NBA Basketball 2006-07: The Thread

[phillyfan26]

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

shavlik randolph's gonna start for philly... haha... that's like knick funny.

 

[phillyfan26]

He's not going to now. He Theismanned his ankle.

 

[blueyedpoet]

I'm just happy the real LA team is back in fine form...this team actually has a legitimate chance of going deep in the playoffs...hell steve kerr thinks they're title contenders

 

[Hewson]

I'm just happy the real LA team is back in fine form...this team actually has a legitimate chance of going deep in the playoffs...hell steve kerr thinks they're title contenders

Yeah...Go Clippers.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

December 7, 2006 -- It took 21 games, but "Fire Thomas" and "Fire Isiah" chants rang out in the final Garden minutes last night.

There was one chant of "Fire Isiah, We want Herb," as in assistant Herb Williams, and one brief song of "Fire Dolan" at the buzzer in the most vicious Garden display this season.

But owner James Dolan was not in the sparsely populated house to hear all the venom.

The chanting began in earnest with 2:04 left during a timeout - a loud 30-second "Fire Isiah" chant. It was followed by sporadic ones until the final buzzer. As the last sad seconds ticked off the clock, the boos punctuated this disgraceful, inexcusable 113-102 blowout loss to the previously winless-on-the-road Wizards.

The Knicks, falling to 2-8 at home, earned all their boos in allowing Washington to nail a franchise-tying record of 14 of 20 3-pointers and shred them for 65 points by halftime and 99 after three quarters.

The Wizards were 0-8 on the road before the Knicks' hospitality, before Gilbert Arenas became an unstoppable force (38 points, 6 of 9 from 3-point land) and Antawn Jamison became equally dangerous with 33 points, 6 of 8 on 3-pointers.

Stephon Marbury, Steve Francis and Quentin Richardson were awful defensively.

Yet afterward, Thomas' message to his players and fans was: Don't blame us. Shockingly, Thomas wasn't outraged by this despicable defensive showing, praising Washington's sizzling shooting.

"I don't fault our guys' effort," said Thomas - whose job, sources indicated, is safe at least until Jared Jeffries and Channing Frye return from injury.

"Some nights other teams play better than you. And you have to take the whupping."

As he walked off the court, Thomas pointed to the players and had a message. "I told them to keep their heads up, don't walk off with your heads down. That team we lost to played a helluva basketball game."

Said Eddy Curry, "He said just don't pay attention to the boos."

Thomas, referring to the Garden's sparse crowds, said beforehand, "Our job is to win the doubters." The Knick doubters grew exponentially, along with the 3-point baskets.

The Knicks (7-14) played sloppily, stupidly and looked outclassed. They are 1-2 on this critical six-game homestand. Thomas did not have them prepared days after guaranteeing they'd turn around their Garden woes.

"Antawn and Arenas get paid a lot of money, they were good tonight," Thomas said.

The Knicks get paid more than any other team in the league. And they stunk. This was a team the Knicks beat at the Garden back on Nov. 15. So they're regressing. Incredibly, Washington shot 0 for 15 from the 3-point line in scoring 82 points on Nov. 15.

Washington passed its game total of the last game (82) on another Arenas 3-pointer with 6:39 left in the third.

The defining moment came when Arenas, faking a drive, hit a 3-pointer 4:23 into the second half, over Stephon Marbury, who was befuddled all night. Arenas strutted downcourt, boos rained down and Thomas called time as Washington's lead ballooned to 92-71.

Arenas finished with 24 points by the half, topping his 22-point total in the first meeting. Washington shot 70 percent in the first quarter and 57.1 at intermission in building a 66-55 lead.

"Fans fare fans, they'll do their thing," Thomas said of the hostile reaction. "They were disappointed like we were disappointed."

For the second straight game, the Garden contained several sections in the 300 and 400 levels that were completely barren. The Knicks announced 16,272.

Thomas, who a day earlier got testy with reporters over his lineup, wore a disarming smile in the morning. He stated the fans had every right not to fill the Garden in droves.

