TSM 2006 NBA Playoffs thread

[Guest NYankees]

Any particular reason why? I wonder.

 

 

NBA and David Stern probably put him up to it to sell more fucking jerseys. Kobe was number 4 this year behind Dwane Wade for jersey's sold.

[Guest NYankees]

It seems like everyday I miss K-Mart less and less.

 

Nuggets' Martin suspended indefinitely

 

 

ESPN.com news services

 

 

DENVER -- Kenyon Martin was unhappy about his limited playing time in Denver's playoff series against the Los Angeles Clippers. Now, he won't be suiting up for the Nuggets at all.

 

 

The Nuggets suspended their forward indefinitely Tuesday night for what they called detrimental conduct.

 

"This is an internal matter that we will deal with in-house," coach George Karl said in a statement.

 

Sources told ESPN's Stephen A. Smith that Martin went into a profanity-laced tirade against Karl during halftime of Game 2 on Monday night.

 

Martin, who has been bothered by knee tendinitis all season, was dejected over his limited playing time. He played sparingly in the first half and sat out the second half of Denver's 98-87 loss to the Clippers.

 

Martin didn't get to the Nuggets' bench until several minutes into the third quarter and then sat with a towel over his head. He left the arena without comment, but teammate Ruben Patterson suggested Martin felt he could have played and was frustrated that he had been held out.

 

Hours before suspending him, Karl seemed miffed that Martin was upset over his benching.

 

"I will talk to him and see what's happening," Karl said Tuesday afternoon. "He told me and the staff at halftime that he couldn't go. Now, there's stuff filtering out that there's frustration there. We'll see."

 

Martin apparently banged his bothersome left knee in the first half while going against Elton Brand.

 

"He's got a heck of a matchup," Karl said. "The guy is a very physical player. I don't think people understand how big that man is. He's 260, maybe 270 pounds. I'm sure he not only hit Martin's knee, but probably hit a lot of other parts of the body."

 

Besides, "it's been a year of frustration for everybody," said Karl, who watched forward Nene go down for the season with a knee injury in the opener, then had to juggle his lineup all season with injuries to Martin and center Marcus Camby.

 

"We've always worked through it. We've always picked ourselves up," Karl said. "I trust this team is going to do the same thing on Thursday."

 

Before deciding to suspend Martin, Karl was asked why he wasn't giving him more minutes.

 

"Well, it is hard for me to visualize him actually playing 20 minutes of basketball again because he doesn't participate in practice very often. He just wants to play in the games," Karl said. "That philosophically doesn't make any sense to me. I think he has a big-time heart. I think he is a big-time competitor and he did a heck of a job in the second half against Brand for Game 1.

 

"Right now I evaluate all my players. I think Carmelo [Anthony] is going to go a lot of minutes, Andre [Miller] is going to get a lot of minutes, Marcus is going to get a lot of minutes. After that, I have no idea who is going to get the minutes. It's the guy who earns the minutes and who plays the way we want him to play."

 

Game 3 of the best-of-seven series is Thursday night at the Pepsi Center.

 

The Nuggets are accustomed to playing without Martin, who has been bothered all season by his surgically repaired left knee and began regularly sitting out games over the last month in hopes he'd be better for the playoffs, where he has traditionally stepped up his game.

 

He had six points and two boards in the Nuggets' 111-109 loss in Game 1, and was scoreless with one rebound in just under seven minutes in Denver's loss in Game 2.

 

The Clippers arrived in Denver on Tuesday to acclimate themselves to the mile-high altitude.

 

"I guess it's true," Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy said of the effect of the thin air on visiting teams. "But [as a player] I never felt it. I was in great shape. I never thought about it."

 

He's not taking any chances, however, as the Clippers seek their first playoff series win since moving to California in 1978.

 

The Clippers will practice in Denver on Wednesday to get used to the elevation.

 

"It's different," point guard Sam Cassell said. "But if you're going to use that as an excuse, you shouldn't play. Is it that big of a difference? We'll see."

