I said the same yesterday! When asked what his show was about, Seinfeld used to say, nothing. http://sportstwo.com/threads/170199...Blazers-(CBSsports.com)?p=2425164#post2425164 ...Well, from the popular reaction, sounds like I've reached my quota for the day. Time to find something else to do for the evening
Yeah, I know you really love me. But I also knew I posted too much tonight. Like any leader, I must keep the little people on my side, so I must bid you adieu, leaving you with broken hearts. I could start a thread just to say goodnight for the evening. But then, in 2600 posts, I've neer started a thread and I'm going for the record. So this will have to do. I won't write a poem. So goodbye and good luck. Oh and one more thing. Thanks for starting so many threads. Without you..well you know how I feel about your threads. So good night. Another thing. Don't you just hate people who write on and on? You should know your limit, I always say. See ya. Actually, that brings up the subject of infinity. It belongs on the off-topic board, but infinity is relevant to basketball, too. It's a large subject, but just stop me when you've reached your limit. I'll start with the infinite recycle of expansion and compression. I'm thinking. Could you wait right there while I go to the bathroom. I'll be right back and continue the thread.
If Portland wins a title with Nate as the head coach I will gladly eat all the crow available. Why run away from being wrong? The penalty for having strong opinions is the danger of being horribly, horribly wrong from time to time.
That depends on which direction the NBA goes. If the NBA decides it is going to be a league of a few superteams in big market cities much like baseball, then were fucked and will never win one. But if the NBA goes the way of the NFL so that all teams play on a much more level playing field, then it has a good chance of happening sometime in the next 30 years.
Those odds are whack. Denver will be a team in turmoil as the season will be lost to the Carmelo drama. OKC had the perfect season. They will be heavily scouted this season and won't be overlooked by the opposing teams. They won't have perfect health. They did not make a major talent upgrade this off-season to deal with the above, relying on internal improvements to young players.
I would say it is more like "Futures odds" are affected by the bettors who have a very biased flavor to them regarding perception or media hype (or even location as you mention) as opposed to reality. Those odds have a lot of variance and no set of futures bets comes out to a 5% "juice" for the casino. They are all absurdly skewed like most sucker bets. I think the over/under for games won (which are only estimates now and won't offcially be opened to bettors for a few weeks yet) is the better measure of what position Vegas thinks we'll finish. Basically because it is a 5% "juice" line and you can't have Californians or drunk casino dorks pushing the line for Portland down to 49 wins or something like that and having some Smart Money operation come in and bet a couple million dollars on the over and drain the casino's cash flows with one bad line being pushed low.
Here is what Vegas Insider has for win totals. Still puts us fourth in our own division, but being an #6 or 7 seed instead of the #8. L.A. Clippers 38.5 Memphis 39.5 New Orleans 41.5 Phoenix 41.5 Houston 47.5 Portland 48.5 San Antonio 48.5 Utah 50.5 Oklahoma City 50.5 Dallas 50.5 Denver 50.5 L.A. Lakers 59.5
Yah but what casino or website are laying those lines? That's just someone opinion of the lines prior to actual super-computer calculations. If someone could actually offer a 48.5 game over/under on the Blazers they'd be bankrupt by next March. Please find me the online gambling link or the casino giving those odds and I'll happily bet the house and put them under.
Denver didn't improve, Utah got worse. Not sure how we (outside of injuries) are below both of them. OKC could be a challenge, but a team that is "on the rise" still finished tied with us, despite Portland missing like 800,000 games last year due to injuries. I'm also not sure the Lakers are 9-11 games better than the 2nd -7th seeds. Last year they were 7 games better than the 8th seed (50 wins) and that was with OKC being young, San Antonio being injured and old, and Portland being a team that was running at about 50% most of the year. I really doubt those things will happen again.
And if you're wondering how to tell, look for a line that says "Open" and "Current". If they're the same, then it's some geek's dartboard guess as the opening. The computers will post the real "opening" line about pre-season time and then you can see what the lines really are based on some analysis.
Hey you want to help me with our annual BlazersTV crew Fantasy Hoop League draft?!? Just be on the hotline for me!