ZoomSlowik

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Nov 21, 2012 -> 09:22 PM) Yeah, the 3point percentage is not sustainable. but even when you normalize it, you're still talking an 18+ ppg scorer. Yeah, for the price he went for, he would have been a good boost for the Bulls. However, he signed a 1-year deal with an option and could be in a for a raise at this rate.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Nov 21, 2012 -> 08:39 PM) Is this the real o.j mayo? this guy's ballin'. i can cut the bulls a little slack for elite free agents just not wanting to come here. but mayo would've been so perfect and could've been had. There's no way he's going to keep hitting three 3's a night at a high-50% clip. However, he can definitely be good when he gets hot. The problem is his scoring hits a wall when his jumpers don't drop.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Nov 21, 2012 -> 08:18 PM) the bulls are just painfully boring. even the dark years of '99-'03 you had the hope of curry and chandler becoming sorta/kinda/somewhat shaq-kg and the guarantee of a top 5 pick. the bulls reminds me of the 2000 orlando magic. I'm probably going to be called a bad fan, but yeah, I find them difficult to watch without Rose as well. They're not exactly bad, just mediocre offense and good defense that results in some uninspiring stretches.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Nov 21, 2012 -> 08:04 PM) i have. but c'mon zoom, even you can admit it's a little poetic that this all happens in, what, 5 days since the debacle? You obviously haven't if you keep bringing it up. I'm not getting into it any further.

QUOTE (Jake @ Nov 21, 2012 -> 07:43 PM) How does Gortat fit on the Bulls? They could really use another center, Noah's playing 39 MPG right now and that's probably not a good thing long term. Gortat is a solid one, and would probably fit okay with Noah at PF. I don't think Gortat is quick enough to play PF. I don't know how he'd fit cost-wise.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Nov 21, 2012 -> 07:44 PM) Back and already dominating before turkey day. when's bynum coming back? and Irving out a month, too? the basketball gods have spoken. Not a good week for mr. sup jordan. better to think for yourself next time. Dude, let it go.

KEVIN.LOVE.

QUOTE (2nd_city_saint787 @ Nov 21, 2012 -> 10:04 AM) Uhh didnt even know he was available nut yes please There's a difference between teams being interested in him and Gortat being on the block. Of course a lot of teams are interested, he's productive and only makes $7 million. Add that with his recent complaints about a lack of touches recently and voila, instant trade rumor. If he does get traded, the price will likely be very high given his favorable contract status. If Phoenix would get the ball to their guys that can actually convert instead of letting Beasley continually miss jumpers, there likely wouldn't be a rumor.

QUOTE (Boogua @ Nov 21, 2012 -> 07:46 AM) I know it's only been a few games and Kevin Martin can't keep up what he's doing, but it's interesting to look at the trade a few weeks into it. Harden started off like a mad man, but his season FG% now sits at 42.8 and he's averaging 4 TOs a game. His TS% last year was 66 and this year it's 56. He shot 39% from 3 last year and this year is shooting 28.6% Kevin Martin is averaging almost 18 points on a 70.2% TS%. He's also shooting a ridiculous 53.6% from 3 thus far. Those Martin numbers are clearly unsustainable, but maybe playing alongside Durant and Westbrook is a bigger advantage than initially thought. If Martin keeps shooting 54% from the arc, yeah, they'll be fine. I'd say both of those percentages would normalize a bit though. What's funny is Harden's numbers (both raw totals and percentages) were actually better with at least one of the studs out. breakdown with Durant/Westbrook on/off the floor. I'd say it's more adjusting to a bigger role in a new offense with new teammates very quickly. He's getting to the rim at an absurd rate so far (8 attempts a game, making 65% of them, plus 9 free throws a game), his shot has been a bit off though.

I was really hoping to see IU/UCLA tomorrow. Oh well. Not terribly impressed with anyone so far. Can we ever get another year like 2008 where we had four teams with multiple NBA prospects in the Final Four?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 16, 2012 -> 01:02 PM) The admissions thing only goes so far. Duke, Stanford, and Notre Dame do just fine. Stanford is hardly a consistently good basketball team, they had no tournament appearances between 1942 and 1989 and haven't made it in the last 4 years (and aren't a complete lock this year). Mike Montgomery was a hell of a coach, so far the results are highly mediocre when he isn't involved. Notre Dame has been fairly consistently in the tournament since it started, so they have had a much easier time convincing people that they can win at a reasonable rate. Duke might have been comparable 30 years ago, it's not remotely so now. They've been a top-tier program for 25 years and they make some serious concession for their athletes (Sean Dockery being a popular example, who got in with a 2.3 GPA and a 15 ACT). I know everyone does, but no discussions I've had with NU people suggests they go anywhere near THAT low. It's not JUST admissions, it's admissions combined with decades of a lack of financial support that left them with the worst facilities in the Big Ten and the embarassment of zero tournament appearances in the history of the program. Like I said earlier, it takes something fairly miraculous to turn things around like that.

