Lets Kabash the Kobe talk

[HooverDam]

Well this is just my opinion, but I say its time to move on from the Kobe/Laker talk. I know the team has, and we should to.

I havent heard NEARLY enough talk about the Clippers, and they are a tough team. We are less than 24 hours away from game 1, round 2, so lets focus on that.

How do people feel about Marion on Brand? Does he have ANY chance? Can Nash not play like a matador and keep the Alien contained? Will Eddie House make an appearance in this series and help give Nash some rest?

We've beat LA once, now lets do it again.

 

[Divide Et Impera]

I agree. We have bigger fish to fry....

 

[Divide Et Impera]

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[Errntknght]

I wouldn't mind at all if we didn't focus nearly as much on the officiating in the next round, however it goes. I found it very painful to read nothing but complaints with scarcely a comment on the actual play of the games. If our players were as big of whiners as we are, we'd hate them for it.

Brace for it, we are going to get some crappy calls and non-calls. Its probably not a conspiracy regardless of what it might seem like at the moment and the odds are very high that it won't determine the outcome of the series.

 

[Chaz]

Suns have to scramble and stay active on defense.
Defensive rebound, we want to limit them to one shot.
Too many offensive rebounds can kill us. Plus if they are crashing the offensive glas to exploit our size a rebound starts the running game.

Move players and the ball on offense and shoot a high percentage.

If the Suns have the lead it can force the other team more up tempo the way the Suns like to play.


The Clippers area tough team. I never liked Cassell even when he was a Sun but he is a proven playoff performer. I have a lot of respect and admiration for Brand. He is an outstanding player and a load in the paint.

The have a couple of outside shooters but nobody to take over a game. However Radmanovic and Mobley are streaky shooters. Lets not let them get started.
Ross is a big defensive stopper for them and Livingston has been big off the bench.

The X factor for the Clippers is Kamen. If he can play up to his size and play smart then it can put the Clippers over the top.

The Suns have their work cut out for them but I could see either team winning in 6 or 7 games.

I'll say Suns in 7.

 

[George O'Brien]

Stern says that the refs are right 95% of the time. He's wrong. Run games on video and it obvious that the error rate is vastly higher. I'm not convinced that it is a conspiracy, but it is certainly tempting to think it is intentional.

Is there a way to improve the way the games are called? I don't know, but at least one problem is created by the fact that refs are constantly out of position due to their inability to maintain the pace of NBA play - especially how the Suns play.

One suggestion I have is that they add a fourth ref and put two on one end of the floor and two on the other (switchin at the quarters).

I'm not sure how much good it would do, but it would accomplish something the league has not been willing to face. They really do have perception problem.

 

[HooverDam]

I wouldn't mind at all if we didn't focus nearly as much on the officiating in the next round, however it goes. I found it very painful to read nothing but complaints with scarcely a comment on the actual play of the games. If our players were as big of whiners as we are, we'd hate them for it.

Brace for it, we are going to get some crappy calls and non-calls. Its probably not a conspiracy regardless of what it might seem like at the moment and the odds are very high that it won't determine the outcome of the series.

Agreed. If the Suns didn't play so crappy in a lot of those games, it wouldnt have mattered how bad the refs were. The Suns should've played like they did in game 7 the whole series, blow the other team out and don't let the refs take over.

George, I like your idea about having 4 refs, I agree 100%

 

[Mike Olbinski]

Doesn't seem like the Kobe talk is stopping

 

[Billy Bob]

That looks good seeds, Lets go fry some Fish!

 

[boisesuns]

I agree. Kobe and the Lakers are done. The fact that we sent them home is great. This will be an interesting Clippers Series.

 

[Yuma]

Stern says that the refs are right 95% of the time. He's wrong. Run games on video and it obvious that the error rate is vastly higher. I'm not convinced that it is a conspiracy, but it is certainly tempting to think it is intentional.

Is there a way to improve the way the games are called? I don't know, but at least one problem is created by the fact that refs are constantly out of position due to their inability to maintain the pace of NBA play - especially how the Suns play.

One suggestion I have is that they add a fourth ref and put two on one end of the floor and two on the other (switchin at the quarters).

I'm not sure how much good it would do, but it would accomplish something the league has not been willing to face. They really do have perception problem.

I was watching the Mavs/Spurs game yesterday and there were BLATANT fouls and travels during the last four minutes of the game and the announcers said something to the effect, "Well, I guess the coaches will have to tell their players to adjust to the officials not calling any fouls or penalties." The officiating in that game seemed even worse than our games. Guys were getting hammered in the lane and no fouls were called.

 

[Dback Jon]

I was watching the Mavs/Spurs game yesterday and there were BLATANT fouls and travels during the last four minutes of the game and the announcers said something to the effect, "Well, I guess the coaches will have to tell their players to adjust to the officials not calling any fouls or penalties." The officiating in that game seemed even worse than our games. Guys were getting hammered in the lane and no fouls were called.

that is awful that teams have to adjust to the way a group of officials are calling a game. Very unprofessional.

 

[Errntknght]

George, "Stern says that the refs are right 95% of the time. He's wrong. Run games on video and it obvious that the error rate is vastly higher."

I imagine Stern means the error rate relative to the way he wants the fouls called, which is not the same as relative to the rules. Even so the error rate is considerably over 5%, IMO.

