Real Deal

Good signing, player-wise. Bad signing, money-wise. These teams that are far under the cap...they are ruining things. Free agents go out and see Travis Outlaw get paid the kind of money he does, and they think they should get the same or more. In this case, the Nets were willing to overpay again, and the Bobcats wanted Tyrus so badly (because he's a part of their defense, which is top five in the league), that they went ahead and did what they could to snatch him out of that offer sheet. And it won't stop. I'm sure this will continue. There are more free agents out there than most realize, all looking to get paid.

I'm going to try and get them done in about a month. I may just go with one player for each team, though.

He should shut up. LeBron basically threw him and the others in the gutter when he was ranting about Jordan and his teammates (Pippen, Kukoc, Rodman, etc) and how he didn't have the help those guys did. Mo Williams has always jocked James. Cleveland should deal him and get some decent role players, or something.

Seems like OKC is always stuck in the middle of it, also...like they'll get the worst snowstorm, the biggest and baddest tornado, and the most rain. I drove to OKC last year and almost ran into a truck, sitting in the middle of the road flooded, through Tulsa. Jumped onto the turnpike and saw about 10 cars pulled over because it was raining so damn hard. Kansas is about the same, really. I wouldn't be surprised if we had a volcano erupt from underneath us.

That's correct, actually. Not sure what I was thinking. Those FA's were basically taking up the cap space...called the free agent amount. I actually knew that. I was explaining it last year on TLN, when someone was talking about us getting under the cap by trading Bynum for picks, then signing a free agent or two, THEN re-signing Ariza and Odom. Sorry for the confusion, guys.

Yeah, for a day or two. He deserves it. Sadly, the city of Miami doesn't...but I'm more geared at LeBron today.

I've never seen so many non-Cavs fans (and, well, non-Heat fans) blast a player since Kobe's incident in 2003. Problem is, they are also smashing the Heat. There are Wizards fans who say they are pulling for the Cavaliers, and are "rooting for 28 more teams" in the NBA next season. I can almost guarantee that he's going to get booed more than Bryant ever did, especially when he visits Cleveland, New York, New Jersey, Chicago and maybe Los Angeles. The reaction to this is probably the craziest thing I've seen in quite some time.

http://i50.tinypic.com/2rcs591.gif Haha, remember this?

http://media.cleveland.com/frontpage/photo/lebron-gonejpg-d7728841873976bb.jpg

I'm thinking the Knicks would be happy to see Dolan out of the picture as well. Not really sure if the fans care about Walsh, so they will probably be excited to hear this.

You have Bird Rights, but there's always a player max. EDIT: Nevermind, not sure what I was thinking. FA's still count against your total payroll.

He hasn't signed yet. It's down to Miami, Chicago or New York (in that order).

According to every Cleveland fan I've seen on RCF, it's going to be the worst experience of his life. Every appearance. And they will never forget. I wonder if, 30 years from now, LeBron looks back and feels as if it was a mistake (hell, I wonder if he looks back and feels that way right now, even). If he truly believes in loyalty, which is what he's preached since he got it tattooed on his body, you know it's running through his head. There's no doubt in my mind he realizes he will never be able to visit Akron or Cleveland again. Not without being among his teammates in Miami and the security guards wrapped around him. Kind of sad if you think about it.

I bash Drew because he's always injured, never said anything else about him. And Fisher probably won't be starting for us, at least once we get into the playoffs. Blake is already signed and is three times the point guard Derek is. Odom is a bad player against elite defensive teams. I'm 100% confident that this Miami team won't be elite in that regard, because no matter what anyone says, nobody can convince me that Bosh and Collins (or Bosh and Shaq, Magloire, or whatever scrub you stick at the five) can provide enough frontcourt defense to boost them into the top 3-5 in the league. Inconsistent? Sure he is, but he's not a black hole, and he'll provide for us on the glass, at least. Miller isn't signed yet. It's Miami, Chicago or New York. He starts for the last two teams, may be convinced that he contends with Chicago. Miller turned down the Lakers' offer of 5 years, $30 million (something like that) just to seek more money. At the time, that was his best shot at a championship. You're telling me he won't think about more money in New York or Chicago, instead of taking the same exact deal in Miami? Not to mention he gets to start? I'm pushing it by declaring this team will make the Finals, quite frankly because there's no team yet. Once they sign their guys (whoever it may be), I'll really dive into what I think will happen in 2011.

