re: General NBA Links

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NBA junkie in me can't resist

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Me too

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It's just interesting how they're doing it and I can respect it in a way

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Yeah. Reinsdorf is sort of a cheap bastard. At least he's consistent.

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Yeah but they did get Ed Davis(a guy I would've loved on the pels as a bruiser with upside) to replace speights.

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Agree completely on Davis- much better than Speights too. I am really hoping Memphis can't find a way to keep him. They don't really play him much, maybe the Pels can snake him away.

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But they really didn't tank for those guys either.

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Indiana didn't tank. Really remarkable what they've done after the malice in the palace destroyed a title contender and killed their fan base. Hitting on 10, 18, and a 2nd is Spursian level drafting ability.

But Memphis had 3 top 5 picks (Conley, Love for Mayo , Thabeet ) in a row followed by 12 (Henry). The year before Conley they made a draft day trade for Rudy Gay (8th overall pick).

So picks 8, 4, 5, 2, 12 in a 5 year run is a bounty. They were bad for a long time and missed on most of their picks. They did nail Gasol and ZBo though. And Conley took some time, but is a good NBA pg.

If anything, just proof how ridiculously strange and hard it is to build a competitive NBA team. Both teams showed a lot of patience in letting guys develop and mature into good players. We would be wise to remember that as the Pels make moves.

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They're definitely looking better lately(favors/kanter) I believe youth/inexperience has something to do with that(kanter has also dealt with benchings and whatnot)

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They need a new coach to get any sort of read on what they have. Even then, I'm not convinced that group has enough juice to be a consistent playoff team.

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You can win the reg season all you want but those teams weren't built for the playoffs(in regards to CLE)

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I don't know. They led the league in Net Rating in 08-09 and were 2nd in 09-10. They were a title contender. Unfortunately, Boston and Orlando were also title contenders- 2nd and 3rd in net rating in 08-09 and 1st and 8th in 09-10. Match ups v two very good teams killed them in the playoffs.

I do think a better coach would have given them a real chance to break through though. Brown just had no ideas on offense with LeBron freaking James.

I could see something similar happening to Indiana. Vogel is a great coach but their poor offense could ruin them in a series v Chicago or BK. They don't really have great talent on offense and are anchored by their insistence on playing two true bigs almost all the time. They can score on Miami though. Just excited for the playoffs to start.