With this day being the last day of the season

[TheMatrix31]

Re: With this day being the last day of the season

What else am I going to reflect upon? I already knew my team was going to be a top 3 seed in the West.

Health is BY FAR the most important thing when it comes to the Suns, and no one will convince m e otherwise.

[Streets]

Re: With this day being the last day of the season

The most important part of this season so far, for me, has been the re-establishment of Tracy McGrady.

Co-sign.

[TheMatrix31]

Re: With this day being the last day of the season

Him too. Definitely glad he's back. I just hope his back stops bothering him.

[GP Mercy]

Re: With this day being the last day of the season

• Watching Kobe have 56.3 ppg over 4 games was fun to watch.
• Seeing Hibachi get hurt was a letdown.
• The Mavs' domination was very great, and I thought they would get 70 wins.
• Dirk's jumper is still my favorite thing about this season. It's poetry in motion.

[3rdAnswer]

Re: With this day being the last day of the season

KDRE calm down buddy.

I'm not 'comparing' eras, I'm just saying that one's favorite time of ball has a lot to do with their age or when they started watching basketball. For people in middle school and high school still, they weren't even born earlier enough to say that 'the 90's was the best era'.

[Brandon13]

Re: With this day being the last day of the season

On the tanking issue: I was listening to Mike and Mike this morning and Greenberg talked about an idea that **** Vitale (Of all people) came up with. It's basically just the reverse of what we have now. The team with the best record that does not make the playoffs has the highest chance at winning the draft lottery and the team with the worst record will have the lowest chance. This would completely guarantee that teams do not tank. I personally love the idea.

[HMcCoy]

Re: With this day being the last day of the season

On the tanking issue: I was listening to Mike and Mike this morning and Greenberg talked about an idea that **** Vitale (Of all people) came up with. It's basically just the reverse of what we have now. The team with the best record that does not make the playoffs has the highest chance at winning the draft lottery and the team with the worst record will have the lowest chance. This would completely guarantee that teams do not tank. I personally love the idea.

Lets assume that rule guarantees that no one tanks...their would still be sucky, hard to watch teams at the bottom of the standings, and those bottom teams would NEVER get better. One injury-riddled season would doom you to an eternity of suck.

[TheMatrix31]

Re: With this day being the last day of the season

It promotes good management. That's how you get better.

It also makes all the games late in the season between teams who narrowly missed the playoffs more important.

[Brandon13]

Re: With this day being the last day of the season

Lets assume that rule guarantees that no one tanks...their would still be sucky, hard to watch teams at the bottom of the standings, and those bottom teams would NEVER get better. One injury-riddled season would doom you to an eternity of suck.

There are always gonna be sucky teams and hard to watch games no matter what you do. At least with this there would be zero integrity issues, unless a team would rather get the first pick than be a number eight seed. Now that I think about that, yeah there would still probably be issues. OK not the greatest idea.

How about we just have the 14 teams that do not make the playoffs have an equal shot at winning the lottery?

[TheMatrix31]

Re: With this day being the last day of the season

I've been loving the Mike Greenberg idea since he first brought it up.

[HMcCoy]

Re: With this day being the last day of the season

I just try to shut up and enjoy the NBA as much as a I can without looking for things I dont like about it.

Thats about it. Everything on that list besides the injuries has happened in plenty of previous seasons...coasting stars, whining stars, boring ASG, the east sucks?...those things have been true for a over a decade. When did it ever stop?

For me, I was disappointed by LeBrons play this year, and by Kobe regressing a bit down the stretch, but I still love watching both guys, and love the sport as much as ever. Dre, you mention the C's, a team of youngsters who played a major portion of the season without their only experienced player, losing 18 as making for a bad season...but did the Grizz losing 24 in a row really hamper the 95/96 season?

As it's been said, their have been some great stories this year, including the emergence of a few nice young players, (Boozer, Igoudala, JJ), some new blood making noise (Jazz, GS) and like it's been said the reemergence of T-Mac. Also, for the first time in a while I can say I think the officiating is turning the corner. Yeah they cracked down on complaining (and WOW, weren't we whining about all the excessive complaing just last year?) but besides the inevitable bad calls you see in any sport, the refs have really let these guys get more physical around the basket.

Bottom line, there is going to be good and bad in every season, and its up to the viewer to decide what they want to focus on. Bill Simmons is an old man who gets paid to stir the pot.

It promotes good management. That's how you get better.

It also makes all the games late in the season between teams who narrowly missed the playoffs more important.

You'd rather see the Grizz and C's slapfight at the end of the season than see either team get better over time? The bad teams would never be able to get a good player's Bird rights, and NEVER be able to pry any good players away from their teams. Thats just a plain bad idea, IMO, and much worse than trying to protect the integrity of teams you probably wouldn't watch in the first place. Would Boston fans rather see this current team battling right now, or become an instant playoff contender with a high pick? How stupid would it look for Redd to jam up his knee like Mo Peete trying to battle for the illusive 10-seed.

Your Suns, at the height of their suckiness probably would never have gotten Amare, or Barbosa for that matter (they might not have been able to get Leandro with the stripped down future 1st rd pick you want to force on the worst teams...teams who at that point would still be playing hard, mind you). Easy to pass judgment from where your sitting now is it not?

The Cavs openly tanked the year previous to the King's arrival by shipping out 3/5 of their starters ( Dre Miller, Wes Person and Lamond Murray) in the off season, and replacing them with rookies and 2nd year players. Thank God for that.

[Chip Douglass]

Re: With this day being the last day of the season

How about we just have the 14 teams that do not make the playoffs have an equal shot at winning the lottery?

No, the terrible teams need an opportunity to improve. The lottery system is fair as it is, as there are no guarentees of winning a high draft pick, but sheer probability.

How fair would it be if the Clippers drafted Greg Oden?

[Rocky]

Re: With this day being the last day of the season

I love the NBA, but sometimes I can't help but feel that the league needs a major shakeup.

I think Shaq going to the East provided some sizzle there for a while, but IMO, there's too many great players on average teams. I'm very anxious to see where KG and VC end up in the upcoming years because if they go to a budding team or a team with another star already(IE Orlando, LA, Cleveland), I think it can provide a major balance of power.

Also I hope the duos of AI and Melo and TMac/Yao can develop to become contenders. I really would like to see AI get a ring and Yao to develop into a truly dominant force.

I think more than anything though, the thing that will affect the future of the NBA is the 7-footer out of Ohio St. Not many players at 18 have his combination of size, quickness, and basketball IQ. Lord knows how good he could be if he added a jumper here or there and some go to post moves which he will.

[Brandon13]

Re: With this day being the last day of the season

No, the terrible teams need an opportunity to improve. How fair would it be if the Clippers drafted Greg Oden?

I'd much rather see that than teams tanking.

[TheMatrix31]

Re: With this day being the last day of the season

Tanking is pathetic. Anything to prevent it, in my opinion.

I'm with ya, B13.