Well thats a bummer then they are trying to save money rather than make smart moves for the team. I have a hard time buying that no one wanted Shaq. He is the last year of his deal, and will provide upper teens or low twenties in terms of relief for next year when the big free agents are available next summer, and he helps a contender get over the hump, possibly like Cleveland. With so many teams trying to cut costs, this would make sense.
Out of curiosity, what makes you think Nash will retire next year?
I really don't think he physically has it in him to keep going, though I suppose he might grind out a couple more seasons if the Suns do well next year. He's happier now that Gentry is in charge, at least.
Oh, god.
As a Bulls Fan ... I'm outright disgusted by this draft.
Let me state unequivocally that we screwed the pooch, and should have had DeJuan Blair at 26, and most likely James Johnson at 16 isn't going to work out either.
I mean ... we'll see ... but ... enthusiasm: killed.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
my mouth is full of winsome lies -
and eyes are full of death besides
but luckily the soul is wise -
it sees beyond my blindness and
forced failure makes a better guise,
so as i come again alive,
it feels like life's a decent plan
There is no reason whatsoever to take 3 point guards with your 3 first round picks. None. Also, why in the hell would you take back to back point guards with the 5 and 6 pick?? I guess you could run them on the court at the same time, but then you have two undersized guards trying playing defense. I also think they would have been better off taking someone they need rather than drafting Lawson to trade him, but whatever. Point guard can't be the only need for them, even though Telfair is probably my most hated NBA player right now.
Its a bummer they couldn't have picked up Tyreke Evans or James Harden. I also feel like they should have had some sort of sense or some word that Rubio really didn't want to play for them and essentially wasted that pick too. Even if they trade Rubio to the Knicks, why would they want Nate Rob, or Jordan Hill? They have Jefferson, Love, Songalia, and Etan Thomas clogging up space on the bench and I don't think they need any more bigs.
Yeah I'm scratching my head as well with what Minnesota did with their 4 (!!!) first-rounders.
Although keep in mind, this is the same orginization that failed to put any good players around Kevin Garnett.
Thanks for giving us Brandon Roy though! I'd say considering the Timberwolves dumped Randy Foye, the Blazers made off like bandits in that trade back in 2006.
Randy Foye has been outplayed by Brandon Roy in the skill level department since their NBA debut. Unfortunately for Foye, It's not even close on the barometer of who's a better player.
Roy is by far the best player out of the 06 draft and no one can argue otherwise.
Minnesota just, uh, imploded during draft night. O_o Oh and who wants to bet how many more years it'll take before Ricky Rubio comes to play in the NBA?
I'm not too keen on the Carter going to Magic deal - the Magic were fine as it is. If they got to keep Turkoglu and have everyone else improve, they could have a good shot at it next year. But no. They traded away a decent backup center, a young promising guard, and another guard. Ehh.
So... how does the Magic starting lineup look next year? I do hope Nelson will get back to his best (no doubt he will), and Carter-Shard looks interesting. But ehh, it's not like Turkoglu needed replacing to begin with.
The Cavaliers got a proven winner for a couple of blokes. Seriously, everyone was in their last year on that deal. The Suns gave up one guy on his final year and got two guys in their final year. Cavs got the upper hand bigtime in that trade, seriously.
No one talking about the Nets in here? They've been rebuilding big time too - no more Carter, and no more Jefferson. Sounds interesting, to say the least.
I'm not too keen on the Carter going to Magic deal - the Magic were fine as it is. If they got to keep Turkoglu and have everyone else improve, they could have a good shot at it next year. But no. They traded away a decent backup center, a young promising guard, and another guard. Ehh.
So... how does the Magic starting lineup look next year? I do hope Nelson will get back to his best (no doubt he will), and Carter-Shard looks interesting. But ehh, it's not like Turkoglu needed replacing to begin with.
The Carter trade both saved them a lot of money that resigning Turkoglu would have cost and gave them a significantly better player to replace him. Vince is both more athletic and he can create good shots for himself with much more consistency. Also, they already have a better backup center in Gortat, Vince replaces Lee at the 2 and Alston wasn't doing anything for them with Jameer back. So all in all the move cost them very little to save a tremendous amount of money and arguably improve their team. Not a bad deal.
Man a lot of Magic talk in here lately I hope Hedo comes to Portland he could be a big help in my opinion. I was impressed with his play in the finals personally and while Vince Carter may indeed be better I think Hedo might fit Portland better overall.
