Now it is time to play who makes more in the NBA as provided by Hoopsworld. The answers will be at the bottom of the blog.

Are you ready?

A) Who makes more Boston Celtics… Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, or Kevin Garnett?

B) Who makes more Cleveland Cavaliers… LeBron James, Shaquille O’Neil, or Mo Williams?

C) Who makes more Denver Nuggets… Carmelo Anthony, Chauncey Billups, or Kenyon Martin?

D) Who makes more Los Angeles Lakers… Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, or Ron Artest?

E) Who makes more New Orleans Hornets… Chris Paul, Emeka Okafor, or Peja Stojakovic?

F) Who makes more San Antonio Spurs… Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, or Richard Jefferson?

G) Who makes more Dallas Mavericks… Jason Kidd, Josh Howard, or Dirk Nowitzki?

H) Who makes more Orlando Magic… Dwight Howard, Rashard Lewis, or Vince Carter?

I) Who makes more Miami Heat… Dwyane Wade, Michael Beasley, or Jermaine O’Neal?

J) Who makes more Detroit Pistons… Ben Gordon, Charlie Villenueva, or Rip Hamilton?

Tim Duncan makes a lot of cash!

Answers from Hoopsworld:
A) Paul Pierce $19,795,712.
B) Shaquille O’Neal $21,000,000.
C) Kenyon Martin $15,613,636.
D) Kobe Bryant $23,034,375.
E) Peja Stojakovic $13,392,000.
F) Tim Duncan $22,183,220.
G) Dirk Nowitzki $19,795,714.
H) Rashard Lewis $18,010,791.
I) Jermaine O’Neal $23,016,000.
J) Rip Hamilton $11,625,000.

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Post from: NBA Obsessed

It is the impossible world of exhibition basketball where teams have veterans with years of pounding on their bad knees that won’t bother to really run up and down the floor and teams also have rookies just dying to make a big play or provide some extra hustle.

Yesterday we discussed how Dwyane Wade lead the Miami Heat in scoring against the Detroit Pistons, but we failed to go into a play that made Detroit Piston’s rookie Austin Daye’s day.

The Heat star had just taken an outlet pass and was going to glide in for an emphatic dunk late in the second quarter of the exhibition opener for the Pistons and Heat.

But midway through the glide, Pistons rookie Austin Daye came over to block the dunk and knock it out of bounds, eliciting a cheer from the sparse Palace crowd.

Wade looked around and grinned.

Later in the possession there was a Pistons foul, and Wade just joked and laughed with the Pistons’ bench — particularly Tayshaun Prince — telling it that it was a great play.
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Dwyane Wade is a superstar and does not feel the need to be offended by Daye’s’ block of his dunk, so he took it in the spirit of fun and gamesmanship. Meanwhile, Daye could barely contain himself knowing what he had accomplished. If he wanted to be noticed, it worked.

Dwyane Wade laughs and has fun with Pistons Austin Daye

The new Pistons are a younger group with a long way to go to win anything and just don’t seem to be as serious as the old Pistons. It remains to be seen if that translates into victories.

Dwyane Wade is probably in the same boat, just waiting for the players to arrive to give him a good enough supporting cast.

Image: Zuma Press

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Post from: NBA Obsessed

How strange it felt last night flipping through the channels on the big screen while waiting for my wife to come downstairs. We were going to watch the season ender for Warehouse 13 that was recorded on the DVR. Then there it was, a NBA basketball game. The Detroit Pistons against the Miami Heat. It did not seem right. The game was only exhibition and it just seemed too soon. Pro sports seasons are so long the off seasons seem too short.

Most of my friends don’t even watch basketball until January, when football switches over to the playoffs and bowl games. But there it was.

Dwyane Wade led Miami in scoring

It was a nothing game and Detroit and Miami are two teams that are going to race up and down the court to make up for some defensive deficiencies and some lack of height and that is what they were doing.

It was a good night for Dwyane Wade.

Dwyane Wade led Miami with 18 points.

