NBA Discussion Thread

[soybean]

Lebron shoulda went to the clippers. they couldve still got cp3 if he went there.

[MetSox17]

Originally Posted by soybean

So when's lebron gonna **** up danny granger. This is his 10th season, its time for him to get into his first official fist fight.

Never? He was born without a spine. He makes Kevin Garnett look tough.

[TheBoyWonder22]

In his defense, he did try to throw an elbow in there

[JoeJoeBrown]

Originally Posted by mqtirishfan

1) I didn't notice.

2) You missed some, suck it.

You know what he didn't miss? The top button of his polo.

[ShutDwn]

Originally Posted by Forenci

Celts had a sick bench. I don't care what anyone says. Having a good bench in the playoffs is essential. Especially when you can go 10 deep like the Pacers can. They may still lose because they lack a real closer but I wouldn't be surprised at all to see them win the series.

Most overplayed sentiment in all of sports. It's all hype, especially in basketball. They're professional players that have been doing this their entire lives. If you gave every player 100 shots at a buzzer beater, they'd all shoot their normal shooting percentage. But, if you give everyone one shot, only the players who make that one shot are deemed clutch? LOL.

A "closer" is a player that calls for a clear out, dribbles a bunch and then shoots a low percentage jumper. People love the highlights, but it's hardly a good play.

[fenikz]

I don't think that's entirely true, some players choke under pressure & some thrive

But truthfully the coaching is the most important, guys like Popovich put people in the right positions to win games(Horry, Bowen, Bonner, etc)

[Raiderz4Life]

Originally Posted by ShutDwn

Most overplayed sentiment in all of sports. It's all hype, especially in basketball. They're professional players that have been doing this their entire lives. If you gave every player 100 shots at a buzzer beater, they'd all shoot their normal shooting percentage. But, if you give everyone one shot, only the players who make that one shot are deemed clutch? LOL.

A "closer" is a player that calls for a clear out, dribbles a bunch and then shoots a low percentage jumper. People love the highlights, but it's hardly a good play.

That's false. I took a Sports Psychology class and plenty of studies show some people's performance worsens aka chokes in certain situatuons while others improve aka clutch

[ryno626]

Originally Posted by soybean

So when's lebron gonna **** up danny granger. This is his 10th season, its time for him to get into his first official fist fight.

Stephen A. Smith was saying today that LeBron's running crew has been rather vocal about them wishing it was a regular season game so he can retaliate against Granger without harming the team by getting tossed out of a game. lolz

[MidwayMonster31]

As far as closers go, it's not just the last second shot, it's people who can score on 2 or 3 straight possessions when you're holding on to a tiny lead. The Pacers have done a nice job of outplaying most teams for the first 3 quarters, but have had to hang on in the 4th quarter, rather than put them away (except for last night).
As far as that series goes, we all knew the Pacers frontcourt were going to give the Heat trouble, now without Bosh, that trouble is magnified. Hibbert and West had field days, while Hansborough did his thing too. Also without Bosh, they can just pack the lane on defense and turn Wade and James into jump shooters. If James isn't willing to go into the post, it could be trouble for them.
The other thing is that the Pacers have a deep, physical team and they want to get under the other teams' skin. The Bulls weren't having any of that last year, but we don't know how Miami will respond.

[Zycho32]

So then, about the 08 Celtics bench versus the Heat bench...

Has anyone noticed that the two benches were essentially assembled the same way? Maybe one or two that still remained from the original rosters pre-Big Three acquisition, but mainly they were cheap Free Agent signings. That's really the only way you can acquire additional talent once three players take on the vast majority of your team salary.

The difference isn't that Miami splurged cheaply for bench players(which is unavoidable), it's that they couldn't find the right ones. That's the point of my comment.

[Forenci]

Originally Posted by ShutDwn

Most overplayed sentiment in all of sports. It's all hype, especially in basketball. They're professional players that have been doing this their entire lives. If you gave every player 100 shots at a buzzer beater, they'd all shoot their normal shooting percentage. But, if you give everyone one shot, only the players who make that one shot are deemed clutch? LOL.

A "closer" is a player that calls for a clear out, dribbles a bunch and then shoots a low percentage jumper. People love the highlights, but it's hardly a good play.

I'm not as big on the whole "clutch" argument because I feel it's overplayed too. I didn't mean someone had to be clutch in order to be a closer. I just mean they lack someone who can consistently put up points in bunches at the end of the game.

Sometimes I feel clutch gets underplayed at the same time. There is always a psychological element to sports. Even though I enjoy using statistics quite a bit, there is always more to the game than simply stats. Some players are mentally tough, others are mentally weak. That will affect you during a game.