"I'm not convinced that it is a conspiracy, but it is certainly tempting to think it is intentional."

It has to be intentional some of the time because the refs are human beings. Make up calls are fairly common and they are obviously intentional, for example. In general, I think the referees' intent is to be fair, to avoid controversy and keep the game under control. One reason I don't think they do too much that is intentional is because make up calls stand out so much and so do cases where the refs are ticked off at a player. When the refs are intentionally 'letting the players decide the game' theres a different look to the whole game.


"One suggestion I have is that they add a fourth ref and put two on one end of the floor and two on the other (switchin at the quarters)."

I like it. It ought to be worth a trial run.

 

[nowagimp]

George, "Stern says that the refs are right 95% of the time. He's wrong. Run games on video and it obvious that the error rate is vastly higher."

I imagine Stern means the error rate relative to the way he wants the fouls called, which is not the same as relative to the rules. Even so the error rate is considerably over 5%, IMO.

"I'm not convinced that it is a conspiracy, but it is certainly tempting to think it is intentional."

It has to be intentional some of the time because the refs are human beings. Make up calls are fairly common and they are obviously intentional, for example. In general, I think the referees' intent is to be fair, to avoid controversy and keep the game under control. One reason I don't think they do too much that is intentional is because make up calls stand out so much and so do cases where the refs are ticked off at a player. When the refs are intentionally 'letting the players decide the game' theres a different look to the whole game.


"One suggestion I have is that they add a fourth ref and put two on one end of the floor and two on the other (switchin at the quarters)."

I like it. It ought to be worth a trial run.

Stern knows that the officiating is less than 95%, and alot of bad calls have been made/not made in the first round. Clearly these old dinosaur refs cannot keep up with the players. The "let em play" mantra doesnt work anymore, as coaches and players have taken advantage, just as Wilt took advantage of the lack of a 3 second rule in the early 60's. The NBA will figure out what to do in the off season. The NBA officails will do the best they can to call good games this year, then figure out a better solution(4 refs?) in the off-season.

 

[elindholm]

Four officials is a good idea, but they'd all still have to run the floor. If you had one pair of officials calling fouls on one end of the floor, and another pair on the other, they'd never even be close to consistent, and the complaints would be unceasing.

In another thread, I suggested that the fourth official could be assigned to watch the floor (i.e. the feet), since that seems in general to be a blind spot of the current three-man configurations.

 

[thegrahamcrackr]

In another thread, I suggested that the fourth official could be assigned to watch the floor (i.e. the feet), since that seems in general to be a blind spot of the current three-man configurations.

Sounds like a good idea, but can you imagine being the official that had to do that? Talk about horrible

 

[elindholm]

Sounds like a good idea, but can you imagine being the official that had to do that? Talk about horrible

Yeah, they'd probably have to rotate, maybe by quarter.

 

[tlim]

Sounds like a good idea, but can you imagine being the official that had to do that? Talk about horrible

I don't think that will be the problem. The problem will be, how many hours do you want to watch players shooting free throws? 4? 5?

Most of the time, the refs don't call a ton of stuff. David Stern's opinion of 5% of the calls is laughable. There's a sliding scale of what kind of play deserves a foul. So how does one quantify it if the point is so varied? It's 5% of your defintion on a particular day. But if you were to fully watch the tapes objectively, and follow the rules to the T, then you will be missing more like 40% of the calls.

How many players hold? A ton, and only the most blatant gets called. How many players obstruct a player's progress? A ton, and it rarely gets called. How many players push off? A ton, and it rarely gets called.

The list goes on and on. If there was another ref added, we'd be shooting free throws forever, until the players changed their ways. Which would take years to do, and the product that's given to the public will be horrible.

Do you like preseason games, where they call fouls left and right? Notice many of those same fouls are not called as the season progresses?

That's the problem with the officiating. It's always been like that, and at least Mark Cuban is pointing that out.

 

[elindholm]

I'm not under the impression that players are often awarded a jump ball with one foot entirely out of bounds. I think it would be okay if more of those calls were made accurately.

 

[ARZCardinals]

F Kobe...say it a million times and keep saying it (Kobe Sucks, Kobe Sucks repeat and repeat it over and over)

BECAUSE IF THE SUNS LOST WE'D HAD NEVER HEARD THE END OF THE KOBE F'N LOVE SESSION...DON'T EVER FORGET HIM POUNDING HIS CHEST THINKING HE'S THE BEST. THIER FANS WOULD NEVER STOP HOUNDING US.

JOIN IN WITH ME: KOBE SUCKS, KOBE SUCKS, KOBE SUCKS, KOBE SUCKS!!!

 

[F-Dog]

I was watching the Mavs/Spurs game yesterday and there were BLATANT fouls and travels during the last four minutes of the game and the announcers said something to the effect, "Well, I guess the coaches will have to tell their players to adjust to the officials not calling any fouls or penalties." The officiating in that game seemed even worse than our games. Guys were getting hammered in the lane and no fouls were called.

Trivia: after last night's game, the Mavs are now 0-9 in the playoffs when Danny Crawford is officiating.


The next time I see Bennett Salvatore working a Suns game is too soon.

 

[devilalum]

I'm not under the impression that players are often awarded a jump ball with one foot entirely out of bounds. I think it would be okay if more of those calls were made accurately.

Especially when the ref is 2 feet away staring at the play.