Real Deal

Cutting teams AND using a hard cap means less talented players. I suddenly feel sorry for guys like Manu Ginobili, picked late in the draft and not having the opportunity to show his true potential. That's about 90 less players in the league just by cutting six teams. Hard cap brings earlier retirements, younger pool of players and younger teams, less maturity, less veteran leadership and teaching. Also, six less teams means 246 less games, less playoff games, less money for the NBA as a whole. Smaller draft (48 picks, instead of 60). Smaller free agent classes, minimal attention in the off-season due to less attention given by teams (because of the hard cap). Less foreign interest due to lack of scouting overseas (based on smaller draft, less money offered to assist in buying out contracts). The NBA would fold and die in 5-6 years max.

More about the ignorance of the game. You didn't answer the questions in my initial post. A lot of people don't slobber over his athleticism and talents too much, and they are unwilling to see that this is the guy that may be the face of the NBA for the next decade, someone that promotes more than he wins, that has no problem name-dropping certain teams and basically calling them bad enough to be absorbed from the league. If your stance wasn't so clouded based on your hate for Lakers fans, you'd feel the same way. Sadly, I favored the younger LeBron over this one, the one that actually respects the game and everyone that plays in it. It's possible that you don't care because you would rather watch soccer, but I don't really care about any other sport like I do basketball, and no matter what my favorite team is doing (winning rings or missing the playoffs), I will have to be a fan of the game through every season of LeBron's career, so I have a right to criticize him for the obviously ignorant things he says. Kevin Durant isn't a better player than LeBron, and it's possible he'll never be, but I will be the first person to give him a thumbs up for the way he conducts himself, on Twitter and in interviews, and how he respects everyone that plays the game. My respect for D-Wade has tripled just because any I had for LeBron has been obliterated over the last 2-3 years. Same with my respect for Shaq. Take away the humor you see out of it when Lakers fans post topics like this, and suddenly, you dislike LeBron as much as anyone else does on OTR. I've seen you giving +1's to non-Lakers fans verbally smashing the Heat/LeBron in other topics, and your history on the site also tells me you get a kick out of seeing Lakers fans pissed off, so I know what you really think of the situation.

Why didn't Vince suit up? Nobody on this team can get to the rim, other than Nash, and he looks to pass more often than score the ball. Grant Hill tries, but he doesn't have the athleticism to finish strong in the lane.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/truehoop/miamiheat/news/story?id=5952952 LOL, what? He's going to name-drop like that, and smash on the Wolves and Nets? Can anyone name a team in the 80s that had four superstars on it at once? Does anyone know that only one team in the 80s had four all-stars at once? Anyone want to dig up all of the teams that had three all-stars at once?

LeBron showing his [expletive]ty attitude already. Dude needs to calm down. Hill wasn't going to let him get that cut to the rim and would've contested that pass, and Lopez would've met him at the ball. Miami should just give the ball to LeBron and start screaming at him the entire game, throwing their hands up in the air and rolling their eyes.

Do you think the league should change the rules for "retired" numbers? Charles Barkley stated a bit ago that he would be happy with Mickael Pietrus wearing his #34 in Phoenix, and that he's grateful that his name and number are hanging in the arena. Would you be okay with the league allowing players to wear any number they wanted, despite which ones are hanging? Seeing that name and number in the air...should that be enough, or is it necessary to "retire" it from the rest of the team, every year, for good?

Yes, Wade is out. The only time the big three didn't play together, they lost to the Grizzlies.

Cousins can't even stay in the game for a few seconds without picking up two fouls. DeMarcus Fortson.

Well, I'm always going to look at the good and bad, so when I read this, it points out two things... 1) Mike Miller will be open all the time, which is scary because he's a very good shooter. 2) Sadly, the talents he possesses won't be utilized as much as they should be. He'll more than likely be a spot-up shooter the entire season. There's really no negative having him back, but I'm not sure if the impact will be felt when LeBron or Wade are struggling to create (and, of course, it depends on who he's in the game with at the time). I said it earlier in the season: the Heat are basically a 2009 Cleveland Cavaliers team with a 48-minute per game superstar (due to the Heat's ability to have one in the game the entire time the team is on the floor). But, I feel like it's going to take Wade and LeBron on the same page to knock out the contenders in the league, and as of today, I still don't think they are there. Most of Miami's success is based on those isolations, just like Miami and Cleveland's last year. If Miami plays even faster when both James and Wade are on the floor, pushing for easy transition baskets, and combining that with plays out of LeBron and Wade iso's when the opposing team does score and get back on defense...it would be dangerous, and I would bet money the Heat will be in the Finals at least once in the next two seasons. But the relevance to this, for and against Mike Miller, is that it turns him into the most dangerous shooter on the floor...yet, maybe a non-factor if those two (Wade and James) aren't playing the way they should. An elite defensive team, like Boston, could turn those isolations into muddy waters, and it takes guys like Miller and Jones completely out of the game and forces LeBron and Wade to look for each other in those situations (which hasn't worked, as we've seen over and over again when they try and get each other open jumpers).

