Real Deal

Amare is the better offensive player, Bosh the better defender. I do know that STAT has had a season or two with two or more blocks per game, and Bosh hasn't, but Bosh topples Amare in rebounding, and this was most evident when Stoudemire couldn't pull down a board to save his life last year in the playoffs (notably against LA). It's going to be hard to compare them, though, because Amare has been the primary option his entire career with Nash spoon-feeding him off of pick and rolls, while Bosh is entering this season with two superstars spoon-feeding him his points. Amare's FG% is probably higher...don't even need to look...because he played at the rim most of the time, snagging those passes in the paint and finishing strong with a dunk, or having a ton of shooters to pass out to. While Bosh didn't have that, there's a part of him that wouldn't play big, so it's partially his fault that he shoots a lower percentage. Amare is more likely to take over a game, scoring-wise, at least in my opinion. I would worry about him putting up 40 before Bosh, even when CB4 was in Toronto and assuming Nash was injured, doesn't matter. Coin-flip, really.

Just not good enough to start YET. He wasn't playing that great, defensively...picked up a couple of dumb fouls. I didn't see the Spurs game, but against Charlotte, he fed off of Granger's hot hand from outside, since Charlotte was panicking and defending the perimeter more and more throughout the game. Basically, he did what Dunleavy failed to do (seemed like Mike missed almost every shot he took), so it's a good sign...but I'm not going to overrate him OR dismiss the performance altogether. No, it means he's the fake Real Deal. I think.

Ah, you're the Spurs fan that was on staff over at RST, right?

I'm assuming you're labeling Pau Gasol a center right now.

Score was 38-35 when Vince got hurt, and 58-35 after the injury. I've been on the "Vince sucks" bus for a long time now, but his presence out there helps open up the floor, because he's a threat on the baseline (a big threat). With Howard in the post, guys like Redick, Nelson and even Lewis will slip outside and knock down shots. Live by the three, die by the three, and without a slasher raking in extra defensive attention (or a post threat, or in this case, both), shots are easier to contest. Basketball 101. I wasn't happy with Howard after a while, though. He went away from his game, started trying to catch the ball outside of the paint more, taking jumpers and long hooks, stuff he shouldn't be doing against Anthony, Magloire or even Ilgauskas. Unfortunately, those are a few reasons why Orlando isn't going to reach the Finals this season.

Everything was lost a little over a year ago...had the board hacked, I didn't have backups due to my HD crashing, AND the host claimed they did not provide data unless I was paying for some type of plan (or whatever, don't even care). Good to see you back, though. Welcome to the best.

With the exception of the NBA Finals, and this is just a stab in the dark, Bryant and Shaq pretty much contributed enough to call it even. I know Kobe has lit up some of the best the West has had to offer, and he was the man defending the best players in most of those games, scoring 25-30 PPG AND running the offense. I give Shaq props for dominating Dikembe Mutombo, despite the size advantage, but I'm not going to freak out because of his performances against Todd Mac or Rik Smits, because, quite frankly, Shaq could probably dominate those two even if he were 38 years old. Of course, Shaq has had his way with a lot of talented bigs. I'm just pushing the Finals aside. But, especially in the second and third title runs, they both picked apart the opposition.

With all due respect, I think it's best we stick with the system we've had in place for five or six years now. I know other sites will do things differently, but that's their thing. A game of the night would just be based on what I thought, and it would ignore half of the teams in the league to begin with. How many "game of the night" topics would include the Wizards, Wolves, Warriors, Raptors, Pistons, Pacers, Clippers, etc? The idea is to get people to post in those gameday topics, because all of the Lakers and Heat games will be active no matter what we do. If the Pistons payed the Kings, there's a chance it will have one or two posts total (later in the season). Would that actually be a game of the night candidate if it's on the same night as a Lakers/Heat match-up? Not a chance. The game status prefix has to be controlled by the staff, somehow. They just don't automatically add to the topic once a game is over, unless the board is directly tied into NBA.com's database (or a similar site, like ESPN), and it reads that particular table entry (ex. Preview, 2nd QTR, or Final). Asking the staff to mark games as they end...I'm not really sure if it's worth the work, because that means they will need to monitor every game that night (and there are 13+ games on during some nights), instead of watching them and commenting on those that actually interest them. They'll be sitting there looking at boxscores, waiting for games to end. To my knowledge, no message board has all 1200+ games available to post in by preseason. Other than RealGM and maybe ISH, no basketball board has produced the activity we have in those gameday topics. Few all-sports sites have matched it (can't think of one off the top of my head right now, actually). If discussion hits a wall, I'll be looking into more ways to increase exposure, whatever needs to be done...but it's really dipping my hand into a recipe that has been effective for so many years now, so I really don't know if that's a smart move or not.

