NBA offseason 2011 - stuck between a lockout and a hard place

The place to discuss rumors, new hires, firings, gossip and general baller whatnot as the NBA offseason progresses, or regresses, to its next excitnig season. Or it doesn't.

mark jackson hired in golden state!

kuester fired by pistons (this hadn't happened already??)

I don't even think I knew the pistons had a coach.

My vote is for laimbeer in detroit. Simone has to hire him eventually right?

Frontrunner in Detroit is Mike Woodson. Because a clogged toilet offense is what the worst defensive team in the league needs on the other end.

well he was worthless with a few good players in ATL, how could he not be effective with garbage in detroit.

kuester supposedly joining brown's staff in LA

warriors/sixers talking ellis for iguodala

http://es.pn/ky30t2

! welcome the arrival of a shoot first guard in Philly, we've never had one of those before

I like that trade for both sides.

during the offseason I'm all about any trade at all just to shake things up and bring some news but yeah this trade is about as sensible as you ever see in the nba.

WOWza. Steph Curry just took the reins.

jerry west shaking up things

Trading offense for defense is very non-warriors = I like it. Not sure on Mark Jackson,should be interesting.

I like that trade. Both players need new surroundings.

that actually seems like a trade that could improve both sides! philly's offense was dire at time and steph curry would just be unleashed

Jeeeez, had no idea Iggys contract was so massive, hes more of a 8-9 mill a year player to me.

yeah def; nice move for golden state tho

So this actually happened? Philly had a surplus of wings + gs needs someone that can/will play defense

Nah, just talks at the moment.

Hoping it actually goes down. Polyphonic, you a Warriors fan? Whats your thoughts on Jackson?

(i am sixers fan and agree hard with all this analysis)

Spottie: I guess I'm a Warriors fan. I moved to Oakland as an adult and adopted them I guess. The bond isn't that strong.

My thoughts are that Mark Jackson has never coached before on any level, and that the Warriors chose to hire a guy with name recognition. But I think the key thing is that they brought in Mike Malone to be his lead assistant, and I'm hoping he can provide the substance that Jackson lacks. I do think Jackson is a good dude who will work his butt off. I think Lacob was looking for a guy who had more star power than Smart, and that's a bad way to pick a coach.

Agree with the start power pick, that's the only thing that makes me nervous about it. Malone will definitely add some stability. I'm just kind of glad to see the warriors doing SOMETHING and not just being content to be the eternal 9-10 seed.

You need to strengthen your bond w the warriors, just submit yourself over.

*star power

If the Warriors want to stop being a 9-10 seed they need to make some changes, but imo the Warriors constantly fall in love with their players even when they aren't very good. If the Logo can provide that reality check then maybe there's hope.

The fact is that Smart improved their record substantially and was still fired for underperformance. The team is delusional about how good it is. I don't think Lee/Iggy/Curry is the kernel of a 2nd round playoff team, so even if they make this trade they'll have a lot of work to do.

Agree completely, their putting a lot on Curry to be that guy and I'm just not sure he has it, this year will tell.

Curry looked like crap all year. I predict they finish 4 games below this season's record.

Yah, i think Curry is overvalued at this point, but like others have said, third year is proving ground.

i think curry has crazy potential tbh

curry w/o monta dribbling the clock away is a wholly different prospect. He'd be fantastic actually being able to qb a team.

He can definitely score, but he needs to improve a lot as a point guard and as a defender.

The only four qualified PGs with lower A/TO ratios in 2011: Dragic, Evans, Arenas, Bledsoe.

Yeah, I agree with Clay, now that I think about it. Curry totally rocked during monta's dl stint in 09/10, iirc

steph is the next steve nash

Doesn't have the natural court vision and is way too TO prone, seriously though, this year will tell all. No Monta and a good defender next to him (if trade happens) to help mask his horrible defense.

He has good court vision, but not Nash court vision.

so you're saying... his game's not MVP like steve nash?

This is what I'm sayin.

While Knicks fans fret about the possibility of Isiah Thomas returning to New York, the Detroit Pistons are considering Thomas for their vacant head coaching position, according to league sources.

Thomas is not the leading candidate, sources say, but he is on Detroit's short list along with Mike Woodson, Kelvin Sampson and his former Pistons teammate Bill Laimbeer.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=6636897&campaign=rss&source=NBAHeadlines

LAIMBEER! ISIAH! DUKE IT OUT BROS!

lil late here but just wanted to say that im kinda pissed re mark jackson getting a head coaching position by actively trying out for it on my tv via spouting nonsense he knows to be untrue - i mean 'defense is all abt effort' ok mark jackson was well known to be one of the worst defenders in the nba, so either he gave no effort or there might be a talent aspect to defense - and then like his whole inane imitation of leadership gravitas, why were we forced to endure such inanity - im glad i dont have to hear his commentary anymore but fuck the nba for letting his dumb ass plan work

I like to think the warriors gm just got tired of listening to him on the broadcast and was like "okay, we'll take one for the team... thank us later, nba fans"

he was interviewd on pti today and just spouted truism after truism it was kind of lol

KBerg_CBS Ken Berger by CBSSportsNBA
Davd Stern on bargaining talks: "We remain very far apart." #NBA
1 minute ago

Would a longer off season significantly favor the heat?

why do you think that? it looks to me that current powerhouse teams like the Spurs, Lakers, Celtics, and Mavs are all going to be done in the next 2-4 years. I would think the Heat's main competition would be teams like the Thunder and Bulls, both of which are younger than the Heat. I would think the Heat's window is the next 5 years, right? In 2016, the big 3 will be 31, 32, and 34. Losing a year of that doesn't seem good for them.

But maybe I'm misunderstanding the argument..?

the last lock out had a shorter but more compressed schedule w/lots of back to back games that were hard on the older team particularly the jazz who some argue couldve won it that year under a normal season - but i mean who knows how thingsll play out this year

http://testmedia.theonion.com/images/articles/article/10112/SB-David-Stern-redo.jpg

read Gilbert's date tweets from last night: http://twitter.com/#!/agentzeroshow

so what's this about cp3 for westbrook? i would become the biggest okc fan in the world

Dream trade that's not gonna happen.

it actually kinda makes sense in that pauls legs prob arent gonna hold out much longer

shut up shut up

i know, im as sorry as anyone

we can rebuild him

we have the technology

and the will

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=6651622

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -- Oklahoma City Thunder guard Nate Robinson is apologizing to fans after police caught him urinating in public in a New York City suburb.

how boorish

Charlotte Bobcats Hire Rich Cho As GM

guess paul allen couldn't deal with the guy but michael jordan doesn't seem to have a problem

I was gonna ask you Clay what you thought of him as a GM

barely even got to know him. he pulled a pretty savvy deal in bringing over gerald wallace for next to nothing (basically dante cunningham and a draft pick we'd gotten for jerryd bayless) so i mean that's great but it was also a team dumping salary, he could've gotten lucky. we never had a draft with him, so can't really judge on that. it's hard to tell! he was very reticent with local media, but that's to be expected of a m/l v guarded employee of a v guarded organization. he seems like the new style of gm that's popular these days (groomed by a guy groomed by popovich (presti), grew up professionally working for a team, advanced numbers-oriented, guy brought an actual backpack full of info to his interview with paul allen) but as a fan i have just nothing to evaluate him on.

I hope he kills it for the bobcats and makes allen and his people look silly as they kill great executive after great executive.

sad news: robert horry's daughter passed away :(

http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/article/20110615/SPORTS/106150353/Horry-s-daughter-dies-after-long-illness

The NBA has told the players that it will cancel its Las Vegas Summer League for 2011. An announcement will be made during the weekend.

and the lockout is unofficially on!

gonna repost from playoffs thread:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playoffs/2011/columns/story?columnist=hollinger_john&page=greatestseries-1-5

this is fuckin awesome - hollinger ranks the top 50 best playoff series of all time

related question - is there a way to buy (or "buy") DVDs of some of these classic series? i would loooove that omg

― bite this display name (k3vin k.), Friday, June 17, 2011 8:11 PM (1 hour ago)

Rick Rubio, the Spanish wunderkid who is getting a bit old to be a wunderkid anymore, announced yesterday he'll be coming to the T'Wolves next season, just in time for the lockout. If the season really is abbreviated this year, he might have made a pretty smart move there. A short season might allow him a bit smoother rookie transition and mute a bit of the hype that precedes him.

from what ive heard he has a hard time scoring inside or out, but the rest of his game is p tite, seems near consensus that his euro team was using him all wrong - like hes rondo w/o the layup making capability lol idk if this will work v curious tho

and yes hollinger playoff series piece is great, have no idea how one goes abt seeing those, random espn classic aside

ricky rubio & john wall are the same age

is kurt rambis still their coach?

for the moment. But I think he's going to have to ditch the triangle, which he should have never implemented with that roster of kids.

Wolves have pretty much built their roster around Rubio - lots of athletic guys who can run & catch alley oops - it's kind of an ideal situation, plus going like .280 next season would be seen as p. much a wholehearted triumph

Rambis is in some weird limbo at the moment - it's clear they're looking for someone else but if they can't find anyone he'll still be there. He's not been invited to various end-of-season things, but then he *was* there for some of the scouting stuff, so I guess they're starting to lose hope re: finding a replacement?

I think they did this with McHale too before getting Rambis iirc?

my god

KAAAAAAHN

"Minnesota Timberwolves president David Kahn says he asked Kurt Rambis to write a report about the changes he would make as coach if he comes back for a third season as head coach.

Kahn says he met with Rambis for four hours on Thursday night and planned to meet with him again Friday to discuss the report that Rambis turned in last week.

Kahn says no decision has been made yet and he did not provide a timetable for making one. "

that is just humiliating, fire the guy ffs

Rambis's report =

http://www.marriedtothesea.com/022509/book-report-on-the-dictionary.gif

I am much too busy a man to sit down and talk with you about your ideas for the future of the team. Just write me a detailed report. I will look at it when I can get to it and get back to you. Sometime or other. Oh, and your job depends on my liking this.

'not double spaced -- cya'

comics sans, forward to dan gilbert

plagiarized from Avery Johnson's report for Cuban from 2008

cba negosh update http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=6673181

interested to hear simmons in a diff piece say that despite what everyone thought billy hunter and the players actually pwnd the owners in the last cba - his proof, half the owners are losing money

euro league rankings in here via @sleepysabbypruiti http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ULEB_League_Rankings

summer league is already cancelled? I guess this is really going to happen :(

Cancelled it for logistical reasons - hotels, arenas, etc, had to be locked in now, and owners sure as hell aren't ponying up if it might not happen.

now i will have no box scores to look at in july ;_;

chad ford wants blindside money

http://grab.by/cBIS

heh

if chad could write like michael lewis hed prob be my fav person

more of a scoring point really

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHFi6oirwuQ

dubs would get more if they trades curry instead of monta, right? they should do that.

they could prob get a top draft pick + a dood type deal

because curry is better + $60 million cheaper than monta

yes

i dunno why they'd do that tho

lmao http://deadspin.com/5811311/every-overwrought-thing-adrian-wojnarowski-has-said-about-lebron-james

"He's the deepest, darkest swirling vortex of insanity that modern sports has ever seen."

Oh, well, that goes without saying.

making fun of woj is my favorite thing to do ever

after the ECF he said lebron left the bulls "a crumpled mess of failure" ^______________________________^

i love how it required like the longest blog post ever to excerpt it all

this sad, lost robot sat in a leafy suburban gymnasium with children as props and the world watching, those empty eyes masking a lost, dazed LeBron James.

"Greatness is demanded for a global icon. Greatness is the burden. Back to the brink for LeBron James, back to the dizzying, dumbfounding edge of his chaotic, careening planet."

dying

reads exactly like a silver surfer caption

DwyaneWade
RIP Clarence Clemons.. Great musician but a even greater person..we will miss you at the AAA

apparently he was a big heat fan

SoleCollector SoleCollector.com
03 Draft on NBATV. Jay Bilas raving about Darko: "If not for LeBron, Darko would be the #1 pick in every draft of the last 10 years."
9 minutes ago

jay billz should stand trial for that shit

lol i really wish i had nba tv today

I'd love to read more stuff written around that draft actually - like what did people say about Wade at the time? "He's pretty athletic I guess and he looks like he can score but can you really pass on Michael Sweetney?"

I'll still never be able to get Dick Vitale's rage that the Magic picked Howard over Okeafor and that they'd made a 'grave mistake'.

