Spaceman Spiff

Time for LeBron to step up and make people forget about a forgettable 2nd half.  3 points?

4 hours ago, BenningRoadSkin said:

No shade, but didn't you say you were a casual NBA watcher?

 

 

This is the most talent filled NBA we have seen in some time. Watered down was the 1995-96 season when the Grizzlies and Raptors entered the NBA making it 6 expansion teams in 8 years.

 

The Cavs and Warriors are just super teams, but the league is very strong.

This was my problem with people who don't understand defensive basketball as much as they think.

 

A forearm to the rib or a clothesline is not good defens. The Warriors switching on every screen but never losing a defender is good defense.

True, I don't watch the NBA like I used to.  Used to be a rabid fan, not so much anymore.  Still watch about half the Wizards games, most of the playoffs and usually whatever random games are on ESPN.  In comparison to how I follow MLB and NFL, it's definitely 3rd.

A forearm or a clothesline isn't good defense, but the point was you could play a more physical brand of defense back in the day and it was a harder game.  Can't even hand check now.  

15 hours ago, Mr. Sinister said:

 

What  does that have to do with anything I posted? 

Because you made it sound like the NBA back then was a slow, plodding game.  It wasn't.  The 80s and into the mid 90s was a freewheeling offensive game with some of the highest scoring in league history.  

10 hours ago, Destino said:

If the league was watered down he wouldn't have needed to create two super teams, nor would he have lost in the finals as often as he won. 

 

The league feels extremely non-competitive this season because what Golden State did.  Now we've got Lebron's Super Friends against Curry's Superer Friends, and NBA season is a joke.  They'd better put on a show in the finals or all their talent stacking cheesiness amounted to, for fans, is an awful post season. 

 

The NBA itself is far more talented now than it was then if you look down the rosters to the role players and reserves.  The talent pools feeding the NBA have never been bigger.   

 

 

 

Hey, he said it was watered down himself, I'll take LeBron's word for it.  Less teams = less players = deeper rosters.  Sure the talent pools are bigger but by my count only 13 out of 105 players named to any of the 3 yearly All NBA Teams have been foreign born going back to the '10-'11 season and only one foreign born player has made the 1st team across that time frame.  Only two foreign born players made the All Star game this year, one starter.  If you want to bring role players and reserves into the conversation, fine.  But a scrub from Yugoslavia has about as much impact as a scrub from NY.  I remember how much of an impact Jan Vesely made.  

At the end of the day, no one is changing anyone's mind here.

2 minutes ago, BenningRoadSkin said:

It's been the league's problem since it started.

 

the worst decade in the NBA was the 70s, where there was the most parity.

And a lot of cocaine.

21 minutes ago, Mr. Sinister said:

 

So.... Fights, slow, plodding bigs, and iso ball. And I made the lazy argument?

 

We don't need to make it all that complicated (certainly not if you're gonna bore me with fighting montages to make some weird point, or whatever it is that Jordan stans do when even remotely challenged about their reality)

 

I said Jordan never beat a team like the 2016 Golden St Warriors, and he didn't. That is a fact. Has nothing to do with the retarded argument of whether or not Jordan's Bulls could have indeed beaten them directly. There is no comparison betweeen the historic, record breaking offensive/defensive machine LeBron beat, and any them Jordan ever faced. Sure, some would say the Pistons, but they were not at their apex when he swept them, and im pretty sure they were blown up pretty soon afterward.

 

Hey, who knows how it would play out exactly. All I know is, Jordan would probably average 60 points, and The Warriors would probably win by 20 every game. It's hilarious to envision a 90 pound Scottie Pippen trying to muscle up on anybody, let alone the sloth like Luc Longley trying to be a factor in anything other than being simply Luc Longley. Fun to think about, though. As for the "Watered down" modern NBA? Nothing more than a dick wanking fantasy propped up by Jordan fans

 

http://hoopshype.com/2016/03/11/why-nba-players-are-better-than-ever/

 

Offensive innovation, speed, power, globalization/competition, three point mastering, athletic big men that can space out and stretch the floor. Yeah..... I'll take that over caveman fights, slow, plodding bigs, and death by iso ball

 

Try again

 

 

 

What are you talking about?  The NBA PPG averages were over 100 every year from 1980-1995.  Even the '88-'89 Pistons, one of the pre-eminent defensive teams of the era scored 106 PPG which was 16th in the league.  

Even LeBron said the NBA is watered down:  https://newsone.com/932385/lebron-james-says-league-is-watered-down-needs-downsizing/

5 minutes ago, Mr. Sinister said:

Jordan never beat a team like 2016 Golden State

 

Seriously, I don't want to have to defend this clown

Jordan didn't play in a watered down NBA, for starters.  

