Built Ford Tough

How has Lucas impressed you running the 2nd unit? Running around jacking up shots has made you impressed in his ability to run the 2nd unit? Sure, he has been good as a sparkplug off the bench for some instant offense, but aside from one half (2nd Detroit game I believe or maybe the Washington game, can't remember exactly) he has shown absolutely no ability to effectively run the 2nd unit. Aside from the first couple games with Lowry injured, Lucas has been playing shooting guard all preseason. What happens when his shot isn't falling, which is going to be the case many times this season? What exactly does he bring to the table that would make you comfortable with him actually running the 2nd unit? PS: I forgot to mention this in the post with all the Twitter updates, but they actually seem to be more worried about DeRozan's eye swelling up (he was poked in the eye and needed to get some drops and attention on the bench) than they are either Calderon or Lucas.

It doesn't sound like Casey is too worried about either one of them. After I posted this thread (or maybe even while I was posting this thread) there was some tweets that made it seem like there was nothing to worry about. It sounds like Calderon got a charley horse (like I said, I didn't see the play) and Lucas' knee just locked up on him and was fine after walking it off.

One thing that I'd like to add that I feel a lot of people are overlooking is that the Thunder are going to have Eric Maynor back this year. He is one of the best backup point guards in the elague and it seems like a lot of people are completely forgetting about him. Of course the Thunder are going to miss Harden's playmaking ability since he was their best passer last year, but that was because Maynor was hurt. Maynor is the best playmaker on the team, even if Harden was still there. Having him back running the second unit or pushing Westbrook to the 2 and playing with the starters is going to help compensate for losing Harden's playmaking. As for scoring, I don't think that OKC is going to lose that much. Martin as a 3rd option could be potentially lethal, especially if last season's struggles were more due to the lockout and him struggling to adjust to new rules as opposed to him losing some of his game. I didn't watch enough Rocket games to say one way or the other, but it is worth noting that just 2 seasons ago Martin averaged 23.5 ppg with a TS% of 60%, a 21.4 PER and he led the league in free throws made. Martin has been one of the more efficient scorers in the NBA over the past 5 years (22.4 ppg with a TS% of 60%) from 2006-2011. Last year was really the only exception (17.1 ppg with a TS% of 55.4%) and even then, that isn't terrible. It just wasn't what we were used to seeing from him. Make him a 3rd option behind Durant and Westbrook and he could become very dangerous since those two demand so much defensive attention. One thing that would really worry me is Brooks. I seriously question whether or not he has the offensive creativity to completely take advantage of Martin's game. We all know how great Martin was playing under Adelman who is one of the best coaches in the league at utilizing off the ball movement, which Martin thrives at. If Brooks insists on using Martin in a similar way as he used Harden, then I agree it will be a big loss for OKC because Martin is simply not that player. Brooks' offensive struggles as a coach would make me really nervous if I was a Thunder fan because we've all seen how limited he is as a coach on that end of the floor. As for the rest of the trade, I'm a big Lamb fan and think him falling to 12 was a joke. He was, in my opinion, easily the 2nd best shooting guard in this draft and from a talent perspective, there is literally no reason why Austin Rivers or Terrence Ross were drafted ahead of him. If he can put it all together, I think he is going to be a very good player. Then the picks. The Thunder are basically guaranteed a lottery pick from the Raptors due to the protection on that pick. The Charlotte 2nd rounder is going to be, at worst, the 33rd pick in the draft and that is more valuable than a late 1st as far as I'm concerned. Then there is the Mavs pick (top 20 protected until 2017) which isn't as good of an asset but lets not forget what Presti has done with picks in that range. He managed to get Ibaka, PJ3 and Reggie Jackson with the 24th, 28th and 24th picks. He has a great track record in the draft so even if the pick itself isn't appealing, I trust Presti in the draft more than almost any other gm in the league. At the end of the day, OKC couldn't afford Harden. They aren't the Lakers or Knicks or some other big market team. It was clear that ownership drew a line in the sand and told Presti that he can't cross that line. So he did the most logical move possible and that was trade Harden for a very good package that allows them to remain competitive this year, retain some flexibility and get some very nice future assets. Are they are better team this upcoming season? No, they aren't but really, did anybody truly believe that they would be able to beat the Lakers and the Heat in order to win a championship this season anyway? I know I didn't.

