Current YOU'RE RIGHT tally: Kim 345, Patrick 2

[Kim Malo]

At 07:08 PM 4/13/2007, Ryan, Patrick S Maj RES USAFR 439 MSG wrote:
>Thinking back you're right - Curry has played very well against AJ - career
>type games.

Yeah, that's part of why I used him as an example. The difference is 
so clear - you can see it even when they've had both guarding him in 
the same game, where Al will let him get on a real roll and Perk will 
come in and stifle it. Mostly with what I think is the essence of 
defense - forcing him out of his comfort zone, into doing what / 
going where you want him to do vs what he wants to do. Al almost 
never does that to anyone, for all his ability to block the shot once 
it has been put up.

>Kinda reinforces something I didn't mention, but what I do
>feel, is that AJ is NOT a Center and is in fact a PF - period.

Sure, I've said that before. Although you can make more of a case 
that he works at center on offense, because of his post game, than on 
defense (which was a hair I've split when making the point before too)

>Second, this
>once more makes the argument for me IF given the choice and with no other
>trades of existing players that Oden should be the pick.

See, keep agreeing with me and the tally will even up quickly, not 
that I believe it's that far off even if I'd been keeping score : )
That's what I've been saying about you may not want to draft strictly 
for need but it's idiotic to not take need into account. And I think 
there's no question Oden suits our needs better. The question is if 
Durant is a transcendent enough player that, to use a notorious 
historical example, you should still pick MJ over Sam Bowie, 
regardless of need. I've no clue about that one.

>Third, in the NBA, am I crazy or is the distinction between PF and C now
>more about "the beef" when distinguishing them league-wide from PFs in most
>cases??? Just curious.

Not completely IMO. The modern day PF is expected to have more range 
- a true jump shot, as part of playing more away from the paint. 
Which also means being able to handle the ball better. OTOH I do 
think what I suspect underlies your thought - that being center vs PF 
is no longer just about being the tallest guy on the floor - is true.

>Last, and totally unrelated - heard a rumor that NBA was considering
>(basically going to make it a league rules committee item or something)
>going back to the one ping pong ball per non-playoff team lottery after this
>season (due to the "tanking issue").  Probably just that - a dumb rumor, but
>anyone heard anything?

Haven't, but if ever there was a season to convince them this would 
be it, with a whole bunch of teams "resting" key players down the 
stretch, not just one or two. Although I'm not sure I use the word 
tanking for all of that. Take Boston, for example. If we were in a 
make the playoff run then no question players like Pierce would be 
playing - whether or not they should. But this isn't Hellenic Flu 
with him. He really has multiple real problems that would be a lot 
better off not having him play. While for all the accusations of 
tanking, we've been close to a .500 team since the big losing streak, 
so if we're wholeheartedly tanking vs just not doing every possible 
thing to win then we're doing a lousy job of it. And back to the NBA 
considering - the other factor is that the weighted lottery simply 
hasn't done what they wanted - the worst team almost never wins and 
in fact the worst couple of teams have been more apt to be picking 
4th than at the top. So it's not like they'd be eliminatingsomething 
that was a big success.
Kim