Real Deal

Might have a silhouette change, so hold off on the orders, unless you're dead-set on wearing the ALCS logo (or, if you're getting something with our text logo, which will NOT change).

Missed it. Replay here in a bit, though, lol.

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/sports/pro_basketball/article/286756/402/NBA-Game-Summary---Denver-at-Detroit

Horrible game. It would have been 100 times better with Eric Gordon and John Wall, and that's saying a lot.

Ed Davis though!!! Bargs needs to take notes.

Wii Curling?

Dwight Howard led his Orlando Magic to the NBA Finals in the "four out, one in" offense that SVG handed him in ORL, so I doubt that's true. If the numbers are similar, it would be from back in 2009 and 2010, when Gasol was playing center, Odom at PF...and a lot of that production wasn't exactly due to Gasol, but from the triangle and Kobe making the game far much easier for Pau. Gasol's best years were in the triangle offense, and with Kobe. It helps that there are really no true positions in the triangle, that it requires five able-bodied passers, and that Gasol had so much flexibility and opportunities to max out his abilities...but now, things are different. He would be better without this offense, I'm sure of it...but we can't win championships with him as our second option anymore, and now that we have Dwight and Nash, Gasol has to be the guy to adjust. If he's not going to post up in our starting five, he has to do it when we have him out there with the second unit...or SOMETHING. I'm not saying there isn't room (and maybe you aren't saying that I am, lol)...there is. I'm saying that Gasol doesn't want it. There's the Dwight Howard excuse, but even with Howard on the bench, Gasol stays high with the bench unit...and if there's ANY a time where we need Gasol down low, it's when the bench is out there. His passing can get them open shots. And to touch on the other post...no, he's not Bargnani, but he's reminding us of him this season. We can't have Gasol playing that way, no matter who is at fault. We pull him away from the rim, and suddenly, he's rebounding less, not able to kick out to shooters, and he's shooting the ball inconsistently...and that wears him down enough to change the way he plays defense (even though he has never been a good defender, he still has length).

Ron was on Miles a lot, also. Kobe is helping too much...and he's not young enough to recover. A lot of Lakers fans blow it up, though, when they see him gamble once or twice a game. When it happens, suddenly, he's the worst defender on the team. Sadly, I'm not really sure if he's going to be able to stay on his man, and that the help defense will have to come from him and Howard, primarily. We know that Artest is going to be our best on-ball defender, not much help from his side since he'll be defending the Durants and LeBrons (and Artest is struggling, make no mistake about it)...and our PF (Gasol), PG (Nash, Blake, Morris, Duhon), and our two best bench players (Jamison and Meeks) are all pretty bad defensively. We just can't get back on defense when we make OR miss a shot. Teams push the ball. That has been a problem for years, really, and the big reason why we haven't reached the WCF in the last two seasons. There are a lot of times that Kobe walks away from his man to make sure a pass doesn't go into the post against someone like Jamison, or camps so a PG doesn't destroy Duhon or Morris to the rim. He doesn't get back in time for the three. However, we defend the three-point line 6th best in the NBA, so that's not really that big of a concern, him giving up a three in the second quarter of a game...although Lakers fans think we're missing the playoffs and will be a lottery team this season.

BLASPHEMOUS!

Updated a couple of shirts and other products with a combo of the text logo AND silhouette. Again, any shirt can be edited...you'll just have to ask me, and I'll check to make sure no other orders are out.

1) Will Pau stay in the post? 2) Will D'Antoni instruct him to get into the post? I wish it were that easy, really...and I hate how some of our fans are saying that there isn't any room for Pau down low, since we have Dwight. That doesn't make sense to me, at all, especially in an uptempo offense + a big man like Dwight (who is not Shaq, needing every inch of paint to go to work in).

Ew.

Great, great interview. I suggest watching all four vids, when you have the time. Even if you don't like Kobe, it's very interesting. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STt32vWt20c http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvKgswUiwWk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIqgOz_x8oI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSOpNu7c_Xg

In losses, Kobe has to take over games (like he did last night vs. Cleveland, where he had to drop 42 so we could come back from being down 17). Also, in nine of those 11 games, Kobe has played 38+ minutes. More minutes, more shots. Kobe's lowest minutes of the season, in nine games, we are 7-2...because they are usually wins, and most of the time, against average-to-bad teams (DET, SAC, HOU, NOH, DAL, DEN). In those games, he has shot under 18 attempts in all but one. They do this every year with him, even when we win championships. The fact is, in four of his five championships, Kobe had more FGA/G than anyone else on his team, even Shaq, and STILL lead the team in APG, like he's doing now. LA is struggling because they don't have a PG in a system that requires one, and Kobe is being asked to be a primary option and facilitator in an uptempo offense he has never played in before. Turnovers are killing us, mainly Kobe and Dwight (because they are easy to defend in this offense, without Nash and Gasol out there). Defensively, we are horrible in transition...far too old...and our best defensive players (Kobe, Dwight, Artest) are playing HUGE minutes, especially Kobe.

