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

[awwsome]

I need Vic and Otto in them PE I-XIII, anything else is uncivilized.

 

[travis]

I really like Cousins but I js don't see him getting it done in Sacramento . luckily by the time his contact expires he'll be in his prime and maybe can go to a better quality team .

 

[rck3sactown]

I really like Cousins but I js don't see him getting it done in Sacramento . luckily by the time his contact expires he'll be in his prime and maybe can go to a better quality team .

When he is in his prime, what's to say Sacramento won't be a better quality team?

 

[coldcity]

I need Vic and Otto in them PE I-XIII, anything else is uncivilized.

you kno they are gonna wear the jb team cranked out bs

 

[grandtheftbike]

Man leave me a loan. I ain't even did **** bruh

 

[dt43]

People still think Sacramento is the same organization as before? The Maloofs aren't in charge anymore lol.

They have completely front office, and hired a stud young coach in Mike Malone. They drafted well, McLemore is a great prospect. Combine all that with another lottery pick in the 2014 draft and Shaqramento will be on their way up.

 

[IATT]

[h1]Mark Cuban: Howard made mistake[/h1]
Updated: October 31, 2013, 4:51 PM ET
By Tim MacMahon | ESPNDallas.com

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[h5]Rockets Fly By Bobcats[/h5]
SportsCenter Highlight of the Night: Dwight Howard grabbed 26 rebounds in his Rockets' debut as Houston rolled to a 96-83 win over Charlotte.Tags: NBA, Charlotte Bobcats, Houston Rockets, Dwight Howard, James Harden, Kemba Walker
Rockets Fly By Bobcats
[h6]NEXT VIDEO

[/h6]

• Rockets Fly By Bobcats [h5]Rockets Fly By Bobcats[/h5]
  SportsCenter Highlight of the Night: Dwight Howard grabbed 26 rebounds in his Rockets' debut as Houston rolled to a 96-83 win over Charlotte.Tags: NBA, Charlotte Bobcats, Houston Rockets, Dwight Howard, James Harden, Kemba Walker
• Adjustments For The Rockets [h5]Adjustments For The Rockets[/h5]
  Tim Legler breaks down the adjustments the Rockets need to make on offense.Tags: Houston Rockets, Dwight Howard, Omer Asik, Tim Legler
• Warriors Crush Lakers [h5]Warriors Crush Lakers[/h5]
  Klay Thompson scored 38 points in the Warriors' 125-94 win over the Lakers.Tags: NBA, Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Lakers, Klay Thompson, Andre Iguodala, Stephen Curry

var ESPN_GLOBALS = { "videoPlayers" "story09" "height":324, "width":576, "localSite":"dallas", "autostart":"true", "trackingName":"story09" } } }; espn.video.embeded.play();
DALLAS -- Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban lost the recruiting battle for Dwight Howard to the Houston Rockets, but Cuban believes that's because the big man made a bad decision.

"Obviously, he made a mistake in judgment," Cuban said Thursday, a little more than 24 hours before the Mavericks play Howard's Rockets in Houston. "Do I blame him? No, that's what young kids do. They make mistakes in judgment."

The Mavs and Rockets were two of the five teams that made pitches to Howard and his agents in Los Angeles this summer. Cuban thinks Howard, 27, had already made up his mind to sign with the Rockets and team up with 24-year-old rising superstar shooting guard James Harden.

begin inline 1 INLINE QUOTE-BOX MODULE

“

Obviously, he made a mistake in judgment. Do I blame him? No, that's what young kids do. They make mistakes in judgment.
” -- Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, on Dwight Howard's decision to sign with Rockets

END INLINE QUOTE-BOX MODULE end inline 1
Mavs superstar power forward Dirk Nowitzki is 35, but Cuban considers it foolish to make a decision in free agency based primarily on the age of potential co-stars.

"You choose teams. You don't choose players," Cuban said. "If he made a choice off of an individual player, yeah, he made a mistake. You choose teams. You choose organizations. You choose coaches. And it's just not relative to Houston.

"That's just the way I look at it, because if he's that good, then the right organization … Put aside Dwight. Any young superstar looking to make a move, if you're that good, then the right organization gets all the right pieces around you. So it's not about, you'd rather play with this guy. If you're that good and you have [salary cap] flexibility, the right organization will put the right pieces around you and get you there."

