Poe

I'm not denying Kobe's abilities, which is why I'm using him as an example. Holding Kobe to 16 points with the Heat winning in the effort is pretty remarkable. Knowing Kobe, I understand there no way any defender in the league can keep Bryant from averaging below 20 in a 7 game series. Dorell does have more trouble guarding the drive than he does guarding the jumpshot and the post. Dorell did guard LeBron some today, and the only time he scored was driving off the screen, where the Heat probably should have doubled. LeBron was ineffective scoring off the post or taking jumpers because Dorell's length bothered his shot. Q-Rich did do a pretty good job with physical defense on LeBron, although it led him to foul trouble, and when Q backed off preparing for the drive, LB would use the height advantage to rise for a pull up jumper. I prefer Dorell guarding LeBron because it took away more aspects of his game. If the Heat would have doubled him off of the screens, then they would have forced his teammates to have big nights, like you said.

Shoutboxes can be fun, but I think it can distract people from posting in topics, lowering daily post count.

In a draft, you pick the best player you can get, no matter what. If you have 5 PGs, and the clear-cut best pick is a PG, that's who you pick. You can adjust your line up with trades later.

Why not? The Heat have enough money this summer for both Wade AND LeBron, and still have extra left.

A few things factor in to the Heat's loss. Mo Williams, 3 point shooting, and free throw shooting. The main reason the Cavs won is because the Heat failed to play good defense on the perimeter and they killed the Heat from 3 shooting 47%. They also penetrated and drew more fouls, and hit a higher percentage. Even though they made only 3 more free throws, those may have been a key to the outcome of the game. I think the Heat played decently on LeBron. It wasn't great, it wasn't poor. They did what they could do against the MVP.

I think Ellis understands the problems with Nelson's game strategy and is frustrated that he can't do anything about it but just keep his head in the game and say yes to whatever the coach tells him. It looks like it's starting to show in practice, since he's probably less motivated to bust his butt for an organization that he doesn't agree with and the coach is calling him out on it. It's either the Warriors get a new coach, or Ellis may wind up joining Jackson on his way out.

The Hornets were on a decline as the season progressed last year, and the decline continued into a losing record to start this season. Instead of blaming it on an aging line up, I guess they pointed the finger at Byron. Personally, I think it has more to do with bringing the right weapons around Chris Paul, and less to do with the coaching staff. I think firing coaches in general early in the season just has a lot to do with the situation. Pat Riley fired Van Gundy in the 06 season and the Heat winded up winning a championship.

Q-Rich actually has made surprisingly good improvements this year with losing weight, much better intensity (probably coming from playing with his best friend), better overall defensive play, and perhaps even a better shooter than before. I wouldn't say he's the most improved player in the whole league, but definitely the most improved on the Heat team so far.

I don't know if this has been posted already, but I just came across it and thought it was interesting. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSqeWUuQSlM

As long as Q can find a way to hold his own on LeBron, I think the Heat match up well with them defensively, apart from Shaq. The Heat just don't have the size for him. Like Flash said, Shaq should have a good game tonight against his undersized matchup. I don't know for sure which team will win. I think this should be a great game.

Well, right now it's Ariza, easily. Gallo had a good start, too, though not nearly as good as Ariza's, and his team ain't winning, either. Chris Kaman is also looking to have a good year, but I think his numbers will go down when Griffin gets back.

I think Dorell's offense may actually benefit from playing with better players around him. Q-Rich's scoring has mostly been a product of the offense from the attention Wade, Beas, and O'Neal get. I think Dorell has a harder time finding his points when he's playing with Arroyo, Joel, and Beasley (who never passes once he's facing up), versus playing with Chalmers, Wade, and O'Neal, all of which are good passers and will find the open man, which is where most of Qs points are coming from. Not to discredit his play at all, he has been knocking his shots down consistently and making timely late-game shots. I think Dorell would fit in just as well, considering his much improved midrange and 3 point shooting. I'll admit Q-Rich does deserve to start if he continues to play the way he's been, I just feel it would balance things out if the two players were switched in their roles, plus giving Dorell more minutes may finally give him a chance to tap into his potential the same way Ariza did for LA and DeRozan is doing now for Toronto. There is already 4 solid options in the starting line up, and Dorell would be a product of the offense until he gets more comfortable on the court and more reliable altogether. The line up the way it is has been working very well defensively as a team, though, and that's the first priority. I just feel that making a tweak in the line up between Beasley, Rich, UD, and Dorell may help make things smoother offensively, especially for the bench line up. I don't see Spoe adding Dorell to the starting line up this early in the season, anyway, since his style is supposedly where his players have to "earn" their minutes, and Q-Rich has been doing a very good job so far.

