SpongeWorthy

wsup buddies anyone wanna give me the condensed version of the last 8 hours

Are you making that up?

Lebron and Boozer/Lee on the Bulls still makes a lot of sense damn it! Nothing's changed! http://rationallythinkingoutloud.files.wordpress.com/2007/08/bagdad_bob_large.gif

It sounds like Toronto is not interested in a S&T deal centered around Michael Beasley. I don't know how else a S&T from Miami for Bosh would work. At the same time, I'm really a bit surprised that Bosh would go somewhere without a 6 year S&T deal. He's not Lebron and he's not Wade where he has huge dollars coming off the court. That $30 million means a lot more to him than it does to those guys I would think. I also think the Raptors would love to be able to get a guy like Noah in return for Bosh (assuming they don't have to take Deng's bad contract too) and Bosh would have to think very hard about accepting a S&T to Chicago if that were the case. Plus he knows Wade was in the picture there too. Of course Bosh has been pretty clear about wanting to play PF and losing Noah would change that equation. I'm talking myself in circles here, I realize.

So you've already reached stage 5 on the Kübler-Ross model? Congrats. Sorta. But seriously, having Lee/Boozer at something less than the max and being able to retain Noah is better than having Bosh at the max and no Noah. The only way it's not is if Bosh is the only avenue for Lebron or Wade which I admit is entirely possible.

I'm withholding judgment until I see where James goes. I still say Chicago is the best place for him if he wants to win. If he goes to Miami it will be James/Bosh/Wade and then a bunch of minimum salary scrubs. They'll compete, but they will have absolutely NO depth on their bench. If he goes to New York he'll get all the money and fame he wants but I'm not sure that Stoudamire/James is going to be enough to win anything. However, if he comes to Chicago he'll have James/Rose/Noah plus plenty of money to go out and get either Lee or Boozer and maybe another role player or two. Not to mention they already have Deng under contract; not that that's a huge draw, but it's more than Miami has. That's really only true for this year and somewhat next year. As time goes on, their bench will fill out and they'll likely have plenty of depth to go along with the 3 stars and that's a much better situation than any other of the cities can offer. Of course, the money is not likely to work out to let all 3 of them come in the first place. Of course Miami can win with James/Wade/Bosh. Only a matter of time. But does LeBron really want to do that? Play with 2 other all stars on a team everyone EXPECTS to win? Dilute his stats? Will he really go down in history as one of the greatest ever if he does that? And can it even happen from a money standpoint? In my very biased pro-Bulls opinion, the Bulls are still the best option for him. LeBron, Boozer/Lee, with Rose and Noah will destroy Miami and be a championship contender. Let's see if LeBron is smart enough to realize this. I still put some weight on the argument that Lebron wouldn't want to team up with Bosh/Wade because he wouldn't be a clear cut #1 guy. It was even leaked that Prokhorov said it would dilute his brand.

It sounds like the Bulls are targeting Carlos Boozer. I like Lee better at this point. He's younger, less injury risk, and while he's been horribad defensively he tries hard. I think he could go from awful to not terrible on D under Thibs and playing his real position in a defensive oriented system.

If Bosh walks for a 5 year deal with no S&T I'm not sure the talking point that the Bulls did everything to get him holds water anymore. Of course Bosh has to agree to it but a Joakim Noah package is way better than a Michael Beasley package. Although I've come around to the idea that signing Boozer/Lee outright is better anyway.

Is Bosh being S&Ted or do we not know that yet? Anyway, let's get David Lee.

except VDN coaching the knicks that's the funniest [expletive] i ever heard edit: or the clippers lmao

i've been out drinking for the last few hours and these last few pages have been hilarious to me i can't comprehend whats' going on right now

No way Mike Miller can guard 2s. He's strictly a spot up shooting 3 if you ask me. I could live with Reddick and Boozer.

Isn't that the same as being the favorite to win the championship? I didn't say they would win. I said favorites to win. If they have the best odds of being the best in the regular season, wouldn't they naturally have the best odds to be the best in the postseason too. It's hard to say. Basketball, more than any other sport, is where you can basically mark it down that a team with one of the 3 or 4 best records in the league is going to win the championship. There are teams that go full throttle trying to lock up a #1 seed and then there are older teams (i.e. the Celtics) who seemingly only turn it on for the playoffs. Some of the old Bulls teams (in 1993 especially) and the Shaq-Kobe Laker teams did the asme thing. There's usually a strong correlation for sure. The Cavs were breaking a lot of long held stasitical patterns by winning a bunch of games over 2 years and not even making the Finals. Maybe it's just an anomaly, maybe not. I can guarantee you the idea that it's not just an anomaly has crawled into Lebron's head though.

