frizzledizzle

Ironic. I think people who can't think for themselves are ignorant. You said Vick served his time... by whose standards? One judge? Sorry, I just don't blindly follow a single person's word. By your logic, it's ignorant to hate O.J. because he was found innocent, right? You must feel that way. Unfortunately, Vick's sentence was garbage and O.J. should have been convicted. I'm not gonna be like "oh well, the justice system did it's job". The justice system is a p.o.s. in the first place. An 18 year old can choose to go shoot other people/shot to death(sometimes against their will through draft) but they can't drink and gamble until they're 21? Yeah, okay. Yet you don't even have to be 18 to endanger the lives of everyone on the road with a 1 ton vehicle at 60mph. Simply put... it's not ignorant to think Vick is a dirtbag. It's ignorant to follow one judge's ruling and shrug your shoulders as if it's acceptable because someone else decided it was acceptable. Hopefully you don't smoke weed, it's illegal and you accept every law and ruling set forth apparently. I think it's ignorant to be cool with someone who had contracts worth over 100 million, could do anything they wanted in the world and could get their fix for adrenaline by playing in front of 70,000 fans. But nah, that's not exciting enough for said dirtbag. Instead, he gets his fix starving dogs, beating them and forcing them to mutilate each other. And afterwords, smashes them across the pavement, hoses them down to electrocute them, hangs them etc. Sorry, that's what you call a psychopath. He lacks any form of empathy and gets his thrills torturing animals for fun. Not to mention, he gives girls herpes, takes weed on planes and probably had someone shot outside a party. But yeah, it's ignorant to think the dude is p.o.s. apparently. Sorry, I guess I just don't like sociopaths. And not to mention, he's arrogant to boot. "I revolutionized the game", gtfo. Guess he never saw Randall Cunningham, Steve Young, John Elway, Dan Marino, Donovan McNabb, Steve McNair etc. Dude thinks he revolutionized the game because he's a faster QB than those guys. Then again, maybe he's right. He revolutionized the game in the sense that you only have to be a good passer 2 seasons out of 12 as long as you can put up a ton of yards on the ground. He's right, that was new to football... a quarterback who struggled to complete 50%+ of their passes while starting year after year. Anyways, dude is a jackass and I don't care if he did what some judge perceived to be an appropriate amount of time. That's not ignorant, that's called thinking for myself and having my own beliefs in life. I don't agree with everything the government says and does. Shocking. Also, I don't really think what was said is a big enough deal to have someone lose their job over. Same goes for people like Imus. Everyone has heard the old adages... "sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me", and, "actions speak louder than words". People can say anything they want to me and I won't be upset. I love my mom more than anyone but if someone talks shit about her, I'm not gonna get offended. If someone talks shit about me, I'm not gonna get offended. They're just words coming out of the mouths of stupid people. Now, stuff like what Michael Vick and Ray Rice do, that's another story. They're out in the world physically causing damage. What's worse? Mean words, or physical pain? Good luck finding someone who would rather be beaten and tortured over someone speaking to them. What Levenson and Ferry did isn't even that big of a deal, let alone being compared to Vick as far as public reaction is concerned. Seems as though the most upset by this is that little church group demanding meetings and showing up anyways because they weren't told by an owner himself not to and then whining about it. I assume their Rev. just wants money out of this the same way Jackson and Sharpton do, every time they show their face and start race wars.

Hoping for the Pacers to prevent the Heat's 3peat and then beat the Spurs in the finals to take the torch. Pacers are young enough that they could be a contender for years to come. Spurs while amazing are getting up there in age. I'm not sure how they'll fare with Duncan gone, Ginoboli gone and possibly even Parker gone. George, Stephenson and Hibbert make a nice core. George Hill needs to be replaced and West is getting older but still playing amazing. I liken this team to that of the Pistons. Billups vs. Hill Hamilton vs. Stephenson Prince vs. George Rasheed vs. West Big Ben vs. Hibbert I think the Pacers match up pretty well to that Pistons team and like the Pistons, they'll end Miami's 3peat run the same way the Pistons ended the Lakers 3peat. Jmo. Hawks really were a bad match up for the Pacers. When they make three's they're near impossible to beat. But you can't consistently rely on threes to win series after series. Pacers are a bad match up for the Heat. They took 2 from the Heat a couple years ago. Three from the Heat last year. This year? I think they can take all 4. They're 7-7 against each other in the last 14 games. Should be a good series.

