Built Ford Tough

Just when I thought that Turkoglu couldn't possibly get any worse he has managed to sink even lower during March. Check out these jaw-dropping stats from Turkoglu: 7 ppg / 5.5 rpg / 3 apg / 30.8 FG% // 30.8 3PT%. I don't even know what to say.

Yay, another 3rd quarter collapse! 41 points and 64% shooting in the 3rd quarter. Seriously, what the hell does this team do during half time?

Over/under on the Warriors scoring 130 tonight? I say over while Steph Curry or Monta Ellis go for 40.

I'd join if we can get one started.

Poor execution from Illinois combined with Evan Turner taking over in the 2 OT's is what was the difference in this game. Illinois really shot theirselves in the foot twice when they were unable to get a shot off in time at the end of regulation and at the end of the 1st overtime. When you are playing a team that is more talented and just clearly an overall better team, you can't afford to make mistakes like that as they 9 times outta 10 they are going to come back and bite you in the [expletive], and that happened in the game today. They played a great game and really hung in their with a top team in the country, but their poor execution at the end of the regulation and the 1st overtime sealed their fate. Even though Turner had 10 turnovers in this game, he was absolutely brilliant and proved why he should be a consensous top 3 pick (he is the clear cut number 2 in my opinion). He scored 11 points in the first 8 minutes of OT and just wouldn't let Illinois' defense relax. He was constantly putting pressure on them with his drives to the hoop. He got to the foul line I think 6 times in OT (made 5 of them) to go along with a couple of really nice drives to the hoop. I love his awareness on the floor. He was abusing the Illini defense by constantly driving to his right, so they started to key in and overplay his right hand, which resulted in a beautiful spin move to his left that had him wide open underneath. Finished the game with something like 31/10/6/2 on 10-18 shooting and 10-12 from the line (as well as the previously mentioned 10 turnovers) Lighty did a good job of stepping up and hitting some key shots when Turner fouled out with about 2 minutes left and Bufford played a very good game as well. I think it is safe to say that my man crush on Evan Turner grew after this game though. I honestly want the Raptors to just lose every single game for the rest of the season on purpose so that they have even the slightest of chances to draft him. If not, they could always trade Turkoglu for him, right? Right...

Oh THAT one. Don't remind me. -_-

I wrote a little article about this, the one that AboveLegit is refering to, back in the summer and I figured I'd post it here. Obviously Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is my pick considering the title of the article was "Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: The Greatest Big Man Ever", haha. Anyways, here it is: Personally, I think that Kareem is the GOAT big man. Almost everybody will give the distinction of the GOAT big man to either Bill Russell or Wilt Chamberlain. Who do you think is the greatest big man to ever play the game? As I said above, I think that Kareem is the best big ever, and here is why: When you decipher between plyers in All Time rankings, there really isn't one thing that is the deciding factor (at least not for me). If you just value statistics, then you would go with Wilt Chamberlain. If you just value winning/accomplishments then you have to go with Bill Russell. If it is all about individual talent, then it would be Hakeem Olajuwon. If it was dominating the paint like no other, then it would be Shaquille O'Neal. I think that in order to be considered the best, you have to factor in a combonation of these things, and really, is there anybody in the history of the sport that has the combonation of dominance, talent and accomplishments that Kareem has? He resume is a thing of legend if you ask me. Just look at what he has accomplished in his basketball career: 3 straight HS titles going 96–6 including a 72 game winning streak 3 straight NCAA titles and a couple of player of the year awards 6X NBA Champ 2X Finals MVP 6X NBA MVP (finished top 5 in voting 15 times NBA Rookie of the Year 19X All Star 10X First Team All-NBA 5X Second Team All-NBA 5X All-Defensive First Team 6X All-Defensive Second Team NBA's All Time leader in points (38,387) 3rd All Time in rebounds (17,440) 3rd All Time in blocks (3,189) 35/17/5 player in his prime Career Averages of 24.6 ppg 11.2 rbg 3.6 apg 55FG% and 72FT% People considered the weakest part of Kareem's game to be his rebounding and defense, yet the man made 11 All Defensive Teams in his career (which is the most out of any player to ever play the game), is the third leading rebounder of All-Time and the third leading shot blocker of All-Time despite the fact that blocks weren't kept as a statistic for the first 4 seasons of his career. In fact, if blocks were kept as a stat during the first 4 seasons of his career, he would actually be the All Time leader in blocked shots with roughly 4,042 blocks (if you want proof of that I will show you my calculations). When you are an All Time great at the area that was considered to be the weakest part of your game, that means you are a [expletive]ing legend. He is the most durable player to ever play the game. Not only did he play for two decades (and was an All Star in every season except for one), but to put into perspective just how much longevity he had, Kareem made All-NBA First Team over Wilt Chamberlain, Moses Malone, Hakeem Olajuwon and Patrick Ewing. Kareem played against players from the 50's as well as players that played into the 2000's. That is just unreal. The only player to ever win more than Kareem was Bill Russel. The only players that had better statistical numbers than him were Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor. However, no player that won more than him was as skilled or an overall dominant player like he was and no player that was better statistically won even close to what he won. That is the ultimate combination if you ask me. The way that I look at it, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is basically the Michael Jordan of big men. You can't really look at any area of his game and say "well he didn't do this well". He had no flaws in his game. He holds defensive records, rebounding records, shot blocking records and offensive records. People will argue that the only reason he holds any of these records is because of his longevity, but they seem to forgot that during his prime, Abdul-Jabbar was a 35/17/5/4 player and he was a winner while doing this. He wasn't like Oscar Robertson where he just put up godly numbers on crappy teams that weren't going anywhere. Kareem was considered to be the best player in the league for probably close to 15 years and even when he was past his prime with the Lakers, he was still their go to guy. I know that he wasn't their leading scorer at times, but make no mistake about it, when the Lakers were in need of a basket, it was the skyhook that they turned to time and time again and more than not, he would come through because he was a very clutch player. People will try to bring up the fact that he played with Magic Johnson and Oscar Robertson (who was past his prime with Kareem anyways) but Kareem does have 6 Championships and none of these other players have a title without Kareem on their roster. Now I hate it when people say so and so can't win without so and so because this is a team game and you need a team to win, so I am not trying to discredit Magic by any means because Kareem needed him just as much as Magic needed Kareem. I am just trying to point out that this is a terrible argument. You prove yourself vs Wilt. You prove yourself vs Hakeem. You win 6 titles. You put up video game numbers. You win 6 MVPs. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, you are the greatest big man to ever play the game.

