Catapult

Sami Hyypiä - one of the best defenders in the world ( and finnish )

Conan has to be the most cost efficient PR thing Finland has ever had.

Espoo (the place I live in now) is the suburban neighbor of Helsinki (where I lived and studied earlier) so if you guys ever stop by I am glad to buy a beer for a regular hawksquawker...

Well, it's sunny today, but a bit chilly for a last day of May...

??

You would make a bad forest owner...

The Czech are one of my favorites, fast paced harpoon offence by skilled individuals.

Definately in the 2nd round.

Plus we should keep Al, draft Gay with the 5th pick, get a Big from free agency and bring back Kenny Anderson from retirement.

Hence we'd have a backcourt of Kenny & Kyle and a Big-Gay-Al frontcourt.

The odds presented are the combined probabilities of all possible outcomes weighted by their individual probability.

Case probability for Blazers to get 2nd pick:

-Bulls (with 199 combinations = 19,9% probability) wins the 1st pick.

-Bulls' combinations are removed, so there would be 801 combinations left.

-Blazers have 250 combinations.

-probability for the Blazers to win the second pick in case Bulls won the first pick is 250/801=31,2%

-combining the probabilities Bulls-1st and Blazers-2nd = 19,9% * 31,2% = 6,2%

- repeat the calculation for 12 other lottery teams by replacing the Bulls' 1st pick probability with each teams probability to win the 1st pick (like 8,8% for Raptors)

- Sum the combined probabilities

- The sum of all the possible combinations where Team X picks first and Blazers pick second (where X is any other lottery team than Blazers) is... 21,4759587%, rounded to 3 decimals = 0.215

So YES the numbers take into consideration the "missing" balls.

"The question still remains.

Why have a draft lottery anyway???"

One obvious reason is to avoid the following (this is the worst case scenario):

You got the next LBJ in the draft, the worst two teams with the same record face each other in the last game - so both teams CERTAINLY miss the top pick if they win an otherwise meaningless game. So they both want to loose. That is an awkward starting point to any ballgame.

With the present weighted lottery loosing does not GUARANTEE a lot. But as only top 3 picks are subject to lottery, the negative effect to unlucky bad teams is reduced. I think the basic idea is sound, what could be discussed is are the weights fair and how many teams should be included in the lottery.

Well, with that scenario Hawks would be without MW, DW and CP as Hornets did pick Paul at #4.

Who would have you picked at #5? Green?

"The extra "European Step" that drivers are allowed makes playing legit defense impossible on a one-on-one basis."

European Step? I have always thought that the interpretation of the rule is more loose in US than in Europe - at least so it seems when you watch american players here in the finnish league.

Möttölä plays in the russian league.

His averages in Dynamo Moscow (5th in the league) this season are 8 PPG and 4 RPG in 19 MPG.

And that proves...

what?

Denver & Earl Watson, 2 games 2 DNP coatches decision.

-they must be so happy the got him from free agency for 29m$

NYK & Channing Frye, 1st game DNP coatches decision.

-has Larry Brown found his new Darko?

Milwaukee & Andrew Bogut, 2 games, 35 mpg, 45.5% fg, 11.5 ppg, 13 rpg, 1.5 bpg, 2.5 apg, 0.5 topg

-not a bad start

Sacramento & SAR, 2 games 15.5 ppg, 8.5 rpg, zero wins, two losses

-some things never change

Boston & Mark Blount, 19pts, 5reb, 2blocks,

-they must have convinced him that it is a contract year again...

Atlanta & Warriors front court (Murphy, Foyle, Biendrins, Taft, Cabarkapa) 15 FGA, 14 FGM = 93%!

"Give me a break man, I'm not gonna lose any sleep if we don't go 3-0"

Didn't really mean you personally - just an general statement that people sometimes expect rather improbable outcomes especially when multiple events are in question.

"Thanks for the stats bro...they mean nothing at all...but, thanks anyway...."

A little probability thinking would save a lot a people a lot of dissappointments...

Just keep in mind the difference between what to expect, what is possible and what you hope for.

Actually it is Uruguay not Uraguay

as I got married on Saturday.

It's just a one time PR act - of course.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2141236

Rodman is going to play a game or two in a finnish team - has to be first time Finland has been mentioned in ESPN's NBA headlines

I strongly doubt that arena profit figure too.

Nobody would sell a business converting a yearly profit of 95M for 250M, nobody. Let alone giving NBA and NHL franchises as freebies on top of that.

The answer is right there. He has established himself in Europe and I guess he doesn't want to get buried to the bench in a deep team because he's a rookie in nba. He wants to play and probably get a lot of shots too, not speculate where he has the best short term opportunity to go deep into the playoffs as a 3rd or 4th man off the bench.

come on, don't say you took it seriously...

33

No offense, but you're probably my favorite poster.

Irony rules...

I joined after Hanno was picked and really this (& the old) board is probably the main reason I have been stuck with the Hawks ever since...