NBA Chatter Thread

Texas Ace

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I'm shocked that Dallas hasn't been able to land any of the premiere free agents over the last 5 years. They haven't even come close.

Dallas is a big city. They've been competitive for the last 15+ years. Won a title about 5 years ago. They have an owner who is willing to spend money on the organization and there are no state taxes in Texas.

You'd think they would have landed at least one all-star caliber FA.
Doesn't surprise me. If you're Kevin Durant and you go to Dallas this FA period for a visit, I'm sure they're gonna go all out and he'll even be impressed by Cuban. They'll make him feel like the most important guy on earth and throw down a max contract. He might even be tempted after they wine and dine him.....but then he'll receive the same offer from say a San Antonio, Golden State, or even Houston, not to mention the higher offer he'll get from OKC, and he's going to look at those rosters and eliminate Dallas right away. Why? Because they don't have much to offer in terms of being a contender.

I've used this example in this thread before, but it basically comes down to not being in a position to win a championship. They are exactly where the Rockets were for about 2 or 3 years when they too kept striking out on every big name FA they went after. It wasn't until they traded for Harden -- a player who was ready to be a star and lead his own team, who then became a star -- that Houston was able to start attracting other all-stars like Dwight Howard.

That is why I was hoping that Chicago didn't re-sign Butler. I was hoping he could be our Harden, but Chicago was smart and locked him up.

But as it stands, we have no piece or pieces that a star can look at and say "I can win with those guys. We're close". The only way we sign a star is if we convince two stars to come at the same time, trade for a potential star in Harden like Houston did, or build a team with a bright future through the draft like Boston did.

If we can't or don't do any of those, then no star FA in their right mind is going to sign with us when much better teams can offer him the same money with a much better chance to win a championship.

It's been time to rebuild this thing and we keep putting it off. Blow this thing up already and start over.
 

dallen

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Pretty much. It is too bad the Warriors locked up Klay Thompson. That is the kind of guy Dallas needs to be looking for. When Dirk retires they are going to have to burn it down. I don't think they will do that to Dirk while he still wants to play, and I don't think he wants to finish his career on another team
 

Texas Ace

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Pretty much. It is too bad the Warriors locked up Klay Thompson. That is the kind of guy Dallas needs to be looking for. When Dirk retires they are going to have to burn it down. I don't think they will do that to Dirk while he still wants to play, and I don't think he wants to finish his career on another team
Yea, I think you're right......we're avoiding/delaying the rebuild because we don't want Dirk to waste his final years on a terrible team.

We may not and have not been very good the last few years, but at least Dirk has had something to play for.....even if all it leads to are quick eliminations in the playoffs.
 

1bigfan13

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Great farewell video put together by Nike. Love the cameos as well.

 

Texas Ace

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This performance from Kobe is unbelievable.

What a show he's putting on.
 

Texas Ace

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That 4th quarter was insane.

Farewell to a legend.
 

1bigfan13

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That 4th quarter was insane.

Farewell to a legend.
I stayed up late and watched it as well. That was an epic performance from an all time great.

First time in my life that I've ever openly cheered for the Lakers. I feel kind of dirty but it was fun.

Last night was a sports memory that will stay with me for the rest of my life.
 

Texas Ace

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I stayed up late and watched it as well. That was an epic performance from an all time great.

First time in my life that I've ever openly cheered for the Lakers. I feel kind of dirty but it was fun.

Last night was a sports memory that will stay with me for the rest of my life.
Same here.

As he got to 40, I thought it was very impressive being as he had the stamina to do it at this stage of his career and that he was finding a way to do it in this game when everyone was watching.

I thought it was great, but not epic or historic because he was taking a ton of shots and he wasn't shooting all that well.

But then the 4th quarter came and it was like he got in the time machine. He just took the game over and simply couldn't miss. I was actually cheering for the guy. :lol

60 points and a 4th quarter like that from a guy who gave you no reason to believe he could do something like that is the stuff you see in movies, and yet he did it for real. The greatest player I ever saw not named MJ.

He will be missed.
 

1bigfan13

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Same here.

As he got to 40, I thought it was very impressive being as he had the stamina to do it at this stage of his career and that he was finding a way to do it in this game when everyone was watching.

I thought it was great, but not epic or historic because he was taking a ton of shots and he wasn't shooting all that well.

But then the 4th quarter came and it was like he got in the time machine. He just took the game over and simply couldn't miss. I was actually cheering for the guy. :lol

60 points and a 4th quarter like that from a guy who gave you no reason to believe he could do something like that is the stuff you see in movies, and yet he did it for real. The greatest player I ever saw not named MJ.

He will be missed.
I thought everything fell perfectly in place for him to have a night like that.

Once the Jazz were eliminated they had nothing to play for so they didn't play him tough defensively. If a playpoff spot were on the line I doubt he cracks 30 points last night because Utah would have made it a lot harder on him.

