Real Deal

Why are we doing this again? Jordan had the green light to try and drop 40 a game, every game, because he didn't have to play through the post. Jackson didn't have his thumb on Jordan's head for any of his six rings. Jordan didn't have an older, 30+ PPG scorer demanding the ball in the post...he had Pippen and a ton of shooters that were doing anything Jordan wanted them to do, and doing it to perfection. If we're going to continue this lovefest, it's probably a good idea to consider the roles played by each player first and how teams played them. Otherwise, Wilt owns everyone in NBA history, and is hands down the greatest player to ever live.

Xavier Henry! Dude has to keep getting those minutes. And wow, was Hakim Warrick on Randolph after a while? Didn't get to see the game, but I'm assuming the Suns didn't have a choice with Hedo in foul trouble. Robin Lopez...injured? One foul, 14 minutes...

The Bobcats were 31-10 at home last season, and have started 0-3 at home this season. Just not playing the same basketball with both Felton and Chandler missing from the roster.

Yeah, they both suck. This had TO written all over it. As much as I don't like Palmer, though, Chad was just trash.

Chad is garbage.

They left him wide open intentionally. Bad shot, though, because Rondo had about eight feet between him and another player, and he could've went to the rim. Dallas would've had to foul. Even though he's a bad free throw shooter, Rondo makes two free throws before he makes a three.

Yep. C - Bynum | Ratliff PF - Gasol | Odom | Caracter SF - Artest | Barnes | Walton | Ebanks SG - Kobe | Brown | Vujacic PG - Fisher | Blake

Uh...well, I guess you could just start dealing most of the roster for a bunch of scoring two-guards...

Jordan and Kobe both suck. LeBron James is the greatest champion.

I just saw this on ESPN, and this HAS to be illegal. You can actually get away with snapping the ball like that, of course, but you can't lure the defense into thinking there's a conflict between the QB and the coach like that, and play it off as such with an abnormal snap and no player reaction. I'm not sure what NFL rules are against it, but I'm almost 100% sure it's like that for high school football (and, likely, middle school) because it's considered unsportsmanlike to gain an unfair advantage. Funny, nonetheless.

Because he couldn't throw the ball.

Drew. Unless you mean once Odom comes back to the bench.

He should. Drew needs to come off the bench, because he's a more selfish player than almost anyone else on this team (the dude NEVER passes out of the post), and the bench needs someone to score like that. Plus, with Blake off the bench and running the offense, we don't need Lamar in that role anymore. Depends on which fans you are talking about. Some treated him like he wasn't worth the minimum salary, which was wrong. However, Odom kept choking against the Spurs in that series, and in a series where Boston focused solely on Bryant and Gasol, Odom was still as inconsistent as he was throughout the regular season. Walking the ball inbounds, airballing a potential game-winner from 16 feet out with nobody on him, missing wide-open layups more than any other player I've ever seen, picking up three charging fouls every game (or so it seemed), not playing in the post when asked...he was a disaster every other game for years. His good double-double games could not make up for that.

Tony Battie is the answer, but the dude has trouble logging more than 20 minutes. I don't think he's played an average of 20 minutes in a season for maybe four years, or at least he didn't his last season with Orlando, which was 2-3 years back. If you need someone to play 20+ minutes a game, you take Powell, although some people really overrate this guy. Battie can give you a more productive 15, though.

Top five, but he's not Paul or Deron. I can make an argument that Nash is still the better point guard, while Rondo is the better athlete, because the only two things he has over Nash are his defense and his rebounding, while Nash is one of the best shooters in the league with a 24-foot range, easily a better passer than Rondo, gets to the rim better, and can run any style of offense (not many PGs can do that). 1) Paul 2) Williams 3) Nash 4) Rondo or Rose 5) Rose or Rondo Westbrook is also closing in. Rose...I don't know. His defense is inconsistent, I don't really see that improvement he was talking about on his three, he's turning the ball over quite a bit, and he's really timid late in the game.

What the hell? That's definitely not Michael. I'm a huge MJ fan, and I know exactly what he sounded like months before he passed (I have This Is It, and he talks and sings throughout the DVD). There's no way that's him.

Those numbers are going to tumble once he heads to the bench, even if he plays nearly the same amount of minutes.

I doubt Jones stays with Garrett, though. I have a feeling he's going to go out and do everything in his power to bring in Cowher or Gruden in the offseason. I'm not sure if Bill wants to dive into a coaching job this soon, but Gruden seems like he's really, really interested in coaching again.

