NBA 2011-12 Season Thread

[C-Cool]

A wild Bosh appears!

I don't even want to talk about Stat's (Amar'e, the man fire extinguishers fear) stupidity last night. Nope, not going to talk about it.

[Jabare]

Lets Go HotLATNA!!!!!!!!!!!!

[FirestormTheNuclearMan]

Bulls so far are haning around with the 76ers first game without Rose.

[FirestormTheNuclearMan]

Bulls need to start making points.

[Hiromi]

And Boston promptly plays better with Rondo in a suit.

And yeah Chicago's done. They're not making it past round 2 without a scorer to replace Rose. And more than anything I think losing him has totally demoralized the team.

[FirestormTheNuclearMan]

Major game 2 loss tonight. Series tied 1-1 Bulls will need to rebound.

[Cavemold]

Bulls offense was horrendous.. The lakers 2-0 now. Kobe had 33 points in 3 quarters..

[kalorama]

Major game 2 loss tonight. Series tied 1-1 Bulls will need to rebound.

And defend and score.

[jesse_custer]

As someone has stated before, the only difference between the Clippers over the best New Orleans teams is that Paul's best teammate in L.A. (Blake Griffin) is better and has more upside than the best player on New Orleans' teams (David West). Other than that, it's not that much different. Tyson Chandler is better than DeAndre Jordan; for that matter, the Hornets era Emeka Okafor may be better than Jordan. 2006-07 Peja Stojakovic is better than 2011-12 Caron Butler. Jordan and Griffin are still offensive works in progress and so is Nick Young.

As for assists, Paul averaged 9.1 assists per game, which is down from the previous year but he still finished the year third in the NBA in that category. I'm not getting the implication here, but one difference is that the Clippers have a few more alternate ball-handlers than the Hornet teams where Paul was the only ball-handler and distributor. Mo Williams has played point guard in stops in Milwaukee and Cleveland and has spelled Paul at times. Paul was sharing the backcourt at one time with another point guard, Chauncey Billups, at the beginning of the season. Griffin also averages about 3 assists per game.

Your second paragraph is an interesting argument, but it's not convincing. The Clippers weren't even in the top 10 in assists during the regular season; moreover, Rondo lead the league in assists despite the fact that Boston has better ball handlers than the players you just named (Boston was 2nd in assists, by the way).

Sort of like how Rondo was playing caddy to Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce in 2007-08? For that matter, Rondo always has been a complementary player to The Big Three.

How well the Los Angeles Clippers do ultimately will depend on its management -- a very dicey thing given Donald Sterling's history. The Clippers will have to convince Griffin and Paul to stay on board past their current deals. The team will need to acquire a small forward to replace Butler, get some more size beyond Griffin and Jordan and develop Young. To say Paul doesn't have the approach or temperament to be the key cog on a championship team is unfounded and sounds like classic haterade.

Rondo has always been a complementary player to the Big Three ... that doesn't sound like a bad thing, but it's been clear this season and at certain points in the past that Rondo has been more than merely complementary. At the very least, you have to admit his historic triple-doubles and current assist streak are pretty damn amazing and something that no other current point guard comes close to.

I agree the Clippers will have to be properly managed. But I don't think Paul is going to win a championship there unless Griffin surpasses him as the leader. Paul is a great point guard, but he's not Isiah Thomas or Magic Johnson. What I'm saying is only "haterade" (first time I've heard that one) if you take it that way. I'm critical of Paul, but anyone can see his effort during Game 1 against Memphis was fantastic. It's just going to take a lot more to get his team to a championship.

[jesse_custer]

It was basically a 2-man race

You might be right as far as the voters were concerned.

But if you ask me, Doc Rivers was fantastic this year. He would have gotten my vote. (I mean, I expected San Antonio to be good, and the Bulls are a deep team.) Rivers really did more with less.

[Hiromi]

Chris Paul finished with the second highest PER in the NBA this season while Rondo finished 78th, with nearly 10 points of difference between the two. While Rondo may average better in some individual statistics Chris Paul was quite a bit better of an overall player.

[jesse_custer]

True, but this PER stuff is kinda dubious. There is an old saying in statistics: torture the data, and they will confess. Did you know that Rondo ranks 21st in PER among ALL current point guards? Would anyone care to make the argument that Jarrett Jack, Jerryd Bayless, and Stephen Curry are better overall players and point guards than Rondo?

Lebron James is No. 1 in PER, but that won't mean diddly squat if he doesn't win a championship. The same goes for Paul.

[kalorama]

You might be right as far as the voters were concerned.

But if you ask me, Doc Rivers was fantastic this year. He would have gotten my vote. (I mean, I expected San Antonio to be good, and the Bulls are a deep team.) Rivers really did more with less.

I don't see that at all. Rivers is a helluva coach, but he still had the same core of the team that won a title, including at least 2 and possibly 4 future HoFers. Rose missed 1/3 of the season, and the talent drop off between Rose and whoever the Bulls' second best player is pretty steep. If you break the Bulls down individually, their overall talent level really isn't that great (not bad but certainly not "best record in the NBA" good). They win by playing and competing harder than most of the competition, and that's largely because of Thibadeau.

[Cavemold]

A wild Bosh appears!

I don't even want to talk about Stat's (Amar'e, the man fire extinguishers fear) stupidity last night. Nope, not going to talk about it.

Ah the raptor strikes again. The heat are having fun in this series haha

[Libaax]

Well, unless the Mavs find someone like that between now and game three, I think it still bodes pretty well for OKC.





This isn't last year. Against this Dallas team, the fact that they won two close games in which Durant shot poorly says they're likely going to win this series. If the Mavs are to have any shot, they need at least on of Terry or Carter to start having some monster games, which I'm not holding my breath for. It's a bummer, because I was hoping for Dallas to make another run at the title. At the very least I was hoping for one last Dirk vs. Duncan matchup in the playoffs before Timmy rides off into the sunset.

Hey i want Dallas to lose for weakening their good bench,defense. Carter haha not even in his prime he would have been much help.

Im not saying OKC wont win this series, im saying it doesnt say anything good about them other than Dallas are weaker than they are. OKC havent really improved. You cant depend on jump shooters like Durant,Westbrok when they met the top teams.

I was also hoping for Dallas to make another run for the title but they have not gelled with their new team. You cant win with Hayword,Carter type. They dont have the depth they had last year. Im hoping Spurs big men,their offense can beat Miami like Dallas did last year. I cant stand Miami i dont mind any other team winning :)