The Heat of South Beach: A Jestorball MP Article Saga (DDSPB 1/2) - Page 3

Izulde · 10-23-2013, 10:51 AM

Tumultuous Second Season For Former Half Of Wonderpaul Tandem

The year's been an at times painful one for Willie "Wonder" Warren

The sophomore slump is a common and ancient trope in the world of sports. It makes sense - teams and coaching staffs have an entire offseason in which to dissect and plan for the freshman phenom whose brilliant burst on the scene was in part aided by the element of mystery and surprise.

But then there's those second years like Willie "Wonder" Warren, whose sequel act is a function of circumstance more than anything else. Hailed as a foundational future franchise piece when he was drafted 14th overall last season, he won the starting two guard spot and formed the Wonderpaul backcourt his rookie season, earning a spot on the Rookies team at the All-Star Game and helping the Miami Heat to the second round of the playoffs, where he proved efficient at running the point and assisting the underdog Heat into making a series of it with the heavily favored Detroit Pistons.

Now he's languishing on Miami's bench, picking up garbage minutes if he gets into games at all. The remarkable plunge in his fortunes intrigued us, so we caught up with Wonder for an interview.

1. What are your thoughts on the season?
It's tough man, real tough. To go from being one of the main guys to a scrub, it really sucks. It's a real struggle right now.

2. How would you describe your relationship with Jestor, the GM?
What relationship? That fugly asshole doesn't hardly ever talk to anyone. He just sits there like some fat ass toad during practices, doesn't say shit, just sits. Sometimes he takes notes or whatever, but he's an ass. The only person he says much to is Aleks Maric and that whole bromance thing they got going on is disgusting. They're all cracking jokes back and forth and shit after practice. But I guess it makes sense. I mean Maric's a Herman Munster looking ass and Jestor looks like one of those homeless winos you want to kick in the balls when you see them staggering down the street.

Aleks Maric and Herman Munster - long lost brothers?

And I'll tell you another thing. Everybody talks about how Mr. Senberg is a shark, but Jestor's a god damned snake in the grass. He comes at you all smiles and praise, gives you a fancy ass nickname and shit, tells you how great you are, and then he turns on you. I'm sick of him and his bullshit.

And you know what I'm really sick of? How everybody around here acts like Maric shits rainbows and pisses euros or whatever they use over in Serbia-Australia. It's like what the fuck, man? Dude isn't even one of the top 5 centers in the league. He's barely even in the top 10.

3. Do you feel like you get along better with Darington Hobson, your replacement in the lineup?
Honestly, yeah. I love going up against him in practice. He's got this big body that he uses so damn well and he knows how to find the boards. Those jackass scouts say he's so terrible at defense, but his wingspan is just ridiculous and he makes you earn every bucket you make.

We've actually gotten to be pretty good friends despite all the BS around us. He was all talking yesterday about how he loved what (Lee) Cummard did with the Bulls, signing for a lot less to help the team out. He said he wants to do the same thing, but I hope he's not with this shit organization when he does. Hobs deserves better than that. It could happen, I mean, Old Snake turns on people so I'd bet money he'll turn on Hobs, too.

4. Sounds like you really want to get out. Where would you most like to go?
I'd love to go to Orlando. Erick Senberg is the best GM in the whole damn league and I'd love the chance to kick Miami's ass in the whole stupid "Florida Wars" thing. Phoenix would be really awesome too, playing for the GDOAT (Ed. Note: Greatest Donkey Of All Time). He's won so many rings and I feel like my scoring would help them out a ton. But now that I said that, they'll probably trade me to some basketball hell, like Denver or Atlanta or something.

Phoenix Suns GM Donkey33 instructs Micah Downs on the finer points of the Donkey Utopia system style of defense

Player of the Game Performance Says It All

Aleks Maric let his play do the talking

A day after Willie "Wonder" Warren ripped his team's GM and Aleks Maric to the media, the Miami Heat's star center coolly won Player of the Game in a 113-100 road win over the Golden State Warriors, netting 22 points and 9 rebounds. He'll also be doing some laps at practice tomorrow, though, thanks to 4 turnovers.

Maric was aided in the victory by Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson, who overcame another poor 6 of 16 shooting night by connecting consistently at the free throw line, finishing with 20 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals and a turnover while holding Demetrius Nichols to just 1 of 7 shots from 3 point range, 4 for 11 overall.

Tasmin Mitchell played brilliantly off the bench, hitting 6 of 7 attempts for 13 points, 3 rebounds and 3 steals, and Solomon Alabi finally started looking comfortable with his expanded minutes, producing 12 points, 6 rebounds, a steal and 2 blocks.

All Maric would say after the game is, "Serbia uses the dinar. Australia uses the dollar. They're not one country, and neither one uses the euro."

Warren was once again a coaches' DNP while rumors of his being traded continue to run up, with some reports linking him to Miami's archrival Orlando, others to Phoenix, and yet more to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Other Trade News
Sources have let it slip that the Miami Heat will in fact be involved in a Day 90/Feb. 1st deal. According to insiders, it will be a move that addresses the team's 3 point shooting woes and the front office is very pleased with the acquisition.

NLL Scholar Identifies Four Main Types Of GMs

No doubt GM office spaces are as varied as their owners

NLL observer and scholar Jackson Ayorinde, known for his commentary on the Miami Heat and his breakdown of the Chicago School and Detroit Group philosophies, recently noticed that the GMs of the league could be broken down into four basic types when it came to their preferred methodology of making a successful team. He scanned the histories of the NLL's GMs and selected two or three GMs who are most known to be representative for each type.

Jackson Ayorinde's Report
I want to stress first and foremost that every GM has at least some of all four types in them, and the most successful can arguably appear in more than one category as representative figures. But what I sought to accomplish in this study was to not only present the types, but select GMs I thought had well established themselves as iconic figures. To ensure as many people appeared as possible, I decided that a GM was only eligible for spotlight for one type.

The Drafter

Scenes such as these are common for the Draft Moguls
The Drafters are the GMs who not only prefer to construct their teams through the draft, they're exceptionally good at it. These are the guys that know how to scout exceptionally well and maneuver themselves to get not only the players that best fit their system, but the outright steals that everyone else misses. They can dazzle you with a minute breakdown of every player they expect to be in their range and the hidden gems that their opponents will completely overlook. Sure they'll have the occasional miss; everyone does. But these guys will be right more often than not, and every rebuilding/retooling team in the league would absolutely love to have one of these guys heading their front office.
Representative GMs: suhgamer, Jinkymagic

suhgamer gets on this list just by virtue of having nailed the Manu Steal of the Draft two years in a row. The fact that he's doing an excellent job slowly rebuilding the Grizzlies despite not having his pick last year further affirms his shrewdness.

Jinkymagic may have groused about missing Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson, but he hit a home run with the selections of James Keefe and Samardo Samuels. And lest anyone argue with the other picks the Pacers made in the last draft, I have two words and a number for you. Matt Bouldin. #49.

The Financial Expert

Money-smart guys can put their teams in brilliant position to dominate free agency
The Financial Expert can give you a line by line breakdown of their team's balance sheet and cap situation for this season, next season, and five years down the line. They track the free agent classes long before anyone else does and can tell you what any given year's crop quality is likely to be. They gameplan around the stellar classes and sit tight during the weak years. Free agency may be a gamble, but these guys are the ones who know how to stack the deck in their favor.
Representative GMs: None yet, but IndyNate, Skyline, and Stockton12 might all qualify

It's a brand new league with the death of the Player Agency monopolies, the forthcoming suppressing of the cap, and the new in-season extension rules. The Financial Expert, although he hasn't fully materialized yet, has three likely possibilities in the Lakers, Timberwolves, and Warriors.

IndyNate is sitting on $14 million in cap space right now. Gilbert Arenas ($20 million) and Johan Petro ($5.5 million) are due off the books this season. If Marcus Williams declines his PO, that's another $5.8 million.

Nobody talks much about the Timberwolves as a free agency player, but Minnesota already has $24.8 million in cap space and has Marvin Williams' $15 million expiring contract. There's little question that they and the Lakers will control the free agency board.

Then there's the Golden State Warriors, who at first blush don't look like a possibility. But they have Dirk Nowitzki's $15 million expiring contract and a handful of other expirings. They're also, according to rumors, actively working to free up even more space.

Note: The Utah Jazz have $23 million in cap space but they also have no major expiring contracts and just recently signed Pops Mensah-Bonsu to a contract extension that will cut significantly into their number.

3. The Tactician

Understanding Xs and Os helps you win championships
Pray you never face this guy's team in the playoffs. They will out-matchup and out-strategize you 9 times out of 10 and have you hoping you have a good enough talent advantage to pull out the victory. In short, anything the Tactician doesn't know about the game of basketball isn't worth knowing, and although everyone is still adjusting to the new NLL rules of play, these guys will crack the system long before anyone else. Heck, they could write a doctoral dissertation on basketball strategy.
Representative GMs: mgtr81, NBAFanatic329

mgtr81 founded the Chicago School and is the NLL's Rookie Commissar. He singlehandedly turned the tide in the league away from defense-obsessed to featuring some offense-based teams. Yes, the Bulls are still figuring things out, and yes, Chicago has yet to make it even to the East Conference Finals, but the prevailing opinion around the league is that Da Bulls will be deep in the playoffs sooner rather than later.

NBAFanatic329 was the last guy before MiniShaq to win a non-Detroit ring, ironically with the Bulls. He took over a horrible situation in Orlando and in the matter of a few seasons has positioned them as one of the up and coming East powers. Credit his game day understanding to much of that success.

The Trader

There's probably at least one Trader GM's office that looks like this
Last but not least, the Trader GM. These guys can give you a three hour lecture on the strengths, weaknesses, and approximate value, both current and future, of their teams, their players, and their picks. Then they can spend another three hours each doing the same thing with each franchise in the league. This acute understanding of asset value has them winning a lot of trades. More importantly, even when they make the occasional bad deal (see The Drafter for a parallel), Trader GMs have a way of reversing it. They also often have a system they stick to.
Representative GMs: Donkey33, Jestor, knightdemon

Donkey33 built the Detroit dynasty with a series of shrewd trades that were originally questioned, but later revealed to be brilliant. My own personal favorite? The one where he acquired Andrei Kirilenko. Although the historical records of that transaction and others of the Pistons era were lost in a fire, NLL oldtimers credit it as one of the biggest and best deals the donkey made. Now he's doing the same thing in Phoenix, with the Joakim Noah/Hamed Haddadi blockbuster perhaps his best work in his brief time in the desert.

Jestor's portfolio is largely built on the Stanley Robinson/Chris Paul main piece blockbuster and the Monty Myles/Aleks Maric trade in which he reversed an earlier Myles disaster. Less monumental, but still important as a demonstration of the kind of small trade with bigger results that Trader GMs specialize in, the Jarrett Jack for a 2015 2nd trade he made last year. 27 win team without its pick when he arrived in South Beach. Now second place in the Southeast in his third season.

knightdemon flew under the radar in terms of GM reputation for a good number of years, but he exploded on the scene with the now stunning and infamous B.J. Mullens/Tim Duncan centerpiece trade. Although that alone would give the Bobcats GM consideration, like his Southeast rival, he turned a bad decision (Choosing Emeka Okafor over Kevin Love) into a good one by flipping Okafor and a couple other pieces for Amar'e Stoudemire. End result? The Bobcats are now one of the prohibitive favorites to win the East and with it the NLL championship this season.

Trade Will Puzzle League

Willie "Wonder" Warren says, 'Yes! I'm GTFO here!'

Moles within Miami's front office leaked it this morning that the team has found a deal for Willie "Wonder" Warren, signaling the end of what quickly turned into an acrimonious relationship between the second year guard and the organization.

One source said, "It's going to be one of those deals where people will shake their heads at Miami and say they didn't get full value or they could have offered better, but let's face it. He's been on the block for months, we've had discussions with lots of teams, and the reality of it was, this was the best deal anyone was going to put forth."

Another person admitted to there being some uncertainty in both front offices.

"We've got guys here in South Beach who aren't really happy with the deal and they've got guys in their office going you know, this doesn't really make that much sense for us, but the two GMs have agreed to the swap and so it will happen."

A third commenter said that although both sides have their in-house detractors pointing out the risks in the agreement, the trade does address needs for both franchises involved.

Explained the third individual, "As a sportswriter in Dallas said, everybody was pretty much in the cash-in mode and not looking for a need for need deal. Even if Miami's not getting full value here, it does address areas of concern and gives us much more flexibility in the offseason."

Two Confirmed Trades May Grow To Four In Overhaul

Chris Paul will not be among those moving

Sources say Miami Heat GM Jestor locked himself in his office with his cell phone and a bottle of wine this morning and rumors are going around team offices that in addition to the two confirmed deals, they're very close to a third deal and are mulling a fourth.

Said one official, "Realistically we don't see that fourth deal happening. We're having second thoughts about it as it would represent too radical a shift on our team, one that would probably hurt our chances at a title this season. We offered a less dramatic deal, but the opposing team wasn't interested in the main player we offered, which we found rather shocking."

Deal one is a confirmed sending of Willie "Wonder" Warren for a solid young big man that sources say will address a weakness on the reserves. Deal two involves a player who will improve Miami's 3 point shooting issues. Sources would not talk about deal three or deal four, save to say that the third deal, the most likely, is a bench move, and that the fourth was not really worth of discussion at this time.

"Essentially, we may or may not get a new starter out of these deals. But what this is really about is improving our overall strength and depth as a team as we challenge for the title this season," the official said. "And with these smaller moves we've orchestrated, we're officially going for it this year. That means Chris Paul is off the table."

And Then There Were Two, Jack On The Block

Jarrett Jack has grown increasingly unhappy in Miami

The first news to send shockwaves throughout South Florida was that the Miami Heat have pulled out of one of their Feb. 1st trades. According to organization sources, the team intended to follow through, but the other side offered to let the Heat walk away, saying they were surprised Miami even inquired about the player. Miami's front office thought about it and decided it was in their best interests to withdraw. They thanked the opposing team for their understanding and no lasting negative impact is expected between the two front offices.

Insiders also stated that the Heat are still debating over a potential deal involving Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson, trying to decide whether the player that would be coming back fits what their team needs, both now and in the future.

Nor does this look to be the final summary of Miami's projected deals. They're said to be calling teams around the league, seeing who is available of a certain type of player for their bench. Scouts have been working overtime visiting games and reviewing tape of many potential targets around the league for that spot.

The second stunner came when it leaked that Jarrett Jack, the team's most accurate perimeter shooter and an excellent two way player, is on the trade block. The gossip mill says that Jack has been deeply and vocally regretting his decision to re-sign with the Heat rather than go to the Charlotte Bobcats, making him the second player in as many weeks to pine for a Southeast rival after Willie "Wonder" Warren told the media of his longing to play in Orlando.

Matters apparently came to a head after the Heat's hardscrabble road win over the Portland Trailblazers, when Jack reportedly said he didn't think Miami had any chance of catching Charlotte for the Southeast title. Solomon Alabi took exception to that opinion and the two got into a shouting match, ending with the 6'3 Jack stepping up to the 7'1 Alabi and daring him to take a punch. Alabi then backhanded Jack into a locker with ease and said, "Pipe down, little man. You're too old to be starting (expletive) with me."

Some have also privately suggested that the impending chaos surrounding the February 1st trades have led to a worsened climate in the locker room and a few wondered whether Nate McMillan will have the ability to keep control of the team.

"It's a tough situation for them," said a person affiliated with the Heat. "Either they have to say ride or die, or they have to give up one of their top backcourt shooters who can defend, too. Both options carry some serious risks, so it'll be interesting to see what the front office does."

***

Context Notes
Things are about to get cray-cray up in South Beach. That's all I can say.

Izulde · 10-23-2013, 09:03 PM

Izulde · 10-23-2013, 09:05 PM

And Then There Were Two, Jack On The Block

Jarrett Jack has grown increasingly unhappy in Miami

The first news to send shockwaves throughout South Florida was that the Miami Heat have pulled out of one of their Feb. 1st trades. According to organization sources, the team intended to follow through, but the other side offered to let the Heat walk away, saying they were surprised Miami even inquired about the player. Miami's front office thought about it and decided it was in their best interests to withdraw. They thanked the opposing team for their understanding and no lasting negative impact is expected between the two front offices.

Insiders also stated that the Heat are still debating over a potential deal involving Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson, trying to decide whether the player that would be coming back fits what their team needs, both now and in the future.

Nor does this look to be the final summary of Miami's projected deals. They're said to be calling teams around the league, seeing who is available of a certain type of player for their bench. Scouts have been working overtime visiting games and reviewing tape of many potential targets around the league for that spot.

The second stunner came when it leaked that Jarrett Jack, the team's most accurate perimeter shooter and an excellent two way player, is on the trade block. The gossip mill says that Jack has been deeply and vocally regretting his decision to re-sign with the Heat rather than go to the Charlotte Bobcats, making him the second player in as many weeks to pine for a Southeast rival after Willie "Wonder" Warren told the media of his longing to play in Orlando.

Matters apparently came to a head after the Heat's hardscrabble road win over the Portland Trailblazers, when Jack reportedly said he didn't think Miami had any chance of catching Charlotte for the Southeast title. Solomon Alabi took exception to that opinion and the two got into a shouting match, ending with the 6'3 Jack stepping up to the 7'1 Alabi and daring him to take a punch. Alabi then backhanded Jack into a locker with ease and said, "Pipe down, little man. You're too old to be starting (expletive) with me."

Some have also privately suggested that the impending chaos surrounding the February 1st trades have led to a worsened climate in the locker room and a few wondered whether Nate McMillan will have the ability to keep control of the team.

"It's a tough situation for them," said a person affiliated with the Heat. "Either they have to say ride or die, or they have to give up one of their top backcourt shooters who can defend, too. Both options carry some serious risks, so it'll be interesting to see what the front office does."

Part I of Miami's February Moves: At Long Last, Webster Reunites With Old GM

If Miami Heat GM Jestor was a black woman, this might well be the reunion embrace

Once upon a time, years ago, there was a GM named Jestor who joined the Orlando Magic. He saw a young player he really liked by the name of Martell "Webby" Webster. He decided Webby would be an excellent fit for his team, so he acquired him (Ed. Note - Historical records were not available at press time). Some were skeptical of the trade, but Jestor vehemently defended Webby to all and sundry, deeming him a quality young player.

After a brief while, Jestor left, and the new Magic GM, Erick Senberg, banished Webby. Jestor was heartbroken to hear of the news, but stayed out of NLL Land to pursue other ventures.

Then, one day, Jestor came back to the NLL, accepting the post with the Miami Heat. He longed to have Webby back with him, but the nefarious New Orleans GM, Duncan Limosani, repeatedly refused the earnest Jestor's overtures.

Two summers ago, Webby was a free man filled with agency, able to go anywhere he wished. He waited and waited for his old GM to call, but Jestor had eyes for Shawn Marion, a prized player who shared school ties with the Heat GM. Marion stayed home and Webby reluctantly agreed to re-sign with his old team and by the time Jestor had the money to call Webby, it was already too late.

Fast forward to this year. Bigsmooth, the new Hornets GM and Jestor started talking. Biggy wanted Solomon Alabi, Jestor wanted Webby. But trade restrictions were involved because of money and so they agreed to wait. Then Bigsmooth was fired and Sheirababu (Ed. Note - We apologize for the spelling error. We're also writing other articles and have a long night ahead of us).

This new, new Hornets GM and Jestor talked. Again Alabi for Webby came up, but Jestor wanted more because he knew Solomon's value. The Hornets refused to add a late first round pick to the deal, so talks broke down.

Then it came very close to February 1st, the day restrictions died. Jestor came to New Orleans and offered a very big deal involving Carlos Boozer and Webby was part of the return. The Hornets said sorry, Webby is going elsewhere.

Crushed, Jestor asked where. Utah was the answer. Being surrounded by Mormons was a fate worse than death, so Jestor frantically contacted the Jazz to ask about Webby. The Jazz asked what would be offered. Jestor bit his lip and sacrificed Will Conroy, one of his discovered players to have Webby come home.

Everyone agreed and so player and GM were joyously reunited, hugging tightly in Miami's major airport to the applause of Heat fans.

****

Now for the basketball side of the story. The Miami Heat have had a problem with three point shooting this season, a skill Webster has shown considerable acumen at in previous seasons. Although Jestor declined to say if Webster would supplant Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson as the starter at SG, it's believed Webster will see considerable minutes.

Will Conroy did exceptionally well as Chris Paul's backup

This past offseason, Miami targeted Will Conroy as Chris Paul's backup and gave him a lucrative two year, $7 million contract. Although an overpay, the pass-first point guard flourished in the Jestorball system, finding his shooting stroke after some initial struggles and posting an excellent A/TO ratio and drive stop rate.

He should figure in Utah's point guard rotation and will prove an extremely valuable asset if the Jazz give him the chance.

Most important about this move? It set off the shocking third trade that no one, not even Jestor, saw coming.

Part II of Miami's February Moves: Warren, First Out; Dozier, Two Firsts In

Robert Dozier is giddy about playing for the Heat

The second of the Heat's February 1st deals sent malcontented Willie "Wonder" Warren and the Phoenix Suns 2016 1st to the Suns for Robert Dozier and the Suns' 2015 and 2017 1st round picks. Although lacking in the emotional content of the Martell "Webby" Webster trade or the sheer mind-boggling quality of the Jameer Nelson deal, it nonetheless ranks as an important move for Miami.

Dozier brings more rebounding, defense, and blocking to the Heat, something GM Jestor and the front office felt the team lacked, even with Carlos Boozer's boarding skills and Solomon Alabi's somewhat similar profile.

"This was an offer we had on the table for a long time," Jestor said at the press conference announcing the deal. "We held off on it while we investigate Willie Warren's other possibilities around the league. We quickly realized that Wonder's trade value was not wonderful at all. In fact, it had dropped lower than a teenager's baggy pants. So we went back to this trade as one that would help us, both now and in the future, and a source of value."

According to organization insiders, the Heat plan to use Dozier as Boozer's primary backup and explore interesting combinations with Alabi. In fact, one source commented that the Heat might consider "running a Dozier/Alabi train on guys like B.J. Mullens, Kosta Koufos, and Cole Aldrich."

And so Willie "Wonder" Warren's wild ride in South Beach comes to a close

By now, readers are quite familiar with the saga of Willie "Wonder" Warren and the Miami Heat, from its enthusiastic inception to its acrimonious conclusion. More of that need not be said. But what is important to note is that Warren will provide Phoenix with that explosive scoring burst they need to pair alongside James Johnson. Will he need work and time to heal from his South Florida wounds? Yes. Will he be determined to prove Jestor was wrong to trade him? Absolutely.

But this is a trade that can not truly be measured immediately. Its effect will only be spun out over the course of a few seasons, after Warren has developed and after we have seen what these first round selections have metamorphosed into.

Part II of Miami's February Moves: Heat Send Bench, High 2nd For Nelson, Low 2nd

Some say Miami Heat GM Jestor's favorite Dostoesvsky novel inspired the stunning three way trade

From four to three to two. Two then became three as a result of a shocking three way trade between the Heat, Golden State, and Dallas, an exchange concocted late at night after the posting restriction was lifted. It represents Miami's biggest gamble yet, a roll of the dice that will either end brilliantly or in total disaster.

In the deal, the Heat sent out all of their remaining bench players with the exception of front office favorite Tasmin Mitchell and big man Solomon Alabi along with the Denver Nuggets 2nd round pick in the upcoming draft. In exchange, Miami received Jameer Nelson and completed the Sun collection for the 2015 season by landing Phoenix's 2nd round pick.

Miami, meet your new backup point guard, Jameer Nelson

So why all this spending of assets (other than the obvious need for salary cap matching) for a backup? Yes, Miami needed a new reserve point guard after trading Will Conroy for Martell "Webby" Webster, but far cheaper options were available, such as Boston's Jordan Farmar, Milwaukee's Reece Gaines, and New York's Ty Lawson, just to name a few of the rumored available floor generals in the East.

The answer lies in Jestor's statement, sometimes heard publicly, but more often heard privately. The quote goes something like this:

"I believe there are two criminally underrated floor generals in this league. T.J. Ford is one. Jameer Nelson is the other."

Although Miami attempted to grab Ford in last year's free agency, the Charlotte Bobcats beat the Heat to the punch and much of their success can be attributed to having that new man to run the offense. Now it's Nelson's turn to join the Southeast, carrying his terrific 3.7 A/TO ratio, the good sense to defer to better scorers, and a respectable 74.7% drive stop rate and 0.9 PA/SF faced with him.

There's quite clearly no chance he supplants Chris Paul as the starting point guard during the regular season, but how differently might have the Detroit series gone last year if it was Nelson at the point instead of Willie "Wonder" Warren, who isn't nearly as gifted a passer?

Yet, the need to fill a void and a high esteem for Nelson weren't the only reasons for the trade. There's also the fact of his expiring $6.67 million contract and something else that will become clear after reviewing the other assets of the trade.

The View From Dallas

Andris Biedrins will be playing with his balls in Dallas

But even with all this lurking in the background, the trade talks didn't really start until Jestor told his Dallas counterpart, Billy Bucket, that he wished there was a way they could figure out a deal around Nelson without having to have Darrell Arthur involved. Mr. Bucket proved amiable to a trade within certain parameters, much to South Beach's shock.

Miami immediately put together a package and sent it over to Dallas for consideration. Initially all four of the Heat players were to go to the Mavericks, which posed a problem (more on the resolution a bit later), but in the end, the Big D is getting the biggest man in the trade, Andris Biedrins, along with Team Nigeria member Gabe Muoneke and the Raptors 2016 2nd.

Although most will cite Toronto's 2nd as the most valuable part of the deal, as the Atlantic is so weak year in and year out, virtually any of the division's teams can make enough moves to take the title, Biedrins bears value. He's a consummate professional, the kind of third string big man who's quite handy in case of injuries. But with Miami acquiring Robert Dozier from the Suns for Willie "Wonder" Warren, suddenly Biedrins became expendable.

As for Muoneke, after initial offseason chatter that he might take the Jamario Moon role under now retired Heat head coach Eric Musselman's system, he instead bombed in preseason and found himself quickly buried behind Arthur, Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson, and Mitchell, left to collect dust. He might actually see use in Dallas, or the Mavericks may just call up Jeremy "Hazelnut" Hazell, Hobson's closest friend in the NLL, to provide firepower off the bench.

Yet, this trade might not have even entered the talks stage were it not for Chris Quinn arriving from the Golden State Warriors in a previously agreed to trade. This would set the stage for the Warriors' ironic entry into the discussions.

On The Golden State Beaches

Jarrett Jack is just happy to get out of Miami after his recent altercation with Alabi

So there Miami and Dallas sat, trying to figure out a way to resolve the problems of a 4 for 1 swap. Along came the Golden State Warriors, fresh from their trade with the Mavericks, offering to serve as the intermediary in a three way deal.

And then, as one source put it, they played their hand "flawlessly." Golden State determined from the outset that valuable two-way reserve Jarrett Jack was their only target of interest from the Heat and zeroed in on him. Dallas was fine with this and the talks continued. And then stopped.

For although the Warriors liked Jack, they wanted nothing to do with Jodie Meeks, the other piece in the trade. Miami, sensing the deal falling apart, talked Golden State into accepting Meeks, but then the Warriors didn't want to trade out the Raptors 2016 2nd, given the shallowness of the Atlantic, without getting an equal value or better second round pick in return.

Eventually, the revealed three way was worked out as a compromise. A person close to the talks said, "The Warriors did this brilliantly. They knew they were in the position of kingmaker and used that to their full advantage. Very well played."

Fitting, too, given that after Stockton12's miracle playoff run with the Suns one of his final seasons in Phoenix, Jestor wrote an article highlighting the GM's accomplishments and arguing that Stockton was one of the most underrated GMs in the league.

True words it seems, following this deal, and of course, the Alexis Ajinca trade that signaled the beginning of the end of Cleveland's promising dynasty under Taber even before it had a chance to begin.

Heat fans can only hope Jestor is as prophetic about Nelson as he was about Ford and Stockton.

The Final Reason
But overlooked in what no doubt will be shouts of overpaying is the following: Jack and Meeks were the most miserable players on the Miami Heat. Jack didn't get along with new head coach Nate McMillan from the start and things only got worse as the year wore on. Meeks was extremely unhappy about being cast to the garbage bin after starting Miami's first few games.

And then the blowup between Jack and Alabi happened. And then McMillan and the coaching staff noticed something that set off alarm bells.

Chris Paul was starting to become unhappy with the drama.

Everyone in Miami knew they couldn't risk CP3's misery, so in one fell swoop, the Heat shuttled the malcontents out in hopes of restoring their franchise face's total and complete happiness before free agency.

Part IV of Miami's Feb. 1st Moves: Boozer, 1st, 2nd For Brand In Big Man Swap

It'll be Elton "Battering Ram" Brand manning the PF spot for Miami

Just when you thought it was over, that the Miami Heat had cashed in all their chips and were done, they played one final card, a move so smooth and so fast in its execution, it set speed records and took the NLL completely aback.

Mere seconds after the Memphis Grizzlies announced for the thousandth time in two seasons that big man Elton Brand was on the block, suhgamer received a call from Heat GM Jestor asking if the Grizzlies were interested in Carlos Boozer. Memphis, as Miami already anticipated, and indeed, would have asked themselves if the roles were reversed wanted compensation for the extra year on Boozer's deal, but were open to the idea.

Since the two GMs were already on the same page, coming to a conclusion and agreement proved strikingly swift. For the Grizzlies, they finally got another first round pick for Brand to add to Drafter suhgamer's stable and the poetry of owning Phoenix's 2015 set of picks. They also get a player who's very similar to Brand in many ways and ensure that Renardo Sidney will continue to have a veteran mentor as Memphis tries to improve their record next season and push for a playoff spot.

As for Miami, they get a new power forward that one front office official admiringly called, "a (expletive) battering ram" in the post. Indeed, the description seems apt, for Brand is exceptional at drawing fouls, and only Dejuan Blair is in his class at crashing the offensive glass. Although not nearly as good on the defensive end, particularly in comparison to Boozer, the Heat have Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson and the incoming Robert Dozier to make up for Boozer's loss on that end.

But that's not all Battering Ram Brand brings. Some within the organization believed that Boozer was too soft on defense and indeed, the metrics seem to support that argument (40% drive stop rate, 1.1 PA/SF). Brand's numbers on the same metrics? 60%, and most importantly, 0.8 PA/SF. Then there's blocking - Carlos Boozer has not recorded a single block this season. His career high is 53 - Brand has 50 through 41 games

Even in shooting percentage, Brand's 61.8% tops Boozer's career high 51.1%, and few in Miami's front office have forgotten, much less forgiven Boozer's stunning 33.9% shooting implosion in last year's postseason, a mortal sin for a big man under Jestorball. Of course, in full fairness, it must be said that the Booze's overall playoff career record is decidedly better than Brand's in terms of shooting profile.

What about turnovers? 1.5 per game for Brand, 1.1 for Boozer. 0.9 A/TO ratio, 1.4 A/TO ratio for Boozer. By the numbers it favors Boozer, but one Miami insider said, "We're essentially treating it as even for now. After all, our system tends to produce lower turnover rates and higher A/TO ratios than others, just by the emphasis we place on passing and ballhandling."

The Other Side of the Coin
So although Boozer has the advantage in defensive rebounding and is close enough to Brand in other areas that one could perhaps argue an equality in talent level if the receiving team is defensive boarding needy, what really made Miami surrender the picks after a moment's consideration and Jestor's talking with his closest advisor is this:

Remember the big gamble that landed Jameer Nelson's $6.67 million expiring contract? Take that number and add Brand's $20 million expiring contract to it. That's a hair over $26 million coming off the books. Even figuring Miami's current $2.6 million and change over the cap, which will rise with the arrival of Nelson, Martell "Webby" Webster, and Robert Dozier, and even with Aleks Maric's $9 million pay increase and other assorted raises, Miami should still be somewhere around $11 million under the cap in free agency

And that's with resigning Chris Paul to a maximum deal.

Chris Paul, plus Miami's holdover pieces plus $11 million in cap space. Enough to make themselves free agency players a year ahead of schedule, in what many are calling one of the richest free agency classes in NLL history.

Now, there's no guarantee the Heat will join in the free agent fray. But now they have the opportunity to do so rather than be forced to wait until next season for Stephen Curry's class in what, at first blush, looks to be a much weaker crop.

In any case, they're thrilled in South Beach, believing they've found the final piece to their championship puzzle for this season.

And in the end, the pursuit of the ring is what matters most.

Edit: An Addendum

Carlos Boozer is stunned he's finally dealt

We would be remiss if we didn't trace the history of Carlos Boozer's Miami career. He joined in the Shawn Marion free agency offseason, as the Heat jumped on the chance to have an upgrade over Jon Brockman at PF, who they simply didn't trust after watching him shoot brick after brick the year before.

In addition, because Boozer came with an expensive three year contract, they got the Suns 2016 1st from Stockton12 in exchange for expirings and other pieces. You know, the same 2016 1st that was used to acquire Robert Dozier and Phoenix's 2015 and 2017 1sts? And the same Stockton12 that just played Dallas and Miami like fiddles in a three way?

The Booze performed well his first year in Miami, elevating a Heat team that many projected to be bottom-dwellers in the Southeast to a playoff spot. Although Miami swept the 76ers in spite of Boozer rather than because of him, without his presence, the Heat don't go to the postseason.

This season, he continued his role as the third star in Miami's Three Star system alongside Chris Paul and Aleks Maric, even as he was beset by trade rumors almost from the beginning of the season. Numerous teams kicked around the idea of adding Boozer early in the year. Then talks cooled off, only to be revived again when the Sacramento Kings inquired after his shorter deal. But those discussions, too, dwindled, until this rapid-fire negotiation faster than anyone in the league could blink.

Izulde · 10-23-2013, 09:06 PM

Part V of Miami's Feb. 1st Moves: Three Veteran Free Agents Fill The Roster

Luke Jackson rushed out and bought a Miami Heat jersey the moment he got the call

The rush of trades all approved for the new-look Miami Heat left them with the minimum 12 players. Clearly, this was not a situation that would do, for it left South Beach prone to injury devastation. Enter three players with very curious connections in one way or another to the Heat - Luke Jackson, Reyshawn Terry, and Rafael Araujo.

Although Jackson's contract has yet to be officially signed, he may well be the most important of the three pickups. The Miami Heat bolstered their 3 point shooting by acquiring Jestor ultra-favorite Martell "Webby" Webster, but the front office felt that wasn't quite enough, either in terms of perimeter shooters or 3 point threats.

And so Jackson was called. The 33 year old last played for the archrival Orlando Magic and has a long and storied history in his 10 year professional career as a 3 point specialist. Most importantly from Miami's perspective, whose front office places a premium on tournament games for rookies and the postseason for NLL players, the 6'7, 223 lbs swingman has an established track record in the playoffs, including an impressive 42% career postseason 3 point shooting mark.

Reyshawn Terry reacts: "Jestor wants *me* to play for him again?! Okay!"

Speaking of Orlando, as we all know, once upon a time Jestor was the GM of the Magic and at that time Reyshawn Terry was on the team. Terry proved himself an acceptable, if indistinguishable starter before he was sent to the New York Knicks in the Kobe Bryant trade. Now he returns to the Heat after having acquitted himself well in the D-League, including a 42.1% 3 point shooting mark.

However, Terry is not expected to break into Miami's rotation. He had trouble stopping drives even in the minors and with Tasmin Mitchell both a front office favorite and an effective defender, Terry will merely be quality third string/injury insurance.

Rafael Araujo and Deron Williams celebrated their new teams together last night

Finally there's Rafael Araujo. Although holding none of the Orlando/Old Jestor ties that other newcomers Webster, Jackson, and Terry do, Araujo was the starting center when Jestor first showed up in South Florida. The 34 year old was not re-signed and allowed to walk as a free agent.

And yet, here the BYU alum is again, joining UNLV-ties Jestor and Marcus Banks and New Mexico graduate Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson to form a surprising little group of Mountain West affiliates. (Ed. Note: Jestor also went to the University of Wyoming for a semester as an undergraduate).

Araujo was able to accomplish this feat by being the most well-rounded big man on the street, fighting his way back to an NLL paycheck with a solid showing as a D-League reserve, including a 52.1% shooting mark.

There's also this, as Jackson Ayorinde noted in his most recent article on the Heat's dizzying extreme makeover:

Quote:

I can think of no greater sign of the work that Jestor has done with the Heat in two and a half seasons than this: Araujo, the starting center when Jestor set up shop, is now an injuries only third/fourth string big man.

Part VI of Miami's Feb. 1st Moves: Three Almost-Trades Could Have Changed Everything

Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson nearly found himself hustling for another team

Equally important as the moves the Miami Heat made in their transformation ad the ones that almost happened, but didn't for one reason or another. Here's a look at three deals that were, according to some in the Heat organization, close to happening.