*to get OVER, that is

lots of ppl thought that -- i think ppl were still reeling from kwame brown

He did get heat in the press* for that comment tho

*the Orlando press that nobody reads

After 58 picks and several trades Thursday night, ESPN Insider Chad Ford handed out his draft-night grades:

Atlanta Hawks
Round 1: Boris Diaw, SG, France (No. 21)
Round 2: Travis Hansen, G, BYU (No. 37)
This was the best draft the Hawks have had in some time. They got the guy who could turn into the perfect complement to Jason Terry in Boris Diaw. A 6-foot-9 point forward, Diaw can handle the ball while Terry lights up the scoreboard. Hansen is a solid second pick. Combine his maturity with great athleticism, strong defense and a nice shooting touch, and the Hawks found a guy who could make a major contribution to their backcourt.
Grade: A-

Boston Celtics
Round 1: Marcus Banks, G, UNLV (No. 13)
Round 1: Kendrick Perkins, C, Ozen HS (No. 27)
Round 2: Brandon Hunter, F, Ohio (No. 56)
Deals: Acquired Banks, Perkins in trade with Memphis for Troy Bell and Dahntay Jones
I promised that I'd give the Celtics an "F" if they took Banks and Perkins at No. 16 and No. 20. They traded down for Perkins and got him in a more reasonable range, so I upped the grade a bit. I like Banks' toughness and his ability to get to the basket, but I'm not sure he's that big an upgrade over J.R. Bremer. Perkins and Hunter give the Celtics plenty of beef in the paint, but both guys are undersized for what they do. In the end, I wonder if the Celtics will get any better this year because of the draft.
Grade: C

Chicago Bulls
Round 1: Kirk Hinrich, G, Kansas (No. 7)
Round 2: Mario Austin, F, Mississippi St. (No. 36)
Round 2: Tommy Smith, F, Arizona St. (No. 53)
Deals: Traded Matt Bonner (No. 45) to Toronto for future second-round pick.
The Kirk Hinrich pick is a bit of a head-scratcher. I love Hinrich, but I'm not sure how he fits with Jamal Crawford. They needed a bigger two guard who could score and defend. They passed on Mickael Pietrus, a player who could've given them that. Still, Hinrich's versatile enough to play the point and the two. He's got a sweet outside shot and he'll really push the ball. But are we in for yet another point-guard war in Chicago this year? I like Austin in the second round, though I wonder if he'll ever see the light of day behind Tyson Chandler and Eddy Curry. Tommy Smith is another nice pick in round two, though he may be nothing more than a younger version of Eddie Robinson.
Grade: B-

Cleveland Cavaliers
Round 1: LeBron James, G, St. Vincent-St. Mary HS (No. 1)
Round 2: Jason Kapono, F, UCLA (No. 31)
They get an "A" for LeBron, but I thought they really passed up on a chance to get better in the post. I think Jerome Beasley was a real sleeper here and would've been a nice complement to Carlos Boozer. Kapono will give them a nice shooter. He's the exact yin to Darius Miles' yang.
Grade: A-

Dallas Mavericks
Round 1: Josh Howard, F, Wake Forest (No. 29)
Deals: Traded Xue Yuyang (No. 57) to Denver for future second-round pick.
They got a steal with Josh Howard late in the first. He's the type of all-purpose guy who's thrived in Dallas the past few years. I'm a little surprised they left more physical post players such as Mario Austin, Zaur Pachulia and Malick Badiane on the board, but Howard is a real talent at No. 29.
Grade: B

Denver Nuggets
Round 1: Carmelo Anthony, F, Syracuse (No. 3)
Round 2: Sani Becirovic, G, Italy (No. 46)
Deals: Acquired Xue Yuyang (No. 57) from Dallas for future second-round pick.
They got the right guy at No. 3 and took a calculated risk to grab Sani Becirovic in round two. Carmelo Anthony will be a star and should give them some immediate drawing power at the box office. However, the Nuggets' job has just begun. They've got to surround Anthony with talent this summer (Yuyang doesn't count) to make this draft truly a success.
Grade: A-

Detroit Pistons
Round 1: Darko Milicic, F, Serbia-Montenegro (No. 2)
Round 1: Carlos Delfino, G, Italy (No. 25)
Round 2: Andres Gliniadakis, C, Greece (No. 58)
How many teams with the best record in their conference end up with the best big man in the draft and a draft-night steal in Carlos Delfino? By now, you know about Darko, but Delfino will also be important down the road. He's tough, a strong shooter and plays aggressive defense. He reminds me a lot of Michael Finley. He could play an immediate role on the Pistons if he stays here next year. Gliniadakis was a nice pickup at the end of the draft. He's a 7-footer who can actually play. The Pistons will leave him in Greece for a few years and bring him over when he's ready.
Grade: A+

Golden State Warriors
Round 1: Mickael Pietrus, G, France (No. 11)
Round 2: Derrick Zimmerman, G, Mississippi St. (No. 40)
I like the Pietrus pick; he was the best guy left on the board. But where does he fit? Typical Warriors. With Jason Richardson, Jiri Welsh and Mike Dunleavy already swinging between the two and three, where does Pietrus find minutes? Zimmerman was a solid second-round pick.
Grade: B-

Houston Rockets
Round 1: No pick
Round 2: Malick Badiane, F, Germany (No. 44)
The Rockets made the most of their only pick. The team knows a thing or two about African players and they believe Badiane could be a force in the paint someday. He'll probably spend the next year or two playing in Europe, but down the road he could give them a big defensive presence down low.
Grade: B+

Indiana Pacers
Round 1: No pick
Round 2: James Jones, F, Miami (No. 49)
Jones is a nice second rounder. He has size, athleticism and a sweet stroke. But do the Pacers need another small forward?
Grade: B

Los Angeles Clippers
Round 1: Chris Kaman, C, Central Michigan (No. 6)
Round 2: Sofoklis Schortsanitis, F, Greece (No. 34)
The Kaman pick makes sense at one level. They know they're going to lose Michael Olowokandi and they're pretty sure that free agents won't be flocking to sign with them. But is Kaman a good fit? He doesn't want to play there and he doesn't fit their style of play. Their second-round pick was a steal at No. 34. Will Schortsanitis replace Elton Brand if he bolts this summer? More likely, he'll head back to Greece for another year or two before trying to bruise and pummel the NBA.
Grade: B

Los Angeles Lakers
Round 1: Brian Cook, F, Illinois (No. 24)
Round 2: Luke Walton, F, Arizona
They got two very talented, veteran college players who should step right in and contribute. Cook is a good fit in the Lakers' system. He's got a lottery-pick game and if he can convince Phil Jackson to actually play him, he could replace Robert Horry. Walton is the smartest player in the draft and you know what Jackson thinks of smart players. He could end up playing point forward for the team in year one.
Grade: A-

Memphis Grizzlies
Round 1: Troy Bell, G, Boston College (No. 16)
Round 1: Dahntay Jones, G, Duke (No. 20)
Deals: Acquired Bell and Jones from Boston for Marcus Banks and Kendrick Perkins
I can't fault the Grizzlies for liking Troy Bell and Dahntay Jones. They're both proven players and great athletes who can contribute immediately. However, they gave up two first-round picks to draft, essentially, two second-round picks. I don't agree with that. I think Bell will be a nice addition if he can crack the point guard rotation. If he can't, what was the point?
Grade: C-

Miami Heat
Round 1: Dwyane Wade, G, Marquette (No. 5)
Round 2: Jerome Beasley, C, North Dakota (No. 33)
It's tough to criticize Pat Riley for passing on Lampe when 24 other teams did the same thing. Wade was the most ready to contribute now, and that was important to Riley. He should be able to step in right away and play together with Eddie Jones. The only knock on the pick is that Wade won't give them much-needed perimeter shooting. But his athleticism, defense and maturity make up for that. Beasley is a great second-round pick. He'll have to work harder than he's ever worked to play with Riley, but that effort could turn him into the steal of the second round.
Grade: A-

Milwaukee Bucks
Round 1: T.J. Ford, G, Texas (No. 8)
Round 2: Szymon Szewczyk, F, Germany (No. 35)
Deals: Traded Keith Bogans (No. 43) to Orlando for cash considerations
T. J. Ford? If Gary Payton and Sam Cassell don't come back, it could be a good pick. But with the franchise for sale, will the 6-foot point guard turn this team around? I'm just not sold. If Payton and Cassell stay, what was the point? Szymon Szewczyk is a nice player to get for future use. He'll head back to Germany, but in another year or two he could come back and be a force.
Grade: C+

Minnesota Timberwolves
Round 1: Ndudi Ebi, F, Westbury Christian HS (No. 26)
Round 2: Rick Rickert, C, Minnesota (No. 55)
The Wolves passed on some talent that could help them right now (Josh Howard, Mario Austin) to take a kid that's at least three years away. Ndudi Ebi has the upside to be worth the risk down the road. But for a team like the Wolves -- who need to make that next step in the postseason -- Ebi gives zero relief. Ditto for Rick Rickert, who already gets the official label of draft bust.
Grade: Incomplete

New Jersey Nets
Round 1: Zoran Planinic, G, Croatia (No. 22)
Deals: Traded Kyle Korver (No. 51) to Philadelphia for cash considerations
Did Byron Scott really say that the Nets had Zoran Planinic rated as the top point guard in the draft? Planinic is good, but that may be going a bit far. The great thing about Planinic is his versatility -- taking Planinic is like drafting three guys. He has the experience and the basketball skill to make an impact in year one.
Grade: A-

New York Knicks
Round 1: Mike Sweetney, F, Georgetown (No. 9)
Round 2: Maciej Lampe, F, Poland (No. 30)
Round 2: Slavko Vranes, F, Serbia-Montenegro (No. 39)
Drafting Sweetney, another undersized power forward on a team filled with them gets a C, even if we do like the Georgetown product. But landing the other guy you thought about taking at No. 9, Maciej Lampe, was a huge draft steal. I've seen Lampe play enough to know that his slide wasn't warranted. Lots of teams dropped the ball on him. If he can work out his contract issues with Real Madrid, he'll make Knicks fans happy. Slavko Vranes, at 7-foot-6, is the perfect round two gamble.
Grade: A-

New Orleans Hornets
Round 1: David West, F, Xavier (No. 18)
Round 2: James Lang, C, Central Park Christian HS (No. 48)
David West is a solid pick. He'll contribute a little in year one, get some rebounds and block some shots. He's a poor man's P.J. Brown. They didn't shoot for the moon on this pick, nor did they stick out their necks. So they get an average grade.
Grade: C+

Orlando Magic
Round 1: Reece Gaines, G, Louisville (No. 15)
Round 2: Zaur Pachulia, F, Turkey (No. 42)
Round 2: Keith Bogans, G, Kentucky (No. 43)
Deals: Acquired Bogans from Milwaukee for cash considerations.
This is the best draft the Magic have had in years. Gaines was the guy they wanted at No. 15 and he's a perfect fit in Doc Rivers' system. Landing Zaur Pachulia in round two was another big coup. Pachulia has the size and back-to-the-basket game the Magic have coveted for a while. If I'm Orlando, I do whatever it takes to get "Za-Za" over now. The quicker he starts playing in the NBA, the quicker he'll be ready to contribute. Keith Bogans was also a nice late-round pick-up. There's a pretty good chance he makes that team in Orlando.
Grade: A

Philadelphia 76ers
Round 2: Willie Green, G, Detroit (No. 41)
Round 2: Kyle Korver, F, Creighton (No. 51)
Deals: Acquired Green in trade with Seattle for Paccelis Morlende (No. 50) and cash
Kyle Korver may be one of the better shooters in the draft, but he can't create his own shoot and can't play a lick of defense.
Grade: C-

Phoenix Suns
Round 1: Zarko Cabarkaba, F, Serbia-Montenegro (No. 17)
Round 1: Leandrinho Barbosa, G, Brazil (No. 28)
Deals: Acquired Barbosa from San Antonio for a future first-round pick.
I love the Barbosa trade at the end of the first round. GM Bryan Colangelo saw him work out on Wednesday and fell in love. With Barbosa's upside, the Suns got yet another late-round steal. I'm not as high on the Cabarkapa pick. It seems to me that Brian Cook or Maciej Lampe were both better players. They passed on both to redeem a promise to Cabarkapa. Sometimes those things can be pretty painful.
Grade: B-

Portland Trail Blazers
Round 1: Travis Outlaw, F, Starkville HS (No. 23)
Round 2: Nedzad Sinanovic, C, Bosnia-Herzegovina (No. 54)
Travis Outlaw may be a lottery pick after a couple of years in school, but right now he's a second-rounder. He can't contribute and won't for years. Meanwhile, the Blazers passed on several guys (Lampe, Barbosa, Pachulia, Cook) with just as much upside.
Grade: C-

