NBA Chatter Thread

Heat with a convincing win over the Thunder.

Lots of turnovers and sloppy play from the Thunder, but you gotta credit the Heat defense which I thought was very good for some of that.

Lebron came out on a mission in this one.

To this point, Durant is definitely the league MVP.

LeBron is still the best player in the league.

This draft class really did end up being way overhyped. It's still a strong class with solid depth and several guys who could be All-Stars but I wouldn't take a single one of these guys over Anthony Davis as a prospect coming out.

Pacers sign Evan Turner. Just a little bit more depth for them to hopefully take down Miami.

Simpleton said:

This draft class really did end up being way overhyped. It's still a strong class with solid depth and several guys who could be All-Stars but I wouldn't take a single one of these guys over Anthony Davis as a prospect coming out.

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It's extremely deep though. Plays into the Bulls' hands with 2 first rounders.

mschmidt64 said:

It's extremely deep though. Plays into the Bulls' hands with 2 first rounders.

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It is, I'm basically just talking about the guys at the top and how they were billed as generational types of talents. I think Embiid is the only possible generational talent in the draft.

George Carl said Harden is the 2nd best scorer in the NBA behind Durant, I still go with Carmelo but I was surprised to hear that.

Should be a great game tonight with the Clippers.

Jiggyfly said:

George Carl said Harden is the 2nd best scorer in the NBA behind Durant, I still go with Carmelo but I was surprised to hear that.

Should be a great game tonight with the Clippers.

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I don't even know what that means, is LeBron not a scorer?

Is his 27 PPG on 57% from the field and 37% from 3 discounted by the fact that he does everything else as well?

It's almost like the connotation of "pure scorer" is a guy who is just really good at scoring and doesn't impact the game as directly in the other facets, and it's usually thrown at guys who are primarily jump shooters and not elite/explosive athletes.

Lebron is a whole other category of player in my mind, but yeah its funny he gets left out of the "scorer" mentions.

I'd also put Kevin Love up there too, perhaps behind only Durant, if we're excluding LeBron.

Simpleton said:

I'd also put Kevin Love up there too, perhaps behind only Durant, if we're excluding LeBron.

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I would not, he has no off the dribble game and is an average post up guy, Harden and Melo are definitely ahead of him.

Mavs are playing well right now and have gotten themselves up to the 6th seed.

I thought they'd be fighting for an 8th seed, so I'm surprised to see them doing this well.

I'd love to get Carmelo next season, but I don't think he's all about basketball so I don't see him going somewhere where he can't maximize his and his wife's marketability.

I think I read somewhere that the Bulls have the best record in the East since the new year, so there's that. I honestly believe with Rose at just about 75-80% we could beat Indiana, at the very least take them 7 games, but even though guys usually come back from meniscus tears in 4-5 months, I don't see him coming back this year since he seems to be a bitch about these things.

Anyway, Noah and Gibson are playing better than ever, Butler is steadily improving and if Mirotic is as good as billed and Rose can somehow keep his vag free of sand next year, I think we will have as good a shot at making the Finals as ever.

Yeah, they are doing themselves a disservice with all this winning though. They should have made a bigger effort to strip off non-long term pieces like Boozer and MDJ and tried to get into that top 10.

mschmidt64 said:

Yeah, they are doing themselves a disservice with all this winning though. They should have made a bigger effort to strip off non-long term pieces like Boozer and MDJ and tried to get into that top 10.

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I don't think anybody was willing to take on Boozer's contract, we would have gotten rid of him if we could. And with how the team is playing right now I'm not sure getting rid of Dunleavy would have been enough anyway.

Anyway, this is still a great draft to have 2 mid firsts in.

If you look at the 12-18 range, there are still a shit ton of guys who I think will be solid role playing starters in this league.

If Mirotic is really a star PF, and Rose returns, and Noah is Noah, all the Bulls really need to compete with the elite teams are solid outside shooting wingers who play good defense.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/nba/news/20140227/nba-draft-big-board-andrew-wiggins-jabari-parker/

Side note.... I wouldn't hate Willie Caulie Stein. He'd be Noah insurance.

mschmidt64 said:

Anyway, this is still a great draft to have 2 mid firsts in.

If you look at the 12-18 range, there are still a shit ton of guys who I think will be solid role playing starters in this league.

If Mirotic is really a star PF, and Rose returns, and Noah is Noah, all the Bulls really need to compete with the elite teams are solid outside shooting wingers who play good defense.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/nba/news/20140227/nba-draft-big-board-andrew-wiggins-jabari-parker/

Side note.... I wouldn't hate Willie Caulie Stein. He'd be Noah insurance.

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Agreed, I also wouldn't really mind a guy like Ennis who could move Rose off the ball a bit. The way to beat Miami is with ball movement and 3 point shooting, multiple ball handlers who can keep the ball moving and not let it stick.

A wing who can shoot and space the floor would be at the top of my list but other than that I'd go pretty much pure BPA.

Simpleton said:

I think I read somewhere that the Bulls have the best record in the East since the new year, so there's that. I honestly believe with Rose at just about 75-80% we could beat Indiana, at the very least take them 7 games, but even though guys usually come back from meniscus tears in 4-5 months, I don't see him coming back this year since he seems to be a bitch about these things.

Anyway, Noah and Gibson are playing better than ever, Butler is steadily improving and if Mirotic is as good as billed and Rose can somehow keep his vag free of sand next year, I think we will have as good a shot at making the Finals as ever.

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Boy you just are a wild eyed optimist when it comes to the Bulls but I will play along what matchup do you see the Bulls exploiting to possibly beat the Pacers?

I don't see Chicago even with a 100% Rose beating the Pacers.

Jiggyfly said:

Boy you just are a wild eyed optimist when it comes to the Bulls but I will play along what matchup do you see the Bulls exploiting to possibly beat the Pacers?

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The Bulls and Pacers are very similar teams, the difference is that one has their superstar and the other doesn't. I don't think either team really has any matchups the other could exploit, perhaps Stephenson/Turner against Dunleavy but then again the Bulls would have Rose against George Hill or whoever.

Noah/Gibson/Boozer is comparable to Hibbert/West/Scola, Butler is an all-NBA type of defender who can somewhat limit George, Rose at less than 100% would hurt the Bulls obviously but he'd still take full advantage of Hill, the main spot I'd be worried about is Dunleavy guarding the other wing but he's been half decent enough.

The Bulls without Rose have a similar or better record over the past 2 months as the Pacers, they blew them out in Chicago early in the year when Rose and Noah were both still out of sync. They're very similar teams and it'd be a long, tough series, probably 7 games either way.