I didn't see the Calderon injury as I was still asleep, but by the sounds of it, it didn't look good. I'm not sure how it happened, but I believe he ran into a Bargnani screen, hit his knee somewhere and immediately went down. He was helped off the floor by the medical staff and was putting very little weight on his right leg. From what I've read on Twitter from the beat guys (Koreen, E. Smith, Jones and McKenzie) it didn't look good at all. As for Lucas, it happend at the very end of the game. Team Black was down by 3 with 8 seconds left, Lowry missed a 3 and then Fields put up a meaningless putback with 2 seconds left. His putback went in and out and then Acy incidently hit Lucas in the knee when going up for the board. Lucas was down on the floor in some obvious discomfort holding the back of his knee. On the positive side, he did get up and walk to the back so it didn't look like anything serious. As for the game itself Team White (the bench) beat Team Black (the starters plus Kleiza, Acy and maybe McGuire) 78-75. I don't know the stats, but I know Ross drained around 3 or 4 threes, Anderson had at least 10 points and his jumper looked good and Lowry was the best player on the black team. I only saw the last 5 minutes or so, but from what I read it sounded like those 3 were the best players tonight and that Ross was really getting after DeRozan.

Story of his career. Like I said when I made this thread, he is pretty much everything you want from a combo guard off the bench but he just can't keep it together long enough to ever really stick with a team.

I really liked what I saw from Harrison Barnes tonight. Sure, it was against the Suns and he had Michael Beasley on him, but if he can play like that on a consistent basis, he is going to have a very nice rookie season. He was active on the glass (7 boards, 3 offensive), was sticking open jumpers (3-4 from three) and was even showing some ability to get into the paint with some dribble penetration. He got caught a couple of times (committed a charge and also picked up his dribble on the baseline which resulted in a turnover) but he also managed to draw a couple of fouls and had one really nice move but offensive interference wiped out what would've been 2 points for him. Defensively he did a nice job of bodying up on Beasley and not biting on his fakes. One thing that I couldn't help but laugh about was the Warriors commentators. I think it is fairly safe to say that they saw none of Barnes in college. They were talking about how he needs to develop a mid range jumper, particularly a one or two dribble pull up. Anybody who watched Barnes at UNC over the past two seasons could tell you that the one or two dribble pull up is Barnes bread and butter. They were also going on about how he is proving so many people wrong about his 3 point shooting. Did anybody really doubt Barnes ability to shoot? It is his ability to create off the bounce and decision making that people questioned (and from what I've seen so far in the preseason, both of these things have improved) about him. It really isn't a big deal or anything, just something I got a laugh about. On the other hand, the other Tar Heel in this game (Kendall Marshall) looked bad. He just looked completely outmatched against Jarrett Jack out there. He didn't play a whole lot and this is only the first Suns preseason game I've watched, so I'm not sure if it was just an off night for him or if this has been a regular thing so far. I loved his playmaking heading into the draft but was skeptical how effective he would be outside of that and I saw next to nothing from him in this game.

Yeah, I know. I said he doesn't like always posting up 3's because he doesn't like the wear and tear it puts on his body. Having to go up against bigger and stronger defenders every night (which, obviously he would do if he played the 4) would be take way more of a toll on his body than posting up smaller 3's, hence why he doesn't want to play the 4 even though that is his most efficient position on offense. I never said or implied that he would be posting up opposing power forwards. He would obviously be facing them up and taking them from the triple threat position from the elbows.