2016 Golden State doesn't look nearly that good with the rules that Jordan dealt with back in the day.  IMO, the heart of the issue here isn't necessarily the matchup of talents and abilities, but the rules that each team had to play with.  And if you're including the rules that Jordan's teams had to abide by, it's not even a contest.  Even if you were to let Jordan's Bulls teams play with 2016 NBA rules, it'd still be close.  But back then, Bulls vs. Knicks in the Eastern Conference Finals was practically a streetfight.  Same with Pistons vs. Bulls before Jordan could get to the Finals.  John Starks might not have been a truly great basketball player but he'd put Steph Curry in the front row if given the chance and it wouldn't be a technical.  

This pre-dates Jordan, but still:

NOT A TECHNICAL FOUL.  No fines or suspensions.  That doesn't happen in the NBA today.  If someone did that to softer-than-puppy-**** Steph that player would have been immediately ejected, fined and suspended.  You'd have Stephen A Smith not shutting the **** up about it for three days straight on ESPN.  Back then, this was business as usual.

More proof, here's Complex's top NBA Playoff Brawls:  http://www.complex.com/sports/2017/04/the-greatest-brawls-in-nba-playoffs-history/brawl-10

There's only one in there from the 2000s.  Look at #14 with the Bulls and Knicks, the Warriors never had to deal with anything that physical, with Starks using his head as a battering ram on Scottie Pippen's chest or a giant brute like Patrick Ewing throwing elbows.  

It was a wildly different era.  Here's John Stockton tackling David Robinson:  

If you're going to make a lazy argument about Jordan never having to play a team like 2016 Golden State, you should at least take the time to examine the difference in the rules and how the game was played between eras.  You say Jordan never had to play a team like 2016 Golden State....I say 2016 Golden State didn't have to survive in much more physical league.  

Just now, Sticksboi05 said:

 

Yeah but I'm not gonna penalize LeBron for dragging Booby Gibson to the Finals and inevitably losing. Just like I'm not gonna penalize MJ for getting swept by Bird-McHale-Parrish.

Yeah, but once Jordan got there he never gave it up.  Never relinquished it.  First full season after coming back from playing baseball he unleashed on the league and they went 72-10 and won 3 more rings.

I respect LeBron, I think he's a hell of a basketball player and it's between him and Kobe for the best player in the post Jordan era.  But he had to go to Miami with his superfriends for the first few rings and then had to come back to Cleveland.  That's a nice story but there are some losses in there and, IMO, the switching teams tarnishes his GOAT status just a bit.  If Jordan is recognized as the standard, losing Finals and switching teams doesn't help LeBron's case.

Jordan never lost a Finals.  

Sure, LeBron is in the conversation but even LeBron admitted he's chasing Jordan's ghost.  If that's LeBron's perception, that's all I need to know.

I'm at a point with LeBron and the Cavs where they've kinda transcended into a team where even though I'm supposed to hate them, it's just hard not to appreciate them.  As much as I love Wall and the Wiz, they're not on this level.  The Cavs just need to get through the regular season to the playoffs each year.

Tonight was a dismantling.  I truly hate the Celtics, I loved seeing them get destroyed like that.  I guess the enemy of my enemy is my friend in this case.  Would love to see it happen again on Sunday.

Rooting for GS only cause I'd like to see Mike Brown extract revenge on LeBron.  

Doesn't really matter as long as LeBron is still playing well and in the East.  We can play musical chairs all we want.  Even if we won last night, there's no way we're beating Cleveland in a playoff series, especially with all the rest they've had.  

**** Kelly Olynyk.  

Keep shooting from deep Olynyk you ****ing oaf.

We're lucky they're not coming out hot from the field, either.  

Can't ****ing shoot.

Drive the lane, get to the line.

Morris acting like a guard.

I don't like whining about fouls but... **** THAT.  THAT WAS A ****ING FOUL??

I hate Jae Crowder. 

Let's ****in go!

Work is gonna drag so hard tomorrow.  Can't wait to be on here with you guys.

Just now, stevemcqueen1 said:

 

Biggest basketball game since 1979.  That's enough of a superlative I think.

I'd agree with that.

Just now, abdcskins said:

Oh **** the game is Monday. I might have to call out sick. I sort of hate loving on the west coast sometimes.

I was thinking it'd be on Sunday.  I love the NBA playoffs but I will say this **** is dragged out entirely far too long.  

5 minutes ago, abdcskins said:

God I love Wall's character.

 

Sunday will be the biggest game in the history of the city. Yes I said it. The historical magnitude is too great.

I mean, bigger than a Super Bowl?  Big game but let's not get carried away.

Man, I love John Wall.  I hope he brings a championship here.  

Jesus Christ I thought IT's shot was going in.

Welp, home team wins every game this series.  Gonna change?  

Wall on the scorers table.  Thats awesome.

Left too much time.

John WALL!!!! BABY!!!!

Ugh.  Well, who do you let have the last shot?

2 minutes ago, Renegade7 said:

Immortal Technique is another one that comes to mind in terms of talented rappers that refused to compromise their values for Record Sales, making them hard to market.  A lot of songs I've heard from him are kinda dark, but I don't think he cares.