My hope is the streak will be their best stretch of play this year and they will merely be extremely hard to beat rather than unbeatable in the playoffs.

Lakers have to amnesty Kobe right? 30 mil * 2 for the luxury tax for him not to play? Plus he's a free agent after next year. I don't think there is any rule that says that a team that amnesty's a player can't sign him after that contract has expired. They could have the best of both worlds.

cant do it. along with trading a player, he gets cut by the team you traded him to, then you resign him

If they amnesty him now they couldn't resign him while the old contract still exists obviously but once his contract is up next summer he is a free agent.

They won't disrespect Kobe by doing that, it would be a PR nightmare.

Kobe still gets paid. He's not going to be able to play next year anyways. The Lakers save the cap and tax hit and everyone knows the Lakers will sign him as a free agent. He won't play anywhere else. Even if some team is dumb enough to grab him off waivers he won't be able to play for them. The only ones who will be mad is the league cause they didn't write this scenario into the CBA. Fans should be smart enough to read between the lines.

Uhhh....


Gonna be pretty epic when Derrick walks into the Berto Center for the first day of training camp! Adidas is going to sell a ton of shoes!

from what the word is being said, the latest he will be back is january. something tells me AP for the vikes is cut from the same cloth

youre probably better off trying to convince yourself kobe is going to get cut and come back to reality

so...you guys never heard Kobe say that he would retire at age 35??

pretty convenient.

Kobe isn't going out like this, he will be back as soon as possible and try to go out with a bang not a whimper.......unlike some other former MVP I know...

i assume youre talking about Jordan

Actually, I meant the former MVP who has been cleared for two months and simply doesn't see the point in coming back to play this year. Kobe has some faults, but his toughness can't be questioned and you can count on him being out there if he is able to play.

i think Rose is weak mentally...or maybe he knows his body better than anyone and is really smart.

I thought this two weeks ago until I started looking at the teams lining up. Yes, the Heat are likely to sweep the Bucks, but then get the winner of the Nets and Bulls, assuming this is still the look in the standings. The Bulls would be a tough matchup. Not saying they'll take the Heat, but they conceivably could - great defense sometimes overcomes other deficits, like the lack of Rose. I also think once they get past that round, the potential of facing the Knicks and/or Pacers could be a decent series as well. Not saying the Heat won't win, being that they are the best team at least in the East for sure, but there are challenges on the road at least from the perspective of a person observing before the playoffs begin.

Heat should win the east pretty easily barring a major injury. Even if a series goes 6 or 7 games it would only be cause they are screwing around. Maybe if they play the Knicks and they don't take them serious and its like 2-2 and then the Knicks go three point crazy for the next two games. That's really what you need. A team that just shoots lights out ridiculous and hope LBJ starts getting panicky. He seems to be over that though.

The thing about the Heat though that can become a concern is if they get into autopilot mode. They've never been good at things coming easily to them, so there's always a chance. A team like Chicago or Indiana that is willing to meet them physically and disrupt their rhythm could be trouble for them. I think the Knicks could keep it close, though I admit it is a hard sell despite the fact that the Knicks took 3/4 from them in the regular season.

Edit to add this: Looked at the standings and it appears that if the playoffs started today instead of Saturday, the Heat would get the winner of Nets/Hawks, which is a gift-wrapped trip to the Eastern Conference Finals for Miami.

well, not i'm a little worried about the Celtics...

As a Bulls fan, I'm really hoping the Bulls can move ahead of the Hawks. I wouldn't mind the Bulls getting the Heat in the second round and facing the Nets would be great because they are a total fraud. Each time the Bulls have played them the Nets have been exposed. Playing the Heat in the second round would be fine. The Bulls would be rested.....if they have to go through a physical Pacers team and then another tough second round matchup they won't get to the Heat in the conference finals. The Pacers are actually a really tough matchup for the Bulls because they match their physicality and toughness on the glass.

The Hawks.....who are also a big bag of crap in my opinion, are losing to a resurgent Craptors team....so things look okay for the Bulls to slide into that 5th spot as they own a tiebreaker over Atlanta.

you think the Bulls can beat the heat?