ROZAY

Blake Griffin just sodomized poor Kendrick Perkins. WOW.

I nearly dropped my newborn daughter when I saw that. Does that make me a bad father or Blake Griffin just that awesome?

Do the Magic have a trade exception or something? I don't see how the Magic can possibly take on both of those contracts and we would have enough cap room to sign Deron Williams without them sending Hedo as well. Can Chandler even be traded before the deadline?

I also don't think Dwight and Melo would really compliment one another to be honest. Not in D'Antoni's system, anyway.

I really do not get this Knicks team sometimes. I live in Philly now, so I got to catch the Knicks/Sixers game tonight and we nearly blew it by taking unnecessary three pointers, turning over the ball and Carmelo absolutely freezing the offense because he wanted to get personal with Andre Iguodala. It's like the only way we think we can win is to actually shoot more.

I would put up predictions, but I honestly haven't been watching as much football as I normally do this year. I'll go with the Pats taking it all though.

On another note, I'm so proud of my Lions, no matter what happens tonight. Let's go Detroit!

I for one think we need more 4 hour games with Chuck commentating every week.

Edit: Double post. Ermm... go Knicks!

If they could they probably would but if I'm New Jersey I dontthink I'm saying yes to that deal

If the Nets wouldn't take Westbrook for a guy who's going to walk to Dallas at the end of the year, who do they plan to have sell tickets in Brooklyn? Dwight Howard's not going there.

If I were them I would do it but the ownership seem to think Deron is staying put, or at least they are putting all their eggs in that basket and if he walks they stand to be a top 3 picking team for the next few years.

And if the Nets go 0-82 Jay-Z would look at you like this shit's gravy.

The Knicks should have stayed in NY and taken this loss by forfeit. Getting blown out by the Warriors without Curry is ridiculous.

Not to mention that Monta had a pretty bad game as well. Hopefully we can at least try tonight against the Lakers. Will Andrew Bynum be back or does he have another game out?

Oh, and a bit late with predictions.

Eastern Conference

1. Miami

2. Chicago

3. New York

4. Atlanta

5. Indiana

6. Orlando

7. Boston

8. Philly

Western Conference

1. OKC

2. San Antonio

3. Denver

4. LA Lakers

5. Dallas

6. Memphis

7. Portland

8. LA Clippers

I'd take the Heat over anyone at this point, so I'll say Heat over OKC in the finals in 5. It's pretty much a lock that Durant is going to MVP this year, but I also wouldn't be surprised if LeBron gets the nod either.

In that case, I'll have to drop out. Sorry for the short notice, hopefully you guys can find a replacement in time.

In that case, I'll have to drop out. Sorry for the short notice, hopefully you guys can find a replacement in time.

Is it possible to draft from an Ipod? If not, I'll have to drop out as my computer died yesterday.

That's what the kids call "hustling backwards". Tyson Chandler is not worth $14 million a year, but I'd rather have him making that than Billups. To trade STAT for Paul after just a year with the team would be really counterproductive.

Speaking of CP3, the new report out is that the Rockets are looking to get into a three team trade with the Hornets and Lakers, with Pau Gasol going to Houston and Luis Scola and Kevin Martin + draft picks going to New Orleans.

Shane Battier signing to the Heat is a pretty good move for them. I don't think it's the missing piece to a championship for them, but at the very least he'll able to help LeBron and Wade guard the opposing teams perimeter players and take some of that pressure off of them.

Apparently, the Knicks are in the lead to land Tyson Chandler, reportedly for somewhere around $14 million annually. We'll have to use the amnesty clause/trade Chauncey Billups and possibly Ronny Turiaf in order to keep money for CP3.

According to reports, the Hornets are going to make a decision Friday on where to go with the Chris Paul trade. The front runners seem to be the Clippers and Warriors, although the Clippers aren't willing to offer both Deandre Jordan and Eric Gordon unless CP3 shows a willingness to sign an extension.

The Lakers and Knicks obviously want him, but New Orleans doesn't want Pau Gasol (which is who they're offering a package around so they can use Andrew Bynum in a trade for Dwight Howard) and the Knicks simply do not have enough assets to trade.

Other teams that are willing to trade for him without the assurance of him signing an extension are the Mavericks, Celtics (who seem to be looking to deal Rondo) and strangely enough, the Rockets. Boston seems to be the front runner out of those teams, with hopes that they can lure D-12 to Boston in the off-season to convince Paul to re-sign.

Should be an interesting next few days.

What's a keeper league and this auction thing?

Edit: Nothing to see here.

I've never been in one before, but now is as good a time to break my fantasy sports virginity. Count me in.

I hear the ESPN leagues are good, so I'll vote for that as well.

I'm surprised the Grizzlies got snubbed. I would have thought for sure that we'd see Oklahoma City/Memphis after the series they had.

The Christmas schedule has been released. In addition to Boston/New York, Miami/Dallas and Chicago/Lakers as originally planned, Oklahoma City/Orlando and Clippers/Golden State have been added as well.

The full schedule for the season will be released on Tuesday, with the ratification coming on Thursday.

