NBA Thread - 2009-10

[Little Jerry Lawler]

Official NBA Thread​

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At the closing moments of the Nuggets/Mavericks game, you can see Antoine Wright intentionally foul Carmelo Anthony but was not called and Anthony hit the game winning 3-pointer with one second left. This gave the Denver Nuggets a 3-0 lead in the series and all but spells the end of the Mavericks. The NBA issued a statement two hours after the game to state that a foul should have been called. There is plenty of blame to go around and I will assess this to all the parties involved.

1. Referee Mark Wunderlich (35%)- As a referee, you have to know whether a team has a foul to give and at the moment they will use that foul. He is the same referee that no-called the foul on Derek Fisher in last year's Spurs/Lakers playoff series. Wright clearly hacked Anthony on both arms and Wunderlich was right there yet he didn't call it. In his defense, Wright put his hands up after he fouled him so I can see where it looked like he didn't mean to foul him.

2. Rick Carlisle (55%)- At the press conference, he said that he assumed the referees knew they had a foul to give. What Carlisle should have done was tell all three officials that one of his players was going to commit an intentional foul so there will be no controversy at the end.

3. Antoine Wright (10%)- I don't think Wright should get much of the blame as he is getting but he should have done a better job of intentionally fouling Anthony. He put his hands up the air after fouling him so it looked like he didn't want or mean to foul him. I'm not going to assess much of the blame on him.

Side Note: Before this sequence occured, Dirk Nowitski missed a jumper with 6.5 seconds left to give Denver the ball. There were four or five seconds left on the shot clock so there would probably have been two or three seconds left on the game clock.

So who do you think is to blame: Wunderlich, Wright, or Carlisle?

 

[Pimpin]

I blame all of this on the ref & no I am not being biased on this as I am a Mavs fan. I watched the video a few times & the ref was in clear position to not only have seen the foul, but make the damn call as well. I think Antoine put his hands up like why the fuck wasn't the call made instead of it being like "I didn't foul him" type of thing. There were 61 fouls called in the game & the dumbass refs should at least remember that the Mavs had a foul to give, but what the hell we always gets the short end of the stick in high profile games as the refs always hose us out of victories.

 

[BooCocky]

I'm solely blaming this on the player who was defending Melo. You don't attempt a reach in foul in that situation, you at least grab em, or hack the shit out of him. There is No excuse. Now the Mavericks are history. You can blame all you want on the ref, but when it comes down to him, hit Carmelo Anthony a little harder and it could be a whole new situation.

 

[TwistofRKO]

It just figured the one time the ref relaxes the rules, letting them be physical....

I place this 35% on the ref, 30% on Rick Carlisle, and 35% on Antoine Wright. The ref was trying to assess this fairly, and Wright threw his arms up as if it was an accident. Which leads me to Wright, why would you just tap him and act like you didn't mean it? What was the ref supposed to think? He still should have called it a foul, but Wright helped nothing. Carlisle should have let the refs know his intentions prior to the play.

That was a mess.

 

[Slyfox696]

I put 40% blame on Dirk, 20% blame on Wright and 20% blame on the official. Here's why:

Dirk - If he doesn't shoot the ball so darned quick, this would never even be an issue. His poor shot selection and poor time management at the end of the game made this situation MUCH more easy for the Nuggets than it should have been.

Wright - If your job is to foul, then foul. I looked at the video this morning from a different angle and it looks like he barely touched Carmelo.

Official - You have to know game situations, and if the guy hacks, then it's a foul. Of course, if Wright didn't actually make contact...


So, yeah, that's who I blame it on. What? That's only 80%? Oh yeah right. I blame the other 20% on Carmelo. After all, he was the one who actually hit the shot at the buzzer. Surely he deserves some blame for the Mavericks losing.

 

[Khalifa]

Um well it's sorta a hard decision. But this is how I look at it.

30% Wright, Why? Well when you have one foul to give and you have 1 second left you don't do a shit foul. Wright goes for a steal then puts his hands up like nothing happened. You don't do that, you make sure it's a foul and let every know it happened. Just a fucking disgraceful play by himself.

70& Ref, why? Well the Ref was in the perfect position to see if it were a foul or not and the refs job is to call everything that is a foul. I mean if you see someone just barely touch there arm and it does the slightest bit of adjustment for the offensive player you don't let it slide, you call that foul. You get payed to do your job and if what a player does is against the rules then obviously blow that whistle.

But I like Denver and not don't like Mavs that much, I still say that the series should be 2-1. Well it should of been 2-1 after that game.

 

[Franchize1990]

Side Note: Before this sequence occured, Dirk Nowitski missed a jumper with 6.5 seconds left to give Denver the ball. There were four or five seconds left on the shot clock so there would probably have been two or three seconds left on the game clock.

