Funny moment at Dolphins camp today. Stephen Ross was walking around holding court and noticed there was a larger than normal media contingent (there was) and he then remarked: "Why is everybody here today?" Somebody from the crowd then shouted..."Lebron Left!"
Hey! A favorable Heat piece.... http://www.sbnation.com/nba/2014/7/25/5935125/miami-heat-chris-bosh-eastern-conference-standings
I think the trading Cole ship may have sailed. Unless you're bringing in another pure PG who can defend, I don't see how you can get rid of him right now. That would only leave you with Chalmers, who I like but is not really a traditional PG; and Napier, who is far from a sure thing to make an impact. I think the Heat would be better off holding on to Cole at this point.
I don't see trading Norris Cole. I have had trouble with that idea from the start. The dude is not making much money at all. I don't see the point. You lost a ball handler in LeBron James so if you're Pat Riley good luck trying to win that debate with Spo about whether to roster only two point guards. And really, Cole is not done developing. He seems to be getting better all the time. I don't know why you'd want to leave the theater when this movie is just starting to get interesting.
You guys want to laugh your *** off? I have been approached to write a analytics based blog for the.......Cleveland Cavaliers! Gonna pay decent money to do it too! I told them to go **** themselves. In much nicer terms though....
Hmm, keep your friends close and and your enemies closer I suppose. Problem I'm seeing for the Heat is what is their identity? They will play great defense to be sure, if you look at a minutes/role pov, losing James means 4 different guys will have to fill the roles he filled and do so seemlessly. Is Spo the guy to lead that?
Should have done it. And added plenty of "hamburguesa con queso" proverbs to it. Sent from my LG-MS770 using Tapatalk
Eh, we shall see, NBA coaches, outside an Elite few, are mostly babysitters and the players pretty much run the team. This season his challenge is to have guys on the roster fill the roles James filled, and to know who can do so successfully IE, Spo has to put on his big boy pants, he does have Riley to lean on still..guys have to make it happen out on the court
Spo made chicken salad out of chicken **** for years before getting Lebron. And finding a way to mesh talent like he did is NOT an easy job. Spo is the real deal and most everyone who is serious about basketball acknowledges it now.
Oh man can I ask which Cavs blog? There are some good ones - and some...well...not so good ones - if we're sticking with the "nicer terms" theme.
Go watch the 2008-09 and 2009-10 Heat. There's no "we shall see". No, the challenge is to produce a new team structure with the existing pieces having new roles. The idea isn't to just slot Luol Deng in to SF and let him (try to) do what LeBron did. The 2014-15 Heat will play pretty differently from the 2013-14 Heat. Some pace and space elements might survive, especially if Bosh and McRoberts play significant minutes together. But I'm anticipating something a little closer to the outside-inside offense from the Hardaway/Mourning years.
Fairness Sect, the Eastern Conference has been poor for yrs, key to a good NBA coach is recognizing talent and putting talent in position to make plays esp in the last 3 minutes or so. When the team revolved around James for yrs, the ideal of "your turn" is a bit foreign in the NBA where teams will tank seasons on purpose to secure high draft picks. This is one of the reasons why I think Oden is a solid signing, in the league once a guy washes out they are considered to be washed out, there is value to be had there
And it is the DWade from that era...but of course Heat have two challenges, departure of James and no one knows exactly what DWade has left in the tank and a culture shift. Do suspect the defense will survive, am waiting to see how effectively the "new" is implemented
But it is; it goes back to the need to believe that where one is born, and the circumstances faced—whether overcome or not—are somehow more "special" than other places. It's a microcosm of that whole "proud to be an American" thing, when really, no one had any say in where they were born, nor in what religion they were raised, nor in their financial circumstances. Cleveland is a toilet. You're certainly allowed to feel whatever you feel for familiarity, but it remains a toilet. Miami is a toilet, just gilded. But it's still a toilet, and although I grew up here, except for the sports teams and family who stubbornly cling to it, I have no love whatsoever for it nor the people here. First chance I get, I'm back in the PNW; hopefully permanently this time, not just for 16 years. And I'm no prouder to be a US citizen since 4th July 1976 than I would be to live in a nation where health care and higher education are a right and not a privilege. Lebron moving back to Cleveland and taking less money to do so is an act of defiance and pettiness toward Pat Riley; also an act of pure ignorance and stubbornness which will likely cost him his marriage at some point in the near future. Whatever pride and good intention is misplaced among that hot mess he took back with him is irrelevant.
It was a National website that has a Cavs beat. There are a lot of people that were hired to follow Lebron around down here that are now migrating to Cleveland.
He did negotiate that he be "Miami based" for the duration of the contract, but YES...he will be spending a lot of time in Cleveland.
