Real Deal

Obviously, the Cavaliers were dead set on Thompson, as long as Williams was selected at #2 or #3. I don't think they showed any interest, at all, in Kanter. So, would you say that these two were the correct picks? Or, would it have been smart for the Cavaliers to take Derrick Williams at #1, then drop down and take someone like Brandon Knight? Some will say that's easy to answer, but I don't know. Irving is the point guard everyone wanted, but you'd almost think the Williams/Knight duo would be more effective. Thompson is a high risk pick in the top five. What would you have done?

Sure, but the owners aren't reading your post, and they couldn't care less what the players want right now. The owners hold all of the cards, and the truth is, the NBAPA isn't going to win. They should've taken the 50/50 earlier, because now, they'll lose money AND will still be forced to take the 50/50, and because of the delays and the owners losing money as well, I wouldn't be surprised if the owners decided they weren't moving unless they get their hard cap, amnesty clauses every season, non-guaranteed contract rules, and much lower exceptions, possibly removing the MLE and LLE altogether..

Of course, no team is perfect, and every team has room to improve...but would you say Chicago needs a bit more than just a decent, productive SG to shoot for the stars and make their way into the NBA Finals?

The Bobcats snagged Kemba Walker. If you're MJ, what's next in store for the team? Are you looking at free agency or making trades? What position? What players would you want to go after? New head coach? Should MJ just throw his hands in the air and walk off?

Rank Boston's "Fab Four" in order of importance, for next season's run, and give reasons why you ranked them the way you did. Rondo, Pierce, Ray Ray and Garnett are your Fab Four (but you know this).

We saw how he was doing near the end of last season, probably surprised quite a few people...and with Hinrich being the only other PG on the roster right now, would you say that Teague... 1) gets the start over Kirk, and 2) is he a permanent solution at starting PG?

No they aren't. Roles in the offense are interchangeable, not positions. There's a difference between the two. You can distribute the roles wherever you like, primary scoring options, post play, whatever...but you can't run your post players out to the three every play, and that's all Brian did because, well, he wasn't playing the four anymore. I've played in the offense, and I helped coach it for two years. Yeah, technically, all positions in any offense are interchangeable if we're talking about roles, but you can't suddenly run your PF out of position, expecting the SF (in the set) to take the PF's place because, most of the time, he's playing on the other side of the court, and you're not going to set up the actual triangle correctly if you're doing that. There's no way. Cook was using screens. Teams read Cook as the SF because that's what he was, and so they stick the quicker frontcourt player on him, to chase him off the screens and make sure he wasn't getting wide open looks all game long. If you took the triangle and told Phil to coach it in Dallas, he would strongly consider playing Shawn Marion at the PF position, and having Dirk play the three, to accommodate his range. Dirk can show post, sure the hell can, but if you give him 23 feet of effectiveness, and remove the responsibilities of screening for other guys and fighting underneath for deep low post position, he's going to be your league MVP.

That's what I said. Kwame/Mihm (meaning Kwame OR Mihm) and Odom were starting at the four and five, Cook at the three. And, yes, Cook was starting at the three. If you need to see it yourself... http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/LAL/2006_start.html Everyone in Lakerland remembers Phil removing Odom from the SF position VERY early in the season. We all laughed about it, as fans, because he was supposed to be playing Pippen's role, and Phil started to post him up, moved him up to the PF position, and was starting Cook at SF (no other place he could be). There are no triangle sets that allow Cook to spot up, all the time, at the PF position. Cook was getting a few minutes at the four, of course, when Odom had to rest (but this was actually rare, because Cook didn't play much himself), but he was a starting three. Not sure who thinks differently, and maybe Cook was defending PF's every now and then back on defense, but in that triangle offense, a third of the way through the season up until the end of it, Cook and Odom switched positions, and that's according to Phil, who clearly stated he moved Odom to the four and changed his role entirely.

One of LeBron's biggest supporters, too. Sure the hell can't say that I expected this...I'm so used to him sticking up for Bron. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1MC5gWhsTo Listen to the entire thing. It's crazy.

If the NBA season doesn't hit us in the face in the near future, I'll be expanding certain forums. As of now, OTR will go along like we have for almost seven years. We always have droughts during the summer. Granted this is much more than just a drought, I'd take this over our site being hacked a second time. The lack of activity here really doesn't bite at my ass as much as it used to. I know that, when we bounce back, I'll have the dedicated guys, and that's what OTR is built on. I think everyone remembers when BBW and SportsTwo did the merger, and it was at the worst time for us, because we had a lot of problems here. A TON of my guys left for S2, and while things looked grim for us (because S2 was "that new shit" everyone wanted to try out), it didn't last. RealBallers did the same thing to us. I think I lost 75% of my 12-member GFX crew to them (or some site, I can't remember because both are dead). RBS stayed up for a long time, but traffic eventually tore open the site, along with insufficient management (eventually, new management), and it just went downhill. It may have been BBall Central, and that place was booming more than RBS, if I recall correctly. Finally, the hack...and out of everything, that was the worst. Members did stop posting here. The truth is, they were upset that they lost their posts...and so was I, but come on. Sure, I could go and promote OTR every day, work my ass off to bring 50 new people here and see what happens, but there's always a need to control your crowd, activity, and ultimately, your community size. It's fun to go over to RealGM and post, you can talk forever, but a site like RGM makes it extremely difficult to maintain an identity, and that's something anyone can do over here, as long as they can roll with our big dogs when it comes to discussion.

