NBA Finals Thread
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NBA Finals Thread
Series starts tomorrow at 9pm.
Last edited by Gregg Popabitch on Fri Jun 29, 2012 2:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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http://www.thenation.com/blog/168311/do ... ty-thunder
Why We Should All Root for the Miami Heat
Dave Zirin on June 11, 2012 - 12:09 AM ET
The 2012 NBA finals presents more than a match-up of two young, exciting, athletic teams. They present a rooting litmus test. In one corner, we have the Miami Heat, a team scorned for being built around a hastily assembled group of free-agent all-stars Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and the great LeBron James. No player in NBA history has been scrutinized, picked apart and even despised quite like James. The three-time MVPגs unforgivable crime, now two years old, was neither a felony nor misdemeanor nor even a bad attitude. It was his awkwardly managed departure from the Cleveland Cavaliers and גtaking [his] talents to South Beach.ג He also earns arrows of anger for his alleged inability to step up his game when the game is on the line. In addition, his patchwork Miami team in the eyes of many is as plastic, superficial and empty as the city they call home.
In the other corner, we have the Oklahoma City Thunder, a small market franchise beloved by the sports media and fans for גdoing it the right way.ג They drafted beautifully and evolved organically toward greatness. They are also led by Kevin Durant, the NBAגs most endearing superstar. The גDurantulaג is only 23 but already has three scoring titles, and he absolutely lusts for the big moment. He also, unlike LeBron, signed a long-term contract to stay in a small market because he wanted to take the team that drafted him to a title.
With such seemingly opposite teams and stars, the media are already writing the 2012 finals script of גgood vs. evil.ג Itגs an easy, by-the-numbers narrative. Itגs also bizarro world bullshit. This is one case where good is evil and the evil in question resides in shadows where fans choose not to look
I would argue that how we choose to see the Heat and Thunder is a litmus test. Itגs a litmus test that reveals how the sports radio obsession with villainizing twenty-first-century athletes blinds us to the swelling number of villains who inhabit the ownerגs box. And in Oklahoma City, we have the kinds of sports owners whose villainy should never be forgotten.
Strip away the drama and the Heat are called גevilג because their star players exercised free agency andגagree or disagree with their decisionגtook control of their own careers. The Thunder are praised for doing it the גright way,ג but no franchise is more caked in original sin than the team from Oklahoma City. Their owners, Clay Bennett and Aubrey McClendon, with an assist from NBA Commissioner David Stern, stole their team with the naked audacity of Frank and Jesse James from the people of Seattle.
For non-NBA fans, as recently as 2008 the OKC Thunder were the Seattle Supersonics, a team of great tradition, flare and fan support. They were Slick Wattsגs headband, Jack Sikmaגs perm and Gary Paytonגs scowl. They were a beloved team in a basketball town. Then the people of Seattle committed an unpardonable offense in the eyes of David Stern. They loved their team but refused to pay for a new taxpayer funded $300 million arena. Seattleגs citizens voted down referendums, organized meetings and held rallies with the goal of keeping the team housed in a perfectly good building called the KeyArena. Despite a whirlwind of threats, the people of Seattle wouldnגt budge, so Stern made an example of them. Along with Supersonics team owner and Starbucks founder Howard Schultzגwho could have paid for his own new arena with latte profits aloneגStern recruited two Oklahoma Cityגbased billionaires, Clay Bennett and Aubrey McClendon, to buy the team and manipulate their forcible extraction from Seattle to OKC.
Stern is a political liberal who has sat on the board of the NAACP. Bennett and McLendon are big Republican moneymen whose hobby is funding anti-gay referendums. Yet these three men are united in their addiction to our tax dollars. In Oklahoma City, where rivers of corporate welfare awaited an NBA franchise, Stern, Bennett and McClendon had found their Shangri-La.
Bennett, Stern and McClendon lied repeatedly that they would make every effort to keep the team in Seattle, McClendon however gave the game away in 2007, when he said to the Oklahoma City Journal Record, גWe didnגt buy the team to keep it in Seattle, we hoped to come hereג¦. We started to look around and at that time the Sonics were going through some ownership challenges in Seattle. So Clay, very artfully and skillfully, put himself in the middle of those discussions and to the great amazement and surprise to everyone in Seattle, some rednecks from Oklahoma, which weגve been called, made off with the team.ג
While Bennett said all the right things about keeping the Sonics in Seattle, a team executive dinner on September 9, 2006, tells you all you need to know about the man and his motives. On that fine evening, the Sonics management, all held over from the previous ownership regime, all Pacific Northwesters, gathered in Oklahoma to meet the new boss. Bennett made sure they were sent to a top restaurant, and picked up the bill. As the Seattle execs sat down, four plates of a deep fried appetizer were put on the table. After filling their mouths with the crispy goodness, one asked the waitress what this curious dish with a nutty flavor actually was. It was lamb testicles. Bennett laughed at their discomfort and the message was clear: the Sonics could eat his balls. (See Sonicsgate.com for a full accounting of this theft.)