I'm strongly considering re-coding the skin from scratch. The skin you're showing me in that link won't touch what I put out if I decide to redo it all. Unfortunately, I've never actually sat down and really put out a monster skin for OTR, not from scratch. A lot of it has been designed quickly, using a lot of minimum edits on defaults (such as this skin). The major edits would include the special coding to add forum images on the main index (team logos) and in the posts. If I design a new one, it will have 30 team banners with it BEFORE I release it, which means 30 different skins (color variations) to match the banners. I've been working on player profiles for the last week, but that's going to take forever...so I'm leaning towards dropping everything and putting out something special.

Going to close my door, shut off my porch light and watch Warriors/Lakers. I don't have the money to buy strangers candy. I'll worry about doing that once I have my own kids. I'm old, fellas...27, to be exact. My Halloween partying days are over. It's hell, though, looking at some of those college chicks and not being able to approach them...just gotta remember how many whores I had to cycle through before I ran into one that's actually committed to a relationship, lol.

http://i54.tinypic.com/28aqah4.jpg

Ah, I forgot about that. I'll need to write something up in Excel first.

I'm sort of mean, so it's a permanent ban.

Utah fans...lol. Go figure.

As you can see in the game against Utah, the Suns' pick and roll, and their ability to run, can win them at least 40 games. I wouldn't be shocked to see them as a bubble team in April, or actually in the playoffs as a bottom seed.

Is it just me, or does Warrick get really close to suffering from neck whiplash when he dunks?

Yeah, I miss Ivan Drago.

Yeah, they will need to retract a few of them, because your Suns are going to be in a bad mood for 48 minutes tomorrow night. BOOM!

YO GUYS, FROM NOW ON, YOU WILL SHOW NO EMOTION IN YOUR POSTS, OR ELSE YOU GET SUSPENDED FOR THREE DAYS! BE ROBOTS. - Real Deal Stern

Man, that was a nasty dunk by Hakim.

Haha, and the reporter was like, "Chris. Chris Bosh?"

I guess I'm not seeing what you guys are when it comes to Jefferson, because to me, he's struggling putting the ball in the basket, and he's looking confused out there. Utah just lost too much in one season. Korver was the best shooter in the league last year, by far...and while he wasn't dropping 20 a game, he was still a threat and spread the floor for Deron. Matthews and Brewer? Those are two good defenders that held their own against some of the NBA's best scorers...maybe not stopping them, but definitely defending them better than an older Raja Bell, who seems to still be injured. Plus, Boozer hits at a higher percentage than Jefferson, and also rebounds better. Probably a better defender, even though both aren't that stellar to begin with (and I feel like I've typed this up before, lol).

That's the other thing. You don't even consider Duncan? Is it because he doesn't average 30 PPG, or 14 RPG, or 4 BPG, or 10 APG? 21/12 average, just 51% FG throughout his career. Per 36 (which is what he would be getting if Pop wasn't resting him for the playoffs), he's still averaging the same numbers he has throughout his entire career, with one of his highest shooting percentages ever. Duncan has been a superstar for years without doing any of that. It's why he's the greatest power forward of all-time, and why he has four rings. I wonder if you consider Scottie Pippen a superstar at any point of his career. There isn't much more for me to say, really.

The Thunder would run them to death, and they are no match for the Lakers in a seven-game series. Other than that, though, they can probably beat any other team in the West, but I can't really say they'll be fully healthy, either. There's always a problem, it seems like.

Three Raiders fans on OTR? Is it possible?