Boogua

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ May 26, 2015 -> 08:31 PM) Love going down and Smith's suspension was the best thing to ever happen to the Cavs' defense. I agree that they've looked better, but the teams they have been playing haven't been world beaters offensively to say the least. The Golden State series at least looks interesting now. I'm not sure how Golden State will keep Thompson off the offensive glass.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 26, 2015 -> 02:08 PM) This Thibs stuff is crazy. Now there are multiple reports the Bulls are going to wait until all the coaching vacancies are filled, and then fire him. Pay him $4 million next season out of spite, and make him sit. Cowley said a player told him the exit interview was a slam Thibs fest. If the Mayor is hired and the Bulls don't improve their playoff performance, what kind of rope does Gar/Pax get, since they seem to blame this all on Thibs, who they hired, along with Vinnie Del Negro. I have a feeling the Bulls are going to be really bad in a few years. I heard this too, but couldn't it be a ploy to get teams that want Thibs to up their offers to the Bulls (if there are any).

Yup, the Bears took a gamble, it didn't work out, and now he's off the team. Life goes on.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ May 22, 2015 -> 09:40 PM) It's funny to me. Everybody hates "super-teams" yet a team like the Hawks, without a superstar, gets s***ted on as well. The Hawks are a good team. They have a system on offense and defense and the players to execute that system. I kept saying over and over again the Cavs before the two big trades aren't the same Cavs after the big trades. They went 34-9 to finish the reg season and LeBron and/or Kyrie missed some of those 9 losses. I still don't see any scenario in which the Cavs beat GS without a close to 100% Kyrie Irving. But they are/were that good. Everybody hates super-teams because it's cheap when superstars collude to team up. People s***ted on the Hawks because most people knew they were likely not going to succeed in the playoffs. I questioned what they would do in the playoffs earlier this season because they had no hall of famers. It just isn't common for a team like that to do well. Golden state is a homegrown team that will likely win it all (and go down as one of the best in history to stat heads) that the majority of people like.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ May 22, 2015 -> 09:22 PM) A team with 4-all-stars? I'm sure you could find a team from the awful late 90's/early 2000's era worse than the Hawks. Those guys are really bad all stars. Their two best players (Horford and Milsap) couldn't even make any of the all NBA teams over guys like Gasol and Duncan. It still seems insane to me that Kyle korver made the all star game also. They're also playing so far under the screen when guarding Teague it amazes me that an NBA player can't hit a shot that wide open.

The Hawks might be the worst team I've ever seen in the eastern conference finals.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ May 21, 2015 -> 10:02 AM) According to KC Johnson, about the best the Bulls could do in a trade for Thibs is a 2nd round pick. Everybody knows the Bulls are going to get rid of him regardless. Why would they offer anything above that?

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ May 19, 2015 -> 08:04 PM) Wiggins alone should've done that. Was really hoping the Sixers won it. Would've been interesting to see if they went BPA or need. BPA really could be Mudiay though. Towns and Okafor aren't sure fire superstars. I agree that it would have been interesting though.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ May 14, 2015 -> 10:12 PM) In a watered down by 6-team expansion in 8 years, busted ass league that had yet to experience the international boom of the 2000's. So do you think this Golden State team beats any of those Bulls teams in a series? 67 wins in this super era has to be more impressive than 72 wins or 69 wins in that busted ass era, right?

I'm thinking the Cavs should probably want the Clippers in the finals, but I'm not sure. The Clippers don't have a wing defender that can play defense like some of Golden State's wing defenders, but damn is the Clippers starting 5 good. I can't see the Cavs beating either of those teams unless there are some unforeseen injuries.

QUOTE (thxfrthmmrs @ May 14, 2015 -> 09:47 PM) Our 2011 bench mob played like crap as well. This trend isn't a fluke. Why? Because bench players are what they are, they get exposed in the playoffs, especially when other teams are running their starters out there 40 minutes a game. Just look at how Niko was exposed for his pick and roll defense and rebounding, Taj was exposed for his inability to be a consistent scorer, and Brooks and Hinrich reverted back to nothingness. And yet last year's Spurs played a ton of their bench in the finals and I think everyone would agree Lebron was the most talented player in that series too. The bench can be exposed, but Brooks and Mirotic shooting 20% against Dellavadova and James Jones is more of a fluke in my mind.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ May 14, 2015 -> 09:41 PM) If LeBron takes a lottery team the year before with no Love to a title then, yes, i think it would. When LeBron leaves your team, you go from contenders to lottery. When LeBron joins your team, you go from lottery to contenders. This is really a shallow way to look at things. The Cavs were a lottery team, but were loaded with assets. They kept two top 5 picks in Irving and Thompson and traded some of the other assets (which included 2 #1 overall picks and another top 5 pick) for Love, Mozgov, Smith, and Shumpert. You can say some those guys aren't talented, but they handled the Bulls even when Lebron wasn't on the court.

