NBA Chatter Thread

Bulls are a dumpster fire, horrific front office, happy to be a 1st/2nd round and out team, always more than happy to sit on their hands, if it wasn't for lucking into Rose that's all they ever would've been since Jordan left which was another luck pick too honestly.

I mean, they were a hair away from being up 3-1 on the Cavs last year and were the only team aside from the Warriors to beat Cleveland in the playoffs, to be fair Cleveland obviously had injuries but so did the Bulls. Instead of making it work with Thibodeau and going all in while Gasol was still playing at a high level we get Tim Floyd part 2 who can't even dial up his own plays coming out of timeouts.

I hate Jerry Jones as much as anybody but I honestly prefer where the Cowboys are at with Jerry than how the Bulls are run, which is saying alot. Sure, Jerry won't step aside for a real GM and wants to win on his terms, but I never would think he'd be content with being a 1st or 2nd round and out team, which is something that I am very convinced the Bulls are totally fine with as an organization.

[MENTION=6]1bigfan13[/MENTION]

What happened the other night was part collapse, part unbelievable shooting from Curry and a bit from Thompson.

I'm convinced Steph Curry is an extra-terrestrial being.

Dirk Nowitzki looked like a 40 year old basketball god today.

Reply With Quote
http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/15...ng-made-public


The Los Angeles Lakers, sputtering to the end of Kobe Bryant's farewell season with the worst record in franchise history, face a fresh crisis involving prized rookie point guard D'Angelo Russell, according to team sources.

Sources told ESPN.com that some teammates' trust in Russell is eroding after a video surfaced in the past week that shows Russell recording a private conversation between himself and teammate Nick Young. Young does not appear to realize he is being taped.

The video, which is believed to have come to light last week via the Twitter account of a celebrity gossip site, shows Russell filming Young while asking questions about Young being with other women. Young got engaged to Australian rapper Iggy Azalea last summer.

While it's unclear how the video became public, sources say that the resulting tension in the Lakers' locker room in recent days is among that factors that contributed to L.A.'s limp showing Monday night in Salt Lake City, when they absorbed a 48-point pounding from the Utah Jazz, which matched the worst Lakers loss in franchise history.

Various Lakers officials are aware of the issue and are dismayed with Russell, sources say, but to this point have chosen not to intervene in how Russell's actions have been received and handled by his teammates.

"Right now," one source said, "they're handling it by isolating him."

Austin Brown, Russell's agent from Creative Artists Agency, declined comment when reached Tuesday.

Said one team insider: "This was a prank gone wrong and a mistake by [Russell] and he has to be held accountable, but I would hope he isn't overly criticized for it."

The emergence of the video, sources, said, has been the talk of the locker room for the past several days and has led to a tangible strain between Russell and some teammates.

At a recent breakfast meeting, one source said, no Laker would sit with Russell at his table. The source added that, in another instance, Russell came into the locker room and sat next to guard Lou Williams, who got up and walked away.

"It's bad," one team source told ESPN.com's Ramona Shelburne. "It's about as bad as it can get. There were trust issues already. Now there's no trust."

In the video, Russell asks Young at one point, "You was 30 and she was 19?" referencing Young's age and the age of another woman that Young said that he met in a nightclub.

"What about Amber Rose?" Russell later says, mentioning another celebrity who has been linked to many athletes.

"No, she knows my girl," Young is recording as saying.

Later in the conversation, while apparently still recording, Russell is heard telling Young, "I'm glad you told my video all that."

"Huh?" Young says, turning his face toward Russell before the video cuts off.

The Lakers have long considered Russell to be a key part of their future after using such a high pick to select him a year ago and raved about his "superstar" potential on the night they drafted him. Even Lakers coach Byron Scott, whose handling of Russell has been under the microscope throughout this 2015-16 season, came into the season speaking of him in the same breath as Lakers legend Magic Johnson when describing Russell's court vision.

Russell started the Lakers' first 20 games before being moved to the bench along with second-year forward Julius Randle. And Scott, on countless occasions this season, has publicly questioned Russell's maturity.

"He's such a kid," Scott said in February. "I told him the other day, 'You're 19 but sometimes I think you're 14.'"