Favorites to get the best regular season record perhaps.

That sounds very contradictory, imo. If you can't land Bosh how are you going to convince James to stay with essentially the same team that got eliminated by Boston. Not to mention this would Bosh is likely heading to either Chicago or Miami with Wade, and Boozer ending up in New Jersey. James would still have to get past that same Boston team, a very good Orlando team, improving Chicago and Miami teams and still relatively young and talent Hawks team, all the while your team did nothing to get you some help. Don't know how that's contradictory. Lebron and Bosh are different people. Cleveland can get one without the other. Plus, who says Cleveland would be done? If they can get LeBron and Bosh, they can get Lebron and Boozer or Lee or they could get Ray Allen and a C like Haywood. If you subscribe to the theory that Lebron only wants to stay on a team that can get a genuine 2nd banana then it makes a lot of sense. They're not getting Ray Allen or Haywood for the MLE either. MAYBE Hayward if they pull a Bosh trade out of their butt and he wants to chase a ring. I think he wants to get paid though.

Well can they get a S&T done for Boozer? Or is that bridge burned because of the way he left Cleveland? I can't imagine the Knicks would want to help Lebron stay by S&Ting Lee to them. They could use a player like Varejao though...so could the Jazz.

Lee/Boozer would be redundant. I'm fine with either at this point. Use the rest of the money to sign a 2 that can shoot and maybe a backup C.

It's not ridiculous. The Celtics were generally content to play Kobe one on one with Allen & Allen. It worked, basically. Kobe had a nice series but he certainly didn't go off. Celtics lost the series on the inside and not being able to buy a basket in Game 7. That's it pretty much. Lebron at this point in his career and with the talent surrounding him commands more attention than Bryant. He has to win isolation battles all of the time for them to have a chance against good teams. It's way harder for him.

You want a toe? I can get you a toe, believe me. There are ways, Dude. You don't wanna know about it, believe me. I'll get you a toe by this afternoon--with nail polish.

I still don't think it would've been that easy. The road in the East would've been much easier but you still have that certain team who is poised to win three in a row, looming in the West. There's been this sort of fiction created since LA won the title that that was a great team. I don't think so. The Shaq-Kobe Lakers would've obliterated that team and I think Ariza -> Artest was a decided downgrade. I really think it was one of the weaker champions of the decade. That's nice. Kobe still has a few great years left and the rest of their starting five is still really good (replacing Fisher with Odom). You'd be foolish to say that they're not the favorites, unless we're landing two of the big three FA's. Favorites, sure. Not overwhelming favorites though. They have little bench, Artest isn't very good, Bynum is always a question mark. They're a match up nightmare for a lot of teams because of their size. Kobe's great but defenses are not awake at night afraid of him like they are of Lebron. They're afraid of being owned in the paint.

I still don't think it would've been that easy. The road in the East would've been much easier but you still have that certain team who is poised to win three in a row, looming in the West. There's been this sort of fiction created since LA won the title that that was a great team. I don't think so. The Shaq-Kobe Lakers would've obliterated that team and I think Ariza -> Artest was a decided downgrade. I really think it was one of the weaker champions of the decade.

Also, way more than 90% of colleges have nothing to gain by gaming the NCAA system because they're not attracting pro quality talent to begin with. If you think 90% of big time college programs are following NCAA rules I think you're being pretty naive. I'll freely admit I have no real evidence to back that up but I think I'm right.

Noah was probably 13th or 14th on the All-Star curve last year. It's not really that crazy. Jamaal Magloire and Brad Miller made ASGs once upon a time.

I mentioned that like a month ago. Probably in this exact thread. You hate Paul Pierce because he hams it up when he gets hurt and hate Garnett because he yelled at the Bulls from the bench. Isn't that pretty silly? And I don't even hate Rose. (Except for his performance in the last minute of the title game). I don't see how pointing out that he's of below average intelligence is anything to get worked up about. It was a joke. Jokes that multiple Bulls fans have laughed at. If you're speaking to the larger point based on what I've written in college threads, that has a lot more to do with a level playing field than any sort of moral code. If there are rules in place that 90% of the schools are following, it puts them at an unfair disadvantage to the Memphis, UKs, and USCs of the world who don't. I would say Derrick Rose, and any other high school player capable of jumping straight to the NBA at a high level, is put at a much larger disadvantage by being forced to waste a year in college than fans of the angelic programs you root for. That is his livelihood after all.

Ulimately any little fan beefs towards athletes are frivolous. But at least those are basketball reasons. And I sincerely doubt you hate Derrick Rose because some guy took an SAT for him to qualify for a college he never should have had to attend in the first place. That would be incredibly lame.