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OK, so I sometimes pay attention to the Nets ... and even I know they aren't finishing 4th in the East. It's pretty unlikely. They should be above the Knicks though. Maybe Nets 7 and Knicks 9
You sound like an authority on the Eastern Conference.
Nets are finishing behind the Knicks, have you watched either team play this year?
Most people that weigh in on the final standings of NBA divisions do.
They have beaten the Raptors (at home, on the first night in their new digs), and a horrific Magic team twice.
They got smoked by the Heat and lost to the T-Wolves without Kevin Love or Ricky Rubio.
The Knicks have beaten the Heat, Sixers (twice), and the Mavs (without Dirk).
If Melo's Olympics-driven transformation is legit and not lip service, the closest the Nets are getting to the Knicks in terms of record was opening night.
They are soft inside, their only plus defender is Crash Wallace (currently screwing me in fantasy by being "day to day" for a week and a half), Their go-to scorer late in games is their point guard (that is not a good thing for an NBA team) and they have the most overpaid shooting guard/small forward in the league as their de facto leader. Yeah, that's a recipe for success.
When asked this week what they need to improve on Avery Johnson stopped just short of saying "everything."
I realize it's Week 2, but the Nets have looked every bit the low-seed playoff team while the Knicks are starting to turn heads as the "holy sh*t...if Melo tries like this all season he'll be one of the best defenders in the league and the Knicks will be a scary playoff team," uh...team.
I realize that Melo trying for 82 games is an enormous "if," but I must have read 600 stories this summer about Melo, about how he spent so much time with so many champions during his time with the Team USA squad that he picked up on something they ALL did to win their ring: play defense and play unselfishly when it was necessary. So far Melo has stayed true to his claim he's reinvented his game.
Oh, and he is going to post up Joe Johnson 6,000 times every game and dare the Nets to double team him on the block. Melo is unstoppable down there, I don't know what the f*ck took him so long to figure out that he has the best turnaround jumper in basketball outside of Kobe and since he's 6'9" and 230 pounds there isn't a small forward in the league who can out muscle him.
Have you watched LeBron defend Melo and vice-versa?
Melo did it multiple times to LeBron when the teams played last week.
Yes, LeBron is 260-270 pounds of runaway freight train on the fast break, but he's not pushing guys off the block on defense. He's about speed much more than power.
Melo is very strong and once he gets position and the ball even LeBron isn't pushing him away from the basket unless Melo wants him to.
Laugh all you want, you guys laughed at me during preseason and look how that's turning out.
Have you watched LeBron defend Melo and vice-versa?
Melo did it multiple times to LeBron when the teams played last week.
Yes, LeBron is 260-270 pounds of runaway freight train on the fast break, but he's not pushing guys off the block on defense. He's about speed much more than power.
Melo is very strong and once he gets position and the ball even LeBron isn't pushing him away from the basket unless Melo wants him to.
Laugh all you want, you guys laughed at me during preseason and look how that's turning out.
We're 6 games in. It's early.
And if you really think LeBron can't "out-muscle" Carmelo Anthony then you're a bigger homer than I thought
Post by A$AP Rosko on Nov 13, 2012 12:04:19 GMT -5
I'm with Flanzo. You guys need to pay attention; the Knicks are gelling this year, so far at least.
And eff you, Alberto, D'Antoni will not be a disaster. I mean, obviously I was hoping like hell that we got Phil (what a colossal f*ck-up by the Lakers front office), but I still think this D'Antoni thing could work out.
And if you really think LeBron can't "out-muscle" Carmelo Anthony then you're a bigger homer than I thought
I realize we're 6 games in, I mention it in every post that there's a colossal "if" hanging over the Knicks for the entire season (Melo's effort & leadership).
Without fouling, LeBron would have an extremely difficult time pushing Melo off the block if he gets set up down there. That is not an outrageous homer statement int he least. The opposite is true about LeBron if he gets position, but he decides to launch 3's when he plays the Knicks for some reason (named Tyson Chandler).
This viewpoint is expected with the constant underrating of Melo purely from a skills standpoint, but if he played LeBron 1-on-1 7 times, he wins 3, maybe 4.
Lebron's defense on Melo during the playoffs last year can only be described as "suffocating."
I wouldn't go that far, Melo scored 28 points a game on 42% shooting (not great, but not bad either) in that series. He was also the only person doing anything on offense, so keep that in mind.
And eff you, Alberto, D'Antoni will not be a disaster. I mean, obviously I was hoping like hell that we got Phil (what a colossal f*ck-up by the Lakers front office), but I still think this D'Antoni thing could work out.
"We've lost every game because we don't play any defense, let's fire our coach and hire one who refuses to play any defense so we can fix nothing by still not playing defense and losing just like we were before!"
Sound logic, and its why the Lakers will fail in the postseason. That and the fact that D'Antoni is notoriously awful in the postseason, mostly because his teams don't play any D and as they say, defense wins championships.
The Lakers swapped a coach who can only ONLY coach defense and has no idea how to run an offense to a guy who can ONLY coach offense and has no idea how to run a defense. If I'm the Lakers I'd rather have the guy who can actually coach my guys on defense because I have a roster full of guys who are natural born scorers (Kobe, Dwight) and a natural born facilitator. The offense would be there either way, they need someone who can coach the defense.
Also why bring in a coach who runs the fastest, most up-tempo offense in the league with one of the oldest starting 5's in the NBA? Nash, Kobe, Metta and Pau aren't 25 anymore. I just don't see how D'Antoni is a fit with that team in any way.
