Built Ford Tough

Grizzlies are really doing a poor job of feeding the post, at least from what I've seen, which isn't a whole lot. Give credit to Clippers, but the Grizzlies still need to create better angles instead of just forcing the ball into the paint. That last pass from Conley to Randolph and then the big-to-big feed to Gasol that followed was a perfect example of what they need to do. PS: Somebody should tell Paul that is Marc Gasol, not Pau. He won't get intimidated or back down.

What about Mozgov having his way with Bynum. It isn't all on Gasol. Bynum has been equally as bad. It really doesn't matter how they play if you continue to give guys like Lawson and Gallinari wide open looks on every possession. The Lakers aren't going to outscore the Nuggets even if Bynum and gasol are playing great. They don't have the firepower to do it. They aren't going to win letting Lawson get what he wants whenever he wants it. It isn't even just pick and rolls that are killing LA, either.

I'm really not surprised. He has fantastic hands, perhaps the best in the entire league, but his shot is average at best. It really is difficult to score in today's NHL if you have an average shot like he does. He has always been much more of a playmaker than finisher as well and add that to his average shot and it doesn't really surprise me that he hasn't been a premier goal scorer. If you give him time and space he will pick you apart, but he doesn't have that ability to just label a wrister or slapper top corner like the truly great goal scorers do.

The Johnson/Horford/Smith core has been together since 2007/08. In that time they've made the playoff ever season and, other than the first year together, have regularly been in the hunt for a 4th/5th seed in the East. However, they've never managed to advance past the 2nd round of the playoffs, are clearly a notch below the top tier teams in the East and really don't have any sort of internal players that can push them over the hump. So what should the Hawks do? It is clear that this core is good, but not nearly good enough to win anything of note. Sure, they can win a series here and there, but I don't think anybody, even the most diehard Atlanta fan, truly thinks they have any shot of making real noise in the playoffs. Is it time to blow it up? Do they try and make another run next year, a run that is destined to fail? Where do they go from here?

I really think his problems can be blamed almost entirely on two things. 1. Losing Adelman 2. Refs tightening up on jumping into defender/rip through fouls Adelman is such a great offensive coach and Martin thrived playing his his motion system that gave him so much room to operate off the ball, coming off screens, curls, backdoor cuts and things like that. He really isn't an iso scorer and needs to have plays draw up for him in order to be successfull offensively, much like Rip Hamilton back in his prime. I don't claim to have watched a lot of Rockets games, but from what I did see McHale isn't nearly as good at drawing up plays or freeing up players off the ball and Martin really missed that. It is not a coincidence that his play dropped off after Adelman left Sacramento and then with Houston as well. As for the second point, he got to the line almost half as much as he did last year, drew 65 fouls and drew fouls 10.8% of the time. Compare that to last season where he was fouled 256 times (lockout played a factor, but still, a huge difference from a per game basis) and drew fouls16.8% of the time. I'd be willing to bet a large amount of money that the biggest reason for that decline was the refs being more strict on the rip through and pump and jump fouls, both of which Martin made a living off of. I didn't see a lot of Rockets games, but those are the two biggest reasons for his decrease in production from what I saw. Why do you think I'd roll my eyes over drafting Drummond at 5? I fully believe he will be a top 5 pick unless he has an absolutely terrible showing at the combine and during pre-draft workouts. I don't think he will ever become the player he was projected to be back in high school but with this draft lacking in players with legitimate franchise potential, I'd be completely fine with a team drafting Drummond and banking on his potential. I'd even throw Perry Jones III in that same thought process as well, although not with a top 5 pick. What I do disagree with is all of the Austin Rivers love that so many people have. I think he is basically going to be a worse version of Jerryd Bayless and would take both Dion Waiters and Terrence Ross (as well as Jeremy Lamb, if you view him like Givony and Ford as a fringe lottery/mid first round pick and not a top 8 prospect like I do) over him. I'd probably even take a chance on Tony Wroten before Rivers as well because, while both are selfish players who seem to have large egos, Wroten has the physical tools to back up his cocky, selfish playstyle. I could easily be wrong about Rivers, though, as a lot of people seem to really like him as a prospect.