I don't know how much agreement I'll get on this, but these are just my thoughts. Against the Cavs tonight, I think Dorell Wright needs to start and be the guy guarding LeBron. LeBron is way too big for Q-Rich, despite his defensive improvements this year. Dorell had once started over Walker a few years back against the Lakers, and he held Kobe to below 20 points with his defense forcing him to 4-17 shooting. I think he can potential force LeBron to a similar night if Spoelstra puts enough trust in him. The SF spot is a weaker point in the Heat defense, and starting Dorell against a team like the Cavs could be beneficial defensively and wouldn't hold back the Heat offensively with his much improved shooting. I always felt Wright was better then Q-Rich, anyway, but it's hard to argue when Q has been making shots, grabbing boards, and drawing charges, while Dorell hasn't shown a whole lot on the stat sheet. Spoe's subbing methods have been somewhat questionable as far as the substitutions between Dorell, Beasley, Haslem, and Q-Rich. First of all, Q-Rich at 6'5'' is playing SF while he's on the court, while Dorell at 6'9'' has been playing SG (although dorell can handle the position perfectly well, it's still strange to see the taller guy playing the smaller position). Second, Beasley plays for the starting unit and likes to be aggressive offensively early in the game, but the Heat's strategy is to go to Jermaine early in the game instead plus having Wade at the 2nd option for the time being. Beasley, who is used to playing the first option in college, has to take a bit of a backseat in the beginning until either Wade or Jermaine or both are subbed out for Joel and Wright, while Haslem comes into the game for Q, and Beasley moves over to SF. It's not until Beasley switches positions where he becomes a first option on the court, even though he clearly isn't quite as comfortable playing SF yet, especially defensively where Haslem always ends up guarding Beasley's man. Despite early season success, I think the starting line up should be changed to: O'Neal Haslem Wright Wade Chalmers With the second unit as: Joel Beasley Q-Rich Cook Arroyo Q-Rich has been the energy-guy thus far for the starting group, while Haslem brings it off the bench. I'm just switching the two around. So far, there has also been a clear lack of offense in the bench line up. I think Beasley and Cook can both provide a scoring punch. When Beasley starts, he has a hard time finding his own shots with Wade being the slasher, O'Neal being the post guy, and Chalmers and Q-Rich being the shooters. With him coming off the bench, he can have all the room he wants to be aggressive on offense from the moment he comes into the game while being fresh off the bench and playing his natural position. With these changes, Wright can play a role playing position similar to Trevor Ariza's (while in LA) by scoring on open looks and being a defensive stopper, Haslem can regain his old starting job and bring energy to the starting line up, Q-Rich can be the energy provider and bring more shooting range to the second unit, and Beasley will have more room to score. Just my thoughts.

http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv40/The_Poe/Picture27.png So Google, tell us what you really think of Kanye...

The NBA already has a penalty-like rule. After a certain amount of team fouls each quarter, a team gets into the penalty, and the opponent gets sent to the line on any foul until the quarter ends. After a team is in the penalty, every foul on the defensive end against decent free throw shooters is a failed defensive possession. The foul out rule is unneeded because all it does is lower a player's aggression and/or minutes, yet the role players are still willing to foul. The only thing that stops a team as a whole from being less likely to foul is if the opponent will be sent to the free throw line. Besides, the game is more fun to watch when both teams are aggressive, and when the best players have to lower their aggression due to not being able to foul, it makes the game less exciting. I think the main reason Van Gundy is complaining about this is because the foul out rule works against his system. I actually agree with it, though, but I don't find it a pressing issue. I always felt fouls in general were called too often, anyway.

http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv40/The_Poe/Picture24.png?t=1257990128 No wonder he wanted the tapes confiscated..

