I’m starting this post early in order to flow more easily from the Draft and Free Agency post. And because SI came out with their NBA top 100 list.
Surprises there as always, which I know is part of the point. Plenty of commentary to follow.
Another reason to start early is simply that the league will shift dramatically because of off-season changes. In short many more things to watch for and discuss this year starting with LeBron’s move West, Kawhi’s move East, Hayward’s effect on what is already an incredible Boston team, Warrior Boogie, Philly hype that Fultz has his shot back and the incredible talent coming in from the new draft class.
One thing I wonder going into the season: will this season be different in that several teams unlikely to make the playoffs will still be among the most interesting to follow? Suns, Dallas, Orlando, Clippers to name 4 that are likely to provide entertainment showing off some great new talent. I don’t remember any other year when their was excitement from so many teams that likely have no chance at the playoffs.
Anyhow, the early timing here is mostly because of SI’s list of it’s top 100 players. Here are the top 50 plus a few that come after that. The comments floor is now OPEN!
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1. LeBron |
13. Draymond |
25. Hayward |
37. Millsap |
49. Gordon (Eric) |
990 thoughts on “2018-2019 Regular Season ”
About that list above, I’ll start by organizing my thoughts based on categories.
Ridiculous
34. Mitchell
39. Tatum
41. Griffin
50. Booker
61. Lou Williams
65. Tobias Harris
66. Aaron Gordon
75. Ingram
85. Tucker
87. Iguodala
How to be objectively critical when starting with this crap? I’ll try, listing by most outrageous …
50. Booker. Wow, just wow. Easiest way to respond is by listing all the undeserving guards (that can shoot) ahead of him: Lowry, Beal, McCollum, Harris. And then all the guys listed ahead of him at any position that won’t (my opinion) have nearly the impact on winning: Gobert, Towns, Middleton, Capela, MIllsap, Otto Porter, Jaylen Brown, Covington.
39. Tatum. He could go into several categories here. Like “Simply Illogical” or “Must not have been watching”. This is a future superstar gunning for a 2019 all star birth. Maybe “Embarrassing” is the best category to put him in, because SI will certainly be having trouble explaining this when he’s on that team come February.
41. Griffin. This one’s easy. They simply didn’t think it through. He was traded/uprooted and SI’s comments seem to indicate (or rather not even address) that changes like this might not be a huge deal for some players. How was he coached and allowed to get ready for what they needed him to do? What was asked of him? Seems completely random to decide on #41 for Griffin. Makes me wonder how many SI writers are involved with making this top 100 list, and which guys weren’t discussed much as it came down to the wire and SI needed to publish.
61. Lou Williams, Aaron Gordon, PJ Tucker, Iguodala. Bizarre list of guys lower than 61. I don’t care about Iggy’s age – there isn’t a single GM around that doesn’t want these guys on their team and, aside from Iggy, getting huge minutes because they’re among the greatest talents in the league when it comes to impact on winning.
Not ridiculous – but too high without a good explanation. Man crush based on style points maybe?
19. Towns
23. Lowry
28. Middleton
48. Covington
Inconsistent or just illogical
12. Kawhi
14. Gobert
21. Aldridge
52. Porzingas
68. Boogie
If you’re going to go way out of your way to dock guys because of potentially longer-term injuries (Kawhi, Porzingas, Boogie), then why put Kawhi so high and Boogie so low? Kawhi said he wasn’t feeling great in those 9 games last year and even out of shape he looked to be a top 6 player. So now … I don’t get the logic. He is either #2 or #3. And if Kawhi gets to be #12 how in the heck can Porzingas be any lower than #30? Or Boogie any lower than #35? And what’s with the big time man crush on Gobert? Good player, but not close to being as important to his team as Mitchell or maybe even Rubio. Gobert goes into my “Biggest mistakes on this list” category alongside Booker and Tatum.
And somehow Gobert and Towns have both jumped ahead of Aldridge? I think opposing PFs and Cs might disagree.
Pleasant Surprises
15. Lillard
16. Horford
29. Holiday
38. Adams
I’m happy to see these guys getting recognition. Especially Horford who along with Draymond are two of the most team oriented players in the league and do almost everything and make other players better. Lillard is finally climbing the ladder – it’s about time he gets more notice.
Disappointing
10. Butler
19. Towns
23. Lowry
28. Middleton
48. Covington
Disappointing as in really weak thinking involved with sliding these guys in ahead of others that are clearly more deserving. I think only Middleton has a good chance to prove he deserves his spot here. Butler has a heck of a lot to prove this year to be ahead of Kawhi, Lillard, Irving, Jokic. I think the guy that really sticks out for me when I look at Butler is Mitchell. Different players I know, but by mid season I doubt any GM would take Butler over Mitchell if they had a chance at either.
While I have some quibbles with where certain players are ranked, let me start with I think is the largest omission from the list…Kyle Kuzma. Kuzma was arguably the best player on the Lakers last year and now he gets to play alongside LBJ? Not only should he be in the top 100, but he’s probably better than most of the players ranked #50 to #100. How can Kuzma not be on the list while players like a washed up Dirk, Kelly Olynyk, Kent Bazemore, and Joe Ingles, to name just a few, are on the list? I don’t get his omission at all. Does SI think Kuzma’s game will decline with LBJ in the line-up with him?
CBS Sports is out with their top 100 list and I think it is better than the SI list.
https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/top-100-nba-players-for-2018-19-rankings-lead-with-lebron-james-and-stay-west-heavy-at-top/
For one thing, they’ve got Kuzma on the list (at #81). They’ve also got Kawhi up at #6.
Ha. Right! That’s so much better than SI’s. And no, I hadn’t noticed the Kuzma omission – as if Kuzma wouldn’t be a top 50 or 60 player taken if teams were to draft from scratch. Gobert at #23 makes much more sense, as does #28 Mitchell. However if Simmons has already cracked the top 20 where’s the logic for how Tatum hasn’t cracked the top 30? I’ll be surprised if he’s above Mitchell and Tatum next year this time.
Griffin, Aldridge and Love falling off the map on this list as well. Seems to say everything about how much talent there is in the league now, although Griffin doesn’t deserve to be anywhere near #40 on either list. I don’t see how the consensus can be that Towns is THAT much better than any of those other 3 guys.
Aaron Gordon #66 SI, #47 CBS
Brandon Ingram #75 SI, #53 CBS
Devin Booker # 50 SI, #36
Kyle Kuzma #100+ SI, #81
See a trend here? SI management needs to sit their journalists down so they can watch some games! Seems like they missed a good part of the 17-18 season.
The 76ers have finally announced the hiring of a GM and it is….Elton Brand? I don’t know about this and it seems to say that Brett Brown is really in charge in Philly. This is not a knock against, who was always a guys that I liked and is clearly quite intelligent. But he has only been in charge of player development (and GM for their G League team) for a little over a year. For a budding great team, I think I’d like a GM with a little more experience.
Looks like there may be some dysfunction happening in Minnesota.
https://www.si.com/nba/2018/09/18/timberwolves-jimmy-butler-karl-anthony-towns-tom-thiboudeau
Butler can opt out after this season. Towns is a free agent after this season and has said he won’t sign until Jimmy Butler’s situation is resolved. Not sure if that means he wants Butler gone or to stay. What if the T-Wolves end up losing both? And maybe they’ll need to trade one or both to avoid getting nothing for either of them. We’ve been thinking the Celtics were prepping to make a run at Anthony Davis, but maybe they’d go after Towns instead.
And now Butler has requested a trade. The T-Wolves are a mess.
Apparently Butler’s preferred trade destinations are the Nets, Knicks, and Clippers. All of which can sign him to a max deal next year. However, I wonder why the Lakers aren’t on the list since they would also be able to sign him to a max deal. Does Butler not want to play with LeBron?
Or do you mean the Lakers couldn’t afford Kawhi after signing Butler?
First I heard of this. Wow!
So, I guess one good question is “Can Clipps afford to sign both Butler and Kawhi for the 19-20 season?”
Including Clippers makes me wonder if Kyrie is willing to sign there as well.
Clippers, as they stand now, probably won’t have enough cap space to sign both Butler and Kawhi (unless one or both agree to take less than max salaries) next summer. However, if they can unload Gallinari’s expiring $22 million contract before the 2019-20 season, they would have enough space. The Nets will have enough cap space to sign two players to max contracts next summer. Butler and Kyrie have talked about playing together, so maybe they have Brooklyn in mind.
Better question … What might the Clipps have that the Wolves want? Gallinari? Doubtful. Maybe these owners can get the Wolves out from under the terrible Wiggins contact. Hard to see how the numbers can matchup, but if possible this may be the only thing making a Butler trade look good for the Wolves: to trade a bad contract along with a good one for a few ok contracts.
The scuttlebutt is that Butler most preferred destination is the Clippers, but if he’s hoping to join with Kyrie to form a superteam next year, Butler may have to seriously consider the Knicks and Nets, since Kyrie is a northern Jersey boy and apparently wants to end up playing in New York.
Butler was born and raised in Texas, so I’m curious why he wouldn’t be interested in going back to Texas. He’d be a great fit with Pop in San Antonio, though San Antonio would have to trade for him since they won’t have room to sign him. The Mavericks will have a ton of cap room next summer and could sign two players to max contracts and I can definitely see Mark Cuban making a huge push to sign two top free agents. Its doubtful that Houston could get Butler in a trade and they are so far over the cap, it’ll be impossible for them to sign any good free agents.
Regarding Elton Brand. I guess the first thing I’d say is they sure took their time to end up with someone that has a lot of questions surrounding them. I take that to mean one of two things …
1. Ownership is meddling in ways that resulted in a difficult decision process which ended with the owner’s decision only.
2. Brand is great at what he does, and perhaps the Sixers have a different idea of what they want from a GM.
For the Sixer’s sake I hope it’s the second one. And I hope that Brand continues as a player dev guy as well as someone who knows how to put together a team of winning pieces. I think this is what’s happening in Phoenix right now, with James Jones putting his stamp on a lot of the big moves they’ve made (Ariza and I assume the new coach as well as the draft day trade which seems too good to be McDonough alone). Maybe the Sixers have a similar structure and someone else will play the more business-related role to Brand’s personnel-and-future-vision role.
I thought I read that Brown doesn’t want to be in any sort of GM role much longer, but could be that Brown and Brand work together on personnel decisions. Will have to wait and see.
What surprises me most are the names that didn’t make it. If Brand is the man, I’m surprised Billups didn’t get a good look from the Sixers. There was David Griffin of course, and one other successful business type that was at the top of their list for awhile. It’s tempting to say there is some of the #1 above in all this, and that ownership doesn’t want a strong business type in that position. We’ll just have to wait n see, eh?
I enjoyed the Kuzma defense
There’s something about Kuzma that has sports media people confused. I admit to being confused myself at one point. Around Feb or Mar of last year. Just after he was running on all cylinders he stopped taking as many shots and started playing fewer minutes. It looked to me like the focus of the offense was to develop and showcase Ingram and Randle which it did very well. I thought. But Kuzma stopped producing for awhile.
Before that I was pretty impressed. Especially by his poise and willingness to crash the board. And pass/get rid of the ball at the right times. Seemed like the ultimate teammate to me. Seemed obvious that he had an excellent rookie year.
Two months ago I was listening to one of SiriusXM NBA radios main guys: Brian Geltzeiler. He’s probably one of the top 5 guys there. He said unequivocally that Kuzma is the odd man out on the Lakers. He said the only way the Lakers compete in the Western conference is for LeBron to play PF and that leaves Kuzma without a position. That someone of Geltzeiler’s profile would go out on a limb to say something so irrefutably stupid says something about Kuzma. Maybe it relates to how effortlessly he plays? Maybe he’s somehow too efficient without being flashy, so he doesn’t get the eyes to stick on him?
Prior to Geltzeiler’s missed-beat I assumed everyone knows damn well that Kuzma is starting at the 3 or 4 for the Lakers this year. By giving him big minutes there you add one of the leagues most potent shooters along with rebounding and team play. It’s an excellent option to have on any team.
A bigger concern I have is Ingram. As effective as he was last year, it was often in isolation. But if LeBron is going to allow that kind of offense it will be LeBron playing iso-ball. Ingram isn’t going to play PG, unless it’s for some early season experiment or later because of injuries. So Ingram has to become a spot up shooter and slasher. I don’t see his penetrate and dish game being something the Lakers rely on much. On the other hand, if Magic played Kuzma fewer minutes last year in order to showcase Randle and Ingram maybe the showcasing will continue in 18-19 and he’ll consider shopping Ingram. The hype is already there.
Here’s a good interview with Klay…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x15SU8Cgpkk
A few of the nuggets…team means everything to him and he’s having fun on a great team, so can’t imagine leaving and has no interest in having his “own” team. Also thinks Devin Booker is one of the great shooters in the league currently.
Also, despite some last minute negotiations, Patrick McCaw did not sign a new contract with the Warriors before their qualifying offer expired yesterday. I think that means he is now an unrestricted free agent. Gotta figure some team would want him and now Dubs won’t have the right to match.
Surprised to hear him say candidly that both Steph and KD are better shooters. I actually don’t agree, but guess if he says so there must be truth in it. I have to think he can still match them though.
Part of it is probably Klay’s natural modesty, but I think he may think so for two reasons. Both Steph and KD are less streaky shooters than Klay. When he’s hot, nobody can shoot with Klay, but he does go cold at times. Also, as Klay himself noted, both Steph and KD are members of the 50/40/90 club and he still aspires to do that. In fact, Klay has never shot .500 from the field or .900 from the line. Steph and KD have each only done 50/40/90 once, but each has also come close several other times.
I’m surprised to see that Klay shot only 84% from FT last year. And really not that impressive for most of his years. I guess I take back my comment about him being right there with those guys.
On the other hand, I’m also a bit surprised to see Booker at only 89% FT. I realize 89% is an incredible feat, but for those in rare air I expect 90% +
Back to Kuzma …
Starting last Jan 21st and ending March 3rd Kuzma played fewer minutes. I have no idea why. Was it to showcase Randle and maybe Ingram as well?
https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/k/kuzmaky01/gamelog/2018
Could have been any number of reasons why Kuzma got some reduced time for awhile. Could have been playing through a minor injury. Luke may have not like some match-ups for Kuzma then. Or, as you suggested, the Lakers may have been trying to showcase others. It’ll be interesting what they do this year, what with 3 guys who should be starting (LBJ, Ingram, Kuzma) and two forward spots for them. LBJ definitely will be starting, so one of Ingram or Kuzma will be coming off the bench.
Kyrie told a fan get together today that he wanted to resign with the Celtics “if they will have [him].” Of course, it would be easy for him to say that now and still leave when the season is over.
I don’t see why Magic or LeBron would want Kuzma coming off the bench. Maybe if he was in his rookie year or a few years from now, or if the Lakers are loaded with shooters. They aren’t.
Putting a young shooter needing minutes and reps on the bench makes little sense to me. In fact, I think Kuzma and Ingram are the only Lakers who need to start. Rondo next possibly just to keep him happy. LeBron – I assume he wants to start and probably should to keep the first few minutes from getting out of control. The fifth spot .. who knows? I’m guessing they play around with different players depending on matchups. Lonzo for extreme small ball. McGee if needed to matchup vs. Embiid or Davis for instance. Hart if they can get away with Kuzma at center.
For cases where they do try Kuzma coming off the bench, I assume he comes off quickly and is always in at the end of games. Which makes no sense to me for such a young player unless you’re just trying to make some older player happy by starting him.
With the need to have an athletic big man at center, who can step out to defend the perimeter, it really would make a lot of sense for the Lakers starting line-up to be:
PG: Ball/Rondo
SG: Rondo/Hart
SF: LeBron
PF/C: Ingram/Kuzma
That line-up would be susceptible to a big man with an inside game, such as Anthony Davis, but teams with that are few and far between these days. Maybe when they face an AD, they start JaVale at center and bring Ingram or Kuzma off the bench, but I think they’d be okay starting Ingram and Kuzma at PF and C most of the time.
Was just thinking about how Chris Bosh could fix the issue(s). He wants to come back if some team docs will allow it:
http://www.sportingnews.com/us/nba/news/nba-free-agency-rumors-news-chris-bosh-focusing-comeback-willing-play-any-team-miami-heat-toronto-raptors/8185zejqs8r01q0t1rpr6t6yn
The Lakers also have Zubac @ 7’1″” who’s slimmed down and apparently gotten stronger, but hasn’t been available yet …
https://www.silverscreenandroll.com/2018/10/7/17947332/ivica-zubac-frustrated-illness-lakers-training-camp-impact-stats-luke-walton-brandon-ingram
Thinking about this some more and perhaps Kuzma stands to benefit by playing in the 2nd unit. If he starts, he has to defer to LBJ a lot and will be fighting for shots with Ball, Rondo, Hart, and Ingram. If he plays with the 2nd unit, he can be the featured player with that group.
Lonnie Walker out for 6-8 weeks with meniscus tear. Bad setback for Spurs that have big expectations for Walker.
McDumbass is out finally – funny timing, but the Jones hire was writing on the wall IMO.
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2799726-ryan-mcdonough-fired-as-suns-gm-replaced-by-james-jones-trevor-bukstein
Pretty weird timing on this though. A little over a week before the season begins, with final roster cuts coming and potential trades and waiver pick-ups about to happen? I know they’ve announced that Jones and Bukstein will pick up the slack for now, but I wonder if they look for a quick hire at the GM position. Wonder if they had someone in mind when they finally dropped the axe on McDonough.
Woj reporting today that the Suns will likely name Jones the new GM.
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/24942773/phoenix-suns-leaning-promoting-james-jones-full-general-manager
Per the article, it appears that Sarver is too cheap and too controlling to bring in an experienced GM. This does not bode well for the Suns.
I agree unless Sarver really really likes Jones. What are the chances of that?
I have no idea! However, I’ll guess it comes down to track record. McD’s track record sucked, yet it took Sarver 4-5 years before he decided on an aggressive approach with McD. I think that’s more strange than waiting til a week before the season starts to fire McD. Almost like Sarver didn’t feel like paying attention until now. Like he was ignoring the situation. All of a sudden now he starts paying attention. That’s what it looks like to me.
