Real Deal

Lance can be really good as long as he has the right attitude, and there's no better coach to put his head on straight than Phil Jackson. Zoubek flops, and so did Vlade Divac. Not going to compare the two beyond that, but Zoubek is also a good (and willing) passer, which is perfect for the triangle. And I really don't like Duke, either.

Brian Zoubek (Center) Sherron Collins (PG) Lance Stephenson (SG) I want at least one of those three. All three are second-rounders.

Yeah, but three years down the road, if Favors or Cousins are all-stars, you're going to tell us that you are happy you didn't have to develop those guys? The 4th pick in the draft can get you an all-star. Batum will never, ever hit that ceiling. Portland got very lucky getting Brandon Roy for Randy Foye. It seems like they are going to pass up on a potential all-star, just to keep someone they like.

I'll play, but I won't make myself eligible to win the contest.

Haha, I just posted that...beat me to it.

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/16937/late-night-draft-buzz Hmm...

Yeah...I would absolutely HATE having Arenas here. I know you like him and all...but neverrrr.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/s/salmojo01.html Go down and click on one of the years, and you can find game-by-game stats.

Haha.

Sweet. Let me know what I need to do...OR, well, it's all you. Create whatever topic(s) you need to.

I think Felton will make more than the MLE. Blake, who knows...someone may overpay for him. Livingston is out of the question for me. I was a fan of his game, but I can't deal with anymore injury-prone players if they are in our starting five, and that's what we're looking at. Wright would be fantastic for us, but I really can't say if he's ready to start for a championship-caliber team, especially at the point. We wouldn't be asking him to exactly run the offense (that's Kobe), but it's still a massive role, nonetheless. Haha, can't say I've ever agreed that he will be an all-star, but I still like him. "Nobody" as in, no decent team. I think Chalmers would beat out Farmar, by the way. If Shannon Brown is gone, more power to us. Brown was another problem, once Kobe fell to injury. Shannon had a couple of very good games, and then he started acting like he WAS Kobe Bryant, launching contested shots and pretending to be a superstar. His defense took a hit, no idea why, and he became a liability. Those fantastic dunks and come-from-behind blocks were fun, but that's about it. If someone were to tell me that we could replace Brown and Farmar with Hinrich, or Blake, or Felton...I would be jumping for joy. Throw in Powell while we're at it.

The Lakers aren't concerned with who defends Bryant. There isn't a single player in the league that can truly lock Kobe up, especially when you remove the help defense. The interest stems from Bell's perimeter defense and his ability to hit the three. We struggled from downtown this season, and if you look back at our previous seasons, it's safe to say we probably shot our worst from three than we ever have, at least over the last decade. Raja would be our Bruce Bowen, and anyone who watched Spurs basketball knows how valuable he was to their championship runs.

Perfect timing, really. Seems like half of the teams are willing to dive under the cap just to pick up a free agent, and truth be told, there aren't five or six LeBron's or Wade's...so a few teams are going to miss out and still have a TON of room.

LOL, yes. Sean, do you want to run that one? I can offer some sort of a prize, maybe. Won't be much at all, but still...

I've had a couple of members ask me about adding WNBA, NFL and MLB teams. I have to say no to all of those, because OTR is a basketball-only site, and the WNBA is not popular enough. College basketball is in the works, though, but that's going to be a process. If I allow a certain team, I'd have to allow the entire sport...and we have plenty of soccer fans here. Consequently, allowing a different sport means I would be obligated to allow football, since it's the second most watched sport here (I believe). So doing something like that would put me in a bind. I might as well change the site to an all-sports message board, and to be honest, that's the last thing I want to do...because that's what most all sites do when they are struggling to find activity with just one sport.

I merged three different Kobe/Jordan topics, all sitting on the first page of the comparison forum, haha. Just figured it's best to keep them together.

Rumors going around for not only Bell, but also for McGrady and Arenas (if Washington buys him out). I wouldn't mind having an extra defensive player coming off the bench for us, but we NEED to address the point guard position first.

I'm having trouble seeing why the Wolves would even offer the pick for Batum, let alone the Blazers declining it.

I do know that TLN had it for their blog, and most everyone wanted it disabled.

FYI - you and Dee have full reign in your own WNBA forum. Figured you two talk about the game enough, I might as well just pull it away from "Other Basketball" this time around.

Oh, I know...I just don't think I can scream anymore at the point guard position than I did this season. Had Kobe not flipped over to defend Westbrook in the last two games of that OKC/LAL series, we would've been out in the first round, no joke. And I'd hate to think of what Rondo would've done to Derek Fisher and Jordan Farmar in the NBA Finals. He dominated when Kobe was in foul trouble, and most of his points came with others on him.

Hinrich or Blake...it would be a dream come true. Obviously, Hinrich gets the nod, but I GUESS I WOULD SETTLE for Blake.

Let me use the famous "lolwut" here... lolwut.

I'll have one for OTR up later tonight, actually.

Ridnour is a no, for sure. I could tape a basketball to a computer chair, roll it out on the court, and Luke wouldn't be able to stop it from getting into the paint.