Built Ford Tough

I don't think that he was ever going to be an elite point guard or anything, but he would definitely have been a good, fringe All Star point guard if he reached his full potential. He has fantastic vision and playmaking abilities and his size at the point guard spot is obviously a huge benefit for him. His jumper was starting to come along and he is really crafty and creative with the dribble. I don't think that he would've become as great as some people make him out to be and wouldn't be a superstar or anything, but I think that he would've become one of the better point guards in the league and would play in some All Star games during his career. As for Livingston saying that he is healthy, I'll wait and see for myself. Players that suffer horrific injuries always claim that they are back to being completely healthy but when they step on the court you can tell that they aren't and are still worried about their knee or whatever they injured.

I honestly don't even see how you can try and dispute the fact that the AL East is the superior divison. They are far and away the best division in baseball in my opinion.

Yes to both of them. Robinson was the first option on the Spurs for basically his entire career up until Duncan came into the league. Hakeem was the first option for the majority of his career as well. And is this thread a joke? Of course big men shoudl be considered a 1st option if they are skilled enouggh. Off of the top of my head you have: Shaquille O'Neal Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Wilt Chamberlain Hakeem Olajuwon David Robinson Tim Duncan Karl Malone Charles Barkley George Mikan Brad Daugherty Alonzo Mourning Dirk Nowitzki Chris Webber Rasheed Wallace Ralph Sampson All of these players were/are number one options on good/great/championship teams. Do you think that it is a coincidence that teams with dominant big men are usually the ones that go deep into the playoffs? The rule changes have made the NBA a more guard oriented league but I would still take the dominant big man over the dominant swingman any day of the week because big men have a larger impact on the game.

Griffin is wayyyyyy more NBA ready than Bynum and Oden (Bynum more so) were heading into the league though. Both of these two were considered to be raw and it would take a couple of years before they would develop. Oden was considered to be a very good and intelligent defensive player, but his offensive game needed a lot of work and Bynum was one of the youngest players to ever be drafted and hadn't been playing ball for very long at the time either. Everybody knew that he would take a very long time to develop. Griffin is considered to be one of the most NBA ready big men since Tim Duncan. He is already refined on the offensive floor and isn't really raw like a lot of young big men are when first coming into the league. He has an NBA ready body and great athleticism, which isn't the case for a lot of big men when they first come into the league, and is going into a situation which he will have ample opportunities to prove himself. Comparing Griffin to Oden and definitely Bynum isn't really fair because both of these two were more of project big men as Oden was really raw offensively and Bynum was raw everywhere. Nobody considered Griffin to be a project at all. I'm not saying that he is a lock for ROY (although he is the clear cut favourite in my opinion) or anything.

No thats not true. There were some rumors going around that Forrest had a dislocated jaw and lost hearing in one of his ears and that is why he ran out of the octagon like that, but they were denied and reported as false. And I knew that Griffin would get worked over, but I didn't expect it to be that bad. I mean Silva looked like he was fighting an amutear out there. I mean just look at some of these gifs: http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k128/Zombles/2hgcns8.gif This is probably the slickest display of boxing that I have ever seen in an MMA fight. He is just dancing around with his hands at his hips and dodging everything Forrest threw at him. http://i30.tinypic.com/s5ixp0.gif Then he does it yet again here and knocks Griffin down for the third time in the fight and Griffin was just done at this point. Honestly though, the UFC was throwing Forrest into the slaughter house last night. The guy has tons of heart and balls, but stylistically, Forrest had no chance in hell. He is not a technical fighter, is an in your face brawler type of striker, has a suspect chin and has poor recovery time after being rocked. This is tailor made for a counter striker like Anderson Silva and it came as no surprise when Forrest got absolutely wrecked. I wouldn't say that he is pathetic either because Griffin is a very good fighter. Its just guys like Anderson Silva, Lyoto Machida, Georges St. Pierre, Fedor Emelianenko and BJ Penn all make their opponents look pathetic because they are such dominating Champions (Lesnar needs one or two more dominant performances like he had at 100 before I throw him in that list, but most likely he will be there too). I mean Silva completely embarassed Rich Franklin two times and he is one of the best Middleweights the UFC has ever had and was considered almost unbeatable heading into their first fight. Lyoto has completely destroyed everybody he has fought and made Rashad Evans look like he was fighting a damn ghost (albeit one that hits really, really hard lol). Jon Fitch and Thiago Alves are two of the top 3 Welterweights in the world but GSP laid an [expletive] kicking of epic proportions against both of these two in their fights. Fedor has made Antonio Rodrigo Nogueria look foolish two times now, dominated Mirko Cro Cop when he was in his prime and completely destroyed Tim Syliva and Andrei Arlovski. Lastly, BJ Penn destroys the competition when fighting at 155 as well. Guys like Kenny Florian and Sean Sherk are no jokes but BJ completely dominated both of them as well. The best of the best in MMA are just so damn good that they make everybody they fight (and they are legit fighters) look terrible. Anyways, apperantly there is talk about having Anderson Silva vacate his MW title and fight at 205 for the rest of his contract (3 fights left I think). This would be great to see because he really doesn't have anything left to prove at MW besides maybe a rematch with Hendo or a fight with Maia (both of which I think he would win) and having him at 205 sets up possible fights with Rampage, Rashad, Shogun, Tito and maybe even Machida (although they have said they will never fight each other). As for the card as a whole last night, it was as I expected it to be which was below average. Not bad by any means, but not great either. I will say that Amir Sodalloh was absolutely robbed by that sorry excuse of a ref Dan Mirgliotta. That was a terrible stoppage, but Dan is by far the worst ref I have ever seen in MMA.

