[ReKlef]

Honestly?

27.

[Hold My Own]

oh, I thought you were 1971's school mate or something out for summer

[ReKlef]

I had read something about Rudy Gay to the Celtics. It is getting pretty circusy.

You know what, LUconn, I think my goal is to desTROY your mafia.

You worthless sach of ****

[ReKlef]

oh, I thought you were 1971's school mate or something out for summer

I appreciate the complement.

[ReKlef]

oh, I thought you were 1971's school mate or something out for summer

I appreciate the complement.

That's NOT to say that that little girl doesn't need a LOT of work around the edges.

[LUconn]

You know what, LUconn, I think my goal is to desTROY your mafia.

You worthless sach of ****

Getting a little fancy with the spelling there.

Have you thought about the logistics of destroying the mafia? Pretty much all you can do is post things. And that can't accomplish our destruction. Perhaps a sizable donation through the paypal link below could earn you enough clout to convince Sly or Scorcho to delete it. That's your best bet.

[ReKlef]

If you don't knw how to mispell, you need to get a lickin for your tickin.

[flamesbball84]

The Los Angeles Clippers opened a starting position for No. 1 pick Blake Griffin on Wednesday.

The team agreed to trade power forward Zach Randolph to the Memphis Grizzlies for swingman Quentin Richardson, sources told ESPN.com's Chad Ford. The deal was first reported by the Los Angeles Times.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/stor ... NHeadlines

[flamesbball84]

It appears that the Dallas Mavericks and Toronto Raptors have successfully recruited the Memphis Grizzlies to help them complete a trade that would eventually route free-agent swingman Shawn Marion to the Mavericks, according to NBA front-office sources.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=4314637

[flamesbball84]

Another major multi-team trade might be looming in the NBA with the Portland Trail Blazers, Utah Jazz and Chicago Bulls having discussed a deal that would be headlined by Carlos Boozer and Kirk Hinrich, according to NBA front-office sources.

Sources stressed to ESPN.com that no deal was imminent Thursday and that both Portland and Utah are still evaluating multiple trade scenarios. But two sources with knowledge of the three-team proposal confirmed that there have been substantive talks regarding a trade that would land Boozer in Chicago, Hinrich in Portland and Tyrus Thomas in Utah.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/stor ... NHeadlines

This would be huge for Portland. AS good as they were last year (flamed out early in the playoffs, but thay had virtually zero playoff experience), adding a good PG in Hinrich (vast improvement over Steve Blake) coudl really make them one tough team. A lineup of Hinrich, Roy, one of their random solid SFs, Aldridge, and Oden is going to be tough to handle - that's five guys who can score (unless they put Batum in at SF) and play defense, and the two guards are good at creating opportunities for over. That's going to be pretty tough to handle for most teams.

[flamesbball84]

well that boozer trade isnt going to happen now

ESPN's Ric Bucher said via Twitter that the reported deal that would send Carlos Boozer to the Bulls, Kirk Hinrich to the Blazers and Tyrus Thomas to the Jazz is not going to happen.
Bucher said a person within the Bulls acknowledged the deal had been discussed, but that it "wasn't happening." He also mentions that a Blazers/Jazz/Pistons trade has also been discussed. The Jazz are looking for salary relief more than anything, but will probably keep discussing and fielding offers for Boozer.

However, the Blazers are going to pursue Raymond Felton, Brandon Bass, and Lamar Odom now along with Paul Millsap being their top target.

[Liberty4Life]

The NBA is in serious trouble. You have two classes of teams these days -- ones who can afford to field a team, and those who can't (and those who can't really, really outnumber those who can). That's contributing to a lack of parity in the NBA far greater than in any of the other major sports.

So you have teams offloading their talented players for one reason -- to save money. It's like when the Florida Marlins did their fire sale after they won the 1997 World Series... but there are two very different cases:

#1) The Marlins got talent in return. They used this talent to win the World Series a few years later. Many NBA teams these days are trading a dollar for 30 cents (look at the Richard Jefferson trade).

#2) The Florida Marlins were one team. In the NBA, it's practically everyone.

[flamesbball84]

The NBA is in serious trouble. You have two classes of teams these days -- ones who can afford to field a team, and those who can't (and those who can't really, really outnumber those who can). That's contributing to a lack of parity in the NBA far greater than in any of the other major sports.

So you have teams offloading their talented players for one reason -- to save money. It's like when the Florida Marlins did their fire sale after they won the 1997 World Series... but there are two very different cases:

#1) The Marlins got talent in return. They used this talent to win the World Series a few years later. Many NBA teams these days are trading a dollar for 30 cents (look at the Richard Jefferson trade).

#2) The Florida Marlins were one team. In the NBA, it's practically everyone.

It's the economy more than anything else, not an NBA problem. The salary cap is going to be lower this upcoming season, which in theory would make it easier for lower tiered to mediocre teams to acquire talent to compete because quite a few contending teams simply refuse to go over the salary cap.

This is the first year in a long freaking time that more than just a very small number of teams have engaged in such firesale tactics to save money. I know the Grizzlies are notorious for trading a lot for nothing under Chris Wallace, but that guy is such a flaming retard i'm not sure what his intent has been, notably with the Pau Gasol trade.

Besides, whoever said there was something wrong with there being a top heavy league?
-The 1950's saw the Minneapolis Lakers, the NEw York Knicks, the Boston Celtics, and the Syracuse Nationals as the only consistent title-winning caliber teams
- The 1960's was owned in unfathomable fashion by the Celtics, whose only real threat in the finals were the Lakers, and the only team other than the Celtics to win a title was the 76ers for one season.
- That's the way it was for the majority of the 80s when the NBA began to flourish with the Lakers vs. Celtics and with the Pistons near the end.
- THat's the way it was in the 90s once the Jordan Bulls began to take over as their finals series' were never really close, then the two years Jordan was gone it was the Rockets as the team in the league.
- And so far in the 2000s it's either been Lakers or Spurs owning the finals nearly every single year.

So what's the theme here? Nearly every year and every decade, there are really at most only 1-4 teams who can say they have a realistically legitimate chance to win the NBA Championship. This upcoming year could actually buck that trend, believe it or not, with so many playoff teams from last year making trades to make them better contenders. In the East there will be Orlando, Cleveland, and Boston with a legitimate shot to win with everyone else fighting it out for 4th-8th. In the West there will be the Lakers, Denver, San Antonio, Dallas, and maybe Portland if they can conquer their still major lack of playoff experience. That's 7 teams that have a legitimate shot at the Championship, assuming there are no significant injuries and the acquisitions don't end up proving to be more detrimental than they are beneficial - you never know when a player a team acquired just won't mesh with the rest of the team or when Ron Artest might snap.

[flamesbball84]

ESPN reports that the Jazz have informed Carlos Boozer he is not part of the team's long-term plans.
This isn't exactly surprising -- Utah is clearly trying to trade Boozer, with his blessing, but the lack of teams with cap space is complicating matters. Teams interested in acquiring Boozer (and his expiring $12.7 million deal) include the Bulls, Knicks, Heat, and Pistons.