Nitro

Give me a break. First off, being a professional athlete doesn't compensate for the extra 100+ pounds Cutler has weighing on his ligaments. That logic is flawed. The bigger you are, the more succeptable (sp?) you are to injury. Secondly, playing high school basketball in practice is WAY different than being hit by pro NFL athletes. I've played through injuries in basketball that there is no way I would have been able to play on in football, let alone on a pro level. There is reason why simple things like ankle sprains sideline pro athletes for a long longer than they would sideline you or I in pickup games. As it is, the Bears offensive line is garbage, so an immobile Cutler would have been a lameduck, which would have caused him to perform even worse than he was already playing.

SOURCE

At the time, I don't think anyone could have done what Nash did with those Suns, not even Kidd (and I'm from NJ and a HUGE Kidd fan). Again, he ran the best offenses of the last decade, and put up the highest assist totals (along with insane shooting efficiency) in a decade. I think what he did, especially in 05-06 without Amare, was pretty special. If LeBron's Cavs won a few more games, or Kobe cracked 50+ wins, I'd be inclined to agree that his MVP in 05-06 wasn't warranted, but the fact of the matter is that the cards fell perfectly in Nash's lap. 3 wins is pretty significant, especially when you factor in that the Suns were playing in a vastly superior conference. In 04-05 only 2 teams, the Heat and Pistons, won more than 47 in the EC. Out West, 7 teams were over 47 wins. That's a huge difference. And Amare was definitely improved in 04-05, but I really don't believe he would have been the All-Star he was without Nash (just that season, once he got his jumper to be automatic it's a different story). Also, some stats- The Heat were a +9 with O'Neal on the floor, and +2 without him on the floor. Meanwhile, the Suns were a +12 with Nash on the floor, and a -2 with him off the floor. May or may not have much meaning, but is just one more thing that supports Nash's value over Shaq's. Odom averaged less points, rebounds and assists in that post-season than he did in that regular season, and averaged 4 TO's. Butler averaged 10PPG on 38% shooting. Also, Eddie Jones shot below 40% that post-season as well. Bottom line is that 03-04 team was closer to a 45-48 win team than a .500 team. If Wade didn't miss 20+ games, I do think they would have gotten near 50 wins. That is NOT to downplay Shaq's value on the following year's squad, but I do think the Heat were better than you're giving them credit for.

There's a lot of factors that go into it. To clarify, my judgement of the MVP in this topic is a mixture of who deserves it based on the usual MVP criterea from past years, and my own opinion. But yeah, a 'Most Outstanding Player' award would definitely be a great addition. Wait, I'm confused....in that first paragraph are you talking about 05-06, or last season (09-10)? I am assuming 05-06, but you said 'last year', and then said 'LeBron doesn't have...yet' in the present tense. I'm guessing since you included Brand in that list of players you meant 05-06. Anyway, I agree Kobe was absolutely jaw-dropping in 05-06, but you have to realize LeBron did roughly the same job that season with the Cavs. Kobe played in a tougher conference, so I'd say that makes up for the 5 extra wins the Cavs won that season. But, the Cavs had a foundation? What was that? Everyone assumes LeBron had a bunch of shooters around him that season, but that's false. Of all the players on the team who played over 53 games, only Damon Jones (37%) shot better 34% or better from 3 that season. Larry Hughes, the team's 2nd best player, played only 36 games. Flip Murray played only 28 games. Varejao and Pavlovic both played less than 55 games. The rest of the team consisted of Big Z, Gooden and scrubs people forgot ever existed. Kobe didn't have a better supporting cast, but Odom was still good enough to add 15PPG and led the team in rebounding and assists. Really, LeBron never had a 2nd option as good Odom, especially before Mo arrived in Cleveland. Basically, both players were amazing, and led crappy teams really far. I think LeBron was very underrated that season, especially with how well he played in that post-season. I agree it was amazing, but with only 44 wins, and considering the barameter set forth by past MVP's, I just don't think he should have been MVP (and I'd argue that LeBron last year was right with Kobe's 05-06 season offensively). Even after Shaq went to the East, the conference was still much weaker than the West, which you didn't factor in along with Nash's Suns winning 3 more games than the Heat that season. Also, don't forget that Wade missed over 20 games his rookie season, and like every rookie took a little while to adapt. Despite that, they still made it to .500, and in the post-season got to the 2nd round and took the #1 seeded Pacers to 6 games.