The Dallas front office's track record of success was a significant part of the Mavs' pitch to Howard. Dallas had a streak of 11 consecutive 50-win seasons, which included two trips to the NBA Finals and a championship in 2011, snapped in the lockout-shortened 2011-12 campaign after Cuban opted to let Tyson Chandler and others leave in free agency because he wanted the salary cap space to chase a superstar in free agency. The Mavs' streak of 12 consecutive playoff seasons ended last season, when Nowitzki dealt with injuries while being surrounded by a supporting cast consisting primarily of one-year rental players.

The Rockets, who pulled off a stunning blockbuster trade to land Harden before last season, have won one playoff series in the last 17 seasons.

Nowitzki, however, doesn't blame Howard for deciding that Houston was the best destination for him.

"Not really," Nowitzki told ESPNDallas.com. "Houston obviously is an up-and-coming team. [Chandler] Parsons to me is a phenomenal play, an up-and-coming player, and Harden is one of the best in the league at getting to the basket and scoring. They're going to be a handful."

Cuban said he thought the Mavs were a long shot going into their meeting with Howard and his representatives because of his feeling that Howard was leaning heavily to Houston. However, Cuban left the meeting believing that the Mavs had a legitimate chance, as did Nowitzki.

"I actually thought it went great, but the problem with those meetings is they don't really let on how it went or what they liked," Nowitzki said. "They went out of the room, came back in, had a couple of more questions for us. We answered those. I thought Cuban was fantastic in his presentation, even presented some of the marketing stuff we could have done here. So I thought we were really prepared.

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News, notes and analysis of the Mavericks from ESPNDallas.com's Tim MacMahon, Richard Durrett and our team.
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"I thought it went well. But if you ask the other four teams -- or Houston got him, but the other three that didn't get him -- they'd probably say the same. It's a little misleading in those meetings. But we gave it our best shot. It didn't work out our way and we moved on as a franchise."

The Mavs moved on by signing several free agents, a crop headlined by guards Jose Calderon (four years, $29 million) and Monta Ellis (three years, $25 million). The Mavs, who acknowledged that they were trying to sell Howard on a two-year rebuilding plan, would not have been able to afford either player if they had signed Howard to a max contract unless they made other major roster moves.

Pleased with Plan B -- and it's actually Plan D considering the Mavs' hopes to have landed Deron Williams or Chris Paul when the original decision was made to strip down the title roster -- Cuban insists he'll have no wonders about what could have been while watching Howard play against the Mavs.

"None. Not even a little bit, because I think we came out pretty good," Cuban said. "If we were stuck, then maybe. But like I say about every other team, I hope they suck.

"I say that every year. It's nothing personal. I still like Dwight as a person. But I still want the Rockets, like every other team, to have a horrible season. It's nothing personal. I just want them to suck."

 

[coldcity]

wasnt this fool just saying the only thing dallas had to do was get deron to get dwight but now since he doesnt have that string to pull he doesnt like people making decisions like that gthoh mark

Mavs superstar power forward Dirk Nowitzki is 35, but Cuban considers it foolish to make a decision in free agency based primarily on the age of potential co-stars.

"You choose teams. You don't choose players," Cuban said. "If he made a choice off of an individual player, yeah, he made a mistake. You choose teams. You choose organizations. You choose coaches. And it's just not relative to Houston.

 

[antidope]

Mark Cuban is right, how could he turn down WORLD DOMINATION??!?!?!?!?!

 

[quik1987]

Mark Cuban was right when he said Lakers should amnesty Kobe though

 

[kal-el-8]

Mark Cuban was right when he said Lakers should amnesty Kobe though

 

[do work son]

CFB can stay if UrBetterthenME gets the axe.

THAT

throw in clifford pls

On deadline day, I’m told the Kings have informed Jimmer Fredette of their decision not to pick up his 14-15 team option ($3.1 mil)
— Sam Amick (@sam_amick) October 31, 2013

this is sort of expected, but still bums me out

FREE JIMMER

 

[victor page]

Cuban definitely salty. He gutted that championship for Deron and D12 and struck out on both.

Hell...even most of NT was convinced they were headed to Dallas.

From Deron Williams and Dwight Howard to Jose Calderon and Monta Ellis 

 

 

[black migo]

View media item 636822

 

[do work son]

Cuban definitely salty. He gutted that championship for Deron and D12 and struck out on both.