Well it is either post "" or actually type out the letters "lol". I think the smiley looks better. Typing out "lol" always looks weird to me for some reason.

I know the guy was just a joke/troll account, but I have to admit that I laughed pretty hard when I read this: Some people may not find it funny but for some reason I actually laughed when I read it.

If you seriously think that Jarrett Jack doesn't know that Sacramento is in California, well, I don't think that you should be calling anybody else retarded.

I'm bored and have nothing better to do so I figured I'd respond to this because I know how much it sucks to take the time to write an article only to have nobody respond to it. Remember what I said in that other thread about not following the Warriors too intently, so if I am way off-base in anything I say, don't go too hard on me. How many more years does Maggette have on his contract? I can't remember for sure if he signed there this summer or last summer, although I think it was last summer, and I don't feel like looking it up at the moment. Anyways, if he only has 3 years left on his contract I think that you could possibly find somebody willing to take on his contract, altough it doesn't seem all too likely. I think that the Warriors are going to be stuck with him for at least another season because the few teams that I think would've been willing to take on his contract made moves prior to the deadline that basically eliminated any sort of possiblity of them making a move for Maggette (Cleveland acquiring Jamison and Dallas acquiring Butler, maybe throw Houston acquiring Martin into that mix, although I don't think they would've traded for Maggs). I think that the only hope the Warriors have of unloading Maggette is if some team that is in a "win now mode" manages to completely strike out in free agency and are desperate to add an efficient (Maggette has a very nice TS% of 61% and he also gets to the line 8 times a game to go along with his 50% shooting) scoring small forward to the team. Otherwise, I just don't see anybody taking on Maggette's contract this summer. It would be a huge step forward in the Warriors rebuild if they managed to unload him though. I definitely agree with you here. Nelson just isn't the right coach for a team that should be rebuilding like the Warriors. Well, if you ask me Nelson isn't the right coach for any kind of team, lol. It is clear that the Warriors weren't anywhere close to a playoff team this season yet it took Nellie around 10 games to realize that he should be giving somebody who is a key piece of the future like Stephen Curry a legit role on the team. Anthony Randolph, another Warrior who seemingly has a bright future, had sporadic minutes all season long before getting injured. Now don't get me wrong, I am all for making rookies earn their minutes but what Nelson doing is just stupid if you ask me. You have to let rookies play through their mistakes if you want them to grow as a player and it seems like Nelson doesn't allow his young players to do that nearly enough. I don't follow the Warriors intently or anything so I wouldn't know if there are rumours floating around about them firing Nelson in the offseason or not, but I get the impression that they have no intentions of firing him. Is that a fair assumption? I don't even think that there should be any debate between trading Curry or Ellis. I think that it should be an absolute forgone conclusion that the Warriors should try and move Ellis during the summer and keep Curry as an integral part of their future heading forward. Not only because I think Curry is the better player with the brighter future (as I posted in this thread.), but because it gives the Warriors more flexibility financially. Ellis is locked up to a 5 year/$55M deal where as Curry is under Warrior control for the same amount of time at more than half of the price. Even if the Warriors don't get as much for Ellis as they would for Curry, I just don't see the argument for keeping Ellis rather than Curry. I do agree with you that they should look to move Ellis in the offseason as well though. I loved the Curry pick in the draft because I really liked his game coming out of Davidson, but I knew that sooner or later they needed to make a decision on Curry or Ellis because the two wouldn't be able to coexist as a backcourt both offensively and defensively. No arguments here. If the Warriors get the 1st pick in the draft it is obvious who they should draft. However, I think that this team would take a huge step forward if they managed to grab somebody like Evan Turner in the draft as well. He isn't a great shooter, but the guy has just such a smooth all around game and I honestly think that he can become a 20/5/5 type of player who brings leadership and other intangibles to the table. Normally I don't buy into pre-draft comparisions, but Turner's comparisions to Brandon Roy seem spot on to me. I may overrate the guy but I honestly think that he is the clear cut 2nd best player in this years draft and think that he is going to be a future All-Star. Pairing him and Curry up together gives you a great duo heading forward. If the Warriors do end up firing Nelson and play a more traditional game, I think that DeMarcus Cousins would be a solid pick as well, assuming that Wall and Turner are both off of the board. Cousins is still fairly raw and I know that the Warriors already have guys like Biedrins, Randolph and Wright on the team, but I think that Cousins and Curry would play very well off of each other. John Wall should obviously be #1 priority though, but if they don't manage to land him they could still take huge steps forward if they manage to grab somebody like Turner or Cousins (as long as Nellie is gone, if he isn't then he would be a terrible pick). No comment on this because I have literally no idea what kind of impact this would have on the team at all.

