Real Deal

Nice. That would absolutely SUCK. And if the Celtics bring Sheed off the bench, I'll still be okay with that...he'll take minutes away from Garnett or Perkins, or he won't play many at all. Either way, if this was a situation where they were losing a starter, I'd be upset...but I'm not sure how big of an impact he's going to have in limited minutes, and I'm not sure how much it will hurt them if he gets into a role similar to Lamar Odom's, because Perkins can actually stay in the game longer than Andrew Bynum. The truth is, this does help out. I'm just not sure how much. It could propel them into the Finals. I'm just not concerned because I've seen Diet Sheed for the last couple of seasons.

So everything you said simply gives examples of it going the other way, but you didn't disprove anything. And by the way, saying Hedo defended Bryant well? Every defensive play he made on Bryant was with him coming out of nowhere after he was burned, including the block, where he needed help defense to recover. Redick? Are you kidding me? And Gasol has shown he can play defense, but he's afraid of contact (he's soft). He knows how to defend. He has the skill. He just doesn't want a shoulder in the sternum or broaden the possibility that he steps on someone's foot and rolls his ankle. Neither. Thing is, you'll never see Gortat and Ivey average 20 points because they aren't given the opportunity to...but EVERYONE is given the opportunity to play defense, night in and night out, and Jefferson and Iverson have proven to us that they are poor defensive players. I'm sure you would've never guessed that Von Wafer could give Houston 10 PPG in just 19 minutes, either.

So that must be why coaches use the Hack-a-Shaq. It is much easier for Shaq to make his two free throws.

I already stated that I didn't tell anyone I averaged 30 PPG in high school. Everyone here knows I shattered my ankle when I was a junior, before the season started, and missed my last two seasons. With that said, I worked incredibly hard for basketball, especially when I was 15-20 years old. Part of it, from 17-18 years old, was rehabilitating my ankle. The rest of it was shooting and playing defense. I took the sport so serious, I ended up going blind years later because I decided to choose a sport over my health (diabetes), to the point where I would down bottle after bottle of Gatorade, run my blood sugar above normal, and play 6-8 hours a day/night, almost every single day. And just so you know, Pierce was defending Kobe more than Ray was, and that's why many Celtics fans were trying to make the argument that Pierce was better than LeBron (because of his defense). Even Pierce was happy that his guys were scared to drive the lane against Garnett, Perkins, and PJ Brown. You should know the effects of defensive-minded players, having Birdman back, Billups coming to Denver and Kenyon Martin doing what he can. As I mentioned, there's a reason why there are many more offensive-minded players and coaches. Putting the ball in the rim is easier than stopping someone from doing it.

So that player isn't efficient when the referees decide he's not efficient? Getting to the foul line isn't always a good thing. Ask Ben Wallace and Shaq. Stopping the clock and giving your team room to breathe does the same for the opposition. In the NBA, efficiency is simply converting. When you convert on a higher percentage of shots...that's efficiency. It shouldn't matter how many shots it takes you to get the points you acquire, just the percentage of shots that convert. Using the free throw logic, players that rarely get to the line can never be efficient, unless they hit 65-70% of their shots.

Our Rockets fans will then decide that he's overrated and definitely not worth it to begin with.

I know. Good for him. If he starts, that means Perkins doesn't. Good for us. This reminds me of Posey signing with the Hornets, and everyone was throwing up their arms and giving the West to the Hornets. Same with Elton Brand and the Sixers. The only team I'm worried about is a healthy Spurs team. Cleveland, Orlando and Boston can beat themselves to pieces all the way to the Finals, for all I care. If we get there, we'll take all three of them, struggling less than what we may with that Spurs squad. Not to mention this only makes the Glen Davis re-signing much more difficult.

The first post you made replying to my last was just you telling me that offense was more difficult than defense. I don't know what to point out in that post other than the last part about Ray Allen. He's not a good man defender. Not sure where you got that from. The 2008 Finals? Just because Bryant struggled? Ray Allen was far from the reason why. Did you happen to see Ben Gordon picking him apart in their first-round meeting? How about what happened against Orlando? Why? Because there was no Garnett, the guy who made those guards think twice before driving the lane, which made Allen LOOK like a good defender. I never said I averaged 30 in high school. But to dig a bit deeper into that, I actually have multiple books on basketball, and a shooting DVD. I have the Better Basketball series DVD's. I also have a book on defense. I can't sit here and make everyone believe I work extremely hard on my game (and have for a while), but I do...and I've had to work much less on my offense. My defense is still a big problem. I can't defend bigger and stronger guards in the post, and I have a lot of trouble with screens. A big part of that is having to get much thicker than I already am, and also knowing how to play defense with my body, and not swiping the ball all the time. Mentally, and physically, it's draining.

