Real Deal

Well, Houston has two picks in the teens. Lowry + 16th pick to Sacramento for their 5th and Chuck Hayes? I'm assuming that's probably going to be the offer (assuming they aren't going to give Sactown both picks), not really saying the Kings will take that, though. Then, they can take the 14th pick and, uh...package Marcus Morris with it? LOL, I really have no idea.

Well, I wouldn't be shocked if Portland passed on Drummond for Lillard, but just to play it safe, I would expect Houston to push hard for that #5. I don't see Drummond going anywhere before that, especially with Cleveland so dead-set on Barnes or MKG (they will get one or the other, because Beal will not fall past Washington at #3). Assuming they do land the eighth pick, it does look like Portland is the only threat. I don't see why Sactown would want Drummond, and while the Warriors could take him as a back-up center to an always-injured Andrew Bogut, they also need a back-up PG for an always-injured Stephen Curry (Kendall Marshall and Tony Wroten are sitting right there, assuming Portland takes Lillard). Even then, they are shopping their pick.

I'm going to put "Smush Parker" in the word filter.

I doubt it. Chris Paul didn't do much scoring for the Clippers when they needed him to this postseason, and I realize he was hurt...but he was still out there on the floor. He's usually always playing with injuries, anyway, and Westbrook is far, far too healthy to trade for CP3 at this point...especially when you have to worry about Paul's knees someday (I'm surprised he's not in Brandon Roy's shoes yet). OKC needed Westbrook's scoring and his ability to get to the rim. Sure, the ball could have been in Durant's hands a bit more, but at the same time, if this team had CP3, Durant would have needed to average 40 to beat the Heat (and I doubt Harden would have done a damn thing, since he was open the entire series and bricked every shot he put up). Now Rondo is a different story. He's not going to score the ball like Westbrook, either...but I think he can be a much better scorer than people give him credit for. With someone like Durant stretching the defense out to the three, Rondo would tear teams up much like he was doing with Miami in a few games. As a Thunder fan (second favorite team, since they are now considered "local" to me), I've been pushing for a Westbrook/Rondo swap for a long time. I would love to see that happen. Chris Paul is a year older than Rondo, but I seriously doubt his career will last as long...and while Paul is an excellent passer and a true point guard, Rondo is a triple-double machine, and to me, he does more on the court now.

If we somehow deal Gasol, and then the Howard/Drew deal falls into our lap, I'm trading Bynum as well. Don't give a damn. And we can't sign Odom until mid-December, if I recall correctly.

The only thing next in line for Durant is a championship, regardless of his ability (or inability) to defend as well as someone like LeBron. He has three consecutive scoring titles, a trip to the NBA Finals, and in my opinion, is easily the best scorer in the league. He has improvements to make, nonetheless (ex. defense, still needs to work on his passing, establishing a post game), but at this point, the Thunder has to be the team that dethrones the champs...either by beating them in the 2013 Finals, or by beating another East team (assuming Rose returns early and Chicago sneaks in). There's no doubt in my mind that the Thunder can win it all with the exact same Durant we saw in these NBA Finals.

Not much they can do at this point, honestly, aside from trading Danny Granger. I've been saying for a few years now that Granger isn't a primary option. The Pacers are stuck...out of the lottery, but a second round playoff team...kind of reminding me of a team like the Hawks, who have had the talent over the last few years, but not getting over the hump. Looking at the draft, they have a lot of options at the three, if they do decide to put Granger on the market. Quincy Miller will be hanging around at #26. Royce White may be gone (heard he got a promise from Boston), but Draymond Green and possibly Moe Harkless could be available. Paul George can play the three. He may not be a better offensive option at the three, but he actually defends better...and the Pacers have the depth to cover the two-guard position. It's easy to say they need an all-star player, but I doubt they will land one with Granger.

With news that Chicago is wanting to deal Deng (not really current news, we knew they would try), I'm almost 100% sure the Warriors are going to go after him hard...probably more than any other player right about now.

Well, it's a $1.3 million PO, so I mean...he could probably get more money elsewhere. The thing is, if he leaves, and Orlando loses Howard, they will most certainly be a bottom five defensive team in the NBA...especially if Howard is dealt to the Nets (because they won't be getting any stellar defenders in that deal). Looking at the roster right now, Howard and Clark are the only two players on the team that even know what defense is (maybe Daniel Orton, who doesn't matter at this point). Q-Rich is trying to make up for his lack of quickness with his physicality, but it's just catching up to him nowadays.

