ZoomSlowik

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ May 27, 2013 -> 08:04 PM) There's no defense for 28 foot 3's. That's what Kobe does when he's at his hottest. Sure there is: let him take it and laugh the 70% of the time it doesn't go in.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ May 27, 2013 -> 07:44 PM) lol. what the hell? And what do you mean a couple? Are you serious? You need to go check bball reference or something. Hell, Kobe did it to Mike himself (yes, the old, fat brokedown version) his last year. He had like 45 points and 9 threes in the first half (check youtube). Read my edit. Your statement is very odd, like implying MJ never got hot or did anything amazing.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ May 27, 2013 -> 07:14 PM) What's Michael's percentage when you take away the three years the line was moved in from '95-'97? It's pretty common knowledge that Kobe is the better long-range shooter (Joe Dumars, Phil Jackson, Tex Winter, Jim Cleamons all testified to this). Anyway, I had to go back and re-read all the posts from today to figure out how this turned into MJ vs Kobe. Mex implied that because Kobe has only two scoring titles that he's not that great a scorer. Which is ridiculous when you consider the circumstances Kobe has played under most of his career. Like I said before, MJ > Kobe all day. But when it comes to binge scoring - Kobe > MJ. And that's because of his range. You posted something like he's arguably a "more explosive scorer" than MJ using a couple isolated incidents, which is very odd to say. Saying anyone is better than MJ in something scoring-related (other than 3-point shooting) is questionable at best. I doubt it turns into MJ/Kobe without that post. It's a strange phrasing, it seems like you're saying because he got hot a few times he's a better scorer than Jordan ("more explosive" generally implies better). It's like saying Nolan Ryan is the "most unhittable pitcher" because he has 7 no-hitters.

I find this extremely weird: Celtics "likely" to buy out Paul Pierce. I don't see what the point is. They're still going to be at/near the cap ($73 million committed with Pierce). They're not really going to be in full rebuild until KG is gone anyways and next year is going to be dicey until Rondo gets back. Plus if they really don't want Pierce, I would think they could trade him for something rather than simply buying him out.

Kobe's a career 33.6% 3-point shooter. That's a very mediocre percentage. Michael's was 32.7%, not exactly a huge trump card. Shooting a bunch of 3's doesn't mean you're good at them. Michael's CAREER scoring average was 30.1 PPG, Kobe only has 3 years that touch that. MJ was even more ridiculous in the playoffs, upping his scoring to over 33 a game without hurting his TS%. Kobe's career high in TS% was 58, MJ has 6 seasons that exceed that total (and another at 57.9). Seriously, I have a strong desire to injure people that put MJ and Kobe in the same discussion (regardless of context). Kobe is/was a damn good player, but he's not on the same tier. He's basically 90% of MJ. We'll see about Lebron in 5 years or so.

I'm going to largely stay out of the old-timers vs modern debate. It's been done before and it's not going to go anywhere productive. My only comment is that there are things besides athleticism that matter, and most of the top old-timers have a big edge there. Please note that I am not saying that EVERY player from earlier eras (pre-90's) can hang, I'm talking about the top tier guys.

QUOTE (Boogua @ May 24, 2013 -> 11:54 AM) Haha, I remember getting into a debate with multiple IU fans about Zeller on here. I said he woudlnt be a top 5 pick in a better draft, but it turns out he won't even be a top 5 pick in really weak draft. Being proven right feels good sometimes. To be fair, he probably would have gone top-5 last year. He's the lastest victim of the "overexposure slide" following Joakim Noah and Jared Sullinger (though his back affected that too).

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ May 24, 2013 -> 10:47 AM) So a player(Glen Rice Jr) can be drafted out of the D League? That is interesting, I admittedly am not really familiar with player rights in reference to D League and NBA, I figured it was like MLB where someone already had his rights and they would just bring him up. That's actually an interesting rule that people miss: not only can you be drafted out of the D-League, there's no age limit. A guy can go straight to the D-League out of high school and get drafted the next year. Latavious Williams actually did that due to eligibility issues. At some point, someone of signficance is probably going to do that.

