Real Deal

It depends on a lot of things. 1) Am I contending right now? If I'm contending, I'm going to keep him around and push for a championship. Why? Winning cures all. However, this is in regard to someone like Kevin Durant, Dwight Howard, or Carmelo Anthony, not James Harden...which leads into the second question: 2) Is he a superstar, a franchise player, all-star, or just a star? I define all four differently. Kevin Durant is a superstar. Andrew Bynum is a franchise player (subtract the injuries, he's a guy you can build a team around...not necessarily a contender, but a playoff team). Russell Westbrook is an all-star...definitely not a superstar, not a franchise player...but he's good enough to be considered a championship-level second scoring option. James Harden was just a star, in the role he had with OKC...borderline all-star. So, I'm not going to be THAT nervous trading a borderline all-star, especially when I have a superstar and an all-star sitting ahead of him on the roster. However, a big factor that can't be ignored: 3) How much potential does he have? Harden's potential, to be an all-star or beyond, is what would matter the most. You saw shades of it every now and then, and you got this idea that he was definitely a future all-star player. That's when you sit back and start to pick apart his game: he's an efficient scorer, a willing passer and good facilitator, and he's an energy guy that can play bigger minutes than what he was served in OKC. --------- If it's Harden we're talking about, I probably would have pulled the trigger if it meant landing a promising rookie and a pure scorer...so the trade isn't THAT bad for the Thunder (but I don't like Kevin Martin, so I'm only just trying to make sense of it). The only problem (like I mentioned) is that they are missing out on a facilitator that can actually draw defensive attention, and Martin is nowhere near the defender Harden is. Otherwise, a lot of factors come into play. If you have a gut feeling the guy is heading out the door, maybe it's best to deal him before he complains...to get the best trade possible, and to have your team set by November. The longer you keep him around, the closer you get to February, and it's possible he loses value as each week passes (unless he's playing out of his mind).

Nope, just didn't feel like winning these first three games. The regular season means nothing to us.

I'll go ahead and talk about the game, even though I wasn't going to. I'm glad the Knicks beat that Miami ass, especially in MSG, in response to Hurricane Sandy. That was awesome. The best part was Novak launching bombs from downtown, the Heat losing sight of their assignments, and LeBron not being able to contain Melo (which is not a surprise). This came without Shump and Amare, which was even better...and props to the Knicks for locking up D-Wade in that second half, holding him to just two points total without Shump out there. J-Kidd also gets a round of applause, although all of that was expected of him...he knows how to annoy the Heat on the defensive end. I did get a little nervous, when Miami started pushing as hard as they could to get back into the game, even closed the gap a little...but then, New York stuck with the three, continued to play defense (even Melo!), and they held on and won by 20. Already knew it was over, though, when they were up 30-15...you could just feel it tonight. They weren't going to lose.

Nobody says all of that more than you have. Miami never shows up when they lose, it's always on them. I'll go ahead and stop right there.

How bad did it look? Did they actually show it on TV? EDIT: Just saw it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGVzG1NTH9w Sucks. That's my guy.

There were 11 players in this game with double-digit scoring numbers, lol. Who would've thought? Gortat with that 16/16, though...and that defense on Monroe...he was the big reason why Phoenix managed to come back and win this game.

Glad I didn't bother flipping the channel for this one. No Love or Rubio, and the four guys I'd be interested in watching aside from those two (curious as to how they will play...Evans, Roy, Williams and Budinger) shot 13-52. Best players in the game? Thomas and Barea. Yikes.

Iguodala is struggling to fit in. I get the feeling he has no idea what Karl wants him to do in the offense...to facilitate, score, spot up, penetrate...and he just looks lost out there for now. I expect it will all come together in due time, though. Meanwhile, I love how both McGee and Faried forgot how incredible they were against the Lakers in the playoffs. Can't even recognize them out there.

Didn't look like he hit him THAT hard, but I guess he had to go through concussion testing. Did he actually have a concussion?

