FanNation - The Republic of Sport

Oh, alright, Jagz. I thought you were arguing for Westbrook OVER Rondo right now. But, yes, next year will give us a look at whether or not Westbrook can be a true point guard in the League.

Joe, I get what you're saying. Let me try to persuade you otherwise in my next argument. Thanks for giving it a look.

Jagz, Westbrook is the one with a top 5 scorer in the League on his team, not Rondo.

Besides, how do you know that Westbrook can play the role of distributor? He hasn't yet; it's not really proven whether or not he can do it.

To me, Rondo has proven he can play that role AND score when called upon (shown during the playoffs, without KG, when he went for 20+ five times).

Again, this isn't the best group of players; it's the best team. I don't get how you can talk about Rondo playing with Sheed either. It hasn't happened yet. Rondo has put up great numbers without Sheed and, at times, without Garnett. And no offense to Perkins, but he isn't exactly Shaq down there collecting dumpoff passes and throwing them down.

Viable scoring option? Westbrook was their third option, and Rondo was Boston's fourth (and their second or third in the playoffs, depending on how well Allen was shooting). I'm not seeing a huge difference here.

In the end, I'll trade three less points per game for three more assists per game and a more complete player any day of the week.

I got it to work by switching from Mozilla Firefox to Internet Explorer. That's weird.

No, it's not slow at all. I press submit argument and it goes to this page again like it submitted, but nothing happens.

Okay, my argument won't submit...I hope it doesn't show up like the 6 times I tried. haha. Sorry if it does. I'll try again later.

You took the words right out of my mouth, CCC. Besides, Rose is used to passing to star players, right? Oh wait, just Ben Gordon and...Brad Miller? Ok...

Hey Denis, how's it going?

And, yeah, I wanted more of a true point guard than Rose (at least in my starting lineup). Because, as you know, I always go for the team outlook in throwdowns like this, not just that Player A is better than Player B.

Haha, you know it, DJ.

By the way, Hyped, sorry I didn't have a ton of differences, but KD and Roy can't be moved and who else was there at center? Marc Gasol?

It's too early to really choose but from the direction this team has been going since the Shaq trade, I think they'll have a tough time making the playoffs. I'll be back...

"Carmelo is 6-8, so it's not like he doesn't have the height. Playing on a team known for it's scoring and playing on the wing, he still has less than 2 assists than someone who's played down low his entire career."

Kind of contradictory here, 0x. If he plays on the wing, he should be getting less rebounds even though he's tall enough.

"I don't see how it is misleading when, Jefferson is the without a doubt the top player on the T'Wolves, and one of there very few bright spots. He is the #1 scoring option, so there is no excuses for him not leading Melo. Especially when you have a guy like Allen Iverson on his team who averages over 26 PPG."

The #1 scorer on a weak team is often plagued by good defense. Bad rebuttal, in my opinion. As far as Iverson and Melo averaging a lot together, that again relates back to their style of play.

"You talk about the run n gun offensive style by the Nuggets and the fact they don't play much Defense. Jefferson has more rebounding opportunities."

Quite the oppositve, in my opinion. More points means more possessions. More possessions means more shots. More shots means more rebounds.

"Plus if Melo is on the perimeter and a shot goes up he is heading to the other end of the floor going for a home run play."

I believe that's called cherry-picking, not run and gun. You are supposed to either stay around the three-point line for the outlet pass or crash the boards. There really isn't anything else you should be doing. You run to the other end when you see your teammate has secured the rebound.

"That is EXACTLY why it is irrelevant that Carmelo scores 4 more points a game. But, Big Al has a BETTER shooting %, which counts for something."

Very good rebuttal, 0x. Nicely done.

"Melo spends some of his time on the perimeter and shoots from downtown."

Woah, woah, woah, hold up. I believe you just said that he cherry-picks to get the easy score. Now all of a sudden, he's bombing it from deep. See, that's my problem with Melo. He doesn't play defense; he cherry-picks as you said and he often has a poor shot selection hoisting up three-pointers that isn't in the rhythm of the offense.

"You talked about earlier how Anthony only averaged 2 more assists. Then you talked about Jefferson seeing double teams. Jefferson should average more assists than he really does. If your doubled somebody has to be open."

Very good point. The obvious rebuttal to this would be that he doesn't have anyone good to pass to, but these players are in the NBA for Pete's sake. If they don't make a wide-open jumper, then they should either be on the bench or blaming Big Al for throwing such a god-awful pass.

But a fantastic (and when I say fantastic, I mean it) third argument by 0x completely swayed me to the right. Great throwdown, guys.

I think you both somewhat went off topic with arguments about the other top teams in the West, but after reading all the arguments, I'm leaning left by the slightest of margins. Great throwdown on a good topic, guys.

Cool topic, Dave. I'll wait for the final arguments but the picks were better to the left, in my opinion.

hahaha

Make that 1210 comments...

I like Outside the Lines. It usually gives you some unique sports coverage that has been reported to death by all the other ESPN sports shows.

"I haven't made it through a whole sports center in a couple of years. It's just awful anymore. Rome is annoying, but I'll watch it when he has a good guest." -CCC

I agree with everything you said right there.

Leaning right.

And I'm with Zapp. I don't watch SC anymore. It used to be a must-see every morning for me but now I just check the Internet and/or read the paper.

Good TD on an interesting topic, guys. This was a crucial (and somewhat poor) rebuttal in my opinion:

"[...] the Heat might also get Boozer so theres a good chance."

Do you realize how HARD it would be for the Heat to keep Beasley, Marion, and Wade while getting Boozer? Boozer also won't be any younger two years from now.

Overall, I think Zapp had the more logical and also the better arguments. Vote right.

Lakers advances to the quarterfinals of the Haven's First Tournament.

Cincy, in Lakers's defense, New Orleans did NOT win more games. They won the same but edged out the Spurs based on a tiebreaker.

Lakers, in your first argument, YOU say that you only have two starters that are better than his. What does any of that prove? Basically the whole comparison was a push between two evenly-matched teams. SS, you didn't even address this even though your second argument was pretty good.

After reading SS's second argument, if I were one of you, I would have taken a good hard look at the home games and away games each team has against other good teams in the West. It could have helped one of your argument's a TON.

"The Hornets have a better offense, but the Spurs have the better defense. Defense wins championships. Ask the Lakers how there high powerd offense fared against the lock down defense of the Celtics."

Two things. One, we're talking about the regular season here. Championships and postseason success mean absolutely nothing. Just think of the Mavs and Suns. haha. Second thing, ask the Spurs how their lock down defense fared against the high powered offense of the Lakers?

SS, your point about Manu's injury was key. I was waiting for you to mention it. I think you could have addressed it a little better though. Manu is ESSENTIAL if the Spurs want to win the division.

Very good TD to the both of you, but I'm going to have to vote right just barely.

Vote right.