bravenewworld

Which all three of the big 3 continue to decline in their stats so maybe it is due to age. Their record does not have much to do with who we can call individual all-stars now either. And how can you say that Shaq has slowed A LOT due to age? Last season he was putting up nearly 20/10/2 in only 30 minutes of play and had zero ball hogs on his team. Not at all the same case this season. He is getting lowered minutes, only putting up back up minutes and he is next to one of the most selfish players in the league whose style of play actually conflicts with Shaqs. Now i am not saying that Shaq has not declined.. of course he has, but it is pretty hard to judge the direction his decline came from this season. My point is, you cannot say that, say... KG ('08 - 31mpg, 15ppg, 8.5rpg, 1.2bpg) is still all star caliber and his decline is simply due to the people around him while Shaqs ('08 - 30mpg, 18ppg, 8.5rpg, 1.4bpg) decline is because he is dying out as a star. Both players are no longer the single stars of their team, both players have 2 or more all stars on their squad next to them, and both players are no longer the first option.

See. This is why i absolutely love HBO and SHOWTIME shows. They are never afraid to completely change the game up in the middle of a series. Best season ender for any tv show that ive ever seen. Right on the verge of him trying to grasp for humanity, he loses what is making him want to grab it.

It does when considering who should make the team especially with the Celtics given the players ages. With the Celtics roster it is hard to determine what to chalk up to age decline or a chemistry statistical decline.

Kobe

Wade has said he does not want to play the point. If he did i think the Heat would have an easier time setting up a better line up.

You mean pre-Bill Self. As you mentioned Self has been a fantastic defensive coach. That with his ability to recruit top notch four-five star players (something Roy had problems with in Lawrence) is what is going to keep us winning titles for years to come. Roy was always all about offense. I remember watching our old games and if we got down 15 points because our offense was off then we would probably end up losing the game. Now we never get down that much and it seems to be because even if our offense is off, our defense continues to wear the other team down. Once our offense kicks in then we take the lead and win the game. And Danny Manning is doing something for our big men that i dont see any other NCAA team doing, turning basically every big man we have into a past him. Amazing really.

Shaq. One of the most dominate big men ever. Kobe is unmatchable but a dominate big man such as Shaq or Duncan are the life blood of dynasties. No one wins titles on their own. Kobe won his first three titles BECAUSE of Shaq, not vice versa. Shaq probably would have gone on to win 2-3 titles at that time in his career no matter if he had TMac, Carter, Pierce, What ever star guard on his team. Now im not suggesting that Kobe is on their level, no he is far above them, but that is Kobe now, not Kobe with Shaq. Kobe with Shaq was still a budding flower. I would also like to point out that Bynum, Gasol, Fisher, Artest and maybe Odom are all potential HOF'ers and i would not be surprised to see 3 out of 5 of them in the HOF in the future. As a side note i would also like to point out this is a terrible comparison.

If this team continues to improve game by game as they have been i cannot see any team beating them in the tourney. I will even go as far to say that we would treat UK the same way we treated UNC when we won it all in '08.

La Salle 65 Final 1 Kansas 90 Very impressed with a few things so far. 1. The Morris twins have really stepped it up since last season and have shown that experience is everything in NCAABB. Markieff in particular is becoming a pretty dominate force inside and out. His defense is really improving as well as his decision making. 12 points, 12 rebounds, 4 blocks in 28 minutes... vital of him to repeat this come March Madness. 2. The overall defense of this team has been outstanding for the past couple of games and you can tell that they are really starting to come together as a team. 3. I am also very impressed with the improvement of not only the Morris twins but with all of the now sophomores and Jrs. We are now starting to see Taylor for the player that he was once projected to be. 4. Henry 1 and 2. Both players are absolutely amazing. While we all know the damage Xavier can do and we all see this kid maturing and developing into a pure weapon every single game, i am in firm belief that CJ will be a very important part in our depth when March comes along. He may only be a first year player (kind of) but he has shown and proven to be an impact for our team and the opposing. 5. Bill Self attempting to go 6 deep at the 1-2-3.... amazing if he can pull this one off all year.

How exactly are the Celtics the only team in the east that can beat LA?

Rondo should never be an all star until he proves that he can put up great numbers without three all stars surrounding him.

How is he needed for Ford? Ford plays on the Pacers and they have great rebounders spanning from the 2-5.

