It's one of those pub debates you would have with your buddies. Who has been the best team of the past decade in the NBA? Who dominated the period 2000-2009 (or the noughties as I think they should be more commonly called)?
Well, Don from With Malice put the debate out there and the results are over at his site, including my two cents. Oh and by the way, there can be no teams in this discussion apart from the Lakers or Spurs -- you know that, right?
The Golden State Warriors have just released their Summer League roster and schedule and the good news for Aussie basketball fans is that Joe Ingles will be suiting up for the Warriors.
He won't be without challengers for playing time though, as the squad includes high profile rookie Stephen Curry (G), soph SG sensation Anthony Morrow and Anthony Randolph (F) who has reportedly been bulking up during the off-season.
That said, there will still be room for the Warriors to take a look at Jingles and they wouldn't have brought him on board unless they thought he was worth a shot.
This crazy old man in a Chinese amusement arcade has some skills to be envied in the shooting department. Not only can he knock them down with alarming accuracy -- he can knock them down with BOTH hands.
Perhaps this is where the Shaq Fu should have went for free throw training.
Just think about how many stuffed toys he could redeem with all of those tickets. The NBA certainly missed out on a superstar in this guy.
Patrick Mills was drafted by the Portland Trail Blazers with the 55th pick of the draft yesterday. As both a proud Aussie and a long-suffering Portland Trail Blazers fan, I could not be happier. As happy as a pig in mud. Here we can see Patty's true colours shining through, just a little bit.
The word out of Portland is that he is not likely to have a roster spot in the 15, in the immediate sense anyway. General Manager Kevin Pritchard and coach Nate McMillan definitely implied that he will be playing a large role in the Summer League team, so the feisty point guard will get a chance to show his wares there. He'll have to impress to try and force a spot on the permanent roster for the 2009/10 season.
Otherwise the plan may be for Patty to play overseas somewhere -- as noted on Blazersedge, Pritchard was quoted as saying that Mills "has a passport" which makes him more valuable in that they don't have to sign him immediately but can watch him develop overseas, in the same way as the Houston Rockets have done with Brad Newley playing in Greece.
Meanwhile, what other entertainment can we take from the recent festivities of Draft Day?
Deadspin has a fascinating, yet playful piece with a body language expert who examines some of the top picks in the draft and how they shake hands with the Commish. Funny stuff.
bleacher/report's Matt King grades the draft night suits worn by the youngsters. As usual, some impressed, some were just downright weird.
Ball Don't Lie's Kelly Dwyer rates each of the GMs on how they fared in the Draft. Incidentally, KD was tweeting up a storm
during the Draft -- nice work, my man.
With Malice has a great story about a guy called Bruce Manley who is going to take the Shaq on in HORSE... or maybe SUBWAY. Oh and in case you've been asleep for a couple of days, Shaq, aka the Big Cavtus (formerly the Big Cactus) is now a Cleveland Cavalier. The Biggest Witness.
Lastly, here's Patty Mills preparing for the draft, trying on his new suit. Nice work mate -- there is a whole country that is proud of you.
Draft Day is upon us and the Bloguin Network of NBA bloggers will be coming together for a live blogging event where you can chat your heart out as each pick is announced and each trade is thrown on the table. So please join us, here at A Stern Warning or on any of the NBA-related Bloguin sites, to keep up with the rumours and slam your own ideas down as to what your team should be doing.
Draft time starts Thursday 8pm New York time, Friday 1am London time, Friday 10am Australian EST and Friday midday in Fiji! We'll be online chatting in the leadup and all the way through the Draft.
In the meantime, you might want to browse some of these articles for inspiration:
Likely #1 selection in the upcoming NBA Draft, Blake Griffin, plays S-U-B-W-A-Y (just like H-O-R-S-E) at New York City's famous "The Cage" court against Mr Subway himself, Jared Fogle. Who do you think won? (click through to watch the video)
We are just over a day away from the 2009 NBA Draft and already we've seen moves around the league -- some big and some not so big. The interesting thing is, the ones that appear to be the most insignificant, often turn out to be they keys to much bigger moves as NBA GMs steer themselves towards outdoing their peers on Draft night.
Let's take a look at what transactions we've seen so far and what is rumoured to come in the next 48 hours.
The ever-accomodating David Aldridge of TNT / NBA.com answered a few questions from the NBA blogosphere today relating to THE hot topic of the moment -- the NBA Draft.
