The NBA Offseason Thread

[alfdogg 0]

Flip is out, per ESPN.

[Ripper 0]

It positively amazes me that people think a guy that doesn't take shots outside of 4 feet from the basket and shoots 48 percent is a good offensive player.

 

He is a ineffective number guy. He gets you 15 a night but it is at a low percentage considering his position and what shots he takes. He is unquestionably horrible defensively.

 

I don't hate 7 footers. I just don't overrate them because they are tall. I personally would rather have a effective 6'9 guy than a ineffective 7 footer.

 

If this was fantasy basketball you go with Kaman all day. But if you are looking for actual positive results on the court, Maxiell is the better player.

[Maztinho 0]

It positively amazes me that people think a guy that doesn't take shots outside of 4 feet from the basket and shoots 48 percent is a good offensive player.

 

He is a ineffective number guy. He gets you 15 a night but it is at a low percentage considering his position and what shots he takes. He is unquestionably horrible defensively.

 

I don't hate 7 footers. I just don't overrate them because they are tall. I personally would rather have a effective 6'9 guy than a ineffective 7 footer.

 

If this was fantasy basketball you go with Kaman all day. But if you are looking for actual positive results on the court, Maxiell is the better player.

 

 

Ripper correct on this one, a center that is playing in the middle should get in the high 50's percentage wise. Mehmet Okur has a career 45% shooting percentage and that's with him tossing 3 pointers up and mid range jumpshots.

[MFer 0]

Acoording to local newspaper reports, Michael Curry is gonna be named Pistons' head coach sometime this week (Terry Porter and Avery Johnson are the other front-runners if not Curry).

 

Meh.

[MFer 0]

NBA Pre-Draft results

[Ripper 0]

I think Porter might be one of the if not the best coach out there.

 

Porter, Westphal, Saunders(yes, flip is still a damn good coach), Johnson. In that particular order.

 

ALL of these guys would be great hires for the Hawks (well...maybe not avery) but who will my team have? MIKE FUCKING WOODSON.

[Guest Epic Narcissism]

Doug Collins hasn't been hired yet. I wouldn't be shocked if they reconsidered and hired Flip Saunders instead.

[RonL21 0]

nvm..

 

saw it was already posted

[bobobrazil1984 0]

Flip's an ok coach, but i don't like his offensive system (yes, i said offensive, not defensive). It's a little too passive for me, and is more predicated on going with what the defense grants you, rather than getting the shots you want. In his system, the shots you want... are what they give you. Its basically, run around and around and around until you get a good jump shot, and hey if a lane opens up, go for it. I think his system needs to start by going in then running everything around it.

 

However, I think a mediocre team out there should definitely snap him up. I'm talking like talented teams hovering around .500, those teams could easily jump into the high 40 regular season wins. The Hawks are a good fit. I'm going to throw an unconventional thought out there and say.. the Nuggets would actually do well with Flip as coach.

But I think it was the right move for the Pistons, and its just the start, you can tell when you read Dumars' words. IMO, i think Rip Hamilton, Stuckey, and Prince are safe. Everyone else is fair game.

 

Pistons guards are fine, especially with Stuckey, and Prince is a great glue guy, they basically need a new front-line, and a system that will take advantage of it, one that places an emphasis on inside-out offense and rebounding and interior D. Dump their jump-shooting big men, move Amir Johnson into regular rotation, Maxiell can stay or go depending on if he's needed in a trade for a big-man stud, but he can easily contribute.

[Gert T 0]

Elton Brand as said big-man stud?

 

 

 

[LivingLegendGaryColeman 0]

I think Porter might be one of the if not the best coach out there.

 

Agreed. I still feel he got screwed by the Bucks. He had a second interview scheduled with the Suns, I am kinda hoping to see something good come out of that.

[bobobrazil1984 0]

Elton Brand as said big-man stud?

 

I'd love that, but I haven't heard anything about him being available, not sure why the Clippers would trade him... kinda doubt the Clippers would be interested in Sheed or McDyess, but Sheed is a big expiring so who knows, specially if they throw in maxiell..

[Jorge Gorgeous 0]

Unless I'm mistaken, Sir Elton Brand is a UFA.

[Ripper 0]

Yeah, Brand is probably going to opt out of his contract.

 

The Bulls should try to trade ANYONE on their roster in a sign and trade for him. And I mean ANYONE. Not that there is anything they have the Clips would want...

