Nba '06-'07 - Page 2

Jesus you are the biggest homer ever possibly even worse than Anya. First you say the Bears didnt run up the score in the football thread and now you predict an NBA title after one impressive game.

There are atleast 4 or 5 teams definately better than the Bulls. Including the Miami Heat one horrible game does not mean they are done or old. That same old team won the NBA title 5 months ago and that was even without hardly any production from Shaq.
I doubt they are ready for their social security checks a mere 5 months later.

The Heat aren't better than the Bulls this year, I don't care what anyone says.

LOL wow what a shocker a Chicago boy jumping to their defense.

Seriously though the Bulls are actually a good up and coming team but Castle predicting an NBA title one game in is a bit much.

lol, wow what a shocker, someone refusing to give a Chicago team any respect.

The Bulls have been a good up and coming team for 2 years now, this is the year they turn into a contender.

Everyone is on the Heat's jock but why? The fact is they are old, Shaq looks as out of shape as ever and his knees couldn't last when he was well conditioned. Payton and Mourning are nothing more than decent role players these days and Antione Walker is Antione Walker. Dwayne Wade needs to play like Michael Jordan for the Heat to take the East, and while it's not out of the question, he ain't quite that good.

No respect I have no idea what you are talking about. Read my post I said Chicago had a good team. Its just predicting an NBA title after 1 game is a bit of hyperbole.

Also in the NFL thread I have also talked about how dominant the Bears have been. The only thing I have really givin them shit for is running up the score Sunday. Which they actually did.

First of all just barely making the playoffs as a #7 seed and getting knocked out in the 1st round of the playoffs isn't being close to winning an NBA Championship.

Since when is saying a team is roughly the 5th best team in the league refusing to give them any respect?

You're right on a lot of points but guess what, the same things were said last year and look who won. I really think you're not giving enough credit to Riley and Wade. They're the main two reasons why they won last year, not Zo and Payton. If you didn't notice Wade did play at an extremely high level last year and what is he 25? I suppose he's old too. Payton sucked last year and he'll continue to suck, Walker is Walker, Shaq was useless in the playoffs 90% of the time so this is nothing new.

Then why didn't you?

You're listing guys that will hardly play or get very little playing time come playoff time. Thomas will get his fair share fo minutes and Khryappa will get maybe 10-15 minutes a game in the regular season while Sefalosha will be like those white kids who walk on to UNC jumping up and down, waving their towels and slapping the floor all game long. These players aren't the answers to getting the Bulls over the top this year. It's the extra experience and Ben Wallace. If Hinrich can shoot consistently it'll be a huge help. I think he's the key to their entire season.

Whatever, you can't backtrack now. You're "Just to prove it's not a game to game thing" comment is pretty worthless after your previous comment. The Bulls are a good team but you can't even claim they're the best team in their own division. The Cavs and Pistons are arguably superior. I think the Bulls have a better roster then the Cavs but they don't have a player that can match "King" James aka The Chosen 1. Having a better 9-12 rotation isn't really anything to get excited about either. It'll help in the regular season but the playoffs is another story. You don't need a bench that deep, just ask Memphis. Everybody is forgetting about the Pistons too. They were never built around one player so they're sudden downfall is an over exaggeration, and that's with Flipper included. And I have a question to all the Chicago fans who are convinced the Bulls will win the East, if last year's superior Pistons team featuring Ben Wallace couldn't win the East then why are you all so certain the new Bulls featuring Ben Wallace can?

And why do the Heat naysayers always bring up how old they are when nobody ever doubts the Spurs (who are older)?

CTDeLude, maybe you were on to something the other day. Nice start by the Lakers.

in a close game in the fourth quarter the heat have dwyane wade. the bulls have who, ben gordon? hes good, but hes no dwyane wade. they do look like the second best team in the east to me. but in a series i would take the heat, the spurs, maybe even the mavs and suns over the bulls. need more experience in my opinion. look at detroit last year. id rather have rip, chauncey, prince and sheed than hinrich, duhon, gordon and deng. i suppose you could argue they werent hungry or whatever... but still.

Most overrated storyline of the season thus far: Ron Artest and Ben Wallace being back on the same court again...

It's been so long, and while Ron-Ron can be unpredictable, I highly doubt Wallace would do anything to hurt his team.

Ohhh, it's so early, but the Cavs are looking good. A win over WAS and then SAN....

With the Choosen 1 and Larry Hughes finally scoring... they are going to make a run for the East.

Boy the heat really could have used Jalen Rose...I am not sure if signing with phoenix was the best route to a championship though.

Anyway, onto my beloved purple and gold. I was reserving judgement till after I saw all three games this week, and most importantly seeing them on the court with Kobe (not nearly 100%, but still kobe)...wow. I am fucking impressed.

