NBA Playoff Thread

James played very hard last night, but that was about the least impressive triple-double ever. He should have thrown away another pass for a quadruple double. In fairness, making passes to people who don't want the ball will pile up turnovers.
The rest of that team just isn't very good. I agree with whoever said at least O'Neal came to play. People in Boston have been razzing Tony Allen for years, and he's better than all but about four Cavs. I haven't checked the box score yet, but aside from Williams, did any Cav shoot over 35 percent?

 

Most of his other potential-destination teams are AWFUL -- no reason to think he'd have any better chance to win a title.

 

He'd be better off playing in Italy or Spain than going to the doom-Knicks. The Nets might be capable of becoming a good team in a couple years.

 

If he goes to Chicago with Derrick Rose and say Chris Bosh, those two plus Joahkim Noah would be better than anything he ever had in cleveland

 

Bulls don't have cap room for two max-level free agents. But Noah and Rose alone make them the best of the potential destinations and easily enough to win a title with James.

 

They'd need a quality coach to do so, though. And that does not mean John Calipari, no matter how much LeBron may be infatuated with him.

 

Chicago. Because there he can contend for championships immediately.

Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah are two of the best young players in the league, and offer him a better core than any of the other Lebron sweepstakes contenders have. Deng and Hinrich are also quality players who can be complements or offered as sign and trade bait. Plus, the Bulls have enough room to possibly add Lebron AND another quality free agent.

If he joins the Bulls, he's ready to win titles immediately. If he joins the Nets or Knicks, he's still at least a couple years away. If he stays in Cleveland, it's likely just this same story again next year.

 

wow.....

If you think LeBron's failing, DD, I'd love to be a failure all day

 

An Elias person can correct me if need be, but I believe the Cavs are the first team in NBA history to have the best outright record two straight years and not win a title. The Jazz tied the Bulls in '98 for best record and the Spurs in the strike-shortened '99 season.

They're also unofficially the best dancing team to never win a title, replacing the Kings squads of 2002 and 2003.

As for Shaq, I think their best lineup was with him on the bench, but when he was on the court, he played about as well as can be expected at this stage of his career (how's Hickson go from starting 70-plus games to not playing in the final game of the year?). But if this was his last game in Cleveland, he keeps his perfect record of leaving teams on an ugly note: Orlando, the sweep; Lakers, 04 Finals, bitching about Kobe; Miami, injured and fat, team falling apart; Phoenix, turns a team that made it to the WCF twice before him and the year after him, into a nonplayoff team; Cleveland.

And Jamison was horrific last night and didn't really fulfill expectations. Which is confusing because LeBron's greatness is supposedly that he makes everyone better.

 

Shaq's best chance to make himself relevant was to crush Rondo on an early drive and establish that nobody was coming down the lane.

 

Any realistic chance LeBron signs with the Lakers? He signs for 3 years. In three years Kobe will have played 1200+ regular season games. He's already at #42 in career minutes. LeBron signs with the Lakers, wins 3 in row, with Kobe. Kobe retires with more Championships than Jordan and LeBron is free and still under 30. Any money left on the salary table is more than made up for in collateral employment. LeBron gets Phil and LA. It's Showtime again.