2013-2014 NBA Thread - IND @ WAS and OKC @ LAC on ESPN

[hand2handking]

mj > shaq

 

[rck3sactown]

Kerby>Em Jay>Shack

 

[grandtheftbike]

carmelos son with the 2 year memory game

 

[MambaMentality824]

wut?

Ay man, you can laugh all you want but if I could choose one player at their absolute best for a season to go get me a championship I'm taking Shaq over anyone including MJ. I don't think that is too outlandish to say. A dominant center has a bigger impact on the game than a SG anyway. Like I said just at their very Peak, obviously overall Shaq isn't touching MJ.

 

[hand2handking]

6 > 4

 

[don ramon]

if you ain't 300 pounds or never played in the nba you shouldn't post

 

[antidope]

 

[Chester McFloppy]

AND Hakeem gave him that work

http://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/h2h_finder.cgi?request=1&p1=onealsh01&p2=olajuha01

 

[bonafide hustla]

Ay man, you can laugh all you want but if I could choose one player at their absolute best for a season to go get me a championship I'm taking Shaq over anyone including MJ. I don't think that is too outlandish to say. A dominant center has a bigger impact on the game than a SG anyway. Like I said just at their very Peak, obviously overall Shaq isn't touching MJ.

There was a better center playing in his prime in the NBA by the name of Hakeem Olajuwon when Michael Jordan was also in his prime. i think I'll stop there.

 

[had pants]

 

[rck3sactown]

Yo Kareem and Wilt had some relatively small feet.

 

[sea manup]

Karim>Kerby>Em Jay>Shackork

 

[herbshuttles15]

Lebron vs Durant
Lebron vs Kobe
Darko Debate
Shaq vs Kobe

Its only Thursday

 

[100027]

I really don't get why people like peak over longevity and consistency.

I don't like one or the other, I was just making a statement. The correct answer is a balance between the two.

 

[100027]

Hopefully melos son has better knees than his favorite player

Nice

 

[dman14]

george mikan>shaq

 

[arstyle27]

Hopefully melos son has better knees than his favorite player

Gets funnier every time...........


NOT

 

[100027]

Gets funnier every time...........


NOT

I genuinely enjoy it every time

 

[imlive365]

Question so when melo adventually ends up not going to Chicago after the media getting there hopes up like they are now are they gonna hate him and boo him every game like they do to lebron after he didn't go to Chicago?

 

[CP1708]

Adventually*

 

[rck3sactown]

 

Karim>Kerby>Em Jay>Shackork

Karim? Wrong sport 

 

[ohmygosher]

Kevin love should just go to OKC and collect wins with his boy Russell.

Don't worry brah, you'll see them together soon enough.

Spoiler

 

[kal-el-8]

 

Kevin love should just go to OKC and collect wins with his boy Russell.

Don't worry brah, you'll see them together soon enough.
 

Spoiler

I've lost all faith in mitch.

 

[proshares]

From the mind of Chris Broussard.

Why Melo could fit with Bulls.

Spoiler

Joakim Noah has told Carmelo Anthony that he thinks the Bulls could win titles with Anthony around. When the Chicago Bulls' center approached Anthony about his future and made what amounts to a pitch, Anthony responded by telling Noah that he admires how hard the Bulls play, how hungry they are, and even that Derrick Rose is his son's favorite player.

The question is whether Noah's logic makes sense.

I think it does. Chicago is a terrific opportunity for Anthony. Here's how it could happen.


David Richard/USA TODAY Sports
The Bulls could free up salary for Carmelo Anthony by using the amnesty clause on Carlos Boozer.
First, the money: The Bulls must use the amnesty clause on Carlos Boozer. By removing Boozer's $16.8 million salary from their cap figure, the Bulls have roughly $15 million to offer Anthony next season. Then, by trading away Mike Dunleavy and his $3 million salary, the Bulls could start Anthony's deal at about $18 million.

There is speculation throughout the league about whether Chicago will go after Anthony. What is clear is the Bulls will be aggressive in trying to improve themselves. They will be looking to add a top-flight player, and they will not be scared off by the luxury tax.

