NBA Off-Season News Thread: Roy extends 80/5, AI to Grizz, Chandler/Okafor swap, Marquis to C's.

[japanair21]

Originally Posted by I NaSmatic I

^
Shard?

Peep front page.

 

[CP1708]

Shard got an extra long vaca to start the season.

 

[Chester McFloppy]

Originally Posted by JapanAir21

Originally Posted by I NaSmatic I

^
Shard?

Peep front page.

10 games.

For 72 games, he will be starting.

 

[CP1708]

JA, you ruined a perfectly good joke at the Warriors. I hope you know that, let that sit with your conscience for the rest of the day.

 

[i nasmatic i]

Oh, damn

.

 

[japanair21]

Originally Posted by Chester McFloppy

Originally Posted by JapanAir21

Originally Posted by I NaSmatic I

^
Shard?

Peep front page.

10 games.

For 72 games, he will be starting.

Thus why I said how they'll start the season.

 

[raptors29]

Originally Posted by JapanAir21

Chris Mullin, Tim Hardaway, Mitch,

More recently, Jason Richardson, Jamison, Arenas, Baron, Monta.

Not quite the same kind of talent, but still fun to watch.



Looks like the starting five for ORL will be..

Jameer
Air Frenchie
VC
Bass
Dwight.

I wonder how they'll start the first ten, that's a lot of changes.

Yup just saw the news

The funny thing is Rashard plays weak as hell.

 

[blazers21ntnp]

Shots fired at Rick Adelman from China.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jWPWzS7raA7zPqN07eOSYel15n5A

China hopeful Yao will recover quickly

(AFP) - 6 hours ago

BEIJING - China hopes that superstar Houston Rockets centre Yao Ming will make a speedy recovery and will not force him to play for the national basketball team, a top sports official said Thursday.

"We expect him to recover as soon as possible and return to the basketball court," Vice Minister of Sports Cui Dalin told AFP.

"He is injured, this is a fact, so we are not going to force him to do anything he does not want to do."

Yao underwent surgery on his broken left foot in Houston last month, but is expected to sit out the 2009-2010 NBA season. He is currently missing the Asian Basketball Championships being held in China.

Cui said Chinese authorities support the decision for Yao to sit on the Houston Rockets bench for the year and let him recuperate from what has been diagnosed as a possibly career-ending injury.

"When it comes to injuries to our players, we are concerned and we take care of these players, we will safeguard their interests and respect their choices," he said.

Yao, a seven-time NBA All-Star, has averaged 19.1 points and 9.3 rebounds in his NBA career and was having his best season yet when he broke his left foot in May during a playoff match against the Los Angeles Lakers.

He broke the same foot in April 2008, six months ahead of the Beijing Olympics. Despite the injury, Yao led China to an eighth-place finish in the Games, matching the nation's highest-ever finish.

"You can't say that it's because Yao Ming came back to China and played a few games in the Olympics that he went out and injured himself," Cui said, citing reports in the US press.

"It was because he played in over 100 games in a row in the NBA... in using Yao, the Houston head coach played him too much, so he was injured."

Cui said he was convinced that Yao would once again represent China following his recovery.

"Yao Ming personally has a very strong desire to come back and represent the nation," Cui said.

"He wants to represent his homeland and show his talent ... we understand this, so our attitude is that we must take care of him."

 

[CP1708]

With the way the Rockets need and depend on this guy, and the way the nation of China rides the guy, Yao very well could end up just collapsing under all thispressure from everyone.

Bad deal all the way around.

 

[jpzx]

Originally Posted by Enlightened Thought

wow...a robert pack mix.

Unheard of until now

Originally Posted by airmaxpenny1

Should have went with Mark Jackson

I agree 100000%

 

[nicefitdominican]

Mark Jackson is a better fit for Minnesota especially with rookie point guard(s)...

 

[ballinsam23]

I read somewhere that Minnesota's new coach was another factor of whether or not rubio will play for them this year. When you potentially have 2 great PGs,signing Mark Jackson would have been a great fit. David Kahn ***%@@ up once again smh

 

[airjordan jb23]

Agreed with the Mark Jackson comments. He would've been a real good choice for that position.

 

[japanair21]

I don't know, everyone always chooses the coach who was a good PG when they were in the NBA, dudes like Patrick and Rambis seem to get the cold shouldermost of the time.


Jackson's never coached a minute in his life, Rambis has a resume.

 

[heat23]

Can someone with insider please hook it up? http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/insi...olumnist=hollinger_john&page=LuxuryTax-090806

 

[tony starks]

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/truehoop...rd-Lewis-and-Performance-Enhancing-Drugs.html

Three Thoughts About Rashard Lewis and Performance Enhancing Drugs


August 6, 2009 6:19 PM

Orlando Magic forward Rashard Lewis has been suspended for violating the NBA's policy banning performance enhancing drugs. Three immediate reactions:

Heinous Excuse
For no good reason, I'm inclined to believe Rashard Lewis when he says his use of DHEA was unintentional, and that he had no idea it was part of an over-the-counter supplement.

However: How many athletes have used that excuse? At this point, I think it's up to 1.2 zillion.

Even just in the NBA, Darius Miles was similarly mystified last fall.

It's about to stop being an OK excuse.

Memo to all athletes: If you go down to the place where all the muscle heads buy supplements, and you buy anything, and you take it, you're putting yourself in a high-risk category to fail one of these tests. At some point, not knowing is not good enough. Therefore, if it's important to you not to take performance enhancing drugs, either don't take those supplements, or do some serious research first, and stand by your decisions.

