bravenewworld

How Calipari lands "one and done" players. Im not 100% sure on what Josh Pastner has done in his career that Calipari should be dreaming of in his first year of coaching... but whatever... Pastner would not be in that situation had Calipari not been such an NCAA scumbag.

Kobe vs Lebron is the only thing that resembles a rivalry here, and its really not one just something more made up by fans and media for exposure of both players. Problem is when people consider this a rivalry they need to consider that rivalry teams are created in play off situations and these two teams do not come anywhere close to a rivalry because the Cavs cannot make it to the Finals to face the Lakers to play games that actually matter. The Lakers got better in the off-season, the Cavs got worse.... Lakers win by 15+. Lakers - 103 Cavs- 86

I dont mind the All-Star game voting. Its not a bad thing for the fans to have one thing they can vote for, and its not like the all-star games actually matter in an NBA season or for a players career for that matter. I mean we call people all-stars as a way of promoting the abilities of a player, but if that players as good as suggested then there are plenty of other ways to suggest so. Anywho, got off the subject there. I think fans voting for HOF'ers is a terrible idea for one simple reason; People are stupid. If fans had the ability to vote for a Hall of Famer in the 2004-2005 season then they would have done a "write in" vote for Lebron James. Basically if the fans vote then it becomes a popularity contest over who actually deserves to be in.

http://4gifs.com/gallery/d/137982-1/Self_alleyoop.gif

"How much does winning and the market that the player plays in effect how you value that player when it comes to rankings and what not?" Winning has a lot for me. I will always recognize a good or great player that is on a team with a losing record, but i have a hard time comparing those players to the already great players on teams with winning records. In todays NBA it is actually really hard to compose a team that should NOT be a play-off team and from what i have seen it usually comes down to the lack of leadership placed on that teams leaders. Pacers, Wizards, Memphis, Clippers are perfect example of this. According to these teams rosters, not one of them should be out of the play offs, yet year after year we see these guys keep the same basic leaders and continue to fail. I want to post more but im very tired and i need sleep.

Aye.

Lebron and Kobe are not even close. Right now LBJ does nothing more then put up good stats. He does not win titles, he is not proven as a player or leader, he has not figured out that he needs to make sacrifices in order to win. LBJ has tons of development to do before he can even start to be truly compared to Kobe because for LBJ it is not about the statistical side of the game, its about the mental side. I personally think Kevin Durant will win a title before LBJ.

I was going to back up Chief on this one but it seems that he is taking it way too seriously.

Exactly.

The relationship between LBJ+KB24 in the commercials is about them being friends and competitors at the same time. This is the image that Nike is trying to send. Be nice to each other, but compete to the fullest. Which holds true to many relationships in professional and college sports. I agree with OP about LBJ not even being close to a true rivalry to KB24. But it really is Nike simply attempting to create something that is not there and also an attempt to recreate the Bird - Magic - Jordan rivalries of the 80s and early 90s. Problem is all three of those players were entirely proven and they were entirely proven year after year, unlike LBJ who has made one final in six years and continuously fails at being a true leader.

The first Granger/Oneal was not good enough for the play offs and that Oneal is at a higher level then this Oneal. heh.

My bad, i actually like the Grizzlies and should not have said "Memphis". How about... "Calipari garbage"

Well.. i really am not 100% serious when i say they could beat the Nets, but it is something i have had some conversations about and have always come to a few different conclusions. -A healthy Nets would kill KU -KU would need to be healthy and it would have to be after this season (exp means a lot), but it could be the same team. -There would probably be about a 15% chance that KU would actually beat beat the Nets. In a 7 game series the Nets would almost always win but in a random encounter KU could win. The thing that makes this so possible is the fact that there is such a high level of NBA talent on this KU roster and such a low level of NBA experience, leadership and talent on the Nets roster. And i dont think this KU team is the only squad who could pull it off. Last years UNC, the fab five, '08 KU, UConn with okafor and Ben, ect, ect, ect. There have been some pretty high level college teams that could very well defeat this really really really bad Nets team. You have to remember that most of this Nets team consists of very young players who were not top prospects. YI is very disappointing, i would have faith in Cole over Lopez, CDR is memphis garbage, Lee would be a huge exploit on the Nets part but he is not so talented to completely go off yet. I dunno, the level that Self has these KU players at is pretty ridiculous and as shown with Chalmers, Rush and Wright their game can easily translate to the NBA. But whatever, its not a very serious argument and the only reason i started suggesting it is because i work with a couple Nets fans.

For me what makes this story funnier is a day before this story was released a buddy of mine and i were talking about dirty programs and all the cheating that actually goes on in college ball (the discussion was mostly about fsu and Bobby Bowden) and our conversation came to Calipari and it eventually led to us both being very confused on how this person is not only still a head coach for the NCAA but (now) the head coach of a well respected legendary program. It really is amazing at how dirty a lot of programs are and how obvious it is to those in the NCAA. And its actually pretty easy to tell some of these programs for the layman. Rose... really? Memphis? Top recruit in the nation with a chance to go to almost ANY college of his choice and he chooses to go to a school in a piss poor conference with garbage players on it and has absolutely no ties to this school or state at all... Really? Am i to believe that money was not involved in this "transaction"? Mayo..... USC......ect.

Eh. The game was never out of our control and we can always expect our team to have a little slump in almost every game, thats true for most teams be it NCAA or NBA. Either way... i am a firm believer that this KU team is good enough to beat the Nets.

Nah. Aldrich is money, Self knows that and the rest of the team knows that. They are really working on the rest of the team and getting them prepared for the post season. The Morris twins and Henry become more and more nasty every game and that is what will get us a title, not just Coles play.

Bogut didn't have position at all. The rule about not having your feet completely set applies to natural set movements. Like lifting a left leg or maybe taking one step back with one leg, NOT a slow motion moonwalk which is what Bogut did. Final Verdict: Bogut needs to work on his flopping.

Nah. Texas is very talented but they couldn't touch us at this point in the season let alone like 15 more games down the road when Henry and Robinson will have matured their game.

Well.... Last year i thought it should have been Billups and was wrong there. This year.... Right now.... Kobe, Pierce or Durant. I say Durant because that OKC team is doing very well for how extremely young and inexperienced they are.

I kept saying that Dallas would be a top 5 team in the NBA this season and could be one of the few teams in the West who could stack up with the Lakers. This team is nasty, they are the same basic crew that went to the Finals a few years back but since then they have added 2 all stars and a couple good role players and have a roster that can potentially go 9 deep.

Me too. Harden was one of the best pick ups in the draft and his style fits the Thunder perfectly. I also think for a rookie he has solid defense and good offense, i definitely see him becoming a Manu type player.

Beasley.

Okay. And now lets consider how much Nelson's presence changes this Orlando team. What made it so this team made the finals last season? The mismatches they created because of running the ball through the 3-4-5 more so then having a control point, Alston only stepped up when absolutely needed. With Nelson on this team they become a more traditional team with a PG who may put up good numbers, but has never really came through for them. Fact is there is nothing to suggest that this team will be better with him, last time Orlando had him in the play offs they did not reach the finals, without him they did and that is because the team dynamic changed.

I understand the concept of what is going on with the SOS of NBA teams, but i just dont see how it is really relative simply because ever team does play every team. Kind of a worthless stat for professional basketball.

Better off without him. He changes the dynamic of this team for the worse.