Some of you may remember me posting this article on OTR before it was hacked. Well, I was cleaning out some files from my computer and I happened to stumble across it and figured that I would add a little more to it by writing about how the Mavs finished the season (I wrote it before the playoffs started) and some of the moves they made this offseason. I figured I would repost it here just in case anybody missed it the last time or something. It is sort of long, just as a heads up. Anyways, here it is: Is it just me or is Dirk severely underappreciated by the general public? Whenever you hear Dirk's name brought up in any sort of discussion, it is always an attempt to slander the guy and make him out to be some overrated choke artist. You very rarely see him get praised for the fantastic player that he is, or hear people condone him for the great job that he has done leading the Mavericks since coming into the NBA. When he first entered the league people were questioning whether or not this 7 foot jump shooting German would ever amount to anything in the league and he didn't really do much in his first year to prove them otherwise as he put up a pedestrian 8.2 points and 3.4 rebounds on mediocre shooting percentages (40.5/20.4/77.3). The Mavs finished 12 games under .500 at 19-31 in the lockout shortened season. It seemed like Dirk wouldn't adjust to the contrasting styles of Europe and the NBA and it seemed like former Boston Celtics coach Rick Pitino was insane by comparing him to Celtic legend Larry Bird. In his sophomore season there was a definite improvement in his game as he upped his scoring average to 17.5 and his rebounding average to 6.5 but people were still questioning him. Would the Mavs ever experience any sort of success with a perimeter oriented, jump shooting power forward leading the way? The Mavs would finish the year under .500 again. There was hope for Dirk though as he was the runner up to Jalen Rose for the NBA's Most Improved Player award. Nowitzki would go on to prove that this was not just a flash in the pan, but only a sign of things to come. After a slow start to his career, Dirk would take his game to another level in his third season and has never looked back since then. He averaged 22/9 and along with Michael Finley and Steve Nash, who Dirk had a very strong friendship with, led the Mavericks to their first playoff berth since 1990. They would play the Utah Jazz and after they lost the first two games it seemed like the Mavs playoff run would be short lived. That was until Dirk turned it on and carried his team to three straight wins, including back to back 33 point games in Games 3 and 4 giving the Mavs their first playoff series win in 12 years. They would eventually bow out to the San Antonio Spurs 4-1 despite Dirk giving it his all in Game 5 posting 42 points and 18 rebounds in the final game of the Mavs season. On an individual level, Dirk became just the second player in NBA history to record 100 blocks and 100 three pointers made in a single season (Robert Horry was the first). He was also the first Maverick player to ever be named to an All NBA Team when he was named All NBA Third Team. People were starting to take notice of the silky smooth German. Prior to the 01-02 season Dirk would sign a lucrative new contract that would pay him $90M over 6 seasons, effectively making him the second highest paid German athlete of all time. Looking to live up to his new deal, Dirk increased his production from the previous season and put up 23.4/9.9 on the season leading his Maverick team to a 57 win season. Dirk would be named to his first NBA All Star team as well as another All NBA team, this time being named to All NBA Second Team. In the playoffs he would be matched up with another marquee power forward in Kevin Garnett and the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Mavs would easily take care of the T'Wolves and Dirk would outplay his power forward counterpart significantly putting up 33 points to Garnett's 24. In the Semi Finals, Dirk and the Mavs would be faced with another huge challenge as they would match up with yet another superstar power forward in Chris Webber and the Sacramento Kings. They would lose the series 4-1 and Dirk would end the season on a sour note yet again. He did receive some good news however as he was named the European Basketballer of the Year just adding another accomplishment to an already growing resume. In the 02-03 season Dirk would once again up his averages to 25.1/9.9 and be named an All Star and All NBA Second team for the second straight season. He would also lead the Mavs to their first 60 win season in franchise history and the third seed in the Western Conference. They would meet up with the Portland Trailblazers in the first round and eventually win the series in 7 games moving on to face the Sacramento Kings yet again. Dirk had revenge on his mind and it showed in his play as he would put up 30/19 during the pivotal game 7 leading his Mavs to the Western Conference Finals for the first time in 14 seasons and just the second time in franchise history. Dirk would score 38 points and lead his Mavs team to a 113-110 win over the San Antonio Spurs, giving the Mavericks a split in the first two games. Injury would force Dirk out of the rest of the series and the Mavs would lose in 6 games to the eventual NBA Champions. Dirk would be named European Basketballer of the Year yet again, but Dirk was hungry for more. Despite the fact that the Mavs were just two games away from reaching their first NBA Finals in franchise history, they felt that they needed to retool their roster. They would trade Danny Forston, Jiri Welsch and Chris Mills to the Golden State Warriors in exchange for Antwan Jamison and they would also send Raef LaFrentz to the Boston Celtics in exchange for Antoine walker. Without a center, the Mavs were forced to play Dirk at the 5 spot and as a result of playing out of positions, his numbers fell to 21.8/8.7. This marked the first time in his career that he would not improve on his previous season. Despite the decrease in production Dirk was an All Star for the third straight season and was named to the Third All NBA team. The Mavs would only win 52 games and bow out to a familiar foe in the Sacramento Kings in the first round. The following season Dirk would have to say good bye to his best friend in Steve Nash as Nash would sign with the Phoenix Suns. This marked the end of the "Big Three" era in Dallas. In an attempt to move Dirk back to his familiar power forward position, the Mavericks would acquire defensive center Erick Dampier from the Golden State Warriors and the move did wonders for Nowitzki's game as he would post a career high 26.1 points per game along with 9.7 rebounds. He would make the All Star game yet again and he would finish third in MVP voting behind Shaquille O'Neal and the winner of the award, Steve Nash. Dirk would also be named to the All NBA First Team, which marked the first time that a player who didn't attend an American university was named All NBA First team. In the playoffs the Mavs would face the Houston Rockets and