NBA Basketball 2007-08: The Thread

[impy13]

How does it taste, LMP?






[/kidding]

 

[No spoken words]

How does it taste, LMP?






[/kidding]

Oh snap.

You just got IMP'ed.

 

[LMP]

How does it taste, LMP?






[/kidding]

I still can't believe Bogans' jumper was called a 3. I forgot, he's not The Mamba.

What a great game to watch though.

 

[impy13]

It was indeed. Shame I didn't get to go. I know four people that went, so I was regretting not getting a ticket with them. I'm back in Dallas for the holidays now, so I'm going to try to get tickets for the Suns game tomorrow. I've already got tickets for the game against the Hawks on the 29th. Hopefully Horford doesn't clothesline then piledrive Devin Harris or anything.

 

[LMP]

I've been missing some Magic games, too because of school, hopefully that'll clear up soon.

Can he piledrive Stephen A.? Al Horford would be my hero, no matter how much of a Gator he may be.

Papa LMP and I ended up making the DirecTV switch for FSN and Sun Sports. I highly recommend it if you like watching any sport whatsoever.

 

[No spoken words]

I've been missing some Magic games, too because of school, hopefully that'll clear up soon.

Can he piledrive Stephen A.? Al Horford would be my hero, no matter how much of a Gator he may be.

Papa LMP and I ended up making the DirecTV switch for FSN and Sun Sports. I highly recommend it if you like watching any sport whatsoever.

If you're ever home and watching TV, and there's nothing interesting on, put Channel 220 on. Just do it.

 

[LMP]

If you're ever home and watching TV, and there's nothing interesting on, put Channel 220 on. Just do it.

The Big Ten Network.

I usually end up watching some really bad TV series on Chiller or a taped Schwarzenegger movie (Predator, Commando, True Lies, and Kindergarten Cop all on in the same week!)

 

[Hewson]

Hopefully Horford doesn't clothesline then piledrive Devin Harris or anything.

Well if he does you can count on Dirk to stand up to Horford...



...wait for it...







.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

The Big Ten Network.

a friend of mine does commentary for the big ten network


and the horford thing on tj ford was vastly over-rated... he made a play on the ball, tj ford has serious neck issues and probably shouldn't ever play again. if it was football the doctors would never let him on the field again (see sterling sharpe). one can only hope he doesn't cause serious damage to himself one day.

 

[impy13]

Well if he does you can count on Dirk to stand up to Horford...



...wait for it...







.

Zing!

Yeah, dude needs some balls.

 

[CTU2fan]

Zing!

Yeah, dude needs some balls.

You guys better watch out, Dirk will channel his inner Hoff and kick all your asses. Even Chuck Norris knows to fear the Hoff.

 

[impy13]

Dirk hasn't channeled the Hoff since the 06 WCF.

It would pay dividends.

 

[CTU2fan]

Nice piece about the Celts from JA Adande:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=adande_ja&page=Celtics-071219

Love the "Dodgers of the NBA" comparison.

 

[LMP]

Dirk hasn't channeled the Hoff since the 06 WCF.

It would pay dividends.

Definitely.

I think Bill Simmons' Chappelle analogy is fitting, too. He's definitely missing some of his mojo the few times I've seen him play this season.

 

[thetitans2k]

Celtics finally play a good opponent and lose. How bad was that Tony Allen foul. He's an idiot. Apprently he was in the game at the end to be a defensive stopper.

 

[phanan]

The Celtics played very well in the first half of that game - they just fell apart after that, yet still only lost it at the end.

 

[Hewson]

Not necessarily a bad loss, they know they can hang with the Pissed-ons, and they also know they need to improve still.

 

[CTU2fan]

Celtics finally play a good opponent and lose. How bad was that Tony Allen foul. He's an idiot. Apprently he was in the game at the end to be a defensive stopper.

Well there's no way Eddie House was going to be able to guard Billups, and Rondo was having no luck. The real error was Paul Pierce putting his shot up too early; I was hoping he'd drive to the basket and put it up with no time left, or that Tayshaun would foul him.

Good game though, between pretty clearly the 2 best teams in the East. I didn't realize Chauncey Billups was such a physical player, unless that was unusual for him; after Rondo beat him badly a few times in the first half he basically resorted to taking the body against him NHL-style with impunity. At the same time Rondo was in foul trouble on touch fouls on Billups all night.

This Celts team has only played 23 games together though; I think later in the year you'll see somebody other than Pierce with the ball at the end (both Allen & KG were having better nights than PP was, so the choice was odd IMO). Everybody's still learning, including Doc Rivers.

 

[thetitans2k]

I'm not saying it was a bad idea for Doc Rivers. I just think Tony Allen needs to be smarter.

Also Chauncey is a tough point guard.

 

[CTU2fan]

I think it's a tough assignment for TA coming off the bench pretty much cold. Billups' move to draw the foul is something he does often though, and Allen should have anticipated it.

