Ryne Ween

Jackson is supposedly one of the best locker room guys in the nba. I know Stephenson got in a couple practice fights this past year. Not a bad comparison but Jackson's like my all time favorite player and Stephenson isn't.

Stephenson is a classic unskilled bulls type player. He's basically Andres Nocioni with less range.

Really confused on where to place Nadal in history. 14 GS, but only 5 are not from the French. And since 2010 he has only won 1 major that was not the French. He's one of the five best because of the total number of majors and the career Slam. But he'll always be behind Federer for me because of how many of his majors were at the French and the lack of consistency Federer has. The consecutive Finals, semifinals and quarterfinals Federer reached are marks that are so much better than anyone else has ever done that they'll probably never be touched. ETA: Consecutive finals reached: Federer has separate streaks of 10 and 8. Next best is Nadal with 5. Nobody else has more than 4. Consecutive semifinals reached: Federer has 23. Djokovic is second with 14, nobody else more than 10. Nadal's best is 5. Consecutive quarterfinals reached: Federer has 36. Djokovic is second with 21, followed by Lendl with 14. Nadal is fourth with 11. Borg has a 5 and a 6 GS finals streak. They are seperated by a loss in the quarters. So I'm that streak of 12 Grand slam appearances he won 7 lost in the final four times and had the loss in the quarters and that streak ended with his retirement. This may not count because he elected to joy play in the Australian which he likely would have also dominated because they played on grass. But Borg was definitely dominant. He loses points for never winning in flushing meadows but he ran into all time greats McEnroe and Connors during his era.

After watching USMNT lose today the only thing that Canaletto it right is Fed winning this Wimbledon.

Really confused on where to place Nadal in history. 14 GS, but only 5 are not from the French. And since 2010 he has only won 1 major that was not the French. Very very highly. I put him near Pete Sampras probably around the top 5. His record at the French open is insane. He beat the GOAT In multiple grand slam finals at the height of his abilities on the other surfaces and winning 5 times on your weaker surfaces in an era that produced 2 other all time greats is an impressive legacy in itself without including his work at the French where he has dominating a major sporting event in a way that perhaps nothing else in any sport compares. I might put fed and rafa one and two all time if it didn't seem weird that the two of them largely overlap. Sampras getting punished for not being elite on clay despite his dominance elsewhere. Fed being the greatest because he was definitely the second best clay court player in his era and of not for the fact he ran into nadals freakish ability on clay would have won career grand slams a few times over. Borg Sampras and Nadal can be argued for second best in my opinion.

With a healthy varejao, Thompson and waiters. That's the best team in the league easily.

That's not a pay cut, he got the max he could get. Oh. Why can't he get the same team max that melo can get from New York? Service time thing?

Is that the pay cut of a new big three in Cleveland with Lebron and wiggins. I might actually root for that squad.

Parsons is decent but won't produce with us to the level that would justify the money needed to sign him. He's in a perfect place for his skills. We have no interior scoring, only one guy with any skill with the ball and we play at a high school speed per possession. Parson gets a lot of free buckets in houston that he would need to earn in chicago. I heard on radio that pierce is now an option and I would love that for a year. He can still creat on offense with the ball and we don't need to mortgage the franchise and can still bring in a few more upgrades

No way.

Yeah! I'd play for free!! Give me 13 Kirk Hinrichs, I'll win you a title. In all honesty would 5 prime hinrichs and 7 prime collisons win a playoff series.

Ok so now the nets are gonna hire a coach from overseas. So that's the second overseas coach and Derek Fisher and the kid from Butler and Kerr and Kidd taking a different coaching job. How must these long time NBA assistants feel now that being a top NBA assistant is no longer the career stepping stone to being an NBA head coach. Now being a [expletive] former point guard or studio analyst is the best way.

Kobe has made statements in the past similar to Derricks. He has, I think, specifically said he will not recruit melo but would give advice if asked. Something like that. Not according to Broussard. Kobe is recruiting Melo. Talking to him, meeting with him. http://m.espn.go.com/nba/story?storyId=11135474&src=desktop&rand=ref~%7B%22ref%22%3A%22http%3A%2F%2Fm.washingtonpost.com%2Fblogs%2Fearly-lead%2Fwp%2F2014%2F06%2F26%2Fkobe-bryant-is-recruiting-carmelo-anthony-but-lakers-are-a-longshot%2F%22%7D Fair enough. There is an ESPN article from a few months back titled "Kobe won't recruit pending free agent Carmelo Anthony". So obviously he's changed his mind.

Kobe has made statements in the past similar to Derricks. He has, I think, specifically said he will not recruit melo but would give advice if asked. Something like that.

