ZoomSlowik

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jun 15, 2012 -> 01:51 PM) Zoom you know thats not even close to accurate. We talk about basketball all the time, I only mention the refs when something clearly has been incorrectly called. I dont go out of my way to talk about the refs, just because the refs have been s***ty in some of these games doesnt mean Im fixating on them, Im speaking my opinion. I dont know what J4L's deal is, if he actually watched the game last night maybe he could comment on the reffing, but since he didnt, he really has nothing to say. You're not as bad as some people I know, but the refs seem to be a topic a lot with you. Even if the Badgers win by 12, you might say something like "the refs were bad, but luckily it didn't matter".

QUOTE (whitesoxfan99 @ Jun 15, 2012 -> 01:16 PM) Jordan shot the same percentage from the field his last year with the Wizards as Rose did in his MVP season last year and actually shot a higher percentage from the field than Rose did this year. He still played at a pretty high level for the Wizards. He scored 20 points on 18.6 shots that year, after 22.9 on 22.1 shots. He was a horribly inefficient chucker at that point in his career, which was depressing to see. Obviously he still had more ability than your average 2-guard.

Badger does seem to constantly complain about refs, but come on J4L, you can't ADMIT that you didn't watch the game and then basically call everyone a bunch of crybabies for complaining about the officials.

One thing that's kind of funny to me: no one seems to question the quality of the Thunder's role players. Frankly, I think they're nearly as bad as that of the Heat, Harden just comes off the bench so it doesn't always look that way. They only play about 8 most games, and one of them is Derek Fisher's corpse. They play 2 1/2 on 5 offensively with their starting lineup since Thabo and Perkins aren't really threats and Ibaka is basically a finisher/occasional jump-shooter. At least Chalmers and Battier can hit jumpers. They could really use a legit backup perimeter player or two that can actually hit shots (besides Harden because he plays starter-minutes).

QUOTE (zenryan @ Jun 14, 2012 -> 11:26 PM) The Heat got the benefit of swing fouls/calls. The BS goaltending call in the first half. It was a 8 point game with OKC making a run. Bad call makes it a 10pt game and leads to a big run by Miami. The horrible call against Fisher on Wade when Wade falls to the ground and the refs call Fisher for a foul with 2 seconds on the shot clock. That play happens every game with no whistle. Miami scores on that possession. And we all know about final Durant shot. Those first two were definitely off. I could see the goaltend call if they didn't think Durant touched it first. I can see how they'd miss that live. That one on Wade was also weird. You pretty much expect the refs to miss/screw up a couple every game. That doesn't necessarily mean it was heavily slanted, I'm sure if I really tried I could find two that went OKC's way. The last one, as I said, I don't really see it. There was some contact on the floor, but Durant still got off a clean shot. That's pretty picky to me, then again I generally err towards the no-call.

QUOTE (kev211 @ Jun 14, 2012 -> 11:05 PM) Mostly because the refs are so far up the Heat's ass that you can. Whatever. The fouls were basically even, so were the free throws. They might have had a couple of calls, but another ref might have fouled out Durant with over 3 minutes to go too on that charge/block.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jun 14, 2012 -> 10:55 PM) Lebron would have gotten that call 99 out of 100 times and no one would say a word. I actually believe the Heat had a foul to give and were trying to foul Durant on the floor. There are plenty of times Lebron doesn't get bailed out down the stretch, and people ALWAYS b**** when he does get a call. It's not like the Rondo play a few games back where it was clearly a foul, there were numerous plays with similar or more contact that weren't called. It always seems like people find an excuse to blame the refs whenever Miami wins.

Seriously? If they called that foul with Lebron taking the shot, everyone would be going ballistic.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 14, 2012 -> 07:25 PM) Rose was no more than 80% this year. If he comes back in February or March and is 75%, the Bulls have a chance because he's going to be a lot more fresh than the rest of the league, or as Hubie Brown says, lig. Not unlike MJ when he lit up the Celtics. There's no way Rose was THAT far off when he played this year. 75-80% of Rose looks more like Monta Ellis.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jun 14, 2012 -> 06:39 PM) Im just saying there are some other players in the league I would name as "If (insert name) wasnt playing, then the Bulls could win the title" reasons before I would name Hibbert. His particular comment was about the Bulls getting to the Finals. The East just isn't very good, so Indiana/Hibbert would be one of the major factors. Even with me mentioning Atlanta or New York, those would be a bit of a stretch unless Rose is well off his game (or someone makes a huge leap on one of those teams).