Deal #1 - Gabe Muoneke + Nuggets 2nd to Indiana for Devin Harris, Spurs 2nd, Pacers 2017 2nd

Devin Harris was verbally committed to join his fellow Badger State native in Miami

The first one is the infamous Clerical Error Deal. Miami made an agreement with the Pacers to bring in Harris, who went to college in Jestor's home state of Wisconsin (Jestor himself received his undergraduate from Wisconsin-La Crosse, the #2 overall school in the UW system).

What happened was that a scout wrote down Harris's then 3.3 TOs per game as a 3.3 A/TO ratio. By the time the front office discovered the mistake, the deal was already struck. Jestor then called Jinkymagic to congratulate him on a trade well-executed and admitted his error.

The Pacers GM, as a previous article noted, in turn confessed his own surprise that the Heat had even inquired about Harris in the first place and graciously allowed Miami to back out, saying they didn't feel right given the verbal had been made based on bad information (for indeed, without that error, Miami never would have inquired in the first place).

What Would Have Happened Had It Gone Through
No Jameer Nelson certainly. Jarrett Jack, Jodie Meeks, and Andris Biedrins would still be playing for the Heat as of this article and none of the veterans profiled in Part V even get looked at, with the exception of perhaps Luke Jackson.

Looking further down the road, Harris likely turns the ball over to such degree that Jestor curses him out. Meeks continues being a locker room cancer and perhaps proceeds to further upset Chris Paul, leading to CP3 leaving in free agency. Jack probably still gets traded at some point. The Elton Brand deal probably still happens, but not with the lightspeed that it did.

Or, as one Miami official put it, "Jestor owes Jinky a drink or twenty. We already thought the Pacers were one of the class organizations in the league and this only raises our esteem of them. Makes us really happy that Jon Brockman is turning out so well for them."

Deal #2 - Carlos Boozer for Pavel Podzolkin and Tony Parker

Pavel Podkolzin was one of the Heat's biggest (literally) targets in the run-up to Feb. 1st

Like the Harris deal, this trade was initially prompted by Miami's scrambling to find a replacement for Will Conroy in the Martell "Webby" Webster deal. The Kings wanted Boozer's short contract, so Miami made an initial suggestion of Parker and Brad Stokes for Boozer, then after a closer look, hurriedly followed up with a Parker and Podkolzin offer instead, arguing that it was a worse contract.

Sacramento said they would think about it, as they were weighing other offers. Miami's main front office brain trust sat around and thought about it as well, and that's when one senior executive looked up and asked a critical question.

"Did we check the turnovers?"

Jestor swore and immediately run to check the stats sheet, not wanting another Harris. Sure enough, Parker's 3 turnovers a game stared up at them. The GM then grabbed his cell phone, went into his office, slammed the door and locked it.

Some minutes later, he came back out and started to speak, when his assistant GM interrupted.

"I know he's going to be a reserve and his contract is as short as Boozer's, but do we really want to pay $11 million to a backup who doesn't play our game and who you yourself have repeatedly called one of the most overrated point guards in the league? Remember, you didn't think too highly of the Bobcats getting him a year ago."

Another employee chimed in, "I agree. You already didn't want to take Stokes who you hate and think is overrated, so why take Parker? Why not try for Pods himself?"

As it turned out, the Kings had that same exact idea after the Heat called back with disinterest in Parker. But Boozer's contract was too difficult to match without including a truly horrific deal like Ben Gordon's and although Miami was willing to discuss Darrell Arthur and filler, the Kings said they had no interest in Arthur.

"That was the most incredible part of the whole thing," said the source about the meeting's conclusion. "I mean, who in this league doesn't think Kings Arthur go together? Actually, we were surprised to hear there's a front office in this league who doesn't like Arthur, period."

What Would Have Happened Had It Gone Through
There's the obvious about Elton "Battering Ram" Brand not coming to South Beach. And as the narrative suggests, the official listed deal isn't actually what would have gone down. But here's what would have:

Aleks Maric moves to PF and Podkolzin becomes the hulking behemoth the Heat have been wanting to put alongside Maric (Later turned into Brand, who some swear is so tough, he's made of pig iron).

Whatever other contract got added on Miami is forced to ride out. The Heat don't enter free agency in either of the next two seasons, but ride Maric and Podkolzin as their frontcourt for the foreseeable future. Miami still improves overall for this season, but if the Heat don't win the title with this configuration, their options for roster retooling are much more limited than under the eventual setup they construct.

Deal #3 - Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson for Kyle Singler

Kyle Singler wearing his sharpshooter glasses

Then there was this trade, the one that caused Jestor more sleepless nights, more smoked cigarettes, and more pacing than all other trades both finalized and considered combined. Every evening he would walk back and forth in his backyard and his bedroom, arguing with himself over Hobson vs. Singler.

Who was better? The physical Hobgoblin who played with swagger and toughness that made him a far better defender than scouts suggested, who contributed in the passing game and rebounding, but who was drawing some ire from the front office for his shooting woes and for his 12.0 FGA/game, second highest behind Chris Paul?

Or was it the sweet-shooting Singler, he of the Top 10 deemed talent and the 3 point gunner's mentality accompanying a 42% long range conversion rate? Put him and his 6'9 frame in at SG and have Webster as his backup and suddenly opponents would have no idea whether to go man to man or zone the Heat. Singler would also prove more than willing to defer to CP3, Aleks Maric, and Elton Brand as the primary options, unlike the Hobgoblin's aggressive approach.

But switching for Singler would come at a price. Although he was adequate on the defensive end (68.6% drive stop, 0.9 PA/SF), he was still a downgrade from Hobson's 84.7% drive stop rate (yet slightly better at PA/SF - 1.0 for Hobson). There was also the question of just how much Hobson's ability to generate steals and distribute the ball made both offense and defense more effective, and how muh of that would be lost in going with Singler.

It was a knotty debate, not finally solved for certain until Jestor looked on the street and found 3 point specialist Luke Jackson waiting for a call. That availability sealed the deal and Miami stuck with Hobson.

One source pointed out another source of worry for the GM.

"I heard Jestor mumbling the other day that he could just see Derozan ripping Singler apart and giving Orlando the win," the source said.

Part VII of Miami's Feb. 1st Moves: Heat Now Set To Challenge For The Championship

Jestor's Droid Incredible was held hostage

After the whirlwind of discussions in the last few weeks and a captivating sequence of four trades all taking place in the space of a single day, one might imagine Miami Heat GM Jestor is both tired and ready to announce his team is done.

But when we went to visit him in his office, we found his Droid Incredible in the hands of a beautiful young blonde woman who refused to hand over his phone while the GM looked on irritably from his chair.

"I have a text message," Jestor complained as the phone buzzed.

"It's your mother," replied the girl. "You can call her later from my phone."

Naturally we were very curious to learn what was going on. The blonde explained that Jestor had just learned that Al-Farouq Aminu was still on the block and Atlanta was open to dealing Austin Daye, both players Miami's front office head has long coveted, particularly Aminu.

"He said, let me call and offer the Nets Darrell Arthur. All the rest of the Chicago School hates that I'm running him at SF anyway. I told him if he did that, I was canceling our date. He still grabbed for his phone but I was quicker, so I'm not letting him have it back until the deadline passes."

We asked this daring young woman why she was so adamant.

"Because he's done a beautiful job with this team and Darrell can play both forward spots well. He's better at the four, true, but he's done just fine at the three this season. If something were to happen to Elton, then Darrell can move to the four and Darington to the three, and I won't have to listen to Jestor bitching about having to put a poor post shooter like Robert or Solomon in the starting lineup."

The girl's statement impressed us, and so while the GM glared at us all, we wrote up a composite net gains and losses of the four deals.

Miami Heat send
Andris Biedrins
Carlos Boozer
Will Conroy
Jarrett Jack
Jodie Meeks
Gabe Muoneke
Willie Warren
Phoenix Suns 2015 1st
Phoenix Suns 2016 1st
Phoenix Suns 2015 2nd
Denver Nuggets 2015 2nd

Miami Heat receive
Elton Brand
Robert Dozier
Jameer Nelson
Martell Webster
Phoenix Suns 2017 1st

Taken all together, Miami send out a starter (Boozer), two key reserves (Conroy, Jack), a promising young prospect who had lost the trust of the organization (Warren), three bench players, two projected late firsts, a very high second possibly even the first pick in the second round, and a projected late second.

In exchange, they received a major upgrade starter who figures to fit seamlessly into the Jestorball system (Brand), a second likely starter with a strong 3 point shooting record to bust a zone (Webster), more rebounding and defensive help in a young big man who coaches will work with to correct his shooting form (Dozier), a pure floor general to be the new backup PG (Nelson) and a projected late first.

Some, such as the sports columnist for the Indianapolis Star, write that the Heat will regret trading Warren. But wonder over Wonder was long since gone from Miami's rotation scheme and he was unlikely to get the playing time he needed to properly develop.

In short, the Heat did the work needed to go from possible contender to very real title threat. But it will need great diligence from the blonde beauty to keep Jestor from making one move too many, as several feared he would in swapping Darington Hobson for Kyle Singler.

The New Star Arrives

Will Elton Brand be the Ringbringer for the Heat?

Meanwhile, Elton Brand, the Heat's biggest capture, landed in Miami and was greeted by a throng of cheering fans. Brand stopped to sign autographs, smiling broadly the whole while.

"It's great to be back here. There's a different energy about this team and these fans than before. I can't wait."

His last tenure in Miami came during the reign of long-time Heat GM Dan Donovan, who acquired Brand from the Houston Rockets all the way back in 2008. Gary Chan was not available at press time to provide us the exact specifics of the deal.

At that time, the Heat were . Brand actually was not as brilliant as hoped his first half-season in Miami, putting up 19.6 points, 14.4 rebounds, 1.1 steals and 1.7 blocks, but at a surprisingly inefficient 42.8% rate. He improved marginally in the playoffs, reaching 21.8 points on 43.6% shooting, in addition to 13.8 rebounds and 1.8 blocks, as the Heat made it all the way to the East Conference Finals before falling to the Erick Senberg-led Chicago Bulls that ironically featured none other than Chris Paul and Carlos Boozer. The Bulls went on to win the championship over the Dallas Mavericks, the last non-Detroit team to win before Oklahoma City last year.

In 2009, Brand's accuracy improved (47.4%) but his scoring went down to 15.4 points a game along with 9.1 rebounds, a steal and 1.9 blocks. That shooting fell to 43%, although his scoring increased to 18.5 points, 12.8 rebounds and a staggering 2.8 blocks in the playoffs. Alas, Miami bowed out a round earlier.

That following offseason, Donovan made the confusing decision to trade Brand to the Sacramento Kings for Richard Jefferson and a second round pick. The trade was roundly criticized at the time, as most believed R-Jeff wasn't the change Miami needed to win the title, and indeed, the naysayers were correct in the end. Brand, meanwhile, flourished in Sacramento for two seasons, and led the Kings to the West Conference crown that very next year before they lost to Donkey33's Detroit dynasty.

The 2012 offseason, Brand was dealt along with Kobe Bryant to the New York Knicks in the Dwayne Wade blockbuster, as tokyojordan went all in to go for a title. The Knicks fell in the second round of the playoffs, despite quality play by Brand, and the next offseason, he was shipped to Memphis for Ty Lawson and the Grizzlies 2016 1st, which, with its Top 29 protection, is essentially Memphis's 2017 1st round selection.

He did extremely well for himself as Memphis's #1 option in his two and a half seasons there and now he comes to Miami with one goal - to finish the job left undone in 2008 and 2009, for a different GM and a more energized fanbase.

Keeping A Promise

Martell "Webby" Webster and his daughter happy to be in Miami. Notice that Webby wears a black fedora just as Heat GM Jestor does on occasion

While Brand seeks to complete a promise made years ago, that he would do whatever it took to bring the Heat a ring, Jestor is finally completing a promise to Martell "Webby" Webster, that he would make Webster an important part of his future championship pursuing team. That future is now.

Recall, if you will, this event some weeks ago. http://nllballers.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=7235

At the time, almost no one understood it, but now the leader of the group has revealed that the protest and chant was about Webster.

Drake Weatherby said, "We knew about our GM's past with Webby and we saw him just wasting away in New Orleans, not even on the active roster. We also knew the Heat were working their asses off to try and get Webby out.

So yeah, we were all talking about it one night, getting drunk and all that and we're like Yeah man, we should totally storm the team's offices and demand that they free him now. Screw waiting for February 1st, man."

Webster laughed and shook his head when told of the story.

"That's crazy man, just crazy. But it's true, you know? New Orleans is a great city and the Hornets are going in the right direction under the new GM, but it felt like a damn prison there. We weren't winning, the coaches wouldn't even look at me... I was miserable, man. So damn miserable. And then I got the call telling me about the trade. No lie, man, I cried when I found out.

I was at home when they called and my daughter asked me Daddy, why are you crying? What's wrong? I said Baby girl, Daddy's crying because he's happy. We're moving to a wonderful new city and Daddy's going to play for a great man and a great team. You'll get to see Daddy on TV. So then she starts cheering and getting excited, running off to tell my wife. My wife comes over and asks me what's going on. I tell her and -she- starts crying. We were all so happy, man. One of the best nights of my life."

Webster also said he wasn't angry about what happened in free agency two years ago when Miami never called, instead channeling everything on Shawn Marion.

"I was disappointed, yeah. But angry? No. It didn't make good basketball sense at the time. Miami had Daequan Cook, who was like one of the most improved guys in the league, and they had Willie Warren, who they were really high on. They were set at my spot and didn't need me. They really needed Shawn, though."

He went on to say that he was looking forward to teaming with the other members of the Heat and working to achieve that championship goal.

"I'm thrilled by this chance. Playing with guys like Chris Paul, Aleks Maric, Elton Brand? God, this is going to be the best time of my career."

Looking To The Future

Gazing into the crystal ball
And what of the seasons beyond? Paul, Brand, and Jameer Nelson all hit free agency this year, with CP3 and Brand already declared, although there's speculation the front office will at least check on Nelson's extension eligibility.

It's a given Paul is going to be offered the max. That's the very first thing the Heat will do and they're not going to waste time haggling over it. But the deeper question is what to do with Brand. His $20 million expiring contract, if renounced, will give Miami room to play in a deep, rich free agent class after Paul makes his decision. On the other hand, if the Heat win the championship, or come close to it, Miami might well decide to re-sign him for another season or two.

"Far too early to even think about that," one anonymous official said. "It's going to be depend on what the free agency class finally shakes out to be, how this team does the rest of the year, what we do in the draft, etc.

For now, we're just concerned with the Quest for the Ring."

A quest the Heat have a chance at succeeding in for the first time in years.

Additional Note
Although the Miami Heat expect to potentially go on a losing streak, they're 31-14 on the season. Thus, in order to reach last year's 51 win mark, they need to go 20-17 the rest of the way, just slightly over .500 basketball, a feat that seems well within reach even given the anticipated gelling time.

***

Context Notes
...Yeah. I crammed all 7 in at once. I think I posted all 7 parts in the span of like two or three days, so you get that immediate wham effect here, too.

First time I can ever remember going all-in like this. Whether or not it would work of course, had yet to be seen.

sterlingice · 10-23-2013, 09:53 PM

That's funny. I was thinking of a different Dostoyevsky novel

Brand- I get it. The Webster deal makes sense if he's someone you see something in. Jameer Nelson seems like an overpay. I still don't get the Warren trade at all. This is why it's interesting to be in a league with "traders"- if you're the right conservative team, you can take advantage of them from time to time.

SI

Izulde · 10-23-2013, 10:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sterlingice

That's funny. I was thinking of a different Dostoyevsky novel

Brand- I get it. The Webster deal makes sense if he's someone you see something in. Jameer Nelson seems like an overpay. I still don't get the Warren trade at all. This is why it's interesting to be in a league with "traders"- if you're the right conservative team, you can take advantage of them from time to time.

SI

The Idiot?

Webby was just as much for story/nostalgia purposes as anything else. He's also one of those guys who, every team he's been on, the GM has absolutely loved him.

Jameer was an overpay in terms of talent, but it was a move made as much for team chemistry sorting out as much as anything else.

As far as the Warren trade, the Suns were extremely reluctant to pull the trade at first, which is partially why it sat so long. donkey33, who went to Phoenix after a season or two hiatus when he withdrew from the league and his Detroit dynasty due to RL considerations, loves rebounding/defensive/blocking bigs and didn't want to give Dozier up.

On our end, Warren's trade value had tanked from his rookie season and given his consistency issues, I didn't see it going up anymore - only declining. When the Magic GM, who originally loved Warren as much as I did, backed off in a hurry when he saw the drop in potentials and worse shooting, doesn't even want him anymore, that's a bad sign.

So it was really a cut your losses while you can type of trade, and we really did need that post enforcer, as my teams have a bad habit of using offense-oriented bigs with great shooting and ignore the defensive end.

Izulde · 02-28-2015, 02:12 PM

Paul Happy, McMillan Restores Harmony

Now it will be up to Heat head coach Nate McMillan to prove he has championship coaching mettle

As Part III of the Heat February 1st saga noted, one of the reasons for the Jameer Nelson deal was to remove malcontents Jarrett Jack and Jodie Meeks from South Florida.

Miami's locker room was a much happier place after the exchanges were made, with the newcomers introducing themselves to the holdovers. The most encouraging sign for Heat fans was Chris Paul looking the happiest he's been in weeks.

Indeed, almost all of the issues plaguing the team are gone. The only remaining potential spot is Solomon Alabi, who a few players think overstepped the seniority laws when he flattened Jack in the argument that spelled the veteran guard's doom.

"It's all up to Nate McMillan now," NLL scholar Jackson Ayorinde noted. "Jestor and the front office have done everything possible to hand the head coach a title contending team and keep the franchise star happy so he re-signs in the offseason."

The new aura of happiness and serenity, to say nothing of the freshly made over team, will be immediately tested by a back-to-back with a road game in Toronto against the Atlantic-leading Raptors and a home game against the Pacific-leading and #2 team in the West Los Angeles Clippers.

Paul Dominates As Newcomers Adapt To Jestorball

Chris Paul was 3 point trigger happy in the two victories

All week the conversation about the new look Miami Heat was that there would be a period of adjustment and chemistry building, possibly a losing streak. If a string of defeats to come, it won't start with the Heat's first two games, a surprising sweep of proven sides in Toronto and the Los Angeles Clippers.

The away game against the Raptors was a brilliant 118-89 rout spearheaded by Chris Paul's 31 points on 11/18 shooting, including 7/12 from behind the arc. Aleks Maric doubled his way to 15 points and 11 rebounds and Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson added 12 bench points as the Heat shot a blistering 51.1%, 45.5% from downtown, and 94.7% from the charity stripe. They also won the turnover battle 9 to 13 while holding the Raptors to 37.5% shooting.

Next evening they were down in Miami before a sellout crowd, and although the win was an ugly 89-81 scoreline, it was Paul who again stepped up with 25 points to win PotG. Newcomer Elton "Battering Ram" Brand picked up an 11 point, 10 rebound double off defensive specialist Emeka Okafor and Tasmin Mitchell led the second team with a flawless 5 for 5 shooting for 11 points.

Miami's shooting in the second game looked precisely like that of a team building cohesion on the back end of a doubleheader as they bricked their way to 36.8% shooting, but were 35.7% from long range and excelled in getting to the free throw line, where their 28/40 was the decider in this close, defensive contest. They also again won the turnover fight 10 to 12 while keeping the Clippers to 38.1% shooting and 30% from 3 point land.

Martell "Webby" Webster's defense was the most surprising development among the newcomers

How did the new Heat fare?

Elton "Battering Ram" Brand
@ Raptors: 4/6 - 12 points, 7 rebounds
vs Clippers: 3/6 - 11 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists
-Didn't have explosive scoring numbers, but shot 7/12 (58.3%) and held Jarvis Varnado and Emeka Okafor to 2/7 and 2/6 respectively, a combined 4/13 (30.7%). Also had no more than 2 turnovers in either game.

Martell "Webby" Webster
@ Raptors: 5/10 - 14 points, 3 turnovers
vs Clippers: 2/8 - 8 points, 10 rebounds
-Made 3/3 from 3 point range, including two huge shots against Los Angeles, so he's already proving the three point threat the Heat needed. Most eye-opening was his holding Raptors star rookie Xavier Henry to 3 of 12 (25%) 2/5 from 3 point, and the Clippers' Kevin Martin to 5 of 18 (27.8%), 2/6 from 3 point. All told, that's 8/30 (26.7%). If he keeps that up, New Orleans will be regretting not giving him his chance before, much less trading him.

Jameer Nelson
@ Raptors: 3/5 - 7 points, 3 assists, 3 turnovers
vs Clippers: 3/13 - 8 points, 2 assists, 0 turnovers
-Nelson struggled terribly in his first two games, but the coaching staff believes it's just a matter of his getting used to Jestorball and the players around him.

Robert Dozier
@ Raptors: 1/2 - 4 points, 3 rebounds, 2 blocks
vs Clippers: 0/2 - 0 points, 6 rebounds
-Already showing boarding and blocking ability and most importantly, he didn't turn the ball over or take shots. In short, he's doing precisely what the coaching staff wants him to do, something the Heat never got out of Willie "Wonder" Warren this season.

Magic # To Last Year's 51: 18

Conroy The Best Of Former Heat

Maybe someday Will Conroy will play for the PG loving Rockets

Miami Heat GM Jestor said often in the last few days that trading Will Conroy was the most difficult thing he had to do in his team's flurry of dealings. Conroy showed his former GM wise as he played the best of Miami's one-time players in their debuts.

In Utah's 94-86 home loss to the Suns, Conroy was 5/10 for 13 points, 3 assists, 2 steals and a turnover before fouling out. He also helped hold Nevada alum Ramon Sessions to a 3/10 night and contributed to Sessions' own 5 fouls.

Others were much less successful with their new teams, the most glaring being Carlos Boozer, who was a terrible 0 for 7 in Memphis's 99-70 win over the Warriors and finished with 4 points and 5 rebounds. The next night, a 103-66 embarassment at the hands of the Mavericks, the Booze was 1/4 for 2 points and 6 rebounds, while Kevin Love torched him on 7/9 shooting.

Heralded Willie "Wonder" Warren, as reported by the Suns' front office, was 3 for 10 and 6 for 13 in Phoenix's 1-1 campaign. He also had 3 assists, a steal and a turnover in the Jazz win in addition to his 8 points, while the 14 points in the narrow loss to the Spurs came at the expense of 1 for 5 three point shooting and 3 turnovers.

Andris Biedrins had 2 points and a rebound in 5 minutes in Dallas's win, while Jarrett Jack went 1 for 4 for 3 points, a rebound, a steal and a turnover in the first game, and 1 of 4 for 2 points, a rebound, and 3 turnovers in the second game in Golden State's two losses.

Gabe Muoneke was left off the Mavericks' inactive roster, while Jodie Meeks was a DNP in both games for the Warriors.

New Heat Doing Better Than Expected

Martell "Webby" Webster has been precisely the 3 point shooting boon the Heat hoped for

After not missing a single three point attempt in his first three games, Martell "Webby" Webster finally missed. Not one, not two, but three, as he went just 1 of 4 behind the arc. No need for fear however; Webster was 6 for 12 on the night for 13 points, 3 assists, a steal and 2 turnovers as the Heat cut down the Nets 101-73 for their 8th straight victory, improving to 4-0 since the February 1st makeover.

Webster was 1/1 (Raptors), 2/2 (Clippers), and 1/1 (Spurs) from long distance before his 1/4 outing. Even with those three misfires, he's still 5/8, or 62.5%, from 3 point range and 42.8% overall since being named Miami's starting shooting guard, both major improvements over Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson's accuracy as a starter.

More surprising than Webster's success (especially on defense - 81.3% drive stop rate after being in the mid 60s during his scant New Orleans minutes this season) however is the Heat's flawless record since February 1st. The flourish of victories that doubled the win streak in place before the flurry of deals has shocked even Miami GM Jestor.

"Quite honestly, I figured we'd be maybe 2-2 and most likely 1-3 in our first four games. To take down quality teams like the Clippers and the Spurs while we're still in the gelling process is simply astounding," the GM said after the game.

With the fantastic run of form, the Heat now find themselves just 2.5 games back of the Charlotte Bobcats, whose GM, knightdemon, unexpectedly resigned recently, leading some to believe the East is even more wide open than it was before.

But what might be most significant of all is this - since those trades, Miami has now established themselves in the Top 5 in offense (#4 at 105 points a game) and defense (#5 at 95.3 points allowed a game), the only team to rank in the Top 5 in both categories. The Cleveland Cavaliers come closest, logging the #6 offense - 103.3 and the #2 defense - 92.3

Will the Heat now finally be consider a favorite in the East?

"Let's not talk about that," said Miami head coach Nate McMillan. "We've got to concentrate on Denver next, then the next opponent, then the next, and so on. It's a game by game process."

Regardless of league opinion concerning Miami, the Heat are no doubt the talk of the town. They've posted three straight sellouts in the current homestand and are reportedly the hottest ticket in South Beach.

Context Notes
I was absolutely floored by our winning streak after the trades, to go 4-0 after that flurry. Usually there seems to be a dropoff for a bit while players get adjusted to one another. Not so this one, and the early returns suggested that I'd been very wise in my decisionmaking after all.

Izulde · 03-05-2015, 02:46 PM

Alabi/Dozer Train Crashes, Discontent In Heat Locker Room

The most unusual picture of Chris Paul ever

It wasn't supposed to be like this.

Yes, Elton "Battering Ram" Brand was held out with a knee injury, but Solomon Alabi and Robert Dozier were acquired with an eye towards stopping the East's juggernaut centers like B.J. Mullens. They failed, miserably, as Mullens rampaged for 10/14 shooting and 24 points, 9 rebounds, 8 assists, a steal and 3 blocks while Dwayne Wade torched the Heat for 31 points and 3 blocks in the Bobcats' 122-91 blasting of the Heat.

But the players weren't the only things from Miami under siege. Chris Paul called out head coach Nate McMillan after the game, questioning McMillan's decision to only play CP3 13 minutes and Miami's entire starting lineup a maximum of 27 minutes.

"I don't understand it. What the hell is Coach thinking? If he keeps this up, I don't know if I want to come back here next year," fumed Paul.

McMillan defended himself by saying the game was already out of hand early and he wanted to make certain all of the Heat's key players stayed healthy, a decision that didn't sit well with Paul or Miami GM Jestor, who reportedly remarked that if McMillan proves he can't handle the locker room before the playoffs, he'll find someone who can.

The Heat's superstar wasn't the only who complained. Darrell Arthur didn't understand why he wasn't given the starting spot at PF following Brand's injury and said that Aleks Maric should have played at his natural center position, and, despite finally seeing on court action for the first time, Luke Jackson complained that he should be starting over Martell "Webby" Webster.

Jestor's response was to swiftly declare that Jackson would be cut immediately and Arthur put on the block, in addition to warning McMillan to keep a tight lid on team chemistry or else. Sources say one team has inquired about acquiring Arthur already and that Miami is actively looking for a natural SF in return.

Should such a deal happen, it almost certainly points to the Heat going all-in for the right PF to pair alongside Maric next season, either in the draft, or, more likely, free agency, whether that's returning Brand or finding some other target.

"This was absolutely the worst game we've played all year, and there will be accountability for it and for the signs of discord in the locker room," a grim-faced Jestor said.

Heat Hybrid Forward Lightly Regarded

Maybe a little Kiera Knightley would make Darrell Arthur more attractive

In a consistent theme around Miami Heat players this season, on the block Darrell Arthur is drawing almost no interest, much like Willie Warren did earlier in the year.

One team made a brief inquiry, but when Miami returned with what they wanted, the other side pulled back, believing they could get more for one option and wanting something else for the other.

"It's about 99% that Arthur stays in Miami now", said one source. "Teams have suddenly gone from rating him when we first acquired him to suddenly all hating him. It's some (expletive) (expletive), but that's how this league goes. It's (expletive) Warren all over again."

Temptation Of Another First Too Much To Resist

Solomon Alabi can't quite believe he's leaving his collegiate state for Memphis

After all the rumor and hubbub surrounding Darrell Arthur in the end, it was Solomon Alabi, oft rumored this past offseason and earlier in the year to be on the move, who finally went. In a trade announced with the Memphis Grizzlies, the Miami Heat shipped Alabi west in exchange for the Phoenix Suns 2015 1st and D.J. Mbenga.

D.J. Mbenga will do a lot of sitting on the bench and without David Beckham to entertain him

The primary piece of the deal for the Heat is, of course, the re-acquisition of the Suns 2015 1st, which Miami originally got in the Willie "Wonder" Warren for Robert Dozier deal, then dealt to the Grizzlies along with the Suns 2015 2nd and Carlos Boozer for Elton "Battering Ram" Brand. Miami now has two projected late first round picks in the upcoming draft, its own and the Suns', that could potentially be packaged together to move into a higher draft slot.

Mbenga will sit on the inactive list and his greatest value is another $1.2 million to be renounced and added to Miami's growing arsenal of cap space next season, even should Chris Paul re-sign with the team.

Critics of the Alabi move argued that the trade will weaken the Heat's big man depth, but GM Jestor dismissed the opposition at the press conference announcing the trade.

"We have a very good group of big men in Darrell Arthur, Elton Brand, Aleks Maric, and Robert Dozier, and if need be, we have Rafael Araujo waiting in the wings", the general manager said. "Is our depth affected? Yes. Will we be in a catastrophic state if one of our true centers is injured? No.

In essence, this trade was about a player bringing the kind of return we couldn't pass up. We loved having Solomon here; there's a lot of great things he did for us and he fit well within the Jestorball mold, but the opportunity afforded to us by acquiring another first round pick and an expiring was simply too much to pass up."

NLL scholar Jackson Ayorinde also noted the trade delivered a message to Dozier.

"This is Miami throwing down the gauntlet at Dozier and saying okay, we traded away Warren for you. Now let's see you prove you're really worthy of being a part of our rotation.

Realistically, the Heat were torn over what to do with their two young bigs. They're cut from a similar cloth in some respects, being primarily defense and rebounding oriented, but neither one is a legitimate starter.

Now here's an opportunity for the Heat to say okay, we've got another late first rounder. Maybe we can get out there and find another Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson late in the first or maybe move up in the first to really find someone who can or will be a future starter for us."

Context Notes
I completely forgot about this trade, to be perfectly honest. But it was a deal that needed to be done, as I was hyper-focused on team chemistry back then. Since it appeared from the in-game file that Alabi was the troublemaker, and he was the unrestricted one, out he went.

Izulde · 03-06-2015, 02:50 PM

Miami Shoots 62.8% From The Floor, 69.2% From 3 Point

Chris Paul had one of his best games of the year

Another sellout crowd in South Beach watched a much-hyped matchup between Chris Paul and his heir apparent as arguably the top all-around point guard in the league, John Wall. Although both players put up quality performances, it was CP3 who was on another level as the Heat rolled 142-109.

Paul was very much a deserving Player of the Game, going 12 for 16, 6 of 7 from long range, for 37 points, 12 assists and just 2 turnovers, compared to Wall's 9 of 22 for 22 points, 7 assists, and 1 turnover.

Miami's Three Star element of the Jestorball system was also in full display, as Elton "Battering Ram" Brand banged his way to 26 points and 8 rebounds, and Aleks Maric was equally hot at shooting, netting 24 points and 6 rebounds before fouling out. Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson just missed the 20 point mark, going 8 for 14 and 2 of 3 from downtown for 19 points and 4 assists.

On the bench, Robert Dozier picked up 9 points and 4 rebounds in 12 minutes, while Darrell Arthur was a bucket away from double digits, scoring 8 points.

It was the second straight game the Heat featured their new starting 5 of Paul, Reyshawn Terry, Hobson, Brand, and Maric, and Miami's third straight victory overall, allowing them to pull within 2 games of the Southeast leading Charlotte Bobcats.

The win was not without cost, however. Jameer Nelson and Marcus Banks, Miami's two reserve point guards, picked up injuries that will make them questionable for the next game against the Raptors, and in Banks' case, possibly the next few games.

The victory was Miami's 40th of the year, making the magic number to reach last season's 51 win total 11, with 26 to go, meaning the Heat would need to go 10-16 over the home stretch to fail in reaching that minor goal.

Miami Bests Cleveland, Milwaukee, Now Half-Game Behind

Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson has strangely become a source of tranquility and leadership potential in the Heat's locker room

Sweat poured from their heads, hands, arms, legs, and feet. They had just completed a furious fourth quarter comeback for their second win in as many nights, avoiding a letdown 30 minutes north of their general manager's hometown. But you can be sure, that even despite their exhaustion, the Miami Heat were damned satisfied after exorcising the Cleveland Cavaliers bugbear and winning against the Milwaukee Bucks on consecutive nights.

"We've really shown these last few games just what kind of will we got," a drained Chris Paul said as he leaned against his locker. "Even when I was playing like crap the last couple games before tonight, the other guys picked up for me."

One of those struggling games was against the Cavaliers, the one team in the league Jestor's Miami Heat teams have never beaten in his now almost three season tenure. Two nights ago, they did it, an emphatic 112-99 win that saw the Heat with a +9 advantage in turnover margin and 53.6% shooting from the floor while holding Cleveland to 44.6%.

What's most remarkable about the victory is that Paul shot just 3 of 9 for 13 points, 11 assists, and 2 steals. Instead, the offense was left to Aleks Maric, Player of the Game with his 20 points, 12 rebounds, and 3 assists, and Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson's 20 points. Or perhaps better said, the rest of the starting five, as Paul's 13 points were the lowest scoring total of Miami's first string. Not to be forgotten, of course, is Jameer Nelson's 11 points, 5 assists, 2 steals and 0 turnovers off the bench.

That isn't to say CP3 totally bombed against Cleveland. Despite his shooting woes, his passing was crisp in racking up the dimes and 0 turnovers came via his hands. Furthermore, he played a large part in forcing Deron Williams to 8 turnovers, a number completely unexpected from the point guard a few in the league consider the possible equal to Paul.

Then came the back end against the Bucks. With numerous of Miami GM Jestor's hometown friends and family in attendance at the Bradley Center, the Heat, much as they did against Cleveland, staked out a first quarter lead. But the score was tied at the half and Milwaukee took the third quarter by 11 points. No problem at all for Chris Paul, who snapped out of his slump for a torrid 13/20, 5/9 from 3 point range for 41 points, 9 assists, and 2 steals in carrying the Heat to a 109-94 win.

Paul was aided in the effort by Aleks Maric, who just missed a double-double with 11 points, 9 rebounds, and 3 blocks, and just enough points from elsewhere to continue the Heat's winning streak.

Most importantly, the wins, coupled with Charlotte's two losses, put Miami a mere half-game behind in the Southeast race and, as improbable as this may sound, even has the Heat within striking distance of the East's #1 seed.

"You know, it was really funny", a tired Elton Brand mused. "When I got picked up by Miami, most people said, 'Cool trade, bro' and went right back to talking about Cleveland, Charlotte, and Detroit as the three teams to beat in the East. Maybe now people will start respecting us as one of the best teams."

CP3, Maric, Hobson, Brand Star In Second Half Comeback

Chris Paul is putting together another dazzling, near mystical season

When the votes come in and are counted, there's a good chance that Chris Paul will once again find himself on the outside looking in at the MVP award. But as the Miami Heat's 116-93 road win over the Minnesota Timberwolves showed, CP3 has been transcendent at times. So he was in this comeback contest, racking up 25 points, 15 assists, 4 rebounds and 3 steals with not a single turnover.

The otherworldly performance brought him up to:

Points: 23 (7th)
Assists: 6.6 (5th)
Steals: 1.8 (T-6th)
A/TO Ratio: 5.6 (2nd among starters, not counting reserves)

Only Ricky Rubio's staggering 6.1 A/TO ratio exceeds CP3's and no other player in the league who ranks in the Top 10 in scoring also ranks in the Top 10 in three other categories.

Maybe, just maybe, now that the Heat have seized the Southeast lead by a game, people will start realistically viewing Paul as more than a second rank MVP candidate. Maybe this is the time he'll finally break through.

Yet, it must be admitted that his was not the only standout performance in this romp. Aleks Maric blistered the Wolves for 28 points, Elton "Battering Ram" Brand picked up 16 points and 11 rebounds, and Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson was everywhere on the court, producing a brilliant all-around game of 11 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 steals.

In fact, Elton Brand and Aleks Maric are now #1 and #2 in the entire league in shooting % at 61.1 and 58.7 respectively, ahead of Amir Johnson and Kosta Koufos, who are 57.7% each.

