thuganomic

It's incredibly fresh, that's for sure. I think it'll take a few listens for me to get used to, just like SexyBack did...but I am unequivocally pumped that JT's back

Naiwf, you damn purist.

Bring on the jersey patches. Woooooo

Makes no sense why Orlando would want that mess instead of Houston. They could probably get at least Lamb or Royce White along with some other young assets and the Raptors' lottery pick.

Jeremy Lin's gonna have an amazing year in Houston. He fits their system perfectly as McHale loves running his offense through the PG (See the monster years Lowry and Dragic had). Finally, something went right for Houston this offseason

Pretty sure with that Lowry trade, the Rockets have moved completely into rebuilding mode....or at least PRETTY PLEASE?

Unbelievable episode tonight. Don's gonna be reeling for years.

Rockets dumped failed 09 lottery picks Jordan Hill, Jonny Flynn, and Hasheem Thabeet and got Marcus Camby, Derek Fisher, and a 1st.

Backup big man? Check.

Backup PG while Lowry's out? Check.

First rounder in a deep draft? Check.

Small victories for the win!

Yeah they just had Ben Wallace, the debate was whether to take a young scorer or a young big man. Most of the time the latter decision wins out.

I would hope that after Bowie over MJ, Darko over Melo, and Oden over Durant...that it wouldn't happen again, but Hasheem Thabeet was drafted 2nd overall

I just don't see why the owners would want this when they already have a minor league system with better coaching in the NCAA. They could just make players go to school for 2 years and not provide the NBDL alternative.

I wonder if the NBA could ever go to a rookie system like the MLB has. Rookie contracts are 4 years currently, IIRC. Adding two more years of team control could help, but I'm sure the player's union would never go for it. Maybe there could be benefits for reaching certain points, like if you become an All Star during your rookie contract, you're given a ___% raise in your contract. If the team doesn't honor that raise, you're able to hit FA earlier.

I'd also love to see the NBA bring back the ability to draft high school players. The caveat here, is that the player must play two seasons in the NBDL. This will coincide with the rule that players that are in college must stay until their sophomore year, but when drafted, can go straight to the NBA. The cons of drafting a high school player is that you lose two years under his NBA contract, meaning you'll only have control of him for four years. The pros of staying in college is two-fold, they can develop their game slower than they would be forced to in the NBA and also it helps the NCAA with a little continuity.

They'd have to raise the NBDL salaries considerably. Remember, minor leaguers get huge signing bonuses which helps make the decision easy. Not sure if the owners would be willing to pay for that, especially with high school players being pretty hit or miss.

Mexico City or Las Vegas would surely be the kind of cities an outgoing David Stern would try and put a team. Both are inevitably joining the ranks of American pro sports leagues at some point, it's a matter of when.

It's also a matter of when as to when our leagues get too big. The talent pool in basketball is deep, the second deepest talent pool in the entire world for a sport probably, but at a certain point there's just going to be too many teams to make the league work well.

The league only seems stacked because of the super-teams out there. For every Miami or New York, you've got a Charlotte, New Orleans, Detroit, Toronto...I can't see expansion being a good thing for this league right now.

Friday:

Saturday:

Sunday:

Thinking about this, the Knicks potentially match up well against the Heat. They'd make Lebron and Wade work on the defensive end (I'd assume they would have to put one of them on Jeremy Lin) and have more than enough adequate defenders to throw at both of them (Shumpert, Fields, Walker, Jeffries), not to mention Chandler guarding the paint. Offensively, Amare and Melo will get theirs. JR Smith and Lin are two more scorers who can get hot in a hurry. Not saying it'll be this year, but I can see Lin developing to a point where he can learn how to attack a defense as disciplined as Miami's

Depends if he means individual scum tells, or general indicators that make someone likely to be scum.

thuggy used to have a scumtell where he would vote for Be purely because "it's Be." It was popular to hate Be, so it wasn't dangerous, no one wanted to be "that guy" defending Be.

Sort of like Be does to Potato Head now.

You keep saying that....except I actually did hate Be.

In order of proficiency:

Piano, Guitar, Alto Sax, Violin

Also played a bunch of percussion in high school (xylophone, timpani, etc.)

Phil Jackson won't know what to do with a great PG. But with guys like Lin and Fields around, the triangle might be an option if they could get Melo to buy into it.

All this discussion of what works for the Knicks, what creates chemistry, blah blah blah doesn't matter because if they play a D'Antoni system they get stuck with 2nd round playoff exits against teams with strong defenses inside and on the perimeter. And then if they dump D'Antoni they wind up with a coach who can't coach the type of players they have, they decide to make hasty trades, and wind up out of the playoffs. The difference between the Suns teams that D'Antoni had the Knicks team is that in New York he has Carmelo Anthony. I know I said it before, but he has to adapt everything to being around Carmelo. That means a PG with stifling defense, a C with stifling defense, a complementary PF, and a SG that can play both ways. That will win a championship. Anything else will send the Knicks home in May every year after they lose to Chicago or Miami.

They pretty much had all those things in Denver and Melo went nowhere.

Knicks get R. Anderson and Gasol

Orlando get 'Melo and Bynum

Lakers get Howard, Shumpert and Turkoglu.

NY trades picks to LA or also gives up some young guys on low contracts

That way Gasol takes minutes from Amare which will hopefully help his knees, they also pick up a tall outside option. The trade also works according to the trade machine.

If the Lakers trade both Gasol and Bynum, you can be damned sure they'll be shooting for a PG better than Shumpert.

The tricky thing is that Orlando has no interest in retooling. So if they don't want Amare, they'd still need some decent players in return. I can see Houston taking a chance on someone like Amare, sending Scola and Martin to the Magic. If Orlando can dump Hedo's contract, get Scola + K-Mart + Another solid starter for Dwight Howard, I think they'd be interested.

Jeremy Lin.

If he keeps this up, the Chinese fans will vote him in next year. WOOO

What the Wizards need to do is get poison like Nick Young, Blatche off their team. They need to surround Wall with high-character guys ASAP. Nobody likes losing, but if you're gonna suck, might as well suck with people who will bring the right culture.

ESPN says that the Magic have discussed a Howard for A'mare/Chandler swap. If I'm the Knicks I do it yesterday. We get the best player in the deal and the cap space to sign Deron Williams next year. In short, it's a BS story.

As long as they don't have to give up Landry Fields >_>

Knicks fans

I'll play.

PSN: frickonastic

So no Deron Williams, Brook Lopez, and Kris Humphries tonight against the Celtics. I don't even want to know how that one turns out...

Let's put it this way. I have tickets to this game and I'd rather eat the cost than make my way through the cold to see the Celtics bench beat the Nets

As expected, Houston, in its tireless search for a star, is already in the mix. Having both Cousins and Terrence Williams in the same locker room's really going to test Kevin McHale's patience.