Nitro

Howard has realized his potential, but in his time he led a team to the Finals as the undisputed #1 guy. He led another to the ECF. He has been the best center in the league for years now. You can use the Lakers record against Kobe as well. Do you use the 10-14 start this season over his 5 championships, including 2 as the #1 guy. No. If you get the opportunity to get Dwight, without giving up Paul or a combo of Griffin/Jordan, you do it. DeAndre is a very nice young player with a lot of potential, and I don't feel he gets near enough credit, but h simply isn't Dwight. And Bledsoe is a great young PG, but the Clippers are in win-now mode, and you are going to win a championship with Paul leading the way, not Bledsoe. In the post-season Paul will be approaching 40MPG, with Billups backing him up for spot-minutes there, and the SG locked down with guys like Billups, Crawford, Barnes, etc... It'd be great if they could keep Bledsoe in this kind of deal, but if it means getting Dwight, you take your chances. It's a lot easier to find a more long-term replacement at PG than to make a move with the roster they currently have to be a true title contender, which Dwight would make them.

My thoughts EXACTLY. If that kid goes to the hood to buy a gun he's getting robbed, beaten and left in an alley. It's really not easy to get a gun off the streets if you're not connected, trust me.

Always wanted to see the Paul/Dwight duo...they'd be disgusting together. Especially since the rest of the team is filled with explosive shooters and speed. If a package around Jordan/Bledsoe got that deal done, they'd be the title favorite IMO. I don't care about Jordan's chemistry with the team, he's nowhere near the threat that Dwight is.

Eh...he ain't 100%, but per 36min his production is basically the same as the last few years, besides 1-3 less FGA's, a worse FT% and less rebounds (which is more a result of playing alongside Gasol than anything else). I understand numbers aren't everything, but it isn't like he's too far off what he usually does. Nash will do a few things...take ballhandling duties away from Kobe, which will open things up to make the role players effective, cut turnovers and probably open things up for Dwight quite a bit. It also allows Kobe/Dwight to expend less energy on offense, and put it more towards the defensive end. A healthy Pau will do similar things. And as great as Dwight is defensively, you also need a proper system around him. SVG is a very underrated defensive coach who knew how to get guys to properly funnel players into Dwight. Remember, most of KG's Minnesota teams were middle of the pack defensively during his prime years, and it wasn't until he got into the Thibs system did he lead the top defense in the league. Up until D'Antoni was hired, Dwight's Drtg was near the best in the league...it has dropped to over 100, a number which is his highest since 05-06. I've said it before and I'll say it again...no matter what system you put around these guys, they are slow and unexplosive. A healthy Nash and Pau will make that better, but a 1-3 rotation with Nash/Kobe/MWP/Duhon/Blake and whoever else will get circles ran around them by the likes of LAC, SA, Memphis and OKC. To make matters worse, Pau is a true C playing PF, and you got the corpse of Antawn Jamison as their key bench player. As skilled as this team is, physically they just aren't up to par, and they need to make a few trades/smart FA signing (Delonte, K-Mart for instance) to get enough youth/athleticism around their core.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQR9aKj3_AE

WTF? Shame I missed that. I really should start watching more Nets games against awful teams with crazy devoted fanbases.

He lit the US up in the post in the Olympics. He's still got the skill there, even if he doesn't have explosiveness around the rim (which he never really had to begin with). Give him post opportunities and he will perform. With Pau, it's a mental thing, and it always has been.

I didn't see the game, but I heard he was defending CJ Miles most of the game, and he lit up the Lakers for like 28pts. After a great start to the season defensively, he's been pretty bad the last 2 games I saw him play, and many Laker fans who have seen this recent stretch of games seem to agree.

His legs didn't spread "a little bit." His left leg was in its regular position, with his right leg spread as far as it could go to initiate contact. When an offensive player initiates contact like that, for the purpose of deception especially, it's an offensive foul. Kobe did essentially the same thing, but instead flailed his arms for the purpose of initiating contact/deceiving refs, accidently hit Manu in the face, and got suspended for a game because of it back in 06-07.

It was an offensive foul. You see the view from the opposite baseline. Contact was completely intitiated from the leg kick. It's the same reason why the pump fake/jump into defender on jumpers is trying to be outlawed and called offensive fouls. Miami played them small and Chandler destroyed them. I think Blatche was just playing extremely well, period.

Lol this Los Angeles team is so horrifically bad right now. When Kobe scores over 40pts on good percentages and Dwight goes for like 20/20, they should NOT be losing to one of the worst teams in basketball. This is getting really embarassing. At least when Miami first got together they showed some flashes of brilliance during their 9-8 start. I understand they have injuries and got rid of 2 coaches already, but they have pretty much shown nothing so far to make anyone believe they are a true contender. They really need to do whatever it takes to put better role players around their stars...if that means trading Gasol for role players and no big names, to make them more athletic/deep/balanced, then so be it. Something NEEDS to be done, this is ridiculous.