Sacramento Kings
Round 1: No pick
Round 2: No pick
They traded their only second-round pick for Darius Songailia. It was probably worth it. Sogailia had a great year on one of the best teams in Europe and should be able to step in and help the Kings next year.
Grade: B

San Antonio Spurs
Deals: Traded Leandrinho Barbosa (No. 28) to Phoenix for future first-round selection
They traded their only pick to Phoenix for a future pick.
Grade: Incomplete

Seattle SuperSonics
Round 1: Nick Collison, F, Kansas (No. 12)
Round 1: Luke Ridnour, G, Oregon (No. 14)
Round 2: Paccelis Morlende, G, France
Deals: Acquired Morlende from Philadelphia for Willie Green
The Sonics had major needs to fill at the point and at power forward. While both of their choices were solid, I think they could've done better. I would've grabbed Cook over Collison at power forward and taken Gaines over Ridnour at the point. Maybe Ridnour will be the next Steve Nash and Collison will be the next Austin Croshere. But right now, I just don't see it. Morlende is a down-the-road pick. He has talent, but he'll develop it in Europe for the next few years.
Grade: C

Toronto Raptors
Round 1: Chris Bosh, F, Georgia Tech (No. 4)
Round 2: Matt Bonner, F, Florida (No. 45)
Round 2: Remon Van de Hare, C, Spain (No. 52)
Deals: Acquired Bonner from Chicago for a future second-round pick
Bosh has the chance to be a special player. It seems like the Raptors would've been better off sending him to Seattle or somewhere else for more veteran players, however. Still, they got the right guy at No. 4. The selection of Van de Hare, a true Euro stiff in the second round, hurt their grade.
Grade: B+

Utah Jazz
Round 1: Aleksandar Pavlovic, G, Serbia-Montenegro (No. 19)
Round 2: Maurice Williams, G, Alabama (No. 47)
Pavlovic gives them the shoot-the-lights out scorer they've coveted for years. Alabama's Mo Williams was a steal in round two. Both players could end up contributing in Utah next season.
Grade: A-

Washington Wizards
Round 1: Jarvis Hayes, G, Georgia (No. 10)
Round 2: Steve Blake, G, Maryland (No. 38)
Hayes is a good shooter, but in extending Jerry Stackhouse's contract, where does he fit? Stackhouse, Larry Hughes and Juan Dixon all play the same position. As for Steve Blake? So, let's see, Blake, Dixon ... How long before Chris Wilcox and Lonny Baxter end up in a Wizards uniform? Maybe the Wiz will win the Final Four next year.
Grade: C

Awesome!

Pretty otm

so weird to think of jason kapono and lebron in the same draft class

but I guess in my mind I have kapono melded with majerle

lol @ "a true euro stiff"

Maybe Ridnour will be the next Steve Nash and Collison will be the next Austin Croshere.

white people!!

also seriously lmao @ the idea of riley being criticized for passing on maceij lampe

i think the nets write-up is the funniest

Kapono will give them a nice shooter. He's the exact yin to Darius Miles' yang.

that is true, very much in the way that greenwich, ct is the yin to compton's yang

one thing ive been wondering is like at what point is the draft knowledge best, like i feel like towards the end teams maybe over think things due to too much info workouts hype etc, if someone went back and analyzed all the mock drafts throughout out the year maybe itd turn out the best thinking abt the draft is like six months before it actually happens

that'd be kind of cool to look at. i wanted to go back and look at all the nbadraft.net player profiles from back in 2003 but it looks like they deleted them all. i remember being O_O when they updated lebron's draft profile from skinny 6'6" kid to 6'8" 240 lb. beast, probably about the time he was going into his jr. year of high school.

wonder what other high schoolers thought when they looked down the court during warmups and saw lebron in the layup line

other than "oh shit"

playing a game vs high school lebron would be an awwwwwwwwesome story

watch some old footage of him in high school - it's just not fair

i really would like to see some good footage of these star players when they were even younger, like 15-16

when i was looking for the chad ford thing i also saw a marc spears column from before the draft that talked about lebron, carmelo, bosh, and darko as the big 4 of the draft without any mention of wade. feel like he was seen as a tweener who'd play a lot of point, and so maybe wasn't quite valued as highly as the others. but no one was confusing him with mike sweetney at the time.

yeah wade was def 2nd tier at least as far as the media were concerned

btw i recall there was bron hs game where he was playing some scrubs and one of them undercut him on a rebound and he just went and sat in the stands w/his feet all up for the rest of the game like i cant risk my career w/this shit, like in the stands not on the bench, but his team was ahead by like 30 so w/e

didnt get why wade was underplayed in the media at the time. he had just singlehandedly got marquette to the final four and scored a triple double in the tournament. it seemed obvious that he was going to be a star.

iirc he wasnt really on peoples radar as far as being a top pick until the tourney so idk maybe they were suspicious or

also his age

i sometimes forget he is almost 30 :[

Draft grades are the most arrant nonsense in all of sport iirc - I can think of maybe two ever that were actually justifiable with the knowledge that the writer had at the time - the Rubo/Flynn fuckup and the time the Spurs got DeJuan Blair after 15 teams doublethunk their way out of him.

ww.youtube.com/watch?v=OCJwoEHRU_A

<3 durant's jersey!

Draft Rater: Who will be good in pros?
By John Hollinger

It's a fool's errand, but let's do it anyway.

Yep, it's time for the Draft Rater. There are inherent limitations in trying to pore through a player's statistics and project what he'll be capable of five years down the road. The things the stats don't tell us -- about his dedication, eating habits, off-court life, the system his team runs, and 10,000 other things -- badly outnumber what the stats do tell us.

Yet, surprisingly, the stats seem able to tell us quite a bit. That's the premise behind the Draft Rater, my annual data-driven guide to the draft, and this year we have better clues than ever as to how it can help us and how it can't.

To review, my Draft Rater is a regression analysis comparing 16 variables to a player's NBA player efficiency rating, using the average of their top three seasons in their first seven years as a pro. Some haven't played three seasons yet or won't ever, so we take their career PER. We've also set a PER floor of 4.0 for those who couldn't make the league, and 5.0 for those who barely made it.

I've once again rebuilt it from the bottom up this year. Along with this year's revisions, the Rater was already getting smarter every year as it got more data and more NBA results from players already drafted. As a result, we can see with greater specificity which statistics translate to the pro game and which ones don't.

Second, we've seen the particular ways in which it fails. The most obvious one is on all the squishy stuff -- character, dedication, conditioning, etc. Michael Beasley, Michael Sweetney and DeMarcus Cousins all got huge marks from the Draft Rater, but one could justify passing on them on draft day given the other red flags. Similarly, we don't have a good measure for injury-proneness either -- Curtis Borchardt, Brandan Wright and Greg Oden, take a bow.

But more particularly, in back testing this year's Draft Rater, it's become obvious where it succeeds and where it falters. To wit:

• One-and-done gives it trouble. This isn't a fatal weakness, but players who stay only one year don't give the Rater enough information to develop a reliable estimate ... especially ones who improve rapidly through their freshman season, as Derrick Rose did in his one season at Memphis. Rose still finished with a strong rating, but if we'd based it solely on the second half of his freshman season it would have been much higher.

• UCLA messes it up. For some reason, every Ben Howland product massively outperformed his estimate as a pro. This is over a period of seven years involving 13 NBA prospects, and all of them except Josh Shipp outperformed; many of them did so by wide margins. Given the consistency of the disparity, I included a "Howland" variable in this year's model. One can argue that this is a case overfitting the model to past results, so we'll see how it projects this year with Tyler Honeycutt and Malcolm Lee.

• It's way better with perimeter players. This is probably the biggest realization from looking at back data on the draft rater. Perimeter players with high ratings all become stars. All of them. The big guys? Not so much. Some of them have become superstars -- Love, Blake Griffin, Chris Bosh. Many others, however, have merely been decent players. A couple with fairly high ratings haven't been able to play at all.

I believe there are two reasons for this.

The first is off the court. Looking back, if I could tag the stats with additional variables like "doesn't like basketball," "space cadet" or "pothead," I could make the projection for big men considerably more accurate.

This isn't a factor for perimeter players because it's very difficult to have such glaring red flags and succeed as a wing or a point guard -- there are too many other people of the same size and too many skills required that can be developed with only a certain level of dedication.

For big men it's a different game, however, especially at the college level. The biggest and most athletic ones can dominate the glass and shoot 65 percent on dunks and layups without developing much of anything else in the way of basketball skills.

Top-rated point guards, 2002-2011
Player Rate
Chris Paul 15.28
Kyrie Irving 15.21
Jordan Farmar 14.80
Jrue Holiday 14.04
T.J. Ford 13.65
Jay Williams 13.38
Russell Westbrook 13.24
Mike Conley 13.07
Jameer Nelson 13.05
Derrick Rose 12.99
John Wall 12.89

Second, I believe the stats translate better for perimeter players because it's very hard to get true one-on-one post-up chances at the college level, but this is a major part of the diet for most NBA big men -- especially the ones that are drafted in the lottery. So for perimeter players, the college stats are a much more apples-to-apples translation.

• It skews higher for big men. This, in retrospect, is not a "problem" as much as something to keep in mind. In any draft, most of the early picks are big men, and there's a good reason for this -- first because size is rare, and second because bigs in general have a greater disparity between good and bad.

Second, historically power forwards have had the easiest time racking up a solid PER, and most of the big men on the board on draft day are power forwards rather than centers. As a result, in any given season there will be more highly rated bigs than perimeter players.

So, to review, it ain't perfect. But we can still learn a ton from it. Let's take a look at this year's Rater and see what it says about the top college prospects:

Kyrie Irving is the one sure thing
If I had to put my money on one player in the draft becoming a star, it would be Kyrie Irving.

OK, no shock there.

But here's the logic -- Irving's rating of 15.12 is the best of any perimeter player. While he compiled that in just 312 minutes, his low minute total actually hurts him in the Draft Rater (minutes played are a positive indicator of future success). And he's in pretty exclusive company. The other perimeter players to post a rating of more than 15 all became stars -- since 2002, the six perimeter players to do so are Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant, Dwyane Wade, Danny Granger and Rudy Gay. Based on those comparables, I like my chances if I'm Cleveland.

Two more perimeter players to like
If I had to peg two other perimeter players that I would guarantee to at least become solid rotation players, it would be Kemba Walker and Kawhi Leonard. While this year's draft doesn't project to have a lot of star talent at the perimeter positions, Walker and Leonard are the two who rate above 12 -- which, historically, has been a guarantee of at least being decent.

Of the 13 point guards to rate above 12, the list includes Paul, Jordan Farmar, T.J. Ford, Jay Williams, Russell Westbrook, Mike Conley, Jameer Nelson, Derrick Rose, John Wall, Frank Williams, Ty Lawson, Ray Felton and Darren Collison. Jay Williams had a bad injury, of course, but of those 12 only Frank Williams couldn't play. The others were all decent-to-great, which means Walker, at 12.75, looks fairly bust-proof.

Similarly, of the 14 wings to rate better than 12, the list includes Durant, Wade, Anthony, Granger, Gay, Luol Deng, Josh Childress, Mike Dunleavy, Dajuan Wagner, Rashad McCants, Evan Turner, Delonte West, Caron Butler and Ben Gordon. Only Wagner and McCants failed, and each pretty clearly had NBA talent. So Leonard, at 13.21 with no injury or character red flags, looks like a very, very safe play.

Top 10 wings, 2002-2011
Player Rating
Kevin Durant 17.67
Dwyane Wade 17.05
Carmelo Anthony 16.63
Danny Granger 15.43
Rudy Gay 15.10
Luol Deng 14.46
Josh Childress 13.37
Kawhi Leonard 13.21
Mike Dunleavy 12.95
Dajuan Wagner 12.72

The mystery man
Tyler Honeycutt of UCLA is the player I'm most interested in watching in this draft (and this coming season). His rating of 12.56 rates him as a quality rotation player on the wing and a lottery pick.

However, much of his rating stems from the fact that he's a Howland product; eliminating that fact from the database knocked him down several pegs. Again, if we're guilty of overfitting the model to past results, he shouldn't be this high. He's projected to go late in the first round right now and could represent good value based on the overachieving history of other players from his school. Since I'm still apprehensive about the UCLA adjustment I have him 13th on my board.

