The trio is meeting at the Bradley Center for the roundtable this weekHere I stand before you for another addition of the Roundtable. We're doing an early week addition this time around for TV ratings purposes, even though the last one got a good overnight rating but I think we'll do something for all-star weekend and my mock draft later in the week so today we'll do another roundtable. Plenty to talk about, including a shocking trade between New Orleans and Milwaukee that broke after the topics had been sent. You know the two gentlemen joining me today very well. A pair of delightful Croatians, Hrvoje and Ante. Let's get to the topics!
1. Do the Hornets need to make big changes? Should they try to trade for star PG?Ante: I'm doing them right now chill. Yeah I know we struggling in the clutch without a premier point guard, every game has been lost in the 4th quarter. But still we have 26 games left so no panic, but we're trading for a good point guard ala Jennings, Billups, Lawson.
Hrvoje: Even though Ante won't admit it, he needs a dominant PG to be successful. Smith with all good will and attempts to over-(ab)use him isn't that guy. He's nothing more than an energy player off the bench, to come in for a couple of minutes and raise hell. Now before Ante answers that he'll make us eat our words and other gay threats, I think we can all agree that he missed the boat on Mo trade, and was very slow on trigger to pull any major trade and change the fate of the season (btw. Jennings offer is still on the table).
Bryan: There's no doubt Ante needs a strong PG to win on 2k. It's no secret and everyone knows it by now. He made the right decision to trade for Brandon Jennings late this afternoon. He had no other options. Team is going nowhere and if a trade wasn't made their playoff chances were very much in doubt. It's funny that he signed Eric Gordon to a fat contract, only to trade him 3 days later but things change and Ante was desperate. I hope the trade works out well for both parties.
2. Arguments on the forum: Lame or entertaining?Bryan: I would say both. Fun for awhile but tiresome after a few hours when you realize what exactly you're arguing about. A mid to low level PS3 game. If you play leagues long enough you will be involved in the occasional pissing match or two so its all good IMO. Comes with the territory.
Ante: In the first hand entertaining, but after 10 pages, lame. Some of the members just can't adjust themselves and start making valuable points to our organization.
Hrvoje: Entertaining. It's always a fun thing to read those 5 paragraph long so-called arguments. To quote Leroy from the D'D documentary: "I instigated a lot of shit around here, and I regret it for not doing it even more." Thank you Leroy, your words speak for a lot of us.
3. Fact or Fiction: Luka and the Jazz will end the season with more wins than any other Croatian coach this season?Hrvoje: Fact. He has the best team of us 4, and he went quickly from 12-18 to around .500 with the great win streak. Orlando made that dubious Dwight trade, I'm a .500 team in best case and have yet to properly adjust to life without Jackson, and Hornets are six feet under due to questionable moves and the fact that the team is built without a proper point guard so it might be a little too late to catch-up the rest of us.
Ante: Fiction, because I'm too competitive to say anything else and I'm engaging try hard walk over corpse mode.
Bryan: I'm going fact here but the latest trade between Milwaukee and New Orleans shakes things up a bit. Utah is playing great basketball right now and regardless of what happens in the battle of Croatians, he's still well on his way to a solid season. I'll never bet against Ante on 2k though.
4. Fact or Fiction: Justin and Boston have the best chance of any human coach to win it allBryan: I'm going fact here but it seems like a two team race between New York and Boston. Justin will likely end up with a better seed than EDC so that could be the difference but the Knicks have an interesting roster. One that will be an extremely tough out. SparkBarea joined as the Heat recently so that is a definite wild card.
Hrvoje: Fact. He has no real human competition in the East, and if he manages to avoid CPU Heat he'll probably go to the Finals where I don't see a human opposition coming out of the West, which leads us to...
Ante: Fiction, Hornets beat them so they aren't a great team, and we know that the Hornets do suck right now.
5. Fact or Fiction: Lakers will win the Western conferenceHrvoje: Fiction. Not because I doubt that any other human team will take him down, but because CPU Mavs, Blazers, Clippers and (eventually) Thunder are simply too much to overcome. The team is built for next season success, and I doubt that Arenas is "the" third guy on their team. It looks more like Bynum, Kobe and then a huge hole after them, and then Arenas and the rest of the fantasy squad.
Bryan: Nice dig at Jeebs and the Thunder. Paul would be proud. I'm going fact here. To be the man you gotta beat the man. Until someone in the west knocks off the Lakers in a series I'm going with Paul and the Lakers. The talent is absolutely in place for a championship run.
Ante: Fiction again, man this is science fiction. The Lakers cannot pull another miracle just because the West is rugged and every team is trying and getting bigger for the Lakers in the frontcourt, while the Lakers are smaller with Jamison, Murphy, McBob and Bynum. Against Big Al, Enes, Millsap, Favors, Kaman, Tyson, Landry, Smith, Griffin, Deandre, Nene, Mozgov etc etc they don't stand a chance when the pace gets slow and teams start to banging them down low and boosting PIP, I don't care how Paul gets fucked up by the media (yes first F word in the roundtable) he can't pull a miracle here unless the SECOND team in LA, the Lakers get bigger because they're playing sissy ball right now, which works in the regular season, running up and down etc. But I found out last season in the playoffs, KMart is 6'9, Emeka is 6'10, guess what people, 4-2 loss to the Lakers and they had Gasol and Bynum and we were abused in the paint, case closed.
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Thank you both for the energy and passion in your answers today. Your contributions are always appreciated. Things are really starting to heat up in the OA and before you know it the trade deadline will come and go and we'll all be making our summit push towards the post season. If you plan to make a trade I'd do it ASAP. With these 4 hour advances it goes fast. Until next time, thanks for reading and keep living the dream. #ISBA
Subject: Weekly Roundtable-January 9th 
Mon Jan 09, 2012 8:39 pm
that's what I do.
