Nitro

The league. 100% Players do it to gain advantage. They're mastering the technique and it wins their team an extra possession. They are basically creating TO's by flopping. Referees have NO motive to "reward" floppers. The fans hate flopping, many players hate flopping, and the league supposedly hates flopping. If they know a player is intentionally flopping, they have no reason to hold blow their whistle. Here's the problem- There are only 3 referees in a game looking at essentially 5 different 1-on-1 matchups. These players are professional athletes, and when you watch an NBA game in-person and have a close proximity to the action, the game speed is astonishing. Everything happens in a split second. They do not have the benefit to instant replay every foul, they don't have the benefit of seeing each foul from different angles, and most of the time they only catch a foul out of the corner of their eye. A foul takes place in the fraction of a second. Basically what I am getting at is refereeing an NBA game is harder than ref'ing any other sport, and in person it can be very, very difficult to determine what's a legit foul and what may be a flop. And what if a player reacts in a way that looks like he's flopping, but he is actually hit hard and just exaggerating the foul a little bit. Should a ref swallow his whistle because he assumed that player was flopping when in reality he was legitimately hit? That brings me back to the league. Players do what they can do to get an advantage, and referees do their best to call the game within its rules. To stop flopping, the league has to A) Allow for more physicality so fouls become more black-and-white than gray, and B) Start fining players more often for flopping. If players start getting fined or suspended for flopping, the flopping trend will slow down tremendously. By tweaking the rules to allow more physicality, it takes pressure off the refs to swallow their whistles unless they see a foul that could not be disputed.

Holy crap, PFG is STILL trolling? I was arguing with that fool on like 3 different sites a few years back over T-Mac being a point-forward...I can't believe he's still around, and apparently still hasn't learned. Anyway, in no particular order, I'd say the top 3 are Real Deal, Blasco and Mason.

It's so hard to make this list for a team whose entire roster is basically gutted heading into FA. I also have no idea how much some of these FA's are going to ask for, and if another team will come in and overpay for their services. Regardless, here's my list, which is largely based on assuming the Heat will sign a star PF this offseason. Also, my decisions are with the assumption that the Heat will be a contender next year with a big-time talent infusion... 1) Dwyane Wade 2) Udonis Haslem 3) Jermaine O'Neal 4) Quentin Richardson 5) Carlos Arroyo 6) Dorrel Wright 7) Joel Anthony Wade and Haslem need no explaination. I put JO at 3rd because it's VERY hard to find a center as good defensively as he is that also possesses a nice offensive arsenal. Heat fans, as Poe mentioned, are probably all fuming over his 2010 post-season performance, but remember this- JO was a 2nd/3rd scoring option for the Heat the last 2 seasons. Next year the Heat should have the type of talent to where he will have that burden taken off him, and he can focus simply on defense/rebounding and finishing off the open looks that he gets. I probably wouldn't offer him any more than a 2 year contract, but the good thing is neither will any other team. Q-Rich is a terrific 3pt shooter, very good defensively since he lost the weight, and he's tough. Replacable, but he'd be an ideal bench player. Love Carlos Arroyo. He's smart, well-rounded and rarely makes mistakes handling the ball. Perfect backup PG in certain situations. Dorrel Wright...eh. He's young and still has some upside, but playing over 44 games only twice in 6 seasons would make me weary. Still, he's young and could add depth to the bench.

That team is solid...but that's it. There's very little draw to that roster as opposed to what he'll certainly have in Chicago and possibly Miami, NJ and NY. The Cavs really screwed themselves over when they traded for Jamison instead of Amare. Jamison is getting up there in age and showed his true colors this post season. On top of that, they have him locked up for another few years with a high price tag. Bad, bad move.

Very, very nice. I've been going to Nets games ever since I was a very little kid (got to see MJ as a Bull when I had a season tickets). As much fun as the J-Kidd era Nets were, having LBJ in town would be amazing. Definitely pulling for the Nets to some how, some way land him.

I know it's a year old, but.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzHnNPLWsDQ Anything else Cannon or his army of fudge packers say is pointless. And BTW- ANYONE who think Em's MC skills have fallen off, take a look at that song where he's not screaming or using somne retarded accent. His flow is insane. Even though it kind of annoys me that Em's never really went at Canibus (the only real good rapper whose ever dissed him, and yes I know about the song Cani[expletive], but that was more of a joke than serious diss), he murders Mariah and Nick on The Warning.

Because he's not a Celtic. Heinsohn hates every non-Celtic in the league. /thread

It's the Western Conference. We have no idea how Griffin will be coming back from a full year off (not to mention he's never played a second in the NBA), we don't know how any of their young players will progress, we don't know if Davis will continue his piss-poor play and continued decline...there's too many if's IMO to think the Clips won't be a lottery team for at least another season. That is, unless they make a few big moves and sign a big-name FA. I highly, highly doubt that will happen, but it's possible. But it's the Clippers, so that possibility is extra-slim.

The main reason they lost in the ECF 3 seasons in a row was Billups/Hamilton coming up with duds, Larry Brown leaving town, and the team overall just not having quite the firepower they had in '04 when James, Okur and Williamson were coming off the bench. I do agree that he wasted his potential as a post player, but his entire career as a Piston he was primarily a jumpshooter. He hadn't been a low post-first player since around 2001, which is why he went from averaging over 50% shooting 5 straight years with the Blazers to never cracking 44% as a Piston, including that first season.

As I said in the NO team forum...

Paul on the Magic would be lethal, even if it means giving up Jameer and Carter. But as others have said, it's going to take more than that. If the Magic could actually get Paul they would do it instantly, regardless of what anyone says about them not looking to deal Jameer. But for the Hornets, Carter's expiring is nice, but the issue is giving both Jameer and Collison their minutes. Unless the Hornets feel they could trade Jameer, it just doesn't make sense. Seriously, though...Paul on the Magic? That's scary to think about.