This really is the biggest reason, imo. You are probably the newest active poster on here and I told you about it when? Beginning of January? As the "core" members get older, find their spare time more limited and post less frequently as a result, you need new members to step in and make up for some of what you are losing from those older members. I really don't have too much of a problem with it, though. Sure, it would be nice to have more active members, but for the most part I enjoy the discussion on here even it it doesn't come as frequently as other forums. Twitter and instant chats have also taken away activity from all message boards, even huge ones like RealGM (the Raptor game discussion, which regularly hit 80 pages at least, was cut down by about 75% this past year). I know I've tried to bring people over and contacted multiple people during March Madness about joining, but I almost always got the same response back which was basically them telling me they would rather discuss over Twitter than join a message board. Those are the two biggest factors from what I've gathered.

I agree that they should've gotten 2 shots and the ball, but I just can't feel sorry for them with all of the mistakes and poor decisions they made under 30 seconds. From Josh Smith having a vintage Josh Smith moronic moment and jacking up a contested 20 footer with Brandon freaking Bass guarding him to Joe Johnson goint up weak and getting his shot blocked by Paul Pierce of all people to Horford missing the 1st free throw and then making the 2nd when the only hope they had was getting an offensive rebound and putback. So yeah, that was all sort of epic fails by the Hawks in the final 30 seconds that I really can't feel bad for them. With how brutal they were down the stretch, I'm sure they would've found a way to [expletive] that situation up as well.

Well, there is always talk about how young teams need experienced role players on the floor in order to show them the ropes, how to behave themselves and things like that. Doesn't the same thing apply to off the court stuff as well? Remember, these are 19-20 year old kids, some of which were poor growing up and lived in bad neigborhoods (not saying they apply in Oden's case, because as far as I know they don't) who are suddenly thrust under a microscope and given millions of dollars. For many of them, they've only been away from home for a year and are still adjusting to living on their own and in a new place. I could understand the temptation and having a guy to show you the ropes would be beneficial on the court, but even more so off of it. I do agree that he seems to be using it as an excuse and is placing the blame on external factors instead of on himself, which I don't agree with as I do believe it is his fault first and foremost, but I can also understand where he is coming from.

I don't think Denver could ask for a better start. Not only because they are up 11, but also because they were able to get the crowd in a frenzy and immediately get the pace up to where they want it and can take advantage of the bigger, older, slower Lakers.

It probably is. I wouldn't really say that he is a douche who blames everybody. It seems to me more like he is a young man who has his career and, basically, his life ripped away from him, turned to drinking and possibly even drugs, became depressed and then that depression led to a paranoia that sort of took over and controlled him for a while. I'm not trying to take away all the blame from him because he is certainly at fault for the choices he made and his actions. I can understand what would make him make these choices, though, considering basketball was basically his life since he was 13 years old and to have that ripped away from you at such a young age, in addition to all of the personal tragedies he suffered, well, that will take a toll on anybody. He does say some douche things, like the ones you quoted in your second post, but I think that is as much of a reflection of his mental state during that point in his life than anything else. If you heard or read stuff he said before all these injuries and crap happened, or listened to people who knew him, it all seemed very genuine. Who knows, though, maybe it was a cover up all along? I highly doubt it, though.

Great article from Grantland's Mark Titus. It was published yesterday, so some of you may have read it already, but for those of you who haven't I definitely suggest taking the time to read it. http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7908766/a-rare-interview-former-no-1-overall-pick-greg-oden-injury-plagued-career I really do hope he can manage to make a comeback. It is a good decision to take the entire 2012-13 season off in order to try for one last comeback. Take your time and make sure you are fully ready, both mentally and physically, and don't rush anything. With no teammates or fans to let down or anything like that, he shouldn't feel nearly as much pressure to come back as he did in the past when under contract with Portland. He will never be able to live up to the hype he had follow him for basically his entire life, but hopefully he can carve out a niche as a defensive minded backup center or something. If he can't, I hope he is able to find something else to do that will make him happy.

