Real Deal

Well, I figured GSP would pick apart Alves much quicker. It was a decision, right? And I believe the groin injury happened in the third round? He should've had Alves finished by then. But that's just one man's opinion.

This hack hurt us, badly. I'm going to admit that, for some reason, the hack either scared off members, or convinced them to jet for other reasons. I don't know why. Basketball season is just around the corner, and I can't wait. We need November to be here right now. Soon, we're going to restart our podcast, possibly with a new name. I'll see about some changes we can make along the way (with the forums, maybe), completing the home page, and adding those player profiles and team pages. I won't ever raise the white flag. I just need some help from more than just a few of our dedicated members. The recruiting isn't even a big deal, it's that the activity is so low, it's hard to grasp anything and clutch onto it for this long without NBA basketball. Shifting to becoming an all-sports site is not an option, either, because to date, we and InsideHoops are the only true NBA discussion sites still going strong in regards to our basketball talk (during the season). I'll probably start writing some articles in the next couple of days, and promote them on AllDayNBA as well, and see if I can combine a blog site with the forums, promote both, and in turn, bring more traffic to OTR. I'll post them in multiple places and use Digg and other sources as well. Other than that, I don't know...but the forums aren't going to die on my watch. Not a chance.

Putting on more muscle weight will help him in the post, offensively and defensively. That's always a good thing.

The Nets double Kobe every game. I rarely see Vince holding Bryant one-on-one. That's like me saying that Ray Allen does very well against Bryant, also. He "defends" Bryant half of the time (Pierce the other half), but neither of them are solely responsible for Kobe shooting the ball instead of driving to the rim. Much more factored in.

He's a reliable shooter when someone creates for him. Otherwise, he's pretty good at chucking and missing shots. As the primary option on a team (what he was every now and then in Sacramento and sometimes in Houston), he's an liability on offense. Artest is best off as a third scoring option, arguably second (as he was in Indiana). That's why I believe he will thrive in the Lakers' offense, as Ariza did. But Artest is no franchise player, and Durant and Granger are, and that's the difference between the three.

Because most of the rich make money, not earn it. The top 1% of the rich in the US has more money than the bottom 95% of the US alone. That's a gross fact. THAT is what's hurting the economy. It's the 95% that need to barely get by every day on the food they eat, walking instead of purchasing gas, using less electric, going as long as they can without heat...while the small 1% are those who spend, spend, spend. The guy who busts his ass drilling for oil every day should be earning more money than the guy sitting in the cold office, calculating how much oil is being drilled. The economy has been crippled for a while now. The war didn't help. Illegals flooding the US didn't help. Once things got bad, it's the rich who decided to steal even more money, demand more pay, and in turn, crush the working man's way of living even more.

I can't say that Ron Artest is a better three than Kevin Durant and Danny Granger. As a primary option, Artest is a complete failure on offense, which hurts his defense significantly if the team he's playing for isn't relying on the zone 80% of the time. My top five would be: 1) LeBron 2) Pierce 3) Melo 4) Durant 5) Granger After that, it would change each time I made a list. But...I just can't put Ron that high.

Silva. He's too dominant right now. Despite the injury, GSP still had some trouble in his last fight, while Silva has pretty much demolished everyone in front of him, and fighters are lucky to even get a clean hit in.

Turkoglu actually tried to play defense in the Finals, and had a couple of stretches where he did well against Bryant, including that block on an attempted game-winner (which was in traffic, but still credited to Hedo). Carter doesn't play it, and he doesn't want to play it. Bad defender AND a lazy one. His perimeter defense used to be okay back in Toronto (okay as in average), but it dropped off significantly near the end of his time there, and since then, he has been beaten to the rim and abused in the post multiple times. If it's from his previous injuries, that's fine...but I think it has a lot to do with effort as well.

It's all about Stuckey for the Pistons, and that's why they have the potential to fail, big time. They just brought in Ben Gordon, who is a two-guard and nothing more. He can't run the point. Hamilton can't run the point. So what will they do? Bring Gordon off the bench. Well, it's just another example of how dumb they are. Gordon is a legit starter, and he NEEDS to start in Detroit. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe they'll start him and Rip in the backcourt...but Gordon isn't a PG, and that won't fare well unless, somehow, Prince or Rip facilitate the offense. The problem with last year's team was that Stuckey is also a two-guard. He's not a pure point. If you have a guy WILLING to run the point guard position (Iverson) and someone who isn't even ready to start yet (Stuckey), then that's how you play the entire season.

...right, because they all hate Denver, and that will undoubtedly have a negative effect on your regular season record, and unfortunately, your playoff success, as it does every year.

