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I'm not denying that officials can't make mistakes. But there's a difference between the close calls that you can only truly determine through replay and the things you should be able to catch live. How three referees miss a shot hitting the glass before being blocked not once, but twice, is beyond me. You probably could find mistakes that went in our favor... but nothing as obvious as the two goaltends and the wrong call on the video review. It's Chris Broussard saying that D-Will is likely to leave if the Nets don't land Dwight. That's hardly news. We have yet to hear anything out of Deron's mouth, and this is one reporter telling us something that isn't shocking. That doesn't rule out the possibility of him staying put without Dwight. No, genius. Otis accepted the deal... the Orlando ownership said no. Again, you're blowing his rebounding struggles out of proportion. Yes, his defense is lacking. That doesn't make him lower than the third best player on a contending team. The Nets are irrelevant? I don't know, Dwight has Brooklyn as his top choice.

It didn't bounce off the rim. It hit the glass... on both goaltends. These are professional officials. You would think one of those three referees would recognize that the ball hit the glass. Okay, but my point is that they're CLIPPERS' announcers acknowledging that the CLIPPERS got away with things they shouldn't have. ... except that they're almost the same exact weight. What's comical is that you didn't even watch the game. Members on Clippers' blogs said themselves that they benefited from the officiating. Really?! You must have some great inside sources, because that has never been heard before. What are you talking about... Otis accepted a deal before the season started revolving around Brook Lopez, but management shot down the deal. To say that Brook Lopez is one of the most empty stat players in the league is completely absurd and ignorant on your part. His defense is incredibly lacking, but to call him one of the worst seven-foot rebounders in league history makes no sense. You're basing it off of an off-year last season, when he averaged more than 8 boards in his rookie and sophomore years. You're completely ignoring his offensive game. If you think his absence is hardly a loss, then it's not even worth arguing with you.

So the Clippers' own commentators were sarcastic as well when they themselves acknowledged every one of those errors? Deron getting hit in the face? What are you talking about? That was clear goaltending... you could see that from the distance of the camera. So the crew working together and watching the video serves as justification that they made the correct call? Griffin hardly hit it up... he hit the side of the ball. Shelden didn't even appear to make contact with the ball. You could see Griffin stick out his arm and push Shelden back. The Clips' own announcer acknowledged that he trucked right over Shelden. That's ridiculous. You think that the Nets, who are playing without Brook Lopez, are the worst team in the league? New Jersey has played five home games and ten road games. For comparison, the teams that they have played are a combined 14 games over .500. The Knicks have played teams that are a combined 34 games under .500. With all that, the Nets are only two games behind the Knicks. Right, because you really know what you're talking about.

I went through the Nets-Clippers game and found multiple terrible calls/no-calls by Dick Bavetta, Mark Ayotte, and Scott Twardoski. They cost the Nets at least 8-10 points in the game.

Denial? Here's the situation: 1) Orlando is reportedly seriously considering keeping Howard past the deadline. Dwight would enter free agency, and the Nets would be the best big market team he could join. No reason to trade Deron. 2) If Dwight gets traded anywhere other than L.A. or New Jersey, chances are his new destination isn't one of his preferred ones. He would still enter free agency with big market teams getting in touch with him. No reason to trade Deron. 3) If Dwight gets traded to L.A., there is still no guarantee that he would sign a new contract with the Lakers. There have been the reports of him not wanting to follow Shaq's footsteps. Recently, there was a report that he wasn't all so thrilled with the prospect of playing with L.A. after talking on the phone with Kobe. And there's also the quote from Jim Buss before the season started that hints Dwight said something to Otis: Link Now if Dwight does change his mind and appears to like L.A., the Nets would still realize that that would eliminate the likelihood of Deron and Dwight teaming up. With that being the case, I would still like our chances of signing D-Will to a new contract. Lopez, Brooks, possibly Humphries, great 2012 draft pick(s), and a load of cap space is a pretty good situation for a team, when you also factor in that the Nets are on their way to a big market and have also gotten Deron involved in a lot of the decisions they've made. In my opinion, no reason to trade Deron.

At this point, I find it hard to picture a scenario in which the Nets consider trading Deron.

Do the Lakers always wear these jerseys when they come to Miami? http://oi41.tinypic.com/2wdy4ih.jpg The fact that neither team is wearing white and that the Lakers' jerseys nearly match the color of the paint combine to make the court an odd sight. That being said, I really like these black jerseys.

