Nitro

Ellis is more efficient from the field, but Williams actually has a better TS%. Anyway, I don't like this trade for Philly. As someone mentioned, small backcourts simply don't work so well, and they'd be losing a lot of what got them to the playoffs this year...defense. Besides, I don't think Ellis is a great player for young teams. He doesn't make his teammates better, is a chucker and doesn't have much more upside than what we've already seen. Mix that in with the issue of his size, and he's a much better fit on an established playoff team as a Jamal Crawford type 6th man.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh8XvDImFE8 Absolute mastery of the midrange game. How he played here is a blueprint for how guys like Kobe, LeBron and Wade could go about evolving their games as they age.

As everyone knows, this is a must-win for the Mavs. They really need to find a new plan for defending Wade; whether it be giving Stephenson more minutes, or throwing hard doubles at him more frequently beyond the 3pt line. So far Kidd and Terry have been getting absolutely abused by Wade, specifically in the post, so Carslile needs to figure something out. I expect LeBron to have a big game tonight.

Well, tomorrow I'm either going to be released or violated from probation...court's gonna suck <_< BTW, sorry to hear about your cousin, Legacy. RIP.

There was simply too much to respond to in your post, so I'll just reply to a few things I have not touched on before... I never said those teams were too old to win, but those specific Big 3's (NOT teams) were not comparable to the Heat's trio because of their age. I am not necessarily talking about physical playing ability, either, but also the ability to stay healthy as well. I mean, look at Karl Malone in his year with the Lakers...the previous 20 seasons or so he had missed no more than 2 games in a season. With the Lakers? Missed half the season (which [expletive]s up team chemistry with that kind of project) and got hurt once again in the playoffs. You brush off the Barkely/Drexler injuries in '97, but 60 games into this season the Heat were on a 5 game losing streak and couldn't close out a game. Injuries from being older is a major factor, especially for these trio's that were only together a year. Richmond and Hardaway were drafted onto that team, which only had 3 years together...they were not in their prime. And in those 3 seasons, Richmond never even made the All-Star team. Also, that team had no player the caliber of Wade or James, and arguably Bosh either. So, once again, it's not a good comparison. A lot of stars? Only one player from that team was an All-Star that season, and that was Sheed. Pippen hadn't been an All-Star the previous few seasons, Schrempf was 37 and a role player, Sabonis didn't even get to the NBA until he was on the decline, and the rest of those guys were essentially glorified role players. They were a lot more like the current Mavs, with one star and a few former stars who are now role players. Not a good example at all. The 2006 squad was imbalanced and only had about 15 games together before they had to face Greece, who had been together for years. They also had to adapt to an entirely different set of rules as well as how the refs call the games. The reason the 2008 team did so well was because most of the team had 2-3 years of international experience together before that run to the Gold. And they struggled against Argentina? They beat them by 20. They destroyed Spain by over 30 the first game they played them, and every other game besides the Gold Medal game was a huge blowout. Even with those 3 years international experience, that team only had about 30-40 games played together. This Heat team has had training camp, preseason, an 82 game regular season and a long post-season to get it all together. Remember, it took them literally the entire regular season and a few games of the playoffs to get to the point where they are at now. That USA team did not have that same luxory, even though they had a bigger pool of talent. All my posts were not to refute your idea that the best teams on paper don't win it all...I didn't even think the Heat had the best team on paper before this season, I thought the Lakers did. All my posts did were showing how past "Big 3's" were not comparable to this current Heat trio. Also, you could make a much better case for saying the Heat should be up 3-0 as opposed to the Mavs. They beat the Mavs convincingly enough the first game, they had the biggest meltdown in Finals history in the second game, and almost blew another lead in the third game but pulled the thing out.

Mmhmm. What pisses me off more is how horrible the teams he led to the playoffs were. For a guy who averaged 29/7/6 for his career in the post-season, he should have had enough help at least once to get over the hump. He also had some really horrible luck with his teammates being injured come playoff time...Grant Hill with the Magic, Juwan Howard in 2005 (their 3rd best player), Wells in 2007 (a bit of a reach, but he was their only iso scorer besides Yao/T-Mac, and that specific team was horrible offensively), and then Yao in 2008 when they had homecourt AND considerably more help than the previous year where they pushed Utah to the last minute of Game 7. By the time 08-09 rolled around and he had enough help to make serious noise in the playoffs, his body finally broke down for good and he needed microfracture. He really is the most unlucky superstar I've ever seen. At his peak, one could argue he had as much raw talent as anyone in NBA history.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sx1IY5ZFAxw Of course the Magic lost but still sexy.