Slaven is the only one that has ordered the thong so far. Shaliq, +1 this post. Hahaha, so much comedy today...I'm so sleepy, lol. I could try and get a girl to model the thong for us, but I doubt Jessica will go for that because it would have to be someone I know (and I can think of three right off the top of my head that would).

Actually, a few of us Lakers fans were hoping we could keep Marc Gasol. At the time, we were dead-set on Garnett, anyway...and we were happy to get Pau, no doubt, but there was word that San Antonio was considering him over Marcus Williams, and Dallas wanted him at 50. People knew he was going to be good, by how he played in Spain, but it's just so difficult to take a big chance on someone like that unless they are putting up incredible international numbers, and Marc was always in the shadow of his brother. The same thing happened with Manu Ginobili, really...and, ironically, it was the Spurs swooping in and landing him 57th. Of course, 90% of the Lakers fanbase only cares about the Lakers, and that percentage really didn't give a shit about Marc (didn't know anything about him, at all), but some of us saw something there. I never thought he'd be an all-star center, though...but on the old OTR, I did state he could be a legitimate starter someday. I also had him (and Joakim Noah) high on my draft board over at Clublakers (back in 2007)...

Gotta post this, because I remember Kobe entertaining Kyrie's idea of a one-on-one game for charity (from last season's USA basketball practice), lol. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaR380j_04k Aside from this, and Kobe's 42, it's all I could take away from another bad Lakers game.

Yeah, I'm thinking about getting my dog a t-shirt for Christmas. He'll open it and be like WTF, and then he'll have to wear it because he's a dog.

Changed our logo up a bit, may update it on all the banners for 2013 (and our board update, which I'll apply eventually). http://www.cafepress.com/discusshoops For all of the products, you'll see our two logos. Aaron's silhouette, which all of you already know of (the basketball player), and our text logo: http://www.discusshoops.com/images/shirt.jpg NOTHING is marked up for profit. I have the option to, but I figured the prices were already high enough on some of the shirts. No point in doing that anyway if I'm not going to sell hundreds of items. Keep in mind that if you want one of the products with the other logo (say, a particular t-shirt with Aaron's logo, instead of our text logo), just let me know, and that can be arranged. I can also add one of the two logos to the back of SOME shirts, OR remove the front logo and add a back. Most of the shirts will be white or gray, also. Black shirts will be added in due time...I just don't have time to edit the text logo to fit the black perfectly. I've ordered two OTR shirts from here in the past, and they aren't cheap (unless you get the "value shirt" for $10, and I'm not even sure if that is cheap in quality). Some of the products I've added...yeah, none of you will buy some of that...but it's there anyway, haha. Let me know if you guys get something.

That month or so when he put up Jason Kidd numbers...I always thought that was a fluke. We had a topic about him getting into the ASG last season, and I remember talking about him not being able to sustain those numbers. Teams just didn't know how to defend the guy for a while, that's all, and he was in a new role and at the beginning of the season. I wouldn't have minded Lowry in LA, but that's because he would be playing behind three other scorers. In Toronto, though? And in Houston? He just wasn't going to play up to expectations, once he was reaching for those triple-double numbers as a primary or secondary scoring option in a full season (don't think he was getting 10 boards a night, but it was around 7-8...with his 20 PPG and 10 APG, something like that).

Not sure if Harden would have been worth Singleton and a filler.

LOL NO. There is a reason why I didn't post it.

http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/14567_508513452512518_806393180_n.jpg

I've always felt like Love was a guy who would eventually take advantage of free agency, very early, without really toughing it out with the bad team he's with. I was kind of surprised he signed the extension with Minny, but then again, once you land that money, you can always find a way to get traded (ex. bitching in public). If there's any reason why Kahn wants Gasol here...well, first off, I'd think it would be Marc, but whatever...it's because Pau is from Spain, and Rubio wants it. There's nothing else to want Gasol for. Doubt it happens, but since 2008, I really don't know why I keep doubting Mitch Kupchak. The Gasol trade, Sessions for Walton and Kapono, Drew for Dwight, Nash using the TPE and picks...seems like nothing is ever out of reach.