2. Are there many teams that are looking to deal their draft picks due to the current financial climate? Or are they more likely to stash players overseas? (A Stern Warning)
DA: I think you'll see some teams maybe not even bother to get into the draft for that reason. I think Denver [Nuggets] is an example of a team that did a lot of work to get under the [luxury] tax last year; I don't think that they are all that fired up about getting back into the draft and paying guaranteed money to somebody that's probably not going to play a lot for the them next year. So, that's the kind of example of the economy impacting what teams do. Instead of being aggressive, I think some teams may be passive. Now you know your Portland's and some of your other teams -- Houston is going to buy in at some point in the first round -- they'll find somebody to do business with. But, I do think that you'll see some teams just not doing anything, as opposed to what they would normally do, which is be active at the end of the first round and try to get one of those late first-round picks.
5. Patrick Mills was looking like a world-beater a year ago with St. Mary's and then in the Olympics for Australia, but an injury certainly set him back. Do you think that with this draft being so deep with point guards that Mills' stock will be severely set back by his injury-riddled season? (A Stern Warning)
DA: Well he'll get drafted; I was surprised he stayed in though, because this is a great point guard filled draft. It surprised me that Patty stayed in because he was never a guy that was going to be a top-half of the lottery guy and I thought this year would be a good year for point guards to pass if you weren't assured of being a top-half of the lottery guy. I think you saw [Greivis] Vasquez go back for example, and that made a lot of sense. Patty is going to get drafted, it could be late first [round], but there's teams that could look at him. Dallas [Mavericks] certainly could take him with the 22nd pick, and that wouldn't surprise me at all, but it wouldn't surprise if he lasted into the second round either.
7. Joe Ingles has not been exposed to American audiences much, coming from Australia. Has there been much positive feedback around the league after his workouts with teams? (A Stern Warning)
DA: I think Joe [Ingles] a couple of weeks ago, maybe right around Chicago [workouts] there was a lot of interest and buzz in him. He did ok in Chicago; he didn't do badly in Chicago, but I think as it's gone on and he's done the individual workouts, I believe with Minnesota and New Jersey, it's kind of cooled a little bit. I don't get the sense that Joe is going to be a first round pick. I think he's a possible second round pick, but I'm not sure. Athletically, I don't think people see the explosion and quickness that a player would need at his position to play in the league. That doesn't mean that nobody will take a look at him, but I certainly don't think he's a first round pick at this point.
The rest of the questions and answers are also certainly worth a read, including mention of Minnesota's new GM, David Kahn who has been very busy already. Ahhh... Draft time, so much fun.
This video is titled "Best Clutch Plays & Shots in NBA History" but essentially is a collection of most of the best clutch shots of the 1990s (and a couple from prior). A classic that many may not have etched into their heads was Avery Johnson's clutch jumper from the baseline which pretty much made his name as a player.
Hoops fans: basketball betting has never been easier or more fun. If you want the latest NFL betting information, try out Sportsbetting3.com. As always, gaming fans will be more than pleased with the online casinos found at Jaxcasinos.com
About Bloguin
Bloguin is the revolutionary blog network specifically focused on helping bloggers get the most out of their websites. We're currently working on building a large network of online communities and hope to expand our blogging coverage to include a wide range of topics.
Advertisers
The Bloguin Network allows advertisers to promote their products and services to our ever-growing number of visitors. We offer both site-specific ad placements as well as the ability to run a network-wide campaign. If you're interested in working with Bloguin to meet your advertising needs, please contact us.
Most-Wanted List
The Bloguin Network is always looking to expand. Here are some of our high-priority areas that we're specifically looking to grow. If you're a blogger and interested in joining our network, please fill out our application form.
NBA/Basketball Blogs
NFL Blogs
Major League Baseball Blogs
The Bloguin Login
The Bloguin Login gives you full access to everything our network has to offer. Your name and password will work for each and every one of our sites. Signing up is simple, and will allow you to post in all our forums, create member blogs, and access other cool features! What are you waiting for? Create an Account!
"And I see your true colours, shining through..."
Bloguin is the revolutionary blog network specifically focused on helping bloggers get the most out of their websites. We're currently working on building a large network of online communities and hope to expand our blogging coverage to include a wide range of topics. 
The Bloguin Network allows advertisers to promote their products and services to our ever-growing number of visitors. We offer both site-specific ad placements as well as the ability to run a network-wide campaign. If you're interested in working with Bloguin to meet your advertising needs, please contact us.
The Bloguin Network is always looking to expand. Here are some of our high-priority areas that we're specifically looking to grow. If you're a blogger and interested in joining our network, please fill out our application form.
The Bloguin Login gives you full access to everything our network has to offer. Your name and password will work for each and every one of our sites. Signing up is simple, and will allow you to post in all our forums, create member blogs, and access other cool features! What are you waiting for? Create an Account! 