QUOTE (thxfrthmmrs @ May 14, 2015 -> 09:32 PM) Just goes to show you AGAIN that having the best player wins the series. Bench and depth can't be your only strength in the playoffs. This ended up not being the case considering how poorly Mirotic and Brooks played. If the bench and depth actually showed up this series it wouldn't have mattered that Lebron was the best player in the series. Lebron has been the best player in a few series and has lost. Same with Jordan and other all time greats.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ May 14, 2015 -> 09:27 PM) It's official: the Bulls are the 90's Jazz, Pacers and Knicks. They will NEVER, EVER beat LeBron James when it matters. LeBron is eight wins away from bumping MJ from his GOAT throne. Comparing these Bulls teams to those teams is an insult to those teams. The only team that was comparable to those teams was the 2011 Bulls team. The Knicks made the finals after Jordan retired (both times). I don't think any Bulls team would make the finals outside of that 2011 team. This year's team would have had an outside shot with how insanely bad the east is, but even then I doubt it.

QUOTE (Knuckles @ May 14, 2015 -> 09:24 PM) LeBron 1 rebound short of triple double. He was really shooting for it too, hence all the time he played in the 4th.

Every remaining team in the East would lose in 5-6 games to any remaining team in the West. It's going to be fun to see Lebron lose in the finals again, but they really need to do something about the conferences/playoff seeding.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ May 13, 2015 -> 08:59 PM) 37 ppg or 35 ppg on 54% shooting would never happen today. Pace alone wouldn't allow it. Volume scoring for individual players has been on the decline for years now. Strongside floods (thanks to thibs) along with better rotations, help and recovery, etc. don't allow for one guy to average those type of numbers. Kevin Durant is just as good a ball-handler, a better shooter and damn near 7 feet and he couldn't put up those kinda numbers. You're cherry picking two seasons though where Mike was basically doing everything. Westbrook was averaging over 30 PPG after Durant went down and Jordan was a better scorer than Westbrook, believe it or not. Early and late 90s would still have Jordan at 30+ PPG regardless of pace. To make things simpler so we're not arguing past each other, I believe his per 100 stats would be virtually the same, if not better than they were in the first and second three peat years (where he was around 42 points per 100 usually).

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ May 13, 2015 -> 08:21 PM) I wasn't talking about championships. No, you don't need 8 elite athletes to win a title. I was referring to individual scoring prowess. Carmelo tends to do just fine. Jordan was also clearly more athletic than James Harden is. I don't think there's anyway that Jordan scores less now than he did in his time. You can argue that it would be equal with the defensive schemes of today offsetting the fact that things got easier for perimeter players post 2004, but I don't see anyway that it's worse.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ May 13, 2015 -> 07:43 PM) It's not overblown at all. It's a hard fact. Athleticism, lateral quickess and length is where the nba is and where it will continue to go. I wasn't disputing that the NBA as a whole is more athletic. The importance and overall difference of the athleticism is what is overblown. The Spurs won the championship with one good athlete on their team last year. How many players on Golden State are amazing athletes?

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ May 13, 2015 -> 06:52 PM) It goes both ways. Yes, the game was more physical and you could get away with things that you'd get fined and or suspended for today. On the other side, we are currently at the pinnacle of athleticism up and down the nba. Jordan wasn't going up against dudes like Butler, Kawhi and Paul George on a regular basis. Not that he couldn't torch them more times than not. But it wouldn't be as consistently effortless as when he was destroying the likes of Starks, Dumars and Hornacek. Also, team defensive schemes (not to mention advanced scouting/analytics) absolutely dwarf anything from the 80's and 90's. When one of the best rim protectors in the NBA is some dude named Timofey and the best wing defender in the NBA is a 33 year old 6'4 guy I tend to think the whole "athletes are so much better today" thing is overblown a tad. I also think Jordan would do just fine getting the same ISO post-ups Lebron was last night.

What amazes me is that their role players are absolutely crushing our role players. Lebron had a fantastic game and the Cavs were -4 with him on the floor. I know it's a flawed stat, but when he's off the floor and James Jones and Dellavadova are out there the Bulls should be killing them and they just haven't been. Mirotic was a -23 in 18 minutes. Aaron Brooks (who has just been atrocious all series) was a -12 in 7 minutes.

QUOTE (Jake @ May 12, 2015 -> 08:40 PM) Better coaching or luck and we could have run away with this series. I still think Cleveland sucks enough that we could beat them two games in a row, but my hopes aren't high Hopefully Pau gets whatever Kyrie got and is back the last two games. His loss has been huge considering how poor Noah and Mirotic have been this series.

QUOTE (chw42 @ May 9, 2015 -> 11:07 PM) I'm watching the highlights of the end of Hawks Wizards and I don't even know half the players the Hawks have out there. Earlier at a poker game I frequent I saw the bottom of ESPN and said, "I know a ton about sports, but who the **** is Muscala." That's insane. I can usually name every player on the court and the college they went to.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ May 4, 2015 -> 08:29 PM) Get greedy. They can end this thing before they get back to Chicago. Mike Miller? lol. Iman Shumpert? lol. Let's not get too crazy. Shumpert just played a really good game tonight. If Lebron could make a jumpshot the Cavs would have had a really good shot at winning the game.

Noah is pretty useless on offense.