Anyone in the world predict Spurs in five? No damn way.
I don’t have any grand thoughts about this series—the Spurs played great basketball, and I can’t wait to see them battle New Orleans and Los Angeles. Steve Nash just did not make plays down the stretch.
Minor note: Given all the matchup issues, why did DJ Strawberry never sniff the action? Have I ever seen him play an NBA minute?
I’m on the hardcore secondary team bandwagon with the Hornets. If my Stones lose, I’m buying all the jerseys and perhaps moving to the Big Easy.
Pargo was the second best guard in this series. JKidd is not ranked.
Stackhouse now has a series ending ejection to match his UNC brother Rasheed Wallace’s of last season.
Brohan thinks Larry Brown’s acceptance of the Bobcats job deserves a post.
I used to really like LB—he’s got a great basketball mind, he’s a good teacher. But he’s terrible at developing young talent, which is what the Bobcats have, and he’s loyal only to Larry Brown. I wouldn’t trust him to run any business that I owned.
I could see having him coach a team like the Celtics, that’s near championship-level, but not an embryonic squad like Charlotte.
Why aren’t the Pistons being shown on real TV?
Also, what about a Dirk for Sheed trade? The salaries don’t quite work straight up, but what do you think in principle? It’d have to be sweetened for Dallas, but it’d give them more defense and a guy who can match up with Shaq/Dunc/Amare. And it’d finally give us an elite scorer.
Or check out the following—Denver, Dallas and Detroit need to mix things up. I think we can all agree on this. Allow me to trade Sheed, Chaunce, and McNugget:
We get back Dirk and Camby. Denver gets Chauncey, Sheed, and Jason Terry. Dallas gets Carmelo, McNuggs, and Nene.
Could Dallas win the West with Kidd, Stack, Josh Howard, Carmelo, McNuggs, Dampier, Nene? Probably not. But Melo replaces Dirk’s scoring, and they get a lot more depth inside. They’re screwed already. They need to do something.
Meanwhile, the Stones get weakened at point guard (platoon Hunter and AA/Stuckey out there) but have Rip, Tay, Dirk, Camby, and a bench that can give Camby a ton of rest.
Denver gets much better, finally surrounding Iverson with a legit PG (with Denver ties, Chauncey), Terry (who can still score a lot of points), and Sheed. That’s a four or five seed in my mind.
Via Bill Simmons:
If Michigan State did this, I’d have to renounce my own mother because she went there. How can the Ottawa fans be cheering? It’s like a parody of the WWE.
I’ll go rapid fire in the comments section.
For some reason, the worldwide leader started sending me ESPN the Magazine a couple of years ago. In that time, I think I’ve read a total of about five pages of the publication (giant waste of pretty paper.)
Anyway, in that last issue I got, they ranked every team in each of the four major team sports in terms of fan satisfaction, current roster of the team, ownership, affordability, that kind of thing. Here are some notables from the list:
Indianapolis Colts-1
Detroit Tigers-7
Detroit Pistons-8
Detroit Red Wings-12
Detroit Lions-120
New York Knicks-122 (dead last)
The Lions also got the worst possible ranking for “title track.”
The whole piece is only three pages long (for reasons that escape me) and they don’t break down each team’s scores. Not sure I would place the Wings ahead of the Tigers and Stones, though their ticket prices are probably high by NHL standards.
The Sixers were good for a half, the Stones were good for a half. Thankfully our good is better than their good.
Pat is convinced that Chauncey is really the root of our problems. He thinks the team might do better by playing Hunter over Billups, because it’d indicate to him that effort is important. I’ve been slamming Billups’ playoff performances for the last two years—he just doesn’t have a second gear anymore, and he can be the worst player on the floor for stretches.
When Sheed is hitting threes, all is right with the world.
I think this orgy of NBA basketball is finally breaking down my girlfriend’s hatred of the game. She was really impressed by Josh Smith yesterday during the Celtics-Hawks game. Also, she says Dirk Nowinski looks like Bambi when shooting free throws.
Is the Tigers’ offense more inconsistent than other teams, or it just me?
I was at work for the Wings game. But I hear they squeaked past Colorado.
How long until March Madness?