Wrote something new today, to the beat of 'My Opinion' by Mac Mall (SICK beat). You have to listen to that song to understand the structure of this song. Of course it's a very rough draft....

Griffin. Due to his size, he has higher potential as a PF than Rose, a natural SG, does at PG.

If the award went to the guy who's most valuable of decent-good teams, then KG and Kobe would have more than 1 MVP, and LeBron might have more than 2. The 'most valuable' aspect of the award is just a small area, with 'best player' and 'best team' holding just as much, if not more weight. That's why I wish they would add a 'Most Outstanding Player' award, or simply replace the MVP with it. I'm not debating whether Malone deserved those MVP's over Jordan or Duncan (do think he deserved it over Duncan). I do think he deserved them over Stockton for the same reasons LeBron deserves it over Wade; he was simply the better player. And neither of those duo's should be compared to 04-05 Nash/Amare because Nash was CLEARLY the better player by a fair margin. Amare wasn't a top 10 player in the league at that point. Nash, Kobe, KG, Shaq, Dirk, Duncan, T-Mac, VC (that season especially he was killer), Pierce, AI, Wade and LeBron were all clearly better players, and that's just off the top of my head. Even now he's borderline top 10, and he's clearly a better player than he was in 04-05, even though Amare filled up the stat sheet that season. And yes, Amare dominated Duncan (who had plantar faschiatis, the same injury that's hampered Tyreke this season), but don't forget how Wade dominated and swept your Wizards with Shaq out for half the series. No way did Kobe deserve it over Nash in 05-06. The Lakers were a 44 win team. I mean, if you're going that route, then you have to say LeBron deserved it over Nash as well, because LeBron was putting up 31/7/6 on strong efficiency and led a comparably horrible supporting cast to homecourt advantage in the playoffs. You can make a case for Shaq deserving it over Nash, but I do think what Nash did with the Suns was more impressive than what Shaq did with the Heat, even though individually Shaq was a superior player.

http://msnbcmedia2.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/070214/070214_vinceCarter_vmed6p.widec.jpg The bench is his future. Maybe for the Bulls if they still haven't filled their void at SG by next season.

Because quality, productive Centers are few and far inbetween nowadays. It's why most C's the level of Nene receive over the MLE in today's NBA.

ABL- I wrote a long response to your last post and my IE [expletive]ed up at the very end of the reply, so just a few quick points.... 1) LeBron is a better player than Rose, is having a better season (both with the eye-test and from a production standpoint), and his team has performed better. The Heat were 0-3 in the games he didn't play/got injured in, while they were 2-1 without Wade. The Heat are so thin after the Big 3 that when one of them goes down, they are piss-poor. Going by how the MVP award is usually voted on, and going by my own opinion, LeBron clearly deserves the award over Rose. Unless a non-top 5 player does something relatively historic (like Nash did with the Suns) and/or he's the best player of the top 2-3 teams in the league, I think it's wrong for that player to win the MVP. 2) Malone was a better player than Stockton, that's why he got the MVP attention over him, and it's why LeBron is getting more MVP attention than Wade. Amare was nowhere near a better player than Nash in 04-05, and ditto for Marion. Nash did a lot more for Amare/Marion than Stockton did for Malone for the simple fact that Malone was capable of creating his own offense at an elite level. 3) Nash's defense was piss poor, but he ran an offense that was the best in over 10 years, which had a 7PPG advantage over the 2nd best offense in the league, and I believe he averaged the most assists in around a decade while being a very efficient scorer. Amare was not the same player his 3rd season that he is now, and his production and efficiency skyrocketed with Nash at PG. Same with Marion. They were a 29 win team before Nash, and a 60+ win team with Nash. Those years Kobe/LeBron/KG's teams were too horrible for them to be considered, Duncan's production wasn't the same as previous seasons to peak voter interest, T-Mac was battling injuries and his teams barely scratched 50 wins, etc... As I said before, it was a perfect storm for Nash to win those awards; he had, IMO, borderline top 5 seasons individually those MVP seasons, his teams won a ton of games while better players were generally on garbage teams. The 2010-2011 NBA season is a much different situation. The best players in the league are almost all playing on elite teams, and a few of them are producing equally, or more than Rose is.