The Pistons led by as many as 17 in the second half, but Miami came back in the fourth quarter. The Heat comeback was helped by a mistake by the replacement officials with 1:21 left. Bynum made two free throws to apparently put Detroit up 87-78, but the Miami players pointed out that Bynum hadn’t been fouled on the play.

After a discussion, the points were taken off the board and Maceo Baston was sent to the line, where he missed both shots.
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Chris Wilcox and Ben Gordon each scored 11 points and will play a big part in the Pistons this season.

The game was hard to watch, because there is just no intensity in a preseason game.

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Post from: NBA Obsessed

The center position in basketball just ain’t what it used to be. It used to be you started with a center and then you found a point guard to lead the way. You had to have that big guy in the middle or you were toast. That was then and this is now. Now a day, there are some up tempo teams that would rather not play a true center. They would rather have a fast mobile power forward. Phoenix with Amare Stoudemire comes to mind.

Still for your intrepid author it is great to see the big guys play whether it is the Shaq, Ewing, Wilt, Russell, Kareem, or even big bad Dwight Superman Howard. They just bring a different element to the game.

The Ball Don’t Lie has his version of the top 10 centers of the last decade, so let us take a look.

10. Alonzo Mourning – Alonzo once beat my Pistons all by himself. He was just so much bigger and stronger than anyone on the court or in the stands that he could not be stopped and prevented anybody from entering the lane.

9. David Robinson – The Admiral came to Michigan State University when he played for Navy in college. You could see then that he was just too tall and too smooth to be stopped.

8. Yao Ming – the man that reminds us there are tall Chinese people in the world may soon exit from the basketball stage if his ankles and feet don’t hold up. When he is healthy there are few better than him in today’s game.

7. Amare Stoudemire – there is that power forward again. Amare just oozes with talent and you wonder what would happen if he played next to a dominant center.

6. Zydrunas Ilgauskas – Not really an Ilgauskas fan myself, but when he is in the game it is always a tough matchup.

5. Jermaine O’Neal – Another one of those power forward types playing center. My lasting memory of Jermaine is the fact that Rasheed Wallace played with him in Portland before he went to Indiana. Jermaine was just a kid back then. When Indiana played against the Pistons in the playoffs, Rasheed was able to shut Jermaine down game after game. For that matter why isn’t Rasheed Wallace on this list? Geez, “The ball don’t lie” was one of his favorite sayings. You can argue he was a power forward, but he played center after Ben left all the time.

LeBron wonders why Rasheed Wallace is not on the list?

4. Ben Wallace – The other Wallace combined with Rasheed to shut down every player on the planet and get a NBA title for the Pistons. How did Ben do it? He was only 6′ 8″ tall, but when he went up for a board with all those muscles and the wild Fro, it just looked like he was 7 foot tall. Fear the Fro!

3. Dwight Howard – Truly Superman, Dwight Howard just grows better as a player each year. He was scoring in his first two season without really even having any moves!

2. Shaquille O’Neal – Shaq is truly bigger than life whether he is rapping, acting, or playing center. Shazam! Shaq has won titles in L.A. with Kobe and in Miami with Wade. He is often doing more talking than playing, but for years the NBA rules allowed Shaq to use his rather large rear end to back into the paint and jam the ball down. Unstoppable!

1. Tim Duncan – Mr. Fundamental.

Duncan won’t blow you away. Shaq seems scarier, and the “power forward” designation might throw you, but don’t get shook.

Tim guards the low post (guards everything, really), and works from the low post while his “center” teammate (David Robinson, Nazr Mohammad, Fabricio Oberto(notes), Matt Bonner(notes)) works anywhere from the high post (D-Rob, Nazr), the baseline (Fab), or the 3-point line (Red Rocket).

In the meantime, Duncan has destroyed teams defensively, drawn trillions of double teams, scored efficiently and generally acted as what we’d hoped Bill Walton would have turned into.

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That is why San Antonio is in the thick of things every year.

Now here is my question. Where is Kevin Garnett?
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Post from: NBA Obsessed

It is going to be the most exciting free agent year of all time next year and you can add the super powered guard from Miami to the list. Dwyane Wade will be joining LeBron James, Chris Bosh, and Amare Stoudemire, among others, as 2010 free agents. This just keeps getting better. (Note, appears my Pistons won’t have any free agent money or at least the kind to land these guys.)