Ripped this from RealGM, I'm sure the link is up somewhere. Anyway, glad to see him finally get a head coaching gig, although with no prior experience as an assistant I'm a bit skeptical.

Not only did the coach's style effect his play, but I think the NBA style of play will greatly benefit Rubio. With bigger court, longer 3pt line, refs and overall style, he will have a ton more room to operate and penetrate, which is something the international game doesn't allow a ton of. In the NBA he will be able to penetrate the lane a lot easier, thus opening up a ton of opportunities to make plays for himself and for his teammates.

I actually think Rubio is a tremendous prospect. The only major glaring hole in his game is his jumper, but that's one of the most correctable weaknesses a player can have. It's a lot more difficult to get a player to get better as a rebounder, ballhandler, passer or defender than it is to get him a respectable jumper (I'm not talking about a Ray Allen jumper, but moreso what guys like Rose, Wade and even Kidd have done over the years with their jumpers). He has amazing passing ability and vision, and from what I saw in his games against Team USA his defense is phenomenal at times. Anyway, as for Beasley, I'd dump him for a veteran role player. He definitely has talent, but he's only proficient as an isolation volume scorer (which he does at very low efficiency). He's a disappointing rebounder (although solid), he's a horrible playmaker, a below average defender, and has a low basketball IQ. Now that the Wolves have a few decent prospects (including Rubio who can be their first legit starting PG in years), and an All-Star caliber player in Love, it is time to put some reliable, proven veterans around these guys. I think it will help with the development of their younger players and give the team a foundation. I think we've already seen what Beasley offers, and IMO it just isn't good enough to partially build around. Let the other prospects learn to be quality players, see what they can do with Williams (if they get him), and grab some veterans to solidify this team.

1) The '97 Rockets trio were still All-Stars, but not in their prime like the Heat are, and didn't really have. And keep this in mind with that team....of the 8 players who played in all 16 of their post-season games, including the Big 3, 7 of those 8 players were 33 years or older. That's a major disadvantage. Also keep in mind that Drexler and Barkley both missed 20+ games that season. 2) Pippen wasn't in his prime. He was on the downside of his career; he was still a very good player, but not nearly as explosive on either side of the ball as he used to be. In that '99 post-season he shot a dismal 33% from the floor as well. 3) I don't think it's fair to judge how good that Lakers team was unless they were remotely healthy for the Finals, but they did take out the reigning champs (who happened to be the same team that would win the following season) when they did have their health. Also, as I said, neither Payton 'nor Malone were the caliber player that Bosh currently is. First off, I don't like comparing teams from 40 years ago to modern NBA teams...the league is far too different. With that said, Chamberlain played only like 10 games for the Lakers that first season (for comparison, the Heat were a .500 team about 20 games into this season) and were defeated by a Knick team with mutliple stars as well. The second, and last, season that Big 3 was together Baylor missed virtually the entire season and didn't play a game in the playoffs. Lastly, even though you say age wasn't a factor, Baylor was a shell of his former self by then, and Chamberlain and West were in their mid-'30's as well. Basically what I am trying to say is no team has ever gotten 3 stars together, in the middle of their prime, like the Heat have. A lot of those trio's had all-time greats, but they weren't the same players when those teams were built, and a few of those teams, like both the '70's and '04 Lakers, had severe injuries in the post-season which prevented them from reaching their goal. I know you weren't comparing them necessarily, but I think your logic in using them as examples of how this Heat team may not work was flawed.

Those aren't the greatest comparisons. All those teams (except the Mavs, who didn't have a 3rd star, 'nor a player the caliber of Wade or James) had superstars at the very end of their careers. Those Rockets teams had players at the tail-end of their careers, and that first team was only a Stockton GW away from the Finals. By the time the second team came around, Olajuwon was on a steep decline, and Pippen and Barkley weren't the same players either. The 2004 Lakers suffered a similar fate, although one of the things about that team that gets severely overlooked is Malone got injured in the WCF and wasn't even 50% for the first few games of the Finals, and missed the last few altogether...people forget how huge he was in defending Duncan in the semi's that year. Mix that in with Payton's decline, Kobe's injuries and the Kobe/Shaq feud, and it's clear why they weren't able to meet the expectations. This Heat team is different. You have arguably the two best players in the league in their physical prime, who have the capabilities to be 30PPG scorers as well as lockdown defenders and strong in the ballhandling/passing/rebounding departments. Mix that in with a PF who averaged 25/11 last season, and a few quality role players and a defensive minded philosophy from the top of the organization to the bottom (something I stressed all last summer but people doubted), and it shouldn't be a surprise that this team is this good. My only question was if a frontcourt with Haslem and Anthony playing C would work against teams with strong rebounding, like Chicago and Dallas, and so far they've done just enough to get by.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii73/mootz4/lebron.gif

