Nitro

Shane Battier, Udonis Haslem, Jamal Crawford, Nate Robinson, Kenyon Martin.

1986 Celtics. Much, much better offense with the single best player on either team (Bird). From a roster standpoint, the Celtics were better at 3 of the 5 starting positions (arguably 4-5, although I give Ray and KG the slight edge over DJ and McHale). The one thing the 2008 squad had was depth, but I think the 1986 team was more well-rounded.

The Hawks have 2 major issues... 1) As mentioned before, Joe Johnson is not a championship caliber 1st option. He's a poor man's Tracy McGrady from 2-3 years ago. He's simply not talented or assertive enough to will a team to victory on a consistent basis in a playoff atmosphere. Often times, he'll dissapear. His skill-sets are best suited to play off a big man while being able to set-up the offense, create shots for others and sometimes create for himself. 2) Al Horford and Josh Smith are both natural PF's. I know most people think Smith should be playing SF, but playing him there is not how you will get the most effectiveness out of him. Offensively it is a mistake because he has no jumpshot to speak of (especially from long-range...he hit ZERO 3's all of last season) and it takes away from his athletic advantage when he plays at PF. Defensively it doesn't make sense because if you draw him away from the basket, his impressive rebounding shot-blocking numbers will plummet. As for Horford, he's a bit undersized at Center and his style of play would be better suited at PF (although he's a very good post-up defender at the C position). Because of this issue as the team is currently constructed, they are always gonna have some issues in the frontcourt and won't get the maximum effectiveness from both players.

Ha true, but that doesn't necessarily benefit his music.

First off, the problem with Billups in that role is that he's a scoring PG. Even though he's a good vocal leader, it doesn't translate onto the court when the team's offense needs structure. That's why Kidd was amazing for the Redeem Team; he knows how to set-up an offense, get players the ball in sweet spots and be a guy the others can play off of. Billups isn't that. Secondly, I actually like Odom on the team. Offensively he's a mismatch at Center and he's an awesome rebounder. Lastly, I really do think the biggest problem with this team is having a PG that can settle the offense down and give the team structure. I watched every single game of the 2006 WC's, 2007 FIBA's and 2008 Olympics, and the one constant I noticed when we were in trouble was chaotic scrambles in the offensive set. I know that sounds so simple, but it's something a smart PG can alleviate. No matter how much talent you have, a structured offense will always beat you out. Rondo is the ONLY guy on the team that can be the solution, but he really has to limit his TO's and focus on keeping things simple.

Honestly both Biggie and Tupac are both pretty overrated IMO. Biggie's overrated because he wasn't the greatest song-writer when it came to story or range, and Tupac's overrated because his actual MC skills aren't up to par with many of the elite all-time rappers (Nas, Biggie, Rakim, Eminem, etc...)

Like we have an actual team now? Listen, I'm not saying having a good, true big man wouldn't be beneficial...of course it would. But I just don't think it's as big of a deal as most are making it out to be. Many of the big men who have played for the team the last 6-8 years (didn't catch any of the 2000 Olympics) have not performed how you would expect. It would certainly help to have a Brook Lopez or Blake Griffin, but to me it's a lot more necessary that we have a good floor general and guy that can attack the rim at will. Right now the PG play for this team has been pretty dreadful, and I just don't see a player on the team that could score at will like Wade did in 2008. If we had those two things, I think we'd be the favorites despite all the other problems. But without those two things our offense is prone to horrific slumps (as seen in the 1st quarter against Lithuania).

Here's the issue though... If the Wizards are to ever find a team willing to take Arenas on via trade, his value MUST go up from this arguably all-time low. To do that, he needs to produce. To produce, he's going to need minutes. If he's going to be a good boy during the next few months, he's going to want his ego stroked. To properly stroke Arenas' ego, he's going to need to start, get major minutes, and still be the focal point of the offense. All that means is that Hinrich and the Wizards are gonna have to wait awhile before both parties truly get what they want.

The question was who do YOU miss the most...how in the world is it hypocritical to say you miss Tupac more than Bob Marley?

First off that's false; a lot of his music was charged with anger, but there were also plenty of songs that were lighter or had a deeper sentimental meaning. And I strongly suggest you watch Tupac Resurrection...a lot of his music that had anger in it or was presumably for a cause was because he was sticking up for the entire hood, not himself. A lot of the things he raps about, by his own admition, are from the viewpoint of people who have gone through those trials and tribulations and NOT himself. He's more of a symbol than anything else.

Traditional big men generally don't work as great as you'd expect in FIBA. Duncan had a lot of trouble in the 2004 Olympics, and Dwight made a minimal impact in 2008. I do think the US is undersizesd, but it's not quite as big of a deal as many believe it to be, and I also feel the big men most people propose wouldn't have nearly as much success as expected.

Bump. Still need 1 more...

