Real Deal

John Salmons has fallen back down to Earth and is showing, this season, why he was always just another role player. Not sure how the hell he went ballistic last season and basically led the Bucks to the playoffs, but once a defense starts playing him like he's a star player, dude is shook.

Yes! Got it. http://www.otrbasketball.com/forums/topic/12887-official-2010-nba-draft/page__view__findpost__p__145916

Someone is going to have to dig up that quote by Chad Ford. I think it may have been on his Twitter, though...but he joked about the Fields pick, said exactly that (Fields was the first player taken in the draft in years that wasn't in his Top 100, or something like that).

By the way, someone will need to explain the title of the vid to me, because it makes absolutely zero sense.

Nobody closer.

Nobody, past or present, has hit game-winners like Bryant has. Jordan, Melo, any of them...there are teams that have ran their two best defenders (or their best and a big man) to contest his attempt at a game-winner. New Jersey once ran three players at him (the infamous shot people always bring up when saying how Kobe is selfish and never passes up game-winners). Impressive game-winning shooting percentage, good that it's so high...but Bryant usually always gets the last shot in LA, was the only one that would actually take it against Utah when he was a rook (in the playoffs as well), and he sees more defensive attention in those clutch moments than any player I've ever watched.

LeBron says the team (or at least, he) has Coach Spo's back. http://twitter.com/#!/WindhorstESPN/status/9394019511574530 Quote that bad boy, just like we did when he told Cleveland he wanted to build a champion.

Check this out, Alex... http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/miamiheat/post/_/id/1843/is-d-wade-calling-for-an-iso-offense

Just post these in the General NBA Discussion forums. It discusses basketball, and about more than one team, so it makes the most sense in here.

All of the teams should start holding players-only meetings when they are playing .500 basketball.

What I meant by that was that I hope it isn't in the same boat as Mr. America. Most of you remember Hogan doing the same thing, and it was one of the worst things I've ever seen. No other wrestler in the history of the sport has looked like Hogan...height + body mass and that "Hogan tan" that he always had, not to mention the Hulk mustache he had sticking out of the mask. That's following the same thing. Picture is a little blurry, but I can still tell it's John Cena. Does Raw still come on at 8 PM (EST)? I seriously haven't watched it in a decade.

This is where I completely disagree. When they are running iso's for LeBron or Wade, it works...just not when they are both trying to get involved. The Heat are in games when their superstars decide to take over, but they only do it when the other is sitting the bench. THAT is where the iso's work. But I don't believe Spo is asking them to run those iso's when they are in the game at the same time. I have watched every single Heat game this year (maybe most everyone here has), and to me, it's very evident that these two (Wade and James) are attempting to change their game and become jumpshooters working off each other (which is why their percentages are WAY DOWN, 43% and 44% if I recall correctly). It's a big possibility that Spo is asking them to defer to each other, or asking one to defer to the other, which HAS to happen. Do they want to do that? Nope, because LeBron already stated it (clear as day) just the other night, and Wade stated it earlier in the season (or before). They won't be able to gain any rhythm because they are both players who feed off of ball domination. This isn't Ray stepping into rhythm jumpers off of Rondo's playmaking, or Kobe having multiple ways to score when he's not getting to the rim. Neither player has a post game, and neither has a consistent jumper. Slash, slash, and more slashing...and it's not Spo's fault that the Heat don't have the goods to accommodate LeBron James (or Dwyane Wade) and don't have some magical powder that turns one of them into a true Robin.

You have to explain this to me. I'd google it, but I'm on my phone. I heard Cena retired or something. I hope to God this isn't a dip into the old WWF's Mr. America circus.

Suspend both, because both threw a punch or more, both made contact through or without a helmet. Both could've caused an injury with the blows they landed. Simple as that. I'm done defending a player I absolutely hate (Big Ben) against a player from my own team (Seymour). But, I could care less about the Eagles and if they win this upcoming week, nor do I care about the Titans, the Texans, or the Steelers, for that matter. A strike is a punch is a blow. All cause a flag to be thrown, all cause fines, all should cause suspensions (or none at all).