There was actually only two seconds left on the shot clock so Dirk had to throw something up or risk turning the ball over, giving Denver an extra time-out if they needed it. So IMO, the only thing Dirk did wrong in that situation was miss the shot lol. But to answer the question, I give out the blame in this way

20% Wright: You have got to make a better attempt at fouling the guy. He had a perfect opportunity when Carmelo fumbled the pass around mid court.

60% Officials: Over 60+ fouls called in the entire game and they decide not to award a foul when the Mavs intentionally try to get one called. A good half of the fouls called in the 3rd quarter alone were ticky tac fouls. Be consistent and try to call it the same throughout.

20% Carmelo Anthony For Making the Shot: Had that shot rimmed out, this maybe the other way around and Denver is complaining for a foul to be called or this topic would not have been brought up and Dallas still has a fighter's chance to move on to the Western Conference Finals.

 

[Big Sexy]

It's no secret that the NBA would love to see the Lakers and Cavs face off in the finals. The two biggest, most marketable stars in the NBA are Kobe Bryant and Lebron James so obviously the ratings would be the highest they've been in a while if those two met in the NBA finals. However, in my opinion the NBA has jumped the gun in promoting this feud. As soon as the conference finals began commercials started to play during the games featuring puppets of Kobe and Lebron trying to one up each other. It seems as if the NBA started to market their dream match up before it has become a reality.

Right now Orlando is in complete control of their series against the Cavs and the Nuggets are far from being done against the Lakers. By playing these commercials so early all the NBA has done is disrespect the Orlando Magic and Denver Nuggets. And more importantly they have disrespected two of their brightest young stars in Dwight Howard and Carmelo Anthony.

 

[gd]

While I still think that the Cavs and Lakers will meet in the finals, I think that the NBA may have started promoting too early. The Magic are certainly more than capable of defeating the Cavs, and they are definetly taking what the NBA has done as an insult. Remember when Howard was suspended against Philly and everyone thought they would get crused. Van Gundy has his team believing it's us against the world and it's certainly working.

I'm pretty sure the Lakers are going to beat the Nuggets though, because the Nuggets are just stupid. They literally threw away two golden oppurtunities in games 1 and 3, and there is no way the Lakers are losing this series now.

Still, I think what the NBA did was smart. They want to market LeBron and Kobe as greater than Magic/Bird, as they should. They are the two biggest stars in the league and all of the fans want to see them. I know I do, and I'm hoping for a Cavs/Lakers finals.

 

[klunderbunker]

I'd say they certainly have. People just expected Orlando and Denver to roll over for LA and Cleveland and that's just not happened. There's a very real chance that the finals will be Orlando vs. Denver. I'd wager quite a bit that Cleveland isn't going to make it as they have been dominated by Orlando and if not for Lebron just being amazing the series would be 3-0. The marketing began weeks ago and still continues with those damn puppets. Very soon the finals are going to be a lot clearer and David Stern will be looking for a building to jump off of as his dream matchup goes up in flames. The marketing money will be lost as well as the ratings going down as no matchup is as sexy as Kobe and Lebron.

 

[48.7 is Approximately 49 Times Better Than You]

Of course they did. You don't advertise for the finals before the teams are decided. If I was a member of the Nuggets or of the Magic, I certainly wouldn't keep quiet about this. It's disrespectful, rude and somewhat embarrassing. Cleveland is literally one second away from being down 3-0 and The Nuggets have whooped the Lakers asses thus far. If they just finished in games 1 and 3, that series would be over. If anything, these commercials and the constant talk of Prince James vs King Kobe has driven the Nuggets and Magic to preform at a higher level.

 

[A.J.]

The NBA sure did. No one can say that the NBA and especially David Stern is desperately wanting the Lakers vs the Cavs in the Finals. Think about you have one of the marque teams in the Lakers in one of the biggest media markets with a household name in Kobe Bryant to take on one of the most recognizable young superstars in the world in LeBron James...ya sure no way David Stern and the NBA was hoping for a LA/Cleveland finals matchup.

I honestly think that only one of these teams will make it to the finals, which one I just dont know its still to hard to tell. Denver and Orlando have all the motivation they need to win and make it to the finals as all they have to do is turn on their TVs and see every marketing company like Nike with the puppets and vitamin water having a love fest on Kobe and Lebron...hell ESPN just goes overboard with those two its sickening. So when you think about...the NBA might have screwed its own dream finals matchup by giving teams like Denver and Orlando all the motivation in the world to "shock the world" and make to the finals.