That player could be Anthony, or it could be Nikola Mirotic, a highly regarded European power forward whose rights the Bulls own. If they want him, they would have to pay Mirotic a hefty salary this summer to cover his buyout with Real Madrid. If they decide to do that, they won't go after Anthony. If they decide to wait another year until Mirotic's contract with Real Madrid expires, they could pursue Anthony now.

Signing with the Bulls would mean a pay cut for Anthony, whose max contract would start at $22.4 million. The Knicks, of course, can offer him the max. Dallas and Phoenix are interesting options, but they would have to do some roster maneuvering to offer him a max contract.

Or consider: What if Chris Bosh opts out of his contract in Miami? Would Pat Riley try to partner Anthony with James and Dwyane Wade to form a new Big Three on South Beach? Anthony couldn't get the max, but he could get a substantial number to play next to LeBron James, his longtime friend and rival.

Besides the extra $30 million the Knicks can pay him, there's only one reason for Anthony to stay in New York -- the awesome profile the city has given him. But while I believe Anthony would love to stay in Gotham, the losing is eating him up. His body language is one of frustration and I'm beginning to think he's leaving the Knicks.

But where can he have a legitimate chance of winning and find something akin to New York's glitz?

The Lakers certainly offer the platform because they are the league's glamour franchise. But that's about all they can offer at this point. Playing with a 36-year-old Kobe Bryant, who will be entering his 19th season, can't be too appealing. Besides, the Lakers might save their money for Kevin Love in summer 2015.

Which brings us back to the Bulls.

[+] Enlarge
Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images
Derrick Rose and Carmelo Anthony would be a strong fit together in Chicago.
With Anthony, Chicago would have a roster that could compete with any team in the league. Honestly, with Anthony, Rose, Noah, Taj Gibson, Jimmy Butler and the incredible Tom Thibodeau, I think the Bulls would be the best team in the league. And, as always under Thibodeau, they'd be the grittiest, hardest-playing, most overachieving team in the league, and for once, they'd have the talent to match their work ethic.

As I mentioned above, Noah is already on board with it. One source also told me Rose wants to add Anthony.

Besides the obvious basketball fit, Chicago is a flagship franchise and a top media market. While it might not be New York, it's the closest thing to it outside of L.A. Anthony's appeal on Madison Avenue wouldn't fall one iota in Chicago. In fact, because the Bulls would be one of the league's best teams, his national profile would actually grow.

Even though the Bulls would be Rose's team, Anthony would probably be the leading scorer and my guess is that he and Rose would be more 1A and 1A than 1 and 2.

Again, Anthony would be giving up quite a bit of money to sign with the Bulls. But he might make it up in marketing and, as someone close to James once told me regarding his decision to take less money to sign with Miami, "the difference between $20 million and $18 million doesn't change your lifestyle one bit."

So even with the pay cut, Anthony would still be rich beyond his wildest dreams, able to do whatever he wants. If Anthony decides to leave New York, which seems more and more fitting with every Knicks debacle, Chicago would be a good landing spot.

Winning a title by beating James would be better for Anthony and his legacy than winning one with him.

Not Broussard.

Heat's big lineup getting big results.

Spoiler

For those just tuning in, it might not seem like much has changed since last June. The Miami Heat and the San Antonio Spurs are both back in the title hunt, featuring a lot of familiar faces.

But if you look closely, the Heat are bigger than they may appear.

Rewind to June 14, 2012, when the Heat topped the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 2 of the NBA Finals. With Chris Bosh medically cleared to play regular minutes, Erik Spoelstra famously went unconventional and replaced Udonis Haslem, not Shane Battier, with Bosh. While the Thunder stayed big with Kevin Durant, Serge Ibaka and Kendrick Perkins in the frontcourt, Spoelstra decided to go in the other direction: spread the floor and keep Battier in rather than stick with a traditional two-big lineup.

The rest is history. With Bosh at the 5, the Heat won the next four games for title No. 1 and then again last season against the Spurs for title No. 2. Really, until Game 2 in the 2012 Finals, Spoelstra had largely run out another traditional big to complement the team's star trio. Remember the Erick Dampier era? That approach was quickly trashed.

