I really think the bears are going to keep improving. So long as they can improve on that offensive line, obviously last season showed everyone their defense is impressive.
I really think the Bulls are sitting pretty right now. When they shipped Eddie Curry to the Knicks for the first round draft pick, the Knicks had no clue their season was gonna bottom out like it did. So now the Bulls are slated 5th in the draft, with lottery that can only put them up closer, as the Knicks did so bad 5th is guaranteed to be their lowest pick. I wouldn't be surprised to see Chicago take Adam Morrison and trade out Luol Deng for a Power Forward and try to do an all out offensive assault with Twin Towered Chandler and a complement, bombers from the outside with Gordon, Morrison, and Heinrich, and the basket moves Morrison and Gordon have will definately be problems too. So yeah, I'm expecting the Bulls to boom in a couple of years at the most.
Really looking forward to my team (The Rockets) next year. The lowest they can drop in the lottery is 11, and their season was only bad due to injury so just couple that with two of the world's best in McGrady and Ming and they're set.
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WTF your name is longer than your sig. 
He's right, the Bulls have one of the most promising outlooks for the offseason for any team. They're all pretty young, too. I'd look for them to make steady improvements in the coming years.
If my beloved Spurs can't pull this one out, then I guess I'll just cheer for the Clippers for the rest of the way (because c'mon...its the Clippers). While it was nice to see the Cavs shake up the Pistons a bit, I don't see them winning. I'd look for Detroit to beat Miami, then meet the Mavs in the finals.
It'd be a decent series, but I figure Detroit will finish off Dallas in the end. While the Mavs have looked good agains the Spurs, that seems to be due in large part to the specific matchup problems that San Antonio has with them. Detroit won't have those problems because their big men are more mobile than the Spurs.
Detroit in 6.
If my beloved Spurs can't pull this one out, then I guess I'll just cheer for the Clippers for the rest of the way (because c'mon...its the Clippers). While it was nice to see the Cavs shake up the Pistons a bit, I don't see them winning. I'd look for Detroit to beat Miami, then meet the Mavs in the finals.
It'd be a decent series, but I figure Detroit will finish off Dallas in the end. While the Mavs have looked good agains the Spurs, that seems to be due in large part to the specific matchup problems that San Antonio has with them. Detroit won't have those problems because their big men are more mobile than the Spurs.
Detroit in 6.
I've been a Clippers fan my entire life. I've endured countless losing seasons and watched as player after player left. For me this is better than a championship. They say Kaman most likely won't play until game 6 which hurts them up front. Elton Brand is a beast though so you never know what will happen.
I'm a big fan of Brand. He's a workhorse, and he doesn't seem to have too much of an ego.
He should be in San Antonio, damnit!
He should be in San Antonio, damnit!
I think I'm gonna call the Mavs in game 6 against the Pistons for the NBA Championship, I'll definately go to contradict you in that call. If you recall back to the season match-up with the Mavs against the Pistons it has been 4 meetings (2 pre-season, which I know, doesn't mean much, but it's still a couple of games) the Mavericks have won 3 of 4 match-ups. Most impressively the Mavericks beat the Pistons to end the 8 game win streak at the beginning of the year when the Pistons were getting incredible amounts of hype. Also the important thing that'll factor in, is rest. Although Dallas fell to the Spurs in game 1 when they had rest, I think they'll know enough the second time around.
The rest factor is major for the simple fact that Miami is going to drag Detroit into a 6 game series at the least. I really don't see the Clippers (My shot for winning the Phoenix/LA matchup) challenging the Mavs beyond 5. Give Dallas the rest, send them to Detroit and get some practice in, have Detroit stay at home after polishing off the Heat in 7, but still in 7 games, and the Mavericks are in a good place to take the first game to kind of stop a roll from building up.
On the subject of Brand, I love the guy, nose the grindstone player with some amazing moves he put the time in to develop. Yao Ming has that same dedication to improvement, unlike Brand however Ming needs to put on weight rather than drop the 1 year old Brand did before the regular season (Something like what, 25 pounds he lost in the offseason?). Brand would make a nice fit if the Clippers would ever deal him out, but that won't happen until the waning years of what'll probably be a Hall of Fame career. But getting Kaman in the draft, signing Mobley, signing Cassell (They damn well better hold onto him), and bringing in Maggette has done wonders for that organization, the stepping up of cash was a brilliant move.
MentalFrog: Yeah, but I don't really have too much to put into the signature.