As opposed to JR Smith, right? Seriously though, he said players like Fields, players who don't need the ball to contribute, guys who help contribute on the glass, play defense and don't force their games. Obviously Fields isn't a starting player on a championship team, nobody is saying otherwise, but you need guys like him (again, like him) who are happy doing the dirty work and contribute in ways other than scoring. As for the Raptors game tonight: - I thought Lowry was bad the first 3 quarters. Aside from his defense on Jennings, I didn't like what I saw from him through the first 3 quarters. A lot of his passes were way off target and he looked sloppy. However, once he came back in the game during the 4th it was a complete 180. He was huge and made key play after key play down the stretch. He is the first real "closer" that the Raptors have had since pre-Horford TJ Ford. - DeRozan really took advantage of his size against the smaller Milwaukee backcourt. Whenever he had Ellis, Jennings or Udrih guarding him, he immediately established post position and went to work. He really needs to learn to pick his spots better, though. He has too many of those 1 on 3 attacks that result in either a wild shot or forced turnover. If he continues to operate in the post, I really hope he develops his passing game, especially since his height will allow him to see over the top of most 2 guards. I don't ever expect 5 assists a game from him, I just want him to be less of a blackhole. - Bargnani's offense looks to be starting to come around. I've liked what I've seen from him defensively for most of the preseason and that continued tonight. On offense, his jumper doesn't look nearly as flat as it was in the earlier games and he is moving better as well. What I liked the most from him tonight was his rebounding. I realize he only got 4 boards, but I think 3 of those were late in the 4th and they weren't his usual gimmie boards. He really fought for them and came away with tough boards in traffic. As long as he comes up with the big boards late, I'm fine with him being a sieve on the glass for first 40. Ok, maybe I'm not fine with it, but I can put up with it, haha. - Valanciunas was his usual active self. I think he finished with 10/8/4 and I love the fact that he went 8-10 from the line. It may not be as much of a factor this season, but in future years when he adds strength and gets more comfortable, his free throw shooting is going to get him a lot of points given how often I expect him to be at the stripe. I think it is safe to say that Valanciunas has earned the starting spot and the only time Gray should see the floor is when they are playing Howard or Bynum. - Amir and Ed make up one of the best bench big duos in the league, especially if Amir's new found shooting prowess continues into the regular season. His jumper has looked fantastic so far in the preseason. Davis is just a beast on the glass (5 boards in 12 minutes tonight). I really like having these two off the bench. Now for the negatives: - Fields was brutal tonight. His rebounding was solid, but other than that he was just bad. He has absolutely no confidence in his shot at all and needs to totally re-work it. It is just completely broken and it is at the point where it looks like Casey can't afford to have him on the floor late in the game because his shooting is such a liability. - Way too many turnovers. I think they finished with around 20 and a lot of them were unforced. This has been a problem all preseason and is something that they really need to work out because they don't have enough talent to overcome this many turnovers on a nightly basis. - The Calderon/Lucas backcourt is giving me nightmares from the Forderon or Cack lineups that we used to see. Play them for a full 48 minutes together during the last preseason game for all I care. I just pray that I see very, very little of it during the regular season. I'll end the post here to avoid making it an unreadable wall of text.

I haven't actually seen him do it personally, but it wouldn't surprise me one bit if Greg Monroe has done it before. I saw him do stuff like that at Georgetown fairly often since he was always operating in the high post and from around 18 feet. If Bargnani is classified as a C (since up until this year he has played C) he has done it multiple times, although I'm fine with anybody who considers him, and has always considered him, a PF. But yeah, I completely understand the point you are making. It really is a shame that Cousins is such a head case because talent wise, he stacks up against any big in the league. I really do wonder what his development would be like if he didn't get drafted into such a shitty situation. If he had a coach who didn't put up with his bullshit and let him get away with the crazy shit he does (both on and off the court) how different of a player would he be today? Or is he just one of those guys who will never get it regardless of the situation he is in?

I'm not saying Kobe is LeBron or anything, but when you are hit much harder than you anticpiated and didn't brace yourself for impact, there is a damn good chance you will be knocked on your ass. If Cousins properly braced himself and prepared for Kobe ramming into him then I would completely agree that he flopped, but that wasn't the case. I think more than anything it was just a shock factor that resulted in Cousins going down and nothing he did on purpose.

In Cousins' defense, Kobe did just absolutely barrel into him on that screen he set. I don't really blame him for being upset with that play since Kobe made absolutely no effort to do anything other than run right into him. I really don't think there was any flopping involved on that play (if that is what you are insinuating) since you don't really expect to be run into like that when setting a screen. Like I said earlier, I didn't watch the 2nd half and I didn't see the second screen you are talking about, so I can't comment on it. As long as it wasn't malicious, I can't really blame Cousins for getting more physical with that one based on what Kobe did (not that I find anything wrong with that, either) in the first half.

What about Jeremy Lin? I'm not saying tha this play will warrant him being named an All-Star, but what do you think the chances of him getting voted in by the fans are? Given how insane the whole "Linsanity" thing was last season and now with him joining Houston who has a large following in China. Yes, I realize Lin isn't Chinese but his Taiwanese ethnicity could certainly play a part in the Chinese fans voting him in.

