Real Deal

TIME: 1:00 PM ET TV: CBS

TIME: 1:00 PM ET TV: FOX

TIME: 1:00 PM ET TV: CBS

TIME: 1:00 PM ET TV: FOX

TIME: 1:00 PM ET TV: CBS

TIME: 1:00 PM ET TV: FOX

Triple post FTW. What if Detroit takes Carmelo over Darko? They were minutes from doing it. Wade? Ben Wallace Rasheed Wallace Carmelo Anthony | Tayshaun Prince Richard Hamilton Chauncey Billups or Ben Wallace Rasheed Wallace Tayshaun Prince Dwyane Wade | Richard Hamilton Chauncey Billups That second team would've been the greatest defensive team of all time.

Here's a couple of BIG ones: Imagine if Portland takes Jordan, and teams him up with Drexler. Imagine if the Bucks never trade Dirk Nowitzki for Robert Traylor.

Well, two things... 1) If you did select Deron or CP3, Portland doesn't get Aldridge the following year. There's a massive difference between those two guys, and a duo of Telly and Blake. Portland wins games. 2) If you select Drew, you'd probably end up almost as bad, so I could see you getting the pick. However, Portland selected Aldridge THINKING he would be their center, and Randolph would be the PF. I'm not quite sure they take Aldridge if they have Drew, especially with Magloire and Przybilla there. Realistically, if they took Drew in 2005, they may have taken a SF in 2006...and, not to turn your smile upside down, but that SF may have been Morrison, lol. If Morrison goes, Jordan takes Brandon Roy with the 3rd pick, and that's a fact, lol. He was the second man on their draft list, according to Ford, if I recall correctly. So, while it all sounded really good, it may be a GREAT thing that the Blazers didn't draft Drew. He suffered three major knee injuries, they may have missed out on Roy, probably decided not to take Aldridge, and probably missed out on getting one of the top picks in 2007 (they fell in love with Brandan Wright...how bad is that?). Sometimes, good is good enough.

Keep it up and you'll be the co-owner in no time!

Anyone else expecting this to be about the death of Scott Hall?

Here's the official ESPN vid (from the site). http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=7124904

Ah.

Yeah, real talk. I remember how bad it was for you when kingfish trash-talked Rasheed, though. http://www.otrbasketball.com/forums/topic/900-rasheed-reaches-deal-with-boston/page__view__findpost__p__10057 Just putting that out there, of course. No big deal.

Maybe more to the dinner table. Hardy har harrrr. Cain should probably put an electric fence around his 999 tax idea, so he doesn't continue revisiting it. Yeah, he'd probably destroy Obama in a debate among a crowd that laughs at letting people die if they can't afford their own healthcare. Newt isn't the big name in the race? Sadly, he was supposed to be, but he's just looking more and more like Trump as things progress...the clown of the group.

LOL...Cain and Gingrich are absolute jokes. In fact, you can almost take that statement literally.

I figured Jones would be in their top three, really...didn't expect to see Sullinger over him. I'm not so sure I can argue with the top two, though. Drummond is obviously on top of the list. The dude is scary, and you know potential bottom-feeding teams are already drooling at the thought of getting him at #1. Plays like Amare, kind of looks like him...but Drummond could bring Amare's offensive talents, and mix them with a defensive mindset, and that's dangerous. Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, Karl Malone...these guys had it all on offense and were stellar defenders, and if Drummond keeps working hard (hope the hype doesn't eat him alive), he can be in that category. Sky's the limit. I could probably rearrange the entire 5-10 section of the list, but there's no point. I'd rather do that in March, because really, we don't know what we're going to get from a few of those guys.

Aldridge's best games came against a Dallas team with both Chandler AND Dirk in the regular season. The two worst games he had (out of the four vs. Dallas), Chandler didn't play one of them, and Dirk didn't play the other (and Dallas actually won that game). Without Chandler, Dallas would just use Dirk's length to disrupt his jumpers, but Marion would be playing the four every now and then, and Marion is a problem for a lot of PF's, including Aldridge.

