NBA discussion thread

Originally posted by Smasandian
Sorry, but nothing beats being a Sports fan in Toronto.
The Raptors anybody?
Or how bout the Leafs?

Do I really need to say the Blue Jays.

We will never see an championship team in 20 years, unless the leafs get Sidney Crosby.

lol, im looking at the past, we havnt won one since 83, when was ur last one? but yeah, ur right, you probaly wont win a championship in 20 year. Man that sucks. i have the Eagles, and the Sixers and Phillies could get some players and contend, and the FLyers were pretty good until the lockout.

ANyway, i think NAsh deserves MVP, but Shaq deserves it more. And in my mind, Iverson would be MVP easily if the sixers had a better record. This one guy said "I look at the MVP as a pick-up-game. Whoever you would choose first, should be MVP. And i definately wouldnt pick Nash first, when i can get Shaq, or Iverson, or Garnett, or Duncan, or Mcgady." Well he said something like that. Oh well close enough. ANyway, i agree with him.

i ****in HATE the red wings...i'm a leafs fan 🙂

Duncan hands down deserved the finals MVP,and for that matter he can very well easily win the MVP for the season every year, if Nash didnt get it, i would have liked to seen Duncan get it over Shaq.....gotta admire someone who just does what he does best night after night without getting caught up in all the bull shit

Originally posted by darth_royke
nash explodes on the scene? didnt you ever watch him in dallas? i remember how much promise he showed when he was a rook in pheonix, even jordan himself said that nash was going to become a good player. about nash needing amare more than amare needs nash? they need each other. if you take one away they wont be as effective. but you have to remember the slump pheonix went into when nash was out with an injury, the team struggled, especially on such a high offensive team where the point guard is the most important factor.

and against shaq, whose team had the better record? wade was the better player for miami, he carried the team when shaq was out, and played above and beyond the call of duty. shaq was a quality player for miami dont get me wrong, and he changed the whole outlook for miami, but wade is the future for miami.

nash deservedly got the mvp

By exploding on the scene, I mean a huge jump from season 8 to season 9. Nash had Dirk for years and years yet Nash never looked so good. I agree they need each other, but Nash needs Amare more because Nash can be replaced by any pure PG in the league, while there is no other guy who can play like Amare. Now the thing about Nash going down. The Suns had a 2 man rotation at PG. Nash then Barbosa. When Nash went down, of course the team didn't do as well because now you have Barbosa running the point and probably getting tired since he suddenly started playing double the minutes. Not only did you now have Barbosa starting, but who backed him up? I don't even have a clue. Joe Johnson would be my best guess but he is a three point shooting G-F, not a pure point guard like the Phoenix team needed. So why did Heat not struggle so much with Shaq gone? Well unlike Phoenix's 2 man PG team, the Heat had 5 guys who have some experience at center. Shaq goes down and you still have to worry about Mourning who would have some decent back up in a Doleac and even a 3rd choice of either Wang or Laettner. Once Nash went down, Phoenix had nobody to put in his spot. Barbosa is only decent enough to play back up for the length of a quarter.

true yes, but again wade is the more important player on miamis team. even shaq himself has stated. perhaps wade deserved mvp? i think duncun will every year, without a doubt be a contender for mvp. hes consistant to a high standard every game, and can make the defence change their plans. i think ben gordons from chi is gonna get better next year, but will he stay on the bench? hopefully yes... for now. if he ends the game then why should he care.

whats everyones thoughts on the kurt thomas for Q-rich deal apparantly being talked about? i think it'll benefit both teams. marbury, whhile a good player has only been on one good team... the wolves. the knicks need more players like richardson to help him get the team on track. thomas in pheonix on the other hand, will help amare back into his natural position, alowing him to match up against other pfs and poosibly become a dominant force.

raptors fan here since day one

the last thing the knicks need is another guard....i love isiah thomas, but when it comes to building a team he is no dumars.....zeke is better as a coach...he should coach again

