JR

If Tim Duncan does win a 5th ring this season, where would you rank these 3 players (with 5 rings) on the All-Time Greatest Player List?

Magic, Duncan, Kobe

Please state your reasons why to validate your answers. Thanks.

Coming from the South Bay, I know that traffic will be a lot more congested than traveling to Oakland. On the plus side, there will be more places to go, things to do before/after the game. I'm not sure if the suggested stadium area (Pier 31/32 arena or Piers 30/32) will be walking distance from the Embarcadero Bart Station as compared to the one in Oakland.

Do you think that this move will benefit the Warrior's fan base and the organization's ability to attract/retain quality free agents? Thoughts?

How exactly does a zipcar process work? Is it actually a better option than renting a car because they actually sound the same? It does sound like renting a zipcar may cost more than a rental. Does anyone have any info. on this?

1) The players, who are requested for a fair bargaining in good faith from the owners. They've lowered their BRI split from 57% down to 53% but the owners want a full even split.

2) The owners, who claim they are losing money, due to bad contracts and the economic downturn. They are the employers who take all the business risk and it's rare that an employee's voice can be on par with the owner in any work environment.

Thoughts?

The Rams gave up a 6th (or maybe 5th) round draft in the 2012 draft for a Pro Bowler and Denver's best receiver. The Niners could of used an established veteran like Lloyd to provide leadership and show the ropes for guys like Crabtree. Thoughts?

Now before you bring up all the rings and accolades that MJ and the Bulls have accomplished, this question wasn't meant to put the Heat on the same pedestal....... yet. The way the Heat's team was assembled to not having a game changing big men makes them different from the many previous championship teams like the Spurs, Lakers, and Celtics.

In fact, only 1 team (as I recall) has ever had success using this formula. This Miami team focuses on defense led by 2 special wing players (Wade and James) who happens to play on both ends of the floor, which was the same recipe that made Jordan and Pippen successful during the 90's.

Now I'm not saying that Wade or James is ready to walk into MJ's footsteps with the other guy playing Pippen's sidekick role but you can't deny the similarities. This Miami Heat team could actually have 2 Alpha type players with LeBron and Wade each taking turns dominating, where one starts the game and the other finishes it. Both players have proven they were capable of carrying a team on their own before they came together.

So my question is:

1) How would you compare Wade & LBJ to Jordan & Pippen from an athletic standpoint and skillsets?

2) If the Heat actually beat the Bulls in this series, will the comparison between the current Miami team and the 1980-90's Bulls become even more relevant?

A question was recently posted about a comparison between LeBron and Carmelo when I think it would be more suitable to compare the Durantula and the Melo Man. So how would you rank the skillsets between KD and Carmelo?

Mid-Range Shot -

3-Point Shooting -

Dribbling -

Passing -

Post Moves -

Quickness -

Penetration Ability -

Defense -

Clutch Performance -

Durability -

Plays With More Heart -

Basketball IQ -

Scoring Ability -

I was watching NBA T.V. yesterday when they were discussing a question posed by a fan asking, "Should LeBron be voted MVP this year because of how bad the Cavs are doing?"

Then one of the T.V. analyst (not sure if it was Brent Barry, Kevin McHale, or Dennis Scott) said that LeBron should get consideration for that and then Dennis Scott said, "but the 2011 Miami Heat would not finish this season with a better record than the 2010 Cavs". This comment begs the following questions:

1) How could a team with combination of superstars (Wade, James, and Bosh) not have as much success as a team built around LeBron last year?

2) Was last year's Cavs team a fluke or is this year's Miami team overrated?

BQ: How much consideration should LeBron get for MVP with the way the Cavs have been falling off the face of the earth this year?

Thoughts?

They both took over a struggling Chicago franchise and turned them around. They were able to get the most out of their players but most importantly, they turned the Bulls into a defensive powerhouse. Only difference is, Tom doesn't have the rings yet but his future outlook does seem promising. Thoughts?

or are the Cleveland Cavaliers a bunch of D-League'rs without him?

24th straight loss ties their own record for most consecutive regular season losses and counting...

2 years in a row, he picks a white dude over more deserving players as a replacement for an injured All-Star. Last year, it was David Lee and this year it's Kevin Love. I won't nitpick the David Lee selection last season because the East lacks big men depth but picking Kevin Love over LaMarcus Aldridge and Zach Randolph, who's team have better records and are in playoff contention in a competitive Western Conference?

It's a bunch of B/S when players like them along with Monta, Odom, and and David West are left off the team. What ever happened to team success playing a major role in determining a player's All-Star status? Even the Western Conference coaches knew better than corporate money grubber David Stern. If you ask me, the team success criteria sounds more like a barrier to entry unless you're white.

That would be a trip. It would sure piss off Laker fans and confuse long time Celtic followers.

There was an article on Yahoo that has listed Kobe @ #1, Durant @ #2, and James @ #5, while Wade was left off the list.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=AsoxEfJgdovl...

Do you agree or disagree?

BQ: Who are your top 10 suggestions for the regular season MVP list?

Jason Kidd recently said that when superstar players join forces on one team, it hurts the NBA in terms of revenue that is loss when a team loses their main star.

