NBA Basketball

[Premo]

bad gm is one who makes blatantly retarded decisions. like drafting 3 PGs ..

clippers made the playoffs in 06? sam cassell, elton brand

grizzlies were a consistent playoff team pau/hubie era.

dont think the pistons have missed THAT many oppurtunities. they missed the playoffs last year, first time in a while. dumars is a pretty good gm, although that iverson trade fucked them. albeit he passed on melo, bosh, wade which wouldve made them great

the clippers and grizzlies of the league are franchises with a shitty owner not GM. (cept that pau trade)

[Christmas In A Submarine.]

Drafting decisions are not always up to a GM- you can say that a lot of bad shit happened on a certain GMs watch, but that doesn't make them bad at their job. In fact- I think part of being a good GM is taking the rep for whatever bogus shit your peabrain owner/president pushes for that blows up in their faces. A bad GM is one that, to paraphrase hocus pocus, lets shitty situations remain. If a team is in a bad spot they need to either fix it, or if they aren't allowed to, they need to move on. Missed opportunities happen to every team, it's mostly luck. Teams love to take credit for gambles that work out well, but they're still gambles...

living in portland though, let me say: having no GM during an exciting FA season is almost as bad as having a shitty GM.

[chantheman]

Al Harrington to join the Denver Nuggets.

Marc Stein of ESPN reports:

The Denver Nuggets reached an agreement in principle Tuesday night on a five-year, $34 million contract with free-agent forward Al Harrington, according to sources with knowledge of deal.

The Nuggets had to outbid the Dallas Mavericks to secure Harrington’s signature after Dallas followed up its trade acquisition of Tyson Chandler earlier Tuesday with a hard push for Harrington, which included an in-person recruiting pitch at the NBA’s annual summer league in Las Vegas from Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.

But Denver would appear to have a greater need for Harrington than Dallas, given that the Nuggets expect to start the season with Kenyon Martin and Chris Andersen unavailable after both recently underwent surgical procedures.

That enabled Harrington’s agent, Dan Fegan, to land a deal starting at the full $5.8 mid-level exception from the Nuggets which extends for the maximum allowed five years.

[chantheman]

this excites me more than any other trio combo

We know about Boston's and now Miami's big three.

We've heard rumblings of a potential big three in New York with Amare Stoudemire, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul.

But here's a purely speculative and hypothetical big three that could do some serious damage: Paul, Dwight Howard and Kevin Durant.

As ESPN Insider Tom Haberstroh wrote Tuesday, it's unlikely, but possible.

Both Paul and Howard can opt out of their contracts after the 2011-2012 seasons, making them free agents. They could then potentially head to Oklahoma City.

With Howard holding down the defense at center, Durant scoring out of a wing position and Paul creating for the both of them, it might be a better-suited situation than Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh, as some have argued James and Wade are a bit too similar.

[jaac]

That team would get bandwagon'd like no other, those are like the top 3 most likeable players in the league haha.

[beezup]

I was watching real sports, and idk if anyone cares, but Bryant Gumbel blasted Lebron, and pretty much summarized why i don't really respect Lebron anymore.

Finally tonight, a few words about championship rings. Just when did they become the all-important barometer of who does or doesn't count in sports? When did they supersede personal excellence or exemplary character as a standard of greatness?

I got to thinking about that the other night after the self-anointed chosen one, LeBron James, embarrassed himself as he tried to make his decision to seek rings in Miami sound like a search for the Holy Grail. It's when he essentially admitted to placing a higher priority on winning than anything else.

LeBron's decision is typical of our immediate gratification era, but it flies in the face of history. Even though he never won a title, Dan Marino is still the biggest hero in Florida. And in Boston, all those Celtics championships are dimmed by the unforgettable brilliance of Ted Williams, who never won anything. In Chicago, Gale Sayers and Dick Butkus have legendary status despite playing on losing teams. And even in the NBA, where guys seem obsessed with being viewed as "the man", real men like Barkley, Ewing and Baylor are ringless, but revered.

Despite such evidence to the contrary, LeBron James seems to think he needs a ring to change his life and secure his legacy. Maybe he'll get one, maybe he won't, but it's probable that no amount of rings will ever remove the stench he wallowed in last week. LeBron may yet find that in the court of public opinion, just as putting on a tux can’t make a guy a gentleman, winning a ring can’t make one truly a champion.

[chantheman]

david kahn is talking during the kings/wolves game and just said his son would know more than he does...and i believe it

[lintmunro]

I just fully realized how awful the Wes Matthews signing was.

[chantheman]

webber asked what the direction/philosophy of the team is

response by kahn - believes darko can be a good starting center. clicked with rambis. thought he did as good as he couldd get for jefferson to get 2 1st rounders and no bad contracts in return for a guy coming off injury.

want to be a running team that gets in the flow that believes in passing like the old kings team referencing webber. the more players that can pass the better you are as a team. he thinks the spurs mavs will come back to the rest of the pack in the next few years and hopefully by then his young team will be ready to compete year in and year out

[chantheman]

dude just said darko is the best passing big man hes ever seen

webbers response "wow, wow better than vlade?"

