NBA Basketball

"should have had three rings but for the league interference in the series last year."

That's really not a fair statement. I'm a big fan of Draymond... but he was to blame for the momentum turn.

Draymond has done a lot better holding himself intact. Especially after the horrendous calls.

I hope there is an internal investigation. So many of the calls...you never saw the replay. We have a large screen TV....and during the play offs we sit close enough to see their eyes blink. Bogus calls.

Msn ran a poll asking people are the Warriors the best team ever in the NBA


Where do this season’s Warriors rank among the all-time best NBA teams?

7%
Greatest ever
54%
Top 10
18%
Top 20
21%
Lower than that


It appears that 60% put them in the top 10, and approximately 40% below the top ten. I think they will be the best ever if they get three more rings.

Bogus calls.

The complicity of the ABC game coverage people was what made me almost turn the tv off. The game was never close. The calls were obvious mistakes which consistently favored the cavs. The poor defense of James was blamed on poor communications and bad switches, when nothing even close to that happened. He simply was not guarding his man.....over and over again. I did finally see somebody being critical of his failure to rebound and box out, but no commentary about why the Warriors were winning. It was poor defense.

We live in an era of fake news and lies. You always could count on sports for honesty in the competition. However, the James hype has been one continuous lie to try to prop up ratings. He destroys teams, cannot play defense, has really only won two titles after having one handed to him last year, and almost again this year, and with no honest analysis of what just happened, it is a travesty. The good news is fans all over America see the bullrush charge and know that the rules of basketball have been modified to allow an advantage to a star when there has been an absence of stars for almost a decade. We now have a growing star base as the NBA game is being elevated from pedestrian to excellence, but the integrity of the game, and the huge TV contracts have corrupted the game.

Durant’s comments came two days after LeBron James took issue with the super-team label. Though he played with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami before teaming with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love in Cleveland, the 13-time All-Star reckons he has never played for a “super team.”

Gee, I guess that team of the ages designation, and any team that James plays on is the team of the ages does not pass muster with James. I agree. He sucks on defense and cannot bring the bacon home. The truth is that any TEAM which James plays with cannot bring home the bacon.......because he is the problem. He stacks his teams and gets beat by a better team, and a better player in KD, and he acts like he is not the problem. He needs to guard slow bigs for the balance of his career because for the last five years he is not quick enough or instinctual on defense to guard anybody but a slow big. Going on 15 years and 1 legitimate title, a gift of a three from Allen, and a gift from the NBA and this guy as a total player wants so badly to move up the list, and knows that he has to move and try to stack a team more than he has already......it still leaves you with a horrible defender, team chemistry destroyer, and choke artist supreme. He will never play on a super team because......well......he is playing on it. Ten years ago with some strong coaching and somebody telling him the truth that it is not bad switches or poor communication.....you cannot play defense, and you will play where we can optimize the team, not where you can run up stats.

I don't think you could fit another marquee player on a LeBron team than two.

They wouldn't settle for the scraps .

Without a strong coach, James was never going to be a winner, just a very good hero ball player who gets his stats and his teams become the Buffalo bills while he becomes the Jim Thome of basketball.

Back to the referees...

I'm sick of the traveling too. It's just too damn obvious. Change the rules or enforce them as is.

The charges that James gets away with is the laughing stock of sports radio in NBA cities where he visits. In Chicago they just roast the variable rules that the NBA has evolved for its stars. I snicker a little bit because Jordan was such an aggressive defensive player that often the refs would ignore his fouls. So this problem has been around for a long time, but the bull rush offensive foul simply destroys the credibility of the NBA as every kid in America is being taught correctly that raising your forearm and plowing through a defensive player is a foul, yet they watch the foul not being called.

I actually would like an Attorney General in a state where a NBA team is located to conduct an investigation in the NBA rules and the enforcement of the same. I would like refs to be deposed, and once and for all expose what could be corrupt influence by gambling interests, or just as bad dishonesty for self promotion. I was disgusted with what I saw in Game 4. I have never seen a worse call than the Irving call where the refs called Klay for knocking it out of bounds. All three of those refs should be suspended because of that call, but there were 10 calls which were equally obscene. It took the fun away from my enjoyment because it was pro wrestling.

2seaoat wrote:I actually would like an Attorney General in a state where a NBA team is located to conduct an investigation in the NBA rules and the enforcement of the same.  I would like refs to be deposed, and once and for all expose what could be corrupt influence by gambling interests, or just as bad dishonesty for self promotion.  I was disgusted with what I saw in Game 4.   I have never seen a worse call than the Irving call where the refs called Klay for knocking it out of bounds.   All three of those refs should be suspended because of that call, but there were 10 calls which were equally obscene.  It took the fun away from my enjoyment because it was pro wrestling.

Not down with pro wrestling, homey?

The super team debate is hilarious on sports media. It appears James is as usual crying a little bit, and as one obnoxious Sports talking head said....you lost dude....STFU. I find it so funny that people can jump to conclusions without any historical context. A super team takes years. However, the debate today is you cannot call a team of super team if it is grown by draft, trade, and free agency without collusion of players. Certainly, the James collusion at Miami to finally get him a ring after failing so many times started the debate and the general negative public opinion toward teams being configured this way.

The other argument is that a super team is a very good team which is full of talent and coached well to achieve greater results than the sum of its parts. People want to talk about Laker, Celtic, and Bull teams in this regard, but it is quite funny that the very method which James was able to get a ring is his attack on the warriors. I agree with those sportscasters who have said that the Warriors were built by draft picks, one key free agency acquisition, and great coaching. They argue that this team was NOT cherry picked by built the old fashion way......hard work......good coaching.......and great chemistry.