If the Thunder win the 2012 title, the Clay Bennett/David Stern approach will be lionized throughout pro sports. The theft of the Sonics will be justified and cities involved in stadium negotiations will be threatened with being גthe next Seattleג if they donגt acquiesce to the whims of the sporting 1 percent. A championship for the Thunder would be a victory for holding up cities for public money. It would be a victory for ripping out the hearts of loyal sports towns. It would be a victory for greed, collusion and a corporate crime that remains unprosecuted.
Clay Bennett and Aubrey McClendon donגt deserve anyoneגs cheers. I donגt just want the Thunder to lose. I want LeBron James to make them wish theyגd never left the Emerald City. That is why no matter how much you dislike the ill-fitting גDream Teamג in South Beach, or swoon at the sight of Kevin Durant, anyone who cares about the relationship of teams to their cities and decries the way pro sports is used as an instrument of corporate looting should know who to root for and whom to root against. Without equivocation, all true NBA fans, in the name of Slick Watts, should sound three words this championship season: גLetגs go Heat.ג
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you're with me faman-also wrote:you're right.capable_keL wrote:really? no investment to see the former seattle franchise, small market, built their team the right way beat the epitome of smug?an-also wrote:I dont care who wins. I want to see a epic finals. Heat in 7
you're a thunder fan
us north faces gotta keep an eye on them beasts from the east
if symantiks posts in the sports bar, does anyone read it? (if a tree falls in a forest...)peanut butter wrote:Sym just showed up for the first time this season and posted pro-Heat propaganda? Pretty sure I'm just gonna have to sit back and wait for Pop to put it all in perspective for me.
PEACE
Nets 2022
ג¢ Is Anthony Davis a lock for the No. 1 pick? Yes, and it's not even close. Forget about the fact that the Hornets are saying publicly that they are still considering their options. He's the guy.
You can also forget about them trading the No. 1 pick. Sources say the Cavs offered them No. 4, No. 24, No. 33 and No. 34 for No. 1. And sources said the Cavs got a firm and quick "No!"
ג¢ Kansas' Thomas Robinson boldly asserted that he should be the No. 1 pick on Thursday. Former Arizona Wildcat Derrick Williams said the same thing last year. It's not going to happen, but he did have a good weekend. Much like the situation with Williams last year, NBA scouts have been wondering for months whether Robinson was big enough to play the 4 in the NBA. Robinson's measurements strongly helped his cause as an NBA 4 man. He measured nearly 6-foot-9 with an impressive 7-3 1/4 wingspan and 8-10 standing reach. Those wingspan and standing reach measurements (the two measurements NBA teams really care about) put him on par with both Blake Griffin and Kevin Love, two NBA all-star power forwards. Ditto for his 35 1/2-inch vertical.
The question is will he be drafted at No. 2? We've had Michael Kidd-Gilchrist as the No. 2 pick for the past few weeks. Sources say the Bobcats still haven't decided and are seriously considering trading the No. 2 pick to get multiple picks back. However, Robinson is very seriously in the mix, and I'm told right now that Michael Jordan isn't sold on Kidd-Gilchrist.
ג¢ Weber State's Damian Lillard was the real star of the draft combine. He was the best player to agree to do the drills and it paid off for him. Many of the NBA executives in attendance had never seen him play in person before and the rest had only seen him only a handful of times. Lillard shot the lights out, had a couple of terrific dunks in the drills and 3-on-3 play, played hard and was very good in interviews with teams.
His measurements also turned out to be eerily similar to Derrick Rose. Rose measured 6-1 1/2 in socks and 6-2 1/2 in shoes in Chicago in 2008. Lillard was 6-1 3/4 in socks and 6-2 3/4 in shoes. Rose had a 6-8 wingspan, while Lillard had a 6-7 3/4 wingspan. Rose weighed 196 pounds, while Lillard weighed 188. Both players measured with a 40-inch max vertical. Given Lillard's rep as a scoring point guard, he's got to like the similarities.
I believe Lillard's range starts with the Blazers at No. 6. I doubt he slips past the Phoenix Suns at 13. He's got workouts in Toronto on Monday, as well as Sacramento and Phoenix this week.
ג¢ Three other players, Illinois' Meyers Leonard, St. John's Moe Harkless and St. Bonaventure's Andrew Nicholson, also really helped themselves over the past few days.
Buzz heated up around Leonard, who could leap to a lottery pick.
