Real Deal

Simple question: in two seasons, who will be the better player? Curry is more efficient...didn't realize that until I looked up the stats, seems like Ellis' FG% dropped significantly since the middle of last season (around the last time I paid any attention to his stats). However, while Curry is probably the more complete offensive player (he's more than a scorer), Ellis' defense is far superior, and he's steadily improving on that end of the floor as well (not an elite defender, still gambles a lot, but he defends star two-guards VERY well when he's locked in). Do you think Curry will surpass Ellis as a complete player, and what does this all mean for the Warriors?

Come on now. He was called the next Mike before he found his way to the 2007 Finals, and before he had a jumper or played any defense. THAT'S being overhyped. Anyone (yes, including Kobe) that is called the next Jordan before they prove they are even a superstar is considered overhyped, and LeBron was getting those calls in his rookie season, when he failed to make the playoffs and had a lot of game to work on.

By the numbers, Aaron and I have the records for most posts in a day, because we used (and I still do use) the database to create 1,230+ game topics in one day (NBA topics). But, strictly posting on the board, doing the work, my brother and I actually ran through and split up the topics one day...he took 615, I took 615 (plus preseason), so without the shortcuts (without using Excel and the database), that's the record. Without counting a bunch of topics being created, we've had a few hop over 100 legitimate topic replies in a day. I remember Lone Wolf was one, Shaliq (obviously), my brother and I, Jammin may have been one (or he was close)...probably a few more.

This had me cracking up, saw it the other day. I would love to do something like this, haha.

2011-12 Roster Will Bynum Austin Daye Ben Gordon Richard Hamilton Brandon Knight Vernon Macklin Jason Maxiell Greg Monroe Kyle Singler Charlie Villanueva Ben Wallace Terrico White Free Agents Rodney Stuckey Tracy McGrady Tayshaun Prince DaJuan Summers Chris Wilcox Jonas Jerebko Who is really worth keeping on the roster?

1. Is LeBron James a winner? Sure he is, just not a champion. He has played his way into two NBA Finals series. People consider Steve Nash a winner, but he's never sniffed the Finals. 2. Is LeBron James overhyped? He used to be, but maybe not as much anymore. People are forgetting what he did throughout the playoffs, and only remember his terrible Finals series, and that leads to people calling him a loser and a choker. Hard to say he's a bad player, though...top three, some will stick him at the top, but there's no way he's below three. 3. True or False: Lebron is hated because of all this hype? Chozen one, King James? True, but most of his hate lies on his decisions and attitude, not so much his success. 4. Best aspect of his game? Him on the break, or getting to the line. 5. Worst aspect of his game? Post game. 6. Where does he rank all time? All time, he's not in the top ten. If you disregard the number of rings a player has, and the number of individual accomplishments, he's probably top 20 in terms of raw ability. I can't stick him anywhere in the top ten, though. 7. In you opinion, where will he rank when it is all said and done? Jordan, Kobe, Magic, Bird, Wilt, Kareem, Duncan, Hakeem, Oscar, Shaq...the way it's looking, if he doesn't end up winning many championships, it's going to be hard to stick him above any of those guys. 8. Your honest opinion of him? Arguably the best player in the NBA, arguably the most dominant frontcourt player since Shaq (can't say LeBron has been more dominant than a prime Kobe), probably the worst attitude I've seen in a superstar since Shaq...funny, but a little too arrogant and too "big screen"...the only difference is, Shaq backed it up by winning four championships, three straight, co-leader of a major dynasty.

The intro on the mixes doesn't concern me. People get the idea that I'm a hard ass, but I'm really not. If there's a fault, it's with me manipulating who is in the community, and who is on the outside looking in, but while that's going to lead to less activity, it also leads to me "cutting the fat" and making sure all members here are in it to create a mature and friendly environment.

