Real Deal

What do you expect of PJ3 his first year in OKC, playing behind Durant and backup PF as well? How good can he be, assuming he ends up spending longer than his rookie contract there? I still think he's going to be a steal...maybe a bit of bias talking, since I'm a closet Thunder fan, but the fact that he fell that far to the Thunder had me excited (until LA plays them, of course). He puts off that vibe that he can be somewhat like a Lamar Odom, a player that's out there to cause mismatches, to run the floor, and do a little bit of everything...possibly less offensively-talented, but more of a defender than Lamar. May not be the best comparison, but it's really hard to pinpoint a player like Jones, also, unless you're going to dig up numerous failures over the last few years (which is the sad part, haha).

Simple question: who's the most significant player in a Suns jersey this upcoming season? Not exactly for their future, but for this one season... Being the PG that will be asked to run the show, do you think Dragic is the guy? As the defensive anchor (and aside from Dudley, the only guy that knows how to defend), is Gortat your pick? Will Scola be this team's MVP, given that he's the go-to big man on the offensive end?

I was talking to my brother the other day, and I brought up Iverson...and it made me think about Kemba (yes, I really did think about the Bobcats off of this site, lol). Last season, Charlotte didn't give him a single minute at the two-guard position. I realize he's only 6-1. What happens if they go with a small lineup, though? Do you think Walker could be a bit more productive alongside Sessions, playing the two-guard position as Ramon facilitates? I realize it's a great recipe to get murdered back on defense, but Charlotte was dead last in that area anyway, so why not try and improve offensively? Quite frankly, I don't bother going with Kemba as a starter, unless he proves he can start at the two (like Iverson used to, with Snow at the point). Hell, isn't Sessions nearly the same size as Eric Snow was? Otherwise, bring him off the bench behind the PG that will create shots for the rest of his team, at least until Kemba can get to the rim and make decisions to do something OTHER than score when he does penetrate.

Well, the market has a lot to do with it, but let me ask this: who sounds more interesting to watch (as a neutral NBA fan): Carmelo and Amare, or Granger and George? The Pacers could be the better team, but the Knicks have the star power + the fact that they are in New York, and people come to play in MSG. Want proof? The Pacers were hot back when Reggie Miller was there, and they were legitimate rivals with the Knicks. Today, neither of that exists. Granger doesn't have that star power, and while we did see a heated series against the Heat (no pun intended...or maybe so), it just wasn't what we saw with Reggie and Spike's Knicks. I know a lot of older fans (even older than me) like to say that basketball wasn't what it used to be, that it's more about the superstars now than ever before...but that's not entirely true. The 80's Lakers were called Showtime for a reason. Jordan was a huge celebrity, and Barkley decided to tell everyone he was not a role model. That's how teams, and players, gained attention...and yes, they were also very good at the game of basketball, but it's really no different than it is today. The Miami Heat is a good team, and with three star players. Meanwhile, the Denver Nuggets can't provide you with any all-stars (yet), are in Denver, but they could win 50 games and possibly upset a team in the first round. Stick this team in New York, and you'll see more articles written about them, and more fans responding to their play. Would it be a good thing? I don't know. Granger is no Melo, and ultimately, the New York crowd would wonder why he isn't out the door yet (you have to have more patience with a franchise player), but again...that makes the news, and that draws interest.

The criticism has been overlooked for a couple of years now. You guys have been able to do that and get away with it. Hell, I even turned my head at the criticism Shaliq was getting when he was posting black females in the Hot Girls Thread (the racist remarks made by Slaven), thinking that it was all a joke anyway. Then, I get this message from one of our better members (who actually posted eight times since this PM): Of course, that's not the full PM, because he quotes 5-6 different posts, then mentions two other members (who are still active here), but you get the idea. My question is...what gives me any indication that activity will go up if I were to get rid of whatever member(s) you guys seem to want out the door? I don't see any reason to believe it will. Also, how a topic is created isn't THAT important, especially when you don't necessarily value what that member thinks to begin with. But, regardless, here's why I think it's irrelevant... http://www.discusshoops.com/forums/topic/31616-dime-magazine-5-players-wholl-struggle-with-their-new-team Created by BFT, who is one of our best posters...and yet, it has two replies. What did Sean do? He actually added his opinion in the initial post. http://www.discusshoops.com/forums/topic/31612-deepest-team-in-the-league Here's another. He's actually asking a question, not posting an article. Again, it's BFT. Four replies. We have all of this basketball knowledge packed inside of a small community of posters...but because of that, those topics should be active because, quite frankly, not all of us agree on the same thing. I'm sure many will think that Nash will struggle with Kobe, and vice-versa. I'm sure many think that the Clippers are deeper than the Spurs, or the Nuggets are the deepest team. We've gone from getting +1's for making excellent posts, to getting them for criticizing members. Slaven's reputation points are one of the highest on the site, and yet, he was less and less involved in basketball talk over the years, and racking up rep points for his "funny posts" that were, for the most part, inappropriate. Why? Because he would say things others didn't want to say...doesn't make it right, though. That's where things went wrong. Quality AND quantity were ignored, and instead, it was about who could post the funniest comment. Ah, someone called ECN out for his undefeated prediction a year later, out of nowhere? Give him 10 rep points, reply with a few "lol" posts, and move along. Shaliq posted a black girl, and someone asks him (for the 1,000th time) why he thinks he's black? Time to post funny pictures, and crack a few jokes. It went overboard, to the point where I didn't want to be here. My own site. Now guys, tell me why any new member would want to stay, in that case, if things like that are forcing me to close my browser window on my own website?