Leonard's name was especially hot all weekend. His size (he measured as the tallest guy at camp), athletic ability, his soft shooting touch around the basket and his excellent interviews all positioned him to move from the mid-first round into the lottery. All year, teams feared that Leonard didn't have the skill or the mental makeup to be a lottery pick. By Friday, virtually every exec in the NBA was predicting that he would go somewhere between 9 and 14 and that he had moved ahead of Tyler Zeller on their big boards.
Harkless also appeared to make the leap this weekend, going from interesting prospect to potential lottery pick. He still has a ways to go as far as making his game translate to the next level, but the raw athletic ability and elite size for his position, combined with an excellent showing both on the court and in interviews seems to have really improved his stock. I've heard his name as high as No. 7 to the Golden State Warriors and No. 8 to the Toronto Raptors.
Nicholson shot the ball as well as most of the guards at the camp, and measured with a huge 7-4 wingspan and the biggest hands at the camp. It's pretty rare that a guy who won Defensive Player of the Year in his conference is drawing raves for his offensive performance on the court. We had him pegged as the 22nd pick in the draft for the past few mocks, but I'm beginning to doubt that he'll make it to the Celtics.
ג¢ Mississippi State big man Arnett Moultrie got the lion's share of the wrath from NBA teams for skipping the drills. Moultrie said he decided not to play because he was slotted to work out with the centers. However, his decision not to play at all baffled NBA executives. He was hammered for it repeatedly in interviews. I doubt he falls too far in the draft because of it, but he certainly missed an opportunity to help himself.
Baylor's Quincy Miller also really struggled in this setting. As hard as it is to believe, I think he could slide into the second round.
ג¢ We know that Syracuse guard Dion Waiters received a promise on Thursday. As we reported in my wrap of Thursday's camp, a team in the lottery locked up Waiters. A source close to Waiters said he will not work out for any more teams before the draft and did not participate in the athletic or medical testing over the weekend.
Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo denied he made the promise, but some sources claim that the Raptors might still take him if they keep the pick. The Portland Trail Blazers and Phoenix Suns are two other likely teams. I'm skeptical, however, that Waiters' agent, Rob Pelinka, would agree to shutting down Waiters if the pick was that low in the draft.
ג¢ Speaking of promises, sources say that Duke's Austin Rivers also might have been locked up this weekend by a team in the lottery. Teams were impressed with him, despite his decision to skip the drills. Not only did Rivers ace his interviews, but he measured a little taller than teams expected. I think Phoenix would be a more likely destination for him.
ג¢ I'm getting a lot of requests from readers for the results from the NBA athletic testing held on Friday. They should be available sometime early this week.
I'm also getting flooded with questions about the next Mock Draft. Look for it on Wednesday.
ג¢ Finally, with camps almost over (the adidas Eurocamp is finishing up over the weekend), expect team workouts to begin in earnest.
As of now, Kidd-Gilchrist, Robinson and Bradley Beal are expected to work out for just a handful of teams.
Robinson has just two workouts scheduled. He'll be in Washington on Wednesday and is in the process of finalizing a date in Charlotte on either the 18th or 20th. Depending on how those two workouts go, it's possible Robinson could add other dates later.
Florida's Beal will work out for just three teams: Washington (Thursday), Cleveland (Saturday) and Charlotte (Monday, June 18). It's unlikely that he'll do any more workouts than that.
Kentucky's Kidd-Gilchrist has just one workout scheduled with Washington on Friday. However, he's expected to workout in Cleveland as well.
Golden State has a big workout on Monday with Terrence and Perry Jones for the No. 7 pick. Ditto for the Sacramento Kings. We told you last week that the Kings were high on North Carolina forward John Henson, and he will be in for a workout on Monday.
You can also forget about them trading the No. 1 pick. Sources say the Cavs offered them No. 4, No. 24, No. 33 and No. 34 for No. 1. And sources said the Cavs got a firm and quick "No!"
ג¢ Kansas' Thomas Robinson boldly asserted that he should be the No. 1 pick on Thursday. Former Arizona Wildcat Derrick Williams said the same thing last year. It's not going to happen, but he did have a good weekend. Much like the situation with Williams last year, NBA scouts have been wondering for months whether Robinson was big enough to play the 4 in the NBA. Robinson's measurements strongly helped his cause as an NBA 4 man. He measured nearly 6-foot-9 with an impressive 7-3 1/4 wingspan and 8-10 standing reach. Those wingspan and standing reach measurements (the two measurements NBA teams really care about) put him on par with both Blake Griffin and Kevin Love, two NBA all-star power forwards. Ditto for his 35 1/2-inch vertical.
