AboveLegit

Eminem is trash now. And Drake has never been good.

Exactly. Nick has talent, we've seen it over the years, yet I haven't heard him ONCE talk about the minutes he receive. I applaud him for that. Now here's the issue, trade rumors will arise, contract negotiations will be more of a hassle, and Blatche will start to complain more. I don't know what to do with this kid, earlier in the season he cried about not receiving any shot opportunities in one game... He just doesn't get it, you're the main piece of this puzzle in DC next to Gil, you are all we have in terms of talent and what's ahead of you, if you were sensible, you'd realize we will extend your contract. I just can't believe the [expletive] hole we have been in.. I've never witnessed anything worse in my years of watching professional sports, this is just terrible. Tensions are high, everyone on the roster and front office is stressed out, and frustration is growing everytime we step on the court. We're on a 12 game losing streak following this loss... normally I'd say things couldn't get any worse than it already is, but I'm from the DC area, this [expletive] has been going on with our sports teams for a LONG long time. We won't trade Blatche, but people will speculate what's next for our franchise. I just don't know what we can do. Flip constantly compares Blatche to a Garnett-esque player, he just lacks the determination to get better. If I was in Blatche's position, I'd be honored to even be considered near Garnett's level. This kid has a huge ceiling, I mean HUGE, he can be a top 5 scorer at his position one day. And people wonder why there are concerns with Demarcus Cousins... All-Star talents... and the maturity level of a 5 year old.

Yeah for a second I thought he traveled, but after seeing the replays, it was a legit step back three. and Gerald Wallace continues his dominance against us this season, just look at his stat line.. 17 points, 19 rebounds, and played nearly the entire game. The man is a beast.

Al Thornton hit an amazing three at the end of the fourth to send it to OT. After that, we fell apart and lost. -_-

Thanks for doing all this Smitty, hopefully the league doesn't die, would be a shame to see your work go down the drain.

How many good post defenders are there now in this league? Please, think more objectively here, there might be a few players that I'd consider above average on defense right now, and no, that's not embellishing. Ok, so if championships do not suffice for you, what does? So far, most of us have established the fact that Jordan is a better all around player, better leader, uses his intangibles more effectively, and currently has better statistics in almost every statistical category. I don't see any argument favoring Kobe, I'm sorry. If you look at their two most comparable season, Bryant's 2005-06 season where he scored 35.4 points per game over 80 games and Jordan's 1987-88 season where he scored 35 points per game over 82 games, there are some noticable differences. First thing to jump out is their field goal percentage, Bryant shot 45% for the entire season while Jordan shot 53.5%, that's 8.5 percent better. That season, he took three more shots per game than Jordan and made about one less. This is also with the three point shot being used fairly librally by Bryant, who attempted 518 three point shots to Jordan's 53. So while Jordan's three point percentage might be a good bit lower than Bryant's, he attempted over 465 more three pointers than Jordan did and only made 173 more than him. Bryant also attempted 173 more shots than Jordan did the entire season and made 91 less than Jordan. Bryant's a great volume scorer but he's not exaclty an efficient scorer, whereas Jordan was probably one of the more efficient scorers of all time. Being a great offensive player isn't necessarily how many points you put up, but how you put up those points. Jordan knew his limitations and went with what worked, Bryant on the other tries to do a little too much most of the time. Jordan's was a much better penetrator and much better slasher, although Kobe is a very good slasher himself, Jordan was just that good at it. Also, later in his career, Jordan became a very good jump shooter. After that first retirement a lot more of his scoring came from jumpers, a lot of those fadeaways. He had the first really good fadeaway that I remember even seeing (note, not saying in any way that he was the first player to have a really good fadeaway, just the first I noticed). He was good enough that he was able to adapt to that game where he was shooting almost all jumpers and still shot around 50% from the field, which is beyond impressive. Kobe's clearly the best offensive player today, and the most versatile, I won't deny that (although if you give Kevin Garnett a 3 point shot he could be more versatile), but Jordan was a lot more versatile on offense than he's being given credit for in this thread. Kobe v. Tayshaun Prince in the 04 Finals... in a situation where he went up against a defense that was probably closest to the 90 Pistons, Bryant shot 38% against a first year starter, and it was thought that Bryant's number of shots despite his low FG% was a key factor to taking LA from being in danger of losing that series closely, to a surefire loss. How can you say Kobe would do X to Dumars and Rodman when he can't even do it to Tayshaun Prince?