Russell is averaging 13.1 points, 3.4 assists and 3.4 rebounds over 27.5 minutes in 72 games this season.

Young hasn't played in 10 games and didn't travel with the team to Salt Lake City because of gastroenteritis, according to the team.

Just shows how immature some of these one and dones are. High school probably did nothing to mature these clowns to begin with and after one year of college they are handed millions. I have no trouble believing that Russell has the emotional maturity of a 14 year old.

Simpleton said:

Bulls are a dumpster fire, horrific front office, happy to be a 1st/2nd round and out team, always more than happy to sit on their hands, if it wasn't for lucking into Rose that's all they ever would've been since Jordan left which was another luck pick too honestly.

I mean, they were a hair away from being up 3-1 on the Cavs last year and were the only team aside from the Warriors to beat Cleveland in the playoffs, to be fair Cleveland obviously had injuries but so did the Bulls. Instead of making it work with Thibodeau and going all in while Gasol was still playing at a high level we get Tim Floyd part 2 who can't even dial up his own plays coming out of timeouts.

I hate Jerry Jones as much as anybody but I honestly prefer where the Cowboys are at with Jerry than how the Bulls are run, which is saying alot. Sure, Jerry won't step aside for a real GM and wants to win on his terms, but I never would think he'd be content with being a 1st or 2nd round and out team, which is something that I am very convinced the Bulls are totally fine with as an organization.

Click to expand...

I can't believe the Pistons are actually going to make the playoffs above them and Washington, more than likely. Firing Thibs was an incredibly idiotic mistake, and they will probably have to completely rebuild their team because of it.

Tough to call firing Thibs an "idiotic mistake" because I think that makes it sound as if the primary motivation behind it was improving the team's performance. As in, they thought they'd get better and they miscalculated.

Which is bullshit... Thibs was an excellent coach, the club had a personality problem with him, and that led them to fabricate criticisms of him, such as, "The fact that he overplayed Joakim Noah onto IR is why we can't win." No, why you can't win is because as a front office you've failed to get enough reliable players to surround Derrick Rose when he was a star, and now that he's not, you have no star and your talent says you are a middle of the road playoff team.

So IMO they kinda knew they were throwing the baby out with the bath water. And I'm not sure there was any coach who would have been an upgrade, though Hoiberg is an obvious downgrade.

Instead of calling it an idiotic mistake, I'd say it was even worse -- that their own personal agendas drove them to deliberately make the team worse. And that's more inexcusable than a simple boneheaded mistake or miscalculation. It's a knowing and willful act.

Jesus...am I supposed to feel sorry for Nick Young? That dumb fuck was cheating on his fiance. It was stupid it got out there, but I don't feel sorry for Young at all.

Carp said:

Jesus...am I supposed to feel sorry for Nick Young? That dumb fuck was cheating on his fiance. It was stupid it got out there, but I don't feel sorry for Young at all.

Click to expand...

I don't feel sorry for either of them. They're both idiots for different reasons.

mschmidt64 said:

Tough to call firing Thibs an "idiotic mistake" because I think that makes it sound as if the primary motivation behind it was improving the team's performance. As in, they thought they'd get better and they miscalculated.

Which is bullshit... Thibs was an excellent coach, the club had a personality problem with him, and that led them to fabricate criticisms of him, such as, "The fact that he overplayed Joakim Noah onto IR is why we can't win." No, why you can't win is because as a front office you've failed to get enough reliable players to surround Derrick Rose when he was a star, and now that he's not, you have no star and your talent says you are a middle of the road playoff team.

So IMO they kinda knew they were throwing the baby out with the bath water. And I'm not sure there was any coach who would have been an upgrade, though Hoiberg is an obvious downgrade.

Instead of calling it an idiotic mistake, I'd say it was even worse -- that their own personal agendas drove them to deliberately make the team worse. And that's more inexcusable than a simple boneheaded mistake or miscalculation. It's a knowing and willful act.

Click to expand...

Yea, the arrogance and ego of the front office is more important than winning because Forman and Paxon know they're teflon in Reinsdorf's eyes. Just a horribly run, completely toxic franchise, they lucked into Jordan and then lucked into Rose, if it wasn't for that I doubt they'd have made it to a ECF in the last 30 years.