[Zycho32]

Originally Posted by ShutDwn

Most overplayed sentiment in all of sports. It's all hype, especially in basketball. They're professional players that have been doing this their entire lives. If you gave every player 100 shots at a buzzer beater, they'd all shoot their normal shooting percentage. But, if you give everyone one shot, only the players who make that one shot are deemed clutch? LOL.

A "closer" is a player that calls for a clear out, dribbles a bunch and then shoots a low percentage jumper. People love the highlights, but it's hardly a good play.

"They're professional players that have been doing this their entire lives." But they are also NOT robots who have had cookie-cutter assembly line careers from Grade School onwards. Every little regional sub-section of the country has an ever changing tapestry of talent affected at the individual level, which in turn effects how often any given player is going to encounter certain situations. And once High School is done with, that player's decisions will affect his make-up even further (which College do I go to? Do I want to go overseas instead and make money? If I could get into the NBA immediately, do I want to do that?)

"If you gave every player 100 shots at a buzzer beater, they'd all shoot their normal shooting percentage." Where would they take their shots? In the areas they are most comfortable shooting? In the areas where they are VERY uncomfortable shooting? Are they utterly open and un-marked? Do they have a scrub or a veteran or an Elite Defender against them? Do they have more than one person against them?

"But, if you give everyone one shot, only the players who make that one shot are deemed clutch?" This goes back to the Robots bit. Players are humans like you and me, though their athleticism would have you suspect differently, I'm sure. As such, they have mental and psychological pressures just like normal humans do. And the concept of 'Clutch' is really how well a player resists the psychological impairment of having to make a difficult play without any chance to do it over, and in front of over ten thousand people (as well as the millions watching you on television). This sort of stake really erodes your psychological confidence and in fact affects your ability to act to the point where yes you CAN fail miserably.

And countering that deficiency isn't just gaining experience over time, it's also the mental fortitude that you had to begin with. The fortitude that hopefully was cultivated from Grade School level and onwards. But there's no guarantee, no matter how many games you play, that fortitude will be developed.

[yo123]

I'm sorry, but if you don't think that clutch exists you never played competitive sports, especially basketball.

[Rob S]

Yup. Clutch absolutely exists. Un-clutch exists too. Hell, if you've ever played beer pong you know clutch exists for God sakes.

[thefalconer]

Originally Posted by Rob S

Yup. Clutch absolutely exists. Un-clutch exists too. Hell, if you've ever played beer pong you know clutch exists for God sakes.

truth. i'm clutch as **** in bp.

[ShutDwn]

Is it that the players are really more clutch? Or is that they are just better players in the first place?

The point is, give a good shooter a quality look and they have a decent chance of making it regardless of how clutch the media thinks they are. If a shooter is so nervous that he can't take a game winner, well, I don't think they should be a professional.

The players definitely believe in it though. Why else would Kobe settle for crappy looks.

[Rob S]

Originally Posted by ShutDwn

Is it that the players are really more clutch? Or is that they are just better players in the first place?

The point is, give a good shooter a quality look and they have a decent chance of making it regardless of how clutch the media thinks they are. If a shooter is so nervous that he can't take a game winner, well, I don't think they should be a professional.

The players definitely believe in it though. Why else would Kobe settle for crappy looks.

There are reasons why the best players are generally "clutch players". However, some clearly enjoy/excel in the moment more than others.

[MaxV]

This is funny.


ESPN.com poll ask which team people are rooting for in the Pacers-Heat series. Every state picked Indy. Even in Florida it was 50-50.


http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/fp/fl...ollId= 139629


Either Pacers are very liked or Heat is very hated.

[Nalej]

Big Shot Rob was not a better player to begin with

[MetSox17]

Originally Posted by yo123

I'm sorry, but if you don't think that clutch exists you never played competitive sports, especially basketball.

This a hundred times over.

[Rob S]

Originally Posted by Nalej

Big Shot Rob was not a better player to begin with

He is the exception to the rule and a truly unique example. As for the Celtics though, I like Pierce in the clutch quite a bit.

[ATLDirtyBirds]

Knicks. (10 char)

[Raiderz4Life]

Originally Posted by Rob S

He is the exception to the rule and a truly unique example. As for the Celtics though, I like Pierce in the clutch quite a bit.

In my sports psych class, our professor was telling us how that happens when players don't reach peak stimulation or arousal during the game but when crunch time hits they begin to peak.

[Jvig43]

Why is there a woman narrating my basketball?

[BuckeyeDan17]

Philly is unstoppable with a 12 point first quarter.