Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Posted

And no championship team has 5 lock down defenders, most have some high volume scorers with subpar defense. Not to mention that Dirk was bad at defense for a large part of his early career as I recall and got much better over time, I always assumed Luka would improve somewhat over time, but even if he didn't, his scoring, and the attention he got opening up all those layups for Gafford and Lively far outweigh any defensive limitations. By a ton. 

  • Like 1
Posted
12 minutes ago, aggie08 said:

He's not entirely wrong...NBA champions are almost always in the top 5 defensively (2023 Denver being one of the few exceptions)...he's just purposely ignoring that other major factor that you point out. 

He's also hoping no one remembers the fact that the Mavs were #1 in defense the last 20 games of last season after getting Washington and Gafford and getting everyone healthy. 

And you only need to be top 10, not #1.

  • Hook 'Em 2
Posted
19 minutes ago, aggie08 said:

He's not entirely wrong...NBA champions are almost always in the top 5 defensively (2023 Denver being one of the few exceptions)...he's just purposely ignoring that other major factor that you point out. The recipe to winning a title is having a Top 5 defense AND, more importantly, one of the 5 best basketball players on the planet.

The former is a whole hell of a lot easier to find than the latter. Having one of the latter, even one as individually poor defensively as Luka, actually helps you achieve the former because they're so offensively elite that you can surround them with limited--but smart--defensive minded role players (who are cheaper anyway) and still be good offensively.

So, you know, keep those dudes when they're on your team, in their prime, and want to stay there.

 

4 minutes ago, threesheets said:

He's also hoping no one remembers the fact that the Mavs were #1 in defense the last 20 games of last season after getting Washington and Gafford and getting everyone healthy. 

And you only need to be top 10, not #1.

YES!!!  This is what drives me insane about his idiotic viewpoint. He completely ignores the fact that a championship team, save for one fluke Detroit team years ago, must have a superstar scorer. And he traded away the critical one they had, that enabled them to even get to the finals. 

He must be thinking that Luca’s defense, and interior defense, was why they lost in the finals. And he must think Kyrie can be the superstar scorer. 

But those assumptions are wrong. With Lively and Gafford they had interior defense that would improve year over year. 

Defensive limitations like Luca’s are always manageable. You don’t need him to be a lock down defender. No team has five lock down defenders. 

Finally, Kyrie by himself can’t win games all the time in the final minutes, like the combination of Kyrie and Luca could. 

Nico is just flat wrong. And stupid. 

  • Hook 'Em 3
Posted

By now, are we right to think that the “why” of the trade is extreme Dunning-Kruger on the part of Nico? That he really did look at Luka and think, “that guy is holding us back”, and it was because he really isn’t any good at scouting and assessing basketball talent?

Is this the last GM job Nico will ever have? When he gets fired from the Mavs, it’s on to marketing CBD products?

  • Haha 1
Posted (edited)

I bounce between the conspiracy stuff and the fact that Nico is just a dick-rider. He's always been that. He got to where he is by toting Kobe's balls in his mouth. 

I'm not reverse-racism guy I promise you (my posts/likes on another board will attest), but Luke being a white Euro badass that didn't give a fuck about Nico is probably all this is. 

Edited by threesheets
  • Haha 1
Posted
7 hours ago, aggie08 said:

He's not entirely wrong...NBA champions are almost always in the top 5 defensively (2023 Denver being one of the few exceptions)...he's just purposely ignoring that other major factor that you point out. The recipe to winning a title is having a Top 5 defense AND, more importantly, one of the 5 best basketball players on the planet.

The former is a whole hell of a lot easier to find than the latter. Having one of the latter, even one as individually poor defensively as Luka, actually helps you achieve the former because they're so offensively elite that you can surround them with limited--but smart--defensive minded role players (who are cheaper anyway) and still be good offensively.

So, you know, keep those dudes when they're on your team, in their prime, and want to stay there.

I'm giving him zero credit for that.  yes, of course you need a good defense but this isn't the 90's or even early 2000's anymore.  you need dudes that can score.  Luka's D was actually OK(even though admittedly he would do the pout about a call and not get back thing occassionally).

Luka opens up the floor like no other.  the problem was the other dudes besides Kyrie. are/were spares from a scoring perspective and when the lights were brightest they faded like bitches.

you know what wins championships, top 5 NBA players and excellent coaching because the coach will figure out how to create a defensive plan to stop other teams.

Posted
On 4/15/2025 at 2:14 PM, shakahorn said:

In Luka’s return game, Austin Reaves got much more applause than Jaxson Hayes when they introduced the lineup.

Because he’s a significantly bigger name and better player, and Lakers fans were rampant there. Jaxson played one year in Austin?  The fuck are you talking about man?

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



×
×
  • Create New...