Care to make a friendly wager? Actually there can be 2 friendly wagers. I will bet that the Sixers don't beat Detroit, and if they do I'd bet tehy can't beat Orlando.
Dwight howard is a man child. He is like Shaq but better and will be winning titles in Orlando for years to come. Edit- I mean Orlando will trade him and then he will be winning titles
That's the coolest thing about Howard. He really is a man child. He is such a child at heart, just havin fun. When he gets to be 25 or 26 years old, he will realize just how dominant he can be when he sets his mind to it. Funny to think that he is the best big man in the league right now, and he hasn't even reached his potential yet. Very likable young man. Patrick Ewing is his mentor, not a bad dude to get tips from and keep your mind in check. Even aside from Howard, the Magic are an exciting team to watch. I almost impregnated my pants when I saw Hedo take it to the house against Toronto's weak *** full court pressure last night. Mostly because I saw it coming from a mile away. Major props to the Rash, and Nelson too, but Hedo is an ambassador of pain.
Orlando 3-1 vs 6ers in the season. Plus, I don't see Philly beating the Magic in Orlando. If Detroit hangs on, which I believe they will, I'll be looking forward watching Orlando put them in their place. The Piston are stale, the Magic are playing like they smell blood. Advantage Orlando. Bring them all on. Winning a title isn't any fun unless you get to see some 7 game series along the way.
bah Orlando beat us in Philly earlier in the season before we turned it around by 2 pts... then we split the remaining 2 home games, both home teams winning easy.... Howard would be a problem but it would be a fun series... but believe me im not looking ahead, i was just playing... i know we blew our chance last game against detroit, dominating the first half and coming out of halftime lax and letting them get a lead and basically ruining our chance to go up 3-1... pissed me off, grrrr tonights game is huge
and before the series people were saying philly would have been lucky to win 1 game... dont be so sure... we stole a game in detroit game 1 and one time in the regular season... we can beat them there, and if we win game 5 we're obviously sitting pretty...
Carmello Anthony needs to take notes from Lebron, and learn to step it up when your team needs you. I believe Anthony to be overrated.
The Mavericks and the Suns both suck and need new coaches. Those teams need new directions. The Suns have never played a great playoff style and the Mavericks are still reeling from the unforgivable choke against the Heat. Both teams need an infusion of new players and coaches, theres no excuse for both getting beat so handedly.
I agree on the D'Anotini part. But not The Avery Johnson part. Mike has done all he possibly can with that squad and was clearly out coached. Not the first yr that has happened. And as much as I loathe Johnson I tend to think their was too much intervention on his coaching my Cuban. He didn't want Kidd. He wanted to trade Dirk. When you have an owner who tries too hard to play coach it corrupts the team from the inside out.
I wish they would lose to Hawks. I want to see Josh Smith and Joe Johnson keep playing and I dont like the Celtics lol.
Celts get back on track with a 25 point win tonight and should finish this series up in 6. Still find it frustrating they managed to lose to the Hawks in this series.
Wizards baby! They seem to be better without Arenas. I'm a huge Wiz and Arenas fan but they might want to look into a sign and trade in the offseason for Agent Zero.
I'm guessing this is the last night for my Sixers. Still, the kids have made it a pretty good series with Detroit. Love to see it go the extra game so they'd experience a Game 7, but to take it this far is a credit to Mo Cheeks and the team. Game 6 tonight is the only game on, so hopefully that will give them some extra life. They really do need a bad shooting night by Detroit, especially Rasheed's threes. That'd help them defend the other guys tighter and get out on the run a bit more. Because I can easily face if this is a half court game, the Pistons win pretty easily. And who wants that?
They probably try to feed him the ball too much. I wouldn't mind bringing him on the Heat as the #3 option behind Wade and Beasley.
well sixers it was a nice run while it lasted... in the end the Pistons showed why they are the Pistons, they would NOT miss a shot it seemed, they basically had Iggy playing scared and a non-factor in the half court offense, and they took us behind the barn and whipped us... for next season the sixers need a low post presence to create some kind of half court offense... if we can sign an Elton Brand in the offseason, whoo doggie and Orlando/Detroit should be fun...
Wade's games played by season: 2003-4: 61 2004-5: 77 2005-6: 75 2006-7: 51 2007-8: 51 If you're not just a LITTLE concerned about his ability to stay healthy through an 82 game season, plus playoffs, you're the most ridiculously optimistic person I know. It's like the mass of Ronnie Brown apologists who swear he's not injury-prone...and yet, he's never carried the ball more than 241 times in a season. I mean, you can break down the individual circumstances all you like, but the fact remains that he's now missed a full season's worth of basketball to injuries, and he's just 26 years old. I'm not going to call him the next Bill Walton or anything, but still, that's a concern. Oh yeah, and he's dating Star Jones. He practically admitted as much at halftime of last night's (totally awesome) game. All things considered, you should be more than a little worried about everything going on in this young man's life.