eventually win in 7 games to advance to the Western Conference Semi Finals. Dirk and his Mavs would be matched up against his best friend Steve Nash and his Phoenix Suns. The Suns would go on to win the series 4-2, effectively ending Dirk's season prematurely again. Michael Finley would be waived prior to the 2005-2006 season making Dirk the sole franchise player and the last remaining member of the Mavs Big Three of Steve Nash, Michael Finley and Dirk himself. Relishing his new role as the clear cut franchise player, Dirk went on a tear during the season posting averages of 26.6/9, which was a new career high for the German. He would finish third in MVP voting for the second straight season and would be named All NBA First Team for the second straight season. He entered the postseason with one goal and one goal only, to make it to the NBA Finals. In the first round the Mavs would make quick work of the overmatched Memphis Grizzlies, sweeping the series 4-0. They would be matched up with former the defending champion San Antonio Spurs in the Semi Finals and this series proved to be one for the ages. Both teams would go back and forth and it would take all 7 games to decide the winner of this series. In game 7 Dirk would come up with a monster performance which saw him put up 37/15 including a 3 point play that would send the game to overtime. The Mavs would ride Dirk's incredible performance to a 118-111 win and a series victory. In the Western Conference Finals the Mavs would look to avenge their playoff lost from the previous season as they were matched up against the Phoenix Suns again. Dirk would put up 50 points in the critical game 5 and would eventually lead the Mavs to their first NBA Finals Appearance in franchise history. Dirk would receive some of the highest praise that a forward could ever receive as an ESPN reporter was quoted saying that Dirk was playing at the highest level of any forward since Larry Bird. The Mavs would go on to win the first two games of the Finals and it looked like they were well on their way to their first NBA Championship. However, Dwyane Wade would take over the series, and would eventually lead his Heat to 4 straight victories and crush Nowitzki's dream of winning an NBA Championship. The Mavs would bounce back the following season though as Dirk would lead the Mavericks to one of the best seasons in NBA history. They would finish with 67 wins and as a result of his fantastic season, Dirk would win the NBA's Most Valuable Player Award, and in the process, would become the first European born player to ever win the MVP. The Mavs would cruise to the best record in the NBA and looked poised to make another push for the Larry O'Brien trophy. They would face the Golden State Warriors in the first round of the playoffs, a team that just happened to be coached by former Maverick bench boss, Don Nelson. Nelson used his inside knowledge of the Mavericks, Dirk in particular, and would exploit everything that he knew about the superstar German. He would effectively out coach his protégé Avery Johnson and shut down Dirk Nowitzki en route to a stunning upset as the Warriors would win in 6 games, marking the first time in NBA history that a number 1 seed was upset by an 8 seed in a best of 7 series. This was probably the lowest point in Dirk's career and you could see the frustration in his eyes as he walked off the court for the final time that season. Dirk's dream season turned out to be a nightmare season, and one in which he is still being criticized for this very day. The next year the Mavs would make a blockbuster trade at the NBA's trading deadline acquiring aging point guard Jason Kidd in an attempt to toughen up the Mavericks team, who never seemed to get over the crushing defeat of the previous season. They would make the playoffs for the 8th consecutive season, but they would be sent home early by the New Orleans Hornets and Chris Paul. Dirk would have successful playoffs individually, but would ultimately fall short of his goal of an NBA Championship yet again. As a result of the past two seasons, many people were predicting that the Mavs were done and wouldn't even make the playoffs this season. Experts were suggesting that the Mavs needed to blow up the team and even part ways with the man who has been the heart and soul of the franchise for the past decade, Dirk Nowitzki. However, Dirk would go on to prove these experts wrong yet again as he put together yet another stellar season posting averages of 25.7/8.3 on the year. The Mavs were in a dog fight for the final playoff spot for most of the season and when the season started winding down, Dirk began to elevate his game like the superstar that he is. During the months of March and April Dirk put up 26.1/8.6/3.1 and 31/6.3/2.0 respectively. Dirk led his Mavericks team to yet another playoff appearance, and this time he did it with a fairly weak supporting cast. Jason Kidd is a shell of his former self, Josh Howard is a very inconsistent second option, Jason Terry is an undersized combo guard and he is without a legit center yet again. Still, he managed to lead the Mavericks to the 6th seed in the Western Conference and an upset victory over the heavily favoured San Antonio Spurs in the first round before bowing out to the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference Semi-Finals. During the offseason, the Mavericks added former All Star forward Shawn Marion, giving them an energetic, athletic defensive stopper. They would also hold onto point guard Jason Kidd by resigning him to a new contract, collectively keeping the Mavericks core together. With the moves that Dallas has made this offseason, people are expecting great things from this team and many believe that they are one of the four major players in the Western Conference heading into the 2009/2010 season. Ever since Dirk joined Dallas he has done nothing but win and it is a shame that people only point out the guy’s flaws. I mean he lead the Mavs to their first Finals appearance in franchise history, he has led them to 9 straight playoff berths and this past season he led the Mavs to their 9th straight 50 win season. His supporting cast has changed quite a bit over the course of his tenure with the Mavs as he has had 4 different starting point guards in Nash, Terry, Harris and Kidd. He has had three different coaches in Don Nelson, Avery Johnson and now Rick Carlisle. He has never had a good center alongside him in his entire career. He has basically rewrote the Mavs record books as he is the Mavs all time leading scorer, rebounder and various other single game records for the franchise. Dirk Nowitzki has revolutionized the game and has had a monumental impact on the game worldwide yet it seems like nobody gives Dirk the credit that he deserves and instead only focus on the little flaws that he has. This leads me to the question, is Dirk Nowitzki the most underappreciated superstar player in the NBA? I'll let you be the judge of that. http://www.alldaynba.com/dallasmavericks/silky-smooth-the-dirk-nowitzki-story/ http://bleacherreport.com/articles/232774-silky-smooth-the-dirk-nowitzki-story

