AtTheDriveIn

I'm not completely knowledgeable with the American GPA scores, but isn't a 2.0 a miserable fail in every single class? A 4.0 is a very average passing grade in Australia. If so, it's understandable that you should be angry that they hadn't registered that you had dropped the class, but I think the bigger question would be why you were lazy enough to let yourself slip so far down. In my opinion, you should have been more aware of your other classes in case something like this happened. No disrespect to you, but you can't blame the whole university system for one mistake on their computers when you weren't putting in the work in any class to begin with. You were playing with your own future from the beginning, it had nothing to do with the offices not registering one change. On the other hand, if a 2.0-2.5 is a pass, well then disregard what I just wrote, heh.

The Knicks have come a long way in a few short years. I mean just a few years ago, they were over the luxury limit by $40 million at the very least (although the number might have been over 50, even). And next off-season they'll be under the cap for the first time in a long time. I think by the end of the season these teams Jazz ($4,858,225) Hornets ($3,331,809) Heat ($2,817,658) Rockets ($2,611,747) Will be under the luxury cap. Maybe not the Jazz if they intend on competing, but I think the others there are more likely than not going to trade away a few players for picks or trade kickers to get under the luxury line.

I'm quite certain we're over the luxury cap which stands at $69-70 million. A $5 million exception that the MLE is would actually cost the team itself $10 million because of the dollar per dollar rule that comes with being over the said luxury cap. Given McGrady's problems with his health and his countless injuries, I don't think the Magic would be willing to fork $10 million just so he can be with his 'cousin'. So as I said, unless he's signing for the minimum, he's not coming to Orlando. By the way, I think his contract runs past 2011-2012 anyway which means he'd have to be released or bought out (both of which are highly unlikely because of the enormity of his contract) from the team that trades for him now to even begin to think about signing elsewhere.

On a 400k deal? We don't exactly have the money for another 8 figure contract.

Great article, as usual. Looking on it, the Pacers have done an awful job of rebuilding. The average age of the team is nearly 27 years old, which could very well be among the oldest in the league. I know the Dallas Mavericks are one of the older teams in the league with an average age of 28 or 29. They don't have any youthful players who can contribute substantially or even on an average level, which is a bit shocking considering re-building teams are always looking for young players before anything else. Really, the only thing they have going is Danny Granger, who I've always seen as someone who would thrive in a second option role. Nevertheless if Granger decides to leave or demands a trade, which seems inevitable with the direction of the Pacers at the moment, the Pacers on paper look even worse than the Nets at the moment. The Nets at least have Brook Lopez and Devin Harris and maybe even Douglas-Robert and Williams, the Pacers would be shattered if Granger were to go and play elsewhere. On a happier note, Tyler Hansbrough, I thought wouldn't work out. I've never been a real fan of him until now though. Although his shooting is ugly (37%), the heart and hustle he puts into his game will keep him in the league. Good player to have around, in my opinion.

^ Aldrich isn't a huge upgrade. If i were a GM, I think I would always go for the best player available and figure out how to use him within any given system rather than filling in the blanks of 'team needs'.

He's not actually far off on any of the rankings. It's early on in the season, and there's some major Iguodala to Houston trade talks happening, which would leave Philadelphia with one wing player down. Therefore, a Wesley Johnson draft doesn't seem outrageous. There's really no need to belittle someone because you disagree with one out of the thirty picks.

^ Call me biased because I'm obviouly not the biggest fan of Brewer, but I just don't see him improving much on his game past where he already is with it. He's got a little Larry Hughes attitude to his game. He thinks he can hit shots because once upon a time he could (Hughes: Washington, Brewer: Florida). In reality though, neither of them really can but they're so fixated on previous limits that they believe within themselves that they're still the same shooters/creators they once were. Truth is, Brewer had easy shots from the outside with the Horford/Noah combination at Florida, along with poor rotational skill that a large majority of NCAA teams possess. The defense in the NBA is much bigger and tougher at defending the perimeter, even if the heart in NCAA ball is miles above NBA player's heart, and Brewer's game really doesn't translate that well as a shooter/creator.