Two Euros to watch
My Euroleague translations say two players in this year's draft, Jonas Valanciunas and Nikola Mirotic, would be rotation players immediately if they came to the States. Valanciunas rated higher, with a translated PER of 14.70 (albeit in limited minutes) compare to 13.66 for Mirotic. Of perhaps more importance is that Mirotic is contractually bound to stay in Europe for a few more years. He'd be a top-10 pick on my board if it weren't for that; as it is, I've dropped him behind all the players I consider relatively safe bets.

Translated PER from Euroleague games
Player Rating
Jonas Valanciunas 14.70
Giorgi Shermadini 14.63
Nikola Mirotic 13.66
Jan Vesely 10.72
Bojan Bogdanovic 10.40

The other top European prospect, Czech forward Jan Vesely, doesn't grade out nearly as well. His first-year PER translates to 10.72; while one supposes he would improve further from that point given his youth and athleticism, it still makes him somewhere south of a sure thing. I've listed him as a top-20 pick based on potential and the general weakness of this draft, but taking him in the top five or 10 would be a mistake.

Two other internationals who warrant mentioning are Giorgi Shermadini and Bojan Bogdanovic. Shermadini, a 7-footer from the Republic of Georgia, forecasts as a sleeper with a 14.63 translated PER; however, he played in just 249 minutes, so we should take that with a grain of salt. He's an intriguing second-round play nonetheless. Bogdanovic is a more traditional second-round hopeful -- probably not good enough to play in the NBA now, but maybe he improves on somebody else's dime over the next few years.

No numbers here
There are four international men of mystery in this draft who did not play in the Euroleague last season and thus have no translated stats for me to discuss: Bismack Biyombo, Enes Kanter, Donatas Motiejunas, and Davis Bertans.

Fortunately, I've seen all four at the Hoop Summit the past two seasons. Biyombo has scouts worried because he can't shoot at all, but he's a dominating defensive force in the paint; at the absolute worst he's going to be better than Ekpe Udoh. I slotted him 11th on my board, behind all the players the Draft Rater is really gung-ho about. He's going to be a rotation player based on defense and rebounding alone; the question is if he can finish enough plays at the basket to start.

Kanter is sort of the anti-Biyombo; He's not much of an athlete and will be suspect at the defensive end, but has such a high skill level offensively that he's going to score relatively easily. A good comparable might be fellow Turk Mehmet Okur, except Kanter is probably more skilled with the ball.

Motiejunas and Bertans are worthwhile choices later in the first round; each is high on skill but suspect in terms of strength and athleticism. An American who was last seen in Japan, Jeremy Tyler, falls into the same category.

Two point guards on the fence
Brandon Knight could go as high as the third pick, while Jimmer Fredette is also a likely lottery selection. Draft Rater is pretty lukewarm on both of them. Knight rates at 10.02 and Fredette rates at 10.45; unheralded Norris Cole of Cleveland State has a better rating than both. Each projects to have a career, but probably as a third guard or marginal starter.

Draft Rater top-rated perimeter players
Player Rating
Kyrie Irving 15.14
Kawhi Leonard 13.21
Kemba Walker 12.75
Tyler Honeycutt 12.56
Jordan Hamilton 11.90
Alec Burks 11.87
Klay Thompson 10.88
Norris Cole 10.85
Jimmer Fredette 10.45
Chris Singleton 10.15
Brandon Knight 10.02
Darius Morris 9.57
Brad Wanamaker 9.57
Reggie Jackson 9.45
Damian Saunders 9.20

In Knight's case, as a one-and-done we have to acknowledge that the system hasn't rated players like him as accurately, although it has done very well with guards as a whole. Fredette has a slightly better rating in a larger body of work.

Among point guards to rate between 10 and 11, the historical comps aren't great: One All-Star (Rajon Rondo), one really good player (Kyle Lowry), several halfway decent players (Luke Ridnour, D.J. Augustin, Jerryd Bayless, Mario Chalmers), and some end-of-bench filler (Darius Washington, Marcus Banks).

I moved Knight up to 12th on my board to reflect that his one-and-done status may result in his being undervalued; on sheer rating he'd be in the 20s. Fredette I've left at 19 ... two spots behind Cole.

Guards who don't make the cut
Probably the most suspect candidate, according to Draft Rater, is Marshon Brooks; his 7.88 rating was 27th among perimeter players. The Providence guard put up huge stats, but his average is hugely padded by two factors: First, the Friars played the fastest pace of any major Division I team; second, Brooks played nearly every minute of every game, averaging 36.5 per game -- remember, they play only 40 in college. Let all the air out and his numbers look a lot more ordinary -- his usage rate, which is his most alluring stat, ranks only ninth among prospects. Given his age (22 and five months) and his relative inefficiency, I'm not sure there's a ton to see here. Draft Rater sees him as a second rounder.

Kansas' Josh Selby rated even worse -- 7.69, 30th among perimeter players. I moved him up my board a bit to account for his one-and-done status, but his raw numbers were rather poor. In particular, a point guard with a -1.11 pure point rating should send talent evaluators shrieking. It was easily the worst of any point guard prospect, and worse than all but five wings as well.

The big man conundrum
As I noted above, the Draft Rater has been really solid on perimeter players. On interior players, the results have been a bit more scattered. The problem has been "false positives." It has picked out all the guys who could play; it has just picked out a lot of other guys a long with them.

Top rated bigs, 2002-2011
Player Rating
Kevin Love 20.78
Michael Beasley 18.36
Greg Oden 17.69
Tyrus Thomas 17.25
Blake Griffin 17.14
Andrew Bogut 16.90
DeMarcus Cousins 16.86
Michael Sweetney 16.70
Tristan Thompson 16.21
Curtis Borchardt 16.01
Derrick Williams 15.97
Greg Monroe 15.77
Jared Jeffries 15.65
Chris Bosh 15.57
Derrick Favors 15.51

For that reason, we want to tread a little more carefully with the frontcourt players. However, two players in particular warrant our attention: Tristan Thompson and Derrick Williams.

Thompson and Williams had the highest ratings of any player in the Draft Rater this year, and while that doesn't come with the same assurances it does for Kyrie Irving, they both appear to be very solid prospects. Of the 13 players who rated at 15.5 or above in previous iterations, most were very successful as pros, and the ones that weren't tended to fail due to injuries and lack of professionalism -- issues that shouldn't be factors for Thompson and Williams. The one true miss was Jared Jeffries.

The other strong frontcourt prospect is Tobias Harris of Tennessee with a rating of 14.83. Of the 19 big men to rate between 13.5 and 15.5, a few were dogs, but two became All-Stars (Al Horford and Carlos Boozer) and most became quality players.

Things start getting more iffy at the next level, where we get into the Jon Leuers and Nikola Vucevicses. Also included in that group is unheralded Greg Smith from Fresno State, who could end up as a second-round steal.

Draft Rater: Top-rated big men
Player Rating
Tristan Thompson 16.21
Derrick Williams 15.97
Tobias Harris 14.83
Jon Leuer 13.47
Nikola Vucevic 13.32
Greg Smith 12.93
Jordan Williams 11.87
Rick Jackson 11.65
JaJuan Johnson 11.54
Malcolm Thomas 11.29
Marcus Morris 10.93
Matt Howard 10.49
Trey Thompkins 10.44
Kenneth Faried 10.25
Jamie Skeen 10.17
Markieff Morris 10.03
Justin Harper 9.58

Big men who rated between 12 and 14, as those three did, have been a mixed bag: Nearly all had careers and some were very good, but several were career backups and a few were just flat-out bad. Of the 29, two became All-Stars (LaMarcus Aldridge and David West), and 15 of the 29 became top-eight rotation players.

Similarly, those who rated between 11 and 12 -- as Malcolm Thomas, Jordan Williams, Rick Jackson and JaJuan Johnson do -- were very much a mixed bag. The takeaway here is to put more credence on scouting reports with players in this range; I've done that on my draft board. Lacking strong evidence one way or the other in this range, we'll go with the subjective opinions.

At the back end, two players who rate surprisingly weak are Marcus and Markieff Morris of Kansas. Historically, big men who rate between 10 and 11 are career backups. Of the 23 who did so, only David Lee became a star; five others became top-eight rotation players, and the rest were bench filler or didn't make the league at all. Based on that information, they're late first- or early second-round selections. On my board, I have the Morrises ahead of the other players in the 10-12 range, but it's tough to justify putting them ahead of similarly rated perimeter players.

Summing it up
Which takes us to the final step -- my draft board. Based on all the information from Draft Rater, the projections of the Europeans, what I've seen in the past three Hoop Summits, and using the general consensus of draftniks as a tie-breaker with the close calls, here's how my board of the top 60 looks.

But first, if you're looking for the CliffsNotes version of my Draft Rater, here are the five big takeaways:

• Marshon Brooks, Josh Selby and the two Morrises appear overvalued.
• Brandon Knight, Jimmer Fredette and Jan Vesely are overvalued, but not as strongly.
• Kyrie Irving and Derrick Williams are, rightly, the top two players on the board.
• Tristan Thompson and Tobias Harris are undervalued.
• Jon Leuer, Norris Cole and Greg Smith are your sleepers.

And now, my top 60 heading into Wednesday:

My board
1. Kyrie Irving
2. Derrick Williams
3. Tristan Thompson
4. Jonas Valuncianas
5. Kawhi Leonard
6. Enes Kanter
7. Kemba Walker
8. Tobias Harris
9. Alec Burks
10. Jordan Hamilton
11. Bismack Biyombo
12. Brandon Knight
13. Tyler Honeycutt
14. Jon Leuer
15. Nikola Vucevic
16. Chris Singleton
17. Jan Vesely
18. Klay Thompson
19. Norris Cole
20. Iman Shumpert
21. Nikola Mirotic
22. Jimmer Fredette
23. Donatas Motiejunas
24. Greg Smith
25. Marcus Morris
26. JaJuan Johnson
27. Markieff Morris
28. Davis Bertans
29. Kenneth Faried
30. Jeremy Tyler
31. Jordan Williams
32. Bojan Bogdanovic
33. Darius Morris
34. Giorgi Shermadini
35. Reggie Jackson
36. Rick Jackson
37. Brad Wanamaker
38. Damian Saunders
39. Nolan Smith
40. Malcolm Thomas
41. Travis Leslie
42. Trey Thompkins
43. Malcolm Lee
44. Charles Jenkins
45. Cory Joseph
46. E'Twaun Moore
47. Josh Selby
48. Jacob Pullen
49. Justin Harper
50. Jimmy Butler
51. Matt Howard
52. Jamie Skeen
53. Jereme Richmond
54. Keith Benson
55. D.J. Kennedy
56. Marshon Brooks
57. Isaiah Thomas
58. Andrew Goudelouck
59. Lavoy Allen
60. Shelvin Mack

• UCLA messes it up. For some reason, every Ben Howland product massively outperformed his estimate as a pro. This is over a period of seven years involving 13 NBA prospects, and all of them except Josh Shipp outperformed; many of them did so by wide margins. Given the consistency of the disparity, I included a "Howland" variable in this year's model. One can argue that this is a case overfitting the model to past results, so we'll see how it projects this year with Tyler Honeycutt and Malcolm Lee.

btw ucla you have some sort of horrible coach here

lol@ additional variables like "doesn't like basketball," "space cadet" or "pothead,". I factor said variables into my daily human interactions too, they're essential.

howland sort of fascinates me b/c he can use all that nba success for recruiting even if players' college numbers aren't good. and with the exception of a bad 2009-2010 season, he's been pretty successful at winning games.

http://hoopism.com/?p=2186 Top 10 NBA Draft Busts

http://i54.tinypic.com/2lbkthy.jpg

sup, dirking, brb

Oh wow that looks even better irl than in the ad.

Respect.

Had somehow never seen this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woWqSmichOo&feature=player_embedded

"Darko had 'harsh things to say' after the match about the officiating..."

that Darko rant has always been one of my favorite things that occurred in all of history

lol i had never seen that.

RUMOR MILL GRINDING AWAY: ilh hero kevin love and the #2 to the lakers for pau gasol

i have absolutely no idea why the hell they would trade pau gasol

that's a dumb trade for everyone

i think it's much more defensible from minny's position

btw, a reminder 4 tomorrow night!! 2011 nba draft thread !!

draft is thursday i think?

yup

fuck, i actually meant wednesday

so i was wrong either way

loll kevin awesome xp

It makes sense for Minny but I'd hate it.

why get older when its not gonna put you over the top

yeah totally bizarre, really, is pau going to make that group a 40 win team?

also lakers trading pau would be a classic overreaction to two bad weeks on his part

rumor doesnt really pass the smell test does it

yeah feels like it was cooked up by laker radio callers with too much time on their hands

yeah totally bizarre, really, is pau going to make that group a 40 win team?