So new guy in Jones and new track record waiting to be established. And Sarver – will he stay engaged or wait to see what Jones does and sign the checks up til the point when he needs to chop heads again? I think the latter, but likely not for at least a few years.
Spurs are starting to look like a cursed team. Likely a top 5 or 6 team in the West prior to the Murray ACL news. As if Pop hasn’t been through enough …
https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/10/8/17951938/dejounte-murray-san-antonio-spurs-knee-injury
Possible destination for McCaw?
No Murray. No Walker. Parker and Anderson signed elsewhere. Ginobili retired. Kawhi and Green traded. This year’s Spurs will look a lot different than last year’s team. DeRozan and Aldridge (and Mills) probably still make for a playoff team, but I would not be completely surprised if they miss the playoffs for the first time in forever. And yes, they should be calling McCaw immediately.
I’m a little unclear on the context, but apparently Anthony Davis said that if he were traded, his preferred locations are the Celtics, Knicks, 76ers, and Lakers. Davis has two years and a player option 3rd year left on his contract. It is quite apparent that the Pelicans won’t be contending over the next two years. So the debate on sports talk this morning was should the Pelicans move Davis now because presumably they could get a bigger return if the acquiring team is guaranteed that he will be around for at least two years. The assumption seems to be that Davis will turn down his option in Year 3 and definitely leave the Pelicans then if not traded before then.
We’ve discussed before that the Celtics seemed to be loaded up to make a run at AD. If I’m the Pelicans, I’d be insisting on getting Tatum in return. So do you give up Tatum to get AD? I would because the Celtics have Hayward and Brown that can play the SG/SF spots, thus AD fills a much bigger need. However, sports talk thinks there is no way the Celtics would give up Tatum in an AD deal.
As for the other teams that AD said he would accept a trade to, the Knicks don’t have the assets to make the trade. The Sixers are intriguing, but clearly won’t be trading Embiid. Would Saric and Covington or Fultz be enough? Would the Sixers give up Simmons to get AD? The Lakers look like the best bet as they could conceivably trade Ingram and Ball to get AD. AD takes Ingram’s spot in the line-up and Rondo becomes the starting PG. The Lakers would be instant title contenders. If you want to look behind the scenes, AD switched agents last month. His new agent is Rich Paul, who is, of course, LBJ’s agent. AD to the Lakers may already be in the works.
NBA Sirius XM is the only NBA sport radio I listen to. Of course you give up Tatum for AD. No question.
Agreed about the Rich Paul connection. AD is worth giving up Kuzma as well. Ingram and Kuzma for AD and … something valuable and interesting. Holiday is too much though. Mirotic may not be. Regardless, LeBron, AD, Rondo, Ball, Hart, Mirotic, Stephenson, McGee .. this would probably be a contender.
It’s a good reason for the Lakers to stay put with their roster until AD and/or Kawhi have made their decisions. Also a good reason to not trade for Butler even if he changes his mind and names the Lakers as a preferred destination.
Of course, with 2 years left on his deal, it is conceivable that some other playoff team might take a chance on trading for AD with the hope that he puts them over the top in those two years. I could see teams like the Pacers (perhaps for Turner and rookie Aaron Holiday and picks), the Bucks (perhaps for Middleton and Brogdon or Divincenzo and picks), the Wizards (perhaps for Porter and rookie Troy Brown and picks), the Jazz (any number of potential trade chips on roster); the Trailblazers (perhaps for Nurkic and rookie Anfernee Simons and picks); or the Clippers (perhaps for Marjanovic and Alexander and picks) doing this. I haven’t checked salaries on any of these trade projections, so it is likely other players would have to be involved in any such swaps in order to make the salaries work. But the point is perhaps some team other than AD’s preferred destinations, makes a deal for him to get a 2-year window at a championship.
Interesting comment by Mark Jackson last night during the Lakers-Dubs game. When he found out that the Butler interview (Rachel Nichols) had been scheduled way ahead of time, and that apparently Nichols was already in Minneapolis during Butler’s infamous practice/scrimmage, he concluded that it was all staged. That this is the type of guy Butler is. Not a good leader and not a guy that would work well on a lot of teams.
I don’t usually agree with much of anything that Jackson says, but that Butler called out the Wolves front office during the practice? Something is pretty messed up there.
Sure seems like Butler is going about this in all the wrong ways. The longer the Wolves sit on this thing, the more unhappy Butler is and (I’m guessing) the more likely he is to name other teams with which he’d be willing to sign long term.
and now today: practice cancelled (apparently) and jimmy calls a team meeting. a primary message there was that he’s in charge?
jimmy butler is how old now? I was a pretty damn immature teenager, but not this immature. Well … maybe I was. For a year or so at 17 years old. No clue what was going on around me together with unbridled conceit. Jimmy seems to suffer from the same afflictions at age 29. Maybe the best question at this point: is this immaturity or mental illness?
I don’t know what’s going on with Butler. If he wants to be traded to a destination of his choice, he is going about this all wrong. All he’s doing is potentially turning off teams to trading for him. On the other hand, Butler’s complaint that his teammates are not good competitors appears to be a valid complaint given that Butler and a squad of 3rd teamers took down Towns, Wiggins and the other starters in a scrimmage game yesterday (which apparently is what set Butler off). That should not happen. We already knew that Wiggins didn’t have what it takes to be a great player, but that is perhaps also true of Towns. If Butler does get traded, the T-Pups will become a lottery team.
Thibideau is probably the biggest loser in all of this. When he was hired by the T-Wolves, I thought it was a good hire with his defensive reputation. The team needed help in that area. But the team has not had the defensive intensity I was expecting. Then Thibs brought in a bunch of former Bulls, presumably to show the T-Wolves what was expected and that didn’t work. Assuming Butler is traded, I figure Thibs is gone no later than by the end of the season.
Season starts tomorrow!! What team will end up with Jimmy? I still say Clippers, just not as confidently;-)
Clippers would be my best guess too, but I wonder if some teams that may be interested in Butler are feeling out the Pelicans on AD first.
So it wouldn’t be a surprise for me to say that I expect the Warriors to win it all this year. Here’s my predictions for the season.
Eastern Conference Finals: Boston over Philadelphia
Western Conference Finals: Golden State over Houston
MVP: Giannis Antetokounmpo (after leading Bucks to top 4 in Eastern Conference)
DPOY: Anthony Davis
6th Man: Kyle Kuzma
Coach of the Year: Mike Budenholzer
I like the Bucks to be the surprise team of the year. They won’t make the finals, but barring injuries, I see them finishing 3rd or 4th in the East. I’m unsure of who the Warriors and Celtics will face in the conference finals, but am giving the rising Sixers and falling Rockets the benefit of the doubt for now.
Eastern Conference Finals: Boston over Indiana
Western Conference Finals: Golden State over Utah
MVP: LeBron James
DPOY: Anthony Davis
6th Man: Marcus Smart
Coach of the Year: Nate McMillan
Surprise team: New Orleans Pelicans
And of course, the hardest one to predict: Most Improved Player. Not just hard but impossible. I’ll list 5 guys and in about 8 months we’ll see if I’m even close …
Myles Turner
Elfrid Payton
Kris Middleton
Jaylen Brown
Aaron Gordon
MIP is a hard category to predict, but I’ll throw out 5 names too, though 2 of them match 2 of yours.
Elfrid Payton
Aaron Gordon
Julius Randle
Zach LaVine
Markelle Fultz
Of the 8 listed I’m definitely rooting for Fultz. Randle – nice choice. LaVine – unlikely in my opinion because he was pretty frickin incredible right before the injury. It would be more like a comeback award than an improvement award.
Who do I really WANT to get this award? Wiggins by far. I can’t stand watching him and the Wolves anymore, and I won’t unless he changes in some sort of dramatic way. Could happen, but my guess is it would involve something like Adderall or maybe even just a lot of caffeine on an almost daily basis.
I also left out Rookie of the Year. My choice will be Luka Doncic because he’ll be playing alongside Dennis Smith and Harrison Barnes in an offense for which he is well-suited. I would have picked Ayton if the Suns had a decent PG to feed him.
Also, here are my predicted playoff teams for each conference:
Eastern: Celtics, 76ers, Bucks, Pacers, Raptors, Wizards, Heat, Hornets
Western: Warriors, Rockets, Jazz, Pelicans, Thunder, Nuggets, Timberwolves, Lakers
Obviously a lot changes if Kawhi, Butler, and/or AD get traded along the way. And yes, I’ve got the Spurs missing the playoffs. They’ve lost too much from last year’s squad and, of course, their PG. The West has too many good teams for Pop’s magic to work this year.
I think everyone is going to love Doncic – he has so much going for him starting with the experience and poise, the all around game and in my opinion he’s a pretty cool dude. And yet there’s competition in Ayton and Bagley in particular. Of the three mentioned I think Bagley will be the best of the three eventually. I’m very impressed by his all around game already. He may be a couple years behind Doncic in several ways, but Bagley seems like the kind of guy that will prove it’s all just a matter of time. Interesting that he landed in Sacramento, because I’m thinking a quicker and possibly smarter version of Webber when all is said and done.
Why leave out Ayton in this discussion? I don’t think I am, because I believe this recent draft will go down as one of the top 3 or 4 greatest ever. 15 years from now we’ll be looking at these guys and judging them based on their titles. I see Ayton having the most of the 3, even if he gets only 1.
Ayton isn’t going to get any championships if he stays in a Sarver-owned Phoenix. That dysfunction needs to end before the Suns become a championship contender again.
I guess I see the Suns issue(s) as quite different from everyone else. The dysfunction has eased tremendously with the recent McDonough decision, and what I consider to be a pretty bold decision to (likely) go with Jones as GM. That Jones even decided to take the assistant job early this year says good things about Sarver’s relationship with people outside the organization. Is Sarver a meddler? Clearly. Was he the one responsible for McDumbass’s huge number of PG mistakes? No. Are the Suns making good decisions in 2018? Some of the best in the league in my opinion. Ariza was an excellent pickup – I don’t understand why anyone thinks he wasn’t. The Mikal Bridges trade – I still think we’ll find this occurred largely due to Jones’ influence. Ryan Anderson … probably won’t end up being a great decision. It could actually end up looking like a good financial decision fairly soon. And it rids the team of McDumbass players that weren’t contributing positively. I don’t see any reason to think Sarver was responsible for that one regardless.
Suns will start winning even without much of a PG rotation. Once they find one … I think we’ll see that winning tends to fix a lot of issues with Sarver.
In any case, the Suns aren’t done building by any means. They’ll likely have another good if not great draft pick next year, and get their PG one way or the other – likely before the beginning of the 19-20 season.
You probably hear more inside information about the Suns management situation than I do. But the scuttlebutt after McDonough was fired was that experienced GM candidates weren’t willing to put into consideration for the Phoenix GM job because of Sarver and his meddling. I don’t know if moving Jones into the GM job was a bold move or a best he could do move because Sarver was getting turned down by candidates he called. All the recent moves by the Suns that you like, whether or not influenced by Jones, were actually made by McDonough. I would be surprised if Jones has a free hand as GM to do what he thinks best.
Furthermore, Sarver could have an impact on whether players stay in Phoenix or leave as free agents or demand trades. Apparently, T-Wolves owners Glen Taylor is a big reason why Butler wants out of Minnesota. Kevin Garnett was asked about the situation last night and just eviscerated Taylor, said he understood why Butler wanted out of that situation, but said Butler needed to communicate with his teammates better about what was going on. What happens if Ayton gets fed up with Sarver and decides to leave Phoenix when his contract is up? The Suns look to be building a good team that may compete in a few years. I hope, for their sake, that Sarver doesn’t ruin it.
Should probably acknowledge the death of Paul Allen, Microsoft co-founder and owner of the Seattle Seahawks and Portland Trailblazers. He has no wife or children, so it looks like his sister is his heir and she reportedly has no interest in running either team. So both are likely to go up for sale. I wonder if someone like Phil Knight will look to buy the Trailblazers. New ownership could lead to a new front office and coaching staff.
Some thoughts about the Warriors after opening night…
Dubs were lucky that the Thunder were missing Westbrook and Roberson. Dubs played sloppy (20 TOs), shot lousy from long range (except for Curry) and didn’t look like they were totally ready. Unless they clean up their act and play better, they will lose Friday to the Jazz in Salt Lake City…It looks like Jones and Looney have passed Bell in the big man rotation. Jones in particular looks much better than last year, though he still needs work on his rebounding. But he looks like he can be a big time shot blocker and showed chemistry with Draymond on the alley oop. Looney meanwhile was a monster on the glass on offense (8 off. rebounds!)…Iggy went down early with the same calf muscle injury that limited him in the playoffs last year. I suspect the Dubs will shut him down for awhile, particularly since the season just started. They’ll want him to be fully healthy in the playoffs.
All the talk earlier in the day yesterday was about Klay allegedly saying he would not take a discount to stay with the Warriors. I saw no actual quotes from Klay, so I don’t know how real that is. Klay has often stated that he wants to be a Warrior for life. But will the Warriors offer him a max contract next summer? They may be offering KD a max contract at the same time. If the Warriors sign both to max contracts, they will be essentially at the salary cap with the salaries of just three players (those 2 & Curry). With the salaries of Green, Iggy & Livingston, that pushes them way over the cap before you start counting all the smaller salaries on the team. I think the Warriors will be prepared to do that, particularly with the higher revenue stream of a new arena coming next year, but we’ll see.
Still don’t know what is going on with McCaw, but learned this morning that I was wrong about his current status. Even though the qualifying offer that the Warriors made has expired, he is still a restricted free agent, meaning the Dubs can match any offer to him. So clearly he isn’t getting any offers from other teams, probably because they figure the Dubs will match or possibly because teams aren’t sure about him after the serious injury he suffered last year. So McCaw should just sign what ever one year deal he can get with the Warriors, use this year to prove himself, and then see how he fares in unrestricted free agency next summer.
Jones looked really good to me – I’d like to see a good show vs. Gobert tonight.
Great news about MacCaw. Makes sense.
Great news about McCaw? There’s no news so far.
May have misunderstood you in that case. The “news” prior to your update was that McCaw was opting to go elsewhere in the sense that he chose not to be a Warrior. Which I thought was why we assumed Spurs might want to pick him up. Seems like great news to me that he may still be playing as a Warrior this year.
IMO great news in that his chances of being a warrior went from 0% to something well over 50% after reading your update. Did I misunderstand this?
I get what you mean now, but it seems strange that McCaw hasn’t signed with anybody, including the Warriors, so far. He needs to prove himself this year since he will be an unrestricted free agent next season. It’s almost as if McCaw doesn’t want to play for the Warriors because he doesn’t seem to be communicating with them at all.
This is just ridiculous. I knew Boban Marjanovic was tall (7’3″), but his wingspan is outrageous, as demonstrated last night…
https://www.golfdigest.com/story/watch-clippers-monster-boban-marjanovic-dunk-without-even-having-to-jump
He dunks the ball with maybe an inch or two on his jump. After one of his dunks, he’s got his feet on the floor and his hand on the rim. He’s definitely not smooth on the court, but as the old saying goes, you can’t teach height.
drop Myles Turner from my MIP list
add Stauskas
Regarding Sarver, for now I’m going to be happy McD is gone, Jones who appears to me to be influential is staying and Sarver … I want to know how he behaves once the Suns become a winning team.
A few takeaways from the first Suns game. Ayton looked pretty comfortable as heck out there. I think a great many huge nights for him ahead. Second, Suns had a lot of energy spread all around. Especially Ariza, Jackson and Warren. All three of those guys looked very good. Canaan impressed and looked like a pro. This may not be a terrible option at PG for this year if needed.
With Warren and Jackson both looking so good, and Mikal Bridges needing some minutes on the court … I think one or the other of Warren/Jackson could fetch an excellent player in return. I still think there must be some way of Butler ending up with Clips, Shai Alexander in Phx and Warren or Jackson in Minnesota.
I don’t like this idea that Booker plays PG for a lot of the game. He’s going to turn the ball over a lot I think. At least get someone else to bring the ball over half court and get it to him near the arc. Similar to how the Dubs get Durant the ball.
Butler not playing tonight. Writing on the wall? I assume yes and he’ll play no more games for the Wolves.
Since it happened fairly quickly I’ll guess … 70% he goes to Miami, 20% he goes to Clips, 5% Philly, 5% the field.
They claim they are merely resting him because of the two trips to Texas in three days. I guess we’ll find out soon. Meanwhile, we can see how bad the T-Pups will be without Butler since the lowly Mavericks playing without their best player (Barnes) managed to beat them.
Metta Peace on last nights brawl at Staples:
“I hope everyone doesn’t get fined. It was a fight. It was unfortunate. The first time they’ve ever thrown punches. They shouldn’t do it. It happened. I’ve never seen them fight before… I don’t think anyone should be suspended.”
Apparently Metta’s medication isn’t working. What I saw from Ingram was frickin scary. Cowardly and dangerous. I hope Silver compares this to other fighting incidences and suspends Ingram for at least twice as long. For me, 20 games wouldn’t be enough.
Agreed. The whole sequence for Ingram was ugly. He may have had a point at the beginning about the foul being more Harden running into him than him fouling Harden. But from that point, he shoves Harden, gets in the referee’s face, has to be restrained by teammates, and then goes running back into the Paul-Rondo fray throwing punches. He’s gonna get suspended for awhile. Meanwhile, Paul is claiming that Rondo spit on him, which led to their donnybrook with punches thrown. I expect both of them to be suspended as well with Rondo perhaps getting a little bit longer than Paul because of the haymaker he threw and the spitting if true.
Woj reporting that NBA is suspending Ingram for 4 games, Rondo for 3 games, and Paul for 2 games.
not sure about the other two, but Ingram only 4 games is bizarre.