I think the Lakers can do well if two things happen (and they HAVE to happen):
1 - Howard, Kobe and Artest lead the players to focus on defense. The Knicks hired Mike Woodson as an assistant to be the Knicks' Tom Thibodeau (Celtics edition) and do nothing but coach defense.
D'Antoni alloted about 20-25 of a 2 hour practice to defense.
So unless the players take it up on themselves it'll be smoke and mirrors. A Dwight monster block here, a Kobe/Artest steal there, but overall the defense will be lacking.
2- Nash has to stay healthy the entire year.
If Steve Blake and Chris Duhon (LOLLLLLLLLL How is he still an NBA player?!?) are running that offense for a chunk of time, the Lakers are EFFED.
Post by A$AP Rosko on Nov 13, 2012 12:35:28 GMT -5
Alberto, have you watched Pau Gasol play for the last 10 years? He runs the floor better than arguably any big man in the league! He was MADE to run in that system with Nash.
And the Lakers did not struggle to win early this season because they weren't playing defense; they struggled to win because they were having a hard time picking up the Princeton offense and, with Nash at the point, they did not look like a team intended to enter the half-court offense every trip. They looked like a team that, with all their long, athletic players and uptempo point guard, wanted to run. Magic Johnson even pointed out that Mike Brown's chief failing was stubbornly wanting to run the Princeton offense despite the fact that that isn't what his roster was calling for. So, what coach would teach the opposite of a slow, lethargic, half-court offensive style?
Look, I harbor the same concerns about D'Antoni and OBVIOUSLY was irate that we didn't hire Phil instead. But I think it's pretty asinine to say D'Antoni will be a disaster. He wasn't very good with the Knicks, but their roster (sorry, Flanz) was obviously never as good as the Lakers' is right now. Plus, they never had Steve Nash. And I know Nash is getting older, but have we not witnessed him deal with this aging thing pretty well the last few years? Dude keeps himself in excellent shape.
I do agree with Flanz that the key thing will be Kobe and Dwight leading everybody else to play defense. On all those Suns teams, they never had that defensive leader to take charge and take the task of enforcing defense upon themselves (since D'Antoni was clearly not going to take it upon himself). The Lakers do have three potential candidates for that role in Howard, Artest, and of course Kobe.
Post by A$AP Rosko on Nov 13, 2012 12:49:07 GMT -5
The Princeton offense is designed for less talented rosters that are trying to find a sneaky way to win. If Mike Brown went to coach, say the Charlotte Bobcats, and tried to do the same thing, he might've very well gotten a roster that had no business winning more than 20 games to play .500 ball.
But he didn't have a less talented roster; he had the most talented roster in the f*cking league (along with the Heatles, obviously). Anybody who watched the Lakers try to awkwardly squeeze all that talent and speed and athleticism into that silly offensive scheme knows that this team was designed to run. D'Antoni will hone that, at least.
The Princeton offense is designed for less talented rosters that are trying to find a sneaky way to win. If Mike Brown went to coach, say the Charlotte Bobcats, and tried to do the same thing, he might've very well gotten a roster that had no business winning more than 20 games to play .500 ball.
But he didn't have a less talented roster; he had the most talented roster in the f*cking league (along with the Heatles, obviously). Anybody who watched the Lakers try to awkwardly squeeze all that talent and speed and athleticism into that silly offensive scheme knows that this team was designed to run. D'Antoni will hone that, at least.
See, I think the Lakers, given the fact they're all old, would be a perfect half-court offense like the ones the Knicks run. In fact, Woodson would be the ideal coach for that team. Players respect the sh*t out of Woodson, he runs a hard-nosed style, he knows his best players should touch the ball every possession and he doesn't cower to big ego's.
The run'n'gun D'Antoni offense could potentially wear down the Lakers in a long 82-game grind.
One thing D'Antoni finally did his last year in NY is work stuff into his offense that fits the roster he had. If he does that again in LA he'll have a better chance at success.
I would just like to point out that last night my Charlotte Bobcats equaled their total wins from last year. I have a feeling we might squeeze into the playoffs this year. It is a totally different team and we still have Gerald Henderson out.
Bobcats are a solid, fun team, but they're not making the playoffs. Next year it's a very real possibility, though.
Last night I hop over to Bobcats/Thunder and what do I see? The Bobcats with 24 points....AT THE HALF. That's right, an NBA team had 24 points after 24 minutes of play.
And screw the Nyets, there is no reason the Knicks should have lost that game. I wonder what happens when they play in an arena with a real NYC basketball crowd. I'm watching the next Brooklyn-based game on mute so I don't have to listen to a bunch of monotone zombies yell "Broooooooooooook-lyyyyyyyyyyyyyn" softly after any stoppage in the game.
Kevin Love has 22 rebounds right now. At the start of the 4th quarter.
I'm in a fantasy league that's a head-to-head points league. Meaning all sorts of stats give you (+) or (-) points and whoever has the most points for their team at the end of the week gets the win.
Well, I took Kevin Love 4th overall, got laughed out of the room. Basically, no one understood why I would spent the 4th pick on a guy who wouldn't play until (what we though at the time would be) December.
Well, he's currently averaging 24/16.5 with over one 3-pointer a game. A typical night for a top-tier player in this league is 35 or so fantasy points. In the 40's is a great night. 50's is a "holy sh*t" night. Last night Love got me 63.5 points, the highest single total by a player in 2 seasons of doing the league with this scoring system.