Renslayer
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
every time i come around your city...
Posts: 16,505
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Post by Renslayer on Jun 3, 2014 22:12:21 GMT -5
One thing that stood out from the article was the Rockets are trying to get a third max player. What's the point of that for them when you have two ball dominant, mostly healthy players like Howard & Harden?
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andrew8798
FANatic
on 24/7 this month
Posts: 106,080
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Post by andrew8798 on Jun 4, 2014 10:29:24 GMT -5
Veteran coach Larry Brown dismissed rumors that he's interested in leaving Southern Methodist University to coach the Lakers.
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Crimson
Hank Scorpio
Thank you DWade
Posts: 6,511
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Post by Crimson on Jun 4, 2014 19:44:19 GMT -5
I'm going to chime in to the previous discussion and also say I'm not the biggest fan of the "You Bought Players" criticism. If it was a simple as buying players the Lakers wouldn't have fallen apart as easily as they did last season. Now, buying players did turn Miami from a struggling team to championship contenders (and won them some obnoxious fans to boot) but I see the "bought" arguement used too often to downplay the fact that, yeah, the team is really good.
Moving forward though, this era of the Heat really needs to stop coasting on Lebron and start actually building a successor for Wade. I honestly believe the second Wade can't play no more Lebron is going to exit stage left because Bosh is too inconsistent of a player to be his wing man. The Heat needs a "Manu Ginobli" who will take over the game in the wake of their star no longer being available.
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Post by Jedi-El of Tomorrow on Jun 5, 2014 1:40:35 GMT -5
I'm going to chime in to the previous discussion and also say I'm not the biggest fan of the "You Bought Players" criticism. If it was a simple as buying players the Lakers wouldn't have fallen apart as easily as they did last season. Yeah, the bought a championship doesn't work in the 4 major team sports. If that were the case the team with the highest payroll would always win. The big reason is because it's a team sport. In the NBA you can get free agents and make a starting 5 of all superstars, but if they're playing as 5 superstars, they're going to get beat by a team with maybe 2 superstars and 3 good players that play as 1 team. You can't buy a championship, because you can't win a championship on talent alone. The Spurs are back in the NBA Finals, and there are more talented teams in the West. The key for the Spurs is, the other teams in the West don't play as a team as great as the Spurs do. So what's everyone's prediction for the Finals? I'm going with Heat in 7, LeBron wins Finals MVP.
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Post by Captain Patren Fenderbaum-X on Jun 5, 2014 3:57:37 GMT -5
Spurs in 6.
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BRV
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
Wants him some Taco Flavored Kisses.
Posts: 16,867
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Post by BRV on Jun 5, 2014 8:53:20 GMT -5
Yeah, the bought a championship doesn't work in the 4 major team sports. If that were the case the team with the highest payroll would always win. The big reason is because it's a team sport. In the NBA you can get free agents and make a starting 5 of all superstars, but if they're playing as 5 superstars, they're going to get beat by a team with maybe 2 superstars and 3 good players that play as 1 team. You can't buy a championship, because you can't win a championship on talent alone. The Spurs are back in the NBA Finals, and there are more talented teams in the West. The key for the Spurs is, the other teams in the West don't play as a team as great as the Spurs do. I disagree with the notion that a team can't win a championship on talent alone, because in the NBA, talent alone is really all you need to be a championship contender. The thing with the NBA is that if you have one of the top five or 10 players in the league, your chances of winning the championship are infinitely better than if you have a good "team", and this concept goes all the way back to the 1980s. Who were the best players in the league in the early 1980s? Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. Who won the championships? The Lakers and the Celtics. Then, Bird and Johnson started to age and retire, and Michael Jordan took their place, and the Bulls dominated the 1990s. After Jordan retired, the Lakers put together a super team with Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant and the Lakers three-peated. How long has it been since the best player in the NBA wasn't playing on a championship contender? The only "team" that didn't have a dominant superstar leading them to a championship in the last 20 years were the 2003-04 Pistons. Before then and since then it's been about either having the luck of the draw in the lottery or signing the big-name free agent and coasting on that alone.
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Post by MGH on Jun 5, 2014 10:45:43 GMT -5
@cbssports: Wolves president Flip Saunders hires ex-Wolves coach Flip Saunders as coach.
Oh.
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BRV
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
Wants him some Taco Flavored Kisses.
Posts: 16,867
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Post by BRV on Jun 5, 2014 10:48:25 GMT -5
@cbssports: Wolves president Flip Saunders hires ex-Wolves coach Flip Saunders as coach. Oh. You thought the hiring process was awkward? Wait until Saunders has to fire himself.
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Rican
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
July 17, 2011 - HHHe called it
Posts: 16,460
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Post by Rican on Jun 5, 2014 10:49:48 GMT -5
GAME DAY!
Predictions? I'm too excited/nervous/don't want to jinx it to make any.
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Push R Truth
Patti Mayonnaise
Unique and Special Snowflake, and a pants-less heathen.
Perpetually Constipated
Posts: 39,269
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Post by Push R Truth on Jun 5, 2014 11:13:20 GMT -5
Ok, time to come clean as an NBA Fan:
I love basketball. I live in Iowa and don't really have a home team, I just like to watch fun games. I tend to lean towards underdogs in the early rounds and teams that I feel are "unfairly" hated in playoff matchups. Player personalities almost come into play. This is one of the reasons I find the current Indiana Pacers impossible to cheer for. To me they are just like the Starks/Ewing Knicks back in the day. If they performed half as well as they talked themselves up, they'd have rings.
