Built Ford Tough

Williams was absolutely awful in this game. Terrible job of him not only scoring (why does he jack up so many terrible 3's?), but running the offense. He did an especially terrible job of getting Lopez the ball down the stretch. Him and Morrow or Brooks (can't remember which one it was) swing the ball around the horn way too often instead of re-posting Lopez after the double. With how great Lopez was playing every single possession should've been ran through him, but they did a really poor job of getting him the ball in a position where he could do anything. They also really need Farmar back. Gaines is just brutal at anything to do with the offensive end of the court. The Mavs really were something else this game, though. Aside from Haywood and Marion (defensively at least) every single player was just pathetic out there tonight. Easily one of the worst games I've seen them play this season. That was painful to watch. Kudos to the Nets for holding onto that lead down the stretch. They made an awful lot of mistakes, but they buckled down defensively and didn't allow the Mavs to get any good looks on the final two possessions and that won them the game despite their poor offensive execution late.

Championship time!

Dude, I'm not saying that he is going to Toronto so stop acting like I am. I'm simply saying that it is a possibility based on the connection he has with Colangelo, the country, that he has said plenty of times throughout his career that he would love to play for the Raptors before retires and that he has spoken out against ring chasing more than once within the last two seasons. That is all. To completely ignore the possibility or only consider it as even slightly realistic if the Raptors offer him $20M a season is simply shortsighted. The whole NBA immortality thing is garbage if you ask me. The guy is a Hall of Famer if he retires right now. 20 years from now do you really think people will remember him if he pulls a Gary Payton and hops from contender to contender in a pathetic attempt to win a ring? No, they will remember him for winning 2 MVP's with the Phoenix Suns and as one of the greatest playmakers and shooters the league has ever seen, just like nobody even gives a rats ass that Gary Payton won a ring in 06. Sure, Nash would likely play a larger role than Payton did, but winning a ring with the Lakers at the tail end of his career wouldn't really do that much for his career. Do people really look at Kidd differently know that he won a ring? When arguing who was the better player between the two do people bring up Kidd's ring? No, they don't. Kidd's NBA immortality was established long before winning a ring last season, just like Nash's already is. The bottom line is that some players don't want to go ring chasing and would rather stay where they are happy. Reggie Miller never went ring chasing, Grant Hill had the opportunity to this summer but decided to stay in Phoenix because he was happy there, John Stockton didn't, Geroge Gervin didn't, etc... Who's to say that Nash would rather just finish out his career with a franchise where he would be happy? Whether that is in Phoenix, Toronto or in a South African semi-pro league, I don't really care one way or another, but not all players feel the need to go ring chasing.

I don't know. I certainly understand where you are coming from, but on the other hand, he would be just as likely to lose his job if he makes a terrible trade as he is if he didn't move him. I think the chances of him being fired would increase if he accepted a package of what the Rangers were offering him or a hypothetical offer from Toronto of Kulemin, Blacker, D'Amigo and a 1st or some other mediocore package like that. I don't disagree with your thought process, just throwing out another possibility.

Lol. So the only way that the Raptors have any chance of Nash even considering signing with them, a team that plays in his home country, a city he loves and spends a lot of time in during the offseason, is run by the GM who played a huge part in drafting him, signed him as a free agent, has a great relationship with and employs his long time mentor/friend only has a chance of signing him if they throw an absurd contract at him? Do I think he will sign with the Raptors? No, I don't, nor do I even really want him to. But to suggest that he will laugh in their face if they offer him $10M or have to pay him $20M a season just to even consider signing with them is an absolute joke. Then again, I don't really expect much else considering the stigma attached to Toronto among basketball circles.

