NBA Season Thread

[gingerbreadmann]

Jigga, are you implying Turkoglu was the Magic's best player? There is no way it's anyone but Dwight Howard.

Yes he is. And his statement was correct. Sans Turkoglu, the Magic probably get swept by the Cavs.

Oh and Rise Up!

Sans Howard they're not a > .500 team. I don't get what you're smoking. Howard is probably top 4 or 5 in the NBA, screw just the Magic.

[Jigga]

Jigga, are you implying Turkoglu was the Magic's best player? There is no way it's anyone but Dwight Howard.

I'm not implying it, Drew. I'm saying it as clearly as I possibly can. When I watched their games, he stood out. He was their "guy" last year. I hope Vinsanity can fill his shoes, but I ain't counting on it. Dwight Howard disappears for huge stretches and cannot really be trusted in crunch time. I hope to see him take a giant step forward and become a more complete player.

Here's the thing, y'all. Best isn't always most talented...marinate on that for a minute. (Just look at Jay Cutler in the NFL)

[crashcarson15]

Jigga, are you implying Turkoglu was the Magic's best player? There is no way it's anyone but Dwight Howard.

Yes he is. And his statement was correct. Sans Turkoglu, the Magic probably get swept by the Cavs.

Oh and Rise Up!

Sans Howard they're not a > .500 team. I don't get what you're smoking. Howard is probably top 4 or 5 in the NBA, screw just the Magic.

Some quality stuff

Jigga kinda made my point for me above.

Also here's my facebook status:

"The Cavaliers just played the Price is Right Fail Music after the Celtics got a shot clock violation. Made my day."

[dfwabel]

Jigga, are you implying Turkoglu was the Magic's best player? There is no way it's anyone but Dwight Howard.

Yes he is. And his statement was correct. Sans Turkoglu, the Magic probably get swept by the Cavs.

Oh and Rise Up!

Sans Howard they're not a > .500 team. I don't get what you're smoking. Howard is probably top 4 or 5 in the NBA, screw just the Magic.

Some quality stuff

Jigga kinda made my point for me above.

Also here's my facebook status:

"The Cavaliers just played the Price is Right Fail Music after the Celtics got a shot clock violation. Made my day."

Officially, it is called, "The Losing Horn", and here you have it!

TPIR

[dfwabel]

The TNT halftime and NFLN are rivaling to be the best highlight shows period. TNT is best with all four (AJ, C-Webb, Barkley, and Kenny), while C-Webb and Kenny are a little more loose on NBAtv. Eisen, Deion, Mooch (or Irvin) are a little more dry in terms oc humor as NBA folks love to clown their boys.

[TFoA]

From J.A. Adande:

Cavs have surrendered leads of 14, 22, 23 & 14 points in last 4 home games going back to E. Conf. Finals. Won 2 of those games, but still...

I'm not gonna say it's a blueprint, but it's basically become clear as to how to beat the Cavs: Just weather the storms because they WILL come, then do what you can when they aren't clicking. That's exactly what the Celtics did tonight.

[dfwabel]

TNT must have to hear or read sportslogos. TNT guys just talked all we are talking about.

[TFoA]

A proposal has been sent to the NBA to prevent end-of-season tanking.

The proposal by Nuggets vice president Mark Warkentien, which was recently mailed to fellow team executives as well as to NBA headquarters, calls for a mini single-elimination postseason tournament in which the Nos. 8-15 teams in each conference would play up to three games in pursuit of the eighth and final spot in the playoffs.

Under the proposal, nothing would change for the playoff teams that earn the top seven playoff spots. The No. 8 spot, however, would be up for grabs.

No. 8 would play a home game against No. 15, No. 9 would play at home against No. 14 and so on. The loser of each game would be eliminated, while each winner would advance to the next round.

At the conclusion of the mini-tournament, the playoffs would revert to the traditional format, with the winner of the No. 8 seed opposing the team with the best record in the conference.

The results of the postseason tournament would not alter the rankings of teams heading into the lottery. Even if the No. 15 team with the league's worst record went on to win the mini-tournament, and thereby qualify for the playoffs, that team would still enter the lottery with the most Ping-Pong balls and the best chance at the No. 1 pick in the draft.

