Poe

A circus that ain't sharing any rings for the next 6 years This is fun.

Good points. If a hard cap was made, I can see the Euroleague potentially being able to offer more money than NBA teams to certain players, even some big names in the right circumstances. That's much worse than having superstars team up, which probably increases the NBA's popularity more than hurts it, actually.

You can't generalize. Everybody is different. Some women are very confident and upfront, and some men are shy and submissive.

Of course, because therefore Riley would have lost the game, and nobody would have been so butthurt about it.

I think girls in general are more shallow than guys might realize. Sure they'll talk about their knight in shining armor, and every now and then you might see a hot chick with a so-so guy, but the majority are really after the sex as much as guys are. At least generally speaking. Me personally, I find an attractive brain as important as the body, if not more important. Before I can even consider a long-term relationship, I need someone that I feel I can identify with at a mental level.

Now the talks are super-duper serious. The rest of the league is like "awww no fair". Now they gotta go cry to David Stern to make the Heat share their superstars.... so everybody's a winner! On a serious note, I suppose a hard cap would make things more fair for all teams around the league, so then owners like Mark Cuban can't pay their way into the playoffs.

I don't see Rose as a legitimate candidate for another few years or so. He's got a lot more to prove than being able to talk the talk.

Pat Riley played by the rules and won. And now they gotta change them? Please...

Nice. You say we aren't hated, then you make a hateful statement. But no, we aren't playing the victim. We're just going to make the most out of this season and the upcoming years, no matter what people say or think about it

It would have definitely mattered. The Cavs wouldn't have had all those 60-win seasons.

You have way more to thank for LeBron than to hate about him. He's done a lot for Cleveland. More than any team could have asked for out of a number one overall pick. Imagine if you got a Kwame Brown instead. Would you be talking about him as if he were a horrible team leader in the playoffs, and hating his guts for leaving?

If Bosh would not have come either, Wade would have bolted. The Heat would have been among the worst teams in the league in that case, along with Cleveland and Toronto.

Had it not been LeBron, they would have gotten either another high level talent player, or multiple players to fill other roles, so either way, they would have significantly improved over last year's 47 win team. Whether it would have been enough to be better than the Magic, I don't know actually. It depends how much the Magic will decline this year. I'm certain they wouldn't be better than Boston though, unless age is really catching up to them.

The Kings and the Knicks are two teams I'm fairly certain will make the playoffs. They have good overall talent and depth at every position. The Warriors have put some real pieces together in Lee and Wright, but they are missing some depth, and perhaps some coaching. I see the Sixers as a potential "sleeper" team. They have some talent on that team. I can see Turner and Iggy going after a low playoff seed. The Suns are another team people might sleep on. They lost Stoudemire before and that didn't stop them from making the playoffs. It's still nearly the same offensive system, they still got Steve Nash, and Hedo Turkoglu is like another Boris Diaw.

A championship contender, but not better than Boston.

Keith values Wright's defensive mentality and size on the perimeter too much to give him the same minutes as Reggie Williams. Plus Dorell is versatile enough to play up to 4 different positions, so if both Reggie and Wright play well enough, I'm sure he can find playing time for both players. I wouldn't count on him not to. In Miami, Spoelstra used him almost strictly as a defender, a spot up shooter, and in general a player that feeds off of Wade's game. He also played in a much lower tempo team and a more structured offensive system that restricted what he was allowed to do in the offense. As well as a guy who will feed off of Curry and Ellis with his high percentage spot-up shooting and timely cuts, Keith Smart plans to use Wright as a playmaker. Since both Stephen Curry and Monta Ellis are both scorer-minded players, I can see Wright playing as a point forward much more often than he did for the Heat. I expect his assist average to go much higher up, as well as his scoring and rebounding from the extra playing time and the extra possessions that comes with playing in an uptempo system. I fully expect him to be an MIP candidate. I've been waiting for this breakthrough for 6 years.

I'll say the chance are fairly slim, but not impossible. If they overachieve, the 7th seed is their highest potential this year. They'll need a better PF than Josh McRoberts or Tyler Hansbrough, for starters. There's a bit of talent, but they need more experienced players as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XPgEuTb5ZY Anthony Randolph: "I think everybody knows that he's an unbelievable player. Some of the things he does, even as a player, you'll sit there and shake your head. As a leader, he's done a great job of that. He's come in here and worked hard every day. He's talked to us young guys and helped us." Toney Douglas: "Amare's leadership is really important. Young guys like me and Gallo, we look up to that. It's the reason he's an all star." Amar'e Stoudemire: "There's not one leader. The whole team must lead." The guy is earning his respect on this team. The Knicks have a solid line up this year as well. I can see him leading this team to a low playoff spot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCgxPw5UVfM "We've been working with him on post moves. It's easy whenever you are manufacturing what's happening out there on the floor, but when you are in the game and you've got to read the defense, that's what he's struggling with. He's always going back to his one basic offensive move that he feels comfortable with and that's not always the right read. He has lots of other options and he has a lot of weapons in his arsenal. He's got to learn to trust those and just take what the defense gives him." It sounds like they plan to increase his role in the offense pretty significantly. I'm not sure if Darko can handle that, from what I'm hearing about his inability to read defenses. Rambis seems to be confident in Darko's skills as a player, though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh2v7wZdAUs&feature=sub Keith Smart: "He has some toughness. He's played in a very structured and solid environment. So that's going to lend itself to what we're trying to accomplish. I'm going to give him more opportunities than he had in the past." Stephen Curry: "[Wright] is a skilled guy. In Miami he didn't get a chance to use his skills the way I saw this week playing in pick up games. He can handle the ball, he can pass, and can definitely shoot the ball. He's a great defender." Break out year?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qhvx4T8fNxE&feature=sub "If anybody expects to see the same guy from two years ago, you're kidding yourselves because he's coming off a major injury and hasn't played a five on five for fifteen months. So I've been encouraged by just the fact he's out there... he's just going to get better." It sounds like Yao's still got quite a ways to go, but it's good to hear he's come this far. His comeback to form once the season starts will definitely be a gradual thing.

No wonder the release date got set back..... LOL.

Landry is their second best scorer at 18 ppg. He needs to start. Cousins may be their third best player this year, so he needs to start as well. It also matches up better defensively if Cousins plays center rather than power forward, plus Thompson fits better as the PF off the bench rather than the C off the bench.

That could very well happen, and on the flip side they could find a way to play well with each other. All I'm saying is to wait and see, then decide if Arenas needs to be traded if he does prove to hurt Wall's game.