Bill Simmons Rips Cavaliers Winning Lottery

[CuseFaninVT]

With some it's about the winning. With others, such as when Melo went to NY, it's about being in a superior market despite less of a chance of winning. If it had been only about winning, Melo would've gone to free agency back when he left Denver and taken a pay cut to go where there was at least one other big time star to partner up with.

Wasn't Amare supposed to be that other big star? I'm not sure Melo could have predicted Stoudamire would be completely worthless in NY.

 

[Knicks411]

I agree with Melo it wasn't all about winning; though I guess the lockout played a part in that, since he wanted to lock in his contract. But if Melo wanted to win in NY, (or denver, or whatever), he would have gone to FA.

 

[sufandu]

Wasn't Amare supposed to be that other big star? I'm not sure Melo could have predicted Stoudamire would be completely worthless in NY.

I suppose. I guess I never thought that because my opinion an Amare was that Nash made him the star he was. I also thought the two of them overlapped too much. Also, with NY, they traded away half of the team to get him. I always thought he should've gone the free agent route to Chicago with whatever pay cut it took to go there. Even with the Rose injuries that nobody could've predicted, he would've had more success at this point, and I think that would've given him a better brand and made him more money in the long run.

 

[kuethstheman]

The NBA draft lottery is an embarrassment to the league. Team with 33 wins gets the top pick ahead of teams with 15 and 19 wins. Plus it opens up the league to charges that's it's fixed in favor of a team the league wants to win it. Like the Cavs winning 3 of 4 years...to make up for losing LeBron? Just go by record like every other major sport does. Why is tanking any more likely in the NBA than in any other pro sport? It's not. If you believe a team is tanking games take disciplinary action against them. Don't bastardize the entire draft process.

The NHL has a lottery though that's more of a "mid-major" sport.

 

[triplethrea]

He looks so out of place on Countdown and brings very little if anything to the show. I used to enjoy his writing. His humor comes across much better in writing than on the air.

I think he offers more than the superficial stuff Jalen Rose says, or the boredom that Doug Collins brings. Simmons is the most knowledgeable basketball fan at ESPN by a country mile and if you listen to what he says, he offers some very good perspective. He looks like he absolutely nailed it with his article last week about the championship window closing for the Thunder.

Countdown may not be the best platform for him, but if you listen to his podcast you know that he can be very funny, entertaining, and interesting. I feel like the Countdown environment is too tense (Jalen and the girl seem to have some sort of awkwardness going on and both Jalen and Doug are terrified of Bill firing them and are afraid of saying the wrong thing, which is a change of pace from Magic and Wilbon hating Simmons all year last year). But it's a testament to Simmons's ambition that he got the show this year rather than Wilbon and Magic again. Wilbon in particular was very petty last year, and Magic took his side just because.

 

[gocraz4dasu]

The lottery in NOT rigged. Simmons needs to get his head out of his ass. It would be too easy/obvious if the NBA rigged it. The lottery is needed to prevent teams like the 76ers from tanking the season in January

Why does that need to be prevented?

 

[OttoinGrotto]

I think he offers more than the superficial stuff Jalen Rose says, or the boredom that Doug Collins brings. Simmons is the most knowledgeable basketball fan at ESPN by a country mile and if you listen to what he says, he offers some very good perspective. He looks like he absolutely nailed it with his article last week about the championship window closing for the Thunder.

Countdown may not be the best platform for him, but if you listen to his podcast you know that he can be very funny, entertaining, and interesting. I feel like the Countdown environment is too tense (Jalen and the girl seem to have some sort of awkwardness going on and both Jalen and Doug are terrified of Bill firing them and are afraid of saying the wrong thing, which is a change of pace from Magic and Wilbon hating Simmons all year last year). But it's a testament to Simmons's ambition that he got the show this year rather than Wilbon and Magic again. Wilbon in particular was very petty last year, and Magic took his side just because.

Truthfully, I think you can make a strong case that Simmons is sports greatest rags to riches story of the internet age.

 

[OttoMets]

Truthfully, I think you can make a strong case that Simmons is sports greatest rags to riches story of the internet age.

