Look out weekend, cuz here I come! Let's get this show on the road, everyone!

Man, both of these benches are so good that guys that the coaches like can't even get time (Luke Walton and Walter Herrmann).

However, I'm going to choose the Pistons because their reserves a bit more versatile than the Lakers in that they can provide an offensive punch while also really putting the clamps down on defense. Rodney Stuckey is talented and capable enough to play as a starter for a bunch of teams - his athleticism makes him a dynamic scorer in short minutes and he's also a capable defender. Although Antonio McDyess is a year older, he's still more than able to hold his own on both ends of the court. Jason Maxiell isn't the defensive player he should be, but his energetic play leads to solid offensive production while Arron Afflalo does the dirty work as a perimeter defender. Seldom-used Walter Hermann and Kwame Brown are also reputed defenders.

With the exception of Trevor Ariza, the Lakers' reserves don't really provide defense as they increase the pace of the game and score in early offense. Jordan Farmar, Sasha Vujacic, and Lamar Odom thrive in that style of play and have thus far succeeded in sustaining - and even increasing - leads while Kobe rests. Vujacic shoots, Farmar slashes, Odom creates, and Ariza is starting to do a little bit of everything offensively (he's become a noticeably better shooter) in addition to his defensive presence. Vujacic is an irritating defender and Farmar holds his own, but neither is a lock-down defender like Afflalo is and although Odom is a pretty good defender, his heart is on using his tremendous versatility on offense.

As the season wears on, the Lakers' reserves will be towards the top of scoring production for a bench and will support the Lakers towards their run to the top of Western Conference. But the defensive pressure the Pistons' bench puts on in addition to some of the offensive firepower provided from the bench puts them slightly ahead for me. Slightly. Very slightly.

Now .. if the Lakers played the Pistons in the Finals .. that would be a fun matchup of opposites! Great (and tough!) question to start with from Down Under!

A lot of the Hornets' fans have e-mailed me regarding their confidence in the squad. Adding a key piece like James Posey, having an MVP candidate like CP3, and a cast of role players that include the All-Star and perpetually underrated David West, spot-up shooter Peja Stojakovic, and a great big man in Tyson Chandler certainly fuels their fire.

But here's the concern they really should all have: look at that stable of reserve big men. Let's be honest with ourselves for a moment - Julian Wright, Hilton Armstrong, Sean Marks, Ryan Bowen, and Melvin Ely wouldn't scare elite teams in the NBA at all. The situation with reserve big men is so bad that Coach Scott is likely to use Posey to play the 4 at times, where I personally think he'll get outmatched.

We talked earlier today about the Lakers' bench .. that's what makes them clearly better than the Hornets for me. Other than Mike James and Posey (and possibly Wright), I'm underwhelmed by the Hornets' bench.

At the same time, I bet you Bower is going to do something about it - he's a great GM.

I think it's still early - remember, Bynum and Gasol are still in the process of figuring things out. Preseason wasn't enough, I'm sure of that.

What you'll start seeing soon enough is the high screen-and-roll between Kobe and Bynum or Lamar and Bynum. Teams are going to be forced to make decisions about which poison they want to die by. Additionally, the Lakers have really been running up in these first two games - we all know Bynum needs to get fed in the half-court set, so once the team slows down it's early-offense, you can expect Bynum to get the ball in the post with about 10-14 seconds left in the clock for him to operate. He'll kick if out to a shooter if he isn't seeing something he likes.

That's part of the reason Radmanovic is starting - the team needs to give space for both bigs in the game.

Also, expect a lot of hand-offs and nice little short passes from Gasol to Bynum at some point. Gasol loves the little shovel pass to Bynum and should start to use it a bit more when they're comfortable.

Farmar has shown a new commitment to getting to the basket. Throughout the presesaon and in the Lakers' first two games, you can see that he is attempting to clearly use his quickness to penetrate (and get fouled) while utilizing some creative finishes to get the job done. Still, he is not at the level of Tony Parker, who is perpetually underrated for what he does on the court.

