selves and did **** all with it

D2D

SportsCenter:

Raymond Felton’s bail set for $25k, and his wife awarded a 6-month protection order against Felton after he allegedly threatened her w/ gun.

GoldFour4

It may be the cynic inside me but I'd rather his bail was at least 5 times that. 25k is nothing to a professional athlete. The NBA routinely fines players and coaches that amount for little jabs and for questioning officials. The sad thing is that Felton is probably in a five star hotel right now.

malistheman

malistheman wrote: »

It may be the cynic inside me but I'd rather his bail was at least 5 times that. 25k is nothing to a professional athlete. The NBA routinely fines players and coaches that amount for little jabs and for questioning officials. The sad thing is that Felton is probably in a five star hotel right now.

i agree similarly to when a martial artist gets extra punishment due to being trained, finances should be taken into account. having said that im no expert on the us legal system perhaps there a cap on what bail can be for this type of incident

Dublin Red Devil

Pacers vs Lakers about to tip off.

Evan Turner and Levoy Allen definitely playing some minuets tonight

NBA TV fan night. Ernie, Anthony and C Webb

Dublin Red Devil

Pretty good 1st Q. Pacers lead by 7.

Turner on the floor and getting his first points as a Pacer, Hopefully Levoy is introduced soon aswell

Dublin Red Devil

Great 20pt win by the Pacers, 13pts, 6 red foor Turner on his debut

ButtersSuki

just looking at the NBA stats leaders there and to my surprise Steph Curry is leading the league in assists, with 8.9 per game. I say surprise because he's so overwhelmingly known as a shooter/scorer and whilst I have praised his passing ability in the past (check my posts) I didn't think he'd be at this level.

It is a little distorted as Chris Paul and Rondo haven't met the miminum criteria yet to qualify (70 games or 400 assists), but still is a good reflection of Curry's continuous improvement.

Dublin Red Devil

ButtersSuki wrote: »

just looking at the NBA stats leaders there and to my surprise Steph Curry is leading the league in assists, with 8.9 per game. I say surprise because he's so overwhelmingly known as a shooter/scorer and whilst I have praised his passing ability in the past (check my posts) I didn't think he'd be at this level.

It is a little distorted as Chris Paul and Rondo haven't met the miminum criteria yet to qualify (70 games or 400 assists), but still is a good reflection of Curry's continuous improvement.

Despite Curry's stats. I still consider Chris Paul to be the best PG in this league. Curry is a great player. One of the best guards around. But CP3 is No.1

ButtersSuki

Never said Paul wasn't a better overall PG - read my post and you'll see I qualified Curry's lead-leading stats by including the min. stats games/numbers - I just don't think Curry gets the respect he deserves for his passing game.

Good job CP3 doesn't play for Indiana......:D

Dublin Red Devil

ButtersSuki wrote: »

Never said Paul wasn't a better overall PG - read my post and you'll see I qualified Curry's lead-leading stats by including the min. stats games/numbers - I just don't think Curry gets the respect he deserves for his passing game.

Good job CP3 doesn't play for Indiana......:D

If Chris Paul played for Indiana

ButtersSuki

Dublin Red Devil wrote: »

If Chris Paul played for Indiana

oh dear........

Somewhere in New York, Nuri Sahin just died. Come back soon Ade, 99% of us miss you.