"I'm not worried about it right now," Paul said of the MVP talk. "Right now we're just focusing on this really tough West road trip, making sure we're still leading the division at the end of it, and doing our best to try and get the #1 seed. It's gonna be tough with Detroit and Cleveland right up there with us, but we'll fight for it."

And for the dream of a championship.

Context Notes
At the time, Detroit, Cleveland, and Charlotte were considered the big favorites to win the East, but the Bobcats GM, knightdemon, quit right around this time, which made for a potentially huge opening for the other top teams in the conference.

Ironically enough, my biggest archrival, the Orlando Magic GM, who I'd had frequent personality clashes with, kept insisting that we were now the favorites, particularly after trading for Elton Brand.

We were definitely playing very, very well after our flurry of trades, and extremely efficient basketball, which is usually the hallmark of my best teams.

Izulde · 03-07-2015, 05:54 PM

Post Game Destroys Kings

Elton Brand was unstoppable against the Kings

"We got pissed off over how poorly we played out West and we wanted to take it out on the guys coming to our place." - Miami Heat forward Elton Brand

After a 1-3 West road trip, the Miami Heat have done just that, ambushing the Memphis Grizzlies, Orlando Magic and now the Sacramento Kings by considerable margins in South Beach, a string of wins that has the Heat keeping pace with the Charlotte Bobcats and fending off the hard charging Magic.

But the 122-98 win over Sacramento may be the most special of the three, for Miami's victory over the Kings means that the Heat have beaten every other team in the league at least once this season.

It was even more enjoyable a game to watch as the Heat's post players were absolutely sensational. Elton Brand had his finest game in the black and orange, ripping down 36 points and 13 rebounds with a steal and 0 turnovers. Aleks Maric was his usual quality self with 20 points and 10 rebounds, and Robert Dozier also had his most productive Miami game, hitting 6 of 8 shots for 15 points, 4 rebounds and 2 blocks. Although less stellar, Darrell Arthur made it all four of Miami's top post men in double-digit scoring with 11 points of his own.

"Fantastic game by the bigs," Heat coach Nate McMillan said afterwards. "But our goals still remain the same. Win the Southeast and try to get one of the top two seeds in the playoffs."

NLL's Media Mogul Warns Threat Is Serious

Will this logo soon become an object for nostalgia?

Miami Heat GM Jestor called a press conference today to allow reporters to field questions about the NCAA lockout. Below is a partial transcript of the question and answer session.

1. How serious is the threat of an NCAA lockout?
Very. From my experience in multiple universities and settings in academia before I came to the NLL and from the contacts I've kept from those days, I can tell you that universities all across the country are facing dire budget situations. It hasn't gotten any better and now it's become so severe that athletic programs are now in danger of being cut. Without a viable pro league, there's no incentive to spend the money on college basketball. Without a viable media presence, the pro league can not survive.

I also think you'll see proof of this threat once prospects start pulling out of the draft.

2. Do you agree with the NCAA's assessment that the NLL's activity is falling to historic lows?
Yes. Even here in Miami we haven't been quite as active as in the past. My publisher's been on my tail about my novel and other ancillary duties that I've neglected in the past are also commanding my attention. But it's a very sad comment indeed when a journalist writes that "Even when the Heat's media flame is dim, it still outshines over half of the rest of the league." That shouldn't be the case.

3. Who do you see being most impacted if and when prospects start removing their names from the draft?
For all the hand-wringing and horror in likely top pick areas like New Jersey and Indiana, it's the teams at the bottom of the first round like us who will be most hurt by this. The teams at the top of the draft, they're going to get great players no matter what. But when the distribution of talent in a class falls off as a result of withdrawals, that's when you start seeing teams picking in the mid and late first round getting hit hard. And as an owner of two late first round picks, that frustrates me. But I still strongly respect and commend the NCAA for taking a strong stance on the matter.

4. What solutions do you have for the problem?
Although the NLL's leadership has done a quality job of instituting a warning system, I think the best thing to do would be to bring back Boston Dave's Activity Leagues. I forget the exact term for them and I know that's not it, but that was one of the most activity rich eras of the NLL and I believe Dave's promotion/relegation system had a lot to do with it. It became a competition in and of itself and also provided the leadership and the league's GMs a tangible, quantifiable barometer of where they stood in terms of activity level, both past and present.

5. What about the suggestion of returning the individual team sites?
Terrible idea, to be honest. I understand what the proposer was going for, but it stratifies the information rather than keeping it localized to two places and if teams are complaining about not having time to produce a media presence or keep track of the pulse of the league, creating 29 different new locations is only going to exacerbate the problem, not help it.

Look, I don't want to see this lockout happen and prospects leaving. But unless this league steps up its game, that's precisely what's going to happen. I'm not saying teams need to turn into another version of us, but when I know very little about more than half the league's franchises beyond what I go digging for myself, that represents a severe problem in and of itself.

So let's all step it up, shall we?

A Few Injuries In Triumphs

Reyshawn Terry has quietly revitalized his career with the Heat

Just three games separated the Miami Heat's disastrous 1-3 West road trip and the current one. The Heat took care of business at home, winning three straight, but the ominous four game away trek back out West loomed in Miami's mind. The competition, featuring defending champion Oklahoma City and the two powerhouse Los Angeles teams, looked daunting, and even Denver was not to be taken lightly.

Happily for the South Beach faithful, their team stormed in and took the doubleheader against the Thunder and the Clippers in two completely different types of games.

Oklahoma City was the site of a 123-113 shootout, both teams on fire with their shooting - 50% for Miami and 57.5% for Oklahoma City. Yet, the Heat managed to eke out a win on the strength of a 32-20 third quarter, 53 free throw attempts to the Thunder's 31, and of course, as Jestorball's terms dictate, a +8 margin in turnovers (15 vs 23). A major part of that victory was forcing Zach "Z-Boobs" Randolph and Evan Turner into 6 turnovers a piece.

The scoring was provided by Reyshawn Terry and Aleks Maric, with surprise starter Terry putting up 20 points and 3 steals, while Maric matched the 20 points and added 7 rebounds. All five of Miami's starters scored 10 points or more, but Player of the Game honors went to Darrell Arthur, who compensated for Elton "Battering Ram" Brand's foul trouble with 18 points, 8 rebounds and 2 blocks on 7 of 9 shooting.

The very next night in Los Angeles was a far different story. There, both teams shot terribly (41.9% for Miami, 37.8% for the Clippers), but the Heat rallied from a 47-37 halftime deficit to win convincingly, if inefficiently, 84-67. Once again the turnover margin told much of the tale, with a +11 advantage for Miami (9 for the Heat, 20 for the Clippers). This time it was Kevin Durant who struggled to hold on to the ball, giving up 8 turnovers to the Heat's swarming defense.

What little offense there was for Miami in that latter game came largely from Elton "Battering Ram" Brand, who abused defensive specialist Emeka Okafor for 18 points, 11 rebounds, and 2 blocks.

The two wins briefly put Miami back in sole possession of first, a half-game lead over the Bobcats. Third place Orlando has continued to keep pace with the Heat since losing to Miami and remain within a dangerous 3.5 game back margin.

"We didn't play the best these two games," admitted Miami head coach Nate McMillan. "But we stayed true to the Jestorball philosophy and that won us these two important contests. Now we have to take care of business against the Nuggets and the Lakers, because we know damned well Charlotte and Orlando aren't going to let up."

It looks to be another down to the wire battle for the Southeast this season, matching last year's dogfight.

One player who has very quietly contributed to Miami's recent success is Reyshawn Terry. Originally a part of the Orlando Magic when Jestor took over, he re-joined his old GM following the Heat's flurry of deadline trades. After the Brand deal, he was promoted to the starting SG spot, where the 30 year old has resurrected his career. In 15 starts, he's averaging 10.7 points and 1.3 steals, with a staggering 52.7% shooting rate, 47.4% from 3 point range. He also has a very respectable 81.9% drive stop rate and 0.9 PA/SF.

"Reyshawn's going to a contract from someone during free agency," a Heat insider said. "He's playing fantastically right now and is hell-bent on getting back to a permanent place in an NLL rotation like he used to." An interesting side note: Terry, who played for the Heat in 2009, has joined Brand as two pre-Jestor Heat members who have returned to Miami under Jestor's watch.

Injuries
Key reserves Martell "Webby" Webster and Darrell Arthur picked up minor injuries during the set of games, making them questionable for the rest of the road trip.

Context Notes
It amazes me now, looking back on it, just how critical the Battering Ram was to our success. The Phoenix Suns, run by donkey33, who had all those titles with the Detroit Pistons, was pissed he missed out on his chance at Brand because he was sleeping.

That was our 50th win of the year, and more and more GMs were hopping on the Heat bandwagon as a contender. Reyshawn Terry's unexpected explosion after being signed from the D-League was pure bonus. As someone else remarked, I didn't necessarily have the most talented roster in the league, but it was damned cohesive.

Edit: The NCAA thing... the NLL is an activity-driven league, and activity had been dropping majorly, which led rookie head (and future GAH co-commissioner) mgtr81 to threaten top player withdrawals unless things picked up. And for those of you know him, that threat was very real.

Izulde · 03-08-2015, 02:42 PM

Holes To Address In Draft and Free Agency

Don't be surprised if Chris Bosh turns out Miami's #1 target in free agency

As we head down the home stretch to the end of the regular season and the playoffs, some teams, such as the Cavaliers and the Pacers, have already released news reports hinting at their offseason plans. Jackson Ayorinde, renowned NLL scholar and Miami Heat reporter, weighs in on South Beach with a position by position look.

Point Guard

Miami is praying Chris Paul re-signs in free agency

Obviously the one, and indeed the Heat's entire offseason setup, lives and dies on if franchise everything Chris Paul re-signs. If he does, Miami will remain in contention for at least a few more seasons until he starts regressing. Don't be surprised to see the Heat go after a point guard in the draft or free agency, however. Not as a replacement for CP3, but as a new backup.

I'm hearing reports that Jameer Nelson will be renounced and may or may not be brought back to the team. He's been an inconsistent shooter and there's questions about his age. So if the Heat can find a value floor general late in the first with their two picks, or trade up to get one, they might just well do it. Marcus Banks will remain for another season as the Heat's third string point guard, and, as he's shown in limited minutes this year, the old UNLV star still has some ability to play left in him.

Shooting Guard

Martell "Webby" Webster is a macdaddy

One of the biggest revelations of the late season has been Reyshawn Terry's surprise return to relevance as Miami's starting shooting guard. Don't look for him to be re-signed, though; the front office believes he's overachieving relative to his talent and will actively be seeking a younger upgrade, most likely in free agency, as the two guard crop looks to be the deepest of the class. If all else fails, though, there's always Martell "Webby" Webster, the front office favorite who is shooting over 50% from 3 point range and would love nothing more than to get the starting gig back. At least he's finding minutes in Miami, unlike what he faced in New Orleans.

Small Forward

Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson ranks among the bigger steals of his class if the first year is any indication

Let's be perfectly clear here - the front office's agonizing over Darington Hobson for Kyle Singler swap aside, the Hobgoblin isn't going anywhere. He brings physical, defensive toughness to the perimeter defense, is an exceptional passer and handler for the SF spot, and has greatly improved his shooting, up to 43.1% after some work with the coaching staff. Once his free throw shooting improves, he'll be an even more deadly two-way force.

Tasmin Mitchell is another player who won't be leaving any time soon. Any time you get a good role player with the 55th overall pick, you've gotten yourself a great bargain. Ironically enough, he's the longest tenured of any of Miami's draft picks of the Jestor era.

All that said, don't be surprised to see the Heat invest in a SF who will allow them to shift Hobson to the SG spot. Rumor has it Miami is very interested in Indiana's James Keefe if the Pacers pick up another PF in the draft. Should that trade happen, the Heat, already considered the best ball-security team in the league, may just become the best passers as well.

Power Forward

The Heat's toughest decision surrounds Elton Brand

Miami would absolutely love to re-sign Elton "The Battering Ram" Brand. Everyone in the organization has been thrilled with his performance since he was acquired from the Memphis Grizzlies, and he and Aleks Maric are a frontcourt that gives opponents headaches to defend against. But the Heat also are going to have to renounce his contract, because if Paul leaves, they want maximum financial flexibility, even if it isn't a great market.

Darrell Arthur will again be on the trade block this offseason. He's still shooting over 50% and has been very solid on the defensive end, but while the Heat did well when he was at SF, they did even better when they moved him to his natural PF spot off the bench. While it's possible he could step in and be the starter if Brand goes, I see Miami exploring the market for him again and seeing what kind of return they could get.

Robert Dozier has greatly improved his shooting since coming to South Florida and provides rebounding and defense, but is he starter capable? That's going to be one of the big questions for him and the team next offseason. And then there's the Gani Lawal development experiment, which was, in the words of one official, "a giant flop." He's also not happy about sitting courtside.

With the position possibly in flux, it's not out of the question that the Heat could look to move here as well. In fact, Chris Bosh will get a very long look as Miami's #1 free agency target not named Paul if Brand's asking price is too high, or if the Battering Ram signs elsewhere. On the other hand, would Bosh be too lightweight to play the 4? Another question to be answered.

Center

Locking Aleks Maric up was the most critical in-season move Miami made for its future

No question here. Aleks Maric's in-season extension signing, along the same lines as the player he's most been compared to in Chicago's Kosta Koufos, was quite possibly the best thing that happened to Miami this year in terms of future seasons. An initially promising young big man market dried up fast and the Heat getting their star center locked down for a below max deal was critical. It'll keep Maric in a Miami uniform through his year 31 season.

But behind him things look very weak, especially after Solomon Alabi was traded to Memphis to get back the Suns' first round pick. Rafael Araujo and DJ Mengba are mere fillers/stopgaps and the Heat have been playing Dozier as the main reserve center. Furthermore, given the depth of this year's center crop, it's an absolute lock that Miami will be drafting at least one center, either with their first selection or in a trade-up to get the player they want. Even if they don't trade up, don't be shocked to see them draft two centers if there's legitimate big men there they like.

The center position could also be the area where Miami explores a trade. I'm hearing a lot of chatter about how the Heat want a traditional rebounding/defense/blocking good sized big man to put at the five so they could then slide Maric over to PF.

TL;DR Version
1. Will be looking at a young floor general to replace Jameer Nelson
2. Need a new SG or SF to pair alongside Darington Hobson
3. Coin-flip on if they re-sign Elton Brand, although they want to
4. Center, especially on the bench, is a huge priority.

Miami's Poor Form Costing Heat Favorable First Round Matchup

Don't show that jersey off just yet, young man

Calling it absolutely inexcusable, a furious GM Jestor lashed out at his Heat team in an expletive-laden tirade after their second straight close loss to an opponent they should have beaten.

"Absolutely (expletive) pathetic and inexcusable, that's what it is. There is no (expletive) way we should be (expletive) losing to the (expletive) Pacers and 76ers. Now (expletive) Orlando is going to (expletive) pass up for (expletive) second place and we'll lose in the (expletive) first round because of that (expletive). I did not (expletive) go out and get Elton (expletive) Brand and (expletive) get rid of (expletive) Willie (expletive) Warren for this (expletive). (Expletive) (expletive) (expletive) Nate better (expletive) get his (expletive) (expletive) together or I'll (expletive) fire the whole (expletive) coaching staff. (Expletive) it. I don't give a (expletive). This (expletive) team isn't (expletive) and if we (expletive) go out in the first (expletive) round, then I'm (expletive) as a GM and I'm (expletive) sorry to our fans, who are (expletive) great. No (expletive) excuse for this (expletive).

The first was an OT loss to Indiana, the second a fourth quarter meltdown against the 76ers, putting Miami just a game ahead of hated archrival Orlando, who has reeled off three straight wins and can pass the Heat up with wins in their last two games against the Bucks and Bobcats, while the Heat have a return match against Philadelphia and an away game at Boston left on the schedule.

Reyshawn Terry has drawn much of the criticism and it's expected he'll be replaced by Martell "Webby" Webster in the starting lineup for Miami's last two games.

McMillan Announces Paul, Maric Inactive For Final Game Of Regular Season

Chris Paul was on fire all night long

It's fitting that in the second to last game of the regular season, it was Chris Paul who carried the Miami Heat on his back. On a night when Aleks Maric and Elton Brand couldn't find much in the way of shot opportunities, thanks to an energetic Paul Gasol eager to get revenge on the team that traded him away, and his post mate Earl Clark, CP3 hit 11/20 shots, 4/9 from 3 point range. He finished with 31 points and 3 steals in just 28 minutes of play, as Heat head coach Nate McMillan sought to minimize the wear and tear on his franchise star.

Otherwise it was a game of Miami finding points where they could in their 102-83 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers. Darrell Arthur provided much of the relief, hitting 6 of 9 from the bench for 12 points and 8 rebounds.

But the most important happenstance of the night occurred in Milwaukee, where the Bucks blitzed the Orlando Magic 122-93, clinching the Heat's second place status in the Southeast, which will land them the #5 seed in the East Conference playoffs and home court advantage against the #4 seed Atlantic champion Toronto Raptors, just as Miami did last year when they squared off against the Philadelphia 76ers.

"Obviously you want to win the division," a strangely calm Heat GM Jestor said after the game. "But the Bobcats got hot at the tail end of the season and we had our struggling moments and that was enough for us to fall out of first and into our current position. We'll accept it. We're a stronger team than we were last year, when we swept the 76ers and took the Pistons to six games. The East is really anybody's game, and I'll continue to believe that until proven otherwise."

The tone was a reversal of Jestor's infamous tirade after the previous loss in Philadelphia, an epic meltdown that immediately went viral on YouTube, leading some commenters to speculate, "omg mia ned new gm not crzy (expletive) like dis". Others defended the GM saying, "stfu n00b jestor totally rox cp3 4 mvp"

In other Miami news, head coach Nate McMillan announced that Paul and Maric would "absolutely" not be playing in the regular season finale and Elton "Battering Ram" Brand is also unlikely to see court time. "No sense in risking injury to your key players when there's nothing left to play for, and missing one game isn't going to cause any rust issues", McMillian said.

Now all eyes turn to the playoffs and the forthcoming matchup with the Raptors.

Context Notes
Oh man, that damned cold snap we went on at the end of the regular season. Pissed me off like you wouldn't believe. By this time, the Bobcats had gotten a new GM, by the way - th1th0nly - who considered himself a disciple of mine after having read the Mateen Yeaton dynasty. It was enough to lock up the division title for them.

Everyone, and I mean everyone, wanted that Raptors matchup that year. The Atlantic was the single worst division in the NLL at the time, to where every season, a good shot at a sub-.500 team and home court advantage for the #5 seed. More to the point, we'd gone 4-0 in the regular season against Toronto, so we really, really liked our chances in the first round.

Of course, what we really wanted was the title.

Izulde · 04-22-2015, 06:25 AM

Familiar Story For Miami

Chris Paul will again be the key player for the Heat in the playoffs

All eyes will be on Rookie of the Year favorite Xavier Henry's performance

Forget the fact that the Miami Heat swept the Toronto Raptors in the regular season, a perfect 4-0 record. That means nothing come playoff time. Once again, the Heat are facing off against the Atlantic champion after yet again failing to capture the Southeast title, having to settle for second place and the #5 seed. The Raptors, meanwhile, are in their first postseason since 2010.

The matchups, based on expected starters:

Point Guard
Chris Paul vs. Aaron Brooks
You all know the story of perennial MVP candidate Paul by now. 22.1 points, 6.6 assists, 1.9 steals on 45.1% shooting, 35.6% from long range. 87.6% drive stop rate, 0.9 PA/SF. 5.4 A/TO ratio. He is, without question, one of the best players in the game and Miami's focal point. He struggled at times in last year's playoff and was occasionally inconsistent this season, so he'll be looking to rebound this postseason. 11 ON, 12.1 NET attest to just how valuable he really is to Miami's fortunes.

Brooks had a respectable season of his own with 15.6 points, 5.9 assists and 1.1 steals on 41.5% shooting, 38,9% behind the arc with a 2.2 A/TO ratio. But with a 66.2% drive stop rate, he's got some issues on the defensive end which will prove problematic going up against one of the league's elite in CP3. He'll get his points and assists, but can he successfully slow Miami's star guard down? Probably not. Still, he has the second best ON of the starters at -0.8.

Advantage: Miami

Shooting Guard
Martell Webster vs. Xavier Henry
Webby only recently regained his starting job back after the coaching staff grew frustrated with Reyshawn Terry's cooling off. He didn't look very good in those outings, but GM Jestor is going to insist they stick with his front office favorite. Lest you think it favoritism, Webster shot 51.6% with the Dallas Mavericks in 2010, his only playoff appearance to date. Compare that to Terry, who shot 35.5% with the Heat in his own lone playoff outing back in 2007. Miami places heavy priority on postseason track records, after all. Webby's regular season numbers: 6.6 points on 45.9% shooting, 50.8% from behind the arc. 77.5% drive stop rate (also better than Terry's) with a 4.6 ON, 1.3 NET (Terry, by comparison, had a -1.8 NET and 4.4 ON)

Then there's the rookie Henry, entering his first ever professional postseason. Dazzling first year with 16.2 points and a steal on 44/5% shooting, 45.3% from long range. But like Brooks, he's not a great defender at 67.7% of drives stopped, although his -0.3 ON is tops among the starters, his 1.5 NET also tops among the first five. If the Raptors are to have even a prayer of winning, Henry will need to have a John Wall style breakout, and he just might. In any case, he's clearly better than Webster and a rising star.

Advantage: Toronto

Small Forward
Darington Hobson vs. Rudy Gay
The Hobgoblin struggled early in his rookie year with shooting, but work and correction helped him significantly so that by the end of the season, he raised his numbers to 13.2 points, 3.5 rebounds, 3.2 assists, and 1.1 steals on 42.8% shooting, 34.4% from long range. He's still growing into his potential and that's a scary thing for the rest of the league, particularly after he had 86.4% drive stop rate, not all that much worse than Jamario Moon last season. He's also been credited for the team playing better overall since he rejoined the starting lineup and his third-highest ON of 6.4 seems to speak to that.

Interesting storyline with Gay, who was traded twice by GM Jestor, once with Orlando and once with Miami. He'll be looking to prove his twice former GM wrong and his battle with the Hobgoblin should be one of the more intriguing matchups of the series. 11.8 points, 4.2 rebounds and a steal per game on an impressive 50.4% shooting, 39.3% from long range. He's also stopped 91.5% of drives faced. Given those numbers and a handful of playoff appearances (2007 with the Heat, surprisingly, 2010 with the Celtics, 2012 and 2013 with the purs), we'll say he's ahead of Hobson right now.

Advantage: Toronto

Power Forward
Elton Brand vs. Jarvis Varnado
Here's everything you need to know about the Battering Ram: He led the NLL in field goal shooting with 59.9%, although his accuracy dropped a fair bit after moving to Miami and his points, rebounds, and blocks all dropped slightly after the trade. He can't stop a drive to save his life (48.5%) but his 0.8 PA/SF faced is to be respected, and he's one of the few veteran big men who genuinely strikes fear in the hearts of his enemies. And of course, he's one of the most playoff tested players on both teams.

Varnado weighs 70 pounds less than Brand, so it'll be interesting to see how he does against the big man. Good numbers with 11.8 points, 8.4 rebounds, and 2.8 blocks on a respectable 47.7% shooting and he's an exceptional defender at 98.6% drives stopped and 0.7 PA/SF, giving the lie to undersized power forwards not able to find success. But he's in his first ever playoff series and up against a bigger, far more experienced veteran, so the Heat get this one.

Advantage: Miami

Center
Aleks Maric vs. Luke Nevill
The marquee matchup of the series features Maric for Miami, who posted 17 points, 8.1 rebounds and 1.3 blocks. His 59.3% shooting for the season, which improved after Hobson entered the lineup, ranked just behind Brand for #2 in the entire league. Average defensively with 72.1% drives stopped and 0.9 PA/SF, but his value to the Heat is made clear by his 8.9 ON, 7.9 NET, both second behind CP3. What a sigh of relief breathed by Heat Nation when he signed the extension in season.

Part of the marquee factor is the presence of Nevill, acquired by the Heat at the deadline last year and then allowed to walk in free agency after the front office decided that he didn't simply fit the Jestorball system well enough, despite looking the perfect fit on paper. One of the most hotly pursued free agents, the ROI so far has looked grim. 8.6 points, 8.7 rebounds, and 1.2 blocks on a terrible 39.9% shooting, especially for a player making $7.8 million in his first season, is simply not going to cut it. 0.9 PA/SF. No question who the better player is here.

Advantage: Miami

Bench
Miami
PG Jameer Nelson
SG Reyshawn Terry
SF Tasmin Mitchell
PF Darrell Arthur
PF/C Robert Dozier

Nelson is one of the best floor general reserves in the game (4.1 A/TO ratio), Terry started off well as a starter and shoots accurately (52.5%, 40% from 3 point) Mitchell is an underrated player, particularly on the defensive end (85.8% drives stopped), Arthur is a proven playoff warrior (see his run with the Suns last season), and it's been Dozier who has been both disappointing and the weak link on the bench. Part of is that he's simply too underweight to challenge fives successfully and he'd be best suited to PF.

Toronto
PG Marcus Williams
SG Gerald Henderson
SF/PF Stanley Robinson
PF Yi Jianlian
C Jamaal Magloire
C Brian Zoubek

Whereas the Heat go 10 deep, the Raptors go 11. Zoubek shoots extremely well (51.3%) and Robinson, another Jestor castoff originally part of the CP3 trade, is a fantastic defender (95.2% drives stopped) and underrated swingman rebounder (4.1 boards). Williams is a solid reserve point guard, although grossly overpaid and poor on defense (53.3% drives stopped), but Magloire and Jianlian are largely filler and Henderson had the worst season of his career this year.

Advantage: Miami

Overall Synopsis
Toronto holds advantage at the swingman positions, but matching up poorly against Miami's two superstars in Paul and Maric does not bode well for them. When you consider the weakness of their bench, the issue becomes even more alarming for Raptors' fans. The Heat should be able to win this series comfortably and move on to a probable matchup against the Pistons in the second round, again repeating last year's early playoff path.
Prediction: Miami in 5

Miami Look Like Runnin' Rebels Or Blazing Bulls In Opening Win

Chris Paul was pleased after his Game 1 effort

A stunning series of opening upsets saw no hint in Game 1 of the Raptors/Heat series. The home advantage Heat, in front of a raucous sellout crowd in a Miami, destroyed Toronto 120-94, thanks in large part to a 22 point outscoring in the third quarter. As expected, Chris Paul led the way with 37 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds and 3 steals, on a torrid 14/21, 7/10 from behind the arc. Even more impressively, Miami went bombs away from 3 point range, hitting 15/24 attempts, as the Raptors' efforts to shut down Miami inside opened things up on the perimeter.

CP3 wasn't the only one to dazzle. Darrell Arthur, shockingly getting the start over Elton Brand, who grinned and watched in street clothes, played 43 minutes and looked like his old playoff self. He nailed 7 of 12 shots for 20 points and 9 rebounds with just a single turnover. Martell "Webby" Webster also proved his playoff chops in his postseason starting debut, connecting on 6 of 14, 3 of 7 from long range for 19 points and 4 assists. In doing so, Webby held his own against rookie sensation Xavier Henry, who was terrific at 10/17, 5/7 from downtown for a Raptors leading 27 points.

A similar close matchup played out between Toronto's other favored lineup matchup. Rudy Gay finished 9 of 14 for 20 points, 7 rebounds and 2 steals, but on the flip side, Miami rookie Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson played very well in his postseason debut, going 6 of 11, 2 for 3 from behind the arc for 14 points, 4 rebounds, and a tied for the game high 7 assists. Miami head coach Nate McMillan credited Hobson with much of the Heat's success after the game, saying, "Really impressed with the Hobgoblin tonight. I've said all along that our offense improved with his terrific ability to distribute from the 3, and he showed that this evening."

Indeed, praise was to be had for the Heat's entire starting lineup, as Aleks Maric rounded out a first five of 13+ points, connecting on 5 of 9 for 13 points and 8 rebounds. In doing so, he was far more efficient than Luke Nevill, who went 4 of 11 for 8 points, 11 rebounds, 2 blocks, and 3 turnovers.

If the 3 point gunning was strange, the turnover battle was all Jestorball. Miami turned the ball over just 8 times while forcing Toronto into 18 giveaways, a +10 advantage for the Heat. Aaron Brooks was the Raptors' most fumble-prone player, coughing it up 7 times, or just one less than all of Miami surrendered.

Still, Miami GM Jestor wasn't 100% pleased.

"We allowed them to shoot 52.1%. Not going to win many games that way. Still, a great opening victory and one that our fans can take satisfaction in" the GM said.

As for the street clothes wearing Brand?

"Hey man, I'm 35 years old. They're having me conserve my energy and pick my spots," the veteran big man laughed. "Besides, Darrell was chomping at the bit all week to get out there and show what he could do. It's all good. I'm not complaining one bit, so long as I get mine next ups."

Chicago Schools Roll As Upsets Abound

Kosta Koufos wins the Player of the Day award

An epic opening night of NLL playoff basketball saw everything from astounding upsets to puzzling lineup decisions to a serious injury. In short, it was another thrilling start to the postseason. Jackson Ayorinde reports with three of the biggest storylines and how they could impact the rest of the playoffs.

Orlando's Rashard Lewis owned the Bobcats

1. Strange Lineups
The biggest one, of course, was Orlando's decision to field their second stringers against the Southeast champion Charlotte Bobcats. What's surprising is that the Magic pulled off the 115-114 upset with a fourth quarter rally, even as last year's MVP Demar Derozan and star guard Rodney Stuckey watched from the bench. Rashard Lewis steamrolled Dahntay Jones for 30 points and Serhiy Gladyr torched the Bobcats for 22 points from the bench.

Then there was the Miami Heat sitting Elton Brand. No problem for Darrell Arthur, as he looked sharp and put forth a quality game in the Heat's 120-94 ripping of the Raptors.

San Antonio gambled with playing Leandro Barbosa and although Barbosa shot 50% for his 17 points, the Spurs just had no answer for John "The Second Coming of Chris Paul" Wall, who dominated with 32 points, 8 assists, 4 rebounds and 2 steals in Dallas's surprisingly easy 129-103 road win.

The Effects
Charlotte looked overconfident when they saw the second team starting for Orlando and the upset has to be devastating to the Bobcats' psyche. If they can't even beat the Magic's reserves, how will they cope when Derozan and Stuckey are unleashed on them in Game 2? The tenor and momentum of the series has now completely shifted the other way.

Toronto likewise has to be feeling dazed. Even as well as Xavier Henry and Rudy Gay played, Miami was just unstoppable and now Brand will be back in the lineup for Game 2, and things could get as ugly as most predicted very soon for the Raptors.

The Spurs just don't look comfortable right now. Too many injuries and with Wall channeling CP3, just as he did last season, San Antonio is in for a rough ride the rest of the series.

John Wall was The Great Wall indeed in Game 1

2. The Chicago School Abides and Other Upsets
Those big gamblers you hear who dropped money on the Bulls? They're looking pretty damned smart after Chicago's much-talked about overtime knockout of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Reports say the Cavs' coaching staff completely underestimated Lee Cummard in their gameplanning, and he and Kosta Koufos made them pay for it.

Then there were the big wins for the Bulls' Chicago School mates, Miami and Dallas. There's been a lot of talk the last few years about how while the Chicago School, with its variants of Chicago Style, Jestorball, Wallball, and Chanball are fun to watch, they're just not systems capable of deep playoff runs. Chalk up wins for Da Bulls, the Heat, and the Mavs, two of the three as upsets, and the Rockets getting 39 wins, and the Detroit Group suddenly has reason to fear.

Defending champion Oklahoma City stunned heavily favored Phoenix 113-111, and only a furious rally by the Suns kept the score even that close. Phoenix's foul fest draws almost all the blame for the defeat, but when Willie "Wonder" Warren goes 4 for 12, you have to wonder if maybe Jestor wasn't right after all.

The Effects
The Bobcats absolutely need to respond in Game 2 and show they've shaken off the surprise of the opener, or the calls of Overrated will hail from the skies and new GM Myles Nelson will have to do some serious soul-searching to figure out how to make his Charlotte side a worthy title contender on the court, not just on paper.

Chicago and Cleveland will still be a close-fought series, but the Cavaliers have now not only lost homecourt advantage, there's growing concern that they're setting themselves up for fatigue and injury issues with the heavy lean on their starters. Miami and Dallas are looking in very good shape right now, and the Chicago School appears determined to prove their legitimacy as crown contenders.

As for the Suns, Wonder Warren will need to come back and live up to his lofty nickname and the high praise still lavished on him from some quarters. At the very least, Phoenix will need to stop fouling or they'll end up taking themselves completely out of this series. That would be a doubly damning defeat, since the Thunder are without Evan Burns.

Detroit's title hopes darkened after Ricky Rubio's season-ending injury

3. Ricky Rubio's Bad Break
Floor general unparalleled Ricky Rubio went down with a broken ankle and is out for a little over two months, effectively ending his season. Detroit still won Game 1, but the 92-84 scoreline was much closer than the Pistons are comfortable with. The Bucks proved they won't be pushovers and Milwaukee may yet make a series of it.

The Effects
Yes, Rubio is a reserve, and yes, he still needs to work on his shooting form. But now Detroit's best backup to Lebron James is Kyle Lowry, whose 1.3 A/TO ratio impresses absolutely no one. The Pistons need James to stay fully healthy now more than ever, because if he also gets hurt, Detroit is in very serious trouble.

But that's not the only issue. Assuming the Pistons meet the Heat in the second round as expected, Detroit now loses one of their key matchup pieces to try and contain Chris Paul. They aren't going to have the luxury now of putting Lebron and Rubio on CP3 to shut down Miami's superstar. As a result, that series may have just gotten a lot closer than anyone could have anticipated, and this was a series that went to six games last year.

Context Notes
What a crazy first game of the playoffs. Orlando screwed up when they submitted their DC, and I forgot to change Brand's subout rate from 100. Ricky Rubio's injury no doubt looked to be a massive blow. Boy couldn't shoot worth a damn, but he was the single best combination floor general and defender in the entire league.

I was most excited about the Chicago School victories. I'd been hearing for years about how you needed to be a defensive team to win it all, and while this was normally true of DDS 1, DDS 2's engine adjustments made it much more balanced overall, in my opinion.

Still, it was just one game, heavily favored though we were.

Izulde · 04-23-2015, 01:35 PM

Defense, Maric, Brand, Mitchell Dominate

Aleks Maric was a Game 2 blocking machine

"Go out and play defense so our GM doesn't grump," Miami Heat head coach Nate McMillian told his players before Game 2 of their first round matchup against the Toronto Raptors.

The Heat did exactly that, holding Toronto to just 39.4% shooting and forcing 22 turnovers for a +11 advantage to follow up their +10 margin, and Miami blew out the Raptors 107-74 to successfully defend home court and take a 2-0 series lead. In fact, Miami was so dominant that Xavier Henry, who was 7/13, 6/9 from 3 point range for 22 points (albeit with 5 turnovers), and reserve Brian Zoubek (5/11 for 12 points, 5 rebounds), were the only Toronto players in double digit scoring. Henry's hot perimeter shooting allowed Toronto to connect on 8/15 3 pointers (53.3%), but it wasn't close to being enough to withstand Miami's onslaught.

Leading the charge was Player of the Game Aleks Maric, who recorded 5 blocks and held Luke Nevill to an abysmal 1 for 13 night. Maric also hit 7 of 12 of his own shots for 19 points and 6 rebounds. His frontcourt mate, Elton Brand made the same exact shooting percentage, but one more free throw gave Brand the point lead with 20 points and 9 rebounds.

But the best story may have been Miami reserve Tasmin Mitchell, who overcame a sore wrist to hit all 7 of his shot attempts, a perfect shooting game worth 14 points, 3 rebounds, and 2 steals. "That's what he does," said McMillan. "He has those games where he doesn't miss a single field goal, and those are so much fun to watch."

In fact, Mitchell did it four times during the regular season:
November 15th vs Nets - 4/4
December 14th vs Celtics - 2/2
December 30th vs Timberwolves - 6/6
February 3rd vs Clippers - 5/5

And that's not counting the games where he missed just one attempt.

Darrell Arthur, playing off the bench this game, couldn't hit a shot, finishing 1 of 7, but did grab a Heat high 11 rebounds. Also struggling to find his stroke was Chris Paul, who hit just 5 of his 15 attempts for his 15 points, 4 assists, 3 steals and 2 turnovers.

"I didn't play well today," Paul admitted. "But that's what so great about this team. If I have an off night, guys like Elton, Aleks, Tasmin, they're there to step up and take over."

Also stepping up a bit was Martell "Webby" Webster, who made 5 of his 9 attempts for 12 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, and a steal.

Now it's up to the Heat to shake off their inconsistency on the road and go for the sweep in Canada.

