Patrick Bateman

Again, are you sure..... Here is basically their respective peaks. 5 continuous seasons where they were at the apex of their skills (6 for Kawhi technically as he missed a full season). https://stathead.com/basketball/pcm_finder.cgi?request=1&sum=1&player_id1=leonaka01&p1yrfrom=2016&p1yrto=2021&player_id2=bryanko01&p2yrfrom=2003&p2yrto=2007 Yes, Kobe scores more as he plays more. 40 minutes a game. Pop started babying his players once TD got old and this continues with Kawhi, who averages about 33 mpg, but look at the per minute run and this continues as Kawhi started having knee issues. Look at the per 36 minutes. Kawhi actually averages more points (barely). He averages more rebounds, more steals, more blocks, less turnovers, shoots 50 points better and on top of it, is probably the best perimeter defender in the league. Look at the rates, Kawhi beat Kobe in all but AST%. Look at the advanced metrics. PER -- Kawhi: 26.5; Kobe 25.6 TS% -- Kawhi: .607; Kobe .561 WS/48 -- Kawhi: .247; Kobe .199 BPM -- Kawhi: 8/4; Kobe 6.3 VORP -- Kawhi: 28.2; Kobe 31.2 -- in 50 more games! Now, here's the fun part. Go look at the playoff stats. Mamba? Every fucking important stats goes down for Kobe. The tall tales of Kobe's "clutchness" are exactly that.... tall tales. Kawhi? All the important stats for the most part, go way up. In other words, in the playoffs when shit gets real? The gap between Kawhi and Kobe gets larger! And it's not going Mamba's way. Look at the playoff PERs? 7.5 point delta for Kawhi. WS/48? Kawhi doubles Kobe! BPM? 10.9 to 4.5 for Kawhi. So, if this is players at their apex, then it may depend on what you're "drafting" for? A season? A playoff series? A playoff run? One game? The only place a logical person may draft Kobe is in a season because of Kawhi's brittleness. But in the playoffs? The real "assassin" is Kawhi. And as a Spurs fan, I fucking hate typing that, but it's the truth. A playoff run or series? Give me Kawhi at his peak every fucking time. And anyone who watched or can do fucking math should feel the same way.

No, what I'm saying is even in comparison to players of their eras, Bird's career was about average. Major injury at 32, which led to a large regression and basically done by 34. Today, there's different studies, but the predominant thought process seems to be mid to late 30's (35-37). Lebron is 37 and arguably just had the greatest season of any 37 year old in history. He shows very little regression in his game or athleticism other needing more recovery time and having more nagging injuries. He's already going to play past averages and will most likely play at a high level better than anyone before him (minus catastrophic injury). It's simply a comparison of career length against their peers and historical context where needed.

Now do shots...... How many shots did each take? FG%? TS%? Just because you shoot more doesn't make a player better than another always. Turnovers? Steals? Rebounds? Scoring is a very important skill, but it's not always telling the right story.

Your first point is simply a subjective opinion. Lebron is the single best NBA player at his age in history. A lot is probably genetics, but he continues to train, cut weight when he needs to and upkeep his body at an elite level. Who says Bird wasn't a capable defensive player, he was. Specifically as a rebounder and disruptor. Bird was a 2nd team All-NBA defender 3 times. Lebron was a 1st team All-NBA defender 5 times. Lebron was an extremely good defender and when focused, an elite one. Bird never was. But he still was a good defender, especially early in his career. He simply doesn't meet Lebron's apex defensive abilities.

That's a pretty bold statement. Numbers don't agree with you. Lebron is better penetrator and therefore breaking down a defense, which is an enormous skill in basketball. He's overall a better scorer (not shooter) and overall he's better (or maybe more blessed) at taking care of his body, which is a huge some would call skill. So, Lebron is a better defender, penetrator, scorer and probably as good a passer. There's a fun debate here, but anyone saying Bird > Lebron by some outlandish delta simply wasn't watching or wasn't remembering....

There's some thought that Joseph won't get in legal entanglement unless something changes, but the NFL wheel of justice always looms. I'm not going to say we draft a ton of knuckleheads these days or any more than any other team, but we certainly do draft our share. Still some time to go on this one.....

Tend to agree and he's certainly a better player than Stockton or Isiah. He'd replace Kobe, but he probably hasn't been there long enough. Deserves to be on the All-NBA team. A lot of these players are products of their time so it's really hard to see them playing with a 3 point line. Oscar is one of these. If it's his era's rules? I take the big O. 3 point line? Probably Steph or someone else. I'd probably just put Lebron at PG.

From what I can discern, the person in the picture, who has a chain which blurrily looks like his brand, got into a beef with a guy at some club, but nothing came of it and they went their separate ways. A little while later, one of the guys was gunned in a drive-by. That's the rumor as best as I could make sense of it. Who knows though? We'll have to see if it has legs....