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jun 14, 2012 -> 05:11 PM) Roy Hibbert? I was with you with the other two, but Roy Hibbert? The Bulls just lost in 6 to Philadelphia (yeah, I know, Rose was out entirely and Noah missed some games as well. Whatever). If we're going in assuming that Rose isn't his usual 22-4-8 self, Indiana is a tough task, especially since they still have some upside with George, Hibbert and West being a bit more of a factor a year removed from that knee injury. It depends on exactly what level of not 100% he is at. Less explosive and more jumper-heavy? Limited minutes? Both? We just don't know. If he can't at least give them 35 MPG and 17-6 or so, teams like Atlanta (they won 40 with Horford missing most of the year) and New York with Lin a full year (just call me J4L) might not be gimmes either.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jun 12, 2012 -> 10:49 PM) Oh, and I know this isn't totally fair, as this was a lost season for Rose. But I fail to see the difference between he and Westbrook anymore. Rose has to carry the Bulls night in and night out while Westbrook has two other elite scorers on the roster. They have relatively similar skills, but Rose is more consistent, a little less mistake prone and a slightly better shooter.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jun 12, 2012 -> 10:30 PM) Then post up. Oh wait, everyone has been telling Lebron that for 2-3 seasons now. If he posts they double. The guy just got to 30 points even though OKC has made him work pretty hard for his shots. Durant is catching and shooting on a lot of these.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jun 12, 2012 -> 10:20 PM) Durant is just so smooth on offense. It really changes Miami's entire defense when they cant just rely on being more athletic. They keep letting him get clean catches for some reason and he's making them pay.

Wade is insanely predictable this game. Dribble a bit, fake a shot, either shoot the jumper or pass it, then get the ball back and take the same jumper anyways.

Wade is single-handedly keeping OKC in this game with his hesitations and fakes into pull up jumpers.

QUOTE (danman31 @ Jun 12, 2012 -> 12:16 PM) Part of it is the SEC just isn't good enough. Without the newbies it's a pretty poor basketball conference. With them it's only mediocre. All the more reason to make sure you get the right matchups to draw interest. I realize that you really only have two teams anyone is hyping in the SEC right now, so have them play Syracuse and Lousville instead of Marquette and Notre Dame. Those should still be decent games, but the others would draw more interest (yes, I know Kentucky plays Louisville anyways). Last year the SEC was a bit better and you could have had a more interesting event. You actually had two decent games with Vanderbilt/Louisville and Syracuse/Florida, but you had Kentucky playing St. John's instead of a more hyped team like UConn (yeah, I know they weren't as good as expected) and Alabama/Marquette would have looked like an interesting matchup as both were relatively highly regarded (though the game against Georgetown ended up being solid). I guess it's basically how Kentucky and to a lesser extent Florida are handled with the matchups. It doesn't really help your event if they're playing St. John's, and though Notre Dame should be decent, they're not Syracuse. It may be nitpicking since Kentucky did play Kansas, UNC, Indiana and Louisville out of conference, but if you're trying to build interest in this challenge, that doesn't help you at all.

Definitely wouldn't have guessed Barnes is that athletic from the way he plays. He takes way too many jumpers for a guy that quick that can get up that much. Same for Perry Jones. Great numbers on paper, too bad he isn't convinced that he's a PF.

