*The Official 2011-12 NBA Thread*

Translation from "some" people.

The Knicks reeled off 7 in a row and are about to roll through the East and into the finals, laughing while Melo blows past Lebron for his 50th point of the game and watching Jeremy Lin hoist an NBA title is going to be awesome this June.

Yea thats what I REALLY meant.

 

Okay then.

 

JR Smith really doesnt excite me all that much. Melo and his role with this team will make or break the Knicks.

 

Knick fans are gonna love me for this...

IF..(a huge gargantuan, massive, imposing, "IF") Carmelo Anthony changes his game to be more of a catch and shoot player, and a high P&R option instead of a 1-4 player, AND Jeremy Lin cuts down his turnovers, AND D'Antoni keeps using Fields and Shump, while Shump cuts down his shots, to next to none, AND D'Antoni avoids playing Amare with Chandler for long stretches......

THEN..

The Knicks will be very good and might be playing the Heat in the ECF's. (Oh no, I can't believe I just said that)

That is alot of "IF's" though.

 

Are you getting concerned the Cavs are winning too many games, yet? At this point we have to pray we'll be in position for Beal / Lamb.

 

Oh!! So your saying the Knicks are going to win the championship? Keep dreaming buddy.

 

Not 1, Not 2, Not 3, Not 4, Not 5, Not 6,...Not 7.....

 

Sec - what are your thoughts on LeBron's comments yesterday?

From a Cleveland perspective I could care less - of course they should take him back if he opts out.

But from the Heat perspective it had to be a little strange. He took it a step past just saying the right thing and seemed like he was already thinking of his next move. Are you at all concerned this is a ring-chasing situation where if 2 years from now Wade starts to regress due to injuries / age he's already planning his next move?

Just seems sort of unprecedented for a super-duper star to speak about his next move like that.

Not trying to flame the guy or start a LeBron debate - just think it is an interesting look into his thought process.

 

If I told you before the season started that the Knicks will win 7-8 games in a row against college teams without Melo and Amare, I'd be laughed at.

Yes, it wasn't the toughest stretch of teams, but it was without their two "superstars". Winning 7 in a row like that and in a condensed schedule is no easy task no matter how you try to turn it.

 

Here is what I think:

he was asked a question and he answered it in a way that he always does. he splits the middle and tries to please everybody.

In the same answer, he also said (verbatim) "I am happy here in Miami", and "I want to end my career here (in Miami)"

He is terrible with a Mic in his face. That is all.

If you are a Heat fan, and you have watched him play with the Heat the last year and a half, you see a guy that plays with as much joy as I have ever seen a player play. he parrots everything SPO says, and if you watch practices, you see him having LONG conversations with Pat Riley, and the Riley's showing up to every function of his.

You also see the bromance between Lebron and Wade and it becomes crystal clear. He will likely be here as long as Wade is here. They are inseparable. They go everywhere together.

Then to really crystallize it, I just look out my window, and realize that I made the same lifestyle choice that he made, and realize how silly all this "going back to Cleveland" talk is.

 

It is easier than you think if you know NBA history.

The Heat is 8-1 without Wade. 1-0 without both LBJ and Wade. The Bulls are 8-2 without Rose.

Teams when missing their best players tend to hyper-focus and play harder. When playing trash teams...of course you should win.

 

I've been concerned about winning too many games. But it's not something I have control over, so I just root for the team to succeed during games, and I'll worry about the draft when it comes.

 

"All I do" based on my last two posts?
For somebody who tries hard to be a terrible troll, you can't take it very well.

 

BTW Knick fans..

You guys are not doing as good a job as you usually do when trolling....(in general)

I'll help you out a little.

JR Smith is a clown, and generally a terrible basketball player.

BUT...

he absolutely has owned the Heat his entire career. He loses his mind every single time he plays the Heat, and I for one am scared to death that he is with the Knicks now.

I still have faith in D'Antoni though.

 

Is the dunk contest field this year a joke or what???

They need to start phasing it out.

