DBAHO

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ May 3, 2011 -> 09:26 PM) you are also assuming the bulls roster remains status quo. I dont think it does They're pretty tight against the cap as it is, and they'll have to sign Rose to a max contract this off-season IIRC. So depending on what happens in the CBA, the Bulls may only have the MLE to play with come Free Agency. They'll probably look for an upgrade at SG, not sure if Courtney Lee hits unrestricted FA this off-season, but he's exactly the type of player I'd target with that exception.

QUOTE (chw42 @ May 3, 2011 -> 06:39 PM) There's something wrong with him physically or mentally. He hasn't been the same player since Kwame Brown made him fall weirdly on his ankle. He's always had question marks about his mental toughness and injury proneness back from his Utah days (especially when he went up against Bynum and Gasol). That's why I think this is the Bulls' best chance to win a championship this season, because I don't see Boozer getting any better going forward, plus you'd expect Miami to gel better in the coming seasons also.

QUOTE (chw42 @ May 3, 2011 -> 06:33 PM) Boozer actually had a good game in comparison to what he's done recently. Still not really saying much. If you're paying a guy a max contract to give you only 14/8 with pretty poor defense, that's MLE production at best right there. He's got to be better than that, especially in games when Rose isn't allowed to drive and score at will at a good shooting percentage.

Well I think tonight's game was certainly an eye opener. Boozer playing badly in the Conference Semi - Finals, not like I haven't seen that before. Josh Smith didn't even shoot well and they still won, so that's quite interesting also. Can Atlanta keep shooting that well? Well, most people will say no, but Crawford had a tremendous series vs Orlando, they'll back that matchup of him vs. Earl Watson all series long. Don't think Joe Johnson can play that well again though, he was 5-5 from downtown. I still like the Bulls to win in 5 or 6, but I think Atlanta certainly causes them some matchup issues if they don't rectify it. And Chicago needs to do a better job on the boards also, if Atlanta split the boards as they did today, that's a win for em.

QUOTE (T R U @ May 2, 2011 -> 06:32 PM) Yeah except word is a lot of the players don't care for Rudy Gay and they've actually been better without him.. Better shot selection on offense (pounding the ball inside with Z-Bo and Gasol), and probably better defense because Shane Battier is getting more playing time. That said Gay is a very good player, but it's right to question at the moment whether he'd make the Grizzlies a better team at this point.

QUOTE (SoxAce @ May 2, 2011 -> 09:35 AM) Funny thing is, I remember DBAH0 saying we should had hired him 2 years ago even without the interview based on his rep around the NBA as a defensive genius. (and he wanted him over SVG) I was a fan of his too, but didn't think he could handle particular match-ups/strategy and subs well. Even when he was hired this season, there were still queries about his ability on the offensive side of things, which I think he's put on the shelf for the time being at least. I don't think anyone has ever doubted his ability as a defensive coach (and as we've seen, good defense wins you ballgames in the NBA, simple as that). I think at the time, when you had VDN who hadn't even been an assistant coach let alone had any head coach experience vs. Tom Thibodeau who had been an assistant under Jeff Van Gundy for a long time, and then the job that he did in Boston with that team (and made Kevin Garnett probably the premier 1 on 1 interior defender in the NBA today), hands down it was a terrible decision from the Bulls front office at that point in time. Luckily for them, they got a do-over.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ May 1, 2011 -> 12:35 AM) The Spurs just got gassed in the second half of the season, they blew their load early in the season when they jumped out to that huge lead and just kind of let the pack come back to them. This series loss doesnt surprise me, the Spurs have some bigtime questions that are going to have to be asked going into next season. Z-Bo was incredible in the last 5 minutes of the game. He was unstoppable after the Spurs took a 80-79 lead I flicked last night on cable and saw one of the insane turnaround jumpers he hit in that run (Z-Bo). I actually wonder what would have happened if that trade rumor before the deadline of Bass and J-Rich for Z-Bo would have happened. I think Memphis is glad they didn't do that one though (they do need to get Gasol signed though, the Knicks will be going after him hard (think a Gortat contract minimum)).

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Apr 29, 2011 -> 12:29 PM) I started to hate the Magic so freakin much this year but I do feel bad for DBAHO. Just curious, is that because of my homerism, or Dwight's petulance on the court?