While that is nice in theory (Melo's PER at the 4 last year was something like 29 compared to 18 or something at the 3), I doubt Melo would consent to playing the 4. I know he has already mentioned not wanting to post up 3's as much because he doesn't like the toll it takes on his body, so what makes you think he would be happy playing the 4? It really is a shame because he is clearly more effective playing that way and with so many teams going small now anyways, it really wouldn't be too much of a problem defensively. There really aren't a whole lot of teams in the East with 4's who you can look at and say that it would be a complete mismatch having Melo guard that player.

I only watched the first half so maybe they changed it at half time or something, but I know he had 3 in the first quarter and then he came back into the game and immediately got an offensive foul for a push off on Gasol when trying to establish position. That would make it 4 and I could've swore I heard the Laker announcers mention him getting another foul later. Not really a big deal or anything, I just found it hilarious how, like you mentioned, Cousins and the other King players were fouling so frequently. On another note, Tyreke Evans continues to look like crap. The Kings really need to just cut their losses with him and move on. It is pretty damn obvious that Evans and the Kings just aren't meshing and that it is time for both parties to go their seperate ways. He is a horrible fit on the roster and doesn't look to give a shit at all.

Yeah, I mentioned that he won't get quality ones right under the basket. However, it will open up chances for his teammates to sneak in and grab some of those, especially if they are worried about keeping Bogut off the glass. Then when they start being a bit more relaxed on Bogut because guys like Lee, Jefferson, Barnes and Rush are getting those boards 10 feet from the hoop, it could easily result in him getting some of his own. Maybe they won't be right underneath the hoop, but if he can tap the ball out to an open Curry, Thompson, Rush, Barnes or Jack, it is going to result in a lot of made 3's. Fair enough. I do believe I read something about Jackson wanting to push the ball more than they did last year since they have so many shooters who will be able to spot up for that transition 3. We won't see a rebirth of Nellie-ball or anything like that, but I highly doubt Jackson will slow things down to a crawl like he was trying to do last season. I think it will be similar to what Dwane Casey is doing in Toronto. Last year he slowed the team down to a snails pace because he wanted to really drill into his team what he wants from them on the defensive end and change that culture. This year there has been a large emphasis placed on pushing the ball and looking to get into transition because he is comfortable with what he accomplished defensively last year. I think there is a very good chance we see something similar to that from Jackson this year. I agree with most of this, but there are two things that I don't really agree with. 1. I think that Bogut's style will fit in really nicely with Golden State. Not as a number 1 scoring option because he isn't that. I think that GS won't really have a got to guy this season and instead will look to just ride the hot hand, whether that happens to be Bogut, Lee, Curry or Thompson on that particular night. What I like about the fit for Bogut is that having so many knock down shooters around him is going to make excellent use of his passing ability. He is by no means on Bynum's level as a scoring threat, but he has enough skill to be able to go against most centers one-on-one and put up points. Then when a second defender is sent, he will be able to pick apart defenses because of how much spacing there is on the floor. Pretty much every player in the Warriors rotation is going to be a legitimate threat from 18 feet, and a great passing big like Bogut is going to be an awesome magnet to get players good looks. 2. Don't you think that a similar thing could be said about Philly being better in a free flowing offense as opposed to a half court, structured one? Turner, Holiday, Young, Wright and Richardson are all better in a faster paced game. When they were at their best last season (at least whenever I watched them) they were constantly pushing the tempo and looking to run and make use of their athletic advantages over most teams. When the games slowed down to a half court pace, they really got stagnant and predictable. Now Bynum will give them a legitimate option to run their offense through when things do slow down, but I don't really agree that the rest of the offense fits around him all that much better than GS's offense fits around Bogut. From my perspective, I think it is a pretty similar fit where you have two bigs who are better suited to playing a slowed down game, but they are surrounded by athletes (Philly) and shooters (GS) that would thrive in a less structed, more flowing offense.

Did Cousins have 4 or 5 fouls in the first half? I lost track after he sat with his 3rd and can't remember if he got just one more or two after coming back in. Either way, that dude is so much fun to watch. You just never know what the hell he is going to do out there.

