NBA 2008-2009

[jon abbey]

Oden/Bynum! LeBron/Pierce! Bogut/Noah!

OPENING NIGHT! IT'S OPENING NIGHT!

[jon abbey]

Gary Payton and Chris Webber are both NBA-TV analysts this year, the few minutes I saw tonight was pretty entertaining.

[jon abbey]

Derek Fisher flopping to draw an imaginary foul on Greg Oden, now the season has officially started...

[jon abbey]

Oden rolled his ankle in the first half, diagnosed with a "right mid-foot sprain" and will get a MRI tomorrow. he was scoreless in his short time in the game, quite the career so far for him.

[Jesse]

christ, wrist/knee/ankle/foot, hopefully he's exhausted whatever karma obtains in the nba.

[Harold Baines]

Portland has to be hoping it's not experiencing "Walton 2: The Extremity."

Nice start for the Bulls last night, although the Bucks aren't much of a test at this point. No defensive pressure from the Milwaukeeans, and they were outboarded by about 20.

The talk is that Tyrus Thomas is finally maturing. We'll see about that, but 15 and 10 is a good start.

[The G Man]

Derek Fisher flopping to draw an imaginary foul on Greg Oden, now the season has officially started...

Is the league going to fine players for flopping? I remember that being discussed in the off-season but don't know the outcome. Payton and Webber were funny

As much as I hated Reggie Miller as a player, I like him in the booth. He's the opposite of Joe Morgan for me.

[jon abbey]

someone needs to tell Don Nelson it's a long season and remind him how he burned out some of his key players last year, he basically played seven guys tonight. no Brandon Wright, no Marcus Williams, no Bellinelli, no Anthony Randolph.

[Captain Hate]

Things must be bad at Lois's Mortuary because the world's most optimistic Warrior fan isn't posting the type of minutia usually found in Tiger Beat fan magz.

Break up the Knicks.

[surfer]

Things must be bad at Lois's Mortuary because the world's most optimistic Warrior fan isn't posting the type of minutia usually found in Tiger Beat fan magz.

This made me laugh.

[jon abbey]

Break up the Knicks.

in case anyone didn't notice, the amusing thing about this game was that D'Antoni played 10 guys, including (briefly) Gallinari who was hurt all of preseason. the two he didn't play at all who were suited up were Curry and Marbury, neither of whom were especially happy about that.

[Harold Baines]

How did Duhon look? I like that guy.

Hinrich coming off the bench was effective in the first game. I think it's the perfect role for him.

[The G Man]

I watched some of the Hornets-Suns last night. NO is arguably as fun to watch as the Suns were at their best. I think I'm going to watch a lot of Hornets games this year. CP3 seems like a genuinely good guy and how can one not like James Posey? The question is can they improve on last season? I'm not convinced.
Robin Lopez made his debut for the Suns. He committed 3 PF in his 1:35. Matt Barnes is starting at the 3 for Phoenix.


I hope that Marbury doesn't have any sleeping pills in his house. How many games would the Knicks have to win for D'Antoni to be a legit coach of the year candidate? I think anything over .500.

[Captain Hate]

how can one not like James Posey?

That's a rhetorical question, right?

How many games would the Knicks have to win for D'Antoni to be a legit coach of the year candidate? I think anything over .500.

The Knicks won 23 games last year. If you take an "anybody could do a better job than numbnuts Zeke" attitude, that should provide a 10% boost of about 8 or 9 games which gets you to 31 or 32. I say anything in the high 30s should earn him some votes, particularly because they'll probably play more exciting basketball.

D'Antoni has brass ones to take on that job but I think the upside for him is huge. I'm not exactly sure what the situation was in Phoenix that he left; I'm pretty sure that he knew the ceiling was hit before they got Shaq, in any case it's hard to imagine Kerr doing that without his approval although maybe I'm being a dumbfuck by thinking that. My guess is that Amare's probably difficult to deal with (reading some of his past quotes are pretty incredible even by NBA standards) and with Nash getting older that team's gonna need a make-over soon. Fortunately with NBA squad sizes that's not a lot; unfortunately they're in the hypercompetitive West.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/10312008/sp ... tm?&page=1

[jon abbey]

D'Antoni has brass ones to take on that job but I think the upside for him is huge. I'm not exactly sure what the situation was in Phoenix that he left; I'm pretty sure that he knew the ceiling was hit before they got Shaq, in any case it's hard to imagine Kerr doing that without his approval although maybe I'm being a dumbfuck by thinking that. My guess is that Amare's probably difficult to deal with (reading some of his past quotes are pretty incredible even by NBA standards) and with Nash getting older that team's gonna need a make-over soon. Fortunately with NBA squad sizes that's not a lot; unfortunately they're in the hypercompetitive West.

but the choice wasn't just between Phoenix and NY, he could have had the Bulls job also. higher expectations, sure, but way more of an upside, especially once the lottery happened.

[Captain Hate]

Eh I think if he succeeds with the Knicks, it doesn't get much better than that. Just my opinion....

[jon abbey]

sure, no doubt. there's just very little to build around, Lee, Wilson Chandler, maybe Nate Robinson, maybe Gallinari, and Lee and Nate are due for hefty raises soon. plus Isiah traded the 2010 first round pick, so they have this year's and not another one until 2011. we'll see how much patience everyone involved has, owner, fans, Walsh, D'Antoni.

[The G Man]

From today's Post:

With some in the Garden crowd surprisingly chanting "We Want Steph" with 11:10 remaining in the fourth (others booed the chant), a stewing D'Antoni was caught on MSG Network cameras Wednesday in a tirade, mouthing:

"You've got to be (bleeping) kidding me. You've got to be (bleeping) kidding me. What a bunch of (bleep) holes."

[jon abbey]

and he was dead on. it's amazing how stupid NYC fans (the ones who attend games specifically) have gotten in the last decade or so.

[jon abbey]

somehow Portland isn't entertaining at all, and I don't think it has much to do with Oden being out. I need to rethink my plan for this year.