As ABL mentioned, many stats can be inflated by the ease of the play. If points didn't have FG% as a backing, you wouldn't be able to tell if the player had a good or bad game scoring the ball; for example, if Player A shoots 11-30 to get 30pts, while Player B shoots 11-16 to get 30pts, you wouldn't be able to tell who had the better game just by looking at the points. Assists don't have this elaboration in the box score, although sites like 82games and Synergy Sports have other passing stats that help elaborate on the assist's quality. But as I said, I believe in the law of averages. Meaning, the truly great passers will end up with high assist averages, while the poor ones won't. Coaches will put the great passers in a position to make plays for teammates, while they won't do the same for poor passers. Therefor, it's hard for me to call it an overrated stat. There are also players who get high number of assists off usage, so I tend to blend passing/ballhandling/ability to create shots into a term called 'playmaking'. That's why I'd call a PG who is an excellent, pure passer who may not be able to create teammates easy looks an equal playmaker to a guy like Dwyane Wade, who can force defensive attention which frees up his teammates, giving them open looks.

Well, to comment on the idea that certain plays that are counted as assists shouldn't be counted, or have little value, I agree. At the same time, however, assists are [generally] awarded equally among players, so assists do have legitimacy for statistical comparison since there is an even plane. The fact that the great passers at each position do tend to have their passing quantified by assists does give the stat some substance. However, there are players who get their assists due to ball dominance, so with those players you have to factor in usage and role in the offense when making a comparison. But, to answer the question, I don't think it's necessarily an overrated stat, it's just that passing is the hardest area of the game to quantify. There is so much grey area in what qualifies as an assist, and in box score stats it's hard to tell the assist's quality (if the player was open, if the pass was on target, if there was sufficient time on the shot clock, etc...)

October: 16.7 PPG/ 11.0 RPG / 2.3 APG November: 20.9 PPG/ 11.7 RPG / 2.7 APG December: 23.0 PPG / 13.5 RPG /3.9 APG January: 27.2 PPG / 14.5 RPG / 4.6 APG ------------------------------------ Damn. Reminds me a lot of the kind of stats a prime KG was putting up, back around 2003ish.

That's how I went to a Philly game earlier this year (and will go to another in March against Houston), and the parent company my dad works for has Miami season tickets in the box seats. My dad promised he'd take me sometime this winter when I was off school, which I just dropped out of, so I don't know if that'll happen for me this year -_-

I will. I just want to make sure EVERYTHING is perfect (IMO) before I record it. Once you put out a few weak tracks, you get a bad rep, and I don't want that. I want to come out of [expletive]ing nowhere with some fire. I'm writing every single day, and trying to perfect my style. I want to make 12 great songs, choose the best 8, then record and put out my mixtape. Even if that takes another year (it shouldn't, the latest I expect would be this summer), so be it. I want this to be amazing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BH18GpABKcw Quite possibly my favorite rap instrumental ever.

Thanks for the videos! Back in his T-Wolves days, KG was probably the most versatile player I've ever seen. He could legitimately play all 5 positions on both offense and defense (he obviously could only play certain positions for small stretches, but nontheless he could still do it), and the only real weakness he had was settling for jumpers at at times being too passive. Still, he was a very, very special player, and one of my all-time favorites (before he went to the Celtics, anyway).

Damn this song brings back memories :glasses: Me and my boy used to bump this everyday during lunch of our senior years smoking blunts. I wish I could turn back the clock and be in high school again

Crazy shot by Griffin, that was a looooooooonnnnnggggg 3 pointer.

^Simpsons FTW. Just wrote this out below, putting it to the beat of 'Love and War' by Dilated Peoples....

Here's the link fellas: http://depositfiles.com/en/files/wy0k84vy9 I'll give my review sometime this week.

That shot was a killer from Durant, a fadeaway from right at the 3pt line. Can't do much more to defend that except not let him touch the ball in the first place. On a side note, the officiating was absolutely horrible down the stretch for both sides. A ton of blown/missed calls.

Mike Miller is going OFF!! He has 18/4/3 on 7-10 shooting with half the 2nd quarter to go. Really good to see him finally playing well.

DAMN, he really is putting in work, can't believe this is already out (or leaked). Can anyone hook me up with the link?

WOAH THERE!!!! Em has had many, many songs where he spits things just to play with words, but Renegade is not one of those. Both of his verses have quite a bit of meaning.