I would slow your roll here....... it's a scrupulous rumor at best right now with a lot of credibility issues. It originally came off a post from Facebook who said it looked like Joseph. Now maybe this turns into something, but pretty charged thing to declare.

Rick Barry would like to have a word with you and he'd be in the starting lineup over Klay and Draymond. Bosh over Shaq, if looking at careers not apexes. Shaq was basically great one season and was hurt down the stretch and mediocre in the playoffs. Good thoughts although he's had a couple of SA seasons where he was as good or better than Kobe. Peak Kawhi > peak Kobe, but as you stated, Kobe has the longevity.

Don't weep too much..... Just no real offensive weapons which can be counted on in playoff basketball. It's some small experience for the young guys, but it also highlights how far away this team is from being good.

Minnesota should move on..... KAT should have to play again. What a miserable performance from a superstar. Great performances from Edwards and Russell. Minnesota's ceiling the next 5 years will be dependent on how good Edwards can be. KAT's doesn't look like he can be the best player on a contender.

This is one of the worst playoff halves I've ever seen from a "superstar" in a long, long time...... This is like Harden, but worse. He has more fouls than points. TWolves have to feel good about being in it at this point.

And…. Vogel out. Lebron is lucky Riley wouldn’t do whatever he wanted in Miami or dude would be known as a coach killer…. let the offseason officially go, go, go….. rumors Indiana may want Westy’s contract to offload Hield and Brogdon. Smh.

RIP to a great player and Cowboys legend. Always have a home in the ring of honor.

Utah’s 2 best players hate each other and neither is the best player on a championship roster, imo (numbers do too). I imagine they’ll dump Rudy as his size dictated a certain style but Utah’s a tough place to build a roster. Has to be they trade or draft. Free agents aren’t clamoring to go there unless it’s a big overpay like Conley. i like Mitchell but he’s not a 1 on a championship squad currently. Maybe in a couple of years he makes that level jump as he is improving.

He can energize a team, give them a jolt like someone getting paddles for a short period.... but over time, he grinds them down into dust. Good assistant, poor HC and Exec. Very overrated IMO.

Needs a growth spurt. One more year in HS so he has the opportunity to jump up the prospect lists. https://247sports.com/player/bronny-james-46058619/

So Magic is basic premise was doable. Both players were ultimately traded. Fitting 44m under the cap and 25m is much different and he’s saying they had to send out different guys including Caruso and Kuzma/Hield to fit Westbrook’s almost 20m more to save some luxury tax. If he’s playing a little hindsight is 20/20 then okay but the overall the thought process is rooted in some reality. If ultimately, the 3rd year for Demar was the straw that broke the camels back or if it was just cover for going another way…. Well done Lakers? I always thought they’d get Demar if he wanted to go home but I guess Lebron and Maverick thought differently. I don’t fault the Lakers for pushing chips in for a final run the last two years but they backed the wrong horse and 2 years is looking like 1 now. Nothing wrong with looking critically at it. Maybe Kareem can come out of retirement.

We got own it, man. lol. It is what it is.

I agree. And I’d probably say something similar if they put me on the back burner and eventually went with Westbrook after the fact. Difference in message is stark before the decision and after. Trading for Westbrook screams disarray or at least idiocy. But he definitely wanted to go there before it all went down.

DeMar was as public as one could be in his position of wanting to go back to LA, even commenting he would take a pay cut. Ultimately, he went to Chicago for about the same amount. He absolutely wanted to go to LA. Spurs took draft picks for him in a S&T so it's very probable a deal would have been easier to consummate at let's say 25m than they 44m it took to trade for Westbrook. That's not true at all. All of his advanced metrics and per minute stats were on par with his best season in Toronto. He simply was trapped on a terrible team. Now Westbrook? His numbers and qualitatives all point to a massive decline. DeMar was a far better player the last two seasons headed into FA last summer. I'll agree here..... Magic tends to always make Magic look best in terms of GM'ing. A lot of NBA personnel folks should and are getting fired because they haven't realized that Westbrook is a net negative on a team and has been for about 3 years.

It's a joke. Flake was part of the "centrist" group with Murkowski and Collins who would always talk about being bothered by the politicization of any process, bellyache about how it wasn't what the country needed, said he was considering all his options....... and then would vote party lines. Mitt's sort of fills that role now and at least he will break party lines sometimes.... generally when the outcome was known, as it is here.

Day old, but this is why Lebron and his team as de facto GM's suck. Westbrook over DeRozan is a fireable offense..... instead, the coach is going to get the axe. For what? AD being injury prone? Westbrook being a net-negative? Filling out the rest of the team with old guys who can't defend? smh.