2010-2011 NBA Thread

[Chi Town Sox]

Looks like the Heat are taking over. Wade has basically said f*** it and isn't waiting around for LeBron anymore. It was inevitable. No team with that type of talent is going to underachieve long. I want to be excited about the Buls. But it's hard when ultimately you know they have little to no chance against the Celtics, Heat and probably the Magic.

 

The Heat are vulnerable, they've played most of their last 10 game winning streak against garbage teams. They have lost to the Pacers, Bulls just beat the Lakers, why wouldn't they be able to beat the Heat (a team with no depth in the playoffs)? I am not saying that one team (or the Bulls) is superior to the next because this year is wide open with quite a few elite teams in the East but C'mon, we have three all-stars on our team too along with depth that they can't even touch

Edited December 16, 2010 by Chi Town Sox

[Balta1701]

Btw, we still haven't seen the Heat with Mike Miller.

[Jordan4life_2007]

I am sorry but what are people thinking? The Heat are vulnerable, they've played most of their last 10 game winning streak against garbage teams. They have lost to the Pacers, Bulls just beat the Lakers, why wouldn't they be able to beat the Heat (a team with no depth in the playoffs)? I am not saying that one team (or the Bulls) is superior to the next because this year is wide open with quite a few elite teams in the East but C'mon MAN

 

Because depth doesn't matter in the playoffs nearly as much. This isn't college. If we play the Heat, they'll feature 3 of the 4 best players on the court.

[Jordan4life_2007]

Btw, we still haven't seen the Heat with Mike Miller.

 

Has it been confirmed that Haslem is definitely out for the season?

[whitesoxfan101]

Because depth doesn't matter in the playoffs nearly as much. This isn't college. If we play the Heat, they'll feature 3 of the 4 best players on the court.

 

Interior defense, front line depth when the inevitable playoff foul trouble comes, and rebounding do matter though. The Heat have yet to do a thing that proves they can overcome such things against fellow playoff teams in a 7 game series.

[Chi Town Sox]

When has depth ever overcome star power in a playoff series? The Blazers of the early 2000's tried it. Didn't work. There were teams we beat during the title era that were deeper. But we had Jordan. End of story. It's a superstars league.

 

I agree every team to win in the past 20 years had some type of superstar/s (except for maybe the Pistons), however, these teams all had extreme depth, not old man Juwan Howard, Eddie House, James Jones and Joel Anthony being the prime group off of the bench.

[Jordan4life_2007]

Interior defense, front line depth when the inevitable playoff foul trouble comes, and rebounding do matter though. The Heat have yet to do a thing that proves they can overcome such things against fellow playoff teams in a 7 game series.

 

That's why I wondered about Haslem. That's such a big loss. And I never said the Heat were perfect. But we're not exactly the '99 Spurs when it comes to interior defense, either.

[whitesoxfan101]

Backcourt/wing depth is irrelevant in the playoffs, especially if you have LeBron and Wade. But if you're thin up front, it almost always gets exposed in the playoffs, and the Heat definitely are.

 

That's why I wondered about Haslem. That's such a big loss. And I never said the Heat were perfect. But we're not exactly the '99 Spurs when it comes to interior defense, either.

 

True. I'm moreso talking about the Heat in general though, my thoughts aren't really related to the Bulls and how they match up with Miami. I still can't see the Bulls going where they want to unless they acquire a cold blooded scorer at the 2 or 3 spot.

Edited December 16, 2010 by whitesoxfan101

[Chi Town Sox]

Because depth doesn't matter in the playoffs nearly as much. This isn't college. If we play the Heat, they'll feature 3 of the 4 best players on the court.

 

That could not be further from the truth, nearly every team that wins has great depth

 

Pick out a team on here that didn't have it because I am not seeing it. http://www.nba.com/history/finals/champions.html

[Balta1701]

That's why I wondered about Haslem. That's such a big loss. And I never said the Heat were perfect. But we're not exactly the '99 Spurs when it comes to interior defense, either.

And yet right now, the stats say the Heat have one of the most effective defenses in the league.

[whitesoxfan101]

And yet right now, the stats say the Heat have one of the most effective defenses in the league.

 

Well they can guard your perimeter players, no doubt. And not a lot of teams have the tools to truly expose a weak interior defense, and even the ones that do won't always have the will to work hard enough to do it during regular season games. But the ones that do are the ones Miami will see in May.

Edited December 16, 2010 by whitesoxfan101

[Jordan4life_2007]

That could not be further from the truth, nearly every team that wins has great depth

 

Pick out a team on here that didn't have it because I am not seeing it. http://www.nba.com/history/finals/champions.html

 

Well define depth? Do you mean 10-deep? Because that doesn't happen in the playoffs. I wasn't implying the bench meant nothing. But typically you're not going to play anymore then your top 7 regardless.

Edited December 16, 2010 by Jordan4life

[Jordan4life_2007]

Well they can guard your perimeter players, no doubt. And not a lot of teams have the tools to truly expose a weak interior defense, and even the ones that do won't always have the will to work hard enough to do it during regular season games. But the ones that do are the ones Miami will see in May.

 

The Celtics are the beasts of the east. I've watched a few of their games and KG looks considerably better than he did last year. All I was saying that if we played the Heat in the playoffs that we'd have little to no shot. Would I love to be wrong? Of course.