No Small Penalty
Rashard Lewis will be suspended for ten games to start the season, which will cost him slightly more than $1.6 million in salary. This must be one of the most expensive drug tests in history.

But that's not all. The Collective Bargaining Agreement calls for a first positive test for performance enhancing drugs (SPEDS or "Steroids or Performance Enhancing Drugs" in NBA parlance) to be accompanied by a ten-game suspension and treatment in the league's SPED program. (A second failed test means a 25-game suspension, a third a year suspension, and a fourth banishment from the league.) I'm curious to know what that program entails.

Will Lewis endure the treatment program if we believe he only took this supplement by accident? And if we don't believe him ... what does that say? Are the Sixers going to want a do-over after Lewis killed them in Game 6 of last year's playoffs? How about the Celtics (Lewis was tremendous in Game 3) or Cavaliers (he was nine of 13 from the floor as the Magic stole game 1)?

Big Questions
Football, baseball, cycling, track and field, swimming, weightlifting ... all kinds of sports have faced brutal questioning about performance enhancing drugs. But not so much basketball.

I have been asking NBA people for a decade. They all say the same things: That they haven't seen it, and that the kinds of muscles people get from steroids wouldn't help in basketball.

Even if we accept all that as once true, performance enhancing drugs have evolved at a more advanced pace than these blanket denials. Especially as the list of violators grows: Matt Geiger, Don McLean, Soumalia Samake, Lindsey Hunter, Darius Miles and now Rashard Lewis.

Not to mention, athletes in all sports have been getting bigger, stronger and faster. In many of the other sports, some of that has been attributed to cheating. But not in basketball.

Is that because basketball has been cleaner, or less scrutinized?

When Miles tested positive, Dave from BlazersEdge captured the sentiment nicely:

If you ask me if I think performance enhancing drug use is rampant in the NBA I will say that I don't think so, but I'm not certain. If you ask me whether I trust the NBA to be vigilant against PED's or to take care of the problem if it already has one, I will say no. If you ask me if the NBA could be more invested in protecting players rather than revealing them, I'd say there's considerable incentive for them to do so.

It's not so much that my suspicion is overwhelming, it's that my trust is thin.

No, we don't have cause to cast suspicion all around the NBA. But surely we're also losing our ability to laugh these kinds of things off as aberrations.

Google terms like "genetic enhancement" and "human growth hormone." It is undeniable that in 2009 there are myriad ways NBA athletes could get ahead by cheating. Running faster and jumping higher is only the beginning. Recovering faster -- from surgery or a grueling schedule -- building muscle ... elite basketball players can benefit from such things. And with that reality, it seems inevitable that the NBA will not stay above the drugs fray for too long.


http://myespn.go.com/blog...nce-Enhancing-Drugs.html

 

[tony starks]

SI's off-season grades:

http://sportsillustrated....s/index.html?eref=si_nba

 

[18key]

^

at that SI article. Cleveland lost it's 'A' gradewhen they gave Varejao all that money.

 

[kingjay718]

Chris Cohan is a joke of an owner. He's just as bad as Donald Sterling, Jim Dolan, to name a few.

 

[bhzmafia14]

I hate Michael Heisley as an owner, but from hoopsworld and CA they're talking about how the Grizz are in the top third of making money in the league dueto smartly spending. The article is messing up when I post it. Stern was also saying how his concerns are far greater than the actual business of basketball inMemphis.

So, we can say anything about Heisley, but at least he's not losing money in a small market. It's amazing how he's doing it though. The teamwon't be going anywhere like I've been saying for the longest, but this will be an important season in terms of building a fan base along with makingsure the young players develop.

If its another failed 22-win season, it could be very bad.

 

[osh kosh bosh]

He deserves all this nonsense for leaving Vancouver.

 

[kingjay718]

I agree Osh Bosh. Vancouver was a great city that could've worked. They used the "hockey town" to the maximum. Players loved playing, andvisiting Vancouver. The fans just got fed up with the inept front office.

 

[CP1708]

Those SI grades were lame. Damn near every team got an A if they added or kept one player.

Whatever.

 

[westcoastsfinest]

Originally Posted by JapanAir21

Originally Posted by westcoastsfinest

Originally Posted by JapanAir21

I have no faith in the Warriors until they show that they can play together, win some games, and get their management can get their head out of the *#%**.

why would someone even put faith on a team like the warriors

...one playoff appearance in 13 years

c'mon give up on these clowns

ive always wondered with u being a dallas fan and u support the warriors too?

I'm from Nor Cal, my entire fam/friends been W's fans my whole life, I haven't had League Pass for 20 years, so all I got to watch was the W's.

i live in the bay too but that doesnt mean i'll support those douchebags wearing thunderbolts

...2007 mustve been tough for u huh?..a mavs fan surrounded by those warriorfans

 

[acidicality]

Originally Posted by CP1708

Originally Posted by JapanAir21

Originally Posted by westcoastsfinest

Originally Posted by JapanAir21

I have no faith in the Warriors until they show that they can play together, win some games, and get their management can get their head out of the *#%**.

why would someone even put faith on a team like the warriors

...one playoff appearance in 13 years

c'mon give up on these clowns

ive always wondered with u being a dallas fan and u support the warriors too?

I'm from Nor Cal, my entire fam/friends been W's fans my whole life, I haven't had League Pass for 20 years, so all I got to watch was the W's.

How do you go on living?