Official NBA 2012-2013 Season Thread

[powerballin]

Clippers will back in the gutter within 2 years.  Enjoy it now.  I'm not a hater but poor management isn't rewarded.  There's a reason they have been so unsuccessful over the years. 

 

[cash money 1999]

as a laker fan im happy clipper fans get to talk a little smack , enjoy it boys its a awesome feeling

 

[pmatic]

Royce White and Boogie on the same team. DO IT MOREY.

no way that trade ever goes down

This may be worse than any trade Essential1 ever came up with. You could honestly say the Rockets would take a step backwards with that trade.

Are you implying Morey wouldn't roll the dice on Boogie? Because I think he would. I like Asik (I defended the contract offer), Parsons and Smith but they're all replacement level players one way or another.

 

[dipsetgeneral]

It's time to panic, #CelticNation. Boston has been blown out 3 of the four games in this West Coast trip. Not only do we lose to the surging Clippers & Warriors, but we lose to a traditionally very bad basketball team in the Sacramento Queens. No Tyreke or Marcus Thorton (At least in the 2nd half).

Boston barely scores in the halfcourt lately, and they can only really score when we get stops. Our defense is absolutely porous when KGizzle sits down.

Two things Doc Rivers & Danny Ainge really need to discuss...

1. Inserting Jeff Green in the starting line-up. (Maybe along with Avery Bradley). So we can play small ball, but score in transition. We already can't rebound a lick and have no shot blockers downlow, so we might as well run. Problem with that is Pierce & KG are gonna have to play a little less minutes.

2. Bring up Fab Melo, and play Barbosa and Kris Joseph. This right here is just desperation, i'm speaking out of. I'm not quite sure why Leandro doesn't play alot; the guy can score. I know Fab Melo is offensively a ways away, but we are desperate at this point. Kris Joseph can score the ball, but I dunno how his defense is.

 

[Deleted member 38182]

I don't think anybody has said Sacramento Queens in about 7 years champ..... you know, when they were relevant.....

 

[japanair21]

I don't think anybody has said Sacramento Queens in about 7 years champ..... you know, when they were relevant.....

Used to all the time back in middle school.

 

[Deleted member 38182]

I don't think anybody has said Sacramento Queens in about 7 years champ..... you know, when they were relevant.....

Used to all the time back in middle school.

My point exactly 

 I remember hearing that around middle school too...... bunch of idiot, mindless Sacramentian Lakers fans. I swear to God 

 

[awwsome]

Wasting my main man Rondo's prime

Celtics were one win away from the NBA Finals last season, He's not wasting anything.
It's not like he's going to be there for much longer anyway.


Jimmer won't keep that % with more minutes though, he'll have to play against real defense.
His jumper is so real though, as soon as he cross half court he's in range.

 

[moneymike9]

Can't they just put Royce White on some general anaesthesia or sleeping pills or something before flights and just cart him to the plane?

I mean there's gotta be a way around this somehow...I feel for him and his disorder though, hope he can work it out.

 

[Deleted member 38182]

Jimmer won't keep that % with more minutes though, he'll have to play against real defense.
His jumper is so real though, as soon as he cross half court he's in range.

You remember when he was at BYU and he would throw up a 3 from NBA range and everyone would lose their mind? Well he seriously took few dribbles around a screen and launched a 3 from about 30 feet away and nailed it it was ridiculousness

 

[Deleted member 38182]

at 1:10... dude shot it from the K on the court 

 

[antidope]

Golden State is going to bring it to the Clippers twice this week. Book it.

 

[nycknicks105]

yall seen this?


I mean, I want to root for this guy. I really do. But he ain't ever going to succeed at anything. The only winner out of this whole situation is Fred Hoiberg for even getting him to play on the basketball court at Iowa, that's a huge accomplishment in its own right

He just doesn't want it enough. It sucks, because he's a really good player. Could've gone a lot higher in the draft like the video pointed out. Damn shame too.

Can't they just put Royce White on some general anaesthesia or sleeping pills or something before flights and just cart him to the plane?

I mean there's gotta be a way around this somehow...I feel for him and his disorder though, hope he can work it out.

You'd think they thought of that already, but something about doing that seems really inhumane

 

[addict4sneakers]

FREE JIMMER

 

[bhzmafia14]

at 1:10... dude shot it from the K on the court :x

Damn Jimmer :x

Houston won 22 straight and ended up losing in the first round.

