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After thinking this over, I wouldn't guarantee that the Lakers would make the playoffs w/o Kobe, because I don't want to underestimate the Western conference.

I'm sticking by the Lebron statement. Watching him play the Magic in the Eastern Conference Finals was all that I needed to be convinced. He was unbelievable.

Feel free to tell me why I'm wrong though! :) I very well could be.

Here is the knock on Lebron... He has an average at best jump shot. He's amazing at driving to the hoop and finishing or getting fouled. If you take away that part of his game though, he doesn't have much to fall back on. If you watched game 6 against Orlando, the Magic were not letting him get to the rim and the refs were not bailing him out with the superstar calls he usually gets. He ended that game with only 25 points which is clearly not enough considering his team didn't show up the entire series.

Kobe Bryant on the other hand can shoot the lights out while being guarded tightly by some of the best defenders in the league, and he can also get to the rim when he needs to.

I would not be so fast to call Lebron a closer either. Making one catch and shoot buzzer beater does not make you a closer. Big Baby hit a buzzer beater in the playoffs and nobody calls him a closer. That game 2 shot is one of the most overrated shots in the history of the NBA. All it did is kept the Cavs from being swept. But even putting that aside, Lebron is an inconsistent foul shooter. Even though Kobe had that one bad game at the line in the finals, I would still have total confidence in having him take free throws when the game is on the line. I certainly can't say that about Lebron.

So if Lebron was on this Lakers team instead of Kobe, I think that Denver's inside presence would have troubled him the same way that Orlando did, and Denver would have won the west.

If Kobe was on that Cavs team I think the East would have ended up the same. That Cavs team just is not very good.

Yeah, we'll just have to agree to disagree on that one then. I'll give you this, Kobe was a more consistent jump shooter this year during the regular season. I think that Lebron equaled him in the playoffs though. He just couldn't miss.

In regards to Lebron being a closer, I think he proved it during the playoffs this year as well. If you take away that last second shot in game 2, he still has other evidence to back him up. Cleveland went to Lebron exclusively at the end the of every game against the Magic and he made nearly every shot.

Yeah, he had a mediocre game 6, but shit if you look at the minutes he logged in that series, somebody needed to help him. Nobody did.

I dont say these things to take anything away from Kobe, I'm just saying Lebron is the man.

If I compare the 2 I think Kobe is a better shooter and has been a better closer for a longer amount of time. I think Lebron is a better driver and rebounder than Kobe. They are both pretty comparable on D.

I'll leave it at that. Shit, I don't even know why I'm arguing this, because i really don't like either one of them. : p

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Richard Jefferson to the Spurs for Bruce Bowen, Kurt Thomas and Fabricio Oberto. If they can somehow get a true center and keep Drew Gooden, they can be dangerous. Of course pending injuries.

I hope the Hornets trade their pick and some other players (Peja and Peterson) to get a solid SF and/or center. Probably won't happen though and we'll end up with trading Chandler for some washup.

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If the hopeless Wizards can stay healthy, this new deal they got could really boost them. I don't think their #5 pick would have helped that much. I don't know how much damage Randy Foye will do though. He has the potential.

PG- Arenas

SG- Mike Miller

SF- Butler

PF- Jamison

C- Haywood

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Richard Jefferson to the Spurs for Bruce Bowen, Kurt Thomas and Fabricio Oberto. If they can somehow get a true center and keep Drew Gooden, they can be dangerous. Of course pending injuries.

I hope the Hornets trade their pick and some other players (Peja and Peterson) to get a solid SF and/or center. Probably won't happen though and we'll end up with trading Chandler for some washup.

Wow, glad Bowen is out of the West.

Ive heard rumors of Peja coming to the Lakers in a trade.

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Richard Jefferson to the Spurs for Bruce Bowen, Kurt Thomas and Fabricio Oberto. If they can somehow get a true center and keep Drew Gooden, they can be dangerous. Of course pending injuries.

I hope the Hornets trade their pick and some other players (Peja and Peterson) to get a solid SF and/or center. Probably won't happen though and we'll end up with trading Chandler for some washup.

Ive heard rumors of Peja coming to the Lakers in a trade.

