Real Deal

A mosque is strictly a building of prayer, and for Muslims. There's a basketball court, swimming pool, a floor for culinary arts, etc. It's definitely a community center, no debate about it. Two blocks away, you can't even see anything that has to do with ground zero. If Muslims are going to be associated with terrorists by people in this country...Americans are all serial killers, because Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dahmer and Donald Harvey are Americans. There are two churches located within two blocks of ground zero. You don't want a community center for Muslims because they will have two floors to pray on? Out of respect to those who died? Well, take out the other churches, bulldoze the empty, useless buildings, and make "ground zero" even larger and more secluded.

Fourth last season, minus Barnes, Blake, Ratliff and a healthy Bynum. They were ranked second at one point in late January, before the all-star break, when both Kobe and Bynum were fully healthy (Kobe had a terrible second half filled with injuries, and we know what happened to Drew). Adding Barnes, Blake and Ratliff, and even Ebanks (who played solid defense on a college level), getting rid of Farmar (no lateral quickness) and Powell (never played defense), and probably not seeing Walton on the court ever (may retire)...the Lakers can be the best defensive team this upcoming season, easily. --------- As for Brown, Fisher and Odom playing good defense? No. Fisher plays decent post defense, but a player usually has him in the post when it's a mismatch, and at that point, that player is almost a foot taller and dropping in a hook. Shannon is a decent help defender, terrible on-ball. Odom doesn't even know what defense is. But we definitely make up for that with the rest of the team.

I wasn't talking about great offensive players, though. Maybe a few years back, but it doesn't take a great offensive player to do that to Shane anymore. Even you admitted he's lost a step.

I'm taking Kidd for the all-around game, and because Nash is a horrible defender (doesn't matter what team he's on).

Yep, good catch. I mixed up their 3PT% with their oppFG%.

Players fall to second options because they are not good enough to be first options. Gasol, like LeBron and Iverson, had the opportunity to win a playoff game. He didn't. He had excellent defensive-minded players, had shooters...and the Grizzlies were a playoff team, but hit 50 wins just once, and never won a single playoff series or game. How good is Gasol right now? Pretty good, with Kobe taking much of the heat. Gasol was under so much pressure as a primary option, he didn't touch 15 FGA per game in Memphis. What primary options, with "scrubs" for teammates, shoot under 15 times a game AND win 50 games? Gasol's Memphis team was good. So was Iverson's Sixers, when he had defenders such as Snow and Mutombo. Same with LeBron and his shooters (Gibson, Williams, West) and his defenders (Varejao, West, Newble, etc). It's only funny to me because many here preach about how a "complete team" can knock off the big three in Miami, but when it comes to evaluating what Gasol had in Memphis, he didn't have anyone because none of them were superstars, yet Dirk apparently had a star-studded team when it was him, Jason Terry (12 PPG), Josh Howard (12 PPG) and an older and injured Stackhouse and Finley (both missed a combined 44 games), and Dallas still won 58 and advanced to the second round. The next season, 60 wins with basically the same roster and Devin Harris, except it was Howard and Harris who couldn't play 60 games...both of them. What happened that season? They went to the Finals, with Stackhouse, Dampier, and Daniels all playing injured, Harris averaging just 9 PPG in the postseason. I could go on for days. Dirk is the better primary option, by far...has 15-20 games of 40+ points (two 50+ point games). Gasol has hit 40 just once or twice in his career, high of 43...AND that's only counting the regular season. I'm 100% sure Dirk has some in the playoffs. The worst part of it all...is that people consider Dirk a small forward all of a sudden. They don't see how many times he actually posts his man up. I wonder if they consider Kevin Garnett (the guy that supposedly turned Gasol into an even bigger sissy in 2008) a small forward, also, because he would rather take a 15-foot jumper versus a 5-foot hook. Gasol had a real team around him. Does anyone want to explain how a team can be 7th in the league in offense, with their best player shooting just 13.4 FGA per game, just 2.5 APG? Six players on that Grizzlies 50-win team took 9+ shots per game. Gasol shot just 48% that season, averaged UNDER 18 PPG, under 8 RPG, under 3 APG. A team with 50 wins? Let me know how that's accomplished with that all-star shooting just 13 times a game. Excuses for Gasol, no excuses for LeBron and Iverson? Okay. Funny stuff. Gasol won 50 games on his own! Shane Battier, James Posey and Earl Watson didn't play defense and didn't help hold opponents to under 44% FG, Mike Miller didn't shoot the ball and throw four assists a game, and Jason Williams wasn't as good of a passer and facilitator as his seven assists and limited turnovers seem (6.8 AST/1.9 TO). Ten consecutive 50+ win seasons as the primary scoring option, with three 60+ win seasons under his belt. He'd also have a ring if it wasn't for the referees giving Wade 96 free throws in the 2006 NBA Finals. He's averaged 27-28 PPG in six of his ten playoff runs, double-digit rebounds in eight of those ten. Come on now...