The rest factor is major for the simple fact that Miami is going to drag Detroit into a 6 game series at the least. I really don't see the Clippers (My shot for winning the Phoenix/LA matchup) challenging the Mavs beyond 5. Give Dallas the rest, send them to Detroit and get some practice in, have Detroit stay at home after polishing off the Heat in 7, but still in 7 games, and the Mavericks are in a good place to take the first game to kind of stop a roll from building up.
On the subject of Brand, I love the guy, nose the grindstone player with some amazing moves he put the time in to develop. Yao Ming has that same dedication to improvement, unlike Brand however Ming needs to put on weight rather than drop the 1 year old Brand did before the regular season (Something like what, 25 pounds he lost in the offseason?). Brand would make a nice fit if the Clippers would ever deal him out, but that won't happen until the waning years of what'll probably be a Hall of Fame career. But getting Kaman in the draft, signing Mobley, signing Cassell (They damn well better hold onto him), and bringing in Maggette has done wonders for that organization, the stepping up of cash was a brilliant move.
MentalFrog: Yeah, but I don't really have too much to put into the signature.
Rest only comes into play against old or injured teams. Could be a problem if 'Sheed's injury turns out to really start nagging him, but other than that the Piston's have been frighteningly injury-free all season. Unlike the Spurs, who are starting to cross the line between "veteran" and "old", and had a variety of players limping into the Mavs series.
I mean, when a team gets a lot of rest, and comes in and inexplicably loses the first game, they say it's them being rusty from the lack of play. Though I agree that it can help in a long series.
It'll be interesting though. I'm happy that even if the Spurs go down, I'll still be curious enough to watch and see what unfolds. The playoffs have been pretty good this year.
I mean, when a team gets a lot of rest, and comes in and inexplicably loses the first game, they say it's them being rusty from the lack of play. Though I agree that it can help in a long series.
It'll be interesting though. I'm happy that even if the Spurs go down, I'll still be curious enough to watch and see what unfolds. The playoffs have been pretty good this year.
Kaman I was close to saying was a bust up to this year. His stats were nothing to look at the first few years he has been in the league. It was like he woke up and said Ok I'm going to be an NBA center now.
Cassell doesn't have much gas left in the tank, but he brings more playoff experience than the roster had combined. Plus he's been grooming Shaun Livingston all season. Cuttino Mobley is still one of the most overrated players around in my opinion.
Maggette, I still don't know about him. Some games he'll be on fire and other games he'll be horrendous. He reminds me so much of Allan Houston it's frightening.
Cassell doesn't have much gas left in the tank, but he brings more playoff experience than the roster had combined. Plus he's been grooming Shaun Livingston all season. Cuttino Mobley is still one of the most overrated players around in my opinion.
Maggette, I still don't know about him. Some games he'll be on fire and other games he'll be horrendous. He reminds me so much of Allan Houston it's frightening.
Maggette suffers from the same thing Stromile Swift does, the consistency will come with experience. Maggette never really saw a whole hell of alot of time before being a Clipper's star, he's gotta settle into it. Swift played on the grizzlies as a support to Paul Gasol and such so of course time will be limited.
Kaman did come out of his shell and it's definately well worth it. I'm not gonna say Mobley is overrated though. I think he's not really appreciated as much as he should be. He's able to cut to the basket when it's needed, he can step back and put a three through if necessary, and that left hand is much more useful than he lets on. It's also incredibly important to keep Cassell around for as long as that tank has something in it, what he can impart to Livingston will be crucial.
On a side note, I completely agree that this play-offs has been one of the best. I will definately say though, I'm glad Stern is re-doing the seeding for next years play-offs to avoid another San An/Dallas situation next year.
Kaman did come out of his shell and it's definately well worth it. I'm not gonna say Mobley is overrated though. I think he's not really appreciated as much as he should be. He's able to cut to the basket when it's needed, he can step back and put a three through if necessary, and that left hand is much more useful than he lets on. It's also incredibly important to keep Cassell around for as long as that tank has something in it, what he can impart to Livingston will be crucial.
On a side note, I completely agree that this play-offs has been one of the best. I will definately say though, I'm glad Stern is re-doing the seeding for next years play-offs to avoid another San An/Dallas situation next year.
ESPN article
Pretty interesting read from Bill Simmons over at espn.com about the changes regarding high screens, and the increasing success of small-ball in the NBA.
Edited, Wed May 17 13:50:34 2006 by Eske
Pretty interesting read from Bill Simmons over at espn.com about the changes regarding high screens, and the increasing success of small-ball in the NBA.
