AboveLegit

It's really not as hard as it's made out to be. I love to eat, but even I manage to do all 30 days. But you're right, you would be exempt from this anyway since you're a diabetic.

The first few days are absolutely horrible for me, but after that, I get used to it.

Yeah it's going to be tough. Good luck to all my fellow Muslims.

Nope, the whole organization is too bitter about him leaving. Should they? Yes. will they? No.

It's an example of how tough defenses were in Jordan's era. I just do not understand how one can say defenses are better than they were in the 90's..or even the 80's. Here's another point I want to make... I think lesser defenders were more prevalent in Jordan's era because there was more need for pure, real basketball players. There wasn't a need for "specialist" defenders, that pretty much have no other gifts, because of the lack of hand check rules. Players didn't need to be as savvy as Battier and Artest, who DO position themselves masterfully in front of the leagues best offensive juggernauts. Guys could simply keep a hand on an opponents jersey, and shadow them physically all over the court, and everytime a player ran around and through screens, opponents teammates could physically impede them in a way that is NOW called a foul. The league today is a lot tougher on defenders than it was back then, but I'm truly not certain if it means either era had more talented defenders, relative to what they were allowed to do. The pros of having defensive specialists is that they are elite at that skill and it doesn't matter what the rules are. The cons of it are that with a guy like that on the floor, there is only so much your opponent has to do to defend them, allowing team defenses to focus elsewhere. Part of the reason that league PPG went down for awhile after the hand check rules were in place was because teams added these guys with defensive only skills, to the detriment of their own offense. Back in MJ's days, a guy like Dumars had Bruce-Bowen-equivalent defensive skills (relative to being able to hand check) but he could also drop 40 on you, so you had to make sure you could match him with a scorer/defender option. Thats what made the Bulls so great in the 90's. In one year, they had THREE players on the all-defensive 1st team. And they finished in the top 5 in BOTH scoring and defense almost every single title year, including finishing 1st in BOTH categories in their dominant 1996 season, when they set almost every team record in history. Had the league in the early 90's had the same rules as today, I'm sure that we would have seen some different, 'failed' players make it in the league as the same types of specialists. And this is also why I think the competition in the league back then was greater.

I'm not going to play your game because I fully understand where you're coming from. Obviously history is against Blatche, but he's only 23 years old, and entering a new phase in his career. I fail to see why he couldn't overcome these "odds" and become a useful player in this league.

Stephen Jackson, Nate Robinson, Ron Artest. And notice, it all happened after a change of scenery. Nate Robinson went from a player who played outside the offense, and turned out to be a damn productive player off the bench in Boston. Same goes to Ron Artest and Stephen Jackson. It's exactly what's happening in Washington. A new regime attempting to change the outlook of the team. The draft proves it. We went out and drafted hard working big man (outside of John Wall). Blatche is already showing signs of maturing in a recent interview: Obviously talk is cheap, and it means nothing until he proves it in the regular season, but the offseason is for speculating, so that's exactly what I'm going to do. There's nothing wrong with optimism.

He's still young and has a lot to learn, I'm not going to give up on him that easily. He has a ton of potential and he has skill just like John Wall...the difference is his mentality and attitude. That's something that can be fixed.

Joel Anthony will be starting I assume.

I think some people get offended and think that if you say Jordan could beat a double team better than Bryant, you're saying that it's because he can jump twice as high or whatever. While Jordan was definitely better at jumping from farther and got more hangtime (which both happen when you are quicker of foot), he doesn't jump substantially higher than any of those guys. The difference between the best of the best is usually not that great... Jordan, Pippen, Erving, James, Bryant, McGrady, Carter... they all get up about the same. I said usually... There is one thing that makes Jordan so dramatically different and special. That helped him beat double teams like no other... His footspeed... Never has a high-flying swingman been even remotely as quick as Jordan... he literally had the first step and the foot speed of a very quick 6'1" point guard. If you gave Kobe Bryant John Stockton's first step, he'd be doing what Jordan did in Chuck Daley's words... "embarrassing the league." Kobe has definitely made the league a place that he has continued success in. Since Jordan, other than Shaq, I don't think anyone, including Duncan, has "embarrassed" the league. Jordan could take ridiculous angles... against the Pistons he looks closed off on many double teams, but he JUST BARELY gets the angle on a Piston defender and the next thing you know he's laying it in with someone hitting him in the back. And that is the play that separates him from Kobe, who would JUST BARELY be closed off, forcing him back to the perimeter and into a jumper. The next thing that separates Jordan from Kobe is something that a lot of high flyers have... ridiculous pound for pound strength. Erving and Pippen both had that ability to get hit and not be fazed by it. Carter, Bryant, McGrady? Not so much. Now that is not as glaring a difference. Kobe is strong and he does have forceful power... but he's an 8.5 whereas Jordan would be a 10. Magic once said "see Michael... has the strength of a big man.... that's what makes it so hard to face him." It is also hilarious that people think defenses are better now. There were fouls committed on Jordan that weren't even flagrants in 1989 that would warrant 15 game suspensions now. Just how good could Jordan have been if clotheslining was a 15 game suspension? The Pistons broke Scottie Pippen's nose and I believe nobody was suspended. If they were it was nothing big. Jordan was going off during the Knicks despite dirty moves like Greg Anthony throwing him to the ground. And no, defensively, the 06 Suns aren't anything like the 92 Knicks. Back in Jordan's prime the game was played differently, defense was actually allowed to be played and the defensive player was given as much freedom as the offensive player. Nowadays the rules are so much in favor for the offensive player that it doesn't make any sense and the reason for this is because of the overall lack of sound fundamentals by todays players. Could you imagine some of these so called great players of today having to play in an era where they could be hand checked and bumped without a foul being called? The offensive player complains so much in todays game it's ridiculous...I don't think they could survive playing in an era where there was rough play allowed.

