Nba 2016-2017 Season! Let's Get It On!

[BoySungkit]

Mukhang trade na din aabutin ni D.Rose...

[Guiness]

Watching the game of the Cavs and the Warriors. Right from the get go, the Cavs weren't interested in playing the Warriors. It's like they weren't engaged at all to match the intensity of the Warriors. Kevin Love should be traded i think, he can't play defense at all. That ridiculous pick and roll defense which made him look like he was lost in the woods looking for a way out. He was exposed. Not to mention he onl scored 3 points for the game. An all star playing at this level is pathetic. The Cavs should get a player who can play not only offensively but only defensively. The coach is also to blame here. David Blatt should go, he can't coach at this level. He is nowhere near coaches who are in the league. Clearly the Cavs are a talented team, and David Griffin went to work in surrounding Lebron with talent, but with David Blatt coaching them, they're not gonna win against the Warriors much less with San Antonio. The Cavs need to bring in a coach who is a veteran who has coached in this level, i mean there are a lot of available coaches out there who are more than capable of getting these players to play as a well oiled machine like how the Spurs and Warriors are playing. Tom Thibodeau, Jeff Van Gundy, Mark Jackson, Doug Collins heck ill even be happy if they can get Jerry Sloan out of retirement to coach this team because clearly the guys i mentioned are more than capable of coaching this team than David Blatt.

 

But if i were to pick from the list. I'd pick Tom Thibs 1st and Van Gundy 2nd. With Thibs, he can transform this team into a defensive juggernaut. With this loss i came across this article where Kevin Love is criticizing Lebron after they just lost to the Warriors.

 

"We have a lot of things to get better at," Love said. "That's going to take a lot of guys looking themselves in the mirror and it all starts with our leader (James) over there (pointing a finger at Lebron) and dwindles on down."

 

With losing, you get these types of blowups between players, playing the blame game on why they aren't gelling. Love, who said this after a game where he scored 3 points and was totally ineffective defensively. The cavs front office need to think this through before the trading deadline and make some moves.

[matchb0x]

Warriors,Cavaliers,Spurs one of this teams will win the title.

[Cap™]

Funny how Bleacher Report said that the Cavs were on the verge of something great during their win streak then becomes really futile after the Warriors beat them. Bandwagon reporting should define what B/R means

[Arinola]

Of course kobe has the ball

[BoySungkit]

I think they should bring back the Center position on the voting...

[Guiness]

Cleveland management finally made a move by firing Head Coach David Blatt and placing Tyronn Lue as head coach. Something that James had been wanting to do since last season but couldn't since cleveland management didn't want to hire Mark Jackson (Lebron's choice) as coach of the team. Since Lebron couldn't get the Cavs' front office to hire Jackson, they instead went to bat for Lue to take over ever since Blatt stepped in last season. Now they got their wish as Blatt was fired today.

 

I still feel that Kevin Love doesn't fit with the personnel they have on the floor and that he should be traded for a player who can play both ends of the floor. At least you won't see any waiving off plays from Lebron when the coach calls for a certain play during a game

[Cap™]

i chose

east: lowry, butler, james, george and drummond. mali ako 2. wade and carmelo anthony..

west: curry, westbrook, leonard, durant and draymond green. mali 1. no surprise kobe's here...

 

east bench: jimmy butler, andre drummond, paul millsap, hassan whiteside, kevin love, demar derozan, jeff teague

west bench: draymond green, lamarcus aldridge, chris paul, blake griffin, marc gasol, james harden, demarcus cousins

I don't see ATL having someone on the reserves. Kung meron man, si Millsap. Ditto with CLE given K-Love's inefficiency. Bosh might get it over Whiteside though. I see IT playing in the ASG too

 

Your West picks, mej same ako but I see Lillard and AD having an outside chance

[Guiness]

David Blatt fired as Cavaliers coach; Tyronn Lue to take over team

David Blatt's second NBA season seemed to be going better than his first. Now, it's over.

Blatt was fired Friday by the title-chasing Cleveland Cavaliers and replaced by top assistant Tyronn Lue, according to general manager David Griffin.

