Real Deal

YES SIR. I'm actually surprised. This is a shocker. For one, I never thought Conley would be clutch in any moment of any game, and it's amazing that a team like Dallas couldn't get a shot off. So, props to Memphis for their late game heroics, especially on the road.

Well, I wasn't exactly clear when I stated I was afraid he'd gain weight. What I meant was that he needs to gain weight, in both muscle and fat, but not TOO much. The extra weight gain (much like how Bosh put on his extra) will help him in the post, where the Pacers will need him to play more often. Either that, or he's going to have to develop a post game like Hakeem Olajuwon's, and I would bet a year's paycheck that'll never happen with the guy (or anyone in the league at the center position, at least this season). If Hibbert was a bigger threat inside, even slightly, the Pacers will feed off of him even more, take even more off of Granger's shoulders, and open the court up for guys that need to be shooting wide open shots (ex. Dunleavy), and [expletive] will get real in Indiana.

Posted in the Thunder forum.

It's Wafer's third incident, just in case few of you know this. There was one back in college or HS (can't remember exactly), then he intentionally elbowed someone and punched them in the face when he was practicing with the Lakers, and now this. As for West, you can't be surprised. He's just as bad, if not worse. Both should be booted from the league for a while.

Just to point something out here, the raffle brought in $120,000 in just the first 12 hours. Not really sure how much he'll end up getting for it (to donate), but how many athletes actually donate a million dollars or more, of their OWN money, for a particular cause? I don't blame Ron for not wanting to write a million dollar check, pulling from his contract. That's actually quite a bit of money. I think the idea is unique. I would never do it, because it would be a championship ring I'd want to keep for life...but still, unique and generous.

Man, I didn't see the game...but is Weems really playing like that? Dude has to try and play above the rim more, even if it means playing Corey Maggette basketball and getting to the line 60 times a night. Sucks to hear that.

I was looking for this comment, actually. But, he should be given the most credit for it...along with Ben Wallace. It was basically cutting off circulation in the triangle offense. Stick Prince on Kobe, double him before he gets within 23 feet of the rim, and ask Rip and Sheed to play the passing lane between Bryant and Shaq, really the only two offensive threats the Lakers had during Malone's injury. Ben Wallace comes into play for how he played Shaq down low, and how he positioned himself to stop Bryant on any screens. He basically baited Shaq to get deep into the post, because he knew the deeper he got, the longer the pass, and the more likely Shaq would not step back out and set a screen. Give credit to one of the greatest defensive coaches of all-time, Larry Brown, as well. Sorry for my rant. But, yes, Prince was a huge part of that. His length bothered Kobe's jumpers, and Detroit's help defense kept Bryant from driving in. Perfect recipe to defeat the triangle, and it was a way teams looked to do this when Winter was running it at K-State with a post and a facilitating wing back when he created it.

Durant is looking for another streak of 30+ points, I'm guessing. Hopefully, he starts shooting the ball better on his way to 30, because it's really hurting the Thunder. Detroit shot 47% from two, 67% from three. OKC shot 39% from two, an ugly 13% (2-15) from three. 44-20 FT margin, though. Can't be surprised by the win.

Hibbert looked great, but he's gotta play a little more in the post. I'm just afraid that if he gains weight (meaning fat and muscle), he's going to be less effective out there for the Pacers. Good all-around game for Indiana, though, on the road.

Good point. I worried about this a little before the season started (only a little because it's not the Lakers, haha). Turner has to have the ball. If Philly wants to be successful, they need to stick the ball in Turner's hands, tell him to make plays for everyone else, and go from there. It's starting to look like he'll be leading this team for the next few seasons, especially after the Iggy-Deng rumors hit the air once again (true or not). Turner was most effective in college when he was facilitating his offense. He won't average seven or eight assists, of course, but he's going to get guys open looks, or help swing the ball to an open man. They just can't play him as a spot-up shooter. He needs to be exclusively involved in the offense, or he'll be ineffective most of the night.

THE JORDAN RULES! Cousins and Favors racked up a total of 11 fouls in a combined 41 minutes. LOL. Favors did play better, though. As I said in the other game topic, Harris is playing like he wants to win again...haha.

The Clippers are ignorant. Blake Griffin is going to be a 34 year old veteran by the time he's 25, if they keep expecting him to do everything out there. And by everything...I mean literally everything.

New Orleans has been looking for that perimeter defender for quite some time now, and they may have him in Ariza. Posey was well over the hill when they picked him up, and while Melo toyed with Trevor early, it was Ariza who didn't look so intimidated when it mattered most.

Amare is the better offensive player, Bosh the better defender. I do know that STAT has had a season or two with two or more blocks per game, and Bosh hasn't, but Bosh topples Amare in rebounding, and this was most evident when Stoudemire couldn't pull down a board to save his life last year in the playoffs (notably against LA). It's going to be hard to compare them, though, because Amare has been the primary option his entire career with Nash spoon-feeding him off of pick and rolls, while Bosh is entering this season with two superstars spoon-feeding him his points. Amare's FG% is probably higher...don't even need to look...because he played at the rim most of the time, snagging those passes in the paint and finishing strong with a dunk, or having a ton of shooters to pass out to. While Bosh didn't have that, there's a part of him that wouldn't play big, so it's partially his fault that he shoots a lower percentage. Amare is more likely to take over a game, scoring-wise, at least in my opinion. I would worry about him putting up 40 before Bosh, even when CB4 was in Toronto and assuming Nash was injured, doesn't matter. Coin-flip, really.