Two of those teams have no chance of ever being a "top-tier" program. Loyola is never going to get the top-tier recruits playing in the Horizon League, the best they can hope for is finding a couple of guys that fall through the cracks and make a run for 3 or 4 years. Northwestern can't admit a number of the better players in the area and the ones they can recruit go to places that have actually made the NCAA tournament and don't have horrendous facilities. The only one that remotely has a chance is DePaul, and they have a number of issues working against them as well... -Illinois has clearly passed them in relevance over the last 20 years. Chicago is a solid recruiting area, but not strong enough to support two supposedly elite basketball programs, especially when the true blue bloods have been poaching the top tier for a while now. -Sort of related to the last one: their national appeal is basically non-existant since they're never on TV. Even Northwestern gets more ESPN exposure. Would a kid from New York that they're trying to recruit even know where DePaul is before you told him? That can't help. -Their stadium situation is far from ideal. -The program has some history, but it pre-dates the birth of all of these prospects. -They play in the Big East, which is an odd fit for their area. Instead of playing regional schools like Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin, they're going out East for most of their games. It also doesn't help that the Big East is getting weaker. Those things aren't easy to fix without some major changes (bringing in a big-name coach, new stadium/facilities, ect.)

QUOTE (2nd_city_saint787 @ Nov 15, 2012 -> 04:28 PM) Bobcats haven't look terrible so far this year, what are the pick specs again?? In other words, unlikely before the 2015 draft.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Nov 14, 2012 -> 01:37 PM) I think what we all just want is a GTA MMORPG where its just a city of mayhem and killing people. Some are speculating that the three main character setup would allow for story mode co-op. That would be epic. I think part of it is their games seem to be getting more serious/realistic, which is getting away from what made them fun. I loved San Andreas, and you were always doing goofy missions like stealing a jetpack from a miltary base or attacking delivery trucks with weaponized RC planes or dressing up like a gimp before beating a target to death with a giant sex toy. RDR and GTAIV both suffered from a few too many generic mob guys/outlaws and repetitive gameplay where you basically hide behind cover and slowly pick off bad guys (that was a bit more of a problem in RDR, I thought GTAIV did a better job of sending guys at you from multiple directions).

The Bulls should be relatively fine as long as they don't lose Deng, Noah, Boozer or Gibson (though Thibs doesn't seem to want to play him) for long stretches. There are a lot of mediocre to awful teams in the NBA right now.

Lame, Florida/Georgetown gets called at the half too. Make sure you can actually manage these games on the carriers before you schedule them!

MSU goes down, looked a bit sloppy. UConn has a couple of really solid guards.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Nov 9, 2012 -> 06:12 PM) WOw, I will be surprised if this game goes the distance. The floor becomes wet after 30 seconds. All we need is a blown out knee and Im walking off the court. This is definitely one of the goofiest things I've seen watching college basketball. I wouldn't risk it if it were me.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Nov 6, 2012 -> 09:28 AM) Way too much respect for MSU. I didn't really like any of those teams at #2. I fully expect MSU, OSU and Michigan to all be around 12-6, so it could have easily been 2A, 2B, 2C. MSU gets a slight edge for me because they have several guys that played significant minutes back in their frontcourt and I think Harris wins Freshman of the Year.

QUOTE (GoodAsGould @ Nov 2, 2012 -> 09:22 PM) Is it next year the Bulls get the Bobcats pick no matter what or year after next? Neither. From RealGM's picks owed resource... So it's probably 2015 at least, especially since 2013 doesn't appear to have a sure-fire franchise guy that can jump-start their rise to respectability.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Nov 1, 2012 -> 03:14 PM) Why is college only white players? Seems kinda racist. Is Wisconsin the only team on TV? I made a gross generalization for effect, much like the assertion that NBA teams never run offense. Crap, really trying to stay out of it...

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 1, 2012 -> 02:56 PM) Some people like watching the ISO game. To me it is like watching paint dry. Some people feel the same way about watching teams pass the ball around for 30 seconds until some white guy jacks up a 3. As I'm sure you know, there's a college basketball thread if you'd rather go there. This will be my last post on the subject since I have a bad feeling this may turn into another 3-page b****-fest that kills the thread.

With the Bulls out... Heat Thunder Lakers Spurs Clips I think those 5 would give you the most consistently entertaining basketball. They're all contenders with star power that can put the ball in the net on a regular basis. The T-Wolves will eventually be entertaining, but much less so until Love and/or Rubio get back (about a month for Love, I think January for Rubio).

I'll put it this way, it's not as bad as giving DeMar DeRozan $10 million a year.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Oct 31, 2012 -> 10:44 PM) Well, at least this shows the Bulls are willing to go over the cap. Pretty much everyone is going to assume Boozer gets amnestied after that.