Heat GM Cold To Coach

Miami Heat head coach Nate McMillan longed for a stiff drink long before Game 3 ended

The Miami Heat played their worst game of the season, shooting just 39% while allowing the Toronto Raptors to shoot 51.4% in an embarrassing 105-81 Game 3 loss that was not only Toronto's first win over the Heat this season, but gave the Raptors faithful hope of an upset.

The partisan crowd chanted "O-VER-RAT-ED!" as a downcast Miami team filed out to the locker room. Only Jameer Nelson (7/12 for 17 points, 6 assists, and 5 steals), Elton Brand (5/9 for 11 points and 8 rebounds) and Martell "Webby" Webster (5/10 for 11 points and 2 steals) looked ready to play, as the rest of the Heat were abysmal. Most glaring of all - Chris Paul with his second straight poor game at 1 for 5 shooting, joined in ineptitude by Aleks Maric, who shot a shocking 4 of 17.

Xavier Henry scored 30 points for his third straight stellar game of the series, and Rudy Gay rebounded from a bad Game 2 to drop 21 points on Miami, the duo's combined 51 points nearly enough by themselves to beat the frosty Heat.

"We have to decide whether it was just one of those games, or if we need to make some major adjustments," Miami head coach Nate McMillan said after the buzzer sounded. "One thing I can tell you, nobody's happy in South Beach tonight, and I can't imagine what Jestor is thinking right now. Not sure I want to, to be honest."

Brand, Dozier Also Stand Out

Rober Dozier had his best game off the bench yet for Miami

Miami Heat assistant head coach Reggie Theus turned to head coach Nate McMillan just after the buzzer sounded in Miami's Game 3 blowout at the hands of the Raptors and said just three words.

"Unleash the Hobgoblin!"

Theus was, of course, referring to Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson, who completely shut down Toronto star Xavier Henry during their regular season faceoffs. And so the Heat unveiled a change in their lineup, with Hobson sliding to SG and Darrell Arthur back starting at SF.

The intended consequences of the plan backfired, as Henry kept his hot postseason going in hitting 10/15 shots, 4/7 from long range for 27 points. But the presence of the physical Hobson in the backcourt wore down Henry and Aaron Brooks on defense, freeing up Chris Paul to snap out of his two game slump and erupt for 44 points, 10 assists and 4 rebounds on 16/27 shooting, 3/7 from behind the arc in Miami's thrilling 125-112 come from behind victory.

Perhaps just as impressive was Elton Brand's 9/13 for 23 points in 29 minutes. But the Battering Ram wasn't the only non-Paul Heat starter to do work. Arthur overcame a series long shooting problem to connect on 6 of his 8 attempts for 13 points and 2 blocks. More significantly, he limited Rudy Gay to a 4 of 12 night. Although Aleks Maric didn't light the world on fire, neither was he as terrible as his Game 3 performance, quietly producing 10 points and 12 rebounds.

Then there was Robert Dozier, who saw a massive increase in minutes and rewarded the coaching staff by posting an excellent all around game of 12 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals and 3 blocks on 5/11 shooting. Said Dozier afterwards, "This game was really about Ed Pinckney (Miami's third assistant) helping me correct my shooting. He's been coaching me up ever since I got here and he's really made me a better player just in the few months I've been with the Heat."

Still, it wasn't all fun and games for Miami. For the third out of four contests, the Heat allowed the Raptors to shoot over 50% at 51.8, and Miami needed 54.8% of its own shooting, plus the expected Jestorball turnover advantage (+5 in this one - 14 to 9), in order to execute the second half comeback.

"Last game we were all tied up at the half and they tore us apart in the last two quarters. This time we went in down 9 points and we just decided we weren't going to let them walk out of here with a tied series," McMillan said.

And now the most offensively exciting series heads back to South Florida for Game 5, where GM Jestor is calling for his team to close out the first round.

"The Pistons swept the Bucks, so we've got to finish this thing off quickly. Detroit's going to be a tough opponent and we can't let this become a battle," the GM noted.

All Five Miami Starters Score 16 Or More In Rout

Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson stole the ball 5 times and forced Xavier Henry into 7 turnovers

"Let's go out and play the way we know how to," Miami Heat head coach Nate McMillan told his players before Game 6.

That simple message in mind, Miami swarmed all over the Toronto Raptors, winning 123-95 behind six players with 13 or more points and coming up big in the turnover advantage department. In a series marked by the Heat hearkening to Jestorball ideology, they were at their best in Game 6, forcing 27 turnovers while giving up 13, a +14 advantage.

Leading the charge in these system fundamentals was none other than Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson, the 19th overall pick who battled fellow rookie Xavier Henry directly for the second straight game. Hobson limited the Raptors star to just 12 points, holding him to 3 of 5 shot attempts, and forced him into 7 turnovers, after causing the Kansas alum to cough it up 4 times in Game 5. More importantly, the Hobgoblin outdueled Henry on the points board, hitting 7 of 11 shots for 17 points, 5 assists, 5 steals and just one turnover.

"I love being disruptive on defense," Hobson said. "And it's great for the fans to see two guys talked about as Rookie of the Year candidates go up against each other. He won the last game, I won this one and both times we played against each other in the regular season. That's 3 out of 4 for me, kinda like how it was 4 out of 5 for us this series."

The Rest of the Heat Starters
Chris Paul - 4/9, 16 points, 7 assists, 1 turnover
Darrell Arthur - 6/11, 17 points, 6 rebounds, 5 turnovers
Elton Brand - 6/9, 17 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals
Aleks Maric - 11/16, 22 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 blocks

Arthur essentially drew Rudy Gay, as the Raptors SF went 6/11 for 16 points of his own. Brand completely took Jarvis Varnado out of the game, limiting him to 20 minutes due to foul trouble, and Maric dominated Luke Nevill like he has for most of the series. For the Heat bench, it was none other than Jestor favorite Martell "Webby" Webster stepping up, hitting 5/6 shots for 13 points.

It was another game of great shooting accuracy on both teams, Miami shooting 58.2%, 55.6% from 3 point range, while Toronto hit 55.1% and 46.2% respectively.

Miami Heat GM Jestor was effusive in his praise for Henry after the game.

"There's no doubt in my mind that he just locked up my first place Rookie of the Year vote after this series. Just absolutely incredible, on the level of what we saw with John Wall last season. Milos Teodosic is shooting well in his series, too, but a 0.9 A/TO ratio just won't cut it, I don't care if Super Mario Billips is guarding him. No question, Henry is a star in the league right now, and he's only going to get better. Great work by the Hobgoblin on him this game, though."

Miami now moves on to face the Detroit Pistons in the second round, a series that promises a smorgasbord of mouth-watering marquee matchups.

Context
Took us five games to do it, just like I thought it would. Still can't believe that absolute shitstorm in Game 3, though. To be honest, I never saw the Raptors as a challenge, Henry's exceptional performance as a rookie aside.

The Detroit Pistons, though.. even missing Ricky Rubio, they scared me. A lot. They were also the team that knocked us out in the second round the year before.

Izulde · 04-24-2015, 07:31 PM

Most Series Appear Settled

Willie "Wonder" Warren has been anything but wonderful this postseason

Jackson Ayorinde reports with the latest hot storylines following the conclusion of Game 4.

Mavericks, Magic, Pistons In Solid Shape
Thanks to first round sweeps of the Spurs, Bobcats, and Bucks respectively, all three of the named teams are in excellent position heading into the second round. The pressure will now be on the Portland Trailblazers, Chicago Bulls, and Miami Heat to close out their respective series and avoid injuries before moving on. Chi-town faces the most difficult task, playing on the road at Cleveland, followed by the Blazers road-trekking to the Clippers. Miami is expected to knock out the Raptors, but given Xavier Henry's brilliant play and the Heat's inconsistency on defense, a home upset could certainly be in the cards.

Take the walk of shame, Jeff Van Gundy

Hot and Not: The Coaches
Major credit due to Frank Lawrence, who has been absolutely masterful in crafting game plans to push the Cavaliers up against the wall. That he's done it with the Bulls' litany of injuries makes it all the more impressive. Tip of the cap also to Rick Adelman, who exposed Charlotte for an overrated team, humiliating the Bobcats in Game 1 with the second team, a gamble that paid off handsomely and set the tone for the rest of the series. Then there's Toronto's Flip Saunders, who exacted revenge for GM Jestor's firing him two seasons ago.

Said Saunders of his Raptors' strong play, "Listen, I know what that Jestorball crap is all about. It's not some wonderful system that's going to win titles. It's a weak scheme that can't even sweep us despite having a Top 5 player in Chris Paul and a great post game in Elton Brand and Aleks Maric. That GM of theirs is terrible, and Nate McMillan showed he's a mediocre coach after all those years of average records with the Bucks."

On the flip side, if one pardons the pun, there's Charlotte's Jeff Van Gundy, who looked absolutely clueless against the Magic, and the Clippers' George Karl, the fat man who has so far been completely stymied by Portland. No excuse about Kevin Durant, either, as Durant played extensive minutes in the Red and White's home beatdown loss to the Blazers in Game 2.

Danny Green #1? I can buy that

Hot and Not: The Players
You just can't say enough about how amazing Danny Green has been for Portland. Yes, his 1.7 A/TO ratio and 44.4% shooting haven't been exceptional, but he's shooting 40% from 3 point range and averaging 28 points, 4.3 assists, and 1.3 steals playing out of the point guard spot. He's also been ruthless on defense, with a 94.6% drive stop rate and 0.8 PA/SF, making life miserable for Jonny Flynn.

Then there's Xavier Henry, who has been absolutely jaw-dropping, averaging 26.5 points on insane percentages of 59.4%, 62.5% from 3 point range to give the Raptors a fighting chance. In doing so, he's generated the kind of buzz that John Wall did last season.

Speaking of Wall, he's been gold again, averaging a staggering 33 points on 58.8% and 57.1% from long range, although he's only taken 7 distance shots. Let's not forget his 2.8 steals either, or his 90% drive stop rate and 0.5 PA/SF. One could argue that his performance has been the most complete thus far in the first round.

And then there's the icy players, such as Charlotte's Dwayne Wade and Amare Stoudemire, but really, I don't want to pour more misery on an already shell-shocked team, so I'll just turn my focus to Phoenix's Willie "Wonder" Warren, who has been, in a word, the worst player in this year's playoffs. His 19.3 points a game may look sexy, but he's shooting just 38.4% and 18.2% from 3 point range, with 22 attempts from behind the arc. Think that's not bad enough? Try his 66% drive stop rate and 1.0 PA/SF.

Miami GM Jestor, who had a rocky relationship with the second year Oklahoma project before trading him to the Suns for Robert Dozier and two first round picks, commented on Warren's postseason showing, "This is what karma gets you. Willie trashed us before he left and now the world is seeing him for what he really is - a young player who doesn't yet know the meaning of clutch and who might never know it."

Can Miami Conjure A Miracle?

Lebron James will look to put a chokehold on Chris Paul

And so they meet again. After beating Toronto in five and sweeping the Bucks respectively, the Miami Heat and Detroit Pistons face off in the second round, just as they did last year. Although Detroit needed six games to take out Miami before moving on to the Finals, where they were upset by the Oklahoma City Thunder in one of the most shocking playoff results in NLL history, the general consensus was that the Heat didn't pose too many problems for the Pistons.

Now, a year later, the Heat have exchanged Willie "Wonder" Warren, Jamario Moon, and Carlos Boozer for Rober Dozier, Darrell Arthur, and Elton "Battering Ram" Brand, and added Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson and Martell "Webby" Webster, but will it be enough to overcome Motown? Even with Ricky Rubio lost for the year to a broken ankle?

The Regular Season
December 18th - 127-120 MIA @ MIA
February 11th - 115-105 DET @DET
April 1st - 116-109 DET @MIA

So it was a 2-1 advantage for Detroit, but on the flip side, none of the games were blowouts. Instead, they were high octane scoring affairs that forced the Pistons to play out of their defensive style and put points on the board.

A look at the potential starting lineups:

Point Guard
Chris Paul vs. Lebron James
This is the matchup everyone wants to see. Two of the Top 5 best players in the league going at it. Paul averaged 23.6 points, 5.6 assists and 1.4 steals with a 3.5 A/TO ratio against the Raptors, ultimately shooting 51.4% and stopping 98.7% of drives faced. He had a couple of lackluster games, which Miami can not afford if they want to have a chance at winning this series.

James did even better against the Bucks, averaging 27.3 points, 4.5 assists, and 3.8 rebounds. He shot 50.7%, but looked surprisingly bad at stopping drives - just 30% stop rate. The other danger point - a 1.1 A/TO ratio. This is where Ricky Rubio's broken ankle really causes problems. As much as James has looked unstoppable and as much as he has the size advantage over Paul... oh, who are we kidding? Nobody can stop Lebron at the point. Nobody.

Advantage: Pistons

Shooting Guard
Martell Webster/Darington Hobson vs Tony Allen
Which nicknamed player will the Heat bring to bear on Allen? Webby or the Hobgoblin? That's one of the most intriguing questions facing head coach Nate McMillan heading into this series. The best way to do this is to talk about the amazing job Allen did against the Bucks - 13 points and 1.3 steals on 48.8% shooting, 38.9% from long range. But that's not the best part. He completely destroyed O.J. Mayo, stopping every single drive he faced and posting an unheard of 0.4 PA/SF while forcing Mayo to shoot just 36.7%. As much as people want to talk about Lebron being the top player, Allen was just as important to the Pistons' sweep.

Hobson shot just 42% in the first round, largely dominated by Rudy Gay through the first few games, but finally breaking out againse Xavier Henry in Game 6. But he also posted solid all around numbers of 10.8 points, 4.4 assists and a steal, with a team-high 3.7 A/TO ratio. Webster in contrast averaged 11.6 points with a 2.6 A/TO ratio and shot 51.2%. Both players had drive stop rates over 83%, but were torched by their opponents, giving up a horrific 1.5 (Webster) and 1.7 {Hobson) PA/SF. No matter who Miami picks,it's looking grim.

Advantage: Pistons

Small Forward
Darington Hobson/Darrell Arthur vs Andrei Kirilenko
Another position that's up in the air for Miami. Hobson has already been covered, so we'll note Arthur's 50% shooting for 12 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 1.4 blocks. 93.8% drive stop rate and 0.6 PA/SF. But the Chicago School teams outside of Miami have uniformly expressed their disapproval of Arthur at SF, and indeed, he's been a turnover machine, posting an uncomfortable 0.8 A/TO ratio.

Kirilenko has a long and storied history as the NLL's top defender, and indeed, he looked much the same against the Bucks, averaging 2 steals a game and stopping 100% of drives. But he shot just 31.6%, had a 0.9 PA/SF line, and averaged 9.3 points with that shooting. 5.3 rebounds is good, but he didn't show the same shot-blocking instincts he used to have. Then again, his 16.5 NET was highest on the team. There's cracks in the armor, but it's just another advantage for Detroit overall.

Advantage: Pistons

Power Forward
Elton Brand vs. Amir Johnson
The Battering Ram didn't look 35 at all as he shot 62.8% for 17.8 points and 6.8 rebounds against Toronto, making a mockery of everyone who thought Jarvis Varnado would school him in the post. Not a great defender anymore (75% drive stop rate, 1.1 PA/SF), but he's a definite threat down low.

Johnson almost joined the Heat a couple of offseasons ago, when the Pistons offered him and Miami's 2014 1st back for Paul. At that time, Miami looked like a borderline playoff team even with CP3, so getting a star young big to pair with Maric and a guaranteed lottery selection appeared worth considering. But he didn't and so here we are. Amir surprisingly struggled with his shooting against Milwaukee, hitting just 45.2% of his shots for 8.5 points, 8.5 rebounds, and a whopping 3 blocks a game. Much better defensively with his shotblocking and 0.8 PA/SF, but this is finally an area where Miami can legitimately call a draw.

Advantage: Even

Center
Aleks Maric vs. Greg Oden
The second biggest of the three marquee position matchups (Paul/James, Maric/Oden, Brand/Johnson). A 4 for 17 outing in Game 3 dragged Maric's shooting average to 48.5% for the series, but he still averaged 15.2 points, 8 rebounds, and showed surprising blocking chops with 2.2 rejections against the taller, bigger Luke Nevill. His defense was also stellar - 0.7 PA/SF as he harrassed the Australian all series long.

Oden's 51.6% shooting led the Pistons in the first round, but he didn't take a ton of shots, settling for bruising work down low for his 11.8 points, 10 rebounds, and 1.8 blocks. Had a good, but uncharacteristically not dominant 0.8 PA/SF on defense, and this was against a still raw Demarcus Cousins. Another matchup that looks far closer than what might initally appear, but not enough to give Miami an advantage.

Advantage: Even

Bench
Jameer Nelson had a 3.5 A/TO ratio but shot horribly at 38.9% and only stopped 71.8% of drives faced. Martell Webster, if he doesn't start, has already been covered. But the real story here is Robert Dozier, who gained the trust of the coaching staff in shooting 55% and averaging 4.8 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 1.2 blocks. Let's not forget his 0.7 PA/SF, either, or his +8 ON.

Kyle Lowry had a better than expected 1.7 A/TO ratio, stopped 100% of drives, and had a 0.6 PA/SF. But he was just as bad as Nelson at shooting - 39.1%. In fact, that 39.1% was the highest shooting percentage of any of Detroit's reserves. While Patrick O'Bryant showed good defense - 0.8 PA/SF, the Pistons' bench is very weak after Rubio's injury.

Advantage: Miami

Overall Outlook
This is as stark a contrast in team philosophies as you could hope to find in this playoffs. But that's to be expected, as Miami GM Jestor is one of the two Godfathers of the Chicago School and Detroit GM ben faithfully follows his predecessor donkey33's Detroit Group blueprint. It will be the Pistons' standout starting five and domineering defense against the Heat's depth and high-octane, accurate shooting offense and pressure defense.

It will be a much closer series than last season, perhaps not in terms of the final wins total, but at least in the margins of victory one way or the other. Detroit needs Lebron James to stay healthy and to corral Chris Paul. Not having Ricky Rubio to also put on Paul and to run the offense when James needs a breather means the Pistons are one injury away from serious trouble. Nor can they rely heavily on their reserves, so they'll be forced to run their starters often.

Yes, it will be close, but in the end, a too talented first five and home court advantage will be too much for Miami to overcome.

Prediction
Detroit in 7

Heat Would Have Won Otherwise

Conspiracy theorists say LeBron James stole the Heat's gameplans

A heartbreaking 7 point road loss in Game 1 was directly attributed to a lost set of gameplans from the bag of head coach Nate McMillan. The 108-101 defeat came down to the Pistons shooting slightly better than the Heat and being richly rewarded by the hometown referees, who gave Detroit a lavish amount of free throw attempts, 59 to Miami's 27. The crushing defeat ruined Darington Hobson's brilliant 32 point, 4 rebound, 6 steal game while holding Tony Allen to just 1 of 11 shooting.

Miami GM Jestor refused to speak to reporters after the game beyond a single statement of, "We had this game won if our strategy wouldn't have been stolen. (Expletive) the refs and (expletive) all the haters who said we would lose in five."

Context Notes
Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, was giving us a chance to beat Detroit. Even the most optimistic predictions had the Pistons beating us in 6 games. I was the only one to predict a full seven game series. Hard to argue against that, really - even with Rubio's injury, the Pistons were damned talented, and the Finals loss to the Thunder the year before was widely considered one of the biggest flukes in sim league history.

Note: The Day Four recap was supposed to go in the last post, but the order of articles sometimes gets screwed up, depending on when people comment. No worries - it happens sometimes.

As for the gameplan, I forgot to download the Game 7 file, so my depth chart/sub matrix were out of date. I was fucking furious.

Izulde · 04-26-2015, 07:25 PM

Maric's Injury Spells Trouble For Heat

Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson took home Game 3 Player of the Game Honors

Quote:

my prediction will be Pistons in 5.

I think it's a stretch to say that your front courts are even.

Oden will destroy Maric... Detroit in 5

The pistons front court is far superior and it's not even close.

Detroit 4-1. The master of panic returns following

Prediction: Pistons in 5

These are but a sampling of a chorus of doubters before the Miami Heat's second round series with the Detroit Pistons. And yet, what has happened? Nothing less than Miami playing the Pistons close in Game 1 and successfully defending home court in Games 3 and 4. Only Miami's blowout Game 2 loss stands to validate the litany of critics.

Rookie Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson won Player of the Game in Game 3, a thrilling 112-94 win, as he hit 9/15 shots for 23 points and 4 rebounds. In doing so, he led the Heat's starting five, all of whom scored in double digits. Some of the Hobgoblin's biggest support came from the reserves, with Jameer Nelson connecting on all 5 of his attempts for 12 points, 4 assists, and 2 steals, and Robert Dozier netting 13 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks.

Pistons fans cried foul after the game, citing Miami's 50-24 free throw advantage, negating Detroit's 50% - 46.8% field goal advantage, 28.6% to 16.7% from 3 point range. Hobson, however, shrugged it off.

"These things happen in basketball. I mean look at Game 1. They got 59 free throw attempts and we only got 27. It was a 7 point game, so that was the difference right there between us winning and losing. It all balances out, you know?" the Heat's prized rookie said.

And indeed, what a series it's been for the player drafted 19th overall. He's shot 34/61, or 55.7%, this series, averaging 21.3 points and 4 rebounds. In a round that's seen Chris Paul shoot so horribly, Miami's franchise star is hitting just 38.3% for the entire playoffs, Hobson has been the one to step up and be a differencemaker for the Heat.

Paul's struggles against the mighty Lebron James might well explain why word broke out before Game 4 that the Heat's front office was listening to sign and trade offers for him heading into the offseason. CP3, who shot just 2 of 14 in Game 3, shrugged off the rumors.

"It's business. That's how the NLL goes. I've been traded before, I've had rumors come up about me before. What will happen will happen. No sense worrying about it. I'm just focused on getting my second ring and bringing a title to Miami," he said.

A front office official said the team would, "not be responding to offers until after the season is over" and that they're "just in the collecting offers" stage. The official confirmed that two teams had expressed strong interest and more were expected to follow in the coming days.

Aleks Maric fought through an arm injury to lead the Heat to a Game 4 win

And so it was against the backdrop of the Paul speculation that the Heat hosted the Pistons in Game 4. This time, it was Aleks Maric who stepped up as Miami's star, hitting 10 of 19 shot attempts for 26 points, 6 rebounds, 3 steals and 2 blocks in spite of an arm injury that's expected to hamper him in Game 5 and 6. Robert Dozier again played extremely well off the bench, missing just one of his five shot attempts for 11 points, 8 rebounds, a steal and 3 blocks.

"I can't say enough about the job Robert has done this postseason," Heat head coach Nate McMillan said. "He's been an integral part of our success so far."

Another key part of Miami's victory was Lebron James's worst outing of the series, a dreadful 5 for 23 performance that contributed greatly to Detroit's ugly 39% shooting on the night.

But Maric's injury wasn't the only one to hit the Heat frontcourt. Rafael Araujo banged up his knee and will be reduced for Game 5 in Detroit.

As for the claims of Detroit's vastly superior frontcourt and Greg Oden destroying Maric?

Pistons
Amir Johnson - 21/40 (52.5%), 15.8 points, 9.3 rebounds, 2 assists, 1.8 blocks, 36.3 minutes
Greg Oden - 29/53 (54.7%), 21.8 points, 12.5 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 blocks, 38.5 minutes

Heat
Elton Brand - 21/45 (46.7%), 14 points, 5.3 rebounds, 1.3 blocks, 28.8 minutes
Aleks Maric - 26/47 (55.3%), 18 points, 5.5 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 2 blocks, 32 minutes

On the surface, the Pistons' frontcourt does appear to be doing better, but the raw numbers are undercut by the fact that Detroit's starting bigs are averaging many more minutes a game than Miami's. Adjust those numbers to 36 minutes a game average and things look pretty close, save for in rebounding.

In fact, Maric is shooting better than Oden and isn't that far off from him in counting stat averages, particularly when one considers the 6.5 minutes a game gap. Hardly the Oden destroying Maric scenario at least one columnist predicted before the series.

Still, the Heat's head coach warned against reading too much into these numbers, or into the tied series.

"It's great that we got these two wins at home," McMillan said. "But the series is far from over. Detroit's still favored, especially with the dings to Aleks and Rafael. We have to prove that we can beat the Pistons on their own court if we want to win this series."

Britney Spears, Kate Upton Headlining

Kate Upton will be reprising her role as a baseball star

With a star-studded lineup predicted at the lottery, including rap mogul Jay-Z and NBA legend Larry Bird, the Miami Heat and GM Jestor have announced the first annual Blondeapalooza for the non-lottery teams. Expected festivities include a baseball game featuring Sports Illustrated swimsuit model and Victoria's Secret Angel Kate Upton and a musical lineup headlined by Britney Spears, the 30something blonde pop sensation.

"This is an opportunity for the world to celebrate the beauty of blondes, catch a little baseball, hear some music, all that stuff," said Jestor. "And of course, we're hoping Kate will do the Dougie for us."

Critics of the planned music, sports, and dance festivities pointed out Miami's GM is a brunette, to which Jestor responded, "You mad, brah? Haters gonna hate."

Note: The Dougie has no relation to former Lakers and Magic general manager RDoug.

Kate Upton Doing The Dougie
YouTube

CP3 Finally Breaks Out

Color entered back into Chris Paul's life after he snapped his series-long slump

Before the series began, almost no one gave the Miami Heat a chance. Detroit is too strong, everyone said. Too powerful for Miami to last any longer than five, six games tops. After the Heat's shocking Game 5 win on the road, it's the Pistons who have their backs against the wall. The result is all the more surprising because prior to this 106-100 defeat, Detroit had only lost three times on their home court.

Chris Paul finally came out of his series long shooting woes, hitting 9 of 20 shots, a respectable 45% shooting, for 25 points, and added 6 assists, 4 rebounds, and an important 5 steals. Naturally, he was the choice for player of the game, for the only other statistically noteworthy player for the Heat was Reyshawn Terry, who went 6/13 for 13 bench points.

Just as in Games 1 and 3 of this series, free throws played one of the biggest differences. Miami took 45 shot attempts to Detroit's 26, a mirror image of the Heat's single digit loss in the series' first game, where they had the charity stripe disadvantage at about the same margin. Classic Jestorball was also on display, as the Heat forced 21 turnovers while giving up 13, a +8 advantage.

Then there was Lebron James's continued struggles. He followed up a mind-blowing 5 for 23 performance in Game 4 with an 8 for 21 outing for an inefficient 20 points and 11 assists. Combined, that makes him 13/43, or 30.2% his last two games, another key element in the Pistons' defeats.

Still, Miami head coach Nate McMillan looked more like a man whose team had just lost rather than one who pulled off one of the biggest single game upsets of the playoffs.

"We've done nothing yet. All we did here was get the chance to load two bullets in the chamber. The werewolf ain't dead yet. Look at the Bulls. They had three bullets against the Cavaliers and they couldn't bring down that big ole bear, so I'm not celebrating, and my team isn't celebrating, until we close this out," he said.

Pistons' Guards Shut Down In 93-64 Crushing

Darrell Arthur was dialed in all night long and won Player of the Game

Before the Miami Heat's critical Game 6 versus the Detroit Pistons, Miami head coach Nate McMillan called his players together in the locker room and pointed to a table. Sitting there were GM Jestor's NLL Media GM of the Year trophy and his second place NLL GM of the Year medal.

"You see those awards over there? Those were won by the man who busted his ass to bring all of you here. Who, even despite the chaos he causes with his emotional outbursts, still believes in all of you. Who raises your profile as players, gets you and this team noticed. Who is one of the passionate, craziest people you will ever have the privilege to meet. Who damned sure deserves a shot at a ring", McMillan said.

He walked over to the prizes, rested his hands on them, and looked solemnly at the team.

"Win this one for the Jestor. Win this one for the fans, who have sold out this arena game after game, cheering you on through all the ups and downs of this season. Win this one to spit in the face of the haters who said you had no chance in hell of beating the mighty Pistons. Win this one for me, so I can say the same thing to all those people who said we were finished when Eric Musselman went to Russia. But most of all... win this one for yourselves.

Win this game, so you can hold your heads high and know that whatever happens after tonight, whether we win it all or not, you can say for the rest of your lives that you had this moment, this night, where you struck down the old guard and the old beliefs. Where you said to the world, Long Live the Chicago School! Long Live Jestorball! Where you earned the right to say to your children and your grandchildren that you overcame adversity and disbelief and showed that you had what it took. Where you showed that you were proud... to be the Miami Heat!"

Inspired, the Miami Heat went out and played their finest defense of the season. They shut down the Pistons, holding them to just 25.3% shooting, 19 makes in 75 attempts. Detroit had no answer for the crackling Heat and lost the first two quarters, mustered a tie in the third, and were beaten again in the final quarter, handed an ignoble 93-64 defeat, and a trip home to a long offseason. As topping on the cake, Miami once again stayed true to Jestorball form, forcing 20 turnovers and allowing 13, for a +7 advantage.

The respective performances of Lebron James and Chris Paul had much to do with their teams final scorelines

On the offensive end for Miami, Chris Paul had his second straight strong performance, and his best shooting night of this epic series. He hit 7 of his 11 shot attempts, 2 of 4 from behind the arc, for 22 points and 3 steals. But in a game that featured both teams struggling to convert (Miami itself was just 43.5%), it was Darrell Arthur who won Player of the Game, making his presence felt everywhere in going 5/ 8 for 19 points, 8 rebounds, and 4 blocks. Robert Dozier led the reserves with 10 points and 6 rebounds.

"This performance was about me shutting up my own haters," a smiling Arthur said after the game. "All those guys in the league saying I shouldn't be playing small forward, that I should stick to the 4. Well, guess I showed them." Arthur also played exceptional defense on rookie Dior Lowhorn, forcing the 29th overall pick into a 3 of 16 night, 1 of 7 from 3 point range.

And then there was Lebron James, who had his third straight terrible game. He made just 1 of his 14 shots and was held to a playoffs low 9 points. Kyle Lowry, his replacement, was even worse - 0 for 11 for 0 points and 7 turnovers. In fact, just two Detroit players came close to 50% shooting, and the only one of those who had 15 minutes or more was Tony Allen, who went 5 for 11. Amir Johnson? 3 for 7. Greg Oden? 2 for 6.

"Basically we found the solution to shutting Lebron James down," McMillan said in his post-game press conference. "We didn't realize it completely until after Game 4, but it was brewing in our minds even before the series started. That was the key to our winning this series."

The Heat's upset is all the more impressive considering Paul was only on for Games 5 and 6, looking completely shut down in the first four games.

Now fans in South Beach can celebrate as their team moves on to the East Conference Finals, where they await the Game 7 winner of the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Orlando Magic. It should be another epic battle as Miami seeks to win their first East title of the NLL era.

Context Notes
So, the Blondeapalooza thing... that was me writing a joke article to counteract all the articles of lottery teams sending various people to represent them.

As for the series... man, I was so damned pumped to get that series win. As for how I shut down Lebron the last three games, it was simple. The Pistons' GM didn't own the game, so I was able to put the Hobgoblin on Lebron at all times, switching between PG and SG. That's really what led us to the upset - that and Ricky Rubio's injury.

Loved getting this win. Revenge for last season, and redemption for everyone saying we would get beat by Detroit in 5 or 6 games. Script got reversed, yo.

I forgot until I posted these articles just how badly CP3 struggled for most of the series. But we managed to get the win anyway, and now it was on either to our hated archrivals in Orlando or one of the deadliest teams in the league in the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Izulde · 04-28-2015, 07:53 AM

Cavs, Magic To Play, But Seismic Shift Confirmed

Miami Heat head coach Nate McMillan's work against the Pistons ranks as one of the finest coaching jobs of this playoffs

Yes, the Orlando Magic and Cleveland Cavaliers still have an epic Game 7 to play. But what we've seen this second round has been nothing less than the signaling of a titanic shift in the NLL landscape. Numerous conventionally held beliefs exploded and it is this set of series, more than anything else, that has established that we are in a brave new NLL world. Much of it is, of course, tied up in the Miami Heat's shocking dismissal of Detroit, but the advancement of the Dallas Mavericks and Utah Jazz do much to inform the equation as well.

Here, then, are just some of the major changes falling out from the second round.

1. The Chicago School Can Now Claim Equality With The Detroit Group

John Wall will be selling a lot of shoes in the coming years

For years, the belief has been that the Chicago School teams, while capable of being exciting teams on offense and winning solid playoff seedings, didn't have the toughness or the defense to advance far into the postseason. The Dallas Mavericks proved last year was no fluke, riding the brilliance of John Wall to the West Conference Finals for the second season in a row. Some have noted the similarities between them and the Miami Heat, but even so, skeptics still said it was a matter of the West being the weaker conference and noted that Dallas failed to make the Finals last year.

Then along came the Miami Heat's taking out the #1 seed Detroit Pistons. A godfather of the Chicago School not only defeated the Detroit Group's signature franchise, they clinched it with defense in the series' final game. Offense has been increasingly sexy the last few seasons, and with Jestorball and Wallball, employed by the Heat and Mavericks respectively, entering the conference finals, the Chicago School is now the equal of the defense-minded Detroit Group.

2. The Hobgoblin Slayed The King And Destroyed The Legend of Lebron

Lebron James was left to ponder his failure to carry the Pistons

Since time immemorial it seems, the sages have called Lebron James at point guard an unstoppable force. The script went that while you could beat Detroit given the right set of circumstances, there was no disrupting King James when he ran the offense. That narrative was blown away against Miami, as a rookie, the 19th overall pick no less, Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson, dethroned the king and put to rest the old belief.

Teams who face the Detroit Pistons in future playoffs will no doubt make note of the game tapes and seek to find their own Lebron killer, now that they know it can be done. While there are those who argue, quite accurately, that a healthy Ricky Rubio would have completely changed the story, and we might not now be talking about Lebron's collapse, the disproving of the myth still remains before us.

3. The Validation Of Manu: Or, A Superstar Is Unneeded To Win

"Super" Mario Billips loomed large in the Jazz/Thunder series

We got an inkling of this last season, when a deep, balanced Oklahoma City Thunder squad stunned the Detroit Pistons to win the West's first championship since the back-to-back Phoenix Suns of 2004 and 2005. But most wrote that off as a fluke, one of those rare occurrences that only happens once in a great while.

Then came this season, where the Utah Jazz, despite not yet having a superstar (James Harden and Ed Davis are still growing into their impressive potential), stormed their way to the top seed in the West and got past the defending champion Thunder and the up and coming Los Angeles Lakers. In fact, their most valuable player is "Super" Mario Billips, who no one viewed as anything more than a good fourth or fifth starter before this season. And even that was underscored by their managing to win despite Billips' injury limiting his playing time against Oklahoma City.

John Wall, of course, countermands this argument, but once again we bring the Miami Heat into the equation. The Heat held form to a 2-2 mark in spite of Chris Paul's complete inability to find the bucket with any inconsistency in the first four games. Paul came on fire in Games 5 and 6 to help win Miami the series, of course, but this playoffs, more than any other in NLL history, has proven Chicago Bulls GM Manu Martinez correct when he argues that superstars aren't needed to win, or go deep in the postseason.

And so, the league has been forever changed by a single round of playoffs. Whatever the eventual result, and whichever team is crowned a new NLL champion, these truths have become clear.

Sorry, Lebron James and Pistons nation, we couldn't resist this last parting shot

NLL World Eager For CP3/Deron Matchup

Debate has long raged over who is better: Chris Paul or Deron Williams

After knocking off a higher, heavily favored seed in the second round, the Miami Heat will have to do it again. Conversely, Cleveland, weary battlers of two straight seven game fights, appear to have another slugfest on their hands, but once again the Cavaliers hold homecourt advantage.

Much like the Miami/Detroit series in the second round, this series features a platter of appetizing, marquee matchups that likely guarantees another set of sellouts and some of the highest ratings in NLL television playoff history. Once again, it will be the tale of a superhuman starting five and no bench against a team featuring depth.

It also features irony, as Cavaliers' GM Crimson has often acknowledged that the impetus for her acquiring Deron Williams from the Washington Wizards came in large part from Miami GM Jestor's criticism of Derrick Rose at the point. In fact, the Heat's front office leader was so scornful of Rose running the offense, he uttered what has now become one of the most popularly parodied phrases in Cleveland. In an interview, Jestor sneered and said, "I'll eat my hat if Cleveland wins a title with Rose."

Now Miami will have to back up its GM's bravado and keep him from having to consume his famous black fedora.

A position breakdown below.

Point Guard
Chris Paul vs. Deron Williams
Paul has had an uneven postseason so far, but when he's been on, he's been one of the major reasons why the Heat have won. Still the team's leading scorer this season at 18.7 points, with 6.1 assists, 1.6 steals, a 3.7 A/TO ratio, a 98.3% drive stop rate, and 0.8 PA/SF. Shooting percentage wise, his aggregate comes to 40.9%, 30.6% from 3 point range.