Now don’t get me wrong, the rules are rigged to keep a player in his home team town. In this case Dwyane can make 30 million more over 6 years if he stays with the Heat.

But will he stay with the Heat? They have done nothing to improve their roster and Jerry West is 64 years old. Dwyane Wade stated Jerry staying as GM was a factor. Really?

Dwyane Wade to the Bulls?

Now the hot rumors have Wade taking his extreme hoop skills over to the windy city to play for the Bulls.

Wade grew up a huge Bulls fan, idolized Michael Jordan and left Converse this summer to sign with Nike’s Jordan brand. Wade’s charity foundation, his family and his agent are all based in Chicago. Wade even acknowledged Wednesday he probably fueled speculation of a potential homecoming when he recently closed on a $1.4 million townhouse in the Windy City.

“Me buying a place in Chicago, that’s supposed to mean more than what it is,” Wade said. “I just sort of laugh at it, all the speculation.”
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Wow, this would be an awesome backcourt of Derrick Rose and Dwyane Wade. Maybe one of the fastest backcourts in the National Basketball Association. Oh man, this would not be good for my Pistons.

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Post from: NBA Obsessed

The Lakers picked up Ron Artest and say what you want about the guy, he can be a terrific basketball player and the Lakers are hoping by surrounding him with strong minds and a solid coach and a winning tradition that they will be able to contain the rest of Ron Artest.

The ace in the hole for the Lakers would have been Lamar Odom. Only Lamar is thinking about going to Miami to play with Dwyane Wade, instead and he may do it for less money and more respect.

Lamar Odom to Miami?

It will be interesting to see how this plays out, because the Lakers will need Odom to repeat. No Odom and things get a lot more interesting in the West.

According to Wojnarowski, one source said that the Odom-to-Miami deal is “Close, but it’s not done.” It would be a huge pickup for the HEAT should they pull it off, and a huge loss for the Lakers. Kobe Bryant has said all along he thought Odom would end up back in Tinsletown, but now it’s pretty much anybody’s guess. Either way, he’s going to win some ball games, though it seems more likely the Lakers would give him the better shot at another ring.
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Image: Zuma Press

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Post from: NBA Obsessed

The latest greatest almost impossible to dream rumor about is the Bulls picking up Dwyane Wade with a max contract. Can you imagine rookie of the year Derrick Rose and perennial MVP candidate Dwyane Wade in the same backcourt? Hand them a few average big guys and you are talking title contenders for years to come.

Think of your average Chicago Bulls fan tainted with the memory of the great one, Michael Jordan, still fresh in their minds and his 6 titles. They have to be hurting right now. There was the close miss with the Celtics that were without the services of Kevin Garnett and the thought that Derrick Rose is a few years away from being able to carry the team.

Could Rose be teamed up with Wade?

Oh, it could be great. In a couple of the OT games with the Celtics the Bulls went to Rose in tie breaker situations at the end of games. How nice it would be to hand the ball to Dwyane Wade instead. No knock on Derrick, but it would be his job to set Wade up for the victory shot.

Wade could walk right into a backcourt with Derrick Rose, two potential all-league players with a nice supporting cast with Joakim Noah, Luol Deng and John Salmons. Such a plan likely would preclude making a big offer and bringing back Ben Gordon. But then you also risk Miami pulling off a coup, and, say, getting Bosh and then ending up with the 2010 version of Ron Mercer.

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Post from: NBA Obsessed

MVP time is this week Thursday and the choice is a tough one. LeBron James or Kobe Bryant? It really is down to the two of them as Dwyane Wade as had a drop-off recently and that remains in the voters’ minds.

Kobe Bryant is hardly fifth best?

One way to look at a player’s production is the Bird value.

As always, I am informed, but not driven, by the formula three-time MVP Larry Bird devised to quantify any player’s true value: points, rebounds, assists, steal and blocks, minus missed shots, missed free throws and turnovers. The sum is divided by games played. It’s a great jumping-off point for careful consideration.