No longer matters what the best starting lineup is for the Lakers, because Lonzo and Kuzma are in there now. Great opportunity for Ball to grab Rondo’s spot for good. And regarding what has been described as horrible defense by Kuzma …
He’s clearly a great teammate and will figure it out. The guy is all over the court and probably trying to do too much under or near the basket. Two games isn’t enough to evaluate, but it’s hard to believe he’ll play many minutes defending the paint even 6 months from now. Lakers need to start giving big minutes to their other big men Zubac and (when he’s ready to go) Wagner.
Revising my MIP list again here, since I’ve changed my mind – Jokic won’t likely win it if he’s THIS good. But this guy has to be in contention. From what I’ve seen a Big Time game changer.
http://www.espn.com/nba/player/_/id/2531367
How many teams could use a guy like this??
I guess I didn’t really consider Jokic for MIP because I thought he was already really good. He averaged 18.5 pts, 10.7 rebounds, and 6.1 assists last year. His points and assists are up so far this year, but its only 3 games. I think his numbers will be better this year, but probably not so much that he’ll be in consideration for MIP at the end of the year. I’d be happy to see him prove me wrong though.
I was *sort of* joking when I said that, point being if he went from last years stats to trip dub stats … yeah, would probably be the first MVP that also won MIP. Still, as much as I’ve liked his game he’s been nowhere near as aggressive as the Nuggs need him to be. Until now possibly.
Some random thoughts on the NBA’s first week:
The Raptors had the best record in the East last season and somehow look even better so far. I wouldn’t be surprised if there is an unwritten deal with Kawhi for him to rehabilitate his image with them this year, knowing that he will walk at the end, but in the meantime, they will have a really great shot at being in the NBA finals. I have no idea who their new coach Nick Nurse is (other than having been a Raptor assistant for a number of years), but he seems to be managing the egos well so far.
I forget if you mentioned it already, but Joe Ingles is making an early case for MIP. You may be right about a Dubs-Jazz Western Conference finals.
We knew Jayson Tatum was a great player, but on a team with Kyrie, Hayward, Horford, and Brown, he’s been the best player so far, doubling his RPG average and nearly doubling his PPG average. If those numbers stay this high, he’ll get consideration for MIP also.
The Greek Freak is making my pre-season MVP prediction look good so far. 25.5 ppg/16.5 rpg/6.5 apg. Budenholzer was a great hire for the Bucks. He turned the Hawks into a 60-win squad, only to have Hawks management tear apart the team.
LeBron is LeBron so far in L.A., but I wonder if his (and Rondo’s) presence is going to set back the young core. Ingram, Ball, and Kuzma are all playing less minutes. Worse, with the offense going through LBJ and Rondo, they’ve effectively become a group of catch and shoot players. They looked far more effective last year when they each got to create some offense. The one young Laker is who is thriving in the new Laker world is Josh Hart, precisely because he is a catch and shoot player. Since the Lakers will be a King James dominant team for the next 4 years, it probably makes sense for them to dangle some combination of Ingram/Kuzma/Ball in a trade for a superstar. That is, if any superstar actually wants to play with LBJ. Of course that is the crux of the problem for the Lakers. Most superstars also do a great deal of creating, for others and themselves. That may be why it seems superstars like Kawhi, Butler, and Paul George have opted out of joining the Lakers. You know who would work really well with LBJ? Klay Thompson, who may be the best catch and shoot player in the league. Of course, a Klay for two of Ingram/Kuzma/Ball would never happen. But the Lakers should go full court press on signing Klay next summer as a perfect fit for an LBJ team.
Ahh .. interesting comment about rehabbing Kawhi’s image! I like it A. Makes a ton of sense. Are the Raptors Warriors-smart like that? And if so … did Lacob make Boogie the same deal?
😉
I started laughing when I read the Ingles MIP comment. I agree completely that Jokic won’t be MIP because he was THAT good last year. But for a moment I was still thinking “Jokic MIP” even though it made little sense. You’re right, and this is the same argument I’d use for Ingles – He’s been that good. Not Jokic good but damned good and consistent. And effective. And woefully underrated if not ignored. Every team should be trying to trade for this guy if his value is as low as it seems. Of course, Utah might not think of it that way. Case in point – if you could swap players, should Utah take Butler for Ingles?
Sorry, but not agreeing with the Freak comment. And not because it’s too soon, but rather I want to see the impact on winning as in LeBron type of impact on winning. Freak seems to have a long way to go before he’s winning a lot of games and making everyone around him better. He’s in the running no question, but ahead of him are going to be Kawhi, Lillard, Steph and KD. Those 4 seem like locks to finish ahead of Freak to me in the voting because I simply don’t think he’ll win enough games and I believe that will be due to not making his team better. I also take LeBron and AD as sentimental favorites – LeBron because everyone saw him being the best player (possibly ever) during the 2018 playoffs and it’s been too long for him since the last one, and AD because I think everyone now knows that if the Pels get anywhere near the top 4 in the West it will be all because of him. I don’t see Harden winning again. If he proves me wrong that will be some amazing feat vs. all this talent.
Lakers … I’ll stick with my original thoughts on this since I’ve seen nothing to alter those: they need until February to get in sync. I’ve watched both games and I see the same thing: problems but not because of talent or lack of effort or lack of intelligence. These guys need to be out there playing with each other and LeBron. Exact same reason why Kuzma needs to start and should continue to do that after Ingram’s suspension. Hart is awesome and in my opinion is your spark plug off the bench along with Lonzo. FWIW I think Rondo is the perfect guy to start in front of Lonzo. I love the decision for Rondo to start.
As to Ingles being “that good” before this season, last year he averaged a mere 11.5 ppg and 1.1 spg. This year, those numbers are up to 19.5 ppg and 2.7 spg (his rebounds and assists numbers are about the same as last year) and he is playing 36 minutes per game. If Ingles can keep his stats up (still very early in season, so who knows), I think he’ll be in MIP discussion. A potential issue for Ingles though is that he is already 31 years old. Can he keep up the additional minutes he’s played so far this year? You don’t typically see players make huge leaps in performance at his age, but he has seemed to get better as he plays more minutes.
You sold me. I thought he had a better year. Maybe only the games I paid attention to both regular season and playoffs.
I think you hit the nail on the head there. I just took a look at Ingles’ game logs from last year and it looks like for the last two and half months of the season and the playoffs, Ingles was scoring more and his minutes were up. That was likely the period that we were paying more attention to the Jazz.
Klay would work perfectly with any team any time any where in the history of the game. Plug n Play Klay!
Disclaimer to my No Freak 18-19 MVP argument …
While I don’t see him entering the upper echelon of players (yet) with respect to his playmaking and ability to get others involved, I do see the possibility of him being a top 5 defensive player this year. So if that happens and they win enough games and some of those game are vs. top teams then yes … one could make a good case for him. However, unless that happens I think it’s too soon for him while 1) LeBron deserves another MVP before he retires 2) All eyes are on Kawhi and his incredibly well-rounded game 3) AD isn’t any worse than Freak and I think it will be his “turn” before Freaks and 4) Lillard is likely to win more games and Portland likely to have more wins than the Bucks. 5) Is Freak really more valuable than KD??
#5 is a rhetorical question. Guess there’s no way to answer fairly until April;-)
There is a difference between MVP and best player. There’s no question that KD is a better player than the Freak. However, while value is a subjective issue, I would argue that the Freak is far more valuable to the Bucks than KD is to the Warriors. Without KD, the Warriors are still contending for a championship. Without Antetokounmpo, the Bucks are a lottery team.
It was a bit of hyperbole when I suggest the Greek Freak was making my MVP prediction look good. The Bucks had only played two games (3 now) and he has played fantastically in every game so far, beating Charlotte, Indiana, and the Knicks. I was expecting Budenholzer to better utilize the Freak’s talent this season and, so far, in a very small sample size, he has done just that. Admittedly, the one thing that the Freak does not have in his game is a good 3-pt shot and that may hold him back from being MVP in the end, but I still think he enters the upper echelon of players this year.
As for the other MVP candidates you mentioned: LeBron’s game is declining and whether or not he deserved more MVPs in his career, I don’t think he’ll get another one; Kawhi may be in the MVP discussion in the end IF he plays enough; Anthony Davis will be a strong candidate for MVP, but it being his “turn” will have nothing to do with the MVP vote; Lillard never seems to generate MVP buzz and the Blazers in a strong Western Conference are unlikely to do as well as the Bucks in a weak Eastern Conference. Both KD and Steph will be strong MVP candidates, though they may tend to split the vote.
I agree quite a bit, but not that about Anthony Davis. I think we’re entering a good long stretch of “who’s next” – I think many years ahead where there are at least two very deserving candidates every year. As of this season I think Davis has played at the same level for longer than Freak even with all his injuries. I think he’ll be a top 2 MVP candidate this year if he stays healthy and the Pels solidly make the playoffs. When healthy, he’s at least as good at Westbrook and Harden. I think he’s next on the list before Freak in that case.
Regarding my comment, I realize I came on a bit strong. Sorry. Let me re-phrase some of it …
By listing Lillard, Steph, KD and Kawhi as locks to get attention, I mean that not only do I think it’s likely that all of these guys become clearly the most valuable to their teams (in Steph/KD it’s one or the other – I think one of them will have an outrageous year and be clearly MVP of the dubs), but also that their respective teams will have greater success than the Bucks.
I also think that LeBron hasn’t fallen off much from his peak and that by mid-season he’ll realize the only way to get to the playoffs is with him winning a lot of games. He hasn’t needed to do it as much as he will this year. Barring injuries I see LeBron destroying a lot of teams this year.
In AD’s case, I’m largely hoping the Pels start winning because I like his game. Am really looking forward to the first Warriors Pels game.
Interesting comment from Fran Fraschilla just now. I’ve quoted him enough that it’s about time I start following him. So I am. Here’s the latest …
“Watching Magic at Celtics and officials treating Steve Clifford’s team like they are a “guarantee game.” They are up five to start the fourth but have no chance to win this game.”
I’ve been wondering how Klay would have fit on any of those Jordan teams. Hard to imagine how much better those teams would have been with Klay playing significant minutes alongside Jordan and Pippen. Between those three really no need for a PG since Pippen and Klay (mostly Pippen) could play that role when Jordan didn’t demand it. So, instead of history remembering huge shots by Paxson and Kerr, we’d still be talking about Klay.
(honestly, what other player in history is quite like Klay today.
Best comparison I can make for Klay is to Phil Chenier in his prime. Good outside shooter, tough defender. It was a different era then, no 3-pt line and hand-checking allowed. Real shame that a back injury basically ended Chenier’s career while still in his prime. The one thing that Klay doesn’t do well is create. He passes well, but you don’t see him create a whole lot of shots for himself or others like Steph, KD and Draymond do. Maybe its because he hasn’t had to playing alongside Steph his whole career. In any event, you are right that Klay would work with just about any team, but he’d be perfect fit for an LBJ-dominated team that also had Rondo and/or Ball because he is the best catch and shoot player, which is the type that LBJ has always needed around him (Love, Smith, Korver, Miller, etc.).
Regarding last night’s Suns performance vs. Warriors, that might have been the worst NBA effort I’ve ever seen outside of Booker. Is Ayton afraid to be more physical that he has been? Seems like he gets over powered pretty easily too often.
By the way, Jones has been awesome.
mark your calendars!
Warriors vs Pelicans @ Oakland
Wed, Oct 31 7:30 PM
I think the Freak MVP choice is bold enough that it calls for a bet. How about this …
If Freak ends up in top 3 of MVP voting I pay next time we do a SF outing that includes NBA and food. So has to be a place we can sit down with good food that shows some NBA games.
If not you pay. What say?
LOL! Sure, why not. The Freak’s triple-double tonight to beat the Sixers has me feeling good about his chances. The only caveat to the bet is that any injury to the Freak where he loses enough time to take him out of serious running for MVP will negate the bet.
Deal
I hope you got to see the Dubs-Wiz game tonight. Steph was en fuego. He was 6 of 7 in 3-pt shots in the 1st quarter with the miss being from near mid court as time ran out in the period. He was feeling it so much that he just kept extending his range to see if he could keep it up. He ended up with 11 3-pointers and 51 points in only 30 minutes and 24 shots. It was ridiculous and exhilarating to watch. After the game, I saw the stat that Steph now has 6 games in his career where he has made 11 or more 3-pointers. The kicker to that? The rest of the NBA combined all-time has just 7 games with 11 or more 3-pointers. Steph made some comments before the season began that he is kind of overlooked now in the MVP discussion. I think he may be on a mission now to change that perception. His lowest scoring total through 5 games is 29 points and he will shatter the single season 3-pt record (which he owns) if he keeps up the 3-pt pace.
Here’s all 11 of Steph’s 3-pointers tonight.
http://www.knbr.com/2018/10/24/watch-all-of-stephen-currys-11-3-pointers-from-wild-performance-vs-wizards/
The last two might be the most ridiculous.
Giannis is making a good case for you. I’ll be watching, because statistically top 3 MVP voting will be hell of impressive. Here are some good Bucks games coming up that I’d like to see. Rough road up ahead for the Bucks? We will see!
Mon, Oct 29
Toronto
Thu, Nov 1
Boston
Tue, Nov 6
Portland
Thu, Nov 8
Golden State
Sat, Nov 10
Clippers
Sun, Nov 11
Denver
Mon, Nov 19
Denver
Wed, Nov 21
Portland
Unless one of the two lose this weekend, the Bucks-Raptors tussle on Monday will be between two unbeaten teams. Should be good. With Kawhi this year, the Raptors may be even better than last year’s team that had the most wins in the league.
In fact, Bucks at Raptors tomorrow will be a meeting of the only two remaining undefeated teams as Denver, Detroit, and New Orleans have all lost in the last 3 days. Unfortunately, it appears the game will not be broadcast nationally, so I won’t be able to watch it.
so far this season I’ve noticed some pretty bad selections for broadcasted games. mostly I see no games being broadcast half the time. i realize there’s monday night football and (was) a potential World Series game, but aren’t we now living in a world where people watch “their” thing and not someone else’s? meaning … a LOT of people don’t watch either football or baseball but definitely NBA.
the whole “small market” reasoning isn’t as relevant anymore. technology *should* be sophisticated enough to put together programming a lot more quickly now – seems like 7-10 days should be enough to reset programming for at least one of the TV networks.
I don’t get it – seems like a lot of these games is clearly lost revenue for some of the networks.
If I’m the NBA, I might think of starting to challenge Monday Night Football. There’s been criticism for several years at least now about how bad the MNF games are. Tonight’s Patriots-Bills game should be no exception. One good team (Patriots) against one bad team (Bills). Today was also a scheduled travel day for the World Series if it hadn’t ended yesterday (because baseball doesn’t want to challenge MNF either). With the increasing popularity of the NBA, it may be time to put a national game on Monday night on TNT. I don’t watch MNF anymore unless the 49ers are on it, so I’ll take a good NBA game that night. If you still got the NBA League Pass, let me know your thoughts on the Giannis-Kawhi match-up after its over.
Back to Butler. Here’s a recent article stating that Clipps, Heat, Mavs and Rockets are “strongly” interested still …
http://amicohoops.net/nba-rumors-jimmy-butler-trade-minnesota-timberwolves-miami-heat-houston-rockets-dallas-mavericks-los-angeles-clippers/
My newest take based on what I heard from David Griffin right around the time LeBron signed with the Lakers: I believe some and maybe a lot of hesitation is because there is some sort of “communication” between Butler and these teams. Not directly of course, but as Griffin made clear “talk is happening all the time” whether it be with agents or teammates or … plenty of other avenues that wouldn’t involve direct communication between Butler and front offices. We’ll likely never know, but I think a good guess is that the Clippers at least are trying to get a feel for whether Butler will sign with them in free agency next year. If they feel it’s almost certain that he will IF he hasn’t already been traded to a team he’ll commit to long term, then that’s a great reason for the Clippers to stay out of any bidding wars unless and until their hand is forced.
“Yahoo Sports also recently reported the Clippers had been put off by some of Butler’s antics while waiting for a trade.”
Yep. Butler has been pretty juvenile to use one word. I understand completely how, for example, Jerry West may have been ready to go all in with Harris and then relented or at least long-paused. A critical point to make wrt West and Rivers: they don’t *really* know what they have outside of a few vets on their roster. No doubt they’re taking time to analyze their team early in the season before screwing up by dealing someone that could be a huge part of their future.
watching jaylen brown …
hard to believe that ainge isn’t wondering how Jimmy would look at that spot. Possible Butler doesn’t want anything to do with Boston though.
Reportedly, the Rockets have offered 4 first round picks for Jimmy Butler. Such a deal would require some warm bodies as well to make the salaries work. If I’m the T-Wolves, I think I would jump all over that.
Will he sign with Houston long term though? I don’t know. Somehow I don’t see the Clippers and Miami just sitting on their hands watching Butler pass them by. And regarding how the Clipps may not have liked what they saw in Butler’s juvenile ways … he hasn’t been THAT bad. I think a lot of players like him. He plays the right way.
I guess we will see.
I haven’t heard if Butler is willing to sign with Houston long-term. If I’m Houston, I would want a commitment from Butler to sign with them for the long-term before I send out 4 future 1st round draft picks. If I’m Butler, I’d want to know how he fits into the Rockets. The Rockets offense is all about Harden or Paul driving and shooting or kicking the ball out. Will there be enough touches for Butler? And if Butler is frustrated with the all-around commitment of Towns and Wiggins, how’s he going to feel about Harden and Paul’s defense or lack thereof? Apparently Tom Thibideau wants to get back some good players in the deal so that this season isn’t a total loss without Butler, but Glen Taylor wants the draft picks. I think Thibideau sees the writing on the wall for his job.
Right. A huge amount of success that Houston had last year related to 3 pt shooting by Ariza and Tucker. So essentially Butler takes Ariza’s spot but can’t hit the 3 very well. So not sure if that works well, unless D’Antoni is willing to change up his plans a bit and put Butler in the Eric Gordon role where he creates at will. But then, where does that leave Gordon?
