Re: the official Dwayne Wade >>> you thread

[LeSwagg James]

Well how often did Magic play the 4? I know he played center when Kareem was injured in one Finals I think?? LeBron plays the 4 regularly, all playoffs he was down there quite a bit

[Le Samourai]

He played at the 4 for his first 4 years in the league I believe, won 2 championships, 2 finals MVP's (he didn't really deserve them, Kareem was better)

[LeSwagg James]

I c.. I guess revolutionize is a strong word then.. He's taken the 4 to another level though

[dmize]

rofl at the refs in this game. What a fvckin joke

[Le Samourai]

Pau Gasol
JCN
Marc

Great display guys, couldn't have asked for more especially from Pau, got multiple cuts on his eye from the Lebron poke ,

Viva Espana
Grande Pau

[LeSwagg James]

Great game, Pau beasted in the third damn..

Durant is a scoring machine

The Chosen One putting the icing on the cake for his terrific season

[The Franchise]

Houston signed Carlos Delfino, not sure why. Probably share the minutes at the 3, but yeah.

Good player, I like him, but not sure why he signed for us lol

[BarrileteCosmico]

Argentine media is reporting he rejected Cleveland, Indiana, Phoenix, Boston and New York for Houston

[Gil]

Houston signed Carlos Delfino, not sure why. Probably share the minutes at the 3, but yeah.

Good player, I like him, but not sure why he signed for us lol

I thought you guys we tanking this year & developing your younger players? Won't he take minutes away from White, Parsons, Lamb etc?

I think Delfino is a very good player btw. Almost always rapes us.

[The Franchise]

I dont know what we are doing Gil. It looks to me like we completely lack any direction whatsoever.

[Le Samourai]

Well..since it's 1 year it doesn't really affect you in FA so good pickup.

I like Houston's team but they have to either let it play out or give it up for Surperstar....Bynum and Josh Smith and maybe Howard available next year and they still have money to offer a max.

A slew of decent forwards could be on the table the next year, probably Rudy Gay and Deng most likely Pau and Dirk as well but that don't make much sense.

Overall I think they shouldve tanked this year for picks ie avoid signings like this , but whatever.....Morey will probably look to make a trade at some point , team has too many pieces.

[dmize]

Pierce needs to retire after this year so we can try to get Rudy in the offseason. Offer Bradley + a 2nd or Jeff Green + a protected 1st.

[Le Samourai]

Pierce needs to retire this year so we can try to get Rudy in the offseason. Offer Bradley + a 2nd.

Pierce said he wants to be a free agent for once in his life, if you sign Rudy doub't he'd be mad.

I think it would be foolish to offer Bradley though, from what I've seen he has serious potential, not just as a defender, but he could be a pretty good scorer as well.

He'll be a FA, you really don't NEED to offer anything.

[dmize]

Rudy Gay has 3 years left on his max. Paul Pierce has 2 years left, when he'll be 37. I really don't wanna wait until Pierce's deal runs out, Gay will probably be traded by then.

[McAgger]

Our team this year is awesome

Str: Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Harrison Barnes, David Lee, Andrew Bogut
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bnch: Jarrett Jack, Brandon Rush, Richard Jefferson, Carl Landry, Festus Ezeli
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Rsrv: Charles Jenkins, Kent Bazemore, Draymond Green, Jeremy Tyler, Andres Biedrins

All young players that can play in the reserves (except Biedrins) I have never been more excited for our team than I am now

[Le Samourai]

Yea, I missed that, he has a player option for that year..I guess it's likely he'll opt in.Don't think Pierce will retire though, and what about Jeff Green lo

[dmize]

Our team this year is awesome

Str: Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Harrison Barnes, David Lee, Andrew Bogut
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bnch: Jarrett Jack, Brandon Rush, Richard Jefferson, Carl Landry, Festus Ezeli
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rsrv: Charles Jenkins, Kent Bazemore, Draymond Green, Jeremy Tyler, Andres Biedrins

All young players that can play in the reserves (except Biedrins) I have never been more excited for our team than I am now

If Curry and Bogut can stay healthy the Warriors will have a good regular season. But I can't see them making any noise in the playoffs. Whos gunna defend besides Bogut? They also have no one who can consistently get to the basket.

[dmize]

Yea, I missed that, he has a player option for that year..I guess it's likely he'll opt in.Don't think Pierce will retire though, and what about Jeff Green lo

Jeff Green is going to have a bounce back year, he'll average 12-13 off the bench I think.

[The Franchise]

Well..since it's 1 year it doesn't really affect you in FA so good pickup.

Yes, but its a pick up with no logic behind it. What use is he? He isnt young, so its not a signing we can use in the future.

So basically, its a player who play right now and make us slightly better, without really changing anything in terms of playoffs, not playoffs.

If they are adding peices to make us better now, why again did we throw Scola out?

I am sure Morey is trying to do something big using, cap space, peices, the whole 9, but he been trying to do that since forever. It isnt happening.

We cant get Howard, Dirk and these names. Its the almost stars who can be come stars, like Bynum, Gay that are realistic targets. But even with them, we need at least 2 of them to be even relevant in the playoffs.

Directionless franchise who still havent found a identity of a path to follow post Yao.

[Gil]

I dont know what we are doing Gil. It looks to me like we completely lack any direction whatsoever.

I thought it was superstar or bust with Morey? Shite signing and you have around 30 players on your squad now lol.

No idea why he didn't move for Bynum.

[The Franchise]

I think is, but we cannot land one. I think part of the reason is we arent big enough players in terms of trade peices and then add to that players dont want to resign with us as we have no talent to surround them with.

