2011-2012 NBA Thread: The Chris Paul and Dwight Howard sweepstakes

[Moss]

Is that really a record you want? lol

I realize Rip was out, but no one could hit a shot last night. Brewer had played well so far this season, was hesitant, Asik missed at least two layups, Boozer screamed and forgot to dunk. If they do that against a good team, they will get smoked.

Yeah as Rhinox said the Hawks have been playing pretty good basketball so far. Beating Miami in Miami by 8 for their first loss of the season is no joke.

That Felton dig on Westbrook is pretty serious lol

[kisada]

i'm watching the heat broadcast, and there's this hilarious commercial where they show the arena full of miami heat fans. it's like they need to convince me that this many heat fans actually exist.

[Rhinox]

Knicks are terrible right now.

Boris Diaw 7-7? Rofl

[Cail]

rubio loves tossin up those alley-oops. kid is SICK

[Cail]

at the half, nets have a commanding 35-34 lead on the celtics...lolol

[Rhinox]

Rubio is essentially Jason Williams lite.

[kisada]

lol get out of here

i kinda feel bad for nets. 47 points by start of the 4th

[GRT]

looks like nba league pass is blocked where i am

"games unavailable due to technical difficulties"

sigh

[kisada]

moss, i'm watching the suns game and i totally just remembered the hawks had j-chill, smith, and marvin williams on their team at the same time.

can you explain to me billy knight drafted marvin over cp3/deron williams when they already had two players who could play SF?

[Moss]

moss, i'm watching the suns game and i totally just remembered the hawks had j-chill, smith, and marvin williams on their team at the same time.

can you explain to me billy knight drafted marvin over cp3/deron williams when they already had two players who could play SF?

No one can.

[boo]

Rubio is a monster, why doesn't Timberwolves put him as starter?

[Moss]

Reading an article about Kwame Brown on Grantland and it linked to this old profile: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...800709_pf.html

Pretty interesting read.

[Rhinox]

Cause they got like 8 PGs on the roster and they just paid jj barea a ton of money.

Hell be the starter soon Rick adelman will get the John fox treatment and billboards will be put up.

[Rhinox]

Reading an article about Kwame Brown on Grantland and it linked to this old profile: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...800709_pf.html

Pretty interesting read.

Ppl have said mj ruined him by shitting on his confidence at such a young age. Would go practices calling him faggot and making him cry.

[Cail]

ridnour+rubio are in right now and they look a little lost with 2 PGs out there

[Moss]

Ppl have said mj ruined him by shitting on his confidence at such a young age. Would go practices calling him faggot and making him cry.

If you read the article, Kwame was basically a 7 foot tall 8 year old. There is a famous anecdote about him being outraged that a french restaurant didn't have french dressing. He also didn't know how to wash his clothes or shop for groceries(he would go to Popeyes 3x a day), and had never spent the night anywhere alone. He really had almost zero chance of success.

[Kaslo]

Yeah some dude talking shit is everyone turning on him.

For a breakdown:

There’s not a ton of history between Raymond Felton and Russell Westbrook, but enough I guess for Felton to feel the need to basically call Westbrook out.

Westbrook was hyper-energetic on the defensive end last night guarding Felton, really trying to swipe at the ball and cause havoc. It had mixed results with Westbrook sometimes creating good pressure and turnovers, but other times he gambled too much and forced OKC’s defense to collapse and rotate after Felton got by him. It obviously didn’t work enough as Portland beat the Thunder 103-93 with Felton putting up 12 points and seven assists.

Felton noticed this. And I guess he took it somewhat personally, essentially calling Westbrook out for not being a team player. Via Jason Quick of the Oregonian:

“That’s the type of guy he is, that’s his mindset, that’s how he plays,” Felton said when I remarked about Westbrook’s win-the-battle, but lose-the-war mentality. “He’s always in a one-on-one battle with all the point guards. I’m not really into that. I’m into winning. If you win, everybody gets the praises. We are not wearing ‘Felton’ on the front of our jerseys; it says Blazers. I care about the Blazers winning.”

I think we can all read between the lines there. Felton is essentially saying that Westbrook only cares about showing up the man across from him, not that his Thunder win the game.

Having watched Westbrook for three full seasons though, I’d say that’s entirely unfair. There isn’t anyone on the roster — not even Kevin Durant — that cares about winning as much as Westbrook. He almost cares too much, which is why his over-aggressive style can be seen as selfish sometimes. Westbrook has always had a chip on his shoulder and has always wanted to prove people wrong.

Scott Brooks made a point to single Westbrook’s performance out last night though.

“I thought Russell had one of his best games,” he said. “He left everything on the court. He made plays for us. He was moving the ball. He was defending.”

Felton saw that as being selfish though. Which I think is just a mis-read of how Westbrook plays. Because Russ has gotten heated with a lot of other point guards — Chris Paul, Kyle Lowry, Deron Williams, Derek Fisher and basically 25 others who happen to be opposing him on any given night. Westbrook plays emotional and approaches each game as a challenge to beat the man across from him. I think he sees it as if he can do that, his team will win.

And in most cases, it’s true. But that’s part of what the NBA is — one-on-one battles. Games within games. Kobe wants to humiliate the defender trying to check him. Same with KD. It’s how they approach it. Does that mean they’re selfish? Some certainly would think Kobe is at times but his main objective is winning. Felton is suggesting that winning the game comes second behind winning the individual matchup.

Felton and Westbrook did battle out it in the playoffs last season with Felton’s Nuggets falling to the Thunder in five games. Felton had a front row seat to the beginning of the supposed ball-hog noise following Westbrook that really started with Game 4 in Denver where Westbrook took 30 shots. But at the same time, Westbrook’s Thunder handled Denver fairly easily in a gentleman’s sweep en route to the Western Conference Finals.

This is the type of thing you can be sure Westbrook has heard and will think about when the Blazers play the Thunder again. It probably isn’t all that tough to get into Westbrook’s head so it could be a little psychological warfare on Russ. Which isn’t a bad move by Felton considering the events surrounding Westbrook the past few days.

Tuesday night, Felton got the better of Westbrook by playing a calm, measured point compared to Westbrook’s frenzied, aggressive one. Felton’s team won the game. We’ll see what happens next time.

Rose Reacher is Reaching

[Rhinox]

oh hey. the westbrick apologist posts another blog post from another apologist in defense of westbrick who quoted the teams head coach.


you're really winning the battle though losing the war.


Westbrick like if you will.

[Kaslo]

Like it matters you can't see anything outside your Rose colored glasses and simply have to trash anyone who is a threat to Point God.

[kisada]

ny is le bad.

also idk why rubio isn't starting yet. maybe adelman thinks ridnour spaces the floor better. normally i'd say their hc is being dumb but way i'd never go against anything adelman does. he is a genius.