Corey Brewer is unbearable to watch. It is painful to watch him try to create offense for himself or just to create in general. He is basically Shawn Marion minus the rebounding prowess that Marion has/had and about a million other small things that Marion could do which Brewer cannot. The triangle system that is being attempted just does not suit his off the ball, attacking the rim style that he likes. His play could do well in a team with an attacking uptempo style (GSW springs to mind); I think the only reason that Brewer is still an active part of the Timberwolf rotation is because the coaching staff is holding on to the last straw of potential that Brwwer may have. If he should ever join a legtitimate contending team, it'll be as a deep reserve. Rodney Carney can barely make the league and he is no less a player than Brewer. Good article.. and repped. Oh and happy christmas.

If the intention is to begin a process of blowing the team up before re-building, then the Wizards will probably need to make some quick moves to move as many contracts for expiring contracts as fast as possible. Most teams which move players for the purposes of rebuilding don't really think about how much raw talent they're recieving immediately, but rather, how much they could recieve in the near future. Fooling around on the ESPN trade machine, like so many of us do on lonely Wednesday nights, I came up with one trade which could immediately clear 10 million dollars of their hands. It's not very realistic, but the Wizards really have some awful trading pieces. Anyway: Washington sends: Caron Butler Milwaukee sends: Luke Ridnour Kurt Thomas Both Ridnour and Thomas' contract gets rid of $10,300,000 in salary immediately. Plus according to Hollinger's analysis, it actually improves the Wizards by 3 wins for the season. And even if it doesn't, it assures the Wizards of a better pick in a deep draft. With the expiring contracts of Boykins, Crittendon, Haywood, James, Miller and Stevenson, it puts the Wizards under the cap by $15-17 million dollars; which is enough to be able to sign a high draft pick and get a max type player if he happens to fall that way. If not, they try to get rid Antwan Jamison the following season to be able to comfortably sign a bunch of guys the following free agency and have a completely re-built team in three years time.

Jameer Nelson played 42 games last season in which the Magic went 32-10 by 'running through the 3-4-5' spots. A 76% winning record when Jameer played in the game is an impressive record. This year, they went 8 and 3 when Jameer played in a game. In last season's team, he was not a major focal point of the team and still scored 17 a game nearly. In this season's team, he has more duties, scores a bit less probably because of the pressure put forth upon him and the Magic are still winning a lot of games when Jameer is or isn't playing. People seem to be under the impression that the Magic won because of some of these (imaginary) extraordinary mismatches we possessed. I'm not saying we didn't. Rashard was tremendous for us from the four, and Hedo brought some unique skills to the three position, however the Magic won games because we're a talented squad and that didn't change during the off-season; if anything, we're more talented. Jameer's presence does not make us worse in any way whatsoever. I don't even know where people get these assumptions from.

Because people tune in to watch a team sport, not a one man show. The teams at the top of this list epitomise team basketball; Cleveland does not.

I've played against a few guys in the NCAA/NBA/Overseas Leagues. Brock Motum, who plays for Washington State at the moment played for John Paul College (JPC) which is the school down the road from I went to high school. Motum is a 6'8" forward. He was a center in Australia, but he doesn't have the height for it in semi-pro teams. They (JPC) also had two guys who play in Europe at the moment, I've forgotten their names, but they also played at JPC; they are twins if that makes it any easier for someone to track them down. I've also guarded Patty Mills back when he used to play for Townsville High School. It was in the CBSQ (state) tournament in 2006 before he moved to the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS). His team only beat us by 20 and he surprsingly wasn't even the best player there. They had another guard, Michael Cedar, who played in the NBL in 2007 and just tore the tournament up. He didn't get too far in the NBL, though. His brother, Chris, is a starter on the NBL though. Two of my friends have also played/play professionally at one time or another. Thomas Ammar played for the Brisbane Bullets until they became defunct. He's obsessed with Jordan, and has exactly the same frame as Jordan did, 6'6", 210lbs. He's currently playing in the QABL (the second best league in Aus), averaging like 17/9 for Logan. He played college ball at Mars Hill as a walk on and averaged some decent numbers down there, too. And there's also Corbin Wroe. Some of the Australians might know him because he's a really big name on the high school circuit. He's 15, 6'8 and is a defensive powerhouse. He's already had a few scholarship offers from the United States, I wont say where, but they're big universities. He's playing for Lake Ginenderra in the National tournament, but he's schooled at the AIS for the time being. His brother and I also go to uni together.