 

 

 

[Fökai 0]

The Clippers backcourt is ass - they have to be desperate by now. Their offense is forced to revolve around Brand's low-post game, Thornton's mid-range game and Maggette getting to the basket. That would be fine for a team to contend, but Brand is standing in front of Thornton, Maggette is streaky and Kaman can't be counted on to take over a game. That is why they need a solid guard(s). Do you honestly need to guard Dan Dickau or Brevin Knight? The fuck are they going to do? Brand is certainly going for a 1 and 2 if Livingston still hasn't improved physically (and mentally). I'd think an offer of Hinrich and Gordon/Hughes would pique the Clips' interest.

 

That's certainly not the best offer out there talent-wise, but there are very few teams that can move a Hinrich-caliber point and replace him the way the Bulls can with Rose. Hughes' contract would be a nice piece to hold onto since the Clips don't have a lot of players under contract past 2009 (four by my count: Thornton, Thomas, Kaman and Mobley). A frontcourt of Thornton, Kaman and Maggette is still pretty formidable, and a solid backcourt would make them dangerous.

[Guest Vitamin X]

Hinrich/Hughes for Elton Brand would be a steal for Chicago.

[Ripper 0]

But Brand CAN just walk, so they might do it. I just don't see it happening.

 

Maggette and Brand ain't coming back though. I think you can set that in stone. they need front court and backcourt help.

 

But if they believe in Kaman more than I do, they could do that trade. But I wonder if Paxon would turn it down because he doesn't want to part with Hinrich...or some other stupid reason not to trade a for a better player.

[Ripper 0]

I would like to take this time to stress what a incredible basketball mind Mike Woodson has. Simply incredible.

 

He has taken a team of guys that simply didn't know how to play and managed to get them to push the Boston Celtics to the brink. His bad record and constant critisim he has recieved over the years at the hand of Atlanta Hawks observers has been unfair. He had the youngest team in the NBA and not much of a bench to work with. But if you watch the offensive and defensive schemes that he gave his team, it was obviously the fault of his young team not executing and not this genius of a man.

 

With that said, I certainly hope that no one else in the NBA notices what a incredible job he has done with this young team. If he were to go to a team of vets, you could almost guarentee a championship. He comes from a championship background with is time in Detroit.

 

 

Ripper - Since the Pistons have asked permission to talk to Mike Woodson about their opening, I hope this post comes up in a search or something....

[Guest Vitamin X]

I'm hoping the Pistons hire Mike Woodson just so I can stop hearing Ripper complain about praise him!

[Guest Epic Narcissism]

Doug Collins won't coach the Bulls because Jerry didn't want to pay him after firing him. I think players should undeclare for the NBA draft. This organization is a shitfuck. Maybe Reinsdorf should keep going over his general manager's head and just name himself the head coach, that fucking bastard.

[Precious Roy 0]

Doesn't Scottie Pippen want to get into coaching?

[alfdogg 0]

In addition to getting Oden back, Rudy Fernandez, the Blazers' other first-rounder in 2007, announced today he is coming to play for them, this from ESPN.

[LivingLegendGaryColeman 0]

Stephen A. Smith is reporting Terry Porter has accepted the Suns Head Coach position.

[dh86 0]

It positively amazes me that people think a guy that doesn't take shots outside of 4 feet from the basket and shoots 48 percent is a good offensive player.

 

He is a ineffective number guy. He gets you 15 a night but it is at a low percentage considering his position and what shots he takes. He is unquestionably horrible defensively.

 

I don't hate 7 footers. I just don't overrate them because they are tall. I personally would rather have a effective 6'9 guy than a ineffective 7 footer.

 

If this was fantasy basketball you go with Kaman all day. But if you are looking for actual positive results on the court, Maxiell is the better player.

 

Is it anymore amazing that you are saying 6'6 260 lb PF who gets 5 rebounds a game is somehow good? Id take someone staying in the paint hitting half of their shots rather than someone content being the third jump shooting big on their team. Jason Maxiell will never be a regular starter in the NBA. If the Clippers want a young big man from the Detroit Pistons, they will want Amir Johnson.

[bobobrazil1984 0]

I feel that's pretty close to the mark. Fans of other teams really like Maxiell because they essentially only see his best. At his worst, he is invisible, unable to get a rebound, easily discouraged and when that happens, good bye to that hellraiser energy. He can be a major limitation on certain matchups too. He was eaten alive what little he played against the Celtics front-line (one nice block on KG aside, which actually illustrates my point, to the casual fan their #1 memory of maxiell from that series probably was that sweet block on KG). He also got really tired and hit the wall a little over halfway through the season, and sucked for a month or two before regaining his old self. Like Flip Saunders' coaching/offense-system, you kinda gotta watch em night in and night out to see the shortcomings though. I mean he's good but I wouldn't trust him to be the primary starter at the 4 for a full season. pistons should try and keep him as he's a very good 6th man for them, but he is one piece they could probably trade and fare well with because other GMs/teams will overrate himl.

