Erick Blasco

Violet Palmer doesn't ref anymore.

Here's another question. How dumb do you feel for getting banned the week you're chosen for KIR, lol.

These are really good tips! They're only dirty if you try to injure a player. If you're in an organized game and a ref doesn't call a foul, it's the ref's fault. Also with the jab steps, once you use the move often enough, they'll begin to be more lax on the original jab. You'll be able to blow right by your defender off the dribble if you attack his front foot quickly after catching the ball.

You must be a load of fun to hang out with at parties.

I've heard the Manu starting rumors too. I think a quote from Popovich said something to the effect of "we need to play with our best players on the floor." Very nice writeup, and my vote is a typo. I put Western Conference Semis when I believe they'll make it to the Western Conference Finals. I wouldn't be surprised if the Lakers get a little bit lax after winning the title, but since LA is better on paper and has a star and a coach who are great at keeping up consistent levels of great play, I have to give the Lakers the edge.

How can he set his sights on anything when he can't see?

Could adding Bill Walton as an assistant be the greatest move in the HISTORY of Western Civilization? The power, the grace, the behemoth ballet dancer that IS Brook Lopez would no doubt be enhanced exponentially by the verbal bombast of one of the game's true hyperbole maestros. There's only one more thing that need be said about the move. THROW IT DOWN big man, THROW IT DOWN!

1) Fill in the blank. Tracy McGrady is a __________? 2) Chuck Hayes, Carl Landry, and Luis Scola in a steel cage match. Who wins and why? 3) Why do so many people find you weird? 4) Have you ever eaten a racoon? 5) Who are your two favorite players on the Minnesota Timberwolves? 6) What was the last book you read? 7) If Rick Adelman adopted you as his grandson, what would you do? 8) Are you and Vladimir Radmanovic related in any way? 9) Favorite Rocket of all time? 10) Favorite Robot Chicken skit?

Anyone who greets a person with g'day mate is cool in my book.

I think Jerry gets very stubborn and tries to stay too committed to his offense sometimes instead of opening up. They'll struggle against good teams at times and instead of letting Deron Williams freelance, he'll try to hammer his offense in harder. His main problem is that none of Utah's starting bigs can move or jump.

Theylost a lot of money when the economy crashed and are at the luxurythreshold with a non-competitive team. They're trying tocut as much fat as possible and have a lot of bad contracts. They have to let go of players to save cash.

Yi's terrible, but he's still done more than, is better than, and has more upside than Sheldon Williams, Patrick O' Bryant, and Hilton Armstrong.

Like Gunfighter said, it's hard to have a great deal of credibility when Shane Battier can't sniff first team All-NBA over Kobe, LeBron, a fading Bruce Bowen, and Marcus 'fricken' Camby the last two years.

It's only fair that a top 10 defenders list only be comprised of players committed to playing defense all the time. Kobe takes plays off defensively now, and took entire seasons off defensively during the middle of the decade. I'm not a huge fan of Eric Snow being on the list, but I'd put Tayshaun Prince ahead of Kobe.

Wow, lol, wow. Wow.

Well, you have to understand, Diesel, that Jalen Rose is a moron and nothing he says should be taken with any degree of credibility. I still remember a claim he made last year guaranteeing that both LeBron and Chris Bosh will be Knicks next year. Yeah, good luck with that.

It's not a question about the numbers, it's how many loose balls can Howard get to as opposed to Shaq. Howard can get to balls that Shaq can't. Would Howard lose numbers if he played with a rebounding power forward sure? That wouldn't take away from his ability to flat-out rebound. How many rebounds would Shaq in his prime have in Orlando's system? About a half-rebound more than he averaged in his prime. He's still not close to being a better pure rebounder than Howard.