 

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report

 

 

There were rumors earlier this year about the Knicks trading for him. Thank god that they didn't. I remember alot of people giving shit to New Jersey to not resigning him. Best move they probably ever made.

[naiwf 0]

My guess is that he wants to be one better than Jordan/LeBron or he thinks he's three times the player now than he was when he entered the league. I think it'll last about a year just like MJ's 45 gimmick. If you don't switch teams, I don't think you should be allowed to switch numbers.

[jwest27 0]

So I didn't see this mentioned...

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2422255

 

PHOENIX -- Steve Nash will win his second straight NBA Most Valuable Player award, according to reports on several area newspapers.

 

 

The announcement may not come for two weeks, according to the Arizona Republic. But the paper, and others, report that the voting shows Nash edging LeBron James, Dirk Nowitzki, Chauncey Billups and Kobe Bryant for the MVP.

 

This season, Nash had career-highs in points (18.8 points per game), rebounds (4.2 per game), field goal percentage (51.2 percent) and free throw percentage (92.1 percent -- best in the league). He was also the league-leader in assists (10.5) and shot nearly 50 percent from three-point range.

 

The Suns are currently playing the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs.

 

A year ago, Nash edged Shaquille O'Neal in what was the fourth-closest balloting in history.

 

-ESPN.com

[Guest NYankees]

Nash deserved it. The suns won 50 plus games this year without one of their best players in Amare.

[naiwf 0]

When Nash gets yet another MVP because the Suns will easily win 60+ next year even with three of the 15 or 20 best players in the league in the same starting 5 it's gonna get ridiculous.

[Guest NYankees]

When Nash gets yet another MVP because the Suns will easily win 60+ next year even with three of the 15 or 20 best players in the league in the same starting 5 it's gonna get ridiculous.

 

 

Look at how much that them had/has improved since they rid themselves of the cancer called Starbury and got Nash the next season.

[naiwf 0]

When Nash gets yet another MVP because the Suns will easily win 60+ next year even with three of the 15 or 20 best players in the league in the same starting 5 it's gonna get ridiculous.

 

 

Look at how much that them had/has improved since they rid themselves of the cancer called Starbury and got Nash the next season.

 

Marion hasn't really improved statistically since Nash got there. He's just now being acknowledged for his talent since the media fall all over themselves fellating Nash at every opportunity.

G MIN FG FGA FG% FG3 FG3A FG3% FT FTA FT% PTS AVG REB

1999-00 Pho 51 1260 222 471 47.1 4 22 18.2 72 85 84.7 520 10.2 6.5

2000-01 Pho 79 2857 557 1160 48.0 21 82 25.6 234 289 81.0 1369 17.3 10.7

2001-02 Pho 81 3109 654 1395 46.9 48 122 39.3 191 226 84.5 1547 19.1 9.9

2002-03 Pho 81 3373 662 1466 45.2 141 364 38.7 251 295 85.1 1716 21.2 9.5

2003-04 Pho 79 3217 590 1341 44.0 90 265 34.0 228 268 85.1 1498 19.0 9.3

 

2004-05 Pho 81 3146 613 1289 47.6 114 341 33.4 229 275 83.3 1569 19.4 11.3

2005-06 Pho 81 3263 716 1365 52.5 96 290 33.1 241 298 80.9 1769 21.8 11.8

 

Same thing with Amare. His scoring went way up last year because he took an extra 500 shots, most of which were dunks and 6 footers, but his rebounding stayed the same basically.

 

G MIN FG FGA FG% FG3 FG3A FG3% FT FTA FT% PTS AVG REB

2002-03 Pho 82 2570 392 830 47.2 2 10 20.0 320 484 66.1 1106 13.5 8.8

2003-04 Pho 55 2025 411 865 47.5 1 5 20.0 310 435 71.3 1133 20.6 9.0

 

2004-05 Pho 80 2889 747 1336 55.9 3 16 18.8 583 795 73.3 2080 26.0 8.9

2005-06 Pho 3 50 9 27 33.3 0 1 0.0 8 9 88.9 26 8.7 5.3

 

It's not hard being a great player when you've basically got a 20 & 10 guy and a 25 & 9 guy in the starting lineup who get next to no credit for being as good as they are.