Anyone notice that Chicago shot 63.8% from the floor? No team has done that since April 2011, and that's significant when you consider the fact that their primary option is out. I read on Twitter (might have been from Alex Kennedy) that a Cleveland fan was heckling Rip Hamilton, and he called Rip "Old Man River."

KG was pretty disappointing on both ends of the floor, I thought. He wasn't boxing out, didn't help much on the P&R, and didn't look to create for anyone back on offense. Rivers also decided not to play Barbosa as much tonight, which was kind of odd because he's the one that racked up 16 points in a quarter against the Heat, who are a very solid defensive team.

This Charlotte team feels MUCH different from the one last year. I won't say they'll do significantly better, but you won't see a repeat of last season, that's for sure. George and Green had some trouble with MKG and Henderson guarding them. I'm not really surprised with Kemba's performance, either, especially when you consider the two players trying to hold him were Hill and Augustin. By the way, BJ Mullens is just depressing. I truly think he believes he's Dirk Nowitzki.

Haha, you're fine, dude...nobody is going to remove the link. It's all good. I watched a little bit of the game. I'll be honest...I think it's that teams are going to look at Orlando and not know what to expect, not understanding who to defend, things like that. It was similar to Cleveland, the first season after LeBron left, when they walked into their home opener against the Celtics (who just came out of the NBA Finals) and beat them 95-87. Those Cavaliers were actually 7-9 at one point...and then, BAM...8-45. The Varejao injury was huge, but another issue was the fact that teams found out who was going to be their primary scorer, how they were going to run their offense, who would be their defensive anchor (even though most of us already knew that), etc. So, with Orlando, I'll expect teams to watch film and start to figure them out, also. I won't say the Magic will end up with just 19 wins (like Cleveland did), because they have a bit more talent to escape a season similar to that one, pending injuries (and you just lost Hedo for a while), but tonight did show me how they are going to play...yet, it also showed the other 29 coaches. I really didn't think they'd beat Denver, though. Afflalo and Nelson shot poorly, but damn, the entire Nuggets roster (anyone that was important) shot as bad as those two did for Orlando, and Iguodala is struggling to fit in. Credit the Magic's defense, too...and just the team stepping up in general, without Harkless, Ayon, and Harrington.

Why did Mike Brown play Darius Morris tonight (who was awful, especially on defense) and completely forgot that we had Jodie Meeks? I didn't see Meeks step foot on the court at all. Thanks for the 40, Kobester. It's definitely still your team, never in question.

Crawford just tore up Ron's kneecaps.

CP3, Odom, Butler, Barnes, Turiaf...all former Lakers. Put them on the floor at the same time, PLEASE.

I'm rarely wrong, so Harden better stop playing so [expletive]ing good. Damn Harden, you scary.

I'm going to keep the OTRBasketball domain, but you guys may want to go ahead and re-bookmark the forums, just in case something changes.

Campaign is over.

Don't jump up and down for this one. It's Troy Murphy.

I'll have to find a way to bump this game down into the pool of topics...maybe change the post date through the database. Hmm. EDIT: Worked!

I would've traded Russ if it meant we keep Harden, if I was Presti. The trade was going to happen, since the Thunder couldn't afford four players with big money...but if that option was on the table, to deal Westbrook...it would have been done. I really can't stand him. My girl was going OFF last night, and she went to bed pissed. Westbrook ruins my life.

I never did anything to modify the View New Content section. There's an option to leave out individual forums, but all forums were added when I checked just now. I did reset everything having to do with that to default, but no values changed. Hopefully, it was just a small bug, and needed the reset. Let me know if it does it again, and also, if you're getting this in ANY other topics (from other forums).

It seems like it's a horrible situation over there right now. Is there a lot of looting?

Definitely watching this one. I'm interested to see K-Mart and Lamb out there, and hoping that PJ3 gets some time out on the court.