http://mma.fanhouse.com/2009/08/07/dana-white-says-ufc-wont-back-down-from-opposing-floyd-mayweath/#cont I would absolutely love if this were to happen. The WEC has a lot of talented fighters in it, like Miguel Torres (top 5 P4P imo and on a 17 fight win streak), Mike Brown, Urijah Faber, Jose Aldo, Brian Bowles, Donald Cerrone, Jamie Varner etc... but they simply don't get enough exposure in North America and a lot of people have probably never even heard of a couple of these fighters (just wondering if people on here have heard of all of the fighters that I listed lol). If they join the UFC they will get a lot more exposure and people will start to appreciate just how amazing the Batanweight and Featherweight divisions really are. Another thing that I would love about this is that it would increase the quality of each and every card by a considerable amount. You would be adding two new titles into the company and that would quite possibly make it so that we would see a title fight every single card. The best thing though is that there would be a lot more talented fighters on every card and we wouldn't see fillers on the main card of events anymore. This would also likely bring us some more cards as well which would be fantastic as well. Lastly, the UFC would have a shot at landing Kid Yamamoto who is an amazing fighter and would quickly grow to be a fan favourite. Hopefully Zuffa decides to go through with this and merge the two companies. It would make the UFC even more exciting and every card would be chalk full of talent.

