Real Deal

The Suns fans thought the same thing you did, and despite the offense, they really thought Shaq would fit in. But it wasn't the offense that he had problems in, it was his defense. Tony Parker and Tim Duncan literally murdered Shaq and the Suns in points in the paint that first year in the playoffs, so much that I believe they nearly set a record for it over the course of the first three games (Phoenix lost in the first round). And not only that, but no matter the offense, Shaq took the ball out of Nash's hands quite a bit, and it led to Steve actually putting up arguably his worst set of numbers since being in Phoenix, and helping him miss the All-Star Game this past season. You can believe the hype, but Shaq isn't going to add anything to Cleveland's wonderful defense. He will take away from it. And there's a large chance he turns that offense inside-out, and there are two very important opponents (Dwight and Perkins) who won't double-team Shaq as much as they would've had to four years ago.

LMAO! Wowwww.

Cleveland is definitely still in the top five, but don't be quick to think that Shaq helps your team. That's exactly what everyone thought when the Suns got him, also...and everyone can claim that it was the offense that didn't fit Shaq, and they are correct, but I was one of the few that was actually saying that the day of the trade. And not everyone wrote Cleveland off to start the season. I knew they would be in the ECF. I predicted that they would have the best record in the East. But if you're going to tell us that the Spurs are old (and they aren't...Duncan is 33 and was actually putting up better numbers than Gasol, other than field goal percentage), then you've gotta question what Shaq will do at age 37 (38 by the time the 2010 Playoffs start).

I put together the writing team already, I just need to give them their group, create their forum and PM them. Busy, busy.

Top five are Lakers, Spurs, Celtics, Cavs and Magic. The Nuggets and the Mavs will be sneaking up on those teams...and I would say Denver over the Spurs, but if Manu is going to stay healthy, San Antonio is too good.

There may be an update coming out very soon that changes it. I'm asking a couple of the guys at Invision right now. If not, I'll move things around.

It's per group. Each group has three tabs for settings, when you go to manage them.

It would need to be updated (the modification) for the new board software first.

Serious pictures of Michael that are worth drawing...don't joke around. I don't care to find anything humorous in the topic. I'm drawing Michael, and I need a very good picture. I'm aware that I can just Google for one, but I need to know what you guys think would be the best picture to draw. I would want one of his face, but it doesn't have to be.

ESPN and other news sources are saying that it was LeBron that asked a Nike representative to pull the tape. Skip Bayless stomped LeBron in the face on 1st and 10, by the way. He brought up everything LeBron has done after the final buzzer in the ECF, saying that not shaking hands, avoiding the media, wearing an MVP shirt, a "Check my $tats" shirt, and promoting himself to go to New York...he's going too far.

Yeah, that happens to me with Britney Spears all the time, except that it's the pregnant, wasted Britney, and it's more of a nightmare than a dream.

I'll enable it sometime this afternoon, because I have to leave in about 30 seconds. It was supposed to be enabled already, but hey, it's new software.

The Lakers won't be offering any more money to Lamar than what they plan on dishing out anyways, and I doubt we will use that MLE if we were to bring in Artest using Trevor's Bird Rights (pretty much what we're doing). We might as well use the MLE on Artest and not risk having to pay him $8 million a season or so, because Houston and Ron can work it out to where he gets Ariza's paycheck, and that only hurts us a bit more down the road. Assuming we get Odom back, we won't spend anything else but maybe the vet's minimum and small minimum contracts, so we might as well hand it to Artest while the offer is there. And I would never want to see Cook back in Los Angeles. Ever. But that's not relevant to the idea of this deal, either.

I'll pay you money if you can tell me who did it and prove that it was him. Email me: otrbasketball@live.com Please.

Ironically, this is coming in the wake of Ariza stomping on his verbal commitment to Houston, proving that actions speak louder than words.

I think they actually removed that option because it was giving people troubles (due to the type of browser, and the versions). I believe the entire page has to load when switching from the standard to the rich text (or vice-versa).

I know what you can do, Erick. I'm going to add everyone to the writing team. I was expecting a few more, but since we have the approximate amount I was looking to add in the first place, all of you have made the cut. I'll be PM'ing you guys soon. If you're interested in writing for other sports, we'll get to you in due time. Thanks guys.

Your sarcasm is on a different planet in this regard. What I said meant that, no matter what I did, my defense wasn't going to improve...that I've been working on it extremely hard for years, and I still have average defense. I really don't even know what you're telling me with this.

Guess I just have to push myself even harder and be more dedicated to fix my defensive problems the next time I spend hours getting physically abused underneath the rim. As long as I'm determined and dedicated to it, I should become the best defensive player on the court, every night... Thanks for the tips, guys.

That was the problem. Joke's on meeee. Nice find, thanks for the fix Aaron.

Like I said, years ago, you would've posted this: I'm sorry if I'm seeing a lot of players become better offensive weapons. Shannon Brown, for instance, is doing that with the Lakers. Trevor Ariza? Same thing. It's crazy that both entered the NBA as two who would contribute defensively, and came to Los Angeles and were slashing AND shooting their way into larger roles. Have you seen Raja Bell and what he's been doing with the ball in Charlotte? I brought him up earlier, and his time in Phoenix, because I know you can't compare the two situations. Prince was a very good offensive player, and a defensive player, at Kentucky. His defense was NBA-ready from the start. His offense wasn't, not at all. He started shooting the ball more, though, and his role increased as an offensive player. It was actually his smaller role on offense that didn't land him an all-star spot the year Detroit had nearly their entire starting five in the ASG, but his game improved offensively, leaps and bounds. I can do this with multiple players, for days, throughout history. It's not uncommon at all. Billups? He has always been a good defensive player. His offense improved greatly, and partially due to his role (and work ethic). His long-time teammate, Rip Hamilton...same thing. When he started playing off the ball and working extra-hard as that Reggie Miller clone, his offensive production stepped into all-star status, but his individual defense hasn't exactly improved as much, as he was probably happy to have the Wallaces, Prince and Billups backing him up in that regard. All day long, I'll find you players who were having trouble shooting the ball, having trouble finishing at the rim, and were given bigger or just completely different roles in an offense, and it changed them. Even Scottie Pippen fits the mold perfectly.

Two years, $2.1 million a season? That's a great deal for us.

Ah, I should note that Ben Wallace has had 5-6 50%+ shooting seasons, averaged nearly 10 PPG a couple of times in his career. In the limited roles he has played on those teams, he sure has done fairly well offensively.

Ben Wallace. Antoine Walker. Brendan Haywood. Josh Smith, Andrew Bogut, Tyson Chandler, Andris Biedrins, Desmond Mason, Kenyon Martin, Kendrick Perkins, Reggie Evans, Bruce Bowen, Anderson Varejao, Lamar Odom...there are plenty of players who I'd rather see take a jumper or a layup/dunk attempt over two players. Doesn't matter. If a player of mine can shoot 20 shots to get 24 points, which would still be a so-so game in some of your eyes, I'd be excited seeing a 12/20 shooting display show up in the statsheet. But it's a poor game, I guess.