Bear Down Wildcats

UAEebs86 wrote:Clippers have Jordan locked down in Houston, hoping he'll sign the contract at midnight I guess:

Spaceman Spiff wrote:

rgdeuce wrote:Thanks Danny. All of the mid to late first rounders in the world aren't going to help this team. Always fun to be a 7 or 8 in the putrid east and get swept and then watch guys like Stanley and Winslow still available at 8 in the draft.

Ainge pulled one off on the Wolves with the KG trade, and he's basically spent the rest of his career trying to recapture that magic without success.

JMarkJohns wrote:I hate the Spurs.

3goggles wrote:

JMarkJohns wrote:I hate the Spurs.

Damn why couldn't it have been aldridge to back out of his deal and not Jordan...

Main Event wrote:

Nevertheless, no one beyond the Cavaliers front office had Bennett pegged as a top-10 pick in that draft – never mind No. 1 overall.

TucsonClip wrote:

Nevertheless, no one beyond the Cavaliers front office had Bennett pegged as a top-10 pick in that draft – never mind No. 1 overall.

I never was a big Bennett fan, but I find that very difficult to believe. That draft class wasn't exactly highly regarded.

UAdevil wrote:http://nypost.com/2015/10/07/matt-barne ... g-ex-wife/

Knicks coach Derek Fisher was attacked in Los Angeles by NBA bad boy Matt Barnes, who drove 95 miles to “beat the s—t out of him” when he found out Fisher was romancing his estranged wife, sources told The Post on Wednesday.

The 6-foot-7 Barnes, who now plays for the Memphis Grizzlies, made a fast break from his team’s California training camp Saturday when he was tipped off that Fisher was making time with sultry “Basketball Wives LA” star Gloria Govan in the home Barnes once shared with her.

The NBA is investigating the brawl.

Embiid’s lax approach to his rehab and the circumstances surrounding the second foot surgery he needed this past summer — which appears like it will cost him the entire 2015–16 season — has caused the organization much anxiety. The simple task of getting Embiid to consistently wear his walking boot was a challenge for the franchise, and multiple sources suggested that some people in Philadelphia’s front office wonder whether a second surgery would have been necessary if Embiid had worn the boot as much as he was told to.

Also, according to multiple sources, Harris did not want Embiid to attend the annual Las Vegas Summer League this past July so they could proceed with the surgery on his navicular bone. Brown and Hinkie were both given strict instructions by Harris to keep Embiid from going to Vegas, yet each of them put the onus on the other to handle the job, and neither did.

Embiid was determined to go to Vegas to party for the balance of the 10 days of summer league. While Embiid was in Vegas, he was mandated to wear the walking boot in advance of the second surgery, but Embiid not only refused to wear the boot, but he carried himself as if nothing was wrong with the foot, shooting jumpers and even occasionally dunking. These actions have given rise to the theory that Embiid actually re-broke his foot, rather than the initial injury not healing properly. It also led to Embiid having the surgery a month later than the club originally had hoped.

This type of disregard for instruction also extends to Embiid’s dietary habits. Per a source, the Sixers’ training staff was so concerned about what he was eating, they stocked the refrigerator in his downtown hotel residence each week with healthy food. When a staffer went to restock the fridge each week, most everything was uneaten and unopened, and they were throwing out the fruits and vegetables every week. When the team subsequently asked to see Embiid’s room service bill, they found that most days he was ordering junk food along with his signature beverage, a pitcher of Shirley Temples. Embiid also was frequently seen feasting on chicken fingers and hot dogs at and after games.

The Suns brought coaches and players, including assistant Earl Watson, an ex-Blazers teammate who had a strong bond with Aldridge. Before moving into a conference room, everyone was saying hello, shaking hands and suddenly: There was one of the centers that Aldridge had requested.
“I could tell LaMarcus was confused, sort of like, ‘What’s he doing here? What’s going on?’ ” McDonough told Yahoo. “And then he realized what was happening.”

This changed everything in the process. Aldridge met with Eric Bledsoe and Brandon Knight. He studied the Suns’ roster, the salary cap space, and understood that a young center, Alex Len, would be the understudy to eventually replace the 33-year-old Chandler. McDonough made a convincing case to Aldridge about turning him into the face of the franchise, transforming the Valley of the Sun into his marketing platform.

“I get to the meeting, walk in and they have [Chandler] there,” Aldridge told Yahoo. “That spoke volumes about how serious they were about signing me – and how much they wanted to win.

“They went from just being an option to being at the top of my list.”

The Heat didn’t have the salary cap space to sign Aldridge, and Riley’s wish for Aldridge to sign a one-year deal with Portland and wait for the Heat’s space in 2016 was a most unappealing proposition. Nevertheless, Riley made a case to Aldridge that turned out to be an immense blessing for the franchise that had obliterated the Heat in the 2014 NBA Finals. As the idea of joining the Suns gained real momentum, Riley’s message would go a long, long way toward validating the Spurs’ cause. Truth be told, Riley’s words resonated as deeply with Aldridge as anyone’s in the process.

“He told me, ‘You’re a good player, but you can be great,’ ” Aldridge told Yahoo. “I’ve had good seasons on my own, but to win, you’ve got to have other big-time guys with you. When you have other guys who are willing to take that sacrifice with you – maybe you all go from averaging 23-24 points to 18-19 points – and you can all do it together.

“He was saying, ‘Hey, you might have to take a lesser role, but at the end of the day, you want to be known as a champion. Champions have to do different things.’ He brought up Chris Bosh, how he was averaging 21 in Toronto, and came to Miami, and people tried to say he wasn’t important. He told me, ‘We don’t win any of those championships rings without him,’ [and] that [Bosh] wouldn’t trade those rings for anything.

“Eventually, it becomes a road in your career, whether you have to decide whether you want to keep having these crazy stats, or do you want to win a championship?”

On the night of July 2, with Popovich returning for a lunch meeting the next day, Riley had delivered an unintended assist to the Spurs. He had turned Aldridge’s mind back toward San Antonio, setting the stage for Popovich to close the deal. “Yeah, the things [Riley] said were definitely more positive for me coming to San Antonio,” Aldridge told Yahoo.

84Cat wrote:Luke Walton NBA head coaching record: 16-0. Who would have thought in a million years that would happen?

Chicat wrote:

84Cat wrote:Luke Walton NBA head coaching record: 16-0. Who would have thought in a million years that would happen?

Stupid NBA rules though say his record is still 0-0.

Chicat wrote:Walton has an incredibly difficult job. How many defending champions come out the next season totally flat because of a collective feeling of accomplishment and having arrived? On top of that, being an assistant (and not a very vocal one at that), how easy would it have been for some of those guys to just tune him out?

Kudos to Steph, Klay, AI, Draymond, etc. for stepping up to the challenge, but so much credit has to flow Walton's way. The only question is, can he run his own system?

JMarkJohns wrote:It will be fun to see his evolution as a coach.

Chicat wrote:

JMarkJohns wrote:It will be fun to see his evolution as a coach.

Absolutely.

AND...

We may just get that Lute Olson coaching tree we've been yearning for to cement his all-time legacy.

scumdevils86 wrote:

Chicat wrote:

JMarkJohns wrote:It will be fun to see his evolution as a coach.

Absolutely.

AND...

We may just get that Lute Olson coaching tree we've been yearning for to cement his all-time legacy.

what...pastner and oneill didn't do it for you?

Merkin wrote:Kobe is dead last this season among volume (200+ shots) shooters in terms of FG effectiveness, 57th out of 57.