Breaking news on ESPN. He'll be replaced by Jason Garrett. http://dallas.sbnation.com/dallas-cowboys/2010/11/8/1801667/report-wade-phillips-fired-jason-garrett-promoted-to-head-coach-of

There really shouldn't be a rep system to begin with, because it's not being used correctly. For the same reason people would give positive rep to a funny post, someone would give a negative rep to a topic they don't like. For instance, that LeBron mock commercial...if Lkr were to post it (being a Lakers fan), there would be negative reps from the Heat fans here. He would get it just for posting the video. Same with a post dealing with religion or politics. Anyone could write up a very well-written post defending God (or not), or against Obama (or for), and it would be hit with negative reps by those who just don't agree with it, which would be half the site. In addition to that...seeing who gives you the positives means you'll be able to see who gives you those negatives. I can't code in something that does one and not the other in this system. I don't need to explain why that's a bad thing. Ask the RSZ members how groans work over there. You can go into some topics and see people "groaning" others' posts for no reason at all, only because they have done the same to others...and it got out of hand QUICKLY. This is a bad, bad thing to implement into the board. I would honest rather just drop the word filter if we're going to make any change at all.

Copy and paste the code below, filling in the blanks. All correct answers get you five points. No late entries accepted. If you don't turn yours in by the tip-off of the first game, you miss out, no exceptions. Wednesday, November 10th Utah @ Orlando (ESPN) Winner: Leading scorer: LA Clippers @ San Antonio (ESPN) Winner: Leading rebounder: Thursday, November 11th Boston @ Miami (TNT) Winner: Player with the most turnovers: LA Lakers @ Denver (TNT) Winner: Leading passer: Friday, November 12th Utah @ Atlanta (ESPN) Winner: Leading scorer: Portland @ Oklahoma City (ESPN) Winner: Player with the most threes: Saturday, November 13th Golden State @ Milwaukee (NBATV) Winner: Player with the most free throw attempts:

To be honest, I've seen enough of Kolb to know he won't lead that team to a Super Bowl, so you might as well win as many games as possible. Is it a reach to think that Vick can lead the Eagles out of the wildcard game (assuming they play it)? If we're talking a seven-game series, probably so...but this is much different. Question: after beating Atlanta (granted it was with Kolb), what indication do you have that the Eagles can't find their way into the NFC championship game? They may not be the favorites to get there, but look who was at the beginning of the season, and how it didn't take much to change that. I think that, if Kolb isn't showing the potential to be as great as one of the previous SB champs (Brees, Ben, the Mannings, Brady), and if your team can get into the playoffs, you focus on winning. Vick is playing like an MVP candidate. In fact, he's throwing the ball better than he ever has in his career, BY FAR, and he can still give you 50-60 yards a game on the ground, which is what he was doing back in the early 2000s with Atlanta. That particular player is scary with the ball in his hands. Throw Manning and Brady out of the question, and suddenly, it's hard to argue against Vick as being the deadliest weapon at QB in the league. I don't see why anyone would want to play Kolb at this point. Not when Vick is doing better than he ever did when he was in his prime. Yeah, you made a mistake by paying him and dropping Donovan, but sometimes, you have to accept your mistakes and move on, not live off of them and hoping they correct themselves.

Showtime was about running the break with numbers, didn't always give Magic that assist. They did it more than any other team in history, including the seven-second Suns. When Magic put up his highest APG average, Kareem was still getting his buckets in the post, few assisted on. With six teammates that could score 10-20 points in any given game (this is including Kareem), Magic did have room to put up those big assist numbers. However, Michael Cooper handled the ball quite a bit on the break and in a half court set, and he pulled in nearly six assists himself. Worthy was taking the ball to the rim most of the time and getting his own, as Wilkes was knocking down his "20-foot layups" (RIP Chick). Magic's teammates didn't depend on him as much as many may claim. CP3's guys? I truly can't say, because I don't watch the Hornets as much as I do at least 10 other teams in the league, but you'd think they would, just like LeBron's shooters in Cleveland (from Damon Jones and Daniel Gibson to Mo Williams and Anthony Parker). That has to account for something.

For me, that's just showing how much he contributed to the team, scoring-wise. But it doesn't tell me much about how well he does with a defender on him. Nothing at all, actually. I want to know what these guys do in-game, man in their face, defense focused on them AND back on defense, when it's their time to do that dirty work. By the numbers, I'm sure CP3 could be a 25+ PPG scorer if he really wanted to. Don't know if Magic could do that his entire career, although he would probably still be more efficient at it because of his height and size. However, Steve Nash racked up 18.6 PPG and 11.6 APG with a TS% of .654, but I don't see very many people calling his number with Magic's.