So we meet again... Pacers have struggled this year but they were still good enough to take the #1 seed from the team that represented in the East in the finals the past 3 seasons. Pacers in 4-6 imo. Best of luck to you guys.

Also read that Thadeus Young might be available. Kenneth Farried being on the market was shot down by the Nuggets this morning but who knows. Iman Shumpert's name has come up in trades. He's capable of playing small forward. And Bulls fans have been rather disgusted by Jimmy Butler's play this season. I know Bulls fans wish they had Korver.

Danny Granger? He's had health issues so it would be a risk. Don't know that the Hawks have anything they could trade for him though. He should be on the market at seasons end if that helps? Pacers won't be able to re-sign him and Stephenson both, they'll go with Stephenson. Loul Deng might be available in trade as well and if not, could be on the market by seasons end. The Bulls didn't give an extension.

This is my thinking as well. The Bulls prior to Rose being injured had the best record in the NBA back to back seasons. If he's healthy, the Bulls should be one of the best teams in the East. The Nets won't be relying on KG or Pierce to carry them so the addition of them as role players should make them an improved team. When those are your fillers with Deron Williams, Brook Lopez and Joe Johnson as your go to guys, that's kind of scary. Plus, they have a pretty good bench with Andrei Kirlenko, Jason Terry, Reggie Evans and Andray Blatche. The Knicks are underrated imo. While I do think the Heat, Pacers, Bulls and Nets are all better playoff teams, the Knicks to me are where the line is drawn from the rest of the East. I don't know how anyone could say they're not very good when they had the 2nd best record in the East and that was with half their team injured all season. Carmelo, Chandler, Shumpert, Felton, Bargnani with a bench of JR Smith, Amare Stoudemire, Kenyon Martin, Ron Artest and Beno Urdih is pretty solid The Pacers may actually be receiving too much hype. I believe they're the 2nd best playoff team behind Miami in the East but I'm not sure how that translates into regular season wins. I'd like to believe they'd finish 2nd in the East but I'm just not sure they're a regular season team. They did have one of the worst benches in the NBA last year and I think that's a big reason why they finished 3rd in the East. The starters are really good so you can play them more minutes in the playoffs but you can't run them into the ground during the regular season. Well, you can but that wouldn't be very wise. They upgraded the bench with Lance Stephenson, Luis Scola, CJ Watson, Ian Mahinimi, Chris Copeland and Solomon Hill though while plugging Danny Granger into a starting role. So it's possible their bench woes have been fixed and they could finish with a better regular season record than they did this past season. This is how I see it... 1. Heat 2. Bulls/Knicks/Nets/Pacers 3. Bulls/Knicks/Nets/Pacers 4. Bulls/Knicks/Nets/Pacers 5. Bulls/Knicks/Nets/Pacers 6. Cavaliers/Hawks/Magic/Pistons 7. Cavaliers/Hawks/Magic/Pistons 8. Cavaliers/Hawks/Magic/Pistons I think 2-4 and 6-8 are a crapshoot. If I had to pick 1-5 I'd say 1.Heat 2.Pacers 3.Bulls 4.Nets 5.Knicks. If Andrew Bynum and Kyrie Irving are healthy, I'd probably put them at 6. They have a nice core with Tristan Thompson, Dion Waiters, Anderson Varaejo, Jarrett Jack, Tyler Zeller and Earl Clark. Then I'd say it's a toss up between the Hawks and Pistons for the 7th and 8th seed. I'd probably put the Hawks at 7 just because Horford and Milsap are a fully developed front court. If Andre Drummond and Greg Monroe take the next step though, they could be dominant. I'm just not sure about Drummond yet because he's still rather young and I'm not sure he's ready to take that step. And I'm not writing off the Magic... they're very young but very talented. I actually think they could finish as high as 6th with the talent they have. I think they're favorites to be the odd man out and miss the playoffs but Tobias Harris, Nikola Vucevic, Aaron Afflalo, Glenn Davis, Jameer Nelson, Victor Oladipo, Maurice Harkless, Andrew Nicholson, Doron Lamb... they have the pieces to be really good. If they grow up in a hurry, they could be scary.

