the people's republic of sole

with the season about to start its only fitting we have a place to talk b-ball.

i'll start it off...

top teams in the east

1 Bulls - they added Rip Hamilton to play along side D Rose. 2 guard was the one spot the Bulls were weak at and now they got a proven scorer/leader to take some pressure off Rose.

2 Heat - fuck the heat, they got the big 3 but no true point. like i said, fuck the Heat.

3 Celtics - for the last 3 years weve predicted the end of the original big 3. i dont think it happens this year. team is solid on D and they improved their bench big tyme.

4 Knicks - no excuses this year. a full year of STAT and Melo together plus the addition of Tyson Chandler and new asst. coach Mike Woodson should make them better. was never sold on mike no D'antoni and if the Knicks dont make it to the second round hes done.


top teams in the west

1 Thunder - Durant, Westbrook and company should be the team to beat in the west for the next 5 years or so.

2 Mavs - they lost Chandler and Butler but are the defending NBA champs. i dont see them slipping much but also dont see them repeating.

3 Grizzlies - yea im picking the Grizzels 3rd based on an extremely weak western conference.

4 Clippers - LOB CITY BABY!!! and see Grizzlies.


also rans

Lakers - LOL no zen master, no Odom, no hope for the lake show. mike Brown is garbage, just ask LeBron. Kobe will be unhappy by march and will be taking 30 shots a game.

Spurs - who knows with them. solid organization and coaching staff but their core players are 200 years old. i can see them having a good season but doing nothing in the playoffs.

Years of being laughed at and ridiculed for being a clipper fan in la have somewhat paid off. I dont hate the lakers but with out them running the triangle i cant see them getting anywhere better then 5th

speak for yourself.

i agree with most of what you're saying though. the bulls are looking really good. knicks too.

the lakers won't even make the playoffs.

its early but Mark Jackson has the warriors playing some defense.

couple good games last nite with the bobcats almost beating the heat and the thunder beating the grizzlies in a close match.

I'm making an effort to get back into the NBA this year, even though it is one of the least interesting athletic events I can think of...it's on par with tennis and golf. I'm a huge baseball fan, and I know people think that baseball is boring, but basketball is just so monotonous to me...My dad was a basketball coach for two different schools when I was a kid. I loved basketball back then, but can't dig it now. What are some key match-ups coming up that might be good places to spark some interest?

I tried watching the heat and celtics the other night, and they did a great job hyping it up. They showed a stat-line graphic of bosh and some other dude, and it looked like a video game or WWE. There were flames and strobing lights...kind of getting the viewer all jacked up for battle. So I'm all psyched up as the game starts and then there was a foul immediately after tip-off...and they stopped...then they inbounded the ball...then they scored on eachother over and over and over and over and over...with a ton of fouls and media time-outs...rondo got a technical foul for yelling at the ref...come on.

Its crazy in Chicago now, the expectations are huge. Finals or bust for the most part. not sure how that works out but im happy with our team now.

Rayza I like you picks for the top four in Eastern conference. I don't know about west though. Spurs are going to be up there again for sure.

As a Warriors fan I have been pleasantly surprised with the last two games. I like Mark Jackson better as a coach than a commentator. I am used to seeing GSW choke in the last quarter. The Lou Almundson trade for Brandon Rush was a good one for GSW.

The verdict is still out on Kwame Brown. Either way though this is awesome.

OBLIO I agree with your sentiment. With the lockout I watched a lot more hockey than I would have otherwise. Now the basketball has started all the timeouts and refs checking replays is so tedious to sit through. It would be so much better for the spectator if they could play the 12 minutes without stoppages.

Yeah, I just want don't want to hear the whistle every 20 seconds...it frustrates me to no end. Hockey I get, but still it's not baseball or soccer...

ill use a baseball analogy here. celtics vs heat is like redsox vs yankees. its gonna be a long physical game. when the yanks play the the redsox it turns into a 4 hour epic. both teams are gonna take lots of pitches and there wont be any easy outs.
same can be said for the celtics and heat. there arent going to be any easy lay ups or uncontested shots. both teams are gonna play physical hard-nosed defense. it wouldnt be an ideal match up to show someone the beauty of a well played game.

good to see the celtics off to a fast start. 76ers have been quite surprising. don't really get how they're able to win like this with basically only two good players, but then i haven't botherd to watch any of their games.