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 23, 2013 -> 04:08 PM) Yeah, I respect the point you guys are making, I just don't really think it's fair to act like it was black and white. What happened made it appear to be a much worse strategy than it actually was. As for Wade, he's hobbled and not the threat he usually is. Bosh or what's his nuts with the big hair was probably option B. Chris Anderson? If he's taking a non-dunk shot in that situation, that's a huge win.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ May 23, 2013 -> 03:53 PM) George is a more athletic version of Scottie Pippen. I have to go back to this for a second... How did we go from Memphis/Indiana being a horrible series with no "all-stars" to this statement? Is J4L trying to use the Chewbaca defense? That's the only explanation I can think of for this...

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ May 23, 2013 -> 03:53 PM) Ok, and what the hell does Hibbert have to do with your scenario? They could've done exactly what you're advocating without him. LeBron made a bloody tampon out of George and that was it. and get outta here with it's "LeBron with 2.2 seconds left." I don't care if it's LeBron mixed with some Durant and Chris Paul. YOU DO NOT get beat like that. George is a more athletic version of Scottie Pippen. That should never happen in that situation. You sir are high.

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 23, 2013 -> 03:42 PM) You guys aren't being fair... If George had been doing a good job on LeBron in the 4th and in OT, and then suddenly they bring Hibbert in and he cheats off of Bosh to help with LeBron and LeBron dishes to Bosh who hits a wide-open jumper, all the sudden the conversation is "How come he brought in Hibbert when George has LeBron checked? How could you allow Bosh such a wide-open jumper??" Hibbert had been playing when Lebron was a non-factor. Suddenly they take him out and James gets two gimme layups. I don't think anyone's going to criticize you for bringing help to Lebron on a drive given he has 4 MVP awards. Besides, a lot more things have to go right on that hypothetical play (Bosh being open, Lebron seeing him and having a passing lane, Bosh hitting a shot outside the paint) than James simply turning around and laying an uncontested layup off the glass.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ May 23, 2013 -> 03:15 PM) And in last night's case he's guarding Battier and Bosh and is nowhere near the rim anyway. Once LeBron flew by George, that was it. It was either going to be a layup, dunk or foul. Right, because big men never cheat off guys like that to overload the strong side of the floor. Look at the Melo clip again. I can't quite tell who it is, but there's a guy WIDE open on the opposite wing from Carmelo's drive. Hibbert and West are both chilling out next to Chandler and Hibbert drops off to cover the rim on that play.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ May 23, 2013 -> 03:07 PM) What the hell did this video prove? It's an example of why it's generally a good idea to have your best rim protector on the floor. He and George are the main reasons the Pacers had the best defensive efficiency in the league. George was similarly torched on that play, but they had a big man there to challenge the shot.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ May 23, 2013 -> 03:06 PM) 2 seconds is plenty of time for the greatest player in the league to catch the ball, get doubled and pass to an open teammate that has a open shot. It makes more sense to make Lebron drive and step back with a contested jumper than to give a guy like Bosh a wide open 15-18 footer. Again, George had been doing an amazing job the entire 4th quarter. He was outplaying Lebron on both ends of the floor until that last play. And you know George is 6'8" right? He's far from a midget. The guy he beat on the previous layup was George Hill, not Paul George. George Hill is 6'2". Also you help off of Battier and Chalmers/Cole (I honestly didn't notice which was in the game). That's a chance you take every time. "Making" Lebron drive is never the right play because of situations like that, plus a likely foul call enters the equation.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ May 23, 2013 -> 02:07 PM) Thank you. And this goes back to what I said earlier about Hibbert. He's tall, wide, and takes up space. When he actually has to move his big ass and guard somebody, especially out on the perimeter, he's a liability. I understand why he was left out. Ask Carmelo about that.

I took that Mavericks' post as code for "we'll give you #13 for your pick in a draft that we don't hate".

How the f*** do you let Lebron get to the rim unmolested twice in the last minute?

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ May 22, 2013 -> 10:41 PM) and whats up with the tool with the hottie behind the broadcast team? Miami has an extremely high concentration of both hotties and tools.

Whose brilliant idea was it to run those two plays through Ray Allen?

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ May 22, 2013 -> 10:15 PM) He's just been a good signing overall. The Heat depth now compared to '11, or even last year, has improved dramatically. They've got a different guy outside of the big 3 stepping up in every series. Ray Allen torched the Bucks. Cole killed the Bulls. Now Anderson tonight. I don't remember if I posted anything when they got him, but yeah. They definitely needed an athletic backup center and found one. It helps to have options beyond Bosh and two undersized guys. And holy s***, George.

