The Basketball Thread

[iseah100 5,612]

It's Cleveland, what else do you expect! That city has a sports curse haha, they will never win anything.

But seriously, Dan Gilbert should be the laughingstock of all NBA owners if he isn't already. Reports say Kyrie is leaving, and i wouldn't blame him. Why return to an organization which has shown it can't draft. Why go back to a team situated in CLEVELAND, or why return to a place that has shown they can never surround their super-star players with adequate talent to win/challenge for NBA title.

According to reports, the situation is a mess. Players, coaches, just damn near everybody associated with running the team day-to-day are butting heads. The players aren't paying any attention to Mike Brown, Kyrie and Waiters seem to be arguing almost every week, and then there was Bynum who was also a negative influence in the locker room causing chaos to the team. Not to mention Anthony Bennett, who is making Kwame Brown look like Shaquille O'neal with his disastrous transition to the NBA as a number 1 pick in the National Basketball Association. I honestly just cry as an NBA fan seeing a team run so inefficiently, wow.

Edit: And they just fired their GM today! .

Cleveland should be a top team. Fucked up with the Anthony Bennet pick, should have got Oladipo, but it was a poor draft.

Pacers to win the title in 7 vs OKC!!!

[Blue-in-me-Veins 4,067]

What do you guys think about the chances of a Miami Heat 3peat?

Think its at 40%,, only because of the Pacers reeling.I would give them a lower chance but because the pacers are playing like shit, you got to respect the champions.

Otherwise i firmly believe who ever comes out of the West will win the Championship, they've been too dominant this season. ,

[Styles 9,790]

Let the games begin!

Of course i want to see OKC win it all, but it's gonna be hard as hell. I don't like the possibility of matching up against the clippers next round, but in order to be champions you gotta do what you gotta do. I like the play of westbrook as of late. We all know he tries too much to be 'the man' but since his return he really has been making sound decisions, and for the most part KD has been out-of-this-world. I like that we're healthy again, and it's time to get back to the Finals, having been 1 year removed.

My Championship prediction is OKC vs Pacers.

I've had my bets on this since the AS break but man the pacers are really making me nervous. Goes to show how hard it is to

dethrone a champion, and maintain a top spot in any conference. Not to mention all this talk about selfish players in the team, and the abysmal play of Paul George and Roy Hibbert this past month, this team is really struggling.

What will cost the Pacers in the deeper rounds of the playoffs is the lack of a superstar. Don't tell me Paul George is a superstar because he is not. One 'goodish' season is not enough, and he has never shown 'great' play in the playoffs, yet. The pacers have made it known that they, together, will dethrone the Heat, and not one man in say Paul George. For some reason, the egos of Lance, Hibbert and West don't wanna step to the side, and are almost trying too hard to replicate the 2004 Detroit Pistons.There's a reason the Pistons have, and will, remain the only team to win a Championship w/o a superstar and that's because the NBA is a star-driven league. This whole, "it'll take all 5 of us, to beat the Big 3" just won't fly. So unless somebody steps up big, *cough Paul George *cough they won't win it all.

My dark-horses in each conference: Houston and Brooklyn.

Houston: they have 2 superstars in Harden and Howard, and they have shown that if they match-up with SAS next round, they have what it takes to beat them. Superstars win games, and it's time for Harden and Howard to prove that right now and exceed expectations. Harden has this demeanor that he really can't be bothered if he wins it all or not. He seems contempt on just collecting that check and splashing it all on them hoes in Houston.

As for Brooklyn, their horrendous start was really what cost them a shot to a higher seed. The new coach, and plethora of injuries had annihilated this team before it even began. But J-Kid has found his feet as a coach, and although they don't have Lopez, they do have stars across the board and i think they can really make things interesting if they meat the Heat next round having swept the season series 4-0.

I expect for the next round: Spurs vs Houston, OKC vs LAC & Pacers vs Chicago, Miami vs Brooklyn.

P.S. Ya boy also won his fantasy basketball league,, $70 comin my way. haha

For all of Westbrook's rash moments/poor decision making sometimes he is arguably just as important to OKC as Durant is. Look at what Memphis did to them last year in the playoffs without him.

Houston aren't doing anything with Harden defending like this

The Pacers won't even make the East finals let alone the NBA finals.

It's obviously between Embiid, Jabari and Wiggins (no disrespect to the other fantastic talents in this deep, deep class) but who do you guys think will go number 1 in the draft?

I didn't watch but I heard Jabari was really poor in the national tourney recently. Embiid has a bad back apparently so think Wiggins is going first.

[Styles 9,790]

The Detroit Pistons 30 for 30 was amazing

Here's a link if you guys want to watch - http://gowherehiphop.com/nba/30-for-30-bad-boys/

I see a few similarities between the Bad Boy Pistons and Chelsea. Nobody likes us, I think we should play up to that image a little more

[Pacquiao 1,834]

The Warriors are going all the way this year!!! DubNation!!!

