NFT: NBA 2014/15 Season Thread ..........

They're putting his leg in an air cast. This season is going to be just glorious for the Lakers.

Cart coming out for Randle. Tough break in his first NBA game. Prayers go out to him.

Oops. he.

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In comment 11945959 Shockeyisthebest80 said:

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Oops. he.

Haha, Joseph Randle is the Cowboys RB. Julius Randle is the Lakers rookie PF from Ole' Kentucky

if it was just the achilles they wouldn't put his entire leg in an air cast you stupid fuck

He was among a group of guys torturing one of the bikers, although he was watching. He supplied the knife.

In comment 11945963 MookGiants said:

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if it was just the achilles they wouldn't put his entire leg in an air cast you stupid fuck

Yeah, that was a pretty stupid comment

since Randle couldn't shoot the free throws.

Hes going to spend these next 2 years chucking up low percentage contested jumpshots and continually branding himself mr old school tough guy, last of a dying breed. Trying too hard as usual. Gets up in the presser and goes all "back in my day..." on everyone, bemoans the softness of players today when talking about the incident with dwight. Just shut the fuck up kobe. Go get jawed by chris childs again. The lakers come off like such a bunch of scorned bitches in this dwight thing, kobe at the head of the pack. Never ever have they looked more pathetic on every level, its embarrassing.

HOW FUCKING DARE HE?

To see dwight as soft and afraid of his superhero will and desire, which laker fans have bought into. Yea, he left because kobe is very "demanding" and dwight just cowers infront of his unparrallelled thirst for winning, it just scared him off and dwight couldnt handle it. lol. People actually do spout this shit. Including your own coach

Truth is he doesnt want to play with his broken down ass, and took less money to go to a situation where he has a better chance to win. Thats it. And he has shown to be right. Truth hurts. And the lakers as an organization have never looked more pathetic, they couldnt handle not being chosen by a star with options. And now your entire franchise identity is the team that hates dwight. Thats what its down to

and i love how kobe keeps branding himself mr old school amidst a bunch of new school pussies. Kobe has to always tell us how tough he is, just incase we forgot when he told us last week. Hes trying too hard. I think he is forever overcompensating for catching that combo from little chris childs. These next couple years are going to be hilarious. Mr poster boy for everything people supposedly hate about the 21st century athlete constantly trying to brand himself as old school. Its precious.

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To see dwight as soft and afraid of his superhero will and desire, which laker fans have bought into. Yea, he left because kobe is very "demanding" and dwight just cowers infront of his unparrallelled thirst for winning, it just scared him off and dwight couldnt handle it. lol. People actually do spout this shit. Including your own coach

People have criticized Dwight for caring more about having fun than winning championships his entire career. Scott didn't say anything new.

when he played 76 games with a fucked up back with the Lakers when most people originally thought he'd miss the first couple of months that season.

I love how Kobe only said "Try Me" to Dwight after a bunch of players and refs stepped in. What a tough guy. I also loved how Dwight hit both of his technical FTs and Kobe missed his 2nd one, you just know that irked the shit out of Kobe lol.

The Rockets played well last night but I have no idea how good they are because the Lakers looked like complete garbage.

Ariza looks like a better fit for the Rockets than Parsons. The Rockets desperately needed a wing defender like Ariza who could guard guys like Durant and LeBron. Parsons has a more diverse offensive game but Ariza's a better shooter and a far better defender.

Seems to me dwight chose the option that showed he cared more about winning. Laker fans think they were somehow that option? And we could write a book on where exactly winning ranks among kobes priorities, in fact phil jackson did write such a book. And hint: not very high. Mr. Undermine a dynasty in progress because he doesnt like being 2nd fiddle. Most 21st century move ever by mr old school

Im not going to be put into a position to defend everything dwight, i just have an issue with the messenger.

I don't care what random posts on a forum you can find say. Have you seen some of BBI's opinions?

Most Laker fans are upset at his actions (lack of?) while he had the jersey on. Best analogy I can come up with is asking how we would feel about Cruz if he refused to run an Eli-audibled route, then got upset about not having the ball thrown his way.

Another sign that Howard isn't needed.

was evident from his first presser with the Lakers...mentioning "fun" 50 times and "championship" once. It was a marriage that wasn't going to last. I'm sorry, my opinion of Dwight is that he's as physically gifted as anybody, but he doesn't have the mental toughness to win a championship. EVER. I get that he had his back issues when he was a Laker, but his refusal to embrace D'Antoni's pick and roll offense shows me that he's a bit of a coach killer, and put a huge wrench in our plans to stay competitive.

of Kobe. Hello, he penned that book in 2004. Their relationship has gotten dramatically better during Phil's 2nd go around in LA. Young guys with talent act like assholes and wisen up eventually. It's not a new thing.