Can you consider Danilo Gallinari or Ty Lawson franchise players for this team? Who needs to be re-signed? What spots need to be filled? Is George Karl right for this team? http://otrbasketball.com/nuggets/roster.php

I don't need to disable the PM system. I trust that you'll stay away from spamming it. Quite frankly, at this point, it will make or break your site...and that doesn't really sound reasonable because of the current activity there, but this is coming from someone who has seen it over and over again, probably more than anyone else here, on sites that I figured would run everyone else to the ground. You can put a link into your sig space, as always. I know most sites don't allow that, but by doing that, you can promote your site as long as you're posting on ours, so it's a two-way street...both parties benefit from it (unless the poster ends up adding 1-2 liners that don't contribute at all, just to spam, but again, I think you're different now).

The man was a legitimate defensive anchor, and we haven't seen a Maverick defense so complete in years. Do the Mavericks get to the 2011 Finals without him? Do they sweep the Lakers, win in a close series, or lose?

Obviously, the Cavaliers were dead set on Thompson, as long as Williams was selected at #2 or #3. I don't think they showed any interest, at all, in Kanter. So, would you say that these two were the correct picks? Or, would it have been smart for the Cavaliers to take Derrick Williams at #1, then drop down and take someone like Brandon Knight? Some will say that's easy to answer, but I don't know. Irving is the point guard everyone wanted, but you'd almost think the Williams/Knight duo would be more effective. Thompson is a high risk pick in the top five. What would you have done?

Sure, but the owners aren't reading your post, and they couldn't care less what the players want right now. The owners hold all of the cards, and the truth is, the NBAPA isn't going to win. They should've taken the 50/50 earlier, because now, they'll lose money AND will still be forced to take the 50/50, and because of the delays and the owners losing money as well, I wouldn't be surprised if the owners decided they weren't moving unless they get their hard cap, amnesty clauses every season, non-guaranteed contract rules, and much lower exceptions, possibly removing the MLE and LLE altogether..

Of course, no team is perfect, and every team has room to improve...but would you say Chicago needs a bit more than just a decent, productive SG to shoot for the stars and make their way into the NBA Finals?

The Bobcats snagged Kemba Walker. If you're MJ, what's next in store for the team? Are you looking at free agency or making trades? What position? What players would you want to go after? New head coach? Should MJ just throw his hands in the air and walk off?

Rank Boston's "Fab Four" in order of importance, for next season's run, and give reasons why you ranked them the way you did. Rondo, Pierce, Ray Ray and Garnett are your Fab Four (but you know this).

We saw how he was doing near the end of last season, probably surprised quite a few people...and with Hinrich being the only other PG on the roster right now, would you say that Teague... 1) gets the start over Kirk, and 2) is he a permanent solution at starting PG?

No they aren't. Roles in the offense are interchangeable, not positions. There's a difference between the two. You can distribute the roles wherever you like, primary scoring options, post play, whatever...but you can't run your post players out to the three every play, and that's all Brian did because, well, he wasn't playing the four anymore. I've played in the offense, and I helped coach it for two years. Yeah, technically, all positions in any offense are interchangeable if we're talking about roles, but you can't suddenly run your PF out of position, expecting the SF (in the set) to take the PF's place because, most of the time, he's playing on the other side of the court, and you're not going to set up the actual triangle correctly if you're doing that. There's no way. Cook was using screens. Teams read Cook as the SF because that's what he was, and so they stick the quicker frontcourt player on him, to chase him off the screens and make sure he wasn't getting wide open looks all game long. If you took the triangle and told Phil to coach it in Dallas, he would strongly consider playing Shawn Marion at the PF position, and having Dirk play the three, to accommodate his range. Dirk can show post, sure the hell can, but if you give him 23 feet of effectiveness, and remove the responsibilities of screening for other guys and fighting underneath for deep low post position, he's going to be your league MVP.