All I am hoping for this season from the Raptors is for them to be able to finish in 4th or 5th and sneak into the second round. I think that if the Raptors are able to finish with 45-50 wins and get into the second round of the playoffs Bosh resigning with the team would basically be a sure thing (or at least I hope lol). All I am hoping for from the Raptors this season is for them to show Bosh that it would be worth while for him to stick around. I have nothing against rebuilding and would be fine with it if they have to go through another rebuilding process, but to be perfectly honest, I am getting sick of seeing the Raptors as nothing more than first round fodder in the East as they have really only ever been serious threats in the East one time before in their history (at least in my opinion).

The Toronto Raptors have been one of the busiest teams in the NBA during this years offseason making a variety of moves. President and General Manager Bryan Colangelo has been a very busy man and given the Raptors a complete makeover thus far. Bryan Colangelo started it all off when he dealt small forward Jason Kapono to the Philadelphia 76ers in exchange for power forward Reggie Evans. Kapono had begun to wear out his welcome in Toronto and he never lived up to the expectations that Colangelo had for him when Colangelo signed Kapono in 2007 and really didn't fit on the Raptors. In exchange for the sharp shooting Kapono, the Raptors acquired rugged power forward Reggie Evans. Evans is a terrific rebounder and a very tough, physical defender. The Raptors have been criticized for being a soft team, especially in the paint, and adding a player like Evans gives them a tough interior player. The next move that the Raptors made came during the 2009 NBA Draft where they had the 9th overall pick. They decided to use their pick on a player by the name of DeMar DeRozan out of the University of Southern Carolina. DeRozan was considered to be one of, if not the best athletes in the entire draft and has a tremendous upside. DeRozan will most likely not be an immediate impact player due to him still being relatively raw, but he has a great deal of potential and is just a fantastic athlete, something that the Raptors have not had on the perimeter since Vince Carter called the Air Canada Center home. After the NBA Draft was finished, Bryan Colangelo set his sights on free agency, and one particular free agent stood out from the rest in his eyes. That free agent was Hedo Turkoglu who was coming off of an NBA Finals appearance with the Orlando Magic. It seemed as though Colangelo would not be able to get his man though as Turkoglu had agreed in principle to sign with the Portland Trail Blazers. However, at the last minute, Colangelo was able to convince Turkoglu to come to the Raptors and sign a long term deal with the team. Rather than signing Turkoglu outright which would force the Raptors to renounce the rights to various free agents and also force them to give up the Mid Level Exception, Colangelo managed to acquire Turkoglu in a 4 team sign and trade that included the Raptors, Magic, Dallas Mavericks and Memphis Grizzlies. A long with acquiring Turkoglu and holding onto their Mid Level Exception, the Raptors also received Antoine Wright and Devean George from the Mavericks while giving up Shawn Marion, Kris Humphries and Nathan Jawai. With the blockbuster trade enabling Colangelo to use the MLE, he set his sights on another free agent. This time he was after the Indiana Pacers' Jarrett Jack. Colangelo set aside around $5M of the MLE for Jack and signed him to an offer sheet which the Indiana Pacers would decide not to match and as a result the Raptors strengthened the point guard spot by adding a very solid backup to starter Jose Calderon. The Raptors struggled last season when Calderon was bothered by a hamstring injury and felt that it was necessary to go out and get a reliable backup and Jack is a great one. The Raptors also locked up one of their core players for the next 5 seasons as they gave former 1st overall pick and starting center Andrea Bargnani a 5 year, $50 million contract extension after he showed vast improvements to his overall game during the second half of last season. By locking Bargnani up long term, it will prevent any sort of future questions about his role to the team and it completely solidifies his role as the teams future center. With the Raptors in need of an experienced backup center, they turned their sights to former Raptor Rasho Nesterovic and the two sides had mutual interest. Nesterovic absolutely loves the city of Toronto and was crushed when he had to leave the Raptors last year as apart of the Jermaine O'Neal trade so when it was reported that the Raptors were bringing the veteran Slovenian center back, it came as no surprise to anybody. Nesterovic gives the Raptors a solid interior defender and rebounder, as well as a great veteran presence on and off of the floor. Lastly, Bryan Colangelo struck another home run when he acquired 23 year old Italian shooting guard Marco Belinelli from the Golden State Warriors in exchange for Devean George. This just may have been the best move that Colangelo made all offseason long and nobody saw it coming. George really never fit into the Raptors plans and there was talk of the two sides coming to terms on a buyout, so being able to turn that into a young 23 year old shooting guard with a pretty good upside was just an absolutely wonderful deal on the Raptors behalf. I admit that I have been very skeptical of Bryan Colangelo in the past, but I have to admit that he has done a magnificent job this offseason. Out are Shawn Marion, Anthony Parker, Joey Graham, Jason Kapono, Kris Humphries and Nathan Jawai. In are Hedo Turkoglu, DeMar DeRozan, Reggie Evans, Marco Belinelli, Jarrett Jack and Antoine Wright. The Raptors have had a busy offseason making plenty of deals. They have changed the complexion of the roster and brought in plenty of new faces after the disappointment that was the 2008/2009 season in an attempt to surround star power forward Chris Bosh with talent and hopefully, in the process, proving to him that it would be in his best interest to resign with the Toronto Raptors. These moves all seem to be for the best as on paper the Raptors look to be a much improved team heading into the 2009/2010 season, but will it translate onto the floor? That is a question that Raptor fans are all dying to find out the answer to. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/231849-toronto-raptors-off-season-in-review http://www.alldaynba.com/torontoraptors/toronto-raptors-off-season-in-review/#more-161

Seeing how there is not much to talk about right now, I thought that I would post highlights of our two Italian players against Canada. The game happened on August 1st. Thoughts/comments on how they looked? I realize it is hard to take highlights like this seriously because of the level of competition, rule differences and all that.

Source Not sure how much truth there is to this rumor but I thought it was worth posting anyways.

Mo Williams was only an All Star because the league wanted to reward the Cavs fantastic play by giving them two All Stars and also because of the fact that two guards were injured and unable to participate in the game. Mo Williams is not an All Star caliber player and everybody knows that. If he puts up the same numbers on another team, he isn't even in any sort of consideration for the All Star game as evident by his last two seasons with the Bucks. He is a good player, but he rode LeBron's coattails to an All Star apperance and if it wasn't for injuries, he wouldn't even have been an All Star last season and even then, it is arguable as to whether or not he was even deserving of being named Jameer Nelson's replacement (I'm not getting into that though). As for Parker scoring 15 points a game, give me a break. As a Toronto Raptors fan, I can tell you with certainty that he is not capable of putting up 15 points a game. He is a solid role player that will knock down shots if left open and will player above average defense, but he is declining and anybody that has watched him consistently over the past 3 seasons can tell you that the Anthony Parker that we saw in his first season back from Maccabi Tel Aviv and the Anthony Parker that we see know are not even close to being the same player. He simply doesn't have what it takes anymore to score 15 points a night in the NBA. Even as a third option, even second at times (not often though), he was never any higher than 12.5 and is coming off of a season in which his point totals dropped to 10.7 and his shooting percentages plummeted across the board. He is declining. Lastly, at this point in Shaq's career, do you really think that he is reliable enough to carry a team? I'm not going to say that he is or isn't but one thing that has to be noted is that the Suns training staff did a wonderful job keeping Shaq on the court and the cold Cleveland weather is not going to help somebody that has a history of injuries. Shaq may be able to carry the team without LeBron, but I wouldn't bank on it. I don't think that the Cavs are a horrible team without LeBron as they would still be one of the better defensive teams in the league and have some players in Williams and Shaq that are effective offensive players (and West as well), but they are a borderline playoff team with LeBron on the roster at best in my opinion and I don't think that they would be able to win 45 games without LBJ at all. You obviously know more about the Cavs than I do though, so there is a good chance that you have picked something up about the players on the roster that I haven't through my limited times watching them (well I wouldn't say limited, but you get my drift). You are wrong about Anthony Parker though lol.

