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HookEm

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Everything posted by HookEm

  1. Awesome news. I think that rounds out our roster. Regarding this team, I think the ceiling is higher than S16. I would say S16 is more like my minimum expectation. Granted, every year is different so it depends a lot on the overall strength of the competition and how the chemistry develops. I have posted this before, but now that our team is completely filled out we have a good picture of what our team will be. Keep in mind that this was an E8 team that was a few calls away from the Final Four in our own backyard. I think it is fair to say last year's ceiling was National Title because we were definitely in the mix. Hunter ('24) vs. Hunter (’23) – Moderate upgrade. Hunter will be a year older and was also injured a good bit of last year. Aẞmas (’24) vs. Carr (’23) – Even (at worst). Carr is a better defender. Aẞmas better, more efficient scorer (and NCAA All-Region). Mitchell ('24) vs. Mitchell (’23) – Moderate upgrade. I look for him to make a decent leap this year. Disu (’24) vs. Disu (’23) – Slight upgrade. Disu was playing like a 1st team All-American. I think we get a whole year of that guy and he gets more minutes Shedrick (’24) vs. Allen ('23) - Slight downgrade. Shedrick gives us interior defense, but Allen was a swiss army knife. Shedrick is a better shooter though. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bench – Rice (’23) vs. Weaver (’24) – Big downgrade. Rice was a proven former conference PoY. Weaver looks to be good though. Bench – Cunningham (’24) vs. Cunningham ('23) - Slight upgrade. Another year of experience and Cunningham should be little better. Bench - Johnson ('24) vs. Morris ('23) - Even. Morris didn't do a whole lot. I don't expect a ton from Johnson this year either. Bench – Bishop (’23) vs. Onyema (’24) – Moderate downgrade. Bishop was big in moments. I expect his minutes will be picked up elsewhere. Bench – Anamekwe (’24) vs. Anamekwe ('23) – Moderate upgrade. Likely won't be a big impact though. To sum it up: Guards - Advantage 2023, mainly due to Rice. This may be offset by Hunter's improvement and Aẞmas superior shooting. Both will get a ton of minutes. Forwards - Advantage 2024. Mitchell, Disu and Cunningham should all be better. I don't think losing Allen will hurt much honestly. Center - Advantage 2024. Shedrick should be better than anything we had last year. And Disu will also get extended small-ball Center run. FT Shooting - Slight advantage 2024. Aẞmas will be our closer and is one of the best in the country (a lot better FT shooter than Carr and also better than Rice). Hunter will improve. Weaver is already better from the line than Allen. Shedrick is a better FT shooter than any big we had on the roster last year. This should be a team strength. Defense - Even. Aẞmas won't be as good as Carr, but Shedrick will help a ton on the interior. Mitchell should be improved. Overall I would say we are even at worst given the individual pieces. How they fit together will determine whether this is a Final Four or a 1st Weekend team. I'm betting closer to the former than the later. Honestly this looks like a top-10 team to me.
  2. I honestly don’t know much about Holland. In terms of single year impact, do you think he would be better than Dillon Mitchell with another year of experience? I think I would rather have Mitchell just based on the rarity of having a truly impactful college freshman. Admittedly, I have a big bias for older players.
  3. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think Carr will end up being a star in the NBA. I just don’t see a huge difference between him and someone like Devonte Graham. I’m curious to see how he does in summer league. I wonder if Durant has played with him some before through the UT connection and might possibly be an advocate.
  4. Carr measured right at 6’1 in socks but with a nearly 6’7 wingspan. That gives him similar measurable to guys like Patrick Beverly, Collin Sexton, Mike Conley, Cam Payne, Chris Paul, Jaylen Brunson, Seth Curry and Darius Garland. His size isn’t really a problem IMO. The issue is that he isn’t really that explosive. And he isn’t elite at either shooting or distributing. He is pretty good at a lot of things though - and showed the potential to be a really good defender. And at 24, he is NBA ready. Phoenix needs point guard depth NOW. I give him over a 50/50 shot. He couldn’t have landed in a better spot.
  5. great spots for both of those dudes Carr has a real shot to make the team and get some minutes. Phoenix is super weak at PG and they have no money to sign anyone.
  6. Thinking a little more about Phoenix next year. Found a new part of Basketball Reference that shows the percent of time a player has played at various positions. Over the last 4 years: Devon Booker - 2% PG, 81% SG, 17% SF Bradley Beal - 8% PG, 79% SG, 13% SF Kevin Durant - 9% SF, 73% PF, 18% C (Side note: LOL at Seattle playing him 94% at SG. WTF) I'm guessing that they will start Cameron Payne at PG and then have Booker and Beal play interchangeable wings. They are really thin at point guard though. Maybe they will have either Beal or Booker run point for stretches?
  7. Last year: Marcus Smart - 11.5 points on 0.511 eFG% and 0.746 FT%, 2.3 TOV, 12.1 PER, 0.092 WS/48, 0.5 VORP - Not on All-Defense team Derrick White - 12.4 points on 0.560 eFG%, 0.875 FT%, 1.2 TOV, 15.4 PER, 0.154 WS/48, 2.6 VORP - 2nd Team All-Defense And this year in the playoffs: Marcus Smart - 14.9 points on 0.552 eFG% and 0.800 FT%, 2.3 TOV, 15.4 PER, 0.112 WS/48, 0.5 VORP Derrick White - 13.4 points on 0.641 eFG%, 0.912 FT%, 0.9 TOV, 16.2 PER, 0.151 WS/48, 0.8 VORP Derrick White is better in just about every category. He is a much more efficient player - and getting rid of Smart will force Tatum and Brown to stop up and lead the team. I wish I had Smart's stats in the last 10 minutes of a game. He invariably tries to take over and he isn't that guy.