Rudy has proven that he's an inconsistent shooter. Plus, he wants minutes. He won't be getting them playing behind Allen and Pierce in Boston.

Jennings was closer to hitting the rim on that oops than he is shooting his jumpers. Pretty sick though.

I can't say I agree with Scola being above Kevin (I think Love will put up better numbers with Jefferson gone, and Yao being back will drop Scola's production), but I agree with your #1-4.

Troy Murphy is in every picture but one (Kevin Love). Same with Dwyer's top ten SG's and OJ Mayo being in every picture.

Yeah, he's still a high-IQ defender, but he's to the point where he's dropping that foot back pretty far when his man drives and pulls up for jumpers, and he's not recovering in time to contest the shot. He still gets into their face, but a lot of times, he's just not there for it. It hurts for him to not have Yao, either, because for quite some time, I could probably say that Battier was making Yao look like a better defender (and Ming was actually getting better, but Battier was also leading his man into the help better than anyone in the league). Now, the quicker two-guards that Battier defends are leaving him in smoke because they aren't intimidated by Chuck Hayes (even though he's an excellent defender, he's not 7-6) and Luis Scola (who would rather flop).

If a lot of those fouls didn't come against guards and forwards, I would've put Perkins ahead of Oden.

I moved the old topics into an archives forum. And...Nitro, you're the forum moderator. You should be able to edit topic titles, delete posts, pin/unpin topics, and open/close topics in the RYM forum.

Keep reading: http://nba.fanhouse.com/2010/08/25/police-j-r-smith-involved-in-altercation-at-nuggets-practice-f/ Of course...it's the same guy that's going to repair his image and change his attitude.

Lee, Horford, Ilgauskas, Camby, Okur, Gasol, Duncan, Bargnani, and a few others. How many true post players are offensive threats? Howard, Shaq, Yao, and Drew? Yao didn't even play. Drew is usually hurt, or doesn't play but half of the game. Yeah, and the only time Dwight played Oden, it was Oden's 17th game of his career, in 2008. Oden's knee was still an issue, and he was so inconsistent, he played 11 minutes with four fouls, and Howard dominated him. Two weeks later, just eight minutes and five fouls against Denver. Four fouls in 12 minutes against Detroit another two weeks later. He looked worse than Kwame Brown. Oden does average a lot of fouls, yes, but so did Perkins before Garnett showed up. Perkins was contesting shots galore, from both centers and power forwards, and now, he has two excellent defensive players as teammates (KG and Rondo) and a smart defender in Pierce. Oden has Roy. Alridge doesn't cut it. Could be something he's going to have to eventually overcome, because he goes for more shots (tries to block everything) as much as Alonzo Mourning did, and while I think Oden is a good defensive player (second best defensive center, in my opinion), he's nowhere near Zo.

He did it against Slovenia. I want to see him do it against Russell Westbrook, after having to defend him and Rose all game long. Different scenario. Rakocevic was supposed to do big things for Serbia in the last FIBA tourney, too, but they were dominated. Serbia didn't even qualify for the Olympics in 2008. I just don't see a reason to believe they can beat the USA team, that's all. Eurobasket isn't USA basketball.

Yeah, I gave it to Oden because he can move away from the rim and still play defense. You drag Perkins away from the rim, and suddenly, he's a fish out of the sea.