There has been and will continue to be a complete and utter lack of this throughout the lockout-shortened season.

thats not true. there have been a few good games already. okc beating the mavs by a last second shot by KD comes to mind.

the biggest surprise so far is the play of Kobe. whatever experimental surgery he had done in germany is working wonders for him. a-rod had the same surgery and im hoping he comes back looking 5 years younger.

76rs didnt look that good when the knicks beat them.

boston is playing like garbage. rondo needs to step his game up. he might have to be a 20 pt-10 ast guy for them to compete this year.

knicks look lost. ive watched every game up to this point and it obvious they need a good point guard. douglas is a shoot first pass last type player. shumpert might be a capable point but hes still a rookie and plays out of control most of the game. STAT bulked up too much over the offseason and its affecting his jump shot. the knicks play too much iso and STAT needs to be fed the ball. melo is having a great year but he forgets the concept of team ball at times.

im enjoying this season. first year ive had NBA TV so i get to watch a game every night as well as all the knicks and nets games.

i've been using http://www.firstrow.tv/sport/basketball.html i'm not giving the nba a penny.

the knicks look shit. amare looks shit. baron davis will save them in a couple of weeks though. also i really like the look of shumpert.

a friend of mine thinks that kobe is taking illegal substances. personally, i just think he's lying about all his injuries.

fantasy chat: i got lord byron mullens on my roster a week and a half ago, before it was cool also picked up spencer hawes and traded him for deandre jordan before he fell apart. finally, predicting big things for jan vesely.

Wizards Rookie Jan Vesely on Coach Flip Saunders: “I don’t know how much he trusts rookies, but I heard that he likes white players, so we’ll see.”

76ers suprised me but I have also not watched any of their games.

Warriors beating Heat after being down 17 was nice. Nate Robinson bought all the energy in that game

First time ever I have been interested in watching the Wolves play, Ricky Rubio and Derrick Williams are playing great.

There will always be good games, but that doesn't mean that the teams are playing well. Last night's Dallas/Lakers game is a great example. I am an admitted Kobe admirer, but his play has been brutally hard to watch this year. He's been chucking to a degree that I haven't seen since 2006, and he's not even playing with Kwame and Smush this time. A lot of it probably has to do with the fact that there are a total of zero other playmakers on the team, including the PGs. Their situation is even worse than New York's. At least Knicks fans can pin some hope on Baron. The Lakers are starting Derek Fisher's corpse for christ's sake! It is nice to see Kobe's knees performing much better for him, though.

This is the third year that I've had League Pass, and there is a very noticeable decline in the product on the court as a whole. Though it's great having so many games available everyday, it's just not that interesting watching teams playing their 4th game in 5 nights (or as was the case with the Lakers, their 9th game in 13 days. Basketball is by far my favorite sport, but I completely ignore NCAA until the tourney starts because the sloppy play just eats at my soul. There have been several games I have watched this year that have resembled Division II Men's Basketball. It's annoying. This should have been a 50 game season. I can't believe they're actually going to play an All-Star Game this year. I can't imagine any established stars wanting to actually play.

He only has one (his wrist), and it pretty clearly is affecting the way he handles the ball. He has been turning it over like crazy, allowing the ball to be poked out of his grasp rather frequently, although he has improved recently.

if the knicks are waiting on baron davis to save them they might as well give up the season.

the surgery kobe had was on his knee. something like withdrawing blood and separating the white blood cells in a centrifuge and injecting it into the injured area.

i place the 76rs in the same boat as denver, indiana and a lesser extent portland. they have a plethora of young athletic players but no real star or go to player. portland does have aldridge. iguodala is no longer a star. lou williams and jrue holliday are two very talented points but phillie has too many gaurds/swingmen and not enough quality bigs.

i personally think some of the sloppy play has more to do with the nba being such a young league now and less on missing training camp.