The question is will he be drafted at No. 2? We've had Michael Kidd-Gilchrist as the No. 2 pick for the past few weeks. Sources say the Bobcats still haven't decided and are seriously considering trading the No. 2 pick to get multiple picks back. However, Robinson is very seriously in the mix, and I'm told right now that Michael Jordan isn't sold on Kidd-Gilchrist.
ג¢ Weber State's Damian Lillard was the real star of the draft combine. He was the best player to agree to do the drills and it paid off for him. Many of the NBA executives in attendance had never seen him play in person before and the rest had only seen him only a handful of times. Lillard shot the lights out, had a couple of terrific dunks in the drills and 3-on-3 play, played hard and was very good in interviews with teams.
His measurements also turned out to be eerily similar to Derrick Rose. Rose measured 6-1 1/2 in socks and 6-2 1/2 in shoes in Chicago in 2008. Lillard was 6-1 3/4 in socks and 6-2 3/4 in shoes. Rose had a 6-8 wingspan, while Lillard had a 6-7 3/4 wingspan. Rose weighed 196 pounds, while Lillard weighed 188. Both players measured with a 40-inch max vertical. Given Lillard's rep as a scoring point guard, he's got to like the similarities.
I believe Lillard's range starts with the Blazers at No. 6. I doubt he slips past the Phoenix Suns at 13. He's got workouts in Toronto on Monday, as well as Sacramento and Phoenix this week.
ג¢ Three other players, Illinois' Meyers Leonard, St. John's Moe Harkless and St. Bonaventure's Andrew Nicholson, also really helped themselves over the past few days.
Buzz heated up around Leonard, who could leap to a lottery pick.
Leonard's name was especially hot all weekend. His size (he measured as the tallest guy at camp), athletic ability, his soft shooting touch around the basket and his excellent interviews all positioned him to move from the mid-first round into the lottery. All year, teams feared that Leonard didn't have the skill or the mental makeup to be a lottery pick. By Friday, virtually every exec in the NBA was predicting that he would go somewhere between 9 and 14 and that he had moved ahead of Tyler Zeller on their big boards.
Harkless also appeared to make the leap this weekend, going from interesting prospect to potential lottery pick. He still has a ways to go as far as making his game translate to the next level, but the raw athletic ability and elite size for his position, combined with an excellent showing both on the court and in interviews seems to have really improved his stock. I've heard his name as high as No. 7 to the Golden State Warriors and No. 8 to the Toronto Raptors.
Nicholson shot the ball as well as most of the guards at the camp, and measured with a huge 7-4 wingspan and the biggest hands at the camp. It's pretty rare that a guy who won Defensive Player of the Year in his conference is drawing raves for his offensive performance on the court. We had him pegged as the 22nd pick in the draft for the past few mocks, but I'm beginning to doubt that he'll make it to the Celtics.
ג¢ Mississippi State big man Arnett Moultrie got the lion's share of the wrath from NBA teams for skipping the drills. Moultrie said he decided not to play because he was slotted to work out with the centers. However, his decision not to play at all baffled NBA executives. He was hammered for it repeatedly in interviews. I doubt he falls too far in the draft because of it, but he certainly missed an opportunity to help himself.
Baylor's Quincy Miller also really struggled in this setting. As hard as it is to believe, I think he could slide into the second round.
ג¢ We know that Syracuse guard Dion Waiters received a promise on Thursday. As we reported in my wrap of Thursday's camp, a team in the lottery locked up Waiters. A source close to Waiters said he will not work out for any more teams before the draft and did not participate in the athletic or medical testing over the weekend.
Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo denied he made the promise, but some sources claim that the Raptors might still take him if they keep the pick. The Portland Trail Blazers and Phoenix Suns are two other likely teams. I'm skeptical, however, that Waiters' agent, Rob Pelinka, would agree to shutting down Waiters if the pick was that low in the draft.
ג¢ Speaking of promises, sources say that Duke's Austin Rivers also might have been locked up this weekend by a team in the lottery. Teams were impressed with him, despite his decision to skip the drills. Not only did Rivers ace his interviews, but he measured a little taller than teams expected. I think Phoenix would be a more likely destination for him.
ג¢ I'm getting a lot of requests from readers for the results from the NBA athletic testing held on Friday. They should be available sometime early this week.
I'm also getting flooded with questions about the next Mock Draft. Look for it on Wednesday.
ג¢ Finally, with camps almost over (the adidas Eurocamp is finishing up over the weekend), expect team workouts to begin in earnest.
As of now, Kidd-Gilchrist, Robinson and Bradley Beal are expected to work out for just a handful of teams.
Robinson has just two workouts scheduled. He'll be in Washington on Wednesday and is in the process of finalizing a date in Charlotte on either the 18th or 20th. Depending on how those two workouts go, it's possible Robinson could add other dates later.
