Real Deal

Forgot Jennings. It's about Bogut. The guy has an improved offensive game, he's becoming a leader, and shockingly, his defense is actually better. For a while, I figured he would stick around as that "good center" we've known him to be, but now he's playing solid basketball, and I'd consider him an all-star-caliber player right now. That may have a little to do with Jennings and Salmons, as they take the load off of Bogut offensively. Salmons is actually averaging 19 PPG as a Buck. However, nobody can really ignore Drew's play and the impact he's having on Milwaukee's season.

Evans - 19 PTS, 10 REB, 10 AST, 2 TO Udrih - 24 PTS, 4 REB, 8 AST, 2 TO Toronto has to play perimeter defense. You can expect Evans to put up big numbers, but you have to lock down SOMEONE in the backcourt. Should've just doubled Evans if they were going to let Udrih kill them.

Too many damn weapons, and Jason Kidd is a PLAYER. Dirk shot 3-16 and the Nets still didn't capitalize on it...but it is the Nets. And wow, Terry didn't even play, lol.

Collison and Thornton choked this game, and it's good to see Julian Wright playing. WHERE IS EMEKA? I know he can play better than he did tonight. Did he get hurt? Durant had a big scoring night again, but don't write off what Westbrook did: 17 points, eight rebounds, nine assists, over 50% from the floor shooting, two steals. The guy is like a more athletic Jason Kidd...well, stat-wise at least.

Give my boy Chalmers some credit. He didn't have a single turnover, shot well, had 12/6 and played good defense. Wade went 15/17 from the charity stripe. That's ridiculous. The Clippers would've made it a bit tougher on Wade if Eric Gordon had played.

Utah shot 56% from the floor and had 35 assists as a team. Any team that allows that deserves to lose.

Gallinari and Harrington combined to shoot 1-11 from three and 9-27 from the floor. The Knicks were 2-17 from downtown as a team. Didn't they just set a record for going 0-18? Great game by Manu, but the Spurs are going to need Parker in this tough stretch of games ahead.

You're probably going to lose when you allow 31 points off of free throws, and 50% shooting for the game.

Wolves had this one had they not rolled over and died in the third. That's too bad. Nobody wanted to play defense this game.

NITRO! What's going on, man? Good to see you back. The only thing I want to point out is the passing. The turnovers that Kobe has had are mainly from him trying to split doubles, or drive into 2-3 players and utilize his spin moves (which was actually a big problem of his for a while). I rarely see Bryant throw a terrible pass. It does happen, of course, but not often. And, with that said, neither did Jordan. I just believe that Kobe's passes down low (off penetrating drives) separate him from Jordan. They were accurate and effective. Both find their shooters really well. I just don't take assists per game into consideration as much because, throughout the years, Jordan has had more competent teammates to convert those passes into assists than Bryant has. While Kobe did have Shaq, it was O'Neal that called for the ball down low, creating his own shot. Same with Gasol and Bynum. Jordan and Scottie had a plethora of dangerous shooters at their fingertips, and with Scottie doing what he could to set up MJ, it was Jordan that had the ball in his hands at the end of the clock, and that's what made him most dangerous, spreading the floor and doing what he wanted with guys that actually knew how to spread the floor with him. LeBron James is an excellent passer, and his high assist numbers can be explained because he has Mo Williams, Delonte West, Anthony Parker, Daniel Gibson, and Jamario Moon all knocking down shots, one of the best shooting teams in the NBA, I believe.

If "stats are stats" as you claim, why did you claim that Kobe Bryant was a better player than LeBron James? Just curious...

Each player will have a player page, full stats and all...but that's in the future. Tons of work behind that as well. So when you click one of the players, you'll get an error. Dallas' owner and GM are fixed (left them as the Cavaliers' office by accident), and the Magic owner's name is fixed. Ryan, I'll think of something. A box doesn't exactly work there...looks a little out of place, but I'll figure something out.

Done.

Ah, I forgot. Should I put Irene Pollin? Since all of it went to his wife?

Don't worry too much about the height and weights of the players. NBA.com, Basketball Reference, ESPN, CBS, they all have different numbers for them. Not sure why they can't just be all the same. For salaries, I just used Storyteller's stuff. He seems to have more accurate salary totals. Hoopshype leaves out some player salaries, anyway. The main thing is to make sure the players are all there, and the coaches, owners and general managers are correct (names spelled right, stuff like that as well). Salaries will be approximate, and height/weight will vary due to conflicting reports.

Basketball reference's mistake. Pfft. http://www.nba.com/playerfile/chris_hunter I stuck him as a C-F just now. Thanks Yama.

You completely lost me there. Again, Kobe didn't drive to the rim as much as Jordan, and you know that. Therefore, his FG percentage will be lower. Drives to the rim = higher field goal percentage. And Jordan shot at a high FG% with Scottie because it was Pippen facilitating the triangle offense, something Jordan has never had to do. Kobe has been doing it since 1999. If you're going to compare the two players, compare Kobe's last three seasons to Jordan's last three in Chicago. All six of those seasons are considered MVP-caliber. Then, consider who they had on their teams, and their roles in the triangle offense. You can do all the math you want, figure rates and what-not. I'm sure I can make arguments for players being better than Jordan doing that, really. Hell, I wonder how great I can make Steve Nash seem as a scorer. And come on dude...that nonsense about Kobe not being able to hit a big shot like Jordan's Cavaliers game-winner...really? He has seven game-winners just this season, one fading away over Wade for three. He hit a game-tying three against Portland to go into OT in 2004, then hit a fade-away, buzzer-beating game-winning thee to win the division that same game. He made a game-tying floater to send Game 4 versus the Suns into OT, then the very same game, hit the game-winning fade-away over two Suns defenders to win that playoff game. I think you're boosting Jordan's resume a bit.