 

[The Bearded One]

I hate those commercials. They are disrespectful to the Nuggets and the Magic. It shows that the NBA desperately wants Kobe and Lebron in the finals, although it looks like at least one of them isn't going to make it. I didn't really have a problem with the Kobe vs Lebron commercials where the people talked about the players, because it seemed like to me they were trying to find out who the MVP was. But the puppet commercials are just a flat out joke. I hope some company makes a Carmelo and Dwight Howard puppet commercial.

Also, and I know this is completely off topic, I hate ESPN's coverage of the playoffs. All of the attention is being placed on Lebron and Kobe. Yes, I know they are great players, but there are other people on the court. The Magic beat the Cavs tonight and Sportscenter's highlights were revolved around Lebron. Why can't the Magic and the Nuggets gets any love?

 

[Khalifa]

I don't know if you could call it promoting just off yet. It's just one silly ad. Both players are the one best in the NBA and both came in the top 2 for MVP this year. Everyone dreams of a match-up of Lebron and Kobe so they might not be promoting the finals yet, it could just be a silly little ad for next year or something. I believe it doesn't really mean much for the finals, just a stupid ad. Like some other ads they have had in the NBA before. The NBA might want this but you cant just say it's for the finals just yet.

 

[Hayles]

June 9, 2009

The Toronto Raptors announced Tuesday they have acquired forward Reggie Evans from the Philadelphia 76ers in exchange for guard-forward Jason Kapono.

"Reggie Evans will certainly add an element of toughness to our team," said Bryan Colangelo, Raptors President and General Manager. "He has very good rebounding and defensive instincts, addressing two areas where we have underperformed."

The seven-year veteran has averaged better than 6.5 rebounds in five of his NBA campaigns, with a career best of 9.3 per game (12th in the NBA) in 2004-05 with Seattle. He also averaged 7.9 rebounds during a four-year span from 2004-08.

Evans has ranked in the top-10 in the NBA in Rebounds Per 48 Minutes in each of the past six seasons, leading the league in 2006-07 at 19.7. He finished seventh in the NBA last season with an average of 15.3.

Evans has grabbed 20+ rebounds on three occasions, with a career-best 21 versus Charlotte on February 5, 2005. He collected a career-high 19 defensive rebounds against the Raptors on March 10, 2006.

The 6-foot-8, 245-pounder has appeared in 514 career regular season games with 270 starts. He owns career averages of 4.3 points, 6.9 rebounds and 19.6 minutes. He has seen action in the postseason four times, averaging 4.0 points, 6.0 rebounds and 17.1 minutes in 27 games.

Evans signed as a free agent with Seattle in 2002. He has played with Seattle (2002-06), Denver (2006-07) and Philadelphia (2007-09).

The native of Pensacola, Florida played two seasons at the University of Iowa where he averaged 15.3 points and 11.5 rebounds in 69 games. He was named Associated Press Honorable Mention All-American in both his junior and senior seasons.

Kapono signed with Toronto as a free agent July 11, 2007. He averaged 7.7 points and 1.6 rebounds in two seasons with the Raptors.

Being a Raptors fan, I love this trade. Jason was way overpaid, for what he brought to the team. I believe this give the Raps a bit more cap room as well. Evans brings some of the toughness and rebounding the Raps need. Sadly though, he doesnt bring much in the way of scoring or blocking. I hope the Raps sign a veteran defender next, aka Rasheed Wallace. A trade for Gooden would also make me happy.

Trade Bosh by the way!

 

[Cowboyfromhell]

Being a Sixers fan, I also like this trade. With Elton Brand and fellow big man Jason Smith coming back from injury, and the hopeful continuing development of Mareese Speights, Evans would have been looking at a lot of bench time. And the Sixers haven't had a 3 point shot since they traded Korver. So it looks like a trade that fans of both teams like and could potentially benefit both squads. I think Toronto will save about 2 million a year in salary.

 

[Franchize1990]

Rumors have been going around that the Suns and Cavs have been talking about getting Shaq to Cleveland for, possibly, Ben Wallace and Sasha Pavlovic, (I think). Two questions I have about this:

1) Is Shaq the player the Cavs need to get over the hump and win a championship?

2) Does O'Neal have the same good season in the Eastern Conference like he did last year in the West?

Your Thoughts?

 

[Pimpin]

Well if that happens then Cleveland will indeed be upgraded cause they need a more physical presence at the center position & I believe that with Shaq possibly be in Cleveland then I think they will go to the finals cause the center position was their weak spot in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Magic.

To answer your question about whether he will have the same good season with the Ccavs like he did with the Suns last year, I say he will cause he was healthy last year & when healthy, Shaq can put up some monster numbers.