Going "unconventional" became Spoelstra's battle cry. But this season, big is the new small in Miami. With a chance at title No. 3, the Heat have quietly reverted back to the two-big strategy for large segments of the game.

And it has worked.

The Bosh-Andersen dynamic

Battier still starts, but the "conventional" Bosh and Chris Andersen pairing has hammered opponents this season. In the 238 minutes the Bosh-Andersen duo have played together in 2013-14, the Heat are up 17 points per 100 possessions.

Spoelstra didn't bust out this lineup for the first month or so of the season. He kept the Bosh-Andersen pairing in his back pocket until Dec. 8 when he deployed the lineup for 15 minutes against Detroit's monster front line. Now he's used it about 10 minutes per game since the calendar flipped to 2014. In fact, he's given that lineup more minutes in the month of February than he did all of last season (including the playoffs).


Sam Forencich/NBA/Getty Images
Chris Bosh's ability to drift out to the perimeter has made Miami's lineups even more fearsome.
This development may seem odd given Spoelstra's "pace-and-space" mantra, but Spoelstra has been pragmatic. And the lineup works because Bosh is far from traditional these days.

Three seasons ago, the Heat's offense looked cramped with Bosh and another center occupying the paint, but Bosh has migrated to the perimeter to become a true stretch 4. Just six bigs have taken more 3-pointers than Bosh this season and he's making them at a higher clip (36.6 percent) than the Heat's resident 3-point marksmen, Battier (34.5), Ray Allen (35. and Rashard Lewis (34.3). With his sharpened long-range game, Bosh's true shooting percentage -- a shooting metric that incorporates 3-pointers and free throws -- has risen to a career-high 60.8 percent.

Bosh is thriving more at the 4 and this time around, the spacing hasn't been compromised. Even though Andersen doesn't stretch the floor (third quarter of Monday's game notwithstanding), the Heat aren't sacrificing anything on the offensive end, registering a 109.3 offensive rating that would rank best in the league. While Bosh has spaced the floor out to the perimeter, Andersen has extended the Heat's offense in the vertical dimension, flying in for weak-side dunks and soaring putbacks.

But the defensive side of the ball is where the Bosh-Andersen lineups make hay. The Heat hold opponents to just 92.3 points per 100 possessions with that duo on the floor, which is two points stingier than the Indiana Pacers' historically great defense.

Greg Oden's impact

And then there's Greg Oden. During the big man's return to basketball, more than half of his minutes this season have been shared with Bosh. And even though Oden's getting whistled more than a cab driver (9.5 fouls per 36 minutes), the Heat have outscored opponents by 20 points in the 69 minutes that the two have taken the floor together. In the short time together, Bosh takes about three times as many 3-pointers as he normally does, underlining the fact that Bosh has adapted to his ever-changing surroundings.


Derick E. Hingle/USA TODAY Sports
Having to navigate through Greg Oden and Chris Bosh is quite the tall task for any NBA offense.
Oden has shown flashes of dominance but his performances have been predictably uneven this season. This is what happens when you take a four-year hiatus from a professional sport. He's currently averaging 14.6 points, 9.8 rebounds and 1.8 blocks every 36 minutes along with 59 percent shooting from the floor. And despite the barrage of foul calls, Oden's player efficiency rating of 15.6 ranks above average and sixth among the Heat's rotation players.

As you might expect, Oden has been a beast under the rim as a paint protector. Getting an easy bucket against the Oden-Bosh duo has been just about impossible. Data from NBA StatsCube tells us that Heat opponents are shooting just 46.9 percent in the restricted area with that tandem on the floor. The league average is 60.4 percent. For a team that has struggled defensively this season, the big lineups have given Spoelstra intriguing returns.

Think of the Heat's regular season as a testing ground for the postseason. If Bosh can thrive as a stretch 4 like he has at center, it gives Spoelstra a new weapon against Roy Hibbert and the Pacers in the playoffs. That doesn't mean Spoelstra will abandon his smaller lineups against "big" teams, but it does mean the coach has powerful alternatives at his disposal. If the playoffs are all about matchups, the Heat are showing they can match up with just about anybody, big or small.

 

[Hank Scorpio]

It seems like every top Free Agent is going to the Bulls when you ask for Chris Broussard's opinion