The league acknowledged it received Warkentien's plan in response to an open query asking franchise executives for ideas to help maintain enthusiasm from lottery teams over the closing weeks of the season. "Make every game count," is the theme of his proposal, sources said.

"Make every game count," my ass! As long as they still have the most ping-pong balls, the No. 15 team would STILL have reason to tank AND ON TOP OF THAT still have a chance to make the playoffs if they win the mini-tournament. I hate tanking as much as the next person, but this quote sums up my opinion best:

"I don't think anyone wants to see a team win 11 games and then make the playoffs over an 82-game season," he said. "It will be interesting because it can give somebody a boxer's chance. But if you're one of the top seven or eight teams, you're going to be thinking, Why should Sacramento have a chance to make the playoffs?''

As much as I love an underdog, a team that's been at the bottom of the conference all year has no business having a chance at the playoffs. That's basically saying, "Oh, you can be terrible but if you get hot for this mini-tournament, not only will you make the playoffs, you still get the best chance at the No.1 pick! So tank away (except for the mini-tournament)!!! "

[FamousAtticus]

*The Magic are by far the deepset team in the East(if not the NBA), their 2nd string could make the playoffs in the Eastern Conference.

*The Celtics have gotten better but I think that their age will show in the 2nd half of the season.

* The Cavs I feel have actually taken a step back with the addition of Shaq. I see the East coming down to a battle between the Magic and Celtics.

*And personally I don't care about the West...LA Lakers and San Antonio Spurs will be at the top of the heap when the dust clears, with possibly Denver right there to pull an upset along the way.

*2010 NBA Finals: Re-match Magic vs Lakers...with a different outcome(that may be a biased pick, but oh well)

[The_Admiral]

If you want to prevent tanking, drop everyone down to one ping-pong ball each. However, this raises the possibility that teams in what we call NBA Hell will tank their way out of the dubious achievement that is 8th in the East, because a 1/14 shot at the top pick may be a better move than actually making the playoffs as mere cannon fodder and a guaranteed #15 pick. Face it: if you're a 7-8 seed in the NBA (and often 6), your season is just as failed as the Clippers', they just send you on one last death march before it's over.

But if tanking is of such great concern, then it's worth it to take away the increasing odds of picking first. You won't see bad teams in March making themselves even worse. What do you think?

[DustDevil61]

Ridiculous. I'd rather just see the 16 best teams make the playoffs, regardless of conference. Having the Warriors win 48 games in 2007-08 and MISS the playoffs, when sub-.500 Philadelphia and Atlanta (2 and 8 games under, respectively) make the playoffs is ludicrous. Why should we keep the best teams over the course of the season from playing each other?

[The_Admiral]

Like I said, the reality of it is that there are really only 7 or 8 teams that deserve to be in the playoffs most years. Until the league shakes itself back out, the 9th team in the West is going to be better than the 8th team in the East. Whatever. Why have conferences if you're not taking 8 from each, though?

[Saintsfan]

Surely to an extent tanking is a consequence of a draft? In any sport that uses a draft it is more beneficial to finish last rather than 1 place out of the playoffs? At least in terms of consequences. I don't know how you deal with that if you want to keep a draft where the order is related to previous performance.

But its especially a problem in basketball where 1 or 2 players really can make an immediate impact on the team and change a team from failures to contenders.

[The_Admiral]

Surely to an extent tanking is a consequence of a draft? In any sport that uses a draft it is more beneficial to finish last rather than 1 place out of the playoffs? At least in terms of consequences. I don't know how you deal with that if you want to keep a draft where the order is related to previous performance.

The NBA solved that problem: every team who doesn't get in goes into a draft lottery. It was nice and simple and fair, then they wussed out and went to this ridiculous secretive byzantine system of ping-pong balls and permutations per team and you can only rise or fall x amount of spots and so on.

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=0TgJE7C5wiU

Do it like this, just without rigging it for the Knicks, of course.

[Jigga]

*The Magic are by far the deepset team in the East(if not the NBA), their 2nd string could make the playoffs in the Eastern Conference.

*The Celtics have gotten better but I think that their age will show in the 2nd half of the season.