I guess Portland is also looking at Outlaw/Blake for Miller from the 76ers not sure if that will happen though.
There's few exceptions to this basically the 03 Pistons who were just an incredibly good team that meshed with each other for all those year, and the 99 Spurs which was a product of a strike shortened season as much as anything else, and the 90's Rockets which had Hakeem, who during his prime I would have taken over any other Center in the NBA, including Shaq.
Pistons: I think you'd be quite surprised looking at how high Chauncey Billups and the Wallaces are among active players in win shares and the like.
Rockets: Clyde Drexler.
Spurs: David Robinson. Under many metrics he is in the top 10 all-time, and would be in the top 5 if not for Shaq.
I'm really glad that portland didn't land Hedo. His numbers were all down from last season, he was playing his ass of in his contract year for one last pay day, he is 30 years old, he isn't going to get any better, and he is going to want at least 8 million a season, probably in 10's of millions, and he isn't going to get any better, he doesn't play defense, he will have a terrible contract for the next 5 years as he steadily declines, and did I mention he isn't going to get any better? I expect his numbers to drop even more this upcoming season, and I don't really see what the big fuss was all about. Crisis averted if you ask me.
Well I'm not sure what the Blazers will do with their cap space now. I mean if they don't pick up anyone with it the cap space will just go to waste when Roy and Aldridge are signed into long term contracts.
There's a coach who's defined, As the greatest of all time,
And he's building a stairway to eleven,
Up in Cleveland Shaq sings, Of a ring for the king,
But King Kobe already has four,
Ooh, ooh, and Phil's building a stairway to eleven,
Now in Boston they need, To at least sign Rasheed,
If they want any chance at a title,
Cause L.A. was the best, Then they added Artest,
Now they barely have even a rival,
Ooh, ooh, and Phil's building a stairway to eleven,
In Orlando, they're sure, That Vince Carter's the cure,
But a title they will not be winning,
Because Ron from the hood's, Coming to Hollywood,
They'll be only one Magic left grinning,
Ooh, can I get a witness, Ooh, can I get a witness,
As Mark Cuban makes bids, For an old aging Kidd,
All the teams in the West are left crying,
When your dealing is done, With Richard Jefferson,
Well, I think you had better keep trying,
Ooh, can I get a witness, Ooh, I really need a witness,
Shaquille and Lebron can do dances, Put on a real show,
But that won't make those missed free throws,
The league just saw their title chances, Go right up in smoke,
When Artest signed with the Lakers,
Can I get a witness?
And as Phil rides on down the road, Ten rings are under his control,
Zen spirit running through his soul, With a lady we all know,
Another title is the goal, For the purple and gold,
And if you know your basketball, The scene will come to you at rest,
It's Phil and Kobe and Gasol, Celebrating with Artest,
And Phil's building a stairway to eleven...
I think we don't need to look any further, this song just summed up the next season.
Bass last year was one of the better 2 PT Jump shooters in the entire league last year at a 45% clip, better than guys like Calderon, Kobe and Pierce. Artest was one of the worst in the entire league for anyone with 100+ at 34%. I'm not arguing Bass is a better player, because it's absurd, but he is as good or not a way better player than other role players who recently signed and garnered way more hooplah than they actually deserved like Rasheed Wallace or the guy who replaced him in Dallas in Shawn Marion.
Would you really take Brandon Bass over Marion over Wallace?? And are you really saying he is as good as Marion or Wallace? I think you have Magic colored glasses on at this point, as I doubt Bass will fill a void like Marion or Rasheed will fill for their teams. And I think Courtney Lee will be missed greatly as well since he was your best perimeter defender.
I'm not sure what to make about Portland's offseason at this point. Hedo thankfully fell through, we didn't draft anyone relevant this season, Millsap fell through, we can't make a trade happen to send Heinrich to Portland, and everyone else in the west is getting better. In my ideal world we would send Webster, Outlaw, and Blake off to get a point guard, or Webster and Outlaw for a veteran 3. I don't know about trying sign Odom just because I don't like the idea of giving a 5 year deal to a 30 year old forward who is only going to decline and be a burden about the 3rd year of their deal. Plus I doubt he would be happy here and I he seems to not play his hardest sometimes which isn't a good influence around a young team. Hopefully something comes around the trade deadline since it looks like we aren't moving anyone in or out right now.
