NBA Playoff Thread

Umm, James is only 25 years old. He should have plenty more than six good years left. Let's not get carried away with the reactionary nonsense. He had one really awful game last night, it happens.

 

Wade will break down before Lebron. All the flopping and falling down will shorten his career. When Lebron slows down he will become a quick PF.

 

Hopefully by that time he's developed at least one post move. An up and under, a step through, a fadeaway, something.

 

How would you compare Wade's flopping to that of Ginobili, Artest or anyone from Duke?

 

I'm a Cavs fan. I am assuming this series is over. The Celtics didn't just beat the Cavs last night, they broke their will. There is no coming back from that. Not this year.

Enjoy your rematch with Orlando.

 

That Lakers team in 2006 was maddening. They would have had the Clippers in the next round. It looked like a group of youngsters figuring out how to win in the playoffs, led by an indomitable Kobe Bryant.

Then they lost Game Six. And I as a Lakers dork came to terms with the idea that they wouldn't win another one in the Kobe Bryant era.

Is he?

Or is he more concerned with the "Global Brand" idea?

After seven years, the jury shouldn't still be out on that. It looked like he made "The Leap" in 2007, but . . . I get that he has elevated a less-than-great collection of players to great regular seasons.

His reaction after last night's game was telling as well.

“I spoil a lot of people with my play. When you have three bad games in seven years, it’s easy to point them out.”

To be fair, young superstars always have their little foibles, things they say that shouldn't have been said. With Jordan, it was "my supporting cast." With Bryant, it was his need to break out: "I gotta turn it UP!" Shaq was a lazy ass, except for one year, when he strangely won his only MVP. Magic Johnson? "Fire Paul Westhead." Michael Jordan? "Fire Doug Collins."

Every superstar has that moment when people can say "Damn, isn't anyone helping this kid realize that what he says and does will be remembered, for better or for worse?"

At the same time, this series isn't over yet. In a few days, we could all be talking about how this is an indicator that he has true Greatness in him.

Everyone's acting like it was an elimination game. A yahoo blog piles on.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/Behind-the-Box-Score-where-LeBron-James-did-not;_ylt=AqOPjl8bDd0xp18bm_1SGG.8vLYF?urn=nba,240500

 

But he has played 618 games and 25,000 minutes already.

There is a theory that at about 38,000 minutes, many players start to slow down dramatically. The body might only have so much great basketball in it.

But then again, Kobe is blowing that out of the water.

 

Out of curiosity, where did you learn the 38K theory? Who came up with that number?

All I know is I've watched the playoffs these past few days and seen a 36 year old Nash, an 34 year old Ray Allen, a 32 year old Kobe, all three with a LOT MORE than 38K on the odometer, and all three still playing at all star levels.

Nobody knows when a players legs are gonna go. Some go early, some late. Hell, John Stockton and Reggie Miller were still running like kids when they were 40. There's no magic odometer number.

 

Garnett's got to be way over 38,000 minutes, and appears to be in good working order, if not what he was five years ago.

 

Bill Simmons threw it out there, and it does make some sense to me when talking about these high school kids and the extra wear thay ar going through in the NBA instead of playing a shorter schedule in college.

 

Garnetts knees are shot

 

And it's not that they are not still good pro players, but they are no longer the 24/14 type of players they were in seasons 1-9 of their NBA careers. They are closer to 16/7 types of players.