It is basically the same Jazz team (assuming they don't deal Boozer) but they are not going to be facing a team like the Golden State Warriors in the playoffs either. Realistically, the Jazz are going to be around the 5-8 range, and if you ask me, they have no chance at hell in beating the Lakers or Spurs in the playoffs and I don't think that they stand much of a shot against the Nuggets or Mavs either. I think that the only 4 teams with a realistic shot at making the WCF next season are the Lakers, Spurs, Mavs and Nuggets. If a team like the Hornets or Jazz make it, I would be utterly shocked and, again, in my opinion only, think that the only way they advance out of the first round is due to one of the 4 teams already mentioned are hit with injuries. I don't disagree with Phoenix being a dynamic offensive team, but I still am not sold on them (as opposed to previous years where I was really high on them) and you already know my thoughts on the Rockets. I think that Utah and possibly Phoenix could possibly be a 4th seed in the East, but I definitely don't think that the Rockets would be and I don't even consider them a playoff team. Yeah, they are going to be a very good defensive team, but I just don't think that will be enough for them to be considered potentially having a better record than the 4th seed in the East. At best I see them sneaking into the playoffs. Just for the record though, I wrote this article more for discussion than anything. I honestly still think that the West has the upper hand on the East and is still clearly the superior conference. I just though that a thread/article like this could possible generate some good discussion so I decided to write it up.

10 games could actually prove to be a pretty big deal when you consider how tight it will probably be at the top of the Eastern Conference next season between the Cavs, Celtics and Magic. The Magic are still going to be able to get by without him, but if they happen to go like 5-5 (I don't know their schedule) in those games when they should've went 7-3 or 8-2 or something, and they end up finishing in third place by a game or two, this might turn out to be a huge reason why. I'm not saying that it will be a huge factor in where they finish, but it has the potential to impact the standings when you consider how tight the top of the East is epxected to be this season.

Brandon, I don't think that the Hornets, Jazz or even the Blazers have much of a shot at making the Western Conference Finals. I could see the Blazers possibly making it if they get hot at the right time or if Oden, Aldridge, Outlaw, and Webster all add to their games and play better than what most people anticipate, but I don't really see them making it to the WCF to be honest. I think that the only teams with real shots at making the WCF are the first four that you mentioned in the Lakers, Spurs, Mavericks and Nuggets. This is assuming that everybody is healthy of course. Erick, I just cannot agree with you about the Rockets at all. To be honest, I think that they are going to be lucky to even make the playoffs next season and unless McGrady comes back quicker then expected and plays like the T-Mac of old, this team is going to be under .500 next season in my opinon. I just don't think that they will be able to make any sort of noise without Yao and a rejuvinated McGrady. I don't really agree with the Jazz either and I am not even sure how to rank the Suns right now, but I can see the reasoning for you thinking that though and it is really a matter of opinion.

BJ Penn still apperantly has GSP on his mind and is not focusing on Kenny Florian heading into their fight on Saturday. Apperantly BJ thinks that GSP used roids in their fight. Source Its things like these that make me lose respect for BJ. I mean the fight happened a nearly a year ago and you are still obsessing over it? The guy has all of the talent in the world and may be the most natrually talented fighter ever, but he is mentally weak. It is obvious that GSP is still inside of Penn's head. As you can tell from my post above, I thought that Penn would walk right through Kenny, but if Penn doesn't focus on Florian, we just may see an upset. He needs to stop worrying about what GSP is doing and worry about defending his LW belt this Saturday or we will see a new Champion. Hopefully this is just media fabricated or something because I want to see a fully trained and mentally prepared Penn fight because he is such a talented fighter, but I just don't see the media making something like this up or even twisting Penn's words around because it would be very dangerous on their behalf.

I'm not going to lie, that would be something that I would watch, but again, I just can't help but think that all of the fights would basically be similar where the bigger fighter would just overwhelm the smaller fighter on the ground. I would definitely watch it though and it might be fun.

I don't have a problem with guys like GSP or Anderson Silva moving up in weight classes to MW or LHW respectively but I would definitely not want to see somebody like Anderson Silva fighting Lesnar. I also was never against Penn moving up to WW (although I do think he should stay at LW). I am completely fine when you have a fighter from Bantamweight (135 pounds) move up to Featherweight (145) or a FW fighter moving to LW and so on and so forth. Basically, having a fighter moving up one weight class is fine with me (aside from LHW because they would still be way too small in my opinion), but I would not be interested in seeing somebody like BJ Penn fight Lyoto Machida again or have a HW fight a MW and things like that. I don't know, moving up one weight class is fine, but anything other than that just doesn't appeal to me but I can defintely see why some people would like it.

If I were a Wizard fan, I would want no part of LeBron and the Cavs. The Wizards didn't matchup well with them in the past, and I think that with the additions the Cavs have made this past offseason, they match up even worse with them now. LeBron can decide to go off whenever he wants against them as they don't have anybody with the combonation of size, quickness and strength to defend him, but with Shaq now on the team, they don't have anybody big enough to contain him either. Haywood is a good defender, but aside from him, they really have no chance at stopping Shaq either and Haywood would not be able to do it himself. The additions of Parker and Moon give the Cavs some more size on the peimeter and would help them on the defensive end of the floor against Butler and Miller as well. I think that the Cavs are just an absolute matchup nightmare for the Wizards and would not want to run into them at all. As long as the Wizards managed to avoid any of the big three teams in the East, I think that they would have a shot at advancing into the second round. Toronto would probably be the most ideal matchup for them as they have historically played well against them and both teams are offensive oriented teams that will look to outscore their opponents to get the victory. That would be a straight up shoot out. Whoever decides to play defense during that series would probably end up winning it. That would be an entertaining series to watch, that is for sure. But really though, anybody from 4-8 in the East next season would be able to beat each other in a series in my opinion. Teams are going to be fighting hard for thoe 4 and 5 seeds to avoid having to matchup with the Cavs, Celtics or Magic.