We don't have any draft picks to trade. Not first round, anyway. You can't trade future first round draft picks for consecutive years, so that's out of the window. I suppose you're right on the 3 megastars thing, as any combination of Melo/Amare and CP3 or D-12 would be enough to challenge the Heat for years to come. I'm just worried about either one wanting to take a pay cut of that much money when they could sign or get traded to other contenders for more. I'm confident one of them will come here though, so I guess that's a moot point. I'll just be happy that we don't suck again.

Rumors are also going around that NY is obviously Paul's first choice, but that he will also consider the Clippers, which would be scary if it weren't for the fact that they're still the Clippers.

Can CP3 even come here to NY? We have only like 13 million in cap room (assuming the cap stays the same) with no one on the books but STAT and Melo and really no assets to trade for him without gutting out the team, not to mention any draft picks. I suppose he could force the Hornets hand like Melo did with Denver, but do we really need to go the Heat route with three stars and a bunch of guys signing for the vet minimum and a partial mid-level exception?

I'd honestly much rather have D-12.

Free agency begins today, and players can start using team facilities tomorrow. Nothing can officially happen until December 9th, although I'm sure we'll hear about deals being agreed to in principle before then.

There's also an interesting clause within the amnesty clause. If a player is cut, he does not automatically become a free agent - there will be a bidding contest with teams that are operating under the salary cap to acquire that player. If no one bids on said player, then he can go into free agency.

Also, there will be five games on opening day instead of three - one on TNT, two on ABC and two on ESPN.

Does anyone have specifics of what the tentative deal entails? I read no hard cap which is a shock, but stricter spending minimum and luxury tax rules.

I can't find the proposal before the latest one, but here are the new changes.

Here are some of the key details of those moves, according to a league source who was privy to the details of the tentative agreement and shared those details with SheridanHoops.com.

_ On the financial split, the players will receive between 49 and 51 percent of revenues, depending on annual growth. The players had complained prior to Saturday that the owners’ previous offer effectively limited them to 50.2 percent of revenues, but the source said 51 percent was now reasonably achievable with robust growth.

_Owners dropped their insistence on what would have been known as the Carmelo Anthony rule, preventing teams from executing extend-and-trade deals similar to the one that sent Anthony from the Denver Nuggets to the New York Knicks last season. This means that if Dwight Howard, Deron Williams and Chris Paul want to leverage their way out of Orlando, New Jersey and New Orleans, they will still be eligible to sign four-year extensions with their current teams before being immediately traded elsewhere.

_ Teams above the salary cap will be able to offer four-year mid-level exception contracts to free agents each season. Previously, owners were asking that teams be limited to offering a four-year deal one year, a three-year deal the next, then four, then three, etc.

_ The rookie salary scale and veteran minimum salaries will stay the same as they were last season. Owners had been seeking 12 percent cuts.

_ Qualifying offers to restricted free agents will become “significantly” improved. The sides had already agreed to reduce the time for a team to match an offer to a restricted free agent from 7 days to 3.

_ A new $2.5 million exception will be available to teams that go blow the salary cap, then use all of their cap room to sign free agents. Once they are back above the cap, they will be able to use the new exception instead of being limited to filling out their rosters with players on minimum contracts.

_ The prohibition on luxury tax-paying teams from executing sign-and-trade deals was loosened, although the freedom to execute those types of deals will still be limited.

Both sides will have the option to opt out of the 10-year deal after six years. Stern said he does not expect unanimous support from the owners, who will vote on the tentative agreement after the owners’ full negotiating committee receives a rundown of what is in the new deal.

Players also must ratify the agreement, a process that could take as long as a week while the union, which dissolved itself last week by issuing a disclaimer of interest, is reconstituted.

But if both constituencies sign off on the agreement, training camps and free agency will open simultaneously on Dec. 9, and the season will start with a tripleheader — Boston-New York, Chicago-L.A. Lakers and Miami-Dallas (a rematch of the NBA Finals) — on Dec. 25.

Could have been fun to see players call their fouls for a while.

D-12 would set every free throw record ever and still somehow only manage to shoot 60% from the line.

In other news, fuck Cleveland and Phoenix.

Owners and players initially found reason for optimism during Tuesday's meetings. Commissioner David Stern and Peter Holt, the head of the owners' executive committee, felt that the players' proposal to take 52 or 53 percent of basketball-related income, compared to 57 under the previous agreement, was basically fair, sources said.

Owners were seriously considering coming off of their demand for a salary freeze and would allow players' future earnings to be tied into the league's revenue growth, a critical point for players. The owners also were willing to allow the players to maintain their current salaries, without rollbacks, sources said.

But when the owners left the players to meet among themselves for around three hours, Cleveland's Dan Gilbert and Phoenix's Robert Sarver expressed their dissatisfaction with many of the points, sources said. The sources said that the Knicks' James Dolan and the Lakers' Jerry Buss were visibly annoyed by the hardline demands of Gilbert and Sarver.

god I hate everyone you just listed. Fucking boring shit.

Who do you think is better that's on this list, out of curiosity?