Real Deal

If any of you GFX designers have nothing better to do, please consider making a few signatures promoting OTR. They can be your typical signature of a player, but with the addition of "OTRBasketball" in the corner. OR...they can just promote OTR, no player...anything. Just please make sure they are 468x140. I will be adding them to our new gallery soon (or you'll be able to add them, once everything is installed and in place).

Wow, I just went through all five pages. Where's everyone at? I need to take new pictures. I never do.

Well, one idea was to expand the college bball forums, but after considering just how many I'd have to add if I went by conferences, I need to re-think my strategy. Any suggestions relating to that? There's no way every team gets a forum, and I'm probably ruling out adding a forum for each conference (it would be like adding 30 more NBA teams, and plus, I'm not sure if all conferences would have topics in them). College gameday? Player comparisons? I don't really know.

That's when it was dislocated. He doesn't play with it literally hanging there, no...but he does get them popped back in, goes out and keeps playing. I dislocated my pinkie on my shooting hand (same one in the picture), and I didn't play basketball for weeks. It would hurt so bad shooting, even though I don't use my pinkie in my shot (just for support).

Actually, I just don't hang off of dudes' jocks when they are playing badly, and Rose was doing that for the first handful of games. He eventually stepped his game up. Hinrich plays excellent defense. Just because he didn't defend Kobe well doesn't make him an asset to any backcourt. Nobody has been able to lock up Bryant yet. Chicago has a couple of talented players in Noah and Hinrich. It's Rose's responsibility, as the point guard and franchise player, to run plays for them. Both Joakim and Kirk earn it on the defensive end, more than ANYONE else on the Bulls' roster, including Rose. Derrick is a good offensive player. Noah and Kirk are probably top three most important on that team because of their ability to play defense. No hate, just common sense after watching Chicago on WGN every night they play.

OUCH.

Kobe dagger, after just chilling the entire game. Feels good to win games we shouldn't be winning.

Man, Ron is in beast mode, and so is Drew. Kobe is playing very, very cautious out there, which is good...but he really needs to take it easy the entire game, and not just in spurts. Odom has been chucking.

Have you actually posted on other message boards before (for basketball)? Your name looks familiar, for some reason. Are you in your early 20's?

Welcome to the best. If any of the guys give you trouble, find a staff member. As you can see, and with most all basketball message boards, we are overloaded with male posters. Good to have another Bulls fan here.

If the NBA continues fan voting for the starting five, they need to restrict proxies and put a limit of one vote per IP address, per season. Voting numbers will drastically fall, but you won't have idiots thinking, "Hey, Kobe and Wade are locks...so let's leave them out and vote McGrady and Iverson every single day."

I'm not sure if it's the contract they care about (meaning, they are trying to avoid). He'll be making $12 million next year, but it expires after that. I think it's more to do with having a player on the Rockets that will back up Yao, and the question is, will Dalembert even accept that role? He's a weird dude...and I really don't think he's that good of a player to begin with.

[expletive]. That sucks, man.

He refuses to get the surgery in the off-season, and there's no way he'll do it during the regular season (unless he's THAT hurt). His right hand has the dislocated pinkie (since last season), dislocated ring finger (since two seasons ago), and the tear in his index finger (since this past season). He's shooting with a middle finger and a thumb, with a rubber cast on the index finger. I really don't see how he's doing it. He hasn't been shooting all that well in the last 2-3 games, except for last night...he shot 7-10 before leaving the floor (the back spasms I mentioned). We're overworking him.

Why not just try bringing Calderon off the bench and letting Hedo handle the ball more? Toronto is rolling though, so I don't know.

Right, but how good would those teams be if they played a Western Conference season schedule? As good as the Spurs or Nuggets? Mavericks? Still better? Many believe the Nuggets may have beaten the Magic, had they gotten past the Lakers in the WCF.

You know what's weird about this? It seems like two years ago, and maybe last year, many people would be saying that a team of Gasol, Odom, and Bynum could make the playoffs. Now we're second-guessing a team of Gasol, Odom, Artest and Bynum could get in. Sounds crazy...but with our bigs not working well together, Fisher being a matador and not a traditional point, and our bench just flat out sucking...it would be quite the reach.

It won't happen unless the Sixers dump Dalembert's contract. In other words, it won't happen.

LOL, by the end of the year, it could be similar to that. Eleven teams are above .500 right now in the West. Four teams are above it in the East.

You know what's crazy about all of that? Many were angry that the Lakers had the easy home games to start the season...and now I wonder how they feel about us dipping into the worst part of our schedule, loaded with away games and strong teams, when everyone is injured. And that's spot-on about Fisher. He's a terrible defensive player and just as bad offensively. I've always said that, yes, he hits clutch shots...but the only reason he does is because he has to, by not playing like a starting point for the other 30+ minutes he is out on the floor.

Just for future trivia, the Central Division did this once in 2005-06, with everyone winning 40 games or more. But they are the only division to send all five since the NBA split into six divisions. On the other hand, last year, the Lakers were the only team to go to the playoffs in the Pacific Division, something that has only been done three times (twice in 2005-06).

C - Bynum PF - Gasol/Odom SF - Artest SG - Brown PG - Fisher That's a 40-win team, no playoffs in the West. It's been proven that Bynum and Gasol can't co-exist (you'd see that if you just watch us with both in the game), and Gasol has never attempted more than 15 shots in his career, even when he was the sole primary option on the Grizzlies. Jackson would have to put Bynum on the bench, start Gasol at the five and play Odom in the starting lineup, if he wanted to win more than 40...and I'm not even sure that would work out too well.

Kobe has a broken index finger on his right hand, with a jammed pinkie and a jacked up ring finger...still shooting hand. Plus, he had back spasms tonight, left the game for a bit and actually sit for most of it later on. Gasol thinks he'll be returning against the Clippers. His hammy is messed up, different leg than earlier in the season as well. Ron Artest just sprained his index finger on his right hand tonight. There's something mentally wrong with Andrew Bynum. How are we going to win an NBA championship with this mess?