Now, rumors include Joakim Noah. Hmm... http://www.slamonline.com/online/nba/2012/06/report-bulls-may-move-luol-deng-or-joakim-noah-for-a-pick-and-exception

You do understand just how good of a defensive team, and how good of a rebounding team, that Cavaliers squad was...right? Back in 2007, LeBron was not even remotely close to receiving DPOY consideration (not in the top 29 players receiving votes, lets just put it that way), and that Cavaliers team was one of the best defensive teams in the league, defending the three point line better than anyone else, one of the better teams at defending the paint. Regarding the rebouding, LeBron contributed to under seven boards a game, while there were 3-4 other players that boarded 6-9 each (Gooden averaged nearly nine boards in under 30 minutes). Defensive rating doesn't mean THAT much, but if you want to take that into consideration as well, LeBron was 7th on the team. Varejao was the best defensive player on that team (with or without the defensive rating), and both Marshall and Ilgauskas (ironically, the other two bigs) were second and third. In addition to that...Gibson, Jones, Pavlovic and Marshall were giving the team around 12 3PTA a game, hitting at 35-42% on any given night together. It's enough to spread the floor. There's no doubt LeBron was a dominant player, but you're clearly looking past the defense and rebounding this team produced, and most of that was due to their bigs doing major work. Offensively, the Cavaliers were in the bottom half of the league, despite LeBron's 27/6/6 (or whatever it was, something around that), but that was because the team was put together in a way for him to take over in isolations, drive to the rim and kick it out to multiple shooters. If you took that LeBron James, and gave him a big man that takes up the paint, but is borderline all-star (or all-star), you really don't know if that team beats the Spurs, either...because LeBron would have had to rely more on his jumper, and that's why those teams in Cleveland (especially the later teams, that lost to Boston and Orlando) were actually constructed well around him. They just didn't have the players that could take over games in spurts, but the idea and the design fit LeBron perfectly.

I read somewhere that Cleveland was going to try and trade up, making a trade with Charlotte for that #2, so they can take Beal (over Washington). If they don't get it, word was that they love Barnes. With that 24th, if you're going to take a two-guard or a small forward using your top pick, you might as well take a center with this one...and with Drummond gone and Zeller more than likely off the board as well, you have Meyers Leonard and Fab Melo.

Well, Pierce is already considered one of the greatest Celtics of all time. I mean...Bird, Russell, Havlicek, Cousy, McHale...that's good company...and he's definitely not on Bird's level, but what he has done in Boston, over time, makes his career memorable. Melo really hasn't done anything, anywhere...and the way it's looking, I'm not sure if he will for a long, long time. Right now, you're kind of obligated to say Pierce.

Haha, oh Phil...nice way of saying the game needs the triangle offense again. He's coming back, eventually. The Zen Master at it again, with his mind games. I'm sure OKC is at the top of his list, too...it's no coincidence he's putting all of this out there NOW.

LOL, okay. I really had no idea. I'm almost 29, guys. -_-

Someone explain, please. Thanks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58LcTzq4Z54

You sound like Skip Bayless, and if you missed it, there's a video (posted today, on the site) of Mark Cuban basically tearing his theory to pieces. The way you put it, you're giving no credit to Dallas. LeBron didn't have a chance to get into the post against that Dallas team, because they had Marion on him, and Chandler coming over to help, and that's FAR different than Durant on LeBron, with Ibaka coming in late. All of that means one thing: LeBron doesn't want to settle for jumpers. That's exactly my point. Dallas forced him to, and that was the biggest reason why Miami got their asses handed to them last season. I'm not sure why you posted all of that above. Are you trying to show me how efficient he is when he's taking less jumpers? That was obvious from the start, especially when he finally found his post game. I don't have an agenda with LeBron, and I'm kind of sick of hearing it. The topic I provided (this one) was to show just how effective he was in the post/paint area, and that he did what he didn't do against Dallas. Boston wasn't about to beat the Heat due to the reason I stated? LeBron wasn't getting where he wanted to on the court. He averaged under 4 assists per game in that series. In five of the seven games, he took single-digit free throw attempts, which was ridiculous when you consider the fact that Pierce was struggling to walk, and the Celtics had to stick Brandon Bass on him. Outside of Game 6, LeBron was 25-83 FG (30%) shooting jumpshots in that Boston series. You're telling me that him shooting and missing that many jumpers wasn't an issue for the Heat, when that entire team was depending on LeBron to feed them their buckets by passing the ball out of his penetrations? No Bosh, and Wade was bipolar (in a basketball sense). At one point, I was in the topics, saying that LeBron just didn't have enough help...but even though he didn't, he was still having to settle for jumpers, against a team that, really, had no chance of stopping him outside of Garnett contesting everything he put up, and it was Garnett that basically forced LeBron into those jumpers. You know that.

He's a tweener, simply put.

It was part of a song, forgot what they were singing though. I deleted the game from my DVR about 45 minutes ago. SMH. EDIT: May have been the intro to Power (Kanye). I'm pretty sure that was it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vMsRIKKv1w

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7276/7419441430_40f0c4456c_o.gif

Five seasons in, we said the same thing about LeBron James. LOL, he's already as good of a rebounder (if not better) than LeBron. Are you saying Durant can't get any stronger? Even if Miller retires, the Heat will be well over the cap and already dipping into the luxury tax penalty.

The Lakers are going to make moves, regardless of what is coming from the media. If we had kept CP3, we could have been in the Finals. There's nothing out there that makes me think we're going to stick with what we have NOW, given all that was done in December, and the season's result in May.