QUOTE (MexSoxFan#1 @ Apr 29, 2011 -> 12:25 PM) Don´t mean to kick a fella when he´s down but DBAHO should really take his signature quote down... I chuckle every time I see it. Ha, well played (that's what happens when you have avatars and siggy's turned off for bout 3-4 years). Going to be a very interesting off-season to say the least. I'll be shocked if Otis Smith and SVG both return, I think 1 will definitely go, Smith the more likely. How we're going to improve with our salary situation and some of the contracts we have (Arenas, Duhon etc.) will be very difficult. My guess is they do everything to try and sign Fran Vazquez from Spain to finally play the 4 to give Dwight some help (and another rebounder), one of Bass or Anderson is moved in a deal, J-Rich moves on allowing Redick to play the 2, and the Magic target some youth in the off-season.

I think if ever Jonathan Toews was going to put his mark on a game, this game has to be the one for him. Hasn't scored in the series yet, so if he can get on top of that battle against Kesler, that'll be a huge factor in this game IMO.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Apr 22, 2011 -> 02:12 PM) Jack is a s*** character, I don't care about her. The only reason I bothered to keep her loyalty was for the achievement on the last mission. This link confirms if she's in the next game or not (so don't click if you still want to go in semi - virgin or not). http://wccftech.com/2011/04/22/mass-effect...ters-locations/

QUOTE (Felix @ Apr 26, 2011 -> 12:50 PM) Can you take over a team and trade for him? Pretty pretty please? We can all dream. I just see him as an ideal "buy low" type of player. He's got TO issues and needs to improve his jump shot, but those are things that are coachable and definitely fixable. All depends on what Kahn wants for him though.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Apr 26, 2011 -> 06:55 AM) Jonny Flynn...the dude with a 44% TS...for Jameer Nelson? You're doing Felix and the T-Wolves a hell of a favor there. The guy's ORtg's never cracked 100 yet these past two years. A lot of teams are gonna be after Affalo if he doesn't re-up with Denver. The Bulls will definitely be one of them. I think we've seen the best of Nelson as a player. He has problems beating players off the dribble now and isn't much of a playmaker. Flynn obviously hasn't shown much in Minny at this point, but I think he's a guy if you put him on a better team and a better coached team, he can still become a pretty good player. Affalo should definitely get the MLE at least, if not more, depending on the new CBA. He's the ideal glue guy for a contender (in that he's an excellent defender and can knock down the 3).

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 25, 2011 -> 10:52 PM) The Moves made by the Magic the last year or two have reminded me a lot of the moves made by the Cavaliers for the couple years before James bolted. They've got the ring of moves that need to pass judgement by a star, moves that are gambles that hopefully help you win "now" but may hamstring the roster a few years down the road. Moving Gortat I could understand, because with the type of offense the Magic employ with having shooters around Dwight, there was no fit long - term for Gortat on our team. J-Rich has been a massive disappointment and doesn't look to have much left in the tank at all. I've always been a big Lee fan, and I'd feel he'd be an upgrade at this point (Affalo is a very similar type of player BTW). Otis is basically running out of players from his Golden State days to acquire at this point. Agree on the Cleveland situation. Ideally, the Magic wanted to get Chris Paul last off-season, but that was never going to happen. I think if they knew that Utah was going to trade Deron Williams they would have jumped in on that, but they didn't have the assets to get a deal done there (both pre and post Dec trade).

