2012-2013 NBA thread

[Swingandalongonetoleft]

The year: 2005

 

The series: Red Sox vs White Sox

 

The moron: Chris Berman

 

That's as bad as I've ever seen.

 

Nice, same mothership.

[Jordan4life_2007]

Wade obviously showed up tonight. But it's not like he's been dominant. Bosh still sucks. Ray Allen hit a few 3's. Tonight was mostly the LeBron show. This eastern conference title for LeBron might be more impressive (as in single-handedly getting your team to the finals) than 2007.

[whitesoxfan99]

Wade obviously showed up tonight. But it's not like he's been dominant. Bosh still sucks. Ray Allen hit a few 3's. Tonight was mostly the LeBron show. This eastern conference title for LeBron might be more impressive (as in single-handedly getting your team to the finals) than 2007.

 

LeBron was amazing again tonight but this game was mostly about the Heat being completely locked in on defense. The Pacers had very few quality looks at the basket tonight.

[ZoomSlowik]

Wade obviously showed up tonight. But it's not like he's been dominant. Bosh still sucks. Ray Allen hit a few 3's. Tonight was mostly the LeBron show. This eastern conference title for LeBron might be more impressive (as in single-handedly getting your team to the finals) than 2007.

 

I just can't agree with that. Their other 4 starters in the playoffs were Larry Hughes, Drew Gooden, Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Sasha Pavlovic. Put Luol Deng in there instead of Lebron and they'll struggle to win 20. Plus the Pistons were legitimately good and he scored like their last 25 points in that game 5.

[whitesoxfan99]

I love when garbage players like Jeff Pendergraph have to be tough guys at the end of series when their team got their ass handed to them in a game.

[Rowand44]

I love when garbage players like Jeff Pendergraph have to be tough guys at the end of series when their team got their ass handed to them in a game.

What happened? Early game change for me.

[whitesoxfan99]

What happened? Early game change for me.

 

Nothing big. Pendergraph was setting a screen on Norris Cole, Cole did nothing and then Pendergraph shoves Cole for no reason they both get ejected and then Pendergraph continued to talk a lot of s*** towards Cole and the Heat's bench.

[Jordan4life_2007]

I just can't agree with that. Their other 4 starters in the playoffs were Larry Hughes, Drew Gooden, Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Sasha Pavlovic. Put Luol Deng in there instead of Lebron and they'll struggle to win 20. Plus the Pistons were legitimately good and he scored like their last 25 points in that game 5.

 

Yeah, that Detroit team was better that year than I had remembered (totally forgot Webber was on that team). Still, LeBron pretty much did this solo.

Edited June 4, 2013 by Jordan4life

[MexSoxFan#1]

Well that sucked but it's not like I really believed the Pacers would pull it off, a few thoughts...

1. Every time I see Pat Riley's mug I want to punch my TV, it stills irks me that he and Wade have gotten away with breaking the rules the way they landed LeBron.

2. I can't see the Spurs beating LeBron this time around. They punked him in his first Finals but this LeBron > 07 LeBron. Plus, the Spurs are a veteran team which is a nice way to call them old.

3. Get used to seeing LeBron in the Finals over and over again. Wade and Bosh played like garbage most of this series but it didn't matter, LBJ willed them to victory. Nobody is beating this LeBron until he declines and who knows when that'll happen. I know a lot of people here give J4L a hard time for his predictions but he nailed it on the head when he was telling us back when the Big 3 got together that nobody was beating Miami in the near future. I was a skeptic so I gotta give him props. LBJ gonna destroy the NBA like Shaq and MJ before him.

[Jordan4life_2007]

Well that sucked but it's not like I really believed the Pacers would pull it off, a few thoughts...

1. Every time I see Pat Riley's mug I want to punch my TV, it stills irks me that he and Wade have gotten away with breaking the rules the way they landed LeBron.

2. I can't see the Spurs beating LeBron this time around. They punked him in his first Finals but this LeBron > 07 LeBron. Plus, the Spurs are a veteran team which is a nice way to call them old.

3. Get used to seeing LeBron in the Finals over and over again. Wade and Bosh played like garbage most of this series but it didn't matter, LBJ willed them to victory. Nobody is beating this LeBron until he declines and who knows when that'll happen. I know a lot of people here give J4L a hard time for his predictions but he nailed it on the head when he was telling us back when the Big 3 got together that nobody was beating Miami in the near future. I was a skeptic so I gotta give him props. LBJ gonna destroy the NBA like Shaq and MJ before him.

 

I don't deserve any credit for that. lol. I just didn't let my emotions (i.e. LeBron not taking his talents to Chicago) get in the way. I'll still never understand what happened to LeBron in the '11 finals. But yeah. The Heat are the team to beat while LeBron is in his prime.