How do you figure? Why is it that we don't see the dominant centers anymore like the league saw in the 80s and 90s? Why is it that we're seeing less and less focus on the defensive end, and are straying away from traditional basketball? I fail to see any positive correlation from Jordans era to now... unless you consider flashy combo guards as one... On offense Jordan has the edge, because before Scottie and Horace even got there he had a lot more responsibility for his team on offense and he managed to efficiently carry it, like what was said about his third season when he averaged over 37 ppg. The guy was shooting over 50% from the field still after his second retirement. He was just so much more efficient on offense. While all that was happening, even before Scottie and Horace were there (two good to great defenders) he was still doing a great job on defense. He was still able to play just as good if not better than Kobe has played even with players to fall back on, even when he hasn't had to shoulder the load on offense, regardless of the defensive statistics, Jordan just plain flat out outplayed Kobe on defense. Even then, seeing Jordan get lit up was something very rare. Also, Jordan did actually have to totally shoulder the load before Grand and Pippen got there. There's a poster or two here that seems to think that Pippen was there for Jordan's entire career when Pippen didn't come until Jordan's 4th season, and Pippen didn't even average 8 points per game that season, so the Pippen and Grant arguments that some people are using really can't be used when talking about the first 5 years of Jordan's career. So Kobe shoots the three better than Jordan. So did Reggie Miller. The game is won by being able to score at the basket. Teams who get higher percentage shots win more often. Jordan was better 18 feet and in and Kobe was better 18 feet and out... you win the game by being better 18 feet and in... unless you'd like to show me all the championship teams that beat superior inside scoring teams by shooting threes.

Did you forget that MJ played in a league where hand checking was allowed and defenses had just as much freedom as offensive players do today? Jordan played in arguably the greatest era in basketball, and averaged a higher career PPG, accrued more points, and dominated the league far longer both statistically and in regards to the playoffs (6-0 in the Finals). It's one thing to completely disregard what the Bulls did as a whole in the playoffs, but it's another thing to completely disregard what Jordan did in every Finals appearance.

Michael Jordan, it's not even close IMO.

In the 1984-85 season, Bird averaged 28.7 ppg, 10.5 rpg, 6.6 apg, 1.6 spg, and 1.2 bpg, and did this while shooting 52% from the field and 42% from 3 point range. Those are certainly numbers just as good as Lebron has ever put up. Lebron obviously has the talent to one day be at the top of this list, but at this point, it is still Bird #1, Dr. J. at #2, and finally Baylor, Havlicek, and Barry ahead of Pippen. For anyone to even consider LeBron over Bird, Baylor, Havlicek, Barry, and Pippen is completely ridiculous. My answer is Larry Bird.

Thabo has to get some recognition here.

I just can't believe it... Vasquez's career is over in Maryland. I've watched him through all 4 years, can't believe he went out like this.

Can't wait, we gotta win this game and take advantage of Kansas losing.

I had Kansas winning it all, I'm gonna lose 35 bucks probably, but it's worth it. This is amazing, hopefully UMD can take advantage of this loss, and beat MSU. We have a good chance at the final 4.

Kansas stepping up the press, 6-0 run.

Nice sig. Good game for us, Vasquez made all the right plays, and Jordan Williams stepped it up big time for us. Hopefully he keeps playing this way against MSU.

Give me a break, Kansas needs to win or my bracket is screwed.

Can't believe it. Freeman didn't show up at all tonight. Monroe had way too many turnovers.

Bad first half, Gtown down by double digits, they just need to feed the ball more into the paint and let Monroe do the damage. They should make a run to start up the second half, I hope.

Such a huge upset here.

This guy can definitely score in this league. If he can consistently rebound as well then he has a shot at being pretty good. I think he'll turn out like what Michael Finley's been for the Spurs the last few years. Good shooter, average defender but puts in the effort and plays within himself. He also reminds me a lot of Flip Murray. Many people forgot but when Flip was first starting out with the Sonics when Ray Allen got hurt, he stepped it up, and was putting up 40+ some games in the regular season even with Rashard Lewis still there. Murray has carved out a pretty decent NBA career and Morrow could follow same suit. Great article Yama, absolutely loved the read.

Let's go Terps! I can't wait for this game. Great job on these gamethreads RD.

I held my breath when Blatche went down. So glad he's fine.

Confidence - 9 Dabearfan - 1 Loved Confidence's opening verse.

AIM SN: flight593 Team Wanted: Wizards