 

Yes, Nash made Boris Diaw a star, but that's about it. The rest of the credit can be attributed to the fact that he plays an uptempo game with good scorers in 2 of the other 4 spots on the floor. If Nash and Billups were traded straight up, I guarantee you Billups would have similar if not better numbers than Nash did, the team records would have been about the same but Chauncey wouldn't have gotten either MVP.

[Brett Favre 0]

Bullshit. Billups can't run a fastbreak offense like Nash. No one except maybe Kidd can. Billups plays with the two best defensive bigmen in the league.

 

Before Nash came to Phoenix, the year they traded Marbury, they had Amare, Marion, and JJ. They were the worst team in the league with those 3, finishing at 29-53. Nash comes and they win like 60 games. They lose Amare, JJ, and Q-Rich, and still win over 50 games. In the West mind you, so its much tougher. Marion and Amare were always this good? Well, without Nash, they didn't win much.

[naiwf 0]

Bullshit. Billups can't run a fastbreak offense like Nash. No one except maybe Kidd can. Billups plays with the two best defensive bigmen in the league.

 

Before Nash came to Phoenix, the year they traded Marbury, they had Amare, Marion, and JJ. They were the worst team in the league with those 3, finishing at 29-53. Nash comes and they win like 60 games. They lose Amare, JJ, and Q-Rich, and still win over 50 games. In the West mind you, so its much tougher. Marion and Amare were always this good? Well, without Nash, they didn't win much.

 

That's moreso because Marbury is a cancer. Look at the magic he's worked on the Knicks since his arrival. Is it any accident that any team that dumps his useless ass gets much better the following year?

 

Nash gets far too much credit for making stars out of JJ (16.7 PPG/4.7 RPG/4.4 APG with Marbury to 17.1/5.1/3.5 with Nash), Amare and Marion who didn't improve statistically as I showed earlier from the last season with Marbury until this year. It's not an accident that their fortunes have turned since they got D'Antoni's system in place and stopped caring about pretending to play defense and just try to outscore everyone. Again, Nash is a top 20 player in the league but I'm tired of everyone acting like he's doing this with a bunch of mediocre players, especially last season when he had two other top 20 guys, and a rising star in Joe Johnson on the team. The idea that losing Q-Rich is of significance is as laughable as Isiah trading for him when he can do NOTHING but shoot spot up 3's and the Knicks had a backlog of worthless swingmen already.

[Brett Favre 0]

Doesn't that show you that Nash made him a better player? Tell me, who has Billups made better? Ben? He's not an offensive player. Rip? He was always a 20 point scorer. Sheed? An all-star in Portland. Tayshaun? Just needed playing time. Heck, if anything, they made HIM better.

 

2nd, Marbury didn't play all year with JJ and in Amare's 2nd year. He left after about 30+ games in the trade. For the rest of the season, it was all Amare, Marion, and JJ, and I believe the team was 15 games under .500 with those 3. So that does tell us something about Nash's value.

 

Third..Raja Bell, James Jones, Eddie House, Leandros Barbosa, and Boris Diaw are having career years. TT comes off the couch to average over double digits a game. Something must be up. I think it's Nash's ability to make players better again.

 

Billups played with 3 all-stars this year in the East, while Nash played with 1 all-star in the West. It's a no contest man. Nash is the MVP.

 

On a sidenote, SA got lucky as fuck. I expected Sac to win the next game because teams usually come out flat after great peformances. It sucks the way they lost. However, SA has had 2-0 victories and blown series before. Against the Lakers, and they almost blew it against the Pistons last year. With the crowd Sacramento has, anything is possible.

[naiwf 0]

Doesn't that show you that Nash made him a better player? Tell me, who has Billups made better? Ben? He's not an offensive player. Rip? He was always a 20 point scorer. Sheed? An all-star in Portland. Tayshaun? Just needed playing time. Heck, if anything, they made HIM better.