Edited June 4, 2013 by Jordan4life

[Steve9347]

Wade obviously showed up tonight. But it's not like he's been dominant. Bosh still sucks. Ray Allen hit a few 3's. Tonight was mostly the LeBron show. This eastern conference title for LeBron might be more impressive (as in single-handedly getting your team to the finals) than 2007.

No.

[Brian]

Justin Birber's picture has become the story of the night.

 

It just looked like he was begging for Lebron or Wade to come over and shake his hand for the photo opp.

[Brian]

The year: 2005

 

The series: Red Sox vs White Sox

 

The moron: Chris Berman

 

That's as bad as I've ever seen.

 

This was the first that came to my mind as well.

 

Oh Nooooooo

[cabiness42]

Jason Kidd retired.

 

My favorite sports quote ever: "I'm here to turn this franchise around 360 degrees."

[Rowand44]

3. Get used to seeing LeBron in the Finals over and over again. Wade and Bosh played like garbage most of this series but it didn't matter, LBJ willed them to victory. Nobody is beating this LeBron until he declines and who knows when that'll happen. I know a lot of people here give J4L a hard time for his predictions but he nailed it on the head when he was telling us back when the Big 3 got together that nobody was beating Miami in the near future. I was a skeptic so I gotta give him props. LBJ gonna destroy the NBA like Shaq and MJ before him.

I look at this a completely different way. Wade might be done(might being the key word) and the Bulls and Pacers were missing sort of essential parts all season. LBJ is obviously insane but the rest of that team seems to be declining while the Bulls and Pacers should be getting better starting with next season.

Edited June 4, 2013 by Rowand44

[southsider2k5]

I look at this a completely different way. Wade might be done(might being the key word) and the Bulls and Pacers were missing sort of essential parts all season. LBJ is obviously insane but the rest of that team seems to be declining while the Bulls and Pacers should be getting better starting with next season.

 

Assuming Rose is now mentally tough enough to get past his injury.

[Balta1701]

I look at this a completely different way. Wade might be done(might being the key word) and the Bulls and Pacers were missing sort of essential parts all season. LBJ is obviously insane but the rest of that team seems to be declining while the Bulls and Pacers should be getting better starting with next season.

And the Heat will still find 2-3 veterans with stuff left in the tank to sign in the offseason so that they can get a ring.

[Jenksismyhero]

Well that sucked but it's not like I really believed the Pacers would pull it off, a few thoughts...

1. Every time I see Pat Riley's mug I want to punch my TV, it stills irks me that he and Wade have gotten away with breaking the rules the way they landed LeBron.

2. I can't see the Spurs beating LeBron this time around. They punked him in his first Finals but this LeBron > 07 LeBron. Plus, the Spurs are a veteran team which is a nice way to call them old.

3. Get used to seeing LeBron in the Finals over and over again. Wade and Bosh played like garbage most of this series but it didn't matter, LBJ willed them to victory. Nobody is beating this LeBron until he declines and who knows when that'll happen. I know a lot of people here give J4L a hard time for his predictions but he nailed it on the head when he was telling us back when the Big 3 got together that nobody was beating Miami in the near future. I was a skeptic so I gotta give him props. LBJ gonna destroy the NBA like Shaq and MJ before him.

 

They were an inbounds play away from not making the Finals this year. Let's not go overboard.

 

[ZoomSlowik]

I was listening to the Simmons podcast yesterday with Brian Windhorst and he said Chris Bosh wouldn't have been on the team next year if they had lost. I'm not sure they'd actually get better doing that, but it's about the only move they could feasibly do since Lebron would have to stay and I don't think they'd ever trade Wade since he was the ring-leader (plus who knows what they could get for him now). The mentioned two deals: Bosh for Cousins (I'd think the Kings would want to go younger) and Bosh for the #1 pick (doesn't really help unless Varejao is involved too). Anyways, thought that was interesting.

 

As for the state of the Heat, you never know with the NBA. You need a little luck for everything to come together as we've seen with teams like Portland, Chicago and OKC recently. You also never know when the next superteam will show up, maybe we see vintage-Dwight next year and that changes things. They should have a tougher fight in the East next year with Rose and Granger back, the conference was horrible this year.

 

Beyond that, Wade's health will eventually cause a huge decline (I have no idea how he can have been a top-tier scorer this long and not developed a dependable jumper) and we're going to see an influx of talent with the 2014 draft that could drastically improve some teams. That roster has good depth, but they'll have a tough time surviving Wade turning into Larry Hughes, especially with no picks in '13 and '15 to add young talent. They'll need Bosh to go back to a 20-10 type at that point or pull some kind of miracle with the roster given they're WAY over the luxury tax and only have three assets anyone wants.

 

Oh, and that all assumes that Lebron doesn't opt out after next season and join a younger roster.

