(Plowman and dobro1229 square off in food court area of Toyota Center) PLOWMAN: See? Rubio's still in play. You can bet Morey is talking to Flip right now. DOBRO1229: I told you, shut up about that s***. I asked you nicely, now I'm not feelin' so nice. PLOWMAN: You cynical turd! DOBRO1229: "Turd", hunh? Cynical, am I? You gullible dork! PLOWMAN: Hey, I'm no "dork", and I am not "gullible"! DOBRO1229: PLOWMAN: (in unison) You feeling froggy, go ahead and jump! (Insert "Adam West" BATMAN TV show sound effects here) KAPPOW! BOP! KERRAAAAANG! PLOWMAN: (huff huff) How I hate you! (grabs dobro in headlock) DOBRO1229: (gasp gasp) What is it (stomps Plow's foot, gouges his eyes) with this Rubio fixation? ROXTXIA: (runs up to other BBS'ers who splurged for the game) You aren't gonna believe this! Plow and dobro are kicking the crap out of each other! (BBS'ers rush to scene and egg on their favorites, as if dobro and Plow were Sergeants Elias and Barnes) BBS'ers: FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! The Po-Po (Houston 5-0): All right, you two, break it up, you're outta here! (later, dobro and Plow sitting at bar, battered and bruised, watching second half on big screen TV) PLOWMAN: I'm sorry I called you a cynical turd. DOBRO1229: I'm sorry I called you a gullible dork. (they clink beers) DOBRO1229: PLOWMAN: (in unison) GO ROCKETS!
From Zach Lowe's '33 Crazy Predictions for the NBA Season' 2. Boston will keep Rajon Rondo and trade Jeff Green. Spoiler Gather all the intel you’d like, and this will still be a borderline 50/50 guess on both guys. Boston has gauged the market for both over the last year or so, and its expected price for Rondo has been sky-high, per several league sources. That price will drop as Rondo’s deal ticks toward expiration, but the market for him is thin. Point guard is stacked leaguewide, and Rondo is 28, coming off ACL surgery, and seeking a max contract as he approaches free agency. A few suitors could wait to chase him in the offseason instead of dealing assets now and risking that Rondo walks in July. If Boston wants a big haul, it has to hope a potential Rondo suitor feels some unexpected desperation early in the season. Houston is under pressure to win now, and if it starts slowly, Daryl Morey might swallow hard and meet Boston in the middle. Rondo and James Harden make for an awkward fit, but talent tends to work itself out, and the Rockets are confident they can re-sign stars once they get them. Sacramento has outsize expectations after Rudy Gay and DeMarcus Cousins won gold with Team USA, and any owner with outsize expectations is an explosive wild card. The Kings have three point guards, including two free agents they signed this summer, but they will soon realize their team just isn’t very good. Depending on what happens with Rudy Gay, a Rondo pal, the Kings might not have enough cap space to chase Rondo in free agency — building an urgency to trade for him now. There are other theoretical fits, but none that has the required combination of trade assets, devil-may-care boldness, and confidence in winning the Rondo free-agency game.(1) If a frothy market doesn’t materialize, the Celtics might resign themselves to keeping Rondo in hopes that the extra year they can offer in free agency coaxes him to return at a price below the max. Rondo is a flawed, temperamental player, but he’s a pass-first star who could work as bait for an alpha dog. Without him, Boston is just a collection of unmolded pieces waiting for a unifying force, playing the lottery in the meantime. Green has a player option for 2015-16, meaning he may be working on a de facto expiring contract. His price will come down as the season moves along, but Boston might be willing to accept a diminished return. He’s a likable guy with more fans across the league than you might expect, and he can split minutes between the two forward positions. We know now that Green isn’t a primary offensive option, but he has become a good spot-up shooter, he runs the floor, and he’s a nice secondary threat. He can attack gaps in the defense, provided a teammate cracks them open first. New Orleans and Washington have obvious needs on the wing, and both have sniffed around Green in the past. But the Pelicans have already traded a bundle of first-round picks, and the Wiz are just $1.5 million below the tax without an obvious midrange salary to move in exchange. The Raptors have bad memories of Joe Johnson bulldozing them in the post, and they have all their own picks, plus the midsize expiring deals linked to Landry Fields and Chuck Hayes. Atlanta and Detroit could use a boost on the wing, and it’s easy to see Green fitting as a hybrid forward in both Houston and New York. Denver’s roster seems ripe for a trade, though the Nuggets are crowded on the wing. Green could fit in lots of places. If Boston doesn’t view him as a long-term core piece, he’ll be easy to move. (1) One that keeps coming up in chats with team execs outside of Boston and Phoenix: Would the Suns deal Eric Bledsoe for Rondo? Ryan McDonough, the Suns’ GM, loves Rondo and pushed Boston to draft him in 2006. The Suns are set to be capped out, meaning they could not simply sign Rondo in free agency. But they have three quality point guards, all younger than Rondo, and giving up a player like Bledsoe is just too risky without any assurance that Rondo stays long-term. 10. Philly will sniff out Michael Carter-Williams deals. Spoiler They tried hard during the draft, but they couldn’t draw the trove they envisioned or guarantee that the player they wanted with an acquired pick would be there, per several league sources. Expect Philly to repeat the exercise. It’s not a shot at Carter-Williams, or even a signal that the Sixers are dying to trade him. He may well end up a long-term cog in Philly. The team knows point guard is the most replaceable position in the league today, and it will seek out any deal that adds to its stockpile of high-value draft picks. 