Real Deal

Considering the work he has to put into his job, then given that the players are already overpaid as it is, I really don't think that $8-10 million is a lot for Stern. I don't like him, but I do respect what he has done for the league since becoming commish.

Bosh will play power forward?

Jessica (my girlfriend) will run our Facebook account. Now I'm after someone for MySpace and maybe Twitter (Aaron will verify if we need someone for Twitter or not).

I can probably do this myself, but a lot of you have a better understanding of who will be starting for your favorite teams (or other teams near you), so I need your help. Please list the starters for each team that you are 100% sure of. These are the fives you see under each team forum listed on the board index (yes, some of them need editing, I know, haha).

...which reminds me, I need to change a few starting lineups on the team forum columns.

He wouldn't say otherwise. Miller isn't half the player he can be if he's not passing the ball, so whether he's sharing ball-handling responsibilities or not, he's going to find out he'll have to adjust his game to Roy's, and not the other way around...and I'm not sure Miller can do that.

If I was Pierce, I'd go buy Horford $10,000 worth of Celtics jerseys. The Champion silk-screened ones, by the way.

The problem will start with Roy and Miller. You can't have an offense that depends on a true point guard and a facilitating two guard, especially when Roy needs to dominate the ball to get others involved. He's not Rip Hamilton, and Andre Miller wouldn't be involved at all if you keep it out of his hands.

It's expected. He'll need some time to heal up while he's playing, also, because I'm sure he won't be 100% his first game out there. Eventually, I see him taking Conley's spot, though. I understand that Conley is a pure point, but Iverson is a better overall player, and he's not a Ben Gordon, who can run with the second unit and produce 20 PPG.

OTR is making some changes, and so will the community of posters. I ask that you please take the time to read this, because it's extremely important to the site. 1) It's time we start respecting everyone's opinions, dropping the personal attacks, and growing into mature posters once again. I've been letting things go lately, but as you can see, there are a few members who are successfully running off our solid contributors, and this will no longer happen. I've lost two posters in two days, with another having a foot out the door, and those three have given me names. Same group of people. Lengthy suspensions will be handed out if this continues, no exceptions. 2) andreusito has stepped down as a moderator and will resume his duties with the Youtube account. Due to work and school, Jammin has also stepped down. Therefore, Waldo is our new moderator, and he will patrol the forums with Smitty and Force. When activity picks up this season, I'll be looking for one more moderator, and you'll need to show that you're active as a poster, that you're mature, and you cannot have no prior suspensions. 3) I'm looking for someone to run our MySpace and possibly our Twitter accounts. You'll be asked to log in at least once every day or two and post a couple of bulletins or statuses concerning league news, linking back to OTR (possibly linking to a topic). You'll also need to recruit for each friends list, which isn't as difficult as it seems. You won't be responsible for any MySpace designs, as that is already covered. These positions will make you part of the staff, so your attitude and conduct on the forums will need to be exceptional. 4) Team Captain positions will not be available until our activity picks back up. All members should be focused on recruiting and posting in the first place. There shouldn't be a need for staff positions to do that. 5) Writers need to write, and members need to comment on those articles. For those that do write, our community has to realize that they put a lot of effort into what they contribute here, and it doesn't take much for a single comment, which could possibly lead into a debate, which we want. ---------- Almost every basketball-related message board I've been to is struggling with their basketball discussion. We need to change it. In my opinion, we have some of the most intelligent basketball minds. I don't understand why it's becoming a trend to see who can cause problems the quickest without getting banned, or who can run off others because of their difference of opinions. In the last 2-3 months, we have members who can dish it out, but don't like the taste of their own medicine. We have members who act hard and want to rebel, but don't realize that their OTR account is now on the line. We have those who want to discuss basketball, but feel like their efforts in doing so are demolished by members who would rather joke around and steer off-topic just to make the site fun for them. It's time we start thinking about us as a whole, and re-create what we had back in 2007 or 2008. If we don't do that together, I'm not so confident that Aaron and Kyle will want their hand in anything done here, and if that day ever comes, that's the day I change my mind about this site, for good, as I have health issues that need tending to more than anything else, and financially, I'm putting out just enough to be able to set aside the cash for our hosting and our board updates. This is basically me saying it's gotta change, and it's not one of those typical announcements I put out in hopes to pick up activity. The season is less than a week away. I hope people understand where I'm coming from.