Florida's Beal will work out for just three teams: Washington (Thursday), Cleveland (Saturday) and Charlotte (Monday, June 18). It's unlikely that he'll do any more workouts than that.
Kentucky's Kidd-Gilchrist has just one workout scheduled with Washington on Friday. However, he's expected to workout in Cleveland as well.
Golden State has a big workout on Monday with Terrence and Perry Jones for the No. 7 pick. Ditto for the Sacramento Kings. We told you last week that the Kings were high on North Carolina forward John Henson, and he will be in for a workout on Monday.
Last edited by Reason on Mon Jun 11, 2012 4:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Nets 2022
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capable_keL
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this is our busy season. unless our home team does well then we're suddenly fansReason wrote:if symantiks posts in the sports bar, does anyone read it? (if a tree falls in a forest...)peanut butter wrote:Sym just showed up for the first time this season and posted pro-Heat propaganda? Pretty sure I'm just gonna have to sit back and wait for Pop to put it all in perspective for me.
PEACE
must be nice to have the luxury
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capable_keL
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guys like us are cut from a special piece of cloth, we aint right in the head because only us and god understand the feeling of a timberwolves victory.Reason wrote:^^
word kel. not all can be bruce willis (die hards) like us my lynx/timberwolf
ayo the grizzlies just got sold to some young tech billionaire
#Lynx
#undefeated
#NBAchamps
kevin durant
russell westbrook
james harden
serge ibaka
thabo sefolosha
kendrick perkins
nick collison
derek fisher
vs
lebron
wade
bosh
battier
haslem
chalmers
miller
we can expect these players to play 99% of meaningful minutes. the adage that playoff rotations get shortened is entirely true. coaches play their best players longer. in the heat clinching game they played 6 players 31 or more minutes each. the remaining 4 players available played a total of 8 minutes. they relied on what was supposedly an injured bosh for 31 minutes and he hit 3 of 4 threes. you can count on one hand how many times he's hit 75% of his 3pters on that many attempts. anyway...
perkins WILL commit a flagrant foul on either wade or lebron at some point. the question is whether he'll get suspended for a game. perk is important in this series. if he can serve as the last stand before the opponent and the rim effectively, there's a chance the thunder can force the heat into preferring a bunch of isolations which can be impressive but are ultimately less efficient possessions, this is because the next guy i talk about can D bosh up 1 v 1 and have an overall better matchup with him than kg did
ibaka is kg with young legs. don't misconstrue. he's not young kg, the do-it-all banshee. he's TODAY'S kg with young legs...he knocks down an open 16 footer, he plays great help defense, he has gotten visibly better on man-to-man defense so he's not quite kg level but his legs make up for some of it, he can set a massive pick and roll pretty effectively, but most importantly, he WILL finish around the rim, and he WILL run on fastbreaks and finish on those UNLIKE kg's old ass who missed too many point-blankers or potential and-1's in which rondo fed him perfectly time and again, passes that ibaka would just throw down.
bosh will not have his way with ibaka like he did with kg and co. he will also not have a good series if he thinks he's kyle korver all of a sudden.
chalmers will hit some big shots b/c he always does, but because he never is allowed to by his superstar teammates to finish games, it should only impact some runs during games. otherwise chalmers will give back all of his production and then some to anyone he has to guard but fisher and to a lesser extent sefolosha if given that assignment. when guarded by fisher spoelstra really should make it a point to his superstars that they have to let chalmers abuse fisher and take advantage of that 1 v 1 to open the floor more - it would have a similar positive effect to that of bosh's 3pt/outside shooting in game 7, creating more space in the paint for lebron/wade to be free. westbrook/harden are far fucking superior to anyone chalmers had to guard in the first three rounds. likewise, wade is going to have his hands full. he basically was able to muster a few great 4th quarters and otherwise was seemingly lazy or hurt or saving himself, he will NOT be able to do that against russell and harden, not when we just saw what happened to tony parker after the first two games when his legs told him they hated him for having to chase westbrook everywhere
battier will get sonned by durant. spoelstra is not going to match up lebron on durant for a whole game, and when he lets durant go against battier, he's in for a world of interior paint hurt, bc durant will drive by battier easily and go to the line constantly. joel anthony won't play too many important minutes but if he does he'll have as many fouls as minutes (exaggeration ya know what i mean), haslem will try to take charges but durant knows how to pull up and hit the pull-up over a defender to avoid that shit...if shane/miller or worse if lebron get into foul trouble, that game will be a win for the thunder
haslem is going to be the most tired player by the end of this series. he doesn't have the luxury of dealing with relative lightweights in bass and kg. perk is massive compared to haslem, and ibaka is every bit as strong and significantly more athletic, and collison IS haslem without a reliable jumper. the heat are going to ask him to play tons of minutes at center, b/c anthony cannot be trusted and howard is ancient and turiaf is wizard of oz material.