Id take bron. Melo may have more offensive weapons but he is not as consistent as Bron. As easy as Brons shots may come out to be, they work.

Okay, so i voted "yes" even though i do not really think TMac was a truly lock down defender. In his prime he was able to guard great guards and SFs, plus he had the ability to defend up to three positions. Those combined would not make him the best defender in the game, but they would make him above average and i truly think he was one of the better of his prime time.

Not much of a surprise for any reason. Taylor, while a badass, continues to be inconsistent and Johnson needs quality minutes to prove he is a badass.

Whats worse is that Lebron could be the type of player that Kobe is, but he chooses not to be simply because of attention whore reasons. If LBJ was really in a winning mood he would have realized years ago that he had multiple all-stars, defensive potys and fantastic role players on his team, and would have actually done something with it.

Im willing to sign him up for my works basketball team. If i am forced to offer him a guaranteed 50 dollar contract i may just have to bite that bullet.

Exactly. Its not fair to compare a 13 year career vs a 2 year career. Obviously the 2 year career will have better stats overall (200 shots taken vs 5800, not a good comparison). Plus Ray Allen takes like double the amount of 3 point shots then DG.

No its not really preference at all. If you were an NBA player who wanted to do this (play for a team one year then another the next then another a year after that ect. ect. ect.) your agent would drop you as a client faster then my cell phone provider drops my calls, and you would never be able to hire another agent again because your previous agent has already put the word out that his previous client was a moron who just wanted to be in the right place at the right time. This is why you NEVER see this happen in the NBA. The closest thing you see to this happening is one year vet contracts and those are usually just to determine if the team would like to sign them to an extended 2-4 year contract and the player is playing to prove that he is worth a 2-4 year contract. Also, there is no such thing as an 8 year contract.

Artest is a scorer (having only averaged less then 17 once in 8 years) he just does not need to do as much on this team.

For me it is all about consistency. We see players fined every week for something stupid in an attempt by league officials to create a more professional atmosphere and image for the NBA.

Wait.... "The best team in the NBA fluctuates year to year. This year, it's the Lakers." Not to sound like an A-Hole or be rude but i am determining that you do not watch the NBA nor do you know the definition of the word "fluctuate". 09-10 - Lakers are the suggested champions (W or W/O Artest they would probably be in this spot) 08-09 - Lakers win the championship. 07-08 - Lakers lose in the NBA Finals. How is that fluctuation? And to make what youre saying even less valid i will point out one more fact. In 11 years the Spurs and Lakers hold 8 titles (Before these two teams, in the 90s out of an 8 year time span the Bulls won 6). That is 3 they did not win, THREE! And they both did it by holding on to the same players year after year and developing them and their system. So in a 19 year time frame 3 teams have won a total of 14 titles. This is the exact opposite of fluctuation.

There is a difference between being an unemotional robot and acting like a professional. What he did was unprofessional and there should be rules against it. If a coach MUST be in a full formal dress uniform because it is professional to do, why should the NBA hold less standards for the players? And how come he was not fined for this? I can almost guarantee that had this been nearly any other player they would have been fined.

Kinda sucks that our SOS was expected to be number 1 and is now turning out to be mediocre.

I think with the way the economy is right now all the big names will be advised to take long term guaranteed contracts and run with it. And the jumping from team to team year after year is one of the worst things i have ever heard. What kind of fanbase would a team have if players did that? None. There would be no such thing as a franchise player, players could not develop properly (even stars continue to improve, lbj is a perfect example of someone who has a lot of room to improve), teams could not develop properly, nah... theres a reason that long term contracts are signed and switching team to team is a terrible way to go about winning. You cannot just throw seemingly good players onto a roster year after year and expect it to work out for the best. We have seen this theory proven wrong countless times in the NBA (Clippers now and Knicks of a few years back are perfect examples of this) and nine times out of ten it does not work. As to the original post.... I think people are looking way too far into this. This sounds like is Wade simply leaving a door open. This could also be Wade suggesting to management that they really need to bring in a great big for him to play with (ala Bosh or Amare) or he may sign with another team. This is also something that is no where near impossible or even implausible. With the Lakers pretty much wrapping up the next 3 rings, the Thunder becoming a serious force - who are bound to land a big man and they will be contending then - and all these other teams stacking up with great players, both wade and howard know that their team will need to consist of a franchise big and franchise small to contend.