Yeah, and I know he can score from long range, but I'm really not sure how that's going to play out when they face a team that has a big who's willing to defend him out there. Phoenix could cause someone like the Cavaliers problems (assuming LeBron doesn't go off for 50) because Shaq won't step out that far without suffering the consequences of an open lane for Nash and Amare, but on the flip side, someone like Mehmet Okur will just follow Frye all over the court, and you don't have to be that great of a defender to defend a three by a big man, just a hand in the face.

We can win this one. You never know. Sanchez may not know about Asomugha, throwing his direction all day, and maybe our defense will score a touchdown for us, or Russell will just launch one for anyone to snag 50 yards down field.

Do you need to write a program to do it, or...? I wish I could help. I didn't get into assembly language, though. I'd Google "assembly language sorting numbers" and see what you come up with.

http://www.nba.com/2009/news/10/20/refs.agreement/index.html Thank you!

Well, to give you another positive example, Andrew Bynum is looking very, very good after both of his knee injuries, one being devastating. But yeah, I know what you mean. It's definitely going to be something to worry about.

I actually like the old ones better. Why did half the league decide to go with new jerseys this season?

Curry will benefit most from playing in the five with Ellis and Jackson (if S-Jax is even there all season). That way, he gets his shots off a bit easier working off of scoring threats. Otherwise, you stick him in the second unit, and you're essentially making him a primary option out there when Ellis is on the bench, and you'd also be asking him to run the offense, which is a big mistake when breeding your rookie guards. Curry's shot will come and go this first season, but he'll adjust accordingly and will turn out to be a good player. Not Ray Allen good, or even Ben Gordon good, but more like Mo Williams, who feasts off of LeBron James.

Now see how important it was to have Rubio? Just cross your fingers and hope that Jefferson isn't suffering from a severe case of it, or he'll be sitting for a while. FYI - Derrick Rose had it last year.

Man, that's a BAD deal. Love's injury puts the clamps on their frontcourt, but if Jefferson is having trouble getting up and down the court, let alone playing, that's it for the Wolves, and it makes them a legit contender for Mr. Wall in the upcoming draft.

Haha, I could've posted that for you. I remember all of your complaints.

Arenas and Miller didn't play against the Hawks due to flu-like symptoms? And I read that it was after they had gotten flu shots. Hmm... Foye did well, though, but Washington just attempted too many threes, and had trouble defending Williams (for some reason).

Yeah, you'd be the one to talk. You're now one more post from being in the same boat.

See ya.

Rose should get it, and Bynum should have a chance if Duncan plays the four, and Jefferson struggles after that knee injury (because, otherwise, it should be Jefferson's to lose).

We had 2,100+ registered members here the day before the hack. People that were on this board will tell you that. We had 120+ active members every day. After the hack, we were down for a week. We lost 600,000+ posts, which is why some of our active members took off, because all of their hard work was deleted. I know exactly where they are posting at now, and I know exactly why they left, and that's not my problem. As far as having 6,000 active members, we aren't going to get there, because I don't want to. I don't spam, and I don't ask my members to spam. I keep this board limited in membership because I don't want to bring in unintelligent basketball discussion from sites that are on the verge of dying. That's why I don't merge with anyone else. That's why I don't recruit hard. I suggest you drop it, because you have absolutely no idea what this site is about, how it's ran, how it was ran, or anything about us or myself. At this point, you're simply a spectator that I will honestly say I don't mind losing if you continue to suggest how I run this board (which is not "helping") or telling other members how they should and should not be posting (as you did with magicballa a couple of times now). You aren't an admin, a mod, on staff, or have any past affiliation with OTR, and you don't have 30,000 posts (pre or post hack), so you're either going to follow suit with the rest of the members and stop dragging threads off-topic with something you won't have any say in, ever, or just find a better basketball forum that will suit your needs by making you an admin and letting you take over the place. Another post about it and you won't post here again.