See the additional editorial notes at the end for more details about late postings and how they are not going to be a problem any longer.
FROM APRIL 29 2009 DURING THE DAY, BEFORE THE NUGGETS WON GAME FIVE 107-86 AND WON THE SERIES FOUR GAMES TO ONE
The Hornets winning a game is already a lot better than getting swept.
Look at the Pistons after their stupid trade of Chauncey Billups for Iverson, they could not even come close to winning a game. Moral: try to avoid the temptation to start your rebuilding too soon!
If the Hornets can win tonight it is a whole new series. Then it's back to NOLA for the Hornets to tie the series up.
Yes, I know this is supposed to be impossible. But this is not impossible. The Hornets can win this game. When the Nuggets are unable to pour it on defensively they can be very, very bad. For example, the Nuggets lost to the New Jersey Nets by 30 points this season. This is not the Lakers or the Cavaliers we are talking about; this is a crude, one-dimensional defensive type of team.
The Nuggets have a sorry *** excuse for an offense and they can be held to about 90 points without much trouble, as the Hornets did in game 3 and as, if all else fails, the Lakers will be doing.
FROM APRIL 29 2009 DURING THE DAY, BEFORE THE NUGGETS WON GAME FIVE 107-86 AND WON THE SERIES FOUR GAMES TO ONE
Posted by West Coast Hornet
It's impossible. Even if Hornets win, the series is over. The only exception I would consider making is that if the team shows nothing but fire from the 58 point blowout and goes on a massive tear.
What do you think the chances of that are? I'd give it 0.5%.
RALLYING THE HORNETS FANS FOR GAME 5, WITH THE NUGGETS LEADING THE SERIES 3-1...
It's possible if the Hornets are so sick of being disrupted and roughed up to some extent by the Nuggets that they are not going to allow many stupid turnovers and poor shot selections anymore. It's possible if the referees see the Nuggets as the Thuggets and decide to call a close game. It's possible if D West, Peja S, and Posey all have good games to go along with CP3. It's possible if Chauncey Billups is not the miracle man he was in games 1 and 2.
It is possible.
The Nuggets are too simple a team to say that the odds are such and such so the game is not worth watching. It could be anything from another blowout to a 10 point Hornets win.
Of course, if the Hornets would rather not win, I'm sure the Nuggets will be happy about that, but I highly doubt that will be the case.
Remember earlier this season the Hornets were looking toward playing the Lakers in the West finals. And until and unless the Nuggets win game 4 the Hornets can still have that as the goal.
FROM APRIL 29 2009 DURING THE DAY, BEFORE THE NUGGETS WON GAME FIVE 107-86 AND WON THE SERIES FOUR GAMES TO ONE
When almost everyone expects you to lose, but you win, that's the sweetest kind of win. And one that will be remembered for many, many years...
FROM APRIL 29 2009 DURING THE DAY, BEFORE THE NUGGETS WON GAME FIVE 107-86 AND WON THE SERIES FOUR GAMES TO ONE
I'd like to see CP3 and CB4 on the same team, there's the Championship nucleus you need.
Anyways, what I would like to know about the Hornets is, before T Chandler had his injury problems, how good of a man to man defender was he? Because every team needs at least one very good man to man defender big man, but also a very good big man scoring threat. Unfortunately, centers and PFs who are both are in very short supply, so most teams have to coordinate the 4-spot and the 5-spot and make sure they have at least one of each, with the scorer at least a decent defender and the defender at least a decent scorer.
I'm thinking the basketball reason why the Hornets wanted to trade away Chandler was that he was not regarded as a good enough man to man defender given the defending limitations of D West. Am I on the right track?
West qualifies as the scoring threat, though he has to have a more varied shot selection than was seen in this playoff series. And obviously he can not be afraid to bang the rim. I'm not qualified really to say much about West' defending.
I will caution everyone here to not make judgments on how good your players' defending is based on this playoff series, because the Nuggets offense, when it is working, with a lot of easy in transition scoring and a lot of drives to the rim for fouls or layups, is designed to avoid giving the opportunity for the other team to man to man defend.
But again, you need a new, younger big man to go with CP3; Chris Bosh will do nicely. Or Boozer would be nice for your team.
FROM APRIL 29 2009 DURING THE DAY, BEFORE THE NUGGETS WON GAME FIVE 107-86 AND WON THE SERIES FOUR GAMES TO ONE
Posted by redhornet
I guess this goes without saying, but you clearly have no clue what you're talking about. You're a Lakers fan in Nuggets clothing. You're blog has AI on it's front page and you think the only way for Carmelo Anthony team to win is for him to be more selfish. You should log onto eBay and buy yourself a clue.
The Nuggets offense has so many weapons it's sick and when they are on and playing together they can hang with anyone. The Hornets unfortunately are done.
Fascinating, how did you know about my site when I have not and will not post its address here? Almost shocking, actually, considering my site is still new really and has relatively light traffic.
