Real Deal

By the way, someone tell Nick that the record is 23 threes, by Orlando, against the Kings. The Suns didn't tie it.

Bryant takes off defensively, sometimes, so he has enough juice to score when nobody else is feeling it. He's been playing since 1996. Steve Nash is having trouble logging minutes now, Allen Iverson is in Turkey, Ray Allen is depending on a lot of his team's play to get his wins these days, and nobody in that draft is even coming CLOSE to the level Kobe is playing on even today, after the multiple knee surgeries and destroyed fingers. When it's go time, he's expected to excel. When it's not, he can do whatever he wants. He has five championship rings and almost 46,000 total minutes. If we lose this season, it'll be on him no matter what (because that's how it goes), so he's doing fine. Even today, there isn't a single person I would want defending LeBron or Wade at the end of a meaningful game other than Kobe Bryant. Not Battier, Artest, Thabo, none of them over Kobe. Most GM's will agree with that, and that's what earns him his defensive player awards. Phil's philosophy has always been that a great offense is the best defense (anyone have that quote from the Kobe-Shaq era?), and while he doesn't like losing, he will brush off losses to teams that live and die by the three, just like he discussed before the Lakers played the Magic in the NBA Finals. In our offense, we depend on Kobe quite a bit. He is the primary option AND the facilitator. When he's playing injured every season, and over 30, and in his 15th NBA season, it's important for him to conserve his energy. Extending Kobe's prime is the most important thing right now. It wins us more rings. When the smoke clears, that's all that matters. That's the difference between a dynasty and a one-and-done. Funny how this is never brought up about Steve Nash when he was winning his MVP awards, or how nobody cares to talk about LeBron only closing out on drives to the rim and not playing any on-ball defense, how Dwight Howard doesn't have elite on-ball post defense, and how Tim Duncan has been resting for three years now without any criticism.

The only problem is that Tim Duncan is getting older. His scoring and rebounding has hit an all-time low, mainly due to his minutes. If Pop is limiting him, how will this fast team adjust once the playoffs arrive? Will they play through Duncan? Eventually, the elite will figure them out, and that's an issue the Spurs will need to pay most attention to in the second half of the season.

The problem with that is that everyone will want to have access to their own forum, and do the same thing with the draft topics. Editing the first post with information...it seems like the way to go, but what it does is prevents discussion in that topic. Edits don't show up as new posts. Plus, there's reason why I can't give BFT access to a forum outside of the division he's moderating. I can't really go into details about it just yet, but it's sort of important to what we're going to do in the very near future. He does have the second post in that topic, though...so I wouldn't think it would be that big of a deal if he were to edit his post every now and then.

Kobe has had a family for a long time, and he's been working in overdrive since I can remember. Even Devin Ebanks joked about how hard he works, and how hard he pushes teammates to do the same thing. His family didn't slow him down, and the trial? In 2003? He was working even harder after the trial. I don't know why that even came into play, and I don't know why Arron Afflalo is even mentioned in the same breath as Kobe, and why Kobe was even brought up to begin with.

Haha, you'll never see me post under a different name.

He's had 2-3 posters already this season, and 3-4 others that were pretty damn close to being posters, if the player contested it or tried to take the charge. Griffin is going to be a power forward version of Dwight Howard, less defense and a far better offense. Dunk city, and the new Round Mound of Rebound. Watch out.

Welcome to the best.

When Jackson doesn't hold practice, Kobe goes and works out for six hours to fill up his routine. Six hours a day, six days a week, for six months a year, a specific workout routine he does mostly in the off-season. Let's not compare Kobe to Bosh, ever.

He won't let them chill? FIRE SPO!

Well, the Heat didn't even want him...and the Heat need all the bigs they can get.

The only good thing I've seen Barea do all season so far is throw that nasty lob to Chandler...but other than that, haha...

Everyone playing 10+ minutes per game is shooting over 45% from the floor OTHER than Ariza and Bayless. You don't see much of that in the league. You have to give props to their defense, though. While CP3's defense is top-notch right now, Okafor and Ariza have been excellent for them, especially Emeka (which is refreshing, because this is the player we hoped to see when he was in Charlotte, with another 9-10 PPG, of course). If Nash could win his MVPs for what he did while averaging just 15-16 PPG scoring (and I believe he averaged under 20 for his other MVP award) while not playing a lick of defense, CP3 should be a strong candidate for what he's doing.

I really have no idea why he was still shooting the ball. I know Harris was having trouble, but there are other options. Sadly, the Nets had a good opportunity to win this game. Millsap and Williams both struggled. The problem was that the Jazz weren't turning the ball over (they had like three or four TOTAL turnovers), and the Nets had more TO's than they did assists.

Wow times ten. I had no idea it was the other knee. Man, that's even worse than I thought. Hell of a task to come back from all of this and be the player you could've been without the injuries.

Kansas, because I am biased and I think they'll win every year.

Stick Gallo on the block, do whatever it takes to get Melo. If Denver still wants Gallinari, there ya go. Give them Gallo, Douglas, Randolph, Mozgov, whatever. The idea is to form that Melo-Amare-Chandler trio, and put a big and a point around them (Raymond works for now, but not in the future).

The injury tonight doesn't help his cause, either. It might be time to consider hanging it up, unfortunately.

Barea SUCKS. And what a screw-up by Dirk. That previous play that Kidd had (steal and save) was huge for Dallas, and set them up for a big play to the rim. I have no idea why Dirk threw the ball behind his back. Even if he was making a move to the rim, you don't do that as a seven-footer because you don't sit low to the ground (like a CP3) and you aren't exactly quick with the ball to begin with.

He's basically done, dude. I've seen him about four times this season, and in one game (don't remember which it was), he shot around 50% and grabbed a few boards, but in the others NOT including tonight (and he wasn't playing that well tonight, either), he doesn't get any lift on his jumpers, he doesn't have any lateral quickness, and he looks like he gets tired quickly. Not really sure how much more there is to say about him, honestly. He's better than Wilcox, White, Summers...but after that, I don't know. I would take Bynum, Maxiell, Charlie V, Gordon, Monroe and even Jerebko over him (if he wasn't injured)...and that's out of the bench players alone.

Wow.

I have a feeling you'll be rooting for us in a certain NBA Finals match-up...right?

I always tell myself that Kobe needs his rest, and it's always a good thing when he gets it...but damn, why can't he just score 50?

Sullinger would get killed at the three, especially when he's asked to defend guys like LeBron, Durant and Granger. He would have to shed a lot of weight and gain a ton of lateral quickness, because he's super slow right now if we're comparing him to other college SFs.

I want to mention Selby, but like Sean said, there's just not enough to look at yet. I have to see him this season before I judge how well he may do in the pros. Harrison Barnes is a great pick here. Kyrie Irving...I think he's going to be that type of NBA point that needs a good, demanding coach to tell him how he's going to play in a particular system. Otherwise, I'm worried that Irving is going to go into scoring mode, when actually, his best feature is passing the ball and getting his own looks when necessary. Sullinger needs to work on that defense, and this is a college big who has a lot of trouble around the rim, putting up shots against players taller than he is, although there aren't really very many significant players on a college level that can contest that shot of his due to his strength + wingspan. In the NBA? Big difference. Someone like Gasol (who is a seven-footer and has a long wingspan) will turn him into an irrelevant player quickly. Perry Jones isn't more NBA-ready than the top players in college basketball, but he has the most potential out of all of them, including Barnes. Terrence Jones is another to consider, but again, he may be in the same boat as Perry Jones.