It would leave Gordon on the bench, but I think Houston would be good with that since their bench took a big hit this past off-season. Gordon’s 3 pt % has decreased each of the last five years, so he may not be a much better long ball shooter than Butler at this point anyway. I just have serious questions about Butler’s ability to fit in with Harden, Paul, and Anthony. I don’t think it is a good fit.
Miami is reportedly back in discussions with the Wolves. After seeing some of Josh Richardson’s stats this year I can see him on his way to Minnesota, but I don’t know how Wolves unload the Dieng contract on them.
I have no idea who McGruder is on the Heat, but he’s having a heck of a start to the year.
27 yrs old with 2 years in the NBA. 6′ 4″ SF. Looks like he does it all like Jimmy. The Wolves must have some interest in him, but I’m not sure why the Heat would give him up.
http://www.espn.com/nba/player/_/id/2488826
Looks like McGruder has ridden the bench and played in the G-league the last two years. He seems to be getting some playing time at the moment because Waiters started the season injured. Guessing he goes back to the bench when Waiters starts playing again. Of course, with Butler and Waiters playing the same position more or less, maybe Minnesota would ask for Waiters back as part of any deal.
New topic. Javale McGee. I’m so impressed with this guy, but then I was impressed last year as well. I’m not going to say he’s better than he was last year, because I’m not sure if that’s the case. What’s impressive to me though is that he’s playing really well even with more minutes on the floor. He and LeBron look great together. They’re both huge difference makers. And that leads to another observation about the Lakers: what a great group of guys! Can’t believe I’m saying this as a Suns and Warriors fan, but I really like how this team works together. Kuzma, Hart and McGee have energy that’s infectious. Ball, again, looks like a young Jason Kidd still and is like having another vet out there with LeBron or Stephenson. Ball’s defense is awesome at times, and also makes a huge difference on both ends.
I’ll say what I’m guessing won’t be said out loud in that locker room: although Rondo brings a heck of a lot to the team, it’s pretty clear he can’t be taking minutes away from almost anyone that he’d replace. Ball, Hart, Ingram, Kuzma, Stephenson. These are all great ball handlers and they move the ball well together. Rondo obviously does as well and IMO needs minutes out there, but how many? He played 32 and 30 minutes in the first two games, and would have played more in the second if he hadn’t been ejected. Those kinds of minutes can’t last even if he continues to start. How will he take the news?
I’m looking at the Dallas roster – Butler would look great alongside Doncic assuming Luka will be a solid shooter for his career. It’s early, but looks to me that he will be. Plug in Butler for Matthews and that team now has a lot of playmakers that can score. No idea if Butler wants to be there, but why wouldn’t he unless he only wants east or west coast teams. I suppose he might want to be near one of the oceans.
Butler was born and raised in Texas in the Houston area. So it could appeal to him as home or maybe he grew sick of it while he lived there. Texas has no state income tax, which is typically a big draw for athletes. With the Mavericks, Butler would know that the owner will spare no expense to get back to being a championship team. So unless, Butler just despises Texas, there’s no real reason why he shouldn’t want to go to the Mavericks.
Tyronn Lue is the first casualty of LBJ abandoning Cleveland for the 2nd time. I wasn’t expecting the Cavs to be a playoff team this year, but I guess going 0-6 with losses to the Nets and Hawks in there was too much for Cavs management. Maybe the Cavs will end up with the #1 overall draft choice for the 4th time this decade.
NBA League Pass has a new type of subscription this year. You can pick a single team and watch all the games for a month for $18. Expensive, but might be a good plan for me depending on the team. I may get this for the Raptors starting today. The downside is if the team you pick is broadcast on NBATV, League Pass won’t show it. I don’t understand that at all – I don’t see how one of those markets would hurt the other.
I went with the Bucks this month since Raptors have too many NBATV games scheduled and I see that DiVincenzo is getting minutes now.
I guess Chenz isn’t getting more minutes, but his numbers look good outside of his 3PT shooting. Freak is sidelined tonight (concussion) so I assume that means more Middleton, Brogdon and Bledsoe scoring. Hoping for a bad Bledsoe night early so Chenz can spell him a bit.
Ha – perfect! Bledsoe is stinking it up and Chenz is in for him tearin it up. Chenz is going for that 6th man spot I think.
I looked at the score and saw the Bucks crushing the Raptors despite no Greek Freak, but then I looked at the boxscore and saw that Kawhi wasn’t playing either. Really too bad that such a big match-up is missing the best player on each team. Not watching the game, so not sure how Bledsoe is stinking it up with 17 pts on 7 of 12 shooting with 8 assists. My guess would have been that the Chenz is getting some run because the lead is so big.
Bledsoe was horrible early and went out. Chenz came in very early. Chenz gave em a shot in the arm with some big shots and tons of energy. Excellent 6th man stuff just like at Nova.
I’ve been posting basketball answers on Quora. I’m sure you’ll have input on some of them. Join and respond if you like. Here are a few of mine for purely entertainment value only …
https://www.quora.com/Why-is-traveling-not-called-more-in-the-NBA/answer/John-Ahearn-1
https://www.quora.com/Is-Steph-Curry-more-valuable-than-Kevin-Durant-Or-it-is-the-other-way-around/answer/John-Ahearn-1
https://www.quora.com/As-he-will-probably-end-up-with-the-record-for-most-turnovers-by-one-player-is-Lebron-James-overrated-as-a-passer/answer/John-Ahearn-1
https://www.quora.com/If-Michael-Jordan-and-LeBron-teamed-up-both-at-age-30-which-two-players-ever-could-beat-them-in-a-street-game/answer/John-Ahearn-1
Don’t know if you caught the Lakers’ starting line-up tonight. The trend in the NBA is to go small. Luke Walton went tall. The starting line-up was Ball, Ingram, LeBron, Kuzma and McGee. Ball is obviously the shortest person in that group at 6’6″. Everyone else is 6’8″ and up. Rondo was back from his suspension and ended up playing more minutes than Lonzo (looks Lonzo wasn’t doing much), but it’ll be interesting to see if Luke keeps trotting this line-up out, which is clearly the best 5 players on the team. I will note that the line-up didn’t work as the T-Wolves won the game due to huge games from Towns and Butler.
Gotta start McGee vs Towns, so really no choice in this game, even though McGee should start regardless. He and Lebron are great together. I like that KCP isn’t starting – I never understood why he was anyhow, since if it’s defense you want then Hart or Ball can play that same position and bring a lot more in with them.
Oh, just occurred to me: doesn’t KCP have the same agent as Lebron? If so hmmm … he really does look like the odd man out.
Strange to see that box score for Lonzo. Yeah – looks like he wasn’t doing much, though you know he was running around tiring guys out at least. Strange to see him with only 1 reb. Also note that Hart shot poorly and didn’t seem to be himself either.
I get the very strong feeling that by February the Lakers are going to be known for their second unit which may or may not include McGee (overlapping before Wagner comes in). Lebron and Walton are in a really great position knowing that the young guys are probably still pinching themselves and are happy to do what’s needed for the team to grow. And the vets who are probably just happy to be getting minutes on a good team.
Just guessing here but I can see this rotation coming in all at once half way through the first quarter by midseason: Stephenson, Hart, Lonzo to spell Rondo, Lebron, Ingram. I like the idea of Kuzma getting minutes with both units and being the 40 min per game iron man of the team. This seems like it would “just work” as a way to make Rondo happy and keep him off the floor when Stephenson and Lonzo are in. Better than replacing Rondo with Lonzo only mid-way through the 1st.
Just having fun guessing at what they’ll do. Maybe Ingram will surprise me and be so good they won’t want to pull him out. He was pretty good last night, but with 4 TOs he’s not the guy you want giving the ball away. Looks like TOs and FT% and fouls did them in last night.
Yeah McGee is needed to protect the paint against teams with a strong inside presence. Against other teams, he can be brought off the bench. I misspoke when I said that the tall line-up was the best five guys on the team because McGee is not among the best 5 on the team, but a needed presence against certain centers. The one thing Walton needs to do is have Hart in the starting line-up playing with LeBron. King James needs a reliable outside shooter on the court with him to dish to and Hart is the best and perhaps only option on the team. I’m guessing the tall line-up was an attempt to deal with Towns/Butler, who are both big, so the Lakers would always have a tall player to switch onto those two.
I’m going to disagree. For now. I think McGee and Lebron work so well together they should be out there together, so … starting against every team. Also, not sure why you think Hart is a better or more reliable shooter than Kuzma. Do you mean so far this season? 6 or 7 games? Am more than willing to wager on that for the season.
Hart starting – I disagree there also but we’ll see. Hart coming off the bench with Stephenson makes more sense to me as long as Ingram is starting which I think he should be. Kuzma vs Hart in the starting lineup: I’ll go with Kuzma because of the huge height difference and greater potential to defend the PF position. Potential as in it’s all about getting these guys to grow into their roles. If after 2 more months Kuzma isn’t growing offensively or defensively then sure, replace him with 6′ 4″ Hart (listed at 6’5″ but i doubt it), but that’s too big a height difference to mess with now. I’m pretty sure this is why Kuzma is starting and will continue to start. He’s playing well. Neither he nor McGee had much if anything to do with the loss last night. Lakers got beaten because of foul shooting eventually. Seems like Ingram, Stephenson and new guy Williams might have been mostly responsible for that.
I like last night’s starters except for Lonzo. Again would like to see Lonzo, Stephenson and Hart coming off the bench to inject some big time energy on both ends.
Last year, Hart led the Lakers in 3-pt% as a rookie. He is basically again leading the team this year with a .410 3-pt% (Stephenson, Rondo and yes, McGee have higher percentages currently, but with significantly less shots). Ingram was second in percentage last year, but it was a huge jump from the prior year (and again significant less 3-pt shots than Hart) and so far he looks to have reverted to form this year. Kuzma took the most 3-pt shots on the team last year and hit them at a .366 rate (Hart was at .396), but has started slow (below .300) this year. I’m unclear why he’s shooting so poorly this year. I would agree that Kuzma should be starting alongside LeBron, but Hart should be there as well. Hart and Kuzma are the #1 and #2 best options for catch and shoot 3s delivered by LeBron on his drives and that is what LeBron needs on the court with him. Frankly, I would put Ingram on the 2nd unit, so that he can be a bigger part of the offense without LeBron on the court. And as you suggested, if I’m the Lakers, I’d give up Ingram in a heartbeat to get Butler (or Kawhi).
Ha! So we’re thinking the same thing and I bet we have the same answer to this question: what are the chances Ingram doesn’t start?
Slim to none? I say even less than that. Regardless, unless they trade some of their talented youngn’s, I think the Lakers wind up with the best second unit in the game starting with Stephenson and Lonzo. Ingram sure, but not gonna happen. Obviously I’d like to see both Kuzma and Hart in that second unit. I think it’ll happen if Kuzma is the iron man on the team.
Unless Lebron wants to be the iron man. That’s possible this year since no way they get deep in the playoffs if they make it at all. Maybe Lebron plays close to 38 minutes a game just to get the other guys ready for 19-20. Doubtful that Walton likes the idea but can he stop it if Lebron wants to be out there?
I also like the idea of trading Ingram plus change for Butler. I wonder if Lebron is even interested in playing with Butler if Butler was *somehow* willing to be Lebron’s bitch (like everyone else on the team). I get why Butler wouldn’t want that, but then I also get that something seems to be very wrong or at least immature with Butler.
What Butler is doing in MN is great theater. Except for 1 game this season, he’s consistently upstaged the rest of his team. Given that Wiggins didn’t even play last night and yet the Wolves played possibly their best game, it makes the owner look completely ridiculous for giving both Wiggins and Towns *enormous* contracts and yet all-but-ready to shut the door on Butler’s way out. Say what you want about the Suns’ Robert Sarver, but the boneheaded crap going on in MN is way worse.
Speaking of the Suns, as long at Booker is out they’re bottom feeders. I don’t mind that at all, unless Sarver freaks out and gets involved with well … anything personnel wise. Another great draft pick for the Suns next year is exactly what *I* want, especially since this year shouldn’t be about some massive win total increase but rather player development. Easy to see that Ayton and Jackson have a long way to go and Mikal Bridges needs minutes. Meanwhile the most confusing thing for me: Ryan Anderson not only gets the start but gets pretty big minutes each game. Why? Can that really be Kokoskov’s choice? Would suck if Sarver is the one suggesting this.
Big test for Thunder tonight vs. Clipps in OKC. Somehow I see my prediction holding true and OKC not even making the playoffs. Anticipating a close game at the very least.
A question I don’t think has been touched on yet: why is Tony Parker in Charlotte?
Whether it happens or not soon, I see Kemba being traded before late summer 2019. Writing is all but on the wall from last year’s “advertising” putting him on the block. Have to believe that they plan to bring in some young talent soon, specifically at PG and for Parker to mentor.
I think I noted the reason why Tony Parker is in Charlotte at some point in the off-season. Charlotte’s new head coach is former Spurs assistant James Borrego. He is undoubtedly trying to bring in a Spurs-style offense to the Hornets, so who better to help teach it than Parker? Hornets won’t get to trade Walker next summer unless it is a sign and trade deal as Walker is a free agent at the end of this season. If Charlotte falls out of the playoff hunt this season–which may be difficult to do in the moribund Southeast Division–they may trade Walker before this season’s trade deadline.
I think Walker will be traded before then. Just a hunch.
BTW, you’re right and I do remember your comments. I’m sure you’re right, but they’ll likely be doing it without Walker who’s market value is huge right now.
This has to be one of my favorite stat lines ever, from the Thunder-Clipper game …
T. Ferguson SG 18 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 +30 2
Kawhi 34 10-19 2-5 9-10 1 6 7 4 4 0 0 4 +11 31
FOUR steals. ZERO turnovers. Awesome.
Wouldn’t it be something if the Raptors win the Eastern Conference and then Kawhi decided to stay.
Jimmy Butler will again be sitting out tonight. The T-Wolves are calling it general soreness and precautionary rest, but unnamed sources are saying that Butler is choosing to sit to force the trade and may sit for awhile.
https://www.si.com/nba/2018/10/31/jimmy-butler-timberwolves-not-playing-trade-rumors?
If the T-Wolves still have an offer of 4 first round draft picks on the table, why is this taking so long?
more than just a 2 team deal maybe?
Heard an interview with Sam Amick today and it sounds like Thibs is the issue, as he wants good players back in any deal, specifically PJ Tucker from the Rockets, in addition to draft picks. The Rockets don’t want to give up Tucker since he is one of their best defensive players and they’ve probably figured out how much losing two of last year’s best defensive players (Ariza and Mbah a Moute) has hurt the team.
sure, but that assumes houston is the only player that’s causing the delay. the clippers and heat got back into the fray as well.
Haven’t heard what they are offering though. For the Clippers, there’s two routes they could go, depending on what the T-Wolves are insisting upon. They could go Butler for Gallinari and however many draft picks are necessary. Or they could go Butler for Harris and Alexander and a lesser amount of draft picks. I’m sure the Clippers would prefer the first, but the T-Wolves might prefer the second.
If it’s Miami, I’m assuming that Josh Richardson is the centerpiece of any deal. To make the salaries work, Miami would also have to give up James Johnson or Kelly Olynyk. Then Miami would have to give up some draft picks on top of that. I’d do that if I’m Miami.
Butler is playing tonight against the Warriors, so maybe he isn’t sitting out games in protest, but just to rest his knee.
I need to start recording SiriusXM clips. Outstanding material and the best in sports broadcasting IMO, but I’ve said that before. People who have excellent knowledge of NBA: Justin Termine, David Griffin, Tim Legler, Joel Meyers, Brendan Haywood, Antonio Daniels.
Griffin had some great stuff today about LaVine, LeBron, Butler, Towns, Wiggins, Wizards, Warriors, Draymond. He’s in awe of Dray. Anyhow, he’s deeply tapped into the league and rivals termine in terms of volume of knowledge. So I’ll try to get some recording clips to access from here, but for today wanted to mention his assurance that Butler will be gone within 2 weeks. Not a surprising guess usually, but Griffin doesn’t usually stick his neck out like that. I think his main point is that Butler is now so clearly trying to force a trade by bothering everyone including the fans, it needs to come soon.
You’ve probably noticed that scoring is way up this year. There are two and maybe three reasons for that. One is the new 14-second shot clock reset after a missed shot that the offensive team rebounds (or after a non-shooting foul). This requires teams to get second (and third, etc) shots off much quicker.
The second reason is what the NBA calls the freedom of movement rule and I call the Steph Curry rule. I and many others have noted in the past that Curry would get manhandled all the time when he didn’t have the ball (there are YouTube video collections showing this). The new NBA freedom of movement rules this year are designed to prevent that from happening and it has been called a fair amount so far this year. This rule may explain Curry’s hot start to the year because he is not getting beat up all the time.
While the first two explanations are clearly related to the scoring uptick this year, a third reason may be simply that more teams are adopting the Warriors’ high-scoring offense. More teams pushing the ball up court quickly means teams have more scoring opportunities.
I wonder if the league officials will be calling the freedom of movement foul a lot the whole season or if they are calling it a lot early to get players used to it and then ease back on it.
all good points! of course, that would be the PHOENIX SUNS style of offense not the Warriors. Do I NEED to bust out video from ’93?
Yes, I think we’ve discussed before that the Warriors offense has it roots in the Suns’ great teams of the early 90s. But are teams today adopting that style of offense because of the 90s Suns or because of the three championships in the last four years Warriors? 😀
Because of the Suns absolutely. The second time I saw this offense was the 2005 or 6 or 7 Suns. Meaning the D’Antoni Suns. The next time I saw it was right on cue with the 13-14 Spurs. Why the gap from 2007? Easy to explain. Systems die slowly. That means Boston and Pierce, Garnett, Allen and Rondo which were too successful to change their ways. Same with the Kobe Lakers and Nowitski Mavs. And the Heat – this team was going to be all about Lebron and athleticism and awesome defense, but I would argue that this team WAS influenced by D’Antoni. Lebron plays this game even if not every possession. The idea is still the same: no isolation and quick ball movement and spreading the floor.