Tons of work...I really hope you guys enjoy these. There are salaries for almost everyone (minus the 10-day contracts), birthdays, coaches, owners, general managers, and all-time fives for every team. http://www.otrbasketball.com/hawks/roster.php http://www.otrbasketball.com/celtics/roster.php http://www.otrbasketball.com/bobcats/roster.php http://www.otrbasketball.com/bulls/roster.php http://www.otrbasketball.com/cavaliers/roster.php http://www.otrbasketball.com/mavericks/roster.php http://www.otrbasketball.com/nuggets/roster.php http://www.otrbasketball.com/pistons/roster.php http://www.otrbasketball.com/warriors/roster.php http://www.otrbasketball.com/rockets/roster.php http://www.otrbasketball.com/pacers/roster.php http://www.otrbasketball.com/clippers/roster.php http://www.otrbasketball.com/lakers/roster.php http://www.otrbasketball.com/grizzlies/roster.php http://www.otrbasketball.com/heat/roster.php http://www.otrbasketball.com/bucks/roster.php http://www.otrbasketball.com/timberwolves/roster.php http://www.otrbasketball.com/nets/roster.php http://www.otrbasketball.com/hornets/roster.php http://www.otrbasketball.com/knicks/roster.php http://www.otrbasketball.com/thunder/roster.php http://www.otrbasketball.com/magic/roster.php http://www.otrbasketball.com/sixers/roster.php http://www.otrbasketball.com/suns/roster.php http://www.otrbasketball.com/blazers/roster.php http://www.otrbasketball.com/kings/roster.php http://www.otrbasketball.com/spurs/roster.php http://www.otrbasketball.com/raptors/roster.php http://www.otrbasketball.com/jazz/roster.php http://www.otrbasketball.com/wizards/roster.php If you run into one that has wrong information (ex. the wrong owner, a player that I left out), please let me know.

That's the triangle offense for you, and that's why Andrew "Quicksand" Bynum needs to come off the bench with the second unit, so the others can feed him the ball and watch him score 15-20. That does two things: 1) Helps our bench scoring greatly, as we are a bottom five in the NBA in that regard, and 2) Puts Odom in our starting five, which means we have another ball-handler to make plays, instead of just Kobe The triangle is an equal opportunity offense that the entire team needs to take advantage of. They don't. Kobe, Gasol, Odom, and Ron are excellent passers. Their abilities need to be utilized, but it only happens if everyone is willing to play off the ball, instead of being star-struck by Kobe.

For one, Kobe was doubled by Prince and Rip, then cut off by Wallace in the paint. It was a way to clog the passing lane between Kobe and Shaq, and prevent Kobe from driving. Therefore, he had to shoot over a lanky Prince from 20+ feet out. Jordan was triple-teamed? With a zone? Zone defense was illegal, and back then, once you committed to a double, you had to stay with it. No team put three on Jordan. Detroit's defensive stance on Jordan was deemed the "Jordan Rules" because it was physical, with multiple defenders thrown at him all game (meaning, not together, but different defenders at different times). Few double-teams, no triple-teams. If you triple-teamed a player in the 80's and 90's, there would be a 99% chance that team scores on you, because you would have to commit to it, there would be two guys open. Kobe doesn't shoot 50% because he shoots the ball more than Jordan ever did. He's got more range on his shot, and he shoots over doubles much more than Jordan ever did. Plus, go take a look at WHEN Jordan shot 50+ from the floor in a season. In the second dynasty, his numbers began to fall because he drove less to the rim. He became more of a jumpshooter. You can't compare field goal percentages unless you consider Kobe shooting more jumpers. You might as well tell us all that Bynum is a better scorer than Jordan because he shoots 55-60% from the floor.

Eddie getting fired is a given. I'm not so sure about Stefanski.

There's nobody that has even come close to Kobe's numbers as a second fiddle, not in the last two decades at least. Not one player in the league, or retired. Bryant's hand was just as deep in the cookie jar. He ran the offense AND scored just as much as Shaq. He actually shot the ball 22 times per game, Shaq at 19 times. A second fiddle? Someone's Robin? Who does that?

I'm going to take a guess and say Jamaal Tinsley averages more assists (career) than Jason Williams. Who's the better passer? I'll go even further: Kevin Johnson has a higher career assist average than Steve Nash. Nash is one of the greatest passers in NBA history. Who's the better passer? Assists need to be converted by teammates. When you have Pippen, Kerr, Kukoc, Armstrong, Paxson, Hodges, and Harper all surrounding the perimeter and knocking down shots, you're going to average more assists than most. On the other hand, Bryant would dump the ball into Shaq, and O'Neal would take dribbles and either put the ball up, or kick it back out. Either that, or Bryant would create for himself...two man game. Chicago was the most complete team ever. Kobe and Shaq was one of the greatest duos ever.

So you consider Wade and LeBron, and even Durant, better scorers than Kobe because they shoot a higher FG percentage? Dwyane Wade's career scoring average is higher than Karl Malone's. Do you think that Wade is the better scorer? Jerry West has a career scoring average of 27 PPG. Is he a better scorer than Kobe? LeBron is currently third, all-time, on career scoring average...below Jordan (1st) and Wilt (2nd). What exactly does that mean? If Kobe was Shaq's "Robin" as you say, give me one other "Robin" in NBA history that averaged 28.5 PPG, 6 RPG and 5 APG on 46% shooting (Kobe's second championship). Just one.

Hmm... http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/columns/story?id=4981489