Well rumor has it the Hornets are going to have a fire sale going on. Apparently they are a dying franchise and they can not stay in NO.
If this is the case Paul may be a possibility even if they keep Paul around I don't think he will stick around with a team thats only any good because hes on the roster. Portland would be one of the few teams that could take on a bad contract with Paul and ship out some young talent for the privilage.
Again this might just be made up but these are the rumors surrounding the NO Hornets.
Well with only a few weeks till pre-season begins let's get some perspective on what people think of the teams so far.
Here is my top 8 in the West going into the playoffs
Lakers
Blazers
Spurs
Nuggets
Jazz
Mavericks
Hornets
Rockets
Clips are my wild card I doubt they can penetrate that top 8 but they just may edge out the Rockets. I would do my Top 8 in the East but I really don't follow the East much at all.
If Yao can come into the season fully healthy my top 8 would have to drastically change.
from everything i've heard, Yao is potentially not going to play at all this season. Much less be fully healthy for the whole season. Going to be a tough/interesting year for the Rockets.
I haven't researched enough to really do more than spout the normal "lakers/spurs/mavs" "magic/celtics/cavs". Not necessarily in those orders.
SI has them even higher but for good measure they put Blazers over Denver which I agree with 100%.
Dallas at 6 are you kidding me NBA.com they have the gall to knock Blazers defense when Blazers had superior offense/defense compared to Dallas last year yet Dallas gets 3 spots higher.
Shouldn't get so worked up over off-season ratings though Blazers have yet to not exceed expectations so these rankings are pretty irrelevant.
Playing GM fantasy basketball where your league carries over season to season, I grabbed the Nets, traded Vince Carter for the number 9 pick and oodles of cap space, and then grabbed Brandon Jennings and Terrence Williams. So my team of the future looks like so:
PG: Jennings
SG: CDR
SF: Williams
PF: Anderson
C: Lopez
I think that's a pretty solid quick turnaround from being semi-contending, don't you? Now all I need to do is trade Harris for something good: he doesn't fit with the rest of the team, being 5 years older than everybody else. Wooooo.
Anyways. ... Why hasn't the season started yet? I'm invested in a lot more teams than I was last season, with BG leaving the Bulls. I like the Bulls best but I don't know if I'd call myself a Bulls fan anymore. Like the players, hate the game[FO]? Eh.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
my mouth is full of winsome lies -
and eyes are full of death besides
but luckily the soul is wise -
it sees beyond my blindness and
forced failure makes a better guise,
so as i come again alive,
it feels like life's a decent plan
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Out of curiosity, what makes you think Nash will retire next year?
minnesota keep picking PGs?? whats up with that?
Thanks for spiderboy4 of High~Light_Studios for the kick ass avatar.
Thanks for DarkNightCavalier of HotPS for the exceptional signature.
As a Bulls Fan ... I'm outright disgusted by this draft.
Let me state unequivocally that we screwed the pooch, and should have had DeJuan Blair at 26, and most likely James Johnson at 16 isn't going to work out either.
I mean ... we'll see ... but ... enthusiasm: killed.
and eyes are full of death besides
but luckily the soul is wise -
it sees beyond my blindness and
forced failure makes a better guise,
so as i come again alive,
it feels like life's a decent plan
Although keep in mind, this is the same orginization that failed to put any good players around Kevin Garnett.
Thanks for giving us Brandon Roy though! I'd say considering the Timberwolves dumped Randy Foye, the Blazers made off like bandits in that trade back in 2006.
Roy is by far the best player out of the 06 draft and no one can argue otherwise.
Feel free to bid on my cards here!
I'm not too keen on the Carter going to Magic deal - the Magic were fine as it is. If they got to keep Turkoglu and have everyone else improve, they could have a good shot at it next year. But no. They traded away a decent backup center, a young promising guard, and another guard. Ehh.
So... how does the Magic starting lineup look next year? I do hope Nelson will get back to his best (no doubt he will), and Carter-Shard looks interesting. But ehh, it's not like Turkoglu needed replacing to begin with.
The Cavaliers got a proven winner for a couple of blokes. Seriously, everyone was in their last year on that deal. The Suns gave up one guy on his final year and got two guys in their final year. Cavs got the upper hand bigtime in that trade, seriously.