"They had every right to be hurt," Thomas said. "We were all hurt. You guys covering the team were hurt. Last year was a year unlike any other. We have some doubters. Our job is to win the doubters. They're still in a 'wait and see - show me' that has every right to be 'wait and see - show me.' "

They showed only that their perimeter defense could be as bad as any team, allowing Washington to hit 11 of its first 14 shots. Thomas can't wait for Jeffries, the ex-Wizard, to make his debut, perhaps Monday.

Marbury (5 of 15) had a rough shooting night. After one wide-open 3-point miss, Marbury shouted "[bleep!]" summing up the evening.

the world's most famous arena...

 

[Hewson]

The Knicks, Memphis and the Charlotte Babka better get hot.
There's a XXXL green shirt with the name "Oden" on the back waiting to be filled on Causeway Street.

The intentional tanking failed when the Celts lost the Tim Duncan lottery. It best not fail this year.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

i don't know how "intentional" the celtics tanking is.

hey maybe when the bulls get greg oden the ben wallace contract won't look quite as bad

 

[Hewson]

Lots of difficult to disprove injuries on Causeway these days.
Keep it up (or down as the case may be) boys.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Phoenix 30 34 28 41 10 18 161
New Jersey 29 29 32 43 10 14 157

 

[thetitans2k]

Phoenix 30 34 28 41 10 18 161
New Jersey 29 29 32 43 10 14 157

That was an amazing game. Kidd is amazing. Steve Nash is a god.

 

[Hewson]

Phoenix 30 34 28 41 10 18 161
New Jersey 29 29 32 43 10 14 157

Would have sucked to have had the under.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

if you took the under in a nets/suns game, you're a fool

 

[Hewson]

The over/under was 317.5

Ok actually 210.5, I didn't touch the game. Did have Under 191 in the Pissed-ons/Mavs though.

 

[speedracer]

Why on earth did 76ers chariman Ed Snider announce that Allen Iverson asked to be traded? Way to hurt your leverage.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Why on earth did 76ers chariman Ed Snider announce that Allen Iverson asked to be traded? Way to hurt your leverage.

what leverage does he have for an aging, undersized point guard who shoots every time he touches the ball, is an injury waiting to happen and has a criminal record the size of the yellow pages anyway?

he should have traded him years ago.

i give 5 days till the iverson to the knicks for marbury or francis rumors begin.

 

[phillyfan26]

I just hope this signals the end of the Billy King Era, possibly the worst GM ever in Philadelphia. Worse than even the out-matched Ed Wade.

They can't get anything back for him, and they can't dump salary for it has to match for this season. It's the worst handling of salary I've ever seen. Really, it is.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

iverson's only got 2 years left on his deal... if philly takes on a contract that is more than 2 years in length, they're retarded.

all they have to do is look up the turnpike at the knicks... this whole mess started when they agreed to trade patrick ewing. if they would have just let his contract run out, all this salary cap mess never would have happened. every move the knicks have made since that day has been an attempt to turn what they got in the ewing trade into something of value. it's been quite succesful, as you can see.

if i'm philly i ask for wally world, gerald green and a pick... toss in scalabrene to make the contracts work... and send igoudala to boston with AI and maybe a second round pick or something like that.

if i'm boston, i want no part of allen iverson.

if i'm isiah, i shoot myself. if i survive, i try to swap iverson for marbury straight up. throw in nate robinson and get carney back from philly if you must.

not that i like iverson but marbury needs to go and their contracts are exactly the same. trade one headache for another and hope for the best.

 

[phillyfan26]

If I'm Billy King, I kill myself. If I survive, I ask Ed Snider to do it for me. If that doesn't work, I'll just give a gun to the first Sixer fan I see and let him do it.

 

[LMP]

I wonder if Minnesota will make a big enough push for Iverson.

Wait, Kevin McHale's their GM, nevermind.

I doubt Billy King's dumb enough to trade him to another Atlantic Division team, but I'm sure Phills would disagree with me there.

How about Iverson and a pick for Ray Allen and Luke Ridnour?

 

[phillyfan26]

Oh he's definitely dumb enough to do it. He re-signed Dalembert for triple his market value. Double for Korver. Added C-Web to a team with the already monstrously paid Iverson.

Anything is possible.

