AboveLegit

Thunder keep falling asleep on defense...

Who is "they"?

He has the talent, that's not in question. Not sure if this comparison has been thrown around, but I look of him more as a Mo Williams type player (when he was in Milwaukee). 17-6-4 is right near his ceiling. Especially with how weak this draft is, decent NBA talent will get overevaluated because there's not much you can compare them to. Irving has a long way to go before he can fully prove himself. He's definitely not in the same tier as John Wall or Derrick Rose. He's athletic, a good playmaker, and has great scoring instincts and defensive potential, but I wouldn't bank on him reaching his full potential (or what's being advertised currently). I can definitely see him struggling like both Jonny Flynn and Mike Conley did out of the gates. Their games are similar, those two both were great in college, but extremely raw coming into the NBA (more so than Irving).

Last thing you want to do is get others involved in the Bulls offense. If Deng starts to take advantage of his match up, the Bulls are difficult to beat. RD talked about it in the game 1 thread, the Heat need to focus on getting to the line and crashing the boards. The Heat are at their best when they are in the open court and in transition, the only way you get those opportunities is by grabbing rebounds.

OKC has to give Harden the ball more in the second half, similar to what he was able to do in game 7. He has the ability to be a playmaker, and it gives Westbrook an opportunity to work off the ball, as well as Durant.

He's not completely overrated, but some of these comparisons I'm reading are just ridiculous. Some people believe he's the next Chris Paul because he has a similar skillset. The only knock I have on him is that he's not particularly great at any one aspect of the game, he's just a well rounded player. John Wall, Derrick Rose, Russell Westbrook had something in their arsenal that they could easily translate to the pro's, Kyrie doesn't. I'm not saying he won't pan out, but it may take him a little longer to adapt than other great PG's have in the past.

Can someone please tell Scott Brooks to double team Dirk? He's missed one shot thus far...

But see, it's the same argument I have with the age limit. Just because a few great players successfully made the jump from H.S. to the NBA, doesn't mean we should allow every H.S. player to make the jump. Same logic applies to the draft. I'm against the idea of tanking, but you can't just institute something to prevent it from happening, and screw deserving teams out of picks they desperately need. We're talking about players coming into the league that can completely turn a team around. Last five years... Wolves Nets Kings Heat (Wade injured that season) Grizzlies They were the worst teams in the league, and really, it's not even close.

Durant is so good at selling fouls.

Blame it on the coaching staff, he was shooting 73% one season in Washington.

Still not a fan to be honest. The NHL's method is much better, but I'm still not a proponent of leaving the future of teams up to pure luck. If you're the worst team in the league, it's only right to grant that team the first pick in the draft to help jumpstart their rebuilding process.

Terrible defense by the Mavs, does anyone know how to stop the ball?

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=6560322 LOL, this guy is just asking to be fired.

http://twitter.com/#!/ABJCavsInsider

Never liked the idea of the draft lottery, even when we won last year, I'm just not a fan of this. Why do we have to determine the faith of teams by a lottery? Makes no sense, it's just stupid. I really feel for these Raptors fans.. They lose their franchise player, finish with the third worst record, the lowest they were projected to go in the lotto was 6th, and they ended up with the 5th pick.. Stern really doesn't care about them. Anyways, as for the Wizards, I really hope they explore some trade options leading up to the draft. Would love to move up to the second pick by packaging our 6th and 18th picks, but probably isn't likely because Leonsis loves to stockpile picks. We can also look to package our 6th pick with Blatche, lot's of options for Grunfeld. If we do stay at our 6th spot, Kawhi Leonard is probably our most realistic option. Biyombo might also be an interested pick, but I'm not completely sold on him.

The motivation is to keep talking basketball with a stable, knowledgeable community. I've been around many boards with many post padders and attention whores, OTR doesn't even come close to that.

We had a nice debate about this earlier, it should help you out: http://www.otrbasketball.com/forums/topic/22628-new-cba-could-raise-draft-age-limit/

Predictions mean nothing, you're either right or wrong, you can support your claims as much as you want, but the truth is, no one knows what the future holds. It has nothing to do with intellect. If you get a prediction right, no one is going to assume your a smart poster.

Tonights the night! Hopefully I'm happy with the results.

Just a random guess, but I think the Cavs will win the lotto. I'm really hoping the Wiz get into the top 3 so we have a good shot at getting Kanter or Williams, if not, we'll be stuck with a prospect like Vesely (who I'm not too fond of).

http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/5738/lotterychances.jpg It's tomorrow night at 8:30, can't wait.

http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/towerticker/2011/05/bulls-heat-game-1-tv-ratings-show-marquee-matchup-a-big-draw.html

No way, you possibly have one of the top rising stars in the league coming out of the west, or two 10+ year veterans that have a chance to finally get their ring and solidify themselves as one of the greatest players at their respective positions. From the East, again, you have one of the top rising stars in Derrick Rose, and two legends in the making (Wade and Bron). This has a chance to be a memorable finals if you ask me.

http://i1113.photobucket.com/albums/k510/mans1ay3r/lebronwestlol-2.gif

Taj Gibson :o