New interior rendering shown in Bruce Ratner's interview with Sportfolio. They went ahead with the "black box theater" idea! Looks awesome: http://i44.tinypic.com/k05z5c.jpg

You should've written the Nets' letter from Prokhorov.

That's crucial. And considering Billy King's outstanding draft history and this year's great class, I would have high hopes that we land a solid 3 (maybe our aims change by then, but who knows). Dwight will be a free agent no matter what, so a team with Deron, MarShon, and hopefully Lopez would catch his eye. And if Deron does somehow become available, I'm sure you guys could at least offer better value than what some of the delusional Magic writers think Orlando could deal for Deron.

Six players in double figures. Deron and Brooks displaying the great backcourt that we had in mind near Draft Day. First home win!

Speaking of Dwight, I just feel like there's a 1 AM Woj tweet around the corner that's going to spark some buzz.

There aren't a whole lot of scenarios in which Deron would be available at the deadline. Even if Dwight is dealt at the deadline, that doesn't guarantee Deron's becoming available. The Nets still have the cap room to sign Dwight straight-up.

Also, it's interesting how the 2010 draft class was considered a lot better than the 2011 one, and yet, this year's rookies have been very impressive, while last year's disappointed.

Love him. Great attitude, great work ethic, great athleticism. His ability to create his own shot has been invaluable on a roster that is otherwise pretty weak. He needs to work on his defense, but he has the potential improve there with his wingspan and athleticism. Stefan Bondy tweeted this earlier today: It hasn't taken very long for Brooks to become one of my favorites on the team. Major props to Billy on yet another great job with the draft.

http://www.sportsgrindent.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/referees1.jpg

Atrocious officiating. Wow.

Well Dwight isn't necessarily forcing his way to a certain team (maybe he is, but we don't know for sure). But he has obviously been asked by Otis, "would you sign a new deal with Team X?" and he had a right to say no and probably did for several teams. Players want to be traded to a good situation, which is why just by saying yes or no to signing an extension or new deal, they are indirectly forcing themselves to a certain team. In that aspect, I don't see anything wrong with it, although it is frustrating for the receiving team.

Old tweet, but:

Probably. I'm pretty sure the incident was that he got into a heated discussion with Westphal and yelled something along the lines of, "trade me now." So it was more of an angry statement at the peak of an argument.

I don't expect it to turn into a problem. If non-star players start doing it, teams may just ignore the requests as long as the player continues to put in effort, since losing that player wouldn't be as devastating. And if a team does choose to honor the request, there won't be as much of a problem with a player dictating where he plays, since receiving teams would be giving up less values for him (compared to a superstar) and wouldn't be as concerned if they lost that player in free agency the following offseason. Cousins has been the only case so far, and as you said, it doesn't apply, considering all the heated moments he's had with basically the whole team leading to his frustration and subsequent trade demand.

In my honest opinion, it's outrageous that a player should have to feel restricted to the team that drafted him. In terms of leaving Cleveland, I COMPLETELY understand why LeBron did what he did. As the best player in the league, it's extremely tough to pass on playing with Wade and Bosh, while moving from Cleveland to the Miami weather and lifestyle. Of course, the fact that he broke a promise about not going ring-chasing and the manner in which he left Cleveland are a discussion of their own, but just the choice to switch jerseys is fine with me. As for wanting out, there's a difference between requesting a trade and demanding a trade. We've barely seen the latter. I can understand the first scenario. I understood when Kidd, Melo, Paul, and Dwight all did it. They served sufficient time on their teams and preferred to be elsewhere. When it comes to handcuffing a team, you don't have to exactly name a destination to do that. Just by saying you won't sign a contract extension somewhere, you are likely eliminating that team as a possible trade destination, and eventually, it narrows down to a couple of teams anyway. But again, I don't feel like you should have to commit to the destination where you are being traded, as you're looking for what is in your best interest.

Please don't deal Ammo. Farmar is much easier to replace. Gaines can do a solid job as D-Will's backup, and if Dwight lands here, Arenas probably does as well. There has also been word floating around for a while that Farmar doesn't like his role.

Myth. They had disputes, but Sloan, D-Will, and O'Connor all denied Deron having anything to do with Sloan's leaving. Sloan's resignation had more to do with the ownership switch from Larry Miller Sr. to Jr. Miller Sr. listened more to Sloan's requests... Miller Jr. didn't re-sign Boozer, didn't match Wesley Matthews' contract offer, and didn't re-sign Korver. Basically wanted to cut costs.