Hell...even most of NT was convinced they were headed to Dallas.

From Deron Williams and Dwight Howard to Jose Calderon and Monta Ellis   

remember when he wanted deron, but couldn't meet with him because he was filming shark tank?

i do.

 

[rck3sactown]

CFB can stay if UrBetterthenME gets the axe.

THAT

throw in clifford pls

On deadline day, I’m told the Kings have informed Jimmer Fredette of their decision not to pick up his 14-15 team option ($3.1 mil)
— Sam Amick (@sam_amick) October 31, 2013

this is sort of expected, but still bums me out

FREE JIMMER

Soon







Soon

 

[tr1ll]

View media item 636822

Im 98% sure thats a woman.

 

[Animal Thug]

(from ESPN)

Most overrated Eastern Conference team: New York Knicks


I've written at length about why SCHOENE is so down on the Knicks. In reality, the 37-45 projection is something of a worst-case scenario for New York. I'm expecting something like 45 wins -- which would still be a drop of nine from last year's total of 54. There's actually plenty of precedent for that kind of slide.

Since the ABA-NBA merger, five other teams have gone from a stretch of consecutive years between 40 and 45 wins (projecting lockout campaigns to full seasons) to winning between 52 and 56 games in Year 3. Of those, three won 45 games or fewer in Year 4, two of which could prove similar to the Knicks. The 1991-92 Houston Rockets went from 52 wins to 42 and missed the playoffs, costing Don Chaney his job. And the 1998-99 Phoenix Suns, who had gone 56-26 the year before, won the equivalent of 44 games after a post-lockout makeover, finishing with the sixth seed.


Most overrated Western Conference team: Golden State Warriors


ESPN's #NBArank project this preseason helped showcase the irrational exuberance that developed around the Warriors in the wake of their playoff run. Six Warriors rated among the panel's top 76 players, including three who had below-average PERs in 2012-13: Andrew Bogut (13., Klay Thompson (12.7) and Harrison Barnes (11.0). In the playoffs, Bogut (16.1) and Barnes (13. were far better, which is sort of the point.

Elite defense makes Bogut an above-average center when healthy (a major caveat, as noted in last week's extension analysis), and Thompson (who scored a career-high 38 points in last night's encouraging blowout over the Los Angeles Lakers) and Barnes also are good defenders, but all three of them seem to be benefiting from a playoff halo effect, as is the team as a whole. Assuming the 82-game sample of the regular season is more telling leads to a more pessimistic analysis of Golden State -- maybe not quite as dire as SCHOENE's 42-40 projection, but more conservative than the conventional wisdom that the Warriors are a championship threat.


Most overrated player: Kyrie Irving, Cleveland Cavaliers


The #NBArank panel placed Irving eighth in the league this season, and though Irving undeniably has that kind of talent, putting him in the top 10 is premature because of defense and durability. Last season, the Cavaliers -- never a defensive juggernaut under the best of circumstances -- allowed 1.7 more points per 100 possessions with Irving on the floor, per NBA.com/Stats. Adjusting for his teammates, xRAPM (a version of adjusted plus-minus) found that Irving gave back two-thirds of his offensive value at the defensive end, making him only a slightly above-average contributor.

Of course, Irving doesn't have any value when he's on the bench, and he has missed a combined 38 games in his first two NBA seasons -- that after being limited to 11 games in his lone college campaign. To justify a top-10 ranking, Irving will have to stay healthy and effective at both ends of the floor.



Most overrated newcomer: Marco Belinelli, San Antonio Spurs


As an international player who combines 3-point range with playmaking flair, Belinelli seemed Spurs-y before he signed with San Antonio as a free agent this summer. There's just one catch: He's not actually all that good. Belinelli's career PER is 11.6, and last season in Chicago he slipped to 10.4 -- barely better than replacement level. His strong play in the postseason came only after he was essentially benched in Game 4 versus Brooklyn, with Luol Deng's injury opening up playing time.

Though Belinelli has shot the 3-ball much better in the past, last year's tumble to 35.7 percent accuracy dragged his true shooting percentage far below league average. Belinelli might be a defensive upgrade over predecessor Gary Neal, but Neal is the more skilled offensive player.