But still....that was a great, memorable performance. The only thing that would have made it better is if he could have nailed a GW shot at the buzzer.
 

dallen

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60 points in your last game and you hit the game winning shot? Holy cow. There is a pregame video of Shaq jokingly telling Kobe to get 50 for him. I am pretty sure Kobe scored 60 as one last f you to Shaq for assuming he would have to stretch to get to 50.
 

dallen

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Same here.

As he got to 40, I thought it was very impressive being as he had the stamina to do it at this stage of his career and that he was finding a way to do it in this game when everyone was watching.

I thought it was great, but not epic or historic because he was taking a ton of shots and he wasn't shooting all that well.

But then the 4th quarter came and it was like he got in the time machine. He just took the game over and simply couldn't miss. I was actually cheering for the guy. :lol

60 points and a 4th quarter like that from a guy who gave you no reason to believe he could do something like that is the stuff you see in movies, and yet he did it for real. The greatest player I ever saw not named MJ.

He will be missed.
There will be a movie about that game. At least a documentary
 

1bigfan13

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There will be a movie about that game. At least a documentary
They mentioned on ESPN yesterday that Kobe had a film crew following him around all year, and last night obviously, working on a documentary focused on his last year in the NBA.

I think they said it was the same crew that did his 'Kobe's Muse' Showtime documentary from last summer.
 

Texas Ace

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I thought everything fell perfectly in place for him to have a night like that.

Once the Jazz were eliminated they had nothing to play for so they didn't play him tough defensively. If a playpoff spot were on the line I doubt he cracks 30 points last night because Utah would have made it a lot harder on him.

But still....that was a great, memorable performance. The only thing that would have made it better is if he could have nailed a GW shot at the buzzer.
Even if they all stood around and let him shoot freely, which they didn't, the 4th quarter still would've been impressive because he had to make those shots.

All year long he's been missing them. It's been painful watching Kobe play and shoot the way he has all year, but that's what made that 4th quarter so remarkable. He was taking and making contested shots and couldn't miss. It was great.

60 points....wow. I still can't believe it.
 

Cowboysrock55

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Same here.

As he got to 40, I thought it was very impressive being as he had the stamina to do it at this stage of his career and that he was finding a way to do it in this game when everyone was watching.

I thought it was great, but not epic or historic because he was taking a ton of shots and he wasn't shooting all that well.

But then the 4th quarter came and it was like he got in the time machine. He just took the game over and simply couldn't miss. I was actually cheering for the guy. :lol

60 points and a 4th quarter like that from a guy who gave you no reason to believe he could do something like that is the stuff you see in movies, and yet he did it for real. The greatest player I ever saw not named MJ.

He will be missed.
He took a shit ton of shots and didn't shoot a very good percentage. To me it has all the signs of the Lakers doing everything they could to have Kobe go out with the "big game". It's about as meaningless as it comes.

It doesn't take away from a great career though.
 

Genghis Khan

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He took a shit ton of shots and didn't shoot a very good percentage. To me it has all the signs of the Lakers doing everything they could to have Kobe go out with the "big game". It's about as meaningless as it comes.

It doesn't take away from a great career though.
Exactly how I feel. 50 shots plus 12 free throws? Feh.
 

Jiggyfly

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It's a shame these stats happened in a shitty year for the Rockets.

But that is a hell of a stat line for Harden.

28.9 pts, 7.5 ast, 6.1 reb.
 

Cowboysrock55

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Exactly how I feel. 50 shots plus 12 free throws? Feh.
I mean he shot under 30% from three point range but still heaved up 21 three point shots. He was 22 of 50 from the floor which is a pretty average looking 44% shooting. To me it just feels like a forced thing. Kobe had a great career, there was no need to try and force some sort of a great retirement game.
 

1bigfan13

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I mean he shot under 30% from three point range but still heaved up 21 three point shots. He was 22 of 50 from the floor which is a pretty average looking 44% shooting. To me it just feels like a forced thing. Kobe had a great career, there was no need to try and force some sort of a great retirement game.
I think you're looking at it through too much of a critical lens. Last night's game was basically a glorified All-Star game masqueraded as a regular season game. Most people expected this going and were fine with the spectacle.

There were tons of A list celebrities throughout the building last night. I'm talking legit mega-stars who altered their schedule to be at this thing.

If you're Jay-Z and flew all the way across the country to watch Kobe's last game, you don't want to see the typical 2016 Lakers game with Kobe shooting 6-15 and going out with a whimper. No, you want a grand gesture befitting of all the pomp and circumstance that surrounded that game.

So I and the vast majority of NBA fans have no issue whatsoever with what he did.

Also, like I said earlier, this is a memory that will stick with most fans throughout the rest of their lives. For the most part I can't remember the final games of legendary players of my era. I remember Elway's because a Super Bowl was on the line, but Emmitt Smith...nope; Michael Jordan....nope; Magic Johnson.....nope; Derek Jeter....nope.
 

Simpleton

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Yea, I mean if this was a real game with real stakes I'd say this was a shameful, aggrandizing performance from Kobe, but considering the circumstances it was a magical performance.
 
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