I've never been a Lakers fan but guess what? The Nuggets have ticked me off for the last time. I will probably be in effect a Lakers fan next year.
I started out as a Nuggets site and expanded to two teams this season, but this year's approach ended up being editorially kind of goofy quite honestly. Especially when the Pistons and their stupid rookie coach imploded so badly.
So I am now refocusing my site again, hopefully this time for good. Overall, I'm going to spend most of my time covering the NBA playoffs, with little time spent on the regular season.
I'll be reviewing the Spring playoff games, series, teams, and players all the way from when the playoff games are played until about mid-December. With any luck I will be able to break down every single playoff game. Also, for the first time, I'll have playoff Real Player and Real Team Ratings.
Then from mid-December until mid-April, I'll be focused on two teams as described below, and also I'll be making generalized predictions about which teams and which players are most likely to win upcoming playoff games.
I will still have team specializations, most likely two of them still, but they will no longer be completely my free choice. Starting next year, I will be covering in the greatest detail the defending Champion and whoever is considered most likely to challenge them.
No more I'm absolutely sure of this in January and I don't care about injuries type predictions, laugh out loud.
Never again will I be caught predicting a playoff loss long before the season is over. But for the record, the "official ESPN Nuggets blogger," also predicted that the Nuggets would lose their playoff series at one point, as did probably most of the other Nuggets bloggers at one time or another during the season.
AI on the banner? Unfortunately it was just a dream that Allen Iverson would ever fit into a team. I thought he might even though I wrote the book on why he doesn't fit into teams. What can I say? If you never dream life and sports are boring.
AI will soon be replaced on the front page, but the ultimate article(s) on AI will be produced sometime before this year is out. To make a very long story short, he was cheated out of the best chance to win a Championship by various decisions, teams, and Coaches.
As you yourself can see with your own eyes, the Nuggets are in theory offensively loaded even without Iverson, so why did they only have about the 9th best offense in the NBA when Allen Iverson was on the team? And what's your theory of why the Nuggets had no offense to speak of in the Lakers series last year if you disagree with the explanations on my site?
As for Carmelo Anthony, you understand what I am saying but you sure are using a nasty way of saying it, laugh out loud.
No, seriously, all I have said, and backed up with facts, several times on my site, is that I don't understand why Carmelo Anthony should be treated by his coaches completely differently from the way other NBA scoring leaders have been treated over the years.
Where has anyone proved that you can win a hoops Championship fairly easily without a scoring superstar? I'm afraid it's much easier to win a Championship with a scoring superstar than without one. Nor can you say that if you have a scoring superstar you can not still have good offensive balance, good offensive chemistry, and great playmaking. You can have all of that, and most of the Championship teams did have all of that to one degree or another.
If you are right and I'm wrong, if in other words Carmelo Anthony had to reduce his shooting and scoring to be able to ever win a Championship, then why is it that Phil Jackson has not often complained, in public at least, and probably not in private either, about Kobe Bryant "not being a well rounded player" because he wants to shoot a lot and score a lot? Why hasn't Dwyane Wade's coach over and over complained about him not getting enough rebounds or defensive stops? Why hasn't LeBron James' coach often complained about him not making enough rebounds or blocks? Why hasn't Ray Allen's coach commonly complained about him not getting enough rebounds or assists?
Why does Carmelo Anthony have to be the only player I know of who ever led the NBA in scoring but has been repeatedly trashed in public as a player who is "not well rounded" and who will "never rise to the Championship level unless his game is changed." And then now he has changed his game, but now this year he was not a good jump shooter for the first time since his rookie year! What exactly is all this about, if not bad coaching, Einstein?
No one would argue with any Coach getting Melo to defend better, and I credit George Karl for accomplishing it. What is off the deep and is saying that Carmelo's offensive game had to be reworked. That was and is about as off the deep end as the Nuggets' 2009 offense in general, laugh out loud.
And before you answer, just so you know, were George Karl in charge of Nuggets' trades, Carmelo Anthony would not be playing for the Nuggets right now, because Karl wanted to trade Anthony to (I am reasonably sure the Nets) last summer, but that was vetoed by Nuggets management.
Further, Team USA was very glad that Carmelo Anthony likes to score the ball and that he is generally extremely good at it if you encourage him rather than discourage him. And so was Syracuse University and Olympics Coach Jim Boeheim, who has been publicly critical of how the Nuggets have managed themselves while Carmelo Anthony has been assigned to them.
Selfish my ass.
========== Editorial Notes ==========
--The above was written in late April, 2009.
--As promised, we are finally posting material written and posted on forums in the spring. Obviously, if you have your own site, you should be posting at least simultaneously on your own site when you for whatever reason post elsewhere. But there has been a bad habit of not doing so, a bad habit that is being beaten down due to new content sharing regulations that have teeth.
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