dlpin

No, it doesn't. Last year the 4th seed celtics played the 8th seed sixers in the 2nd round, while the 2nd seed heat played the 3rd seed pacers.

Up until this morning he thought he just had a pulled hamstring.

Isn't that what Lebron did? Yes, it sucks when superstars hold teams hostage like Dwight is doing. But if anything that happens less often in the NBA. People just pay more attention to it because a superstar in the NBA has a much bigger impact than in other sports. But the list of pro-bowl level players holding out or demanding deals is much larger in the NFL. TO, Moss, Ochocinco, Carson Palmer, Haynesworth, Percy Harvin, Lance Briggs, etc. The difference is that you don't go from a lottery team to contender by acquiring just one superstar like in the nba. Which NBA legends would those be? Abdul Jabbar and Wilt, who both demanded trades to the lakers? Jordan, who got his first coach fired and demanded a series of 1 year, 30 million dollar deals so he could bolt if the team wasn't to his liking? Barkley, who also demanded a trade? Bird and Magic, both who at different times broke the then record for highest salaries? And that is not to mention a big difference that did not exist back then: max contracts. Nowadays there are caps on how much a player can get paid. But back then there wasn't. I am not defending any of this. But it is simply not new, and not that different from other sports. The difference is how big an impact it has.

Who considers these to be the best in NBA history?In history, you have the following drafts, which are all better than 1999, at least:1960 (Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, Lenny Wilkens, Tom Sanders, plus 2 other players who made all star games)1965 (10 players drafted that year made at least one all star game)1970 (12 all stars, including Nate Archibald, Dave Cowens, Pete Maravich)1979 (Magic Johnson, Bill Laimbeer, Sidney Moncrief, plus 5 other all stars)Post lottery:1985 (Ewing, Karl Malone, Joe Dumars, Terry Porter, and 6 other all stars)1987 (David Robinson, Scottie Pippen, Reggie Miller, Horace Grant, Kevin Johnson, Reggie Lewis, Marc Jackson)And finally, the best draft class of all time:1984: Jordan, Olajuwon, Barkley, John Stockton

This is actually a pretty good deal. Hibbert got 4 years/58 mill. Asik 3 years, 25 mill. KG is better than both, and he would likely just retire if the celtics decide to rebuild at any point, making him come off the books.As for Howard, once he picked up his option the celtics would never be able to sign him outright anyways. Boston had cap space this year. In order to roll over that cap space to next year, they would need to renounce everyone (bass, green, kg, allen, stiemsma) and sign a bunch of 1 year deals to reach the minimum team salary. All for a chance at maybe signing Howard. Totally not worth it for a team that was one free throw away from the nba finals.

This is wrong. The NBA is "top heavy" because a top star has a much bigger impact on basketball than in any other sport. The celtics were mostly irrelevant from 1993 to 2007. The heat were irrelevant before Shaq got there (and now Lebron). The Bulls were irrelevant before Jordan, and then irrelevant for a decade until they got lucky with Rose. And if you told anyone in 1997 that the Spurs and the Mavs would win 5 out of 15 titles they'd laugh at you.So yes, the league is top heavy. But that doesn't mean that other teams don't have a shot. Hell, who would have ever thought that a team in Oklahoma City would be the current odds on favorite to win the title?

Just to reinforce the view of Al Jefferson, here's the list of players who had averaged at least 21 points and 11 rebounds at 23 or younger since the NBA ABA merger and before Al Jefferson did it:Moses MaloneHakeem OlajuwonCharles BarkleyShaqTim DuncanKGin over 30 years those were the players who put up the numbers Al Jefferson did at the age he was traded. Unfortunately, injuries on one hand, and terrible Minnesota management on the other helped derail his career a bit.

In his "Antoine Walker" days, Paul Pierce led the celtics to a conference finals, including what was until recently the biggest 4th quarter come back in playoff history. Ray Allen was one Glenn Robinson missed shot away from making it to the 2001 finals, playing in a team that started Erving Johnson and Scott WIlliams in the front court. In a series against Philly where he scored over 30 3 times.KG took the 04 Lakers to 6 games in a badly officiated conference finals, despite losing its second best player, Sam Cassel, to injury in the first minute of game 2. They lost the series by losing 2 close games in LA, with a line up that was KG, Sprewell, Trenton Hassel, Derrick Martin, and Michael Olowakandi.I think evaluating a player's career by the team success is terrible. Give me a team with John Stockton, Elgin Baylor, Charles Barkley, Karl Malone and Patrick Ewing any day. I'd take it without thinking over a team with Derek Fisher, Chauncey Billups, Rick Fox, Antoine Walker and ALonzo Mourning, who were all important players in championship teams.And in any case, neither of these 3 players had played with anyone as good as Horford or Josh either, so I don't know why the comparison. Each of the 3 achieved more than Joe with lesser talent surrounding them before boston. You may hate them all you like, and it is entirely understandable.

I am not going to weigh in on the particular game because I would obviously be biased.But here is an interesting bit of information: if you are a gambler, one of the best, if not the best single bit of information you can have in order to win a bet are the tendencies of the officiating crew. Spend any time in a gambling forum or talk to anyone in the professional gambling community and you will see that. And that, by itself, shows the problem.