Long has the battle raged over whether Paul or Williams is the best point guard of their generation. Deron is considered -the- pre-eminent floor general of his era, and the 31 year old has more than continued to justify that reputation. He has a Jestorian swoon-inducing 7.0 A/TO ratio this postseason, averaging 16.7 points and 9.5 assists on 42.2% shooting, 37% from long range. His defensive numbers have been comparable to Paul's - 94.3% drive stop rate and a matching 0.8 PA/SF. The narrative written in the past still holds true - CP3 is arguably the best all-around point guard, but D-Will is unquestionably the best floor general. That means it's still too close a matchup to call.

Advantage: Draw

Shooting Guard
Darington Hobson vs Derrick Rose
Before the last round, nobody would have paid much attention to the Hobgoblin beyond saying he's a solid player. But after the rookie took down Lebron James, Hobgoblin Fever has suddenly sprung up in South Beach. We saw more than a few fans in hobgoblin costumes during Game 6 and if he can do the same to Rose, his cult status might be permanently secured. He stepped up early in the series against the Pistons when Paul faltered, raising his averages to 14.8 points and 1.3 steals on 48.8% shooting, 40% from 3 point. The defensive metrics look surprisingly mediocre - 74.4% of drives stopped and 1.1 PA/SF, suggesting that perhaps he wasn't quite as responsible for James's demise as the narrative says.

Then there's the much-maligned Rose, criticized for years in New Jersey before winning last year's Most Improved Player award. He's the engine that drives the Cavaliers' scoring, posting an eye-popping 26.4 points and 1.9 steals on 46.3% shooting. The scoring's all the more impressive considering he has yet to make a 3 pointer in the playoffs. 94.2% drive stop rate and 0.9 PA/SF, which is some quality defense. Right now it looks as though the Rose will tame the Hobgoblin.

Advantage: Cleveland

Small Forward
Darrell Arthur vs. Wesley Johnson
Except for Game 6 against Detroit, Arthur's had a very quiet playoffs, averaging a modest 12.6 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks. But he's also had the old sensational postseason shooting touch at 51.2%, highest of the team's starters. He's also been absolutely ruthless on defense at 96.6% of drives stopped and 0.7 PA/SF. Perhaps the most unsung of the Heat's starting five.

Johnson's been the complete opposite to Arthur in terms of presence. He's the Cavaliers' second leading scorer in the playoffs at 18.3 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 1.6 steals, at a very accurate shooting clip of 49.7%. Defensive metrics are absolutely stellar - 100% of all drives stopped and 0.8 PA/SF. Johnson's scoring talent gives him the slight edge over Arthur, although they've been very close in all other categories.

Advantage: Cleveland

Power Forward
Elton Brand vs. Anthony Randolph
One of Miami's megaton of moves surrounding Day 90, Brand looks very much his 35 years. Sure he's posted solid numbers of 14.3 points and 5.9 rebounds on 50% shooting, but the general sense is that he's just not the player he used to be even last season, and that the added weight of playoff games is taking its toll. He's also been worryingly matador on defense - 1.1 PA/SF.

Randolph won Defensive Player of the Year last season and has essentially taken over Andrei Kirlenko's mantle as the NLL's best defender. He's played extremely well this playoffs, averaging 10.9 points, 9.9 rebounds, 1.4 steals and 2.4 blocks. Although his shooting has been admittedly mediocre at 45.2%, his 100% drive stop rate, 0.8 PA/SF, and defensive playmaking have more than made up for it.

Advantage: Cleveland

Center
Aleks Maric vs. Cole Aldrich
The other major matchup of this series. Maric was slowed down at the end of the Pistons series with an injury, but still averaged 16 points, 6.9 rebounds and 1.7 blocks on 48.6% shooting. He also averaged 0.9 PA/SF and should perform better overall this round than he did against Detroit, newly healthy again and not having to face the imposing Greg Oden.

Or will he? Aldrich has a 0.9 PA/SF of his own and has been a terror on the boards in averaging 11.4 points, 12.6 rebounds, and 2.1 block on 55.9% shooting. While he isn't the scoring presence that Maric is, he's a husky Kansas kid that should make for another exciting fight in the post. We called Maric and Oden even in the last series and that essentially played out. We'll argue the same thing here.

Advantage: Draw

Bench
Jameer Nelson has been an inconsistent shooter, but he's delivered the passing goods - 3.3 assists and a 2.8 A/TO ratio and is also averaging 5.6 points. But the real story here is Robert Dozier's emergence as a clutch postseason player, averaging 6.5 points, 4.7 rebounds, almost a steal per game, and 1.4 blocks. He's shooting 48.2% and allowing just 0.8 PA/SF.

Cleveland's most notable bench players in terms of minutes and production have been the horribly shooting Chris Wright and Louis Williams, and the Darrell Arthur-lite Darnell Jackson, shooting a beautiful 69.2% for his 5.6 points and 4.4 rebounds. The problem is, Jackson's been a revolving door on defense - a horrendous 1.3 PA/SF in the post.

Advantage: Miami

Overall Analysis
Sounding familiar, isn't it? The Heat's depth against their opponents' superlative starting five, Miami's back against the wall in terms of homecourt advantage. As incredible a job as Miami did against Detroit, there just doesn't seem to be a way to crack the Cleveland Five. They're too well-balanced across the board and have only lost one playoff home game this season. That means finally, after season upon season with the talent to break through, the Cavaliers will at long last ride on into the NLL Finals.
Prediction: Cleveland in 7

Rare Major Defeat In Turnover Battle Overcome By Defense, Heat's Post Play

Aleks Maric shined for the Miami Heat in Game 1

It's rare that you see the Miami Heat lose the turnover battle as badly as they did in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals. It's even rarer for the team to do that and win. Yet, that's precisely what happened as the Heat captured the first game in Cleveland 96-92, in spite of an unheard of for Jestorball -9 turnover margin, 14 to 5. Cleveland took the first quarter 29-21, and the rest of the game was all about the Heat gradually chipping away at that lead until it finally vanished.

Aleks Maric won Player of the Game with a quality 7 of 14 for 19 points, 11 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 blocks performance. Elton Brand, his postmate, was actually Miami's leading scorer with 21 points and 8 rebounds on 9 of 14 shooting. Jameer Nelson keyed the bench scoring with 12 points, while Robert Dozier continued his ever-present playoff form. Although limited to 2 points, Dozier made his presence felt on the glass, with 12 boards and 4 blocks. Together, Maric, Brand, and Dozier combined for 31 of Miami's 47 rebounds, giving the Heat a +6 boarding advantage over the 41 rebound Cavaliers. This suggested that the Chicago Tribune writer who posited the Heat's bigs' rebounding as key to the series was correct.

Miami also shot 45.3% to Cleveland's 41.9% and enjoyed a 33-22 free throw attempt advantage. The difference was further highlighted when the Heat shot 72.7% from the charity stripe, the Cavaliers 45.5%, continuing Cleveland's playoff woes at the free throw line.

Context Notes
Another key factor in this epic Miami/Cleveland matchup - the Cavs had one of the worst GMs in the league who had been handed the keys to a team capable of a Detroit-style dynasty, and was making some rather odd decisions with it. Still, it was an elite starting lineup, and more importantly they'd come back from 1-3 deficits in the first two rounds to win in Game 7.

So even though we got the first game and stole homecourt advantage, Cleveland was not a team to sleep on. They also had a metric buttload of guys able to draw fouls, which always make a team difficult to play against, and that's without the supreme talent they possessed in other areas.

Out of the frying pan and into the fire, really.

But hey, the Lebron Slayer legend was born, at least, no matter what happened in this series.

Izulde · 04-30-2015, 05:41 AM

Brand, Paul Carry Heat To 3 Point Win

Elton Brand was all smiles in Game 2

"At power forward... Darnellllllll Jaaaaaackson!"

Miami Heat head coach Nate McMillan turned to Reggie Theus, his top assistant, in disbelief. "What the hell did I just hear? I never got any notification about Cleveland changing their depth chart."

Theus chuckled and pointed to the Heat's own starting power forward. "Look at Elton. He's thrilled right now."

And indeed Elton "Battering Ram" Brand's eyes were gleaming as he looked Jackson up and down with a wolf's grin. "I knew when I heard his name called that it was going to be a great night," Brand said.

For once, a prophecy came true outside of the realm of fantasy. The Battering Ram smashed into Jackson all game long, hitting a near-perfect 11 of his 12 shots for 29 points, 8 rebounds and 2 blocks. Yet, it was Chris Paul who won Player of the Game, snapping back from his cold Game 1 for a scorching 13 of 26, 4/11 from long range, for 30 points, 7 assists and 4 rebounds. Martell "Webby" Webster led the second unit with 10 points on 4/5 shooting, 2/3 from behind the arc.

Miami also amended their inability to force turnovers in Game 1, making Cleveland turn the ball over 15 times for a +1 advantage in Game 2. The Cavaliers, meanwhile, found their free throw shooting form, making 23/32 attempts for a 71.9% conversion rate. But in the end, even that 32 to 17 charity stripe attempt advantage and their second half rally wasn't enough. In this tale of two halves, Miami's 62-44 first half was better than Cleveland's 58-43 second half, and the Heat won 105-102 to grab a commanding 2-0 lead in the East Conference Finals.

McMillan wasn't resting easy, though.

"Despite the bush league move by Alvin Gentry, who I expect more of than that, we got the win. But let me tell you this. Going up 2-0 on the road means absolutely nothing. The Cavaliers have the best lineup in the entire league. They showed they could beat the Bulls and the Magic, two excellent teams, on the road, and they'll be out for blood when they come to Miami. South Beach has got to be ready for them."

One of the questions facing McMillan and his staff is what to do about the knee injury Darrell Arthur sustained. Arthur is capable of playing and the injury is just soreness, so it'll likely be a game-time decision.

Heat GM Heard Waxing Nostalgic

Jamario Moon's shutdown ability on defense made him popular in Miami

A potential distraction arose in South Beach when an unnamed source over heard Miami Heat GM Jestor commenting on former Heat Jamario Moon. According to the source, Jestor said he "loved having Jamario out there to shut guys down. God, could you imagine CP3, the Hobgoblin, and Moon altogether? There isn't a perimeter shooter in this league who would have a good night's sleep."

It's something that could have happened, but Miami, seeking to bolster its frontcourt and add a proven playoff warrior, instead dealt Moon and their 2017 2nd round pick for Darrell Arthur. Ironically enough, Arthur occupied Moon's old starting spot at SF for most of the season before he moved to the bench at PF, then again moving to the lineup at SF in the playoffs, where he's not only restored his playoff chops, but has been a terror on defense and one of Miami's best postseason defenders.

Sources say it's highly unlikely a trade gets done, however. The Timberwolves are believed to covet Arthur's return and almost acquired Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson at Day 90 and near the deadline. But the Hobgoblin has acquired cult status after his role in neutralizing Lebron James in the last round of the playoffs and is now deemed untouchable, and although Arthur is on the block, Jestorball scholars say his excellent postseason performance makes chances of a trade somewhat slim.

"There's two basic components true of all positions that will go a long way towards love and job security in the Jestorball philosophy," Jackson Ayorinde, the NLL's leading authority on the system said. "One is to have excellent passing and handling skills. The other is to have a proven playoff track record. Realistically, I don't see Miami making big moves in the offseason, especially if they manage to win the title. They'll fight to retain Chris Paul and may try to move up in the draft. Elton Brand might end up back in South Florida or he might play somewhere else, but outside of whatever roster filling they need to do in free agency, the front office likes the team composition too much to make a drastic shakeup via trade."

Absent Deron, Heat Blow Up Cavs By 23

Chris Paul loomed large in Miami's blowout win over Cleveland

The stands were awash in fans waving signs pleading Miami Heat superstar Chris Paul to stay in South Florida, and more than a few begged GM Jestor not to sign and trade the franchise player in the offseason. That demonstration of passion, and the absence of Deron Williams, helped sparked Paul to perhaps his finest game yet of the postseason - 40 points, 8 assists, 4 rebounds, and 0 turnovers, carrying Miami to a 126-103 laugher that was essentially over in the second quarter. Miami swept all four periods and seized a commanding 3-1 lead in the East Conference Finals. Paul hit 12/21 of his shot attempts, 5/11 of them from the 3 point line.

"Still doesn't mean anything," a grumpy looking Nate McMillan said after the game. "If we hadn't played like garbage last night, then we'd have the sweep and I might have something to tell you guys about." But the Miami Heat head coach couldn't deny the fact that cracks are starting to appear in Cleveland's foundation. Cavaliers head coach Alvin Gentry was slammed across the country and the Internet for not playing an injured Deron Williams, and now Cleveland has to deal with an injury to starting center Cole Aldrich.

"Going to be interesting to see what they do", Miami's own starting center, Aleks Maric, commented. "Nobody is injury free in the playoffs. I got hurt last round, Darrell (Arthur) got banged up this one."

Elton Brand continued his exceptional East Conference Finals, shooting well to pick up 15 points and 8 rebounds. Most significantly, he destroyed Anthony Randolph, holding Cleveland's defensive powerhouse to just 2 points on a clunker 1 of 8 shooting. Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson just missed the 20 point mark with 19 on 7/11, 2/3 long range shooting and also recorded 4 assists and 2 steals. All five of Miami's starters reached double-digit scoring, and the bench was once again headlined by Robert Dozier, who hit 4 of 6 for 10 points, 7 rebounds, and 2 blocks.

Context Notes
There was a rule in place where non-DDS teams could privately PM the simmer depth chart and strategy changes, but then they had to put in the depth chart thread that they submitted something to the simmer. The reason why is because DDS teams had to post a file whenever they were making changes, and not knowing someone made changes could potentially be a huge advantage to teams not owning the game. Needless to say, the Cavs didn't do that in Game 2.

And as I said last time, Cleveland's GM was notoriously incompetent. They made decisions to sit key guys like Anthony Randolph, the league's best defensive player, with a soreness injury, and other players with very minor injuries that had them over 90% fitness. Very puzzling decisions, particularly since the Cavaliers' depth was pretty terrible, as I noted in the preview.

But remember, this was also a Cleveland team that had come back from two straight 1-3 deficits, and that's exactly what they were facing now.

10-23-2013, 10:51 AM	#101
Izulde Head Coach Join Date: Sep 2004	Tumultuous Second Season For Former Half Of Wonderpaul Tandem The year's been an at times painful one for Willie "Wonder" Warren The sophomore slump is a common and ancient trope in the world of sports. It makes sense - teams and coaching staffs have an entire offseason in which to dissect and plan for the freshman phenom whose brilliant burst on the scene was in part aided by the element of mystery and surprise. But then there's those second years like Willie "Wonder" Warren, whose sequel act is a function of circumstance more than anything else. Hailed as a foundational future franchise piece when he was drafted 14th overall last season, he won the starting two guard spot and formed the Wonderpaul backcourt his rookie season, earning a spot on the Rookies team at the All-Star Game and helping the Miami Heat to the second round of the playoffs, where he proved efficient at running the point and assisting the underdog Heat into making a series of it with the heavily favored Detroit Pistons. Now he's languishing on Miami's bench, picking up garbage minutes if he gets into games at all. The remarkable plunge in his fortunes intrigued us, so we caught up with Wonder for an interview. 1. What are your thoughts on the season? It's tough man, real tough. To go from being one of the main guys to a scrub, it really sucks. It's a real struggle right now. 2. How would you describe your relationship with Jestor, the GM? What relationship? That fugly asshole doesn't hardly ever talk to anyone. He just sits there like some fat ass toad during practices, doesn't say shit, just sits. Sometimes he takes notes or whatever, but he's an ass. The only person he says much to is Aleks Maric and that whole bromance thing they got going on is disgusting. They're all cracking jokes back and forth and shit after practice. But I guess it makes sense. I mean Maric's a Herman Munster looking ass and Jestor looks like one of those homeless winos you want to kick in the balls when you see them staggering down the street. Aleks Maric and Herman Munster - long lost brothers? And I'll tell you another thing. Everybody talks about how Mr. Senberg is a shark, but Jestor's a god damned snake in the grass. He comes at you all smiles and praise, gives you a fancy ass nickname and shit, tells you how great you are, and then he turns on you. I'm sick of him and his bullshit. And you know what I'm really sick of? How everybody around here acts like Maric shits rainbows and pisses euros or whatever they use over in Serbia-Australia. It's like what the fuck, man? Dude isn't even one of the top 5 centers in the league. He's barely even in the top 10. 3. Do you feel like you get along better with Darington Hobson, your replacement in the lineup? Honestly, yeah. I love going up against him in practice. He's got this big body that he uses so damn well and he knows how to find the boards. Those jackass scouts say he's so terrible at defense, but his wingspan is just ridiculous and he makes you earn every bucket you make. We've actually gotten to be pretty good friends despite all the BS around us. He was all talking yesterday about how he loved what (Lee) Cummard did with the Bulls, signing for a lot less to help the team out. He said he wants to do the same thing, but I hope he's not with this shit organization when he does. Hobs deserves better than that. It could happen, I mean, Old Snake turns on people so I'd bet money he'll turn on Hobs, too. 4. Sounds like you really want to get out. Where would you most like to go? I'd love to go to Orlando. Erick Senberg is the best GM in the whole damn league and I'd love the chance to kick Miami's ass in the whole stupid "Florida Wars" thing. Phoenix would be really awesome too, playing for the GDOAT (Ed. Note: Greatest Donkey Of All Time). He's won so many rings and I feel like my scoring would help them out a ton. But now that I said that, they'll probably trade me to some basketball hell, like Denver or Atlanta or something. Phoenix Suns GM Donkey33* instructs Micah Downs on the finer points of the Donkey Utopia system style of defense* Player of the Game Performance Says It All Aleks Maric let his play do the talking A day after Willie "Wonder" Warren ripped his team's GM and Aleks Maric to the media, the Miami Heat's star center coolly won Player of the Game in a 113-100 road win over the Golden State Warriors, netting 22 points and 9 rebounds. He'll also be doing some laps at practice tomorrow, though, thanks to 4 turnovers. Maric was aided in the victory by Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson, who overcame another poor 6 of 16 shooting night by connecting consistently at the free throw line, finishing with 20 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals and a turnover while holding Demetrius Nichols to just 1 of 7 shots from 3 point range, 4 for 11 overall. Tasmin Mitchell played brilliantly off the bench, hitting 6 of 7 attempts for 13 points, 3 rebounds and 3 steals, and Solomon Alabi finally started looking comfortable with his expanded minutes, producing 12 points, 6 rebounds, a steal and 2 blocks. All Maric would say after the game is, "Serbia uses the dinar. Australia uses the dollar. They're not one country, and neither one uses the euro." Warren was once again a coaches' DNP while rumors of his being traded continue to run up, with some reports linking him to Miami's archrival Orlando, others to Phoenix, and yet more to the Los Angeles Lakers. Other Trade News Sources have let it slip that the Miami Heat will in fact be involved in a Day 90/Feb. 1st deal. According to insiders, it will be a move that addresses the team's 3 point shooting woes and the front office is very pleased with the acquisition. NLL Scholar Identifies Four Main Types Of GMs No doubt GM office spaces are as varied as their owners NLL observer and scholar Jackson Ayorinde, known for his commentary on the Miami Heat and his breakdown of the Chicago School and Detroit Group philosophies, recently noticed that the GMs of the league could be broken down into four basic types when it came to their preferred methodology of making a successful team. He scanned the histories of the NLL's GMs and selected two or three GMs who are most known to be representative for each type. Jackson Ayorinde's Report I want to stress first and foremost that every GM has at least some of all four types in them, and the most successful can arguably appear in more than one category as representative figures. But what I sought to accomplish in this study was to not only present the types, but select GMs I thought had well established themselves as iconic figures. To ensure as many people appeared as possible, I decided that a GM was only eligible for spotlight for one type. The Drafter Scenes such as these are common for the Draft Moguls The Drafters are the GMs who not only prefer to construct their teams through the draft, they're exceptionally good at it. These are the guys that know how to scout exceptionally well and maneuver themselves to get not only the players that best fit their system, but the outright steals that everyone else misses. They can dazzle you with a minute breakdown of every player they expect to be in their range and the hidden gems that their opponents will completely overlook. Sure they'll have the occasional miss; everyone does. But these guys will be right more often than not, and every rebuilding/retooling team in the league would absolutely love to have one of these guys heading their front office. Representative GMs: suhgamer, Jinkymagic suhgamer gets on this list just by virtue of having nailed the Manu Steal of the Draft two years in a row. The fact that he's doing an excellent job slowly rebuilding the Grizzlies despite not having his pick last year further affirms his shrewdness. Jinkymagic may have groused about missing Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson, but he hit a home run with the selections of James Keefe and Samardo Samuels. And lest anyone argue with the other picks the Pacers made in the last draft, I have two words and a number for you. Matt Bouldin. #49. The Financial Expert Money-smart guys can put their teams in brilliant position to dominate free agency The Financial Expert can give you a line by line breakdown of their team's balance sheet and cap situation for this season, next season, and five years down the line. They track the free agent classes long before anyone else does and can tell you what any given year's crop quality is likely to be. They gameplan around the stellar classes and sit tight during the weak years. Free agency may be a gamble, but these guys are the ones who know how to stack the deck in their favor. Representative GMs: None yet, but IndyNate, Skyline, and Stockton12 might all qualify It's a brand new league with the death of the Player Agency monopolies, the forthcoming suppressing of the cap, and the new in-season extension rules. The Financial Expert, although he hasn't fully materialized yet, has three likely possibilities in the Lakers, Timberwolves, and Warriors. IndyNate is sitting on $14 million in cap space right now. Gilbert Arenas ($20 million) and Johan Petro ($5.5 million) are due off the books this season. If Marcus Williams declines his PO, that's another $5.8 million. Nobody talks much about the Timberwolves as a free agency player, but Minnesota already has $24.8 million in cap space and has Marvin Williams' $15 million expiring contract. There's little question that they and the Lakers will control the free agency board. Then there's the Golden State Warriors, who at first blush don't look like a possibility. But they have Dirk Nowitzki's $15 million expiring contract and a handful of other expirings. They're also, according to rumors, actively working to free up even more space. Note: The Utah Jazz have $23 million in cap space but they also have no major expiring contracts and just recently signed Pops Mensah-Bonsu to a contract extension that will cut significantly into their number. 3. The Tactician Understanding Xs and Os helps you win championships Pray you never face this guy's team in the playoffs. They will out-matchup and out-strategize you 9 times out of 10 and have you hoping you have a good enough talent advantage to pull out the victory. In short, anything the Tactician doesn't know about the game of basketball isn't worth knowing, and although everyone is still adjusting to the new NLL rules of play, these guys will crack the system long before anyone else. Heck, they could write a doctoral dissertation on basketball strategy. Representative GMs: mgtr81, NBAFanatic329 mgtr81 founded the Chicago School and is the NLL's Rookie Commissar. He singlehandedly turned the tide in the league away from defense-obsessed to featuring some offense-based teams. Yes, the Bulls are still figuring things out, and yes, Chicago has yet to make it even to the East Conference Finals, but the prevailing opinion around the league is that Da Bulls will be deep in the playoffs sooner rather than later. NBAFanatic329 was the last guy before MiniShaq to win a non-Detroit ring, ironically with the Bulls. He took over a horrible situation in Orlando and in the matter of a few seasons has positioned them as one of the up and coming East powers. Credit his game day understanding to much of that success. The Trader There's probably at least one Trader GM's office that looks like this Last but not least, the Trader GM. These guys can give you a three hour lecture on the strengths, weaknesses, and approximate value, both current and future, of their teams, their players, and their picks. Then they can spend another three hours each doing the same thing with each franchise in the league. This acute understanding of asset value has them winning a lot of trades. More importantly, even when they make the occasional bad deal (see The Drafter for a parallel), Trader GMs have a way of reversing it. They also often have a system they stick to. Representative GMs: Donkey33, Jestor, knightdemon Donkey33 built the Detroit dynasty with a series of shrewd trades that were originally questioned, but later revealed to be brilliant. My own personal favorite? The one where he acquired Andrei Kirilenko. Although the historical records of that transaction and others of the Pistons era were lost in a fire, NLL oldtimers credit it as one of the biggest and best deals the donkey made. Now he's doing the same thing in Phoenix, with the Joakim Noah/Hamed Haddadi blockbuster perhaps his best work in his brief time in the desert. Jestor's portfolio is largely built on the Stanley Robinson/Chris Paul main piece blockbuster and the Monty Myles/Aleks Maric trade in which he reversed an earlier Myles disaster. Less monumental, but still important as a demonstration of the kind of small trade with bigger results that Trader GMs specialize in, the Jarrett Jack for a 2015 2nd trade he made last year. 27 win team without its pick when he arrived in South Beach. Now second place in the Southeast in his third season. knightdemon flew under the radar in terms of GM reputation for a good number of years, but he exploded on the scene with the now stunning and infamous B.J. Mullens/Tim Duncan centerpiece trade. Although that alone would give the Bobcats GM consideration, like his Southeast rival, he turned a bad decision (Choosing Emeka Okafor over Kevin Love) into a good one by flipping Okafor and a couple other pieces for Amar'e Stoudemire. End result? The Bobcats are now one of the prohibitive favorites to win the East and with it the NLL championship this season. Trade Will Puzzle League Willie "Wonder" Warren says, 'Yes! I'm GTFO here!' Moles within Miami's front office leaked it this morning that the team has found a deal for Willie "Wonder" Warren, signaling the end of what quickly turned into an acrimonious relationship between the second year guard and the organization. One source said, "It's going to be one of those deals where people will shake their heads at Miami and say they didn't get full value or they could have offered better, but let's face it. He's been on the block for months, we've had discussions with lots of teams, and the reality of it was, this was the best deal anyone was going to put forth." Another person admitted to there being some uncertainty in both front offices. "We've got guys here in South Beach who aren't really happy with the deal and they've got guys in their office going you know, this doesn't really make that much sense for us, but the two GMs have agreed to the swap and so it will happen." A third commenter said that although both sides have their in-house detractors pointing out the risks in the agreement, the trade does address needs for both franchises involved. Explained the third individual, "As a sportswriter in Dallas said, everybody was pretty much in the cash-in mode and not looking for a need for need deal. Even if Miami's not getting full value here, it does address areas of concern and gives us much more flexibility in the offseason." Two Confirmed Trades May Grow To Four In Overhaul Chris Paul will not be among those moving Sources say Miami Heat GM Jestor locked himself in his office with his cell phone and a bottle of wine this morning and rumors are going around team offices that in addition to the two confirmed deals, they're very close to a third deal and are mulling a fourth. Said one official, "Realistically we don't see that fourth deal happening. We're having second thoughts about it as it would represent too radical a shift on our team, one that would probably hurt our chances at a title this season. We offered a less dramatic deal, but the opposing team wasn't interested in the main player we offered, which we found rather shocking." Deal one is a confirmed sending of Willie "Wonder" Warren for a solid young big man that sources say will address a weakness on the reserves. Deal two involves a player who will improve Miami's 3 point shooting issues. Sources would not talk about deal three or deal four, save to say that the third deal, the most likely, is a bench move, and that the fourth was not really worth of discussion at this time. "Essentially, we may or may not get a new starter out of these deals. But what this is really about is improving our overall strength and depth as a team as we challenge for the title this season," the official said. "And with these smaller moves we've orchestrated, we're officially going for it this year. That means Chris Paul is off the table." And Then There Were Two, Jack On The Block Jarrett Jack has grown increasingly unhappy in Miami The first news to send shockwaves throughout South Florida was that the Miami Heat have pulled out of one of their Feb. 1st trades. According to organization sources, the team intended to follow through, but the other side offered to let the Heat walk away, saying they were surprised Miami even inquired about the player. Miami's front office thought about it and decided it was in their best interests to withdraw. They thanked the opposing team for their understanding and no lasting negative impact is expected between the two front offices. Insiders also stated that the Heat are still debating over a potential deal involving Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson, trying to decide whether the player that would be coming back fits what their team needs, both now and in the future. Nor does this look to be the final summary of Miami's projected deals. They're said to be calling teams around the league, seeing who is available of a certain type of player for their bench. Scouts have been working overtime visiting games and reviewing tape of many potential targets around the league for that spot. The second stunner came when it leaked that Jarrett Jack, the team's most accurate perimeter shooter and an excellent two way player, is on the trade block. The gossip mill says that Jack has been deeply and vocally regretting his decision to re-sign with the Heat rather than go to the Charlotte Bobcats, making him the second player in as many weeks to pine for a Southeast rival after Willie "Wonder" Warren told the media of his longing to play in Orlando. Matters apparently came to a head after the Heat's hardscrabble road win over the Portland Trailblazers, when Jack reportedly said he didn't think Miami had any chance of catching Charlotte for the Southeast title. Solomon Alabi took exception to that opinion and the two got into a shouting match, ending with the 6'3 Jack stepping up to the 7'1 Alabi and daring him to take a punch. Alabi then backhanded Jack into a locker with ease and said, "Pipe down, little man. You're too old to be starting (expletive) with me." Some have also privately suggested that the impending chaos surrounding the February 1st trades have led to a worsened climate in the locker room and a few wondered whether Nate McMillan will have the ability to keep control of the team. "It's a tough situation for them," said a person affiliated with the Heat. "Either they have to say ride or die, or they have to give up one of their top backcourt shooters who can defend, too. Both options carry some serious risks, so it'll be interesting to see what the front office does." * Context Notes Things are about to get cray-cray up in South Beach. That's all I can say. __________________ 2006 Golden Scribe Nominee 2006 Golden Scribe Winner Best Non-Sport Dynasty: May Our Reign Be Green and Golden (CK Dynasty) Rookie Writer of the Year Dynasty of the Year: May Our Reign Be Green and Golden (CK Dynasty)**

10-23-2013, 09:03 PM	#102
Izulde Head Coach Join Date: Sep 2004	__________________ 2006 Golden Scribe Nominee 2006 Golden Scribe Winner Best Non-Sport Dynasty: May Our Reign Be Green and Golden (CK Dynasty) Rookie Writer of the Year Dynasty of the Year: May Our Reign Be Green and Golden (CK Dynasty)

