Nitro

I know that, but my point is that it's a serious injury that doesn't just go away. If he seriously had concerns of never being able to walk right again, obviously it's not on the same wavelength as a pulled muscle or your run-of-the-mill fracture. Of course if he's going to play it is something that he can work through for the time being, but I wouldn't hold my breath on it not flaring up at some point during the season, which will keep him in a revolving door of rest-rehab-working back into basketball shape-playing.

He's really not, though. Bulging discs in the back can be extremely painful and they don't just go away.

Lol, I was at the game yesterday and he definitely look disengaged. Good move, he's never been a good coach.

Devin Harris is a duplicate of Monta Ellis, but less talented and now considerably less athletic. He has all the same weaknesses...he's a tweener who's inefficient all around the board. He also has the added weakness of having no confidence, which is clearly apparent by his recent play. With his contract, it's really hard to imagine many teams taking him on, at least not until he shows the league SOMETHING this season. A glimmer or hope and potential. If he does, and regains his confidence, he could be a nice 6th/7th man on a contender. Otherwise, he's a waste of salary. As for the Knicks, I agree with iMan. Their defense hasn't been as awful as their offense. They are built around two players who are not known for their playmaking ability, so the offense needs a true floor general, not just a PG who can defend and hit 3's. Ideally, the Knicks PG would be able to facilitate, knock down the 3 and be a very good defender, but with the Melo/Amare/Chandler contracts, the likelihood of getting all those things out of their PG is unlikely. And if they have to choose, I think they should go with the offensive oriented PG because it's going to be near impossible to have an elite defense with Melo and Amare playing 40MPG. Instead, they should go with the Lakers formula of their recent championships and be a strong offense with good enough defense to get by in the playoffs IMO.

The last few bars of the 2nd verse give me the [expletive]ing chills. Totally represents what I'm going through right now. Nas- G.O.A.T.

Melo is a good defender when he cares to be...but that is about 10% of the season, so that point is nullified. And Flash's point about Amare needing the ball in his hands to be effective is to point out that it kills the offensive movement since Melo and Amare are both iso players that have little playmaking abilities. Bottom line is they can play together, but they need a meticulously planned team built around them for the Knicks to have a chance at a title. The double iso thing will never work...you gotta make Amare almost exclusively a PnR player with a good playmaking PG (who can also hit the 3), and leave the iso's to Melo. Having them both be strictly iso players destroys team ball movement and lets defenses load up on both of them. It'd be one thing if Amare played in the post and was an elite passer from that spot, or Melo was the kind of playmaker LeBron/Kobe/Wade/prime T-Mac are/were, but they are not. Creating for others is not a strength of either player. Therefor, one of them will need to sacrifice the iso's, and the only way to make that work is a true, starting caliber PG who can facilitate the offense.

You're probably right, however he was only the 4th most important player on all 3 (you can maybe argue he was higher in 03). I am not a fan of retiring the numbers of role players, even if they were perfect compliments. I am 99% sure he's never even made an All-Star team.

Only played 4 seasons with the team.

Meh...he was an incredible player defensively, and was great at the corner 3, but I wouldn't go so far as to retire his number.

It doesn't matter what he wants. What matters is what makes the team most effective. When he plays center and is forced to play in the post, great things happen. Sounds like Gasol with Bynum out/in a limited role. I agree, but passing out of the post is not an easy skill to learn, and I don't know if that'll ever be an asset in his game. Even if he learns to pass out of the post a bit better, I still think there is a fundemental flaw in the Bynum/Gasol combo. If you are going to make Bynum the focal point down low, then he needs an athletic PF who can consistently knock down perimeter shots. As I said in my last post, Gasol is a C playing PF, and that makes their frontcourt quite unathletic and dry. Mix that with a backcourt with 32 combined playing years under their belt and that makes for a very unexplosive top 4 in the rotation. With teams like Miami, Denver, OKC and Portland who are so athletic top to bottom, and teams like Dallas who can really stretch the floor at 4 positions, that creates a lot of issues.

RD, I disagree with you about Pau not being a post player...he absolutely is. I think a healthy Bynum has taken him out of the post the last 2 years. He started last season on fire, with Bynum out, and once Bynum came back he was never the same. He was also terrific in the 09 and 10 playoff runs with Bynum either hurt or completely out. Put Gasol at C and give him a PF like Amare/Bosh and I think you'd see the Pau we all expect. Anyway, I've been saying it since last year, the Lakers NEED an injection of athleticism, specifically at the PG and SF positions. The offense was at its best the last few years when Ariza was knocking down 3pt shots and leaking out on the fastbreak for them, as well as making some strong cuts within the triangle. Barnes is a solid role player, but with 16 year veterans making up the backcourt, a PF who is probably more suited physically to play C, and a slowish C, the Lakers desperately need a spark out of that SF position. One who provides 3pt shooting, athleticism, and can spark the team on both ends of the floor. Of course, Fisher should have been replaced years ago, and now that the triangle is gone they really need a playmaker on offense. Kobe can't make things happen like he used to off the dribble or in the PnR, and with his messed up hands he is more TO prone as well. He should be used mostly for scoring and shouldn't have to handle so much of those duties at this stage of his career. With the way this league is heading, I am not sure if the Gasol/Bynum twin-tower thing will bring them another championship. They are just too slow of a combo defensively, and offensively one or both will constantly be under-utilized. I think this could be a fundemental problem that will need to be fixed if they want to seriously compete. However, patching up those holes at PG and SF could be enough to get by, but I wouldn't bank on it.