[Jenksismyhero]

The Celtics are the beasts of the east. I've watched a few of their games and KG looks considerably better than he did last year. All I was saying that if we played the Heat in the playoffs that we'd have little to no shot. Would I love to be wrong? Of course.

 

Zero evidence to back up this claim.

[Balta1701]

Zero evidence to back up this claim.

Exact same amount of evidence to say that it's wrong.

[Jordan4life_2007]

Zero evidence to back up this claim.

 

Evidence? lol. I don't have evidence that this year's Clippers couldn't beat the '96 Bulls.

[Jenksismyhero]

Exact same amount of evidence to say that it's wrong.

 

I'm saying there's no evidence to suggest what the result would be. Let's see them play a game first eh?

[Balta1701]

I'm saying there's no evidence to suggest what the result would be. Let's see them play a game first eh?

He's offering up an opinion based on the way the Heat are currently performing. His opinion may be wrong, but to simply say "There's no evidence for it" is just silliness. Of course there's no evidence, it's an opinion.

[Chi Town Sox]

Well define depth? Do you mean 10-deep? Because that doesn't happen in the playoffs. I wasn't implying the bench meant nothing. But typically you're not going to play anymore then your top 7 regardless.

 

I noticed I didn't specify clearly, what I meant was quality of depth. The majority of those teams had pretty good players coming off of their bench that could fill a void left by one of their starters if any had to come out of the game for whatever reason. The Heat for the most part, have nothing close to that with the Juwan Howard's, Eddie House's and Joel Anthony's coming off of the bench. Now, it will change positively with Miller returning but I don't see how 3 players of that caliber can survive with Mike Miller and literally a bunch of fill-ins

[ZoomSlowik]

You're not really going to know anything until the playoffs because the rotations are so different. A lot of your bench players that eat some valuable minutes now are either not going to play regularly or will see a drop in minutes. This is especially true with the Heat since Lebron, Wade and Bosh will all probably be around 40 MPG instead of 37, 36 and 35 respectively (the Bulls' key guys already play around 37-39 MPG).

 

Guys like Watson and Asik are rarely going to see the floor for the Bulls and one of Bogans, Brewer and Korver will probably see a bit of a drop as well for the Bulls; for the Heat House, Howard and Chalmers will collect a lot of splinters and James Jones will probably see a lot less time.

 

The playoffs becomes a battle of their top-8 vs your top-8 (roughly). That kind of setup usually favors the team with the better individual players. Can Rose, Noah, Boozer and Deng play to a draw or beat the Heat's top-4 (obviously including Miller once he's healthy) over the course of a 7-game series? That remains to be seen.

Edited December 16, 2010 by ZoomSlowik

[whitesoxfan99]

I noticed I didn't specify clearly, what I meant was quality of depth. The majority of those teams had pretty good players coming off of their bench that could fill a void left by one of their starters if any had to come out of the game for whatever reason. The Heat for the most part, have nothing close to that with the Juwan Howard's, Eddie House's and Joel Anthony's coming off of the bench. Now, it will change positively with Miller returning but I don't see how 3 players of that caliber can survive with Mike Miller and literally a bunch of fill-ins

 

James Jones is making 46% of his threes on the year, he keeps that up and he is plenty good enough off the bench. Ilgauskas has actually played decently as the starting center so if they get Haslem back that is a decent big to bring off the bench. The Bulls in 95-96 had one great bench player in Kukoc and then a spot up shooter in Kerr. No one else played double figure minutes in the post season. Their big men off the bench was Bill Wennington and he played less than 10 mpg off the bench in the postseason playing behind a very mediocre center in Luc Longley. The Bulls won because they had 3 truly great players and an excellent 4th in Kukoc. You could basically put any random center and any random 3 pt specialist on that team and as long as you have Jordan, Pippen, Rodman and Kukoc those teams win the title.

[ZoomSlowik]

I noticed I didn't specify clearly, what I meant was quality of depth. The majority of those teams had pretty good players coming off of their bench that could fill a void left by one of their starters if any had to come out of the game for whatever reason. The Heat for the most part, have nothing close to that with the Juwan Howard's, Eddie House's and Joel Anthony's coming off of the bench. Now, it will change positively with Miller returning but I don't see how 3 players of that caliber can survive with Mike Miller and literally a bunch of fill-ins

 

Most teams are 4 or 5 good players and a bunch of fill-ins. The difference between the Celtics and Lakers and the rest of the league isn't guys like Glen Davis, Nate Robinson and Shannon Brown, it's that they both have 4 All-Star level players (when Bynum is healthy). Their role players certainly can help here and there, but If something happens to Kobe, Gasol or any of Boston's big 4, there is going to be a significant drop off in the caliber of the team.

 

Miller, Jones, Anthony and Dampier is easily enough off the bench to succeed. Whether they play good enough interior defense as a team is a far bigger issue in determining their fate.

[Palehosefan]

Whether they play good enough interior defense as a team is a far bigger issue in determining their fate.

 

I don't know what you are talking about, Dampier is clearly the savior of the Heat.

[smalls2598]

After the first release of NBA All Star votes, Rose stands in 3rd place for Eastern guards, behind Wade and Rondo. Rose has the 6th most votes overall in the East.

[whitesoxfan99]

Miller, Jones, Anthony and Dampier is easily enough off the bench to succeed. Whether they play good enough interior defense as a team is a far bigger issue in determining their fate.

 

I agree that their interior defense is a question but they are currently 2nd in the NBA in defense so even that issue may be a little overblown.