Have you ever heard of the concept of number-space rebounding? A one-space rebounder is someone who will only get rebounds that fall into his immediate area. Hence, that one space. Two-space rebounders are rebounders that can grab rebounds in positions where they start off, plus the space that would be occupied by another player standing next to him. The scale adjusts up to five spaces, as a player who can secure rebounds at spaces five player-spaces away from him are elite rebounders. Knowledgeable basketball analysts (Jeff Van Gundy, Charley Rosen) proclaim that Rodman was a five-space rebounder and the best rebounder of all-time, at least since Wilt and Russell. Dwight Howard is regarded as a four-space rebounder as he can get to balls few others can, plus is so massive that he won't miss rebounds in his area. Shaq, in his prime, was a two-space rebounder who got the majority of his boards simply be being big and strong. There's nothing wrong with that, but Shaq had, and has limited rebounding range while Howard's range is off the charts. Calling Shaq a better rebounder than Howard is just flat-out wrong.

If he gets his personal life straightened out, it's Beasley. If not, I've always liked Jones' defense and ability to shoot the three. The rest of the guys don't offer too much.

Top 10 Defenders

Ummmmm, Dwight's the best rebounder since Rodman and Shaq was never a great defender. How is this a joke?

These are the behind the scenes guys (agents, executives, etc) that exert a lot of influence over the NBA's players and product.

Perkins is better than a robot in the pivot. Of course he won't get many chances when he's a fifth option because of his teammates, but he can score a lot better than Nash can defend. There's also the line on draft express about Perkins, all things considered, being perhaps the best interior defender in the game. Seeing as how that aspect of his game has already translated into one NBA championship, and is improving, I have a lot of trust in him on the court. Those Bynum numbers aren't that impressive. On that 17 game stretch, most of it is comprised of his 42 points against the Clippers, and other good games against bad teams. Look his numbers against the better teams during that streak. 15 pts, 11 REB, 4 BLK, against the Spurs in a win is good. Grabbing 1, 3, 3, and 6 rebounds in a stretch against the Rockets, Cavs, Magic, and Spurs is not. Going 2-7 against the Hornets and Tyson Chandler, 1-4 against Joel Pryzbilla, and 9 points 7 rebounds against Kendrick Perkins aren't very good. Plus, the day before his streak began, he had an epic 3 points, 1 rebound, 5 foul performance against the Magic. If Bynum's role is to defend and rebound, he doesn't do a very good job of that. If it's to command double teams against good opponents, he doesn't really do a great job of that either. The Lakers have easily replaced him with Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom during his injured time, and carried him to a title despite his minimal production. Perkins is an elite defensive player. That means something. He has middling games and becomes turnover prone when quick power forwards can pressure him, for example, last year's contest where the Celtics held him to 0-7 and 4 turnovers. His game against Denver, he did almost nothing when Kenyon Martin pressured him at the high post in the second half. In his playoff contests with the Spurs, he'd score 30 points, while the players he'd defend (or fail to help defend) would score more than 30. Who cares if you can score if you give it all right back? Kaman missed over 20 games two seasons ago and has been injury prone. I remember that year, he had a good year. He gobbled up all the team's rebounds because Elton Brand was done for the season. And against teams with athletic front lines, he offered almost nothing. Phoenix, Detroit, Boston, the Lakers, they all held him in check without any problems. He's not a very good individual or help defender, and he's not as explosive as Nene is. Wallace is one of the game's best help defenders. He's a dog on offense, but he's a nasty defensive player. What more does Pryzbilla have to do defensively besides be great? Bogut does a lot of things respectably, but what is he really good at? He's mediocre. And what king od non-specialist big man averages only 3 free throw attempts a game? Hustling is great, but if you can't stop anybody with your hustle, what does it mean? Biedrins has almost no impact defensively (just take it at his chest and he's at a player's mercy), while Lee has exactly no impact defensively. Neither are scorers either. Ilgauskas is big and can swallow up post players, and is a smart help defender. Those are a few things he does defensively, and he can actually shoot and sometimes score in the post too.

Good reads all around. I can't say Orlando improved the most though when they lost one of their key players from last year. It almost excludes them by default.