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Yo when is the charity game today, wat time???
Actually Jackson coached the Bulls sans MJ when he retired the first time to the playoffs and almost reached the finals that year.Phil needs 2+ superstars to do anything... they do not have that anymore... they have Kobe... but I don't see Kwame or Odom pulling of the role of "other superstar" for Phil... I think Phil has been somewhat overrated... when was the last time he coached a roster as crappy as this one? He will prove whether he deserves the le of best coach ever or not when he takes this team through this year. I just think Phil has been put into better situations than any other coach... not that he is as great as 9 les would seem to say. Oh... and the Lakers are jam packed with mediocre big men... but they have the weakest overall backcourt in the NBA... aside from Kobe... OK... they could make the playoffs with Phil... but they may not either... I like the Clippers chances at doing anything better than the Lakers chances.
Yo when is the charity game today, wat time???
Those Bulls were eliminated by the Knicks in 7 games in the 2nd round. I don't know that they "almost reached the finals." By the same logic, the Spurs "almost reached the finals" in 1989-90 when they were beaten by Portland in 7 games in the WCSF. I don't know how many would agree with the logic.
"I wonder who won that debate?"
How much would you bet that the Spurs would have won the "NBA Championship Quarter" in Auburn Hills with Pistons having Finals' HCA? Spurs got badly blown out twice in Auburn Hills and needed a last-minute Big Shot to squeak out their one Finals road victory.
My guess is that the Spurs beat the Pistons by 7 pts in last qtr ONLY because of HCA.
So, my opinion, and we can only have opinions/hyptheticals after the fact, is that the Spurs' Finals HCA won them the 05 Championship.
All I'm saying is that the Spurs need to play ALL SEASON for HCA, since, AT LEAST IN THE FINALS, it is very often the difference maker, esp over 7 game. I'm sure HCA was the difference maker last June.
And Magic is part (minority) owner of the Lakers
Well of course I absolutely agree with Magic.. how could I not? I'm a Spurs fan!
His BBall knowledge is immeasurable. IMO you need 4,000 SAS's, 10,000 Waltons, and 3,000 Plashke's to come within spitting distance of Magic Johnson.
It takes 1/2 a Charles Barkley.
I meant the ECF..sorry, still it was a great coaching job that year by Phil.Those Bulls were eliminated by the Knicks in 7 games in the 2nd round. I don't know that they "almost reached the finals." By the same logic, the Spurs "almost reached the finals" in 1989-90 when they were beaten by Portland in 7 games in the WCSF. I don't know how many would agree with the log
I wonder how positive it was for the Lakers when Magic was doing promos for the Heat this past season!
All we need now is the Sports Illustrated cover and we're toast
See 93-94 and 94-95 seasons. I hate Phil Jackson, he is a classless jackass, but he can coach. I would even say that he is quite overrated, given that he is mentioned as the best coach in the history of the game, and you see how Larry Brown mopped the floor with him in 2004, but to say that he can't coach this Laker team, which is very talented, is underestimating his abilities.
This Laker team is quite similar to some of the late eighties, early nineties Suns team, great perimeter, no centre. I think the Lakers will probably make the 6th seed.
As for the Spurs repeating, barring any major injuries, the Spurs seem to be the frontrunner, no question.
I too believe he is overrated. Not hard to win when you have Jordan/Pippen, Kobe/Shaq.
He's gonna ruin the vegas odds ..
During the playoffs, Magic said that the Spurs were a better team than the Pistons.Didn't Magic pick Detroit to win it last year?
Boutons,
who said that we won't have home court advantage in the Finals?
The rest of the West doesn't look as good as last year.
The Suns certainly won't be as good as last year. Their record is unlikely to be the best in the league.
Also, the Sonics have lost players and will go down a notch. Plus, they lost McMillan who I thought did a tremendous job coaching.
Dallas still does not have a low post presence who can really score.
Yao gets in foul trouble too often and is too inconsistent, as good as TMac is. Still, perhaps the Rockets and the Kings will be the next best teams in the West. Dallas should improve their defense now that Avery is their head coach prior to the season starting. Minnesota has KG, but apparently that is not enough. I do expect them to make the playoffs unlike last year.
East, Indiana, Miami and Detroit are all first tiers teams and it could be tight. I do pick Indiana to come away with it. This Indiana team did have the best record year before last and they probably grew from the obstacles they encountered last year. Nevertheless, I don't expect them to repeat that year's record. Carlisle is an exceptional coach, but given our championship team returns much improved from last year, we should have a better record. In any event, prior to the Finals, our record on the road and at home, was the same in the playoffs (.750 against playoff teams).
Miami and Detroit will be close, both chasing Indiana. While Miami amassed a lot of name and did add some talent, I predict that their team chemistry won't be that great. Also, some of their additions have blatant weaknesses (e.g. shot selection of Antoine Walker). Detroit will still be a great defensive team. However, I think that Coach Brown got the most out of them due to his great x and o knowledge. Plus, I think that their offense is not as good as some others contend. They are look old Spurs teams which at times really sputtered on offense. After two straight years of getting to the Finals have maxed out talent and effort and having lost their coach and facing improved compe ion (certainly from Indiana who almost beat them last year and Miami who would have beaten them if Damon and Eddie Jones could pass the ball accurately or if Wade and Shaq had not been injured at the same time), they will probably drop significantly.