He had one full season at the very, very least. And it is not like he requested a trade to boston. He accepted one after the celtics acquired Ray Allen, just like he would have accepted to phoenix, lakers, bulls... And trades of past-his-prime former MVPs for cap space, prospects and picks are as old as the nba itself. Shaq to the heat, if you want to know the last time before KG. And it is in no way the same thing as two 25 year old all stars (one of them an MVP candidate) deciding to sign for less with a playoff team with a in his prime former champion in it. I mean, you may not like it, but I don't see how anyone can say it is the same thing. Under contract 30+ year olds being trade to one of several teams they find acceptable, with those teams getting cap space, prospects and top 5 lottery picks in return is objectively different from 2 twenty five year olds taking less money to play with a 3rd all star.And that is not to mention, again, that KG did NOT want to be traded originally. At all. And only decided on it after the Wolves started shopping him around and the Wolves owner started dogging him in the press:http://www.usatoday.com/sports/basketball/nba/story/2012-03-30/kevin-love-minnesota-timberwolves/53903356/1"The deeply loyal Garnett didn't want to leave when the Timberwolves traded him. But when the deal was made, things turned sour.Timberwolves executives were unhappy with Garnett's demeanor behind the scenes and Garnett seethed over a perceived lack of loyalty from the organization, particularly when owner Glen Taylor alleged that KG "tanked it" at the end of the 2006-07 season by sitting on the bench with injuries."

Who said anything about being plucky under-dogs? I am saying that what happened with the celtics is pretty much your run of the mill superstar trade. Not some major stuff where stars decide to collude to ring chase. Also, KG had 2 years left on his deal when he signed the extension with the celtics. Him agreeing to extend it was certainly nice, but it wasn't in any way a deterrent to any trades. Finally, the reason Ray was important was because the celtics were a bottom of the barrel team. Not a playoff team.

What are you talking about? KG had no opt out clause in his contract. And he had 2 years left on his deal. And he didn't even originally want to be traded. He only asked to be traded after it became public that the wolves were shopping him around. And he didn't force a trade because the wolves were bad: the wolves wanted to trade him because it made no sense to them to keep paying an aging superstar 20+ million a year to miss the playoffs.And then the celtics tried to acquire him 2 times before the actual trade. The first attempted deal had the celtics giving up not only all that they eventually did, but also Rondo instead of Sebastian Telfair and the number 5 pick in that year's draft. Minnesota said no because other teams were still the frontrunners to land him. Then the second time around, KG said he wouldn't resign with the celtics as they were then (one of the 3 worst teams in the NBA). It was only when Phoenix refused to include Amare in a deal, when the Lakers wanted Minnesota to take on Lamar Odom's bad contract, and when Chicago refused to break up the "baby bulls" that the celtics became the front runners. And even then KG wouldn't go. So the celtics made a deal that everyone at the time thought was a bad deal: Wallu Szerbiak's expiring deal, Delonte West, and the number 5 pick in the draft for Ray Allen, who was a shooting guard in his 30s just coming off surgery in both ankles and was still owed 60 million dollars. Don't need to believe me, just go back and read what all the experts thought of the trade.Only then the celtics were able to land KG. And it took a lottery pick (which Minnesota messes up by picking Johnny Flynn), Al Jefferson (who put up 23 points, 11 rounds and 1.5 blocks in his first year in Minnesota and everyone agreed should have been an all star that year), and the largest expiring deal at the nba at the time. It was a better package than any other superstar deal every got in the league.And still, no one thought the celtics would win the title. Just read the previews back then.Here's that season's GM predictions:http://www.nba.com/preview2007/gmsurvey_predictions.htmlHere's ESPN:http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/preview2007/news/story?page=Experts-NBAChampsYou are entitled to your opinion, but the facts are the facts. KG was far from enthusiastic about joining the celtics.

I am not trying to "defend" the celtics and I have no illusions that this will change what people feel about them.But it is a pet peeve of mine this idea that the celtics created the "collect a team of superstars" thing.As long as there has been an NBA, there were superstar teams. Wilt demanding a trade to the lakers to play alongside Jerry West and Elgin Baylor? Jerry Lucas demanding a trade to the Knicks to join Walt Frazier and Willis Reed? And ring chasers are as old as the league itself too. Gary Payton to the heat, anyone?The heat did it differently than others in that it likely involved collusion by the players. But what the celtics did was nothing new.

No, but it has a big influence. Michael Beasley went from having a DRB% of 19.8 and 18.8 in Miami playing alongside Jermaine Oneal, to having 14.1 and 17.2 playing with Kevin Love.

No, it does not control for who a player is playing alongside. Rebounding rate numbers control for the availability of rebounds overall, but it does not adjust for who is playing next to someone who is a great rebounder. It was created to control for stuff like players in the old days averaging 20 rebounds a game because they played in a faster pace, missed more shots, and so on. Or players in bad teams that just let the opposition shoot, instead of slowing down the tempo and forcing turnovers. So rebounding rate is essentially the share of total rebounds a player could have gotten.