Edited, Wed May 17 13:50:34 2006 by Eske
Please get off the Pistons, they just lost again incase you weren't watching. I think the Cavs are going to finish them up on Friday. The Cavs match up well with the Pistions, they can play a defensive battle, and have one thing the Pistions don't have down the stretch..... A go to superstar in LeBron James.
I wouldn't be surprised if the Cavs won in Cleveland tomorrow. Z still has a lot of life in him; as seen by the last game where he dived on the ball to get the jump ball. Not to forget E. Snow who really bombed a few threes in tough spots. The whole team is working together really well. Except they like to just stand around a lot. It's kind of annoying when they just stand around on their half of the court.
Anyway, the Cavs won two at home and one away. They are the first in the playoffs to win three in a row on the Pistons. The cavs are on fire, albeit they don't seem to try as hard at some points. I do hope that the cavs move on in the playoffs but, they have a tough battle still ahead on friday.
EDIT:Spelling, Capitalization
Edited, Thu May 18 06:33:24 2006 by weedjedi
Anyway, the Cavs won two at home and one away. They are the first in the playoffs to win three in a row on the Pistons. The cavs are on fire, albeit they don't seem to try as hard at some points. I do hope that the cavs move on in the playoffs but, they have a tough battle still ahead on friday.
EDIT:Spelling, Capitalization
Edited, Thu May 18 06:33:24 2006 by weedjedi
I've been really impressed with Varejao. He plays well without the ball, and has been really anchoring the defense for the Cavs.
That being said, I'm still pretty darn surprised that the Cavs won that last one. It wasn't that they were playing especially well, as much as it was that the Pistons looked downright atrocious for long stretches. How they couldn't capitalize when the Cavs started throwing away possessions towards the end of the game is beyond me.
But the Cavs odds are looking much better to me, nevertheless. As said, they do need to stay mobile in the halfcourt offense. There's too much standing around in the 4th quarter when they expect LeBron to shoot on every posession. (Which he does, but needs to stop).
The Spurs/Mavs game was damned intense. My nerves are fried from it.
Question for anyone who watched it though:
On the Dallas posession in the last seconds where the Spurs forced two jump balls, the shot clock expired as the second jump ball was forced. Why was it not a shot clock violation then, or after they retained possession after the jump? For the second jump ball, they just turned off the shot clock entirely, giving Dallas the extra 2.4 or so seconds left for those last shots.
My friends and I were pretty confused by that. They don't reset the shot clock for jump balls, so shouldn't it have been Spurs ball when it expired automatically?
That being said, I'm still pretty darn surprised that the Cavs won that last one. It wasn't that they were playing especially well, as much as it was that the Pistons looked downright atrocious for long stretches. How they couldn't capitalize when the Cavs started throwing away possessions towards the end of the game is beyond me.
But the Cavs odds are looking much better to me, nevertheless. As said, they do need to stay mobile in the halfcourt offense. There's too much standing around in the 4th quarter when they expect LeBron to shoot on every posession. (Which he does, but needs to stop).
The Spurs/Mavs game was damned intense. My nerves are fried from it.
Question for anyone who watched it though:
On the Dallas posession in the last seconds where the Spurs forced two jump balls, the shot clock expired as the second jump ball was forced. Why was it not a shot clock violation then, or after they retained possession after the jump? For the second jump ball, they just turned off the shot clock entirely, giving Dallas the extra 2.4 or so seconds left for those last shots.
My friends and I were pretty confused by that. They don't reset the shot clock for jump balls, so shouldn't it have been Spurs ball when it expired automatically?
I'm willing to buy the Cavs now have a viable option to knock out the Pistons, but come Miami it'll be hell. Lebron poses match-up problems for the Heat BUT, Alonzo Mourning poses driving problems for Lebron. Dwayne Wade will be constricted to some extent by Larry Hughes if he comes back, but we've seen the numbers Lebron and Dwayne put up against each other. The key match-up in that series (Should it happen) will definately be Jayson Williams and Eric Snow. Let's face it, Z is going to be a push-over compared to Shaq, weight along dictates that. Williams brings alot of offensive power and he's pretty good controlling the half-court, and if he falls apart Gary Payton's veteran status will help alot. Snow is good but not really noteworthy in many areas.
The Mavs/Spurs game pissed me off. Still up 3-2 in the series and going back to Dallas though so I have high hopes that my Mavs will pull this one out. The reason the shot clock and everything was reset/done away with is, under new rules, certain fouls set the shot clock back to 14 seconds (Jump balls being one of them). Since there were two in a row, and the clock went under the 14 second mark, the shot clock goes away.
