Multi-Billionaire

Celtics are clearly favorites, but if you look at other teams, the Heat are not bad. On top of Big 3, they got Juwan Howard who was an All Star by his second season with the Bullets averaging 22.1 ppg, both Z and Magloire (13.6 ppg, 10.3 rpg in 03-04) were All Stars. Don't forget Mike Miller (18.5 ppg in 06-07 and career 40.5 3PT%), and Udonis Haslem... they clearly can upgrade the PG position, but the bench is solid. C - Zydrunas Ilgauskas PF - Chris Bosh SF - LeBron James SG - Dwyane Wade PG - Carlos Arroyo --- 6th - Juwan Howard 7th - Mike Miller 8th - Jamaal Magloire 9th - Udonis Haslem 10th - James Jones 11th - Mario Chalmers 12th - Eddie House 13th - Joel Anthony 14th - Dexter Pittman

Although I hate the nickname, it's Boobie

He's elite... he's arguably the best passer on the team ahead of Melo, obviously ahead of Billups who has average passing skill, and ahead of Ty who tends to commit a TO. He can make straight pass, bounce pass, pick and roll pass, alley-oop pass, behind-the-back pass, off-the-dribble pass, in-the-air pass (and before you argue any NBA player can make those passes) here's what makes him elite imo: he can make those passes with impressive accuracy, meaning he rarely commits a TO while passing. In game situations, those passes can be extremely difficult to execute without committing a TO, to an average player. It takes players with not only great passing skills but also great vision to do this... If you want to put J.R.'s passing ability in the same sentence as an average NBA player's, I disagree completely. As far as scoring goes, J.R. also has to play behind Melo (a dominant scorer) and AI and Billups all his career. Also coming off the bench. Brown's season high is 21 pts, I'm not even talking 40 pts, but 30 pts, which Brown has YET to touch in his 5 year career. And if you argue Phil would pull Brown for taking too many shots (although Brown's shooting a career best 48.4 FG% and 45.6 3PT%), you have to remember J.R. has had to play looking over his shoulders his ENTIRE career because Byron Scott and George Karl have buried him on the bench for taking too many shots. In fact, he was in a doghouse just 2 weeks ago, receiving 3 DNP-CDs for, among them, the shot selections. It's fair game, just unfair talent comparison, because it's NOT close.

30 pts last game vs Suns without Melo (flu) 20 pts and 10 rebounds vs Bucks yesterday with Melo ejected in third quarter J.R. has been dunking in the L since Brown was drafted and waived by Cavs... More, J.R. has been a one-on-one player since Brown was in his nappies. 10.8 ppg this season and it's a career year for Brown His career high is 27 pts... next time make a thread when he has touched at least 30 pts.

No but I ride bike

I said it, Kobe is getting old and the killer instinct quietly wanes

I got a feeling this would be the worst stretch of PJ's coaching career... the skid could reach 6-7-8. I ain't complainin though

New York wanted him for Chandler... I guess, they're glad they didn't make that trade... and pretty sure Portland is kicking itself for not doing it.

Thing is I doubt this "coaching LeBron" is Spo's decision in the first place. Coaching and preparation are handled by Spo. But the franchise and personnel organization is handled by Riley through Arison's approval. When a player is acting in his own interests that may not fall in line with the team's "organization", such as LeBron's diva acts on and off the court, Riley calls on Spo to fix it. In other words, it's not Spo's decision in the first place to I have a feeling the players sense this... that the "real power" doesn't necessarily come from Spo, but from Riley. They want the man with the real power (Riley) to be there with them communicating directly with them, instead of through a puppet like, unfortunately in this case, Spo. That's the only way the players can respect that power... and I think the players know it, and once the power is fully respected, that's when an organization can truly be formed. Otherwise it is just a fantasy.

I feel ya bro... the issues a hot girl has can make her 10x more attractive... I love hot girls with issues.

Celtics. Spurs are second imo: C - Tim Duncan PF - Antonio McDyess SF - Richard Jefferson SG - Manu Ginobili PG - Tony Parker Spurs v Celtics in Finals... Game 7, 4OTs. I like Mavs as well... Kidd in his prime was a beast, better than Rondo, add Marion who was an All Star dropping 20 and 10 with Nash on his side, I'm sure he could have done it with a prime Kidd. Nowitzki who's in his prime is a regular season unstoppable MVP... and then Caron Butler and Jason Terry. Not to mention Brendan Haywood.

Have you been seeing "Last Season Was Last Season" ad? Melo also had 5 of them in one season in 2005-06 if I'm not mistaken... when he was 21 years old. It's arguable Melo hasn't reached his peak yet... and he's gonna be unbreakable when he's 29-32 yo. When his game hits peak mature performance.

