I’m also biased as a life long Jazz fan but, right now this team is amazing. We’re not even as good as we will be in theory once: 1 Arroyo and Lopez get back, 2 we learn how to work in Okur more as he plays himself into shape, 3 we develop blue chip rookies Synder and Humphries. This team is loaded with talent, the pieces all fit nicely, and we play the right way on offense and defense. We could be like Detroit was last year, only with actual offense. Their performance is also reflective of how overrated other teams are 1. Houston: two players do not a team make 2. Denver: When you stockpile egotistical overrated players who don’t compliment each and add a lame duck coach you get: a giant overrated mess 3. LA: How many times will we see this headline: “Kobe goes for 30+ in Laker’s loss”? 40? 50?. No matter how good he is, he can’t overcome the fact this is a poorly constructed and weak team. Michael Jordan would do anything to win. Kobe will do anything to convince people he’s the next Michael Jordan. There is a huge difference between those two mentalities. As for the Jazz, I don’t think we can go all the way this year but we are going to be a contender for a long time. I sure wouldn't want to play us. My rankings right now in the west 1. San Antonio 2. Minnesota 3. Utah 4. Phoenix And Minnesota is looking very fragile.
Good assesment of the Jazz. It will be interesting to see how things shake down up in Minnesota with Sprewell and all that. Also, San Antonio got bounced up in Seattle the other night. Seattle stinks too! I would love to see Phoenix and Utah battle it out in the Western Conference finals in May.
Yeah I think they're for real the western conference is tough, but they have arguably the best coach in the NBA, and they should be able to compete on most nights
I went to the Nuggets game tonight. They are the disappointment of sports at the moment. 1-4, looked absolutely scared and clueless vs. a mediocre Seattle team, and Carmelo Anthony threw the coach under the bus with a "I don't know what the game plan was" post game comment. Not good, this team is in deep trouble. Disappointed, after seeing Thursday's playoff like win.
Portland and New Jersey set the record for fewest field goals in a game with a total of 44, they shot something like 30% combined from the field. I'm glad I wasn't able to watch this on tv.
Yeah, boring game but good to see Zo' Back to his old form. BTW I heard an interesting rumor from my friend about Ron Artest retiring (?):
Ron Artest is gonna drive me nuts this season. **************! I'll tell ya what though, Jackson was a helluva pickup for the Pacers. This is a damn good team right now.
I am not sure who I hate more, Kobe or Carmelo. Carmelo is such a piece of crap. His comments, his gestures on the court and his crappy play are all reasons I have really come to dislike this guy. The Denver offense has absolutely no flow to it at all. It is stand around watch someone go one on one and miss a jumper. Melo sucks!
I was at the Bulls-Suns game last night and as a Bulls fan, I was disappointed. I finally have completely given up on both Eddy Curry and Tyson Chandler. They both stink! Going up a supposedly smaller lineup against the Suns, Curry had 3 points and 5 boards. Chandler had maybe 7 points total and 5 boards. These two are worthless. As a long time fan of the Bulls, I am tired of hearing, "be patient, they will come around" talk. I am here to burst the bubbles of those that think that. Such things will not happen with these two players. These guys were so brutal that the entire Bulls offense now revolves around guards just shooting jump shots. The only bright spot is Luol Deng. He is aggressive and while he does take some ill advised shots at times, he at least looks comfortable out there like he is in the game to play, not just pick up a pay check like Curry. For a team trying to build around these two giraffes, it is unfortunately time to pull the plug on this failed experiment and start fresh. I hope they can trade Curry to a gullible suitor before the trade deadline.
this is true but people will argue with you because fanboys always ignore facts (see the iverson thread) and defend their favorites. Melo's own teamates called him a cancer last year, last night he had a 3 on 1 break and didn't pass - he missed a layup. Larry Brown called him out on the USA team. He refused to go into a game last year when his coach questioned his shot selection, he had a 3 for 20 game and a 1 for 16 game last year and 2 nights ago he was somthing like 3 for 14 - at one point last season Melo was shooting a very Iverson like 38%. Chauncy Billups said he was glad the Pistons didn't take Melo, and he is right. Melo would disrupt the chemistry of the team. If you want to know who is better between Lebron and Carmelo Anthony it isn't even close, Lebron James is about 10 times better. When the Nuggets are in the lottery again this year the Melo hype will be gone and he will have a very mediocre career. Lebron James will be a legend.
Interesting to note that although the Bulls lost their first two games,once Curry came back it seem like they revert to the lazy Bulls of last year.I agree trade them,Curry's never gonna come around but will demand an extension just because he's in shape,and Chandler is as brittle as a pencil.Ron Artest retiring?What a nutcase.
