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HookEm

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Posts posted by HookEm

  1. I see Giannis as much more like Kevin Garnett than Shaquille O'Neal.  He is a better defender and passer than Shaq - much like Garnett.  Shaq was even more physically imposing than Giannis, but it was always done in the paint.  Giannis can get out and run and then dunk on 2 people when he gets in the lane.  He is also having to carry his team much more like Giannis.

    image.thumb.png.30535d7e8bc598f269407b41365eb5fa.png

    At 26, Garnett finished 2nd in MVP voting twice and was a 5-time 1st Team Defense.

    At 26, Giannis has 2 MVPs and 4 All-Defense selections (including DPoY).

  2. All the talk about the degree to which Giannis carried the Bucks to a title this year has had me wondering about how the Bucks supporting cast stacks up against other champions in recent years.  

    If you take out the best player on the last 13 champion teams, this is how I would rank the supporting casts:  

    • 2017 Warriors – Steph Curry (MVP), Klay Thompson (All-NBA), old Iguodala (All-Def), Draymond Green (All-NBA), Zaza Pachulia
    • 2018 Warriors – Steph Curry (MVP), Klay Thompson (All-NBA), old Iguodala (All-Def), Draymond Green (All-NBA), Kevon Loony
    • 2014 Spurs – Tony Parker (All-Star), Marco Belinelli, old Manu Ginobli (All-NBA), Boris Diaw, old Tim Duncan (All-NBA)
    • 2013 Heat – Mario Chalmers, old Ray Allen (All-Star), Dwyane Wade (All-NBA), old Shane Battier (All-Def), Chris Bosh (All-NBA)
    • 2012 Heat – Mario Chalmers, Dwyane Wade (All-NBA), Shane Battier (All-Def), Chris Bosh (All-NBA), Udonis Haslem
    • 2016 Cavs – Kyrie Irving (All-NBA), Matthew Dellavedova, JR Smith, Kevin Love (All-NBA), Tristan Thompson
    • 2015 Warriors – Shaun Livingston, Klay Thompson (All-NBA), Andre Iguodala (All-Def), Harrison Barnes, Draymond Green (All-NBA)
    • 2021 Bucks – Jrue Holiday (All-Def), Donte DiVincenzo, Khris Middleton (All-Star), PJ Tucker, old Brook Lopez (All-Def)
    • 2019 Raptors – old Kyle Lowry (All-NBA), Fred VanVleet, OG Anunoby, Pascal Siakim, old Serge Ibaka (All-Def)
    • 2010 Lakers – old Derek Fisher, Shannon Brown, Ron Artest (All-Def), Lamar Odom, Pau Gasol (All-NBA)
    • 2009 Lakers – old Derek Fisher, Trevor Ariza, Lamar Odom, Pau Gasol (All-NBA), Andrew Bynum
    • 2011 Mavs – old Jason Kidd (All-Star), JJ Barea, old Jason Terry, old Shawn Marion (All-Star), Tyson Chandler (All-Star)
    • 2020 Lakers – Avery Bradley, Kentavious Pope, old Danny Green (All-Def), Kyle Kuzma, Anthony Davis (All-NBA)

    The Bucks are a well constructed team. Holiday and Lopez have both been all-stars and are still excellent defenders.  They beat Atlanta twice in the playoffs without Giannis (granted Trae was out one of them). I think they are middle of the pack when you consider all the other champs.

    How would you all rank these teams?

  3. Bucks at 10-1 is disrespectful.  They have the best NBA record over the last 4 years (by 9 games!) and finally got over the hump. They keep just about everybody and the core is still all in their prime.

    They also get back Donte DiVencenzo who started every game for them this year.

    I would bet on them before an old / injured Lakers for sure.

    And I don’t trust the Nets.  Durant will be 33, Harden and Blake 32, Deandre 35… and Kyrie is crazy. The odds of them all being healthy are low.  

    • Like 2
  4. Quote

    No offense to Middleton and Holiday but they are not top 50 players of all-time.

    I agree 100%... for now.  If that group wins 3-4 more titles, then people will start talking about them in that light.  Rings change perception in a hurry.

    Put Scottie Pippin on another team and he would never have gotten a ring and would be seen as a much different player.

  5. I have always wondered what it would be like to send the NBA champion team (including coach), but replacing their foreign players with the best available US players. The team would already have very good winning chemistry and probably enough talent to beat any other team in the world.

    This year, let's say it is the Suns squad:

    • PG: Chris Paul
    • SG: Devin Booker
    • SF: Mikal Bridges
    • PF: Kevin Durant – replaces Saric (Croatia)
    • C  Bam Adabayo - replaces Ayton (Bahamas)
    • B1: Cameron Payne
    • B2: Jae Crowder
    • B3: Torey Craig

    Or it could be the Bucks:

    • PG: Jrue Holiday
    • SG: Donte DiVencenzo
    • SF: Khris Middleton
    • PF: Kevin Durant – replaces Giannis (Croatia)
    • C  Bam Adabayo - replaces Ayton (Bahamas)
    • B1: Cameron Payne
    • B2: Jae Crowder
    • B3: Torey Craig

    For 2016, you would have Cleveland representing: 

    • PG: Kyrie Irving 
    • SG: Steph Curry – replaces Delladova (Australia)
    • SF: Kevin Durant – replaces T Thompson (Canada)
    • PF: LeBron James
    • C  Kevin Love
    • B1: Draymond Green – replaces T Mozgov (Russia)
    • B2: JR Smith
    • B3: Iman Shumpert

    For 2012, you would have Miami representing: 

    • PG: Mario Chalmers 
    • SG: Dwayne Wade
    • SF: Kobe Bryant – replaces Joel Anthony (Canada)
    • PF: LeBron James
    • C  Chris Bosh
    • B1: Udonis Haslem
    • B2: Shane Battier
    • B3: Norris Cole

    For 2008, you would have the Celtics representing. They didn’t have any international players, so the whole team would go.