 

[namkcuR]

all they have to do is look up the turnpike at the knicks... this whole mess started when they agreed to trade patrick ewing. if they would have just let his contract run out, all this salary cap mess never would have happened. every move the knicks have made since that day has been an attempt to turn what they got in the ewing trade into something of value. it's been quite succesful, as you can see.

Yeah...

The Ewing deal was a four-team deal, and NY ended up getting

Glenn Rice
Luc Longley
Travis Knight
Vernon Maxwell
Lazaro Borrell
Vladimir Stepania
2 2001 1st Round draft picks
2 2001 2nd Round draft picks

Luc Longley played a year and then retired.

Travis Knight was out of the league by 2003.

Vladimir Stepania was waived immediatly after the trade.

As far as I can tell, neither Vernon Maxwell nor Lazaro Borrell ever played a minute for the Knicks either.

Glenn Rice was traded for Howard Eisley and Shandon Anderson.

Shandon Anderson played for the Knicks until his contract was up, at which point he signed with the Heat.

Howard Eisley was part of the deal that brought Marbury, Penny, and Cezary Trybanski(who was out of the league by the end of that season) to NY in exchange for McDyess, Howard, and others.

Penny was subsequently traded, with Ariza, to Orlando for Franchise.

I stared at nbadraft.net's record of the 2001 draft for probably 20 minutes, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out what those two first rounders and two second rounders ever became. It was too confusing; whose picks were they originally, who owned the picks on draft night, what draft night trades occured......I just simply have no idea what the hell those picks ended up being for the Knicks.

So, essentially, as of now, Ewing is Marbury+Franchise+whatever those picks became.

And Eisley wasn't even close to being the biggest part of the Marbury/Penny deal, so realistically speaking, Ewing is now whatever those picks became.

Nice.

 

[LMP]

And the Iverson Sweepstakes continues!

My money's on either a trade with the Clippers involving Corey Magette, a trade with the Lakers, or something involving the Bobcats.

I have no clue.

 

[Got Philk?]

^^Pleeeeease. As a Michigan fan, you could have at least spelled Glen Rice's name correct. You're KILLING me.


One "n". ONE "N"!!!!

Anyway, I went to a Bulls game and saw Big Ben grab 27 rebounds. Yup, 27. Quite a performance. And you guessed it, piss poor shooting by both teams really. Aside from Redd and Mo Williams.

I'd really like to see more of something that happened in the 4th. Ben Wallace posted up, and made some great passes to cutters through the lane. All night, it was outside shot after outside shot. When we're on, we're alright, but 15 point leads go fast when we're off. As it did.

Point is, we still need a big fella. But good game ending a 8 game home streak where we went 7-1. Not bad eh?

But it's Glen Rice...not Glenn...That's Glenn Robinson...Glen Rice...

 

[thetitans2k]

Im going down to minnesota to see the T-wolves play the bulls. The first NBA regular season game, that I will see in person. I'm pretty excited.

 

[LMP]

Im going down to minnesota to see the T-wolves play the bulls. The first NBA regular season game, that I will see in person. I'm pretty excited.

have fun!

that should be an interesting matchup.

 

[Got Philk?]

Yeah, the T-Wolves were the 1 loss in that 8 game homestand. And I think they KILLED us.

Maybe they will have AI whenyou're there.

Have Fun!

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

mardy collins is a douchebag, but carmello anthony is a fucking pussy.

collins should be suspended for a while for that cheap shot... but what a pansy ass anthony his. waits till the guy's hands are dropped before he delivers a cheap shot to his face, then proceeds to back pedal out of there so that no one could get at him. i gained some respect for jared jeffries for going after him up the court so hard.

 

[phillyfan26]

I sincerely want the Sixers to break the losing streak record. Billy King absolutely has earned having that kind of record on his record.

 

[LMP]

mardy collins is a douchebag, but carmello anthony is a fucking pussy.

collins should be suspended for a while for that cheap shot... but what a pansy ass anthony his. waits till the guy's hands are dropped before he delivers a cheap shot to his face, then proceeds to back pedal out of there so that no one could get at him. i gained some respect for jared jeffries for going after him up the court so hard.

and nate robinson is 5'7" of pure punk.