Of course, if it was my team, I would think we were bound for the championship . All in all, I think there is a middle ground. They are a championship contender, but they could very well lose in the 1st round this season.

 

[nycknicks105]

With all this Clipper hype, the first thing I thought about was that Houston winning streak a few years ago.

Clippers have more talent than the Rockets that won 22 straight though.

Nice back to back wins for the Kings. They need it.

 

[bhzmafia14]

With all this Clipper hype, the first thing I thought about was that Houston winning streak a few years ago.
Clippers have more talent than the Rockets that won 22 straight though.
Nice back to back wins for the Kings. They need it.

Tmac, Yao, Skip, Scola, Battier, Bonzi, Hayes, Brooks, Landry, the Great Luther Head

They were pretty deep. Also depends on if you think CP3 and Blake > Tmac and Yao, which I don't agree with.

 

[nycknicks105]

With all this Clipper hype, the first thing I thought about was that Houston winning streak a few years ago.
Clippers have more talent than the Rockets that won 22 straight though.
Nice back to back wins for the Kings. They need it.

Tmac, Yao, Skip, Scola, Battier, Bonzi, Hayes, Brooks, Landry, the Great Luther Head

They were pretty deep. Also depends on if you think CP3 and Blake > Tmac and Yao, which I don't agree with.

Scola wasnt the same Scola as he is now. Bonzi Wells was at the twilight of his career, Brooks was a rookie I think. Only thing that the Rockets did better than the Clipper now is the defense.

CP3, Blake, Deandre, Crawford, Bledsoe, Barnes and Odom is a better core IMO.

 

[brandon3000]

I read a little bit more on Royce White's recent woes. As it turns out hes refusing his assignment to the D-League (no surprise) and someone on ESPN's comments section posted an interesting perspective.

I'm a licensed counselor and work with people with anxiety disorders/issues. With that said, Royce White has a point...but he has taken it way, way out of context.

One of the best things for him to do is play basketball. Popping off like he is some 10-year veteran or that he has done anything in the NBA, throwing his employer under the bus, etc...it is not the best way for managing his disorder or helping his profession.

White should shut-up, go to the D-league and play well, keep getting paid, and receive treatment that only 99.9% of the population could wish to receive with his benefits/pay package.

I agree, I don't know the ins & outs per say but he comes across like he's being spoiled and just wants to be traded. I can see why so many teams avoided the headache

 

[Bert.]

With all this Clipper hype, the first thing I thought about was that Houston winning streak a few years ago.
Clippers have more talent than the Rockets that won 22 straight though.
Nice back to back wins for the Kings. They need it.

Tmac, Yao, Skip, Scola, Battier, Bonzi, Hayes, Brooks, Landry, the Great Luther Head

They were pretty deep. Also depends on if you think CP3 and Blake > Tmac and Yao, which I don't agree with.

didnt they do most of that winning streak without Tmac?

 

[friscostylez]

didnt they do most of that winning streak without Tmac?

i think they did most of it without yao

 

[Bert.]

didnt they do most of that winning streak without Tmac?

i think they did most of it without yao

i think you're right, i know it was without one of them. Tmac just stood out for some reason

 

[dman14]

just remember skip capping off the lakers victory with a dribbling exhibition on sasha vujacic and they were getting in one anothers face LOL
was it the Celtics that ended it?

 

[pmatic]

Ahhh the benefits of being patient and flexible.

Harden, Lin starting to figure it out

When Tom Haberstroh used Per Diem to lobby for the Houston Rockets to bench Jeremy Lin two weeks ago, the Rockets were a game below .500, having lost four of their previous six outings. Since then, Houston has emerged as one of the league's hottest teams, winning five in a row before stumbling against last year's Western Conference finalists (San Antonio and Oklahoma City) during a difficult back-to-back over the weekend. That's not entirely a coincidence.

Although the Rockets never took an action so bold as benching Lin, they've been able to reap some of the same benefits by simply staggering his minutes with those of star teammate James Harden, a process that began earlier in December but only fully took root late in the month. During Friday's game against the Spurs, one of Houston's starting guards was on the court for all 48 minutes, the first time that has happened all month. Garbage time is partially to blame; in three of the last five Rockets games, either Harden or Lin played throughout the first three quarters, but the two guards watched the end of blowouts together from the bench.