That would be a quick rebuild... considering you're trading players that are worth half of what is netted in return. Trading Lou Williams straight up for Marcin Gortat is absurd. An expiring contract may hold more value than a 6'1 175lb shooting guard that shoots 42% and that's not even including the fact that Marcin Gortat is a quality center which is worth far more than even a quality shooting guard which neither Evan Turner nor Lou Williams are. They're average at best. If you had Gortat in your possession, would you trade him for Evan Turner? Let's ignore the fact that Suns aren't even contenders... even if they were contenders and in need of a SG/SF, they could get a better player in return than Evan Turner. The fact that the Suns suck though, it would be smarter to trade for future pieces rather than a 25 year old that's due for contract extension at the end of the season. Suns just swapped Louis Scola's contract with Gerald Green's contract while also netting a rookie 1st round pick and a 2014 1st round pick. Sure, I think Miles Plumlee will amount to nothing and the 2014 1st pick will be 25th or later. Still, Scola is 4 years older than Gortat and holds less value but still netted what was essentially 2 first rounds picks. Knowing they could get that for a 33 year old Scola, surely they want more than that for their 29 year borderline old double-double center. And the Celtics... Rondo is easily worth more than Milsap and Schröder. Not to mention, have you looked the Celtics roster? They have Jeff Green, Brandon Bass, Kris Humphries, Gerald Wallace and Jared Sullinger which are all capable of playing power forward. What do they want Milsap for? By trading Rondo for Milsap and Schröder I'm assuming they're intentions are to take. In that case, they might as well just start Sullinger/Bradley and trade Rondo for multiple future prospects and picks. I personally think Rondo is overrated but some around the league argued before his injury that he was the 2nd best point guard behind CP3. Milsap and Schröder for Rondo? Celtics probably could have gotten Eric Gordon and Norelen Noles if they had gone to the Pelicans before the Jrue Holiday deal went down. Sorry but you appear to be both undervaluing players like Rajon Rondo and Marcin Gortat while overvaluing players like Lou Williams, Paul Milsap and Dennis Schröder. Celtics would rejected a deal for all 3 of those players for Rondo and yet they managed to net a quality center too? I guarantee if Rondo or Gortat were Hawks you'd laugh at those deals offered. I don't believe for one second you'd trade Gortat away for Lou Williams.

Not sure what's more debatable. Rose being tier 2 or CP3 being better than Rose at all. Didn't CP3 just get knocked out in the 1st round? They even got eliminated in game 6 with Barnes going off for 30pts 10rebs on 11/14 shooting and 6/7 from 3. He has a supporting cast of Blake Griffin, Deandre Jordan, Chauncey Billups, Jamaal Crawford, Caron Butler and Eric Bledsoe. Still gets eliminated from the playoffs when like the 8th best player on the team puts up 30-10 while shooting 80%. Derrick Rose led the Bulls to the NBA's best record back to back seasons prior to this season. He was also the league MVP at the age of 22. Second tier? I don't know about that. I do think CP3 is overrated though if a 22 year old MVP is put in a lower tier. After watching the playoffs this year, I'm not even sure it's clear CP3 is better than Tony Parker, Steph Curry or Russel Westbrook. Parker and Curry were absolute studs in carrying their teams and the Thunder looked terrible without Westbrook. There's just no way CP3 should be in another tier than Rose though imo

