It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

THE NBA IS BACK!!!

I'm really looking forward to this compressed season of 66 games!  

 

Yep the NBA lockout is over!

And the thunder are going to win the NBA finals! (You heard it here first!)

 

Go Bulls!!!!!

 

Hopefully I'm going to get to go to the Christmas Day game here in OKC, and hopefully Dwight Howard will still be with the Magic at that time. I think the Thunder have a legit shot at the title, but it's going to depend on how free agency shakes out, too. If Dallas loses Barea AND Chandler, that'll be a big hit on their chances to repeat.

I'll admit, even if the Lakers do pull off the miracle of landing both Howard and Paul, I'm not sure how well it would work out for them. At some point, Kobe's injuries are going to catch up to him, and I'd be a little wary of Paul's injury history. It could be a great team, but it could also be one bad ligament injury from disaster.

 

Go Heat! Look forward to the Mavs/Heat on opening day.

 

Maybe Lebron will STFU,do his job and win one this year.

I really hope the lakers get Howard but not Paul.

Bynum needs to go since he'll never be elite.

 

I just want games n the whiny twitter feeds abt lockout to stop.

 

Orlando is LA's big man farm anyway (Shaq et al. 1996). But seriously, when is LA going to go through that rebuilding phase that just about every team has to inevitably go through? They've only missed the playoffs 4 times in the last 40 years.

Also, y'all can keep Bynum. Dude has been a "project" for 6 years and I don't like his injury history. He's good, but as you said, he's not as great as people have been wanting him to be.

 

For mostly selfish reasons I was hoping for the lockout to hold, or at most a 50-game season since my cRaptors were gonna suck bigtime anyways.

But with NBA basketball on the horizon, I'm actually glad. There's only so many hockey highlights I can take...gimme Court Cuts any day (courtesy of The Score)

 

hmm...I'd say Lakers were rebuilding in between "show time" and Shaq/Kobe. Laker's best player during those years was Elden Campbell...

I hope Lakers get Howard and hope it's before christmas. I actually hope Clippers get Paul to run with Griffen. Clippers would finally be watchable.

 

CP3 is rumored to be going to LAL if a 3 team trade between them, HOU, and NO can go through. Gasol would be shipped off to HOU. I wouldn't want to get rid of Gasol; Bynum is too inconsistent.

 

I think Lakers are also banking on getting Howard for Bynum though.

 

Honestly, they gave up too much for him.

Howard for Bynum may not happen without help.

 

Ballsy move. Lakers dont fuck around.

Sacrificed FC scoring but certainly solves complaints about fish.

N looking at Thunder n Dallas as threats, certainly the right way to go.

 

As a Magic fan, I'd hate to see Howard sign or get traded to LA. Any other team but them. It took Orlando 12 years to get back to some form of contension. And now, they're going to lose it all again. I'm not sure I want to see another star big leave Orlando the same way. I mean, even with compensation...I don't fucking want Bynum. He's a fine player, but the guy is a health liability. Whatever. Dwight's on his way out anyway. I thought he would've gone the Duncan route and tried to do it with the same team, but these guys are so impressionable. And honestly, it was clear the notion of super teams was going to cause a ripple effect in the league. Once James and Bosh bolted to Miami, everyone else wanted to do it.

Laker fans are truly blessed. Too bad you guys won't really know the idea of rebuilding.

Actually, LA had a core of nice young players after Show Time: Nick Van Exel, Eddie Jones, Cedric Ceballos, Elden Campbell, and Vlade Divac. They were a pretty decent team and got into the playoffs 2 out of 3 years before landing Shaq. After Shaq/Kobe, they missed the playoffs once, were mediocre for 2 years, and had Pau Gasol gift-wrapped. I'd hardly call that rebuilding. If you want to know a good definition of rebuilding and the pains associated with it, look at the Chicago Bulls from 1999-2004.

 

I might be in the minority with this, but I would have gone for CP3 over Howard without question. I think the Lakers did the right thing in getting CP3 first, but as I mentioned earlier I don't think Bynum is a reliable source.