My main guy is a 6'3 pass-first PG and I hardly ever play any other position. Even now that I'm playing for the Bobcats, when Felton comes off the bench, I still remain at the point. When my dude played for Miami, sometimes he played SG or SF when Chalmers and Quinn were in the game, both at the same time sometimes (rotations were weird then before the update, and are still weird now sometimes when Gerald is playing center for some reason). All in all, my positioning has never been a problem for my player individually, but I hear of a lot of other people having problems with height disadvantage from being subbed in bad positions. I made a defensive 6'9 SF that I haven't used much. He plays for the Blazers, and I swear he has played every position at least once, and even the PG when trying out for Cleveland in the summer circuit. Even though he never gets any height disadvantages, he's still too weak for the C position and sometimes outsized, and his ball handling is far too poor for the point. The rotation logic in the game is still screwed up. Sometimes you see guards in forward positions, SFs playing at C, 3 or 4 PGs in at once, etc. Not every team is coached by Don Nelson. It would be nice if this gets fixed in the next patch (are they even making another patch?).

I don't know much about the details of the draft picks, but if I were Riley, I would focus on a center with good size (preferably 7 feet) and much better role playing offensive abilities than Joel. I mean, if the Heat can land a legit defensive back up C would be awesome. It would sort of replace what Alonzo brought back in the championship days, but instead of replacing Shaq it's Jermaine, who is arguably better defensively than Shaq was. A back up point guard wouldn't be as important, IMO, because the Heat would already have enough players in other positions who have enough versatility to play the point if needed. If the Heat do manage to get LeBron on the team, then they would probably gain interest from a veteran PG, anyway, and possibly for a minimum deal like they did with Gary Payton.

Bah, 119. I can't believe I missed out on names like Jason Richardson, Caron Butler, and David West. Aaaaggghhhh.

Another win for the Heat. They were struggling offensively, so Wade had to go for a second 40 point game in a row facing the Wizards. The Heat were great defensively as always, forcing Arenas to 12 turnovers (10 in the second half), and the Wizards team to 76 total points (27 in the second half) shooting 40.3 percent from the field. BTW, Cook was still on the bench today, and unfortunately we didn't get to see Beas wearing the Afro tonight.

Wednesday, November 11th GAME OF THE WEEK Cavaliers @ Magic (ESPN) Points - 30 Winner: Cavs Leading Scorer, Cavs: LeBron James Leading Scorer, Magic: Vince Carter Leading Rebounder: Dwight Howard Leading Passer: Jameer Nelson Hornets @ Suns (ESPN) Points - 10 Winner: Suns Leading Passer: Steve Nash Thursday, November 12th Cavaliers @ Heat (TNT) Points - 0 Leading Scorer: LeBron James Suns @ Lakers (TNT) Points - 0 Margin of victory (within 5 points): 8 points (LAL) Friday, November 13th Hawks @ Celtics (ESPN) Points - 5 Leading Scorer: Joe Johnson Lakers @ Nuggets (ESPN) Points - 0 Leading Rebounder: Nene Hilario Saturday, November 14th Blazers @ Bobcats (NBATV) Points - 0 Leading Passer: Raymond Felton Warriors @ Bucks Points - 5 Leading Scorer: Brandon Jennings

I'd say let Q-Rich go and keep UD, Dorell, Joel, and O'Neal if possible. Since Cook, Chalmers, and Beasley are pretty much guaranteed for next year, and considering the scenario of Wade and LeBron together, I think it would create a good defensive 9 man rotation. There is a solid back up for the 2-5 positions, and Wade, LeBron, and Wright can all fill in at the point.

Alright, two things to look forward to: Cook is likely to be back, and Beasley could be rocking a 'fro. http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv40/The_Poe/6a00d83451587d69e20128756980b897-1.jpg?t=1257872950 Hopefully after a four day rest, the Heat can pull off another win against the Wizards at home. With Washington's poor start, and the Heat with a long break, I think the Heat should be able to add another W to their record tonight.

Haha. I didn't say it was a guaranteed championship either, and I'm not even banking on LeBron coming to Miami. The odds of him coming to Miami are still very slim. If he did actually come though, with everyone healthy I'm sure we could count on a Heat-Laker Finals, and it would be a damn good series.

How about the whole Olympic team joins the Lakers.