That's an idea, too...maybe we can give that recruiting video another shot. Speaking of that channel, I think it's about to get shut down. I've been getting notifications like CRAZY about every single video clip on there, finally had to turn off email notifications. I think the NBA is flagging everything.

Ironically, our best years were with a word filter and strictly-enforced guidelines.

That was geared more towards how we treat the new members, and others in particular, and the way we approach discussions that are a conflict of interest.

While I can sit here and admit I don't have any recruiting ideas at the moment, I'm still going to look over new features, and consider other things that could help. I'm not going to let the ship sink until we are all ready, and it's understandable that some of you might be ready (lol), but I won't be for a long time. So, yeah...I have work to do, and it's all going to be on my shoulders simply because I'm still here and in this position. Make no mistake: I'm not dumping blame on any individual, we just need to make small adjustments as a community, and I'll do more as an owner. We can't go shut down Twitter, and we can't prevent new NBA message boards from popping up and giving our members that "wow" factor (which happens with everything new), but we can continue to swim until we find new ground. On the table, right now, I have to complete banners, complete rosters on the websites (which won't be THAT big of a priority just yet), figure something out with our homepage, and finally, consider a major upgrade to the message board (which also isn't a big deal, because it doesn't present us with new features). Additionally, we can brainstorm and think of ways to improve our followers' experiences on our Twitter account, hoping to recruit from there, and also, consider affiliations that may bring in curious NBA fans (even casuals). I'm not going to give up on you guys, as long as you can stay standing with the rest of the community, even if we are getting older. Most of us have been here since the first year or two, which was 5-6 years ago...so we can make it, and encourage our newer guys to do the same.

Here's what the worksheet looks like (just 38 lines, which is 38 game topics out of the 1,230): http://i45.tinypic.com/2ekqa8g.jpg

A few hours. I type up 1,230 rows in Excel, use concatenation to create the SQL entries, shut the board down for a bit, then import those entries as topics and posts.

Being on staff isn't as much of a privilege as many think. It's more of a responsibility than anything else. Justin knows this as much as anyone else since I've put this site up, actually. Administrators are put into place to maintain what I consider the guts of the website. This includes performing maintenance the database using phpMyAdmin, editing the skin(s), and managing the community using IP tools and such. Kyle (GG) will tell you that he doesn't have to do any of that, and he's more of an administrator that the mods can come to when I'm not around, just in case they need an extensive IP check, an IP address ban, etc. Justin has had an opportunity to administrate the board, with Ben (Jammin) over an entire summer, and I believe he'll tell you that there really was no difference. I realize it seems like members are more important in roles such as that one, or moderator roles, but that's just not true around here. For years, I've declined to make some of our most dedicated guys staff members, despite them deserving promotions, because I need elite members with less responsibilities on the site...more room to focus on posting. It's just an example, of course, but it's an idea that has resulted in far, far less staff feuds (which we have rarely had, can't think of one since 2005) and less members begging for those positions.

Hurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry up.

I think he wants to retire well before he hits 40, but that's easy to say, especially if LA is still contending (and it could very well happen, assuming Nash retires, Gasol is gone, Bryant signs for less, and we have cap room to add another star with Howard). It's going to suck, though.

As always, all 1,230 of them... http://www.discusshoops.com/forums/forum/168-nba-gameday

TIME: 10:30 PM ET TV: ESPN

TIME: 10:30 PM ET TV: NBALP

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TIME: 8:00 PM ET TV: NBALP

TIME: 8:00 PM ET TV: NBALP

TIME: 8:00 PM ET TV: ESPN

TIME: 8:00 PM ET TV: NBALP

TIME: 8:00 PM ET TV: NBALP