Hopefully the Hawks loss to the Pacers won't have been in vain. Losing will always be the worst and I know some people won't share this sentiment, but... if the Pacers had lost to the Hawks, I think it would be a nice consolation prize if you guys had gone on to eliminate the Heat. The same can be said for losing to any other team I have neutral feelings about. Now if it was the Knicks or Bulls playing the Heat, I wouldn't get any satisfaction out of those guys beating each other. So for the fans who do share my sentiment, hopefully the Pacers can make losing the series worth your while. Indiana is one of the few teams with the size to dominate Miami in the paint and on the boards, so for the Heat to possibly lose it had to be this way imo. I honestly think you guys are a terrible match up for the Pacers and could have beaten us, you scared me more than the Bulls, Knicks and Celtics for sure. At the end of the day though, I do think the Pacers were the only true threat to Miami in the East. If it was the other way around, I would have been more than okay that the Pacers lost to the Hawks if it meant you guys went on to beat the Heat. I really dislike the Heat that much... In all honesty, if I had the ultimatum of Indy losing to Miami in the ECF or Indy losing in the 1st round to Atlanta and Atlanta beating Miami in the ECF, I'd choose the scenario where Miami loses. It would be nice winning 2 series to get to the ECF but it didn't result in a conference championships let alone an NBA championship. I know it's easier said that done when the shoe is on the other foot but I definitely feel that way and would be pulling hard for you guys right now if it was the other way around. So yeah... aside from wanting the Pacers to win because I am in fact a Pacers fan, I hope they can also win for you guys and the rest of the NBA. I really do believe it would be a win for all NBA fans and not just Pacers fans if the Heat go down. Like I said, there are about 25 teams I'd be pulling for to beat the Heat and I'm betting there are about 29 fan bases pulling for the Pacers to do it. I've never felt confident the Pacers could walk out of Miami with a W if it came down to game 7 but since it's come this far, anything is possible I suppose and I really hope the Pacers can do it. Hopefully when I check back here tomorrow night we'll all be able to celebrate a Miami loss. That's a big "if" but a possible "if". Go Pacers!

Just a Pacers fan. Your guys forum on realgm was dead and I wanted to talk with you guys throughout the series. I'm still interested in following your guys offseason and I liked most of you that I talked to throughout the series. :)

Yeah but he's 22 and this is his first year really getting any playing time. Now Rudy Gay, he reminds of Josh Smith as of late. Chucking bad shot after bad shot.

So what makes you think the Bulls would have been any better against the Heat last season as opposed to the previous season when Miami's trio first formed. In 2011, Bulls were 3-0 against Miami during the regular season and went up 1-0 in the playoffs before Miami rolled off 4 in a row. And I'm also not sure I agree with the lack of post presence when it came to some of the teams you mentioned. Is Kendrick Perkins amazing? No... but he's huge and clogs up the paint. Is Ben Wallace tall? No, but he played big. He looked massive, could outboard people and he looks like he could bring Bosh to his knees with one arm tied behind his back. And I think you're forgetting about Luc Longley... he's 7'2 so the Jordan era did consist of having an anchor. If you mean did any of them score... no. But they were big down low and presented a big threat defensively and on the boards. Shaq, Bynum, Perkins, Duncan, Chandler, Ben etc. were all down low over the past decade when those teams were winning championships.

I like how he's so sure the championship will feature the Spurs and Heat.Maybe he should have wait til after last nights games before writing one of his many stupid articles. Pacers could easily be up 2-0 and I wouldn't count out the Grizzlies even though they're down 0-2. They'll probably lose tonight, thus concluding the series but I wouldn't be at all shocked if they won both games at home to tie it up 2-2.

As far as an actual point guard... CP3 is probably the best in the league. Best ever? Not even close. Doesn't mean he couldn't be but as of today, no. If we're not talking point guard in the conventional sense... I might take Steph Curry over him after what I saw this season. Dude can hit it from anywhere on the floor and always creates open looks. He single handedly was carrying his team throughout the playoffs. I saw how special he was earlier in the season when he played the Pacers and Knicks back to back nights. I'm a Pacers fan hence watching that game and after watching him almost beat the Pacers by himself, I figured I'd watch him the following night against the Knicks because the Pacers/ Knicks were competing with each other for the #2 seed. 2/26 vs. Pacers 14/20fg 7/10-3pt 38pts 4asts 2rebs 3stls 1blk 2/27 vs. Knicks 18/28fg 11/13-3pt 54pts 7asts 6rebs 3stls His team let him down and the Warriors came up just short at the end. But he carried them the Warriors and was the only reason they were even in the game. It would have been a blowout in both games otherwise. Despite those performances and not being able to miss, they lost. The fact he carried them in the playoffs the way he did speaks volumes about how great he is. He may be more of a 2 playing a 1 but as long as he's playing the 1, he could argue taking him over CP3 in my opinion because of the impact he has on the game even if it's by scoring and not passing.