Yeah, but he also helped lead them to back-to-back WCF appearance (in 2000 was 1 quarter short of a win over the Lakers and a likely NBA championships). The 'Sheed years were the franchise's best behind the Walton and Drexler years.

Melo's in a very interesting position because of the new CBA next season. From a financial standpoint it is a major risk not taking the extension now. From a basketball standpoint it's an even bigger risk taking the extension now because the Nuggets are an old team with little upside. Signing that extension basically locks him into playing his prime years for a team that would need a total makeover to be a contender. I'd love to see him retire as a Nugget because him and Denver just seems like a perfect fit. But if I were him, as much of a risk as it is financially, I think it'd be a mistake for him not to at least force Denver's hand to build a championship caliber team around him by testing the FA market.

[expletive]es. My ex-gf is making me go through emotional gymnastics right now. No one I have ever met can make me as happy as this girl can, and no one can make me as crazy and depressed. We went from hating each other to being best friend types to her starting to fall for me again while she's in a relationship (with a [expletive]ing girl!)...all in the last week and a half. She's driving me nuts. We've been through more than most people can imagine (like really personal [expletive] that most couples don't go through), and I'll always have love for her, but I can't keep doing this. So, yeah...[expletive]es.

I'm not saying I PREFER a girl who smokes, but it doesn't make the slightest bit difference to me at all if she does. I am a smoker so there are certainly perks to having a girl that smokes...all of my gf's have smoked, and it's nice to not hear crap about my smoking from my girl. But even before I started smoking, if a good looking girl wanted to get it on with me and she smoked, that fact wouldn't sway my decision on whether to smash at all.

Try taking a closer listen to of Going Through Changes. The hook is annoying but lyrically and from a subject matter standpoint it's a great song.

So, as an ode to my favorite player in the NBA, I decided to make this thread. It's not so much to ride Dwyane Wade's dick, but show why he deserves to be in the same discussion as LeBron/Kobe. Instead of fighting with the LeBron/Kobe homers in other threads about how he is a distant 3rd, I decided to post this here and here all your opinions. He's the greatest Heat player ever, and when he's healthy he's an all-time talent. IMO his 2008-2009 is one of the most underrated single-seasons of all-time, it doesn't get much better than what he did that year. If Kobe deserved MVP in 2006, Wade deserved it every bit as much in 2009. Anyway... Career Accomplishments/Accolades: 1x NBA Champion 1x NBA Finals MVP 2x All-NBA 1st Team 2x All-NBA 2nd Team 1x All-NBA 3rd Team 3x All-NBA Defensive 2nd Team 1x Scoring Champ 6x All-Star (5x starter) 1x All-Star Game MVP All-Rookie First Team Career Stats: 25.4PPG, 6.6APG, 4.9RPG, 1.8SPG, 1.0BPG, 3.7 TO, 48.2% FG, 28.9% 3PT, 77.0% FT Career Playoff: 26.3PPG, 6.0APG, 5.3RPG, 1.7SPG, 1.0BPG, 4.2 TO, 48.2% FG, 34.7% 3PT, 79.3% FT Best Season (2008-2009): 30.2PPG, 7.5APG, 5.0RPG, 2.2SPG, 1.3BPG, 3.4 TO, 49.1% FG, 31.7% 3PT, 76.5% FT

I honestly thought this was a fake because I really can't imagine how low your self-esteem has to be to have relations with an NBA player that looks like a full-fledged downie. He looks like he belongs in one of those wheelchair basketball leagues.

Eh. I know Jefferson has a big contract, and has had his fair share of injuries, but the dude is still only 25 years old. He's an annual 20/10 player with some of the best post moves in the league. I know he's pretty horrible on defense, but trading him away would be a mistake unless they got a deal they absolutely couldn't refuse. Also, you traded KEVIN GARNETT in his prime (tail-end, anyway) to get this guy...by conceding defeat in that trade after one down season, I don't know. I just think it'd be a mistake.

Hahahaha wow. Don't know what else to say.

In no way, shape or form is Rasheed a HoF player, but he had a GREAT career. He was an All-Star caliber player with superstar talent, and he always came up big when it counted. People always speak about how much potential offensively he had, while overlooking his incredible defense. Pairing him with Ben Wallace made the Pistons arguably the best defensive team in NBA history, and he did much of the same even at 35 years old with the Celtics.

It's not exactly easy to find a 25PPG player on solid shooting percentages across the board like Granger is in the draft. I agree it'd be best to just stick with the #3 pick (unless you can get a Chris Paul type talent via trade), but in all likelihood the Nets won't be getting a player the caliber of Granger in the draft.

I understand the Wizards need a veteran, but with his contract...eh. I don't know, I think I'm a bit biased in this trade because I feel that Hinrich is one of those PG's that plenty of contending teams could use to solidify their backcourt.

Great trade for both teams. Bulls are going to be a top 3 team in the league next year...all they really have to do is sign Bosh and plug any other holes with the impresive cap space they have, or go for it all and sign 2 big name FA's. Either way, Chicago's going to be elit next season. As for the Wizards...Hinrich is a nice player but unless the Wizards make some moves and become a playoff contending team, I don't think having a veteran role player with no untapped potential like Hinrich is worthwhile addition. He's a fantastic defender and good jumpshooter, but that's it (besides his relatively big contract and 0 upside). I like how they snatched the 17th pick, though. Who know, they might get lucky with that pick.

Pretty cool, probably gonna be the most impressive meet-and-greet James will have with any organization during this free agency. That first week of free agency is going to be absolutely insane. Can't wait.