At the same time, Farmar's shown in the past that he can be a spot-up shooter as well but he's not as cutthroat as Bibby can be (and when Bibby gets hot, he's a GREAT shooter).

I'd lean towards Farmar being a middle-class Tony Parker more than Bibby.

What the pundits are seeing in the Lakers' chances are presuming that Bynum wouldn't be a non-factor in the playoffs. He would have significantly helped curb the rebounding and toughness gap the Lakers had with the Celtics last year, as would have Trevor Ariza and Chris Mihm. The healthy return of all three is really what will help - all three are at least solid defenders.

True that. The Lakers beat a young Blazer team that was shell-shocked after losing Oden again and the atmosphere in that building was crazy. The Clippers aren't on my list of Playoff teams .. so I think tempering the enthusiasm is a good idea.

The Rockets definitely have what it takes to challenge the Lakers because of their ability to slow the game down into the plodding half-court set. What we've seen from these Lakers is that they take every opportunity they can to run and get to the basket, looking only to set up the Triangle when there isn't an opening. The Rockets' half-court set is going to prevent the Lakers from really getting ahead like they have been.

Where I think the Rockets are going to have a tougher time, though, is figuring out who guards the other twin tower. Yao will be on Bynum, but what do you do with Gasol? Put Artest on him? Then you can't put Artest on Kobe (you can put Battier, but Kobe doesn't like when you body him up a bit, which Artest can do better than Battier). Just something to think about.

At the same time, I have a hard time saying that the Lakers are head-and-shoulders above everyone else in the Conference. They're good - maybe great - but it's too early to say that everyone else is playing for second. The Hornets, Rockets, Spurs, Suns, and Jazz all can really make a push this season.

Not the best week to ask this after watching Oden's largely ineffective minutes on Tuesday ..

Here's the thing that bugged me about what I saw from Oden: what did he do offensively other than dunk? His jumphooks looked flat and really, really bad (it was like he was putting shot or something). Bynum's game on offense has become rather polished and diverse while his defense has significantly improved with the threat of blocking shots. He has already shown he can be a double-double guy.

Bynum is clearly better right now, but I think you can't just give up on Oden. He didn't look good - that's worth repeating - but he's got so much pressure and still needs time to work that knee back to a place where he can trust it to do what he wants. I'm starting to feel as though Oden won't have a great year, but he'll really explode next season.

But, to answer your question more directly: I'm taking Bynum because he's simply a more proven commodity. I've never been a risky guy by nature - it's not my personality.

There's a whole bunch of iterations of this question, so apparently it's worth discussing.

I do agree that the Lakers haven't had much of a challenge, as outlined in the question above, but I think what you're seeing from the Lakers right now is a product of their tremendous depth. The astonishing part so far in what they've done is that there is absolutely no drop-off from starters to bench, which ultimately is why you're seeing these big leads and gaps during the games.

What I want to see is the Lakers play a team that does have a bench mob of their own - the Pistons or Jazz or Rockets or Cavaliers.

Additionally, I want to see them out of their element. The Lakers were "on the road" against the Clippers, but I've always said the Lakers have an unfair advantage in that they play, basically, 43 home games when you factor the two games against the Clippers where 1) they're familiar with the building and rims and stuff like that (don't have to deal with any road adjustment at all) and 2) the environment is pretty much pro-Lakers anyway since LA is too much of a Lakers town to really make a dent from the Clippers.

Had the Lakers road game been in Utah or even Sacramento or something of legitimate roadness, I'd be a lot more impressed. I'd be even more impressed if the team their playing had their starting big man rather than having them sit with injury (Oden, Camby).

What's up, Chuck! Hope you're well.