10-23-2013, 09:05 PM	#103
Izulde Head Coach Join Date: Sep 2004	And Then There Were Two, Jack On The Block Jarrett Jack has grown increasingly unhappy in Miami The first news to send shockwaves throughout South Florida was that the Miami Heat have pulled out of one of their Feb. 1st trades. According to organization sources, the team intended to follow through, but the other side offered to let the Heat walk away, saying they were surprised Miami even inquired about the player. Miami's front office thought about it and decided it was in their best interests to withdraw. They thanked the opposing team for their understanding and no lasting negative impact is expected between the two front offices. Insiders also stated that the Heat are still debating over a potential deal involving Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson, trying to decide whether the player that would be coming back fits what their team needs, both now and in the future. Nor does this look to be the final summary of Miami's projected deals. They're said to be calling teams around the league, seeing who is available of a certain type of player for their bench. Scouts have been working overtime visiting games and reviewing tape of many potential targets around the league for that spot. The second stunner came when it leaked that Jarrett Jack, the team's most accurate perimeter shooter and an excellent two way player, is on the trade block. The gossip mill says that Jack has been deeply and vocally regretting his decision to re-sign with the Heat rather than go to the Charlotte Bobcats, making him the second player in as many weeks to pine for a Southeast rival after Willie "Wonder" Warren told the media of his longing to play in Orlando. Matters apparently came to a head after the Heat's hardscrabble road win over the Portland Trailblazers, when Jack reportedly said he didn't think Miami had any chance of catching Charlotte for the Southeast title. Solomon Alabi took exception to that opinion and the two got into a shouting match, ending with the 6'3 Jack stepping up to the 7'1 Alabi and daring him to take a punch. Alabi then backhanded Jack into a locker with ease and said, "Pipe down, little man. You're too old to be starting (expletive) with me." Some have also privately suggested that the impending chaos surrounding the February 1st trades have led to a worsened climate in the locker room and a few wondered whether Nate McMillan will have the ability to keep control of the team. "It's a tough situation for them," said a person affiliated with the Heat. "Either they have to say ride or die, or they have to give up one of their top backcourt shooters who can defend, too. Both options carry some serious risks, so it'll be interesting to see what the front office does." Part I of Miami's February Moves: At Long Last, Webster Reunites With Old GM If Miami Heat GM Jestor* was a black woman, this might well be the reunion embrace* Once upon a time, years ago, there was a GM named Jestor who joined the Orlando Magic. He saw a young player he really liked by the name of Martell "Webby" Webster. He decided Webby would be an excellent fit for his team, so he acquired him (Ed. Note - Historical records were not available at press time). Some were skeptical of the trade, but Jestor vehemently defended Webby to all and sundry, deeming him a quality young player. After a brief while, Jestor left, and the new Magic GM, Erick Senberg, banished Webby. Jestor was heartbroken to hear of the news, but stayed out of NLL Land to pursue other ventures. Then, one day, Jestor came back to the NLL, accepting the post with the Miami Heat. He longed to have Webby back with him, but the nefarious New Orleans GM, Duncan Limosani, repeatedly refused the earnest Jestor's overtures. Two summers ago, Webby was a free man filled with agency, able to go anywhere he wished. He waited and waited for his old GM to call, but Jestor had eyes for Shawn Marion, a prized player who shared school ties with the Heat GM. Marion stayed home and Webby reluctantly agreed to re-sign with his old team and by the time Jestor had the money to call Webby, it was already too late. Fast forward to this year. Bigsmooth, the new Hornets GM and Jestor started talking. Biggy wanted Solomon Alabi, Jestor wanted Webby. But trade restrictions were involved because of money and so they agreed to wait. Then Bigsmooth was fired and Sheirababu (Ed. Note - We apologize for the spelling error. We're also writing other articles and have a long night ahead of us). This new, new Hornets GM and Jestor talked. Again Alabi for Webby came up, but Jestor wanted more because he knew Solomon's value. The Hornets refused to add a late first round pick to the deal, so talks broke down. Then it came very close to February 1st, the day restrictions died. Jestor came to New Orleans and offered a very big deal involving Carlos Boozer and Webby was part of the return. The Hornets said sorry, Webby is going elsewhere. Crushed, Jestor asked where. Utah was the answer. Being surrounded by Mormons was a fate worse than death, so Jestor frantically contacted the Jazz to ask about Webby. The Jazz asked what would be offered. Jestor bit his lip and sacrificed Will Conroy, one of his discovered players to have Webby come home. Everyone agreed and so player and GM were joyously reunited, hugging tightly in Miami's major airport to the applause of Heat fans. ** Now for the basketball side of the story. The Miami Heat have had a problem with three point shooting this season, a skill Webster has shown considerable acumen at in previous seasons. Although Jestor declined to say if Webster would supplant Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson as the starter at SG, it's believed Webster will see considerable minutes. Will Conroy did exceptionally well as Chris Paul's backup This past offseason, Miami targeted Will Conroy as Chris Paul's backup and gave him a lucrative two year, $7 million contract. Although an overpay, the pass-first point guard flourished in the Jestorball system, finding his shooting stroke after some initial struggles and posting an excellent A/TO ratio and drive stop rate. He should figure in Utah's point guard rotation and will prove an extremely valuable asset if the Jazz give him the chance. Most important about this move? It set off the shocking third trade that no one, not even Jestor, saw coming. Part II of Miami's February Moves: Warren, First Out; Dozier, Two Firsts In Robert Dozier is giddy about playing for the Heat The second of the Heat's February 1st deals sent malcontented Willie "Wonder" Warren and the Phoenix Suns 2016 1st to the Suns for Robert Dozier and the Suns' 2015 and 2017 1st round picks. Although lacking in the emotional content of the Martell "Webby" Webster trade or the sheer mind-boggling quality of the Jameer Nelson deal, it nonetheless ranks as an important move for Miami. Dozier brings more rebounding, defense, and blocking to the Heat, something GM Jestor and the front office felt the team lacked, even with Carlos Boozer's boarding skills and Solomon Alabi's somewhat similar profile. "This was an offer we had on the table for a long time," Jestor said at the press conference announcing the deal. "We held off on it while we investigate Willie Warren's other possibilities around the league. We quickly realized that Wonder's trade value was not wonderful at all. In fact, it had dropped lower than a teenager's baggy pants. So we went back to this trade as one that would help us, both now and in the future, and a source of value." According to organization insiders, the Heat plan to use Dozier as Boozer's primary backup and explore interesting combinations with Alabi. In fact, one source commented that the Heat might consider "running a Dozier/Alabi train on guys like B.J. Mullens, Kosta Koufos, and Cole Aldrich*." And so Willie "Wonder" Warren's wild ride in South Beach comes to a close* By now, readers are quite familiar with the saga of Willie "Wonder" Warren and the Miami Heat, from its enthusiastic inception to its acrimonious conclusion. More of that need not be said. But what is important to note is that Warren will provide Phoenix with that explosive scoring burst they need to pair alongside James Johnson. Will he need work and time to heal from his South Florida wounds? Yes. Will he be determined to prove Jestor was wrong to trade him? Absolutely. But this is a trade that can not truly be measured immediately. Its effect will only be spun out over the course of a few seasons, after Warren has developed and after we have seen what these first round selections have metamorphosed into. Part II of Miami's February Moves: Heat Send Bench, High 2nd For Nelson, Low 2nd Some say Miami Heat GM Jestor's favorite Dostoesvsky novel inspired the stunning three way trade From four to three to two. Two then became three as a result of a shocking three way trade between the Heat, Golden State, and Dallas, an exchange concocted late at night after the posting restriction was lifted. It represents Miami's biggest gamble yet, a roll of the dice that will either end brilliantly or in total disaster. In the deal, the Heat sent out all of their remaining bench players with the exception of front office favorite Tasmin Mitchell and big man Solomon Alabi along with the Denver Nuggets 2nd round pick in the upcoming draft. In exchange, Miami received Jameer Nelson and completed the Sun collection for the 2015 season by landing Phoenix's 2nd round pick. Miami, meet your new backup point guard, Jameer Nelson So why all this spending of assets (other than the obvious need for salary cap matching) for a backup? Yes, Miami needed a new reserve point guard after trading Will Conroy for Martell "Webby" Webster, but far cheaper options were available, such as Boston's Jordan Farmar, Milwaukee's Reece Gaines, and New York's Ty Lawson, just to name a few of the rumored available floor generals in the East. The answer lies in Jestor's statement, sometimes heard publicly, but more often heard privately. The quote goes something like this: "I believe there are two criminally underrated floor generals in this league. T.J. Ford is one. Jameer Nelson is the other." Although Miami attempted to grab Ford in last year's free agency, the Charlotte Bobcats beat the Heat to the punch and much of their success can be attributed to having that new man to run the offense. Now it's Nelson's turn to join the Southeast, carrying his terrific 3.7 A/TO ratio, the good sense to defer to better scorers, and a respectable 74.7% drive stop rate and 0.9 PA/SF faced with him. There's quite clearly no chance he supplants Chris Paul as the starting point guard during the regular season, but how differently might have the Detroit series gone last year if it was Nelson at the point instead of Willie "Wonder" Warren, who isn't nearly as gifted a passer? Yet, the need to fill a void and a high esteem for Nelson weren't the only reasons for the trade. There's also the fact of his expiring $6.67 million contract and something else that will become clear after reviewing the other assets of the trade. The View From Dallas Andris Biedrins will be playing with his balls in Dallas But even with all this lurking in the background, the trade talks didn't really start until Jestor told his Dallas counterpart, Billy Bucket, that he wished there was a way they could figure out a deal around Nelson without having to have Darrell Arthur involved. Mr. Bucket proved amiable to a trade within certain parameters, much to South Beach's shock. Miami immediately put together a package and sent it over to Dallas for consideration. Initially all four of the Heat players were to go to the Mavericks, which posed a problem (more on the resolution a bit later), but in the end, the Big D is getting the biggest man in the trade, Andris Biedrins, along with Team Nigeria member Gabe Muoneke and the Raptors 2016 2nd. Although most will cite Toronto's 2nd as the most valuable part of the deal, as the Atlantic is so weak year in and year out, virtually any of the division's teams can make enough moves to take the title, Biedrins bears value. He's a consummate professional, the kind of third string big man who's quite handy in case of injuries. But with Miami acquiring Robert Dozier from the Suns for Willie "Wonder" Warren, suddenly Biedrins became expendable. As for Muoneke, after initial offseason chatter that he might take the Jamario Moon role under now retired Heat head coach Eric Musselman's system, he instead bombed in preseason and found himself quickly buried behind Arthur, Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson, and Mitchell, left to collect dust. He might actually see use in Dallas, or the Mavericks may just call up Jeremy "Hazelnut" Hazell, Hobson's closest friend in the NLL, to provide firepower off the bench. Yet, this trade might not have even entered the talks stage were it not for Chris Quinn arriving from the Golden State Warriors in a previously agreed to trade. This would set the stage for the Warriors' ironic entry into the discussions. On The Golden State Beaches Jarrett Jack is just happy to get out of Miami after his recent altercation with Alabi So there Miami and Dallas sat, trying to figure out a way to resolve the problems of a 4 for 1 swap. Along came the Golden State Warriors, fresh from their trade with the Mavericks, offering to serve as the intermediary in a three way deal. And then, as one source put it, they played their hand "flawlessly." Golden State determined from the outset that valuable two-way reserve Jarrett Jack was their only target of interest from the Heat and zeroed in on him. Dallas was fine with this and the talks continued. And then stopped. For although the Warriors liked Jack, they wanted nothing to do with Jodie Meeks, the other piece in the trade. Miami, sensing the deal falling apart, talked Golden State into accepting Meeks, but then the Warriors didn't want to trade out the Raptors 2016 2nd, given the shallowness of the Atlantic, without getting an equal value or better second round pick in return. Eventually, the revealed three way was worked out as a compromise. A person close to the talks said, "The Warriors did this brilliantly. They knew they were in the position of kingmaker and used that to their full advantage. Very well played." Fitting, too, given that after Stockton12's miracle playoff run with the Suns one of his final seasons in Phoenix, Jestor wrote an article highlighting the GM's accomplishments and arguing that Stockton was one of the most underrated GMs in the league. True words it seems, following this deal, and of course, the Alexis Ajinca trade that signaled the beginning of the end of Cleveland's promising dynasty under Taber even before it had a chance to begin. Heat fans can only hope Jestor is as prophetic about Nelson as he was about Ford and Stockton. The Final Reason But overlooked in what no doubt will be shouts of overpaying is the following: Jack and Meeks were the most miserable players on the Miami Heat. Jack didn't get along with new head coach Nate McMillan from the start and things only got worse as the year wore on. Meeks was extremely unhappy about being cast to the garbage bin after starting Miami's first few games. And then the blowup between Jack and Alabi happened. And then McMillan and the coaching staff noticed something that set off alarm bells. Chris Paul was starting to become unhappy with the drama. Everyone in Miami knew they couldn't risk CP3's misery, so in one fell swoop, the Heat shuttled the malcontents out in hopes of restoring their franchise face's total and complete happiness before free agency. Part IV of Miami's Feb. 1st Moves: Boozer, 1st, 2nd For Brand In Big Man Swap It'll be Elton "Battering Ram" Brand* manning the PF spot for Miami* Just when you thought it was over, that the Miami Heat had cashed in all their chips and were done, they played one final card, a move so smooth and so fast in its execution, it set speed records and took the NLL completely aback. Mere seconds after the Memphis Grizzlies announced for the thousandth time in two seasons that big man Elton Brand was on the block, suhgamer received a call from Heat GM Jestor asking if the Grizzlies were interested in Carlos Boozer. Memphis, as Miami already anticipated, and indeed, would have asked themselves if the roles were reversed wanted compensation for the extra year on Boozer's deal, but were open to the idea. Since the two GMs were already on the same page, coming to a conclusion and agreement proved strikingly swift. For the Grizzlies, they finally got another first round pick for Brand to add to Drafter suhgamer's stable and the poetry of owning Phoenix's 2015 set of picks. They also get a player who's very similar to Brand in many ways and ensure that Renardo Sidney will continue to have a veteran mentor as Memphis tries to improve their record next season and push for a playoff spot. As for Miami, they get a new power forward that one front office official admiringly called, "a (expletive) battering ram" in the post. Indeed, the description seems apt, for Brand is exceptional at drawing fouls, and only Dejuan Blair is in his class at crashing the offensive glass. Although not nearly as good on the defensive end, particularly in comparison to Boozer, the Heat have Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson and the incoming Robert Dozier to make up for Boozer's loss on that end. But that's not all Battering Ram Brand brings. Some within the organization believed that Boozer was too soft on defense and indeed, the metrics seem to support that argument (40% drive stop rate, 1.1 PA/SF). Brand's numbers on the same metrics? 60%, and most importantly, 0.8 PA/SF. Then there's blocking - Carlos Boozer has not recorded a single block this season. His career high is 53 - Brand has 50 through 41 games Even in shooting percentage, Brand's 61.8% tops Boozer's career high 51.1%, and few in Miami's front office have forgotten, much less forgiven Boozer's stunning 33.9% shooting implosion in last year's postseason, a mortal sin for a big man under Jestorball. Of course, in full fairness, it must be said that the Booze's overall playoff career record is decidedly better than Brand's in terms of shooting profile. What about turnovers? 1.5 per game for Brand, 1.1 for Boozer. 0.9 A/TO ratio, 1.4 A/TO ratio for Boozer. By the numbers it favors Boozer, but one Miami insider said, "We're essentially treating it as even for now. After all, our system tends to produce lower turnover rates and higher A/TO ratios than others, just by the emphasis we place on passing and ballhandling." The Other Side of the Coin So although Boozer has the advantage in defensive rebounding and is close enough to Brand in other areas that one could perhaps argue an equality in talent level if the receiving team is defensive boarding needy, what really made Miami surrender the picks after a moment's consideration and Jestor's talking with his closest advisor is this: Remember the big gamble that landed Jameer Nelson's $6.67 million expiring contract? Take that number and add Brand's $20 million expiring contract to it. That's a hair over $26 million coming off the books. Even figuring Miami's current $2.6 million and change over the cap, which will rise with the arrival of Nelson, Martell "Webby" Webster, and Robert Dozier, and even with Aleks Maric's $9 million pay increase and other assorted raises, Miami should still be somewhere around $11 million under the cap in free agency And that's with resigning Chris Paul to a maximum deal. Chris Paul, plus Miami's holdover pieces plus $11 million in cap space. Enough to make themselves free agency players a year ahead of schedule, in what many are calling one of the richest free agency classes in NLL history. Now, there's no guarantee the Heat will join in the free agent fray. But now they have the opportunity to do so rather than be forced to wait until next season for Stephen Curry's class in what, at first blush, looks to be a much weaker crop. In any case, they're thrilled in South Beach, believing they've found the final piece to their championship puzzle for this season. And in the end, the pursuit of the ring is what matters most. Edit: An Addendum Carlos Boozer is stunned he's finally dealt We would be remiss if we didn't trace the history of Carlos Boozer's Miami career. He joined in the Shawn Marion free agency offseason, as the Heat jumped on the chance to have an upgrade over Jon Brockman at PF, who they simply didn't trust after watching him shoot brick after brick the year before. In addition, because Boozer came with an expensive three year contract, they got the Suns 2016 1st from Stockton12 in exchange for expirings and other pieces. You know, the same 2016 1st that was used to acquire Robert Dozier and Phoenix's 2015 and 2017 1sts? And the same Stockton12 that just played Dallas and Miami like fiddles in a three way? The Booze performed well his first year in Miami, elevating a Heat team that many projected to be bottom-dwellers in the Southeast to a playoff spot. Although Miami swept the 76ers in spite of Boozer rather than because of him, without his presence, the Heat don't go to the postseason. This season, he continued his role as the third star in Miami's Three Star system alongside Chris Paul and Aleks Maric, even as he was beset by trade rumors almost from the beginning of the season. Numerous teams kicked around the idea of adding Boozer early in the year. Then talks cooled off, only to be revived again when the Sacramento Kings inquired after his shorter deal. But those discussions, too, dwindled, until this rapid-fire negotiation faster than anyone in the league could blink. __________________ 2006 Golden Scribe Nominee 2006 Golden Scribe Winner Best Non-Sport Dynasty: May Our Reign Be Green and Golden (CK Dynasty) Rookie Writer of the Year Dynasty of the Year: May Our Reign Be Green and Golden (CK Dynasty)

10-23-2013, 09:53 PM	#105
sterlingice Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Back in Houston!	That's funny. I was thinking of a different Dostoyevsky novel Brand- I get it. The Webster deal makes sense if he's someone you see something in. Jameer Nelson seems like an overpay. I still don't get the Warren trade at all. This is why it's interesting to be in a league with "traders"- if you're the right conservative team, you can take advantage of them from time to time. SI __________________ Houston Hippopotami, III.3: 20th Anniversary Thread - All former HT players are encouraged to check it out! Janos: "Only America could produce an imbecile of your caliber!" Freakazoid: "That's because we make lots of things better than other people!"

02-28-2015, 02:12 PM	#107
Izulde Head Coach Join Date: Sep 2004	Paul Happy, McMillan Restores Harmony Now it will be up to Heat head coach Nate McMillan* to prove he has championship coaching mettle* As Part III of the Heat February 1st saga noted, one of the reasons for the Jameer Nelson deal was to remove malcontents Jarrett Jack and Jodie Meeks from South Florida. Miami's locker room was a much happier place after the exchanges were made, with the newcomers introducing themselves to the holdovers. The most encouraging sign for Heat fans was Chris Paul looking the happiest he's been in weeks. Indeed, almost all of the issues plaguing the team are gone. The only remaining potential spot is Solomon Alabi, who a few players think overstepped the seniority laws when he flattened Jack in the argument that spelled the veteran guard's doom. "It's all up to Nate McMillan now," NLL scholar Jackson Ayorinde noted. "Jestor and the front office have done everything possible to hand the head coach a title contending team and keep the franchise star happy so he re-signs in the offseason." The new aura of happiness and serenity, to say nothing of the freshly made over team, will be immediately tested by a back-to-back with a road game in Toronto against the Atlantic-leading Raptors and a home game against the Pacific-leading and #2 team in the West Los Angeles Clippers. Paul Dominates As Newcomers Adapt To Jestorball Chris Paul was 3 point trigger happy in the two victories All week the conversation about the new look Miami Heat was that there would be a period of adjustment and chemistry building, possibly a losing streak. If a string of defeats to come, it won't start with the Heat's first two games, a surprising sweep of proven sides in Toronto and the Los Angeles Clippers. The away game against the Raptors was a brilliant 118-89 rout spearheaded by Chris Paul's 31 points on 11/18 shooting, including 7/12 from behind the arc. Aleks Maric doubled his way to 15 points and 11 rebounds and Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson added 12 bench points as the Heat shot a blistering 51.1%, 45.5% from downtown, and 94.7% from the charity stripe. They also won the turnover battle 9 to 13 while holding the Raptors to 37.5% shooting. Next evening they were down in Miami before a sellout crowd, and although the win was an ugly 89-81 scoreline, it was Paul who again stepped up with 25 points to win PotG. Newcomer Elton "Battering Ram" Brand picked up an 11 point, 10 rebound double off defensive specialist Emeka Okafor and Tasmin Mitchell led the second team with a flawless 5 for 5 shooting for 11 points. Miami's shooting in the second game looked precisely like that of a team building cohesion on the back end of a doubleheader as they bricked their way to 36.8% shooting, but were 35.7% from long range and excelled in getting to the free throw line, where their 28/40 was the decider in this close, defensive contest. They also again won the turnover fight 10 to 12 while keeping the Clippers to 38.1% shooting and 30% from 3 point land. Martell "Webby" Webster's defense was the most surprising development among the newcomers How did the new Heat fare? Elton "Battering Ram" Brand @ Raptors: 4/6 - 12 points, 7 rebounds vs Clippers: 3/6 - 11 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists -Didn't have explosive scoring numbers, but shot 7/12 (58.3%) and held Jarvis Varnado and Emeka Okafor to 2/7 and 2/6 respectively, a combined 4/13 (30.7%). Also had no more than 2 turnovers in either game. Martell "Webby" Webster @ Raptors: 5/10 - 14 points, 3 turnovers vs Clippers: 2/8 - 8 points, 10 rebounds -Made 3/3 from 3 point range, including two huge shots against Los Angeles, so he's already proving the three point threat the Heat needed. Most eye-opening was his holding Raptors star rookie Xavier Henry to 3 of 12 (25%) 2/5 from 3 point, and the Clippers' Kevin Martin to 5 of 18 (27.8%), 2/6 from 3 point. All told, that's 8/30 (26.7%). If he keeps that up, New Orleans will be regretting not giving him his chance before, much less trading him. Jameer Nelson @ Raptors: 3/5 - 7 points, 3 assists, 3 turnovers vs Clippers: 3/13 - 8 points, 2 assists, 0 turnovers -Nelson struggled terribly in his first two games, but the coaching staff believes it's just a matter of his getting used to Jestorball and the players around him. Robert Dozier @ Raptors: 1/2 - 4 points, 3 rebounds, 2 blocks vs Clippers: 0/2 - 0 points, 6 rebounds -Already showing boarding and blocking ability and most importantly, he didn't turn the ball over or take shots. In short, he's doing precisely what the coaching staff wants him to do, something the Heat never got out of Willie "Wonder" Warren this season. Magic # To Last Year's 51: 18 Conroy The Best Of Former Heat Maybe someday Will Conroy* will play for the PG loving Rockets* Miami Heat GM Jestor said often in the last few days that trading Will Conroy was the most difficult thing he had to do in his team's flurry of dealings. Conroy showed his former GM wise as he played the best of Miami's one-time players in their debuts. In Utah's 94-86 home loss to the Suns, Conroy was 5/10 for 13 points, 3 assists, 2 steals and a turnover before fouling out. He also helped hold Nevada alum Ramon Sessions to a 3/10 night and contributed to Sessions' own 5 fouls. Others were much less successful with their new teams, the most glaring being Carlos Boozer, who was a terrible 0 for 7 in Memphis's 99-70 win over the Warriors and finished with 4 points and 5 rebounds. The next night, a 103-66 embarassment at the hands of the Mavericks, the Booze was 1/4 for 2 points and 6 rebounds, while Kevin Love torched him on 7/9 shooting. Heralded Willie "Wonder" Warren, as reported by the Suns' front office, was 3 for 10 and 6 for 13 in Phoenix's 1-1 campaign. He also had 3 assists, a steal and a turnover in the Jazz win in addition to his 8 points, while the 14 points in the narrow loss to the Spurs came at the expense of 1 for 5 three point shooting and 3 turnovers. Andris Biedrins had 2 points and a rebound in 5 minutes in Dallas's win, while Jarrett Jack went 1 for 4 for 3 points, a rebound, a steal and a turnover in the first game, and 1 of 4 for 2 points, a rebound, and 3 turnovers in the second game in Golden State's two losses. Gabe Muoneke was left off the Mavericks' inactive roster, while Jodie Meeks was a DNP in both games for the Warriors. New Heat Doing Better Than Expected Martell "Webby" Webster has been precisely the 3 point shooting boon the Heat hoped for After not missing a single three point attempt in his first three games, Martell "Webby" Webster finally missed. Not one, not two, but three, as he went just 1 of 4 behind the arc. No need for fear however; Webster was 6 for 12 on the night for 13 points, 3 assists, a steal and 2 turnovers as the Heat cut down the Nets 101-73 for their 8th straight victory, improving to 4-0 since the February 1st makeover. Webster was 1/1 (Raptors), 2/2 (Clippers), and 1/1 (Spurs) from long distance before his 1/4 outing. Even with those three misfires, he's still 5/8, or 62.5%, from 3 point range and 42.8% overall since being named Miami's starting shooting guard, both major improvements over Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson's accuracy as a starter. More surprising than Webster's success (especially on defense - 81.3% drive stop rate after being in the mid 60s during his scant New Orleans minutes this season) however is the Heat's flawless record since February 1st. The flourish of victories that doubled the win streak in place before the flurry of deals has shocked even Miami GM Jestor. "Quite honestly, I figured we'd be maybe 2-2 and most likely 1-3 in our first four games. To take down quality teams like the Clippers and the Spurs while we're still in the gelling process is simply astounding," the GM said after the game. With the fantastic run of form, the Heat now find themselves just 2.5 games back of the Charlotte Bobcats, whose GM, knightdemon, unexpectedly resigned recently, leading some to believe the East is even more wide open than it was before. But what might be most significant of all is this - since those trades, Miami has now established themselves in the Top 5 in offense (#4 at 105 points a game) and defense (#5 at 95.3 points allowed a game), the only team to rank in the Top 5 in both categories. The Cleveland Cavaliers come closest, logging the #6 offense - 103.3 and the #2 defense - 92.3 Will the Heat now finally be consider a favorite in the East? "Let's not talk about that," said Miami head coach Nate McMillan. "We've got to concentrate on Denver next, then the next opponent, then the next, and so on. It's a game by game process." Regardless of league opinion concerning Miami, the Heat are no doubt the talk of the town. They've posted three straight sellouts in the current homestand and are reportedly the hottest ticket in South Beach. Context Notes I was absolutely floored by our winning streak after the trades, to go 4-0 after that flurry. Usually there seems to be a dropoff for a bit while players get adjusted to one another. Not so this one, and the early returns suggested that I'd been very wise in my decisionmaking after all. __________________ 2006 Golden Scribe Nominee 2006 Golden Scribe Winner Best Non-Sport Dynasty: May Our Reign Be Green and Golden (CK Dynasty) Rookie Writer of the Year Dynasty of the Year: May Our Reign Be Green and Golden (CK Dynasty)

03-05-2015, 02:46 PM	#108
Izulde Head Coach Join Date: Sep 2004	Alabi/Dozer Train Crashes, Discontent In Heat Locker Room The most unusual picture of Chris Paul* ever* It wasn't supposed to be like this. Yes, Elton "Battering Ram" Brand was held out with a knee injury, but Solomon Alabi and Robert Dozier were acquired with an eye towards stopping the East's juggernaut centers like B.J. Mullens. They failed, miserably, as Mullens rampaged for 10/14 shooting and 24 points, 9 rebounds, 8 assists, a steal and 3 blocks while Dwayne Wade torched the Heat for 31 points and 3 blocks in the Bobcats' 122-91 blasting of the Heat. But the players weren't the only things from Miami under siege. Chris Paul called out head coach Nate McMillan after the game, questioning McMillan's decision to only play CP3 13 minutes and Miami's entire starting lineup a maximum of 27 minutes. "I don't understand it. What the hell is Coach thinking? If he keeps this up, I don't know if I want to come back here next year," fumed Paul. McMillan defended himself by saying the game was already out of hand early and he wanted to make certain all of the Heat's key players stayed healthy, a decision that didn't sit well with Paul or Miami GM Jestor, who reportedly remarked that if McMillan proves he can't handle the locker room before the playoffs, he'll find someone who can. The Heat's superstar wasn't the only who complained. Darrell Arthur didn't understand why he wasn't given the starting spot at PF following Brand's injury and said that Aleks Maric should have played at his natural center position, and, despite finally seeing on court action for the first time, Luke Jackson complained that he should be starting over Martell "Webby" Webster. Jestor's response was to swiftly declare that Jackson would be cut immediately and Arthur put on the block, in addition to warning McMillan to keep a tight lid on team chemistry or else. Sources say one team has inquired about acquiring Arthur already and that Miami is actively looking for a natural SF in return. Should such a deal happen, it almost certainly points to the Heat going all-in for the right PF to pair alongside Maric next season, either in the draft, or, more likely, free agency, whether that's returning Brand or finding some other target. "This was absolutely the worst game we've played all year, and there will be accountability for it and for the signs of discord in the locker room," a grim-faced Jestor said. Heat Hybrid Forward Lightly Regarded Maybe a little Kiera Knightley* would make Darrell Arthur more attractive* In a consistent theme around Miami Heat players this season, on the block Darrell Arthur is drawing almost no interest, much like Willie Warren did earlier in the year. One team made a brief inquiry, but when Miami returned with what they wanted, the other side pulled back, believing they could get more for one option and wanting something else for the other. "It's about 99% that Arthur stays in Miami now", said one source. "Teams have suddenly gone from rating him when we first acquired him to suddenly all hating him. It's some (expletive) (expletive), but that's how this league goes. It's (expletive) Warren all over again." Temptation Of Another First Too Much To Resist Solomon Alabi can't quite believe he's leaving his collegiate state for Memphis After all the rumor and hubbub surrounding Darrell Arthur in the end, it was Solomon Alabi, oft rumored this past offseason and earlier in the year to be on the move, who finally went. In a trade announced with the Memphis Grizzlies, the Miami Heat shipped Alabi west in exchange for the Phoenix Suns 2015 1st and D.J. Mbenga. D.J. Mbenga will do a lot of sitting on the bench and without David Beckham to entertain him The primary piece of the deal for the Heat is, of course, the re-acquisition of the Suns 2015 1st, which Miami originally got in the Willie "Wonder" Warren for Robert Dozier deal, then dealt to the Grizzlies along with the Suns 2015 2nd and Carlos Boozer for Elton "Battering Ram" Brand. Miami now has two projected late first round picks in the upcoming draft, its own and the Suns', that could potentially be packaged together to move into a higher draft slot. Mbenga will sit on the inactive list and his greatest value is another $1.2 million to be renounced and added to Miami's growing arsenal of cap space next season, even should Chris Paul re-sign with the team. Critics of the Alabi move argued that the trade will weaken the Heat's big man depth, but GM Jestor dismissed the opposition at the press conference announcing the trade. "We have a very good group of big men in Darrell Arthur, Elton Brand, Aleks Maric, and Robert Dozier, and if need be, we have Rafael Araujo waiting in the wings", the general manager said. "Is our depth affected? Yes. Will we be in a catastrophic state if one of our true centers is injured? No. In essence, this trade was about a player bringing the kind of return we couldn't pass up. We loved having Solomon here; there's a lot of great things he did for us and he fit well within the Jestorball mold, but the opportunity afforded to us by acquiring another first round pick and an expiring was simply too much to pass up." NLL scholar Jackson Ayorinde also noted the trade delivered a message to Dozier. "This is Miami throwing down the gauntlet at Dozier and saying okay, we traded away Warren for you. Now let's see you prove you're really worthy of being a part of our rotation. Realistically, the Heat were torn over what to do with their two young bigs. They're cut from a similar cloth in some respects, being primarily defense and rebounding oriented, but neither one is a legitimate starter. Now here's an opportunity for the Heat to say okay, we've got another late first rounder. Maybe we can get out there and find another Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson late in the first or maybe move up in the first to really find someone who can or will be a future starter for us." Context Notes I completely forgot about this trade, to be perfectly honest. But it was a deal that needed to be done, as I was hyper-focused on team chemistry back then. Since it appeared from the in-game file that Alabi was the troublemaker, and he was the unrestricted one, out he went. __________________ 2006 Golden Scribe Nominee 2006 Golden Scribe Winner Best Non-Sport Dynasty: May Our Reign Be Green and Golden (CK Dynasty) Rookie Writer of the Year Dynasty of the Year: May Our Reign Be Green and Golden (CK Dynasty)

03-06-2015, 02:50 PM	#109
Izulde Head Coach Join Date: Sep 2004	Miami Shoots 62.8% From The Floor, 69.2% From 3 Point Chris Paul had one of his best games of the year Another sellout crowd in South Beach watched a much-hyped matchup between Chris Paul and his heir apparent as arguably the top all-around point guard in the league, John Wall. Although both players put up quality performances, it was CP3 who was on another level as the Heat rolled 142-109. Paul was very much a deserving Player of the Game, going 12 for 16, 6 of 7 from long range, for 37 points, 12 assists and just 2 turnovers, compared to Wall's 9 of 22 for 22 points, 7 assists, and 1 turnover. Miami's Three Star element of the Jestorball system was also in full display, as Elton "Battering Ram" Brand banged his way to 26 points and 8 rebounds, and Aleks Maric was equally hot at shooting, netting 24 points and 6 rebounds before fouling out. Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson just missed the 20 point mark, going 8 for 14 and 2 of 3 from downtown for 19 points and 4 assists. On the bench, Robert Dozier picked up 9 points and 4 rebounds in 12 minutes, while Darrell Arthur was a bucket away from double digits, scoring 8 points. It was the second straight game the Heat featured their new starting 5 of Paul, Reyshawn Terry, Hobson, Brand, and Maric, and Miami's third straight victory overall, allowing them to pull within 2 games of the Southeast leading Charlotte Bobcats. The win was not without cost, however. Jameer Nelson and Marcus Banks, Miami's two reserve point guards, picked up injuries that will make them questionable for the next game against the Raptors, and in Banks' case, possibly the next few games. The victory was Miami's 40th of the year, making the magic number to reach last season's 51 win total 11, with 26 to go, meaning the Heat would need to go 10-16 over the home stretch to fail in reaching that minor goal. Miami Bests Cleveland, Milwaukee, Now Half-Game Behind Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson has strangely become a source of tranquility and leadership potential in the Heat's locker room Sweat poured from their heads, hands, arms, legs, and feet. They had just completed a furious fourth quarter comeback for their second win in as many nights, avoiding a letdown 30 minutes north of their general manager's hometown. But you can be sure, that even despite their exhaustion, the Miami Heat were damned satisfied after exorcising the Cleveland Cavaliers bugbear and winning against the Milwaukee Bucks on consecutive nights. "We've really shown these last few games just what kind of will we got," a drained Chris Paul said as he leaned against his locker. "Even when I was playing like crap the last couple games before tonight, the other guys picked up for me." One of those struggling games was against the Cavaliers, the one team in the league Jestor's Miami Heat teams have never beaten in his now almost three season tenure. Two nights ago, they did it, an emphatic 112-99 win that saw the Heat with a +9 advantage in turnover margin and 53.6% shooting from the floor while holding Cleveland to 44.6%. What's most remarkable about the victory is that Paul shot just 3 of 9 for 13 points, 11 assists, and 2 steals. Instead, the offense was left to Aleks Maric, Player of the Game with his 20 points, 12 rebounds, and 3 assists, and Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson's 20 points. Or perhaps better said, the rest of the starting five, as Paul's 13 points were the lowest scoring total of Miami's first string. Not to be forgotten, of course, is Jameer Nelson's 11 points, 5 assists, 2 steals and 0 turnovers off the bench. That isn't to say CP3 totally bombed against Cleveland. Despite his shooting woes, his passing was crisp in racking up the dimes and 0 turnovers came via his hands. Furthermore, he played a large part in forcing Deron Williams to 8 turnovers, a number completely unexpected from the point guard a few in the league consider the possible equal to Paul. Then came the back end against the Bucks. With numerous of Miami GM Jestor's hometown friends and family in attendance at the Bradley Center, the Heat, much as they did against Cleveland, staked out a first quarter lead. But the score was tied at the half and Milwaukee took the third quarter by 11 points. No problem at all for Chris Paul, who snapped out of his slump for a torrid 13/20, 5/9 from 3 point range for 41 points, 9 assists, and 2 steals in carrying the Heat to a 109-94 win. Paul was aided in the effort by Aleks Maric, who just missed a double-double with 11 points, 9 rebounds, and 3 blocks, and just enough points from elsewhere to continue the Heat's winning streak. Most importantly, the wins, coupled with Charlotte's two losses, put Miami a mere half-game behind in the Southeast race and, as improbable as this may sound, even has the Heat within striking distance of the East's #1 seed. "You know, it was really funny", a tired Elton Brand mused. "When I got picked up by Miami, most people said, 'Cool trade, bro' and went right back to talking about Cleveland, Charlotte, and Detroit as the three teams to beat in the East. Maybe now people will start respecting us as one of the best teams." CP3, Maric, Hobson, Brand Star In Second Half Comeback Chris Paul is putting together another dazzling, near mystical season When the votes come in and are counted, there's a good chance that Chris Paul will once again find himself on the outside looking in at the MVP award. But as the Miami Heat's 116-93 road win over the Minnesota Timberwolves showed, CP3 has been transcendent at times. So he was in this comeback contest, racking up 25 points, 15 assists, 4 rebounds and 3 steals with not a single turnover. The otherworldly performance brought him up to: Points: 23 (7th) Assists: 6.6 (5th) Steals: 1.8 (T-6th) A/TO Ratio: 5.6 (2nd among starters, not counting reserves) Only Ricky Rubio's staggering 6.1 A/TO ratio exceeds CP3's and no other player in the league who ranks in the Top 10 in scoring also ranks in the Top 10 in three other categories. Maybe, just maybe, now that the Heat have seized the Southeast lead by a game, people will start realistically viewing Paul as more than a second rank MVP candidate. Maybe this is the time he'll finally break through. Yet, it must be admitted that his was not the only standout performance in this romp. Aleks Maric blistered the Wolves for 28 points, Elton "Battering Ram" Brand picked up 16 points and 11 rebounds, and Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson was everywhere on the court, producing a brilliant all-around game of 11 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 steals. In fact, Elton Brand and Aleks Maric are now #1 and #2 in the entire league in shooting % at 61.1 and 58.7 respectively, ahead of Amir Johnson and Kosta Koufos, who are 57.7% each. "I'm not worried about it right now," Paul said of the MVP talk. "Right now we're just focusing on this really tough West road trip, making sure we're still leading the division at the end of it, and doing our best to try and get the #1 seed. It's gonna be tough with Detroit and Cleveland right up there with us, but we'll fight for it." And for the dream of a championship. Context Notes At the time, Detroit, Cleveland, and Charlotte were considered the big favorites to win the East, but the Bobcats GM, knightdemon, quit right around this time, which made for a potentially huge opening for the other top teams in the conference. Ironically enough, my biggest archrival, the Orlando Magic GM, who I'd had frequent personality clashes with, kept insisting that we were now the favorites, particularly after trading for Elton Brand. We were definitely playing very, very well after our flurry of trades, and extremely efficient basketball, which is usually the hallmark of my best teams. __________________ 2006 Golden Scribe Nominee 2006 Golden Scribe Winner Best Non-Sport Dynasty: May Our Reign Be Green and Golden (CK Dynasty) Rookie Writer of the Year Dynasty of the Year: May Our Reign Be Green and Golden (CK Dynasty)

03-07-2015, 05:54 PM	#110
Izulde Head Coach Join Date: Sep 2004	Post Game Destroys Kings Elton Brand was unstoppable against the Kings "We got pissed off over how poorly we played out West and we wanted to take it out on the guys coming to our place." - Miami Heat forward Elton Brand After a 1-3 West road trip, the Miami Heat have done just that, ambushing the Memphis Grizzlies, Orlando Magic and now the Sacramento Kings by considerable margins in South Beach, a string of wins that has the Heat keeping pace with the Charlotte Bobcats and fending off the hard charging Magic. But the 122-98 win over Sacramento may be the most special of the three, for Miami's victory over the Kings means that the Heat have beaten every other team in the league at least once this season. It was even more enjoyable a game to watch as the Heat's post players were absolutely sensational. Elton Brand had his finest game in the black and orange, ripping down 36 points and 13 rebounds with a steal and 0 turnovers. Aleks Maric was his usual quality self with 20 points and 10 rebounds, and Robert Dozier also had his most productive Miami game, hitting 6 of 8 shots for 15 points, 4 rebounds and 2 blocks. Although less stellar, Darrell Arthur made it all four of Miami's top post men in double-digit scoring with 11 points of his own. "Fantastic game by the bigs," Heat coach Nate McMillan said afterwards. "But our goals still remain the same. Win the Southeast and try to get one of the top two seeds in the playoffs." NLL's Media Mogul Warns Threat Is Serious Will this logo soon become an object for nostalgia? Miami Heat GM Jestor called a press conference today to allow reporters to field questions about the NCAA lockout. Below is a partial transcript of the question and answer session. 1. How serious is the threat of an NCAA lockout? Very. From my experience in multiple universities and settings in academia before I came to the NLL and from the contacts I've kept from those days, I can tell you that universities all across the country are facing dire budget situations. It hasn't gotten any better and now it's become so severe that athletic programs are now in danger of being cut. Without a viable pro league, there's no incentive to spend the money on college basketball. Without a viable media presence, the pro league can not survive. I also think you'll see proof of this threat once prospects start pulling out of the draft. 2. Do you agree with the NCAA's assessment that the NLL's activity is falling to historic lows? Yes. Even here in Miami we haven't been quite as active as in the past. My publisher's been on my tail about my novel and other ancillary duties that I've neglected in the past are also commanding my attention. But it's a very sad comment indeed when a journalist writes that "Even when the Heat's media flame is dim, it still outshines over half of the rest of the league." That shouldn't be the case. 3. Who do you see being most impacted if and when prospects start removing their names from the draft? For all the hand-wringing and horror in likely top pick areas like New Jersey and Indiana, it's the teams at the bottom of the first round like us who will be most hurt by this. The teams at the top of the draft, they're going to get great players no matter what. But when the distribution of talent in a class falls off as a result of withdrawals, that's when you start seeing teams picking in the mid and late first round getting hit hard. And as an owner of two late first round picks, that frustrates me. But I still strongly respect and commend the NCAA for taking a strong stance on the matter. 4. What solutions do you have for the problem? Although the NLL's leadership has done a quality job of instituting a warning system, I think the best thing to do would be to bring back Boston Dave's Activity Leagues. I forget the exact term for them and I know that's not it, but that was one of the most activity rich eras of the NLL and I believe Dave's promotion/relegation system had a lot to do with it. It became a competition in and of itself and also provided the leadership and the league's GMs a tangible, quantifiable barometer of where they stood in terms of activity level, both past and present. 5. What about the suggestion of returning the individual team sites? Terrible idea, to be honest. I understand what the proposer was going for, but it stratifies the information rather than keeping it localized to two places and if teams are complaining about not having time to produce a media presence or keep track of the pulse of the league, creating 29 different new locations is only going to exacerbate the problem, not help it. Look, I don't want to see this lockout happen and prospects leaving. But unless this league steps up its game, that's precisely what's going to happen. I'm not saying teams need to turn into another version of us, but when I know very little about more than half the league's franchises beyond what I go digging for myself, that represents a severe problem in and of itself. So let's all step it up, shall we? A Few Injuries In Triumphs Reyshawn Terry has quietly revitalized his career with the Heat Just three games separated the Miami Heat's disastrous 1-3 West road trip and the current one. The Heat took care of business at home, winning three straight, but the ominous four game away trek back out West loomed in Miami's mind. The competition, featuring defending champion Oklahoma City and the two powerhouse Los Angeles teams, looked daunting, and even Denver was not to be taken lightly. Happily for the South Beach faithful, their team stormed in and took the doubleheader against the Thunder and the Clippers in two completely different types of games. Oklahoma City was the site of a 123-113 shootout, both teams on fire with their shooting - 50% for Miami and 57.5% for Oklahoma City. Yet, the Heat managed to eke out a win on the strength of a 32-20 third quarter, 53 free throw attempts to the Thunder's 31, and of course, as Jestorball's terms dictate, a +8 margin in turnovers (15 vs 23). A major part of that victory was forcing Zach "Z-Boobs" Randolph and Evan Turner into 6 turnovers a piece. The scoring was provided by Reyshawn Terry and Aleks Maric, with surprise starter Terry putting up 20 points and 3 steals, while Maric matched the 20 points and added 7 rebounds. All five of Miami's starters scored 10 points or more, but Player of the Game honors went to Darrell Arthur, who compensated for Elton "Battering Ram" Brand's foul trouble with 18 points, 8 rebounds and 2 blocks on 7 of 9 shooting. The very next night in Los Angeles was a far different story. There, both teams shot terribly (41.9% for Miami, 37.8% for the Clippers), but the Heat rallied from a 47-37 halftime deficit to win convincingly, if inefficiently, 84-67. Once again the turnover margin told much of the tale, with a +11 advantage for Miami (9 for the Heat, 20 for the Clippers). This time it was Kevin Durant who struggled to hold on to the ball, giving up 8 turnovers to the Heat's swarming defense. What little offense there was for Miami in that latter game came largely from Elton "Battering Ram" Brand, who abused defensive specialist Emeka Okafor for 18 points, 11 rebounds, and 2 blocks. The two wins briefly put Miami back in sole possession of first, a half-game lead over the Bobcats. Third place Orlando has continued to keep pace with the Heat since losing to Miami and remain within a dangerous 3.5 game back margin. "We didn't play the best these two games," admitted Miami head coach Nate McMillan. "But we stayed true to the Jestorball philosophy and that won us these two important contests. Now we have to take care of business against the Nuggets and the Lakers, because we know damned well Charlotte and Orlando aren't going to let up." It looks to be another down to the wire battle for the Southeast this season, matching last year's dogfight. One player who has very quietly contributed to Miami's recent success is Reyshawn Terry. Originally a part of the Orlando Magic when Jestor took over, he re-joined his old GM following the Heat's flurry of deadline trades. After the Brand deal, he was promoted to the starting SG spot, where the 30 year old has resurrected his career. In 15 starts, he's averaging 10.7 points and 1.3 steals, with a staggering 52.7% shooting rate, 47.4% from 3 point range. He also has a very respectable 81.9% drive stop rate and 0.9 PA/SF. "Reyshawn's going to a contract from someone during free agency," a Heat insider said. "He's playing fantastically right now and is hell-bent on getting back to a permanent place in an NLL rotation like he used to." An interesting side note: Terry, who played for the Heat in 2009, has joined Brand as two pre-Jestor Heat members who have returned to Miami under Jestor's watch. Injuries Key reserves Martell "Webby" Webster and Darrell Arthur picked up minor injuries during the set of games, making them questionable for the rest of the road trip. Context Notes It amazes me now, looking back on it, just how critical the Battering Ram was to our success. The Phoenix Suns, run by donkey33, who had all those titles with the Detroit Pistons, was pissed he missed out on his chance at Brand because he was sleeping. That was our 50th win of the year, and more and more GMs were hopping on the Heat bandwagon as a contender. Reyshawn Terry's unexpected explosion after being signed from the D-League was pure bonus. As someone else remarked, I didn't necessarily have the most talented roster in the league, but it was damned cohesive. Edit: The NCAA thing... the NLL is an activity-driven league, and activity had been dropping majorly, which led rookie head (and future GAH co-commissioner) mgtr81 to threaten top player withdrawals unless things picked up. And for those of you know him, that threat was very real. __________________ 2006 Golden Scribe Nominee 2006 Golden Scribe Winner Best Non-Sport Dynasty: May Our Reign Be Green and Golden (CK Dynasty) Rookie Writer of the Year Dynasty of the Year: May Our Reign Be Green and Golden (CK Dynasty) Last edited by Izulde : 03-07-2015 at 05:56 PM.