Anthony did a better job tonight than in the first 2 games, but in those first 2 games anytime Dirk would post him up he would be able to dribble him down to about 5ft to the rim. Dirk is not bullying Haslem in those situations like he is with Anthony, and as I said I think Haslem's size is causing more resistance on iso jumpers as well. You're right, Anthony is doing a better job of eliminating the drive than Haslem, but if I were Spo I'd almost rather see Dirk drive occasionally and trust Miami's help defense than to see him get space on jumpers or bully the defender around.

I strongly disagree here. I've thought Haslem has done a better job on Dirk than Anthony this series. Anthony has done the best with what he's got, but he's simply too small to consistently give a strong contest on Dirk's jumpers, and he's consistently letting Dirk abuse him on post-ups. Haslem probably isn't as savvy defensively as Anthony, but he's longer, stronger and tougher, which is the only way you can really defend Dirk.

Regardless of who won, this was a tremendous game to watch. I was surprised Miami actually pulled this one out. With 3-4min left they kept making dumb play after dumb play...between missed defensive rotations to horrible fouls while in the penalty to extremely hesitant offense by LeBron and Bosh, Dallas really had them on their heels. However, Wade simply willed them to this win. He made a few clutch baskets, and made a number of plays to open things up for his teammates, whether it be off the dribble or out of the post. He was everywhere tonight, and managed to not commit a single turnover the entire game. Dallas fans will continue to have nightmares about him for years. For the Mavs, tough loss, although their terrible defensive start put them in that hole in the first half and early 3rd quarter. Dirk was amazing the 2nd half, but he's human and commited that bad turnover then missed the tough fadeaway the last 2 possessions. Peja was absolutely horrible defensively, and losing Haywood really hurt them, with Mahinmi nearly setting a Finals record for quickest to foul out in a game. Marion was finally held in check by Miami as well, and while Barea made a lot of great plays, he simply didn't have his shot going. Chandler, Kidd and Terry, for the most part, played strong games, though, but it just wasn't enough. Can't wait for Game 4!

Wade's been dominant so far at finding small seams in the defense to get to the rim. Dallas needs to throw more hard doubles at him, at least as long as LeBron stays quiet. Bosh is still ice cold from the field, and if the Heat are to win he will need to get it going. Dirk's been quiet, but I expect him to be more aggressive in the 2nd half. Most importantly for the Mavs they need to cut down on turnovers and maximize the number of shot attempts this game.

Love it, very nicely done.

Hand-checking wasn't really enforced until 04-05, after 03-04 saw probably the worst offensive/best defensive output in NBA history because of hand-checking + zone defense. Zone defense was initially legalized because A) It was rarely enforced to begin with, and B) It was meant to speed the game back up. Here's an excerpt from an article in the Houston Chronicle showing how the rule changes came about and how it effected the game initially... Also, something I always forget to mention in these debates is the new defensive 3 second rule, which is enforced a lot more than the old zone defense rules, and has really opened up the lane for many of these stars today.

Damn man, that's some really scary shit. If you need anything shoot me a PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adusCcba89o My annual post showing people how tough defense was back then, and how different it is from now. I found the video pretty fascinating, and it shows those players not only handchecking, but also blatantly playing zone when it was considered illegal. Take what you want from this video...whether it be to influence MJ vs. Kobe debates, to show how much the game has evolved, to determine if the new rule changes have helped or hurt the quality of the league's product, etc... Nontheless, I thought some of you may find it interesting.

I think he knows this, which is why he stressed that no one in one-on-one situations can defend him....in otherwords, no one should give the individual defender much credit, but rather the entire team defense.

Dirk's been better in the Finals than LeBron, but Wade has been better than both...so, if you're going to call Wade the best player in the game and series, it's something I won't argue. :glasses:

Hahaha, I listen to Mike Francesa almost every time I am driving between 11-6, and it's hilarious. I don't think there is anyone in sports radio who takes themselves more seriously than he does. Mad Dog really is missed.

He's probably right, although I think you can say the same thing about a few of the elite scorers in the NBA. I do recall, however, Noah switching off onto LeBron a few times in the Bulls series and having tremendous success.