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http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_dM3qFkk93Qk/SSyzxa_NVLI/AAAAAAAAAQo/qW0t_Nv8ohs/s400/halfcourt-2.jpg

Finally back home in Jersey :glasses:

Abro asked a question about the average PER of a college-to-NBA player from 2000-2005, so I decided to take a few steps beyond that (since that one answer was going to require a lot of digging) and just analyze the entire thing. Make your own conclusions.

Hiring a head coach Before the Rockets can even think about planning their offseason moves, they need to hire the man that will determining what playing style and gameplan will be. The Houston Chronicle reported early last week that the Rockets narrowed their coaching search 3 candidates. Lets take a quick look over each of them. Lawrence Frank – Frank was a hot name when he began his head coaching stint with the Nets in 2004. His New Jersey Nets would start 13-0, which is an NBA record by a first year coach, under Frank and would go on to make 4 playoff appearances in Frank's 6 years. The Nets would post a 225-241 (.483) record, which included a 16 game losing before Frank was finally canned. Frank is the youngest of the finalists at the ripe age of 40 and stresses his team to play tight defenses, something the Rockets could benefit from as they were a bottom 10 defensive team. He is currently an assistant coach with the Boston Celtics. I don't see Frank developing into a better like the rest of the candidates have a potential to do but Frank is definitely the safest pick out of the three. Dwane Casey – expect Casey's name to come up a lot if the Rockets do not hire him. Casey made a name for himself this season as the Mavericks' defensive specialist under Rick Carlisle as the Mavs would be one of the top defensive teams by holding their opponents to 96 points per game on 45% shooting. Dallas would go on to defeat the Portland Trailblazers in a tough 6 game series and then stomp on the defending NBA champions in the 2nd round. Dwane Casey's lone season as an NBA head coach came in 2005 when he was hired by the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Wolves would go 53-69 under Casey before he was fired in 2007. Out of all the candidates Casey may have the most potential but he's also risky and doesn't have the best relationships with his players. Kevin McHale – this is an interesting candidate to me. McHale spent much of his post-playing career as a front office man, running the Minnesota Timberwolves as Vice President of Basketball Operations for more than a decade. In that time McHale would make two of the best draft picks in Timberwolves history, taking Kevin Garnett 5th overall in 1995 and trading for Kevin Love in a draft day deal in 2008. McHale, however, would fail to surround Garnett with sufficient talent to win anything significant (with the exception of 2004). McHale's ability as a talent evaluator are questionable as he would make a few blunders on draft night such as trading Brandon Roy for Randy Foye. As coach McHale would have two short stints with the Wolves, coaching them to a 19-12 record in 2005 and 20-42 in 2008-09. I would say the poor records are more due to the lack of talent on those Timberwolves teams (which McHale is responsible for). McHale is praised as a players coach and has a spectacular talent as a motivator and is said to be loved by the players. However, can how good of an x's and o's coach is McHale? Can he keep his team motivated for than just half a season? The Rockets would get a good idea of these answers after the 2nd interview but even then hiring Kevin McHale as the next Houston Rockets head coach is going to be a big risk but so would the reward. Darkhorse – according to ESPN, the Rockets and Warriors are teams that are hoping to interview Lakers' top assistant Brian Shaw for their head coaching positions. Shaw got the thumbs up from legendary coach Phil Jackson to take over reigns as the next Los Angeles Lakers' head coach. The Rockets are likely going to await word from the Lakers about Shaw's situation before finally making their decision. My prediction: Dwane Casey gets the nod with Lawrence Frank finishing as a close second.

Shaw definitely deserved this job. I never liked Brown, I thought he was a good defensive minded coach, but was too much of a players' coach that didn't do enough on offense for him to be considered a great coach. This is really a defining moment of his coaching career. http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii76/H3AT23/LeBrongif.gif Far too many times where he just looked completely lost out there in the playoffs. I expect it to change, he has to change his mentality if he wants to coach a Kobe led team.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPb2nZPxffU&feature=player_embedded

lol what?

They finally have someone funny on that show? :o

You got me there, GAMERCRY.

Nothing he said in the post you quoted referred to him unfairly being fined by the NBA. He was talking about the use of the word in general, and how society is hypocritical, so you should read a little better next time.

Bulls. The Thunder going back to Dallas down 1-3 while 2 of the 3 next games (if they can survive that long) for the Bulls are at home.

I edited that 2 seconds later.

The Heat ran iso's for LBJ throughout the game, and he found ways to score or facilitate regardless of the schemes Thibs was running. Who's to say Rose can't do the same? Your excuses can only take you so far. There's absolutely no reason why Rose was 8-26 from the field, 1-8 from three, and 7 TO's. And Lol at you saying this team is inept offensively. They have three 17PPG+ scorers on the team... Rose isn't a great playmaker, which is why the talent isn't maximized on the court. Had he been more content passing the ball, things would be much different. An inept offense is the Washington Wizards, watch them before making judgements about the best team in the league during the regular season with the COTY and MVP..

And when criticizing the Bulls offense, can we please give some credit to the Heat defense? What magic play are the Bulls going to run that will generate offense? The Bulls don't have enough one-on-one scoring or playmaking to consistently score against exceptional defense except when Rose gets strung out by a screen and the Bulls can get the ball to Noah at the foul line with a numbers advantage. Miami's defense is championship-caliber.

What confuses me even more is that Russell Westbrook gets so much heat for playing so poorly, yet Rose is struggling mightily himself. We always talk about him being the "modest superstar" but the problem is, he's not. Like you just mentioned, he takes hero shots (like the two potential gamewinners on LBJ late in the fourth), and simply isn't a great passer. When teams like Miami lock in on this Bulls team, it's very easy to exploit match ups because no one can create their shot outside of Derrick. Boozer is just as soft as Gasol, Deng needs to be spoon-fed his shots, and Korver is only good when teams fall asleep on him as he rolls off screens.

Fire. J. Cole been my [expletive]a for almost two years now. I was the first person to ever post about him on this site and now it's funny to see everybody on it Funny how none of you motha [expletive]as responded to this shit... http://www.otrbasketball.com/forums/topic/371-j-cole/

18/hr, but what I've heard they promote almost immediately once you get your degree.