If this thing pans out, I think Phil has wrapped up another coach of the year award. The most surprising thing is that the Lakers got front court depth from the draft!!! Since West left, I feel like the lakers have floundered most of their picks, but they have hit gold recently Walton, Bynum, Turiaf, Farmar. Looks like Jim Buss and Mitch Kupchak have figured out how to manage a team.

I gotta give credit to Jim Buss for bringing Kareem back into the laker fold (where he rightfully belongs). It seemed like Jerry gave the greatest center of all time an unfair cold shoulder when it came to coaching. The guy wanted to coach for years, but no one gave him a real break. I think Jim's decision to bring this guy into to develope Bynum was genius. Phil doesn't play rooks (unless he REALLY needs to). He definitely isn't a developer of talent, he is a manager of talent.

Anyway, very impressive and deep bench. Walton is really coming into his own. Farmar looks like a future starter (but the kid still needs to learn to dish more. He has been too much of a scorer at UCLA and he needs to distribute more). Turiaf is freaking unbelievable so far. And Bynum is slowly but surely becoming a solid big man.

Now, once Kobe is 100% Phil needs to make sure this team does not run into the Kobe-ball trap that they do every 4th quarter. Laker team ball looks very dangerous right now. But once kobe "takes over" he will get triple teamed and he needs to pass it. I like what I am seeing in LA right now.


Oh yea, Lebron's dunk over duncan was the definition of posteriz-ing

lakers still look inconsistent to me, but who can really complain at 3-0. one person says they still show inconsistecy, another could say they are learning from mistakes. the lakers 7 months ago probably would have blown the seattle game, but instead of that happening lamar didnt disappear and the role players actually stepped up, primarily ronny. dude can just be a beast. i know the sonics and the warriors are on the soft side.. but still.

bynum is looking decent, and what is he 19? im excited to see him calling for the ball and making movement in and out of the lane to benefit from the penetration. defense is at times great, other times not so great. how many times can you really leave ray allen as the guy thats open on the floor? then other times the rotation is perfect and the help works to a t.

lebron is just amazing, cavs look dangerous.

Just for note I'm a Laker fan religiously, but I ain't gonna talk out of my ass when I say they will make noise. And I wasn't lying when I said they had depth. The only position that has some questions is PG and even then it may not be as big an issue as one would be lead to believe if Farmar keeps up his aggressive play. This doesn't mean championship or 55 wins but they're FAR better then last year and they'll probably finish better then the Clippers this year.


Suns are exposed by the way. And so will every team that try to emulate them. Though there is certainly a lack of quality big men in the NBA nowadays this is still a big man's game.

That is still definitely true, but it does almost seem like with garnett, duncan, etc. aging and reaching the zenith of their primes that there is looking to be a drought of big men in the NBA in the coming seasons. Looking at the draft as well all these kids coming out are PGs, 2 guards, and athletic 3s and 4s. Not really too many big men. I think the NBA's face is going to quickly change in the coming years and once again become a very guard heavy league.

And yes, by no means are the lakers perfect. They still had plenty of defensive breakdowns against the sonics, but I agree with the cynic that the lakers of old would have given that game away.

After coming out the gates running, the Cavs have become a little too comfortable with own hype. I'm not even close to one of those crazy fans who claims the season is ruined (local team boards are nuts), but they really gotta work on those free throws. I'm still confident the Cavs will be playing the Eastern finals, though. The season is only four games old after all.

Apparently Rasheed Wallace is comparing the new no-whining policy to slavery.. UGH!!

/rant

I can't stand when highly paid black athletes who choose to play a game where the are worshipped, pull out the slavery card every time there are rules they don't like put on them. It's a slap in the face to those who had the suffer the tragedy that was slavery. Sorry guys, you gotta wear dress clothes to games and stop whining every time you don't like a call. Are some the new rules silly? Sure.. But I got rules at my job that I hate, it's part of collecting a paycheck. Let's stop comparing that to people who were taken from their families and against their will to work for nothing. Disgusting...

/end rant

Lakers are playing just like i predicted. I said there talent was underated. There a deep team.

Most overrated story of yesterday - LeBron "walking off the court". PUHH-LEASE!

Two of the Hawks players were standing, backs to the ball, talking to their coach, LeBron was standing on the far end of the court, by the Cavs bench, and Larry Hughes, was talking to Lue while he was dribbling the ball with seven seconds left. NBA players do this every games that is out of reach, that Atlanta play-by-play guy made it seem like the game was still being played and LeBron was walking away from the action.

With the good, come the bad though. Jordan has his haters, and of course so does LeBron.

Cavs were 4-0 against Da Bulls last year, let's hope that continues tonight.

yeesh. that lakers loss last night was painful. The blazers wanted to give that game away so badly, but the lakers could not put any points on the board late in the 4th.

And, zach randolph basically handed bynum his ass.

See, one whooping on the Bulls and everything is back to normal is Cavs-land. Thanks for playing.

Beating the Nets can never get old.

