UMFan83

How could they find plenty of takers for Bosh when he'll be making a crapload of money in a hard cap NBA? I'm assuming if there is a hard cap, the average salary for an elite player will be lower than what Bosh is making now.

I never thought "white shark breaching with a seal in it's mouth" would be used to describe Derrick Rose.

What did they say originally 8-10 weeks? Coming back tomorrow will put his recovery at 1 day short of 10 weeks. 69 days to be exact from surgery to return game. I'm guessing that they decided to be cautious and let him take the full 10 weeks. If he had returned in 8 weeks, there was only 3 games played by the Bulls between the 10th and the 23rd (NO, CHA, SA)

Good question. I think they would probably grandfather teams in, or at least give them a grace period to pare down their payroll for those grossly over. That would probably include provisions to sign minimum salaried players to fill a roster. What was that thing they did after the current CBA in 2005. I remember Dallas was able to release Michael Finley in order to avoid paying luxury taxes. Were they able to waive him and not pay his contract, or did they still have to pay his contract but not the luxury taxes? Maybe they'd do something like that again, and allow teams over the cap to waive one player to get under the cap.

http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20110221/sports/702219836/ This article paints a bleak picture of the Hawks offseason, claiming it could be in even worse shape than last offseason. We anticipated this, but its depressing to think about shaving our team down more after what happened this season. I think this is the season we finally lose Sharp, especially considering what a good year he's had. He'll have great value in a trade.

What is THAT supposed to mean? [-( :twisted:

No and if a hard cap is instituted, they definitely wouldn't have any room to add a guy like that. They are screwed if they go to a hard cap. I'm certain NYs plan is to add Deron or Paul and build role players with the MLE.

Somewhere ignoring any and all baseball news?

Nice. Thanks for that. Also with regards to his scoring efficiency, specifically points per shot attempt, I was reading something on Bleacher Report of all places, and came across this tidbit: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/614021-chicago-bulls-myths-and-realities-evaluating-criticisms-of-the-team/page/5

I don't think they are thinking 'meh, im gonna half ass it in this one because we won the cup last year'. But I think its a possibility that they can't hit that same gear as last year for whatever reason. Last year was a dream season, and we managed to win the cup with a very very young team. I've said this before but when you are 23-24, a budding NHL star and you go out work your ass off and win the Cup, its like your greatest possible NHL achievement reached at such a young stage of your career, its tough to pick it back up 4 months later with the same intensity. The only thing that keeps teams like that on course is coaching and veteran leadership. The Hawks have a very young team still. There are some veterans but not enough in leadership roles. I don't think anyone is dogging it or anything. I think you can control 90% of your effort, but the last 10 percent comes from within and comes from the drive to achieve a goal. Sometimes, I think I see a bunch of Hawk players out there that figure they are going to have many more chances to win the cup. I dunno, I'm probably wrong, and the whole theory is laughable because its something you can't quantify. But one thing I've learned about sports over the last few years is that motivation (and coaching) is what seperates similarly taleted teams (and the deviation in talent for the middle 20 teams in the league is not big). So if I see a team that is not playing like I'd expect them to be, I can't help but think the team is not motivated for whatever reason.

Wow that's pretty dumb. First of all, I doubt most of those teams are allies with him on the matter. Only the Red Sox out of that list have had consistent success throwing money at their problems. I feel like the other 3 spend because they feel like they have to due to their status as a big market team. And even if they do spend money, the Yankees still spend almost double what the next closest team spends because the Yankees have by far the most revenue coming in. If you can afford to have a 200m+ payroll to go along with 130m in luxury taxes, you shouldnt bitch. The luxury tax is supposed to be a deterrant to spending that much money on a baseball team. You choose to do it anyway, so you live with it. It's quotes like these that make me fired up to cheer for the Yankees every year.

lol Too bad they waited for 2/3rds of the season to pass before showing up. Still 10 points out of the 8th seed.

I had a meeting so I missed the third but i caught the last 30 seconds, the Blues announcers said the Blackhawks earned the 2 points by constantly putting their body on the line to block shots. I'm not used to hearing the Hawks winning in such gritty ways. When I said the weekend was a failure last night, I forgot about this game. I will take 4 points out of 6. Now tied for 7th place in the conference (also tied for 11th) and only 4 points out of 4th.

lol I'm not even sure if we'll make the playoffs. I'm just playing off the excitement. The Hawks are a team that is flawed but you get the feeling that there's an extra gear there that we haven't seen. Or at least havent seen enough of.

Or maybe its like one of those mighty duck movies, where they are all down, and q gets on his walkie talkie and starts inspiring them talking about how Hawks fly together (bold face lie but they're hockey players so whatever), and they all make up stories that end in "hawks fly together!" and then they came out in their badass red jerseys and everyone is like 'oh snap the hawks are back' did they switch jerseys during intermission?

The reason major league 2 is on my mind....a coworker just emailed me this:

Q is still out. Even more legendary...inspiring the team from his couch! Yup, it was like when Lou Brown inspired the Indians from his hospital bed.

4-2 When the Hawks repeat as Stanley Cup champs in 4 months, whatever Q said to this team in the locker room during intermission will be the stuff of legends.

Almost feel bad about spending the entire 1st period ripping on the Hawks. Almost.

I have no idea what the [expletive] that means. Maybe I'm not smart enough. He doesn't like watching Derrick Rose because he's more talented than his opponents? Who is his favorite player then, Darko? (oh wait....it makes sense now)

I agree...the defense has been brutal. Crawford shouldnt need to stand on his head...mostly because he can't. edit: and the defense isnt even their biggest problem either.

I felt compelled to put on game 5 of the SCF last night (my goto game when I want to remember how dominating the hawks could be). Almost shed a tear when I was watching... i saw byfuglien score i saw niemi say no i saw sopel turn over the puck in his own end....but at the same time block 4-5 shots on a PK i saw versteeg in open ice with the puck and make 4 moves too many and turn it over but on his next shift make up for it with a perfectly placed blast from the faceoff circle i saw hossa looking like he cares i saw kane sober (I think....maybe?) i saw keith successfully clear the puck All that and much more. Good times.

We need a goalie if the defense is going to [expletive] suck

2-0. Will be great to get 2 points in 3 games, while giving the opponent 5. Crawford falls down way too easily and cannot stop giving up rebounds today. Pathetic. Completely dominated by a team we were probably twice as talented as last year.

1-0 Boos on the power play off a very very iffy Hawks penalty that even the Blues announcers thought was bogus.