That's not racist. I would be curious to see the backlash if a white player said he wants a team to hire a white coach. Why does the color of someone's skin make a difference? The best coach should get the job and it shouldn't matter what they look like. Shouldn't matter if it's an 18 year old Asian girl that's a Scientologist if she's a basketball savant. And just at a curiosity, how does that work legally now that it has been stated publicly? If you know the Clippers are hiring a coach based purely because of their race, isn't that illegal? That sounds illegal lol. You can't discriminate when hiring and I think it's safe to say it's discrimination when you eliminate entire groups of candidates because of their pigment.

Duncan is averaging 17.5 points, 9.3 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 1.5 blocks and .9 steals in the playoffs this season. He's their best player at the moment...

As I pointed out in my last post... Dwight Howard, Carmelo Anthony and Deron Williams all got their coaches fired. Then they left anyways. Why should they dictate who their coach is? And they're one player. CP3 getting his way has pissed off his entire team... I don't recall, but did Mike Brown get fired because of Lebron too?

It's possible it's stupid and could upset CP3 for making it out to look like he's the reason Vinny was fired, he's the reason the signed Willie Green and he's the reason the locker room is divided. On the flip side, it can be construed as a smart move. Now if CP3 leaves, he'll be viewed as a diva and a headcase. Fans around the NBA will see that he made constantly made demands and was consistently given his way even at the expense of pissing off his teammates and costing someone their job. On ESPN the other day, they said CP3 and Blake Griffin went an entire month without speaking this month because of bad blood. I actually think CP3 is more likely to stay with all of this having been made public because I have to believe his image will take an even bigger hit than it already has. Yeah, people think he's a diva after all of this has been made public but after having done all of that for him, imagine if he leaves? You just look ungrateful and partially to blame for destroy a team. They've gone out and done everything he's wanted to assemble the team he wants. If he leaves now, it doesn't look that great. Fans would get over it but I think all of this being made public will serve as a deterrent when making the decision to leave. Dwight got SVG fired and had to be traded because he was going to leave anyways. Carmelo got Karl fired and had to be traded because he was going to leave anyways. D-Will got Sloan fired and had to be traded because he was going to leave anyways. A lot of fans aren't very high on them anymore because of the stunts they pulled. CP3 just got VDN after he catered to his every need, if he leaves now... I just think his image will take a hit. And thus, making everything public might have been a smart move imo.

That was the case with Lebron and Bosh though. I think it was so they could get a little more money or something and the Cavs/Raptors agreed to it because they were going to leave regardless and a 1st round pick was better than nothing.

looooool Then I guess CP3 and Dwight aren't comin. Trade Horford... good one. Could you imagine Howard and Smith in the same line up with the game on the line? Hack-a-Howard/Smith would be in full effect. You'd have to bench two of your three best players unless you want to lose at the free throw line.

