Real Deal

Depends. Would you say this about Chris Bosh? If the Lakers traded Gasol for Love next week, would Love average 24 PPG? Probably not, but his shooting percentage may go up (easier shots, with Kobe and Drew out there) and his rebounding would more than likely stay the same. There's nothing inflated about the impact of a player.

We are getting Bill Cowher. I knew it!

He's the best rebounder in the NBA. That isn't because he's on a shitty team. A lot of players benefit greatly from another guy boxing out their man (see Drew and Gasol in LA). The worse the team, the easier it is for opponents to defend him as well...and his FG% will more than likely go back up to 47-48% (which matches the way he plays). He's not a superstar, but Love is a top three PF in the NBA, without a doubt...and some will argue the best. Right now, I would take him and Griffin over Dirk and Gasol.

So they had you make the banners, and then they didn't use them? I don't remember JBB ever having those up.

I agree that Gasol has been more valuable over the years, but using PER is a bad deal. Gasol is one of those players where his numbers are so shady, it really hides what all he doesn't do for us on the court. You'd think all Lakers fans would be happy with him over those championship years, but watching 82+ games a year with this guy, seeing all of his mistakes...his scoring and rebounding numbers don't make up for the fact that, countless times, he was not there when we needed him to be. He has refused to take many, many shots...holding the ball for far too long in the post, then dishing it out to Kobe or a shooter with seconds left on the clock. His defensive lapses have been mind-blowing, and I distinctly remember a game where Bargnani slipped through with about 10 feet of room on any side of his body, open dunk...and he tore Gasol up that game, and we all created a topic over at TLN, bashing the hell out of him for what he was doing the entire season. Drew isn't at Gasol's level. Pau is one of the best skilled big men in the NBA (and if we're talking true big men, he's probably #1 or #2 in regards to his skillset), but what he gives us is not as simple as a box score painting the picture. The things he has been doing wrong...those are what keeps him from being THE best power forward in the NBA.

I think the idea was for him to mention it during one of his own videos, not actually have a video created just for OTR...but I could be wrong.

No, Brandon, stupid prediction.

Right. I never denied that it would force him to play differently, but he's also a born scorer. If he can't recover from that, I don't know what else to say about the guy. He's still shooting his usual percentage. I wouldn't say he's struggling any more than he did last season...he's just not getting the extra points off his free throws. If he was shooting 35% or so, that's different.

TIME: 4:30 PM ET TV: FOX

TIME: 1:00 PM ET TV: CBS

TIME: 8:00 PM ET TV: CBS

TIME: 4:30 PM ET TV: FOX

From the 4th grade to high school, I packed my own lunch...kind of had to, since I was a diabetic, and I had to eat specific amounts of everything. Once I was in high school, I didn't give a damn about diabetes, so I just ate whatever...went through the "sub station" that my school had, or a "snack shack" that was basically an area where you'd buy your expensive junk food (ex. stuffed crust pizza).

Out of everything you typed, the injury situation is the only thing that will change (maybe). Kevin Martin is struggling to adjust to what new rules? If he's struggling because of THAT, he's going to be this way for the rest of his career...there's no way that the new shooting foul rules can change a player like that. Dalembert isn't going to be a good starting center. There's a reason why teams weren't flocking towards him before the season started. The trade rejection won't go away...Scola and Martin won't forget that Houston wasn't going to give them a chance this season, despite that second-half run in 2011. Let me put it this way: Dalembert was probably the last guy that Houston took a serious look at. The Gasol brothers, Nene, Jordan, Chandler...at some point, Houston had to have considered big offers for those guys, and after the dust cleared, it was Dalembert being the consolation prize (if you can call him that). From my perspective, I can't see why Houston would want to give the Martin-Scola duo another chance, but then again, I've never been a fan of either player.

Maynor started playing pretty good, especially with all of the noise from Westbrook's end (ex. him fighting with Durant, being selfish, etc). I thought Maynor was making better decisions on the court, at one point...definitely not a better player than Westbrook, but when he was in there, the Thunder were either making up ground, or adding to leads.

Who is George Bush?

Most definitely, Drew is dominating. The problem is, us Laker fans will never forget those knee injuries, and if we can swap Drew and Gasol for Howard and Millsap, I mean...that's huge. Even age-wise, that's a big deal. Obviously, Drew is the best offensive center in the NBA. Howard can score efficiently, but he's not the back-to-the-basket scorer that Bynum is. The Lakers play a "four out, one in" offense that Mike Brown basically ripped from his assistant coaching days in San Antonio, and while Drew has put up impressive numbers, the two things he has trouble with are passing out of the post (something that is vital when playing in this offense) and scoring through double teams, where he struggled the most when Portland ran two guys at him in the second half of our loss. Defensively, it's not even close. Howard trumps Bynum. That may be the difference-maker. We may not get a decent PG, and Howard takes a pathetic Orlando Magic team (pathetic on defense) to a 50+ win season, ranked top five in the NBA in defense...all by himself, really. It would be crazy hard not to pull the trigger, even if we weren't getting someone like Millsap to replace Gasol...but if we were? I wouldn't think twice.

This is a really good idea, could be huge. That's a lot of people on the site at once, though...lol. I'm sure we won't get 2k on here at once...we probably have a limit of 200 or so at once, not really sure how bad ass the server is. We're on semi-dedicated.

I wouldn't be shocked to see that happen, but with the offense they've installed, Gasol almost fits in perfectly...as long as he takes advantage of it. That's the problem, and why I'm 50/50 on a trade. Now, do the Lakers trade Drew and Gasol, both, for Dwight? That's hard to say. We would be left with no backup PF, and our starting PF would have to be Josh McRoberts. Troy Murphy would have to play the four and five, I guess...not that great from a defensive standpoint. If I knew we could use that $8.9 million TPE we received by trading Lamar Odom (stupid move, but he wanted out because he threw a fit), we could trade it to someone like the Jazz, maybe for Millsap or Favors (dreaming...maybe). THEN, I would most certainly be supportive in the Lakers dealing Drew and Gasol for Dwight.

I'm sure Houston will put a few guys on the block. They were ready to deal a huge portion of their team before the season started, and now that they are struggling, you'd think they want to deal 75% of that roster again. Jenneral talked about the Bucks needing to deal everyone and start over. I'm not sure if they are ready to part with Jennings, but Bogut being up for grabs wouldn't shock me. They would be happy with a top pick, trying to grab a big. Will Toronto deal Bargnani or Calderon? I just read something on Twitter that they were offering both for Gasol and someone else, which I would hate to see happen (for the Lakers' sake) and I doubt we take that to begin with, but if any of it is remotely true, even a fraction of it, they are putting them out there. Toronto just needs to go for broke. They have a couple of guys that need to start winning, players like Davis, DeRozan and Valanciunas that they need to keep happy in the future...so someday, they will need to make a move. The Jazz have a stacked frontcourt. I wouldn't be surprised to see them get rid of one of their bigs.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.293539174026392.65598.115401195173525&type=1

http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs14/i/2007/003/3/1/JBB_Banner___never_used_by_N4S_GFX.jpg LMAO. I never knew that. http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/391136_293545434025766_115401195173525_769293_290714257_n.jpg

I'll still consider it, especially if they are an original member. I haven't been in contact with any of them, though, and have no way of doing that...so if you guys talk to them and think it's a good idea to give them a chance, we'll make that decision here.

Haha, no. I've got about five backups in three different locations.

Had to bump this. Some guest was looking at it...noticed it when I was fumbling through the online list. Crazy times. :o