Birdman has been huge for the Heat so far. Pacers hanging in there behind their bigs though.

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 22, 2013 -> 12:57 PM) This is exactly who I was trying to think of earlier, but was too lazy to look him up. I'm not so sure about McLemore, but I really think Burke has a pretty good chance to be a very, very good player. I'd rather take a guy like that and worry about fitting him in to my roster if I am the Cavs right now, then to take Noel with the #1 pick. But again, that is just me. The problem with that is that Burke is simply not as good a player as Kyrie Irving. Irving is one of the top point guards in the league and could still get better. Using the #1 pick on a guy that's not going to start for your team any time in the near future isn't a good use of assets. You can't really move either of them to the 2 either because they're 6'3" and 6'1" respectively. That's a highly suspect pairing defensively. With two big guys or two wings you can use both of them a lot more easily. If they really don't want Noel, the best option for them is probably Otto Porter. He's the safest prospect in the draft IMO though he's not likely to be a star. That last part is important because there isn't a single player in this draft where you can reasonably expect them to be an All-Star. There might eventually be one out of this draft, but good luck guessing who it is. Any of these guys are going to need significant improvements to be even an above average NBA starter. If the people that get paid to scout these prospects had any idea which guys were going to pan out, we wouldn't be talking about how awful this draft is. Noel is widely considered to be #1 because he has the best physical tools in this draft to be a star down the line. It's not a guarantee that he's going to be the best player, but that's true of any prospect and these other guys aren't any safer.

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 22, 2013 -> 10:54 AM) He also has a blown acl and cannot score. But hey, thanks for being a tremendous prick about it. Tearing an ACL is only the end of the world if your name is Derrick Rose. Obviously he will need a thorough medical workup and they should go another direction if they find any long-term issues. A lot of teams don't have a big man that can consistently score in the teens, and many of those guys that do are less than stellar defenders. Guys that can step in immediately and score 15 or more a game from the frontcourt don't show up in every draft. Anthony Davis was a significantly better prospect last year and there were still question marks about how he'd score (he ended up averaging 13 a game this year, which was probably a little more than expected). Again, this class blows. It's not like you're drafting Kevin Durant if you pass on the big with an injury issue this time around. Every player in this draft has some issues that suggest they're not "worthy" of the #1 pick.

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 22, 2013 -> 09:43 AM) Yeah, I figured someone would bring up Noah...but guys like Noah that are incredibly active and unselfish AND realize they are limited offensively and thus don't really care about getting shots are extremely few and far between. I don't think it's fair to compare a guy to Noah just because he doesn't have much of an offensive game. I think you have to look at trading the pick if you are the Cavs or just trading down or taking McLemore, Oladipo, or Burke and just figuring it out down the road. I always think it's funny how everyone is so critical and certain of where guys should or should not be taken leading up to the draft and where they fit into each team, even though every year there are plenty of guys that turn into stars that are taken all over the first round... It really has little to do with his offensive game. He's drawing comparisons to guys like Camby, Chandler and Noah because he has great length, explosive athleticism and good mobility. He has elite defensive potential, that's not exactly easy to find. He's not Dwight Howard, but significantly less talented big men have gone early in other drafts. It's fairly obvious that you don't know anything about the Cavs' roster if you mentioned Trey Burke as a possibility. That Kyrie Irving guy is kinda good. Yikes. They might take a wing like McLemore or Porter, but since they just took Waiters I'm not sure how anxious they'll be to get a 2-guard. There really is a huge difference in value of picks. Obviously there are exceptions, but it's not like the NFL where 2nd-7th rounders deliver value all the time. This chart illustrates how precipitously the expected value of your pick drops once you get outside the top-5 (unfortunately it's ESPN Insider). Also, instead of doing another post, if it were that easy to just "find a defensive stopper down the road", teams wouldn't be drastically overpaying guys like DeAndre Jordan, Javale McGee, Andris Biedrins, Brendan Haywood, Erik Dampier, ect trying to find one. There aren't many true stoppers in the league, and the ones that are there get huge contracts (usually before they even hit the open market).