I don't think that's accurate. Houston's cap will be 38 million at the end of the season and the cap limit is 58 million. Surely 20 million is enough room to sign one of them and by one of them, I mean Howard. They have Jeremy Lin so they wouldn't go after CP3 unless they planned on trading Lin. With their China partnership, I don't see that happening. Between Yao and Lin, the Rockets have probably made a good amount of money and gained a lot of fans in China. Not saying Howard will go to Houston but I do believe they can afford him. Plus, then they have trade chips in Omer Asik and one of their many power forwards. Starters C Dwight Howard PF Thomas Robinson SF Chandler Parsons SG James Harden PG Jeremy Lin Bench C Omer Asik F Donatas Motiejunas F Royce White F Terrence Jones F Greg Smith G Patrick Beverly G Aaron Brooks I don't think that's better Howard, Horford and CP3 but it's probably deeper than what the Hawks could put around them if they managed to sign both. It would also depend what Rockets would do with Asik and their three first round power forwards. Partick Beverly was starting in the playoffs and Aaron Brooks was a nice player in the past so I don't know if they'd have any value. And Dallas would be able to sign one of them as well I believe. I think their cap is 41.5 million though it shows up as 48.5 million but that's because they're counting Brenday Haywood's amnestied salary against the cap. It shouldn't count against the cap, right? And OJ Mayo is definitely going to opt out of his contract which lowers the Mavs cap to 37.2 million. That gives them 20 million in cap space to sign a player. Atlanta, Houston and Dallas are probably the only places that could sign them out right that they would consider. Guessing they don't want to live in Utah. Though if Dwight wanted to play with Josh Smith, Howard and CP3 could take a paycut of 16 million a year and Smoove take a paycut of 10 million in Utah. Haha, won't happen.

Nah, it's coaching. And them drafting tough players is a contradiction when their star player has been able to return for months and still hasn't and their second best player sat out because of the flu. Toughness isn't what makes them good, it's coaching. They can continue plugging players away and it doesn't matter. Their best player is a 5'9 midget making the league minimum. They win because Thibodeau's system and it's why back to back years they were #1 in the league only to get smacked in the playoffs by the Heat and Sixers. And it's why they finished 5th without their MVP and so many injuries. Thibodeau preaches defense and the system gets them through the season before teams turn on the jets in the playoffs. The Bulls are terrible at scoring but if you don't let them score, you're going to win more than you lose. You can say it's because the Bulls have tough players and heart if you want but that's like saying Greg Popovich or Bill Belichick win because they get those type of players. They win because of their system and Thibodeau is another guy who does the same. Example... Tom Brady a guy who was benched back and forth in college and almost went drafted is now considered one of the greatest QB's ever. He gets injured and another player, Matt Cassel, couldn't get off the bench in college at USC and sat on the bench behind Brady. He comes in and the Patriots don't skip a beat going something like 11-5. They trade him to the Chiefs and he's useless. There is a reason these guys were getting benched in college, flourished under Belichick and then Cassel went back to stinking with the Chiefs. The system puts you in position to win more than the players. Player after player goes down on the Bulls and they still continue winning. They plug in Nate Robinson after Hinrich got injured, Nazr Mohammad after Noah/Gibson got injured, whatever shooting guard after RIP got injured etc. For being a team of nobodies that can't get by Miami with a league MVP, sure is impressive a combination of their back ups can get the 5th seed and get out of the 1st round. Even the Celtics took Miami to 7 and the Pacers were up 2-1 on Miami. The Bulls are a system team and their success is based on great coaching.

That's what I was thinking. Lose your MVP and battle injuries through the season - 5th season Lose your second best player(Deng), your only point guard big enough to guard D-Will(Hinrich), your third best player plays through plantar fiicitis(Noah) and your back up big man plays through being dinged up and the flu(Gibson) - Advance to 2nd round Tom Thibodeau is like Popovich.

And random but it just occurred to me that every Atlanta team and UGA all wear read. Is there something behind Georgia and the color red? Hawks, Falcons, Braves and Bullodgs all red. Had to look up the Thrashers but it looks like they have a red uniform as well although blue looks like their primary? Just thought it was odd is all.

Al Horford is a beast for sure. I was amazed when Hibbert did this... Would have been a charge if Ivan didn't have his foot on the line. Anyways... best of luck to you guys in the off-season. I know you have a lot of cap space and if you make the right moves you can immediately become a player next season. You need to get a legit center so I'm guessing option one is Dwight Howard and option two is Al Jefferson? I don't know if you want to mess with Bynum. He's a high risk but also a high reward. Dangerous territory tying up that much of your cap space though if he becomes a shell of his former self or worse, can't play at all. I definitely think you guys need to get a center though and move Horford to power forward. I'll be watching the moves you make in the off-season and if you would have beaten the Pacers, I would have been pulling for you to come out of the East. I hated everyone in the East but the Hawks and Bucks. And the Pacers of course