Just not good enough to start YET. He wasn't playing that great, defensively...picked up a couple of dumb fouls. I didn't see the Spurs game, but against Charlotte, he fed off of Granger's hot hand from outside, since Charlotte was panicking and defending the perimeter more and more throughout the game. Basically, he did what Dunleavy failed to do (seemed like Mike missed almost every shot he took), so it's a good sign...but I'm not going to overrate him OR dismiss the performance altogether. No, it means he's the fake Real Deal. I think.

Ah, you're the Spurs fan that was on staff over at RST, right?

I'm assuming you're labeling Pau Gasol a center right now.

Score was 38-35 when Vince got hurt, and 58-35 after the injury. I've been on the "Vince sucks" bus for a long time now, but his presence out there helps open up the floor, because he's a threat on the baseline (a big threat). With Howard in the post, guys like Redick, Nelson and even Lewis will slip outside and knock down shots. Live by the three, die by the three, and without a slasher raking in extra defensive attention (or a post threat, or in this case, both), shots are easier to contest. Basketball 101. I wasn't happy with Howard after a while, though. He went away from his game, started trying to catch the ball outside of the paint more, taking jumpers and long hooks, stuff he shouldn't be doing against Anthony, Magloire or even Ilgauskas. Unfortunately, those are a few reasons why Orlando isn't going to reach the Finals this season.

Everything was lost a little over a year ago...had the board hacked, I didn't have backups due to my HD crashing, AND the host claimed they did not provide data unless I was paying for some type of plan (or whatever, don't even care). Good to see you back, though. Welcome to the best.

With the exception of the NBA Finals, and this is just a stab in the dark, Bryant and Shaq pretty much contributed enough to call it even. I know Kobe has lit up some of the best the West has had to offer, and he was the man defending the best players in most of those games, scoring 25-30 PPG AND running the offense. I give Shaq props for dominating Dikembe Mutombo, despite the size advantage, but I'm not going to freak out because of his performances against Todd Mac or Rik Smits, because, quite frankly, Shaq could probably dominate those two even if he were 38 years old. Of course, Shaq has had his way with a lot of talented bigs. I'm just pushing the Finals aside. But, especially in the second and third title runs, they both picked apart the opposition.

With all due respect, I think it's best we stick with the system we've had in place for five or six years now. I know other sites will do things differently, but that's their thing. A game of the night would just be based on what I thought, and it would ignore half of the teams in the league to begin with. How many "game of the night" topics would include the Wizards, Wolves, Warriors, Raptors, Pistons, Pacers, Clippers, etc? The idea is to get people to post in those gameday topics, because all of the Lakers and Heat games will be active no matter what we do. If the Pistons payed the Kings, there's a chance it will have one or two posts total (later in the season). Would that actually be a game of the night candidate if it's on the same night as a Lakers/Heat match-up? Not a chance. The game status prefix has to be controlled by the staff, somehow. They just don't automatically add to the topic once a game is over, unless the board is directly tied into NBA.com's database (or a similar site, like ESPN), and it reads that particular table entry (ex. Preview, 2nd QTR, or Final). Asking the staff to mark games as they end...I'm not really sure if it's worth the work, because that means they will need to monitor every game that night (and there are 13+ games on during some nights), instead of watching them and commenting on those that actually interest them. They'll be sitting there looking at boxscores, waiting for games to end. To my knowledge, no message board has all 1200+ games available to post in by preseason. Other than RealGM and maybe ISH, no basketball board has produced the activity we have in those gameday topics. Few all-sports sites have matched it (can't think of one off the top of my head right now, actually). If discussion hits a wall, I'll be looking into more ways to increase exposure, whatever needs to be done...but it's really dipping my hand into a recipe that has been effective for so many years now, so I really don't know if that's a smart move or not.

I'm strongly considering re-coding the skin from scratch. The skin you're showing me in that link won't touch what I put out if I decide to redo it all. Unfortunately, I've never actually sat down and really put out a monster skin for OTR, not from scratch. A lot of it has been designed quickly, using a lot of minimum edits on defaults (such as this skin). The major edits would include the special coding to add forum images on the main index (team logos) and in the posts. If I design a new one, it will have 30 team banners with it BEFORE I release it, which means 30 different skins (color variations) to match the banners. I've been working on player profiles for the last week, but that's going to take forever...so I'm leaning towards dropping everything and putting out something special.

Going to close my door, shut off my porch light and watch Warriors/Lakers. I don't have the money to buy strangers candy. I'll worry about doing that once I have my own kids. I'm old, fellas...27, to be exact. My Halloween partying days are over. It's hell, though, looking at some of those college chicks and not being able to approach them...just gotta remember how many whores I had to cycle through before I ran into one that's actually committed to a relationship, lol.

http://i54.tinypic.com/28aqah4.jpg

Ah, I forgot about that. I'll need to write something up in Excel first.