Originally posted by Myth
By exploding on the scene, I mean a huge jump from season 8 to season 9. Nash had Dirk for years and years yet Nash never looked so good. I agree they need each other, but Nash needs Amare more because Nash can be replaced by any pure PG in the league, while there is no other guy who can play like Amare. Now the thing about Nash going down. The Suns had a 2 man rotation at PG. Nash then Barbosa. When Nash went down, of course the team didn't do as well because now you have Barbosa running the point and probably getting tired since he suddenly started playing double the minutes. Not only did you now have Barbosa starting, but who backed him up? I don't even have a clue. Joe Johnson would be my best guess but he is a three point shooting G-F, not a pure point guard like the Phoenix team needed. So why did Heat not struggle so much with Shaq gone? Well unlike Phoenix's 2 man PG team, the Heat had 5 guys who have some experience at center. Shaq goes down and you still have to worry about Mourning who would have some decent back up in a Doleac and even a 3rd choice of either Wang or Laettner. Once Nash went down, Phoenix had nobody to put in his spot. Barbosa is only decent enough to play back up for the length of a quarter.

See this is what i like about you Myth, even though we dont agree on this you always back up your opinions with solid reasoning (very rare on these forums).

Originally posted by darth_royke
whats everyones thoughts on the kurt thomas for Q-rich deal apparantly being talked about? i think it'll benefit both teams. marbury, whhile a good player has only been on one good team... the wolves. the knicks need more players like richardson to help him get the team on track. thomas in pheonix on the other hand, will help amare back into his natural position, alowing him to match up against other pfs and poosibly become a dominant force.

I dont think this deal would help the Knicks much, Q-Rich isnt that great a player and without a distributor like Nash he would fail to get much offence. Marbury is a good scorer but he doesnt look to involve his teamates the way Nash does. Joe Johnson for Thomas would be a better deal for the Knicks but the Suns are not stupid enough to get rid of a player like Johnson.

Originally posted by koolruningz
See this is what i like about you Myth, even though we dont agree on this you always back up your opinions with solid reasoning (very rare on these forums).

Thank you.

Anyway, I agree that Richardson won't be very good along side of Marbury. I also am not sure about Kurt with the Suns. The Suns still have Joe and an array of other good shooters, but having Q-Rich and Joe Johnson was devistating to some teams. However, I think this will make the Suns better against tougher teams and it adds more defense. It reminds me of what Portland did at the turn of the century. They would add people not because it made them a better team, but it made them a better team against the Lakers. Adding Kurt I don't think will make the Suns a better team, but gives them more defense against the Spurs.

Yeah the Suns high powered offence worked against everyone but the Spurs who have to be the most versatile team in the league. If the Suns are gonna topple the Spurs next year they have to add some perimeter defense and low post scoring.
The way Amare keeps improving i think he'll work on his low post game which is the only chink in his amour. He tends to face up and drive which usually works against one man (he made Duncan look like his feet were tied together more than once) but against a great defensive team you need some more weapons. Once he gets a couple of signature post moves we could be watching something amazing.
Both Q and Nash are average at best defenders, Johnson is good but to beat the Spurs you have to stop Parker and Ginobli. If they are looking to trade Q then they should be looking at a capable defender to replace him. They still have Johnson (who is a better 3pt shooter than Q), Nash and Marion to jack up the 3's.
What the Suns need is a decent center (even though they a few and far between), someone who can score down low and block a few shots to kick start there offence (sounds easy doesn't it?) Dream starting 5 for the Suns next year would be

Nash
Johnson
Marion
Amare
Eddy Curry (or someone like him)

What changes do you hope your teams make in the off season?

well for the raps, i just want them to bring in a aplyer or two that can play some good defense. being in toronto, i'll doubt they get too much. their offense isnt too bad, with bosh, rose and hopefully marshell, mo pete can add to that too, and hopefully matt bonner can continue to improve.

for the blazers i just want some team chemistry. players who'll play for each other. its been portlands problem for so long, you'd think they'd have sorted it at least some of the way.

Look at some of the players the Blazers had this last year. You can see even on paper that the chemistry wouldn't work.
Darius Miles
Nick Van Exel
Damon Staudamire
Zach Randolph

There's some talk about Toronto trading both first round picks this year for Magloire. Doesnt anybody find this a bad move?