Favorite NFL Team: Oakland Raiders Favorite Player All-Time: Randy Moss, Tim Brown, Rich Gannon Favorite Current Offensive Player: Randy Moss Favorite Current Defensive Player: Nnamdi Asomugha Favorite Moment: Signing Gannon in 1999 Jersey's Owned: JaMarcus Russell (will probably give it to the Salvation Army soon) Number of Games Been to: none Players Met: none for the Raiders, knew Brandon Jacobs well when he went to Coffeyville JUCO

How the hell does Afflalo foul out in 22 minutes in a preseason game? And nice job Koufos, you're a seven-footer and you go 1-8 in the first preseason game. Denver had an ugly 26 turnovers to Utah's 10. Nene, Balkman, and Petro all had five fouls, Afflalo six, and nobody on the Jazz hit five. I know it's preseason, but that was pretty sloppy.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=jackson/091001&sportCat=nba Curry is garbage. I'm glad he's out of a job already.

This is the ONLY thing I hate about the PS3. Their demos take forever to be released. Sucks. I'm buying the game anyways, but still...no point in trying it out if I'm already set on the purchase.

In that case, I can just give you Kobe and Shaq, 15-1 in the playoffs, and ask you who will be defending O'Neal and how badly Kobe would pick apart that backcourt. Or the 67-win Lakers. Either, or. But I'd say top five, easily. People don't know how good Toney was offensively. Someone brought him up somewhere, by the way. I believe it was on the Lakers site I admin, one of our 35+ year old members that saw him play (the guy was born in Philly). I'm not really sure we've ever discussed Toney's career on OTR.

If you're backing him up, you're agreeing with him. You don't back someone's statements up that are untrue. If Gilbert used to be unstoppable, there's something wrong with his teammates (Jamison and Butler), because an unstoppable guard should be able to win over 45 games with two other all-stars, no? If he's unstoppable right now, and Jamison is still an all-star level player, and we know Caron can be...then they better be a top three team in the East, because someone of that caliber better be doing good with those two players. Here's the truth: Gilbert is a shooting guard, Butler is a forward/guard, and Jamison is a shooting forward. Arenas is not a good defender, Jamison isn't even close to one, and Butler has been a matador ever since his days with the Heat (a couple of good games against LeBron doesn't cut it). The only good defender on the team is Brendan Haywood, and he's inconsistent at times. As far as Amare being better, I gave you the numbers. He's much more accurate from the field (which has a LOT to do with him playing closer to the rim), he's a better scorer, he's a better rebounder, he's a better shot-blocker (didn't give you that stat, but I can assure you he is, by far), he is a better defender, he's had much more success as a primary option, much more success as a second option (when you could argue he played second fiddle in some games), and his playoff numbers are better. Telling me that Jamison has a better basketball IQ to prove your point...that's hard to believe because Amare has worked extremely well with Nash, playing excellent basketball without having the ball in his hands, setting screens and rolling perfectly, and playing help defense better than Jamison. Jamison has a more defined skillset, but again, that's because he plays like a small forward. If a skillset was all that defined a player, Dwight Howard is in big, big trouble. I'm going to say it's his versatility you're pointing at, and I wouldn't say that Jamison is as versatile as Lamar Odom, and we've seen him single-handedly destroy an offense, even though he's also a pretty good sixth man and, half of the time, a second or third option.

So, wait, you said that true bigs need to play defense, you call Amare anything BUT a true big, then you throw Dwight Howard into that category? Yeah, I've seen Jamison play. I've watched almost every NBA game I can for the last 2-3 years (minus the month or two I was blind) with League Pass. If Amare isn't a big man, Jamison doesn't even get CLOSE. This might be one of the wildest things I've ever debated. How about asking everyone on this site who the better player is? And while you're at it, go to RealGM with it as well. You'll find that Jamison doesn't get close to being a better player than Amare, and Stoudemire doesn't need 11 seasons to prove it. Giving me the fact that Nash was his teammate...you might as well scratch that off, since Gilbert used to be unstoppable (according to you). Like I said, if Jamison is that good, Gilbert will be unstoppable, and Caron Butler is an all-star (he is), then with the addition of Mike Miller and Randy Foye, a new and better coach, you guys better be a top three team in the East, or else none of those guys are as good as advertised. I can't wait. Jamison better than Amare? Arenas unstoppable? Oh man...just one more month.

