Nitro

No. This is like watching the trailers starring Al Pacino with Scorsese directing, and getting Gigli. This is like going to see Packers-Patriots in week 3, and getting the backups for 80% of the starting positions on one of those teams. The money this guy probably spent more money on those tickets than 90% of people here make in like 3-4 months. There was no reason to bench all 4 of the players he did. It made it blatantly obvious his intentions.

I felt it was crazy for Stern to fine Pop 250k for resting them, but I understand this from a fan's point of view...if I was there, I would have been furious.

I know getting steroids is easy...but all steroids are not created equal. It's like finding cocaine and finding pure Colombian shit....there's a huge difference in the effect, price and route to getting each. You think Bonds was getting the crap you can cop at your local gym? Hell no.

If it's against the sport's rules, then yes, it's illegal. Just because some, even most do it, does not make it acceptable or fair-game. SHOULD it be illegal? That's a different conversation, however if it isn't allowed by the government, there is no way any league can make it legal for their athletes. And, regardless, I feel steroids should be illegal in sports...it is extremely detrimental to one's body, and what these athletes are putting in to their bodies is loosely controlled and not entirely pure most of the time. What a famous athlete has access to is also not the same as one who doesn't have the same resources, which makes it unfair as well.

This thread needs more pics.

I don't blame his defense for being the primary reason for their losing, or even the 2nd or 3rd biggest...and neither did the author of the article. I recognize he is doing a ton offensively, and as the author stated, it is historic for his age. However, he has been painfully lazy with his help defense. And there are many plays where an 80% effort would erase many easy baskets. Being the star that he is, and how much he has talked about beating his teammate's asses in practice, this crticism is within bounds.

Denver lost because of the complete disaster to end the 4th quarter with that hail mary. If you have that awful of a defensive lapse with less than a minute to go, you deserve to lose.

He mentioned this... "Here's the thing: you could make an argument that what Kobe was doing in the previous frame was acceptable, in a strong side zone type of scheme that we've seen from the Lakers before. It would be a terrible argument, because the Lakers pretty clearly don't play that scheme, but one could at least understand Kobe's concern at seeing two of the worst reputed defenders in the NBA deal with a pick and roll involving Tony Parker. But this frame shows how completely invalid that concept is, because Kobe ends up on the weak side of the ball with no intention to rotate, and his teammates have no idea what is going on (Robert Sacre eventually decided to challenge Green's shot, which obviously went in)." And from the screens, it seems like the man rotating was supposed to be Sacre, not Kobe. And either way you can't let an elite 3pt shooter like Green get a wide open 3 with no intention of defending him. The point isn't being a LeBron James type of perimeter defensive anchor with help defense...it's effort. It's making stupid, lazy plays off-ball, and consistently getting beat. Those 30pts mean a lot less if you are completely losing your man and consistently taking plays off defensively.

http://www.silverscreenandroll.com/2013/1/11/3864814/kobe-bryant-is-ruining-kobe-bryants-historic-season Interesting article. Only shows two examples, but it's something I've noticed the few recent games I've seen of the Lakers, and I know many Lakers fans feel the same.

Back in the day Mike James was that [expletive]a...a spark during the Pistons '04 run, and made a big impact on the '05 Rockets, and then was like a 20PPG scorer with Toronto.

45 They'll go on a streak at some point and get above .500, but that's it.

Of course he should be trying to average 10APG...he is playing next to one of the greatest scorers ever, arguably the best big man in the game, another former 20PPG scorer, and role players who can't create for themselves. And his shot attempts are at their lowest since 99-00...I'd say that is a sacrifice. I also haven't noticed him in as many PnR's as he has been the last decade or so, and he is definitely still letting Kobe do more ballhandling/creating than he ever let Dirk/Amare/Marion/Johnson/Carter. Even since he's came back, he isn't the kind of focal point that he was in the past, while Kobe is having his first 30pt season since the Kwame/TRASH years. So tell me, exactly who is sacrificing their game? I'd say Nash has gotten less reign then Kobe has. Oh, and I do agree Nash should be shooting more...but he, or the offense isn't best suited for him to be a spot-up 3pt specialist. He, and the majority of his teammates are best suited for him playing PnR basketball, with him creating for himself and others.

