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

[you big dummy]

^ who would have defended Derrick Rose in the 4th quarter of the ECF?

 

[sea manup]

^ who would have defended Derrick Rose in the 4th quarter of the ECF?

they beat chicago 4-1, other than getting surprised in game one that series wasnt close

replace lebron with melo and the heat still beat the bulls

 

[lawdog1]

Grizz v. OKC should be a good one tonight, even with Conley out. Looking forward to seeing what KD does against that Memphis D.

 

[bhzmafia14]

Grizz v. OKC should be a good one tonight, even with Conley out. Looking forward to seeing what KD does against that Memphis D.

Too bad Tony Allen is out. Prince has been useless this year guarding opposing SF's for the most part. James Johnson will be our best bet and he fouls at a high rate. I'm hoping Memphis uses the strategy they used in the playoffs. Defend everyone else and let Durant do his thing. Punish the paint, the boards and slow the game down.

 

[trynafeelmink]

man can someone please Get caron off the bucks my man don't deserve that treatment smh

 

[Mamba4life]

It's always funny to me when I hear Miami referred to as a "Super Team". That probably would be a correct definition if you projected based on their careers prior to joining together. I am a 40 year old dude and in all my years watching basketball, I have never seen one NBA player do as much for a back to back championship team as Lebron did for the Heat these past two seasons. You had one guy lead the team in points, rebounds, assist, steals, minutes,(I'm not sure about blocks), while guarding the opposing players best offensive threat in closing minutes. That's not a super team. That's rec league at the Y and you happen to have the guy who used to sit the bench at a major D-1.

 

[Bert.]

Till this day, I hate that Melo gets a pass....Dude has never made any of his teammates better EXCEPT that year he played the lakers with denver.

Who giving Melo a pass?

 

[bhzmafia14]

man can someone please Get caron off the bucks my man don't deserve that treatment smh

I'm really hoping Memphis can swing a deal for him using Prince. AT the end of the day, Prince will help Milwaukee tank even more . That's the only positive. I would love to have Butler's expiring and his ability to shoot the 3 over Prince dead *** weight. I'm sure Milwaukee would want another asset in that deal, though.

 

[sea manup]

It's always funny to me when I hear Miami referred to as a "Super Team". That probably would be a correct definition if you projected based on their careers prior to joining together. I am a 40 year old dude and in all my years watching basketball, I have never seen one NBA player do as much for a back to back championship team as Lebron did for the Heat these past two seasons. You had one guy lead the team in points, rebounds, assist, steals, minutes,(I'm not sure about blocks), while guarding the opposing players best offensive threat in closing minutes. That's not a super team. That's rec league at the Y and you happen to have the guy who used to sit the bench at a major D-1.

you need to have a great supporting cast to win championships but i agree that miamis was never THAT great

it doesnt come close to touching the early 2000s lakers or 90s bull's supporting casts

 

[sea manup]

 

Till this day, I hate that Melo gets a pass....Dude has never made any of his teammates better EXCEPT that year he played the lakers with denver.

Who giving Melo a pass?

raymond felton?

 

[friscostylez]

why do people always claim A.I. is only 5'10 or 5'11? he is definitely a legit 6'0+

 

[trynafeelmink]

At the thought of the Heat... suddenly becoming an average team that Lebron has to carry in order to win. It's just never enough excuses on here. Dudes are acting as if he's running with the cavs... He has two All stars around him and a team COMPLETELY catered to his strengths... Yet he is carrying the team..

So i'm interested to see what people say about those KOBE/SHAQ teams because those two Literally carried those teams both Kobe and shaq had to have dominant games in order for the LA teams to win. fish, Fox, Horry etc etc were decent role players at max

 

[trynafeelmink]

you need to have a great supporting cast to win championships but i agree that miamis was never THAT great

it doesnt come close to touching the early 2000s lakers or 90s bull's supporting casts

I don't know if your being sarcastic or not but are u seriously telling me that Lebrons supporting cast isnt > than Shaq/Kobe supporting cast?

 

[sea manup]

 

you need to have a great supporting cast to win championships but i agree that miamis was never THAT great

it doesnt come close to touching the early 2000s lakers or 90s bull's supporting casts

I don't know if your being sarcastic or not but are u seriously telling me that Lebrons supporting cast isnt > than Shaq/Kobe supporting cast?

i mean if you take both kobe and shaq then no

i guess what i mean is that the early lakers and 90s bulls were way more dominant than these heat teams, literally rolling through other teams.

if you take the best player off each team, lakers - shaq >>> heat - lebron

if you take both shaq and kobe away then yeah the heat have a better supprting cast

 

[bhzmafia14]

While I don't think Lebron has an average team, the team is not as strong was it was in 2011. You can make an argument that Westbrook and Ibaka is just as good, if not better than Wade and Bosh. I don't see why that's such a sin. Actually, Westbrook is definitely better than Wade at this point and one can argue that Ibaka is close to Bosh in terms of the impact he has on the game.