Yeah, Milwaukee would be good for him. However, I think his best bet is in Orlando. They have no backup center, and above all of that, with Thabeet's forte (if anything) being his defense...it makes perfect sense for him to play behind, and learn from, the best defensive player in the NBA.

Haha, I really don't think anyone will beat out Howard for DPOY for a few more years, at least.

LOL, Splitter fouled the hell out of Howard there. Very evident on the replay. Spurs need a couple of stops. This is what I was talking about, lol...can't outscore a hot team. Orlando brought in guys like Arenas, Richardson and Turk so they could score more points (middle of the league in scoring), and their defense is taken care of by having Howard in the paint. The Spurs can't keep trying to outscore their opponents without getting critical stops.

Pretty much. I'm Superman in reverse, switch to nerd when I'm needed.

Dude...showing some improvements in your posting. Good stuff, man. We like to raise our members into basketball analysts, if you haven't noticed by now. It's weird seeing the Spurs trying to score over playing that gritty defense they've been infamous for over the last decade. As Reggie was saying (I think it was Reggie, maybe it was Kevin), it's important that the Spurs can go back to that defensive stand in the playoffs. They are a different team right now, probably the best offensive team in the league and around 10th in total defense, but they don't want to get too used to running that score up and not reserving energy for the defensive end.

In other news, I invented OTR, and without it, computers are useless.

And so it has nothing to do with the Lakers winning championships? Playing alongside Kobe Bryant before he retires? Why are there no rumors of him going to the Los Angeles Clippers to play center, alongside Blake Griffin? Word is that he has put out a wish list to those close to him. It's not exactly pure speculation. Maybe not, or it could've been possible that Jordan was considered a 10+ year veteran at that time and had no restriction. O'Neal was coming off his rookie deal. I'm sure there was something, because there were percentage increases in contracts back then, which makes it more likely there were restrictions on how much you can pay a non-vet (or, even just a rookie contract player). I may just ask Larry Coon later. The current CBA was established in the summer of 2005, and one feature of it was establishing max contracts for all players in the league. The key words could be "all players in the league." Much like it is today (where max contracts are defined by how long a player has been in the league), that may have been the case with the steep salary increase of 1996. That's why I said he'll need to stay healthy for the next two seasons. For Howard? Most definitely. Andrew Bynum will never be as good as Dwight Howard. Ariza only needed one season. He was at a D-League level before he came to Los Angeles. Plus, Artest is showing his age, and he's close to getting benched. His minutes have been limited (and the lowest of his career). Next season, and especially if Barnes doesn't return, Ebanks could see a lot more playing time than he expects. Barnes and Brown are free agents this summer, unless the Lakers re-up them. Both have player options. Right now, Odom is playing the best basketball of his career. Will he decline that fast? He could be an asset scoring the ball, or he could be an expiring (like Drew could be). Those are two big, expiring deals put together...around $24-25 million.

I wasn't talking about the end of the contract. Orlando would've been giving him the similar deal (well, a little more). The end of his Orlando contract was his rookie deal, and the starting salary for any contract the Magic were to offer him wasn't going to be near that number, but closer to the number the Lakers were giving him his first season (and just as long) due to Bird Rights and the maximum contract (starting salary) rules. He went to a bigger market... And the Knicks don't compare to the Lakers. While New York and LA are the two bigger markets in the league, one team wins NBA championships and contends almost every year, while the other has struggled to win 41 games over the last nine seasons, missing the playoffs in eight of those. It's not just the market that puts LA over the top, but the players and coaches, and even the front office and history.

If Drew doesn't get injured for the rest of this season, or the next, they'll give him his team option. I don't think that's really a concern. By then, Drew will be around 25 years old, two years younger than Howard. The way LA draws in free agents, they could have someone else (that they bring in with the MLE) that they can dangle out there with Drew. Maybe Ebanks turns into Ariza. The one thing that really keeps me intrigued is the fact that, almost always, Jerry Buss seems to get what he wants. Only three seasons under .400 since the start of the franchise in 1948, and we've missed the playoffs just twice since 1976 (would be once if Bryant and Odom didn't miss a massive chunk of the 2004-05 season). I have full confidence in Buss and Mitch (can't believe I'm saying that, since I was so angry at them just 4-5 years ago). It's not all on them, though...a big part of it is because of our rich history, our past and present success, teaming up with Bryant, Shaq, Magic, Phil, and many others along the road...but I think Howard would definitely consider the Lakers, and I know Buss and Mitch would find a way to pull it off if he really, really wanted to be here.