That's what I said. Kwame/Mihm (meaning Kwame OR Mihm) and Odom were starting at the four and five, Cook at the three. And, yes, Cook was starting at the three. If you need to see it yourself... http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/LAL/2006_start.html Everyone in Lakerland remembers Phil removing Odom from the SF position VERY early in the season. We all laughed about it, as fans, because he was supposed to be playing Pippen's role, and Phil started to post him up, moved him up to the PF position, and was starting Cook at SF (no other place he could be). There are no triangle sets that allow Cook to spot up, all the time, at the PF position. Cook was getting a few minutes at the four, of course, when Odom had to rest (but this was actually rare, because Cook didn't play much himself), but he was a starting three. Not sure who thinks differently, and maybe Cook was defending PF's every now and then back on defense, but in that triangle offense, a third of the way through the season up until the end of it, Cook and Odom switched positions, and that's according to Phil, who clearly stated he moved Odom to the four and changed his role entirely.

One of LeBron's biggest supporters, too. Sure the hell can't say that I expected this...I'm so used to him sticking up for Bron. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1MC5gWhsTo Listen to the entire thing. It's crazy.

If the NBA season doesn't hit us in the face in the near future, I'll be expanding certain forums. As of now, OTR will go along like we have for almost seven years. We always have droughts during the summer. Granted this is much more than just a drought, I'd take this over our site being hacked a second time. The lack of activity here really doesn't bite at my ass as much as it used to. I know that, when we bounce back, I'll have the dedicated guys, and that's what OTR is built on. I think everyone remembers when BBW and SportsTwo did the merger, and it was at the worst time for us, because we had a lot of problems here. A TON of my guys left for S2, and while things looked grim for us (because S2 was "that new shit" everyone wanted to try out), it didn't last. RealBallers did the same thing to us. I think I lost 75% of my 12-member GFX crew to them (or some site, I can't remember because both are dead). RBS stayed up for a long time, but traffic eventually tore open the site, along with insufficient management (eventually, new management), and it just went downhill. It may have been BBall Central, and that place was booming more than RBS, if I recall correctly. Finally, the hack...and out of everything, that was the worst. Members did stop posting here. The truth is, they were upset that they lost their posts...and so was I, but come on. Sure, I could go and promote OTR every day, work my ass off to bring 50 new people here and see what happens, but there's always a need to control your crowd, activity, and ultimately, your community size. It's fun to go over to RealGM and post, you can talk forever, but a site like RGM makes it extremely difficult to maintain an identity, and that's something anyone can do over here, as long as they can roll with our big dogs when it comes to discussion.

Already forgot who that guy is. The only Brady I know in the NFL is Brady Poppinga.

Parenthesis and Exponents Multiplication and Division Addition and Subtraction It's not that tough. There's an order for a reason. Left to right, you do the first multiplication problem you see...and that first problem is 2 times 0. Once you complete that, you do your addition, which will give you your answer, 28. I mean, I was planning on being a math major before I changed my classes up as a college freshman, took Calculus as a senior in HS, moved straight into Calc 3 my first year of college. I'm pretty sure it's 28.

Problem is, Jimmy Clausen isn't Tim Tebow, and Matt Moore (and the Panthers) weren't going to win any games to begin with, because the entire team was going to struggle all season long, no matter who was under center. Tebow gives the Broncos a better chance to win. Orton is an average QB, always has been, and Denver needs above average. They need someone that can actually get out of the pocket and make plays, instead of throwing into coverage all the time. This is his third season in Denver, and it's pretty obvious that Orton isn't going to be their guy. If it's not Orton, it's Tebow or Quinn, and quite frankly, I never understood why Quinn was considered the second string.

According to most reports out there, and even ESPN tonight, the owners offered the 50/50, and the players declined. Before, I was against what the owners were doing...but if that really did happen, the players are ignorant.

It would have to be star-studded, because Suh, Williams and JPP would rip apart any line in the NFL right now. I'd take the defense. You can always say something like, "You have to score to win," but the truth is, the defense can score as well...and if AP can't get through the line, and the receivers are going to be covered by the two best corners in the league, I don't see how any offense will win that game.