One of the things a lot of us started to notice about the Beaze was that he liked being on the perimeter. In past chats, we've discussed how he just seems more comfortable with more of the court in front of him, allowing him to see where the space is and decide what he wanted to do. As the preseason wore on, though, he started to slowly hang out there far too much and I think Coach Spo is going to have to eventually have a chat with him about what's going on.

I don't know if Beasley is a low-post player. He certainly was in college, but the preseason games showed us that he certainly gets pushed around when he's playing with the bigger boys. I think the fact that he's chillin' around the perimeter is a direct product of his disdain for being bodied up down low and being largely ineffective.

Well .. I can say this. Normally, I am forced to admit when I'm wrong, but I remember you asking about the Magic's rotation at the 2 a few weeks ago, and I said it would probably end up being Pietrus, Bogans, and then Lee or Redick, depending on preseason play. Seems like that's what's turning out to be true.

Redick played relatively well in the preseason - he certainly looked like he was in better shape and passed the eye test. The shot wasn't falling, but the stronger effort to do other things was there, leading many to believe that this is his year to get some time, assuming the shot would fall eventually.

In the time that he's been given so far on the court during the season, he's missed every shot he's taken and once again seems to have lost a step to revert back to old Jonathan Clay .. SVG has said that he won't mess around with the guys' playing time yet, so maybe J.J. can snap out of it, but he hasn't looked very good.

I'm not willing to go so far as to say the team was just building up his value, though. They exercised his option and may still be looking to deal him, but I'm sure they want to see J.J. succeed in some capacity.

The Lakers will be in a tough position next summer, forced to decide what they're going to do about these two guys while also having to consider giving Kobe a new deal that could be worth as much as $135-million. The Kobe decision is a no-brainer, but with luxury tax concerns, Odom and Ariza become a really tough decision.

It really depends on the numbers, I think. Ariza is being paid at $3-million this season - by NBA standards, he is an absolute steal. But if he starts to demand upwards of $8- or $9-million per year in his next contract, he isn't worth it when you can get Odom for slightly more than that and he's more versatile.

Both guys are team players, but as Odom told reporters yesterday, no one likes to take a pay cut. For him, staying with the Lakers almost certainly means he'll have to do so, paid around $9-million per season. I highly doubt the Lakers go farther than that, again, because of the luxury tax concerns.

If I'm the Lakers, I keep this team intact and try to win a championship with them. If they struggle and you need to move Odom at the deadline, you consider that option. If they win the title, you almost certainly have to keep the core group of guys together, which could mean either buying out or finding a taker for a player like Luke Walton, whose deal is really long but gets no PT at all.

If keeping everyone isn't an option, you've got to say goodbye to Odom in free agency and keep Ariza at every cost possible. He'll eventually become the starter if he continues to shoot the way he's shooting, making him and Radmanovic a formidable duo, but the team is going to have to find a nice player off the bench that can create for others in the same fashion that Odom did. That might be something you look for in the draft and develop over time, though.

It's a tough decision, but with money being tight, you give the smaller contract to Ariza and look to add a poor-man's Odom to come off the bench by another means.

No way. If he plays the point guard position, he's going to get murdered on defense. J.J. is already a poor defender - the joke being that he couldn't keep a cone in front of him - so how is he going to handle defending the quickest players on the other team? It's not happening.

Offensively, I'm assuming he won't be handling the ball much at the point since Hedo or Shard would bring it up, so I can see it to a certain extent there. But he'd be a real minus on the other end, outweighing any benefit of him offensively.

You still think the Raptors are that impressive when it took them overtime to beat a depleted Warriors squad that isn't going to make the Playoffs and will find it challenging to win 35 games this season? The same Warriors squad that got a whopping 11-35 shooting performance from it's two best players (Maggette and Jackson)?

The ship sways both ways, friend. Just because the Raptors beat the Sixers on Wednesday, it doesn't tell me they're the better team. I will take the depth of the Sixers (their better bench) and the combination of Andre Miller, Andre Iguodala, and Elton Brand over the trio the Raptors roll out in Jose Calderon, Jermaine O'Neal, and Chris Bosh.