The best Cavs jersey is the one in the first pic that debuted with LeBron in 2003. It's not the stupid throwback crap but is tastefully done and modern. The blue looks great.

Yeah I agree about Westbrook, and Eric Gordon also really impressed me as well. As for Durant needing to assert himself more offensively...no. He was a train-wreck in the halfcourt game today. He's been pretty dissapointing on all the televised games and needs to start getting into a groove.

They seemed to figure out the recipe for success in the second half that made the Redeem Team blow out almost every competitor in the 2008 Olympics...play great defense, force TO's and ignite the fastbreak. This team doesn't exactly have the sharpest knives in the drawer when it comes to good, fundamental basketball so it's of the utmost importance that they play to their major athletic advantage. Against Spain this will be more difficult because they don't turn the rock over very often, but otherwise it'll be the key ingredient to their success. I really hope someone on the team, maybe Rose, watches some film from the Olympics and takes note on how Dwyane Wade dominated the international game. Wreak havoc in the passing lanes, makes some sharp cuts, don't over-dribble and take it hard ALL THE WAY to the rim. If you over-dribble and let the defense set-up, it becomes an unnecessarily difficult task. I saw that often today where players over-dribbled then couldn't get all the way to the rim when they finally made their move. Wade mastered it on the international level and using the same formula could give the consistent #1 option they'll really need.

And they have, but you're the only one complaining lol.

Anyone watching this right now. It's 10-5 Lithuania. USA looks horrible. Really making me reminisce about the Redeem Team and how they would have wiped the floor with this team.

I forgot to mention...#1hustler, if you want there to be more discussion in the NBA forums POST SOME TOPICS IN THE NBA FORUMS!!! Since August started you've created only two topics in the General NBA section, and only one in the Player Comparisons section. If you want more discussion, give us something to discuss.

Bro...chill. First off, there are more posts in the NBA sections than in the "other sports" discussions. You can't just look at General NBA, but also the Draft forum, Player Comparisons forum, and all of the individual team forums. Secondly, that "other sports" forum is for literally EVERY OTHER SPORT clumped into one forum...yes, it's primarily an NBA website, but to keep activity during the off-season conversation about other sports has to be allowed. I've been on other primarily NBA websites who show the exact same posting trends in the off-season. Less overall activity with more emphasis on the other sports.

Hahahaha. I was watching ATH yesterday and he said he was going on vacation to San Francisco this weekend. Guess not.

Ummm.....

LBJ/Wade/Bosh didn't force or coax the Heat to have that party...it was the organization's decision. Don't flip that on the players.

1 more....

Yep you got it perfect. Only other thing I'll add about Paul>Williams is not only is he more efficient of a scorer (his shooting numbers from the field, 3 and FT line are all amazing), but he also averages nearly 1 full less TO while averaging more assists.

I kind of think this is a fool's gold type stat. Last season David Lee actually gave up more points per 48min on a higher FG % to PF's than C's, but I think it should be glaringly obvious he's a true PF on both ends of the floor. The Bargnani situation is a bit different because he does have the size of a Center, and can effectively defend most Centers who will try to post him up (I saw a list a few weeks ago that had the top 30 Centers in the league last season defending the post and Bargnani was somewhere in the middle). However, because Bargnani played more than half his time at PF as opposed to C, and almost NEVER played with Bosh when he got his minutes at C (check the 82games.com stats for top 5-man squads on the Raptors last season), it's really hard to safely gauge his effectiveness at the position. In fact, the one 5-man group that Bargnani played at C with Bosh at PF the team's defense was about as underwhelming as vice-versa. This is why I said he could either be a really good bench player or NEEDS a good defensive Center by his side. Let me explain.... 1) The one thing I think you are really missing is help defense. The problem defensively with putting Bargnani at Center is not so much the fear of having opposing Centers abuse him (afterall, how many opposing Centers are a real offensive risk nowadays?). It's how he's going to affect other players when they take it in the lane. Bargnani is far from a shotblocking presence and he doesn't make the kind of defensive rotations to consistently cutoff driving lanes at the point of attack. This is a problem unless you got an elite defensive PF to clean up some of his mistakes. If Bargnani comes off the bench this becomes much less of an issue, and offensively it could play to his advantage (as I'll allude to in #2). But as a starter? If you want to have a good defense, I wouldn't gamble on playing Bargnani at Center. 2) You are right, offensively he'll be more effective at Center than PF. However, the defensive risk is too great. If he comes off the bench, he can really stretch the defense out and be a mismatch playing in the middle...enough to where his defense will be good enough to make things worth it. But if he's starting, that's not the kind of defensive identity that will win much in the post-season. Overall, the ideal situation is to get an elite defensive PF to play by him, but those guys just don't come along very often. The more realistic approach is to get a good, shotblocking defensive C. Or on a contending team, have him come off the bench at C and force teams to adjust to the mismatch.