N B A Discussion thread

[Grandpa Troll]

I grew up a Boston Celtic fan in the 60's-70's era, Hondo Havlicek, Dave Cowens, Jo Jo White, Don Nelson, K C Jones, Tommy Heinsohn, Paul Silas to name a few

Heck I even respected other teams such as the New Tork Knickerbockers (when was the last time anyone referred to them as that!) with Walt Frazier-Earl Monroe-Willis Reed-Dave DeBusschere-Bill Bradley-Phil Jackson to name a few, Hawthorne Wingo and Butch Beard, John Giannelli and Spencer haywood

Chicago had some dang goons back in the day, I loved Bulls B-Ball then, Artis Gilmore, Tom Boerwinkle, Scott May,Jerry Sloan, Bob Love, Norm Van Lier,Chet Walker and Nate Thurmond!

Now I was a bit younger, I also played ball, High School, lettered and played for a TRADOC U S ARMY Team, at Fort McClellan and then in Germany.

I have allways loved B-Ball.

But I try to watch but cant believe how bad it is with all sorts of Pro Ball players, 4-5 defenders, 4 offensive players beyond the key and no offensive rebounders time and again.

Does anyone else enjoy watching Pro ball, I love College ball but Pro Ball makes me sick watching them.

I mean, i love Pro & College Football, Pro and College Hockey, just to me Pro ball Basketball type, well, can be dissapointing most of time to me.

Anyone else have anything to chat concerning these?


Gramps

[Lord Avalon]

The Detroit Pistons play good team basketball. They're very unselfish. They're also not built around a superstar, so they don't run isolation plays as often, where everyone stands around and watches him do his thing.

I have to say I don't like the way Stern has wussified the rules. You can't hardly give a hard foul to stop a guy from driving the lane and make him earn it at the line without getting tossed out of the game.

[-Jrabbit]

I'd like to see the NBA adopt international rules. One of the bigger handicaps the US faces in Olympic and international team competitions is that no American basketball organization, on any level, uses those rules.

[Lord Avalon]

Is it the rules, or more that our national team hasn't so much been a team, but rather a bunch of NBA all-stars thrown together with little time spent training together as a team, and little thought as to who fills what role (everyone can't be a star, you need some role-players)?

Latest team seems to be better than previous ones, though.

[-Jrabbit]

It's clearly a bit of both. But asking players to totally adjust both their playing style and their rules awareness makes it much tougher than it needs to be. Coach K has been a good addition in terms of building a well-rounded team of complementary talents.

Obviously, true national teams that play together regularly have an advantage, but that is less and less common as pro hoops takes hold around the world.

[Lord Avalon]

I don't know this for sure, but my feeling is that, as far as pro leagues go, the US is at a disadvantage due to the longer pro season. Players who might be selected for the USNT but are in the playoffs, thus extending their season, opt not to join up. Other countries' players still have more time together as a national team.

[Lord Avalon]

Kidd requests trade
Nets president: N.J. won't be forced into making deal

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) -- Jason Kidd says he wants to be traded from the slumping New Jersey Nets.

"We tried to make this work. We've found out it doesn't," Kidd told ESPN The Magazine on Monday. "It's time for us all to move on."

The Nets, losers of nine in a row, were scheduled to play the Milwaukee Bucks at home Tuesday night. Kidd attended the team's morning shootaround but did not talk to reporters.

Nets president Rod Thorn said he hadn't talked to Kidd on Tuesday, and declined to discuss which teams have expressed an interest in the nine-time All-Star. He said he wouldn't be forced into making a deal.

"The reality is we're only looking to make deals that make sense for us," Thorn said. "If every time someone said, 'I want you to trade me,' you acquiesced, then you put yourself in a very vulnerable position because you have a revolving door."

Thorn added that with the development of second-year guard Marcus Williams as Kidd's backup, the Nets would "probably not" require a point guard to be part of a deal for Kidd.

"We feel Marcus Williams has a future here and in the league," he said.

Kidd's agent, Jeffrey Schwartz, did not respond to a phone message Tuesday.

Trade speculation has followed Kidd since last February when the Nets reportedly were close to making a deal that would have sent him to the Los Angeles Lakers.

In December, Kidd sat out a game against the New York Knicks with a migraine, a move suspected by some to be a one-day walkout to force a trade or new contract.

At a news conference, Kidd denied those were his motives, saying, "I am having one of my best seasons -- why would I want to be asked to be traded? And as a team, we are doing better than last year."

New Jersey was 9-10 at the time. Since then, the team has dropped 16 of 25 games to fall to 18-26.

Kidd is under contract through the end of next season and will make $19.7 million this year and $21.3 million next year.

The Nets' lackluster play and Kidd's apparent dissatisfaction haven't stopped him from steadily moving up the NBA's all-time records lists.

He leads the league in triple-doubles this season with 11 and has 98 for his career, third behind Oscar Robertson and Magic Johnson. He passed Johnson for fourth place on the career list for rebounds by a guard earlier this month, and also became the sixth player to reach 9,000 assists.

Kidd was acquired in a trade with Phoenix in 2001 and led the Nets to the NBA finals in 2002 and 2003.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/basketball/nba/01/29/kidd.nets.ap/index.html

[snoopy369]

That's at least a week old... heard them talking about it in a game last week sometime (Spurs vs Miami maybe?).

[Lord Avalon]

Well, the article is from today.

And had he actually made the request last week (or whenever)? Or was it just speculation then?

[snoopy369]

The specifics I heard were that he had requested a trade the "nice" way, going to ownership behind closed doors and asked that he be traded because he wasn't helping the team by staying on (high salary, no chance to win anyway) and that he could help more by being traded.

Not entirely consistent with that article now that I give it a more thorough read, but perhaps that writer was not covering it thoroughly... or perhaps the back-office chatter went badly.

[pchang]

Back to the future

Could we be in for a series of Celtics vs. Lakers in the Finals for the next few years?

[Lord Avalon]

Naaahhh. Gasol will make the Lakers better contenders, but isn't going to put them over the top. And aren't the Celts stars playing heavy minutes? We'll see how they last through the playoffs. Pistons bench is much improved, so their starters should have more energy.

Hey, I was just reading that Shaq could be going to the Suns for Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks, pending a physical.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3232862

[snoopy369]

Is that just a trade of two guys who don't want to be where they are? I can't imagine it being good for the Suns, Shaq is a big guy but he's old and unreliable... and Marion is a great, great player. I'm sure there are centers you can get to play alongside Stoud that are cheaper than that...

[Lord Avalon]

That's a part of it, but yeah, I can't really see how an aging, overweight, oft injured Shaq is good for the Suns.

[pchang]

Shaq for Marion

sounds like a really good deal








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Miami!