Real Deal

Atlanta Hawks - Jordan Crawford Thought he was fearless the way he played at Xavier, especially in his last college game. I'm not a big fan of anyone else on the team, anyway. Boston Celtics - Ray Allen Only because his son has diabetes...so I'm more of a fan of his son. Charlotte Bobcats - Shaun Livingston Started rooting for him after that severe knee injury. Chicago Bulls - Derrick Rose Hated him at Memphis, but he's a hard worker and he respects the game and the players in it. Cleveland Cavaliers - Leon Powe Don't really like him, either, but there's nobody else on the Cavs I can stand. Dallas Mavericks - Jason Kidd One of my favorite point guards of all-time. In his prime, he was pretty close to the complete player. Denver Nuggets - Arron Afflalo Because he plays defense and knows his role on the team. Detroit Pistons - Ben Wallace Undersized center, defensive monster, 0% body fat...all in his prime, but still. Golden State Warriors - Stephen Curry Dude is a baller. Unselfish, can shoot the rock, and is a playmaker. Houston Rockets - Yao Ming Most complete offensive center I've seen in years, doesn't run his mouth. Indiana Pacers - Brandon Rush Jayhawks. Just hope he finally finds his game. Los Angeles Clippers - Blake Griffin Looking forward to him winning ROY, or at least contending for it. Los Angeles Lakers - Kobe Bryant My favorite player before he was even drafted. Memphis Grizzlies - Xavier Henry Jayhawks. I wouldn't mind if he turned out to be an all-star player, even if he's in the West. Miami Heat - Mario Chalmers Jayhawks, and because I really don't like anyone else there besides Wade and Anthony. Milwaukee Bucks - Brandon Jennings Because his first name is Brandon (no joke). Not a big fan of anyone on the team. Minnesota Timberwolves - Michael Beasley Kevin Love a close second. New Jersey Nets - Derrick Favors Everyone else tanked last season. New Orleans Hornets - Julian Wright Jayhawks, and because he doesn't care about ring-chasing just yet. New York Knicks - Toney Douglas He was a Laker for a few minutes. Oklahoma City Thunder - Kevin Durant A humble superstar, hard worker, everything you'd want in a franchise player. Orlando Magic - JJ Redick Continues to improve, working diligently on his defense. Philadelphia 76ers - Evan Turner Hoping he can become the all-star I projected before the draft. Phoenix Suns - Grant Hill One of my favorite players of all-time. Portland Trail Blazers - Greg Oden Loved his play when he was in Ohio State, just hoping his career finally takes off. Sacramento Kings - Tyreke Evans Good player, not exactly a favorite...but I like the potential. San Antonio Spurs - Tim Duncan One of the greatest players ever, love the complete game. Toronto Raptors - Sonny Weems Been a fan ever since he put me on SportsCenter. Utah Jazz - Deron Williams Respect his game, not a fan of any other Jazz player. Washington Wizards - Kirk Hinrich One of the best defensive guards in the NBA, good offensive player when his role is maximized.

Title changed.

@Jonathan_Feigen Way to replace Bosh? Bring in 10 big men.

Rubio to the rescue! Oh wait...

Maybe it's just me, but does it seem like LeBron is a bit thinner in this picture? This is just the other night, by the way... http://i27.tinypic.com/33cnix4.jpg If so, I don't see why he would try and lose weight. The guy was in beast mode last year and over the last 2-3 seasons. His forearms look much smaller, and his face even looks thinner.

Man, I don't know about Randolph being a 20/10 player. That's a reach, to me...but I wouldn't care if he proved me wrong. He has to shoot better, though. That's one problem. Hitting 40% or less of your shots in a lot of games, as a big, won't cut it.

Yeah, but from what I've read, this last season was the first time Yao's injury was considered a major one, and it was about a week after it happened, rumors started flying about how bad it really was (that he would probably never play again). His past foot and leg injuries were never that serious, at least according to the media.

That's okay. Maybe after the upcoming season, the Jazz fans will say the Boozer-to-Jefferson transition is like going from a Bentley to a Toyota.

Big men with foot injuries rarely play at the level they reached before the injury, unless they are REALLY young when it happens. This really sucks for Yao and for the NBA.

$500 a month gets you a pretty nice three-bedroom house, two-car garage, central heat and air (what I'm in). My parents' house is a three bedroom, two-car garage, basement and attic, two-story house that was appraised at $65,000. Pretty cheap.