i'm a strong believer in size winning. one of the biggest reasons i chose dallas in 6 last year was the combo of chandler/haywood/dirk's being 7 foot.
okc having homecourt advantage is pretty nice
sefolosha will have a harder time in this series making positive impact b/c lebron is massive compared to him and wade is quicker and stronger. having said that he can certainly be a good double-team option and he's great at rotation on defense so expect him to alter a few seemingly wide-open threes by the heat role players
fisher is tough. you always expect him to get killed and sometimes he will, but he gets to the right spots on the floor and makes himself a defensive threat and a random 3pt shooter. with so many scorers on the floor with him you just hope fish can prevent chalmers from abusing him and maybe spell his teammates on some wade coverage
and finally james harden. james harden will not be the best player with the best output overall, that will be KD, but he will make the most important plays and shots on both ends of the floor second only to KD. harden is tough as nails and in his physical prime to this point. wade is on the wrong side of his career to be fucking with this lefty. harden will sway this series into okc's favor.
thunder in 6 if the format is such that they play game 6 at home, thunder in 7 if the game 6 is in miami
russell westbrook
james harden
serge ibaka
thabo sefolosha
kendrick perkins
nick collison
derek fisher
vs
lebron
wade
bosh
battier
haslem
chalmers
miller
we can expect these players to play 99% of meaningful minutes. the adage that playoff rotations get shortened is entirely true. coaches play their best players longer. in the heat clinching game they played 6 players 31 or more minutes each. the remaining 4 players available played a total of 8 minutes. they relied on what was supposedly an injured bosh for 31 minutes and he hit 3 of 4 threes. you can count on one hand how many times he's hit 75% of his 3pters on that many attempts. anyway...
perkins WILL commit a flagrant foul on either wade or lebron at some point. the question is whether he'll get suspended for a game. perk is important in this series. if he can serve as the last stand before the opponent and the rim effectively, there's a chance the thunder can force the heat into preferring a bunch of isolations which can be impressive but are ultimately less efficient possessions, this is because the next guy i talk about can D bosh up 1 v 1 and have an overall better matchup with him than kg did
ibaka is kg with young legs. don't misconstrue. he's not young kg, the do-it-all banshee. he's TODAY'S kg with young legs...he knocks down an open 16 footer, he plays great help defense, he has gotten visibly better on man-to-man defense so he's not quite kg level but his legs make up for some of it, he can set a massive pick and roll pretty effectively, but most importantly, he WILL finish around the rim, and he WILL run on fastbreaks and finish on those UNLIKE kg's old ass who missed too many point-blankers or potential and-1's in which rondo fed him perfectly time and again, passes that ibaka would just throw down.
bosh will not have his way with ibaka like he did with kg and co. he will also not have a good series if he thinks he's kyle korver all of a sudden.
chalmers will hit some big shots b/c he always does, but because he never is allowed to by his superstar teammates to finish games, it should only impact some runs during games. otherwise chalmers will give back all of his production and then some to anyone he has to guard but fisher and to a lesser extent sefolosha if given that assignment. when guarded by fisher spoelstra really should make it a point to his superstars that they have to let chalmers abuse fisher and take advantage of that 1 v 1 to open the floor more - it would have a similar positive effect to that of bosh's 3pt/outside shooting in game 7, creating more space in the paint for lebron/wade to be free. westbrook/harden are far fucking superior to anyone chalmers had to guard in the first three rounds. likewise, wade is going to have his hands full. he basically was able to muster a few great 4th quarters and otherwise was seemingly lazy or hurt or saving himself, he will NOT be able to do that against russell and harden, not when we just saw what happened to tony parker after the first two games when his legs told him they hated him for having to chase westbrook everywhere
battier will get sonned by durant. spoelstra is not going to match up lebron on durant for a whole game, and when he lets durant go against battier, he's in for a world of interior paint hurt, bc durant will drive by battier easily and go to the line constantly. joel anthony won't play too many important minutes but if he does he'll have as many fouls as minutes (exaggeration ya know what i mean), haslem will try to take charges but durant knows how to pull up and hit the pull-up over a defender to avoid that shit...if shane/miller or worse if lebron get into foul trouble, that game will be a win for the thunder
haslem is going to be the most tired player by the end of this series. he doesn't have the luxury of dealing with relative lightweights in bass and kg. perk is massive compared to haslem, and ibaka is every bit as strong and significantly more athletic, and collison IS haslem without a reliable jumper. the heat are going to ask him to play tons of minutes at center, b/c anthony cannot be trusted and howard is ancient and turiaf is wizard of oz material.