Then, you start getting into the details of the roster. Chalmers, Cole, Allen, Birdman, Haslem, Battier, Beasley vs. Jackson, Lamb, Collison, Thabo, Perkins, Adams, PJ3. You can argue that OKC's 4th best player (Jackson) is better than anybody else the Heat have outside of the big 3.

When comparing the Heat to the Laker's supporting cast with Kobe/Shaq, I think its no contest. Miami is definitely better. You are pretty much looking at a Lebron/Cleveland scenario with Kobe and the role players LAL had.

 

[Hank Scorpio]

The 2000's Lakers were absolutely the better team than this current Heat team. A lot of people forget how deep the Lakers were. They had every position covered and had bench players to come in fill in holes. Hell, the damn triangle offense made Derrick Fisher look like a top 10 PG in the NBA and Rick Fox was the starting SF on that team

The Lakers would be down by 10 and 45 seconds later, they'd only be down by 4.

I'm not going to go too much into the 90's Bulls, because we all know how dominant they were.

The Melo slander needs to stop. You guys are beating a dead horse and just picking on him, just because it's part of NT's culture now
He's only had 2 really good teams his entire career and 8 out of 10 times he's lost a playoff series it was to the team who eventually won the whole thing.

 

[trynafeelmink]

i mean if you take both kobe and shaq then no

i guess what i mean is that the early lakers and 90s bulls were way more dominant than these heat teams, literally rolling through other teams.

if you take the best player off each team, lakers - shaq >>> heat - lebron

if you take both shaq and kobe away then yeah the heat have a better supprting cast

Prime Kobe with Grant, Fox, Horry, D-fish in that WC is barely a six seed.

Wade & Bosh, with Ray Allen, Chalmers, Haslem, Cole, Beasley, Birdman is still a way better squad, If Wade doesn't differ to Lebron his "Decline" wouldn't seem as bad considering he's shooting over 50% averaging 20 5 & 5.. in a vastly reduced role.

I'm hearing this argument more and more and it's starting to irritate me... people are treating Wade/Bosh as if their role players suddenly but these two are still amongst the elite in the L. They have just tamed down their game for the good of the team.

 

[Hank Scorpio]

While I don't think Lebron has an average team, the team is not as strong was it was in 2011. You can make an argument that Westbrook and Ibaka is just as good, if not better than Wade and Bosh. I don't see why that's such a sin. Actually, Westbrook is definitely better than Wade at this point and one can argue that Ibaka is close to Bosh in terms of the impact he has on the game.

Then, you start getting into the details of the roster. Chalmers, Cole, Allen, Birdman, Haslem, Battier, Beasley vs. Jackson, Lamb, Collison, Thabo, Perkins, Adams, PJ3. You can argue that OKC's 4th best player (Jackson) is better than anybody else the Heat have outside of the big 3.

When comparing the Heat to the Laker's supporting cast with Kobe/Shaq, I think its no contest. Miami is definitely better. You are pretty much looking at a Lebron/Cleveland scenario with Kobe and the role players LAL had.

OKC's defense isn't as strong as Miami's though.

 

[trynafeelmink]

The 2000's Lakers were absolutely the better team than this current Heat team. A lot of people forget how deep the Lakers were. They had every position covered and had bench players to come in fill in holes. Hell, the damn triangle offense made Derrick Fisher look like a top 10 PG in the NBA and Rick Fox was the starting SF on that team

The Lakers would be down by 10 and 45 seconds later, they'd only be down by 4.

I'm not going to go too much into the 90's Bulls, because we all know how dominant they were.

The Melo slander needs to stop. You guys are beating a dead horse and just picking on him, just because it's part of NT's culture now
He's only had 2 really good teams his entire career and 8 out of 10 times he's lost a playoff series it was to the team who eventually won the whole thing.

what great depth did we have Brian shaw, the tail end of Glen Rice, Slava Medvedenko, Devean ******g George?

nah man that team was CARRIED by KOBE & SHAQ which is why both of their numbers come playoff time were quite legendary because they NEEDED every piece of it in order to win those rings.

However i do agree that at this point OKC's talent is almost = MIA although i believe Bosh is still better than serge & I'm not sold on those young players over MIA vets in a playoff series.

 

[black migo]

why do people always claim A.I. is only 5'10 or 5'11? he is definitely a legit 6'0+

Nah meek is only like 6'0 & look at the height difference

View media item 781852

 

[lawdog1]

man can someone please Get caron off the bucks my man don't deserve that treatment smh

Feel bad for Caron. When he got traded from the Suns to the Bucks, he probably thought he was escaping a lottery team, for a team with a chance at the playoffs and that plays in his home state. Except for the home state part, things have not turned out that way.