That's not for him to try and figure out, though. We don't have some sign saying, "Hey, if you don't know your teams and players, don't post here." We are supposed to welcome everyone that wants to contribute and follow our guidelines. We welcome guys that don't even like basketball. If he's not going to join OTR because of the way new members are treated, he's got a good reason not to. Pretending I wasn't the owner of this site, I wouldn't want to post here, either...not when half of the community thinks that they are the ones setting the bar. But not on my watch.

I can name a few new guys who were treated poorly, STL10 being one of them. I could do a post search, but I'd rather not. Some here can't tell the difference between maturity and immaturity, and as many of us vets know, that's been the problem for a while now. That's why Matt is gone for 60 days, the other Matt (Diesel) is gone for good, and why others are going to be in the same boat very, very soon.

Someone I've known for about four years registered not too long ago, went on vacation and came back yesterday. He sent me a Facebook message telling me he's not going to post here because of the way the new members are treated. So thanks for [expletive]ing losing a guy that has about 20,000 posts on another site I used to visit, and knows more basketball than 80% of our members here. Not the first time it has happened.

Glad to see you over here, bro. The Lakers talk isn't as strong as TLN, but that will obviously be the case here. Basketball talk is still pretty solid, even during the off-season (which surprises me, because we had a dark off-season last year haha).

Welcome to the best.

Who is Rafer Alston?

LOL...Monday Nitro.

That's part of the defensive IQ, though. Rajon Rondo? Same thing happened with him. Neither Westbrook or Rondo want to shoot those jumpers, but Kobe will give it to them all day as long as he stops them on the break (which he did with Westbrook) and prevents them from having open lanes (which he did with Westbrook and Rondo both). If Shaq hit open 15-20 footers in 2004, the Lakers would have beaten the Pistons...but they knew how to shut down the Kobe-Shaq connection, and they did it perfectly. Defensive IQ.

People are saying the Thunder can get that second seed because, to be honest, there are about 3-4 teams in the West that can. Even then, there are just as many that can be the biggest threat to the Lakers' chance at a fourth-consecutive NBA Finals...but that doesn't mean they are an actual threat. The Kobe/Westbrook strategy wasn't the end-all for the Thunder. When Kobe had his knee drained, that was it. Had that happened after Game 2, the series was over in five games max. They are my second favorite team, and I do believe they may have the best chance among West teams at beating LA next season, but that's different from them actually having a big chance. I would say that belongs to the Celtics, Heat and Magic before the Thunder.

Only Lakers fans put Kobe's name on these lists back in 2003 and 2004. It's really, really weird seeing others do it now, haha. I'll put my list out a bit later.

Rajon Rondo, Adam Morrison, and Emeka Okafor are the three that come to mind. I thought Emeka was going to be far, far better than Dwight Howard...put him #1 in my mock drafts, everything. He won ROY, but fell off the Earth after that (in terms of being a top center, at least). Rondo...would've never guessed. Not sure if anyone knew. Morrison, I wasn't too sure...but then again, injuries have put him down. He could average 15 a game if he wasn't always hurt, so I don't know if I can really add him to my list. There are others, for sure...but for guys like Morrison and Oden, it's still in the air.

Hahaha...good way to look at it. Provide me with words...lol.

No ads, no donations. It's a big deal for me. I can't stand ads, and I don't like having to pay for something that should be free. Therefore, there's no point in me making the rules different for everyone else. Maybe if we had donations for games that were used to pay for prizes...I would consider that...but otherwise, I don't want the money. When I went blind, I had no control over the donations you guys sent (I believe Kyle set all of that up, too) because I wasn't able to see anything for a while. While it was very generous, it was unnecessary. Bigger avatars, stuff like that...we can do that once we set up the dedicated members group, but I'd like to wait for that. We need to have a bar set in regards to posting, and I'm not even up that high yet.

"Failure permits no alibis" is actually worded incorrectly. Maybe intentionally. To get straight to the point, failure allows no alibis. It can mean that you do not need an explanation for your failure...or it could mean that there are no excuses for failure. You can sort of translate it the same way, really...because while you should do everything in your power to achieve success (and never stop until you do), you have no excuse for your failure. The explanation is simply because you accepted defeat. Yes, sorry about that.

I started out at the RateMyFace forums, moderated there for a while. Went over to the Playstation forums and posted every now and then, mainly just about basketball...but there wasn't enough basketball talk there, so I left for JBB, where I was a writer and a moderator. While at JBB, I discovered Clublakers, wrote over there for a while until I became a moderator. Things happened, and I put up my own site (yes, this one!) and I left Clublakers and installed forums over at TLN, and now I run those.