They take sounds from hardcore and combine it with metal to call themselves metalcore. It's not like he was completely wrong in saying they're hardcore.

Even if players jump from contender to contender, there's still no guarentee of reaching the Finals, or even the Conference Finals. For example, O'Neal's recent forays with different teams has him 5 years on from his most recent championship with the Heat. Once he saw the Heat were losing, he became a difficult person to have around the organization and was traded. After being trade, and after failing to make the playoffs for the first time in his career with Phoenix, he asked for a trade. And now, with Cleveland, the Cavaliers are almost undefeated without O'Neal and have 4 losses in 14 games when O'Neal plays. Not just that, but the Cavaliers don't look like the team many optimists thought they would be with O'Neal. It might be great to win lots of games and never have a losing regular season record, but it doesn't always equate to the ultimate NBA success in the end. For many, it's comfort and stability. Why else would, for example, Hedo Turkoglu have just signed a 5 years, $50 million dollar deal which pays him $10 million dollars ever year? Because if he continually signed one year deals, there's no guarentee that he'll be worth the same amount of money in two or three years which means he could effectively lose in excess of ~$25 million dollars on his NBA contract. 6 Year Deal is the max years. The max money varies from situation to situation. For example, Garnett or O'Neal could sign another max deal for $22+ million dollars per year plus 10%. Meanwhile, Roy just signed an extension for $12.5 million per year, which is his 'max'. It varies depending on how long you've been in the league, how many years you've played for the same team etc. etc.

It's not exactly impossible. Improbable, but not impossible. Strictly speaking on a contract basis, Wade could be signed by the Heat and then traded to the Magic or he could opt for a significant pay cut to go to a contender. While both options seem improbable, they are not impossible. Wade's scoring average is the highest against the Magic then any other team in the league at 30.3 points per game in 18 games since 2003. He also shoots his second highest percentage versus the Magic (.531 compared to the LA Clippers, where he shoots .532). I'd love to have him on the Magic if he would stop hurting us every time he plays, hah.

Yeah, remember, it wont completely rid your computer of all problems so don't be expecting that, but it should get rid of the message for a while until the RAM runs out again. It should also make your computer process things much smoother that you'll see a marked difference. I personally haven't had a problem with the regular DDR's before, but DDR2's are cheaper and do the same job, so probably have a look for them. And they sell RAM in any tech shop you go to. They'll install for you, too.

Brisbane >> Sydney. Probably in the same place as well. I live about ten minutes from the Gold Coast and twenty-five from Brisbane in a nice suburban area. Unless you're living beyond your means or actually have the money to live among the upper class somewhere, I don't think it's possible to find a nicer spot, in my opinion at least.

You can get a professional to do it or you can do it yourself. It's hardware, so you're going to have to open your box up. If you're not comfortable doing it by yourself, it's a minute job for tech specialists so it's not any kind of hassle. I doubt they even charge you for it. But if you do do it by yourself, just open your box up, take the old one out and put the new one(s) in. I just had a look at mine and it's located on the left hand side of my motherboard (the biggest 'chip' in your box). They have little levers on the side which makes them easy to pop out and in.

Not really, the hardware that works the actual computer is very bare and basic. The ranges in performances in other brands are very minimal so nothing will help very much. Like anything else, computers give in to wear and tear after a while as well and they have a lifespan. Things are always going to stop working, but if you want to keep it going for a while, new RAM is your best option. It should last you at least a year (mine lasted about that long before I bought a new one) and probably longer if you intend on keeping the same set-up you have at the moment. Oh, and it should make your problem go away. Edit: I just found a DDR2 2.048GB RAM stick for $73.35. That should help with the approximate pricing.