The Mavs/Spurs game pissed me off. Still up 3-2 in the series and going back to Dallas though so I have high hopes that my Mavs will pull this one out. The reason the shot clock and everything was reset/done away with is, under new rules, certain fouls set the shot clock back to 14 seconds (Jump balls being one of them). Since there were two in a row, and the clock went under the 14 second mark, the shot clock goes away.
Eske wrote:
I've been really impressed with Varejao. He plays well without the ball, and has been really anchoring the defense for the Cavs.
I have to agree he knows how to play defense. He was picking and boxing out like mad. He's a very talented player who knows how to play with or without the ball.
Eske wrote:
There's too much standing around in the 4th quarter when they expect LeBron to shoot on every posession. (Which he does, but needs to stop).
Again I agree, LeBron basically was the team nearing the end of the second half. However, Snow stepped up to the plate and swung for the fences. He really came through with those threes he made.
As for LeBron, he needs to tell his team to move their asses. Near the end of the third quarter they had already begun to just stand around. LeBron, at one possesion coming off of a rebound, held the ball 22 out of the 24 seconds in the shot clock. Guarded by two men he took the shot and *CLANG*. I thought to myself "Well, what did you expect a swish?"
If, IF, that Cavs do lose the game friday, I'm willing to bet it's done. The Pistons will have home court on Game 7 and would be riding in on the momentum of a huge win. The Cavs have to close it out on this game, mainly because of what was stated previously by me. Also, I'd LOVE to see Ben Wallace put in his place. That man runs his mouth WAAAAY too much. I do believe that if they close it in either game 6 or 7; Miami is going to be a living hell for the Cavs.
BlatherionBlackenedblade wrote:
Let's face it, Z is going to be a push-over compared to Shaq
I disagree with you. I do believe that Shaq and Z would match up rather evenly. Although Shaq does outweigh Z by a good 30 lbs., Z is a bit more agile and a better shot. Shaq can probably dunk it on his head but, Z can shoot around Shaq rather well it seems to me. Shaq may be a big hulking behemoth but so is Z, have you ever seen the man in person he's huge. However, I do truly believe that Z will meet the challenge of Shaq with flying colors and, if he goes down he'll go down swinging (figuratively speaking of course.) And, that is my view
As for the Spurs and the Mavs, I didn't manage to see that game. Mostly because I'm 16 and go to sleep at 10:00 P.M. for classes at 7:00 A.M.
Quote:
The Mavs/Spurs game pissed me off. Still up 3-2 in the series and going back to Dallas though so I have high hopes that my Mavs will pull this one out. The reason the shot clock and everything was reset/done away with is, under new rules, certain fouls set the shot clock back to 14 seconds (Jump balls being one of them). Since there were two in a row, and the clock went under the 14 second mark, the shot clock goes away.
But here's the thing: They didn't reset the shot clock after the first jump ball, if I recall correctly. After that jump, there were less than 5 seconds left on the shot clock, which ran out almost exactly as the referee called the second jump ball.
Perhaps they didn't reset the shot clock to 14 because there was less time than that, so they just let it run out without sounding the buzzer, instead of just turning it off?
I guess I'd need to see the play again.
Edited, Thu May 18 20:27:43 2006 by Eske
I think the Cavs will close out the Piston's on Friday. The Cavs simply match up great with the Pistion's and seem to have a little more depth in this series. Also, the Piston's defensive strategy is a failure, namely due to the peskiness of Varejao. They double LeBron everytime he touches the ball, and most of the time that give LeBron an easy dish to Varejao who always does something damaging.....
Varejao is playing intense D, grabbing boards, scoring, and putting most of the Pistons in foul trouble. Right now he is the reason the Cavs are doing so well, and the Pistons do not have any player or scheme to stop him. They are too worried about LeBron.
Cavs vs. Miami (if Cavs win) will definately be interesting. I don't think the Cavs match up quite as well with Miami. Miami is alot larger team, who can spread the floor. I think Antoine Walker would be a huge factor in that series.
Varejao is playing intense D, grabbing boards, scoring, and putting most of the Pistons in foul trouble. Right now he is the reason the Cavs are doing so well, and the Pistons do not have any player or scheme to stop him. They are too worried about LeBron.
Cavs vs. Miami (if Cavs win) will definately be interesting. I don't think the Cavs match up quite as well with Miami. Miami is alot larger team, who can spread the floor. I think Antoine Walker would be a huge factor in that series.
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