Minny doesn't have a draft pick in '12 so 30 wins is a lot better than 20 as far as management is concerned (plus Kevin Love is gonna be RFA at the end of next year and "just wants to win")

Also it's really hard to overstate how logjammed this team is at the 3/4 spot - even without drafting Derrick Williams this team has four v.recent top-10 draft picks competing for those two spots.

Yeah, but they're all terrible (except for Love)

dont talk shit abt darko, hell fuck all yr relatives

It seems silly to trade your one good guy to make room for all your shitty guys

xp (no darko)

so besides havine 4 pfs and 4 pgs what else does minny have

Wes Johnson
Corpse of Martell Webster
KAHN

a thousand lakes, as i understand it

thing is they're just not keeping love in the long run though

but yeah I think this rumor is bullshit fwiw

Warriors and team president Robert Rowell mutually agree to part ways.

If you have followed the W's at all you know that this is a good news.

Jerry West is not fucking around.

josh smith to orlando ???

yeah like that's gonna fix their team

maybe orlando can just collect every dude who i can't stand.

smith / howard would be p sik defensive front line

I was thinking that, block machines

plus smith can stretch the defense with his three point shooting lol

I don't see it as a good fit at all. As nice as it would be to have some defensive help, Smith doesn't open any space for Howard on the offensive end. You definitely don't want him chucking 3s, which would still be the MO for that Magic team unless they were able to overhaul pretty much the whole roster.

on the radio yesterday they were speculating that the celtics could be in on smith and all i was thinking about was how i would have to resist running into traffic every time he takes a jumper.

it's still so strange for me to think of josh as a pf

he's a sf who rebounds well and blocks but can't really bang on the offensive end

http://www.basketballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=1777

What the hell would Atlanta want from this Celtics team? A sign and trade for Jeff Green, who might as well be Marvin Williams Jr? The same for Big Baby? Even if the Celtics wanted him (which would surprise me) they have no pieces.

http://grab.by/cC0x

whaaa

would be very lol if they ran flynn rubio and nash

yeah im curious what orlando would be sending back too xp

What the hell would Atlanta want from this Celtics team? A sign and trade for Jeff Green, who might as well be Marvin Williams Jr? The same for Big Baby? Even if the Celtics wanted him (which would surprise me) they have no pieces.

― EZ Snappin, Wednesday, June 22, 2011 12:02 PM (58 seconds ago) Bookmark

yeah that's why it was speculation--no intelligent bball talk on radio here.

Yeah, we get WEEI up here too. Total idiots.

noo don't want nash to be traded

although my 2 fav wites would be on the same team which would be cool

apparently josh and dwight are bff irl

Warriors and team president Robert Rowell mutually agree to part ways.

If you have followed the W's at all you know that this is a good news.

Jerry West is not fucking around.

― polyphonic, Tuesday, June 21, 2011 11:24 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

^ This is the best Warriors related news since the new owners took over.

j west is an awesome gm, everything he has done so far bodes well for the warriors, and he's clearly in license-to-kill mode

btw i think kahn is just answering every call, which presumably he's getting from every team right now since they have the #2 pick, and also leaking that he's taking every call because this is his yearly moment of glory and/or infamy before his team actually takes the floor for 15 wins

in other words nash ain't goin to minny

http://blogs.thescore.com/tbj/2011/06/22/mark-cuban-files-best-legal-motion-ever

feel like kahn is on some mr smith goes to washington type tip and all the other gms are just quietly laughing at him

"a true and correct photo of one of the many victory celebrations is contained herein"

i love cubes so much

legally dirked

http://nba-point-forward.si.com/2011/06/22/ellis-defense-is-red-flag-for-interested-teams/

good article!

high octane prolific scoring shooting guard might be trouble on the defensive end, the nba has never seen a player like that before

what's your point

I just feel like in any year of the league there are always like 10 players with insane point averages but who suck in every other aspect of the game, but who get overrated by teams looking to bring in that 'missing piece'

There are plenty of examples of players who became better defenders as they aged, but I don't think Monta will be one of those guys. But it would be nice to see him paired with a SG who can play post defense against the Kobes of the world so that Monta can just be a gambler.

twolves ditching kurt rambis

after he spent all that time writing that report

kahn otm

The San Antonio Spurs and Portland Trail Blazers nearly completed a blockbuster trade on Wednesday afternoon, but the deal fell apart in the late stages. San Antonio was prepared to ship Tony Parker and the #29 pick to Portland in exchange for Andre Miller, Nicolas Batum and the #21 pick, but the trade died when the Spurs insisted that Richard Jefferson somehow be included in the deal. Other players would have been included in the trade to make salaries work. Talks have quieted for now, but they could pick back up tomorrow if one of the teams has a change of heart.

idk man whatever

haha oh and you have to take this old richard jefferson did we fair to mention that

weird

MAN

i don't know

so they really want parker out, huh?

after his traitorous comments made in france...

CBS Sports also reports that Odom and Shannon Brown were offered to Golden State for Monta Ellis and that was rejected by the Warriors.

I would take this deal too! I guess I just don't value Monta as much as other people do.

that trade would basically just be a salary dump, warriors are thinking they can get value in return, which imo is prob right, like at least a draft pick or w/e

monta & kobe would be... weird

yeah that makes zero sense i dunno

monta and kobe would be a hilarious sitcom

have you ever heard monta talk

Did I hear correctly that Ron Artest legally changed his name to World Peace? I hope twitter people are pulling my leg.

yeah ron artest is changing his name to World Peace i just i am speechless

World B. Free says, "been there, done that."

that is wonderful and awesome

god i love ron

i would like marc gasol in nyc.
pains to see the defensively challenged amaure play the 5.

It gets better, because apparently its Metta World Peace for Ron Ron.

a downgrade from World Peace imo

'metta' wow whered ron come up w/thaat

I think rockin some sanskrit makes it more awesome.

world peace alone has more aesthetic integrity imo, but metta is p awesomely left field

The Pali word metta is a multi-significant term meaning loving-kindness, friendliness, goodwill, benevolence, fellowship, amity, concord, inoffensiveness and non-violence.

all the good things we associate with ron

http://infojocks.tumblr.com/photo/1280/6492514891/1/tumblr_lmqoydNuRE1qzf8v5

lakerz dominance

why does he have to be on the lakers!

paul pierce and kevin garnett, meme factory http://ken-berger.blogs.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/11838893/30227411

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__fGE9uGYw5A/Sz_4ubdN84I/AAAAAAAABAw/TSubIAKV92E/s400/12-cool-shades-emoticon.gif

WHEN DOES NBA START

2014 iirc

:o{

DIRK

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMd7NPBSpss

i feel like dirk is still drunk

dirk is in the zooone

http://grab.by/cCgH

mightve thought abt that around this time last year bro

"Riley wants Heat 2 games better"

he shd coach them imo

Draft analysis: Spurs sharp in dealing

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By John Hollinger
ESPN.com

You want to know why the Spurs win 50 or more games every year and always have their cap situation under control, while the rest of the league scrambles and flails around them? Check out Thursday night's draft for a good example.

In a stellar trade that showed how they're always a step ahead of everyone else, the Spurs sent guard George Hill to Indiana for the rights to the 15th pick (Kawhi Leonard), the rights to the 42nd pick (Davis Bertans), and the rights to European Erazem Lorbek.

On paper, trading an established rotation player for the 15th pick in a weak draft seems like a reckless gamble, but there's a key difference between George Hill and Kawhi Leonard: their paychecks.

Hill will be a restricted free agent after the coming season, and the Spurs looked at their books and made a decision that they couldn't pay two point guards (Hill and the equally widely shopped Tony Parker) -- especially while they were also paying Manu Ginobili, Tim Duncan and Richard Jefferson and looking at a more restrictive post-lockout salary cap environment.

Leonard, meanwhile, will be on a rookie contract for the next four years, providing the Spurs with a very reasonably paid but (likely) productive player to offset the millions they're paying declining assets like Duncan.

So Hill goes now, before the Spurs have any drama over whether to extend him or risk losing him in restricted free agency next summer. San Antonio keeps its cap situation somewhat under control, and can plug James Anderson, Gary Neal, rookie Cory Joseph and whatever veteran backup point guard they sign into Hill's former minutes without losing much in the backcourt.

Meanwhile, Leonard fills a more glaring need -- a combo forward who can help them match up when opponents go small. This has been an Achilles heel of the Spurs for years, and presuming Leonard can play, he solves the problem. While he's not the classic San Antonio corner-3 shooting small forward of yore, the Spurs needed a young energizer like him.

So yes, it's a great deal for San Antonio, and it illustrates how the Spurs have stayed on top of the standings for more than a decade by staying two steps ahead of the competition. Just to emphasize that point, the Spurs also got a second-round pick in the deal and used it to nab Latvian sharpshooter Davis Bertans, who is totally unready now but likely will prove a steal when he decides to come over in a few years.

But, I should point out, Indiana didn't fare badly either. The Pacers converted a trade exception from the Troy Murphy deal into a big combo guard who will help fill the rotation -- he'll back up Darren Collison at the point and play a lot of 2, where Mike Dunleavy is a free agent and Brandon Rush is trade bait.

Meanwhile, Hill's arrival doesn't mess up Indiana's financial plans -- they can afford to pay him and he'll likely want to stay since he's from Indianapolis. And since he counts only $2 million this year against their current hoard of cap space, his arrival won't cost the Pacers anything in free agency.

It's a good example of two teams using the system to their advantage, but for me it's especially illustrative of how San Antonio has played the cap-management game so much better than most of its rivals over the past decade.

Now let's look at the rest of Thursday's trades:

Blazers and Nuggets swap point guards; Mavs get Rudy

The full damages on this deal are extensive, but it basically boils down to the Blazers trading Andre Miller to Denver for Raymond Felton. The nitty-gritty: Portland sends Miller to Denver and Rudy Fernandez and the rights to Finnish guard Petteri Koponen to Dallas; Dallas sends the No. 26 pick (Jordan Hamilton) to Denver and the No. 57 pick to Portland; Denver sends Felton to Portland.

The Felton-Miller trade is a rarity: It's almost entirely about basketball. The two have virtually identically contracts that both expire after this season. Portland gets eight years younger at the point guard spot, although Felton looked very heavy by the end of last season and really needs to get that potbelly under control if he's going to continue playing at his current level.

The two were roughly equal as players a year ago, but each fits better in the other team's system -- Miller's lack of shooting was a real problem in Portland but shouldn't be an issue on an up-tempo Denver team that has a lot of bombers, while Felton bristled as a backup in Denver but will be a full-time starter with the Blazers.

The Blazers lose Fernandez in the swap, which leaves a dent, but with Greg Oden potentially returning at the center spot and LaMarcus Aldridge on the other block, Portland needs a point guard who can make a jump shot. Felton isn't the best in this category, but compared to Miller, he looks like Steve Kerr. He's a better defender than Miller, too.

Portland also drafted Nolan Smith in the first round, who presumably will be the backup point guard and can pair with Felton in the backcourt -- Smith and Elliot Williams, who missed last year with knee surgery, should fill the void left by Rudy's departure.

For Denver, Miller is probably going to come off the bench behind Ty Lawson, although I strongly suspect that the Nuggets may try to flip Miller for assets at the trade deadline. He was beloved in Denver in his last stint and will thrive in the Nuggets' up-tempo style, and they get a considerable asset in the No. 26 pick, Jordan Hamilton, as well. Hamilton can really stroke it, and will likely fill free agent J.R. Smith's role as a source of 3-pointers, questionable shot selection and bad body language off the bench.

For the world champion Mavs (yes, I'm still getting used to this too), this trade basically boils down to getting a low-salaried player to fill some likely free-agent vacancies. The Mavs could have done the same with pick No. 26, but Fernandez is a sure bet to contribute right away in a known role and I suspect he'll be better in Dallas' more open, faster-paced system than he was in Portland's grinding approach. Given that Caron Butler, J.J. Barea and DeShawn Stevenson are free agents, it was a good proactive step for Dallas. Koponen is likely a throwaway but could help Dallas when the franchise needs to tear this all down in two years or so.