If OJ Mayo was as aggressive as his father, the Grizzlies would probably be a playoff team right now.

That's definitely wrong. LA didn't gut their roster to get Shaq, and they didn't offer more money. Their best players, from the previous season, were Ceballos, Van Exel, Jones, Campbell and Divac. They traded Divac to bring in Kobe, and gave Shaq the money. Those other four guys remained in Los Angeles for the 1996-97 season. Shaq was making almost $6 million in his final season with the Magic. One year later, he was at almost $11 million with the Lakers. Orlando still offered more money... http://www.inhistoric.com/2010/7/18/1065737/today-in-sports-history-july-18th The point was, Shaq left one of the best teams in the league for a Lakers team that was coming off a 53-win season, knowing that Penny Hardaway was already an all-star player. The hype was around Bryant, and with Divac being dealt for him and the fact that Los Angeles gave Shaq more opportunities for endorsements (as it would right now with Dwight), there was no need to think twice.

Not surprised. He came into the league with a ton of potential, came out of his first season looking like a weaker version of DJ Mbenga.

It's not a ridiculous assumption that Howard will test the FA waters, and not ridiculous he'll consider Los Angeles. Everyone was laughing when the Lakers were said to be going after Garnett, Gasol or Jermaine, and the idea was that we would have to trade Bynum and Odom for one of them. Turns out neither were dealt, we ended up with Gasol, and it has brought us two more championships. Considering Los Angeles seems to be a perennial contender, and knowing the fact that Kobe, Gasol and Odom will still be here, it's not that big of a reach. I wish a lot of you were paying close attention to Shaq when he was a free agent. Everyone around the league...they were certain he would be back in Orlando, because Penny Hardaway was looking like the next Jordan (at that time), they already had a Finals appearance and an ECF loss to the greatest team of all-time. What Dwight SHOULD do is come out and dismiss this. In fact, he probably will. However, it shouldn't mean too much, because there's a reason why the Magic dealt a nice chunk of their team recently, despite still being a contender. LA also has the contracts to bring him in. Orlando wouldn't want to lose him for nothing, and I doubt they would hang in there like the Nuggets have done with Melo. Howard could pull the same thing.

Do it, kiddos. I need some ideas for my cousins.

They showed where he ranks among rookies with consecutive double-double games, I believe over the last 25 seasons... Blake Griffin (27) Emeka Okafor (19) Shaquille O'Neal (15) Shaquille O'Neal (14) Shaquille O'Neal (11) Tim Duncan (10) Okafor sort of spoils that list, but hey...impressive, nonetheless. 11/20 vs NYK: 44 PTS, 15 REB 11/22 vs NOH: 24 PTS, 13 REB 11/25 vs SAC: 25 PTS, 15 REB 11/26 at PHX: 20 PTS, 14 REB 11/28 vs UTA: 35 PTS, 14 REB 12/01 vs SAS: 31 PTS, 13 REB 12/03 at DEN: 17 PTS, 12 REB 12/05 at POR: 21 PTS, 15 REB 12/06 vs SAC: 13 PTS, 11 REB 12/08 vs LAL: 16 PTS, 11 REB 12/11 vs MEM: 19 PTS, 11 REB 12/12 vs ORL: 27 PTS, 16 REB 12/15 at PHI: 20 PTS, 18 REB 12/17 at DET: 24 PTS, 17 REB 12/18 at CHI: 29 PTS, 12 REB 12/20 vs MIN: 22 PTS, 10 REB 12/22 vs HOU: 24 PTS, 18 REB 12/26 vs PHX: 28 PTS, 12 REB 12/27 at SAC: 24 PTS, 14 REB 12/29 vs UTA: 30 PTS, 12 REB 1/02 vs ATL: 31 PTS, 15 REB 1/05 vs DEN: 22 PTS, 18 REB 1/09 vs GSW: 23 PTS, 12 REB 1/12 vs MIA: 24 PTS, 14 REB 1/14 at GSW: 28 PTS, 13 REB 1/16 vs LAL: 18 PTS, 15 REB 1/17 vs IND: 47 PTS, 14 REB

Not after the whistle, at least. Funny stuff.