I think if those teams meet in the playoffs it'll be pretty entertaining. The Pistons' D in the 2nd half was very impressive.

 

[namkcuR]

The Bulls finally fired Scott Skiles.

 

[thetitans2k]

I wonder who they have lined up to replace him.

 

[tpsreports2424]

So paxson doesnt have the balls to trade a few people for kobe, but he has the balls to fire scott skiles??

and I hope we get jeff van gundy...

and can anyone tell me about the rumor with the bulls might be trading a few people for tracy mcgrady?

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

scott skiles gets fired before isiah... awesome

the bulls might be trading a few people for tracy mcgrady?

 

[tpsreports2424]

So paxson doesnt have the balls to trade a few people for kobe, but he has the balls to fire scott skiles??

and I hope we get jeff van gundy...

and can anyone tell me about the rumor with the bulls might be trading a few people for tracy mcgrady?

hey if we cant get kobe, then we better get mcgrady..

 

[LMP]

hey if we cant get kobe, then we better get mcgrady..

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3168274

You don't want him.

 

[Hewson]

and can anyone tell me about the rumor with the bulls might be trading a few people for tracy mcgrady?

Yeah, plus the Bulls are going to try and trade for Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, Kevin Durant and Dwight Howard...cause you know they have lots of young players everyone else wants.

 

[CTU2fan]

scott skiles gets fired before isiah... awesome

Skiles should be the next Knicks coach. Except I think his head would explode before he coached one full game...hell he might not last through a practice. A practice, man.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

an injury proned, over-rated player who takes terrible shots and has never gotten his team out of the first round of the playoffs.

yes, the bulls should trade the house for mcgrady. it would fit right in with the other brilliant moves john paxson has made.

reinsdorf fired the wrong guy.


meanwhile isiah thomas has taken zach randolph out of the lineup because he's figured out that eddy curry and zach randolph can't play together, which is what most of us figured out when they first made the trade.

he's a real man of genius.

on a side note, james dolan was impressed that isiah was able to figure out that eddy curry sucks and has thus given him a ten year contract extention.

 

[namkcuR]

Reinsdorf didn't fire the wrong guy, Headache.

The big problem with the Bulls was the roster. Lack of talent, and the talent we did have wasn't utilized in an efficient, consistant, useful manner. That incorrect utilization falls on Skiles. Ask any Bulls fan and they'll tell you - Skiles' in-game rotations bordered on lunacy, especially this year. He coaches the team like it's a high school/college team. One itty bitty mistake and you get your ass benched for the rest of the game. Tyrus and Noah and Aaron Gray weren't getting PT. Tyrus's PT was inconsistant(he'd play pretty well, get 15 pts in a game and then still wouldn't get any PT the next game). Noah and Gray basically weren't getting PT at all. And Wallace was getting a ton of it when he really didn't deserve it. Yes, you were right Headache, the Wallace signing was a mistake. That signing was predicated on the idea that were one piece away from the ECF, and the reality is we're not there.

Wallace needs to accept a sixth man role, Tyrus and Noah and Gray need to get a lot of PT.

Gordon needs to be allowed to play the point a decent amount to see basically if he can(given that his ballhandling skills aren't great) so that the organization can decide which of Hinrich/Gordon to trade. One of them at least needs to go because they don't compliment each other at all. Gordon is streaky and short, and Hinrich, while an excellent defender, just doesn't have the pure PG skills to be the PG that franchise wants him to be. They're both SGs in PGs' bodies.

The point is, a lot of experimentation needs to take place with this roster to see who should stay and who should go and what direction the team should go in, and Skiles wasn't allowing any of that to happen. His rotations were insane, he treated players like five year olds, his distribution of PT was completely wrong in every way, and his inability to develop Paxson's draft picks has hurt this team and made it much more difficult to accurately assess those picks.

Furthermore, his system wasn't good. It focus completely on defense. Defense is great, but his offense absolutely did not utilize the players' strengths at all and it totally exposed their weaknesses. When you have a team that doesn't have that much talent, you have to utilize the talent you do have to the max, and Skiles just did not do that all. His offense stagnated. Always. The offense was just, 'watch Hinrich or Gordon dribble around until they're open, until somebody else is open, or until they turn the ball over(which was often). His offense system was absolutely horrible.

To sum up, the roster is the biggest problem the Bulls have, but Skiles' refusal to do any of the things that might help that problem at all made HIM a problem. He had to be gotten rid of if the roster problem was going to be dealt with.

In the two days since Skiles' firing, there have already been reports that almost every player on the roster had, at best, issues with Skiles, and at worst, just plain bad blood with Skiles.

I'm not saying Paxson shouldn't take any blame for the roster problems, because he absolutely should. But to say that Skiles didn't deserve his firing is just wrong.