I don't see what's funny about this. I do everything I can to keep our name clean. Most of the time, it seems like some of you are so damn set on the community we have, you're afraid new members are going to somehow replace you, so you're doing everything YOU can to keep them off the board (unless, of course, they are coming here to start trouble). Three newly-registered members deleted. Thankfully, all three couldn't validate their fake emails. All three were Cavs fans, all three signed up within three minutes of that post asking others to spam OTR. Topic closed.

The 15-16 a game was against the Lakers in a Finals match-up...not sure why I suddenly dipped into regular season averages. That's my mistake. All of that, but we're just sitting here saying this without knowing who else is on the team, and you're putting a lot on Bosh's defense. What defensive-minded center do they plan on signing? If they don't find one, Bosh will have to play much better defense than you are even giving him credit for, which is too much to begin with, in my opinion. I could care less about what those guys do on the glass. Perkins, Garnett, Rondo, Pierce, Sheed, Davis...again, all good rebounders. Didn't matter. We beat that team because we beat them on the glass and defended them well, and although the new Miami trio seems to be the offensive juggernaut nobody wants to tackle, it's nothing I'm concerned about. The old Suns lit teams up with about 250 points per game, and they also had very solid defensive players at certain positions (Bell, Marion), but we saw their 60-win seasons translate into playoff losses. Same with Sacramento, same with Dallas. Yeah, they didn't have LeBron and Wade, but not even Shaq and Kobe won it every year, and they were two of the three best players in the NBA from 2001 on, and nobody in that trio is as dominant as Shaq was, and I would argue that Kobe was actually a better overall player than any of those three in 2002 through 2004 (not counting anything after because Shaq was dealt). Again, you get a title contender...but I think LA has all the right pieces to put them to sleep. Kobe on Wade, Artest on James, Gasol on Bosh, and nobody to do anything about the likes of Bynum, Odom, Blake or Fisher. With LA chasing Turkoglu or Barnes with Vujacic and Walton, then McGrady with a minimum contract, it just creates another problem for opposing teams.

Because O'Neal, Wright, Richardson, Anthony and Haslem weren't scrub defenders. None of them are on the roster today. Miami was 15th in the rebounding category last season. They had five players pull down 5+ boards (rounding the numbers), and it was Haslem and O'Neal pulling down 15 together, Beasley at over six a game, Wade and Richardson at five. Haslem, O'Neal and Beasley were all averaging almost two offensive boards a game, also. Bosh and LeBron can grab their 15-16 a game, just as Haslem and Jermaine did. Wade can pull down his five. That leaves Beasley and Richardson's 11 to make up for, not to mention the rest of the boards I didn't count. Once they reach that...well, good for them. They will still be in the middle of the pack in total rebounds. This team can win 60 games...not going to say otherwise. They could win the East. I just don't think they can win it all. Not this upcoming season, at least, unless they sign major role players for minimum contracts that end up shocking us all, like Rondo did.

MAN...someone just told me that a guy that goes to the community college here in my town gathered ten LeBron jerseys, put them on a clothesline, and lit them all on fire by shooting roman candles at them. They said there were a ton of people out there watching, so I'm trying to see if anyone recorded it. If I find it, I'll post the video.

Have you guys been to RCF yet? WOW... Start here: http://www.realcavsfans.com/showthread.php?t=32666&page=52 That's right when people start finding out, right as he announces. Crazy.

Someone created this at RCF... http://imgburst.com/up/kingrobin.jpg

We all saw it, but here it is again: http://i26.tinypic.com/f01vc.jpg

Guys, the "u mad" pictures and comments are getting old. Twitter brings visitors to OTR, and I'm sure when they are looking in on all of these threads, they are thinking this community lacks discussion and is a major joke. There were at least 40 guests on today, up to 60 at one point. Didn't get a new registered member. There's a reason for it.

June 28th, 2009: 2,077 June 29th, 2009: 2,000 July 8th, 2010: 1,378 June 30th, 2009: 1,288 July 1st, 2009: 1,115 July 2nd, 2009: 1,004 On the old OTR, we hit 2,000 posts 20-30 times, at least. We had a few months where we hit 40,000 posts.

@LD2k LOL. Things are different now, of course, but that still got a laugh out of me.

Good signing, but the Heat should've used that money to get a center or a point guard. Miller won't be logging many minutes playing behind Wade and LeBron.