Minnesota's cascading trade

The Timberwolves started the night with the 20th pick in the draft and Jonny Flynn. At the end of the draft they had Brad Miller, a likely late first-rounder from Memphis in 2013, two future second-rounders, the 43rd pick (Malcolm Lee), and a whole mess of cash that was included in four separate transactions involving Chicago, Miami, New Jersey and Houston. The Wolves traded down in slow motion -- from 20th to 23rd to 28th to 31st to selling the pick entirely -- and got paid at each step.

Houston got No. 20 from Minnesota (Lithuanian big man Donatas Motiejunas) along with Flynn in return for Brad Miller, picks No. 23 and No. 38 and the future first-rounder from Memphis. (That pick, incidentally, is more protected than Fort Knox -- it will never be in the top 14. It's top-14 protected in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016; at that point it downgrades to a second-rounder.)

Cash-wise the deal is nearly neutral -- Flynn makes less, but insurance will likely pick up a chunk of Miller's contract (Miller had microfracture surgery in the offseason). The interesting part is that the Rockets included a future first-rounder in the deal, which indicates some value was placed on Flynn despite his horrid play last season.

Obviously, the value for Houston depends on getting something out of Flynn (either in trade or on the court) and how Motiejunas develops. But look at it this way -- it would have cost the Rockets $3 million to salary-dump Miller, which is also the going rate for a late first-rounder. They basically gave Minnesota a late first-rounder to dump Miller instead, and now have a wild card with Flynn. Maybe he develops and maybe he stays terrible. But Houston doesn't really lose anything by giving it a whirl.

For a 22-year-old who had a fairly solid rookie season at age 20? I'd say that's a pretty fair gamble to take, and another cagey move by the Rockets as they build for the post-Yao era.

But back to the Wolves. Having traded down to No. 23, they traded down again by sending the pick to Chicago, who made a phenomenal Eurostash pick with Montenegrin forward Nikola Mirotic. In return, Minnesota got picks 28 and 43, and cash.

Then they deal No. 28 to Miami, who made a very strong pick with unheralded Cleveland State guard Norris Cole, and Minnesota in return got pick No. 31, a future second-rounder, and cash. The irony here is that the No. 28 pick was originally Miami's -- the Heat sent it to Toronto in the Chris Bosh trade, and via Toronto, Chicago, and Minnesota, it boomeranged back.

The Wolves then sent No. 31 to New Jersey, who drafted forward Bojan Bogdanovic and gave Minnesota even more cash.

And after trading for the No. 38 pick, they sold it back to Houston so the Rockets could take Chandler Parsons from Florida. Yes, more cash -- $1.5 million to be exact. One has to wonder if the Wolves were raising a slush fund to pay off soon-to-be-departed head coach Kurt Rambis.

Minnesota also got Houston's 2012 second-rounder if it lands in spots 31 to 40, which is unlikely. Finally, at No. 43, the Wolves finally used a pick, taking UCLA wing Malcolm Lee.

All of this intrigue likely filled the Wolves' coffers much more than simply selling the pick outright at the start, so bravo to Minnesota for this piece of strategy. But I'm guessing Wolves fans would have preferred a veteran or even a stash pick like Mirotic, rather than bolstering owner Glen Taylor's bank account.

Boston and New Jersey swap spots

In a fairly straightforward switcheroo, the Celtics swapped No. 25 to New Jersey for No. 27, and got a 2014 second-rounder from the Nets for their trouble.

New Jersey landed guard Marshon Brooks, while the Celtics got Purdue's defensive ace JaJuan Johnson, a player who may very well be this year's Taj Gibson.

Second-rounders change hands

• Orlando traded two future second-rounders to Cleveland for No. 32 pick Justin Harper, who fits the Magic system like a glove with his long-range shooting and general indifference to rebounding and contact. On another team, that's a liability. But as long as Dwight Howard is around, it won't matter much in Orlando.

• New York purchased the 45th pick from New Orleans and Golden State bought the 39th pick from Charlotte. Reportedly, the Knicks paid $750K for the 45th pick, and the Warriors paid $2 million for the 39th.

• The name of the night was Chukwudiebere Maduabum, who Denver picked after trading a future second-rounder to the Lakers for the 56th selection.

• Minnesota obtained the 57th pick from Portland after the Blazers got it from the Mavs, using it to draft an obscure forward named Tanguy Ngombo, who plays in Qatar. The interesting part? The whispers that Ngombo is as much as 26 years old ... which, if true, would make him ineligible for this draft.

idk how brilliant the spurs are for realizing they can't pay two point guards

actually i guess maybe compared to two thirds of the league that is brilliant

exactly

they got value for a guy who is a serviceable bench player who will most likely cash in after next season, not a bad move

btw i bought DVDs of the '84 and '98 finals from some random dude on the internet watching 84 game 1 now ^_^

how much did those cost? getting some old finals on dvd sounds fun.

i shelled out 70 bucks for them, talked the guy down from $91 - prob overpaid but it's awesome and i am bored

man mchale was a pretty insane offensive rebounder

this is so awesome fwiw

lol mcadoo jumps when he shoots his foul shots, how square

shaq and shawn marion have nothing on jamaal wilkes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_fMXG2wE5U

this lakers team is amazingly fun, they play so fucking fast it's insane

well they were called the showtime lakers!

i am lolyoung btw

i am not :(

tho i guess 84 lakers is still a few years before my time

it was literally 5 years before my time

I remember the '84 Lakers pretty vividly even though I was young.

I think my very first sports memory is watching Celtics/Rockets in the '81 Finals in a bar with my dad. I was drinking Shirley Temples and I was three years old.

agentzeroshow Gilbert A. aka Jefe
coming in to it...well yall enjoy yall sunday..i hav to go to NC today..sumbody tell JOHN WALL i want sum chicken make that happen u still
5 minutes ago

agentzeroshow Gilbert A. aka Jefe
my rookie until next season...lmaooo
6 minutes ago

lol my god

lol jan is such a pimp

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/30741/love-on-the-line-jan-vesely-kisses-free-throws

this guy's gonna be like the european darius miles

the european darius miles

(hurriedly makes the sign of the cross and mutters an oath)

This CBA proposal would work for me. Which is why no part of it will make the actual CBA:

http://www.eightpointsnineseconds.com/2011/06/the-cba-my-last-best-offer/

i hope you guys actually read that (great) hollinger piece for this gem

Hamilton can really stroke it, and will likely fill free agent J.R. Smith's role as a source of 3-pointers, questionable shot selection and bad body language off the bench.

lol i did catch that.

but there's no way he could replace JR in our hearts

http://butthegameison.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Jr-Smith-gang.jpg

MOSCOW -- Russian tycoon and New Jersey Nets basketball team owner Mikhail Prokhorov was confirmed Saturday as the new head of a Kremlin-friendly political party.

http://sports.espn.go.com/new-york/nba/news/story?id=6703288

This seems like it should be bigger news?

probably, yes

http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2011/0627/nba_ua_heatmavs_576.jpg

hahaha

left side kinda prophetic: wade lookin like he needs to be supported by the other 2 due to injury, bosh's attention off in the distance, bron focused on all the media focusing on him focusing on them focusing on him

Is that the Charlie's Angels pose of basketball or somfin

k3v k, others, I follow this dude tjhunt on youtube who posts complete games from the past:

http://www.youtube.com/user/tjhunt76

niiiiiiiiice

http://fastcache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/11/2011/06/medium_kawhi.jpg

i'm assuming kawhi is like 15"

... pause

http://i.cdn.turner.com/si/.element/img/4.0/global/swapper/201106/110628.19.jpg

aw

wkiw wade def

he'd kick it, too. (yer ass, at video games, that is)

http://fastcache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/11/2011/06/pb-110628-dirk-germany-eg-02.photoblog900.jpg

germany^

wearin some plaid shorts rolled up my sleeves no biggie

agentzeroshow Gilbert A. aka Jefe
U not happy..so since they wanna lockout..yall should lockout also..try to get those hotdog prices down..why not seat front row for 200$
3 minutes ago

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110520230419AA2Pn1T

basically the only two sane people on the internet!

skip bayless, professional troll, just snubbed lebron from his top 5 on first take, lol

Holt’s committee will meet with the negotiating committee of the National Basketball Player’s Association on Thursday, but no last-minute breakthrough is expected. Here’s the truly bad news: Once the lockout begins, the standoff is going to get nastier. According to NBA executives familiar with the league’s strategies, once the lockout is in place, the owners will push for a hard salary cap of $45 million, the elimination of guaranteed contracts and ask that the players swallow a 33 percent salary cut. The concessions made in recent weeks, including the 'flex cap' of $62 million and a guarantee of $2 billion in annual player payroll, will be off the table. If this seems certain to guarantee the loss of the entire 2011-12 season, it is because there are owners who think it is necessary for the long-term viability of the league."

rip nba, nice timing dudes

http://i1236.photobucket.com/albums/ff458/jimrat1/1123424673.gif

never forget

that seems uh super alarmist--what is it from

http://blog.mysanantonio.com/spursnation/2011/06/29/mike-monroe-it-only-gets-harder-for-owners-players/

http://sports.cbsimg.net/images/visual/whatshot/gilbert-arenas-planking-6.jpg

lol

Chris Bosh likes to go big, though. Which is why his four-day long bachelor party included a trip to see … Criss Angel. Oh, Chris.

http://www.nba.com/freeagents/2011/

this might be a really sad free agent season, but at least it has nene and a kardashian

blazers picked up odens final year

blazers also fired team doctor and hired a

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_mjtN68P-s9A/TIU5RG7dTiI/AAAAAAAAAs0/w-GcqMgSUJ0/s1600/faith.healer.jpg

well he was an unrestricted free agent if they didn't tender the qualifying offer. blazers did that, making him a restricted FA.

either way:

http://www.lotto-game.com/uploads/3/8/3/2/3832861/3359293.jpg

kahn or someone equally insane is going to offer oden big money for sure i think, and the blazers will match it and then roy and oden will be their largest contracts.

it's a smart gamble, to a price -- i mean i would prob bet that oden is yao ming pt 2 but practically the only thing that could make oden over durant look worse would be if the blazers let oden go & then he went on to play 140 games & be one of the five best centers in the nba

yao ming pt 2 is not a fair comparison, yao had a lot of productive years before he went down!

idk teams usual dont bother going after restricted free agents whove been tendered offers, due to the fact that it ties up their money for like two weeks while the other team ponders whether to match, also in this case the nba ends tomorrow and when it comes back the rules will be different so w/e

yao had some injury free years, but yeah latter yao's feet being about like oden's knees is maybe a good comparison.

xp

greg oden is not even a bill walton yet

what i mean is a potentially game changing center who physically just cannot play basketball professionally

also yao had the class not to text his dong to the world.

well at least we know one of greg odens legs works

oden put up 11/8 w/ 60% fg in 23 mins the last time he played -- that's pretty f'in good

he was like top 10 in PER that year iirc but whatever ~hollinger~

yeah and he looked totally out of sorts doing it too, like if he ever played long enough to get in a groove and learn the game hed be v good, but that will obvs never happen

& PER doesn't even take defense into account

def do feel that as bball fans we're being robbed by not being able to see oden play AT LEAST one full year healthy

his defense was p bad iirc, but it could be v good, in another dimension

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_1OMiSrEJXnY/Rw_p0marakI/AAAAAAAAEQk/ikL-gTNZZcM/s400/oden+crutch.jpg

thx for the 8.5 mil y'all

those crutches look at least 10 ft long

he was actually really pretty good man to man defender, he instincts are there and they're great, but he gambled excessively on help d and that's really what got him in trouble (fouls, looking sloppy, shattering kneecaps, etc)

oh hey let me help you out w/that defense friend *knee explodes*

lol that's kind of what happened!

tbf he was used to helping on d and doing shit like this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bM3DEzRNnA

is that the play where he broke his wrist

how did he survive that

no joke my bones actually ache when i watch greg oden move -- it's very odd

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dcXWZuTWDM

here's his last in-game injury (of course he's had microfracture on the other knee since then). basically he jumps and his knee explodes.

i was at this game and iirc documented it live on last year's ilh reg season thread :(

man, i feel bad for dude

is he gonna be ready to start the season?

i think if he gets hurt he should prob just retire

he's predicted (ha!) to come back around mid-january, j0rd

jesus christ

thats the play where the entire state of oregon went 'welp'

In other words he will be ready for the start of the season.