QUOTE (nitetrain8601 @ Apr 25, 2011 -> 02:04 PM) I don't know what happened to Turkoglu. I mean, I thought he would be improved in Orlando's system, but he's stunk as bad if not worse than he did in PHX and Toronto. They never tried to make JRich a focal point, Gilbert sucks and Dwight's going to leave since they're handicapped by the cap. It's weird, the first month or 2 after the trade, he was scoring at an effective rate, had good assist numbers, and basically looked like the player he was a few seasons ago when we made the finals. And since then he has fallen apart. He doesn't drive to the basket anymore, and he takes so many off balance horrible jump shots when he doesn't have to. Right now, this is the most concerned I've been as a Magic fan since the day that T-Mac demanded to be traded. We are at a real crossroads right now. A lot of Orlando fans are calling for Otis Smith the GM to be canned. He's done a decent job at finding talent over the years, but he's made some horrible trades and overpaid for free agents. I always wonder how this team would look with Courtney Lee as the 2 guard right now. He picked up Vince Carter on the downswing, and Marcin Gortat has turned out to be the best player in that 5 player trade. And there are big rumors that Houston is going to go all out for SVG in the off-season. And I wouldn't be shocked if he goes, as I think he sees the writing on the wall in terms of Dwight, and Houston have an owner who'll spend to win. I'm hoping that a new CBA comes in that will allow us to cut Arenas in the off-season, J-Rich walks, we sign Affalo as a replacement, and we work a trade for Johnny Flynn (even if it includes Nelson). A core of Flynn-Affalo-Turk-Bass and Howard for next season would give us a much better team look. Everyone's speculating that Howard's going to be a Laker from 2012 onwards. Not sure how they would do that cap wise (sign and trade with Bynum?), but I think the Nets are a team to watch in that scenario. I was always confident he would stay, but that was based on us contending. Right now, I'm much more pessimistic.

Michael Wilbon's an idiot. I remember when he called for SVG to be fired during the playoffs last season (when we made the ECF);

Pretty sure you can't at that stage. My advice would be to do a re-load before that happens, do other missions to build your paragon up, and then you should be able to choose the paragon response when you get to that confrontation. Otherwise, you won't be able to save whichever one isn't loyal to you for the final mission.

Good battling win for us today. Offensively we're playing at about 40% efficiency right now. No-one other than Dwight is really doing well on that end for us, so there's a lot of upside there for us. We ran a lot more pick and rolls today, got better looks on offense, the likes of Hedo and J-Rich need to start knocking down shots, they are streaky shooters though. Defensively it was a much better effort though. And Dwight knocked down 15-19 FT's, he's been absolutely fantastic the 1st 2 games of this series. I still see us taking this series in 6. Game 3 will be pretty crucial though.

That was just brutal. For Dwight to play that well, and the rest of the team did absolutely nothing. Well I'll give Nelson a pass because his 2nd half was excellent. J-Rich, Bass, Hedo and Anderson gave us absolutely nothing. Too stagnant on offense, defensively we allowed the Hawks guards to have their way with us. Q-Rich needs to play more because he's a much better matchup for Joe Johnson, while Howard should guard Horford going forward.