[Ripper 0]

I am not overrating Maxiell. He is a good role player. One of those kinda players that you need to win a championship.

 

the problem is that I think other people are overrating Kaman because he had a good half a season this year.

 

A: Kaman is not very good offensively. As I have said, for a guy that doesn't really take jumpers, to shoot 48 percent is far from good. plus he is slow as hell in setting up his move so his offense brings the entire teams offense to a halt. Plus he isn't a good passer.

 

B: Kaman is not a good rebounbder. Yes, he had an impressive number this year, but he also averaged 7 per game last season when he played the whole year. He doesn't box ot well, and is a "get what comes to you" rebounder instead of go get it rebounder.

 

C: Kaman is a GOD aweful defender. Like, laughably bad. People look at him being tied for 2nd in blocks as being a good defender. Much like Andrew Bogut, Marcus Camby and Amare Stoudimire(who are all amoung the league leaders in blocks) he is a fucking horrible defender that will get a block on the weakside, but doesn't even think about maybe defending the pick and roll, he is too slow to defend the more athletic bigs and the stronger back to the basket bigs just back him down like he is a point guard and score on him.

 

What I am saying is that you guys are talking about trading an actual productive player for one that puts up fools gold. Yes he has numbers. But they are some of the more ineffective numbers you will ever see. He scores 15 a game...but at a low percentage for his position and hurts the team because he is too slow and can't pass. He gets 2.8 blocks per game, but is a bad defender...like...really bad. He got 12+ rebounds a game this year, but once again, abberation. He is a 7 footer that managed to average 7 rebounds per game.

 

Chris kaman is Eddy Curry only a slightly better rebounder and not as good of a scorer. Thus he could be useful some places(ie: Chicago). Detroit isn't one of them. If Maxiell gets 0 points, 0 rebounds, 0 assist, 0 blocks, in a game, he probably still made more of a impact than Kaman does. Kaman being on the court HURTS the team more times than not.

 

Bottomline, a deep bench will get your further than just adding a guy like Kaman.

[bobobrazil1984 0]

Acoording to local newspaper reports, Michael Curry is gonna be named Pistons' head coach sometime this week (Terry Porter and Avery Johnson are the other front-runners if not Curry).

 

In two days, Michael Curry said everything I waited and waited for Flip Saunders to say.

 

"Anytime you want to win a championship, defensively you have to be really good and you have to rebound," he said. "Offensively, you have to share the ball, get points in the paint and win the battle at the free throw line.

 

"That seems simple, but when you look at those areas every night, the team that wins those areas usually wins the game."

 

Curry said he could live – not well, maybe, but endure – should the Pistons fall short of a championship but that he hopes to “never get the chance to read one of you all say the team didn’t play hard, they pick and choose when they want to play, they play up to the level of their competition, the regular season doesn’t mean anything. For me as a coach, that’s a direct relationship to me. That’s a stab to me. That hurts me more than losing in the conference finals, because that’s something you directly control. And that’s one of my goals, personally, to never let that be said about a team that I coached and a team that represents this organization, because you don’t get that nowhere else in the organization. Everybody else in the organization works every day.”

 

And when he was asked what he would do to motivate players to play hard, he said “you don’t make anybody play. You substitute.”

 

Fuck yeah. I like him already.

 

That's all I ever thought the Pistons needed. If they fight tooth and nail for rebounds, make real efforts to have an inside-out offense, and they still lose? that I can live with. But not this near-last in points-in-the-paint and getting outhustled on the boards and only chucking up jumpshots, with all your big men only being jumpshooters, and your only banger being an undersized role player who can't rebound, bullshit.

 

[Guest Epic Narcissism]

New coach (and I mean neu!, he's never coached a basketball team in his life) Vinny Del Negro's plan for the Bulls:

 

-Play some offense

-Play some defense

-Play at a fast pace

-But not too fast

-Not be a magician

-Have no predeceived notions [sic] about the team

-Put his arm around these guys and take them to lunch

-Thanking John Paxson and a mysterious figure named "Dr. Julius" for this opportunity

 

What a positively odd press conference today. I've never been so excited for Blackhawks season in my life. I may not watch a single Bulls game all year. Jerry Reinsdorf smokes a lot of cigars, this I know. Maybe he'll keel over and die so that somebody can buy the Bulls and not run them into the ground like a fucking retard.

[ant_7000 0]

"Dr. Julius" will have his hands full next season. Vinny of the Black took this job because he's hoping Paxson is going to quit, so he becomes GM and hire Bob Hill. So for 53 days this is the best they can come up with?

[Guest Epic Narcissism]

Did we establish who Dr. Julius is? Does Julius Erving work for the Bulls and he meant Dr. J?