Already forgot who that guy is. The only Brady I know in the NFL is Brady Poppinga.

Parenthesis and Exponents Multiplication and Division Addition and Subtraction It's not that tough. There's an order for a reason. Left to right, you do the first multiplication problem you see...and that first problem is 2 times 0. Once you complete that, you do your addition, which will give you your answer, 28. I mean, I was planning on being a math major before I changed my classes up as a college freshman, took Calculus as a senior in HS, moved straight into Calc 3 my first year of college. I'm pretty sure it's 28.

Problem is, Jimmy Clausen isn't Tim Tebow, and Matt Moore (and the Panthers) weren't going to win any games to begin with, because the entire team was going to struggle all season long, no matter who was under center. Tebow gives the Broncos a better chance to win. Orton is an average QB, always has been, and Denver needs above average. They need someone that can actually get out of the pocket and make plays, instead of throwing into coverage all the time. This is his third season in Denver, and it's pretty obvious that Orton isn't going to be their guy. If it's not Orton, it's Tebow or Quinn, and quite frankly, I never understood why Quinn was considered the second string.

According to most reports out there, and even ESPN tonight, the owners offered the 50/50, and the players declined. Before, I was against what the owners were doing...but if that really did happen, the players are ignorant.

Moss. Top two receiver of all time. I need to see more of Megatron (as in, two or three seasons of him playing at Rice and Moss' level) before I think about it.

It would have to be star-studded, because Suh, Williams and JPP would rip apart any line in the NFL right now. I'd take the defense. You can always say something like, "You have to score to win," but the truth is, the defense can score as well...and if AP can't get through the line, and the receivers are going to be covered by the two best corners in the league, I don't see how any offense will win that game.

They have to be wrong. The experiment that sent Odom out there at SF ended very quickly, around the time Kwame was pulled because he couldn't maintain spacing between him and Mihm, and it was in between the time Cook was starting. Probably 30 games in. Cook was supposed to take the post, and he was an absolute train wreck down there, and Odom was bumped up because he was also the better rebounder, and having him far from the rim was hurting LA. If Odom was at the four, and Mihm and Kwame were starting (Mihm first, then Kwame after the injury), Cook was at the three after about 30 games, when Phil made the adjustment, because he was also starting.

Just an example of how much Kwame played after Mihm went down... http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/200604060DEN.html

Dude, lol, if he was being played at the center position, it's different, but he was in the roster as a small forward in the triangle. When he was starting, he was at the SF position, with Mihm/Kwame and Odom at the five and four. Phil is not dumb enough to take Odom out of the starting five, and he's not dumb enough to put Turiaf at the PF position in the triangle. Cook was a SF that season, and saying that Turiaf needed to play more minutes than Cook is saying that Kwame and Mihm needed to play less (or Odom less), and there's no way on Earth that Ronny was better than those two. I'm not sure what you were wanting. There were three centers on the team. Turiaf was one. Once Mihm was hurt, Cook was starting at the SF position, with Odom and Kwame at the four and five. Cook was never playing center. Kwame was up to about 40-43 minutes a game without Mihm, and Odom was at the five at some points of the game (very few minutes there). So, again, it was either play Odom at the five for about 3-4 minutes, or play Turiaf 3-4 minutes more. It had nothing to do with Cook. He was pushed up to the PF position, and Walton was getting around 35 minutes a night because of it. You can go check the games if you'd like, but the triangle doesn't operate with a center pulling out to the three-point line every play, and Odom was the only guy that could take the low post on the roster (other than Drew, who didn't play, and Mihm being injured).

Hahaha, that was hilarious...Detroit's line just stood there.

Multiplication and division happen before addition and subtraction, regardless if it's stuck in parenthesis or not, and no matter where that part of the equation lies. From left to right, you look for the parenthesis and exponents, solving for them first. Then, left to right, solving for multiplication and division (in this case, the 2x0 section). Then, you go left to right, addition and subtraction.

I'm sorry, but if people don't remember PEMDAS, that's terrible. Teachers are showing students how to work these problems in the third grade today (my girlfriend subbed for a third grade teacher last year, before she got her teaching job, and she was doing it then).

http://files.sharenator.com/3_rage_face_RE_Memebase_100-s446x374-230325.png

I'm sure it would've fooled more people if you slipped a minus sign in there about 3/4 of the way through the equation, lol.

Two blocked shots per game isn't going to be more significant than the scoring Brian Cook gave us, and Turiaf wasn't going to be THAT big of a deal on the defensive end of the floor. Sure, Cook couldn't rebound, but he actually boxes out better than Ronny, and without looking, he probably averaged around the same RPG in 36 minutes. We needed someone to spread the floor. Cook was the best shooter on the team, hands down, no argument. I'll stick the best shooter on the floor before I put a guy that does nothing but block a couple shots a game out there. If we're talking just the playoffs...okay, that's a bit different. Maybe Ronny should've played more against the Suns. I don't even think Mihm played at all, if I recall correctly. But, if we're looking at the entire 2005-06 season, Phil made the right decision to play Cook more.