AboveLegit

Maybe on offense, but his defense is suspect.

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.

In those two 40 min games Pierce played in, he dropped 27 twice. You still are missing my point, I'm not referencing their performance, simply stating that fatigue should not be included in this discussion. Do you know the meaning of inept? Clearly you do not. Once again, Luol is a very good spot up shooter, and while he definitely has his flaws, he still is a viable threat in the proper offensive set. Boozer is the same thing, they brought him in with the intention of providing Derrick with a low post presence. He thrived under Sloan's offensive system, Deron Williams and him made a living off of the pick n roll. Don't tell me Rose has nothing when Deron Williams rode that pick n roll to nearly four 50-win seasons. Now he has the so called MVP on his hands, the best defense we've seen since the '08 Celtics, and all of a sudden he's become inept. He's not one dimensional, meaning he can either shoot the midrange shot, or post up. How's that not getting your own shot? Did it ever occur to you that maybe Rose has not been utilizing him properly in the offense? If he wasn't that good of a player, the Bulls would not have given him a 80 million dollar deal. I compared their playing styles, which has nothing to do with Durant.. STOP BRINGING UP DURANT!! Not sure you've realized this or not, but Durant has no effect on Westbrook playing out of the offense at times, and playing out of control. Just like Rose, he has found himself doing too much with the ball rather than relying on teammates.

So explain to me how Paul Pierce played back to back 40 minute games against the Heat in round 2? Rondo played with a broken arm, yet he still managed to play 30 minutes against them. Deng is still a good shooter when given the opportunity to shoot, he was 8-16 from the field, so why was he ignored late in the fourth? Boozer was 7-14 from the field, why didn't he get the ball? Rose just doesn't get the most out of his teammates, he tries to do too much with the ball much like Westbrook, and it's hurting his team.

Has nothing to do with my point. Rose has ran plenty of ISO's this season, there's no reason why he can't do it now... Rose has Korver and Deng to kick it out to, as well as a midrange threat in Boozer. And please stop with this 50MPG business, he's averaging 39MPG this playoffs. LeBron's been doing it his whole career. Through those two most recent title runs, Kobe was averaging 40MPG as a 32 year old. Rose is 22 years old, don't make excuses that he's overwhelmed or is getting tired.

Well I think a good amount of posters knew he wasn't a great passer, his court vision isn't in the tier of Nash, Kidd, or Paul, and is definitely considered a scoring PG. Agreed, I've always liked Spo as the coach of this team, he's a players coach much like Doc, and believes in the same philosophies as you mentioned. Trust goes a long way when dealing with multiple superstars. I'm just as impressed as you are. I thought LBJ's defense tonight was reminiscent of Pippen in his prime, it was that good.

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..

Last time I checked, both were All Stars. Just because one happens to be the second fiddle while the other has a team built around him doesn't mean we shouldn't compare both of their performances in these playoffs.

So you're going to blame his 7 turnovers on his team? The same team that won 60+ games this season? And no, he was not getting triple teamed.

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.

OH my....

Oh look, another turnover for Mr. MVP.

LeBron is incredible. He just ran right through Noah.

Chicago's offense is so hard to watch. Rose is basically forced to ISO every play because no one can create their own shot or finish.

Rose with two near impossible jumpshots on LBJ that resulted in an ugly miss. Both of which could have won the game for the Bulls... I've never seen LBJ playing defense like this, he's unbelievable.

As expected, Thibs has made the proper adjustments on offense, much better spacing.

You still aren't grasping the fact that David Stern must fine anyone who insults a fan on camera. It doesn't matter how common the term is used, the point is, he used it to insult a person in the stands. He's supposed to be the professional in this situation.

The Thunder were up by 12 when Harden fouled out with 4:34 remaining. They scored a total of 6 points the rest of the game (4th qtr and OT). Wow.

There's a difference between expressing your frustrations and blatantly calling someone a [expletive]got. His intentions were pretty clear, the league saw it on TV, and disciplined him, they weren't going to just let it go when the whole world saw what had occurred.

BFT, isn't Knight and Bayless too redundant though? I'd assume that at the top of the Raps draft board, they have the two bigs (Kanter and Val). And I also think they should look at trading down if they're not comfortable with selecting any of the prospects left on the board in order to get a guy like Kawhi Leonard. They need some help on the defensive end and with rebounding. There's a ton of big men they can select next year (although, the same could be said about the crop of SF's in 2012 too).

I like Durant, but he had an average game at best. And I absolutely hate it when he looks for foul calls rather than just playing the game. He needs to be more focused through the entirety of games, and not rely on the refs to get you points.

Amazing game, I can't believe what I just witnessed. Dirk just had himself another legendary performance, he had an almost perfect first half (again), cooled off in the third and early fourth, and then turned it on late in the fourth. The '06 Mavs would have lost this game by 20, but this current Dirk is just much more focused and an overall better player. Kidd also played fantastic, and I thought Marion did a great job frustrating Durant. The weakside defense they put on KD was genius, it forced a few key turnovers. But to give some credit to OKC, they tried their best defending Dirk, but he just made some impossible shots. I know it doesn't help making all of the mistakes they had committed in crucial plays, and those 26 turnovers were killer, but Dirk was just playing out of his mind. That useless foul on Dirk by James Harden midway through the fourth really hurt them, they could have used an extra shooter in that OT period. Just shows how valuable James is to this team, as soon as he went out, Dallas ignited their comeback. Scott Brooks needs to keep the offense moving, far too many plays where players were just standing there. Learn from the Mavs, there offense never stops moving.

Let's see if the Mavs have one more run in them. Dirk needs to put the ball on the floor and make plays. Get to the line more.

Dirk is having a terrible second half, and really isn't trying. He's not rotating properly on defense, he's not boxing out, and just seems out of it. These are the types of games where he should take charge and dictate the tempo of the game, not where he fades into the background.

I feel like I'm watching the Wizards on defense right now. Terrible pick n roll defense by the Mavs, Carlisle needs to switch things up.