You're running XP so your computer is a few years old most likely. RAM doesn't last long, especially with anything that hasn't been bought in the last year or so with the new processors which require roughly 4GB of RAM to run properly. Honestly, this problem wont go away unless you but a new RAM stick; any other solution is temporary and probably wont last more than a few months max. New RAM sticks vary from about $70 to $150; in Australia at least. I'd avide to check how much RAM you have: > Right Click on My Computer > Click on Properties > Check Memory (RAM) However much you have, go the the shops and ask for double that. On the XP I ran, I put in 2.00GB RAM after having 1.00GB for a long time and it ran much, much smoother through the processes. Now I'm running a 4.00GBRAM on Vista (Windows Seven in a few days though) and it's easily the best I've had thus far. So more RAM = Good. But for basic setups, if you're running anything under 1GB at the moment, you should really think about upgrading.

First of all, the picture on the top had me laughing hard. I'm not exactly sure why. On a more related note though, is anyone surprised to see Philadelphia mixed with good shooting teams like Portland, New Orleans, the Spurs etc? Or is this just me? From memory, aside from Kapono, they don't exactly have a three point shooter, do they? Igoudala is mediocre, ditto with Williams; Young seems to be shooting well this season from what I've seen, but nontheless, it surprised me a little bit to see Philadelphia on the 'high efficiency' side with almost no actual three point shooters on the team.

I was just messing around on the Trade Machine on ESPN and came up with this one: Warriors Trade: Corey Maggette Brandan Wright Mavericks Trade: Josh Howard The incentive for the Warriors is that Howard is 10 million dollar expiring deal. This gives them a little bit more cap room to try and go after some newer played in the free agency. And of course, they don't have Maggette anymore. On the other side of the deal, the Mavericks get virtually the same 'black hole' type player that Howard was, and it's not a bad thing either because Maggette is actually a productive player when he wants to be, but they also get Wright, who's still an intriguing player because of his abilities. Plus the Mavericks aren't in re-building mode so this gives them less worrying to do about re-signing key role players during the break. This was all purely for the fun of it. I don't actually believe this deal would happen, I just wanted to see if I could make a half-way decent one, heh. As for the article, I really liked it, but one part was just a little bit awkward. I'm talking about this: I don't know, maybe it's me, but I think it's a little awkward to say 'but we'll leave that for another article.' It just doesn't flow with the rest of the article. That's just my opinion of course. There's nothing wrong with it being there, I just thought it didn't have any relevance with anything else written prior, nor after it. I see no one has repped you for the article, so I will. It's pretty tough coming up with ideas for these, so good job.

It could be a few things. If you're computer is fairly old (at least one and a half years) then you're using a lot of the RAM which slows the computer down. Now if there's a lot of things being processed at once, it will eventually overwhelm the computer to the point where it will freeze. Without buying some new RAM, the best way is to find out where processes are useless to you (and trust me, there are ones no one ever uses) and delete them. It'll temporarily be fine, but this is something you'll have to do weekly and it becomes quite a chore when you don't know what everything is. Secondly, untrusted sites. No judgement made on my behalf, but porn sites, gambling sites etc. all come with spyware and adware which throws your computer way off track. Even if you have protection, there isn't much you can do. But that's only if you're downloading things directly from websites which are suspicious, so it may not be that.

^ Have to agree. I got a chance to listen to it last night. While it is okay, it's only average, especially for Lupe. I also thought Kid Cudi's was much, much better. I think the beats not being original is a big thumbs down for the mixtape. Havnig said that, I liked a few songs on there; for one, I liked the Angels Remix and Popular Demand. Apart from those, everything else is listable, but easily forgetable. I can't wait for Lasers, though. I've been basically counting down the days for it.. haha.