  8. Scoot Henderson was the youngest player in G-League history at 17 yrs old. He has improved steadily and will be much more NBA ready than Jaden Ivey despite being two years younger. 17 yrs old: 14.3 PTS, 4.8 TRB, 4.2 AST, 1.7 STL (21 games) 18 yrs old: 17.6 PTS, 5.1 TRB, 6.6 AST, 1.3 STL (25 games)
  9. I'm betting Derrick White will be the starting point guard and they roll with something like: PG - Derrick White SG - Jaylen Brown SF - Jayson Tatum PF - Grant Williams C - Kristaps Porzingis Then they can further reduce Al Horford's minutes given that he is going to be 37 this year.
  10. Porzingis played more games than Smart last year. Over the last 4 years, Smart is only averaging ~5 games per year more than Porzingis. Not a lot.
  11. Brogdon is going to turn 31 next year. I wouldn't be counting on him for the long-term Boston plan. Last year he averaged 15, 4 and 4 with decent efficiency, but it is only a matter of time before he starts slipping. Porzingis can get buckets. He averaged 23, 8 and 3 last year. The Celtics will be able to use him to fill scoring droughts much more than Brogdon. Plus he is just entering his Prime and flirting with being in the 50/40/90 club. This is a great trade for the Celtics.
  12. Who says no?
  13. Sir.... aren't you forgetting about Gavin Perryman Cunningham is the 5th or 6th best player on this team IMO. Maybe even the 4th best player, depending on how much Mitchell improves. My order goes like this (assuming expected off-season improvement): Aẞmas Disu Hunter Mitchell Cunningham Shedrick Weaver Onyema Chris Johnson (if he comes here) Anamekwe Put it this way... if you are at Gregory playing pickup are you really going to take Shedrick, Weaver or Onyema before Cunningham? Not if you want to stay on the court for a while.
  14. He would be a perfect final addition. He will be great to have in practice and if he is good enough, we can carve out 10-20 minutes.
  15. SGA obviously. But you need multiple All-NBA caliber players to win a title these days. Maybe Giddy will get to that level - or Holmgren. But I think Zion has more upside than either of those guys and I'm not sure they would have to give up any of them to get him.
  16. I would probably take the Jalen Williams side of that bet. Who has the better odds of being NBA MVP? Or Finals MVP? I would take Zion. Who has the potential to sell more tickets? Zion. Regardless though, if OKC loves Jalen Williams then don't include him in that trade. They have a lot of other assets. Throw in another couple of first rounders. Or add in Ousmane Dieng or Jaylin Williams or Aleksej Pokusevski. OKC has the young players and assets to put together a championship team. Zion still has a TON of runway in front of him. I would take a chance.
  17. There is obviously a ton of uncertainty with Zion. But even in your reply you note that Jalen Williams MIGHT be an all-star. And the Clippers pick MIGHT be tasty. There is uncertainty with most picks and players in this range. I’m just going with the player who I know without a doubt has the highest ceiling. When Zion plays he has been very good, and he is still just 22 years old. At the same age, Joel Embiid had played a total of 30 games. Now he is the MVP.
  18. OKC should package some picks up to get Zion. He still has the potential to be one of the best players in the NBA. I would try something like Saric + Tre Mann (2021 18th pick) + Jalen Williams (2022 12th pick) + 2024 Clippers 1st + 2025 76ers 1st (top-6 protected) + 2026 Clippers unprotected SGA, Dort, Giddy, Zion, Holmgren would be an awesome young core. And a Zion / Holmgren combo would be crazy to watch.
  19. Anyone who argues with the call thinks the clock expired on Colt's incompletion in the 2009 UT vs. Nebraska game.
  20. I think I see the problem now. You can't read. I said Butler's kick AIDED in moving Gordon. (And it obviously does if you watch the video). In typical internet fashion, you read that as "swept Gordon out of the way". In this case even moving a couple of inches changes the optics completely from being in Butler's landing area to being just outside it. (BTW - If someone's foot is approaching my nuts, I have the reaction time of a fuckin' olympic ping pong player. Like millisecond quickness.)
  21. you sound mad
  22. I'm not implying that Gordon "hopped back" as some sort of reaction. To me it looks like Butler's kick aided in moving Gordon to his final landing spot. But I disagree that he was never in Butler's landing area. Also for the record I don't really care. I'm not digging in, it is just how I see it and interpret the rules. You all are free to disagree. It was a call that could have gone a number of ways. Either foul on Gordon for being in Butler's landing area. Or a no call. Or an offensive / flagrant foul on Butler. If I'm a ref and have a situation like this, I will generally be biased to protect the shooter. When I was a player, literally nothing would piss me off more than a defender getting under me when I was in the air (resulting in countless twisted ankles). F defenders like that.
  23. The difference with the Lavine call is that at no point was the defender anywhere close to being in his protected landing area. Gordon's foot was UNDER Butler until the kick moved him back out out of his space. The reason I posted screen shots is that it is hard to see in realtime when everyone just wants to focus on the extended leg. Regardless, the refs agree with me, so I must be right. Lol.
  24. I guess I will be the lone dissenting opinion in thinking it was a foul on Gordon. As Butler was going up, Gordan was closing out on him hard coming from outside the 3-point line. He then jumps into Butler's protected landing space. After Butler kicks him, he then winds up back inside the 3-point line. To me, this is a pretty clear violation of the NBA rules protecting jump-shooters from being undercut. The video rule-book on the NBA site has some examples that are actually even less substantial than this one.
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