The Spurs played it perfectly in the 14 finals. Same game. THE most effective ball movement, high efficiency shot selection and floor spacing I’d ever seen. Killed the Heat. That teams would follow was simply a matter of finding young teams with great talent not yet set in their ways. That so few teams tried this well, I’ve said it before that I think it’s just stupidity and arrogance of coaches and front offices resisting change. Nothing new there – a lot of this could have been implemented in the 60s if someone bold enough had just come along and said “hey guys, what if we spread the floor a bit and moved the ball around a lot?”. Actually, didn’t one of the Knicks teams do this?
I think there’s another point to be made. Beyond D’Antoni there’s the Lebron influence. Many of these younger guys name Lebron as their idol. Not so much Jordan and Kobe and Iverson, but LeBron. It speaks to the way ball movement and the passing game has infected everyone and not just the PGs. All these young guys emulating Lebron even before they hit high school, and maybe not even thinking it through but just doing it: running the offense as a big man, forcing the defense to react and then finding another player for a high % shot. Doing it out of habit until they figured out why their teams did well and they became so highly valued.
I think we’re entering an era where these young guys are maturing into 2nd, 3rd and 4th year players, and now we have more teams with several of these guys understanding ball movement well. And with that ball movement comes better shots earlier in the shot clock.
This might beg the question: why didn’t big men do this in the 80s after seeing how amazing Magic was? I suspect it’s because Magic wasn’t a forward and that’s not what forwards do.
These days there are just so many big men coming out of college after one year with passing skills. Prior to the last few years you had the Gasol brothers following in the footsteps of Divac and Webber and Duncan. I’m sure those guys had influence on big men, but mostly out of the post.
Prior to Lebron similar types were few and far between: Pippen, Kukoc, McGrady, Hill. Prior to that you need to go way back. Rick Barry had some of those chops, but not really his job. Same with Bird. Walton of course.
Maybe all those guys prior to Lebron were considered freaks and not worth trying to emulate? Or maybe it was a matter of high school and college coaches wanting their forwards to be forwards and guards to be guards? Maybe all of this. Regardless, the game sure has a heck of a lot of big men that know how to dish instead of holding onto the ball so long that it’s their job to shoot it.
Makes me wonder what kind of players Baylor and Barkley would have been if they had known what this Lebron kid was going to do later.
is this kanye?
https://twitter.com/i/topics/tweet/1057973896991784961?cn=ZmxleGlibGVfcmVjcw%3D%3D&refsrc=email
The Diddy name on the account would imply it’s Puff Daddy, aka P Diddy, but I’m guessing it’s just some guy who’s got the Diddy Twitter handle.
i thought you might know Kanye’s face. He takes the mask off at the end, and it LOOKS like kanye to me but my entire exposure to him was when he stole the mic from Taylor Swift.
it’s either diddy or kanye – somehow I can’t tell who, so I guess they look somewhat alike.
this is priceless … http://www.atlantasrockstation.com/2018/10/30/video-diddy-might-just-be-afraid-of-clowns/
That’ll teach me to watch it all the way to the end. It is P Diddy.
I noticed something while watching the Celtics-Bucks game last night: the Kyrie/Tatum duo somewhat resembles Durant/Curry in that either can bring the ball downcourt, either can keep it or find the other up top near the arc, either can get the other great shots spotting up or driving to an opening.
I wonder if Kyrie agrees or even cares about this. Would he even allow sharing duties at the PG position? I think he should, because I saw him getting excellent shots after Tatum found him with some nice decisions.
Funny about this team – just 2 years ago I was talking a lot about the versatility of Hayward and how he’d fit in anywhere. Now it looks like Tatum is even better at Hayward’s game – headed toward becoming one of the leagues most versatile. Has me wondering if this might lessen the need for Rozier, since it seems like Tatum can do all the same things as Rozier, or most of them. Probably not quite as quick, but I think that’s offset by more sound decision-making.
It needs to be said, so here it is …
Embiid will get MVP votes. So far I see the following as the current top vote getters for MVP this year. While I don’t think this will be anything like the final list, I think the MVP will come from here.
1. Freak
2. Curry
3. Kawhi
4. Lillard
6. Durant
7. Lebron
8. Davis
9. Westbrook
10. Embiid
Others will get votes (i.e. Harden, Oladipo, Jokic, Mitchell, Butler, DeRozan, Simmons, Griffin) but not enough.
Yeah, that looks like the probable MVP list, though Westbrook may fall off it if his team doesn’t make the playoffs. Right now, the early frontrunners look like Davis, Embiid, Curry, and the Freak.
no Kawhi?
Kawhi would have been the next player I listed. He has already sat out a couple of games, so I put just below the others. I have my doubts that he will play enough games this year to be considered at the top of the MVP race, but if he can play 70+ games, he will be in contention.
gotcha. PLUS, he goes up against the mighty mighty Lakers D!
May not play today in the first of a back to back (Utah tomorrow), but if he does … Kawhi v. Ingram today? Can you say 14 pts on 7 of 20 shooting and 5 TOs?
If Kawhi doesn’t play then great opportunity for Lakers to string two wins together.
What I eventually expect in terms of MVP voting based on early season …
1. Kawhi
2. Curry
3. Embiid
I don’t see the Bucks winning enough games.
The news of Magic’s apparent warning to Walton seems just strange enough for me to think it was some kind of ploy. Was the idea to let the players know Walton’s job was on the line unless they played harder? I watched that game last night – the Lakers move extremely well together on both ends and won that game because of rebounding and a great defensive effort in the 3rd quarter. Most of it occurring without Lebron, Lonzo, McGee or Kuzma in the lineup. Even after McGee and Kuzma came back in they were still rolling and looked even better.
Blazers seemed to have no idea what to do with Rondo having his way. Not until Lillard came back onto the floor. Played like an MVP but didn’t have enough time to seal the deal. Seemed really strange to me that Lillard was left to watch from the bench while the Lakers were rolling to go up 20 pts.
Walton was not Magic’s choice and while he may have publicly supported him initially, I think he is laying the groundwork for getting rid of him. Surely Magic knows that the Lakers are not a championship team yet, even with LeBron, but with LeBron publicly and maybe a little sarcastically poking fun at Walton (“He was taken in the same draft as me, I don’t know whether to call him Coach or Luke.”), I think it is entirely possible that Luke doesn’t last the year. I don’t know if there have been any Magic-LBJ conversations on the issue, but I think Magic’s warning to Luke is mostly trying to appease LeBron and letting him know that he doesn’t consider LeBron at fault for the slow start.
This is *exactly* why I wrote what I did – to debunk this common sentiment. It’s all over the press now, and that’s part of what makes it easy to believe. Not the actual content. Makes no sense to me that it was such public news – the content I mean. Too specific of a “leak”. A warning? I doubt it … sounds fishy. Demeaning and unrealistic for Magic who so far has been amazingly professional in my opinion. Doesn’t seem like something he’d do at all.
All why I wrote what I wrote – appeared to be a ploy to get the team working hard or at least to come together. It’s BECAUSE Magic didn’t hire him that it’s so believable.
In other words, seems extremely doubtful to me that Walton is going anywhere anytime soon as long as the players get along with him and listen to him. I’m actually *very* confident about this and mainly for one reason: Rondo has been incredibly comfortable *leading* this team vocally. Not Lebron but Rondo. As long as he continues to be effective, Magic would be an idiot to try another coach that might clash with Rondo. So, unless I start hearing that Rondo and Walton are clashing … nope. Walton’s job looks as safe as any from where I sit.
In this article from the LA Times, Magic tries to dial back what happened…
http://www.latimes.com/sports/lakers/la-sp-lakers-magic-johnson-20181104-story.html?
However, if anything, it makes me more concerned for Luke’s future. Luke isn’t going anywhere this season, “unless something drastic happens???” Also the description of what happened (Magic verbally berating him, not simply talking to him) doesn’t bode well. Also the problem is apparently that Luke wasn’t incorporating the offense that Magic wants well enough. Luke was brought in (pre-Magic) to institute the Warriors offense. Magic may want something different now with LeBron on board. So if management wants an offense that is not the one that you were hired to bring to the Lakers, what does that say about your future?
My latest on the Kuuz … what an awesome teammate doing whatever it takes effort wise. Starting to remind me of Cedric Ceballos the way he roams along the baseline ready to out-quick and out-hop all the slower bigs. He’s going to have some huge rebounding nights and a lot of easy put backs. No matter what, Lakers need to keep this guy regardless of who they go after in FA.
What’s going on in Laker land is pretty interesting I think. No lack of willing defenders and no problem with effort, but completely clumsy coordination among a good many of these guys. I expect some of that to be corrected when Tyson Chandler gets onto the court, but it seems Kuzma at least doesn’t know what to do a good amount of the time. McGee as well at times. Hard to know what the answer will be, but getting completely wiped out in the first quarter last night has to sting some.
Maybe hire a new defensive coordinator/coach?
Just not buying the whole Magic-Walton thing at all as something “real”. In addition to what I’ve already written, if it was real I think we’d be hearing all kinds of shit about Magic being pissed off at the leak. Instead he’s somehow really comfortable talking outwardly about it?
The article you found talks about offense, but the Lakers offense looks pretty good. Above average in my opinion and early in the season, so hard to tell how bad the problem could really be.
Keeping it all in perspective though, after last night’s first quarter Raptor Rout things have to be looking different to everyone involved. So yeah, the word “drastic” … if that happens again heads need to roll no question. At this point am wondering two things mostly: First, how is Rondo handling this today in practice? There *better* be a nice LONG practice today anyhow. Second, how can there not be all eyes on whoever is the defensive coach for this team?
Next up: Wolves @ Lakers on Weds on ESPN – talk about all eyes being on the situation.
Ha. No sooner did I write the above then I find this article mentioning the DEFENSE as being the issue of the big meeting last week.
https://www.silverscreenandroll.com/2018/11/5/18063726/la-lakers-news-magic-johnson-luke-walton-rumors-meeting-defense-job-security-news-fire-fired-news
It’s a pretty simplistic viewpoint to think this, but I’ll write it anyhow … maybe Magic stressed a different sort of *defense* for last night’s game, so they tried it out but didn’t know it well by game time?
Whatever the case, Magic should just keep all this shit out of the media from now on. Whatever the reasoning, once should be enough.
The issue being defense, not offense, makes sense, although I’m sure the Lakers management isn’t happy about the Lakers’ poor 3-pt shooting. If Magic’s main issue is defense, I’m not sure which Laker assistant coach is primarily responsible for that. The NBA.com bios for each coach don’t mention any of them being the coach in charge of the defense. Maybe the problem is that they don’t have a coach responsible for the defense. If I’m Luke Walton though, I’d still be concerned about Magic saying that he won’t be fired unless something drastic happens. What is considered drastic? Is it the Lakers laying down against a Kawhi-less Raptors team last night? How many such games have to happen before Magic decides that something drastic has happened? I do know that if Magic decides to dump Luke, he’s got Brian Shaw sitting there as an assistant to take over.
Last night was sure as hell drastic. If anything like that happens again (unless it’s a 4th quarter vs the Warriors) then something needs to change.
I just keep coming back to Kuzma who I think is one hell of an awesome teammate. He seems to be in the middle of all this to me. I think Hart is a better defender. Maybe better defensive instincts is that way to put it, but you don’t want to sit Kuzma when he could be learning from all the mistakes. I think it’s bigger than this though, as in the entire Lakers team defense cannot function correctly without it revolving around Kuzma and McGee. The thing is, McGee’s job isnt’ nearly as difficult. Fewer players to be watching and doesn’t need to extend too far outside the paint. But Kuzma needs to be chasing guys around that take him outside his “wheelhouse”.
I really don’t understand it all, but I think a good Lakers team needs Kuzma on the court for at least 35 minutes a game. If they lose a lot of games in the process of bringing him along then they need to do that. If they need a one on one defensive coach to work with him then that’s needed. Where is Michael Cooper when you need him?
At this rate the Lavine MIP choice looks pretty good!
Butler to the 76ers for Covington and Saric (and other minor pieces)! Wow! If true, 76ers look scary.
Wow.
The full deal:
Philly gets: Jimmy Butler & Justin Patton
Minnesota gets: Dario Saric, Robert Covington, Jerryd Bayless & 2nd round pick
This is a lousy trade for the T-Wolves. While Saric & Covington are nice additions, they don’t make up for the loss of Butler and they didn’t even manage to get a 1st round pick back in the deal. This also tells me that Thibs won the day, since he wanted useful players back in the deal, not draft picks. With the T-Wolves already playing poorly and losing their best player, I don’t see them making the playoffs this year and that means Thibs will likely get fired at the end of the season if not before then.
As for the Sixers, as long as Butler is not creating tension, which shouldn’t be a problem since Embiid and Simmons are much better two-way players than Towns and Wiggins, they’ll be in the race with the Celtics, Raptors, and Bucks for the Eastern Conference championship. However, will Butler resign after the season or leave for LA pastures? If he goes, the Sixers just tore apart a championship level team for a one-year championship gambit.
This is what happens when front offices play fantasy NBA and the bank (owner) gets involved by overrating players based on numbers alone. The good part of the deal (very good IMO) is that the Wolves bought low on Saric – he is *much* better than his numbers show this season so far. Also, Saric is better than just a “good” counterpart to Towns. He’s a tough PF that can shoot, pass and make plays. Excellent addition for the Wolves. But that’s where the excellence ends …
Covington has this look of a potential “poor man’s Pippen” at times. Sometimes he actually plays that way. The problem is the overall body of work falls way below this. He can’t be relied upon for decision making OR shooting in crucial moments of the game. He doesn’t seem to slash to the hoop as well as you’d expect and worst of all he replaces one of the leagues most potent triple threats in the lane with one of the worst. So now the Wolves have one playmaker on the entire team. Even if Rose and Teague play at the same time (like they did last night), it’s still questionable how good Teague is as a playmaker. A good if not great threat going to the hole and dumping it off down low, but Rose is pretty much the only guy on the team able to create plays inside the arc.
Seems easy to predict how this will go now, assuming Thibs is putting his fantasy hat on: Covington will start at SG and there will be some funny ideas regarding moving the ball through him to get some sort of action going toward the hoop and kicking to slashers and spot up shooters. After a couple weeks of that not having a prayer of efficient success, the ball ends up staying in Rose’s hands as it has. Now you have a 3 man game trying to get Saric his shots leaving Wiggins doing less from the perimeter. If you feed Wiggins, the ball stops while he drives and doesn’t dish but puts up bricks OR …he keeps shooting from long range.
Except for Rose, this will probably end up looking pretty ugly on the offensive side. One hope would be that Thibs can get Saric to play the Draymond role and make plays from outside the box all the way out. Now you have better spacing and Rose, Wiggins and Covington slashing while Saric threatens the shot. From what I understand Thibs won’t even understand this type of offense. That’s what I’m hearing. What a joke.
Good analysis. Only confirms my feeling that Thibs is gone at the end of the season if not before then.
Butler has probably never been in a situation where the community thrives so much on his every move. He’ll have an enormous impact on the Sixers’ success as long as Simmons allows him to create in clutch moments. Philly fans are the smartest there are. Smartest and most critical. As soon as Jimmy shows his worth he and Embiid will be the new fan favorites – fans going nuts and letting him know it. If they win and do so in dramatic fashion vs. the better teams … hard to imagine Butler not wanting more. Considering the 4 teams he mentioned in NY, Miami and LA , he’d be going from an awesome situation for him to one that has little likelihood of ever being as good.
It may all be up to Simmons. No reason for Simmons to not continue playing PG full time, but his threat near the rim can be much better exploited if Jimmy handles outside giving him two incredible options at or slashing to the rim. With Redick there the Sixers are now only a 3pt shooter away from awesome offense. The dude won’t even have to play defense very well. Scary!
I’ll start it off this way:
1. Neither Kyrie nor Hayward are necessary for Ainge’s success going forward
2. The two worst things that Ainge could/should have envisioned is that either Philly or Toronto ends up with Butler long term
3. Ainge has so many assets that spending some of them to get Butler should not hamper efforts to enter the race for Anthony Davis
4. There’s no evidence that Kyrie is the right PG for this Boston team. In fact, ANY player that isn’t always all about team shouldn’t be on the Celtics. That even means a player like Durant who I think wouldn’t fit there. This team should be built around Horford, Tatum and Smart in my opinion and that seems to leave no room for a PG that spends a huge % of time imagining himself driving to the hoop while he’s wasting time with the ball in his hands.
5. A lineup of Horford, Tatum, Butler, Anthony Davis and basically any unselfish/serviceable PG (e.g. Dellavedova, Rondo, McConnell, Cook, Tyus Jones, Teague??) – this sort of lineup is not only much better than one without Butler and including Kyrie, but it allows for a greater flexibility to play to Stephen’s style rather than Kyrie’s style.
6. How are Kyrie plus Hayward not a great haul for New Orleans post AD? If they’re going to lose AD anyhow that is. It really doesn’t matter than Kyrie may not want to stay there. How is Kyrie different from any other big time talent that may not want to stay there (eh hem … can you say Brandon Ingram?).
Devin Booker, Bradley Beal, Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant. Who else is on this list? I can’t think of a single player that’s even close. Redick is too old. Crabbe is close but not quite as versatile. The past two NBA drafts didn’t seem to include a single player with the promise much less that ability to turn into one of these spot up sharpshooters that can also create their own shots.
Curry isn’t going anywhere for the next 3 years at least so forget about him.
If I’m Ainge I’m now biting my nails hoping that neither the Sixers, Raptors or Lakers get ahold of one of these guys. And that leads to this question: how can these not be THE hottest commodities in the NBA? How are the Suns, Wizards and Warriors going to keep these guys safe? I don’t think they can. The teams that is. Klay and KD are kept safer because of the success, but that doesn’t mean completely safe. Meanwhile Booker and Beal have no reason to stick around past this year. That is, UNLESS the Suns pick up an awesome draft pick.
I think the Lakers and Sixers must already be sending out signals to Beal. Somehow. If Ainge doesn’t grab him somehow he’s going to be screwed. That is unless he can grab one of these other guys. I don’t see that happening unless he starts getting busy, and soon. Before the Feb trade deadline.
