The Perpetual NBA Thread

[wren]

mmm... Biedrins is good, but he isn't a Dwight Howard.

So I'll temper my expectations here.

biedrins has no shot outside of 5 feet, so no comparison muna.

but the boy is not afraid to mix it up inside and has the physical tools to be very good. he reminds me of a bigger AK47 sa built and athletism nya. he's gaining a lot of confidence...if he develops any semblance of a shot, the sky is the limit.

[theveed]

Love this paragraph hehe.

Showcases

I would love to see Vince Carter go up and try a facial on Charlotte's Emeka Okafor when the two square off Tuesday night. Irresistible force vs. immovable object. Later that night in Oklahoma City, Chris Paul and T.J. Ford give us a study in quickness. Ford is generally considered the fastest player in the league, although his Raptors often look more efficient with Spain's Jose Calderon running things.

Wednesday, Dirk Nowitzki gets a look at the Raptors' Andrea Bargnani, who is quietly gaining confidence. Given the similarities in their games, it will be interesting to hear Nowitzki's assessment of "Il Mago," who is already generating a buzz for being further along than originally expected.

Isiah Thomas visits the Palace for the first time as the New York Knicks' head coach. Just last season, we were making a big deal of Larry Brown coming back. Funny how things change, and yet the Knicks remain the same.

When Miami visits Memphis on Saturday night, conspiracy theorists can dissect the interaction between Pat Riley and Mike Fratello. Reports surfaced last week that if Riley were to step down after the season, the current Grizzlies coach could be the choice to replace him. It's widely believed that sweeping changes will be felt in Memphis in the offseason, so Fratello might just be free.

On Sunday, Kevin Garnett and Allen Iverson cry on one another's shoulder.

[mazdamazda]

:rofl01: * KG & AI comment.

[theveed]

KG should go to Boston hehehe.... I'd love that (not that it's remotely possible, but baka pumayag si Ainge kasi Boston naman yun eh haha).

[tsupermario]

ano kaya kung swap sila ni pau gasol? rumor is, gasol might be traded.

Ford is generally considered the fastest player in the league

i thought it was barbosa. or was it the quickest player?

[RMean]

What is the Lenovo Stat?
The Lenovo Stat shows the power of teamwork. It's a way of showing the best-engineered/best combination of players on the court. The Lenovo Stat is a plus/minus statistic that looks at the point differential when players are both in and out of the game, to see how the team performs with various combinations. The Lenovo Stat can look at a variety of combinations – including the best two-player, three-player and even five-player combinations for each game. Here is a look at the top Lenovo performers through the fourth week of the 2006-07 NBA season:
Five-Player Combination
+ 76 T. McGrady, R. Alston, S. Battier, Yao, C. Hayes
+ 62 M. Camby, A. Miller, E. Najera, C. Anthony, J. Smith
+ 47 P. Pierce, W. Szczerbiak, K. Perkins, S. Telfair, R. Gomes
Last week's top three five-player combinations still reign at the top of the Lenovo leaderboard, but the order has been switched around. The Rockets, owners of a three-game winning streak, jumped from second place at +48, to first place at +76. Denver moved from third to second as a five-game unbeaten stretch helped their positive production go from +39 to +62. Boston stayed steady as it dipped only slightly from +49 to +47 to occupy the third spot. Houston, Denver and Boston have a significant lead over their competition as the next closest group is the Bucks' Ruben Patterson, Michael Redd, Maurice Williams, Andrew Bogut and Charlie Villanueva at +35.
Four-Player Combination

+ 82 T. McGrady, R. Alston, S. Battier, C. Hayes
+ 77 T. McGrady, R. Alston, Y. Ming, C. Hayes
+ 77 T. McGrady, S. Battier, Y. Ming, C. Hayes
+ 73 R. Alston, S. Battier, Y. Ming, C. Hayes
The Rockets claim the top five four-player combinations after having the group of Tracy McGrady, Rafer Alston, Shane Battier and Chuck Hayes come in tied for second last week at +54. Out of the Rockets' top four four-player sets, amazingly the one constant player is Chuck Hayes and not T-Mac or Yao. Denver is the first team outside of Clutch City to pop up as Marcus Camby, Eduardo Najera, Carmelo Anthony and Joe Smith check in at sixth place with +66.
Three-Player Combination

+ 96T. McGrady, R. Alston, C. Hayes
+ 84R. Alston, Y. Ming, C. Hayes
+ 83T. McGrady, S. Battier, C. Hayes
The 9-4 Rockets have many believing they will nab a playoff spot in the ultra-competitive Western Conference and Houston has the three-man chemistry to help with that quest. McGrady, Alston and Hayes are the Rockets' top trio, nearing triple digits with a +96 rating. Houston has the top six groups overall. Phoenix has numbers seven and eight with the combinations of Steve Nash, Shawn Marion and Raja Bell as well as Nash, Marion and Leandro Barbosa holding at +72.
Two-Player Combination

+ 103A. Biedrins, M. Ellis
+ 101R. Alston, C. Hayes
+ 97 T. McGrady, C. Hayes
Who are the top duo, you ask? Andris Biedrins, third-year center out of Latvia, is averaging a double-double while Monta Ellis, second-year guard out of Lanier High School in Mississippi, is scoring 17.7 points per game. Golden State is 9-6 and third in the league in scoring, averaging 106.7 points per game, thanks in part to the young coupling of Biedrins and Ellis. Two more Rockets pairs round out the top three.
One Player

+ 105T. Duncan
+ 102C. Hayes
+ 100S. Nash
For the fourth week in a row, there is a new No. 1 Lenovo individual. Tim Duncan boosted his number from +82 to +105 as the Spurs continue to roll at 11-4 overall. Hayes, who was No. 1 after Week 2, is in second and back-to-back MVP Steve Nash is in third. Last week's top player, Matt Harpring, is in sixth at +83.