03-08-2015, 02:42 PM	#111
Izulde Head Coach Join Date: Sep 2004	Holes To Address In Draft and Free Agency Don't be surprised if Chris Bosh* turns out Miami's #1 target in free agency* As we head down the home stretch to the end of the regular season and the playoffs, some teams, such as the Cavaliers and the Pacers, have already released news reports hinting at their offseason plans. Jackson Ayorinde, renowned NLL scholar and Miami Heat reporter, weighs in on South Beach with a position by position look. Point Guard Miami is praying Chris Paul* re-signs in free agency* Obviously the one, and indeed the Heat's entire offseason setup, lives and dies on if franchise everything Chris Paul re-signs. If he does, Miami will remain in contention for at least a few more seasons until he starts regressing. Don't be surprised to see the Heat go after a point guard in the draft or free agency, however. Not as a replacement for CP3, but as a new backup. I'm hearing reports that Jameer Nelson will be renounced and may or may not be brought back to the team. He's been an inconsistent shooter and there's questions about his age. So if the Heat can find a value floor general late in the first with their two picks, or trade up to get one, they might just well do it. Marcus Banks will remain for another season as the Heat's third string point guard, and, as he's shown in limited minutes this year, the old UNLV star still has some ability to play left in him. Shooting Guard Martell "Webby" Webster is a macdaddy One of the biggest revelations of the late season has been Reyshawn Terry's surprise return to relevance as Miami's starting shooting guard. Don't look for him to be re-signed, though; the front office believes he's overachieving relative to his talent and will actively be seeking a younger upgrade, most likely in free agency, as the two guard crop looks to be the deepest of the class. If all else fails, though, there's always Martell "Webby" Webster, the front office favorite who is shooting over 50% from 3 point range and would love nothing more than to get the starting gig back. At least he's finding minutes in Miami, unlike what he faced in New Orleans. Small Forward Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson ranks among the bigger steals of his class if the first year is any indication Let's be perfectly clear here - the front office's agonizing over Darington Hobson for Kyle Singler swap aside, the Hobgoblin isn't going anywhere. He brings physical, defensive toughness to the perimeter defense, is an exceptional passer and handler for the SF spot, and has greatly improved his shooting, up to 43.1% after some work with the coaching staff. Once his free throw shooting improves, he'll be an even more deadly two-way force. Tasmin Mitchell is another player who won't be leaving any time soon. Any time you get a good role player with the 55th overall pick, you've gotten yourself a great bargain. Ironically enough, he's the longest tenured of any of Miami's draft picks of the Jestor era. All that said, don't be surprised to see the Heat invest in a SF who will allow them to shift Hobson to the SG spot. Rumor has it Miami is very interested in Indiana's James Keefe if the Pacers pick up another PF in the draft. Should that trade happen, the Heat, already considered the best ball-security team in the league, may just become the best passers as well. Power Forward The Heat's toughest decision surrounds Elton Brand Miami would absolutely love to re-sign Elton "The Battering Ram" Brand. Everyone in the organization has been thrilled with his performance since he was acquired from the Memphis Grizzlies, and he and Aleks Maric are a frontcourt that gives opponents headaches to defend against. But the Heat also are going to have to renounce his contract, because if Paul leaves, they want maximum financial flexibility, even if it isn't a great market. Darrell Arthur will again be on the trade block this offseason. He's still shooting over 50% and has been very solid on the defensive end, but while the Heat did well when he was at SF, they did even better when they moved him to his natural PF spot off the bench. While it's possible he could step in and be the starter if Brand goes, I see Miami exploring the market for him again and seeing what kind of return they could get. Robert Dozier has greatly improved his shooting since coming to South Florida and provides rebounding and defense, but is he starter capable? That's going to be one of the big questions for him and the team next offseason. And then there's the Gani Lawal development experiment, which was, in the words of one official, "a giant flop." He's also not happy about sitting courtside. With the position possibly in flux, it's not out of the question that the Heat could look to move here as well. In fact, Chris Bosh will get a very long look as Miami's #1 free agency target not named Paul if Brand's asking price is too high, or if the Battering Ram signs elsewhere. On the other hand, would Bosh be too lightweight to play the 4? Another question to be answered. Center Locking Aleks Maric* up was the most critical in-season move Miami made for its future* No question here. Aleks Maric's in-season extension signing, along the same lines as the player he's most been compared to in Chicago's Kosta Koufos, was quite possibly the best thing that happened to Miami this year in terms of future seasons. An initially promising young big man market dried up fast and the Heat getting their star center locked down for a below max deal was critical. It'll keep Maric in a Miami uniform through his year 31 season. But behind him things look very weak, especially after Solomon Alabi was traded to Memphis to get back the Suns' first round pick. Rafael Araujo and DJ Mengba are mere fillers/stopgaps and the Heat have been playing Dozier as the main reserve center. Furthermore, given the depth of this year's center crop, it's an absolute lock that Miami will be drafting at least one center, either with their first selection or in a trade-up to get the player they want. Even if they don't trade up, don't be shocked to see them draft two centers if there's legitimate big men there they like. The center position could also be the area where Miami explores a trade. I'm hearing a lot of chatter about how the Heat want a traditional rebounding/defense/blocking good sized big man to put at the five so they could then slide Maric over to PF. TL;DR Version 1. Will be looking at a young floor general to replace Jameer Nelson 2. Need a new SG or SF to pair alongside Darington Hobson 3. Coin-flip on if they re-sign Elton Brand, although they want to 4. Center, especially on the bench, is a huge priority. Miami's Poor Form Costing Heat Favorable First Round Matchup Don't show that jersey off just yet, young man Calling it absolutely inexcusable, a furious GM Jestor lashed out at his Heat team in an expletive-laden tirade after their second straight close loss to an opponent they should have beaten. "Absolutely (expletive) pathetic and inexcusable, that's what it is. There is no (expletive) way we should be (expletive) losing to the (expletive) Pacers and 76ers. Now (expletive) Orlando is going to (expletive) pass up for (expletive) second place and we'll lose in the (expletive) first round because of that (expletive). I did not (expletive) go out and get Elton (expletive) Brand and (expletive) get rid of (expletive) Willie (expletive) Warren for this (expletive). (Expletive) (expletive) (expletive) Nate better (expletive) get his (expletive) (expletive) together or I'll (expletive) fire the whole (expletive) coaching staff. (Expletive) it. I don't give a (expletive). This (expletive) team isn't (expletive) and if we (expletive) go out in the first (expletive) round, then I'm (expletive) as a GM and I'm (expletive) sorry to our fans, who are (expletive) great. No (expletive) excuse for this (expletive). The first was an OT loss to Indiana, the second a fourth quarter meltdown against the 76ers, putting Miami just a game ahead of hated archrival Orlando, who has reeled off three straight wins and can pass the Heat up with wins in their last two games against the Bucks and Bobcats, while the Heat have a return match against Philadelphia and an away game at Boston left on the schedule. Reyshawn Terry has drawn much of the criticism and it's expected he'll be replaced by Martell "Webby" Webster in the starting lineup for Miami's last two games. McMillan Announces Paul, Maric Inactive For Final Game Of Regular Season Chris Paul was on fire all night long It's fitting that in the second to last game of the regular season, it was Chris Paul who carried the Miami Heat on his back. On a night when Aleks Maric and Elton Brand couldn't find much in the way of shot opportunities, thanks to an energetic Paul Gasol eager to get revenge on the team that traded him away, and his post mate Earl Clark, CP3 hit 11/20 shots, 4/9 from 3 point range. He finished with 31 points and 3 steals in just 28 minutes of play, as Heat head coach Nate McMillan sought to minimize the wear and tear on his franchise star. Otherwise it was a game of Miami finding points where they could in their 102-83 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers. Darrell Arthur provided much of the relief, hitting 6 of 9 from the bench for 12 points and 8 rebounds. But the most important happenstance of the night occurred in Milwaukee, where the Bucks blitzed the Orlando Magic 122-93, clinching the Heat's second place status in the Southeast, which will land them the #5 seed in the East Conference playoffs and home court advantage against the #4 seed Atlantic champion Toronto Raptors, just as Miami did last year when they squared off against the Philadelphia 76ers. "Obviously you want to win the division," a strangely calm Heat GM Jestor said after the game. "But the Bobcats got hot at the tail end of the season and we had our struggling moments and that was enough for us to fall out of first and into our current position. We'll accept it. We're a stronger team than we were last year, when we swept the 76ers and took the Pistons to six games. The East is really anybody's game, and I'll continue to believe that until proven otherwise." The tone was a reversal of Jestor's infamous tirade after the previous loss in Philadelphia, an epic meltdown that immediately went viral on YouTube, leading some commenters to speculate, "omg mia ned new gm not crzy (expletive) like dis". Others defended the GM saying, "stfu n00b jestor totally rox cp3 4 mvp" In other Miami news, head coach Nate McMillan announced that Paul and Maric would "absolutely" not be playing in the regular season finale and Elton "Battering Ram" Brand is also unlikely to see court time. "No sense in risking injury to your key players when there's nothing left to play for, and missing one game isn't going to cause any rust issues", McMillian said. Now all eyes turn to the playoffs and the forthcoming matchup with the Raptors. Context Notes Oh man, that damned cold snap we went on at the end of the regular season. Pissed me off like you wouldn't believe. By this time, the Bobcats had gotten a new GM, by the way - th1th0nly - who considered himself a disciple of mine after having read the Mateen Yeaton dynasty. It was enough to lock up the division title for them. Everyone, and I mean everyone, wanted that Raptors matchup that year. The Atlantic was the single worst division in the NLL at the time, to where every season, a good shot at a sub-.500 team and home court advantage for the #5 seed. More to the point, we'd gone 4-0 in the regular season against Toronto, so we really, really liked our chances in the first round. Of course, what we really wanted was the title. __________________ 2006 Golden Scribe Nominee 2006 Golden Scribe Winner Best Non-Sport Dynasty: May Our Reign Be Green and Golden (CK Dynasty) Rookie Writer of the Year Dynasty of the Year: May Our Reign Be Green and Golden (CK Dynasty)

04-22-2015, 06:25 AM	#112
Izulde Head Coach Join Date: Sep 2004	Familiar Story For Miami Chris Paul will again be the key player for the Heat in the playoffs All eyes will be on Rookie of the Year favorite Xavier Henry's performance Forget the fact that the Miami Heat swept the Toronto Raptors in the regular season, a perfect 4-0 record. That means nothing come playoff time. Once again, the Heat are facing off against the Atlantic champion after yet again failing to capture the Southeast title, having to settle for second place and the #5 seed. The Raptors, meanwhile, are in their first postseason since 2010. The matchups, based on expected starters: Point Guard Chris Paul vs. Aaron Brooks You all know the story of perennial MVP candidate Paul by now. 22.1 points, 6.6 assists, 1.9 steals on 45.1% shooting, 35.6% from long range. 87.6% drive stop rate, 0.9 PA/SF. 5.4 A/TO ratio. He is, without question, one of the best players in the game and Miami's focal point. He struggled at times in last year's playoff and was occasionally inconsistent this season, so he'll be looking to rebound this postseason. 11 ON, 12.1 NET attest to just how valuable he really is to Miami's fortunes. Brooks had a respectable season of his own with 15.6 points, 5.9 assists and 1.1 steals on 41.5% shooting, 38,9% behind the arc with a 2.2 A/TO ratio. But with a 66.2% drive stop rate, he's got some issues on the defensive end which will prove problematic going up against one of the league's elite in CP3. He'll get his points and assists, but can he successfully slow Miami's star guard down? Probably not. Still, he has the second best ON of the starters at -0.8. Advantage: Miami Shooting Guard Martell Webster vs. Xavier Henry Webby only recently regained his starting job back after the coaching staff grew frustrated with Reyshawn Terry's cooling off. He didn't look very good in those outings, but GM Jestor is going to insist they stick with his front office favorite. Lest you think it favoritism, Webster shot 51.6% with the Dallas Mavericks in 2010, his only playoff appearance to date. Compare that to Terry, who shot 35.5% with the Heat in his own lone playoff outing back in 2007. Miami places heavy priority on postseason track records, after all. Webby's regular season numbers: 6.6 points on 45.9% shooting, 50.8% from behind the arc. 77.5% drive stop rate (also better than Terry's) with a 4.6 ON, 1.3 NET (Terry, by comparison, had a -1.8 NET and 4.4 ON) Then there's the rookie Henry, entering his first ever professional postseason. Dazzling first year with 16.2 points and a steal on 44/5% shooting, 45.3% from long range. But like Brooks, he's not a great defender at 67.7% of drives stopped, although his -0.3 ON is tops among the starters, his 1.5 NET also tops among the first five. If the Raptors are to have even a prayer of winning, Henry will need to have a John Wall style breakout, and he just might. In any case, he's clearly better than Webster and a rising star. Advantage: Toronto Small Forward Darington Hobson vs. Rudy Gay The Hobgoblin struggled early in his rookie year with shooting, but work and correction helped him significantly so that by the end of the season, he raised his numbers to 13.2 points, 3.5 rebounds, 3.2 assists, and 1.1 steals on 42.8% shooting, 34.4% from long range. He's still growing into his potential and that's a scary thing for the rest of the league, particularly after he had 86.4% drive stop rate, not all that much worse than Jamario Moon last season. He's also been credited for the team playing better overall since he rejoined the starting lineup and his third-highest ON of 6.4 seems to speak to that. Interesting storyline with Gay, who was traded twice by GM Jestor, once with Orlando and once with Miami. He'll be looking to prove his twice former GM wrong and his battle with the Hobgoblin should be one of the more intriguing matchups of the series. 11.8 points, 4.2 rebounds and a steal per game on an impressive 50.4% shooting, 39.3% from long range. He's also stopped 91.5% of drives faced. Given those numbers and a handful of playoff appearances (2007 with the Heat, surprisingly, 2010 with the Celtics, 2012 and 2013 with the purs), we'll say he's ahead of Hobson right now. Advantage: Toronto Power Forward Elton Brand vs. Jarvis Varnado Here's everything you need to know about the Battering Ram: He led the NLL in field goal shooting with 59.9%, although his accuracy dropped a fair bit after moving to Miami and his points, rebounds, and blocks all dropped slightly after the trade. He can't stop a drive to save his life (48.5%) but his 0.8 PA/SF faced is to be respected, and he's one of the few veteran big men who genuinely strikes fear in the hearts of his enemies. And of course, he's one of the most playoff tested players on both teams. Varnado weighs 70 pounds less than Brand, so it'll be interesting to see how he does against the big man. Good numbers with 11.8 points, 8.4 rebounds, and 2.8 blocks on a respectable 47.7% shooting and he's an exceptional defender at 98.6% drives stopped and 0.7 PA/SF, giving the lie to undersized power forwards not able to find success. But he's in his first ever playoff series and up against a bigger, far more experienced veteran, so the Heat get this one. Advantage: Miami Center Aleks Maric vs. Luke Nevill The marquee matchup of the series features Maric for Miami, who posted 17 points, 8.1 rebounds and 1.3 blocks. His 59.3% shooting for the season, which improved after Hobson entered the lineup, ranked just behind Brand for #2 in the entire league. Average defensively with 72.1% drives stopped and 0.9 PA/SF, but his value to the Heat is made clear by his 8.9 ON, 7.9 NET, both second behind CP3. What a sigh of relief breathed by Heat Nation when he signed the extension in season. Part of the marquee factor is the presence of Nevill, acquired by the Heat at the deadline last year and then allowed to walk in free agency after the front office decided that he didn't simply fit the Jestorball system well enough, despite looking the perfect fit on paper. One of the most hotly pursued free agents, the ROI so far has looked grim. 8.6 points, 8.7 rebounds, and 1.2 blocks on a terrible 39.9% shooting, especially for a player making $7.8 million in his first season, is simply not going to cut it. 0.9 PA/SF. No question who the better player is here. Advantage: Miami Bench Miami PG Jameer Nelson SG Reyshawn Terry SF Tasmin Mitchell PF Darrell Arthur PF/C Robert Dozier Nelson is one of the best floor general reserves in the game (4.1 A/TO ratio), Terry started off well as a starter and shoots accurately (52.5%, 40% from 3 point) Mitchell is an underrated player, particularly on the defensive end (85.8% drives stopped), Arthur is a proven playoff warrior (see his run with the Suns last season), and it's been Dozier who has been both disappointing and the weak link on the bench. Part of is that he's simply too underweight to challenge fives successfully and he'd be best suited to PF. Toronto PG Marcus Williams SG Gerald Henderson SF/PF Stanley Robinson PF Yi Jianlian C Jamaal Magloire C Brian Zoubek Whereas the Heat go 10 deep, the Raptors go 11. Zoubek shoots extremely well (51.3%) and Robinson, another Jestor castoff originally part of the CP3 trade, is a fantastic defender (95.2% drives stopped) and underrated swingman rebounder (4.1 boards). Williams is a solid reserve point guard, although grossly overpaid and poor on defense (53.3% drives stopped), but Magloire and Jianlian are largely filler and Henderson had the worst season of his career this year. Advantage: Miami Overall Synopsis Toronto holds advantage at the swingman positions, but matching up poorly against Miami's two superstars in Paul and Maric does not bode well for them. When you consider the weakness of their bench, the issue becomes even more alarming for Raptors' fans. The Heat should be able to win this series comfortably and move on to a probable matchup against the Pistons in the second round, again repeating last year's early playoff path. Prediction: Miami in 5 Miami Look Like Runnin' Rebels Or Blazing Bulls In Opening Win Chris Paul was pleased after his Game 1 effort A stunning series of opening upsets saw no hint in Game 1 of the Raptors/Heat series. The home advantage Heat, in front of a raucous sellout crowd in a Miami, destroyed Toronto 120-94, thanks in large part to a 22 point outscoring in the third quarter. As expected, Chris Paul led the way with 37 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds and 3 steals, on a torrid 14/21, 7/10 from behind the arc. Even more impressively, Miami went bombs away from 3 point range, hitting 15/24 attempts, as the Raptors' efforts to shut down Miami inside opened things up on the perimeter. CP3 wasn't the only one to dazzle. Darrell Arthur, shockingly getting the start over Elton Brand, who grinned and watched in street clothes, played 43 minutes and looked like his old playoff self. He nailed 7 of 12 shots for 20 points and 9 rebounds with just a single turnover. Martell "Webby" Webster also proved his playoff chops in his postseason starting debut, connecting on 6 of 14, 3 of 7 from long range for 19 points and 4 assists. In doing so, Webby held his own against rookie sensation Xavier Henry, who was terrific at 10/17, 5/7 from downtown for a Raptors leading 27 points. A similar close matchup played out between Toronto's other favored lineup matchup. Rudy Gay finished 9 of 14 for 20 points, 7 rebounds and 2 steals, but on the flip side, Miami rookie Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson played very well in his postseason debut, going 6 of 11, 2 for 3 from behind the arc for 14 points, 4 rebounds, and a tied for the game high 7 assists. Miami head coach Nate McMillan credited Hobson with much of the Heat's success after the game, saying, "Really impressed with the Hobgoblin tonight. I've said all along that our offense improved with his terrific ability to distribute from the 3, and he showed that this evening." Indeed, praise was to be had for the Heat's entire starting lineup, as Aleks Maric rounded out a first five of 13+ points, connecting on 5 of 9 for 13 points and 8 rebounds. In doing so, he was far more efficient than Luke Nevill, who went 4 of 11 for 8 points, 11 rebounds, 2 blocks, and 3 turnovers. If the 3 point gunning was strange, the turnover battle was all Jestorball. Miami turned the ball over just 8 times while forcing Toronto into 18 giveaways, a +10 advantage for the Heat. Aaron Brooks was the Raptors' most fumble-prone player, coughing it up 7 times, or just one less than all of Miami surrendered. Still, Miami GM Jestor wasn't 100% pleased. "We allowed them to shoot 52.1%. Not going to win many games that way. Still, a great opening victory and one that our fans can take satisfaction in" the GM said. As for the street clothes wearing Brand? "Hey man, I'm 35 years old. They're having me conserve my energy and pick my spots," the veteran big man laughed. "Besides, Darrell was chomping at the bit all week to get out there and show what he could do. It's all good. I'm not complaining one bit, so long as I get mine next ups." Chicago Schools Roll As Upsets Abound Kosta Koufos wins the Player of the Day award An epic opening night of NLL playoff basketball saw everything from astounding upsets to puzzling lineup decisions to a serious injury. In short, it was another thrilling start to the postseason. Jackson Ayorinde reports with three of the biggest storylines and how they could impact the rest of the playoffs. Orlando's Rashard Lewis* owned the Bobcats* 1. Strange Lineups The biggest one, of course, was Orlando's decision to field their second stringers against the Southeast champion Charlotte Bobcats. What's surprising is that the Magic pulled off the 115-114 upset with a fourth quarter rally, even as last year's MVP Demar Derozan and star guard Rodney Stuckey watched from the bench. Rashard Lewis steamrolled Dahntay Jones for 30 points and Serhiy Gladyr torched the Bobcats for 22 points from the bench. Then there was the Miami Heat sitting Elton Brand. No problem for Darrell Arthur, as he looked sharp and put forth a quality game in the Heat's 120-94 ripping of the Raptors. San Antonio gambled with playing Leandro Barbosa and although Barbosa shot 50% for his 17 points, the Spurs just had no answer for John "The Second Coming of Chris Paul" Wall, who dominated with 32 points, 8 assists, 4 rebounds and 2 steals in Dallas's surprisingly easy 129-103 road win. The Effects Charlotte looked overconfident when they saw the second team starting for Orlando and the upset has to be devastating to the Bobcats' psyche. If they can't even beat the Magic's reserves, how will they cope when Derozan and Stuckey are unleashed on them in Game 2? The tenor and momentum of the series has now completely shifted the other way. Toronto likewise has to be feeling dazed. Even as well as Xavier Henry and Rudy Gay played, Miami was just unstoppable and now Brand will be back in the lineup for Game 2, and things could get as ugly as most predicted very soon for the Raptors. The Spurs just don't look comfortable right now. Too many injuries and with Wall channeling CP3, just as he did last season, San Antonio is in for a rough ride the rest of the series. John Wall was The Great Wall indeed in Game 1 2. The Chicago School Abides and Other Upsets Those big gamblers you hear who dropped money on the Bulls? They're looking pretty damned smart after Chicago's much-talked about overtime knockout of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Reports say the Cavs' coaching staff completely underestimated Lee Cummard in their gameplanning, and he and Kosta Koufos made them pay for it. Then there were the big wins for the Bulls' Chicago School mates, Miami and Dallas. There's been a lot of talk the last few years about how while the Chicago School, with its variants of Chicago Style, Jestorball, Wallball, and Chanball are fun to watch, they're just not systems capable of deep playoff runs. Chalk up wins for Da Bulls, the Heat, and the Mavs, two of the three as upsets, and the Rockets getting 39 wins, and the Detroit Group suddenly has reason to fear. Defending champion Oklahoma City stunned heavily favored Phoenix 113-111, and only a furious rally by the Suns kept the score even that close. Phoenix's foul fest draws almost all the blame for the defeat, but when Willie "Wonder" Warren goes 4 for 12, you have to wonder if maybe Jestor wasn't right after all. The Effects The Bobcats absolutely need to respond in Game 2 and show they've shaken off the surprise of the opener, or the calls of Overrated will hail from the skies and new GM Myles Nelson will have to do some serious soul-searching to figure out how to make his Charlotte side a worthy title contender on the court, not just on paper. Chicago and Cleveland will still be a close-fought series, but the Cavaliers have now not only lost homecourt advantage, there's growing concern that they're setting themselves up for fatigue and injury issues with the heavy lean on their starters. Miami and Dallas are looking in very good shape right now, and the Chicago School appears determined to prove their legitimacy as crown contenders. As for the Suns, Wonder Warren will need to come back and live up to his lofty nickname and the high praise still lavished on him from some quarters. At the very least, Phoenix will need to stop fouling or they'll end up taking themselves completely out of this series. That would be a doubly damning defeat, since the Thunder are without Evan Burns. Detroit's title hopes darkened after Ricky Rubio's season-ending injury 3. Ricky Rubio's Bad Break Floor general unparalleled Ricky Rubio went down with a broken ankle and is out for a little over two months, effectively ending his season. Detroit still won Game 1, but the 92-84 scoreline was much closer than the Pistons are comfortable with. The Bucks proved they won't be pushovers and Milwaukee may yet make a series of it. The Effects Yes, Rubio is a reserve, and yes, he still needs to work on his shooting form. But now Detroit's best backup to Lebron James is Kyle Lowry, whose 1.3 A/TO ratio impresses absolutely no one. The Pistons need James to stay fully healthy now more than ever, because if he also gets hurt, Detroit is in very serious trouble. But that's not the only issue. Assuming the Pistons meet the Heat in the second round as expected, Detroit now loses one of their key matchup pieces to try and contain Chris Paul. They aren't going to have the luxury now of putting Lebron and Rubio on CP3 to shut down Miami's superstar. As a result, that series may have just gotten a lot closer than anyone could have anticipated, and this was a series that went to six games last year. Context Notes What a crazy first game of the playoffs. Orlando screwed up when they submitted their DC, and I forgot to change Brand's subout rate from 100. Ricky Rubio's injury no doubt looked to be a massive blow. Boy couldn't shoot worth a damn, but he was the single best combination floor general and defender in the entire league. I was most excited about the Chicago School victories. I'd been hearing for years about how you needed to be a defensive team to win it all, and while this was normally true of DDS 1, DDS 2's engine adjustments made it much more balanced overall, in my opinion. Still, it was just one game, heavily favored though we were. __________________ 2006 Golden Scribe Nominee 2006 Golden Scribe Winner Best Non-Sport Dynasty: May Our Reign Be Green and Golden (CK Dynasty) Rookie Writer of the Year Dynasty of the Year: May Our Reign Be Green and Golden (CK Dynasty)

04-23-2015, 01:35 PM	#113
Izulde Head Coach Join Date: Sep 2004	Defense, Maric, Brand, Mitchell Dominate Aleks Maric was a Game 2 blocking machine "Go out and play defense so our GM doesn't grump," Miami Heat head coach Nate McMillian told his players before Game 2 of their first round matchup against the Toronto Raptors. The Heat did exactly that, holding Toronto to just 39.4% shooting and forcing 22 turnovers for a +11 advantage to follow up their +10 margin, and Miami blew out the Raptors 107-74 to successfully defend home court and take a 2-0 series lead. In fact, Miami was so dominant that Xavier Henry, who was 7/13, 6/9 from 3 point range for 22 points (albeit with 5 turnovers), and reserve Brian Zoubek (5/11 for 12 points, 5 rebounds), were the only Toronto players in double digit scoring. Henry's hot perimeter shooting allowed Toronto to connect on 8/15 3 pointers (53.3%), but it wasn't close to being enough to withstand Miami's onslaught. Leading the charge was Player of the Game Aleks Maric, who recorded 5 blocks and held Luke Nevill to an abysmal 1 for 13 night. Maric also hit 7 of 12 of his own shots for 19 points and 6 rebounds. His frontcourt mate, Elton Brand made the same exact shooting percentage, but one more free throw gave Brand the point lead with 20 points and 9 rebounds. But the best story may have been Miami reserve Tasmin Mitchell, who overcame a sore wrist to hit all 7 of his shot attempts, a perfect shooting game worth 14 points, 3 rebounds, and 2 steals. "That's what he does," said McMillan. "He has those games where he doesn't miss a single field goal, and those are so much fun to watch." In fact, Mitchell did it four times during the regular season: November 15th vs Nets - 4/4 December 14th vs Celtics - 2/2 December 30th vs Timberwolves - 6/6 February 3rd vs Clippers - 5/5 And that's not counting the games where he missed just one attempt. Darrell Arthur, playing off the bench this game, couldn't hit a shot, finishing 1 of 7, but did grab a Heat high 11 rebounds. Also struggling to find his stroke was Chris Paul, who hit just 5 of his 15 attempts for his 15 points, 4 assists, 3 steals and 2 turnovers. "I didn't play well today," Paul admitted. "But that's what so great about this team. If I have an off night, guys like Elton, Aleks, Tasmin, they're there to step up and take over." Also stepping up a bit was Martell "Webby" Webster, who made 5 of his 9 attempts for 12 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, and a steal. Now it's up to the Heat to shake off their inconsistency on the road and go for the sweep in Canada. Heat GM Cold To Coach Miami Heat head coach Nate McMillan* longed for a stiff drink long before Game 3 ended* The Miami Heat played their worst game of the season, shooting just 39% while allowing the Toronto Raptors to shoot 51.4% in an embarrassing 105-81 Game 3 loss that was not only Toronto's first win over the Heat this season, but gave the Raptors faithful hope of an upset. The partisan crowd chanted "O-VER-RAT-ED!" as a downcast Miami team filed out to the locker room. Only Jameer Nelson (7/12 for 17 points, 6 assists, and 5 steals), Elton Brand (5/9 for 11 points and 8 rebounds) and Martell "Webby" Webster (5/10 for 11 points and 2 steals) looked ready to play, as the rest of the Heat were abysmal. Most glaring of all - Chris Paul with his second straight poor game at 1 for 5 shooting, joined in ineptitude by Aleks Maric, who shot a shocking 4 of 17. Xavier Henry scored 30 points for his third straight stellar game of the series, and Rudy Gay rebounded from a bad Game 2 to drop 21 points on Miami, the duo's combined 51 points nearly enough by themselves to beat the frosty Heat. "We have to decide whether it was just one of those games, or if we need to make some major adjustments," Miami head coach Nate McMillan said after the buzzer sounded. "One thing I can tell you, nobody's happy in South Beach tonight, and I can't imagine what Jestor is thinking right now. Not sure I want to, to be honest." Brand, Dozier Also Stand Out Rober Dozier had his best game off the bench yet for Miami Miami Heat assistant head coach Reggie Theus turned to head coach Nate McMillan just after the buzzer sounded in Miami's Game 3 blowout at the hands of the Raptors and said just three words. "Unleash the Hobgoblin!" Theus was, of course, referring to Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson, who completely shut down Toronto star Xavier Henry during their regular season faceoffs. And so the Heat unveiled a change in their lineup, with Hobson sliding to SG and Darrell Arthur back starting at SF. The intended consequences of the plan backfired, as Henry kept his hot postseason going in hitting 10/15 shots, 4/7 from long range for 27 points. But the presence of the physical Hobson in the backcourt wore down Henry and Aaron Brooks on defense, freeing up Chris Paul to snap out of his two game slump and erupt for 44 points, 10 assists and 4 rebounds on 16/27 shooting, 3/7 from behind the arc in Miami's thrilling 125-112 come from behind victory. Perhaps just as impressive was Elton Brand's 9/13 for 23 points in 29 minutes. But the Battering Ram wasn't the only non-Paul Heat starter to do work. Arthur overcame a series long shooting problem to connect on 6 of his 8 attempts for 13 points and 2 blocks. More significantly, he limited Rudy Gay to a 4 of 12 night. Although Aleks Maric didn't light the world on fire, neither was he as terrible as his Game 3 performance, quietly producing 10 points and 12 rebounds. Then there was Robert Dozier, who saw a massive increase in minutes and rewarded the coaching staff by posting an excellent all around game of 12 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals and 3 blocks on 5/11 shooting. Said Dozier afterwards, "This game was really about Ed Pinckney (Miami's third assistant) helping me correct my shooting. He's been coaching me up ever since I got here and he's really made me a better player just in the few months I've been with the Heat." Still, it wasn't all fun and games for Miami. For the third out of four contests, the Heat allowed the Raptors to shoot over 50% at 51.8, and Miami needed 54.8% of its own shooting, plus the expected Jestorball turnover advantage (+5 in this one - 14 to 9), in order to execute the second half comeback. "Last game we were all tied up at the half and they tore us apart in the last two quarters. This time we went in down 9 points and we just decided we weren't going to let them walk out of here with a tied series," McMillan said. And now the most offensively exciting series heads back to South Florida for Game 5, where GM Jestor is calling for his team to close out the first round. "The Pistons swept the Bucks, so we've got to finish this thing off quickly. Detroit's going to be a tough opponent and we can't let this become a battle," the GM noted. All Five Miami Starters Score 16 Or More In Rout Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson stole the ball 5 times and forced Xavier Henry into 7 turnovers "Let's go out and play the way we know how to," Miami Heat head coach Nate McMillan told his players before Game 6. That simple message in mind, Miami swarmed all over the Toronto Raptors, winning 123-95 behind six players with 13 or more points and coming up big in the turnover advantage department. In a series marked by the Heat hearkening to Jestorball ideology, they were at their best in Game 6, forcing 27 turnovers while giving up 13, a +14 advantage. Leading the charge in these system fundamentals was none other than Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson, the 19th overall pick who battled fellow rookie Xavier Henry directly for the second straight game. Hobson limited the Raptors star to just 12 points, holding him to 3 of 5 shot attempts, and forced him into 7 turnovers, after causing the Kansas alum to cough it up 4 times in Game 5. More importantly, the Hobgoblin outdueled Henry on the points board, hitting 7 of 11 shots for 17 points, 5 assists, 5 steals and just one turnover. "I love being disruptive on defense," Hobson said. "And it's great for the fans to see two guys talked about as Rookie of the Year candidates go up against each other. He won the last game, I won this one and both times we played against each other in the regular season. That's 3 out of 4 for me, kinda like how it was 4 out of 5 for us this series." The Rest of the Heat Starters Chris Paul - 4/9, 16 points, 7 assists, 1 turnover Darrell Arthur - 6/11, 17 points, 6 rebounds, 5 turnovers Elton Brand - 6/9, 17 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals Aleks Maric - 11/16, 22 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 blocks Arthur essentially drew Rudy Gay, as the Raptors SF went 6/11 for 16 points of his own. Brand completely took Jarvis Varnado out of the game, limiting him to 20 minutes due to foul trouble, and Maric dominated Luke Nevill like he has for most of the series. For the Heat bench, it was none other than Jestor favorite Martell "Webby" Webster stepping up, hitting 5/6 shots for 13 points. It was another game of great shooting accuracy on both teams, Miami shooting 58.2%, 55.6% from 3 point range, while Toronto hit 55.1% and 46.2% respectively. Miami Heat GM Jestor was effusive in his praise for Henry after the game. "There's no doubt in my mind that he just locked up my first place Rookie of the Year vote after this series. Just absolutely incredible, on the level of what we saw with John Wall last season. Milos Teodosic is shooting well in his series, too, but a 0.9 A/TO ratio just won't cut it, I don't care if Super Mario Billips is guarding him. No question, Henry is a star in the league right now, and he's only going to get better. Great work by the Hobgoblin on him this game, though." Miami now moves on to face the Detroit Pistons in the second round, a series that promises a smorgasbord of mouth-watering marquee matchups. Context Took us five games to do it, just like I thought it would. Still can't believe that absolute shitstorm in Game 3, though. To be honest, I never saw the Raptors as a challenge, Henry's exceptional performance as a rookie aside. The Detroit Pistons, though.. even missing Ricky Rubio, they scared me. A lot. They were also the team that knocked us out in the second round the year before. __________________ 2006 Golden Scribe Nominee 2006 Golden Scribe Winner Best Non-Sport Dynasty: May Our Reign Be Green and Golden (CK Dynasty) Rookie Writer of the Year Dynasty of the Year: May Our Reign Be Green and Golden (CK Dynasty)