I should have mentioned Harden next to Curry. Not going anywhere. Right? Hmmm …
Here’s the thing about the Celtics…they’ve got perhaps four 1st round picks next year, their own, the Kings pick (top 1 protected), the Grizzlies pick (top 8 protected),and the Clippers pick (top 14 protected). They can’t possibly use them all and keep all the good players on their current roster. So some mix of players and picks to get Davis, Beal, or Booker has to get done. It would probably be difficult to trade Irving unless he agrees to a new deal as part of it. But Hayward is on a long-term deal for whoever might trade for him. Hayward and three or four 1st round picks for Davis would have to be seriously considered by the Pelicans.
It’s probably good that I’m in Colorado and not around to listen to local sports talk radio delve into the meaning of the Draymond-KD brouhaha during and after last night’s game. The two of them have gotten on each other before and it’s always blown over. I’m certain it will this time too, just as I’m certain that talk show hosts have been bloviating today about what this means for KD resigning with the Warriors after the season. It probably wouldn’t have become an issue last night if Curry had been there (he didn’t make the trip to LA).
seems pretty unimportant from what i understand.
You wouldn’t know that by the stories on the internet. The fact that the Warriors suspended Draymond for last night’s game only further fan the flames. I got home late last night, so I’ll soon see/hear how local sports talk radio is dealing with it.
ok, well … silly if not unimportant. so much so I don’t really care and I’m not reading anything about it. i just doesn’t make any difference at all so early in the season. now if this was happening in late March ..
As expected, sports talk radio only talked about the Draymond-KD “beef” this morning. However, they had Matt Barnes on as a guest and he basically said there was nothing to see here. He said teams are like brothers, you love them, but you fight with them and this wouldn’t be a big issue if it wasn’t the Warriors (“this is what the world wants,” not the Warriors). Still, all kinds of blather going on, from video of KD appearing to say “this is why I’m out of here” to last night’s suspension of Draymond (for apparently calling KD a “bitch”) being an attempt by the team to maintain good relations with KD. It’ll blow over, but because everyone wants to see cracks in the Warriors, it’ll play out a little longer in the media.
Observations 12-14 games into the season …
As always, very little can be said about anything so early in the season.
1. Rumors of the Celtics, Rockets and Jazz demise(s) are greatly exaggerated. In fact, I can see no reason whatsoever to assume any of these teams have any issues at all. It’s too early.
2. Kevin Love got hurt and apparently Sexton isn’t much of a playmaker or scorer. Cavs aren’t going to make playoffs, so there’s one thing to get out of the way.
3. Suns have looked outrageously horrible. Still, this says nothing about how they will look by say … Feb.
4. Lakers look better than I expected. No reason at all to assume they won’t be fighting for a playoff spot or that they’ll be a top 5 team. They’re right where they expected to be: needing another all star.
5. Fultz is a problem. He’s headed to the D league (or whatever they call it)
6. Doncic and Trae Young are pleasant aggressive playing surprises.
Seems like nothing else of significance to report so early. Butler was traded, but we knew that would happen. Seems like all the other early seasons I’ve ever seen – even teams that come out of the gate with undefeated records so early rarely keep those records and rarely do their top scorers score as much later. The most to be said about teams with early success is that they’re positioning themselves well for the playoff hunt.
If I was to be less objective I’d probably make the comments that the Bucks look impressive and Embiid is surprising.
Yawn.
1. Agreed that Celtics, Rockets (particularly if they dump Melo), and Jazz will be fine. The two teams with early season demises that are in trouble are the Wizards and T-Wolves. Both teams look to have a lot of inner turmoil and both could find themselves out of the playoffs this year.
2-3. Cavs & Suns are easily the two worst teams in the league this year. Fortunately for them, Duke has 3 really good freshmen this year, all of whom are likely to come out and would be good additions to them.
4. I don’t know that the Lakers look better than expected. They are right where I expected them to be…fighting for that last playoff seed. They won’t be a top 5 team this year. As you mentioned above, they should be making a big push for a Bradley Beal-type player.
5. Fultz has the basketball-equivalent of Steve Blass disease (if you don’t know the reference, Blass was a good pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 70s who suddenly lost his ability to throw strikes). Fultz was a good shooter and scorer in college and appears to have lost it. Maybe the G league will do him some good.
6. Doncic and Young are 1-2 (in either order) in the RoY race so far. Really like the way that each has become a force on their teams. Let me add that another good, but not rookie, player so far this year is De’Aaron Fox. He’s been the catalyst for the Kings good start and his pts and assists are way up this year from his rookie year. Has to be one of the early leading contenders for most improved player.
Yes, Bucks look very impressive, a function of better coaching and Giannis’ steady improvement on the boards. And Embiid has been a monster so far this year. He’ll be high up in the MVP race.
Regarding the Wizards, exactly where I think most people expected them to be.
Wolves – just really no idea what’s about to happen next, although Wiggins is actually playing … dare I write the word “well”? Better not just yet. Cross it out. In any case, they weren’t going to make the playoffs with Butler and they won’t without him unless Denver, Portland, San Antonio and the Clippers all start tanking.
Lakers – team defense seems to be the only issue. Not effort. They’re ahead of where I thought they’d be (not speaking for anyone else), because I assumed it would take until Jan-Feb for them to gel offensively. Instead it took them about 5 games to get there. Lots of potentially great chemistry, but not nearly the coordination needed on the defensive end. Everyone seems to be buying in though, so to me it looks like just a matter of time.
Good point about Fox and the Kings. I should have added that at the end together with the Bucks and Embiid.
An aside … we wild westers got erselves a real bonafidee liberal headin to the capital. woo hoo!
Moving on …
We might be only 14 games in, but that number will be 20 in 2 weeks. I’m hoping for some much better play by then starting tonight with the Sixers v. Magic, and from both teams. Wolves vs. Pels – fully expecting a monster game blowout from the Pels soon and hoping it will be tonight. Bucks v. Grizzlies – this should be a good game, though Memphis has been inconsistent.
Jazz-Mavs. Lakers-Blazers. All around a great night for hoops ahead. I’ll likely flip back and forth between all of these.
regarding embiid …
it’s an early guess. a nov 14 2018 guess, but this is where I think things are at now that Curry is sidelined …
The early MVP betting should go something like this. If I had $1 million spending cash I’d bet on all three in this fashion:
1. Embiid $500K
2. Freak $300K
3. LeBron $200K
All subject to change as we’re only frickin 12-14 games in. In other words, I’ll wait til Jan before actually making bets. Still … EMBIID!!
heh. Ross is exactly the reason why I expected a solid Orlando tonight. Sixers need some time to get settled into the new personnel, but this appeared to be Orlando’s night to put up a good fight regardless.
Apparently day #29 of the season is one to discuss. It might take a week or so to sort out what’s happened here.
A lot of teams feeling parity tonight. We know better, but with regard to which teams?
I will chalk up the Raptors loss at home to Detroit as resulting from the Pistons wanting to exact revenge on Toronto on behalf of their coach. And the Sixers losing on the road to the Magic resulting from needing time to integrate Butler. But the Bucks losing at home to the Grizz, the Jazz getting blown out by 50 points in Dallas, and the Spurs losing by 20 to the Suns all make little sense.
right. i don’t think “parity” is the right word and not sure if anything can explain it well. on the other hand, 13-15 games in I’m used to teams being relaxed and happy with early success.
the super easy guess is that teams “dial-in” their defenses last. it follows that every team does this on a different schedule. I think it’s pretty easy and obvious to simply say that early season results are all related to good or bad defensive play, and rarely *great* defensive play.
but it’s worth asking if the newest offensive schemes together with more offense oriented rules might be moving things in the direction of “good offense wins” vs. “good defense wins”. It’s easy to prove the latter to be true simply by watching finals over the last 45-50 years. Although I can’t say it was true last year or even the one before.
All just speculation. Time and statistics will tell, but it does beg the question about the Celtics in particular. Maybe having an outstanding defensive team at the expense of offensive “power” won’t be good enough anymore?
Clearly this is almost meaningless, but tracking the changes in this list may not be meaningless. In any case kind of fun to follow. I’m actually pulling for Freak, because if he can beat out these other guys it likely happens while the Bucks stay at the top of the East
https://www.basketball-reference.com/friv/mvp.html
I think that list so far is interesting. Clearly it’s heavily dependent upon team record, which is why Kyle Lowry is above LeBron. Next, very dependent upon number of games played which is why Kawhi and A.D. are so low. But I’d like to know if there’s a factor that includes MVP candidates record against one another. Last night was LeBron vs. Lillard for instance. I’m not sure if that should be a factor or not.
Clearly minutes played per game doesn’t appear to be a factor at all.
That list is a little ludicrous right now. I don’t really expect any of the current top 3 to actually finish in the top 3. Curry and Durant will cancel each other out to some degree and Lillard’s stats will look pedestrian compared to others. Lowry is just ridiculous. He’s a good player, but won’t sniff the top 5 in the MVP voting at the end of the season, maybe not even the top 10. You’re right that team records appear to be a big factor right now, but I expect that will even out as the season goes on.
I wouldn’t sell Lillard THAT short. That’s one team that, if their record is good enough for top 4 playoff berth by the end of the season, he will be way up on the MVP list.
As far as Durant is concerned, the MVP race might be killed by all this off court crap. It doesn’t help. Meanwhile, there’s a lot of concentration on LeBron’s minutes, but no-one appears to be paying attention to his actual effort while on the court. It’s not like he’s running the show for more than half the plays, and even though he had great defensive plays last night (excellent in fact), he was able to take a lot of plays off on that end as well. I still feel that he’ll play big minutes and end up top 3 MVP wise. Looks like Kawhi will probably continue to take days off all season, so I think he’s out and A.D. has quite the ways to go. Door is absolutely open for Freak to be right there at the top.
I’m never a Jalen Rose fan, so take with a grain of salt. He said on air last night that he was pretty sure that during the KD-Dray dust up he was able to read KD’s lips say “that’s why I’m out”. Because it’s Rose won’t believe it until someone else reports the same thing.
I mentioned the “that’s why I’m out of here” thing above that has been reported by people claiming to be able to read KD’s lips during the confrontation with Draymond. The Warriors apparently had a player’s dinner at Ayesha Curry’s International Smoke BBQ place in Houston last night to clear the air. This morning, KD and Dray were spotted walking into the Rockets’ arena together.
https://twitter.com/ChrisBHaynes/status/1063115335937806336/photo/1
Regardless of whether the beef is over, I think the Warriors players want to control the story, so I’m pretty sure that KD and Dray walked in together deliberately.
sorry. i should have read it. i’m trying to ignore all of this, but Rose said it before I could turn the channel.
Here’s Draymond’s statement to the press in Houston today about the situation:
http://www.knbr.com/2018/11/15/draymond-green-gives-statement-on-situation-with-kevin-durant/
He’s definitely trying to make the story a non-issue.
dray seems like he’s being a child. this is KD’s 3rd year. KD was a huge part of Dray’s last 2 championships.my god – just relax and enjoy the time you have with him.
but that’s all regarding child behavior #1. what’s way worse is #2 …
do your job and help to win games NOW. anyone can move on from a company and position later. not even relevant. just do your frickin job.
Melo is out in Houston. He should probably retire, but some team will sign him. What he needs is a team that is going nowhere so won’t really mind that all he does is shoot and not much else, in need of a big name to draw fans in, and not really developing a group of young players that he would be stealing time from. There’s one team that comes immediately to mind to me that fits that bill. The Cleveland Cavaliers. Other than the Cavs, all other teams should run screaming from him.
1. Cavs
2. Hawks?
I thought about the Hawks, but their roster is heavy with rookies, 2nd and 3rd year players. If I’m the Hawks, I’m developing them and not playing Melo. Besides, they also have Vince Carter already to play the elder role.
I guess it’s as simple as saying if the Hawks, Kings, Magic, Mavs and Suns won’t touch him, maybe the Cavs are wise to let him just retire before he wastes his time as well as Cleveland’s.
Cavs absolutely should avoid Melo as well, but they are the worst team in the league, really only have Kevin Love as a name to draw fans, and are only really developing Sexton at this point. Nobody is gonna care if he takes some rotation time away from Thompson, Hill, Smith, Korver, or Frye. Some team is gonna be stupid enough to sign Melo. The Cavs are pretty much the only team where that wouldn’t be the stupidest thing to do, even if it isn’t the best thing to do either.
The KD-Dray beef continues to be the number one subject on local sports media. I heard interviews with Steve Kerr on two radio stations today. He compared the Warriors to the Spurs teams he was on in that each team had two somewhat quiet MVPs (Duncan/Robinson & Curry/Durant), but the vocal leader on each team was someone else (Avery Johnson/Draymond Green). He also noted that every championship team he played on had blow-ups like this, but the difference was those blow-ups didn’t happen on the court in public.
There have been multiple reports here, always citing unnamed Warriors players, claiming two things: 1. that the Warriors players already know that KD will leave the team at the end of the season; and 2. Warriors players are getting tired of Draymond’s antics. I don’t know what to make of these reports. The reporters of the stories are well-respected, so I don’t doubt they’ve heard these things, but are the players who are saying these things being truthful?
Let’s say it’s all true. Now, turn back the clock to last June. I don’t know what’s changed or why it’s interrupting anything. KD might be gone at the end of the season. OK. FINE! Win a championship and move on.
Maybe the absolute worst thing that’s happening is KD lied to Dray and others about staying there. That’s not good, but then these aren’t a bunch of teenagers either. Win a championship and move on Dray. There really isn’t an alternative, is there?
My theory on what will happen, some of which I’ve mentioned before. Warrior management has all but told us that they cannot keep the core 4 together. Joe Lacob has mentioned several times that the system is not set up for teams to have 4 players on max contracts because the Warriors will incur a huge salary cap tax if they did. Warriors theme for this season has been to enjoy what they have now and not worry about the future.
I think the Warriors will do everything they can to keep KD after this season. If he resigns with the Warriors, Draymond becomes a free agent the following off-season and I think the Warriors let him walk, if they don’t trade him for some draft picks before then. If KD moves on from the Warriors next summer, then the Warriors will do what they can to keep Draymond. None of this is as a result of the KD-Draymond beef. I think the Warriors don’t want to spend for four max contracts and have been planning this for some time.
Weird final minutes of Raptors Celtics. Raptors #1 priority is keeping Kawhi. Way down the list from there would be winning this game tonight.
Not only is Kawhi not running the offense as he should be, there was nothing more than a half assed attempt to get him the ball early in the shot clock. Stupid. Kawhi never even touches the ball on some of these final possessions. Stupid.
Wow. Toronto is horribly coached. Nurse needs to go asap.
This is the team that fired their head coach, with a well-respected resume, that just lead them to the best record in the league, in order to promote an assistant whose career was largely spent at small colleges and the British Basketball League. That was one of the dumbest off-season moves this past summer.
i guess so. wow, was that poorly done. from where I sit, the Raptors front office and coach have no choice but to make everything *clearly* about Kawhi because they know he’s not going to speak up if there’s an issue. you can’t risk causing ANY issues, and yet I saw a bunch last night in the final minutes of both regulation and OT. so I’m Kawhi and I’m waking up today thinking this …
my team doesn’t try hard enough to get me the ball early in the clock in clutch moments
my team doesn’t seem to have the talent to get me the ball when it needs to
my coach doesn’t appear to know how to draw up a scheme that ensures I get the ball where I need it and when i need it.
my teammates aren’t spaced well to take advantage of my kickouts when defense collapse on me
and then there’s this one which I think is by far the biggest issue for the Raptors if they plan on keeping Kawhi: it is SO obvious this coach isn’t taking us to the finals, so he MUST be replaced asap.
If you’re in the Raptors front office and you don’t realize that last point … Kawhi is gone.
Meanwhile the Clippers look like the perfect team for Kawhi. Frickin Jerry West – I can see him wakin up with a cup of jo this morning. Big ol smile on his face.
Bucks and Sixers are better than Raptors.
Nice result for Celtics tonight. That Tatum was so *wisely* assertive during Kyries dominance … makes me think those two could be a great pair.
Bucks have been phenomenal in the 2nd half of their game with the Bulls tonight. Went from 18 down at halftime to 18 up 2 minutes into the 4th quarter. That’s a 36 point turn around in 14 minutes. I really like the way they have adapted the Warriors (I know, I know, the Suns) offense. Lots of spacing, unselfishness, and back cuts with the added element of a monster in the paint. You’ve got Middleton, Brogdon, and Brook Lopez shooting better than 40% from the 3-pt line. And you’ve got Bledsoe, Middleton, and the Greek Freak all averaging better than 4 assists per game. They play pretty good defense too. Like the Dubs, they are fun to watch.
Here’s what I want to see in 2019.
KD and Kawhi with the Clippers.
AD with the Lakers and Kuzma + Ingram become Pelicans.
Bradley Beal joins the Warriors. Boogie, Dray and Klay stick around. Possible? Or is there no way Boogie can get paid?
2020 playoffs would be insane in both conferences.Houston becomes the best team in history to not make the conference finals.
by the way, i know this is a hell of a controversial topic but I think Kawhi is either still hurt or much much more likely just not really playing his hardest.
he’ll be 28 next June. ready to hit his peak with another team. using this year to rehab back to 100%.
even if Toronto goes onto the finals and he sticks around for the 19-20 season I think it makes sense for him to rest and play at 80% for now.
that’s my take anyhow.
and regarding this whole “being in one’s prime” thing. maybe 27-32 used to be prime years for NBA players. i think we’re now at something much closer to 27-35 for a myriad of obvious reasons I won’t even list.
On the Boogie question. As I understand it, the Warriors will be unable to offer Boogie anything other than an insignificant raise from his current mid-level exception contract. All other teams could offer Boogie any contract amount that they can offer within their salary cap and max salary restrictions. The Warriors have said many times that they don’t expect Boogie back next season, but hope to get him a championship this year while showing that he’s healthy enough for a big contract that some other team may offer next summer. So the only way that Boogie returns to the Warriors is if he likes it so much that he doesn’t want to leave regardless of the salary OR he doesn’t prove healthy at all this year, so needs another year at the mid-level exception level to get healthy.