We were considerably better than the Pistons last year (at least on paper in so many categories) , but for some reason did not show it in the Finals. This year, should the Pistons make it, I would predict Spurs in no more than 6 games and possibly in 4 or 5.
Therefore, at this time, Boutons, I can't see any reason to believe that the sky is falling. Buck up, Chicken Little, we have seen the future and it is very bright.
"who said that we won't have home court advantage in the Finals?"
nobody
"the sky is falling"
you said that, I didn't.
I repeat:
"All I'm saying is that the Spurs need to play ALL SEASON for HCA"
No play-offs for Fakers.
Sorry Phil. But you'll have plenty of time during the playoffs to sit around and count your money!
Last season, that meant (from your perspective at least) that the Spurs should treat all 82 games, essentially, like playoff games. That they should play guys who are banged up, not worry about trying combinations and players to see what happens, not fall prey to things like the difficulties of the 2nd night of a back-to-back on the road or the 4th game of a 5 day trip. That road losses to mediocre or bad teams (i.e., not playoff powers) are never acceptable, under any cir stances.
Those of us who disagreed with your Chicken Little approach to the regular season argued strongly that Popovich has a handle on the best way to prepare his team for the playoffs while trying to achieve the best playoff seeding possible. That somehow, without taking your approach, Pop's teams generally seem to end the season with strong finishes and good playoff seeding to allow for long playoff runs.
Sure, it mattered a great deal in the Finals that the Spurs had HCA. But you know something -- the Spurs had HCA in the Finals even without treating all 82 regular season games as playoff games. They did it even while experimenting with concepts and players. Pop even admitted that at times, he was more concerned with how the team reacted to certain things that he asked of them than he was about the outcome of a particular game.
Absent a major injury, this team will win 50-55 games without much effort. HCA is likely to be somewhere around 60-62 wins, so that means that the Spurs still have a cushion of 20-some games.
I'm sure that they are going to lose some games to inferior teams.
I'm also sure that when they do, Chicken boutons will be in here ing about it.
Did I just see "great parimeter"? Where? Do you mean the Clippers? They have Kobe and then... Aaron McKie, Von Wafer, Devean George, Laron Profit, Sasha Vujacic, Jumaine Jones, Smush Parker, Tony Bobbitt. How is that a "great parimeter"? They are stacked at the big man spots... Kwame, Divac, Mihm, Cook, Bynum, Medvedenko... they have some good trade bait... but they need to feild more quality wing players if they are gonna do anything... Kobe cannot do it by himself... he'ld prolly do better than most would... but he still cannot do it by himself.
Kobe Bryant and Lamar Odom alone counts for great perimeter team. How many do you need? 5 perimeter players? Detroit is a great perimeter team, and they have Billups and Chauncey, those early 90's Suns had Kevin Johnson and Dan Marjele/Jeff Hornacek. And yes, Odom is oozing with talent, if he could stay healthy, he would be one of the better SF in the league.
"the Spurs had HCA in the Finals even without treating all 82 regular season games as playoff games"
You know that only in retrospect. You'd be singing a different tune if Pistons would had HCA by one game vs Spurs.
That 4th qtr collapse in TOR would look pretty painful,
and that 2nd qtr collapse vs SEA @SBC would mean no 05 le.
How can anybody argue against playing for HCA all season after the 7-game series against Pistons?
The Pistons won 54 games compared to the spurs 59... that means we could have lost four other games and still had home court advantage.
You're not giving the spurs credit. you're acting like they play sloppy during the regular season, when all too often especially in recent years we've done so extremely well in the regular season only to falter in the playoffs... only now are we really starting to look like we can finish strong. I really think you're painting the case backwards.
How many les have the Spurs won without HCA in the Finals?
What's the overall W-L record for NBA champions with HCA in the Finals?
HCA counts, EVERYBODY knows that, it was dramaically, critically important last June, why not play for it all season?
I can't believe such a simple request can meet such vehement resistance, cause me be portrayed, falsely, as dissing the Spurs, Pop, a chicken little, and kinds of other crap, etc.
How many have they lost?How many les have the Spurs won without HCA in the Finals?
How many number 1 seeds have been eliminated?
Sheed's demographic group never votes for a conservative. Nine out of every times times his ethnic group, African Americans, votes for a democrat.
The people who voted for Bush are those who go to church, don't live off of handouts and obey the law are married with kids. Bush won all of those demographic categories. Also, Bush won the military vote by about three to one. Democrats and Kerry in particular does win the vote of the high crime areas, those who don't go to church, aren't married, are on welfare (I guess being a single parent with nine kids and having slept with guys on crack does kind of put you in a bind, doesn't it) and live in the inner city. Take away about four or five big cities and Kerry probably would have lost half of the people who voted for him and a lot of his electoral college votes (NY city, Los Angeles, San Fransisco, Chicago and Detroit).
Nobody who understands demographic trends and political realities would ever have expected otherwise. So, this is not a news flash. By the way, this is not a political website. Feel free to post your politics on moveon.org. This is not a political site and not everybody shares your views. Let's stick to Spurs basketball.
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