 

2nd, Marbury didn't play all year with JJ and in Amare's 2nd year. He left after about 30+ games in the trade. For the rest of the season, it was all Amare, Marion, and JJ, and I believe the team was 15 games under .500 with those 3. So that does tell us something about Nash's value.

 

Third..Raja Bell, James Jones, Eddie House, Leandros Barbosa, and Boris Diaw are having career years. TT comes off the couch to average over double digits a game. Something must be up. I think it's Nash's ability to make players better again.

 

Billups played with 3 all-stars this year in the East, while Nash played with 1 all-star in the West. It's a no contest man. Nash is the MVP.

 

On a sidenote, SA got lucky as fuck. I expected Sac to win the next game because teams usually come out flat after great peformances. It sucks the way they lost. However, SA has had 2-0 victories and blown series before. Against the Lakers, and they almost blew it against the Pistons last year. With the crowd Sacramento has, anything is possible.

 

Billups didn't deserve the MVP because he played with 3 "all-stars" this year, but Nash deserved it last year in spite of playing with a 100% Amare (2nd team all NBA) and Marion (3rd team all NBA)? With Kobe, Wade, Nash, Iverson & Arenas having monster years, Billups will be lucky to make the 3rd team this year and Ben Wallace is the only other guy who has a chance at league wide recognition. Please explain the logic as to how Nash always gets the benefit of the doubt simply because he's Steve Nash.

[Brett Favre 0]

Dude, Amare and Marion won 29 games the year before with or without Marbury. Nash helped turn them from worse to first. Funny how you ignore that and everything else.

[naiwf 0]

Dude, Amare and Marion won 29 games the year before with or without Marbury. Nash helped turn them from worse to first. Funny how you ignore that and everything else.

 

But if Dallas has also improved each of the last two years without Nash, what does that say about his value? If he was the league's MVP two years in a row, how come Dallas is better without him? Name another team that has given up a back to back MVP and done better because of it. That's why I don't get all of the Nash love. He makes the Phoenix SYSTEM work well, and it doesn't hurt that he had 2 of the other 14 best players in the league with him last year. This year I think there were others who led teams with less assistance to the postseason, and in some cases better records than Phoenix, but that doesn't matter because the media is in love with Nash, the worst multiple MVP winner in the history of all of American pro sports, and possibly the only guy who will ever win back to backs and still not make the HoF in his sport.

[Brett Favre 0]

Name those teams. No one expected the Suns to be higher than a 7th seed before Amare came back. Nash not only played only with Marion and a bunch of roleplayers, but he played in the freaking West. Not the fucking Cavs in the East, not the Nets in the East, and not the 7th seed in the West either. His team got the 2nd seed or 3rd best record in the West, which is tough as fuck, especially with Amare being out.

 

Dallas is better? When they make it to the finals they'll be considered better.

[Dangerous A 0]

With the news that Nash is going to be named MVP, it wouldn't surprise me seeing how competitive Kobe is, to go for 50 points or more tonight.

[naiwf 0]

Dallas is better? When they make it to the finals they'll be considered better.

 

When they keep coming up a game or two short to the Spurs in the division and end up with the 4 seed every year that's not as easy as you make it seem. They had the 3rd best record in the entire NBA and will probably get knocked out by the team with the 2nd best record in the 2nd round because of the bullshit divisional system that allowed a team that won SIXTEEN fewer games to get a better seed.

[Brett Favre 0]

They won a lot of games with Nash, and they're winning a lot of games without him, but they still haven't gotten any further without him. Whether or not they're the 4th or 2nd seed. Last year they got knocked about by a Nash led team.

[naiwf 0]

They won a lot of games with Nash, and they're winning a lot of games without him, but they still haven't gotten any further without him. Whether or not they're the 4th or 2nd seed. Last year they got knocked about by a Nash led team.