No one talking about the Nets in here? They've been rebuilding big time too - no more Carter, and no more Jefferson. Sounds interesting, to say the least.
The Carter trade both saved them a lot of money that resigning Turkoglu would have cost and gave them a significantly better player to replace him. Vince is both more athletic and he can create good shots for himself with much more consistency. Also, they already have a better backup center in Gortat, Vince replaces Lee at the 2 and Alston wasn't doing anything for them with Jameer back. So all in all the move cost them very little to save a tremendous amount of money and arguably improve their team. Not a bad deal.
I guess Portland is also looking at Outlaw/Blake for Miller from the 76ers not sure if that will happen though.
Feel free to bid on my cards here!
Pistons: I think you'd be quite surprised looking at how high Chauncey Billups and the Wallaces are among active players in win shares and the like.
Rockets: Clyde Drexler.
Spurs: David Robinson. Under many metrics he is in the top 10 all-time, and would be in the top 5 if not for Shaq.
Looks like Portland and Orlando are the only teams that are seriously pursuing Hedo now.
Feel free to bid on my cards here!
Feel free to bid on my cards here!
I think we don't need to look any further, this song just summed up the next season.
Would you really take Brandon Bass over Marion over Wallace?? And are you really saying he is as good as Marion or Wallace? I think you have Magic colored glasses on at this point, as I doubt Bass will fill a void like Marion or Rasheed will fill for their teams. And I think Courtney Lee will be missed greatly as well since he was your best perimeter defender.
I'm not sure what to make about Portland's offseason at this point. Hedo thankfully fell through, we didn't draft anyone relevant this season, Millsap fell through, we can't make a trade happen to send Heinrich to Portland, and everyone else in the west is getting better. In my ideal world we would send Webster, Outlaw, and Blake off to get a point guard, or Webster and Outlaw for a veteran 3. I don't know about trying sign Odom just because I don't like the idea of giving a 5 year deal to a 30 year old forward who is only going to decline and be a burden about the 3rd year of their deal. Plus I doubt he would be happy here and I he seems to not play his hardest sometimes which isn't a good influence around a young team. Hopefully something comes around the trade deadline since it looks like we aren't moving anyone in or out right now.
If this is the case Paul may be a possibility even if they keep Paul around I don't think he will stick around with a team thats only any good because hes on the roster. Portland would be one of the few teams that could take on a bad contract with Paul and ship out some young talent for the privilage.
Again this might just be made up but these are the rumors surrounding the NO Hornets.
Feel free to bid on my cards here!
Here is my top 8 in the West going into the playoffs
Lakers
Blazers
Spurs
Nuggets
Jazz
Mavericks
Hornets
Rockets
Clips are my wild card I doubt they can penetrate that top 8 but they just may edge out the Rockets. I would do my Top 8 in the East but I really don't follow the East much at all.
If Yao can come into the season fully healthy my top 8 would have to drastically change.
Feel free to bid on my cards here!
I haven't researched enough to really do more than spout the normal "lakers/spurs/mavs" "magic/celtics/cavs". Not necessarily in those orders.
http://www.nba.com/2009/news/powerrankings/08/17/offseason.rankings/
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/chris_mannix/08/25/offseason.rankings/index.html?eref=T1
SI has them even higher but for good measure they put Blazers over Denver which I agree with 100%.
Dallas at 6 are you kidding me NBA.com they have the gall to knock Blazers defense when Blazers had superior offense/defense compared to Dallas last year yet Dallas gets 3 spots higher.
Shouldn't get so worked up over off-season ratings though Blazers have yet to not exceed expectations so these rankings are pretty irrelevant.
Feel free to bid on my cards here!
PG: Jennings
SG: CDR
SF: Williams
PF: Anderson
C: Lopez
I think that's a pretty solid quick turnaround from being semi-contending, don't you? Now all I need to do is trade Harris for something good: he doesn't fit with the rest of the team, being 5 years older than everybody else. Wooooo.
Anyways. ... Why hasn't the season started yet? I'm invested in a lot more teams than I was last season, with BG leaving the Bulls. I like the Bulls best but I don't know if I'd call myself a Bulls fan anymore. Like the players, hate the game[FO]? Eh.
and eyes are full of death besides
but luckily the soul is wise -
it sees beyond my blindness and
forced failure makes a better guise,
so as i come again alive,
it feels like life's a decent plan