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NBA 2011-2012 Season


The Imp's Advocate

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Anyone else see the Stan van Gundy/Dwight Howard media circus? Never been a huge fan of SVG, but he now vaults into top 5 for my favorite coaches. Dude had no power, was at the mercy of ownership, just twisting in the wind...then completely reverses it by nonchalantly admitting in public that Howard demanded he be fired. Then Howard doesn't know that he did it, and got blindsided by the press after putting his arm around SVG. Classic.

I'm sure ever coach, assistant, water boy, etc. who has ever been hung out to dry by a superstar was on their feet cheering SVG on.

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Im so sick of Dwight Howard and all the bullshit surrounding him and the Magic. The SVG thing was amusing in its awkwardness but enough with these clowns already. Let's focus on the teams and players that want to WIN this year.

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Im so sick of Dwight Howard and all the bullshit surrounding him and the Magic. The SVG thing was amusing in its awkwardness but enough with these clowns already. Let's focus on the teams and players that want to WIN this year.

Well, I guess that leaves out me and my Cavaliers. We're driving that Sherman right on through till the lottery, baby!

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And.... Odom finally was cut today by Mark Cuban. This guy was an absolute disaster. Watching him play games this season has been one of the most frustrating things in sports to me. What an incredible waste of space. Dude was caught several times on the court yawning... literally yawning. I hope his actions have consequences and that he is out of the game for good.

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Odom is a mess. IDK who even takes a chance on him; the Lakers could probably, but would he even play for them again? Beyond that, who the hell is going to believe they can get production out of him?

Watch him become a Net by next season. Stamp it.

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Im so sick of Dwight Howard and all the bullshit surrounding him and the Magic

Indeed. Even as a recent ( but devoted) NBA follower I have to say this is a total farce. With the transfer window just having ended, and Howard just having signed a new contract with Orlando, why in the world would he now want to leave and requesting for his contract to be annulled? That makes zero sense to me. He either wants to stay, or he doesn't, and if he didn't, he could have gone during the transfer window.

A shame, because he really is a great player.

Great match between the Knicks and the Bulls btw. Carmelo Anthony was superb, Derrick Rose back after 12 matches absence for the Bulls.

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Knicks play the Bulls again tonight. And then play the most important game of the season vs the Bucks on Wed.

Cal, i think you are slightly confused by the Howard stuff. Hie didn't sign a new contract, just agreed to play out the final year of his existing deal. He basically had a player's out clause in his 5 year deal, where he could have opted out after the 4th year to test the free agent market. Secondly, he didn't ask for his newly signed extension to be annulled. The most recent drama surrounded Howard's request to upper management to replace his head coach, Stan Van Gundy, who is a pretty damn good coach but has a attitude that is very different from Dwight's own.

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Really? Wow that has been totally misrepresented here in the media. It said on the news that Howard has asked for his contract to be terminated, not that of the coach. That makes more sense then, thanks for the clarification. So Howard himself at least still wants to stay.

I did indeed think that he had extended his contract. He didn't then. But if he had been keen on staying with Orlando, he would/could have right? So now his contract runs until the end of next season?

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Cali, exactly. Howard chose to NOT to opt out of his current contract (with the afore mentioned player's clause to do just that) and decided to remain until the end of next year. If he had not he would have been an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season and could have walked away from Orlando with them getting any sort of compensation (as they could with a trade, or a "sign-and-trade").

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The contract goes through next season. He could sign an extension anytime he wants though; he's just not interested in doing that. There's a chance that the Magic will trade him this offseason, if they can't get another star to pair with him and they are tired of the Howard Headache.

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It's basketball related, but this needs to be seen just because it A) calls Bayless a "gasbag" and 2) outright calls him (correctly) a liar:

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/jalen-rose-calls-skip-bayless-air-trumped-high-214530179.html

Thank you Jalen Rose for doing this.

In short, Bayless was calling out Westbrook for shooting too much and that he, Bayless, had to learn as the starting point guard for his HS team (who got to the State Finals) that PGs need to think pass before shooting.

Rose corrected him...apparently Skip forgot he averaged 1.4ppg his senior year.

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I need to vent....

I just finished watching the Mavs/Lakers game, and my Mavericks were robbed in overtime by the officials. The first two points scored were by a player that was clearly out of bounds, and then they counted Gasol's three when clearly he had help guiding the ball in. This was also the first game in a while that I have listened to national commentators instead of local, and they are clearly rooting for the LA team.

It wouldn't piss me off nearly as much if the season wasn't on the line for us, but it just knocked us back into a three way tie for 8th. Instead of getting into the playoffs easily, it is going to be a tough road now. Damn the Lakers.

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It's hard to see for me how the Mavericks could have possibly won last year's NBA title. This is the first year that I am watching but they strike me as extremely reliant on Nowitzki, and even when he scored more than 30 points they regularly fail to win a game. I understand they lost two players compared to last year ( one to the Knicks-Chandlerm and one to the Nets) so that may be it.

Still, they look pretty average to me. In the West, Oklahoma, Clippers and Lakers are often very pleasing to watch. Spurs less so, but their record is awesome.

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It's hard to see for me how the Mavericks could have possibly won last year's NBA title. This is the first year that I am watching but they strike me as extremely reliant on Nowitzki, and even when he scored more than 30 points they regularly fail to win a game. I understand they lost two players compared to last year ( one to the Knicks-Chandlerm and one to the Nets) so that may be it.