 

Again, the Spurs (3x) and Lakers (4x) are the only teams from the West to make the Finals since 1998, so it's not like Dallas is choking away opportunities that other teams are capitalizing on. If Dallas was a 2 seed this year and had homecourt against Phoenix that would be very different than having to play the Spurs with SA getting the extra home game. They might lose either series, but the fact that Phoenix is in the half of the bracket with the Lakers, Nuggets and Clippers is a lot better than being on the side with San Antonio, Sacramento, Dallas and Memphis.

[Brett Favre 0]

And again, if they don't make the finals, they aren't better than the teams Nash was on. Nash's teams (In Dallas) had to go through the Kings and Spurs, and Lakers, and T'Wolves as well.

[Dangerous A 0]

They won a lot of games with Nash, and they're winning a lot of games without him, but they still haven't gotten any further without him. Whether or not they're the 4th or 2nd seed. Last year they got knocked about by a Nash led team.

 

Again, the Spurs (3x) and Lakers (4x) are the only teams from the West to make the Finals since 1998, so it's not like Dallas is choking away opportunities that other teams are capitalizing on. If Dallas was a 2 seed this year and had homecourt against Phoenix that would be very different than having to play the Spurs with SA getting the extra home game. They might lose either series, but the fact that Phoenix is in the half of the bracket with the Lakers, Nuggets and Clippers is a lot better than being on the side with San Antonio, Sacramento, Dallas and Memphis.

 

Just to clairfy, if Dallas was to match up against Phoenix in the WCF, Dallas would have homecourt advantage even though Phoenix is the 2 seed.

[naiwf 0]

They won a lot of games with Nash, and they're winning a lot of games without him, but they still haven't gotten any further without him. Whether or not they're the 4th or 2nd seed. Last year they got knocked about by a Nash led team.

 

Again, the Spurs (3x) and Lakers (4x) are the only teams from the West to make the Finals since 1998, so it's not like Dallas is choking away opportunities that other teams are capitalizing on. If Dallas was a 2 seed this year and had homecourt against Phoenix that would be very different than having to play the Spurs with SA getting the extra home game. They might lose either series, but the fact that Phoenix is in the half of the bracket with the Lakers, Nuggets and Clippers is a lot better than being on the side with San Antonio, Sacramento, Dallas and Memphis.

 

Just to clairfy, if Dallas was to match up against Phoenix in the WCF, Dallas would have homecourt advantage even though Phoenix is the 2 seed.

 

I know that, I was just saying that if the seeds were done by record instead of by divisional seeding that Dallas would be the 2 this year and home against Phoenix instead of the 4 and away against San Antonio in terms of making matchups for the next round. It's the same reason the Clips are the home team against the Nuggets even though the Clips are the "lesser" seed. It's got to suck to win 60 games and probably go home in the 2nd round because another team in your division won 63, while a team with 46 wins or so has a chance to make the WCF if they can beat the Suns.

[Dangerous A 0]

But if you're the better team, it shouldn't matter when you face an opponent. It shouldn't matter if the Mavs face the Spurs in the WCF or first round. It shouldn't matter if the Mavs get eliminated by the Spurs in the WCF or first round. Getting eliminated is getting eliminated, no matter what round it happens in.

[Just John 0]

With the news that Nash is going to be named MVP, it wouldn't surprise me seeing how competitive Kobe is, to go for 50 points or more tonight.

 

While the other Lakers combine for maybe 50 as well, in a 112-100 losing effort.

 

Kobe trying to show up Nash tonight would a very detrimental team move.

[naiwf 0]

But if you're the better team, it shouldn't matter when you face an opponent. It shouldn't matter if the Mavs face the Spurs in the WCF or first round. It shouldn't matter if the Mavs get eliminated by the Spurs in the WCF or first round. Getting eliminated is getting eliminated, no matter what round it happens in.

 

I agree, but in general you don't want to face the best team in your conference in the first or second round in any sport.

[Guest NYankees]

How can you argue or complain that Steve Nash won the MVP?

[naiwf 0]

How can you argue or complain that Steve Nash won the MVP?

 

Nowitzki and a bunch of decent to good players won 60.

 

The Lakers without Kobe are worse than the Knicks.

 

LeBron had the best all around season in the league.

 

Billups led his team to the most wins in the league with similar numbers.