* The Cavs I feel have actually taken a step back with the addition of Shaq. I see the East coming down to a battle between the Magic and Celtics.

*And personally I don't care about the West...LA Lakers and San Antonio Spurs will be at the top of the heap when the dust clears, with possibly Denver right there to pull an upset along the way.

*2010 NBA Finals: Re-match Magic vs Lakers...with a different outcome(that may be a biased pick, but oh well)

The Lakers and/or Spurs' second string units would wipe the floor with the Magic bench. Just sayin'. I know you're a big-time Magic fan, and I think that's great. Any NBA fan is okay in my book, but you're a bit too biased with some of this stuff. The Magic don't get a berth to the Finals just because they made it last year. They were as embarrassed by the Lakers as they embarrassed the Cavs. We'll see what happens, but don't start planning that parade at Disneyworld just yet.

[DustDevil61]

Like I said, the reality of it is that there are really only 7 or 8 teams that deserve to be in the playoffs most years. Until the league shakes itself back out, the 9th team in the West is going to be better than the 8th team in the East. Whatever. Why have conferences if you're not taking 8 from each, though?

Honestly, I've thought that question, too. My best guess is that the conferences would still be used for scheduling purposes, and the division would best serve for post-season seeding. A division champ would be technically ranked no lower than 8 (or something to that effect), though the home-court advantage could go to 9, if the 9-seed team has a better season record than the Divison champ 8-seed, much like both the Rockets-Jazz series of 2007 and 2008.

The pairings would be 1-16, 2-15, 3-14, 4-13, 5-12, 6-11, 7-10 and 8-9 (I put them there to see how it would look). The 1-seed would still play the lowest possible ranked seed all the way to the Finals, as is the case now.

There's also a possible degree to given years this could be used. If both conferences in a given year are very near equal in strength, then you could stick with the current formula. However, as the West has been the more dominant conference in recent years, you could use the "best 16 teams" formula if there is such a large disparity between the conferences.

Maybe you could guaruntee each conference at least 6 teams or so, as you rarely see a dispartiy of more than two teams (sub-.500 Philly/Atlanta as opposed to 48-win Golden State) in a given year. Not exactly the "best 16 teams" formula, mind you, but pretty close.

If they played it by ear each year, then the league would need to decide by the All-Star Break what formula to use, as usually we know what kind of year each team is having. Then again, the "best 16 teams" might indeed be balanced out enough to bring in 8 from each conference.

Anyways, to hell with this "tank prevention." No way on earth am I going to put up with the possibility of a 20-win (or less!) team in an 82-game season managing to get into the post-season despite their record. Call the lottery their reward for sucking.

[The_Admiral]

My best guess is that the conferences would still be used for scheduling purposes, and the division would best serve for post-season seeding.

But scheduling creates records.

If both conferences in a given year are very near equal in strength, then you could stick with the current formula. However, as the West has been the more dominant conference in recent years, you could use the "best 16 teams" formula if there is such a large disparity between the conferences.

Maybe you could guaruntee each conference at least 6 teams or so, as you rarely see a dispartiy of more than two teams (sub-.500 Philly/Atlanta as opposed to 48-win Golden State) in a given year. Not exactly the "best 16 teams" formula, mind you, but pretty close.

If they played it by ear each year, then the league would need to decide by the All-Star Break what formula to use, as usually we know what kind of year each team is having. Then again, the "best 16 teams" might indeed be balanced out enough to bring in 8 from each conference.

This sounds a little like moving the goalposts to me. You can't make up the playoffs as you go.

[RyanMcD29]

The Nets-T-Wolves Game was pretty much

Bad News: Nets blew a pretty large lead in the 4th quarter

Good News: Jonny Flynnnnn

[-(dp)-]

Well, Ben Gordon's first shot as a Piston went for 4 points. Detroit's shooting guards combined for 47 of their 96 points. It shows that 2 good SGs can work well together, as long as one isn't a little girl about coming off the bench.

[TFoA]

Well, Ben Gordon's first shot as a Piston went for 4 points. Detroit's shooting guards combined for 47 of their 96 points. It shows that 2 good SGs can work well together, as long as one isn't a little girl about coming off the bench.

It also shows what a good team can do against a team like the Grizzlies.