Well...at least the greatest Net of all-time beat us -_-

Too many variables. In games he played, they had an Ortg that was 10pts better when he was on the court, and a Drtg only 1pt worse. I highly doubt there is much coorelation. Teams play different without their #1 guy on both ends of the floor. On a team like Cleveland, I'm sure they knew they weren't going to score like they would with him, so the entire team raised their intensity level defensively to compensate. Can't say for sure, though, I don't follow Cleveland.

This year he really hasn't used the post game a ton...his efficiency has really come from improved off-ball movement, team offense and a jumpshot which has really been money. He's definitely using the post more than he did in Cleveland/his 1st year in Miami, but it isn't like Jordan who literally lived in the post the 2nd 3-peat. And also, even though he's technically been listed at PF, he really hasn't played it too much. Battier, Lewis and Haslem have been taking the opposing team's PF assignments, and the best perimeter defender for the opposition is still the guy who guards LeBron. And Wade and him are still a little too similar. LeBron's just better at everything and gets far more usage, so Wade now gets less PnR's (his bread and butter), less ballhandling duty, less shot attempts (which ruins his ryhthm on nights where he goes like 3-13, where in the past he may start out the game like that but eventually catch fire and end with a respectable statline), and just less of everything. LeBron has improved on his weak areas while Wade hasn't, but his strengths and play style is still very similar to Wade's.

Seeing LeBron's start this year made me think about how ridiculously consistent the guy has been the past 2 years. So, I decided to look at his game logs, and so far this year... Number of games: 19 Games under 20pts: 0 Games under 5 rebounds: 0 Games under 5 assists: 4 Games under 47% shooting: 1 (shot 40% that game...only 3x this season has he shot below 50%) Games of at least 20/5/5: 16

As most of you know I'm a huge Game fan, so I'll definitely be checking this out. Still has one of the strongest discographies from anyone who came out post-'90's.

I've had the same pimple-like thing on my dick for over a year.. [expletive] condoms.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oj7-lzaZ9QA Take your pick. My personal favorite is the last dunk over Bradley, but he had so many ridiculous windmills and shit over the years. So underrated as a dunker.

God damn I was worried we were going to reach the Mayan apocalypse before updating this glorious topic: http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/1847089/javale1.gif

Hahahahah very true maybe I was expecting a little too much there

I was expecting more chicken wings and hennessy. Nice mix though.

Yeah...Miami really needs to get their shit together. Giving Joel Anthony more minutes is a good start as the defense has just been hideous this season. They should really sign Kenyon Martin while he's still available, he'd probably go for the minimum at this point, and he should replace Haslem. Delonte West is also available, and he'd be a big defensive (and offensive) upgrade over Cole off the bench.

Yeah, the Miami Raptors lineup is just awful. At least Wade start the 2nd to get in some kind of rythym.

That's [expletive]in bullshit...2 weeks in a row on national TV we get screwed out of seeing a real game. Oh well, at least we know Miami will play down to the talent and it'll be a close game down the stretch.

Better passer/court vision?- Kidd. This is extremely close, and when it comes strictly to passing and court vision, Rondo might get the slight nod. However, to stretch the question a bit to overall playmaking/running an offense, I give Kidd the nod. In his prime he had a better understanding of tempo, balancing out when to run and gun and when to slow things down, and I think he's better at making the right play even if it doesn't show up as an assist. Rondo tends to force things at times, which results in bad turnovers, and I don't think he is as good at letting the offense run itself (i.e- letting certain players get going offensively in iso-type situations, to get rythm; specifically, I feel too often over the years he's freezed KG out of the offense except spot-up jumpers and open dunks). Kidd just had a slightly better feel for controlling a team like few others ever have. Better Defensive player?- Kidd. Rondo is better at playing passing lanes and at times he's a very pesty man-to-man defender. However, Kidd has always been able to defend up to 3 positions, was a very good man-to-man defender in his prime, and he was also more disciplined when it came to cheating off his man and being precise on rotations. He was just smarter and more versatile on this end, although there are games where Rondo is dominant defensively. It's close. Better Rebounder?- Kidd. In the mid-00's he led the Nets in rebounding multiple years in a row (one or two years he cracked 7RPG, which is just retarded for a PG) and made them an average rebounding team despite having probably the worst rebounding center/big man rotation in the entire league. Rondo is a sensational rebounding, and I'd argue his rebounding is more productive since he can go coast-to-coast so quickly, but Kidd was the better rebounder. Better at scoring/creating own shot?]- Rondo. This one's pretty easy IMO. Rondo is far more explosive than Kidd was off the dribble, and far better at finishing at the rim. As I mentioned in the previous section, he's also more of a threat in the open court, specifically when it comes to scoring there. Kidd was the better shooter, but very streaky, and overall he just wasn't an efficient/highly effective scorer. Better All Around player? Kidd led 2 teams to the Finals, was 1 clutch Rip Hamilton shot away from beating the '04 Pistons, and he brought a Nets team with Carter/RJ/and utter garbage past the 1st round. He is one of the best locker room guys ever, he's extremely versatile for a PG in the sense that he doesn't need to dominate the ball to put his fingerprint on the game in a huge way, and he was just so well-rounded and easily adaptable to any system or gameplan. Rondo still has a lot to prove for me to put him above prime Kidd.