It will be interesting to see if this trade actually comes to fruition or not.

 

[48.7 is Approximately 49 Times Better Than You]

In the east, who would Shaq have to go up against? He'd have to deal with Dwight Howard and Kevin Garnett. He's taller than both, stronger than both, more experienced than both, and gets more calls than both. That leads me to believe, that when healthy, Shaq would pretty well dominate in Cleveland, especially with double teams on LeBron. Or, if they try to front Shaq and stay behind him, or just double team him in general, then they can't double team LeBron. Shaq in Cleveland benefits he and LeBron greatly. It's a move I'd like to see.

 

[ztwhite]

Is it a good move for the Cavs ?? Absolutely.

Will it help them win an NBA championship ?? Probably not.

It's almost a given that Shaq will spend some time on the IR, especially after he played last season without hitting the disabled list.

Plus, the weather in Cleveland is nowhere near what the weather in Phoenix is like and older muscles and bones enjoy the hot weather, which I believe helped him stay healthy.

My only question is what kind of excuse will LeBron lovers have when they don't win a title again ??

LeBron is not Jordan and he's not Kobe - with or without Shaq !!!!!!!

 

[Milkyway!]

Shaq is getting really old, and you see what it did for the Suns? He put up some good numbers, when he played, but overall, it didn't help them much. They went from a team in the finals last year, to a team that barely made the playoffs this year, seriously. Shaq's good, but hes just getting old. As well as how physical hes always played, its had to've taken a toll on the mans body. It happens to the best. I can't really see this helping them win the NBA championship, but I can see this helping them make this to the finals, at least.

 

["Cool Guy" Jensen]

I am happy with the trade. I'm not sure if Shaq is exactly what the Cavaliers need to win their 1st championship. But if they do win the title, which is my pick, it will likely not be just because of the tandem of Lebron and Shaq. Sure, they will be a very dominant team, but in order to win a title, you need the entire team to contribute, not just the best few players.

I've heard that Shaq looks to retire after the 2009-2010 season, so a championship would be very satisfying. In his 16 season NBA career, he has only missed the playoffs twice. But I feel that playing for the Lakers was the only time that he was able to really showcase his skills. While playing for the Magic, he was still relatively new, and didn't really have as much experience that he needed. While with the Miami Heat, he won a championship in 2006, but we all know that Dwyane Wade was really the star. I really liked him on the Suns (they are my 2nd fave team), but just something about him playing there that didn't seem right. He was the top star with Steve Nash and Amare Stoudamire and Grant Hill and even though he did quite well, he didn't make it to the playoffs despite having a 46-36 winning record.

I really hope he does better in the Cavaliers. With him not really having many years left in the NBA, one more championship would be very nice.

 

[Big Sexy]

They went from a team in the finals last year, to a team that barely made the playoffs this year, seriously.

Umm, The Suns weren't in the finals last year and they didn't make the playoffs
this year so you're 0 for 2.

As far as the trade goes it's a good one. They really didn't give up anything so it's definitely worth the risk. They didn't get any worse from the trade so even if Shaq does get injured they can still win games, and as long as he is healthy for the playoffs he can still put up decent numbers. Especially considering the fact that you can't really double team Shaq when Lebron is on the floor, and there aren't too many people who can guard Shaq one on one.

 

[The Legendary 23]

Being an Ohioan and respectively a Cavs fan, I am of course excited with Shaq going to the Cavs. You have to give Ilgauskas some credit for politely taking a step back for the other big man.

My concern for Shaq's age isn't very high, because on his run with Pheonix, Shaq proved that he is still athletically able and force not to be underestimated. I have faith that Lebron's ability to read his teammates will click with Shaq, as that is the only major roadblock I could see this season.

As for Shaq leading the Cavs to a championship? Even as a Cavs fan, I am currently not fully convinced the trade will result with one.

 

[Hip2bsquare]

My question now with the Shaq trade, and Varejao opting to become a free agent is who will be playing PF for the Cavs??

The Cavs will have a good centre rotation with Shaq and the Big Z but will still need a PF that can guard the more athletic PF's and be able to hit a jumpshot consistently in order to open up the lane for Shaq and of course LeBron.

I wouldnt be surprised if the Cavs tried to move Z in order to get some help at the PF spot so that will be interesting to see if that happens.

Im not sure the trade gets the Cavs closer to a championship or not. It will depend on how LeBron and Shaq mesh,whether Shaq can bring his form from last year and whether or not he can stay on the court. Other teams have improved as well such as the Spurs picking up Jefferson, the Celtics hopefully being fit, Carter in Orlando (though if the lose Hedo it could be interesting) and of course the Lakers still being the Lakers.