You're missing the point though. We're not trying to sign borderline stars such as Rudy and David, we're trying to build straight from scratch. Did the Thunder go out and get a big name when they're close to contending for a championship? No, instead they went after Cole Aldrich in the draft to fill in their needs. Signing Rudy Gay would make us a first round playoff team, nothing more. He's exactly the type of player we would have gone after if Ernie Grunfeld was running everything. Kirk Hinrich's contract isn't something we should worry about at all.. Why? Because in a year it will turn into a 7 million expiring, and I know teams will be trying to make room for a guy like Chris Paul who would be hitting the market. And yeah I'm serious about Seraphin, here's the link: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/wizardsinsider/2010/07/kevin-seraphin-signs-with-wiza.html

Just pathetic. This only decreases his trade value too.

As soon as Ted Leonsis bought the team, I knew how he was going to build this team, mainly because I follow the Caps pretty closely. Through patience and through top draft picks, we will build up a contender. Did you honestly expect us to sign a legit big man? How many good big men are there on the market to begin with? We weren't in the sweepstakes for Bosh, we weren't going to bring back a 30 year old Haywood, there were no viable options for this team... We signed Hilton Armstrong just to have another big body to back up McGee. I also found out Kevin Seraphin reached a buyout agreement with his team overseas, meaning he will be coming to DC this season. So a big man rotation of McGee, Seraphin, N'Diaye, Armstrong, Blatche, Jianlian is very, very solid. I'd take it over McGee, Oberto, Paul Davis, and Blatche.... You gotta realize we're not even looking to contend immediately, this "playoff push" I'm referring to will only happen IF Gilbert Arenas comes back to 100% and coexists with Wall. And that's not even mentioning what we should expect from Blatche, who is making a huge transition from the first option to possible third option... There's a lot of change happening in DC, and it's not going to happen in one offseason I can tell you that. What we were able to achieve in the last 2 months is very good. Just think about it, we traded a 5th overall pick for one year rentals in Mike Miller and Randy Foye just last year...that pick could have been Stephen Curry... I know in the end it lead us to John Wall, but still, it just shows how confused our front office once was.

If you sign star players, others will find a way to come to town. This is a great signing for the Heat, I'm kinda surprised he didn't try coming back to Boston...Now the Heat have two deadly shooters coming off the bench, if you're a Heat fan, you gotta love this signing.

Yeah you're right, he will start over Thornton. This signing does appear to be our "playoff push". I love the approach our front office took coming into the off season, obviously we had some luck along the way, but this is the first time in years I've been fully satisfied with them.

I'll pick Mark Sanchez

I just told Confidence to sim my pick with the BPA for whatever position I need the most.

Good signing, but honestly I didn't expect us to sign him especially after those rumors of Childress coming to DC. But with the lack of forwards we have, I like this pick up. He could end up starting for us over Thornton.

Where's Confidence? I sent my list into him... I guess I'll pick Santonio Holmes.

QB: Aaron Rodgers RB: Jamal Charles RB: C.J. Spiller WR: Sidney Rice WR: Santana Moss TE: Chris Cooley Not bad so far. I took a chance on Cooley, Moss, and Spiller, so hopefully it pays off. I like my chances with this team.

After Yao retires, Yi Jialian will take his throne as the greatest Chinese bball player in the NBA . :glasses:

Yeah I sent in a list, Confidence step up your game

I'm going to go with another Redskin, Santana Moss...Yes, I'm banking on him to step it up this year along with Cooley. http://images.picturesdepot.com/photo/s/santana_moss_of_the_redskins-34029.jpg

lol I purposely passed on Witten, I can't stand him. Homerism ftw.

Hows the cost of living where you live? Is it an expensive place to live? Is it cheap? I'm asking this because just last week I was in Houston visiting some relatives. They recently bought a single family home (a little smaller than the house I live in right now in Maryland), for just under 200K. I was absolutely shocked because in Maryland, 200K gets you a nice townhouse.. The house I live in costs roughly 550K or so, over in Texas it would be around 250-300K.