Who's quitting on their team now?! Down by 19, with less than ten minutes left.... enough said (although it was the Celtics, but still...)

Anyway, Cavs seem back on track.

Other than that, some interesting struggles early for the Suns and Mavs, but it's so early, so I don't think anyone should be worried yet.

where are the bulls fans now?

It got pretty quiet didn't it?

And how about the Heat? 2-4 at home, 3 blow out losses, Shaq gone 4-6 weeks, Williams already complaining about his knee after his first game back, losing to the Knicks! What a disaster so far.

yea. the heat are looking bad. granted, they are a late season team (they have no choice given their personnel). If shaq's knee REALLY is 4-6 weeks, then they should be ok post all star break. Right now they just have to weather a storm and try to go .500

My first post in this thread is to point out why I don't give a fuck about the NBA regular season. The post above highlights it these teams and players on the whole simply don't give it their all till playoff time.

No love for the 9-1 Utah Jazz? They went 3-0 (Clips, Sonics, Suns) last week without AK. That included coming back from a big 4th quarter deficit against the Suns.

It's all about Boozer, one of the few players from Dook who's succeeded in the NBA.

Also Deron Williams looks to have arrived.

Yeah he's a good player but he has one of the worst shot selections I've ever seen from a player. He can just kill you sometimes.

It means dinner and a movie for Quentin courtesy of Stevie.

Oh and Steve Kerr thinks the Bulls need to trade for KG. I said this years ago on this board.

Bring the home town boy back http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_yl...yhoo&type=lgns

Normally I could give a flying screw about a professional player feeling liked he is getting jobbed because his clothes or lifestyle is getting cramped by "da man", but (even as a non-bulls fan), I think Skiles is going a little overboard with Wallace and the no-headband rule. Could be a long season in Chi-land.

Thats some seriously stupid shit right there. Skiles needs to take a chill pill.

Skiles must be looking to get fired.

2 in a row for the Heat. Wade has been playing the 1 guard the past few games and it seem's to be working out. For one it, takes Payton out of the lineup and it also inserts Wright into the lineup.

It's just a fucking headband!

The Lakers have been off to a better start than anyone imagined. Then they lose to the lowly Bucks, and the questions start to come. Their next game, the best record in the league Utah Jazz, and what happens?

Kobe. Fire.

Regardless of everything, he is the man. He single-handedly destroyed the Jazz last night.

Yes, it's only one game. But it was a great confidence-building win for them.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2682848

Ha ha. The league is gettin' sued. Too many technicals, and their new ball sucks.

I'm sorry, but a bunch of overpaid millionares, suing the league because they don't like a basketball. I think it's pretty fricking pathetic.

The NBA cracking down on players whining to refs is great, as a lot of the players have become whiny little bitches these days. And I believe that is a big part of the reason why all the palming and traveling exists in the league today. The fact that they are complaining about complaining is kind of entertaining though.

But the new ball is one of the stupidest things I've ever seen. I play basketball regularly and now people are buying the new ball and bringing it to pick up games and the thing is a fucking joke. It's exactly like a little kids ball. Not leather but rubber(ish) and it's smaller too. It's like having a nice leather jacket and then all the sudden it changes to a third grader's rubber rain coat. If they changed the ball in the NFL to a rubber ball that would be stupid too. The old ball was great, there was absolutely nothing wrong with it, there's no reason to change. And the NBA changed in the blink of an eye without warning. Very stupid.

The Nets blow because they play no D and have no big men that are worth a shit. Kristic isn't bad but he's soft and isn't even close to enough.

But what I really want to say is: everybody get ready to watch Allen Iverson fuck up another team. It should be entertaining.

God damn the Easter Conference blows. The Atlantic division doesn't deserve a playoff team unless one team stuggles to .500

Bulls are playing better. Took them a while to gel and playing agains fellow eastern conference foes helps. A long home stretch should get them(4 left) in position to challenge for a top spot in the East.

As for the headband-Wallace has 60 million reasons not to wear it. And I'm glad Skiles is sticking to his guns. The rules may be stupid but Skiles is showing that Wallace isn't bigger than the team. Maybe a coach should have done that to Iverson back in the day. Or TO. Maybe they wouldn't be such arrogant pricks.

*and do the Bulls still have the right to trade draft picks with the Knicks? But I get a 5+ game road trip will start them on a huge slide down.

I would....Camby has been a pretty solid center lately. Gordon and Redd handle any point production Wade would come up with.

Yeah, they do. The Bulls are going to have a good shot in the Greg Oden sweepstakes.

The Bulls need some veteran leadership like him. at 45 he plays like 18. It would be so sweet to see the Knicks get number 1 only to have their dreams crushed. I just hope DAvid Stern doesn't try anything fishy and say the Knicks wouldn't have to give up the pick.

Well, Stern has reversed on the ball.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2694335

The funny thing is, this thing actually caused damage, cutting the hands of some players. I don't think they revealed that 'til now.