The only context with which i ever bring up that book is to talk exclusively about how kobe totally undermined a dynasty in progress because he didnt want to be seen as shaqs sidekick anymore. Its all very explicitly outlined in there by a guy who had a front row seat to everything. And that doesnt change even if his relationship with jackson did.

was looking for either. He went with youth over someone just at the end of his peak.

Shaq was getting traded regardless. It was going to happen. That wasn't clear until later, but they didn't take too kindly to his raise demands. He was also nearing the point of not being worth the money as he was delaying medical procedures, showing up out of shape, and lacking his past work ethic.

What Kobe's feud did was make it so public that every team knew the Lakers were at that point desperate to get Shaq out the door, so the return was limited.

Its also the poisoinous atmosphere he created in the locker room in their last couple seasons together, his straying from the offense so he could statistically outproduce shaq, seasons that ended without titles despite the lakers being heavy favorites. He absolutely used a threat of himself leaving to leverage shaqs ouster, and forced la into going with youth in himself over shaq. The stuff years later pinning most of it on dr buss has always struck me as kobe protection, jackson had a very different story in a book that was written at the time. And trading shaq solely to avoid the luxury tax mid dynasty seems like the opposite of a laker move

when he probably legitimately didn't like Kobe. Or the word of Phil's fiance (Unlike Jim, Jeanie doesn't mute herself well) and pretty much every journalist in LA within that next year. Shaq was getting traded. Kobe's Clipper threat was an unnecessary bluff as Dr. Buss was going to wisely choose youth anyway.

If he had an issue then why not set effective picks instead of doing a half-assed job on them. He clearly did not want to do it but had not problem setting up in the post demanding the ball?

His back was a problem but he thought his post game was the answer? Is that it?

If the guy was not 100% he should have bought into what they asked him to do. Instead he wanted to impress everybody with those line drive bricks from the post.

I'm not a fan of Kobe but the grief he is getting is BS. I don't see it as other players not wanting to play with him. It's the contract and how that would restrict the team from getting solid #3/4 help.

If you were a top FA considering the Lakers the concerns are:

1. What is left with Kobe coming off the injury.
2. If you go there and Kobe is making that money then what is left for support?

That's what it came down to. Guys felt they can have a better supporting cast on other teams.

I do find it very amusing that the names of Howard and Bynum are being used as examples of guys Kobe had problems with. Bynum? Are you kidding me? Did you see that idiot on the TNT pregame talking about Kobe and Bynum?

Howard played like shit for LA. He did not buy into the things he should have done to make the team better. That isn't on Kobe. That's on Howard's severely overrating his offensive skills.

But what do you expect from a guy who thinks he has a spot on the Mt Rushmore of centers?

is that if Dwight bought into the pick and roll offense, it would have played right into his strengths. He basically acted like a moody little girl his whole time here, and he pouted his way out of town. Fuck that guy - he doesn't have the sack to play in a major media market, because he can't handle criticism like a man. That guy will never win a championship.

A huge media market itself, and the era we live in today renders market size less significant than ever. The leagues biggest star operating under the leagues biggest microscope has spent the last decade in cleveland and miami, neither a top 10 market.

You can come at howard for a variety of reasons but the notion that he was somehow ducking something in l.a. because hes some pussy is such a major stretch

the league with as much hype as Lebron. He was a household name around the country as a Junior in high school. Lebron has faced more scrutiny at a much earlier stage of his career than Dwight could ever stomach. Houston isn't a small market, in fact, it is a large city, but the media there isn't anywhere near as harsh as NY or LA.

Dwight is a national figure and would be in any market, (he was in orlando too). i dont think he chose to leave los angeles to duck some added scutiny, in 2014 it will find him wherever he chooses to go, especially since hes not a fresh face young player anymore. If they get bounced in round 1 this year again, critics will know where to find him. He and harden both. They knew how to find peyton manning playing in indianapolis too. We have evolved beyond this with our current media landscape.

Looking forward to all the games tonight. I forgot nene has to serve a 1 game suspension. Between that and the beal injury it takes a bit out of heat/wiz, the game i most wanted to see

Free on DirecTV though 11/4

I just don't think Orlando or Houston are towns where the media is circling the waters to criticize Dwight. Everything was fun and games in Orlando until he got Stan Van Gundy fired and played a season long game of chicken with Orlando in regards to FA. You can compare him to Lebron and Peyton in small markets, their respective local media treated them very well, they're both also regarded as the very best in their sports, I don't think Dwight is nearly as high up the Q Score as those two are. Dwight strikes me as someone that wants to be as highly regarded as those two, but doesn't want the scrutiny that comes with the territory as being the best in the league. He found out first hand in LA what it's like when you don't meet expectations, wasn't amenable to buying into an offense that suits his strengths, and also rebuffed Steve Nash's tips to shoot better at the FT line.