Blatt had guided Cleveland to the NBA Finals last year, and the Cavs had the Eastern Conference's best record (30-11) midway through this season, but in discussing the coaching change during a news conference late Friday afternoon, Griffin cited "a lack of fit with our personnel and our vision."

 

"What I see is that we need to build a collective spirit, a strength of spirit, a collective will," Griffin said. "Elite teams always have that, and you see it everywhere. To be truly elite, we have to buy into a set of values and principles that we believe in. That becomes our identity."

 

While acknowledging his 24 years spent working in the NBA in varying capacities, Griffin said of the Cavaliers: "I have never seen a locker room not be as connected after wins as they need to be. We've only been galvanized when expectations were not high."

Griffin confirmed that Lue, who was a top candidate for the job in 2014 when it went to Blatt, will not have an interim tag and will be the full-time coach. Lue agreed to a deal that will pay him $3 million prorated this season and $3 million next season, with a team option for a third year at $3.5 million with a buyout, a source told ESPN's Ramona Shelburne.

 

 

 

 

"I am more than confident that he has the pulse of our team and that he can generate the buy-in required to start to refine the habits and culture that we've yet to build," Griffin said.

 

Griffin did meet with Cavs owner Dan Gilbert, who supported the move to fire his third coach in four seasons.

"Over the course of my business career I have learned that sometimes the hardest thing to do is also the right thing to do," Gilbert said.

Blatt thanked the Cavaliers in a statement released by his agency earlier Friday.

 

"I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to serve as the Head Coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers," Blatt said in the statement. "I'd like to thank (owner) Dan Gilbert and David Griffin for giving me this opportunity and am honored to have worked with an amazing group of players from LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love through our entire roster. I'd also like to express my extreme gratitude to my coaching staff. I am indebted to them for their professionalism, hard work, loyalty and friendship. I am proud of what we have accomplished since I have been the Head Coach and wish the Cavaliers nothing but the best this season and beyond."

NBA coaching sources told ESPN's Marc Stein that Blatt is intent on coaching in the league again as opposed to immediately returning to the European game, where he was one of the most successful coaches in its history.

 

James, meanwhile, was informed of the team's decision to fire Blatt on Friday, sources told ESPN's Brian Windhorst. Although James' fondness for Lue and his desire to be coached by a former player were well-known throughout Cleveland's organization, James was not directly consulted Friday on the Cavs' decision to fire Blatt, sources said.

 

Griffin confirmed that the decision was his alone.

"I didn't talk to any of the players before this decision," Griffin said. "It's really critical to me for everybody to understand this is my decision. This is our basketball staff's decision. ... I'm not taking a poll."

 

A team source told ESPN's Dave McMenamin that Blatt's firing means "everyone is in the crosshairs right now."

A source also told McMenamin that Lue was a natural choice for the position because his influence within the Cavs was already pronounced from his assistant position. Lue was the highest-paid assistant coach in the league.

"I think it was pretty evident," the source said. "All the guys went to him for everything anyway."

 

A former assistant coach with the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Clippers, Lue played 11 seasons in the NBA after being a first-round pick of the Denver Nuggets. Griffin noted the history of great coaches whom Lue played under, including Phil Jackson, Doc Rivers, Stan Van Gundy and Jeff Van Gundy.

 

Rivers said he had mixed emotions about the Cavs' moves.

"Blatt's a heck of a coach and is doing a heck of a job," he said. "He had the most scrutinized job that you could possibly have. I think the reward for coaching LeBron is you get scrutinized. It really is. It's hard. You have a great record, the best in the East, and you get fired for it. Unfortunately, being in this as long as I've been in it, you see it all the time. It's happened to me. It's tough. I'm happy for Ty, but not this way. It's the life of a coach in it and the guy on the sideline like I am. It's a tough one."

 

The Mavericks' Rick Carlisle, president of the NBA Coaches Association, said Blatt's firing made him "embarrassed for our league."

Blatt's firing comes one day after he became defensive before a win over the Clippers. He was bothered by criticism he and the team received after their 34-point loss to the Warriors on Monday.