04-24-2015, 07:31 PM	#114
Izulde Head Coach Join Date: Sep 2004	Most Series Appear Settled Willie "Wonder" Warren has been anything but wonderful this postseason Jackson Ayorinde reports with the latest hot storylines following the conclusion of Game 4. Mavericks, Magic, Pistons In Solid Shape Thanks to first round sweeps of the Spurs, Bobcats, and Bucks respectively, all three of the named teams are in excellent position heading into the second round. The pressure will now be on the Portland Trailblazers, Chicago Bulls, and Miami Heat to close out their respective series and avoid injuries before moving on. Chi-town faces the most difficult task, playing on the road at Cleveland, followed by the Blazers road-trekking to the Clippers. Miami is expected to knock out the Raptors, but given Xavier Henry's brilliant play and the Heat's inconsistency on defense, a home upset could certainly be in the cards. Take the walk of shame, Jeff Van Gundy Hot and Not: The Coaches Major credit due to Frank Lawrence, who has been absolutely masterful in crafting game plans to push the Cavaliers up against the wall. That he's done it with the Bulls' litany of injuries makes it all the more impressive. Tip of the cap also to Rick Adelman, who exposed Charlotte for an overrated team, humiliating the Bobcats in Game 1 with the second team, a gamble that paid off handsomely and set the tone for the rest of the series. Then there's Toronto's Flip Saunders, who exacted revenge for GM Jestor's firing him two seasons ago. Said Saunders of his Raptors' strong play, "Listen, I know what that Jestorball crap is all about. It's not some wonderful system that's going to win titles. It's a weak scheme that can't even sweep us despite having a Top 5 player in Chris Paul and a great post game in Elton Brand and Aleks Maric. That GM of theirs is terrible, and Nate McMillan showed he's a mediocre coach after all those years of average records with the Bucks." On the flip side, if one pardons the pun, there's Charlotte's Jeff Van Gundy, who looked absolutely clueless against the Magic, and the Clippers' George Karl, the fat man who has so far been completely stymied by Portland. No excuse about Kevin Durant, either, as Durant played extensive minutes in the Red and White's home beatdown loss to the Blazers in Game 2. Danny Green #1? I can buy that Hot and Not: The Players You just can't say enough about how amazing Danny Green has been for Portland. Yes, his 1.7 A/TO ratio and 44.4% shooting haven't been exceptional, but he's shooting 40% from 3 point range and averaging 28 points, 4.3 assists, and 1.3 steals playing out of the point guard spot. He's also been ruthless on defense, with a 94.6% drive stop rate and 0.8 PA/SF, making life miserable for Jonny Flynn. Then there's Xavier Henry, who has been absolutely jaw-dropping, averaging 26.5 points on insane percentages of 59.4%, 62.5% from 3 point range to give the Raptors a fighting chance. In doing so, he's generated the kind of buzz that John Wall did last season. Speaking of Wall, he's been gold again, averaging a staggering 33 points on 58.8% and 57.1% from long range, although he's only taken 7 distance shots. Let's not forget his 2.8 steals either, or his 90% drive stop rate and 0.5 PA/SF. One could argue that his performance has been the most complete thus far in the first round. And then there's the icy players, such as Charlotte's Dwayne Wade and Amare Stoudemire, but really, I don't want to pour more misery on an already shell-shocked team, so I'll just turn my focus to Phoenix's Willie "Wonder" Warren, who has been, in a word, the worst player in this year's playoffs. His 19.3 points a game may look sexy, but he's shooting just 38.4% and 18.2% from 3 point range, with 22 attempts from behind the arc. Think that's not bad enough? Try his 66% drive stop rate and 1.0 PA/SF. Miami GM Jestor, who had a rocky relationship with the second year Oklahoma project before trading him to the Suns for Robert Dozier and two first round picks, commented on Warren's postseason showing, "This is what karma gets you. Willie trashed us before he left and now the world is seeing him for what he really is - a young player who doesn't yet know the meaning of clutch and who might never know it." Can Miami Conjure A Miracle? Lebron James will look to put a chokehold on Chris Paul And so they meet again. After beating Toronto in five and sweeping the Bucks respectively, the Miami Heat and Detroit Pistons face off in the second round, just as they did last year. Although Detroit needed six games to take out Miami before moving on to the Finals, where they were upset by the Oklahoma City Thunder in one of the most shocking playoff results in NLL history, the general consensus was that the Heat didn't pose too many problems for the Pistons. Now, a year later, the Heat have exchanged Willie "Wonder" Warren, Jamario Moon, and Carlos Boozer for Rober Dozier, Darrell Arthur, and Elton "Battering Ram" Brand, and added Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson and Martell "Webby" Webster, but will it be enough to overcome Motown? Even with Ricky Rubio lost for the year to a broken ankle? The Regular Season December 18th - 127-120 MIA @ MIA February 11th - 115-105 DET @DET April 1st - 116-109 DET @MIA So it was a 2-1 advantage for Detroit, but on the flip side, none of the games were blowouts. Instead, they were high octane scoring affairs that forced the Pistons to play out of their defensive style and put points on the board. A look at the potential starting lineups: Point Guard Chris Paul vs. Lebron James This is the matchup everyone wants to see. Two of the Top 5 best players in the league going at it. Paul averaged 23.6 points, 5.6 assists and 1.4 steals with a 3.5 A/TO ratio against the Raptors, ultimately shooting 51.4% and stopping 98.7% of drives faced. He had a couple of lackluster games, which Miami can not afford if they want to have a chance at winning this series. James did even better against the Bucks, averaging 27.3 points, 4.5 assists, and 3.8 rebounds. He shot 50.7%, but looked surprisingly bad at stopping drives - just 30% stop rate. The other danger point - a 1.1 A/TO ratio. This is where Ricky Rubio's broken ankle really causes problems. As much as James has looked unstoppable and as much as he has the size advantage over Paul... oh, who are we kidding? Nobody can stop Lebron at the point. Nobody. Advantage: Pistons Shooting Guard Martell Webster/Darington Hobson vs Tony Allen Which nicknamed player will the Heat bring to bear on Allen? Webby or the Hobgoblin? That's one of the most intriguing questions facing head coach Nate McMillan heading into this series. The best way to do this is to talk about the amazing job Allen did against the Bucks - 13 points and 1.3 steals on 48.8% shooting, 38.9% from long range. But that's not the best part. He completely destroyed O.J. Mayo, stopping every single drive he faced and posting an unheard of 0.4 PA/SF while forcing Mayo to shoot just 36.7%. As much as people want to talk about Lebron being the top player, Allen was just as important to the Pistons' sweep. Hobson shot just 42% in the first round, largely dominated by Rudy Gay through the first few games, but finally breaking out againse Xavier Henry in Game 6. But he also posted solid all around numbers of 10.8 points, 4.4 assists and a steal, with a team-high 3.7 A/TO ratio. Webster in contrast averaged 11.6 points with a 2.6 A/TO ratio and shot 51.2%. Both players had drive stop rates over 83%, but were torched by their opponents, giving up a horrific 1.5 (Webster) and 1.7 {Hobson) PA/SF. No matter who Miami picks,it's looking grim. Advantage: Pistons Small Forward Darington Hobson/Darrell Arthur vs Andrei Kirilenko Another position that's up in the air for Miami. Hobson has already been covered, so we'll note Arthur's 50% shooting for 12 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 1.4 blocks. 93.8% drive stop rate and 0.6 PA/SF. But the Chicago School teams outside of Miami have uniformly expressed their disapproval of Arthur at SF, and indeed, he's been a turnover machine, posting an uncomfortable 0.8 A/TO ratio. Kirilenko has a long and storied history as the NLL's top defender, and indeed, he looked much the same against the Bucks, averaging 2 steals a game and stopping 100% of drives. But he shot just 31.6%, had a 0.9 PA/SF line, and averaged 9.3 points with that shooting. 5.3 rebounds is good, but he didn't show the same shot-blocking instincts he used to have. Then again, his 16.5 NET was highest on the team. There's cracks in the armor, but it's just another advantage for Detroit overall. Advantage: Pistons Power Forward Elton Brand vs. Amir Johnson The Battering Ram didn't look 35 at all as he shot 62.8% for 17.8 points and 6.8 rebounds against Toronto, making a mockery of everyone who thought Jarvis Varnado would school him in the post. Not a great defender anymore (75% drive stop rate, 1.1 PA/SF), but he's a definite threat down low. Johnson almost joined the Heat a couple of offseasons ago, when the Pistons offered him and Miami's 2014 1st back for Paul. At that time, Miami looked like a borderline playoff team even with CP3, so getting a star young big to pair with Maric and a guaranteed lottery selection appeared worth considering. But he didn't and so here we are. Amir surprisingly struggled with his shooting against Milwaukee, hitting just 45.2% of his shots for 8.5 points, 8.5 rebounds, and a whopping 3 blocks a game. Much better defensively with his shotblocking and 0.8 PA/SF, but this is finally an area where Miami can legitimately call a draw. Advantage: Even Center Aleks Maric vs. Greg Oden The second biggest of the three marquee position matchups (Paul/James, Maric/Oden, Brand/Johnson). A 4 for 17 outing in Game 3 dragged Maric's shooting average to 48.5% for the series, but he still averaged 15.2 points, 8 rebounds, and showed surprising blocking chops with 2.2 rejections against the taller, bigger Luke Nevill. His defense was also stellar - 0.7 PA/SF as he harrassed the Australian all series long. Oden's 51.6% shooting led the Pistons in the first round, but he didn't take a ton of shots, settling for bruising work down low for his 11.8 points, 10 rebounds, and 1.8 blocks. Had a good, but uncharacteristically not dominant 0.8 PA/SF on defense, and this was against a still raw Demarcus Cousins. Another matchup that looks far closer than what might initally appear, but not enough to give Miami an advantage. Advantage: Even Bench Jameer Nelson had a 3.5 A/TO ratio but shot horribly at 38.9% and only stopped 71.8% of drives faced. Martell Webster, if he doesn't start, has already been covered. But the real story here is Robert Dozier, who gained the trust of the coaching staff in shooting 55% and averaging 4.8 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 1.2 blocks. Let's not forget his 0.7 PA/SF, either, or his +8 ON. Kyle Lowry had a better than expected 1.7 A/TO ratio, stopped 100% of drives, and had a 0.6 PA/SF. But he was just as bad as Nelson at shooting - 39.1%. In fact, that 39.1% was the highest shooting percentage of any of Detroit's reserves. While Patrick O'Bryant showed good defense - 0.8 PA/SF, the Pistons' bench is very weak after Rubio's injury. Advantage: Miami Overall Outlook This is as stark a contrast in team philosophies as you could hope to find in this playoffs. But that's to be expected, as Miami GM Jestor is one of the two Godfathers of the Chicago School and Detroit GM ben faithfully follows his predecessor donkey33's Detroit Group blueprint. It will be the Pistons' standout starting five and domineering defense against the Heat's depth and high-octane, accurate shooting offense and pressure defense. It will be a much closer series than last season, perhaps not in terms of the final wins total, but at least in the margins of victory one way or the other. Detroit needs Lebron James to stay healthy and to corral Chris Paul. Not having Ricky Rubio to also put on Paul and to run the offense when James needs a breather means the Pistons are one injury away from serious trouble. Nor can they rely heavily on their reserves, so they'll be forced to run their starters often. Yes, it will be close, but in the end, a too talented first five and home court advantage will be too much for Miami to overcome. Prediction Detroit in 7 Heat Would Have Won Otherwise Conspiracy theorists say LeBron James* stole the Heat's gameplans* A heartbreaking 7 point road loss in Game 1 was directly attributed to a lost set of gameplans from the bag of head coach Nate McMillan. The 108-101 defeat came down to the Pistons shooting slightly better than the Heat and being richly rewarded by the hometown referees, who gave Detroit a lavish amount of free throw attempts, 59 to Miami's 27. The crushing defeat ruined Darington Hobson's brilliant 32 point, 4 rebound, 6 steal game while holding Tony Allen to just 1 of 11 shooting. Miami GM Jestor refused to speak to reporters after the game beyond a single statement of, "We had this game won if our strategy wouldn't have been stolen. (Expletive) the refs and (expletive) all the haters who said we would lose in five." Context Notes Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, was giving us a chance to beat Detroit. Even the most optimistic predictions had the Pistons beating us in 6 games. I was the only one to predict a full seven game series. Hard to argue against that, really - even with Rubio's injury, the Pistons were damned talented, and the Finals loss to the Thunder the year before was widely considered one of the biggest flukes in sim league history. Note: The Day Four recap was supposed to go in the last post, but the order of articles sometimes gets screwed up, depending on when people comment. No worries - it happens sometimes. As for the gameplan, I forgot to download the Game 7 file, so my depth chart/sub matrix were out of date. I was fucking furious. __________________ 2006 Golden Scribe Nominee 2006 Golden Scribe Winner Best Non-Sport Dynasty: May Our Reign Be Green and Golden (CK Dynasty) Rookie Writer of the Year Dynasty of the Year: May Our Reign Be Green and Golden (CK Dynasty)

04-28-2015, 07:53 AM	#116
Izulde Head Coach Join Date: Sep 2004	Cavs, Magic To Play, But Seismic Shift Confirmed Miami Heat head coach Nate McMillan's work against the Pistons ranks as one of the finest coaching jobs of this playoffs Yes, the Orlando Magic and Cleveland Cavaliers still have an epic Game 7 to play. But what we've seen this second round has been nothing less than the signaling of a titanic shift in the NLL landscape. Numerous conventionally held beliefs exploded and it is this set of series, more than anything else, that has established that we are in a brave new NLL world. Much of it is, of course, tied up in the Miami Heat's shocking dismissal of Detroit, but the advancement of the Dallas Mavericks and Utah Jazz do much to inform the equation as well. Here, then, are just some of the major changes falling out from the second round. 1. The Chicago School Can Now Claim Equality With The Detroit Group John Wall will be selling a lot of shoes in the coming years For years, the belief has been that the Chicago School teams, while capable of being exciting teams on offense and winning solid playoff seedings, didn't have the toughness or the defense to advance far into the postseason. The Dallas Mavericks proved last year was no fluke, riding the brilliance of John Wall to the West Conference Finals for the second season in a row. Some have noted the similarities between them and the Miami Heat, but even so, skeptics still said it was a matter of the West being the weaker conference and noted that Dallas failed to make the Finals last year. Then along came the Miami Heat's taking out the #1 seed Detroit Pistons. A godfather of the Chicago School not only defeated the Detroit Group's signature franchise, they clinched it with defense in the series' final game. Offense has been increasingly sexy the last few seasons, and with Jestorball and Wallball, employed by the Heat and Mavericks respectively, entering the conference finals, the Chicago School is now the equal of the defense-minded Detroit Group. 2. The Hobgoblin Slayed The King And Destroyed The Legend of Lebron Lebron James was left to ponder his failure to carry the Pistons Since time immemorial it seems, the sages have called Lebron James at point guard an unstoppable force. The script went that while you could beat Detroit given the right set of circumstances, there was no disrupting King James when he ran the offense. That narrative was blown away against Miami, as a rookie, the 19th overall pick no less, Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson, dethroned the king and put to rest the old belief. Teams who face the Detroit Pistons in future playoffs will no doubt make note of the game tapes and seek to find their own Lebron killer, now that they know it can be done. While there are those who argue, quite accurately, that a healthy Ricky Rubio would have completely changed the story, and we might not now be talking about Lebron's collapse, the disproving of the myth still remains before us. 3. The Validation Of Manu: Or, A Superstar Is Unneeded To Win "Super" Mario Billips loomed large in the Jazz/Thunder series We got an inkling of this last season, when a deep, balanced Oklahoma City Thunder squad stunned the Detroit Pistons to win the West's first championship since the back-to-back Phoenix Suns of 2004 and 2005. But most wrote that off as a fluke, one of those rare occurrences that only happens once in a great while. Then came this season, where the Utah Jazz, despite not yet having a superstar (James Harden and Ed Davis are still growing into their impressive potential), stormed their way to the top seed in the West and got past the defending champion Thunder and the up and coming Los Angeles Lakers. In fact, their most valuable player is "Super" Mario Billips, who no one viewed as anything more than a good fourth or fifth starter before this season. And even that was underscored by their managing to win despite Billips' injury limiting his playing time against Oklahoma City. John Wall, of course, countermands this argument, but once again we bring the Miami Heat into the equation. The Heat held form to a 2-2 mark in spite of Chris Paul's complete inability to find the bucket with any inconsistency in the first four games. Paul came on fire in Games 5 and 6 to help win Miami the series, of course, but this playoffs, more than any other in NLL history, has proven Chicago Bulls GM Manu Martinez correct when he argues that superstars aren't needed to win, or go deep in the postseason. And so, the league has been forever changed by a single round of playoffs. Whatever the eventual result, and whichever team is crowned a new NLL champion, these truths have become clear. Sorry, Lebron James* and Pistons nation, we couldn't resist this last parting shot* NLL World Eager For CP3/Deron Matchup Debate has long raged over who is better: Chris Paul or Deron Williams After knocking off a higher, heavily favored seed in the second round, the Miami Heat will have to do it again. Conversely, Cleveland, weary battlers of two straight seven game fights, appear to have another slugfest on their hands, but once again the Cavaliers hold homecourt advantage. Much like the Miami/Detroit series in the second round, this series features a platter of appetizing, marquee matchups that likely guarantees another set of sellouts and some of the highest ratings in NLL television playoff history. Once again, it will be the tale of a superhuman starting five and no bench against a team featuring depth. It also features irony, as Cavaliers' GM Crimson has often acknowledged that the impetus for her acquiring Deron Williams from the Washington Wizards came in large part from Miami GM Jestor's criticism of Derrick Rose at the point. In fact, the Heat's front office leader was so scornful of Rose running the offense, he uttered what has now become one of the most popularly parodied phrases in Cleveland. In an interview, Jestor sneered and said, "I'll eat my hat if Cleveland wins a title with Rose." Now Miami will have to back up its GM's bravado and keep him from having to consume his famous black fedora. A position breakdown below. Point Guard Chris Paul vs. Deron Williams Paul has had an uneven postseason so far, but when he's been on, he's been one of the major reasons why the Heat have won. Still the team's leading scorer this season at 18.7 points, with 6.1 assists, 1.6 steals, a 3.7 A/TO ratio, a 98.3% drive stop rate, and 0.8 PA/SF. Shooting percentage wise, his aggregate comes to 40.9%, 30.6% from 3 point range. Long has the battle raged over whether Paul or Williams is the best point guard of their generation. Deron is considered -the- pre-eminent floor general of his era, and the 31 year old has more than continued to justify that reputation. He has a Jestorian swoon-inducing 7.0 A/TO ratio this postseason, averaging 16.7 points and 9.5 assists on 42.2% shooting, 37% from long range. His defensive numbers have been comparable to Paul's - 94.3% drive stop rate and a matching 0.8 PA/SF. The narrative written in the past still holds true - CP3 is arguably the best all-around point guard, but D-Will is unquestionably the best floor general. That means it's still too close a matchup to call. Advantage: Draw Shooting Guard Darington Hobson vs Derrick Rose Before the last round, nobody would have paid much attention to the Hobgoblin beyond saying he's a solid player. But after the rookie took down Lebron James, Hobgoblin Fever has suddenly sprung up in South Beach. We saw more than a few fans in hobgoblin costumes during Game 6 and if he can do the same to Rose, his cult status might be permanently secured. He stepped up early in the series against the Pistons when Paul faltered, raising his averages to 14.8 points and 1.3 steals on 48.8% shooting, 40% from 3 point. The defensive metrics look surprisingly mediocre - 74.4% of drives stopped and 1.1 PA/SF, suggesting that perhaps he wasn't quite as responsible for James's demise as the narrative says. Then there's the much-maligned Rose, criticized for years in New Jersey before winning last year's Most Improved Player award. He's the engine that drives the Cavaliers' scoring, posting an eye-popping 26.4 points and 1.9 steals on 46.3% shooting. The scoring's all the more impressive considering he has yet to make a 3 pointer in the playoffs. 94.2% drive stop rate and 0.9 PA/SF, which is some quality defense. Right now it looks as though the Rose will tame the Hobgoblin. Advantage: Cleveland Small Forward Darrell Arthur vs. Wesley Johnson Except for Game 6 against Detroit, Arthur's had a very quiet playoffs, averaging a modest 12.6 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks. But he's also had the old sensational postseason shooting touch at 51.2%, highest of the team's starters. He's also been absolutely ruthless on defense at 96.6% of drives stopped and 0.7 PA/SF. Perhaps the most unsung of the Heat's starting five. Johnson's been the complete opposite to Arthur in terms of presence. He's the Cavaliers' second leading scorer in the playoffs at 18.3 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 1.6 steals, at a very accurate shooting clip of 49.7%. Defensive metrics are absolutely stellar - 100% of all drives stopped and 0.8 PA/SF. Johnson's scoring talent gives him the slight edge over Arthur, although they've been very close in all other categories. Advantage: Cleveland Power Forward Elton Brand vs. Anthony Randolph One of Miami's megaton of moves surrounding Day 90, Brand looks very much his 35 years. Sure he's posted solid numbers of 14.3 points and 5.9 rebounds on 50% shooting, but the general sense is that he's just not the player he used to be even last season, and that the added weight of playoff games is taking its toll. He's also been worryingly matador on defense - 1.1 PA/SF. Randolph won Defensive Player of the Year last season and has essentially taken over Andrei Kirlenko's mantle as the NLL's best defender. He's played extremely well this playoffs, averaging 10.9 points, 9.9 rebounds, 1.4 steals and 2.4 blocks. Although his shooting has been admittedly mediocre at 45.2%, his 100% drive stop rate, 0.8 PA/SF, and defensive playmaking have more than made up for it. Advantage: Cleveland Center Aleks Maric vs. Cole Aldrich The other major matchup of this series. Maric was slowed down at the end of the Pistons series with an injury, but still averaged 16 points, 6.9 rebounds and 1.7 blocks on 48.6% shooting. He also averaged 0.9 PA/SF and should perform better overall this round than he did against Detroit, newly healthy again and not having to face the imposing Greg Oden. Or will he? Aldrich has a 0.9 PA/SF of his own and has been a terror on the boards in averaging 11.4 points, 12.6 rebounds, and 2.1 block on 55.9% shooting. While he isn't the scoring presence that Maric is, he's a husky Kansas kid that should make for another exciting fight in the post. We called Maric and Oden even in the last series and that essentially played out. We'll argue the same thing here. Advantage: Draw Bench Jameer Nelson has been an inconsistent shooter, but he's delivered the passing goods - 3.3 assists and a 2.8 A/TO ratio and is also averaging 5.6 points. But the real story here is Robert Dozier's emergence as a clutch postseason player, averaging 6.5 points, 4.7 rebounds, almost a steal per game, and 1.4 blocks. He's shooting 48.2% and allowing just 0.8 PA/SF. Cleveland's most notable bench players in terms of minutes and production have been the horribly shooting Chris Wright and Louis Williams, and the Darrell Arthur-lite Darnell Jackson, shooting a beautiful 69.2% for his 5.6 points and 4.4 rebounds. The problem is, Jackson's been a revolving door on defense - a horrendous 1.3 PA/SF in the post. Advantage: Miami Overall Analysis Sounding familiar, isn't it? The Heat's depth against their opponents' superlative starting five, Miami's back against the wall in terms of homecourt advantage. As incredible a job as Miami did against Detroit, there just doesn't seem to be a way to crack the Cleveland Five. They're too well-balanced across the board and have only lost one playoff home game this season. That means finally, after season upon season with the talent to break through, the Cavaliers will at long last ride on into the NLL Finals. Prediction: Cleveland in 7 Rare Major Defeat In Turnover Battle Overcome By Defense, Heat's Post Play Aleks Maric shined for the Miami Heat in Game 1 It's rare that you see the Miami Heat lose the turnover battle as badly as they did in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals. It's even rarer for the team to do that and win. Yet, that's precisely what happened as the Heat captured the first game in Cleveland 96-92, in spite of an unheard of for Jestorball -9 turnover margin, 14 to 5. Cleveland took the first quarter 29-21, and the rest of the game was all about the Heat gradually chipping away at that lead until it finally vanished. Aleks Maric won Player of the Game with a quality 7 of 14 for 19 points, 11 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 blocks performance. Elton Brand, his postmate, was actually Miami's leading scorer with 21 points and 8 rebounds on 9 of 14 shooting. Jameer Nelson keyed the bench scoring with 12 points, while Robert Dozier continued his ever-present playoff form. Although limited to 2 points, Dozier made his presence felt on the glass, with 12 boards and 4 blocks. Together, Maric, Brand, and Dozier combined for 31 of Miami's 47 rebounds, giving the Heat a +6 boarding advantage over the 41 rebound Cavaliers. This suggested that the Chicago Tribune writer who posited the Heat's bigs' rebounding as key to the series was correct. Miami also shot 45.3% to Cleveland's 41.9% and enjoyed a 33-22 free throw attempt advantage. The difference was further highlighted when the Heat shot 72.7% from the charity stripe, the Cavaliers 45.5%, continuing Cleveland's playoff woes at the free throw line. Context Notes Another key factor in this epic Miami/Cleveland matchup - the Cavs had one of the worst GMs in the league who had been handed the keys to a team capable of a Detroit-style dynasty, and was making some rather odd decisions with it. Still, it was an elite starting lineup, and more importantly they'd come back from 1-3 deficits in the first two rounds to win in Game 7. So even though we got the first game and stole homecourt advantage, Cleveland was not a team to sleep on. They also had a metric buttload of guys able to draw fouls, which always make a team difficult to play against, and that's without the supreme talent they possessed in other areas. Out of the frying pan and into the fire, really. But hey, the Lebron Slayer legend was born, at least, no matter what happened in this series. __________________ 2006 Golden Scribe Nominee 2006 Golden Scribe Winner Best Non-Sport Dynasty: May Our Reign Be Green and Golden (CK Dynasty) Rookie Writer of the Year Dynasty of the Year: May Our Reign Be Green and Golden (CK Dynasty)

04-30-2015, 05:41 AM	#117
Izulde Head Coach Join Date: Sep 2004	Brand, Paul Carry Heat To 3 Point Win Elton Brand was all smiles in Game 2 "At power forward... Darnellllllll Jaaaaaackson!" Miami Heat head coach Nate McMillan turned to Reggie Theus, his top assistant, in disbelief. "What the hell did I just hear? I never got any notification about Cleveland changing their depth chart." Theus chuckled and pointed to the Heat's own starting power forward. "Look at Elton. He's thrilled right now." And indeed Elton "Battering Ram" Brand's eyes were gleaming as he looked Jackson up and down with a wolf's grin. "I knew when I heard his name called that it was going to be a great night," Brand said. For once, a prophecy came true outside of the realm of fantasy. The Battering Ram smashed into Jackson all game long, hitting a near-perfect 11 of his 12 shots for 29 points, 8 rebounds and 2 blocks. Yet, it was Chris Paul who won Player of the Game, snapping back from his cold Game 1 for a scorching 13 of 26, 4/11 from long range, for 30 points, 7 assists and 4 rebounds. Martell "Webby" Webster led the second unit with 10 points on 4/5 shooting, 2/3 from behind the arc. Miami also amended their inability to force turnovers in Game 1, making Cleveland turn the ball over 15 times for a +1 advantage in Game 2. The Cavaliers, meanwhile, found their free throw shooting form, making 23/32 attempts for a 71.9% conversion rate. But in the end, even that 32 to 17 charity stripe attempt advantage and their second half rally wasn't enough. In this tale of two halves, Miami's 62-44 first half was better than Cleveland's 58-43 second half, and the Heat won 105-102 to grab a commanding 2-0 lead in the East Conference Finals. McMillan wasn't resting easy, though. "Despite the bush league move by Alvin Gentry, who I expect more of than that, we got the win. But let me tell you this. Going up 2-0 on the road means absolutely nothing. The Cavaliers have the best lineup in the entire league. They showed they could beat the Bulls and the Magic, two excellent teams, on the road, and they'll be out for blood when they come to Miami. South Beach has got to be ready for them." One of the questions facing McMillan and his staff is what to do about the knee injury Darrell Arthur sustained. Arthur is capable of playing and the injury is just soreness, so it'll likely be a game-time decision. Heat GM Heard Waxing Nostalgic Jamario Moon's shutdown ability on defense made him popular in Miami A potential distraction arose in South Beach when an unnamed source over heard Miami Heat GM Jestor commenting on former Heat Jamario Moon. According to the source, Jestor said he "loved having Jamario out there to shut guys down. God, could you imagine CP3, the Hobgoblin, and Moon altogether? There isn't a perimeter shooter in this league who would have a good night's sleep." It's something that could have happened, but Miami, seeking to bolster its frontcourt and add a proven playoff warrior, instead dealt Moon and their 2017 2nd round pick for Darrell Arthur. Ironically enough, Arthur occupied Moon's old starting spot at SF for most of the season before he moved to the bench at PF, then again moving to the lineup at SF in the playoffs, where he's not only restored his playoff chops, but has been a terror on defense and one of Miami's best postseason defenders. Sources say it's highly unlikely a trade gets done, however. The Timberwolves are believed to covet Arthur's return and almost acquired Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson at Day 90 and near the deadline. But the Hobgoblin has acquired cult status after his role in neutralizing Lebron James in the last round of the playoffs and is now deemed untouchable, and although Arthur is on the block, Jestorball scholars say his excellent postseason performance makes chances of a trade somewhat slim. "There's two basic components true of all positions that will go a long way towards love and job security in the Jestorball philosophy," Jackson Ayorinde, the NLL's leading authority on the system said. "One is to have excellent passing and handling skills. The other is to have a proven playoff track record. Realistically, I don't see Miami making big moves in the offseason, especially if they manage to win the title. They'll fight to retain Chris Paul and may try to move up in the draft. Elton Brand might end up back in South Florida or he might play somewhere else, but outside of whatever roster filling they need to do in free agency, the front office likes the team composition too much to make a drastic shakeup via trade." Absent Deron, Heat Blow Up Cavs By 23 Chris Paul loomed large in Miami's blowout win over Cleveland The stands were awash in fans waving signs pleading Miami Heat superstar Chris Paul to stay in South Florida, and more than a few begged GM Jestor not to sign and trade the franchise player in the offseason. That demonstration of passion, and the absence of Deron Williams, helped sparked Paul to perhaps his finest game yet of the postseason - 40 points, 8 assists, 4 rebounds, and 0 turnovers, carrying Miami to a 126-103 laugher that was essentially over in the second quarter. Miami swept all four periods and seized a commanding 3-1 lead in the East Conference Finals. Paul hit 12/21 of his shot attempts, 5/11 of them from the 3 point line. "Still doesn't mean anything," a grumpy looking Nate McMillan said after the game. "If we hadn't played like garbage last night, then we'd have the sweep and I might have something to tell you guys about." But the Miami Heat head coach couldn't deny the fact that cracks are starting to appear in Cleveland's foundation. Cavaliers head coach Alvin Gentry was slammed across the country and the Internet for not playing an injured Deron Williams, and now Cleveland has to deal with an injury to starting center Cole Aldrich. "Going to be interesting to see what they do", Miami's own starting center, Aleks Maric, commented. "Nobody is injury free in the playoffs. I got hurt last round, Darrell (Arthur) got banged up this one." Elton Brand continued his exceptional East Conference Finals, shooting well to pick up 15 points and 8 rebounds. Most significantly, he destroyed Anthony Randolph, holding Cleveland's defensive powerhouse to just 2 points on a clunker 1 of 8 shooting. Darington "Hobgoblin" Hobson just missed the 20 point mark with 19 on 7/11, 2/3 long range shooting and also recorded 4 assists and 2 steals. All five of Miami's starters reached double-digit scoring, and the bench was once again headlined by Robert Dozier, who hit 4 of 6 for 10 points, 7 rebounds, and 2 blocks. Context Notes There was a rule in place where non-DDS teams could privately PM the simmer depth chart and strategy changes, but then they had to put in the depth chart thread that they submitted something to the simmer. The reason why is because DDS teams had to post a file whenever they were making changes, and not knowing someone made changes could potentially be a huge advantage to teams not owning the game. Needless to say, the Cavs didn't do that in Game 2. And as I said last time, Cleveland's GM was notoriously incompetent. They made decisions to sit key guys like Anthony Randolph, the league's best defensive player, with a soreness injury, and other players with very minor injuries that had them over 90% fitness. Very puzzling decisions, particularly since the Cavaliers' depth was pretty terrible, as I noted in the preview. But remember, this was also a Cleveland team that had come back from two straight 1-3 deficits, and that's exactly what they were facing now. __________________ 2006 Golden Scribe Nominee 2006 Golden Scribe Winner Best Non-Sport Dynasty: May Our Reign Be Green and Golden (CK Dynasty) Rookie Writer of the Year Dynasty of the Year: May Our Reign Be Green and Golden (CK Dynasty)

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