HookEm

Towns going after that ball was DUMB.

I would rank the middle guys as follows: Ben Simmons - 3x All-Star, 1x 3rd Team All-NBA, 2x All Defense, 19 playoff wins (4 seasons) John Wall - 5x All-Star, 1x 3rd Team All-NBA, 1x All-Defense, 20 playoff wins (10 seasons) KAT - 3x All-star, 1x 3rd Team All-NBA, 2 playoff wins (7 seasons) Elton Brand - 2x All-Star, 1x 2nd Team All-NBA, 20 playoff wins (17 seasons) Wiggins - 1x All-Star, 3 playoff wins (8 seasons) - but trending positively Ben Simmons, while a bitch recently, is younger and already more accomplished than KAT. He has legit DPoY potential and may be a key piece on a title team soon. Also people forget how good John Wall was a few years ago. He literally has 10x the playoff wins vs. KAT as the best player on the team. As Bill Simmons mentioned, KAT has extremely low basketball IQ. He fouls and turns the ball over at the worst possible times, leading to losses. Here are his cumulative stats in the play-in game + playoffs this year: 19 fouls, 16 turnovers, -23 +/- He is constantly in foul trouble FOR NO REASON. He goes after stupid offensive boards against the best transition team in the NBA (often leading to bonehead fouls).

Bump...

People would have said the same thing about Zion a year ago.

Oh yeah. He showed up on the ESPN trade machine as a NO expiring contract.

If I was New Orleans, I would be looking to trade Zion stat. Somebody will overpay for him as he has too much upside and marketability. But IMO, he will never be a consistent elite NBA player given his weight and durability. And even if he stays injury free, he is likely to bolt out of NO at the first opportunity. I would trade him for someone like Rudy Gobert + picks & assets. Gobert is 4th in the NBA in WS and 8th in PER, and is a 3-time DPoY. The dude wins, but is unpopular and feuding with the face of the franchise. You could go Zion + S. Adams + trash for Gobert + picks. Utah might do it to team up Mitchell and Zion. But New Orleans would come out on the winning side. Sabonis might be another one to target. Or go a different direction and trade him for a young guard with upside. Could they get Cade Cunningham, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander or Tyrese Haliburton for Zion? I wouldn't trade the picks though. For a small market team that isn't a free agent destination, you HAVE to keep the picks.

I think we were a lot closer to F4 material this last year than people realize. We split games with the National Champs and ALMOST swept them (in addition to all of our other quality wins). If we keep playing at that level every year, we will get a couple of Final Fours. If we improve on it, then we will be right in the mix for a title.

How bout a big chunk of them with Elam ending?

Watching those old clips of Bird, he doesn't look unathletic at all. His chase-down block on Magic was athletic AF. He had very quick feet and hands. Real talk: If he was a black dude, nobody would be saying he was unathletic.

I don't really want Mitchell back honestly. Dude was a turnover machine. I liked his low post game, but he had some of the worst hands for a big that I can remember. Losing Askew sucks IMO. I think we were going to see a big jump for him this year. He was one of the few players that was up to the task when we played at Tech last year in that hostile environment. I'm still holding out hope that he looks at his options in the portal and then decides to stay put. I like the thought of him running point and then having Carr play off the ball as a gunner (which is more in his nature). Getting Timmy Allen back is big. I think he made a good choice. Occasionally last year he would bring the ball up the court and I liked running the offense through him. He has underrated vision and isn't a ball stopper. If he works on his 3-point shooting, I think he has a shot to eventually make it to the NBA as an end of the bench player.

Just to be clear I was referencing my quadrupole post, not DMC being a dumbass.

Holy hell. Not sure what TF happened there.

I get that the Warriors were average without Curry and Draymond. But that is because their draft picks are like 19 yrs old. Those guys and Poole are going to get a lot better as the old guys decline. Wiseman is the real wildcard. He is the critical piece to replace Draymond.

I get that the Warriors were average without Curry and Draymond. But that is because their draft picks are like 19 yrs old. Those guys and Poole are going to get a lot better as the old guys decline. Wiseman is the real wildcard. He is the critical piece to replace Draymond.

I get that the Warriors were average without Curry and Draymond. But that is because their draft picks are like 19 yrs old. Those guys and Poole are going to get a lot better as the old guys decline.

I get that the Warriors were average without Curry and Draymond. But that is because their draft picks are like 19 yrs old. Those guys and Poole are going to get a lot better as the old guys decline.

Warriors are going to be good indefinitely. Poole is really really good. Kuminga and Moody were great draft picks. And they haven’t even gotten anything from Wiseman yet.

I was talking to my West Texas dad on Saturday planning for Easter lunch. He was like... "do you still have that CV?" I was.. wut? "You know, that CV..." <confused> You mean a resume? "You know. The CV thing.. for meat." ???????? Ohhhhhh! Sous Vide???? "Yeah!!! I was wanting to CV some pork tenderloin!"

I assumed it was at their peak with the team, which is why I included a specific year for the player to remove ambiguity.

Looked to me like he was trying to jump out of Ayton's way (in front of him) and was then surprised when his shoulder caught him in the face.

All of the above is true. At his APEX, Kawhi was every bit as good of a player as Kobe Bryant... when Kawhi was actually playing. The difference is that Kobe's apex lasted for about 12-13 years. He played another 8-9 years beyond where Kawhi is right now at a pretty elite level. He was also MUCH more durable during his peak. From age 23-29, Kobe averaged 75+ games per regular season. Kawhi averaged only 55 games per season. If I was picking teams for a single 7-game series and could have peak Kawhi or peak Kobe... and both were properly motivated, I probably take Kawhi. He was a significantly better on-ball and team defender (even though Kobe was also great). But the big thing is that Kobe has a tendency to go into "hero mode" and try to do everything himself. you can see that in his worse FG% and 3PT%. He also turned the ball over more (+1 TO/game in his prime). Kawhi might be the most underrated player in the last 20 years. Probably because of his bitch-assedness. Kobe had about 100x more charisma.

Larry Bird was waaay more athletic than people give him credit for. You don’t average 2 steals a game or 11 rebounds at 6’9 in the NBA unless you are very athletic.

I would take peak Bird over peak LeBron. No question. But I would take career LeBron over career Bird.

Curry changes the game in a way that CP3, Isaiah and Stockton don't. He is constantly running around and has to be contended with 100% of the time. And he stretches the floor all the way out to the logo. And he doesn't even need the ball to make an impact because his defender HAS to stay on him. The only point guard I would take over him is Magic, and even that is debatable in a game like this. Nobody approaches his skill at opening up the offense.

For exercises like this, I also hate going back before the NBA ABA merger. The game was just too different then and I never saw any of the players with my own eyes. So if I'm just going back to 1976 and trying to put together an actual Lakers starting 5 that would be a good TEAM, I might go with: PG: Magic - 1987 - MVP, Finals MVP SG: M. Cooper - 1987 - Defensive PoY, 39% 3s SF: Kobe - 2008 - MVP, 36% 3s, 5.4 ast, 1st team Defense PF: P. Gasol - 2011 - 2nd team NBA C : Kareem - 1976 - MVP That is a much better shooting and versatile defending team with Cooper in for Worthy. Pau instead of Shaq also gets rid of the chemistry issues, lets the team run and solves the spacing issues. Kobe can also be a gunner with this setup.