[The Skipper 20,593]

I didn't watch but I heard Jabari was really poor in the national tourney recently. Embiid has a bad back apparently so think Wiggins is going first.

He wasn't really poor, that's an overreaction, just didn't light it up as usual but Duke only got to the 2nd round so he didn't really get that many games. It's not about who performed better though - Wiggins was with a ridiculous KU so naturally he'd get further. When it comes to these draft players you don't just look at their performances in the NCAA tournament, you have to look at their overall body of work, and honestly Jabari is fundamentally streets ahead of Wiggins IMO - it's not a coincidence that almost every scout or mock draft has Jabari ahead of Wiggins as well.

As you said re: Joel Embiid, which I did mention - he was the real star for KU but the only thing that's not making him an undisputed number 1 choice is simply his back injury. I still think he's gonna go before Wiggins though, likewise with Jabari Parker.

[NishC300 1,865]

You know to think if Ellis' shot had gone in we'd be facing OKC rather than Spurs...

Dallas-Spurs is always great for the neutrals to watch. Nice that Game 1 of the series is on TNT (and it's an early start)!

[The Skipper 20,593]

You know to think if Ellis' shot had gone in we'd be facing OKC rather than Spurs...

Dallas-Spurs is always great for the neutrals to watch. Nice that Game 1 of the series is on TNT (and it's an early start)!

Doesn't really matter... You'd still lose against both.

[Sheva. 5,373]

Good start for the lesser seeds so far.

Smh at the Rockets though, and Harden's weird shot selection.

[Styles 9,790]

Good start for the lesser seeds so far.

Smh at the Rockets though, and Harden's weird shot selection.

Harden's game is they way he snaps his head back trying to get free-throws all the time, disgraceful

Memphis should be 2-0 by the way, they beat themselves in the first game. How Scott Brooks still has a job is a mystery.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Kevin Durant

[lionsden 4,689]

How did I miss this thread. The OKC grizzlies game last night was absolutely crazy. many predicted a thunder sweep but ZBO and his clans weren't having none of it.

[Styles 9,790]

Kevin Durant

That was crazy but I don't see the foul some of the calls he gets are beyond belief.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

That was crazy but I don't see the foul some of the calls he gets are beyond belief.

All the best players get all the calls in the NBA. Lebrone gets away with about half a dozen travels per game. That said, I think it is a foul with the right arm.

[Nike 373]

It's obviously between Embiid, Jabari and Wiggins (no disrespect to the other fantastic talents in this deep, deep class) but who do you guys think will go number 1 in the draft?

it depends who gets the number 1 selection.

Exum, Embiid, and Wiggins have the biggest ceiling. Parker seems like a player that has already peaked or near his peak. As mentioned before, he is probably most NBA ready though..

The sleeper are the kentucky boys; the twins, young and randle.

I personally like Gary Harris of MSU and the Embiid... Also, Anderson from UCLA is a freak, but he is similar to Shaun Livingston before his many injuries.

[Nike 373]

Cleveland should be a top team. Fucked up with the Anthony Bennet pick, should have got Oladipo, but it was a poor draft.

Pacers to win the title in 7 vs OKC!!!

Oladipo is crap. He's two small/cant shoot to play 2 guard in the NBA and doesn't have the ball handling skills/vision to be a pg. Orlando are trying to make him into something he is not. In a few years he will probably get traded and become a valuable bench player or 4th offensive player on a good team.

Last year draft was crap. Only person I can see being an all star is maybe Dieng or Mclemore.

[Blue-in-me-Veins 4,067]

That was a tough game to swallow. During the playoffs, you gotta win those games at home EVEN if you don't deserve it. (Spurs are the masters at this.)

But i wasn't happy with the lack of Reggie Jackson's minuets yesterday and i would have liked for us to have gone small, and tried something different, instead, Brooks kept Perkins and Ibaka/Collinson for nearly the whole 4th quarter and all of OT, there's no way your gonna run the fast-break with those guys on the floor, especially Perkins.

KD and Westbrook were struggling yesterday, but my main concern wasn't even them, but late game execution! My LORD! What 'play' did we actually run during those last 2-3 mins of regulation. Everything was *Try and get it to KD for 10 seconds then realize the clock is almost out and chuck up a long-range shot.* I wasn't happy at all, why not run a pick-nd-roll with Ibaka or anything else instead of forcing something that was clearly not there. For that final shot, Fisher was wide open for the 3pt shot, but we were too focused on getting it to KD and then RWB, again, tried to play hero-ball and launched an ill-advised 3pt shot that happened to fall graciously into the hands of Kendrick.

Gotta fix this next game.

[Rmpr 8,977]

The East is so dull, Heat are going to cruise over it!