Escobar06

Or if any of the key FA's will sign with us in 2012. I'd like to think they would, but you never know.

Same. Only way I see this happening is if we also have a deal lined up with ATL for Smith. Trading away Jameer for an older PG and a rookie doesn't quite sound like an upgrade to me, or more importantly to Dwight I'm sure.

He's been in the league THREE years, given that slightly important piece of information and the numbers he's put up in that amount of time (and more importantly his continuous improvement in all key areas) I'd say he's well on his way to star status. To be honest you just sound like a Dwight homer who is bitter over another guy taking over the rebounding crown. That's the best I can come up with considering your theory of how Love gets his rebounds.

There certainly is an excuse for that. It's called a bad team, not a hard concept to figure out. 20 and 15 is great but if the rest of your team save for possibly Beasley is pure trash what good is it going to do, especially in a good division. You take Dwight in his first three years and surround him with that cast in that division and I'm not sure things would be much better.

His supporting cast isn't exactly stellar. Their depth is atrocious, they had three playoff teams in their division all vastly superior talent wise, and a Utah team that has talent with or without Deron. I'm not saying Love is an elite super star, but pair him up with one (especially a defensive super star like Dwight), and you have a very legit combo.

I'm sure that's a sound proven theory. The guy averaged more rebounds than Dwight and only a couple less points per game, he's doing something right. You don't average 20 ppg by "giving up on offensive plays" to get your rebounds.

You've stated several times what you think Bass' rebounding capabilities are, you don't believe Love's dominance on the glass would negate the assumed 4-5 ppg increase?. I sure do, I'd imagine opposing teams would have a tough time registering second chance points against that lineup. Add in all of the extra possessions Love would give us offensively combined with his solid three point shooting and it's clear his defensive limitations would be more than made up for. Mainly I just like the thought of the leagues two best double double machines on the same roster.

You put an exact number. And it's not my "ideal team" per se, but I'm not going to list the same players everyone else is listing, what's the point in that? Just thought I'd come up with some names I haven't seen mentioned.

So you're saying that replacing Bass and Turk with Chandler and Love would add roughly 16 ppg to our points against average vs what it was last year? Never knew you thought so highly of Bass and Turks defense. In other words, if our current lineup already included Love and Chandler and we were about to replace them with Bass and Turk, you'd look at that as a massive defensive upgrade? Because 16 ppg is pretty significant.

No team with Dwight at center is giving up 110 a game, especially when we'd be so dominant on the glass.

PG: Jameer Nelson SG: Jason Richardson SF: Wilson Chandler PF: Kevin Love C: Dwight Howard Sixth Man: Ben Gordon

I'm aware. Next time if you want a serious response you'll use quotation marks when they are accurate and you'll avoid assumptions while at the same time accusing someone of making them. I did get a chuckle out of the "you derailed the thread" bit, given the fact that it was derailed by several other people only moments after it was created. I also had a hearty LOL at the fact that you honestly believe I give a rats member whether a bunch of people who post lame videos, LoL cats, create alter ego's and refer to themselves as "xenu" think I sound "juvenile". So much typed, so little said. Shame...hope you didn't tire yourself out :) Oh, almost forgot.....ZOLTAN!!!

They did, however they didn't win by 2 goals. Which is what I picked in Streak for the Cash on ESPN. It ended my streak, which is all that really matters.

But you can take SOMETHING from two poor post seasons. I was responding to the claim that everyone played poorly against Atlanta. Well, last year we slaughtered Atlanta in the playoffs, we also swept Charlotte. At some point Ryan is going to have to do something when it matters. Considering he's still young and cheap, I'm willing to give him another year. If he bombs again next year in the playoffs.... whether that's in 8 mpg or 25, it's clearly time to move on.

Ryan may have the mental edge over Bass when it comes to team defense, but he's slow as molasses. If you know what to do but don't have the athleticism to do it consistently well...you might as well not know what to do. Combine that with his lack of strength (something he said he's going to work on this offseason) and I can't give the edge to Ryan when it comes to any kind of defense. I also don't believe Bass is as clueless defensively as people claim he is. What I do think is that he is the type who presses too much when he receives criticism. He thinks too much, and when you're thinking too much you can't react the way you need to. Of course that's just an opinion but it's something I've thought for awhile. In short, he's mentally weak.