Anyone see that dunk by westbrook to beat the buzzer?

Insane first half. He is going to put up crazy numbers with durant out

lakers are hilariously bad

what a comeback win by the hornets

Is going to be so damn fun to watch this year. He is just wrecking Damian Lillard right now.

.

Even when it works. If Westbrook doesn't have his shot going, the Thunder are really going to struggle unless Ibaka can hit another level as a scorer.

They look like a .500 team without Durant

tonight.

I forgot he existed for a second. They really need a secondary creator besides Westrook. Telfair has been ass tonight, Jackson is obviously much better.

Still they aren't very deep at all and I could see them as an 8/9 seed when KD returns.

agree or disagree?

Anthony Davis' ceiling > anyone in NBA history

agree or disagree?

I dont know if id go as far as to say nba history, but its tough to envision a limit to his ceiling. There has never really been a player like him, and by all appearances his work ethic is top notch. The pelicans are already now one of my 5 or 6 favorite teams to watch.

but right now Ariza looks like a clearly better fit than Parsons and Lin is just a dime a dozen PG who isn't tough to replace. And Asik played 48 games last year and didn't play well with Dwight, so he isn't a huge loss either although he was a great backup C.

But the one thing I really hate about the Rockets' off-season is that they traded Asik in the division to the Pelicans. They received a 1st round pick but they also might've handed the Pelicans exactly what they needed to. Asik is just perfect next to Davis on D, and Davis' jumper allows Asik to be a decent fit on O as well. That Asik trade could come back to haunt the Rockets not because of losing Asik but because of handing him to the Pelicans.

In comment 11948195 Osi Osi Osi OyOyOy said:

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agree or disagree? Anthony Davis' ceiling > anyone in NBA history agree or disagree?

Disagree, Luis Scola, Kevin Martin, Lamar Odom ceiling > Anthony Davis

on this thread I've seen that theme about Davis vs Scola, Martin, and what's-his-face. Is that a joking reference to something that was said often on last year's thread?

In comment 11948552 santacruzom said:

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on this thread I've seen that theme about Davis vs Scola, Martin, and what's-his-face. Is that a joking reference to something that was said often on last year's thread?

More like a couple years ago, when Lakers fans tried to contend that the Lakers/Hornets (Pelicans) trade was a good one for the Pelicans rather than tanking and trying to hit a home run. They acted like not only the Lakers got screwed but the Hornets did too

the Hornets also have landed a 1st round pick and Goran Dragic in that trade that was nixed?

you can't predict a team is going to get the top pick in the lotto. I actually think it was a reasonable deal, but that's not considering there's a franchise building block available.

Back then, Lakers fans probably just assumed the Cavs would wind up with the #1 pick instead of the Hornets. Sure, the Cavs would have taken Harrison Barnes #1 and the Hornets could have wound up with Anthony Davis regardless, but even that's something you can't exactly predict. Okay, the latter is a safe prediction. But you know what I'm getting at.

In comment 11948591 David in LA said:

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you can't predict a team is going to get the top pick in the lotto. I actually think it was a reasonable deal, but that's not considering there's a franchise building block available.

Of course you can't predict it. But you could predict that they had no chance to get a top pick if they did that trade. That trade did nothing for them, it would have cost them a bunch of money for a team who was owned by the NBA and trying to be sold, and would have insured mediocrity, which is the absolute worst place you could be as an NBA franchise.

You can't hit a home run unless you swing for the fences. There was zero argument to be made that the Scola trade would have been even OK for the Hornets, it would have been an unmitigated disaster, and this isn't hindsight, I said it at the time that they were better off getting nothing for Paul than they were doing that trade, and I was right.

stupid phone

they would have received Dragic, but that doesn't change it, especially when Dragic at the time was a guy averaging 7 points per game. Anyone who knew he would be a good player at that point is full of shit, he was nothing more than a throw in at the time of the trade.

Small markets like the Hornets need to hit a home run to ever have a chance to compete.

Is borderline religious experience. Sportscenter there now. This is a very tough place to play when the cavs are good. Way more imposing than miami ever was. They should be awesome at home this year. They went 39-2 one year near the end of the first lebron era when the surrounding cast wasnt 1/10 what it is now

cavs also debuting the biggest video board in the league with a 3d projection system