As much as I complain about his perceived decline, this makes me happy. Comparing Simmons to a lot of his peers and wanna-be peers, there's an important difference: he's good.

Simmons can write and think. I can count on two hands the number of nationally-prominent electronic media sports types who I can say that about.

 

[Knicks411]

Truthfully, I think you can make a strong case that Simmons is sports greatest rags to riches story of the internet age.

It's crazy, I remember (now I feel old) somehow stumbling upon his stuff when he was writing for whatever the Boston website that he wrote for was called. Like 15 years ago.

And you have to be right about that; the guy is, for better or worse, one of the biggest names in his business.

And IMO, Zach Lowe is the best basketball guy at ESPN. his stuff is incredible.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

It's crazy, I remember (now I feel old) somehow stumbling upon his stuff when he was writing for whatever the Boston website that he wrote for was called. Like 15 years ago.

And you have to be right about that; the guy is, for better or worse, one of the biggest names in his business.

And IMO, Zach Lowe is the best basketball guy at ESPN. his stuff is incredible.

You were ahead of me. I started reading Simmons on page 2's yellow background. Not sure why more sites don't use that color scheme. Very soothing to the eye.

Zach Lowe is really, really good. He's pretty much must read. It's interesting seeing how some writers are starting to figure out that on the internet you can use things like gifs to tell your story far better than you can with just a flat chart or diagram and text. Some of them are really getting the medium - if you want top notch stuff, you need a writer, but you also need a researcher/statistician with the ability to visualize data, and a graphic designer to prettify it all.

 

[Dave85]

Bill Simmons Rips Cavaliers Winning Lottery: Sports Guy S

Living in Cleveland is like a career ending injury.

 

[cuseincincy]

I suppose. I guess I never thought that because my opinion an Amare was that Nash made him the star he was. I also thought the two of them overlapped too much. Also, with NY, they traded away half of the team to get him. I always thought he should've gone the free agent route to Chicago with whatever pay cut it took to go there. Even with the Rose injuries that nobody could've predicted, he would've had more success at this point, and I think that would've given him a better brand and made him more money in the long run.

I always thought Melo should have gone the FA route to NY. He may have gotten less money that way but he'd have had better players around him like Gallinari and Wilson Chandler. Also with Melo, Amare and Tyson Chandler the Knicks should have had one of if not the strongest front courts in the league. They've never really meshed and though Melo gets the most of the criticism I really believe it is more on Amare's shoulders (or should I say knees?). Not finding a PG that could run the pick and roll with Amare is not his fault. Personally, though I am a Knick fan, as a Melo fan I just want to see him win no matter where it is. I hionestly think he'd be happier and would actually prefer averaging 20 points a game if he had some more help.

 

[Knicks411]

I hionestly think he'd be happier and would actually prefer averaging 20 points a game if he had some more help.

The one thing I'll say is he really didn't like the Linsanity period. He was openly breaking plays to run ISO's for himself and stuff like that. Att his point you may be right though, I think he gets he needs to win to get the respect I'm sure he wants

 

[JohnCuse44]

#FrozenEnvelope

 

[sufandu]

I always thought Melo should have gone the FA route to NY. He may have gotten less money that way but he'd have had better players around him like Gallinari and Wilson Chandler. Also with Melo, Amare and Tyson Chandler the Knicks should have had one of if not the strongest front courts in the league. They've never really meshed and though Melo gets the most of the criticism I really believe it is more on Amare's shoulders (or should I say knees?). Not finding a PG that could run the pick and roll with Amare is not his fault. Personally, though I am a Knick fan, as a Melo fan I just want to see him win no matter where it is. I hionestly think he'd be happier and would actually prefer averaging 20 points a game if he had some more help.

Even with the better players he would've had if he had gone to the Knicks as a free agent, I like Chicago more for him. I never thought D'antoni was a coach that could win a championship. As good as he is with offense, I don't think you can completely ignore defense and win one. The Bulls just seemed to have the right guys playing the right roles except for that one take-over-the-game scorer that Melo can be when he needs to.