13. The trade deadline will be … dead. Spoiler This queasy feeling may change after the Board of Governors meets next week. They’ll emerge with a clearer salary-cap projection for 2015-16 and 2016-17 and lift some of the fog in which NBA executives feel they are operating. Still: The league is like the wild, wild west right now. No one is quite sure what path the cap will take, and uncertainty can breed caution; no one wants to make a move that looks silly two years later. Only one surefire first-round pick changed hands around the last two trade deadlines combined, and though picks have moved more freely at other times, pick-hoarding in February may dampen the deadline again. First-round picks are even more valuable in the wake of the new national TV deal. Rookie-scale contracts are set in stone through 2020-21, meaning salaries for young guys won’t jump as fast as other contracts in proportion to the rising cap. Veteran contracts are shorter than ever; teams aren’t interested in dealing valuable assets for a guy who can walk four months later. 19. The Jazz will extend Alec Burks, but not Enes Kanter. Spoiler Extension talks are in chaos as teams and agents wait for the league to provide salary cap clarity. Teams might be eager to lock in long-term deals that will morph into bargains, but agents are wary of signing long-term contracts for the same reason. Being known for signing an under-market contract is bad for luring future clients. As a wing player who has mostly come off the pine, Burks might settle more readily for a compromise number. Kanter is a big man with bigger dreams, and the Jazz have Derrick Favors and Rudy Gobert on the roster. The Magic and Hornets are working on their own extensions with Nikola Vucevic, Tobias Harris, and Kemba Walker, but those talks might come down to the wire. 21. Al Horford’s name will enter trade talks. Spoiler It happened in stealth mode last season, when the Hawks reached out to a select group and made it known that Horford could be had for the right price — including an unprotected 2014 first-round pick, per several league sources. Nothing materialized, and Horford is ready to return from another torn pectoral muscle. A healthy Horford is a top-20 player on a below-market contract that runs through 2015-16 — long enough that some team could talk itself into gambling on him. He could net a hefty return for the Hawks, who have been happily skipping down the “pretty good with cap room” path under Danny Ferry. They have worked to stay competitive, in hopes that they’ll eventually sign a star into that cap space and vault from “pretty good” to something better.5 Stars have rebuffed Atlanta’s money, and the ugly Luol Deng controversy did not enhance the team’s appeal. New owners over the last half-decade have green-lit some aggressive teardowns. The Hawks don’t have a new owner yet, and as long as Mike Budenholzer is running the front office, they are unlikely to make any trade that represents a present-day step back. If the ownership situation changes before the deadline, there’s no telling what stance the Hawks might take with Horford, Jeff Teague, or anyone else. Teams will inquire about Horford either way.
Lol. I have no idea what that was about but it's pretty damn funny. I always saw myself as more of an Sgt. Elias guy, but I guess nobody really sees themselves as a murderous prick.
Re Zach Lowes predictions: I've said this before, if there is a chance that a big comes available like Horford, than I think the right move is to definitely hold off on a slight PG upgrade you are going to get with someone like Rubio or whomever. Basketballhollic loves to use the term variance. There is no greater variance this team is going to find than if they are somehow able to net a big like Bosh, Horford, etc. that can play alongside Dwight, and be on the floor when Dwight is not on the floor. I know everyone is fixated on Rubio and Rondo right now, but this is why I've told everyone to slow their role a little bit. The Rockets can create much more "variance" in another potential move that could come available in a few months time. Patience my friends.
The greatest VARIANCE this team could come up with is a guy like Durant at the 4 spot playing alongside Rubio, Harden, Ariza, and Dwight. Horford is another over-rated big who doesn't have 3-point shooting range and is most effective grinding in the paint.
Horford is one of those guys whose so good at the mid range, that the need to force him out to the 3 point line isn't really worth it, the guy shot more 16-23 footers than at rim shots in his injury shortened season, that's hardly a paint grinder.
Look... The Horford/Millsap thing was just an example. However, the claim that someone made about Horford being a grinder couldn't be further from the truth. Go look at his shot chart. He's actually a better shooter from mid range in some spots than LaMarcus Aldridge. He's that good at the mid-range shot. When you are that elite at the mid-range shot, its absolutely considered a great shot by people in analytics. Its efficiency they are looking for at the end of the day. Ask Morey if he'd want Dirk or LMA as well. Horford is that good at shooting for mid range. Horford: http://stats.nba.com/playerShotchart.html?PlayerID=201143 LMA: http://stats.nba.com/playerShotchart.html?PlayerID=200746 Horford absolutely spreads the floor. Maybe not out to the 3 point line, but he doesn't need to. In the high P&R, and in the Horns sets(probably what you'd see him in with Dwight), he's absolutely deadly at the range he will be at in those sets. Anyways, we don't have to discuss whether YOU or WHOMEVER think Horford is better than Rubio or whatever player you fantasize about. The only point I'm trying to make is to NOT BOX YOURSELF IN to one particular position because Morey sure as hell isn't doing that I'm pretty damn sure.
Again you don't need a 3 point shooting power forward to win a nba championship. Horford can hit the mid range shot, very good rebounder and a pretty good defensive player. Oh and he isn't bad from the foul line. He can also plays center when Howard gets in foul trouble or when we are giving the big fella a breather.
Al Horford has shot a measly 45.3% from 3 feet to 23 feet for his career. That's his shooting percentage for his career on every shot he's taken outside of the protected area and the 3 point line. That is the equivalent of a 30.2% 3-point shooter. Horford is NOT a great midrange shooter.