If the Bulls lose this game, it is all on CJ Watson. What a terrible decision. Iggy is a notoriously bad free throw shooter in the clutch, though, so it is no guarantee he makes these two. EDIT: And he makes them both. Congratulations Watson. You single handedly ended the Bulls season.

http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/220989/James_Harden_Wins_Sixth_Man_Of_The_Year_Award#ixzz1uVplA6KH Lmao at the 4 people sho didn't vote for Harden, but it would be too much to expect him to unanimously win, like he obviously should've. EDIT: I just looked at the voting and somebody left him off his ballot completely, somebody gave Zach Randolph a 2nd place vote and somebody gave JR Smith a 3rd place vote. I love the sheer homer votes that people make in these things. Reminds me of the time Chuck Swirsky gave Andrea Bargnani a 1st place vote for Rookie of the Year, costing Brandon Roy the unanimous win.

Jays signed Vladimir Guerrero for $1.3M. Will report to Dunedin for extended spring training.

I'd blame being outclassed at every position other than center and having less depth.

I think Gasol was fouled 3 different times on that possession. For a series that seems to have every single bump called a foul, they really did ignore a lot of contact right there. Nice recovery from Conley getting that ball back after forcing a poor pass to Speights. Big swing there as the Clippers would've had a 3-0 if not for Conley.

I really don't understand how refs continously fall for the Reggie Evans' flops. He doesn't just embellish contact, he literally just flops without being touched. That flop on Mayo was brutal. I still love the guy, though. PS: This Memphis team is 10X better when running the offense through Randolph on the low block or Gasol on the high post and not Gay.

Josh Hamilton had a decent night, I suppose. Only went 5-5 with 4 HR's, 8 RBI's and 18 total bases. First time a player has hit 4 homers in a game since Carlos Delgado did it back in 2003 when he was still with the Blue Jays. EDIT: The coolest part is that all of his homers were 2 run shots with Andrus on base.

So after seeing how bad the Pacers have played against Orlando, does anybody really believe that the Pacers can actually give the Heat a scare? They are so lucky they are playing a pathetic Maic team because they really have not looked good at all.

For all the talk about headshots, that Rinaldo hit on Zubrus is probably the worst hit of the playoffs in my opinion, Torres aside (at least off the top of my head). Those hits are just as dangerous as high ones. EDIT: Not as bad as I first thought, but still, can't stand those low hits that target somebodies knees like that.

http://tsn.ca/nba/story/?id=395377 Not really a surprise to anybody who has paid attention to Canada Basketball over the past few months, which is probably very few people on here. Anyways, it is long overdue getting Nash back involved with the Canadian Men's team. I'm not naive enough to think that this will suddenly make them a basketball power or anything of that nature, but I highly doubt we will see a repeat of this past summer's FIBA Americas where many top Canadian talent refused to play. There is still a lot of work to be done, that is no secret, but this is definitely a step in the right direction. There is also this bit of news as well: Not sure many people know who Barrett is, but he played on that Canadian Olympic team alongside Nash in 2000 and is another of the "pioneers" (for lack of a better word) for Canadian basketball. He never experienced the success that Nash did, but he played collegiately at St. John's, was under contract with the Sixers and Raptors (never played an NBA game, though) and played professionally in multiple countries (Spain, Italy, France, Israel, Argentina, Venezuela and Greece among others). He is well respected among Canadian basketball circles for all he has done, so it is a great hire as well. As for Triano, it is basically guaranteed that he re-joins the program in some capacity, although it for sure that he will become the coach again, although that is a possibility. There was talk about him having a management role instead of coaching, but nothing is official yet.

I don't know if this game was an accurate representation of how the rest of the series has gone, but from what I saw tonight, neither one of these teams has a chance of beating the Spurs next round. If the Clippers play like they did tonight, the Spurs beat them 5 games at most.

Lol. Del Negro is awful.

And Paul ices it with yet another jumper from the right elbow. I think 6 of his 8 points in OT came from that exact same spot.

Huge swing right there. Griffin gets away with a push in the back (would've been his 6th foul as well) on Gasol which allows him to get the offensive board, then he gets a call to go his way and converts an And-1. That could very well be the deciding sequence in this game if Memphis doesn't answer back right away.