Funny thing is, the same thing was said about Diesel...but he made his intentions very clear when he re-registered four times, used three fake Facebook profiles to harass me (and members here), used fake Twitter profiles to harass people and athletes, and then went over to RSZ to troll there (where it's supposedly fun to troll). Pay attention, people...he wasn't banned for being a pest and being overconfident in his teams, he was banned for his personal attacks. If he really cared about the community (meaning, all of you), he would've changed. For at least two years now, he has been baiting almost everyone in the football forums. He was doing it during the NBA season as well, about Amare, the Celtics, the Suns, whatever. I turned my head, let him get away with so much, and he started coming to me in PM's, bitching about OTHER MEMBERS, as if he was doing nothing wrong. He mentioned that these other members were on staff, that they deserved to be suspended for the baiting, or at least kicked off the staff. At that point, I threw my hands in the air, and let it go. I knew this would happen. Four people have come to me in the last month (still have the PM's), asking me to do something about him, because they were sick and tired of talking football in topics he would participate in. Why? Because every quality post made by our members would be ignored, and it was all due to ECN's baiting, drawing people in and dragging our threads off-topic. I'm not losing quality members all to save a low quality one. If he's so damn intelligent, he should've been smart enough to actually hold his own in a debate, instead of getting rocked constantly, then having to resort to baiting and personal attacks for weeks. Not going to happen here. I lost ALCS because of a couple of guys I refused to get rid of...all they did was destroy our basketball discussion in the same way ECN has done football talk. I'm not going that route again, doesn't matter who approves or disapproves. Kyle makes the decision to bring him back, because he's the one that handed him the ban. But, again, if he's brought back, I'm going to instruct Kyle to stay completely out of it the next time something happens, and I'm going to handle it myself. Everyone involved will be handed suspensions or bans, and I'll do what's necessary to make sure it'll never happen again, even if that means blocking the entire NFL subforum from other members, or removing it from the site entirely.

Kyle made the appropriate decision. ECN wasn't going to get banned until he started calling Steve a "cheesy kunt" and, to be honest, he's just not worth it. Everyone here knows that the activity means less than the quality of this site, and I would rather us starve and die due to no activity, than to see us turn into a couple of other sites I won't need to name. If Kyle wants to bring him back in five, so be it. I gave him the keys to do what he wants in this situation, where I knew the reaction would be mixed, and he didn't back away from it. But, I will say this: if everyone is on board with him coming back, and this shit continues after he returns, I'm banning him for good AND adding back our word censor...so for you who are against what happened, I hope you understand that I'm going to get involved if I have to this second time around, and it's rare that I lift a ban on anyone that is considered a troll, especially when I'm the one making the ban.

Good. It needs to be done. The idea that 25% of it will still count against the cap is fine, too, but I'm not sure if I like the fact that they spread it out over the course of the former contract. That really makes it VERY easy for owners to recover from it, despite the 25%. Suddenly, the crippling $20 million that prevents these owners from signing a big-name player turns into $4-5 million that season, every season, for 4-5 years...and, well, that means they'll open up $15 million every season. But, something is better than nothing.

Nobody said Green was a polished player. That doesn't change the fact that he's a better starter than Avery Bradley or E'Twaun Moore. The Boston offense wasn't a problem during the season. They won nearly 60 games with an offense ranked in the bottom half of the NBA. It was their defense (a top three) that did it for them. They also put up 90's in four of the five games vs. the Heat, who were a top five defense in the league (let's be honest, they weren't train-wrecked like the Lakers were in 2004, when we were held under 87 in every game but one...but that was Detroit, so yeah). That's just what you expect from two defensively-talented teams. If I'm not mistaken, Boston's offense was average in 2008, also. Surely not a top five...I'd bet anything on that. Also, if we're going to bring up the playoffs, we might as well talk about what Pierce didn't do. He got his ass kicked in three of those five games vs. Miami, and I don't remember him shooting a high percentage in any of them, nor did he defend anyone well enough to matter. In fact, Ray Allen had the better series. I doubt Boston does a damn thing without Pierce, or without Allen...but, I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. I'd rather start Green than Bradley, or have to move Pierce down to the two-guard position (or try Green there), and losing Pierce means they lose out on things the other three can make up for (not completely, but comfortably), while losing Allen means you empty a roster spot entirely, and you lose the deep ball...and that's five a night, better than 44% shooting from there.

I think Dallas beats both Portland AND Los Angeles without Chandler. I watched both series, but obviously, I was checking out the LA/DAL series closest, and I'll just put it this way: it wasn't Dallas' defense that beat us, it was our lack of defense + Dallas going ballistic from three. Dirk also went off, but he wasn't the biggest problem. And I can't sit here and say that Chandler WAS the defense in Dallas. I can say he was the most important part of the defense...but Marion and Kidd were huge in their efforts as well, and very underrated in the NBA Finals. Portland probably loses that series in seven. The Lakers lose in five. As painful as it is to say, LA doesn't beat any playoff team in the West last season, with the exception of the Hornets. Bryant was on one leg (actually having the surgery after he told us he probably wouldn't), Gasol was in Spain or Pluto (take your pick), Ron was in Hollywood with Odom and Khloe, and the rest of the team didn't amount to anything, either.

If Green wasn't in Boston, and if the Celtics had a legitimate two-guard to replace Ray, I'd change my mind...but all of that factors in as well. And I wouldn't say Pierce can spread the floor as much as Ray. He doesn't spend all of his time 20+ feet from the rim. Getting to the line? Pierce isn't the same guy he was a decade ago. Is he even getting five free throws a night now? Boston has had success without all of the free throws, probably bottom 10th in the NBA in attempts last year (I know they were bottom five at one point of the season). I'd much rather lose Pierce than Ray. If that means putting the ball in Rondo's hands much more, I'm all for that...and that's part of why I'd do it as well.

I'm backing up OTR tonight, to use in the afterlife!