 

[bhzmafia14]

The 2000's Lakers were absolutely the better team than this current Heat team. A lot of people forget how deep the Lakers were. They had every position covered and had bench players to come in fill in holes. Hell, the damn triangle offense made Derrick Fisher look like a top 10 PG in the NBA and Rick Fox was the starting SF on that team

The Lakers would be down by 10 and 45 seconds later, they'd only be down by 4.

I'm not going to go too much into the 90's Bulls, because we all know how dominant they were.

I think its all about fit more so than overall talent. Those guys were in the perfect offense, centered around the best player in the league and another top 5-7 player.

 

[sea manup]

 

i mean if you take both kobe and shaq then no

i guess what i mean is that the early lakers and 90s bulls were way more dominant than these heat teams, literally rolling through other teams.

if you take the best player off each team, lakers - shaq >>> heat - lebron

if you take both shaq and kobe away then yeah the heat have a better supprting cast

Prime Kobe with Grant, Fox, Horry, D-fish in that WC is barely a six seed.

Wade & Bosh, with Ray Allen, Chalmers, Haslem, Cole, Beasley, Birdman is still a way better squad, If Wade doesn't differ to Lebron his "Decline" wouldn't seem as bad considering he's shooting over 50% averaging 20 5 & 5.. in a vastly reduced role.

I'm hearing this argument more and more and it's starting to irritate me... people are treating Wade/Bosh as if their role players suddenly but these two are still amongst the elite in the L. They have just tamed down their game for the good of the team.

put this heat team without lebron in that WC and they are also at best a 6th seed

shaq and 4 traffic cones could be a 3 seed in the east this year

the difference between the lakers lineup and the heat team is that the heat's two best players lebron and wade do the same exact things on the court. if lebron is taking over it means that wade is taking a backseat and vice versa, they are hard to stop because there is always one hall of famer attacking the defense. kobe and shaq  play very different possitions and complimented eachother perfectly, kobe playing out of his mind didnt effect the way shaq  played because they dominated different areas on the basketball court. 

combine that with guys like dfish, horry and fox (better than any non big 3 player on miami) and you have one of the most dominant teams of all time. its arguable that the heat without lebron could be just as good as the lakers without shaq but what puts the lakers squad over the current heat is that they complimented shaq perfectly

 

[Hank Scorpio]

put this heat team without lebron in that WC and they are also at best a 6th seed

shaq and 4 traffic cones could be a 3 seed in the east this year


the difference between the lakers lineup and the heat team is that the heat's two best players lebron and wade do the same exact things on the court. if lebron is taking over it means that wade is taking a backseat and vice versa, they are hard to stop because there is always one hall of famer attacking the defense. kobe and shaq  play very different possitions and complimented eachother perfectly, kobe playing out of his mind didnt effect the way shaq  played because they dominated different areas on the basketball court. 

combine that with guys like dfish, horry and fox (better than any non big 3 player on miami) and you have one of the most dominant teams of all time. its arguable that the heat without lebron could be just as good as the lakers without shaq but what puts the lakers squad over the current heat is that they complimented shaq perfectly

It was the offense system

That Triangle offense is incredible.

 

[trynafeelmink]

put this heat team without lebron in that WC and they are also at best a 6th seed

shaq and 4 traffic cones could be a 3 seed in the east this year


the difference between the lakers lineup and the heat team is that the heat's two best players lebron and wade do the same exact things on the court. if lebron is taking over it means that wade is taking a backseat and vice versa, they are hard to stop because there is always one hall of famer attacking the defense. kobe and shaq  play very different possitions and complimented eachother perfectly, kobe playing out of his mind didnt effect the way shaq  played because they dominated different areas on the basketball court. 

combine that with guys like dfish, horry and fox (better than any non big 3 player on miami) and you have one of the most dominant teams of all time. its arguable that the heat without lebron could be just as good as the lakers without shaq but what puts the lakers squad over the current heat is that they complimented shaq perfectly

Mario Chalmers = D.Fish not as clutch but as far as impact on the game = (and chalmers has an edge defensively)
Fox = Battier
Ray/Miller > whatever you were gonna get from Horry

then you add to the fact that the heat have two all stars.... one being a sure shot HOF and one of the best at his positions ever added with those role players who still fit in perfectly with Wade's style of play and your telling me that team is average.

Lebron is clearly the Best player on the Heat... but anyone who's saying that he has to "CARRY" the team in order for them to be good is severely lying. Lebron can play a subpar game and this heat team would beat 85% of the teams playing. this new movement of Lebron still having a bad supporting cast is being used to try and enhance his appeal and it's ridiculous to me. I have NEVER saw a team more catered and stitched to fit a players Skill set than how Riley has constructed these teams around Lebron.