The Suns looked tough. I have seen all four of their games, as I am a loser and watch hoops and soccer all the time, and I would say this game and the Philly game were not their best games, but it was enough to beat the Sixers and Bulls. The thing I was most impressed with the Suns is their athleticism around the basket. While they do not have a lot of size, they are able to get offensive rebounds with their quickness and positioning. In addition, Steve Nash is just something else. While he did not have an amazing game, he is constantly finding the open man on the break or in the half court set. Joe Johnson is a straight up baller. The kid can shoot lights out. Stoudamire made Chandler and Curry look like snow to an oncoming snow plow. The only thing that worries me about the Suns is the fact that they do not have much depth. They Barbosa at point, Voskuhl and Lampe on the inside, and Jacobson on the perimeter. Not bad players, but last night the Bulls would crawl back to within shouting distance (12-14pts) and then the first team would come back in the for the Suns and any kind of run the Bulls were having would be over. This could be their achilles heel, but all in all a very improved and solid team that I think will cause problems throughout the season and the playoffs for a lot of teams.
Mark Cuban, at it again. At least he has something to gripe about now, considering his reality show was canceled. Teams playing the best basketball to watch: Phoenix, Utah, Dallas Who'd think Dallas would have a rookie and a second year player as starters? Carmelo Anthony let the Olympics get to his head... or is it his ego? Detroit's decision of Tayshaun Prince over Anthony looks better and better. Kobe Bryant needs to figure out that basketball is a team game. Luckily, I had class yesterday, so I didn't see the Nets game. Should Ratner just blow up the team, and let Rod Thorn and Lawrence Frank rebuild (see Phoenix? They can: 1) get the Princeton offense running like a well oiled machine (the new crackdown on impeding players on defense should help) 2) develop Zoran Planinic, Nenad Kristic and maybe Darius Rice and
The Nets stink like my Bulls. They should trade Kidd and get some draft picks or something. I heard Kidd for Abdur-Rahim, but in my book, that would not be worth it. When it comes to being overrated, there is a picture of Shareef in the dictionary next to the word overrated.
Detroit is 3-1 but they are on the west coast and Ben Wallace is going to miss the next 2 games (his brother died of brain cancer) and Larry Brown is not with the team (hip surgery). Damn, Detroit might be 3-3 coming back from their west coast trip. YES I am making excuses but that's alot to overcome. I still say Detroit and San Antonio in the finals but Indiana starting hot and Detroit having some problems early could spell a number 4 seed for Detroit if they aren't careful. Come playoff time though the Pistons should be alright. Tayshaun Prince is one of the most popular atheletes in Metro Detroit. He is also one of the best perimeter defenders in the NBA. ANyone see his behind the back dribble and dunk against the sixers? It made saturdays top ten plays on Sportscenter.
ESPN NBA 2k5 or NBA Live 2005? The ESPN NBA 2k5 game is very very realistic and the players look so much like they do in real life that it's ridiculous. I give the edge to Sega again this year but the dunk contest in NBA live is cool and I have to take points away from ESPN NBA 2k5 for having Bill Walton as an announcer.
Kirilenko is one of the ten best players in the NBA right now, I'm not kidding. He is certainly one of the 5 best defenders and he has been throwing down some nice dunks too. Jerry Stackhouse said that Kirilenko is the one player he hates to guard the most in the NBA because he has so many moves and tricks. Okur is very talented but lazy. The Jazz should get at least 50 wins this season.