Why will Golden State being a jump shooting team negate Bogut's offensive rebounding? Sure, he won't be able to get as many offensive boards right underneath the basket and immediately go up for a put back, but the long rebounds will create a lot of tap out opportunities, especially considering Bogut's length. If anything, I think Golden State being a jump shooting team will make Bogut more dangerous on the offensive glass. While he may not get as many himself, teams are aware of his ability and will pay extra attention to boxing him out. This will enable more opportunities for Lee (who has been in the top 15 in the league in offensive boards each of the past 3 seasons) or the Warriors wing players (who are all solid rebounders with the exception of Thompson) to grab some of those long rebounds around the foul line area. The spacing on the floor will also make excellent use of Bogut's passing ability and, as we all know, the best way to get open 3's is off of broken plays such as offensive rebounds. In terms of raw numbers it may hurt him, but I think that the "productive" (can't think of a better word) number of offensive rebounds will increase in terms of them resulting in open looks for shooters. Also, in regards to the offense thing, the numbers last season aren't exactly a great representation of the Warriors potential on that end. On the surface the 14th ranked offense isn't anything other than run of the mill, but look at the circumstances surrounding that team. 1. They traded their leading scorer in Monta Ellis after 37 games for Bogut, who didn't play a single second for them. 2. Curry missed 40 games and Lee missed 9, their two best offensive players after the Ellis trade. 3. They were blantantly tanking the 1.5 months of the season. I'm honestly not sure if this had a direct impact on the numbers in terms of what their ORTG was prior to entering tank mode in comparision to what it was afterwards, but I do know that they were throwing out some absolutely pathetic lineups that aren't even close to the talent level that they'll be trotting out there this season, even if Curry, Bogut or Lee get injured. I'm not saying that they are going to be an elite offense or anything like that, but they do have the potential to be a very dangerous, albeit streaky, offensive team this season given their makeup and shooting ability. One last thing I don't really understand. You mention Bynum pulling down boards and igniting the Sixers break but won't Bogut do the exact same thing? Sure, the Warriors aren't as good defensively and as a result there will probably be more defensive rebound opportunities for Bynum to ignite the Sixers break, but Bogut will be doing the exact same thing. At the core, I don't see what the difference is.

His logic was basically that he doesn't think there won't be any surprise mystery team who comes out of nowhere and makes the playoffs, so he felt like Denver was a sleeper team in terms of being a title contender. From my understanding, he seems to think that Denver is on the level of a LA, OKC and San Antonio as a true title contender, but not many people are giving them a chance of joining that level.

There have been a lot of rumblings about whether the Grizzlies are better when one of these players are out of the lineup and if the two of them can co-exist on the floor together. So far there really hasn't been a large sample size of the two playing together since Gay was injured for a lot of the season 2 years ago and Z-Bo missed a large majority of the season last year (and even when he did play, he was still not himself due to the knee). Despite that, they haven't exactly set the world on fire even when both were healthy and playing together. In the playoffs last year the Grizzlies seemed like a team who was confused about their identity. Should they bang down low with Gasol and Randolph? Or should they look to get Gay going on the perimeter? Not to take anything away from the Clippers, but I believe the Grizzlies beat themselves more than anything in that series last year. I haven't watched any of Memphis' preseason games this year, but looking at the stats, it seems to back up the fact that Gay and Randolph struggle playing together. Gay is shooting just 35% from the field and averaging 13 points a night. In the one game that he played in where Randolph didn't play, he scored 20 points and got to the line 12 times (although he shot 3-12). In the 5 games that Randolph has played in, Gay has got to the line only 15 times. So yeah, just looking at it from a box score standpoint, it suggests that the two of them aren't exactly being able to thrive together. Granted, it is preseason only so I don't put a whole lot of emphasis on numbers, it is a bit troublesome since the two haven't shown before that they have great chemistry together. With all of this said, do you believe Gay and Randolph can co-exist? If not, who do you look to trade, either at the deadline or next summer? If you choose to deal Gay, what kind of player should Memphis target? Ditto for Randolph.

