Sports

[Aaron]

Talk about sports here. MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL.

Who will win the Super Bowl? Will the NHL ever come back? Do the Lakers make the playoffs?

[Paul676]

GO RAYS especially matt joyce

[ohitsstef]

lakers suck
go mavs!

discussion: Is Linsanity still going on?

[tk198]

Go Thunder! Been waiting 3 years and this might be their chance.

Linsanity, no. Lin is still a solid PG but has issues with consistency. Needs the ball in his hand to produce at a high level but Harden on the floor makes that difficult.

And Lakers aren't looking too good. Once they get Nash back, run a more pick-n-roll style offense with arguably the best passing guard and the best PnR big man and maybe they'll be better. Too many guys need the ball in their hands on that team and there's only 1 ball to go around.

[Aaron]

When Nash comes back, he won't magically be 25 again. He's a 38 year old coming off of an injury, and the fact that the Lakers conceal when he'll be back is worrisome. I predict they finish hovering under .500 because they're crap at the end of the year anyway.

[salami_pastrami]

I'm still surprised Nash even went to the Lakers.

[Confugal]

RAPTORS! Woo!

Two of our "top" players injured for two games, Raptors win two games in a row.

wat

[tk198]

Nash is one of the best conditioned players. He doesn't need to score 20 a game like he used to.
At 37 (last year) he shot a career high FG% (very smart shot selection now) and averaged almost 11 assists PER GAME... on a team that ran pick and rolls with freakin Channing Fry and Marcin Gortat. He has Howard, arguably the best pick and roll big man, Gasol who will be open ALOT due to all the attention DH draws, and Kobe on the wing. Tell me he isn't put in a position to set up players like he has never before.

I agree with the .500 if they continue to play the way they do now. D'antoni has do something about their defense and hopefully he realizes that Kobe shouldn't be the focus of their offense with the Nash-Howard duo.

[Aaron]

Kobe not being the focus? What? Whether or not it helps the team, he won't let that happen. He's Kobe.

Dwight can't do anything other than dunk, and I'm pretty sure when he was called "the best center in the game" it meant "the best center not signed to a long-term deal on a small market team willing to get rid of him."

[tk198]

Kobe: one of the all-time greats? Yes, but Kobe has always been a really overrated player (mostly the fault of the media). Although he has been getting a bit better lately, he takes way too many shots for a guy that doesn't even make half of them. Yes he can make those big game shots  but more often than not, he's to blame for shooting his team into a hole in the first place.

I would agree that Howard's offensive game needs a lot of polishing, but he makes a huge impact on the defensive end. With the type of players on the Lakers, I wouldn't want Howard to do anything other than stand near the rim and dunk the ball. Dunk percentage is almost 100% so there's nothing wrong with that. And if not Howard, who would you consider "the best center"? Aside from Bynum, it'll be hard to make an argument for anyone else.

[dhuang413]

Yes, but Kobe has always been a really overrated player (mostly the fault of the media).

I'm gonna have to disagree here. Kobe usually doesn't shoot an elite percentage, but that's mainly because he takes his shots against double or even triple teams. If you actually watch him play, you'll notice that and the fact that he shoots a lot because he thinks his teammates are incompetent, which of course is his opinion, but is still justified to a certain extent. Furthermore, his split this season is 48/38/87, elite even for wings only taking open shots, while leading the league in scoring by a sizable margin at the age of 34. So no, I really don't think he's overrated.

Dwight Howard isn't exactly a lame brick that can only dunk on offense, but some of his fundamentals are flawed to the point that they significantly limit the impact he has on that side of the court (free throw shooting, turnovers when double-teamed). However, I do believe that when Nash returns, he'll be able to help everyone out on offense, including Howard, by generating more open looks. Of course, he's as big a black hole as it gets on defense, so it's still a bit difficult to predict where the Lakers end up.

[tk198]

Simple basketball logic dictates that being double/triple teamed means someone is open or is relatively unguarded. It would be wise to move the ball around to an open player or have the defense scramble around and get defensive mismatches, than to shoot it yourself. Even if you CAN make the shot more often than others, it's low percentage shot. A 10% shot made 20% of the time by Kobe is still 20%. Feeling that his teammates are incompetent? (I'll give Kobe the benefit of the doubt because he didn't really say this himself) Basketball is a team sport, so there's no reason to make that excuse. Look at Kobe in arguably his prime from 05-07, and see how many games they won and how far in the playoffs they got then.

I mentioned that he was getting better because 48/38/87 is really good for a person that shoots as many shots as he does but why do I say he's overrated? Look at all the other elite players in the history of basketball and look at their FG%. Yes, Kobe is ALMOST at 48% but his entire career has been below that mark. Off the top of my head, all the other players considered "elite" (except for Elgin Baylor but I would argue he was also overrated) have shot at or above that mark in 1 or more seasons (even Lebron has been shooting that well for most of his career). If you're one of the biggest shot-jackers and you aren't making the majority of your shots, you're taking too many shots (look at AI, he was around 30 PPG some years but people overlook that he shot around 40% for many of those seasons).

Saying Kobe is overrated doesn't mean he's a bad player, just that the media over-hypes his ability and puts him ahead people that he should not be ahead of.

With regards to defense, the problem is that they play poor TEAM defense. They have great individual defensive players (Artest and Kobe on wing, Howard in middle should help out Nash a bit if the guards go past him). What they need is for the players to commit to rotations, etc. Take for example the Celtics back a few years when they won the championship. People like Ray Allen (considered poor individual defensive players) were able to play good team defense as long as he followed the game plan and put in effort. I also blame D'antoni cause he's never really been known for his defensive plans.

[dhuang413]

Simple basketball logic dictates that being double/triple teamed means someone is open or is relatively unguarded.

This is true; however, this is where "teammates' incompetency" comes in. Kobe sees his teammates open, but does not believe they can convert open shots. I agree that he shoots too much sometimes, but just because he takes bad shots doesn't mean he's not skilled. It merely means he makes bad decisions.

As for defense, I think the main issue is the age of the team. Although Kobe and Artest are great individual stoppers, young wings can wear them out over the course of a playoff series. Putting so much effort on defense would drain their energy on offense too. Dwight Howard might be able to help a little bit if Steve Nash gets crossed over, but you're looking at Westbrook, Paul, Parker vs Nash, all of which would be epic mismatches on the defensive end to say the least.

[Aaron]

Goodbye Sacramento, hello Seattle.

[Aaron]

So uh, sports anyone?