What you two aren't taking into consideration is that both Colangelo and Casey were signed to two year contracts with team options for the third year this past summer and the expectation is that the Raptors were to show significant improvement towards making the playoffs in 2012/2013. Colangelo has mentioned it time and time again that he plans on making his move in 2012 after adding Valanciunas and another top draft pick this season. With both his and Casey's job potentiall on the line, they will do whatever they can to win games. Do I like it? No, not really because Nash, despite how good he is, won't put this team over the top, but it is likely what is going to happen. Maybe things will be different now that MLSE is no longer the owner of the team, maybe Bell and Rogers will be more open to allowing the rebuild to continue, who really knows. However, there is only so long that you can continue to trot out a barely NBA calibre roster. Sooner or later you need to make a move so that your young players get a taste of winning. He is actually from Victoria, not Vancouver. EDIT: Also, a lot of the speculation around Nash finishing his career in Toronto was because of Jay Triano. Triano and Nash have been extremely close for over 20 years and Nash absolutely adores him. A lot of him wanting to play in Toronto was based on him once again playing for Triano, so now that Triano is no longer the coach, he may not care as much about playing for the Raptors.

Ben Wallace already said that this is going to be his last season. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/13/ben-wallace-detroit-pistons-retiring-season_n_1274130.html Jason Kidd said he would've retired if the lockout wiped out the whole season and he has been pretty bad this season so I could definitely see him calling it quits. Garnett is the other who I could see considering retiring as he has been in and out of the lineup with injuries and Boston is no longer a contender. He may just decide to cal it quits instead of latching on to some other contender, although if I had to bet he will continue to play. As for the players in the poll who I am confident won't retire, Nash, Allen, Ginobili, Duncan and Carter will be back for sure. I'm not sure about guys like Hill, Billups (because of his injury, otherwise I'd be 100% sure he'd be back) and McGrady. I think all three will be back, but I'm not 100% sure. The only ones I'm fully expecting to retire are Wallace and Kidd.

Not sure if true, but it honestly wouldn't surprise me. He really doesn't seem to have his heart in the game anymore and with all the crap supposedly going on in his personal life (his cousin dying in the summer, his father being ill, etc...), he may need to just step away from the game for a while and prioritize his life. Watching him this season you can tell that he just doesn't have the passion for the game that he once did. Being dealt from the Lakers may have been the cause of that, his personal life or other factors that we aren't aware of, but it is clear that he isn't the same out there as he once was.

Saw it on the ticker of the Kansas-Oklahoma State basketball game. Said that his achillies injury will keep him out for at least another 2 weeks. Pretty shitty news for the Sixers as they were really struggling heading into the All-Star break and Hawes was sorely missed. He really adds another dimension to the Sixers half court offense with his high post passing ability, which the Sixers could really use right now as their offense has really sputtered as of late. His value to this team really is underrated. It is not a coincidence that they are 12-2 with him in the lineup.

Kansas broke that trap and scored in a matter of seconds. Bob Knight is right, Oklahoma State really shouldn't look to try and trap this Kansas team like that as they are way to experienced and organized for it to work. It will just lead to easy baskets for the Jayhakws. Besides, they are playing good enough defense that they should just continue to play straight up. Its not like Kansas is really picking them apart on offense anyways. Their problem is that they can't score on Kansas' defense.

Thomas Robinson went up for a rebound between two Oklahoma State players and came up gimpy. He is on the bench getting his knee looked at, although I'm not sure if it is the same knee that he had the meniscus surgery on before or if it is the one that has been bothering him this season (MCL sprain, I believe). Could potentially be bad news for Kansas. EDIT: Nevermind, he came back in the game as I typed this. Looks like nothing.

That team is going to be very, very difficult to score on, though. Fisher, Gaustad, Legwand and Wilson down the middle are all big, two-way centers. Everybody knows about their defense and adding a vet like Hal Gill is only going to help. They have nice balanced scoring and assuming Andrei Kostitsyn plays like he can, that is just another offensive piece that they added. They building a very good team. I would not want to play that team in the playoffs, especially with a guy like Rinne in net. Besides, Nashville is going to likely finish with a top 7 or so record in the league so the pick won't be too great. The draft isn't all that great, is loaded with defenseman and they have great defensive depth already with guys like Josi, Ellis, Blum and of course Weber and Suter, if they re-sign in the summer. It may be a bit much because it is Gaustad, but much like you, I like how they are positioning themselves to make a run this postseason.