Doh, I completely forgot that you were posting here lol. Add billt to my list as well. As for non NBAD members, I have known Real Deal the longest out of anybody on here as he was the one that told me about OTR.

I wouldn't like it at all and it would probably turn me off from the sport to be honest. If there were no weight classes, all of the fights would be too predictable. The bigger and stronger fighter would simply take the fight to the ground and just overwhelm the smaller fighter with strength and power. Basically every single fight would be like GSP vs. Penn 2 (Penn has no place at WW but his ego leads him to believe otherwise) but even worse because there is a chance that you would have somebody like Tito Ortiz, who is a big, strong LHW with brutal GNP, fighting somebody that he outweighs by like 50 pounds in Gray Maynard or Clay Guida or any other LW to be honest. It just wouldn't be fun to watch and everything would be the same. I know that somebody will probably bring up Royce Gracie beating guys like Kimo and other huge dudes back then, but you have to realize that the sport is entirely different now. Back then, it was more of a style vs. style matchup. The fighters were really only versed in one specific aspect of MMA like wrestling, boxing, kickboxing or BJJ and that turned it into a fight that was more about what aspect of martial arts was the best. That is why a guy like Royce Gracie, who would be a Welterweight if he fought now, was able to beat big brutes like Kimo. Back then, BJJ was a relative unknown and people didn't study it at all and Royce was able to do things that other fighters had never seen before because a lot of them had no idea what BJJ even was and sure as hell never studied or practiced it. In todays MMA, you are no longer able to get away with being a one dimensional fighter and the fighters are regularly training every single aspect of MMA. Back then the fighters were sepcailists and not true Mixed Martial Artists. Now, all of the best fighters are the guys that are well versed in basically every single aspect of the sport. Just look at guys like GSP, Anderson Silva, BJ Penn and Lyoto Machida (coincidently, all Champions in their respective divisons). All of them have a world class attribute to their game (Silva and Machida are elite strikers, GSP is an elite wrestler/GNP and Penn has elite MMA boxing and BJJ) but they are all dangerous everywhere. GSP is the best MMA wrestler in the world probably, but he also have good BJJ, great kicks and is a dangeorus fighter on the feet. Penn is a fantastic boxer and an amazing BJJ practitioner, but he is also a good grappler and well rounded everywhere else. Anderson Silva just may be the best striker in all of MMA, but he is also a BJJ black belt under the Nogueria brothers (some of the best BJJ fighters ever, and very hard to get a black belt) and lastly, Lyoto Machida is a fantastic striker, but is very dangerous off of his back as well due to his BJJ. Some people will try to argue by saying that Lesnar is nothing more than a wrestler, and you have a point, but he is also relatively raw and just a freak of nature. He is a physical beat with amazing strength, but he is agile as hell and very explosive. One thing that I saw from him in his second fight against Frank Mir though, is that he made tremendous strides in his BJJ defense and was able to nutralize Mir's BJJ which shows that he too is evolving. With todays fighters all being well rounded (for the most part) and train all of the major aspects of MMA on a regular basis, I would hate to see them get rid of the weight classes because it would basically turn MMA into nothing more than having the bigger and stronger fighters overwhelm the smaller ones.

Well anything is possible in an MMA fight. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, was giving Matt Serra a shot in hell at beating Georges St. Pierre in their first fight but he managed to stop GSP in the first round. That just goes to show that anything can happen. Honestly though, I don't think that Griffin has much of a shot at all at beating Silva. I think that if he does manage to beat Silva it will be from a lucky punch (and Forrest doesn't have real dangerous KO power in his hands) or he will catch him in a submission or something. Or if Silva comes unmotivated and just [expletive]s around like he has done in his last 2 fights against Cote and Leites. If Silva is on his game and focused, as much as I hate to say it, I don't think Forrest stands much of a chance at all. Forrest has been the heavy underdog against Shogun and Rampage, but he managed to beat both of them (although I still think that Rampage won that decision, but that is neither here nor there) and who knows, he might just rise to the occasion again. The person that I think stands the best chance at beating Silva is Dan Henderson. Yes, I know they have already fought and Silva beat Hendo in the second round by a Rear Naked Choke, but what a lot of people forget is that Hendo definitively won the first round of that fight and looked really, really good against Silva. The problem was that Hendo had a really bad weight cut going into that fight and he gassed badly in the second round and Silva capatilized. When Hendo gets his rematch, I think that he has a very good shot at knocking off the 185 king as long as he just continously takes Silva down and uses his Olympic level wrestling. Hendo is a world class wrestler and has dynamite in his hands and if he is able to control Silva up against the catch and get dominant position on him, I think that he would have a terrific chance at either finishing him, or grinding out a decision. Stylistically, I think that Hendo is the best bet to knock off Silva and looked really great in the first round of their last fight. Since their fight, Hendo has not had any trouble cutting weight prior to his fights and as a result his cardio is up to the level where it needs to be. A fully healthy, full gas tank Hendo is my best bet to knock of Silva.