Right, some playoff predictions here; Bulls over Pacers in 4 games; Should be pretty easy for Chicago, can't see the Pacers winning a game in this one. Heat over 76ers in 4 games; I liked Philly's resurgance in the middle part of this season, but they seem to have gone off the boil a bit lately. There'll be some close games, Iggy should do a good job on Lebron defensively, but Miami has too much firepower. Celtics over Knicks in 5 games; Same questions are being asked of Boston as this time last season, and I think most of them are credible. Still New York doesn't have the size down low to exploit Boston's weakness here. Garnett will lock down Stoudemire, and Rondo will be far too quick for Billups. Can see the Knicks winning at least 1 game though. Magic over Hawks in 6 games; Can actually see this being a tough series for Orlando. Hawks have a 3-1 record over them this season, they've figured out that Horford couldn't guard Dwight, but they have a guy in Collins who actually does a decent job there. Joe Johnson needs to have a big series here, but I see us eventually winning in 6. Spurs over Grizzlies in 7 games; This is really going to be a tight series I reckon. Manu's iffy for the opener, Tim Duncan's still feeling his way back from that ankle sprain, and Memphis has been one of the hottest teams in the 2nd half of the season. Still, I think the Spurs have got enough experience to win when it counts. Lakers over Hornets in 4 games; This has sweep written all over it for mine. Hornets simply don't have enough offensive weapons on the court without David West. Landry is a decent replacement but they need his production off the bench. So long as Fisher doesn't let CP3 go crazy, the Lakers should win this easy, even without Bynum. Mavericks over Blazers in 6 games; Tough series to predict, Portland have looked good since the Wallace trade, and he'll go a good job defensively on Dirk this series I'd say. Still the Mavs have been pretty consistent all season long, they've played well when they've had to. I could easily see Portland winning it though. Thunder over Nuggets in 6 games; Bit of trash-talking going on b/w these 2 so it should make for a good one. Denver have been re-invigorated since the Melo trade, they are probably the deepest team in the league in terms of overally production they can count on. I don't know if Gallnari can keep up with Durant for the whole series defensively though and I think that will ultimately make the difference. Semi - Finals; Magic over Bulls in 7 games; Well I'm going to get flamed for this obviously, but I'll try to put some logic behind it. The Magic will look terrible for at least 2 if not 3 games this series, I guarantee that. When they aren't hitting the 3 ball, they get clogged down offensively, and the Bulls do a better job at running teams off the 3PT line then anybody else. This series will come down to bench production and the Deng vs Turkoglu matchup. Chicago's bench has been quality all season long, the Magic will need Redick and Arenas to play well to keep up on that front, I think they're capable of doing so. Chicago should look to exploit the Deng matchup offensively, as Turk isn't the greatest defender. If Turk can get his jumper and screen and roll game going offensively though, he makes a huge difference offensively. I see Rose exploding for around 35PPG for this series, but the Magic let Lebron do that to them a couple of seasons back and were able to pull out a win overall, and so long as they can keep the other players in check, I'll go for the upset. Heat over Celtics in 6 games; This one will be tight and low scoring, I can see every game finishing at a score of around 80-80 each, that's just how they play. If Miami can get Haslem back, that will be huge for them, give them a good matchup for Big Baby off the bench. I don't know if Allen can keep up with Wade for the whole series, Pierce should do a good job on defense on Lebron, but I don't think the Celtics can win in this one. Mavs over Spurs in 6 games; Could call this an upset, but I haven't liked San Antonio for the 2nd half of this season, and I think if ever Dirk was going to take over a series and pull his team over the line, this is the one. They are pretty much even everywhere else, the Spurs will try to exploit Parker on Kidd as much as possible, so Beaubois needs to have a good series defensively. Again could go either way, but I like Dallas here. Thunder over Lakers in 7 games; This series will be a beauty, and probably from a neutral's perspective one that I'm most looking forward to right now. With the addition of Perkins, the Thunder have enough size to combat Gasol and Bynum down low now. But Perkins must stay out of foul trouble this series, and he has an issue with that. But they have enough big guys in Collison (very underrated defender) and Ibaka to hold their own as well. But the Thunder have 2 guys in Westbrook and Durant, who against Fisher and Artest who are getting older and slower, to really try and exploit as much as possible. And I think they'll be able to do so, Kobe will prob hit 2 game winners, but the Thunder pull out the win overall. Conference Finals; Heat over Magic in 6 games; Quite an interesting choice you might say, and ultimately this will come down to Miami's willingness to play 48 good minutes every time they step out on the court against us. They've dominated most games against us this season, Lebron vs Hedo will be quite painful to watch, and Bosh is too big for Bass. Howard will have a big series, but I'm not sure if that'll be enough. If Miami show total commitment on defense, we'll have real trouble scoring against them. Thunder over Mavs in 5 games; I like OKC in this matchup, this will be Durant's coming out party as a bonafide NBA superstar (if he's not already). Dallas will make it a good series, but I think OKC's 2 man game with Durant and Westbrook against Peja / Brewer and Kidd will be too hard to handle. NBA Finals; Thunder over Miami in 7 games; Durant vs Lebron would be fantastic to watch. Very evenly matched, these two. I wonder if Wade would take Westbrook defensively for this one. I think Scotty Brooks is a better coach than Spoelstra though, and in the end that could actually make the biggest difference in this series.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Apr 14, 2011 -> 12:50 AM) Actually Jordan played a ton of time at the point, even though he was listed as 2. I'm sure you know that though. You brought up some nice and also some strange names to make your point, although I'm not sure those three prove that PG who CAN score are detrimental to their team. For an opposing point, I submit these names: Tiny Archibald-averaged 20 and 8, led the league in scoring Kevin Johnson -18-9 Clyde Frazier 20-6-6 Bob Cousy 19-8 Isiah Thomas 19-9 Oscar Robertson 26-9.5 Magic Johnson 20-11 Compare to player X: 25 points 8 assists And just for fun, Player Y: 27-6.7 To me Magic Johnson was a pass first playmaker who could definitely score. He had such a wonderful FG% for a PG which made him such an effective scorer, he was simply a once in a generation player of that era surrounded by some fantastic talent in Adbul - Jabbar, Worthy etc. With Kevin Johnson, that team never had major success until Sir Charles arrived at that team. In his best scoring seasons, he averaged around 50FG%, again very good for a PG. I think what I'm trying to say is that yes you can win with a score first point guard, I don't know if the players above are definitely score first point guards because they were such excellent distributors of the ball as well. But they were surrounded by fantastic talent and were well coached, which is something that the 3 guys I mentioned in Francis, Marbury and Arenas have never been on.