So why did Bryant even call Payton to begin with? Samaki Walker would've just told Kobe, "It's all about effort, Kobe. Try hard, and you'll be a good defensive player." What's the difference between that, and what Payton said? I think there's more to it than effort. It took LeBron five years to find a way to block shots from the weakside, and steal passes in the passing lanes, using his athleticism. Good for him. He didn't deserve runner-up, but we're not going there (since we already did). Would I pick Thabeet first? No. Griffin is a more complete player. But why would Thabeet go second? His offense needs a lot of work. You mean to tell me that OKC wouldn't have selected him if they had the chance? Sacramento? Minnseota at five? Thabeet was the best selection at #2. Why? Because his offensive game can be developed, and his defensive game is already one of the best at a college level and can be considered pro-ready quite easily. You can shoot days and days, months, for a year or two, and develop a jumper. Ask Wade and Lebron. However, you can put forth as much effort as possible and STILL be a pathetic defensive player. Steve Nash is an extremely hard-working player, and his defense is simply trash. How hard did Nash and Nowitzki work to develop their overall games, only to find that they can both lead their teams as superstars...yet never play a lick of defense, no matter the effort? If defense is mostly effort, the hardest-working offensive players would be able to play at least average defense. Steve Nash, Dirk Nowitzki, Gilbert Arenas, Ray Allen, Tracy McGrady...five of many that can give you 30-point games every night (McGrady when healthy) and that do work or used to work extremely hard on their games, yet they still play below-average defense and have done so their entire careers. I don't see poor defensive players suddenly play excellent defense for an entire game, but I do see dedicated defensive players go out and have 15-20 point performances every now and then, no matter how it's done (spot-up shooting or slashing, doesn't matter). Smush Parker was never a good player, period...but his offense improved in Los Angeles, and he wasn't just a spot-up shooter. Did his defense improve? Hell no. Same with Von Wafer. His offense improved (compared to what it was for the Lakers), and he was actually starting games for Houston. His defense still sucked, though. Omar Cook was an amazing offensive player before the draft, compared to Kidd with the ball in his hands. He got with a private coach that tried teaching him how to play better defense (pro-level defense, at that), and it failed miserably. He never made it as a pro. Your offensive game doesn't always start with the ball in your hands. There are so many options that can make you look good or bad. You can be a spot-up shooter, a slasher, move excellent off the ball, be a facilitator, an offensive rebounder, multiple roles, and there are times you don't even have to be a part of the play. But defense always starts without the ball, and you have to be a part of the play every time. If you aren't, it suddenly becomes your entire team's problem. Defense wins championships. If it was simply the effort, and it was so easy to teach, why are there numerous superstars and team captains that you'll never see making big defensive plays, or even having their hand in their team's defensive efforts to put them into contention for a title? If Dirk takes all of his hard work towards his already-developed offensive game, and leans it towards learning that easy thing called defense, Dallas wins the Finals in 2006 with Dirk as their defensive anchor, just as Garnett did with Boston. Guess Payton should've called him up and told him this.

If you aren't a three-point shooter (ex. Gasol) and you take 20 shots to get 20 points, going 10-20 from the field...and the refs decided to swallow their whistles (or you were just open from 15 feet on every play), that means you were less efficient scoring the ball? Less efficient than someone who shot 9-20 with 11 free throws, 32 points? I definitely don't buy that.

I hope he starts.

If defense was mostly effort, there would be more able-bodied defensive players in this league. The more effort a player puts into defense, the more he's likely to foul. Use Vujacic as your example. It's impossible to teach players strictly dedicated to defense to score 20 a game? Raja Bell? He came in strictly as a defensive guard/forward, and ended up averaging nearly 15 PPG in a Phoenix offense he had just 12 FGA per game in.

I was going to put Sasha, but he doesn't deserve the attention to be put on any sort of list.