Does she still have that big dent in her head? If I were her I'd charge $100 to liberals who want to eat two scoops of ice cream out of that dent. A great post-political career.

I really, really like the Grizzlies if they can get healthy. Last season's squad was very close to defeating the Thunder, and if Rudy Gay can make the right adjustments when Randolph gets back, I think they will be even better. If the Clippers trade one of their PG's for a legit SG and/or some depth, they could be scary. On paper, all of the pieces fit nicely, except Billups starting at SG. If they could balance out their roster, then the only reason they wouldn't have a realistic shot at the Thunder would be Vinny Del Negro. The Lakers desperately need to make upgrades at the 1 and 3 positions and get more athletic. If they make one or both of those upgrades, they have a great shot at beating the Thunder. The Blazers and Nuggets play an exciting, well-balanced brand of basketball with deep rosters, but I'm not sure either team has the #1 option necessary to win close playoff games against Durant. No other team in the West has much of a chance.

In terms of the mechanics of MC'ing, Infinite was his best album. The wordplay and attention to detail was unreal. However, when you are so focused on mechanics, you tend to lose some character in the lyrics, and at times Infinite comes off a little bland. The production also doesn't help. SSLP had a whole lot of character, and while the lyrics were less structured than Infinite, they still were crafted very attentively. SSLP had some great concepts, but I feel it didn't have enough serious to it. The production and his delivery was a little too cartoonish at times. Still, great album. MMLP was his best album, top to bottom. The production was fantastic, and his lyrics and flow were a perfect match between Infinite and the positive aspect of his newer stuff. This was Eminem at his best, mixing songs with great concepts and songs that are just fun to listen to. My only problem with this album is he overdid the horrorcore stuff a bit too much, and the range of subjects he touched on wasn't too wide. TES had the most potential, and it was Em at his most versatile, but this album had more filler than MMLP. Rest of his albums don't deserve a mention.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPT9B-r0xFo

The Heat aren't better without Wade. Besides the first 2 games Wade has played hurt the entire season. When his feet/ankles are injured, it great affects his ability to get to the rim and finish strong, and thus his efficiency plummets. His efficiency is what usually negates the lack of spacing with he and LeBron out there, but if he isn't scoring at an efficient clip, it makes the spacing issue a lot more glaring and affects the entire team's offense. Therefor, with the version of Wade we've seen the majority of the season, he is a detriment offensively, and with Battier on the floor there isn't any noticable drop in defense either. However, when he's healthy the Heat have IMO the 2 best players in the NBA. Their talents overlap, but they are so well-rounded that it doesn't matter too much. They are extremely efficient, very good passers, very good rebounders, and when they are locked in they are devestating on the defensive end. Also, with those two on the floor together, they have a transition game that beats teams into submission, Unless the Magic would want to do a straight Wade for Howard swap, I wouldn't think of trading Wade. And even if that deal is out there, I highly doubt the Heat would take it...Wade's the reason they have their only championship, and is the only reason LeBron and Bosh are there.

The Knicks are just an awful mismatch of talent and coaching. They have a roster built to be a slower halfcourt team, but they have a coach that doesn't preach defense and promotes an uptempo offense. They have a frontcourt that can demand double teams and a lot of attention inside 18ft, but don't have the 3pt shooters to make defenses pay for that attention. The team has no true PG and a SG that is ineffective with the ball in his hands, so there really is no choice but to run a bunch of Melo/Amare iso's. You can't expect Melo or Amare to change their style of play after 7-8 years of playing this way. The Knicks knew what they were getting with both of them. It is management's responsibility to build the right team around them, from role players to coaches. Melo isn't LeBron and Amare isn't Wade. Building this team will be much more difficult than just putting a few stars together and letting everything work out. The Knicks' duo just aren't that caliber of players. However, they are supremely talented, and you can build a contender around them. I don't know if they would have been able to do the same with the roster they had before the trade. Remember...they had a little hot streak last season, but besides that they were a below .500 club and clearly had a number of flaws.