 

"I hear a lot of far-reaching conclusions, and personally, I don't like it, but there's nothing I can do about it because I'm not the one that's saying or doing those things," Blatt said. "I think this team has done pretty well dealing with the adversity that we've had. I think this team is in pretty good position, although people choose to overlook that, which I don't think is fair."

 

Even though Cleveland started the season without Irving and Iman Shumpert for the first two months because of injuries and had Timofey Mozgov (knee) and James (back) at less than 100 percent coming out of training camp, Blatt's second campaign was going better than his first, when he struggled to adapt to the NBA game after his stint in Europe.

However, there was an apparent disconnect between Blatt and his players.

 

Sources told ESPN's Chris Broussard that many Cavs players, especially the veterans, felt that Blatt was in over his head as coach and questioned whether he knew the league well enough to lead them to a championship.

 

Blatt leaves the Cavaliers, his first NBA coaching job, with an 83-40 record. His .675 winning percentage was the best of any coach in franchise history. Cleveland lost to Golden State in the NBA Finals in Blatt's first season and James' return to the Cavs.

 

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Blatt is the first head coach since conferences began in 1970-71 to be fired when his team has the best record in its conference. But Griffin said the move was based on "measuring more than wins and losses."

"This is not an indictment of David Blatt as a coach," Griffin said of the firing. "And it's not to say that Ty Lue is a better basketball coach. He's a better basketball coach for this team today."

 

Lue will make his debut as Cavaliers coach Saturday when Cleveland hosts the Chicago Bulls (8:30 p.m. ET, ABC).

Edited January 23, 2016 by hahnz

[Cap™]

coaches choose the reserves, so its not going to be based on popularity, but who deserves to get in. cno mga bust for all star reserves para syo for east and west?

 

yeah that's the thing. ATL's doing it by committee again this year but they don't have the best record so I doubt they'd have two guys there. Millsap's the most efficient guy. Wall's going great for a really bad Washington team (10th in the East) but he's really an all-star. So, to me it's Butler, IT, DeRozan, and Wall at back (last two being wildcards) and Drummond, Millsap and a tossup between Whiteside, Bosh and Pau up front. Pau might get it between the three, Bosh being the sentimental favorite, and Whiteside trying to convince some more.

 

Out West, it's CP3, Harden at backcourt, Draymond Green, Marc Gasol, and DeMarcus Cousins up front with hanging sentiments over Lillard and AD. AD might not make it this year as his numbers and the Pels are really really bad this year. Not sold on LMA this year tbh. Tim Duncan might get some sentimental votes from coaches too.

[Cap™]

I'm not really hopping on the Klay Thompson bandwagon tbh. Feeling ko overrated. He's good but overrated

[disasterpiece]

Kenny & Chuck - Tony Parker?? Really??

 

Lillard (for Kenny) & CJ McCollum or Conley (for Chuck) should be in it.

[Guiness]

You know the starters for this year’s NBA All-Star Game. Who will be the reserves?

 

After months of voting, we finally have the 10 names that will be on the court to begin next month’s NBA All-Star Game in Toronto.

LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony, Paul George and Kyle Lowry will start for the East, while Stephen Curry, Kobe Bryant, Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant and Kawhi Leonard will start for the West (though Mavericks center Zaza Pachulia nearly surpassed Leonard in the final days of voting, which would’ve broken the internet for days had it happened).

 

With those 10 players off the board, that leaves 14 spots available to fill out the respective rosters. So who will the coaches tap to fill them when their choices are revealed later this month? Here are our picks if we had the final say on who should make the team.

(We’re making these picks using the same requirements that the coaches will have: two guards, three frontcourt players and two wild card selections.

 

Eastern Conference

Guards

John Wall, Washington

The Wizards haven’t been great this season, but Wall has been outstanding ever since recovering from some injuries during a slow opening month. Since Dec. 1, though, Wall has put up the following numbers: 21.9 points, 4.6 rebounds, 10.7 assists, 2.2 steals while shooting 45 percent overall and 38.1 percent from 3-point range. Open-and-shut case.