Dwight needs to change his game, offensively, because he's the weakest of the Lakers' top 3 offensive players. And IMO Nash has changed his game more than Kobe has this season. Kobe is shooting like it's 2006 despite having 3 others players who have been 18-20PPG scorers in the last few years. The team will not maximize its potential with Kobe being the primary facilitator and taking 25 shots a game. You mentioned Nash is coming off one of his worst statistical seasons of the last few years...well, so is Kobe. Bottom line is Nash has led like 7 #1 offenses in the league in his career (on 2 different teams), and he will be the guy that can get the most out of the role players. Kobe still needs plenty of PnR's/iso's himself, and Dwight should be getting more post touches, but the offense needs to run through Nash to be most effective.

Gasol still has trade value. If you can trade T-Mac post-microfracture, Arenas, Rashard Lewis, and Joe Johnson, you can trade Pau. LA might not get a lot back in return, but he still has the talent to make an impact as a center on a number of other treams. LA needs to get rid of Pau with a decent SF coming back via trade, fire D'Antoni, and sign Delonte West if he's still avaliable for the minimum. Basically the team as a whole needs to get more athletic and explosive at the 1-3.

Harden had a superstar and all-star last year...didn't make him any less of a player than he is now, just his usage wasn't as high. He needed this year to prove without a doubt he could be that #1 guy, but those other 3 guys have proven they could lead teams to the Finals as the #1 guy (and 2 of them came out with rings). So, even though Wade and Dwight aren't producing as much as in the past because of their situations, they get a certain benefit of the doubt that we couldn't give Harden last season. But as I said, I'd say Harden has had a better season than Wade and Dwight due to their health not being up to par, but I'd say Duncan has been even, if not better than Harden so far because he's producing like it's 2004, and anchoring a top 5 defense.

He's making a very compelling case this season...26/5/4 with a TS% over 60% is pretty amazing. LeBron, Durant and CP3 are ahead of him no question. All much better defenders and proven #1 options who have led their teams to deep post-season runs. Kobe this season has been slightly more productive, and this has been his most efficient season yet, so I'd put him over Harden without hesitation as well. Then comes Dwight, Wade, Duncan, and Melo. Harden has had a better season than Dwight and Wade, althgough when those two guys are healthy I'd say they make a bigger impact than Harden due to being far better on the defensive end. Duncan has probably had a better season than Harden...per36min is averaging 21/12/3 with 3 blocks, only 2 turnovers, 51% shooting, and anchoring one of the top 5 defenses in the league. As for Melo, he's probably been the more dependable, explosive scorer, and better rebounder and defender, though Harden has a huge advantage in the playmaking department. I'd call them even this season so far. So, I'd say he's been just outside the top 5, and assuming good health he gets moved down from his current 6th/7th ranking to 8th/9th.

Happy new year my bretheran.

Tarantino almost always makes exceptional films. Even if you don't like the story, over-acting or gruesome action, it's always done very well.

Oh, and it's one of the best, most perfect roles in Samuel L Jackson's career. The KKK scene is also [expletive]ing hilarious.

I saw it today. Very, very good movie, although I prefer most of his other movies over this one. It was about a half hour too long, but even at 3 hours it definitely kept my attention the entire time.