That'd be...unexpected. I'd assume all we'd get is a combo of Walton, Vujacic, Powell, Morrison or Mbenga and maybe a future pick

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Ive heard rumors of Peja coming to the Lakers in a trade.

That'd be...unexpected. I'd assume all we'd get is a combo of Walton, Vujacic, Powell, Morrison or Mbenga and maybe a future pick

Yea, pretty much.

Bowen is getting old but he can still play Kobe pretty well. Im glad to get him out of the West but Jefferson could help the Spurs out a lot and you can never count the Spurs out, they always have a chance of going deep in the playoffs.

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If the hopeless Wizards can stay healthy, this new deal they got could really boost them. I don't think their #5 pick would have helped that much. I don't know how much damage Randy Foye will do though. He has the potential.

PG- Arenas

SG- Mike Miller

SF- Butler

PF- Jamison

C- Haywood

The #5 pick is going to, in all likelihood, be a dog. This year's draft is supposed to be pretty bad. I think this is a total cap deal for the Wiz, getting rid of some dead weight in hopes of having money for the free agents of 2010.

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Excellent move by the Wizards. I agree with Sammy that it really helps with the cap and that the pick was lousy anyway. I think it makes the team a little better too adding two more decent scorers. If everyone can stay healthy they still won't play any defense, but they should be able to outscore just about any team in the league. Hopefully I can see them back in the playoffs next year. (where they will most likely lose to the Cavs again)

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It will be interesting to see how they use Shaq. It definately makes them a better team. I still don't think it makes them better than a healthy Boston team, Orlando (if they can keep Hedo), or the Lakers.

I would agree with this. If this was Shaq from a few years ago it would be different but he's only played about 3/4 of each of the past 8 seasons on average and he's almost 40. How well does he keep up with Pau and how well can he play big minutes? The Cavs are better because Ben Wallace is horrid but I'm not sure they're world-beaters now.

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I think Shaq kills the Cavs floor spacing. Mike Brown doesn't know how to diagram anything other than a drive and kick isolation for LeBron. Not having Ilgauskas to space the floor just means that Shaq and LeBron will run into each other. Also Shaq can't guard Dwight one on one, that notion is just ridiculous. The way Phil Jackson handled Dwight in the finals just exposed Mike Brown as a fraud. The Cavs struggles was a product of a poor scheme in the post and an inability to match up with Orlando's size on the perimeter.

If I'm an Orlando fan I'd rather have a glue guy like Courtney Lee than a gunner and all round ninny like Vince.

Celtics. Celtics. Celtics.

EDIT: If you have some time on your hands check out the blog in my signature. My writing partner and I both wrote draft posts. If you follow us or leave a comment you might make me blush.

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Well Phil also had Odom, Bynum and Gasol who are much, much better than Varejao and Big Z. And then if all three got in trouble you had Mbenga who had at least good size. I think that helped the Lakers on top of Phil knowing better how to use his players. The Cavs are just not that good, they simply have LeBron who raises that team to heights it has no business occupying.

As for Orlando matching up against Cleveland, Dwight needs to get better for Orlando to be an honest threat. He needs a hook and moves he can go right or left with. He's simply too limited right now to be a true threat against a well-coached team. As big as Dwight is, he's not going to muscle Shaq. And if Bynum stays healthy and gets strong I doubt he muscles a guy like Bynum either. Vince, well, I just don't think that dude is a championship caliber player.

If the Celtics deal Rondo I'm not sure what kind of team they have. They would need to get a point guard in return to make them a big threat. There's even talk of dealing Ray Allen for the right price. And who knows if Garnett comes back in any kind of shape to dominate.

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Ray Allen was more or less a salary shedding throw in for team to get Rondo. But the way the Celtics structured the contracts of their Big 3 would lead me to believe that he isn't going anywhere.

You really think that there's a big difference defensively between Odom, Bynum, Gasol, and Z, V and Big Ben? I don't think so. In fact out of those 6 I have V. The difference was that Phil was smart enough to exploit Dwight's low basketball IQ. The guy never knew where the double was coming from, or if it was coming, and when he did make the right read he couldn't make the pass.

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