Pretty much. The only way that we will ever see Fedor vs. Lesnar fight is if the UFC does what they did with Chuck Liddell back in 2003. Despite being under contract by the UFC, they allowed Liddell to go and compete in Pride Final Conflict 2003 in the Middleweight Grand Prix. I don't see Dana ever doing this though, because the only other time he did it, with Chuck, Liddell was beat by Rampage Jackson and took a bit of a hit. I doubt Dana would take the chance and have Lesnar lose against Fedor because it would make the UFC's Heavyweight belt lose credability.

I posted this on another forum where people were going around saying that Fedor is scared to fight in the UFC, and don't feel like retyping something that is basically saying the same thing so I am just going to copy it here: I don't get how a guy that has fought and beat fighters like Antonio Rodrigo Nogueria three times (well one was a no decision), Mirko Cro Cop in his prime, Mark Coleman, Mark Hunt, Babalu, Kevin Randleman, Tim Sylvia (albeit a past his prime Sylvia), Andrei Arlovski (ranked as the 2nd best HW before they fought if I recall correctly) and Matt Lindland and who was also supposed to fight Josh Barnett (number 2 ranked HW) before Barnett tested positive for roids. So how exactly is Fedor scared? I agree that the UFC has the better HW division than StrikeForce does, but Overeem is no slouch at all and a very dangerous fighter (he is just as dangerous as Lesnar is if you ask me. This is a bad dude) and he can also have potential fights with Brett Rogers and Fabrico Werdum, both of whom aren't complete cans as much as some people try to make you believe. Werdum is one of the best HW fighters in the world at fighting off of his back and is a very similar fighter to Frank Mir (not as good, but same style, Werdum might be better off of his back than Mir though). I am pissed that Fedor didn't sign with the UFC as I would've loved to see him and Brock fight each other, as well as potential fights against the likes of Randy Couture and a rematch with Mirko and things like that, but to say that a guy who has faced some of the best HW's of all time while they were in their prime like Big Nog and Cro Cop and beat them convincingly is scared to go into the UFC and fight guys like Junior Dos Santos, Cain Valasquez, Shane Carwin, Frank Mir, Randy Couture and Brock Lesnar is absurd if you ask me. Also, another poster on that same forum posted this, which is a very good post as well: Fedor isn't scared of anybody. Vadim Finkelstein is, since M-1 really resides on Fedor's shoulders. Now, if Fedor loses, the mystique is gone. Note how he wanted to handpick someone like Rogers to fight Fedor once Barnett 'roided himself out of 8/1. Basically, the UFC's offer was great and probably better then Strikeforce's (financially), it just didn't allow for co-promotion. Since Fedor owns parts of M-1, that was the deal breaker. As it is, I'm disappointed because I wanted Fedor in the UFC, but as is, at least he's fighting. 3 fights from now, the UFC - Fedor connection will try to resurface, and it will go through the exact same process, with Fedor never stepping into the Octagon. From apart of what another poster said, which I posted just above you: Basically, the UFC's offer was great and probably better then Strikeforce's (financially), it just didn't allow for co-promotion. Since Fedor owns parts of M-1, that was the deal breaker. That basically sums it up and explains as simply as possible why Fedor signed with StrikeForce and not the UFC. SF was willing to co-promote while the UFC was not. As much as I hate it, no co-promotion with M-1 = no Fedor.

http://www.irishvillage.ca/uploads/ufc%20101%20poster.jpg Anybody else plan on watching this on Saturday? The card is (my winners in bold): Main Card: BJ Penn vs. Kenny Florian - 3rd round TKO Anderson Silva vs. Forrest Griffin - 2nd round KO Amir Sadolah vs. Johny Hedricks - Unanimous Decision Kendall Grove vs. Ricardo Almeida - 3rd round Sub Josh Neer vs. Kurt Pellegrino - Split Decision[/] Under Card: Shane Nelson Vs. Aaron Riley Tamdan McCrory Vs. John Howard Thales Leites Vs. Alessio Sakara Matthew Riddle Vs. Dan Cramer George Sotiropoulos Vs. George Roop Jesse Lennox Vs. Danillo Villefort (No predictions for the Under Card because I only know Leites and Sakara, haven't even heard of any of the others lol) I want Griffin to beat Silva, but I just don't see it happening. Silva is just too technical, accurate, percise and dangerous on the feet for Forrest and I don't think that he has a good enough ground game to do any serious damage to Silva. His only real hope is to grind out a decision or catch Silva on the feet, which I find highly unlikely. If Forrest decides to try and stand with Silva I think that we are going to see a brilliant striking display and a KO from Silva. Griffin is a brawler and can take a punch, but Silva is elite on the feet. Hopefully it proves to be an exciting fight and Griffin is able to score an upset. I expect Penn to come out and absolutely dominate Florian. If all of the stuff I have been hearing about how Penn is training his [expletive] off, is in the best shape of his life and all of the other stuff like that, is true I expect a very dominant performance from Penn. Kenny is a good fighter and very dangerous, but I don't think that he is on BJ's level. BJ is the better wrestler, grappler, boxer, BJJ and has more big fight experience while Kenny has better kicks, elbows and Muay Thai. If Penn comes out fired up and looking to bounce back after that devestating lose to GSP, Ken-Flo is in for a long night. Aside from the Main Event and Co-Main Event, this card is terrible. I wouldn't even consider it to be Ultimate Fight Night worthy. This is definitely a very underwhelming card in my opinion and aside from the two main events, I couldn't care less about it. I'll still be watching regardless though.