Built Ford Tough

Just saw the replay of that Carter shot and wow. Harden holding his jersey and hitting him on the arm and he still makes it.

It was a huge flop, but considering OKC has Durant, Harden, Fisher and Westbrook, can they really complain about flopping/selling calls? And damn, what a shot by Carter. How that was not a foul, I have no idea. Make up call?

The ball movement on that last Dallas possession was beautiful. Too bad for Dallas that Terry missed the 3 because they did pretty much everything right on that sequence.

West really is a fun player to watch when he is at his best. Definitely one of my favourite role players in the league. Too bad he is too screwed up to be reliable because that really is the only reason he hasn't found a team and stuck with them like many of the best role players in the league. Oh yeah, Kidd really needs to stop passing up open layups so that Marion can brick a 3. I realize it is in Kidd's nature to look for his teammates and if he was passing it out to Terry, Carter, Dirk or West I could understand. However, there is a reason why Marion is always wide open. Just take the easy two.

Dribble, dribble, whistle. Dallas bricks jumper or turns it over. Dribble, dribble, pump fake, whistle. Dallas bricks jumper or turns it over. Dribble, dribble, layup. Did I miss anything, or does that pretty much sum up this quarter?

The problem with that is I would imagine that a very, very select few would be interested in him. He is a shadow of his former self and some of that may be because of him not fitting with Melo or Chandler, but his injury history is certainly a big part of it as well. I can't see too many teams actually giving up much value for him and his uninsured contract. I'm sure some desperate team would bite, but I would imagine they wouldn't really give up much for him and if that is the case, is it really worth it for the Knicks? It may be better to just hope that a full summer, training camp and season will allow Melo, Chandler and Amare to develop chemistry and learn how to coexist together than dealing him for pennies on the dollar.

I love these awkward beginning of quarter interviews where the coaches give one word, smart ass replies. Well done Carlisle.

Lol. Devlin just has to sneak in a Dwane Casey and Raptors reference. Atta boy. Oh yeah, that was an alright run to finish the first quarter by OKC, I guess.

Supposedly Amare was pissed off after the game, punched something and split open his hand. Maybe he should've shown some of that passion on the floor? EDIT: Lol, he punched the glass case that protects fire extinguisher and split his hand open on the glass and needed medical attention.

Matt Devlin must feel like a homeless man who just won the lottery. Goes from calling the Raptors for 66 games to calling an Oklahoma City vs. Dallas playoff game.

Shouldn't really be a surprise considering his pathetic record as coach of the Bobcats. According to Woj, they want McMillian but he doesn't believe that Nate will have any interest in the job.

Melo having his way with Battier ever since Battier came into the game. Getting whatever he wants offensively.

The Knicks defense, Fields in particular, are doing a very poor job of bumping cutters. Hell, they are doing such a poor job of locating cutters that they aren't even in position to bump them. Good timeout from Woodson.

But you have to realize that he is the 3rd best player on the floor every night in this series. I could understand where you are coming from if it was just Wade or just James that he was going up against but you are basically asking him to carry his team on his back and outplay both Wade and James, because that is really what it will require for the Knicks to actually win this series. 3 of the 4 best players in this series are on the Miami Heat and two of those players are top 3 players in the league. It is simply unreasonable to expect that Anthony should be able to just take over this series. Yeah, he is an upper echelon player in this league, but he is not a LeBron James or a Dwyane Wade who can win a series basically by himself against a far superior team.

Looks like the Reeds won't be involved in the show. In the book, Jojen had the dream of the sea attacking Winterfell. In last night's episode, Bran had that dream. Kind of sucks, but oh well.

The way Tony Parker has played this year has quickly made him one of my favourite players to watch this season.

But really, why should the Bobcats be after a guy who will give them immediate help when they are still going to be terrible next season anyways? Shouldn't they go for the player who they think will help them the most 3 years down the road? I like Robinson and don't think it would be an absurd pick, but I don't think they should pick him because he is one of the most NBA ready players. They should pick him because they think he will be the most beneficial player for their future.

Bautista is really starting to annoy me at the plate. All he does is go up there, try to hit a moonshot home run, but ends up popping out to shallow left or the infield. All 3 of his at bats today have been like that. Him and Lind have given absolutely no production from the 3 and 4 spots in the lineup. I've already given up on Lind as he simply isn't a good player, but they really need Bautista to get his shit together. EDIT: Forgot to mention, Encarnacion is absolutely mashing right now. He is doing pretty much everything up there.

I understand where you are coming from and I guess you make a lot of sense. I'd rather just see the team suck and come away with at least the chance of getting a legit franchise player in the draft. Even if they do follow the same path as Carter, T-Mac and Bosh and bolt, at least they will likely have around 7 years where they have a top tier player to build around. For me, that would be more exciting than watching a future version of the Atlanta Hawks, but I do understand why somebody would be happy with that considering how abysmal the Raptors have been for their history. As for Nash, I just don't see any situation where he comes here, barring a massive overpayment. Other than him being Canadian, what exactly does this team have to offer him? Maybe if a team like Sacramento likes Davis' defense and rebounding beside Cousins you could fllip 8th + Davis for their pick at 5. They would have to really like somebody like Kendall Marshall or something to consider that, though. Is davis even any better than Jason Thompson anyways? I'm sure Colangelo will try to move up, but the problem is if you were another team would you really move down 3 spots just so that you can pick up somebody like James Johnson or Ed Davis? I could be wrong, but I really don't think too many people around the league are all that high on either of these two. I think Davis' value is probably somewhat shot because of the Raptors terrible job of managing him in his first two seasons.

Both players come up to Morey and say that they want to start and will not be happy with a backup role next season. Which one do you keep and why?

If by closer you mean a 20 point game instead of a 30 point game, then yeah, I guess it would be closer. The fact of the matter is, refs or not, the Heat are vastly outplaying the Knicks.

Rose has been in and out of the lineup all season long with a couple of different injuries this year. A lot of players who play(ed) a similar style as him have a long history of injury problems, but up until this year he had only missed 5 games in his first 3 years in the league. Is it because of him being injury prone or was it simply a case of the lockout wearing him down and making it difficult for him to really recover?

Lol at the tech on Melo.

He said earlier in the year that he will need to see improvement in order to stay with the Suns. What do you think the Suns can do either through trades, the draft, free agency in order to get Nash to finish his career with the franchise? Or do you think there is nothing that they can do to get him to stay? They don't exactly have cap flexibility or the assets required to substantially make over this team.

I know it is early and workouts, measurements, interviews and what not will determine a lot, but lets say Charlotte moves down to 2nd and Davis is off the board. Who do they draft? I ask this question because, in my opinion, Charlotte is the only team who should not consider need at all when drafting. They absolutely need help at every position and it should help get a consensus of who people at OTR believe is the 2nd best player in this draft.