Curious as to why you’d want Beal on the Dubs? He plays the same position as Klay, but is two inches shorter and doesn’t shoot or defend as well (Beal does both things a lot better than many other players, just not as good as Klay).
First things first just to get this out of the way: no way do I think Beal is better than Klay. I just see a need to fill the KD void if he leaves. Give me a better option and I’ll take it.
Regarding the rest, I’m just wondering about what Boogie wants to do after finally really enjoying his first year as a pro. Who knows, but at least one option for him will be to stick around and win another one with a team that doesn’t take multiple years off his career by playing him huge minutes.
Worth discussing if this has any merit …
Listening on my favorite sports show just now (Termine and Johnson SiriusXM), where both guys think Laker should trade Ingram AND Hart for Beal. Any other talk show I’d say that’s ridiculous, but if Termine is saying that he knows a whole hell of a lot more about Beal than I do. They both say this: Beal isn’t the defender that Klay is but he’s good and better offensively because he can get his shot and run the offense for stretches.
hmmm
Beal would be a great fit for the Lakers, though Ingram and Hart seems a bit steep for him. Even if the Lakers wanted to do it though, the real problem for such a deal is that Beal makes $25 million/yr and Ingram & Hart combined make only a little over $7 million/yr. So that means the Lakers would have to include probably both Rondo and Caldwell-Pope in the deal to make the money work. Neither of those players can be traded before December 15th and Caldwell-Pope would have to consent to any deal since he would lose his Bird rights in the deal (he’ll probably lose them anyway as I’m guessing he won’t be resigned by the Lakers at end of season). Given that I don’t see the Lakers trading Rondo (and no team will trade for him right now with his broken hand), I don’t see the Lakers being able to make a deal for Beal.
Let me add…I don’t know Termine & Johnson since I don’t listen to Sirius radio, but do these guys even consider the logistics of the trade ideas that they are throwing out there? Why suggest a trade that is almost impossible for the Lakers to make?
New guess regarding MVP voting …
1. LeBron
2. Steph, Freak, Embiid, Lillard
3. Davis
That’s 11/19/18. It’s a 6 man race and I think at this point Freak has a 1 in 2 chance of being in the top 3.
I think right now, I’d rate the candidates this way:
1. LeBron/Freak/Embiid
2. Davis
3. Durant
4. Lillard
5. Harden
Curry, Leonard, and Butler have missed too many games to be in the top 5 right now, but assuming they play most of the rest of the schedule, they’ll likely be back near the top of the MVP race.
I have no issues with your ranking except for one. A huge disagreement …
Curry has benefited immensely from the Warriors losses. He’ll come back and they’ll destroy teams and go on huge win streaks. He can even sit more games and be ok. He needs to play at least 70 games though.
Curry gets some benefit from the Warrior losses, but Green has missed most of those games too. But yes, if he plays at least 70 games, he’ll be in the running.
what’s Stevens doing with minutes distribution here. Tatum and Horford in particular. weird.
http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=401070920
without oladipo …
http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=401070922
imo east is now stronger than the west with regard to the top 5 teams respectively
hield is probably an easy MIP choice
http://www.espn.com/nba/player/_/id/2990984/buddy-hield
This is a very early mock draft, but why the hell not:
https://www.si.com/nba/2018/11/20/nba-mock-draft-2019-zion-williamson-rj-barrett-nassir-little-keldon-johnson
This mock has the big 3 freshman at Duke going 1-2-3 with the Suns getting G/F Cam Reddish at #3, who would be a perfect fit for them.
i’ve heard about Zion and some mention of others. No idea there were 3 at that level.
the Cavs will be one of the worst. I’m curious about the other two. I’m not sure it will be Phx even though I want it to be. Which teams are in the running for 2nd and 3rd worst in the league if not the Suns? Not an easy question!
Atlanta and ?
Charlotte. Knicks. Nets. Sacramento and Orlando are going in the opposite direction. So it might be Phx, but I definitely see the Suns beating some good teams later this year.
I’ll guess at Cavs, Knicks and Hawks as the worst before Phx, but I hope I’m wrong.
Interesting that now AD is atop the MVP “rankings” here. Looks like minutes played trumps wins/losses? Or … is it related to quality of opponents played? Or is it FT%?
https://www.basketball-reference.com/friv/mvp.html
Didn’t that tracker have Curry and Durant atop the MVP rankings a week ago? Things change quickly I guess.
No idea, but I remember thinking that previous list was at least logical. How can AD be above Freak, Embiid and Lillard according to some formula alone? I don’t think it’s possible even if some other stat is involved. No way AD’s PER is greater than those other 3. Is there?
Maybe Vegas betting numbers are involved with this list. The thing is, AD gets injured a lot more than these other guys. So how could another stat (even betting numbers) put him at top?
ah ha! PER differences. must be. what a dumbass useless stat!!
http://insider.espn.com/nba/hollinger/statistics
I say useless because it absolutely is for the MVP race. A non factor. But not useless when looking at the guys with high PER and low minutes per game. In fact, that would be a much more meaningful stat after a lot of games: PER per minute played. Not really meaningful early in the season but later absolutely. Marjanovic, Noel, Powell, Hernangomez, Plumlee and Meyers Leonard really stick out in that regard. It’s early still, but a good reason for teams to pay attention. A good reason why Plumlee in particular is among the most underrated in the game. I’m thinking the same about Powell and maybe now Noel also.
Seems unlikely that AD still leads the MVP race after Embiid’s game against him tonight (and the 76ers win).
Since a Beal trade would be almost impossible for the Lakers to do given his salary, here’s a trade that would work. Lakers send Ingram and Ball to Charlotte for Kemba Walker. Walker, who is only currently making $12 million/yr, is a free agent at the end of the season, so the Hornets might be worried that he will walk. The Lakers then have a starting 5 of Walker, Hart, LBJ, Kuzma and McGee. Their 2nd unit would have Rondo, Caldwell-Pope, Stephenson and Chandler. Lakers will also easily be able to max out Walker’s salary next year. Charlotte, meanwhile, has good building blocks in Ball and Ingram, that won’t be going anywhere for awhile. The bigger question for Charlotte is whether GM Mitch Kupchak is willing to help his former team after being dumped last year.
Agreed, but I’ve given up on the idea after considering all the great possibilities Charlotte must have had last year. That’s why I was mentioning Lillard or McCollum awhile back. I just don’t think the Charlotte front office knows how to pull the trigger or Walker would be gone by now. Buying high on Walker when everyone had a chance to buy much lower? Charlotte just doesn’t seem to know what they’re doing and now it may be too late to get fair value in return for Kemba.
This is why I’m confident a trade for Beal is much more likely. If Magic wants him he has plenty of ways to get him. My earlier comment wasn’t about HOW to get Beal. It was about Beal’s true value. That an outstanding NBA mind in Termine thinks that Beal is worth Ingram + Hart + etc … that tells me that Magic is trying to figure this out without giving up too much.
beyond this there are teams in much more need of Walker than the Lakers. I’m not sure why a Lakers offer would be better for Charlotte than that from one of many other teams. Chicago, Phoenix, Orlando, Nets, Detroit, Knicks. Only some CAN put together a good offer, but the point is that the others would be much more willing to do so than the Lakers who need a player like Beal much more than they do Walker IMO.
I started my response by noting that Beal is a perfect fit for the Lakers, but I think its just a fantasy since the money makes it nearly impossible to do. As poorly as the Wizards are doing, they are a good candidate for tearing things down. If they do, other teams will be better positioned to make a deal for Beal. If Termine thinks that Beal is worth Ingram & Hart, you can bet there are plenty of teams who feel the same and have the salaries to make a trade work.
true. and if the Lakers have some hopes of landing KD in free agency, no great need for Beal anyhow. meanwhile they can keep their guys.
New topic: What should the Lakers do with Lonzo Ball?
My opinion:
LeBron needs to realize he’s never played with a guy like this who does extremely similar things as himself regarding ball movement and distribution. I think the Lakers should go all in and become the Lonzo show and mainly for one reason: the dude loves getting rid of the ball early in the shot clock and then moving into a position near the basket where he’s effective as a rebounder and distributer. He moves the ball faster than LeBron, so just get him the ball early every possession he’s out there and let him figure it out. Like Kidd did.
LeBron needs to stop bringing the ball upcourt and wasting time with it. Lonzo is just as good or better within the early part of the clock. Now whether you start him? Maybe ask him what he wants. I’d do what he wants to do.
You hit on it in the first sentence. LeBron needs to realize this for it to happen. Besides, Lonzo is not your shooter, so better to have him drive and dish or feel out the defense and find the open man. The question is, will LBJ come to this realization because you know the Lakers will not impose it upon him. Or will LBJ continue to control the ball and tell the Lakers that he wants a PG that is a better shooter?
I think it needs to be a “what have you done for me lately” process, which can only happen if Lonzo continues to get big minutes. It’s worth bringing up again that Lonzo just turned 21 which is still about 8 months younger than Kidd was his rookie year. As long as the defense improves why not let Lonzo roam while (hopefully) taking fewer and smarter 3pt shots?
I keep hearing the same take over and over again among the SiriusXM know-it-alls: this is LeBron’s year to rest since there really isn’t hope of getting to the finals. I cannot disagree more. First, this is LeBron’s chance to bring up the young’s *exactly* the way he was doing after last years big trade in Cleveland. He played more minutes and clearly with the intent to get his guys working together. It worked remarkably well. So considering it’s a proven strategy, this is the idea now in L.A. – play a lot of minutes knowing this is how his team will learn to play together. Second, if LeBron is pretty sure he won’t get to the finals then that means he’ll be able to rest over the summer! I don’t see why this isn’t an obvious point. Playoffs are 10 times more taxing than the regular season. Fewer playoff games means this will be LeBron’s year off.
And third point and most important with respect to his current young players … if he’s going to realistically assess what the Lakers actually have in Lonzo, Kuzma and Hart (I think it’s pretty clear what they have in Ingram) then he needs to give them a chance to mature alongside him to make sure he knows their respective values. I think that’s the only way you can make the right decision if/when trade proposals come up. Do you really want to trade away a Kidd like presence? If you’re wrong about Lonzo, he could come back to kill you 3 years from now when he’s tearing up the League in say … Charlotte. Who knows?
More NBA wackiness tonight. The Cavs take down the Rockets, one day after they beat the 76ers. The Mavs upend the suddenly mediocre Celtics. The Wiz got right against an AD-less Pelicans (without AD, the Pels are a lottery team). And the final 7 seconds of the Warriors-Kings game was crazy.
In more normal NBA, the Greek Freak’s 34 pts, 18 rebounds, and 8 assists against the Spurs probably moves him and LBJ to the top spot in the MVP race.
I have a theory – one that is easy to spew forth during my morning coffee because I don’t feel like checking the stats to back this one up:-). It’s based on the LEAGUE-WIDE trend that has guys shooting shots they have no business shooting. Last year I could easily name a few names of guys that seemed to have the green light from coaches but had no business shooting so poorly with such volume: Boogie, Lonzo, Wiggins and I can’t remember the rest. What I do remember is that it didn’t seem like nearly as much of a league-wide practice as it does now. So, assuming the practice has caught on like wildfire as it seems it has, there must be some enormous FG% fluctuations across the league when looking at volume shooters this year. Maybe more and more coaches and front offices are of the mindset “shoot your way through the slump and keep shooting”.
I’m less inclined to say that defenses are worse this year only 2 months in. That seems to always be the case. But if almost every team has more shots jacked up by guys that shouldn’t be taking so many … I think that means that even the good teams are going to suffer badly on some nights after digging a huge hole for themselves. If that’s the case, it implies that just an above average defense can win and win big on some nights.
I think one way to check the theory is to look at team FG% fluctuations from one game to the next vs. previous years (rather than overall FG% which probably isn’t that much different overall). Maybe later;-)
Vucevic must be atop the MIP rankings. Having a surprising year so far.
CRAPPY FT% from Lakers vs. Orlando tonight. A reason that they lost the game.
Good call on Vucevic. He was the reason the Magic made a game of it tonight. Took a huge game from KD and a pretty good game from Klay for the Warriors to pull it out.
And maybe a bad call earlier on Gordon. Has to be one of his worst nights as a pro, giving up 49 to Durant. Gordon had 0 fouls?
How could Butler walk away from the career night he had tonight? Dude is a Sixer and didn’t even know it.
I guess we’ll see what is most important to him. If its the potential for championships and/or money, Philly will be the place to be (Philly will be able to offer the most money next summer). If he just wants to be in LA or NY, then I guess there’s nothing stopping him.
One of the best fan bases and two amazing players, one of which is not only a transcendent type of talent but also the NBA’s cool dude in Embiid. I’d say there’s plenty to stop him even if he wants to be in LA, Miami or NY: these guys are gelling right away which was apparently something that never happened in MN. Butler might be a slightly weird dude, but I don’t see him abandoning great guys that are in the trenches fighting alongside him.
Stating this again because I think it’s hugely relevant: these guys are young and tremendously immature with respect to really knowing where they want to be. How can they possibly know, when all they’ve done is go to restaurants and bars and nightclubs in cities?
On the other hand, if something goes wrong between those three … Butler could certainly be involved with messing up what they have. For example, if they start losing games and he gets back to the blame game he’s known for.
So sure, if all he really wants in life is to play hoops in one of those cities then sure, I guess. But then, he would have stayed in MN under the right conditions. I think this whole thing about “I want to be in these few cities” is an answer to a question their agents or family members are asking them. It’s like asking a kid “which flavor ice cream do you want? you can only pick 3”. So they pick three.
Yeah, there is certainly a lot of season left to figure out if Butler meshes well with Embiid and Simmons. Of course, he doesn’t know if he will fit in well with any other team, so if he opts to leave Philly, he may find himself in an even worse situation. It may be perhaps a good sign from the Sixers’ front office that Markelle Fultz is reportedly on the trade block. Now they may wish to get rid of him regardless of whether Butler stays, but he is certainly extraneous if Butler does stay.
ok … segueing perfectly into the next topic. it was coming …
The Clippers cannot be fool’s gold because they weren’t last year either. Instead, they’re doing what should be expected of a very good up and coming team: improving.
I wonder if Jerry West gambles much. Or plays the stockmarket. Not only does he always seem to sit in the back row, but this guy always seems to be planning for the long game. Where did that get him? Wow … so far above and beyond anything Jerry Colangelo ever did. Lakers, Grizzlies, Warriors, Clippers. All successful and timely with his tenure. Foolish to think a lot of that isn’t directly related to West in each case.
So here we are. What does he have going with the Clippers? Durant, Butler, Kawhi, Klay, Dray.
If he adds just one of those guys to the 19-20 team he has a top 4 team in the west. If he adds two, possibly a contender. Chances of getting none of those (or someone else equally or more talented) are very small.
Greek Freak now atop the probable MVP list…by a fairly good-sized margin.
https://www.basketball-reference.com/friv/mvp.html
Even as silly as this is (the WILD fluctuations) and based on so little this is where I currently stand on this …
First, I see both Harden and Curry rapidly rising on this list. Second, the fact that Kawhi is even in the top 10 while he plays every other game? That tells me something is terribly wrong with the algorithm. Third, that Lowry is so high: the same.
I see Freak as easily top 4 in overall voting by the end of the season. So likely I lose my bet which isn’t such a bad thing. On the other hand, I just can’t see the Bucks being as good as …
Warriors
Sixers
Raptors
Celtics
Pacers
Denver
That felt weird listing it that way. Only 2 West teams out of the top 6. I know I’m going to get some teams wrong here (Houston, Clippers, OKC). However, Freak needs to beat out Embiid and Curry. And LeBron if Lakers come on strong post all star break which I fully expect.
In the end this is what I see and it means I’m taking you out to a nice SF restaurant:
Embiid
LeBron
Freak
It is definitely a much tougher Eastern Conference this year, but I see the Bucks finishing above the Pacers in the end. The one drawback to the Bucks is their bench. Their starting 5 (Freak, Bledsoe, Brogdon, Middleton, Lopez) is among the top in the league, but there is a huge drop-off to a bench of Ilyasova, Connaughton, the Cenz, Henson, and Thon Maker. As the season goes on, it’ll be interesting to see if Budenholzer is willing to sacrifice some games by resting his starters (which appears to be the case so far) or playing the starters increased minutes to get a top seed. Thus far, they’ve been able to maintain a top seed while playing their starters 30-34 minutes a game, but we can probably expect that Celtics, Pacers, and Sixers to play better as they work injured or new players into their line-ups.
Right now, I’m with you on the top 3 candidates being Embiid, LBJ, and the Freak, but there is a lot of season to go and a lot of things that could happen.
By the way, the Dubs about to start a 5-game road trip that begins in Toronto and ends in Milwaukee with Curry and Draymond likely to return during this trip (though maybe not in time for the Toronto game. Should be good games to begin and end this road trip.
I see it. TNT Curry v Kawhi. Easily the best matchup of the season if Curry plays good minutes.
If close at the end, will Nurse blow it again?
No Curry tomorrow night against Toronto, but they expect he will play Saturday against Detroit.
Back to the Butler topic. Thus far, he is meshing well with the Sixers and he has already said that he likes his teammates and coaching staff and could see Philly becoming home for him. I’m a little surprised he admitted that so quickly, but the team is winning and he is clicking with his teammates, particularly Simmons, albeit against some weak defenses so far. This SI article about the Butler-Sixers relationship so far is pretty interesting in that it shows by description and video how Butler and Simmons are working together by taking the same offense set-up and showing three different potential outcomes that flow out of it.
https://www.si.com/nba/2018/11/27/jimmy-butler-76ers-timberwolves-ben-simmons-joel-embiid-brett-brown
Butler has gelled with the Sixers remarkably quick as well as with Sixers fans (two game-winners in 8 games will do that). The Sixers made the same kind of bet on Butler that OKC did last year with Paul George and right now, I’d give it about 67% odds that he stays in Philly, with that percentage likely going up as the season goes on.
right now a Dragan Bender for Markelle Fultz trade might look incredibly appetizing for the Sixers.
