Not basketball related but uh why did Michael Sam get a reward? I don't care for his sexuality, can he play is the question and the answer is probably no.
Guys. Napier has a sprained thumb, and has had it since game 2 in Orlando. That is why his shooting is suffering. Trust me..College has better competition than Summer League.
I think he means 28% of all Heat shots taken were 3's. It was 29% by attempts though. It's a fairly useless metric IMO. Miami and LA were near tied at 29% and separated by decimals. One was a lottery team and the other was a Finals team. OKC made the WCF with 27%. Pacers made the ECF at 23%. Spurs were at 26%.
It's probably been covered, but is Indiana ******ed? This is a dumber version of the dumb move that sent James Harden to Houston.
IMO Yes they are. They sre still good but now probably the third or fourth best team in the East. Even a chance Washington jumps tgem IMO and even Charolette has a good team now with Lance. It could be anywhere from just a bad move to a disaster for them.
My official Eastern Conference standing (non bias) 1. Chicago Bulls 2. Miami Heat 3. Charlotte Hornets 4. Cleveland Cavaliers 5. Indiana Pacers 6. Toronto Raptors 7. Washington Wizards 8. Atlanta Hawks Winner of the Finals: Team that comes out of the West.
Why exactly will they be shooting more 3s in Cleveland, and why are those guys going to all of a sudden start making 3s there when they were missing here? LeBron could kick it out to just about every player on the team including his starting center in Miami. I don't see Varejao chucking up 3s.
Contenders is a loose term. Your taking Sec's injury statement way to far, we can put a wager on who will make a deeper playoff run...Miami or Cleveland. We can both use Boik as an escrow for this. (Escrow, not escort)
Lebron went. Cleveland will get a big time free agent or make some trades to pick up someone that will sign long term. You forget that they already have some really nice pieces in place and 3 draft picks next year. They don't need to manipulate the salary cap rule and sign big time guys to still have a good team. Miami needs to lure free agents, Cleveland doesn't right now. They already attracted the best player on the planet and Lebron finally has a guy that can run the point with him, they are one good trade or FA signing from being a team that can dominate the East. Lebron's move put Cleveland on the map, you can live in denial if you want but it was huge for that city.
I assumed i was betting on the Cavs going to the finals or not like i said. but thats fine too. A couple of my friends have brought up injuries recently, only reason i brought it up. and if it has any weight for cavs fans then its enough for me. However, injuries aside, and aside from bron, the roster is a bit of a gamble. They added some firepower and maybe will spend an offseason trying to stout up their D and work on gelling, i still dont see a finals appearance or win... at all. And thats what ive been saying. Im not arguing with people who think they are going to get a seed somewhere 1-4, i just dont see them making it out of the east.
By my simple calculations, I think the heat should have around $4.5m in cap space. Can anyone confirm? That's enough to add a decent rotational guy if I am right.
I'm pretty excited about Charlotte. That's a team on the rise. Very very athletic group now with adding Lance and Vonleh and Hairston. They have some stud wing defenders and several guys who can get their own shot. Add a tremendous head coach (can he reign Lance in better than Vogel?) and they have a very bright future. This Heat roster still doesn't feel quite right. I dunno. Like I kind of expected another move or trade or something, but it never came. Chalmers is a tricky fit with this group, the aging star on a maintenance program doesn't have a true backup, and I don't know how many good minutes they can get from Bird and Oden to allow Bosh to play PF. I'm not saying they're doomed or anything. They have two superstars and should have a great defense...they're going to be very good. Just scratching my head about some things I thought they would've done to get the most out of Wade and Bosh.
I think we have inproved two areas. Defensively and ball movement wise. Lebron can shut guys down defensively but doesn't always go full effort. Deng is right up there with him on the defensive side and usually goes hard all game on that side. As great a passer as Lebron was, the ball does stick to him at times. He always makes the right pass at the end but now we should see a different type of passing. The ball swinging around a lot. Deng and Mcroberts give us a different set of skills offensively I hope we take advantage of. I'm hoping we add another SG because Granger and Ennis can alide over but obe has been hurt a while and the other is a rookie.