I don't know why I haven't dropped in on this thread yet so this could be a long catch up. I don't have a link but I do know the Nuggets are also looking at getting Kidd (It was talked about on NBA Tonight a couple of nights ago also). The possible offer is Nene (developing force; would be killer in the East and is cheap), Andre Miller and Tskitashvili (expiring contract) for Kidd. Barkley can come up with good stuff sometimes, but reading that I see that he apparently doesn't know much about the Nuggets. Camby plays center for the Nuggets. He has for a couple of years now. Nene is a PF as is K-Mart, but Nene is young, still learning the game a good back-up to K-Mart and is injured right now anyways. What's so bad about having Melo and K-Mart as your starting forwards with Camby as your center and having Nene off the bench to play PF or C if need be? The hype is 2 years ago they were 17-65 and last year made the playoffs and were 43-39. And prior to last season the Nuggets hadn't had a winning season since 93-94. Then they added an All-Star PF to that group. Pretty simple to see why people would have high expectations for them. Yeah, he now has 26 on the year. Without an injury and with the amount of steals he gets he should easily win DPOTY. If the Jazz play all season the way they've started out and AK47 averages a double double plus keeps racking up blocks and steals the way he does he could be a possibility for MVP. Nope. They have a bad coach who is at odds with the GM. They also have some injuries (Voshon & Nene) and Melo is still learning to play with K-Mart while at the same time trying to put the team on his shoulders. Nope. Marion, Amare and Johnson is a good base. When they got Nash and Q in the off-season I knew they would be a great team. Then add in their good bench players and you have a very competitive team. I don't know why so many people underrated them in the pre-season and beginning of the season. The Spurs are my team and I believe they are overrated. They are still a great team, but Parker and Manu are still not good consistent outside shooters and bringing in Barry, while helping the team, won't fix the problem. Once he gets more into the Spurs flow then they will start showing how they should be rated but they aren't there yet. Sidenote: If Rose gets more PT and back to the way he played 2 seasons ago the Spurs could really start to dominate. He is great. I liked his game in college and I like what I've seen so far in the NBA. I don't know if the Bulls will keep Chandler and Curry after this season, but Hinrich, Deng and Nocioni is a great nucleus to build around for the future. If Chandler could stay healthy then I would add him to that core. Once again I put most of this blame on the coach. The Nuggets have a team of players that wants to get out and run but a coach who doesn't want that. With Voshon out for the season and Melo struggling with his jump shot there are no other shooters on the team. When you throw in a slow down PG like Miller there isn't much else they're going to do. When Boykins gets in the play of the team changes immensely. In fact he started the last game with Miller at SG and I think we could see more of that. Link please. You are absolutely right. And by "absolutely right" I mean - Who was it saying Grant Hill shouldn't have been trying to come back again this year?
uh, you don't remember Andre Miller and Camby ripping Anthony publicly last year? If you think Melo is so great you might want to let the guys on NBA Fast Break know, they ripped his selfishness tonight on the pregame before Lebron (an actual good player) put up 39 on the Suns. Meanwhile the fabulous Carmelo Anthony has lead his team to a great start while shooting a high field goal percentage and not turning the ball over....ever. www.denverpost.com "Mom's the ticket for kid Carmelo By Mark Kiszla Denver Post Sports Columnist The problem with having it all at age 20? Sometimes, it is all too much. "Nobody likes me. But that's OK," forward Carmelo Anthony sang quietly to himself while toweling off in the Nuggets' dressing room Tuesday night after a humiliating 108-88 loss to Seattle. At least he knows that no one likes him. http://insidedenver.com/drmn/nuggets/article/0,1299,DRMN_20_3313047,00.html Martin also took time to speak with Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony, telling him "to relax" after a 3-for-20 shooting night. Anthony was benched to start the second half after shooting 2-for-13, many of the misses coming on quick, outside shots with plenty of time on the shot clock. "Carmelo has not introduced himself to a shot he doesn't like," -Altitude analyst Scott Hastings said on the air. Anthony is shooting 17-for-67 (.254) while averaging 15.3 points. In the past two games, he has shot 8-for-45 (.178).
Fvck. Worse home loss in team history. To the Clippers. What the hell was that? Anyone? Oh well. Foster is still out. Reggie is still out. Oh and yeah O'Neal leaves teh game after tweaking his already injured foot. Great stuff. I am quite pleased. Oh you want more? Ron Artest. Definately the early leader for Douchebag of the Year. You see the list of injuries above. You know Ron Artest was benched for compromising the integrity of the team. But do you know what it really means? It's a doozy. MC Ron repoertedly asked for time off to rest his body and mind because he overextended himself in his day job combined with promoting his rap album due out Nov 23. What the ********. I've been on this guys side for a long time, but can they just trade this ********er now?
So, you are one of those that believes the coach is at fault for everything huh? Ineresting. Player still need to play and the Nuggets simply stink. You cannot argue their record. Bzdelik may not be the best coach in the world, but he cannot be blamed for all the problems. Melo is a baby and needs to grow up and shoulder some responsibility. Just because I do not like my boss here at work does not mean I will not do my best here at work. NBA players are grown men for the most part and they are getting paid a lot to play. To say it is all a coaches fault is just plain dumb. It sounds like you are scraping the bottom of the barrel looking for an excuse to help the NUgz.
Big night in the Association last night. Cavs come back in a big way to beat the Suns. LBJ has 38 to lead the way. Clipps roll, I mean roll the Pacers in Indianapolis. I was shocked and Hang, I have no idea why this happened. I don't think the Clippers are all that good, but you never know. The Dinosaurs from Toronto beat the Jazz. Seemed like the Jazz were off all night and not quite in sync. They will be okay. Maybe the Raptors are better than we all thought. If Vince stays healthy and on the team, they could be good I guess.