LeBron James, Cavaliers

Bird average: 32.15

Case for MVP: He has the highest Bird value. Additionally, he’s nearly as good a closer as Bryant, still the player every coach would want taking a deciding shot in Game 7 of an NBA Finals. He’s worthy of consideration for the All-Defensive team, too. Simply, he gets the vote because he’s the reason Cavaliers have the best record.

Kobe Bryant, Lakers

Bird average: 24.26

Case for MVP: No player in the league is more reliable when the ball is in his hands and the game is on the line, or more focused on getting a stop in the same circumstance. Plus, he understands, more than at any time in his career, how to make his teammates better.

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In case you were wondering:
Chris Paul 30.3
Dwyane Wade 28.98
Dwight Howard 27.32

My personal consideration of this matter reveals that stats are stats and don’t always tell the story. While LeBron is certainly deserving, you can’t put Kobe 5th in this group. Kobe or LeBron will likely win the award.

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Post from: NBA Obsessed

Who wins the MVP in the NBA this year? There are really 3 main candidates and they are not hard to figure out.
LeBron James
Dwyane Wade
Kobe Bryant
So who wins it? Kenny Smith, writing for Yahoo.com has some definite opinions.

Dwyane Wade brings the excitement

Kenny likes DWade, because he is so exciting and has very little help. He has to do it all. Kenny eliminates DWade by insisting that he play for one of the top four teams. He believes that the MVP should carry your team to the playoffs.

LeBron is another story. Is there any other player with this much talent? How can this guy be so big and still play the small man’s game as well as the big man’s game? Need speed? LeBron has it. Need jumping ability? LeBron has it. And if your team wants to play great just put players where they like to shoot, because other teams will double and triple LeBron leaving guy’s wide open to shoot.

Finally there is Kobe. The one that reminds you of the One, the Michael, the Jordan. Kobe will not just beat you, he will destroy you.

Which player is deadliest with the game on the line? Kobe. He not only lives to win, he enjoys demoralizing opponents. That edge is what separates him from LeBron and D-Wade. He’s the guy who kicked sand on your face at the beach.

Kobe almost has a Jordan-like aura among NBA players, and for good reason. He has more offensive skill then anyone in basketball. If Jordan is No. 1, Kobe is 1A. He isn’t Jordan to my generation, but Kobe is tops to the now generation. Believe that.

Kobe actually has more offensive moves than Jordan and shoots the 3-pointer slightly better. And who scored 81 points in a game? Not MJ.

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So who does Kenny pick? Well, you will just have to read the article and find out for yourself.

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Post from: NBA Obsessed

Dwyane Wade collapses to the floor after beating the Bulls. Could Wade become a Bull?

The rumors have started and this one would truly be fun. How about if Dwyane Wade went to the Bulls to join up with Derrick Rose. Could it be the return of Pippen and Jordan and a return of the glory years of victories, victories, and more Bulls victories punctuated by NBA titles and MVP awards?

Wade’s performance in Monday night’s 130-127 double-overtime victory over the Bulls was one for the ages. His desperation heave to end the first half miraculously fell. He buried a dramatic 3-pointer to tie the game in regulation. He stole the ball from John Salmons with three seconds left and made a running 3 to win the game and send the Miami crowd into a frenzy. He finished with 48 points and 12 assists in the latest of a string of individual performances that proves he is at least the equal of two other members of the highly anticipated 2010 free-agent class, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James.

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The Bull’s fans can dream of a local hero dream backcourt of Rose and Wade, but the odds are it won’t happen. Big time free agents rarely leave their teams, because the money is set up to be higher if they stay. The league wants team loyalty by the fans.

But Wade is struggling outside of basketball, so who knows?

Wade is having what may be the most productive season of his career despite off-the-court turmoil that threatens to harm his once-unblemished reputation. He is in the midst of a high-profile divorce that includes accusations that he abandoned his children. His restaurant chain failed. A disgruntled former business partner made unsubstantiated claims about Wade using recreational drugs.

So Bulls fans should keep on dreaming and keep your fingers crossed!
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