^welp

tbh until his name came up on the free agent articles i frankly forgot greg oden ~existed~

sorry pdxers, so sad

@STEIN_LINE_HQ: Just filed to ESPN.com: Cavaliers and Kings in advanced discussions on a J.J. Hickson-for-Omri Casspi deal - 58 seconds ago

they wouldnt move hickson for stodamire possibly putting them over the top in what maybe wouldntve turned out to not be brons last year had they won a title, now a year and a half later theyre trading him for casspi lmao

what the hell

he was an obv trade candidate after they drafted tristan thompson but lol wtf

the kings are gonna have such a weird team

cavs r the worst team they should be thrown in a burning river

also good god did the cavs ever overrate hickson like fucking crazy

haha yes they r fools

big men blowing up overnight when they get minutes isn't an unheard of phenonenon

think casspi should be named The Great Casspi

ha

what does omri casspi do? anything? did anyone watch the kings?

big men blowing up

In light of Oden's exploding knees, perhaps you could have chosen your words more delicately.

q: what's the same between the twin towers and greg odens knees

both leased office space?

Protection specifics on pick going from Kings to Cavs: Protected 1-to-14 in 2012, 1-to-13 in 2013, 1-to-12 in 2014, 1-to-10 from 2015-2017

Lockout is on, apparently.

See you next year!

FU NBA

lockdown!!

u had a good run nba, rip david stern, let's merge with the hockey threads to form ilhoopsckey

nba smh u were on such a roll

maybe stern is just hoping they'll stay locked out until wade's body full breaks down and we never have to endure a heat reign of terror ~plans within plans~

seriously though that was an incredible 3-4 season roll from the kg/pau trades all the way through dirk stealing one more for the old guys before lebron's generation (and then drose/griffin's) takes over. way 2 go league

the salad days are over. sad, really.

http://www.rotoevil.com/images/lebron_money.jpg

also good god did the cavs ever overrate hickson like fucking crazy

sorry I'm late to this but yeah like alltime most overrated by his own team shit here. kinda hard to fathom someone's stock dropping from "not for amare" to "casspi the great, yeah, sure" in 18 months.

also RIP nba, nice knowin ya

ncaa here i come D:

I can't watch college hoops. Such a bad product these days.

I bought the MLS MatchDay thing. I'm so sad I'm watching second-rate soccer.

MLS is cool but if you're in the US and have access to ESPN3 you can watch first-rate soccer from Europe on demand (i.e., not just mornings & early afternoons).

I was mentally prepared for no NFL till 2012 or beyond but not so much for this.

I'd watch ESPN3 if I had cable.

I wish the various European leagues had packages like MLS, or the NBA (RIP), or the NHL. I'd pay a few hundred bucks for La Liga, or Serie A, or Premier League, but I'm not paying that per month for crappy cable I don't want.

espn3 is an Internet thing though

http://espn3.com

espn3 is online dude!

hahah clay and i are both on the case

hi5 dude!

Not every ISP has it but many do: http://espn.go.com/espn3/affList. Also if you have access to a .edu IP address, they're all hooked up as well.

As of right now every single noteworthy league match from La Liga and Serie A this past season is still available, not the Premier League though.

man it's kinda dawning on me there's no NBA for a lllllloooong time coming and I am mega bummed :((((

ESPN3 is only available through my ISP if I have ESPN on my cable package.

I was mentally prepared for no NFL till 2012 or beyond but not so much for this.

― don't start nani, won't be nani (boxall), Thursday, June 30, 2011 5:37 PM (5 hours ago)

^^

fuuuuck

nba is assholes

whao dudes this shit is dire http://www.nba.com

You beat me by 6 seconds. Argh

locked u out

what sport should i get into? thinking about tennis

tennis is p good

I suggest Kronum:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etm54u7MA3A

tennis is v chill to watch

wish i still smoked weed. i'd crank some jams, youtube up some classic federer, get in that ~tennis zone~

really blew it not having four teams playing at once tbqh xp

went to the us open last year, it was p magical

yeah tennis is bomb duh, my 2nd favorite sport

i initially mistyped "sport" as "post"

u________u

I love tennis but fuck if I'm going to watch it when there isn't a grand slam tourney going on. Same with golf.

agentzeroshow Gilbert A. aka Jefe
i heard a owner tell a player who was making 20 million..i make 5 times ur amount a year..so what u make it pockets change to me
5 minutes ago

#math

what u make it pockets change to me

kinda interesting nba finances article: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=coon_larry&page=NBAFinancials-110630

basically the league lost money last year but probably 2/3 of the reported figure is really depreciation and stuff related to purchase of teams and not operating losses.

for posterity

http://i55.tinypic.com/ezgwb9.png

david stern has locked out the nba.com staff and is running the site himself now

wnba mvp race heating up

kinda interesting nba finances article: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=coon_larry&page=NBAFinancials-110630

basically the league lost money last year but probably 2/3 of the reported figure is really depreciation and stuff related to purchase of teams and not operating losses.

― circles, Friday, July 1, 2011 12:58 AM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

good article, the owners are being opportunistic here imo, most of the loses arent real loses and the rest can likely be explained by the fact that were still recovering formt he worst economic disaster since the depression

the rest can likely be explained by the fact that were still recovering formt he worst economic disaster since the depression

the nba cba vs the debt ceiling, which gets "fixed" first :-/

really blew it not having four teams playing at once tbqh xp

― ice cr?m, Friday, July 1, 2011 12:23 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

this is what i thought it was going to be!

I am sorry to inform you guys... but ILH may be headed into a lockout...

m bison locks every thread

ilh is not a league it is a feeling and u can't fite this feelin

so while the lockout is in effect, anybody got any good articles to explaining how nba contracts work, salary caps, mid-level exceptions, etc.

what blogs should I be following

well, isn't all that stuff still up in the air

yeah but it'd be good to have a reference point to see how things change

also I love it when dudes like polyphonic and EZ snappin casually drop knowledge about team finances and contracts right now

i had a wonderful idea: the players should just start their own league

think abt it

dayo i read this awhile ago p good in parts abt contracts, etc even tho its main thrust is gm qualities

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1720070

truehoop:

I think the union will pay right now for a huge error over the last decade. They're competing in just one country, but there's a global market out there. In theory, the union could announce next week that they are opening negotiations to send 200 players to Spain, Italy, France, Russia, Germany, Australia, Brazil, Greece -- maybe even England in advance of next summer's Olympics. But they will make no such announcement, as a group, because they are only in the business of dealing with one client, the NBA. But that doesn't mean players can't go overseas, and no one disputes NBA free agents (who will pay for being free agents now in their next, smaller deals) can head to play overseas right now if they want to. As for American players under contract, Larry Coon explains that if players want to play overseas, they need a letter from USA basketball saying it's OK. Coon: "In order to play professionally overseas, FIBA (the organizing body for international basketball) requires a Letter of Clearance from the player's national organizing body. In the case of players from the United States, that's USA Basketball. The Letter of Clearance certifies that the player is free to sign a contract -- i.e., he has no other contractual obligations that would get in the way. An NBA contract is such a contractual obligation. Lockout or not, it's still an existing contract. So on the surface, an NBA player who's under contract would not be allowed to sign in any FIBA league. NBA free agents, on the other hand, can sign wherever they'd like. But here's the rub -- we're getting into uncharted territory. FIBA has never found itself in this position before. FIBA could decide to alter or suspend its rule requiring a Letter of Clearance, or allow contracts to be signed so long as they contain language that says the contract becomes null and void immediately if the NBA lockout ends. More likely, FIBA simply would stick to its existing rule, essentially punting the problem to the national organizing bodies. These bodies (such as USA Basketball) could decide to issue a Letter of Clearance notwithstanding the NBA lockout. Or they could issue a Letter of Clearance with a specific notation about the lockout -- essentially punting the problem right back to FIBA. Finally, the NBA players could take FIBA and/or the national organizing bodies to court. The ability to block players in a lockout has never been tested through litigation, and once they're there, anything can happen."

thanks johnny have put it on IPAD

why would any nba player want to play overseas though, unless they want to eat dope turkish food

because they arent being paid stateside

although:

"Nenad Krstic enjoys a sense of security today that is about to elude many of his former NBA peers. The former Celtics [team stats] center, after signing a two-year, $9.8 million contract early in June with CSKA Moscow, is glad he found a deal early. Despite all the talk from players about playing in Europe during the lockout, Krstic believes the overseas option is vastly overrated. 'I don’t think you will see a lot coming here,' Krstic said yesterday from his home in Kraljevo, Serbia. 'Europe is not in a great situation financially. There are only four or five teams now that can offer much to NBA players, and those teams right now are almost full. That’s a problem for NBA players, I think,' he said. 'It was a reason why I had to go right away. I got maybe the best contract in Europe because of that.' Krstic also has flexibility, in the form of a player option for his second season with CSKA. ... Krstic stressed yesterday that his diminishing role under Celtics coach Doc Rivers was not the reason he signed with CSKA, and didn’t wait for a Celtics offer. The Russian team’s offer was simply too good to ignore, even if Krstic made more last season ($5.8 million) than he will in his first season with CSKA."

Scalabrine has stated that at least seven European teams have shown an interest in him and his most likely landing spot will be in Italy, where he hopes to get Italian citizenship.

http://thinkprogress.org/yglesias/2011/07/01/259378/almost-all-nba-team-owners-have-made-profitable-investments

hey dayo, larry coon's cba faq is pretty much the source on the just-expired cba. also just noticed that his day job is IT director at uc irvine. wonder if he knows ned.

dwight howard tweeted abt lebron's hairline :-]

http://twitter.com/#!/DwightHoward/status/86182323107790848

thanks circles! be a good bit of summer reading

I thought everyone knew Ned.

scalabrine is fun to say with a fake italian accent

Planking was is over:

http://twitpic.com/5jo12e

rodman!

rodding

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xdN0QQwsP1A/TH0KrkEDGpI/AAAAAAAAKb0/sVIDcgyUYR0/s400/In+Rod+We+Trust.jpg

Rodman was much watch tv.

This off season is going to be a lot deader than usual. No trades. No summer league. Basically no nuthin', unless you count snarky tweets and pics of ballers with randoms.

http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2011/0630/nba_lockout_ill2_288v.jpg

those green st patricks day unis should be locked out tbh

its a celtics alternate uni says 'boston' - its really horrible too tho, particularly the shorts

http://cdn.pimpmyspace.org/media/pms/c/k2/2o/ox/celticsalt.jpg

oh yeah haha. not a fan of those either but i initially thought it was the bull's st patricks uni, which is a ridiculous hunk of crap

http://www.jerseys-bulk.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/45/nba-basketball-chicago-bulls-derrick-rose-no-1-st-patrick-s-day-distinctive-jersey-premium-edition-_1.jpg

yeah that was my first thought too - lol those bulls unis are just like 'chicago bulls alternate boston celtics uniform'' nagl

why a team w/these on the shelf would feel the need to rip anyone off is beyond me

http://cdn3.iofferphoto.com/img3/item/573/448/86/bulls-jordan-23-red-throwback-jersey-shirt-m-l-xl-xxl-32c5a.jpg

The St. Patty's Uni's should have bad fake Gaelic like the fake Latin ones. "An Bulls" or whatever.

^i support this concept

should us 'papyrus' font too imho

All the shorts should have a fake tribal tattoo or celtic cross on the sides.

So, we are reduced to this? Talking about ugly uniforms? I weep for ILH.

i always like to talk abt ugly unis but yes ilh is in shock right now, tragedy ;_;

in a just world, I Ed be talking about a bad Knicks contract rite bat now

would be

srsly the knicks should be signing david west to a max deal right abt now

giving Chauncey an $80 million 6 year extension

they could be the greatest 4 seed of all time

;_;

I won't even know what to do with my life. I just put my direcTV membership on hold like I always do for the off-season. They asked me what date I wanted to turn it back on, and usually I say "opening tip-off for the NBA," but this time I just wept like a infant.

Somehow missed this:

http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lmydjnzDcQ1qcmnsoo1_500.png

hah

http://www.ltv7.lv/video_streams/adobe-flash-player-800kbps/

if you're fiendin'

http://lakers.ocregister.com/2011/07/01/kobe-treatments-knee-injection-body-cryotherapy/56507/

treatments that sound like they came from a comic book

http://www.zimmerusa.com/cryo_chamber.html

Kobe in two years:

http://www.forevergeek.com/wp-content/media/2011/05/han-solo-frozen-in-carbonite_3.jpg

lmao lebron's an ass

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3bUb72KzFA

alright before i get to grilling imna drop this on you all in honor of our great nation: here it is the one action that needs to happen, the thing thats so real no ones talking abt it, the BIG TRADE thatll take the nba to the next level

bron for howard

BOOOOOOOM <<<magical heat of a thousand nukes

smh dude you wouldn't have to move the camera after every single jumper if you were shooting in landscape mode, little protip 4 u XP

also hella lol at lebron going harder on that kid in a bball camp than he did on the mavs

think i'm gonna get into international play if i can find a reliable source

just got nba jam iphone game for 99 cents a couple days ago. that should hold me over til the next season maybe starts?