Raps need to PG and C. (big surpraise, theyve always needed a centre). SF, SG and PF are pretty much taken. Hopefully they do a good draft unlike last year.

Originally posted by Smasandian
There's some talk about Toronto trading both first round picks this year for Magloire. Doesnt anybody find this a bad move?

thats a horrible move

I just finished reading a book ranking the top 50 players in NBA history, of no surprise are the inclusion of players such as Oscar Robertson, Elgin Baylor, Wilt, Russell, Kareem and the triumverate of Michael, Magic and Larry. However, what I was surprised at was Shaq being ranked #1, and MJ was relegated to #2. Does this come off as strange to anyone else?

On a similar note, I discussed this with a buddy and we got into a discussion about - if you could draft from the 50 greatest players, who would you draft first, bearing in mind that your second preference might be drafted by someone else if there were ten teams being assembled? For instance, draft Mike first, you're likely not to get Wilt or Magic with your second pick. So, who would you draft first? Shaq?

Um there's no question that I would draft MJ. Look at how many Championship he won. Shaq is great, but not MJ great. In terms of being dominate, MJ wins over Shaq. Thats my opinion.

MJ is the best player in the NBA, well atleast in the modern age.

Zeke, I know, it would be total crap if they did that.

No way can you rate Shaq over MJ. I would put Wilt over Shaq personally, because Wilt had more moves and had better range. Shaq is dominant no doubt but would you throw the ball into Shaq with the game on the line or would you prefer MJ having the ball at the top of the key? MJ was the complete player on both ends of the floor, that is why he is #1 in my mind. Shaq is a good defender but he doesnt exactly move his feet much he just relies on his size to block shots. Plus MJ's will to win is much higher than Shaq's.
However if you were going to build a team would you choose a 7-1 300lb center or a 6-6 220lb guard? Remember if you are drafting someone you have no idea how they are gonna turn out. Sure we may all say we'd take MJ, but nobody knew he was gonna be the best ever when he came into the league. So to that question i'd go with Shaq because he gives you a huge advantage right away, there are alot of 6-6 guards in the league and without knowing what MJ would become it would be a gamble.
But as for who is the best player between Shaq and MJ id go with MJ every time. Interesting question though.

I would draft Shaq over Jordan, but that is not to say that Jordan wasn't the best ever. Jordan's career ended up looking better but I think partially because his team was more stable. But if it were for just one season and it was in their primes, I would take Shaq because there is and always have been an abundance of good SGs. Shaq can go against most teams without being matched up against properly. All you have to do is get Shaq and line him up with one more good player at the SG position. If you draft Jordan, you can't line him up as easily with a good center. In other words, you could put Jordan on one team and put the second best center in the league on his team (I'm not talking all time, I'm talking about current players), and then give Shaq the 2nd best SG from the current league, I would put my money on Shaq's team.

didnt the bulls beat the magic most times tho? i mean penny at the time was a very good player, the magic were said to have the best starting 5 in the whole nba, but they lost out to the bulls when mj was there, except the year he came back from baseball.

if i could draft a player, it would be shaq or wilt. wilt has to be one the greatest players of all time. rules were made to STOP him being os effective. outlawing the dunk? because of wilt.

Well i would take MJ and Wilt over Shaq. But i agree with Myth though too, if you give Shaq the 2nd best SG,either Iverson, or possibly Mcgrady or Lebron, and give MJ the second best center, Yao or Ben Wallace, then yeah, Shaq's team would probaly win. But if i had one player, and the rest of the team sucked, i would take MJ.

Originally posted by darth_royke
didnt the bulls beat the magic most times tho? i mean penny at the time was a very good player, the magic were said to have the best starting 5 in the whole nba, but they lost out to the bulls when mj was there, except the year he came back from baseball.

Magic beat Bulls in 95, Bulls won in 96. After that, Shaq went to the Lakers which were not in very good tune until Jordan's very own coach came along to help. Anyway, they would be very close and it is very hard to compair, but I personally would lean more towards Shaq.