Teams are going small mostly because of the poor state of the center position. The elite centers are way too far and inbetween, and IMO only one (Dwight) is capable of being the focal point on a championship team. There are a 2nd tier of good, quality centers that can definitely be a main piece on a championship team, but the center position is so dilluted that those players are making close to max money, which is well above their actual productivity and effectiveness. Then you got solid role players making $10M a year solely because of their size. So, teams look at this, and think, "Why spend all that money on a center when I can either get a much more talented PF for the same price, or a few different pieces that will provide ultimately better productivity and depth?" Miami is a good example of this. They have wanted a legit starting center the last 3 years, but after their big 3 they have had no assets to trade for that kind of big. And there have been certain possible scenarios to attain marginal big men, but that would mean giving up depth (which is what helped cost them a title in '11) and 3pt shooting (which is what helped win them the championship last year). So, in the end, it just doesn't seem worth it to make that gamble, and since the center position is so thin league-wide, it hasn't been a fatal weakness yet. Also, certain rules and overall environment change has phased out the need, and effectiveness of true centers. With the defensive 3 second rule, shot-blocking for relatively slow-footed big men is harder to come by than in the '90's. With guards and PF's alike becoming a lot more athletic, strong and skilled, and the PnR becoming such a staple in every playbook, big men are less looked at to be big-time shot-blockers, and now need to be more proficient in the KG mold....quick traps on the PnR, being able to step out to defend quick PF's like Bosh/Griffin, and being able to make quick recoveries off of over-helping. The best defenses of the last few years have been dominant primarily because of that versatility and quickness, not from traditional shot-blocking ala the '90's.

Only caught the final 3min of the 4th and OT, but that Miller-Ray-Big 3 combo can't stop ANYTHING defensively. That one play where Bosh had his back turned to the slasher he was supposed to rotate to was ridiculous. That group would be just fine offensively with Joel or Battier in for Miller, but a million times better defensively. I'm assuming by the box score that Wade was lazy and over-helping off of Afflalo most of the game, though when things got tight down the stretch he played real good man defense and got that game-sealing steal. The [expletive] is up with his FT shooting, though? In reality his misses should have cost them the game, but Orlando doesn't have a closer to make Miami pay for those mistakes. And that Miller steal on the Hedo iso was one of the most bizarre plays I've seen all season.

Eh...I always listen to LIG, one of his most complete, re-listenable albums. It doesn't have the bangers/elite songs that some of his other albums do, but it's consistently great start to finish (minus Summer On Smash...[expletive] Swizzy).

Not having that #2 guy is what destroyed those Cavs team. The 2007 team was plain bad and many fronts, and the 09/10 editions had a one-dimensional 6th man as their 2nd scorer and playmaker. LeBron averaged 38/8/8 in the 09 ECF and they lost in 6, with 1 of their wins being a buzzer beating 3 pointers by LeBron...if that team was built perfectly around LeBron, they shouldn't have lost that series to a pretty flawed Magic team. Kidd brought a bottom-feeding Nets team to the Finals in one season, and yet Duncan won the MVP that year despite his team being a lot more capable without him than the Nets would have been without Kidd. There is no doubt Kobe was probably the most valuable player to his team that season...well, it was between he, LeBron (who was ridiculous that season as well and got his team to 49 wins I believe), and Nash. Nash's team won about 10 more games, though, he had an incredible season, and he had the storyline of leading his team that far without his 2nd option/fellow superstar by his side, and losing his 3rd option to FA (and QRich as well, who had a terrific 04-05 campaign). It's all circumstantial. Kobe had his best seasons on mid-level teams, and Shaq missed 15-20 games most of his best seasons, and had to compete with some insanely top-heavy talent...prime Jordan, Malone, Hakeem, Duncan, Kobe, T-Mac, AI, KG, Dirk, Kidd, VC, etc... Nash got his MVP's when Duncan and Shaq started declining, Wade and LeBron were still on the come-up, Kobe/AI/T-Mac were stuck on mediocre squads, etc... The narrative was also there for Nash...the first season he won he brought a lotto team to 60 wins with some crazy stats, and the 2nd season he lost his 2nd and 3rd options and still brought them to 55 wins with even better stats than his first MVP.

No Nas?!? Very disappointed in you. I'm not gonna do a top 10, but LIG and GKMC are my #1 and #2, with 1999 coming in 3rd. Some of my other favorites are 4 eva N A Day, Baby Face Killa, Jesus Piece, F&L 2, Rich Forever, Control System. Give Me My Flowers While I Can Still Smell Them.