"Well, I think we would love to spread everybody out. We had 10 or 15 of the top players on separate teams, where guys were coming into town and they could sell tickets. It's not going to be easy for teams to sell tickets in Cleveland or Toronto now because those guys aren't on the team. I think everybody can say Miami will sell out wherever they go all year, but that hurts the NBA in the sense of selling tickets. It's just for them to go West, teams are only going to see them once, and then on the East coast they only go there twice, so it may be disappointing on that aspect but when you talk about just straight basketball it will be interesting and fun to watch."

However, I'd like to offer a counter perspective to Kidd's analogy. When a team loses a star player, it opens up the door for another player to grow. Teams may suffer for a season or 2 but they could quickly turn things around by drafting a potential star rookie like John Wall, sign another big name free agent, or make a trade. Before you know it, they could be back in the limelight. In the long run, the NBA will have more quality players in the league because of the increased opportunities.

If Kevin Durant was drafted by Portland instead of OKC, would he have became the superstar he is today? Or would he settle for a 3rd string fiddles behind Roy and Aldridge? With NBA teams focused on building around their main stars, sometimes, there isn't much touches for younger players to develop. Gerald Wallace became an All-Star because he benefited from playing for an expansion Bobcats team instead of being buried at the end of the Sacramento bench.

Who knows. Maybe LeBron's absence could open the door for JJ Hickson to become an All-Star. Or maybe the Cavs will hit rock bottom next year and win the lottery where they can draft Harrison Barnes to replace the King.

Anything can happen and if the rumors are true about Melo and CP3 joining forces in New York, that will leave a void in Denver that could be filled by another young up-n-coming player. Chris Paul's absence will give Darren Collison the opportunity to become one of the best young point guards in the league.

What do you think?

This is far from a done deal but as of now, it looks like this 3-way trade could happen.

Phoenix gets: Hedo Turkoglu

Charlotte gets: Jose Calderon and Reggie Evans

Toronto gets: Leandro Barbosa, Boris Diaw, and Tyson Chandler

Toronto replaces Calderon with Barbosa and Bosh with Diaw/Chandler. Charlotte replaces Raymond Felton with Calderon. Trading Diaw away opens the door for Tyrus Thomas. Phoenix makes up for the loss of Amare with another scorer in Turkoglu.

So my question is:

Which team do you think gets the best deal?

Who do you think will benefit the most from this trade?

Which team do you think benefited the least or may have taken a step backward because of this deal?

The Jazz might not be so bad next season since it looks like they will be using the 14 million dollar trade exception they've gained from the Boozer sign and trade to acquire Al Jefferson from Minnesota. Al is a more talented post player than Booz but he doesn't have the shooting range further away from the basket that Carlos has.

Do you think AJ's presence in Utah will make the Jazz a better team?

Or will it just return them to the 50+ win team they were before?

Or will they not be as good as last season?

Thoughts?

I hear that Minnesota is trying to get rid of Al Jefferson.

Carmelo Anthony will be a free agent next summer and he may wait until then to determine whether he'll resign with Denver. Therefore, Denver may have the incentive to trade Melo and Cleveland certainly has competent pieces to trade for him. Same goes for Chris Paul and Tony Parker.

The Indiana Pacers are open to trading Danny Granger for the right price.

If Rudy Gay doesn't live up to his fat contract, he could find himself on the trading block by mid-season. Same could go for Joe Johnson.

Since Dan Gilbert lashed out in public at LeBron, claiming that Cleveland will get it's first championship before the King, which NBA star do you think would be the best fit to help the Cavs escape the dark age of King James?

Chris Paul recently attended Carmelo Anthony's wedding in New York. During his toast to the newlyweds, he made a prediction regarding a new Big 3 trio coming soon to the Knicks.

"According to a person who spoke with wedding attendee Amar'e Stoudemire, Paul made the reference during a speech of a potential union of himself, Stoudemire and Anthony, saying, "We'll form our own Big 3," Paul allegedly said."

Can this new trio of Paul-Melo-Amare challenge or be even more dominant than the Miami 3 Kings of Wade-LeBron-Bosh? What do you think?

There have been talks that NBA owners will get together and determine what really took place during the 2010 NBA Free Agency and before that.

" NBA owners will meet on Monday and are likely to discuss concerns over the Heat's path to landing LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade. It's unclear what the issues might be, but there has been plenty of chatter about player-to-player collusion and, perhaps, tampering. Chris Bosh even said that the trio had been talking for "months" before quickly correcting himself and saying "days". "

My question is:

1) What are the possibilities of the owners determining if there was a collusion taking place between the players? If possible, can these teams take it to court action against the players who left (like Bosh and James) for these preplanned partnerships or at least, file a grievance with the NBA?

2) Can NBA owners put enough pressure on the league to install policies to prevent a similar situation from happening again in the future or possibly mandate some type of criteria in player's contracts to give the home team more control in which destination their superstars can go to in the future?

There was a rumor floating around that suggested there was a pact going on between James and Wade. The deal supposedly was if Cleveland would have won a title then Wade would have had to bolt to Cleveland and leave Miami hanging.

However, if the Cavs didn't win (and they obviously didn't) then LeBron would have to join Wade in South Beach. The fact that King James took his jersey off after the final game in Boston may have also foreshadowed his final game as a Cavalier.

How much truth is there to this rumor? Thoughts?