So in James not to subtle attempt to excuse once again his asz being kicked, he argues that a super team beat him. The Warriors have a path to become the best team in the NBA history, but this idea that they did it the way that James did it assembling a not so super team to win a weak east and get some breaks in the Championship series is like comparing apples to oranges.

It shows that James knows the truth. He has seen his best days.

It appears the Cavs are in full melt down mode after the humiliating loss to the Warriors. The General Manager has been let go after rumors say he was working on acquiring Jimmy Butler. It is obvious the Cavs cannot play a lick of defense, and now after a solid career James has been permanently cast as the bridesmaid who cannot play defense. He is allegedly fuming with the GM being let go, as certainly it is rumored in Chicago that the Cav team members have been calling Butler to see what he could do with Management to work the deal. Butler, George, Green, and Leonard are the four best two way players in the NBA, and he would give any team instant upgraded defense because he really gets piszed if team players are dogging it on defense. However, when the owner blew things up, there is talk that James is going to bail on the Cavs, and that Irving has let it be known that he would be open to trade. I actually feel very bad for James because some things get thrown on the wall and they stick, and his legacy has been changed.

http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/06/26/draymond-green-finally-wins-defensive-player-of-the-year/

I know you are happy.....you have been saying it all along.

Joanimaroni wrote:I know you are happy.....you have been saying it all along.

Lol... I know I'm biased... but he's been the best defender in the league for 3 years imo. So it's about time. I honestly don't think they win the first title without him... or set that record wins season. Unfortunately I think he cost gsw the title last year. But that's the learning curve and I think he'll continue to improve those impulses into the future... as well as hone his whole game. I would still pick him first if I was able to start an NBA team. He does all of the little things that makes a team a team and a winner.

Defense wins championships. It should have been a three peat, and certainly Green's defense was central to why the Warriors defense is one of the top defenses in the NBA. So they suspend him to allow the Cavs to win a fluke. Nobody was fooled this year.

who would have thought that after a decade of historically weak Eastern Division teams, that the East is getting even weaker. All the talent is migrating to the West, and what remains is probably the worst talent imbalance in NBA history. Mark Cuban was seeking a realignment of teams because of how long and distant the talent gap was between divisions, but the argument was that the draft would over time build the east back up to respectability. Just the opposite. Talented players after their rookie contracts are going west. NBA stars are going west. It is possible that out of the top eight teams in the NBA, seven will be Western conference teams. The Pacers made the playoffs last year, and they will not make it this year, but philly should slide into the playoffs. Philly has a lot of upside, but when some of their players get off rookie contracts, history tells us they will go to better teams in the West. Hell, the Bulls gave away the store and have the weakest team in 20 years, and they have a chance to make the playoffs. Warriors, Spurs, Rockets, Jazz, timberwolves, and maybe the clippers are all better than any team in the East, yet what should have been a sweep this year in the championship series will be a regular sweep over the next three years unless something drastic happens. The Cavs, the Heat, Boston, and Orlando have all been the Eastern Conference Champs over the last 10 years 70% have gone to the West, and it should have been 90%. When the best teams are not meeting in the Championship game for now over a decade, the league must listen to Cuban. It appears the draft has not solved the imbalance. This year it is likely that the all stars which are ignored in the West could beat the starters for the East.......there is a real structural problem with the NBA which is not going away.

40 million a year to Curry. This is getting stupid.

Warriors are projected to pay 95 million in NBA tax which is distributed among the other teams. The 2016-2017 entire payroll was 130 million. They dynasty will not be stopped by talent drain, but by a tax designed to stop a dynasty. The salary difference between the NBA and the NFL is getting to be quite a gap. Taj Gibson just got 15 million a year on a two year deal, and you could count the NFL players on two hands who are getting more than Taj. Curry is getting 40 million a year and the Oakland QB just signed a record deal for about half that amount, yet the NFL almost has three times the revenues. I know it is easier to pay 12 players than 53 players, but the gap and new TV money projects labor issues in the NFL in the coming years.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2719670-golden-state-warriors-updated-free-agency-big-board

Hayward to the Celtics. The East is so weak that Hayward can become a perpetual all star, and he will be in the conference finals for the next three years. It was easy to leave money on the table because he will make it up in endorsements. The cavs, the bucks, the celtics, and maybe washington and Toronto will be second tier teams playing for the conference. Weakest ever conference in NBA history. The proof is James loses all the time trying to get championship rings over 14 years.....three rings. If it was baseball with that percentage he would be in the minors. Hell, he probably will not make it out of the east this year, and they sure as hell will not win the division.

How can James be discussed as the goat when he is not even considered top 10 in the NBA currently. I mean if he had played in the strong west he would have had zero rings in almost 15 years but being rated 11th in your own so called era says it all.


http://games.espn.com/fba/playerrater

He's played in arguably the weakest era in nba history until gsw 3 years ago... without doubt in the east.

Hell... two of his championships have an asterisk next to them imo. No way he's a goat team starter.

There is real discussion of suspending conferences and taking the top 16 teams until an objective measure can be found for the playoffs to achieve equity. No one wants what happened last year where nobody cared about the weak east teams, and all the focus was on the west. Who wants to watch the 76ers in the playoff next year while four or five better teams do not even make the playoffs in the west. It would require the players association and the NBA executive committee to agree on the suspension and what criteria would allow a return to divisional playoffs again. It is argued that 15 of the top 16 players are competing in the West.....the east is irrelevant which I have been arguing for five years only to be told that a mediocre east team was the team of the ages.