He was amazing and played great D. The glove. Speaking of GP. Here....

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ba...1742--nba.html

I love Chuck. Loved him then love him now.

He is clearly the best two way PG in the league. I like Westbrook a lot but he isnt in Paul's league as a playmaker but who in the NBA really is considering Nash is finished? Really Westbrook, Rose, Lillard, Wall arent true PG's but more of combo guards.

I dont think Paul is clearly the best anything. How is he clearly better then Westbrook or Curry? I could fire some stats out, but you already know them.

The team has flaws that we have talked about and I said earlier in this thread that they should have worried more about getting better defensively with a player, not a coach. But Del negro probably set an NBA record for not having a TO left at the end of the game to advance the ball during his run as Bulls and Clippers coach. He lived a long time off of his 1st year improbable series with the Bulls against Boston. Made Ben Gordon rich which effectively ruined him lol.

Paul is a more complete player. Curry is a huge negative 1/2 the game. Westbrook takes far too many bad shots.

There isnt GM or coach in the league that isnt taking Paul at PG if they need to win one game. The advanced stats on Paul are crazy good. His PER's dwarf those two guys. In roughly the same amount of games Curry has 157 turnovers and Paul has 85. Thats a lot especially for the guy running the show

I remember the first time I saw him play. I was at U of AZ and Oregon State came into town and Payton was just great that night. This was 1987 I think and we had no internet and West Coast games were hardly ever on except when UCLA played someone. I saw this guy who was the best player on the floor playing against a team with 4 future NBA players that was going to the Final 4 that year and I hadnt ever even heard of him. AZ won because Oregon state wasnt that good but he just dominated Kerr and wound up guarding Elliot who was half a foot bigger than him.

2nd lowest payroll in the league next to the Sixers. Have a ton of cap space moving forward too. They only have 39 million committed for next year if all the guys exercise options (Channing Frye-6.8 million)
Plus they have 3 extra 1st rounders this year as well as their own in a loaded draft. If MN and Washington make the playoffs and MN doesnt have the worst record among playoff teams which seems impossible considering the East they will be huge players this off season. Plus they have the Lakers 1st round pick next year hich is only top 3 protected and its unlikely the Lakers are one of the 3 worst teams in the league next year.

Hopefully Bledsoe can come back 100% and they add some talent in the draft or via trades using some of the extra picks and they can be damn good soon.

A PG that has a lot more assists and lot less turnovers doesnt need much more.

Was he as good a trash talker back then too? The only way you really got to hear of lesser known players back then was through a Sports Illustrated article or something, and usually most articles were centered on the top teams in the country.

Melo up to his old tricks right now. 17 points on 18 shots.....
As they are down 7 to the Bobcats.

Oh yeah. That was when you could talk a lot more than now too.

I agree. I really thought they were done and tanking when they moved Gortat to Washington just prior to the season starting. The way the West is currently, it won't be a surprise to see Phoenix in the mix as one of the better teams in the conference in the next few years with the right additions. It's always good to see teams who play hard be rewarded.

I guess the Knicks little run is over. Melo tonight 20 points, 21 shots.
They get blasted tonight, and they will get blasted Thursday night in Indiana.

hater

Listen, we should come together. Our team is #1.
Seriously though, before the season I said I prefer Houston and Golden St in the West. Golden St is on fire right now, no one says a word about them. The Knicks are 15-23 and because they won a few games in a row its news?

He is better on D than Westbrook? The position has evolved. Paul is more traditional, doesn't make him better.

Chris Paul is the best PG on the Earth. This is an eminently defensible position by virtually any manner.

I think Westbrook is great. Love his intensity. However he simply isn't as good a player as Chris Paul is. But Westbrook can have questionable clock management, he takes bad shots, he gambles on defense and often can be caught out of position and he commits a lot of unforced turnovers. Paul rarely has any of these issues. His only real weakness is his 3 point shooting can be streaky both ways.

The position can evolve or change or whatever but the guy handling the ball the most who has way more assists and way less turnovers is the better player.

You are the Earlie Fires of internet boards. Loves to jump on the front runners....

The Rockets simply don't belong in the conversation about being one of the West's best teams. And I'm a Rockets fan.

They are 25-14. They have beat Golden St 2x, Portland once and they crushed San Antonio.... Glad its simple for you.

Right now they are looking at Portland 1st rd and OKC 2nd both who are tremendous home teams who will have home court advantage.

A little clarification. The horses BECAME front runners once Fires got on board.

We'll see how Portland does later in the season. This is a team who closed out last season on an 0-13 run.

They've also been obliterated twice by the Clippers, pounded by the Westbrook-less Thunder, and beaten twice by Dallas.

In terms of teams they're supposed to beat, they've lost twice to Sacramento, once to Utah, once to Philadelphia, and once to the Lakers. They're 13-11 vs. the West and 9-9 against teams with winning records. They have great potential, but to consider them a team that can win the West right now is over the edge.

Not even close to the same team

They added one starter in Lopez, and Mo Williams off the bench. The other 4 starters were there last year. The Blazers got off to a great start, out playing expectations going 18-6 against the number. Since? 3-10 ATS. Its a long season, and teams who are in the bottom half of FG % defense don't usually last long in the post season.

You said the team who closed out the season at 0-13 last year. Aldridge, Batum and Matthews missed a lot of those games. When you have Claver, Barton and Meyers Leonard starting during that stretch with the bench they had...what do you expect them to finish? They aren't a top team right now but they're certainly way better than the team that finished last season with the 13 game losing streak. Their bench is much improved over last year's disaster. I agree with you, the defense has been horrible...that has to get fixed.

Portland has overachieved to a degree but what happened at the end of last season is not really pertinent now. Regardless Portland is not an easy place to win a game for visiting teams.

They have some issues but again as a 1st round opponent they are not a team that you'd like to see. Plus they might have been doing a lot of tanking last year when it became apparent they werent going anywhere.

Put it this way the East 6 seed is looking at Atlanta 1st round. Without Horford Atl is probably a sub .500 team.

Golden State has somehow shrugged off the PG1985 curse and acquired a nice piece while giving up very little.

Jordan Crawford to GSW, Toney Douglass to Miami and Joel Anthony and draft picks to Boston.

Great trade for GS, good move for Miami as Douglass gives them depth and they save 10 million getting rid of a guy that doesnt play and Boston stockpiles more picks. Seemingly a win, win, win.

If you play fantasy basketball, you are right. But most times I watch them play head to head, Westbrook is the better player. Probably just a coincidence though. I'm sure Paul plays better against Sacramento and the Pelicans.

I must say you guys are quite entertaining and provide some pretty good information and insight.

So Paul is just good against bad teams now? We are talking about Chris Paul right? Not Cliff Paul? Not Sean Paul?

Honestly I prefer Cliff Paul. He's the star of those commercials.

I'm not a mush. All I said before the season was I prefer Houston and Golden St in a wide open West. Its in this thread.

Golden State is a lot closer than Houston now. I really like this trade for them.

I like it too. And its not a panic type thing, it comes right during a pretty great run by them.

They gave up nothing of note and got back a pretty good player in Crawford. I dont know if they will keep Brooks or send him to the D league but he was an interesting guy a few years ago that Avery Johnson just buried and he has never really recovered.

Greg Oden is active tonight. I believe he could make a major impact on this season. Either way you gotta want this guy to stay healthy.