1) Dwight Howard Just seeing how much of an impact he has with the Magic's defensive scheme (look at some of the players they have who can't play defense), you have to stick him at #1. 2) Ron Artest Should've been on the All-Defensive 1st Team. Very smart defender, excellent hands, very physical. 3) Kobe Bryant If one person has to defend LeBron, I'm taking Bryant, especially if it's the last 24 seconds of a game. When he's not having to eye a second offensive threat (for Fisher), he's top three on-ball defense in the league. Not very many players can successfully defend three positions on the court, either, if those players are elite (Rondo, Wade, James). 4) Greg Oden If he played a full season, he'd be nearly on the same level as Howard. Excellent help defender (not as good as Dwight), but a better on-ball defender than DH12. 5) Kirk Hinrich Ask Wade. The only guard (point or two-guard) I've seen light Hinrich up when he's defending them for most of the game is Kobe Bryant. I believe Wade has dumped a lot of points on him once or twice, but he's also had a lot of trouble against him. Rajon Rondo, Gerald Wallace, Thabo Sefolosha, Arron Afflalo, Anderson Varejao, Josh Smith, Tony Allen...all honorable mentions. I just can't say any of them are better defenders than Hinrich and Oden. If Oden doesn't qualify because of his injuries, I'll move Kirk up one and give the fifth spot to Rajon Rondo, but Gerald Wallace is REALLY close.

All of that height means nothing if you aren't playing like true big men. A small team would wreck a team full of Channing Frye's. Not a single player on Serbia can stop at LEAST two of our point guards in the open court (Rose and Westbrook), and that's obvious. Because Team USA is by far the best defensive team in the passing lanes, by far the best help defense, it kills teams that have no real go-to guy that can drop 30. Teodosic can score, and he's underrated, but he's not going to take over a game like Bryant did against Spain in 2008, or Wade was doing against teams during that run. Serbia would need a traditional back-to-the-basket player that can do that. Velickovic (hope I'm spelling his name right) plays that way, but there's no chance he's going to provide Serbia with that much scoring, that much dominance, against Team USA. I would go as far as betting money on a USA win, something I wouldn't do against Spain, maybe even Greece (but they did get crushed in the fourth today).

Teodosic would be the only problem for us, just because he knows how to run a team. Rose would absolutely kill him off the dribble, though. If we "disabled" Rubio to beat Spain, Teodosic won't be that big of an issue. I don't even know the status of Krstic (can he still play after the brawl?), but he's not going to be difficult to defend because he spends too much time shooting jumpers, and he's nowhere near the defender to be able to contain Odom on the mismatch we would present. Velickovic would probably defend our post players well, but Team USA would ruin that for Serbia by playing Durant at the four. Dunkfest. Velickovic doesn't have the lateral quickness to contain any power forward that plays quick perimeter basketball, so that presents another mismatch (hell, even Odom is a perimeter power forward). Serbia would lose by double digits based solely on mismatches, and that's not considering any one of the USA superstars catching fire and driving in scoring runs.

EDIT: Nevermind what I said...he deserves it, since Stockton has one with Malone.

*there I usually don't correct typos, but you're an aspiring writer, so it's my job. Yeah, neither will get much playing time now that Barnes and Ratliff are around, BUT there's a chance of it happening for Caracter if Drew gets hurt again. Gasol slides up to the five, Ratliff backs him up, Caracter backs Odom (because we have no other PF). Ebanks will need to play better than Vujacic and Brown. Jackson would try him at the two behind Bryant, or move Barnes to the two and see if Ebanks can defend threes. Unlikely, of course, but I can't say it's impossible.

Caracter should have been on the list replacing Ebanks. He was a top three player in the SL, and that's including guys like Wall and Turner. And of course, it's the SL...but just watching him, he has a nasty offensive game, crashes the boards very well, and many forget that he was THE best player in the nation around his first couple of years in high school. The attitude ruined it, not his game.

It's fine in OT. It's basketball AND other sports discussion, so it really doesn't fit a specific forum.

In basketball, it depends on the level of play. Not everyone on the 2008 Olympic squad was a superstar, you know. Ask me if I'd rather be Tim Duncan (four-time champ, led the Spurs, wasn't on that Olympic team) or Mchael Redd (no rings, not a superstar, won a gold medal doing nothing in 2008). I'll take Duncan and his championships. --------------------------------- In the same light, would I rather be LeBron James (2008 gold medal winner, no rings) or Adam Morrison (didn't contribute anything for the two rings he has)? I'll take LeBron and the gold medal. So...how much did I contribute to one or the other? That's the key. To elaborate... If I was the main contributor, I would take the NBA championship. If I was a role player, I would take the gold medal.