So one thing has always bothered me about Hollinger's rating system, which is that he basis schedule strength on wins and losses, while he uses point differential for other aspects of determining the strength of the team. As point differential is a stronger stat with respect to predicting future winning, I took the schedule of each team, and created a strength of schedule based on the respective opponents point differential.

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Henry Abbot of TrueHoop recently posed the question to his 'Truehoop Network of Bloggers' who is your second favorite team and why. I would definitely be interested in other people's take on this including Ben and Dave.

This site seemed like a good place to pose this question as 90% of us already know what each others' first favorite team is, and I thought it would be interesting to hear who else you root for in this league of ours. If you don't have a second favorite team I would heartily suggest finding one, and hopefully some other commentators can convince you to watch theirs. A second favorite team gives you more chances to watch other games, a commitment to seeing how a different style fares against the different match-ups. And the freedom to root for a team, and never feel the deep disappointment when you see the team fall.

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Tonight marks the end of an era in Phoenix. I will be honest, I followed and loved the Suns during the dark days of the Blazers franchise. When the season ended for us, I followed the Suns in their playoff run.

I loved everything about this team. The players, the style, the absolute unbridled love of the game. While many purists look to the Spurs as the team of the era, I will always have a special place in my heart for the Suns of 2003-2008. The Spurs were the defense and intensity and as different as points of the compass the Suns were the offense and joy. The black and gray of the East was highlighted and enhanced by the brash purple and orange to the West.

As Freedarko has said "they unleashed a running game on a league that was stagnated with half court offenses". It was like a mugging in a peaceful meadow, it would take the league a season to realize this team of unknowns were serious, and another yet to realize that not only were they serious; they were dangerous.

The league had grown boring, predictable even, and the Suns with D'Antoni at the helm, showed that there were other ways to win. There were entire other styles that were yet undiscovered... and they could work. While the Suns would have "problems" in the playoffs. While reaching the Western Conference Finals, and being right there several times, the Suns never got over the hump. They sure as heck deserved to, but that is its own thing.

The team that could have been, is a hack name for a great team. But they had the potential, they had the style, they just ran into the anti-suns every year. The black hole where style and substance is sucked into a wormhole of defense and rigid structure. Every year something would happen: a fluke injury to a key role player, a ridiculous 3, a completely ridiculous bet saving double technical foul. The Sun hardly notices the planets as they orbit, but these Suns should understand the profound effect they have had on this league.

While Amare will get back and the Suns will once again fight next year for the post-season, they will be one year older and will almost certainly have a different roster. I feel we should just take a moment and show some respect from onr of the great programs of the last several years, and while this style won't be marked with the lasting Monument of the Larry O'Brien Trophy, their style has changed the NBA.

Thank you Suns.

So what the heck does Rasheed do to get so darn many technical fouls? He already has 12(!) this season, which averages out to 1 every 2.33 games. Is the FreeDarko book to blame for this? He gets a one game suspension when he gets to 16 technical fouls (I believe) and then a one game suspension for every technical foul after that (All of this information comes from espn's weekend dime). But what could he be possibly doing to get all of these T's??

I mean KG is taunting, trash talking, and throwing cheap elbows and he isn't getting these technical's called. Is it because Rasheed talks to the refs instead of the other players? Is this was a technical foul is supposed to be? The defense of the refs from having to hear someone complain? Or is a technical foul supposed to protect the players on the court from an egregious breaking of the rules?

Anyways feel free to completely ignore these questions, as this is the Weekend JD, but I am kind of perplexed as to what Rasheed (12) could possibly be doing that is so much worse than KG (4)...

Here's some background on the freedarko Sheed chapter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tbAxmsNzio&eurl=http://www.freedarkobook.com/stats.html

This is going to be one of those posts that will either light up, or fizzle with every one calling me an idiot.

Alright so in 2 years Kobe Bryant becomes a free agent. But this summer he also has the ability to terminate his contract and become an unrestricted free agent. Would you accept him as a Blazer? (ref: http://articles.latimes.com/2008/oct/24/sports/sp-kobe24)

There is reason to believe that Kobe would be interested in coming to Portland. He has praised Nate by saying:

“He’s one of the best coaches I’ve seen,”

(ref: www.kgw.com/sports/olympics/localnews/stories/kgw_081908_olympics_mcmillan_coach.)

He has stated that Brandon Roy is one of his favorite players in the league and he likes his game a lot . (ref: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSuTpK5-j3g)

He has always been a player who has had an obsessive desire with making himself better and being a championship team.

The Freedarko book makes the case that Kobe forced the issue with Shaq, because of Shaq becoming lazy and getting old, and Bryant was looking forward to the future where Shaq would be handicapping the team. (Others make the case that Bryant is a an attention hog, as well as a ball hog)

While the Blazers have not shown they are anywhere near a championship team yet, arguably they are better than the Lakers would be without Kobe. So I pose the question to you, would you accept a free agent signing of Kobe Bryant, or is your hatred too deep?