Let's pretend the Lakers get Pierce...yes, he is a big improvement over Barnes/World Peace, but he continues to decline and does nothing to help the team in the athleticism department, which is where they are really at a disadvantage when it comes to playing teams like the Heat/Thunder. And besides that, he is also locked up for a few more years on a pretty steep contract. I just don't see the reason for adding him. They need a Trevor Ariza-like SF and/or an explosive PG. Bottom line is the Lakers are too old, methodical and slow. Right now the league is getting younger and more athletic, and it's seriously negating the advantages in size the Lakers possess. They need to surround Kobe/Pau/Bynum with all the speed, athleticism and shooting they can find. Metta World Peace, Barnes, Blake, Fisher etc will NOT get it done.

Samuel Dalembert signed this offseason for less money and years, and is a much better player on both ends, as well as being a signficantly better rebounder. Perkins is along the lines of Joel Anthony, who makes less than half of what Perkins makes. Ok, he resigns both...that still puts them way over the cap with steep luxory tax penalties, and I can't see a small market team like the Thunder willing to pay that kind of money. Even if they do, IMO the team will not be good enough to win a title as they are still missing a piece or two. With their eventual cap situation, where will they have the money to make those necessary improvements?

That's the issue...by all accounts, he isn't. He wants to be in a big market with a chance to win a title, and he has options that can get them there. Durant/Howard would be a sick combo, but I just don't see it.

So, with the resigning of Westbrook, the Thunder are in for an interesting dillema in the next year or two. As it stands, the team is probably top 3 in the entire league, although I think they are a step down from the Heat and Bulls. They still struggle at times in the halfcourt, and lack 1-2 multi-dimensional role players to win the title IMO. What this topic is about is their outlook in the future as it relates to the cap. With the resigning of Westbrook, the Thunder will be about $10M over the cap at the beginning of next year with the current roster. Now, Harden, Ibaka and Maynor are all still on their rookie contracts, and next season they will start to negotiate extensions. Harden will probably be a $10M per year contract after that, Ibaka probably around $7M, and Maynor around $4M (all are complete guesses). If all those went through, the Thunder will probably be looking at being $20M over the cap, and with the harsh new luxory tax penalties, I can't imagine the Thunder being able to keep all those guys. And if they do, they will almost certainly be handicapped in terms of improving the roster elsewhere, which IMO will be necessary if they want to be a title contender year-in, year-out. What really killed them was resigning Perkins for a long $7-8M per year contract. He adds toughness and post defense to the team, but he's a poor rebounder, poor offensive players, and doesn't have amazing range defensively. Many times Collison is the guy on the floor when the team is at its best. I think Presti made a bad, impulsive win-now choice in signing him to such a contract. So, if you are Sam Presti, what do you do in the next year or two? Who do you resign? Who do you let walk? Who do you trade?

The issue is you think he's so overrated that you start to really underrate him...basically the opposite of what I see from people and their views of Luol Deng. Bottom line is the dude gets 20PPG+ on amazing efficiency, draws more fouls than any player in the league, grabs 16 boards, and is by FAR the best defensive player in the league (how he makes the Magic a top 5 defense every single year is a [expletive]in miracle). He's proven he can be the #1 guy on a Finals team, and he's gotten better since then. I really don't see how you can think he's that overrated, and I don't understand how someone can rank him any worse than being the 4th best player in the league. I think he could go as high as #2, depending on how you rank players.

Unfortunately, I'm a Nets fan. If there was any way I could argue Lopez being the better offensive player than those guys I mentioned you bet your ass I would. But I just can't. Though, I expected you would call him a better offensive player than Dwight, your hate for that guy always shows itself.

This season Dwight is averaging 1.6 more offensive rebounds than Lopez did last season. And who cares? Offensive rebounding leads to very high percentage shots, which is effective offense. It's like negating LeBron's scoring ability because he's a freak athlete who thrives in transition. And besides, Lopez plays too far away from the rim too often for my liking. Yes, he's got more versatility scoring the ball, but Howard shoots like 8% better from the field, is more unstoppable in the post, and he gets to the line double the amount as Lopez does, which puts a huge amount of pressure on the opposing team's frontcourt. And there is no way Lopez is a better offensive player than Bynum, either. If you consider Bargnani a C, he's not better than him, either. EDIT: Oh, Al Jefferson is also a better scorer, too.

I've only seen the 2nd half, but judging by their matchups last season and now this game, the Heat are just an awful matchup for the Lakers. They are quicker, more active, and are good enough on the boards and defensively to not be absued by Kobe/Bynum/Gasol. If the Lakers want to contend, they NEED a Trevor Ariza type SF or a good, explosive PG. This team just isn't athletic enough to beat some of the elite teams like Miami. Also, Eddy Curry's back! He actually hasn't looked too bad. He looks to be in great shape as well. If he can finish plays off and connect on the occasional post-up, he'll actually be a nice fit for the team at C. Despite Joel Anthony's inability to rebound, the Miami is still an elite rebounding team, so Curry's below average ability on the glass won't be a huge issue. And with a Riley/Spo defense and a lot of defensive talent surrounding him, I don't expect his defense to be exposed too much either. I'm actually starting to think he might have been a decent pickup, and if nothing else will be better than Pittman (or Z/Dampier from last season).