We need another Yao Ming type number 1 pick to get us moving again, only way I see us moving forward at any point.

[pUsHa]

The question for many is “Why? Why did the Magic take this deal above other possibilities?”

While that’s certainly a hot topic to debate, the question addressed here is “How?”

Under the rules of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, teams can break down a large trade into whatever legal combination most suits them. It doesn’t have to be a single transaction but can be a number of smaller ones in tandem.

For the Lakers, it was moderately complicated. Bynum was traded for Howard and Clark. McRoberts was used to acquire Duhon. Eyenga did not bring a player back, generating a $1,174,080 trade exception (TPE) the Lakers can use for up to a year.

It was straight-forward for the Nuggets who simply traded Afflalo and Harrington for Iguodala. For the Sixers, a single deal was done with Iguodala, Vucevic and Harkless for Bynum and Richardson.

It’s the Magic deal that took considerable ingenuity to construct. In addition to the players received, Orlando ended up with a $17,816,880 TPE for Howard. While a basic trade was possible, how exactly was the deal structured to also generate the league’s largest TPE?

[dmize]

I think is, but we cannot land one. I think part of the reason is we arent big enough players in terms of trade peices and then add to that players dont want to resign with us as we have no talent to surround them with.

We need another Yao Ming type number 1 pick to get us moving again, only way I see us moving forward at any point.

When Lamb becomes the next T-Mac you always have him.
Houstons best move now is just wait and hope they struck gold on a couple of their 4 prospects.

They probably should've went for a full tank, but looking over the next couple of drafts there's hardly any franchise changing talent. Muhammed, Noel, Wiggins, Parker. That's basically it. Noels not a franchise changer. Muhammed/Wiggins could be though.

[Le Samourai]

Well.....here's what they have long term.

Lin/Dougas (I rate him pretty highly)
Lamb
Parsons/White/Jones
Motiejuanas/Morris/Patterson
Asik

Which is a pretty impressive young core that could be a force in 4 years.

Here's what they need to dump.

Martin
Livingston
Delfino can only be a trade piece for a contender.

If they can turn those 3 into a pick or two and tank this year then I think they're in a very good spot going down the road.

[Le Samourai]

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/hakeem-olajuwon-says-javale-mcgee-dominate-nba-224109998--nba.html

Over the past few years, we've discussed Hakeem Olajuwon's very pricey coaching sessions on NBA post play with players ranging from LeBron James to Dwight Howard. Yet, while Hakeem's tutoring has produced positive results, those players also started out as established stars. As yet, Olajuwon has yet to tute someone who hasn't yet made an All-Star team.

His summer work with Denver Nuggets center JaVale McGee, then, holds a great deal of interest. In addition to being a player who hasn't yet fulfilled most of his considerable potential, McGee is also seen as one of the NBA's great blank slates, potentially a perennial All-Star but a player who hasn't yet received much in the way of proper instruction.

Hakeem, for his part, sees the same level of promise. In fact, after working with JaVale recently, Olajuwon says that McGee should dominate the league. From Mark Berman for MyFoxHouston.com (via PBT):

"No question, I see him as another star," Olajuwon said in an interview with FOX 26 Sports. "That guy should dominate the league.
"He has tremendous talent. I give him all these moves and he can finish and he's already skilled. So now just show him how to use that skill to (get) to the next level." [...]
"The moves that we work on are not for a stiff big guy," Olajuwon said. "With him he's agile. The move flows. So I'm excited to see what he's going to do this year."

So is McGee. "There are some things that we already knew, but he has different tweaks to it," McGee said. "Then he has some stuff that you really didn't think about that he just throws out there that is amazing to see it."

It's very reasonable to expect that McGee will improve after these sessions. That seems to be the standard takeaway from working with Hakeem, if only because deciding to do so in the first place proves that players are committed to working on their post play. What's a little tougher to figure out is whether Olajuwon is making accurate claims about McGee's potential or setting him up for disappointment.

McGee does in fact have All-Star potential, and a few terrific performances for the Nuggets vs. the Lakers in the 2012 postseason proved as much. However, there's a big difference between being one of the best centers around and dominating the league. In the modern NBA, the former is actually a pretty easy mark to hit. Outside of Dwight Howard, Andrew Bynum, and a few others, centers no longer factor as major scorers. For instance, New York Knicks center Tyson Chandler — reigning Defensive Player of the Year and a key member of Team USA's gold medal team — can be an acknowledged force while averaging 11.3 points (on very great 67.9 percent shooting), 9.9 rebounds, and 1.4 blocks per game. As long as a center plays top-level defense and rebounds, he can become identified as one of the best in the league.

JaVale isn't actually that far from that level, despite his maddening inconsistency. Statistically, he actually measures out pretty well. With the Nuggets, McGee averaged 10.3 ppg (61.2 percent from the field), 5.8 rebounds, and 1.6 blocks in 20.6 minutes. If he can keep his fouls down, score a little more, and become a more consistent defender instead of someone who mostly blocks shots, he will be one of the best centers in the league. Those are fairly attainable goals, even for someone known around the league as a bit of a fool.

There's a tendency to think of high-potential projects like McGee as boom-bust talents, but in order to boom those players still have to improve at familiar rates. The options for McGee aren't just making blooper reels or being a league-dominating star. It's perfectly fine if, for the time being, he focuses on expanding a few areas of his game and becoming one of the best centers in the league. The Hall of Fame can wait.

I'm excited.

[McAgger]

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