Neither are players that you are going to build an NBA Championship caliber team around, so I pick the "other" option. This team needs to luck out in the lottery/draft and land a bonafide franchise player. Ellis and Curry can be good complimentary players on a good team, but the only kind of team that they would be the focal point on is a lottery team, unless they have an absolutely absurd supporting cast around them (I'm talking borderline All-Stars at every position). With that said, I would hold onto Curry if I had to choose between Ellis and Curry. Ellis is a good scorer but I like the complete game that Curry brings to the table much more. Ellis is the better scorer but Curry has him beat in probably every other aspect offensively. Whether it is shooting, playmaking, offensive IQ, running an offense, etc..., Curry does it better than Ellis does. I just like the way that Curry plays the game much more than Ellis. Another thing that makes me favour Curry more than Ellis is that Curry's game relies very little on athletic ability and a lot on basketball IQ and fundamentals. If Ellis were to suffer a serious injury to his knees that took away from his explosiveness, speed and all that jazz, I don't think that he would be the same kind of player as he is now. On the other hand, Curry's style of play would be able to withstand an injury, although obviously nobody would want to see either of them suffer a serious injury. My opinions may not be very accurate because these are based more off of last season and the way that Curry played at Davidson than their play this season because I haven't watched that many Warrior games (maybe 5 all season).

And Toronto continues their slide down the standings. They will be lucky to even be in a playoff position by the time this road trip is over if they are going to give up 43 points and let teams shoot 75% in a quarter. Absolutely pathetic game.

I get all of that. Its just funny to me how somebody like Confidence comes into this thread and takes a shot at the entire Lakers team aside from Bryant and Artest when Bynum out played Bosh tonight. Gasol, despite his poor shooting night managed to get 11 free throw attempts which helped force Bosh to only play 31 minutes because of foul trouble. The two of them were obviously doing something right defensively if they managed to hold Bosh to just 39% shooting, only 6 free throw attempts and only 7 rebounds. Calderon only shot 27% tonight (granted he missed a lot of easy looks from what I saw) which is well below his usual 50%. I'm not saying that Laker fans shouldn't hold their teams players accountable, but when I see somebody come into this thread and make the kinds of comments that were made when Bynum outplayed Bosh, arguably the best power forward in the NBA this season, on both ends of the floor and Gasol (and Bynum I imagine) managed to force Bosh to play 5 minutes less than he normally does because of fouls and things like that, I just think that that poster is complaining for the sake of complaining. In this case it just happened to be Confidence who made the post that I felt the need to respond to. Don't get me wrong if I was a fan of a contending team I would hold them to a higher standard as well, but I just can't help but think that some Laker fans on here complain for the sake of complaining and nothing more. Like in this thread, a shot was taken at every single Laker player aside from Kobe and Artest (who, by the way, I thought was pretty much a non factor for the entire 4th quarter, which is the only quarter I saw) despite the fact that Bynum had a great game in which he outplayed Bosh on both ends of the floor. Odom was a huge catalyst in the early parts of the 4th to help give the Lakers a lead (albeit a slight one) and even Gasol looked to have a decent game with 17/9 and 11 free throws (although I didn't see much of him), despite the poor shooting. With Bryant playing the way that he did tonight, along with Bynum having a great game, Gasol getting Bosh in foul trouble could be considered to be just as important as him putting up 25 points. I don't know though, I could be way off base here, but I have been thinking this for a while now and never really felt the need to post because either I didn't care enough, watch the game or something like that. It just gets kind of annoying to read about how when the Lakers win it is all because of Kobe Bryant bailing out his teammates but when the Lakers lose it is because of everybody other than Kobe Bryant, even if Kobe has a bad game. I could just happen to stumble across these threads more often than others which gives me an inacurate opinion. Anyways, enough with the rant. It is late here, I have a funeral to go to tomorrow and I definitely think that I have repeated some things in this post on more than one occasion.