 

As for LeBron, what Section said. Dude is just too nice of a guy, and he just wants to be liked by everybody IMO. He doesn't want to be hated by his home state. While some people might be indifferent to that, it seem that LeBron generally cares about his home fans (or just his image). However, as long as Dan Gilbert owns that team, not a chance in hell he goes back IMO.

 

Yep.

 

Trolling AKA Not agreeing. Your welcome.

 

Not sure if you feel like more of a fan because you argue with opposing teams fans on a message board, but I can tell you no Jet fan has ever called me a troll, nor a Michigan fan for that matter. Odd to me that the only 3 people in my life have ever called me a troll are in this very thread. Your Welcome.

 

Random LeBron bashing posts are trolling. Not critisizing, but saying **** like he is not a winner, or just random "LeBron Sucks" esque posts. That's trolling. Bad trolling.

 

People are going ape**** over Lebron's latest comments.
FTR I think he is making it clear that he is not burning any bridges like Shaq ALWAYS did. He will probably play his last couple of years in Cleveland so he can retire there. He's not going to opt out.

 

Funny no one has "trolled" about it.

 

I said Lebron is not clutch, and nobody on this planet thinks Lebron sucks. Seriously your Assuming way too much.

 

Here is how you troll:

http://espn.go.com/nba/stats/rpi/_/sort/SOS

 

Seriously though, LeBron just became the first player in sports history to say he wouldn't be opposed to playing in Cleveland.

 

No non Heat fan wants Lebron taking a final shot with the game on the line...hell most reasonable Heat fans don't want him too.

 

That's all BS. I remember him specifically hitting the game winner vs. the Bulls in game 5 last year to send us to the finals. So I disagree.

We have the luxury of wanting the open man to take the shot.

 

[video=youtube;Q5Rd7vd9Dl8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5Rd7vd9Dl8[/video]


Nope. Not clutch. Not at all. He didn't score 10 in a row to put away a team that he couldn't beat in the playoffs.

 

Please forward your complaints to basically every analyst in the country who also have said a million times, Lebron can't close...or just keep believing I'm making this up. Your welcome.

 

I never said that you are specifically came up with it, but it's just false. Just because they repeat it on TV over and over and over and over doesn't make it any truer. He didn't hit a game winning 3 to tie the series in ECF with Magic. Never mind that he dropped 40+ on Celtics in 2008, one of the greatest Ds ever. Or that he put up 20+ consecutive points to put away Pistons in 07.
But hey, ESPN is telling us he isn't clutch, so he must not be.

 

Nope, I'll believe a couple Heat fans on a message board over ESPN and others. Lebron is a great player but IMO is mentally weak and def not a closer. I'm not going to surf the web to find any evidence, I'll just simply keep watching the playoffs.

 

LeBron is so weird - dude took over the Chicago series last year both offensively and defensively. Looked like no one on earth could stop him...

...then disappeared at crucial times in all of the Dallas games.

He did the same thing the year before with the Cavs in the Boston series. He still put up numbers - but when it counted he became extremely passive and didn't continue to dominate games.

Such a strange thing - I've never seen a superstar do that. It isn't that he misses shots, it's just that he stops taking them.

But he's far and away the best player in the game. In fact, he shouldn't win the MVP this year because it's like he's playing a completely different game than everyone else. They should just give him a trophy for winning basketball.

It'll be interesting to see if he remains assertive and takes over games in the crunchtime this year. He obviously can do it, just had two strange ends to his seasons over the past two years. I'd expect him to overcome that this year.

 

Yall are posting in a lebron thread.

 

Spot on evaluation IMO.

 

No you won't.

If you had, you wouldn't be repeating this Lebron can't close nonsense, when he has done exactly that. But it's good to know that you believe every single thing ESPN tells you.

But of course, all this video we keep posting is just doctored footage that Maverick Carter had done with Steven Spielberg in Lebron's secret Akron lair.

 

Isn't that where they took that Jordan Crawford video?

 

It's not just ESPN ....it's a common perception.

 

The idea that ESPN is anti-LeBron is ridiculous.

 

An organization with a pro-LeBron focus does not trot Ric Bucher and Jon Barry in front of a camera.

 

I have to agree with this. They're the biggest Heat and LeBron dick riders in the media.