The NBA Thread

[Cotton]

last night was probably the happiest I've been as a Sixers fan since St. Patrick's Day in '09 when the Sixers beat the Lakers on an Iguodala buzzer beater..

[Mr. Spacely]

Re: Sixers

It's very exciting for me to read this thread as just an NBA fan and see all the East Coast passion. I must admit that growing up a West Coast guy I've always suffered a reverse bias, where I see everything only through the prism of Lakers/Suns/Blazers/Spurs/Jazz, etc.

Not unlike Quatto in Total Recall, you're all helping me to open my mind!

[nec13]

The Knicks' season is going down the proverbial turlet. What a disappointment.

[Mr. Spacely]

Well, on the bright side, it's going to be a deep draft. Plus, Kobe comes to town in a few days. That's something!

[Greggulator]

The Knicks' season is going down the proverbial turlet. What a disappointment.

This pains me to say this but Mike D'Antoni and Carmelo Anthony are both total frauds.

Those Seven Seconds or Less teams meant so much to me. They really made the NBA a lot of fun again aesthetically. There was a big gap from the Sacramento Kings to the Suns, with Dallas being the only in-between, but they weren't as much fun as those two teams. That time period between the Sixers finals team and the 7 Seconds team was dominated by the Pistons/Nets/Spurs/Lakers. And they were all really uninteresting. The Nets had J-Kidd at his best but, aside from a few highlight plays, were really boring. So were the Pistons, as admirable as they were. And I really appreciate the Spurs (best run franchise in the NBA) but didn't at the time.

D'Antoni's Phoenix teams made go from watching games on TNT/ESPN/local to having my plans revolve around NBA games.

[Tom Scharpling]

Carmelo is hardly a fraud. He is the best scorer in the league but needs a strong system for once in his life.

D'Antoni is the fraud, coaching the team like he's still got Nash running the point. His days are numbered and it can't come soon enough.

And this season is half a joke anyway - the schedule is inherently unfair to older teams, there have been so many injuries and the first month of the 'season' was a glorified training camp.

And Sixers fans shouldn't get too celebratory about that Bulls victory since they're wildly overrated - a team with 1 1/2 players who barely beat the Knicks the next night.

Tom.

[jbissell]

It's also a team missing their best defender and 2nd best player.

[Greggulator]

Carmelo is hardly a fraud. He is the best scorer in the league but needs a strong system for once in his life.

D'Antoni is the fraud, coaching the team like he's still got Nash running the point. His days are numbered and it can't come soon enough.

And this season is half a joke anyway - the schedule is inherently unfair to older teams, there have been so many injuries and the first month of the 'season' was a glorified training camp.

And Sixers fans shouldn't get too celebratory about that Bulls victory since they're wildly overrated - a team with 1 1/2 players who barely beat the Knicks the next night.

Tom.

Melo the best scorer in the league? Are you nuts or are you forgetting America's Sweetheart Kevin Durant?

I wish the Pistons picked up Melo. He would have had to fit into an already established team which wouldn't put up with his dumb shot selection and complete and total lack of defense. He's great when he drives to the rim but he settles for so many bad shots.

There might be 15 players I'd rather have than Melo.

The Nuggets record without him is very telling.

[Mr. Spacely]

Yeah, I agree with 4/5 of Tom's points, but Carmelo being the best scorer in the league seems to fly in the face of current reality.

Durant, LeBron, and Kobe are all more effective and efficient this season. Hell, if I had needed a bunch of points right this second, I might even take Chris Paul over any of those three, let alone Melo.

[gravy boat]

Carmelo is hardly a fraud. He is the best scorer in the league but needs a strong system for once in his life.

D'Antoni is the fraud, coaching the team like he's still got Nash running the point. His days are numbered and it can't come soon enough.

And this season is half a joke anyway - the schedule is inherently unfair to older teams, there have been so many injuries and the first month of the 'season' was a glorified training camp.

And Sixers fans shouldn't get too celebratory about that Bulls victory since they're wildly overrated - a team with 1 1/2 players who barely beat the Knicks the next night.

Tom.

D'Antoni is a bad coach and is on the thinnest of ice but with that nutball owner, I'd be worried about who comes next. 

I think that the whole thing about "older" teams being prejudiced is bunk.  We're talking slight differences in ages among young athletes.  I'd like to commission Dave from Knoxville to study whether older teams are doing worse than young teams.  I doubt they are.  I do think the compressed travel schedule has got to be a bear and makes the season kind of screwy.  Not sure if that falls unfairly on any teams though.

I am still on the Memphis bandwagon.  That is a scrappy team and Gasol and Mayo have been great.  Hope they get Zach Randolph back this year.

[Mr. Spacely]

I think some old teams like Boston, San An, and Dallas have even been at a slight advantage, as they returned with intact systems and mostly the same personnel.

The Lakers, on the other hand, returned with a key missing cog (Lamar), new coach, and new system. Now, why the Lakers High Command failed to anticipate the Lockout and the subsequent lack of training camp time needed to implement a new system, and didn't just hire Brian Shaw and keep the Triangle, thus returning in a lockout-shortened season with a distinct advantage over other teams, is a mystery to all but the guy in charge of greasing Jim Buss's ducktail each morning.

[dave from knoxville]

I don't see Carmelo as the best scorer in the league, either, certainly not the most efficient. Anybody that takes as many shots as he does should be averaging arounf 28 ppg, instead of his 23.8. Only Kobe Bryant has missed more shots than Carmelo, and they are a close 1 - 2.

As for efficiency as scorers, I would go with LeBron, Dwight Howard, Gortat, Blake Griffin, Bosh, Andrew Bynum, LaMarcus Aldridge, Boozer, Steve Nash, Durant.

Carmelo's also having a tough year with 3-pointers. Best three point shooters to date are Ray Allen, Ryan Anderson, Richard Jefferson, Mario Chalmers, Paul George, Turkoglu, Redick, Pearce, Chris Paul, OJ Mayo.

Melo's taken 83 3-pointers. The average NBA player taking 83 would have hit 31 of them; Carmelo's hit 25.

[Tom Scharpling]

Carmelo can score from anywhere in every possible way. He might not be the best shooter like Durant, but he has more options and creates more difficult matchups than anybody else in the game from an offensive standpoint. I like Durant more than Melo as someone to root for, but I would take Melo over KD down low any day of the week.

Don't let the Knicks current record or his FG% distract you from the guy's actual ability. This team blows, but that doesn't distract from Carmelo's wide-ranging skill set.

Tom.

[Mr. Spacely]

Alright, now I'm stuck thinking about Melo. What was his best game of the last couple years? Time to hit up BBreference...

[nec13]

Alright, now I'm stuck thinking about Melo. What was his best game of the last couple years? Time to hit up BBreference...

http://espn.go.com/nba/recap/_/id/310207007/houston-rockets-vs-denver-nuggets

Melo dropped 50 on the Rockets one year ago.

I think gravy boat hit upon a good point. While D'Antoni is certainly worthy of being terminated, I have no confidence that Jim Dolan will bring in the right guy to replace him. (See: Isiah Thomas)