The "unfairly hated" has caused me to drift towards the HEAT. I'm not a HEAT fan, but seeing all the shit spewed about a team rubs me the wrong way. You don't see LeBron or Wade beating up women or financing drug rings... but my god you'd think they murder an orphan every morning before practice the way they are hated by some. Let the haters enjoy their ulcers.
With that said, I have no ill will towards the Spurs. As a basketball fan, their teamplay and elite crispness gives me a sportsboner. I'm essentially pulling for the HEAT overall because of how much it would piss off all the haters. But the Spurs winning it all will make me smile as well. They deserve it.
Some will call me boring, others will call me names. But all I want to see is 7 games with lots of drama and good basketball. I'll be happy with either champion as long as we get exciting basketball. A 4 or 5 game series would be a massive disappointment.
Go NBA, entertain me.
PS: The only team I am always 100% against is the %@$%$% refs.
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Post by Red Impact on Jun 5, 2014 11:15:21 GMT -5
Yeah, the bought a championship doesn't work in the 4 major team sports. If that were the case the team with the highest payroll would always win. The big reason is because it's a team sport. In the NBA you can get free agents and make a starting 5 of all superstars, but if they're playing as 5 superstars, they're going to get beat by a team with maybe 2 superstars and 3 good players that play as 1 team. You can't buy a championship, because you can't win a championship on talent alone. The Spurs are back in the NBA Finals, and there are more talented teams in the West. The key for the Spurs is, the other teams in the West don't play as a team as great as the Spurs do. I disagree with the notion that a team can't win a championship on talent alone, because in the NBA, talent alone is really all you need to be a championship contender. The thing with the NBA is that if you have one of the top five or 10 players in the league, your chances of winning the championship are infinitely better than if you have a good "team", and this concept goes all the way back to the 1980s. Who were the best players in the league in the early 1980s? Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. Who won the championships? The Lakers and the Celtics. Then, Bird and Johnson started to age and retire, and Michael Jordan took their place, and the Bulls dominated the 1990s. After Jordan retired, the Lakers put together a super team with Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant and the Lakers three-peated. How long has it been since the best player in the NBA wasn't playing on a championship contender? The only "team" that didn't have a dominant superstar leading them to a championship in the last 20 years were the 2003-04 Pistons. Before then and since then it's been about either having the luck of the draw in the lottery or signing the big-name free agent and coasting on that alone. It's not that you get by without superstars, but a superstar alone won't win you a title. Bird and Johnson had an entire team chock full of Hall of Famers, they weren't doing it on their own. Jordan couldn't win it until they got Pippen, and even then they had good backup and role-players. Compare that to the time when the Lakers pulled Karl Malone and Gary Payton to try to win a title. They weren't very good. Put Dwight Howard with Kobe Bryant? They stumble. These aren't bad players, but they didn't have synergy. Even in basketball, the sport where one player affects the game more than any other, you need synergy to win it all. When the Heat beat the Thunder, a lot of it came down to the bench play. It wasn't Lebron vs. KD the entire way. A good Superstar can make you a contender, yes, but winning it all still requires a team game. That's why the Mavs beat the Heat, not because Dirk is a better player than Lebron or Wade, but because they played better as a unit than the Heat did at that time.
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andrew8798
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on 24/7 this month
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Post by andrew8798 on Jun 5, 2014 14:50:30 GMT -5
Shawn Marion said on Wednesday that his main focus for free agency is joining a team that can win a championship.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Jun 5, 2014 17:37:05 GMT -5
I got the Spurs in 7.
Also glad Paul George made third team.
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andrew8798
FANatic
on 24/7 this month
Posts: 106,080
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Post by andrew8798 on Jun 5, 2014 18:30:07 GMT -5
The Rockets are confident they can trade both Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin this offseason, according to sources close to Jonathan Feigen.
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Post by MGH on Jun 5, 2014 19:17:53 GMT -5
So, these are some allegations against Dwight Howard huh?
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Rican
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
July 17, 2011 - HHHe called it
Posts: 16,460
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Post by Rican on Jun 5, 2014 20:39:35 GMT -5
Tiago blocked LeBron in the paint to make up for last years block that got replayed constantly
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andrew8798
FANatic
on 24/7 this month
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Post by andrew8798 on Jun 5, 2014 21:34:28 GMT -5
The air conditioning at AT&T Center has gone out for Game 1 of the NBA Finals.
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Post by Red Impact on Jun 5, 2014 21:35:08 GMT -5
The Rockets are confident they can trade both Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin this offseason, according to sources close to Jonathan Feigen. They can, but are there a lot of takers for these contracts? Both of these are hugely backloaded contracts for players that probably aren't worth it.
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Post by horsemen4ever on Jun 5, 2014 21:49:35 GMT -5
Well Spurs in 7. Let's go Spurs, our only hope against the evil empire.
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Renslayer
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
every time i come around your city...
Posts: 16,505
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Post by Renslayer on Jun 5, 2014 22:04:36 GMT -5
There have been a bunch of turnovers, but this has been a pretty well played, intense game from both teams
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