So you said Would you please take the nearest pole shaped object and pleasure yourself with it my good friend. You should have done a TV show where you ended by stating "I'm keeping my talents in South Beach"
It seems as if the Heat will add James Nunnally to the roster for Training camp, and if they do, he is gonna make the team. He can flat out SHOOT, and the team lacks 3 pt. shooting as of now.
Wade is coming off one of the most efficient seasons for a shooting guard ever, and had a very good playoff run until the Spurs. It sounds like you only watched the Spurs series, and only in passing at that.
2009 Wade isn't coming back. There's "efficient in 54 reg season games," and then there's "putting the team on your back for all 82." It'll be interesting to see how much rest they give him in the regular season. I think they sit him for at least 20 games, personally, because the East is weak enough to be able to do that and still get a top-4 seed. I think Wade'll trim down and play at a lower weight too, which would help. Again, if he could develop a halfway decent three-ball he'd be doing his team and his career a huge favor.
I get the comparison, but I think you're so invested in it being the same that you're pretending that whatever disconnect I may have b/c I was young at the time is greater than your disconnect from not being there at all? It doesn't take a great deal of worldliness to comprehend people saying, "I would have done the same thing". Sure, there was anger, but unlike now where any anger people have is directed at Lebron, back then it was much more split. Robbie wasn't revered like Riley is. There were a few people asking if Riley could/should have done anything different, but that's nothing like what Robbie faced. Many people placed the blame squarely on Robbie from the very beginning. Nobody can say for sure how those percentages split out overall. That would largely be a reflection of the people you were around. But without question many people directed their blame and their anger at Robbie rather than the players.
He played for Atlanta and Philly last year as a rookie out of UC Santa Barbara. He played for the Pacers in the Orlando Summer League, and he impressed there. The Heat then picked him up for the Vegas league, and he impressed them with his release and his shooting. "Scout" types love him as a buy low prospect similar to Danny Green.
I expect that many people will be very surprised by Wade's level of play this year. People don't seem to understand that Wade's treatment was supposed to take two seasons and that since his injury was not structural in nature that he was expected to fully recover after that time. People seem to think that the Wade they've seen the last two seasons is purely the result of his body breaking down. Wade is obviously older and doesn't have that explosion in his first step or jumping ability so 2006 Wade isn't coming back, but I don't see it as a stretch to expect the Wade we saw in 2010 or so. My expectation is that we'll see something close to that efficient Wade we saw last season except that he won't miss all those games. He'll be a little less efficient b/c he'll press more, but he'll also be a little more explosive b/c he'll play at a lighter weight and will be in better shape than last year.
Do keep in mind, DW was not the only one whose game melded with James, Chris Bosh is...Bosh Real keys are what does DW have, and can Bosh put the team on his back? He is a sort of the forgotten man in all of this, now what happens if Oden steps forward? Sect mentioned Varajo (sp) lost his lateral movement, never said that about Oden
I liked Nunnally in SL,he was one of the best players, really plays within his role, does not take unnecessry risks, is god defender and can shot.
I think not having LeBron around will refocus Wade as well. As great as he is, he is very prone to slopiness and mental lapses. He could get away with this while LJ was here. Now he can't. Shaq was a terrible influence on Wade early in his career as Shaq always coasted through the off season and used the first few months of the regular season to get in shape. Wade started doing that too. It was only when he was forced to train for the Olympics that he was fully dedicated and had one of his best years ever, and should have been the MVP.
I thought Wade was the best player on that last Olympic team he played on. He came off the bench, but was the leading scorer almost every night. They started the bigger name guys, but that team made their biggest runs when Wade came in. There was some talk late in the year that Wade was out of shape b/c he had played fewer games and hadn't played his way into shape as he did most seasons. So even though he was finally healed late in the year, he wasn't the player I expect to see this coming season. Even then outside of the last couple games in the finals, he was better than the Wade we had during the two years of his treatment.
That may be true. the Tim Grover workouts were great for strengthening his knee, but all those missed regular season games must have had some impact on his basketball conditioning. All that being said, the Heat just ran into a buzz saw against SA, where really nobody played well outside of LeBron and then in Game 3 SA just got ridiculously hot and never cooled off. I think you have to just throw that series out.
I agree especially for anybody who understood the treatment and watched Wade all year. But most people can't recall anything beyond the last game or two. That's why you get comments about how Wade's done or deteriorating, why the Heat aren't considered by many to be a top East contender and why I say many will be surprised by Wade's play this year.
Do you think Ennis will have an impact this season? And do you think Tyler Johnson is NBA-ready? That kid is mooth.
Why would he have to put the team on his back for 82 games? There's this guy called Chris Bosh. He'll be doing more heavy lifting. And no one ever said 2009 Wade is coming back. But neither will 2014-15 Wade be a shuffling corpse as everyone is saying.