i'm a strong believer in size winning. one of the biggest reasons i chose dallas in 6 last year was the combo of chandler/haywood/dirk's being 7 foot.
okc having homecourt advantage is pretty nice
sefolosha will have a harder time in this series making positive impact b/c lebron is massive compared to him and wade is quicker and stronger. having said that he can certainly be a good double-team option and he's great at rotation on defense so expect him to alter a few seemingly wide-open threes by the heat role players
fisher is tough. you always expect him to get killed and sometimes he will, but he gets to the right spots on the floor and makes himself a defensive threat and a random 3pt shooter. with so many scorers on the floor with him you just hope fish can prevent chalmers from abusing him and maybe spell his teammates on some wade coverage
and finally james harden. james harden will not be the best player with the best output overall, that will be KD, but he will make the most important plays and shots on both ends of the floor second only to KD. harden is tough as nails and in his physical prime to this point. wade is on the wrong side of his career to be fucking with this lefty. harden will sway this series into okc's favor.
thunder in 6 if the format is such that they play game 6 at home, thunder in 7 if the game 6 is in miami
Last edited by Reason on Mon Jun 11, 2012 5:13 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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capable_keL
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this is lebron's chance to do what i always thought he would do when he first tore through this league as a young cavalier. it is his chance to defy logic by imposing his will to the point that he single-handedly wins games, dominates every aspect like jordan
if lebron has a series similar to jordan's against the barkley-led suns, the heat win. anything too short of that and the thunder will be too long, fast, and big.
if lebron has a series similar to jordan's against the barkley-led suns, the heat win. anything too short of that and the thunder will be too long, fast, and big.
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capable_keL
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Gregg Popabitch
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SYMANTIKS, STFU AND GET YOUR MOTHERFUCKING ASS OUT OF THIS MOTHERFUCKING THREADSYM wrote:http://www.thenation.com/blog/168311/do ... ty-thunder
Why We Should All Root for the Miami Heat
Dave Zirin on June 11, 2012 - 12:09 AM ET
The 2012 NBA finals presents more than a match-up of two young, exciting, athletic teams. They present a rooting litmus test. In one corner, we have the Miami Heat, a team scorned for being built around a hastily assembled group of free-agent all-stars Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and the great LeBron James. No player in NBA history has been scrutinized, picked apart and even despised quite like James. The three-time MVPגs unforgivable crime, now two years old, was neither a felony nor misdemeanor nor even a bad attitude. It was his awkwardly managed departure from the Cleveland Cavaliers and גtaking [his] talents to South Beach.ג He also earns arrows of anger for his alleged inability to step up his game when the game is on the line. In addition, his patchwork Miami team in the eyes of many is as plastic, superficial and empty as the city they call home.
In the other corner, we have the Oklahoma City Thunder, a small market franchise beloved by the sports media and fans for גdoing it the right way.ג They drafted beautifully and evolved organically toward greatness. They are also led by Kevin Durant, the NBAגs most endearing superstar. The גDurantulaג is only 23 but already has three scoring titles, and he absolutely lusts for the big moment. He also, unlike LeBron, signed a long-term contract to stay in a small market because he wanted to take the team that drafted him to a title.
With such seemingly opposite teams and stars, the media are already writing the 2012 finals script of גgood vs. evil.ג Itגs an easy, by-the-numbers narrative. Itגs also bizarro world bullshit. This is one case where good is evil and the evil in question resides in shadows where fans choose not to look
I would argue that how we choose to see the Heat and Thunder is a litmus test. Itגs a litmus test that reveals how the sports radio obsession with villainizing twenty-first-century athletes blinds us to the swelling number of villains who inhabit the ownerגs box. And in Oklahoma City, we have the kinds of sports owners whose villainy should never be forgotten.
Strip away the drama and the Heat are called גevilג because their star players exercised free agency andגagree or disagree with their decisionגtook control of their own careers. The Thunder are praised for doing it the גright way,ג but no franchise is more caked in original sin than the team from Oklahoma City. Their owners, Clay Bennett and Aubrey McClendon, with an assist from NBA Commissioner David Stern, stole their team with the naked audacity of Frank and Jesse James from the people of Seattle.
For non-NBA fans, as recently as 2008 the OKC Thunder were the Seattle Supersonics, a team of great tradition, flare and fan support. They were Slick Wattsגs headband, Jack Sikmaגs perm and Gary Paytonגs scowl. They were a beloved team in a basketball town. Then the people of Seattle committed an unpardonable offense in the eyes of David Stern. They loved their team but refused to pay for a new taxpayer funded $300 million arena. Seattleגs citizens voted down referendums, organized meetings and held rallies with the goal of keeping the team housed in a perfectly good building called the KeyArena. Despite a whirlwind of threats, the people of Seattle wouldnגt budge, so Stern made an example of them. Along with Supersonics team owner and Starbucks founder Howard Schultzגwho could have paid for his own new arena with latte profits aloneגStern recruited two Oklahoma Cityגbased billionaires, Clay Bennett and Aubrey McClendon, to buy the team and manipulate their forcible extraction from Seattle to OKC.