 

Parker led the Spurs and a 1 legged Duncan to 63 wins with similar numbers.

 

Those are just 5 arguments, and don't include Brand, Wade or Arenas who pretty much singlehandedly put their teams in the playoffs as well.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

There were a lot of good players out there this year, many who had phenomenal numbers or led sub-par teams to the playoffs. But I still can't see any argument against Nash for MVP. Maybe part of it is playing in the right system for the right coach, but that team would be terrible without him.

 

I honestly think if Kobe and Nash switched places the Suns would have been much worse and the Lakers a little better. We now have two years worth of proof that Nash makes everyone around him much better. They lost 3/5 of their starting team from last year and are still an outside contender for the NBA championship (or at least one of the 5 best teams in the league).

[Guest NYankees]

How can you argue or complain that Steve Nash won the MVP?

 

Nowitzki and a bunch of decent to good players won 60.

 

Bunch of decent to good players? MVP's lead their team

 

 

The Lakers without Kobe are worse than the Knicks.

 

I wouldn't go that far!

 

LeBron had the best all around season in the league.

 

MVP's shouldn't come from teams who don't win their division and have less than 46 or whatever wins. They were barely over 500.

 

Billups led his team to the most wins in the league with similar numbers.

 

Billups had 3 all stars starting with him in the starting 5. Thats not an mvp it is more of a collection.

 

Parker led the Spurs and a 1 legged Duncan to 63 wins with similar numbers.

 

A 1 legged Duncan is also in the top 3 in NBA players and is one of the greatest big men of all time. Plus when ihe s healthy,his team always win.

 

Those are just 5 arguments, and don't include Brand, Wade or Arenas who pretty much singlehandedly put their teams in the playoffs as well.

 

Brand had a good season but Cassell really helped that ball club. Wade still has Shaq who is one of the best centers in the league. Gilbert Arenas is a ball hog with a low shooting percentage and played on a team that was barely above 500. When was the last time an MVP came from a team that was 4-6 games above 500???

[naiwf 0]

How can you argue or complain that Steve Nash won the MVP?

 

Nowitzki and a bunch of decent to good players won 60.

 

Bunch of decent to good players? MVP's lead their team

 

 

The Lakers without Kobe are worse than the Knicks.

 

I wouldn't go that far!

 

LeBron had the best all around season in the league.

 

MVP's shouldn't come from teams who don't win their division and have less than 46 or whatever wins. They were barely over 500.

 

Billups led his team to the most wins in the league with similar numbers.

 

Billups had 3 all stars starting with him in the starting 5. Thats not an mvp it is more of a collection.

 

Parker led the Spurs and a 1 legged Duncan to 63 wins with similar numbers.

 

A 1 legged Duncan is also in the top 3 in NBA players and is one of the greatest big men of all time. Plus when ihe s healthy,his team always win.

 

Those are just 5 arguments, and don't include Brand, Wade or Arenas who pretty much singlehandedly put their teams in the playoffs as well.

 

Brand had a good season but Cassell really helped that ball club. Wade still has Shaq who is one of the best centers in the league. Gilbert Arenas is a ball hog with a low shooting percentage and played on a team that was barely above 500. When was the last time an MVP came from a team that was 4-6 games above 500???

 

Dirk led his team to SIXTY wins. What more is he supposed to do? Win 65 by himself? 70?

 

The Lakers with an average 2 guard barely win 20 games aka they'd be the Knicks. With Kobe they won 45.

 

The LeBrons had 50 wins, so they were 18 games over .500, which is not "barely" over .500. FYI they had the 6th best record in the league, and no one on that team is close to the caliber of Marion.

 

Nash WON the MVP last year with 2 of the top 6 forwards in the game in his frontcourt. Billups doesn't play with anyone as good as Amare or Marion were last year.

 

Duncan was not in the top 15 players this year which is why he's not an MVP candidate like he always is. Parker carried that team this year.

 

You asked how anyone can argue against Nash and I'm giving you valid reasons in relation to what Nash did last year and/or this year.