Despite the influence of lopsided games, the numbers show how Kevin McHale has managed his backcourt differently during the last two weeks as compared to the rest of the season. The percentage of the team's minutes the two players have played together is down, but both have played more on their own. According to NBA.com/Stats, Lin has gone from playing about 40 percent of the minutes Harden rests through Dec. 16 to nearly 60 percent since then.

But that's not the real story. Ultimately, how McHale staggers his rotation makes only a small difference because Harden averages nearly 40 minutes per game. To succeed in Houston, Lin had to stop fearing the Beard's presence. That's the impressive thing about the last two weeks. Suddenly Lin's stat line no longer shows the same extreme splits depending on whether Harden is on the court or off it. Compare his performance playing with Harden through Dec. 16 -- the same figures that appeared in this column then -- and from Dec. 17 onward.

To put the magnitude of Lin's improvement into context, consider that his 46.5 percent true shooting percentage (TS%) with Harden through Dec. 16 would rank 281st among regular players. His 62.5 percent TS% since then? That would put him in the league's top 20.

Not only is Lin shooting far more effectively, he's also getting more opportunities to score. In part, this surely reflects that Harden and Lin are becoming more comfortable with each other. After all, the Kim Kardashian-Kanye West pregnancy (12 weeks) is older than their partnership (nine). When they started the Rockets' season opener, it was the first game the two guards had played together -- Harden had been traded to Houston only days earlier. With limited practice time during the regular season, Harden and Lin have had to learn each other's tendencies on the fly.

Beyond that, McHale and the Houston coaching staff have tweaked the offense to put Lin in situations to maximize his talents as a creator. Because Harden is dangerous as an outside shooter and Lin is not, the Rockets may be better off as a team with Lin running pick-and-rolls and Harden spotting up. So over the last couple of weeks, Lin has often initiated possessions with a high pick-and-roll. If that doesn't translate into a shot, Harden is more likely to get the basketball with the shot clock running down.

The other adjustment should be familiar to anyone who has watched the Miami Heat deal with a similar issue involving stars LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. Similar to what Miami does at times, Houston has made defenses account for both Lin and Harden by putting them into occasional pick-and-rolls together. The Lakers used a similar 1-2 pick-and-roll to set up Derek Fisher's winning score during Game 3 of the 2009 NBA Finals, and Orlando made extensive use of the same play when Vince Carter was on the roster.

Using Harden as a screener has a couple of advantages. It puts a guard in the unfamiliar position of defending the roll man. And since Harden is a threat from anywhere on the court, teams can't leave him to commit a second defender on Lin. So either Lin gets a relatively clear path to the basket or the defense has to switch, putting a smaller player on Harden and giving him the opportunity to post up.

Thanks to these changes and Lin's aggressiveness attacking hard closeouts on the perimeter, more than half of his shot attempts with Harden on the floor over the last two weeks have come in the restricted area -- higher than his rate last season in New York, or with Harden on the bench this year.

Other factors have worked in Lin's favor over the last two weeks. The Rockets have pushed the pace lately; ESPN Stats & Info noted that Saturday's loss to Oklahoma City featured more possessions than any regulation NBA game in the last five years. That has created opportunities for Lin to freelance in the open court, and his fast-break points have gone from 5.1 per 36 minutes to 7.5 over the last two weeks. The tempo is up partly because Houston replaced injured starting power forward Patrick Patterson with more small ball, moving Marcus Morris into the starting lineup and sliding small forward Chandler Parsons down to the 4 at times. Those players offer better outside shooting and more spacing from the position, clearing driving lanes for Lin.

Regardless of the reasons, the last seven games have shown that Harden and Lin can excel at the same time. The Rockets' offense has been the beneficiary: Lin's scoring has fueled the recent surge that has pushed the team to sixth in the Hollinger Power Rankings and 10th in the league in offensive rating as of Dec. 16; Houston ranks third since then.

Last weekend showed the Rockets still have too many holes to compete with the West's best teams on a regular basis, but their guard play is good enough to make a playoff trip likely in what figured to be a rebuilding season. Given that Houston has one of the NBA's three youngest rotations and that Lin and Harden are both locked up through 2015, the future is bright now that the two guards are shining together.

 

[pmatic]

Bobcats-Bulls and Grizzlies-Pacers tipping off.