Arena The NBA Thread

Bucks/Lakers get into a scuffle last night at Staples; Lakers ongoing playoff drought is ongoing

 

lol "stealth"

 

Luke Walton is a dummy.

 

Luke Walton sounds a bit like John Cena.

 

So rather then rest Love/Irving/LeBron tomorrow against a crappy Laker team, it makes sense to do so on a primetime game on ABC against a superior Clipper squad; if I were ABC, I'd get rid of these Saturday games next season. The "We want LeBron!" chants in the 2nd quarter were fantastic.

 

Once again, these fans fail to realize that the exact letter of their Ticket Stubs makes it very clear that they paid to see the name on the front of the jersey, not the name on the back of it.

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Yeah, but Kyrie was recently dealing with some soreness so it makes sense to give him some more rest today. And I'm sure they're keeping a close eye on/limiting Kevin a bit still, so that paired with Ky being sore kind of explains it for me. Also, give LeBron some rest while you're at it? idk makes sense to me

 

They were off Friday, though; the game yesterday against the Clippers (which was only put on the ABC prime time schedule because of the stars, Nanaki) was meant to be a showcase.

 

Yeah so by having Friday off and resting them on Saturday it's consecutive days rest, as was discussed on the last page, rather than Friday off play Saturday rest Sunday.

Also, you could look at it as play the full squad against the Lakers and (knock on wood) lock up that win and go 1-1 on the back-to-back as opposed to full/almost full squad against the Clips, hopefully win, and then hope the team minus the Big 3 can pull out the win against the Lakers, risking losing 2 in a row.

 

They'll definitely win tonight.

 

The conflict around resting players continues.

Personally, I think people should accept it as natural as injuries in the NFL and rest over a 162 game MLB season.

 

realized i forgot melo in our discussion of potential 30k guys. he's still got a pretty good shot even if his marriage with the knicks is nearing an end.

and yeah, imo the league really doesn't have a legitimate gripe about teams resting their players until they eliminate the back-to-backs and 4 game in 5 night stretches that teams have to play through. sucks that you drove three hours and paid a bunch of money to see lebron and kyrie play, but if they're your favorite players you'll be happy when they're healthy and fresh for the playoffs.

 

RIP Mr. Jerry Krause.

 

Guys


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Kyrie Irving and the WORLD CHAMPION Cleveland Cavaliers are in town today!

 

I've had a very negative view of Jerry Krause since the end of the Bulls dynasty, primarily because of his role in dismantling it, despite the fact that my team was a direct beneficiary of it both in the short-term (specifically speaking, winning the championship the very next year) and in the long-term.

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Are you going to see them Inty?!

 

For someone who built 2 dynasties Krause really isn't liked in Chicago. Quite often he was his own worst enemy. For everything good he did there was a flip side to which he blundered something else, and unfortunately those overshadowed his accomplishments.

When Krause took over the Bulls the NBA logic was you couldn't build a team around a shooting guard. Krause saw what no one else did when he dealt for Pippen and that same draft he deferred to his staff and picked Horace Grant despite wanting someone else. Krause traded away Charles Oakley for Bill Cartwright in a move that I think Jordan never got over but the Bulls needed someone who could go against centers like Ewing, Parrish, Daugherty and Laimbeer. He pursued Toni Kukoc for years and helped open up the NBA to foreign players. He also brought in Phil Jackson and Tex Winter when nobody saw them as viable NBA coaches. Replacing Doug Collins with Jackson was also questioned at the time but turned out better than anyone could have imagined.

Unfortunately for Krause he tried to take his share of credit when no one really wanted to give it to him. Perhaps it was him not looking the part. Jordan and Jackson have big egos and I think Krause's was just as big and unfortunately there wasn't enough room on the stage to share credit. Once Jordan and Jackson left then all the accolades Krause was looking for turned into jabs and barbs and unfortunately Krause was never able to assemble a great team again.

I grew up watching the Bulls and I didn't like Krause at the time, even when he was making great moves like trading Will Perdue for Dennis Rodman, bringing in a Cliff Levingston or Brian Williams. It was easier to side with Jordan, Pippen and Jackson. However those teams would have never been put together by someone else. Krause built those teams and I am forever grateful for that. The NBA wouldn't be what it is today without those teams. Unfortunately it looks like Krause is finally getting his due but never got the chance to enjoy it.

 

Section 118

 

Being on the other side of the Perdue/Rodman trade, I can say that the Spurs fanbase was not sad to see him go at the time the trade happened. During his 2 years in San Antonio, I had schoolteachers and even my own mother telling me that Dennis Rodman was a bad influence, a selfish dude, and all that, and I was an impressionable 10-11 year old during that time. I don't know how Krause and Phil put up with his shenanigans, or at the very least tolerated him enough to keep him around for 3 years, but if Pop can't handle you, you're gone. Just ask Stephen Jackson. Rodman even spent about a chapter or two throwing the Spurs organization under the bus in his autobiography, most notably Pop, David Robinson, and then-head coach Bob Hill, so that was a toxic situation that just wasn't going to work in San Antonio.

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It was pretty evident at the time that Rodman didn't respect Robinson at all. I've only read excerpts from Rodman's book but I agree with him about Robinson. The admiral had all the tools but was a 2nd tier player. He got killed by Olajuwon in the playoffs and it wasn't until Duncan (a true 1st tier) arrived that Robinson won a title. Playing with Rodman was like oil and water, sure it could get them lots of regular season wins but I don't think either one could count on the other in the playoffs.

 

The only excerpts from Bad As I Wanna Be I've read specifically involved his time with the Spurs. I must say the fact that David Robinson invited Rodman to go to church with him but was, needless to say, turned down should come to the surprise of absolutely nobody for obvious reasons. I will say that in hindsight, he was right about Bob Hill. I remember being absolutely furious at Hill being fired, especially given the circumstances (being replaced by the same GM who gave him the pink slip, the fact that the Spurs had what was at the time their best season in franchise history with Hill on the sideline just 2 years earlier, the fact that the team was snakebitten by injuries) and the timing (this coaching change happened the day Robinson returned to the lineup from injury), but the fact that Hill has not come close to replicating his success of a 62-win season and a 59-win season since (with both a High School job, and a return to the NBA with the Sonics) coupled with Pop's Hall of Fame level success as Spurs head coach that continues to this day in the post-Duncan era makes it clear that the coaching change that left fans furious at first turned out to be the right move in the end (I still think Pop could have handled the coaching change better though...for instance, pulling the trigger about a week after being eliminated by Utah, or at least letting Hill stay on while Robinson was healthy).

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Can you dig it?!!

 

A lone bright spot in an otherwise dismal season for the Suns: Devin Booker just scored 70 points.