    • Like 1
  6. The Devin Booker vs. Kobe comparisons are only valid on one side of the court (if that).  Kobe was a 10-time 1st team All-Defense selection.  Booker will NEVER be on an all-defensive team.

    • Hook 'Em 1
  7. Needing a top-10 American on the team to be interested is dumb. How many top-10 Americans did the Spurs have on their roster?  How about Dallas with Dirk? How about the Rockets with Olajuwon? How about the Detroit teams of the early 2000s?   
     

    Most of those “top 10” American players are old af.  Are we sure Harden is better than Chris Paul RIGHT NOW? I’m not. Harden is fat. And injured. And he probably will be next year as well. Chris Paul is motivated to get his ring. Harden is motivated to party.

  8. Regarding plane shitting…

    I’ve probably been to Manila 25 times over the years. I’m usually very careful about what I eat over there and rarely get sick. Well, one time I got to the airport and went to the business lounge. For some reason, my mind clicked to “you are back in civilization and can eat what you want” mode.  I made myself a big glass of some tropical drink. It was fantastic. So I made myself another…

    Fast forward 2 hours and I was ready to die. I spent probably 10 hours in the bathroom. Shitting, barfing, dry heaving then back to my seat curled up in fetal position sweating my ass off… then back to the bathroom for more barfing and shitting. I literally wanted to die.

    After about 20 hours things were almost back to normal and I even had a couple of gin and tonics for the final leg home from Detroit.

    I usually enjoy that flight. Once sat next to the Pussycat Dolls in 1st class. That was interesting. I was the only other non Japanese person up there and the crew though I was with the group so they treated me like a celebrity.

    Another time sat next to an old Japanese dude who took off his shoes and socks…. and clipped his toenails at one point.  Uggh.

  9. 3 hours ago, Samson's Wig said:

    This is no longer the case, although it was early on.  The last two or three months have almost completely closed any gap in vaccination rate based on race or ethnicity (I'm going to assume you were speaking about Latinos/Hispanics and not Mexican nationals).  The holdouts now appear to be die hard Trumpers, evangelicals, and the new age yoga crowd.  These three groups include members of all races/ethnicities.  

    Donald Trump GIF by Election 2016

  10. 12 minutes ago, Js1 said:

    They haven't earned it though.  They have to put in the work to get the playing time.  

    Beard shouldn't care what they did under Shaka or at Kentucky or Creighton or Utah or Vanderbilt.  It's what they do in his practices to earn time. 

    Obviously everyone is going to have to earn their spot. But we wouldn’t be ranked #3 in that poll above if everyone had to reset every year with zero expectations.  The point is that if you were 1st Team All-PAC 10, you are going to expect a certain amount of playing time.  If you don’t get it, it is going to take some maturity and handling by the coaches to keep everyone positive.

  11. In my view, the main risk this year is going to be chemistry, not talent.  If we get Carr, that gives us even more talent, but also more chemistry risk.  We will have all-conference guys like Ramey, who have started the bulk of their career, who will only get ~20 minutes per game. 

    This situation is very different from when you have a bunch of talented freshmen.  In that case, everyone comes in expecting to earn their playing time to a degree.  Even Greg Brown, who most considered a lottery pick, didn't complain too much when he was benched late in the year.

    For the 21-22 team though, everyone has already earned playing time through multiple years of solid play (and even awards in many cases).

    That will be an interesting situation to navigate.

    • Hook 'Em 4
    • Like 1
  12. Since we are talking athletes, Jericho Sims is currently #59 on the CBS top-100 prospects and #58 by ESPN.  I would love to see New Orleans take him with either their #42 or #53 picks.  

  13. I disagree. These playoffs have more of an unpredictable “March Madness” quality that I am enjoying.  And even though the stars are out, the quality of basketball has been pretty good. 


    I would MUCH rather the finals be Suns vs Hawks than Suns can Bucks.  If Trae comes back that would be a fun matchup with CP3.

    • Hook 'Em 3
  14. I think the most important thing for this season / offseason has been quality depth.  To that end, I consolidated a bunch of top-100 player lists. Below is the HIGHEST any of the remaining players appears on any of the lists...

    Suns

    • #14 Chris Paul
    • #16 Devin Booker
    • #49 Deandre Ayton
    • #58 Mikal Bridges

    Clippers

    • #2 Kawhi Leonard
    • #13 Paul George
    • #72 Marcus Morris
    • #74 Serge Ibaka
    • #88 Nicolas Batum
    • #92 Pat Beverly

    Bucks

    • #1 Giannis Antetokounmpo
    • #22 Khris Middleton
    • #32 Jrue Holiday
    • #68 PJ Tucker
    • #68 Brook Lopez
    • #86 Bobby Portis

    Hawks

    • #13 Trae Young
    • #34 Clint Capela
    • #35 Lou Williams
    • #50 John Collins
    • #50 Danilo Gallinari
    • #55 Boddan Bogdanovic
    • #97 De'Andre Hunter
    • #99 Kevin Huerter

    When you have borderline top-50 players like Gallinari and Lou coming off the bench it is a huge advantage.  Then when someone like Trae Young goes down, you barely miss a beat.

  15. I had a dream last night that the NBA moved to an auction type of draft. Instead of the bad teams getting higher draft picks, they get more auction money to bid. I think it would be interesting to see the teams bid for different players. I know in fantasy sports I vastly prefer an auction draft.

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