#tradebron #tradedwight

RT

lol

Jenni Carlson: Dancers, mascots replace players on NBA websites
http://www.newsok.com/dancers-mascots-replace-players-on-nba-websites/article/3582814?custom_click=lead_story_title

case in point: http://www.nba.com/wizards/

G-Wiz Goes Planking
Earlier this week, G-Wiz joined in the newest fad and took pictures of himself planking in and around Verizon Center. Click here to check out a photo gallery of the places G-Wiz planked which include Ted Leonsis' office and the roof of Verizon Center.

dancers are scabs, get 'em xp

*planks on top of dancers*

#tradeG-Wiz

http://i52.tinypic.com/345blfo.png

dying icey

on the real tho i feel like tha trade would suck for the magic

dwights gonna walk tho is the thing

its makes sense from so many angles, too much sense almost

heat would become an actual team w/reasonable easily understandable roles

itd be ok for everyone to like them since bron is gone

bron would be punished

orlando is the place where all overegotistical players go to die

lakers wouldnt get dwight

is the ultime blockbuster, think abt it, when has the best player ever been traded for the second best player

and the amazing thing is the team that traded the best player would get improve in the process

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpg7q9u8VCk

XD

I don't see Miami making such a big roster move this year, but if this trade became possible, they ought to consider it very, very seriously. Perhaps Wade is disenchanted enough with LeBron by now that he wouldn't complain too much about it. After all, he and LBJ are famously such good buddies.

heat w/howard would prob not ever lose a game

Howard/James trade would make more sense as a three-team deal I think. What about James to Chicago, with Boozer and a few first round picks to Orlando?

well chicago would no doubt would like that

Yeah maybe Orlando would need to get more from the deal but Boozer is a perfect Orlando player lol

ha true

d rose for bosh

haha d rose, bron and wade would be a hilarious team

the rich man's warriors

Run DLD

i think #tradebronfordwight actually came up on one of the simmon's post-finals podcasts-- def with someone actually knowledgeable-- chad ford maybe? i mean its ridiculous but amazing that it really works under the rules and seems like bron's destiny.

i mean he already broke the "reigning mvp traded" streak in place since moses malone. kinda feel like if he doesn't start getting rings he ends up as the new moses or even wilt, supremely talented and usually #1 player who ends up getting kicked around the league a few too many times

*seems like bron's destiny: to get blockbuster-traded again in a surprisingly short time if the heat don't win in the next year or two, assuming we have a next year

man this lockout sucks, i wish we were talking about a ridiculous knicks contract or a dampier buyout scenario now

icey is a genius #tradebronfordwight

http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/05/calling-foul-on-n-b-a-s-claims-of-financial-distress/#

http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/05/n-b-a-disputes-forbes-analysis-suggesting-league-is-profitable

It's nice to see someone competant with numbers disputing the 'official' nba version of league revenues. I briskly assumed their poor-mouthing was completely spurious when it began, but seeing others back this up is gratifying.

xxxp - uhhhhh, Lebron has never been traded.

he was technically traded from the cavs to miami for a second rd draft pick and a massive trade exception iirc

Ah 2 first and 2 second rounders + trade exception

Gotta Love Dirk:

Muhammed Ali’s ‘greatest’ gift to Dirk Nowitzki

RIP, Armen Gilliam. You were too young to go.

He went out doing what he loved - had a heart attack while playing hoops.

http://blogs.thescore.com/tbj/2011/07/06/the-10-best-point-guards-of-the-past-three-decades/

FORGOT ABT RONDO

my favorite shaq joint^

LOL btw

http://www.startribune.com/sports/wolves/125094624.html

whoops meant that for the t wolves thread

SebastianPruiti SebastianPruiti
Going to sleep...waking up at 5:45 because I am dumb...
6 minutes ago

http://sports.espn.go.com/new-york/nba/news/story?id=6745426

New Jersey Nets guard Deron Williams is planning to play in Turkey in the fall if the NBA lockout has not yet been settled, according to sources with knowledge of Williams' thinking.

this is legit apparently

williams & iverson the new flight bros???

haha whare u doin deron

i mean hes one of my fav players and i feel him here - dude just wants to hoop is that a crime - but hes putting a lot at risk, money is not guaranteed if he hurts himself over there

wonder if some player are doing this to fuck w/the owners heads, risk of injury has got to be killing them

Will the Russian owner guy assassinate him, yn

:o did not think about that angle

feel like he would rather just make life difficult for him so that he recognizes the error of his ways

so kobe might be getting stem cells injected into his knees? bionic man

the bean is our prototype

In the 1920s there was a brief fad among the elderly rich of having injections of lamb embryo cells, in pursuit of rejuvenation. This is analogous to the Chinese taking powdered rhino horn to increase male potency. However, if Kobe appears to have been retrofitted with leg rockets when the nba resumes play, I expect stem cells will become the therapy du jour.

well, the nba jam iphone game is on sale for 99c... it might tide me over til the season maybe starts.

have that on super nintendo ^_^

but its more satisfying beating lebron+wade+bosh than it is glen rice+harold miner+.... rony seikaly?

played it on my friends ipad the other day, did some sik dunks

u can unlock rony psychely and glen rice in nu NBA jam!!

http://lockerz.com/s/118068801

free the nba

oh i guess we don't like lockerz.com here

http://lockerz.com/s/118068801

ha...

<3 those 2

yao retired :(

:`(

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/commentary/news/story?page=wulf-110708

Aw..

Yao decided he needed all his body parts in the future. Probably a good idea.

blake looks 8 years old and klove looks cgi in that picture

also lols

oh man yao, was hoping he would want a veteran minimum with the c's

Thanks for the intermittent memories Yao.

DraftExpress Jonathan Givony
Major debate in this gym this week. TBD. RT @LOLFroglet: How would the NBA draft order be decided if there's no season because of a lockout?
23 minutes ago

rip yao :( u shit on ppl

How would the NBA draft order be decided if there's no season

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

http://a0.twimg.com/profile_images/1434529460/Cam.jpg

had to unfollow him when he started livetweeting some game b/w two rando euro countries during the fiba u-19 tourney last week

lol things about the 84 finals broadcast

-announcers explaining what a double team is
-calling quarters "periods"
-jack nicholson sittin courtside smoking a cigarette

otm

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/6768632/shaquille-oneal-joins-turner-sports-analyst

Should've stuck with Webber imo

fuck if this reduces c webb's role i'm gonna be sooo pissed

Hopefully they will reunite him with Payton at least.

jordan otm

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/Video-John-Wall-lights-up-the-NC-Pro-Am?urn=nba-wp6406

hahah love #12 - at the beginning of the vid he's all "just gotta play him hard, play him tight, hustle a lot, give 110%" and by the end he's a broken, sad little man

that's julius hodge!

who?

played at nc st

has no business guarding PGs, let alone john wall

Hodge will always be remembered for getting punched in the 'nads by Chris Paul.

sorry I didn't know who a college bust drafted 6 years ago is

he was a pretty good college player and prospect - also as someone who grew up a syracuse fan i was always bitter he chose nc st over cuse

man I dunno if I even have a college team. I guess around the area I should root for nova, but I remember getting pretty pumped for st joe's when they had jameer/delonte

temple too I guess

whoa eddie jones is a temple alum!

yeah i grew up in upstate ny so was a syracuse fan, my parents went to grad school there. tough transition to uconn tbh

DwyaneWade Just made my first move of the summer to get better next year..i got lasik on my eyes..thanks to Dr Lessner at Millennium Laser eye center
half a minute ago via Twitter for BlackBerry

interesting

maybe he'll be able to shoot threes now

maybe he'll shoot lasers like cyclops

Though He'd spell it cclyops.

lol

guess the lockout is so bad we're already resorting to sponsored tweets...either that or dwade is just a *visionary*

http://www.nba.com/spurs/110715_coyote_plank_1.html

smh, thanks d stern, this is what u hath wrought

hey m bise lookin pretty good there in that costume

deron williams officially joining turkish team

http://espn.go.com/new-york/nba/story/_/id/6774378/deron-williams-new-jersey-nets-signs-deal-play-turkey?campaign=rss&source=NBAHeadlines

nutjob

anybody remember shammgod?

http://vimeo.com/10711591

mark cuban is on bill maher tonight o_O

SHAMGOD! * executes one handed fake crossover*

heyo did yall know that the d-league is going to operate even in a lockout? ILH DLEAGUE FANTASY LEAGUE AHOY

*picks rod benson first*

lol i love kurt rambis as a player /bloggin

wow magic really choked away a couple games in this series

k3v which series u watching?

caught 1994 suns vs warriors first round a week or so ago. barkley had 56 and a perfect first quarter with something like 17 points. dude was just feelin himself and tossing in threes toward the end of the quarter, basically given them the 'come at me dog' signal

what a fuckin baller that dude was!

young c-webb and random avery johnson in that series too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RprxJNQuH2E

teh charles pwnage. he, ah, had 27 in that first

man, his jumper was really falling. also pre-braids latrell sprewell!

chuck running the break!

Video needs to be deleted from the internet imo.

Shaming my boys like that.

i'm watching '84 finals

the showtime lakers were so much fun

watched the magic and bird doc and iirc the press called magic 'tragic johnson' after that series, vilified him probably to the same extent that lebron is being vilified now

of course that's not part of the casual history anymore, and if lebron wins 6, 7, 8, e championships then it'll be interesting how his history's written

lebron "choked" in a much more passive fashion - not showing up to play, not being aggressive, etc. in game 4 of the 84 series magic had 20-11-17 i think in regulation, but turned the ball over with a dead shot clock and a chance to win the game in regulation. losing kareem to fouls didn't help either. in game 1 or 2 he inexplicably held onto the ball as time expired needing a score

Plus he already had two championships by then. Kind of wild to think with the success he had that people were riding him, but being a Boston fan I was calling him Tragic like everyone else.

do/did people generally think that the lakers were the better team? (result notwithstanding)

nb i'm only through game 4

I have no idea. I always thought the Celtics were the best team. My team goggles were in full effect as a kid.

i know the celtics win these next 2 games but the lakers are pretty clearly the better team through the first 4

This is the series where Bird called out his teammates for being a bunch of sissies (I think after game 3?) as the Lakers were far better to start.

also pre-braids latrell sprewell!

― circles, Wednesday, July 20, 2011 4:51 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

haha i remember around this time there was an article abt rising nba stars where chuck said latrelll hurt his feelings w/mean trash talking calling him a punk ass bitch after dunking on him or some such thing, he was just like thats not how you do it son

i think people considered the celtics and lakers p fairly matched which is why the rivalry is so fondly recalled, celtics won 2 of 3 in the head to head finals, lakers won 5 to the celtics 3 overall, but the c's couldve prob picked up another couple if not for some ill timed injuries and various luck issues

chuck said latrelll hurt his feelings w/mean trash talking calling him a punk ass bitch after dunking on him or some such thing, he was just like thats not how you do it son

― ice cr?m, Wednesday, July 20, 2011 6:16 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

hilarious. reading the freedarko history book last night there was a side note about the 27 point first quarter game by chuck-- that's the same game where he was yelling "put that in your commercial!" at the warriors bench after each bucket b/c of that nike commercial with webber at the barbershop talking about dunking on him with spree.

i remember that commercial so well- chuck's ass hits the camera at the end and they use that shot like three times in a row!

chuck said latrelll hurt his feelings w/mean trash talking calling him a punk ass bitch after dunking on him or some such thing, he was just like thats not how you do it son

― ice cr?m, Wednesday, July 20, 2011 6:16 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

hilarious. reading the freedarko history book last night there was a side note about the 27 point first quarter game by chuck-- that's the same game where he was yelling "put that in your commercial!" at the warriors bench after each bucket b/c of that nike commercial with webber at the barbershop talking about dunking on him with spree.

i remember that commercial so well- chuck's ass hits the camera at the end and they use that shot like three times in a row!

jesus christ how did I only hear now that lorenzen wright was murdered???

fuck that's awful

wait, that happened last year. still

http://l.yimg.com/a/p/sp/editorial_image/81/815711f0f078a995236092fe977cc868/kevin_durant_has_a_lot_of_tattoos_under_his_jersey.jpg

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

wow!!

I love that durant has the same upper body type as me except x3