Edited June 4, 2013 by ZoomSlowik

[ZoomSlowik]

So, random thing I didn't realize that affects the Bulls: the Bobcats could have three first rounders (possibly even lottery) in next year's supposedly loaded draft class...

 

1) Their own, which barring some kind of miracle is going to be in the top-5 (if it's outside the top-10, it goes to the Bulls).

 

2) Detroit's pick, which is top-8 protected. Detroit picked 8th this year and could easily be a little better between Drummond's development and another high first. The Cats would get it in 2015 unless it's the #1 pick.

 

3) Portland's pick, which is top-12 protected. In the East they'd have a legit shot to make the playoffs. In the West, that's about where I expect their pick to be. It's top-12 protected in 2015 as well, then unprotected.

 

 

So, hypothetically, let's say they take McLemore or Oladipo this year and MKG make ssome strides towards being a Gerald Wallace type player (his stats were only okay this year, but he's insanely young). Now in 2014, they get a shot to add a superstar-level talent and two more picks from a deep talent pool. If those pieces pan out to a reasonable degree, the Bulls' massive bargaining chip loses significant value. It's only top-8 protected in 2015 (meaning it wouldn't take much for the Bulls to get it that year) and unless they draft horribly with all those assets, they're probably not going to completely suck in 2016 when it's completely unprotected.

 

That was a bit of a downer when I saw that.

Edited June 4, 2013 by ZoomSlowik

[Steve9347]

So, random thing I didn't realize that affects the Bulls: the Bobcats could have three first rounders (possibly even lottery) in next year's supposedly loaded draft class...

 

1) Their own, which barring some kind of miracle is going to be in the top-5 (if it's outside the top-10, it goes to the Bulls).

 

2) Detroit's pick, which is top-8 protected. Detroit picked 8th this year and could easily be a little better between Drummond's development and another high first. The Cats would get it in 2015 unless it's the #1 pick.

 

3) Portland's pick, which is top-12 protected. In the East they'd have a legit shot to make the playoffs. In the West, that's about where I expect their pick to be. It's top-12 protected in 2015 as well, then unprotected.

 

 

So, hypothetically, let's say they take McLemore or Oladipo this year and MKG make ssome strides towards being a Gerald Wallace type player (his stats were only okay this year, but he's insanely young). Now in 2014, they get a shot to add a superstar-level talent and two more picks from a deep talent pool. If those pieces pan out to a reasonable degree, the Bulls' massive bargaining chip loses significant value. It's only top-8 protected in 2015 (meaning it wouldn't take much for the Bulls to get it that year) and unless they draft horribly with all those assets, they're probably not going to completely suck in 2016 when it's completely unprotected.

 

That was a bit of a downer when I saw that.

Of course, it could mean playing a bunch of rookies with limited first-year potential. Also, it's the Bobcats/Hornets organization here - so expecting them to hit on a draft pick or 3 is a big leap.

[MexSoxFan#1]

They were an inbounds play away from not making the Finals this year. Let's not go overboard.

I totally disagree. If Indy wins gm 1, it doesn't necessarily mean Indy would've won gm 2 like it played out. Miami always had control of the series, either one game up or tied and Indy's best chance at taking control, gm3 going home tied 1-1, they got destroyed.

 

I never had the impression Indy could win this series, TBH.

[ZoomSlowik]

Of course, it could mean playing a bunch of rookies with limited first-year potential. Also, it's the Bobcats/Hornets organization here - so expecting them to hit on a draft pick or 3 is a big leap.

 

Well, at least 3 of your starters wouldn't be rookies (Walker, MKG and this year's pick unless they whiff horribly), and there's a real chance the top-5 pick next year is a stud. Even if they don't get #1, Jabari Parker or Julius Randle (among others depending on how things go next year) are likely better than anyone in this draft.

 

They wouldn't necessarily need those later picks to be homeruns, it's more building depth. Even something like Kawhi Leonard's first year is better than what they have now. Besides, I'm not talking about them turning the team into a real contender, I'm talking about them being good enough to push the Bulls' pick outside of the top-10.

 

They also have Richard Cho running the team now, who was part of Portland's front office the last few years. I don't think you can assume they're going to blow every pick anymore, he's pretty sharp.

 

 

 

[Jake]

Indiana outplayed the Heat for the majority of the series, including a game or two that were lost. They definitely showed they belong in future contenders conversations. If Miami will remain this vulnerable with bad Bosh, bad Wade, it's all a toss-up.

[whitesoxfan99]

Indiana outplayed the Heat for the majority of the series, including a game or two that were lost. They definitely showed they belong in future contenders conversations. If Miami will remain this vulnerable with bad Bosh, bad Wade, it's all a toss-up.

 

3 out of Miami's 4 victories were by double figures and Indiana never had a chance in any of those games. They definitely didn't outplay Miami in that series.