1) Kevin Garnett Just wish he'd shoulder-bump someone like Joey Dorsey, who has no reason to refrain from laying him out cold. Plus, if you're a professional athlete, don't stand on the sidelines in a suit and talk trash in a star's ear during the game, and act like an animal on and off the court. 2) Paul Pierce You aren't Willis Reed. 3) Gilbert Arenas The NBA's Nostradamus, minus the fact that he gets everything wrong.

Alright, didn't catch that recent news. Thanks for that. And yeah, I already made up my mind about McGrady a year ago, about him never being the same.

Man, that really does suck for Yao. I don't care how good or bad Houston will be. FMI (for my information), what's the deal on McGrady? You guys are talking like he's out for the season as well...but I must have missed that announcement.

There is always someone who can completely destroy the best defensive player in the league. But there isn't always someone who can stop the best offensive player in the NBA. Defense is harder to play. That makes it tougher to learn. There's a reason more people can score 20+ in a game, versus those having the ability to hold a 20+ scorer to single digits and below 40% FG. In addition to that, simple screens can put small guards on big men, and mismatches are tougher on the defense. There are very, very few small guards in NBA history that can defend a talented power forward or center, but there are multiple small guards that can score on them...and ironically, the same goes for the bigs that can't defend the small guards out by the perimeter, but can back them into the post and score on them at will 30-40 times a game. Scottie Pippen would drop 30+ on Shaq if, for some crazy reason, they kept finding themselves defending each other on switches. Shaq would also drop 50 on him. Better pray for help defense. Defense is much more difficult to play and much more difficult to learn.

I still like the idea. I was actually looking for someone to do something similar, but maybe we can have someone helping that has the ability to stream games as well, because some of those games can get up to 1,000+ users watching them at once, and that's a great, great, great way to show off our link. So during gametime, we can stream those...and in between, have a trivia?

Everyone, even Wizards fans, are shooting for that 4th seed. According to just last season, a fourth seed is a 47-win season. A 5th would be 43 wins out East. Now, obviously, that's not the correct and most accurate way to measure how a team is going to perform, but let's be real for a second: Washington has been in the bottom of the league in total defense in almost every season since 1997 or 1999 (already forgot the stat, but it's close). They have been injury-ridden since combining Arenas, Jamison and Butler. They haven't won over 45 games since 1979. In the last 21 seasons, they've missed the playoffs 16 times and have gotten out of the first round just once. I find it hard to believe anyone is actually sleeping on this team. Using all of that information above, a 45-win season would be as far as I could go if I were making bets.

With that said, if you get up to 200...might as well take your shirt off and go for 600.

Just one thing: if you're hosting it on JTV, you might as well make it public, because if we can get at least 200 people in the room, you suddenly become a recruiting monster.

Shane Battier is the smartest defensive player in the NBA. His defensive IQ is off the charts because he knows everything about the player he's defending. He leads them into their cold zones and Houston's strongest help defense. Problem is, if you pull Yao and Artest out of the game, Battier becomes more of a tree for the quicker two-guards, and they will leave him in the ground on their way to the rim. Artest would be my selection a couple of years ago, but he's lost a step. Still one of the best defensive players in the NBA though, especially post defense against guards and small forwards. If asked to lock the opposition down on the perimeter for a few minutes of a game, Kobe Bryant ranks up there. Danny Granger plays very good defense. Tayshaun Prince would easily be the best defensive player in the league if he had more meat on him, and was a bit stronger...but even then, he's still a big threat on that end of the court. Garnett isn't going to be the same as he was a couple of years ago. A lot of Boston's post defense also came from Perkins, which was mentioned a couple of times in this topic already. Howard is an excellent shot-blocker, help defender. Not sure about his man-to-man defense, though...and it may not even be as good as Gortat's. It's crazy, though...I didn't talk about guys like Hinrich, Kidd (who has lost a step or two but still does his thing), or even Iguodala.

Michael Jackson, easily. But it's not taking anything away from what happened to McNair. That was terrible. It's just that Jackson was the first music artist I actually listened to on a regular basis (due to my cousin), and you know at least 95% of the people on Earth have either stated that they wanted to dance like Michael, or have actually tried the moonwalk, imitated his voice in some way, or something, at some point in their lives.

Anyone else? Last call.

If it happens again, take a screenshot, and note the time also.