I railed against the Kidd trade at the time, and am happy (actually, not happy: I like Dallas) to say that I've been completely vindicated. Hey, Boik, you owe me a "Phil Was Right" cookie cake. That series showcased all the reasons that trade stunk out loud for Dallas. Maybe Chris Paul would have beaten them anyway, but Devin Harris would almost certainly have done a better job on defense against CP3. And Dallas just isn't a fast-breaking team, making Kidd a poor fit for them. How many guys on that Dallas team could get out and run with Kidd? Puffy Howard's one. Jason Terry probably can too. Jerry Stackhouse? He can run, but I've never been a fan of Stack on the break. He'll keep that ball at all costs. Dirty Dirk? Not bloody likely. Dampier? Mark Cuban's a name whore, and it burned him badly this time. And it cost Avery Johnson his job. Maybe that's for the best, since Johnson needs a smallball team to win, and I don't think he can coach a conventional roster all that well. And of course, any good coach should be able to adapt to the talent on his roster. You know, they might have done the Shaq trade anyway. I think they believed it was time for a shakeup, and they didn't feel they were going to win with the current team. If you know you're not going to win with the current team, why not roll the dice with Shaq? It's still a terrible trade, for salary cap reasons, but Shaq certainly did his part. I thought he played very well for the Suns this year. There's no reason to expect Western Conference dominance to fade, not with Portland and Seattle/OKC ready to emerge as strong contenders. The Spurs will fade a bit, but they're smart enough to continue retooling, getting better, adding young talent and generally hanging around the party LONG past the point where they're welcome. The Suns are headed for a serious decline. This was their last real shot. That scumbag Sarver has absolutely crippled that team; there's virtually no young talent waiting in the wings, because of his refusal to pay the luxury tax and thus, penchant for giving away first round picks. There are no free agent additions on the radar because he won't pay the tax, and the team's fate is tied to Nash and Shaq, both of whom are well onto the back nine of their careers.
I know this argument happened a while ago, but it's so ridiculous that I have to weigh in. I can't seriously believe there's an argument about whether Shaq or Howard was better at this point in their careers (that is, 4 years in). Any Orlando fan who thinks Howard's better is either: a. 10 years old, and thus has no recollection of Young Shaq, b. so blinded by anger at Shaq's defection to the Lakers that they refuse to acknowledge reality, or c just plain nuts. Let's take a look at the PER numbers from their first four years: Howard: 17.2, 19.3, 21.1, 22.9 Shaq: 22.9, 28.5, 28.6, 26.4 "But wait! Howard came right from high school! Shaq had 2 years at LSU!" OK. Shaq posted a 28.5 PER in his second season (i.e. his fourth year of post-high school basketball), whereas Howard posted a 22.9. I admit that PER isn't a perfect statistic, but it's better than anything else, and THAT much of a difference should make even the biggest anti-stat guy take notice. By all means, take a look at the other stats from Shaq's career and compare them to Howard's career so far. There's no possible way you'd take Howard. None. "But wait! Shaq never won a title without Kobe or D-Wade!" Well, for starters, he still has four more rings than Howard. For another, there are very few teams in the last 20 years that won the title without two star players. Bird had McHale, Parish and Johnson (it's an absolute crime that DJ isn't in the Hall). Magic had Kareem and Worthy. Dr. J had Moses (actually, Moses was the star of that team). Isiah had Joe D. MJ had Pippen. Hakeem had Clyde the Glide for his second title. Duncan had Robinson, then Parker and Ginobili. The only teams to win titles without two star players, in the last 25 years, were the 1993-94 Rockets (Hakeem and a decent supporting cast) and the 2003-4 Pistons (almost certainly the most balanced NBA champion in that time). That's it. That's the list. If you're going to indict Shaq for not winning without a superstar running mate, please also make the case against Magic, Bird, MJ and the rest, and make the case for Hakeem being the greatest NBA player in history. Because that's the logical end for that argument.
It's cool. Sometimes the hardest argument to shoot down is an absolutely insane one. Howard's a fine player. If I were picking one player right now to build a team around, he'd be on the very short list (i.e., him, LeBron or Paul). And he may one day eclipse Shaq...but I wouldn't bet on it. And there's absolutely no rational argument for saying that he's better at this point in his career than Shaq was at the same point.
Obviously I agree, I think the point about the age of some of the posters is the real issue here. I think anyone arguing that Howard is better than Shaq didn't watch Shaq in his prime or is just blind with hatred towards Shaq. Like I said every single GM in the league would take Shaq over Howard and they would do it in literally .01 seconds. Thats how great Shaq was when he was young.
Yup. From ages 25-29 Shaq led the NBA in PER every single year. That puts him in some pretty rare company: MJ did it seven straight years, and Kareem did it five straight. Wilt only did it four straight years (though eight times in all). Too many people remember him as Fat Shaq, when in fact Young Shaq was very light on his feet (insanely so for a 300+ pound man), a first-rate shotblocker and intimidating defensive presence, and amazingly, a fine passer out of the low post.
How is Songaila suspended when there were much worse fouls in the playoffs that didn't draw suspensions? Garbage, the league does some crap that really lends credence to people that think they root for the stars in the playoffs. Total, complete and utter bull **** that the league suspended Songaila. Go Wizards!
I do agree that Songaila got a raw deal. If anyone in the playoffs should have been suspended for anything Kidd should have been for what he did to Pargo.
Songaila definitely did not deserve that harsh a punishment when Jason Kidd gets off scot-free for an even worse foul. It probably had to do with the league clamping down on rough play against their darling star and reluctance to deliver similar punishments to another star. coughAndrewBynumcough.