Haha. Amare has a higher career rebounding average. He's got the higher scoring average (also averaged over 25 PPG twice, something Jamison hasn't done). Jamison's FG% for his career is at .456, falling way short of Amare's .541 career average. Amare has reached over 50% from the field in four of six seasons (50 games or more played), which includes a 59% FG performance. Jamison has hit it once in nine. So mark off rebounding and scoring, and "scores much easier" from your list. Better fundamentals? Well, not for a big man, sorry to say it. But if you want to just compare overall, dropping the fact that Jamison plays like a F/G, then probably so...but in that regard, Kirk Hinrich has more fundamentals than Jamison does, so I have no idea where you want to go with that. Amare is a true big that has tried to incorporate a shot in his game. Jamison is a small forward who has only incorporated a shot in his game. While Amare has displayed he can guard guys like Tim Duncan very well, I'm not quite sure Antawn Jamison can guard anyone that well...and he's notorious among non-Wizards fans for not even putting out the defensive effort. Jamison isn't that good, or else he and the GOAT (Arenas) would've been a much, much better team, and Jamison wouldn't have choked in two matchups against the Cavaliers in the playoffs already (and if you need playoff statistics, I'll show you just how much better Amare has performed against top players as well). Amare is a franchise player. Jamison is a second or third fiddle. That's all there is to it.

You're in the wrong forum and decade. http://www.otrbasketball.com/forums/forum/13-boston-celtics-team-forum

I guess someone had to hurry and post something, since nobody else is interested in the Sixers. Anyways, people don't know that the 82-83 Sixers had their top five scorers hit the 50% or better mark in shooting percentages. Pretty crazy. In addition to that, the top 11 shot approximately 45% or better from the field as well...which is amazing. Do I think they are better than the 1996 Bulls? Not a chance. Bird's Celtics won 67 games and the Finals, despite McHale being injured for 10-15 games. Problem is, the 1972 Lakers were a 69-win team that won the Finals with Chamberlain, West and Goodrich, losing Elgin Baylor after nine games when he snapped his leg. That team led the NBA in scoring (121 PPG), rebounding (56.4 RPG), assists (27.2 APG) and point differential (+12.3 PPG). A 36-5 home record and a 31-7 road record (best in NBA history) is amazing, not to mention the 33-consecutive wins they ran off with.

But that's the problem. Some see this as a way of putting the homeless and the drug addicts back on their feet. Not true at all. It's free health care. Just because a drug addict gets free health care doesn't mean he gets thrown into the work force again, and given a house, a car and a job with your money. People tend to pull the rope a bit too tight. This isn't going to give the lower class larger social security payments. It's not going to distribute a mass amount of food stamps to more people, and hand out more welfare checks. It's simply health care. And even I would like revisions. I'm actually against the fact that illegals could be able to get it. In fact, I'm against having illegals in this country, period. I don't care if they come from Mexico or Madagascar...if they come into our country, they need to be registered as Americans, have a driver's license, and given restrictions that ban them from government-operated programs for a certain period of time, which forces them to get a job or get off our soil. But, as I stated a bit ago, nobody else has any answers. Is the system bad? Hell yes it is. It's terrible. Anyone that wants to dispute that, please dispute it with me, and I'll show you just how bad it is. Does something need to be done? Yes. So, if something needs to be done...then what?

Jordan made $4 million or less from his league contract up until the 1996-97 season. He hit $30 million, then $33 million, in those final two seasons with Chicago, then earned the veteran's minimum for his two years in Washington. So, actually, Jordan would've had to reach ten figures using just his endorsements, while Tiger uses both those and his winnings. Different eras. It would've been almost impossible for Jordan to catch him, even with his Jordan brand as popular as it is.

Haha, you mean this? So, yeah...I'm already done talking about that. ECN, what's your proposal then? Do we leave the system like it is? Nothing wrong with it? I'm just curious...because for everyone who is strongly against this, they always stumble when asked that question.

Yeah, I watched the game that Gilbert scored 60 on the Lakers. Kobe was in foul trouble when he had to defend him. In fact, he wasn't defending him much at all until that final quarter, when he had his five fouls. But you can mention that 60 all you want. Just don't forget that Arenas is a career .419 shooter against Bryant, while Bryant has lit him up for a career .485 in all matchups against Arenas. Gilbert is certainly unstoppable. ...he didn't, in 2005-06. Jamison was there, Butler was there...and both were putting up All-Star numbers (21/9 and 18/6, respectively). So...just 45 wins for a team with two all-stars in Butler and Jamison and an "unstoppable" guard in Gilbert Arenas, all healthy? Haha, well, something is wrong. The criticism is warranted. All Gilbert has proven to me is that he can't win over 45 games in a season, despite having two all-star teammates (one being better than Amare Stoudemire, lol). Here's to you guys winning 70 this upcoming season. Michael Jordan (unstoppable), Amare Stoudemire (Jamison) and LeBron James (MVP Butler) could win 70, so I can only expect the best out of this underrated squad.