Bosh is coming into his own and using his Team USA experience to establish himself as a top big man in the game, but I'll stick by what I've said about the Sixers - they will need time to figure out how to make things work and adjust to each others' game. The Raptors seem to have figured that out quicker and I'll give them credit for that. But overall, the depth of the Sixers is what makes them better to me.

Let's put it this way - I'll take Louis Williams, Reggie Evans, Marreese Speights, and Willie Green off the bench any day before Roko Ukic, Joey Graham, Andrea Bargnani, and Jason Kapono.

The race for the Atlantic is going to be very fun to watch between these two teams and Boston. They'll all make the Playoffs, but I don't think you can say just yet the Raptors are definitively better than the Sixers.

Apparently, D'Antoni doesn't think he's got what the coaching staff is looking for. There's no other way to put it, I guess. I still think Steph has something left in the tank, but I'm not sure that it is that much.

You have to also understand that D'Antoni is trying to assert his leadership and control over this team and organization. He and Donnie Walsh need to send messages to the players and fans that they're going to make decisions that they think is best for the team and I think that, to a certain extent, Marbury is being made an example of and being made into the bad guy when, in reality, the only thing he has done wrong (on the court) is not jive with D'Antoni's philosophies.

I still feel like Stephon Marbury can play the game of basketball, at least physically. Mentally, though, he's going to make a lot of mistakes because he's a selfish player looking to "get his" and be a star. I don't know if that's changed, but that's who he has always been. D'Antoni isn't going to be able to just change that on a whim.

I'm watching this guy in Summer League and saying to myself that he has no chance to be an NBA rotational player. Yea, I was wrong.

It's hard to remember that Batum is only 19 years old. He's still learning and literally he's still growing.

His contribution to yesterday's game was absolutely impressive, nothing greater than the defensive awareness and athleticism he showed on those blocks on Duncan and Parker in the lane. The Parker block is the one that allowed Brandon Roy to head down the court and knock down the three at the buzzer to give the Blazers momentum into halftime (and a nice six point lead).

The blocks (along with his 12 points) are the only things that'll show up on the stat sheet, but his overall play and the 'intangibles' were really impressive. He was touted as a superstar coming out of France (at one point, he was projected as a top 5 pick, before the questions of his heart and stuff came up), but what I'm seeing from him instead is a player with a knack to make the energy plays that his team needs. Nothing wrong with that at all - he'll be a great glue guy in the future starting lineup of Bayless/Fernandez, Roy, Aldridge, and Oden, with him at the 3.

Well, the HEAT will tell you that it was the team you saw against the Kings, where they were playing solid defense (Israel Gutierrez of the Miami Herald called it "annoying" and "pestering"). Wade was all over the place - when your superstar commits to playing defense like that, it permeates throughout the roster. Chalmers used those long arms and Haslem was his usual strong self in the paint.

But what you saw on Friday, which was important, was the return of the Shawn Marion. The increased defensive intensity for the HEAT directly helped Marion stay in the game - he was active on defense as usual and you saw a more efficient double-double. Eventually, he's going to start producing on offense as well.

But the "real" HEAT aren't going to be around until James Jones is back. I really think Jones is going to be a difference-maker for the HEAT. His combination of shooting, savvy, and defense is going to make this squad a lot better. When he's back, give him 5 or 6 games t oget back into the thick of things, and I think you'll see a more consistent HEAT team from that point moving forward.

18% - the thing that has me worried is that he's only played in something like 33 games since he left high school. I don't know when you start calling someone injury prone, but between the wrist, knee, and now the foot, you have to wonder about it. I know the team will say these injuries "can happen to any basketball player" - sure, but when all three are happening to one guy, you at least wonder.