I wish we weren't a part of this and got one or two solid pieces and bring over Mirotic. Again afflalo was a sure thing and he was there for us to take. We could move butler for room to get Ariza or some other marginal upgrades or tried to make the trade for Love. Tying up our resources in chase for melo. Think back to 2010. Only th Heat were winners. Boozer was bad money, joe johnson was bad money, gay was bad money, stoudamire. Maybe the only big signing that wasn't a bad signing was David Lee and that's debate able.

I don't think lobbying or a star is brig a jerk I can just understand choosing to not do so publicly. If he has any relationship with melo as a fan I hope he leveraged it to help get melo here even if it means his current teammates are gone. But expecting him to do something he said he wasn't gonna do years ago is changing the goalposts. I do not recall Kobe recruiting. I recall Kobe (and Phil) lobbying to get rid of guys. In my opinion recruiting is a media driven FA. Driven thing and I don't think it matters. That said, I agree that rose should end this issue by making a statement that he wants to play with melo. And I agree his comments about his health were incredibly stupid. Basically he's not a media savvy individual.

I don't care if it's only happened once in spectacular fashion; it still can't hurt, and I'm sure at the very least they're at least usually making cursory calls and [expletive]. Rose has gone out of his way in the past to say he's not even gonna do that, which just seems pointlessly obtuse and stubborn. There's a difference between a player simply not doing it and what was has vocalized multiple times. It's like he thinks he's insulting the other returning players too much. Why is the last thing dismissed so easily. Any lobbying to get melo requires the amnesty of boozer. And I get the point thy rose is being stubborn and again hurting his image by not just public ally saying the words "I want melo". That said if rose and melo aren't friends I don't think a personal appeal will make any difference so I don't care that he stays out of it. There was a time when rose was an MVP and the anti Lebron. He said he doesn't recruit and that the merits of playing in chicago are self evident, and he didn't dance when they announced him at the ASG and everybody used to love him for it. He gets hurt three strait years and people hate him for it.

Espn, and I'm pretty sure I've never thought this about anything they do, is doing an incredible job broadcasting this event. There is absolutely no way, no chance that Fox matches this. They are still doing their typical dumb [expletive], like taking a cool down break during the post game wrap up, but I actually enjoyed the bit. Espn is killing it in getting behind the games and broadcasting the enormity of the event.

... Now if I didn't know you were trying to counter my point I'd have thanked you for actually making it for me; that's probably the most open he's been vocally about the Bulls trying to big up another big name, and even then it's still this wishy-washy, backhanded stuff where he's like, "yeah, he can come here, I guess, whatever" and then caps it off with, "but really, who needs him, I can make ANYONE good." He praised his game, but said absolutely nothing about specifically wanting Anthony as a Bull, which, hey, it can't hurt. Yeah, recruiting isn't his job, but other stars DO do it, and we've seen it work. Rose not only doesn't do it, but he's gone out of his way to vocalize how much he doesn't like it and doesn't want to do it and how the Bulls don't need another star, etc., etc.. I would just like it if my team's star player seemed a little more invested in bringing another big name aboard. To my knowledge The 2010 Heat are the main, and maybe only example of "recruiting" of a top free agent. And that situation is way way different. Those guys were friends, had a plan to do this, the heat were one of the very few if not only teams that could add three near max deals, and the inherent advantage of miami. It's not like wade was les miles. They also had pat Riley working on it. Did James Harden bring in Howard? Give me an example of a star player successfully recruiting another star player. This doesn't actually exist.

The recruiting thing is the stupidest thing. All the talk about that big Noah -> Melo recruiting pitch at the ASG is hilarious. These are adult professional sportwriters reporting this stuff its a joke.

Yea. Jason Kidd is an idiot.

Yea. Jason Kidd is an idiot.

I'm very curious to see how muh of a pay cut miamis big 3 take. I could see them taking 2 year 20 mil deals and have a ton of cap space. Though wade would be nuts to take a two year deal. Very curious to see what they do.

I don't hate Doug McDermott and I don't think he's gonna suck. I'm just pissed that they could have finally gotten a scoring guard with some upside in Harris and more importantly im pissed they didn't take the afflalo gift. Basically best case scenario for the development of McDermott is probably not as good as afflalo already is.

Yes, but Jamison a HOFer? At least with Ben Wallace that argument will be settled somewhat soon when he gets into the hall. McDermott will have to be in the league 5 or 6 years before even the biggest idiots recognize that a Jamison comparison is ridiculous. If McDermott comps to Jamison what does that make Embiid? Hakeem?