Shoved in the chest? Yes sir...around 285 pounds and twice as big as me. Shoved in the neck? No, and I hope I never get to experience that. Hit in the neck, like Seymour did to Big Ben? Even worse. As Kyle said, Finnegan was laughing right when he popped back up off the field, so I don't know. I saw Ben laying on the ground longer than Finnegan.

Thing is, Rose and LeBron would be better off because Boozer doesn't play like they do. He's not Bosh. And Noah would prove to be a ton of help on defense, and the same with Brewer, Gibson and even Deng (who is a better defensive player than James Jones or Mike Miller). Rose put in a lot of work this summer shooting the ball, so that's just another good thing. He wants to improve and adjust his game. Asking Rose to adjust to LeBron would be much easier than asking Wade to do it. LeBron would still have the ball less than he did in Cleveland, but Rose would play into the point guard role well, and it would be James getting easier buckets, the Bulls playing fast-paced basketball, and teams getting ran out of the building. There's a big difference.

Seymour did not just shove Ben. If someone told me that I could make $50 to let Richard Seymour "shove me" one time, I'd say yes. Then, if that same person proceeded to show me the shot he gave to Ben and say that he would do that same thing to me, I would change my mind because it's definitely not a shove.

Ha...so, if you aren't Dwight, you better play your ass off because you're on the block! Confidence killer right there. I'm not sure if this was a good thing to put out there or what.

Funny enough, as I hit Post, a McGrady topic is posted where he is saying that LeBron would've been better off in Chicago because he's a rhythm player...that he and Wade are two of the same, and Tracy even puts himself into the picture and says he would feel the same and would struggle. Good stuff.

Dude is money.

I think some of you are looking at it the wrong way (not sure how Alex is actually approaching it, though...sort of confused because he's not really coming out and saying who's to blame). Look, Spoelstra was Wade's buddy for years. They ran a system, and Wade bought it. The Heat started off slow last season, finished with 47 wins (started the season 9-7, ironically). This was with a team many Heat fans said should've have been good enough to win that many games, aside from Wade and Haslem's play. Beasley wasn't good enough, Wright just didn't fit, Jermaine was a shell of his former self, and Spoelstra wasn't experienced enough to get out of the first round. Well, now we're talking about Spo not being able to command respect. Why not just say the players (probably starting with LeBron) aren't giving him respect? From how others are putting it, it makes it sound like this is all on Spoelstra, even though a lot of us predicted the team would struggle early. Adjusting the offense? While coaches do the work on the whiteboard, it's the players who do it on the court. Nothing Spo says will make Wade and LeBron better off-ball players. Nothing he says will make them spot-up shooters. No offense he sets up will force these two guys (meaning James and Wade) to play both of their 2009-10 styles without any restrictions. Maybe Spo isn't right for the job, but that definitely, 100% doesn't mean he's the one to blame. Him being the wrong person to coach this team has almost everything to do with LeBron and Wade. Would any other coach have been able to take Kobe and Shaq and turn them into a dynasty duo? I don't know, but it would be much easier because basketball makes life simple when you have a dominant post and a dominant slashing and playmaking guard. This duo isn't Phil's Lakers. It's not even Riley's Showtime Lakers. It's not Jordan and Pippen. It's a superstar duo that contains two guys who play nearly the same exact game on the floor, nearly the same spots on the floor, trying to involve a third all-star that, unfortunately, plays more like them than he does a traditional power forward. Eventually, it'll work and they will be able to run off 60-win seasons (unless they blow a fuse and start feuding with each other), but that won't be up to any coach they will ever have, either...Spo, Riley, or anyone...because it all starts with the two willing to adjust AND redefine their games while improving in areas they never needed to consider before. It doesn't take a coach to tell them this, unless both of these guys are really that ignorant to the game of basketball. In fact, I believe both noted before the season started that it's a work in progress, that they will need to adjust and not play like they were last season...am I correct? But just recently, LeBron stated he was not going to defer or adjust his game, because it would make him a role player. It's very clear where the problems lie.

That open-handed hit, helmet on, connected to Ben's chin. It could've broken his jaw just as much as a punch without a helmet on would.