Don't think so. I calculated: Bosh's cap hold - $20.6M Wade----------- $15.0M Deng------------ $9.71M McRoberts------- $5.3M Chalmers--------- $4.0M Granger---------- $2.1M Cole------------- $2.0M Hamilton--------- $0.8M Ennis------------ $0.5M Total------------ $60M Birdman's cap hold is $0.9M The league also automatically adds the minimum salary for the remaining roster spots up to 13, so add another $1.5M Total-----------$62.4M So they are less than a million under the cap. Little more if they cut Hamilton.
I feel like with the step back Indiana took we have as good a shot as anyone to come out of the East. Not the forgone conclusion we were the last four years but at least a legitimate shot.. It could come down to how healthy Rose is vs how healthy Wade is.
Vogel is such a slouch that I don't think Indiana should ever be considered the favorite to make the Finals. Chicago had an interesting offseason. Added offensive pieces with Pau and McDermott...but they still have that core of three of the best defensive players in the League with Butler, Noah, and Gibson.
I have Chicago, Miami and Cleveland as the top 3 with Washington and Indiana fighting for #4. Then I have Charlotte and Toronto as wildcards that could be in play for #4 if things shake out well for them.
Not when you have 2 stars locked up and 3 number one draft picks and 2 number 1 overalls from the last 2 years. Cleveland is in really good shape, the naysayers on here are just jilted exes.
No, no they're not. Cleveland has a history of stars refusing to take less money to play there because it's Cleveland. This was the case when Lebron was there before. Shane Battier commented on it once. He said you could tell your wife you were taking less money to chase a championship when you were moving to Miami. It is not easy for Cleveland to pick up a bunch of discounted guys like Miami could.
If Cleveland adds Kevin Love then they're clearly a playoff team but as they're constituted right now I'm not sure they deserve top 3 billing. I believe Chicago, Indiana and Miami deserve that with Charlotte and Toronto coming up fast in the rearview mirror. Toronto is being discounted a bit here. They may have started out 7-12 but they finished 41-22 (0.651) after they made that big trade where they traded Rudy Gay, Quincy Acy and Aaron Gray in exchange for Greivis Vasquez, John Salmons, Patrick Patterson and Chuck Hayes . They were 16-8 (.667) in March and April and then lost a tight seven game series to the Nets in the playoffs.
You say two #1 overall draft picks like Anthony Bennett is any good. He was awful last year. You can throw out the jilted exes nonsense all you want, but the truth is, if you think the Cavs are in "really good shape" you haven't watched them play very often. This is a team that won 33 games last year. They are in 'good' shape, because they have LeBron, but they're not a championship caliber team. First of all, they play in a city that doesn't draw big time FAs. When was the last time that franchise signed a big time player to come there (other than LeBron obviously, who's from there)? Then, you have a HC who has zero NBA experience. You have one all-star on your team around LeBron, who has an injury history. You have one other player who has big time upside, but is only 19 years old. Then you have a bunch of other mediocre players who either have never even been in the playoffs, or are old. That team currently constructed is not ready to win a championship. They will need to bring in more talent, or hope like hell that Bennett turns it around, or Wiggins and Waiters grow up fast. When you have LeBron, you have a chance. But as was shown last year, it's going to take a full team around him as well to win the championship, and right now that's not a championship roster, and that's not even taking into account how long they'll take to get used to each other and the new system there. I think they're going to have to prove that they can go out and get outside talent, which is something they haven't been able to do. We'll see.
The bottom line is LeBron does not necessarily have a record of luring difference makers into coming to play with him in Cleveland. Miami was able to do it but was that because of LeBron? Or was that because of D-Wade? Was that because of the Heat organization and Riley? Was it because of the city? LeBron himself was lured by all those things (Wade especially). Wade in particular once lured Shaquille O'Neal into coming to play with him for a championship and I remember Shaq specifically saying he came there because of Wade. Then Wade lured LeBron and Bosh into playing with him.
Cavs should be a top 3 team. Any team with Lebron should finish top 3. But Their defense is atrocious, and it's not getting better with LeBron either. I expect them to be at 105 pf and 102 pa, in hundreds in both categories. That maybe good enough to actually win the east.