 

Jimmy Butler, Chicago

One of the many weird dynamics with the Bulls these days is that Jimmy Butler has ascended past Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah to become the face of the franchise. Butler has become an unquestioned All-Star around the league in the process with his ability to impact the game at both ends.

 

Frontcourt

Andre Drummond, Detroit

Drummond may not be able to make free throws, but he’s becoming a dominant force at center for the Pistons. The 22-year-old is a massive human being, and is putting that size to good use by averaging 17.6 points and 15.4 rebounds per game.

 

I thought i'd add this remix that was cooked up by the Pistons Marketing group for fans to vote for Drummond in the all star game. Obama x Eminem - Forgot about Dre' (Remix) which i thought was really funny

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gByb6QUdYNI

 

Chris Bosh, Miami

Bosh probably would be happier if LeBron James had remained in Miami, since the Heat would still be more realistic title contenders then. But James leaving South Florida has forced the people who’d forgotten just how talented Bosh is to remember it once again.

 

Paul Millsap, Atlanta

Millsap flies under the radar, just as the entire Hawks team does, but he’s putting together yet another awesome season – averaging 18.5 points and 8.7 rebounds while shooting 49 percent and getting to the foul line six times per game.

 

Wild cards

DeMar DeRozan, Toronto

Raptors fans will be thrilled. Not only do they get Lowry in as a starter, but they should get DeRozan in the game, as well. A true throwback, DeRozan is a shooting guard that isn’t a 3-point shooter, but still is an efficient player because he gets to the foul line over eight times per game.

 

Pau Gasol, Chicago

This final spot could go a few different ways, as with Kyrie Irving coming back from injury there’s a clear opening here. The nod, though, goes to Gasol, who has been a constant in Chicago amidst a lot of uncertainty and confusion within that franchise at the moment.

 

Honorable mentions: Isaiah Thomas, Boston; Reggie Jackson, Detroit

 

Western Conference

Guards

Chris Paul, Los Angeles Clippers

Paul may be beginning to decline just slightly as he enters his 30s, but his numbers under those circumstances – 18.2 points, 9.6 assists and 2.1 steals – are better ones than almost any point guard ever could dream of having in their best seasons.

 

Klay Thompson, Golden State

Like Wall, Thompson was banged up early in the season but has taken off since the start of December. In 23 games over the past two months, he’s averaging 24 points per game and shooting 43.3 percent from 3-point range while playing excellent defense on the wings for the Warriors.

 

Frontcourt

Draymond Green, Golden State

Green was just edged out by Leonard for the final starting spot in the West, but is an easy choice as the first big man off the bench. A unique weapon at both ends of the court, Green is not only a point guard on offense, averaging over seven assists, but he’s capable of guarding every spot on the court defensively.

 

DeMarcus Cousins, Sacramento

Cousins has become the NBA’s best center, and is keeping the dysfunctional Kings within shouting distance of the eighth and final playoff spot in the West. When Cousins has played, the Kings are 17-16. When he doesn’t, they are 1-7.

 

Blake Griffin, Los Angeles Clippers

Griffin has missed a few weeks due to injury, but is about to return. And given his ridiculous numbers (23.2 points, 8.7 rebounds, 5.0 assists, 50.8 percent shooting), it’s hard to make the case he should stay home because he missed some time.

 

Wild cards

Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas

While Kobe Bryant may be getting a deserved trip to the game as a farewell gesture via the voters, Nowitzki deserves one for remaining one of the league’s outstanding performers. The Mavericks are somehow right in the thick of the West playoff picture, and that’s because of Nowitzki remaining capable of creating an efficient offense no matter who is playing around him.

 

Anthony Davis, New Orleans

The Pelicans have been one of the NBA’s most disappointing teams this season – maybe it’s most disappointing – but Davis remains a terrific player, averaging 23.1 points, 10.4 rebounds and 2.4 blocks. This spot could easily wind up going to someone like James Harden or LaMarcus Aldridge, but will give the nod to Davis.

 

Honorable mention: James Harden, Houston; LaMarcus Aldridge, San Antonio

Edited January 24, 2016 by hahnz

[energysearcher]

D(oraemon) Green should be in the AS... hands down... i mean up... whatever...

[alex10]

spurs!