Zack Kassian for Cody Hodgson. Definitely going to be the biggest trade of the day. EDIT: There is also speculation that there is more to the trade. EDIT #2: Also going to the Canucks is Marc-Andre Gragnani and Buffalo is getting Alexander Sulzer.

Crawford was solid for the Wizards off the bench scoring 20 points on 7/10 shooting and Booker gave his usual high energy effort. Unfortunately for the Wizards, that is about the only good that came of this game as everybody else was pretty bad. Young was completely shut down by HIll. McGee had his moments, but also had plenty of wtf moments. Wall got off to a nice start but was invisible after the 1st quarter. Vesely showed just how raw he really is. Phoenix basically just flipped a switch in the 3rd and the game was over in a matter of a 7 minute stretch in the 3rd quarter.

At the end of the 1st half, Baylor has 9 turnovers and 6 made shots. They are seriously lucky to only be down by 10 right now.

Lamb goes 1 of 2 from the line to make it just a 2 point lead. Johnson drives to the paint and scores for Nova to tie it up with 5 seconds left. Napier gets the inbound, dribbles down the court and pulls up from about 30 feet and drains it to give the Huskies the win. Now onto the Texas/Baylor game.

Napier misses the front end of a 1-and-1 but Nova knocks the ball out of bounds on the rebound attempt. Lamb is going to line in the double bonus looking to make it a 3 point UConn lead.

What a stupid pass from Cheeks to allow UConn to tie the game. Nova ball with 19 seconds left, game tied. EDIT: And Pinkston misses a wild, hanging, 1 handed floater and the game goes to OT.

Well, my bad. Didn't see the update.

Drummond with a perfect example of what scouts love about him and what scouts hate about him in one play. He makes an impressive block and rather than swatting it into the stands, he simply grabs it. However, with 5 seconds left in the half he heaves the ball at the rim instead of throwing an outlet to one of the three UConn players who were wide open. He shows his great shot blocking and awesome athleticism by blocking the shot and showed his lack of basketball IQ and how he doesn't always have his head in the game by throwing that stupid heave. As for UConn, it took them 15 minutes to realize that they were actually playing a game out there. They got behind by 18 points and within a matter of 5 minutes they managed to tie the game up at the half. This team has talent, but they are so unorganized, disinterested and play really stupid out there at times that it really must be infuriating for their fans and coaches.

It isn't. It is the same arthoscopic surgery he had on his right knee in January to clean it up. He is now having that surgery on his left knee. The article just says that he has had microfracutre surgery on both knees in the past, not that he is having another one.

I haven't watched the Huskies for a while, but I can see why they are struggling so much this season. They really don't have any chemistry together, nobody is talking, no fluidity to their offense and everybody is basically just doing their own thing out there. It really is painful to watch.

For anybody interested, Uconn and Villanova are playing right now. Here is a link: http://www.firstrowsports.eu/watch/108960/1/watch-connecticut-vs-villanova.html

Agree with everything you said. I'd throw in another weakness, though, and that is his passing. He is a very poor passer and when teams double him in the post he does not do a good job of finding the open man. If there is one negative that you can point out about his offensive game during this stretch, it is his turnovers and all around lack of passing ability. He has committed 34 turnovers in this 12 game stretch and has had 7 games of 3 or more turnovers, including 6 one game and 4 on three seperate occasions. He has also had 7 games during this stretch where he didn't register a single assist and the most in one game is 2. He had had 7 assists total during these 12 games. It is understandable give his increased usage on offense and more defensive intensity, but it is definitely something that he needs to work on. It is a minor thing really, considering all the other good things he is giving this team.

In the league's defense, this isn't the first time Rondo has been in hot water for throwing a ball at an official so I imagine his past played a part in the decision to suspend him.