Carp said:

Jesus...am I supposed to feel sorry for Nick Young? That dumb fuck was cheating on his fiance. It was stupid it got out there, but I don't feel sorry for Young at all.

Click to expand...

Deuce said:

I don't feel sorry for either of them. They're both idiots for different reasons.

Click to expand...

I don't care how either of them feel, but that's not the point.

A serious code of the locker room was violated and it's a pretty big deal. I understand the uproar over it while still not having any sympathy for Young.

It's just flat out wrong to violate someone's privacy in that manner.

Young is an idiot for cheating no doubt, but Russell manages to come off even worse. There's being a private selfish idiot, and then there is being a public immature asshole.

Well I am officially done with the season, I have been waiting to see a glimmer of the team from last year but it is what I feared.

Last year Houston got just about every major break and the benefit of several players besides Harden playing at a very high level.

All of the flaws from last year are still there but they are magnified and they are not getting those multiple contributions from other players on a consistent basis.

Last year we had a very high winning percentage in close games down the stretch, this year we coming up short time an again, unlike the beginning of the year the effort is there but the coaching and talent is lacking.

Harden is having the same type of year as last year but the results are not the same, he has to come into camp in better shape next year but he is still a foundational player but a hard guy to fit around.

I am starting to lean toward Thibideou as the new coach this team needs more discipline and he has had great success with one player being the driving force of an offense and Harden is a better distributor than Rose and has a more versatile offensive game.

I still worry about him being outcoached in big games but I think I would take that stability in team play right now.

Jiggyfly said:

Well I am officially done with the season, I have been waiting to see a glimmer of the team from last year but it is what I feared.

Last year Houston got just about every major break and the benefit of several players besides Harden playing at a very high level.

All of the flaws from last year are still there but they are magnified and they are not getting those multiple contributions from other players on a consistent basis.

Last year we had a very high winning percentage in close games down the stretch, this year we coming up short time an again, unlike the beginning of the year the effort is there but the coaching and talent is lacking.

Harden is having the same type of year as last year but the results are not the same, he has to come into camp in better shape next year but he is still a foundational player but a hard guy to fit around.

I am starting to lean toward Thibideou as the new coach this team needs more discipline and he has had great success with one player being the driving force of an offense and Harden is a better distributor than Rose and has a more versatile offensive game.

I still worry about him being outcoached in big games but I think I would take that stability in team play right now.

Click to expand...

He will at the very least improve the defense/toughness of the team in the short run, probably won't be enough to push them into the Finals but you never know. If he is more or less the same guy he was with the Bulls he will probably burn out after about 4-5 years, and he definitely lacked flexibility in terms of making adjustments, especially in the playoffs, but it is very possible that he will improve going into his 2nd run.

Harden and his defense will be enough for them to be at least a top 4 seed for however long he's there though.

Simpleton said:

He will at the very least improve the defense/toughness of the team in the short run, probably won't be enough to push them into the Finals but you never know. If he is more or less the same guy he was with the Bulls he will probably burn out after about 4-5 years, and he definitely lacked flexibility in terms of making adjustments, especially in the playoffs, but it is very possible that he will improve going into his 2nd run.

Harden and his defense will be enough for them to be at least a top 4 seed for however long he's there though.

Click to expand...

There have been a lot of reports with him around the team and with Morrey the GM.

Hopefully he has learned some things and can be more flexible, I would bring Noah on board as well for some added toughness and playmaking.

Do you think he has anything left?

Jiggyfly said:

There have been a lot of reports with him around the team and with Morrey the GM.

Hopefully he has learned some things and can be more flexible, I would bring Noah on board as well for some added toughness and playmaking.

Do you think he has anything left?

Click to expand...

Yes, he played well for us before getting hurt this season. His knees are a ticking time bomb and he's generally injury prone but he's still a very solid defender/rebounder when on the court.

Simpleton said:

Yes, he played well for us before getting hurt this season. His knees are a ticking time bomb and he's generally injury prone but he's still a very solid defender/rebounder when on the court.

Click to expand...

Interesting I could see him as a C on this team in the place of Howard and splitting time with Capella.

Celtics win. Great coach. Future looks lovely. Happy Days.