NBA Playoffs 2012 - Page 319

On June 21 2012 04:21 TwoToneTerran wrote:
Emeka Okafor and Trevor Ariza have been traded to the Washington Wizards for Rashard Lewis and the #46 pick.

Da fuq, Hornets?

On June 21 2012 04:37 slyboogie wrote:


Emeka and Ariza are totally overpaid. It was a straight salary dump.

EDIT: Rashard expires after this year. So it's like bundling two salaries that run until 2015(?) into one that expires in 1 year.

On June 21 2012 04:58 Leyra wrote:
I dunno if anyone else watches ESPN First Take ever, but man that show cracks me up. Skip Bayless and Stephen A Smith are both ridiculous, lol.

On June 21 2012 04:58 Leyra wrote:
I dunno if anyone else watches ESPN First Take ever, but man that show cracks me up. Skip Bayless and Stephen A Smith are both ridiculous, lol.

On June 21 2012 04:58 Leyra wrote:
I dunno if anyone else watches ESPN First Take ever, but man that show cracks me up. Skip Bayless and Stephen A Smith are both ridiculous, lol.

On June 21 2012 05:26 Holcan wrote:
rashard lewis can be bought out of his 23 mil contract by july 1st for around 14 million. savr the hornets around 30 million if they do that.


rumors are blatche will be amnestied now, couldn't do both lewis and blatche, and hornets will take beal in the draft. wall-crawford-ariza-nene-okafor with beal off the bench looks to be what they are aiming for.


after thinking about it for a moment, noh almost certainly did it so they can match anything gordon is offered

On June 21 2012 05:41 slyboogie wrote:



LOL. Looking for Beal to fall to 10 is not a plan.

On June 21 2012 05:26 Holcan wrote:
rashard lewis can be bought out of his 23 mil contract by july 1st for around 14 million. savr the hornets around 30 million if they do that.


rumors are blatche will be amnestied now, couldn't do both lewis and blatche, and hornets will take beal in the draft. wall-crawford-ariza-nene-okafor with beal off the bench looks to be what they are aiming for.


after thinking about it for a moment, noh almost certainly did it so they can match anything gordon is offered

On June 21 2012 05:44 XaI)CyRiC wrote:

This link explains the rest of the rationale pretty well: http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/8077486/washington-wizards-get-new-orleans-hornets-emeka-okafor-trevor-ariza-rashard-lewis-pick

On June 21 2012 03:44 XaI)CyRiC wrote:


What does youth have to do with anything? Westbrook and Durant are also young and have performed better. Chalmers is young and outperformed him last night. Youth didn't stop him from producing in the playoffs prior to this series.

Miami's defense is definitely the toughest OKC has seen so far, but that's not an excuse to not produce. Again, Westbrook and Durant have found ways to produce, as have role players like Collison. Great offensive players, which Harden is, are supposed to find ways contribute on offense no matter what defense they face and he hasn't.

Guarding Lebron is definitely going to take a toll, but he can't disappear on offense because of it. Westbrook has been guarding Wade for most of the series, and Durant had been guarding Lebron quite a lot prior to the last game. Lebron, Wade and Bosh are all contributing on both ends of the court. This is a factor, but not an excuse for how little Harden has contributed, particularly last night.

As for Brooks, there's only so much a coach can do from the sidelines. He can't control whether the players make shots, make a correct defensive rotation/read, or make good decisions for them in the game. All he can do is put them in the best position to succeed, which he's done a decent job of. Games 2 and 3 were definitely in reach and arguably were lost due to poor FT shooting. Game 4 was also in reach, and he wasn't the one who repeatedly turned the ball over and missed wide open shots (i.e. Harden). Has he been a great coach? No. Has he outcoached Spoelstra? No. Has he done a good enough job to put his team in a position to win each game? Yes. Does any of this mean that he should get the brunt of the blame for OKC being down 3-1? In my opinion, no. Credit the Heat for playing great and look to the OKC players to step up their play like the MIA players have.

On June 21 2012 05:59 ketomai wrote:


But also, Miami is paying particularly close attention to him. Shutting down the best non-star player has been something Miami's been good at this entire playoffs (Granger vs Indiana and Ray Allen vs the Celtics). It's a good strategy too because the star players are more often than not impossible to stop. They've been more careful to put more bodies in front when he tries to drive and they send him traps more often. Like what they did with Allen/Granger, it seems to be successfully slowing him down.

However, it still doesn't excuse some of his open misses etcetc. He needs to find a way to make an impact for OKC to have a chance.