No Raptor starter ripped apart the Lakers. Bosh played pretty poorly strictly in terms of his numbers. 22 points is nice and all but that is 2 below Bosh's average on the season and he shot below 50% from the field while grabbing only 7 rebounds, which is 4 below his season average. Bargnani had a solid game with 21/8 but I would hardly call 21 points on less than 50% shooting to be ripping anybody apart. Jack is probably the closes player to have ripped the Lakers apart tonight, but he only put up 18/7/7 which is probably an improvement for the Lakers point guards on the defensive end of the floor. The funny thing is that DeRozan had arguably his best game since the All-Star break tonight with 12 points on 4-6 shooting while also getting to the stripe 4 times. The Lakers didn't even play all that bad defensively if you look at the numbers. Yeah giving up 107 points isn't great but considering the Raptors are one of the highest scoring teams in the NBA and average around 105 ppg, that isn't really all that bad. They held the Raptors to 44% shooting, which is around 4% below their season average. They forced the Raptors into 13 turnovers and managed to get 7 steals tonight. The only thing that would be disapointing if I were a Lakers fan is the fact that they gave up 30 free throws, but from what I saw the refs had a fairly tight whistle tonight and the Lakers managed to get 44 free throws so that more than cancels it out. I know that the Lakers have struggled a bit lately and Kobe has had to bail them out on numerous occasions this season but it is really funny how it seems like every Laker game thread I read I always happen to come across a post that finds a way to downgrade almost every Laker player other than Kobe Bryant. This probably isn't the best thread to say this in considering nobody really contributed other than Bryant, Bynum and Odom (10/8/5 on 50% is nothing to complain about as far as I am concerned). I know that I trash the Raptors a lot on here but at least when I do it I am trashing borderline scrubs like Antoine Wright or overpaid, underacheiving players like Jose Calderon and Hedo Turkoglu. I wish that I was able to [expletive] about players like Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom. I haven't watched too many Laker games this season so I may be off base saying this and you guys have a legitimate reason to be constantly complaining about the play of everybody other than Kobe Bryant, I wouldn't know considering the amount of Laker games I have watched this season. I just felt the need to post that.

http://basketball.realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/64995/20100225/griffin_could_be_100_percent_healthy_by_may/ Good to hear that Griffin's recovery is going well. I'm really looking forward to seeing him make his NBA debut next season. Hopefully this knee injury doesn't have any sort of lingering effects on his play.

You can read more at this link: http://basketball.realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/65245/20100309/clippers_dunleavy_sever_ties/ In other news, here is the reams reaction when hearing the news that Dunleavy is no longer part of the orgainization: http://i47.tinypic.com/5xofgx.gif Seriously though, it is about time that the Clippers and Dunleavy went seperate ways. It was clearly not working and a change was needed for both parties. I know that Larry Brown has expressed interest in returning to the Clippers if Jordan didn't get control over the Bobcats, but does anybody else think that there is a possibility that we see Larry Brown back in LA as a coach and possibly a GM?

God damn. Who didn't see that coming?

Say what you want about Chris Bosh, but you have to admit that these old stereotypes of him being unclutch, soft, mentally weak etc... no longer apply to him. And now Kobe hits a game winner to crush the Raptors hearts.

Are you going off of the philosophy that there is a first for everything (in this case Hedo not choking for the Raptors)?

Have I mentioned how much I hate Hedo Turkoglu? That was just terrible.

This team pisses me off so much. Why the hell are they just chucking up jumpers without even trying to work the ball inside? They complain about not getting calls yet they play passive as hell. It's pathetic.

Calderon needs to let Jack handle the ball and just spot up in the corner. He kills the Raptors offense when he is just pounding the ball 30 feet away. What a BS call. Where the hell was the foul there? He didn't even touch Kobe.

Just got home to see that the Raptors are up 5 with a minute left in the 3rd and to be honest I am very surprised. Could anybody give me a quick recap of how the game has gone so far?

*Slowly raises hand*