Poe

Last year, Wade had the ball in his hands almost the entire time he was on the court. This year, O'Neal and Beasley will be expected to create their own shot, and Chalmers will be a better playmaker. Wade will still be relied on quite a bit, especially in the fourth quarter, but I think as the season progresses, he won't have to dominate the ball as much as he used to. I'm not sure if this will mean less offensive stats for him or not, though. At the end of the day, what I'm most concerned with is how many Ws the Heat can manage and how far they can go into the playoffs.

I think people are degrading Rondo's abilities because of the players that surround him. Rondo will be a great player for any team.

Well, it's hard to tell unless you actually know all of your neighbors. Cause dogs make more noise than cats since they bark, and you see your neighbors walking their dogs on the streets, while cats stay home and stay quiet.

Nice find, but looking at the Heat's, I don't think it's completely accurate. Erik still hasn't revealed who the starting 3 will be, but I suppose it's a good estimate for what it is.

This dude is really underrated as a coach. Smart and hard working. He's a key reason for the 28-win improvement last year. I expect more good things to come this year as well

(Link) Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra finding comfort zone in second season

I've seen this before. Very motivational, and it makes Kobe look like a god Honestly, though, I'd say Kobe is better overall than Jordan as individual players, but comparing Jordan with the players of his generation and Kobe to players of this generation, I'd say Jordan is better in that sense.

Tuesday, October 27th GAME OF THE WEEK Celtics @ Cavaliers (TNT)- FINISHED Points - 20 Winner: Cavaliers Leading Scorer, Celtics: Ray Allen Leading Scorer, Cavaliers: LeBron James Leading Rebounder: Rajon Rondo Leading Passer: Rajon Rondo Clippers @ Lakers (TNT)- FINISHED Points - 5 Winner: Lakers Leading Rebounder: Lamar Odom Wednesday, October 28th Hornets @ Spurs (ESPN)- FINISHED Points - 5 Winner: Spurs Leading Scorer: Manu Ginobili Jazz @ Nuggets (ESPN)- FINISHED Points - 5 Winner: Nuggets Leading Rebounder: Nene Hilario Thursday, October 29th Spurs @ Bulls (TNT)- FINISHED Points - 5 Winner: Spurs Leading Passer: Derrick Rose Nuggets @ Blazers (TNT)- FINISHED Points - 10 Winner: Nuggets Winner's FG% (within 3%): 47% Friday, October 30th Bulls @ Celtics (ESPN)- FINISHED Points - 0 Winner: Bulls Leading Scorer: John Salmons Mavericks @ Lakers (ESPN)- FINISHED Points - 0 Winner: Lakers Player with most threes made: Kobe Bryant

He'd either be a beast GM, or a turrible one..

Pure genius.

I know, lmao.

Tim Grover, 'nuff said. BTW, Daequan is more than a shooter, he's a good perimeter defender, a hard worker, and is developing into a good all-around scorer. And Chalmers is also a bit more-than-meets-the-eye. I don't think he'll start the season off with a bang, but he'll gradually turn into a legit player. Believe me, the Heat are going to surprise people this year. I think Haslem said it best: "Our motivation is that people are still counting out the Miami Heat. From what they read and watching TV, they think that teams are automatically going to be better because of the moves they made. They don't understand the game is played between the lines. So who knows how all these different moves and trades will help these teams?"

I was surprised by the scouting take on the Heat. Most people write off the other players on the team and say that it's all going to be Wade and nobody else. He recognizes the improvements to be expected from Beasley, Chalmers, and Cook. He respects what Eric Spoe does, and even understands the importance of Udonis Haslem. He's wrong about Jermaine, though. He expects him to continue his trend of 13 ppg in 50 games. He is finally healthy this year. He's not playing on one leg anymore. He is in much better shape and way more explosive than he's been in the past few down years he has had.

The best thing for the Magic is to start Ryan Anderson at the 4 to create space for Howard. They've already been doing that in preseason.

Man, the LA bench looks like they could win the championship by themselves Seriously, the LA squad looks better than ever this year. Ron looks to be on his way to getting a few triple doubles in the regular season (damn chucker). Bynum is looking fantastic averaging 20 points and 8 boards in the preseason. Off the bench, Mbenga, Powell, and Shannon have impressed this preseason. And not to mention Kobe, Pau, and Lamar are in primetime... I mean, DAMN. LA is in for a fantastic season, and getting Kobe a step closer to a Jordan-esqe six-ring career.

Alright, first game of the season, can't wait. The Heat could start off the season with a bang with a 5 straight wins. Let's see if they can make a good first impression on the Knicks. My game predictions: JO will dominate Lee, Wade will have a high scoring game (35+), UD will have 15-20 points, and Cook will catch fire from 3. This should be a high scoring game. EDIT: I change my mind on Udonis. Word is he's coming off the bench. I'm expecting Beasley to put up 20+ instead.

Great stuff, man, thanks for sharing

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/276337-2009-2010-basketball-odds-you-wont-find-anywhere-else

Man, I agreed with almost everything this dude said, especially on the bit about the Magic. Great stuff. I think the Heat will be way better than this dude thinks, though.

From the first two quotes, it just sounds like there is just a bad situation going on. Whether Jackson is the main cause of the problem still isn't clear. It could be the coaching staff and the organization that is causing Jackson to act this way. It's not too uncommon for players to demand a trade when they don't feel treated right. Kobe demanded a trade when he was stuck playing with Smush and Kwame. At the time, Kobe also had a bad image from the media for being selfish and having a big ego. After getting Pau, his legendary coach back, and the pieces he needed to be a contender once again, his bad image seemed to vanish as LA started becoming a dominant team once again. I'm sure once Jackson is on a winning squad and is in a comfortable situation, his image would change as well. I could be wrong, though. The third, from an outsider's perspective, shows him not being able to handle his emotions. I doubt calling him "young fellah" can truly make the guy flip out like that, but who knows, maybe he really is THAT sensitive. So far, I still don't see any evidence to show that Jackson's so called 'bad leadership' is truly behind the Warrior's problems. What we see and hear might just be his reaction from what is going on behind the scenes.

I wouldn't say it's impossible. I'm sure scientists can study the bone structure in each human ancestor for every 1 thousand years up to 100k years ago or so and figure out a trend to where they can figure out how we might look in the future, whatever the slight differences might be.

I wonder how we'll look in another 20k years.. I guess we'll never know, unless some scientist genius figures it out before I'm dead.

^ From what I've seen in the preseason, the Magic line up looks to be: Nelson - Carter - Lewis - Anderson - Howard.

Andersen seems to have a good chance at starting, though. The Heat's line up looks good at this point. Rio, Wade, UD, and JO are definite starters, Beasley could have the highest chance of starting at the 3 by now, but there has been no final decision made, yet. Don't be surprised to see James Jones taking the starting position by the regular season. Q-Rich and even Dorell may also still have a chance, so nothing is certain.

The way I see it, just because it isn't always Miller getting the assist, doesn't decrease the chance of the team getting the basket in each possession. You're right, though. Miller is a floor general, and his lack of 3 point shooting ability makes him less valuable playing off the ball. This is why Blake starts and Andre comes off the bench. Blake opens things up for Roy, and Andre runs the offense for the bench line up. Miller doesn't like this role, and said that he wouldn't have signed in the first place if he had known. For his sake, he'd be better off traded.