[chantheman]

kahn just compared webber and darko in that they each needed time to adjust to the league. webber doesnt like that. he doesnt want to talk about himself and darko in the same sentence. hahahahaha.

kahn is an idiot

[lintmunro]

Darko is actually a pretty good passer but that's fucking hilarious that he'd say it to Webber who, in his own right, was one of the best passing big men ever (and played with another in Vlade, like you said).

[chantheman]

Cousins beastin again and this time hit the game winner on a jump hook. lovin it

[Christmas In A Submarine.]

I just fully realized how awful the Wes Matthews signing was.

for whom? the blazers or the jazz?

[chantheman]

im guessing for the blazers? dude came up going undrafted and getting a nice contract

[M4TM]

Ygt6QifkPss

lol... "i asked Jeeves"

[Christmas In A Submarine.]

im guessing for the blazers? dude came up going undrafted and getting a nice contract

perhaps. Also could be read as: the jazz made a mistake picking up matthews then ditching brewer, only to lose matthews to a div. rival...

either way- I'm not convinced that the blazers signing matthews is a bad call. He's unproven over the long term, but there's no getting around that. And as for overpaying- paul allen is the last guy to worry about that, so it doesn't worry me. In the long run it may make him harder to move, but in the short it screws the jazz and results in likely a very solid backup for roy. other upside: rudy can finally get shipped out.

[chantheman]

i dont think the jazz are all that worried. they cleared out the cap space by not resigning matthews to get jefferson who fills in for boozer, prob better than boozer in that system since big al can actually play center letting milsap and ak47 go to their more natural position of 4. if the jazz can get brewer back then all is well in salt lake.

i have nothing against matthews. dude can play. good for him to get a paid more than the first rounders from last years draft. sometimes it pays to not get drafted

[Christmas In A Submarine.]

yeah I agree. And though I think the jazz do have a shot at getting brewer they are going to be competing for him, apparently he's on a lot of teams' lists. And aren't the jazz, even letting matthews go, are still over the cap for this year, no?

[lintmunro]

Matthews is being overpaid to split minutes with Roy, who he's infinitely worse than offensively, and Batum, who he's no better than defensively. Don't forget Fernandez and Babbitt.

Not only that but he's now the most overpaid sophomore since the rookie scale came in. Over nine million in his first season? Yikes.

[Christmas In A Submarine.]

like I said... paul allen plays with monopoly money, so i'm not exactly worried. (and the frontloaded first year is just that, not an indication of his overall value.)

as for the rest, we'll see. Saying he's infinitely worse than Roy doesn't mean much. I've always thought of matthews as pretty solid offensively. (Likewise, saying he's no better than Batum on defense is almost a compliment...)

either way, we'll see what happens with him. I'm a little concerned he'll get less hungry now that he's coming off the bench and sitting on a large chunk of change.

For me though it kinda boils down to:

Paying Wes Matthews = 34 million.

Trading Rudy = priceless.

[chantheman]

yeah I agree. And though I think the jazz do have a shot at getting brewer they are going to be competing for him, apparently he's on a lot of teams' lists. And aren't the jazz, even letting matthews go, are still over the cap for this year, no?

its pretty close to the lux tax in the last article i read so i dont think the jazz are worried about that.

the jazz are also on raja bells radar or did they already sign him? last i read utah offered a contract much higher than the lakers and bulls

[chantheman]

Matthews is being overpaid to split minutes with Roy, who he's infinitely worse than offensively, and Batum, who he's no better than defensively. Don't forget Fernandez and Babbitt.

Not only that but he's now the most overpaid sophomore since the rookie scale came in. Over nine million in his first season? Yikes.

better to have a front loaded contract if you have the space and then make it more manageable in later years in case he doesnt work out

[chantheman]

"Although I was the highest bidder, Chris Cohan decided to sell to someone else. In my experience this is a bit unusual. Nonetheless, I wish the Warriors and their fans nothing but success under their new ownership," said Larry Ellison.

[lintmunro]

Who do y'all think are the worst GMs in the league?

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[OMEGA JELLY JIGGLE]

Demarcus Cousins 22 against the Timberwolves

cool

[lintmunro]

22 against Patrick O'Bryant, but yeah he's legit.

[chantheman]

Cousins had a message for Minnesota's summer league coach Reggie Theus at halftime.

"He was like 'We got into his head,'" Cousins said. "I was like thank you coach, I'm going to kill you this half. And after the game I was like told you I was going to kill you this half. That's all that was."

Read more: http://blogs.sacbee.com/sports/kings/archives/2010/07/cousins-gets-ma.html#ixzz0tn8dkdiJ

[Hocus Pocus]

I wish the Kings didn't have such shitty jerseys, but since I think they'll be one of the most entertaining teams to watch next year, and I might as well start supporting them.

[16steps]

"Although I was the highest bidder, Chris Cohan decided to sell to someone else. In my experience this is a bit unusual. Nonetheless, I wish the Warriors and their fans nothing but success under their new ownership," said Larry Ellison.

on some bullshit...cohan is a moron and this further proves it