Real Deal

Thing about Dampier is, he's out of shape...badly. And I'm talking more than he was last year. It's no coincidence every team has passed on him this season, even the Heat. There's either some injury that's keeping him out of shape, or he's just letting it go...but early reports (via Twitter) were that a handful of camp scrubs were outplaying him, and he was having trouble staying on the court for extended amounts of time. Outside of Damp, there isn't much to rake in...so the Heat are going to have to start Big Z, experiment with House (they can run House as a two-guard and have Wade defend the elite PGs, instead of waiting for Miller) and ask Arroyo to do more ball-handling off the bench, in a smaller lineup that features Chris Bosh.

I'm not sure if it's that significant that he won't be able to surpass Bryant's 25k record. James will need to average roughly 24 PPG over the next five seasons (including this one) to surpass it before he turns 31, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him do that. And that may actually be off by a half a year. I didn't actually dig enough into it...just more of a guess. But Durant is now in the driver seat, as long as he stays in OKC and averages his 28-30 PPG.

Team forums coming up...just need to finish the team skins (colors won't be too tough to edit). The idea was to go back to basics, a professional look that loads a bit quicker for mobile browsers, but still keeping a unique look. Also, I'm on the fence about the new team rep images. I think they need to be a bit lighter...so I may change that. Credit to Guru for the background in the banner. I placed the players and did the logo/text, just in case you're ready to criticize it, lol. If you see a few of the old images still, hit refresh. FYI - The "view new content" link is in the sidebar, right below the recent topics. Just figured I'd throw them together. EDIT: I moved the new content link into the member bar.

I'll give that to you, but once I found out how they were playing, I was almost 100% sure they would stay undefeated longer than LA. Our guys are too complacent to keep a record like that for very long. I miss those 19 and 15-game win streaks Kobe and Shaq could run off. The Hornets are just very, very good defensively. They are holding teams to 42.5% FG (3rd in the league) and 29.8% 3PT (second), with just an opponent average of 90.1 PPG (tied with Heat for best in the league). They don't have much offensive firepower, but they do shoot the ball better than most teams in the league. Getting Ariza really helps their defensive rankings. Houston could really use him right now.

By the way, OTR has the best group of basketball minds I've ever seen here, and that's six years of posting. And, only because of volume, sites like RealGM and ISH are the ones that rival this current group, but if you stick our best in a debate with theirs, I wouldn't be surprised if we rip their hearts out. Just putting that out there.

Really? I'm not surprised. It was our second best start in franchise history, if I recall correctly...and that includes seasons from the other 16 championships.

If they had that defensive anchor in the post, it wouldn't be that bad of an idea starting Eddie House. Probably not a bad idea to begin with, but the Heat aren't going to look for him as much as he thinks. He may be better off the bench.

Rose still didn't have a jumper, so Kobe would've defended him the same way he did Rondo. Plus, Rose and three other 20 PPG scorers doesn't work against that Lakers team because he's not a true point. Less defense as well, which is really what put them in the Finals to begin with.

LeBron is already facilitating. True point guards aren't needed. They need a legitimate defensive big man and more effort with their on-ball defense, and the big three need to figure out definitive roles on the team. You can't have five guys running around and trying to play help defense on every potential scoring or shooting threat in every game, even if they are getting mismatched.

Good, because we all felt the same way in July, August, September and October.

Or Wade, one of them going off...that was the point. Wade defers to LeBron, they lose. LeBron defers, they lose. Bosh shows up, they lose. Out of the nine they've played, how many times did all three of those guys shoot 45% or better, together? I can only think of one off the top of my head...against the Nets. I'm pretty sure Bosh struggled in that Wolves game. And asking those three to shoot 45% or better together is pretty generous. Just on raw talent alone, this team shouldn't have to rely on a LeBron or Wade dominating the ball for a full fourth quarter, trying to win the game.

Ugh.

Spo isn't the one wearing #3 and losing his city to LeBron James.

The offense isn't fine when you can't score consistently. The only time the new Cavaliers are in the game is when LeBron is going off, and when Haslem is hitting open 15-footers.

It actually feels good to finally lose a game, kind of weird. The pressure of going 82-0 sucks.

Gasololol. What an idiot.

Merged the two topics for ya. Ban yourself. I'm busy watching the Lakers game.

Gasol is being a punk right now. Harrington has been beasting this dude all game long, and other than grabbing boards, Gasol has been very limited on offense AND not playing much defense. Kobe needs to catch fire, now. All of this is unacceptable with this team.

Haha, still blaming Spo after this game? It has very little to do with the coaching. The Celtics are a better team. They maximize screens and dominate mismatches, and it kills the Heat. I said it before, and I'll say it again: the Heat signed three guys that are basically the same player once you remove their physical attributes. All three are scorers that get to the rim facing their opponents up, they don't have any on-ball defense, and they don't have a post game. This is a perfect example of an offense not having enough basketballs to get the job done. Wade and LeBron cannot be spot-up shooters. They can't post their man up on every play and make an exceptional post move to get to the rim. Defensively, I don't have to say much if you watched the game. There's no way to defend penetration, nobody there to defend the post, and this stuff has been obvious since they brought this team together for their first preseason game.

Coasting.

Off the record, Love thinks there's nobody else worth passing the ball to on the team as far as primary options go, and the triangle offense is supposed to be an equal-opportunity offense. Rambis wants Love to play like a traditional post big out of the tri, pass out to open teammates after drawing the double. Two things: Love wants to score the ball, and Rambis doesn't understand that he's not Shaq and teams won't double him. Rambis will most likely find his way out of Minnesota if he doesn't ditch the triangle. I'm not sure who else would want to coach them, though, so it could be a bad move.

It's obvious we're doomed.

Ah, I figured you were talking like he took too many shots to get that 42. If they blow it up too much, then yeah...I mean, Monta Ellis already put up a 40+ game, and I bet 75% of OTR doesn't remember who it was against.

Ha, yeah...but you have to consider he made 17 of those 31...that's around 55-56% FG. I'm sure Rambis doesn't care how many shots it takes to get that 40 as long as he's shooting a high percentage. We haven't seen this Beasley since his days at K-State, haha.

LOL.