Still, they look pretty average to me. In the West, Oklahoma, Clippers and Lakers are often very pleasing to watch. Spurs less so, but their record is awesome.

It was a completely different team last year. The Mavericks lost five players off it's roster to free agency and retirement this year. It has been extremely hard to watch. This may be the first time in 12 years that the Mavs don't even get into the playoffs.

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It's hard to see for me how the Mavericks could have possibly won last year's NBA title. This is the first year that I am watching but they strike me as extremely reliant on Nowitzki, and even when he scored more than 30 points they regularly fail to win a game. I understand they lost two players compared to last year ( one to the Knicks-Chandlerm and one to the Nets) so that may be it.

Still, they look pretty average to me. In the West, Oklahoma, Clippers and Lakers are often very pleasing to watch. Spurs less so, but their record is awesome.

They lost Tyson Chandler, who some are touting as the Defensive Player of the Year this year now he's in New York. That's got to hurt, even though they've still been pretty good defensively without him. JJ Barea also left too. He provided them with a nice spark off the bench, he was very key in winning some of the Mav's playoff games last year. From what I've seen of their games (and I'd imagine you can expand on this, howdyphillip), Dallas have attempted to slot in Haywood and Beaubois into their system to replace those two, but it's still a bit of a drop off.

They've also lost DeShawn Stevenson, who is a decent perimeter defender (did he get much burn in the playoffs though? I can't remember, although I have a vague memory they might have put him on LeBron at some point). Who else left?

I'm feeling down in the dumps as a Rockets fan at the moment. We were riding high after a sweeping a 4 game road trip that made it look like we would make the playoffs at a canter. Then we dropped 4 crucial, crucial games against Phoenix, Utah, and Denver twice to leave us out of the playoff spots and losing the tiebraker against all the nearby teams. We're going to have to outperform Phoenix through the last 5 games, and on current form I'm not sure how we're going to do that.

Phoenix has: OKC, Clippers, Denver, Utah and San Antonio, which is a pretty tough run in.

Houston has: Dallas, New Orleans, Golden State, Miami and New Orleans again. In theory, this is an easier schedule. But NO have been playing really well recently, and Houston...haven't. My biggest fear is that we'll have to go to South Beach looking for a win. That would be rough.

ST

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So it comes out that Ainge had two large deals on the table in the final hour before the trade deadline:

Pierce to Memphis for Mayo & a pick

Allen to NJ for Okurs contract and a lottery pick. No reason yet as to why they both fell through, but those would have been interesting to see go through.

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They lost Tyson Chandler, who some are touting as the Defensive Player of the Year this year now he's in New York. That's got to hurt, even though they've still been pretty good defensively without him. JJ Barea also left too. He provided them with a nice spark off the bench, he was very key in winning some of the Mav's playoff games last year. From what I've seen of their games (and I'd imagine you can expand on this, howdyphillip), Dallas have attempted to slot in Haywood and Beaubois into their system to replace those two, but it's still a bit of a drop off.

They've also lost DeShawn Stevenson, who is a decent perimeter defender (did he get much burn in the playoffs though? I can't remember, although I have a vague memory they might have put him on LeBron at some point). Who else left?

I'm feeling down in the dumps as a Rockets fan at the moment. We were riding high after a sweeping a 4 game road trip that made it look like we would make the playoffs at a canter. Then we dropped 4 crucial, crucial games against Phoenix, Utah, and Denver twice to leave us out of the playoff spots and losing the tiebraker against all the nearby teams. We're going to have to outperform Phoenix through the last 5 games, and on current form I'm not sure how we're going to do that.

Phoenix has: OKC, Clippers, Denver, Utah and San Antonio, which is a pretty tough run in.

Houston has: Dallas, New Orleans, Golden State, Miami and New Orleans again. In theory, this is an easier schedule. But NO have been playing really well recently, and Houston...haven't. My biggest fear is that we'll have to go to South Beach looking for a win. That would be rough.

ST

We also lost Coran Butler to the LA Clippers who was our regular season backup point guard and contributed greatly to the success of the team. He was injured during the playoff run though, and finally we lost one of the best three point shooters in the history of the game in Peja Stojakovic to retirement. He played an essential role in us sweeping the Lakers last year as he lit up the boards.

So, tonight, there is an almost must win game from both sides when Houston plays Dallas. Dallas has the tie breaker regardless of outcome, but it is easily foreseeable that Houston passes us as our last two games are against Chicago and Atlanta.

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Calibander, what Sir Thursday said. Losing Tyson Chandler was a huge negative for the Mavs. He is one of the top reasons why the Mavs were able to win the series against the Heat. I'm sad he didn't get to stay in Dallas, but now he's in New York and I hope he manages to stay there. As the Mavs go, though, Haywood and Mahinmi are just not the same. Chandler is fantastic at knowing where and how to set the screen and he has good defensive IQ.

Dirk has also said himself that his conditioning was not good coming off the lockout and schedules like this lockout-condensed one are not conducive to rest and longevity. I feel bad for the older guys out there.

I'm sort of hoping that the Knicks don't make the playoffs so that they can rest, recover, and have a longer time to train before coming back next season. Assuming the Knicks hold onto their current players, something interesting's going to happen. Like Jeremy Lin going left.

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