Real Deal

I might as well just post the entire Celtics roster.

Search engine, affiliation link, signature link, AIM, MySpace?

To be honest, I would be a very happy person if the Nuggets traded Martin for Randolph.

Depends on what happens internally. If the Lakers were to just let Bryant go, or trade him for trash, there's a good chance I'm done watching them. Unlike most, I'm an NBA fan first, for two reasons: 1) I wasn't born and didn't live anywhere near an NBA city (OKC just got the Thunder) 2) most in my family were football fans, so I didn't grow up needing to root for a certain team When people point fingers at me for choosing someone like the Lakers, they don't understand how I got there. It was because of Kobe and the draft day trade. If it wasn't for that, and Charles Barkley getting traded to the Rockets, I'd probably be a Suns fan. I can easily say that others are robots as they felt obligated to root for the same team their fathers pulled for, or root for the team hosted by the city they reside in...but I don't go that direction. Saying that members are less intelligent, or even bigger homers, when rooting for players over teams? I disagree. I've seen that, though, and I've also seen true, die-hard team fans that are completely ignorant to the other 29 teams in the league, and believe their team will win 70 games every single season, despite the multiple 20-win seasons they continue to have.

Yeah, we'll get to our writers and other staff positions in due time. We need to make sure we bring back our original posters first. I know we have a moderator who still can't see the site (because of domain propagation) and a few others who will surely register soon. We'll get the roster set, then start organizing.

Just his contract? The dude is a headcase. He is a very poor decision-maker, a poor defensive player, rarely in shape and he is one elbow away from actually breaking someone's jaw with a right hook. I've seen too much of Randolph already, playing against him as much as we do. It's far from a privilege watching him ruin any chemistry the Clippers and the Blazers have had in the past. His contract sucks, but his play is worse. If I were to take a stab at it, he's probably the worst 20/10 player I've seen in this decade.

It's a rebuilding process. Atlanta decided to do that with their forwards. People were wondering when they were ever going to get a true power forward, while Marvin Williams was coming into the league as an NBA small forward, Josh Smith played the same position, and Joe Johnson had played at the three in spurts while he was in Phoenix. The Hawks ended up playing small ball and moving from the NBA's second-biggest joke (sorry Clippers) to a second-round playoff team out East. The process will be slow for Minnesota, but you have to consider the fact that they are only two seasons removed from losing their franchise player and easily the best player that has ever played for them. In addition to that, McHale was more interested in Boston for the last two years, and the Wolves can't find a coach that will run a suitable offense and take these players under his wing.

The Spurs are contenders with a healthy Manu. If he returns for the 09-10 season, they will meet the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals, which is a big step from their first-round exit this past season. Jefferson makes the Spurs dangerous. There's going to be too much going on in that offense now, and teams won't be able to predict how the Spurs will beat them. When a team can beat you in the post, at the point, from the wing or off the bench, you're in trouble.

Minny won't deal Flynn because they have no idea what Rubio is going to do. Assuming he goes back to Spain for a year or so, the Wolves will keep Flynn until Ricky returns, and I can probably safely assume that Flynn will be more of a backup than starting material, but we'll see. If Minny decides to play small, so be it...but when they said that at the draft, it blew my mind because you aren't going to play Flynn as a two-guard (he's way too short) and Rubio has no shot and needs to run the point. In the end, Minnesota will either trade one of them, or Flynn will back up Rubio. One year of play for Flynn will make that decision easier.

People who take about 500,000 pictures every Friday and Saturday night, and post them on Facebook in multiple albums, when about half of the pictures are nearly the same exact thing. Those who ask me to affiliate with their "up and coming" site, and when I go to check it out, it's an InvisionFree board with a horrible skin, 60 members and about 15,000 posts, 3/4 of them from the sim league they are running, and the URL contains the server name (ex. ser43.freeboards.net/true_hoops/index.php). Guys that are afraid to take credit for hacking a basketball message board. People that talk trash on Michael Jackson right after his death. People that talk like they have been fans of Michael Jackson their entire lives, but forget how much they used to dedicate their lives to destroying him with jokes and edited pictures. Gas prices.

Yeah, I'll probably keep this one in the skin selector, but the team forums will be set with the new design.

I can think of a few teams that wouldn't trade for Kevin Love. But the point is, if you're going to trade any of your young players, you deal Flynn, or Brewer, or Ellington. Anyone outside of Jefferson, Love and Rubio. I'm the last to be a fan of Ricky Rubio, but I'm also aware that he's a potential all-star, and the only other person on the team you can say that about is Jefferson.

The last skin wasn't gold and silver, and it should probably resemble something like that. I'd like to keep the dark red and black theme, mainly so I can use all of the banners I made. But whatever happens, I need to stay basic. We had a few people complain about loading times. I'm not that big on skins loaded with graphics.

Utah is in an ugly situation, with Boozer and Okur planning on opting out, and Millsap wanting $10 million a year. Thing is, if the Jazz reload with the same guys, they are going to be the same team they have been for a few years now: that borderline contender, the one you know CAN take the best West team to seven games, but probably won't.

I thought about changing it, but I've always been Real Deal (on OTR). I was realdealbneal on JBB when I first registered there, but I changed it soon after and have never actively gone by another name since.

It won't sting for a few seasons, but there's a reason nobody is after any of those other kids, while there are about 3-5 teams asking for Rubio.

I had a feeling the Lakers would be among the teams. We can offer Farmar and possibly Morrison in a sign and trade. That would take care of the MLE money he's probably after.

It really didn't make much sense to do the trade, as Boldin pointed out, but regardless of that, I think Oklahoma City made the right choice. They needed a big, and they got him.

I disagree. I don't like this deal for Minnesota. Battier is almost 31 years old (and that's not that bad, but he's not young) and he's only got two years left on his contract, which is set to pay him around $14 million. And Brooks is not a pass-first point, which is what they are looking for in a starter. Brooks and Battier aren't all-star players. Rubio has the potential to be one. You keep the kid.

No, it's still there. You can choose to turn public voting results on and off.

Alright, the "View New Content" link off to the far right of the board is the new content members have posted. It won't show your own stuff because it's specific for each member. It's not exactly new content if you've already seen your own post...see what I mean? And as for it not showing the topic starter, it probably doesn't because it's not specifically for that new topic, but for the new post in that topic...so it'll display the member who made the post, rather the one that made the topic. Confusing yet?

Yao's defense has improved slightly, but his offensive game is far, far superior than Howard's. Comparing the two offensively, it's not even close. Minus the injuries, I'd take Yao Ming over Howard. Factor in the injuries, and I'm taking Dwight. I'm a little worried about that foot.

In regards to Sasha sucking so much, he needs to stop getting so much media attention. It's sickening. It's one thing to get all the attention when you're one of the better players in the NBA, but it's another when you're one of the worst. As funny as the Machine vids are, those shouldn't even be created for him. And by the way, the nickname has slapped him right in the face. I threw away a worthless printer the other day and was reminded of Sasha as it hit the bottom of the trash can.

Rose is going to be an excellent player, surely an all-star and possibly a superstar. But that workout looks like a typical workout for a team captain. The rookies do a lot of that in pre-draft workouts, in fact, and even we did the perimeter drills in high school (layup, perimeter, jumper, perimeter, three), did those for quite some time until our arms and legs were numb, haha.

The problem you're going to run into and have absolutely no answers for will be losing posts. You may say it won't happen, but the truth is, single-sport sites rely on a lot of activity for their respective sports, especially during the off-season. On a boring day in mid-July, OTR would be dead in this case, unless a huge blockbuster trade went down.