One for the John Hollinger stat lovers around here (ahh are there any?); http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=ycn-8287819 Also, at some point tomorrow hopefully I'm going to do my playoff predictions as to who I think will win it all with a little analysis.

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Apr 14, 2011 -> 03:28 PM) Random rant here, but I DESPISE the Rose comparisons to Arenas, Francis, etc. Those guys should be categorized as undersized 2-guards instead of scoring point guards. Francis never averaged more than 21.6 ppg in a season and his career high assist average is 7.0. Rose had 7.0 in his 2nd year and 7.8 this year. And the comparison to Arenas is absolutely TERRIBLE. Arenas' shot selection made Antoine Walker and Rasheed Wallace's shot selections look good. When Rose is jacking up 550 3s a year, gimme a call. And Arenas' career high APG was 6.3. The Arenas comparison irks the living s*** out of me. The best comparison, if there is one, is Allen Iverson, and even then, Iverson took way more shots per game and got to the free throw line better than any other player ever. Dwyane Wade minus 1/2 the FT attempts is another comparison. If Rose can get to the line 8-10 times a game, or more, he'd be up around 30 PPG too, especially since he shot 86.1% from the line this year, just ANOTHER aspect of game he has improved drastically. There really hasn't ever been a player in the NBA like Derrick Rose. He gets to the rim at absolute will and if he's getting calls, he simply cannot be stopped. His ability to control and contort his body in midair is unmatched by anyone who has ever played in this league. I assume you're referring to my post earlier. Those guys I mentioned about Arenas, Francis etc. those are your worse kind of shot first PG's for the reasons you've mentioned (and why they've never been on teams that are successful). Quite interestingly though, look at Gilbert's best season as a pro compared to Rose's season. Arenas - 29.3PPG (9.3/20.9 at 44.7FG%), 6.1 ASS's and 3.7 TO's. Rose - 25.0PPG (8.8/19.7 at 44.5FG%), 7.7ASS's and 3.4TO's. Those numbers aren't too far apart at all, except for Rose's higher assist numbers (as he's obviously a better playmaker).

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 13, 2011 -> 10:53 PM) Bynum for once hurt his knee at the wrong time. No idea yet how long he'll be out. Read that Blake has the Chicken Pox as well and that Kobe, Bynum and Pau (think it was those 3) have never gotten it before. Would be quite funny to say the least if one of those 3 did manage to catch it during the playoffs (I'm sure Blake will be quarantined for the time being though).

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 13, 2011 -> 10:28 PM) As it was felt teams with the league leading scorer couldn't win either. MJ proved them wrong 6 times, and most likely it would have been more. Rose will prove them wrong as well. Funny thing is when Rose was drafted, the knock against him was not taking it himself more often and FT shooting which was barely 70%. He's only going to get better. Rose and MJ play in different guard positions (so they're completely different players IMO). And the league's leading scorer isn't really much of an argument (when it depends on the player, what position they play, the talent they play with etc.) Rose still has a way to go to get to MJ's level as well. He's still got to win in the playoffs before you can start comparing him to MJ. My point is for scoring point guards, when you look at the likes of Gilbert Arenas, Steve Francis, Stephon Marbury etc. they never came close to succeeding in the playoffs because they were on average teams and they don't play defense. And they didn't make their team-mates around them any better. That's what a pure point guard like Chris Paul can do, he makes his team-mates better. It's similar to what Howard's done in Orlando this season with what Paul did back in 07-08 because the overall talent level of those teams without those 2 players is pretty sub-par to say the least.