NBA Chat With Susan Bible 11/5/11

Please join Susan Bible for her NBA Chat each Saturday at 11:00 am EST.   Susan is a Newlines Editor and a member of the fantasy team at HOOPSWORLD.  She covers the Oklahoma City Thunder and the NBA at large.  Drop in your questions now.

  1. A.G.

    Among all the young teams in the NBA (except OKC), what team do you think has the brightest future?

    • Susan Bible

      I’d say the Clippers (with a healthy Eric Gordon), the Bulls, and even the Timberwolves with their young core of Love, Beasley, Rubio & Williams, not to mention a great coach in Rick Adelman.

  2. john

    rank these players in terms of fantasy…9 cat…john wall,tyreke evans,holiday,lowry,billups,lawson,jennings

    • Susan Bible

      Wall
      Holiday
      Evans
      Lowry
      Billups
      Jennings
      Lawson

  3. Steve

    Susan,
    What likely amnesty casualty might OKC have an eye on?

    • Susan Bible

      I can’t see Presti using it on anyone. The only possibility is Nate Robinson, but his expiring contract is more useful as a future trade chip.

  4. Steve

    Susan,
    Do you get to watch Durant and Co. Practice much?
    Do they shoot some amazing half-court jumpers in practice?

    • Susan Bible

      They let reporters in at the end of practices, so we don’t get to see very much action. In pre-game warm-ups, Durant can be seen doing half-court jumpers…and I’ve seen him make a few. Fun fact (and totally unrelated): my daughter spotted Russell Westbrook at a Southern Nazarene University basketball game last night.

  5. B-Man

    Am I alone in thinking that even with his improvement, James harden is best suited coming of the bench the same way Manu ginobili did several years, in his prime, for the spurs. If harden gets into the starting line-up, who will be their sixth man who can bring in consistent offense night in and night out and can change the tempo of a game?

    • Susan Bible

      You are not alone. I’ve said words very similar to yours over the months and catch a lot of flak for it, but I like Harden off the bench. I agree that he may deserve a starting role over Sefolosha – Harden’s really developing and has earned all the recent praise – but who will lead the offensive punch in the second unit? Not Maynor. Not Cook. Not Collison. Reggie Jackson? It’s a shame there was no training camp or pre-season wherein these things might be answered for Scott Brooks. Plus, it’s all purely speculation that Harden will begin the season in the starting lineup anyway; Brooks has never commented on it. And knowing Brooks, he’s all about consistency and continuity…sometimes to a fault.

  6. Curious George

    Hi Susan
    I keep hearing the 50-50 deal is bad for the players. Can you tell me why? Also how is the BRI divided among players?

    • Susan Bible

      I thought Larry Coon gave a great explanation in a recent Chat, so I’ll copy/paste it here:

      “The players have two basic objections to the BRI split as a solution to the problem:
      1) Negotiations for a new agreement always pick up where the previous agreement left off. The players ended up at 57% in the last agreement, and that was their starting point in these negotiations. The more they give up now, the lower their starting point will be in the next negotiation. So what they do now doesn’t just affect this CBA, it affects the next one as well.
      2) The players see the biggest issues being in the teams mismanaging expenses not related to player salaries. If they let the league take it out of their salaries, then they won’t address the real problem. So if they agree to a six-year CBA with a 50-50 split, then six years from now the league will be saying they’re losing too much money at 50&, and the players need to come down to 40%. Or 30%. The players say they’re willing to help, but the owners need to address the real problem.”

  7. Tonet

    In your opinion, who are the top 5 NBA players at the C position? PF? SF? SG? PG? Thanks.

    • Susan Bible

      Oh wow, I would need more time to answer this with total conviction…more time than I’m afforded in a one-hour chat. But off the top of my head:
      C- Howard, Horford, Nene, Noah, Bogut
      PF- Nowitzki, Stoudemire, Griffin, Randolph, Love
      SF- James, Durant, Anthony, Wallace, Pierce
      SG- Wade, Bryant, Martin, Gordon, Ginobili
      PG- Rose, Paul, Westbrook, Williams, Rondo, Nash (yeah, I have 6 here)

  8. like a bull

    I know ur okc all the way. But what shooting guard put my bulls over the top? via trade of free agency

  9. Jeremy

    as a normal employee if your employer said you are having a pay cut, your option is either accept it, or leave. so why are players, which are employees to the owners, can refuce the pay cut? where is the common sense in this?

    • Susan Bible

      The biggest difference in your scenario is that I could be easily replaced by my employer. The number of NBA-caliber players is very, very small.

  10. Jeramie Griffin

    Why would the players decrtifie?

    • Susan Bible

      This would indicate players are frustrated with the pace of the labor talks and unhappy with the many concessions made by the union. Such an action would break up the union, thus allowing players to file individual class-action lawsuits against the NBA.

  11. Patrick

    Hi Susan,
    My question to you is, what do the Spurs need to do to become a contender in the West after Duncan retires

    • Susan Bible

      They’ve got to figure out how to get bigger and stronger inside obviously. Is Splitter the guy? The jury’s still out. Love the Leonard pick, and I think Blair is special. They’ve got to recapture their defensive prowess…a Bowen-type would be great. And I think they need another backup PG. Late-season injuries killed their chances last year, but Parker and Ginobili still have the tools.

      Thanks for participating this morning! Now I’ve got to get to Norman to see the the OU game :) See you next week…..