Over the past few seasons we've seen quite a changing of the guard when it comes to All-Star selections. With perennial All-Stars like Yao Ming, Tracy McGrady, Vince Carter, Allen Iverson, Jason Kidd, Chauncey Billups and Shaquille O'Neal all either retired, out of the league or no longer playing at a high level, it has opened up a lot of spots for some new blood in the All-Star games. In 2010 a total of 9 players made their All-Star game debut (Deron Williams, Gerald Wallace, Al Horford, David Lee, Kevin Durant, Chris Kaman, Zach Randolph, Derrick Rose and Rajon Rondo) In 2011 3 more players popped their All-Star game cherry (Russell Westbrook, Blake Griffin and Kevin Love) Last year 6 players were first time All-Stars (Andrew Bynum, Marc Gasol, Roy Hibbert, Luol Deng, Andre Iguodala and LaMacrus Aldridge) So, as you can see, that is a total of 18 players in the last 3 seasons who've made the All-Star game for the first time in their careers. Who do you see joining that list and making their first appearance in the game?

Alex Kennedy, Joel Brigham, BIll Ingram, Richard Hardy and Eric Pincus eached picked a team who they believe is the biggest sleeper in the league. Kennedy picked Toronto Brigham picked Milwaukee Ingram picked Denver Hardy picked Golden State Pincus picked Washington Read the reasoning behind each selection here: http://www.hoopsworld.com/sunday-topic-biggest-sleeper-team/ Who do you think was correct with their pick of the biggest sleeper team? Or do you believe that the correct answer is a team that none of the Hoopsworld analysts selected? If so, which team do you believe is the biggest sleeper team?

I know you are a Lakers fan and Kobe is your favourite player, but how can you say it is "Kobe hands down" after the additions that the Lakers made over the summer? Back when this thread was originally made, I whole heartidly agree that the answer was Kobe hands down, but now that they added Howard, Nash and Jamison while only losing Bynum, there is no way that the answer is a definitive Kobe. I think there is a damn strong argument that a lineup of: Howard Gasol Artest Meeks Nash is better than either: Bosh Haslem Allen Wade Chalmers or Perkins Ibaka Sefolosha Harden Westbrook I'm really curious as to why you think the answer is so easily Kobe.

They didn't get into an altercation. I don't know what you heard that would make you think that, but there was nothing close to an altercation between the two. Fields seemed to be extra motivated going up against his former team and when he was guarding Melo he was even more motivated. He was playing real physical, in-your-face defense and you could sense that there wasn't a whole lot of love between the two (which wasn't really the case with any of his other ex-teammates) based on body language and the way the two were playing. Then after the game a reporter asked Melo a question about Fields and he gave a somewhat snippy remark that was posted earlier in this thread. It was nothing major and was hardly a big deal, I was just curious if something specific happened between the two or if it was just two grown men who's personalities didn't mesh. But yeah, there was certainly nothing close to anything remotely resembling an altercation between the two.

Leonard Hamilton has done a fantastic job turning that program around over the past 4 years (95-41 record). He has led them to 4 straight tournament appearances after not making the tournament for something like 10 or 11 years and they won their first ever ACC Championship this past year. He has gone 25-10 2 out of the past 4 seasons, which are tied for the school record in wins. He has really established the Seminoles as a defensive powerhouse and are regularly among the best defenses in all of Division 1 basketball. They are on the up and up as a basketball school, that is for sure. However, despite that, you are likely right. Even with the growth of FSU's program, I highly doubt that they are a finalist for Wiggins if it wasn't for his parents' both going to FSU.

It shouldn't be. Barbosa sucks. I never realized it when he was playing for Toronto (I mean, I knew he wasn't the same player he once was but I didn't realize how bad he had become) since there was such a complete lack of talent on those teams the past two years, but watching him on the Pacers last year really opened my eyes to how bad has become. I thought Colangelo trading him for a late 2nd at the deadline was just him wanting to get Barbosa on a playoff team (which may have been part of it) but I came to the conclusion that was simply what his value was. I was delusional thinking that he would be able to fetch a 1st because he simply isn't a good player anymore. He kills any offensive flow since he is a complete ball stopper, he is an inefficient scorer, has a severe case of tunnel vision and can't defend anybody. He also completely disappears in the playoffs. I know the Lakers don't have great guard depth, but adding Barbosa wouldn't be a positive. To be perfectly honest, I'm surprised he even found an NBA team to play for this year. I thought he would head back to Brazil for sure.