I'm not a Melo fan... trust me This douche doesn't want to stay and play for the Nuggets... but so far I have to respect him for walking the talk when he said he's gonna play hard as long as he's a Nugget. If Melo was no longer a Nugget today, I'd still give him (over Kobe) the ball if it means the Nuggets win. Kobe is deadly, but he's also old now... see yesterday's Indiana game for proof! When you get older, you lose that killer instinct bit by bit. Melo is deadlier simply because he's younger and is developing killer instinct and unbreakable confidence he can make these shots.

http://blogs.denverpost.com/nuggets/files/2010/11/meloshot.jpg http://blogs.denverpost.com/nuggets/2010/11/29/is-carmelo-anthony-the-nba%E2%80%99s-premier-last-second-shot-maker/ I think I would give the ball to Melo to win the game over Kobe, regular season/ playoffs.

Also similar to Nene's: Year Team G GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% OFF DEF RPG APG SPG BPG TO PF PPG 02-03 DEN 80 53 28.2 0.519 0.000 0.578 2.6 3.5 6.1 1.9 1.6 0.8 2.26 3.69 10.5 I said it...

Love this kid. He loves to play da game.

We finally won against this team... it seems like an eternity. It happened when Melo (sick) didn't play too.

I am a bit surprised too... but I think they just clicked and had that chemistry they didn't have last season. Richard Jefferson is playing a lot better this season than last season, guys without the ball seem to know better where they should move. They remain dangerous from outside with Manu, Jefferson, Hill, they can pass the ball as a team, and it seems like they make a concerted effort to crash the boards as a team e.g. guards are helping the bigs rebounding the ball because Timmy is old and 2nd yr guy Blair is crashing the boards but they still need help in that department.

I do believe pro athletes always have this belief that success starts from the leader aka coach. If the leader is someone who they respect, they will play hard for him, they will suddenly understand the instructions given, they will understand their roles, they will follow the leader. But if the leader is someone they don't have respect in the first place, and that leader doesn't help himself by not winning their respect, the players are going to refuse following him. Legendary coaches have their respect, but even Pat Riley had to win respect from Magic and Kareem, Phil Jackson had to win MJ's respect, Gregg Popovich had to win David Robinson and Duncan's respect... if the coaches don't win the teams' stars' respect they won't stay long. Doc Rivers obviously won Pierce's respect even before KG and Ray were traded to Celtics... that is why before the Celtics were good they decided to extend him. When you (as the coach) win your team's stars' respect, it's easier to establish what you want to do, your system on the team to the rest of the personnel. I do feel Spo doesn't help himself by blowing up at times in timeouts... when you want to win respect from players, getting angry should be the last on that list... patience and calmness to go with strategy and clarity of what you want should be the thing you do... e.g. MJ wasn't patient with Phil Jackson, maybe he thought he's another chopped liver and wanted someone like Chuck Daly coaching the team, but Phil never lost it, he was patient although he knew he was MJ's punching bag... as games went on, Phil's patience, calmness, and strategy started to win MJ over... and then the Bulls started winning games, and then titles. Bursting words in fire will never get the message across to star players, not when you haven't won the players' respect. Imagine you're LeBron and who'd you prefer yelling in your face in timeouts? Spoelstra or Riley? It's an easy answer. I know who I respect.

Unexpected. He still has a weird shooting form to be this good of a shooter, whatever works I guess. If he keeps this up, shots start falling for him, I think he might turn out to be a star. His confidence will grow and this game is about confidence when you want to become a star. He's always got athleticism and his length reminds me of T-Mac.

A lot of other things should be considered... Sure Murphy is a very good outside shooter and rebounder, but not hustling back on defense, not playing hard, poor body language... these are all contagious to other teammates, and if Avery wants to change the culture of losing from last season he can't have any of these.

I think it's not a big deal. But does LeBron respect Spo? Obviously not. Does Spo know LeBron doesn't respect him? Obviously yes, but he won't take it personal.

CARME[expletive]ingLO ANTHONY wow Now trade him Watson had 33 pts, I was smh this guy was just killing us in 2nd half. He was laying it up all game like our defense was nothing. Had the Bulls won, they would have deserved it...

Is David Kahn a genius after all? I remember he compared Darko's passing with C-Webb's... and while C-Webb's passing was elite... Darko's passing is quite something. Kahn stole Beasley from Heat, also.

I would say one clear advantage/ aspect of the game that I think J.R. has over Brown is the ability to create his own shots. Brown's scoring comes mostly from fastbreak dunks and screens... J.R. can create his shots at will and so effortlessly. A second aspect of advantage is passing. I do think Brown's passing is average... J.R.'s passing is on a very high level.