Just saw on ESPN that he can opt out of the deal during his arbitration years if he decides that will get him more money.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jun 11, 2012 -> 01:38 PM) I fully expect the Thunder to play small. The Heat don't have any bigs and Perkins is best for being a physical defensive presence against strong bigs. He won't have that role and offensively he won't take advantage of the Heat. On the flipside, Ibaka should be fine on Bosh so you can play small and really take advantage of your matchups (which means you get Harden on the court more). I don't know, the Spurs destroyed the lineup with Perkins/Ibaka a lot of the time and Kendrick still played heavy minutes. I don't think their defense is very good with one less rebounder and rim-protector and it'd force DaQuan Cook to play more. I feel like Miami would love for OKC to go small, it'd be one less shot-blocker to discourage drives and would probably give Miami a rebounding advantage.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jun 11, 2012 -> 12:54 PM) Westbrook will play Wade some, Harden can play Wade. It just depends. I just think Ibaka cant guard Lebron on the outside, which will lead to a lot of breakdowns on defense. Well, Thabo and Harden aren't generally going to be on the floor at the same time, unless they go small and end up negating one of their advantages with Ibaka/Perkins inside. That was basically my point to start with, the Thunder have to make some choices. They really only have three wing players and one that's a defense-oriented player, while the Heat have two elite wings and two more that play a lot. Do they go small to matchup with the Heat and compromise one of their advantages with Ibaka/Perkins? Does Thabo guard Lebron and force Durant to play a guard where he has a quickness disadvantage, or does Thabo guard Wade and force Harden/Durant to guard Lebron? Do you try to hide Durant on Battier to save his energy for offense and hope Ibaka can hold his own on Lebron? All of those choices have some issues. Lebron can score on any of them, to me it's which option causes the fewest other problems. I'd definitely try Ibaka if it were me, he's athletic and really long even if he is at a quickness disadvantage, and it puts less defensive pressure on your best player. Have him play off Lebron a bit to make it a little easier to stay in front of him and hope Lebron takes the jumpers. Then you can put Thabo on Wade for long stretches and try to limit his impact and put even more pressure on Lebron instead of potentially giving Wade a matchup edge. Ibaka is already going to be a bit out of place chasing Battier out by the arc anyways if you go the other way. When Ibaka is on the bench, you rotate some combo of Thabo/Durant/Harden depending on who is on the floor (ideally in that order).

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jun 11, 2012 -> 12:10 PM) I think that Thabo/Harden will guard Lebron. OKC has a good interior advantage so its unlikely Lebron will want to post and get an immediate double. I don't think you can do that for two reasons... 1) Then who guards Wade? Westbrook? I don't think you really want Durant on him. 2) Lebron got a bunch of baskets against Boston where he got down low off a cut, curl or even a few post-ups where he just shot an easy layup over his defender.

I'll go OKC in 7. I think it's going to be close, but OKC has slightly more margin for error and the last two games at home. Some things that work in Miami's favor... -The Thunder were highly turnover prone in the regular season (16 a game), which is a recipe for disaster against Miami. They have been much better in the playoffs (only 11 per game), but Miami is also the best defensive team they'll have faced. They have to take care of the ball and take good shots, especially Westbrook. -OKC's scoring is just as unbalanced as Miami's. They rely very heavily on Durant/Westbrook/Harden, over 65% of their scoring comes from that trio in the playoffs. Miami's D has looked most suspect when the opponent moves the ball well and makes them guard everyone on the floor. OKC is a team that can get quite isolation-oriented. Though statistically they're quite comparable, I feel like the Spurs are set up a lot better to beat Miami's D. -OKC doesn't really have a depth edge, at least in the literal definition of it. The Heat mostly rely on 7 guys with 4 others making frequent appearances, the Thunder mostly rely on 8 with only 2 others making frequent appearances. Obviously OKC is better outside of their big 3 (mostly because Ibaka and Perkins are a lot better than Haslem/Anthony/Turiaf), though like Miami they tend to make bigger contributions defensively. -Who guards Lebron? Durant makes the most sense, but that puts a ton of pressure on him. I feel like the best option is to put Ibaka on James so Durant can cover Battier and Thabo can take Wade, but I'm not sure Serge is quick enough and whether they'll do it or not. On the flipside, having the last two is a huge edge because I don't think either team is winning in 5, Westbrook could destroy Miami worse than Rondo did, and Miami can't afford to have Lebron or Wade flake off while OKC can get away with it a bit more.

Charlotte won 7 games this year. The odds of them taking on two sizeable contracts (with Boozer's being awful) while giving up a good asset just so they can win 30 games (tops) are remote.

Is it just me, or does Rondo go through stretches when he tries to get cute on drives? It seems like several times a game he has a highly makeable layup but instead of taking it he'll lay it off to the nearest player that may be in a worse spot. It's almost like he needs to be completely clear of the defender to lay it in.