Arena The NBA Thread

I don't know how much/what you've bought already, etc, but at the very least, get a hat. The best accessory.

 

GO WARRIORS

 

LeBron's Ultimate Warrior shirt today was great. As someone who was born and lived most of my life in Ohio, I am pretty ecstatic to say the least. It's such a great story how things eventually worked out.

 

http://www.latimes.com/sports/lakers/la-sp-lakers-luke-walton-20160620-snap-story.html]Luke[/url] Walton is ready for the Lakers



Eagerly anticipating to see what kind of influence he has.

 

I teared up at work today. I've just laugh-cried a lot in general. It doesn't feel real.

But we were all witnesses.

 

Only comparison I've seen in my lifetime to this point was the Sox in 2004, mostly when they beat the Yankees. That was the previous axis-changing series to date for me.

A great writeup here about The Block:

http://deadspin.com/lebrons-block-still-doesnt-seem-possible-1782300645

I think all this is very true.

I love that LeBron's signature career moment is going to go down as a block. Not a shot, or even a pass, but a defensive play. It's a subtle pushback against the expectations many have had of him over the years, from ordinary fans to Hall of Fame players and coaches. He's done things his way, and that way is different from just about anyone who has came before him. Others have done specific things better, but never so well in combination. It was an earth-shattering feat of athleticism, of the kind that I'm not sure anyone had ever seen before. He made the unfamiliar seem both amazing and inevitable at the same time. That's art to me.

 

The Block, the supercut:

 

None of these really show the Block in its complete greatness, which as much involves how far back LeBron was when the Warriors picked up the ball as it does him actually blocking the layup. LeBron was by far the closest person to the Warriors' bench when the Warriors took possession of the ball, and would have only needed to turn around to have a conversation with someone there.

 

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=16372789&ex_cid=espnfb

 

Yeah, it looked like Iggy would've gotten an easy layup, and before you know it, Lebron comes out of nowhere and blocks it. Watching it at my sister's house with 15 other people when that happened, we were all stunned and silent afterwards.

Read an interesting article from Chris Haynes, one of the Cavs beat reporters. He wrote that Lebron embraced the villain role this finals, and what we're used to seeing in Star Wars, tapped into the dark side:

Darth Lebron showed up the last 3 games of the series:

 

And watch his other arm-- he was ready to block it on the OTHER side of the rim if Andre went for the reverse. Just nuts.

 

JR Smith gets a best supporting actor award for his role, because he chose both to not do anything that would give referees cause to whistle him for an unintentional foul, and to not intentionally foul Iguodala. Smith also alertly grabbed the rebound. There were a lot of ways for Smith to err on that play, and he played it as well as anyone could have.

In looking at replays, I was reminded of Dennis Johnson's alert move toward the basket after Larry Bird stole Isaiah Thomas' inbound pass in 1987.

 

derrick rose traded to the knicks. epic

rose, justin holiday and 2017 second rounder, for robin lopez, jerian grant and jose calderon

 

From the sounds of it, at least according to Frank Isola, there seems to be a good chance that the Knicks could sign Noah as well, who is not only friends with both DRose and Melo, but is also from NY. He would be a better value-for-money sign than Howard imo.

 

They just can't be held hostage by Rose's injuries anymore. Time to move on.

I guess the Knicks are hoping more than anything else. He still can't shoot a lick, and he hasn't been finishing at the basket like he used to, which was the best thing he had going for him. Not getting to the FT line, and his defense isn't as good, either.

He still shows flashes every once and a while. Flashes of tremendous speed and a strong finish. But every once and a while isn't much.

Robin Lopez is actually pretty good, and has a few years left on his contract at a reasonable price, so the Bulls are getting something out of it. They're probably getting the better end of the deal.

Calderon is nowhere near what he once was, but he can still shoot. He does more standing around than anything, though.

Maybe moving on can be good for both teams.

 

How like the Knicks: trade for an overpriced, overinjured superstar who will almost certainly never live up to his previous performance.

 

Watched the Cavs parade. Very very surreal. Even more than other parades I've watched. On a personal note, I may have geeked out when they Played Stone Cold Steve Austin's entrance for Kevin Love.

 

I'm not sure what to think really. Ultimately I'm saddened because this is the final reality that mvp Rose is and never was coming back (I knew it but just didn't want to admit it) and that this is the end of an era that never really truly began. What could have been....

On a practical level, with one year left, with that ridiculous contract given his output, to get a decent centre on a fairly decent contract in the new nba, and at least one young player who could play a role (I'm ignoring Calderon), I guess it's not bad.

Having said that, where does this leave the team? It's Butlers team now and assuming he's not being traded, we're not blowing up the team, just re-tooling, we haven't got any future draft picks in return, we're just leaning towards mid table mediocrity. Nba hell.

So overall I'm unhappy but for multiple, varying reasons. But it's the end of the Rose era that promised so much that's the toughest part really.

 

I have returned to the JCF. My take on the Rose trade: Terrible for the Knicks. He is washed up and will never be an above-average point guard again.

 

Rose and Butler didn't get along. Butler wants to be the "Man" in Fibsville.

 

Miami will beat Rose in 5 games...

 

Point given indeed.