[ssaloon]

Paying a steep price

By Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports
November 28, 2006

NEW YORK – As losers go, Stephon Marbury rates among the biggest in basketball history. Everyone kept waiting for him to change, but he never did. And never will. To find a presence as eroding as Marbury, one as self-absorbed and cynical and a better bet to suck the selflessness out of a locker room, is downright impossible.

"A walking rain cloud," an ex-teammate once described him to me.

This isn't much of a revelation in the league, but Isiah Thomas is finding out the hard way about the corrosive consequences of coaching Marbury. After a decade in the NBA, Marbury still refers to a mythical third person, a character of some sort, named "Starbury." For two years with the New York Knicks, when things aren't going his way, he keeps promising Starbury's return to the court.

Around New York, this isn't considered a promise as much it is a threat.
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Suddenly, Thomas no longer is Marbury's front office savior but rather another coach wrongly imprisoning his greatness. Marbury responded to his reduced minutes by refusing to take a shot last Saturday night against the Chicago Bulls, something of a hunger strike by a fat man.

The Knicks have lost 10 of 15 games to start the season, Steve Francis' knees are shot, and Marbury is holding true to character. His is forever the disposition of the angry young man, a rebel with only one cause: his own. There was Marbury on the bench for the fourth quarter Saturday, framed with the classic pose of the failed franchise player – draping a towel over his head, refusing to cheer teammates and moping to the bitter buzzer.

Thomas swapped short-term maximum contracts for longer ones, stacking them higher and higher, a shell game that's left him with a dysfunctional backcourt of Starbury and Stevie Franchise.

These are two broken-down guards who ought to serve as cautionary tales for owners and executives contemplating the doling out of max deals. Delivered to the wrong players, they're crippling to franchises. With the wrong players, you're held hostage.

Here are the rules of awarding max-out contracts. Your $90 to $100 million man must do one of two things, if not preferably both.

Win championships.

Or sell tickets.

Tim Duncan wins titles. Vince Carter sells tickets. Kobe Bryant does both.

Now, you don't have to win a championship. You just have to be capable with the right coach and the right teammates. Jason Kidd is a championship-level player, but Kenyon Martin was a max-out bust before his knee ever blew up this month.

New Jersey Nets president Rod Thorn never wanted to indulge Martin's max-contract desires in 2004, believing he never fit the profile. "[The max deal] was meant for the Shaqs, the Garnetts, the Kidds," Thorn said.

They belong to All-World players, not All-Stars.

As the Knicks have discovered in the locker room, when you give not only that money but also that clout to a bad act, you never stop paying the price. From his days with the Nets until now, Marbury has divided locker rooms and crushed chemistry. The max-out is the purest form of street cred on the court because that's how management and players keep score. In the wrong hands, it's pure destruction. For better or worse, it's the truest captaincy.

So now, Marbury is feigning confusion over Thomas' pass-first directives, the way he did under the deposed Larry Brown. Somehow, he doesn't understand his coach's orders unless it includes 20 shots a night for him.

Isiah deserves Starbury, deserves him to the end. To start holding him accountable – declaring as Thomas did Monday that there will be "consequences" for Marbury failing to follow his coach's orders – is far too late in the president's failed New York regime to find religion with him.

From the time he traded for and extended Marbury's contract in January 2004, Thomas has enabled the guard's petulant act through coach after coach. Having gone to the bench, he has discovered the truth: There's no winning with the ball in Starbury's hands, with a franchise's fortunes flowing through him.

Thomas' coaching run with the Knicks promises to end the way it long has been destined to end: collapsing under the weight of his contracts, under the excesses of his own ego. The Knicks could've survived with Marbury's max contract, but Thomas paraded some of the worst modern max-out deals in NBA history through Madison Square Garden – Penny Hardaway and Antonio Davis, Steve Francis and Jalen Rose – and the Knicks never recovered.

Detroit Pistons general manager Joe Dumars still hasn't awarded a max contract, but he won the 2004 NBA championship and made it to a Game 7 a year later. This year, he refused to overpay to keep Ben Wallace, a move that is looking shrewder and shrewder. Next summer, Dumars has suggested that Chauncey Billups, an NBA Finals MVP, is worthy of that ultimate Pistons investment. Billups probably will come in just south of a max-out, but the Pistons won't lose him.

Once, Pistons owner Bill Davidson had a chance to hire Thomas. Davidson decided to wait for Thomas' backcourt mate, Dumars, to retire and pass the franchise over to him. As construction of contenders goes, those old Detroit Bad Boys stand in complete contrast.

For now, Thomas is trying to take bows for the earnest complementary cast he has assembled through the draft, including David Lee, Nate Robinson and Renaldo Balkman. Only, they have no one to complement. Thomas ultimately is doomed for the hundreds of millions of dollars invested in his flawed core.

Still, it started with Starbury. Thomas will get what he deserves from his franchise player, his chosen one, and it's been a long time coming: A maxed-out hell of a winter punctuated with a one-way ticket out of the Garden.


Adrian Wojnarowski is the national NBA columnist for Yahoo! Sports.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_yl...yhoo&type=lgns

[RMean]

tatlo n pala talo ng jazz.. akala ko dalawa

[chain]

30 3rd qtr. points for Kobe enroute to 52 markers...

9 of 9 from the floor and 10-10 from the FT on the 3rd qtr. alone!

[tsupermario]

..while flash made just 5 of 23 and missed his last 2 shots that could've won the game..