Stern is a political liberal who has sat on the board of the NAACP. Bennett and McLendon are big Republican moneymen whose hobby is funding anti-gay referendums. Yet these three men are united in their addiction to our tax dollars. In Oklahoma City, where rivers of corporate welfare awaited an NBA franchise, Stern, Bennett and McClendon had found their Shangri-La.
Bennett, Stern and McClendon lied repeatedly that they would make every effort to keep the team in Seattle, McClendon however gave the game away in 2007, when he said to the Oklahoma City Journal Record, גWe didnגt buy the team to keep it in Seattle, we hoped to come hereג¦. We started to look around and at that time the Sonics were going through some ownership challenges in Seattle. So Clay, very artfully and skillfully, put himself in the middle of those discussions and to the great amazement and surprise to everyone in Seattle, some rednecks from Oklahoma, which weגve been called, made off with the team.ג
While Bennett said all the right things about keeping the Sonics in Seattle, a team executive dinner on September 9, 2006, tells you all you need to know about the man and his motives. On that fine evening, the Sonics management, all held over from the previous ownership regime, all Pacific Northwesters, gathered in Oklahoma to meet the new boss. Bennett made sure they were sent to a top restaurant, and picked up the bill. As the Seattle execs sat down, four plates of a deep fried appetizer were put on the table. After filling their mouths with the crispy goodness, one asked the waitress what this curious dish with a nutty flavor actually was. It was lamb testicles. Bennett laughed at their discomfort and the message was clear: the Sonics could eat his balls. (See Sonicsgate.com for a full accounting of this theft.)
If the Thunder win the 2012 title, the Clay Bennett/David Stern approach will be lionized throughout pro sports. The theft of the Sonics will be justified and cities involved in stadium negotiations will be threatened with being גthe next Seattleג if they donגt acquiesce to the whims of the sporting 1 percent. A championship for the Thunder would be a victory for holding up cities for public money. It would be a victory for ripping out the hearts of loyal sports towns. It would be a victory for greed, collusion and a corporate crime that remains unprosecuted.
Clay Bennett and Aubrey McClendon donגt deserve anyoneגs cheers. I donגt just want the Thunder to lose. I want LeBron James to make them wish theyגd never left the Emerald City. That is why no matter how much you dislike the ill-fitting גDream Teamג in South Beach, or swoon at the sight of Kevin Durant, anyone who cares about the relationship of teams to their cities and decries the way pro sports is used as an instrument of corporate looting should know who to root for and whom to root against. Without equivocation, all true NBA fans, in the name of Slick Watts, should sound three words this championship season: גLetגs go Heat.ג
Last edited by Gregg Popabitch on Mon Jun 11, 2012 6:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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capable_keL
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peanut butter
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Ibaka is the key to this series for the Thunder. He has the ability to limit Bosh offensively and is head and shoulders beyond every other post player the Heat have. If he establishes himself as a viable scoring threat, OKC's chances of winning the series increases substantially.
For the Heat, its Wade. Bron cannot beat this team by himself like he did at times during the last series. And if Ibaka shuts down Bosh like he is capable of doing, then the burden falls to Wade to play above the low level that he has at certain points of these playoffs. And the matchup against Thabo is going to make it difficult for him. Plus Harden is going to force the issue, because OKC will get consistent production from the off guard position. If Miami can't keep up, they will lose. But if Dwayne Wade looks like the top 5 player he can be at times, I dont know if OKC has an answer for that.
PEACE
For the Heat, its Wade. Bron cannot beat this team by himself like he did at times during the last series. And if Ibaka shuts down Bosh like he is capable of doing, then the burden falls to Wade to play above the low level that he has at certain points of these playoffs. And the matchup against Thabo is going to make it difficult for him. Plus Harden is going to force the issue, because OKC will get consistent production from the off guard position. If Miami can't keep up, they will lose. But if Dwayne Wade looks like the top 5 player he can be at times, I dont know if OKC has an answer for that.
PEACE
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the dead poet
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maybe not the place for it...but cool write up on the history of the dream team
http://www.gq.com/sports/profiles/20120 ... basketball
http://www.gq.com/sports/profiles/20120 ... basketball
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PopeyeJones
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The Durantulas in 6. Heat win the post game presser faggoty fashion off though.
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