Most overrated coach: Doc Rivers, Los Angeles Clippers


Fully half of ESPN's analysts picked the Clippers to win the Western Conference, and while that partially reflects the additions of new starters Jared Dudley and J.J. Redick, it's primarily a vote of confidence in their change on the sideline. Don't get me wrong: Going from Vinny Del Negro to Rivers on the sideline is a tactical upgrade on par with going from standard definition to HD. Still, Rivers is not a miracle worker, and that might be what the Clippers need to put a championship-caliber defense together from their current frontcourt options.

Tuesday night's makeshift Lakers lineup torched the Clippers to the tune of 113.6 points per 100 possessions, which would have been the worst defensive rating in the NBA last season. During the fourth quarter, the Clippers allowed the Lakers to score on 14 consecutive possessions for a total of 33 points. So Rivers has his work cut out to justify the league's highest salary among coaches and the first-round pick the Clippers gave up to get him


Most overrated draft prospect: Andrew Wiggins


Again, there's a big difference between "overrated' and "bad." Wiggins could be the best prospect in next year's draft and a future All-Star and still be overrated because of the insane levels of hype about his potential. As Insider's Jeff Goodman noted last week, there are flaws in Wiggins' game -- his outside shot is a work in progress, and his effort level can be inconsistent. And that's fine. Such imperfections are par for the course for an 18-year-old. Just keep them in mind before planning Wiggins' Hall of Fame speech or counting the championships he'll win whatever team lands him next June.


Most overrated candidate to get the No. 1 pick: Sacramento Kings


SCHOENE projects the Kings near the bottom of the Western Conference standings and with the league's fifth-worst record overall, which would put them in the mix for Wiggins. However, I think Sacramento is likely to be more competitive than the numbers indicate. Because the Kings have been so horrible on defense since the Maloofs were filming commercials for Carl's Jr., their projected defensive rating is last in the league. That seems unlikely to continue with new head coach Mike Malone, who helped engineer the Warriors' defensive turnaround as Mark Jackson's lead assistant. In Wednesday's opener, Sacramento held the Denver Nuggets to 88 points on 94 possessions.

Beyond that, new owner Vivek Ranadivé doesn't seem to be interested in pingpong balls. The Kings courted Andre Iguodala over the summer before spending lavishly on Carl Landry, and a trade for a veteran (Rajon Rondo, perhaps?) could push them entirely out of the Tank Rankings.



Most overrated league trend: Death of the center


The elite center has been on the endangered species list since the late 1990s, but it's time to rethink that theory. Last season, 11 centers were among the 48 players who posted at least seven wins above replacement by my metric, a group that doesn't even include players such as Chris Bosh and Tim Duncan who are capable of playing center as well as power forward. Add in Bosh and Duncan and all four of last year's conference finalists had All-Stars in the middle, suggesting the center position remains as important as ever despite the rising value of outside shooting.

Today's center might not be a dominant post scorer who commands a double-team or averages 20 points per game (Brook Lopez, at 19.4 PPG, was the only center to average more than 18 points last season). But they must anchor the paint against the über-quick point guards who are impossible to contain off the dribble and also have enough agility to defend pick-and-rolls, making the best centers as valuable as ever.


(from ESPN).

 

[7thave btn 31stn33rd st]

ESPN is overrated.

 

[sea manup]

 

Mark Cuban was right when he said Lakers should amnesty Kobe though

not even worth your effort telling him to leave, just let him sit in the corner

 

[Maximus Meridius]

I used to be a big fan of Mark Cuban but this dude been acting like a hurt female the last 2 years.

 

[sea manup]

dont agree with marco, i dont think anyone has rated him at all except for spurs fans

hoping kyree proves this wrong

 

[certifiedflyboi23]

I guess we're gonna know if Kobe really wants to win by the amount of the extension..

 

[coldcity]

 

Mark Cuban was right when he said Lakers should amnesty Kobe though

View media item 580858

not even worth your effort telling him to leave, just let him sit in the corner

exactly

ESPN is overrated.

da feels

didnt even read it did u

*waits for anti to say damn near the exact same line regarding the warriors*

dont agree with marco, i dont think anyone has rated him at all except for spurs fans

hoping kyree proves this wrong

marco is nice...def upgrade over (cant remeber dudes name but he went to the bucks)
i wish da bulls werent so cheap & wouldve kept him

 

[sea manup]

I guess we're gonna know if the lakers really want to win by the amount of the extension..

agreed