I still believe in him because a) he works hard b) he cares enough to get better and c) has all the physical tools to be a dominant player. Those are things that should .. eventually .. allow him to break out. And remember - I'm not expecting anything from him this year - it usually takes a year for players to recover from those knee surgeries enough to trust them and really start exploding again.

He's a hybrid guard right now because he's still learning how to be a point guard. That's why I liked the idea of he and Hinrich in the backcourt together. I see why you'd compare him to Wade - they're similar - but I think the perfect comparison for Rose is Jason Kidd in his prime. Kidd could do just about anything with the ball in his hands as far as getting to the rim and setting up people around him. Much like Kidd, Rose doesn't have the greatest shot (yet) but I think he's going to develop that.

We've talked a lot today about how I've been wrong - I was also wrong about Rose's adjustment period. He's played well and the turnovers haven't been too bad at all. I like what I'm seeing and most of my doubts are gone. This crow is yumtastic.

Well, you'd have to really look at who they're willing to trade, right?

Looking at the roster, my issue with the Jazz is they don't have many big men that are reliable, as you mention. I like having Brewer and Korver at the two and the Miles-Kirilenko duo at the 3 is working well enough. But you've got three centers that don't get playing time, two of which are going to develop slowly over time (Fesenko and Koufos).

It also seems like Morris Almond is unhappy and both he and the team sound like they're willing ot move on. I'd consider packaging him with Jarron Collins and Kyrylo Fesenko for a solid back-up center. At this very moment, there aren't many options out there - Brad Miller? Sean Williams? Problem for the Jazz are that even when you package all three of those guys together, you've barely got like $4-million to play with, not enough for a guy like Miller.

But I'd wait for a while and see what I can get in December and January, like they did for Korver.

Being from Chicago, you're familiar with the Brad Miller rumors. The two guys I mentioned above - Sean Williams and Miller - look like the first two big men on the block right now. An ESPN.com report says that both Mike and Brad Miller are going to be moved at some point and I think Sean Williams, despite all of his ability, hasn't established himself in the rotation in New Jersey.

Right now - those two guys seem to be available. That is going to change - guaranteed - as the season moves forward. Varejao might be added to that list at some point (if J.J. Hickson comes in and plays really well, especially).

Josh Howard is playing with a chip on his shoulder and has something to prove this season. I don't think he's going to let up at all - he's got to regain the confidence of the fans and, to a certain extent, the organization.

As for Nowitzki, he is what he is. The guy is going to continue to score until he decides to hang them up. With such a versatile offensive skillset, he's always going to be a top 5ish scorer in the league.

Ooh .. tough question. I know that they believe in Howard and are really hoping to reap the benefits of their loyalty to him, but I'm a really big fan of Ron Artest. The thing is, he has to be in the right situation to be successful. If Avery were still the coach, I don't know if that is the case. Artest works in Houston because he has such a big crush on Rick Adelman's coaching ability and he'll be on his best behavior because of that. I don't know if Carlisle and he would be able to be in that same situation.

One of the reasons I liked the deal the Rockets made? He's got one year on his deal. If it doesn't work, you can let him go.

I love talking about the Grizzlies .. they're such an intriguing squad to me and look forward to seeing how they develop throughout the year.

Coach Iavaroni has them playing tough and they're doing exactly what Jason Fleming and I have written about over the summer and before the season started. This team knows that they're going to probably be together for a long time, so they're going to play together and they've gotten character guys that work hard and want to get better. What you're seeing so far in these two games is a young group of players doing what they can to play hard for all 48 minutes.

That's going to keep them in a lot of games. When you play hard AND you have talent like Mayo, Gay, Conley, and Gasol down low, you're going to do some great things. Grizzlies' fans are going to absolutely thirlled with what they see this season.

Alright folks - hope you all have a great weekend! If you have anymore questions I couldn't get to, feel free to e-mail me at pree@hoopsworld.com. Look forward to hearing from you and seeing you at the same time for next week's chat!