But would it be appealing to the Suns? Fultz is more of a SG than PG, which the Suns already have in Booker.
Besides, there’s a lot of speculation that Ariza is on his way out of Phoenix once the restriction on trading him passes on December 15th (with Houston being the likely destination). If Ariza goes, Bender would likely see his playing time increase (why hasn’t he been playing anyway?). The Suns should be seeing what their youngsters can do, so I wouldn’t mind seeing a line-up of C-Ayton, PF-Bender, SF-Bridges, SG-Jackson, and PG-Booker (Booker has been, for all intents and purposes, their PG thus far this year). Its not like they’re going to make the playoffs or anything anyway. So jettison Ariza, Anderson and Crawford, like they did with Chandler and just let the youngsters play and grow. They may end up with the worst record in the league, but tanking and getting high draft picks is how the Sixers got good.
I don’t see how Bender is in Phx future plans right now. They say great things about him and yet don’t play him. It seems Bridges is likely to get more minutes at that spot. Philly would appear to have the perfect guys in Embiid, Simmons and maybe even Butler to take advantage of Bender’s abilities and bring him along. Seems like a great chance to take even if it doesn’t quite work out.
Most likely it would Fultz plus some other asset. Phx the organization may not be the best for Fultz, but I definitely think he could fill an important role there even if all he’s doing is driving and dishing and playing some D. But yes, there needs to be another piece in the package for Bender.
Cavs trade Kyle Korver to the Jazz for Alec Burks and 2 future 2nd round picks. I get that Utah is quite disappointed with the way they’ve started the year, but I’m not sure that trading for a 37-year-old who only does one thing (shoot 3s well) is the answer. Though my fellow Buff alum Burks hasn’t been doing much, he’s ten years younger, is a decent shooter himself, and can handle more defensively. If I’m the Jazz, I think I’d be better off holding onto my draft picks, rather than worry about the playoffs this year.
only way that makes sense is if they’re about to turn him around in a trade with … who for who?
The obvious place that needs Korver’s particular one skill is the Lakers. Lakers won’t give up any part of their young core for Korver, but perhaps a Korver/Sefolosha for Caldwell-Pope deal might be of interest to both teams. Lakers get a great 3-pt shooter, something they desperately need and Jazz get a great defender and decent scorer to run with their 2nd unit.
i didn’t realize Sefolosha was available and with the Jazz. agreed this makes sense.
One of many rumors has the Suns pursuing John Wall. I have almost no opinion on this, and not because of the salary or difficulty of putting together a package. I just have no opinion on whether Wall, Booker and Ayton can work. I can see it working very well just as easily as I can see it being the Woeful-Wizards-West. I guess the main question for me would be “isn’t it obvious that Wall will change his game with a guy like Ayton to feed?”
I’m sure many would answer that with an emphatic NO – NOT OBVIOUS.
Regardless (as I look at some trade scenarios) he needs to get paid a LOT in coming years. It’s such a bad contract that I could see Sarver actually considering it.
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Notice I didn’t say this blocking out is important. I only did that to remind myself, so that when scrolling down from the top the entire comments section here is easy to spot.
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11/30 – I’m HOPING that from this point plus no more than 7 days (i.e. VERY SOON!) NBA play gets much much better than it appears to be right now.
21-22 games into the season usually means not much to pay attention to except for the winning-est and losing-est teams. That’s where we’re at right now. But with everyone jacking up shots like firecrackers I have to wonder if that’s going to slow down soon?
I don’t know what’s going on with Houston at all, but unless they stop jacking up all that shit and play defense …
Utah the same
Portland the same
Lakers the same
Lots of teams the same
I think the season has always sucked before December, so normally would seem like there’s nothing to discuss here. However, this year i don’t know how you stop all the horribly crappy shot attempts from mediocre shooters. I can’t see that curtailing much in just 7 days or so.
Meanwhile some teams are worthy of note, and in part because they don’t seem to be doing that. In no certain order …
Warriors
Raptors
Bucks
Clippers
Denver
Memphis
Anyhow, just wanted to mark this spot and then come back to see what’s changed in two weeks or so.
Utah may not actually belong on the list above. David Griffin said some interesting things about the Jazz yesterday – that they are at the TOP of the league with respect to highest % shot selection! I think the way he put it is that the Jazz do a remarkable job of getting themselves outstanding shots. Meanwhile Mitchell takes most of them and is shooting slightly better than earlier in the season, but inconsistent as hell still. His FT shooting is good though – take it to the hole young man!
Watched the game last night? I didn’t – sad to say. Your impression of Kawhi’s effort on defense? Does he seem even close to 100%?
I did watch and Kawhi seems like he is or is near to 100%, both on offense and defense. This sounds ridiculous to say after KD went for 51, much of the time with Kawhi defending him, but Kawhi played really good defense when he was on KD. KD just hit some really ridiculous, Steph-like, shots last night.
It was a really fun game to watch. Toronto dominated at the start and then the Dubs began chipping away at the lead. KD just dominated in the 2nd half, but Kawhi hit some great shots of his own. The Raptors played better defense in OT, I think forcing 5 turnovers. Still it was a nailbiter to the end.
With his play this week, KD has jumped back into the MVP discussion. He won’t be taking as many shots after Steph returns on Saturday, but KD has emphatically shown that Draymond was wrong several weeks ago when he did not give the ball up to KD with the game on the line.
One reason to love Justin Termine of SiriusXM NBA … he’s a GOD when it comes to knowing stats from the past. Just mention West and Barry to him and stand back. Currently he goes on rants (tirades??) explaining to everyone that if Barry had a 3-pt line, well … I can’t follow it up the way he does. Let’s just say the dude goes off on all the young dumbasses that have no clue how good these guys were back then.
Clippers-Kings game last night … at the very least proof that the West is as strong as it ever has been. Consider the “middle-tier” teams: Blazers, Grizzlies, Nuggets, Clippers, Lakers, Pelicans, Spurs, Mavs and now the Kings.
Note I left off Wolves simply because we don’t know anything about them yet. I want to put Jazz on the list but can’t in good conscience. Am happy to revise this list in January after they go on an 8-2 run starting NOW.
Anyhow, yes the Kings are deserving to be on this list. Some really great effort and playmaking last night by both teams. These are teams in the sense that they play together well. Really like what I saw from a LOT of guys on both teams.
FWIW and from what I saw: Clippers with Kawhi are a better team than Raptors are now.
We haven’t talked about it really, but Sacramento could be an attractive free agent destination next summer. They have a solid young core (Fox, Bagley, Hield, Bogdanovic, Cauley-Stein, Jackson), all making less than $9 million/yr., leaving a ton of cap space, maybe enough for two max contracts. The Kings are clearly a team on the rise. Might some top free agents consider joining the Kings knowing that they are approaching the prime instead of being at or past their prime? Seems unlikely that the biggest free agents would go there, but what if they added a Vucevic, Randle, or Mirotic to their roster (I’m listing tall free agents since the Kings seem stocked at guard)? For that matter, I could see someone like Kawhi being attracted since he doesn’t seem to like the media spotlight all that much. The only thing I’m unsure of is whether Kings ownership is willing to spend on an expensive free agent.
Mirotic will be a FA? Can you say Laker??
I’m guessing the Lakers will have bigger fish to fry before Mirotic, but he would be a good option for them. Here’s a list of the free agents for next summer. Each one lists whether the player is restricted or unrestricted free agent and whether there is a player or team option that would have to be exercised or not before becoming a free agent.
https://hoopshype.com/2018/11/27/nba-free-agency-2019-the-top-players/
KD and Kawhi top the list of course, but Kyrie, Butler, Klay, and Kemba fill out the top 6.
An amazing list of talent and an amazing amount of talent listed.
Which owners can spend more than the others and have been clear that they aren’t significantly deterred by the lux tax? Balmer. Dolan. Lacob/Guber. Buss. Who else from a desired location?
The salary cap for the 2019-20 was supposedly set at $109 million. This is what teams currently have committed toward next year.
Atlanta: $55.5 million (but $36 million if Bazemore opts out)
Boston: $125 million (but $67 million if Kyrie, Horford & Baynes opt out)
Brooklyn: $44 million (but $25 million if Crabbe opts out)
Chicago: $74 million (but $54 million if they don’t exercise team option on Parker)
Charlotte: $102.5 million (but $57 million if Biyombo, Williams & Kidd-Gilchrist opt out)
Cleveland: $117 million
Dallas: $52 million (but $17 million if Barnes & Powell opt out of their contracts)
Denver: $122 million (but $92 million if they don’t exercise team option on Millsap contract)
Detroit: $112 million
Golden State: $121 million (but $90 million when KD opts out)
Houston: $139.5 million
Indiana: $60 million
LA Clippers: $60 million
LA Lakers: $67.5 million
Memphis: $104 million (but $79 million if Gasol opts out)
Miami: $133 million (but $67.5 million if Whiteside, Dragic, and Johnson opt out)
Milwaukee: $97 million (but $84 million if Middleton opts out)
Minnesota: $111 million (but $92 million if Teague opts out)
New Orleans: $89 million (but $80 million if Randle opts out)
New York: $57.5 million
Oklahoma City: $147 million (but $139 million if Patterson and Noel opt out)
Orlando: $83 million
Philadelphia: $72 million (but $52 million if Butler opts out)
Phoenix: $77 million
Portland: $125.5 million
Sacramento: $50 million
San Antonio: $108.5 million
Toronto: $129 million (but $81.5 million if Kawhi, Valanciunas, and Miles opt out)
Utah: $92 million
Washington: $116.5 million (but $111 million if Howard opts out)
Clearly the Thunder are in the worst position currently. All of this could change though if a team trades a player with a longer contract for a player with an expiring contract.
It’s a helpful list, and probably somewhat related to what I’m asking but hard to say.
There’s been more discussion around a Beal trade. A lot of teams come up. Lakers for instance. David Griffin has been involved in the discussions and is usually the expert on the topic of front offices. And the discussion naturally and quickly turns to how much certain teams can and will spend dependent on willingness to pay the lux tax. Griffin was very clear the other day that some teams like Orlando can’t and won’t overpay. Other teams have owners that wouldn’t hesitate to pay quite a bit in taxes – Balmer and Dolan came up for instance. So I’m wondering who else. Buss for instance? Raptors ownership?
So, a somewhat related question. Assume that Wizards ownership was different and they were all about winning, meaning blowing it up immediately and re-building but not necessarily through the draft only …
How could ownership make the Wall contract more attractive for another team? We might as well be discussing the Wolves and Wiggins contract as well here. What if these owners decided that these guys *must* be traded soon? What options do they have to unload them for “pennies on the dollar” for instance?
I know we’ve gone back and forth on this topic a few times, and the answer is almost always “trade can’t work unless players + assets of equal value comes back”. I don’t think I’ve ever misunderstood that point. What I don’t understand is how Griffin seems to think anything is possible as long as ownership is willing to spend enough to make things happen. He implied that giving Wall away for “pennies on the dollar” *is* an option given the right circumstances, but he didn’t explain at all how that might happen.
I know the list only answered part of the question, which teams will have money to spend and not the question of which teams have owners that are willing to spend, over the cap if necessary. I don’t know all the ownership groups, so that is a harder question to answer.
As for trading a player for “pennies on the dollar,” although salaries going both ways in a trade have to be approximately the same (I think within $5 million), lengths of contracts do not have to match, nor do the future parts of contracts have to match. So, using Wall as an example, he is making $19 million this year, but his salary jumps to nearly $38 million next year and runs through the 2022-23 season. So he could be traded this year for another player making $19 million on an expiring contract. After the season, the Wizards are free of both Wall and his lengthy contract and free of the contract of the player they traded for since it expires.
Ahh … OK, so a team could trade for Wall now by making an offer (everything involved: players, picks, etc) that totals $14M in value, right? So this is about the extent of how Washington could “help” another team take Wall off their hands? Basically, not much help at all I guess unless the other team has an owner that is willing to go way above the lux tax. Why else would you take that contract?
Bad news for OKC – Roberson injured again and it doesn’t sound good. He was a big part of their plans in the playoffs.
Which teams fall into this category ..
1. Able to take on the Wall contract.
2. Will be improved by the Wall addition.
?
I don’t know about #1 or if Wall wants to play in Utah or Denver, but if Wall ended up with either of these teams while they kept their stars (Mitchell/Gobert/Ingles or Murray/Jokic/Milsap) …
scary!!
Someone that goes by the name of D. Dotson got huge minutes with the Knicks tonight. that person also had exceptional stats which I assume helped with the win over the Bucks. hmmm
Dotson is a 2nd year shooting guard that was drafted in the 2nd round in 2017. Looks like he is averaging almost 11 ppg for the Knicks this year. I’m trying to figure out why the Knicks are starting some guy named Noah Vonleh at PF instead of Kevin Knox.
The Bucks are a pedestrian 4-4 on the road thus far this year. They should be crushing the Knicks. I didn’t see the game, so not sure how the Knicks got back into that game and won it in OT. Freak had a monster game, but losses to lousy teams like the Knicks won’t help in the MVP voting.
Here’s a funny one …
It never occurred to me that neither SI nor CBS put Wiggins in their top 100! Considering how bad SI’s listing is (at top), that’s actually a surprise to me. The funny part is that neither you (awoods) nor I even batted an eye. And in fact, you (awoods) pointed how how ridiculous it was to leave the 2017 #27 draft pick Kuzma off the list (I still agree completely) and how the Kooz belongs somewhere between 45 and 75 IMO. There cannot be a greater DIS than that – Wiggins snubbed in favor of Kuzma and not necessarily because of what Kuzma has done, but rather where he’s likely to be at the end of this year vs. Wiggins.
So that’s the funny part. The sad part is that Wiggins started off the season with some pretty strong play. Solid anyhow. And now .. at best could be considered as #80 – #100 but not even sure about that. Complete joke when you consider that Saric is playing significantly fewer minutes when he could be spelling Wiggins at SF *even though* he’s not really a SF.
Sad.
Wiggins has no one to blame but himself for the lack of respect that we and basketball writers have given him. He can score, but does virtually nothing else to help his team. I’m guessing the T-Wolves regret signing him to the big contract when his rookie contract was expiring.
Warriors may have lost Damian Jones for the season. He’s got a torn pectoral muscle that probably requires surgery. The Dubs list Looney and Bell as centers on their roster, but both are only 6’9″ (though Looney has a really long wingspan). Both will see a lot of playing time until Cousins is ready. Looks like Looney will start for now and he played well tonight. Of course, it was against the Hawks, so that’s not saying much. Teams with big, strong players in the paint will give the Dubs trouble in the near future.
have you researched pec surgery rehab? i saw the “out for the season” news also, but assuming he has surgery asap I’d think that 5 months is good. 6 months?
this is just another way that Dubs protect their guys, right?
Yeah, Jones could, if surgery done soon, be back in time for the playoffs. But Cousins will be ensconced as the starter then and Jones will be rusty. Given the Warriors always give players extra time to recover from injuries, I suspect that Jones would see little or no time in the playoffs.
This is nothing short of awesome. I love living in 2018 – you never know what you’re going to get!
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/25453907/markelle-fultz-philadelphia-76ers-expected-miss-3-6-weeks-shoulder-rehabilitation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoracic_outlet_syndrome
Yeah, I saw that. Apparently it took 10 doctors to figure it out. Alternatively, it took 10 doctors to find one to say what Fultz’s team wanted him to say. I would be surprised if Fultz ever plays again for the 76ers.
Here’s a good article on the legal implications in the Fultz situation.
https://www.si.com/nba/2018/12/04/legal-implications-76ers-facing-markelle-fultz-shoulder-injury-thoracic-outlet-syndrome
I’d like to know if there is a definitive test for Thoracic Outlet Syndrome or is this just something that doctors diagnose based on a patient’s answers to questions.
“It appears that Fultz and his representatives, including agent/attorney Raymond Brothers, and the 76ers are in agreement about the TOS injury and the recommended course of treatment.”
That’s from the article you cited above. I know I should read up a lot more on this, but will ask this anyhow: what is the significance of the phrase “It appears” in the sentence above? Beyond this article, is there some actual proof that the Sixers front office is actually “in agreement”? and if so, WHY would they be in agreement so soon after the diagnosis without thoroughly checking into TOS, meaning looking into at least one other medical opinion? I suppose if they don’t agree on the diagnosis it renders him almost impossible to trade for something worthwhile?
Also, according to SI …
“The diagnosis of Fultz with TOS should dispel suspicions that the 20-year-old former University of Washington Star is faking an injury. He is genuinely hurt. He was evaluated by top physicians and no licensed physician would agree to falsely diagnosis him (or any patient) given the ethical and legal consequences of doing so.”
Where do they come up with this stuff? The writer is someone named Michael Mccann. Sorry Michael, but how about some documentation to back up this last statement?
https://www.si.com/author/michael-mccann
McCann is a long-time lawyer/legal writer for SI. He knows his legal stuff, but he delved into medical stuff there. Per the Wikipedia page: “There is currently no single clinical sign that makes the diagnosis of TOS with any degree of certainty.” I doubt the diagnosing physician would falsify anything, but this sounds like a physician’s diagnosis based on patient responses to tests. So does Fultz actually have TOS? With no clinical sign that would diagnose it with certainty, who knows. Doctors are simply making their best guess based on what Fultz is reporting to them about his pain. The Sixers don’t want to put themselves in a bad position by denying it, so they are going along with it.
completely understood. and yet McCann writes “He is genuinely hurt.”
no need for that. beyond silly in my opinion.
another point that may or may not be a complaint regarding what I feel is a pretty poor write-up by McCann …
Sixers don’t need to deny it and they don’t need to go along with it. All they have to do is come up with some sort of smart response. The best I can think of (and the best for Fultz)? “We are genuinely hoping for the best for Markelle. After this most recent revelation, we will be reaching out to as many as possible in the medical community to ensure that he has nothing but the best care”
No need to commit, and I’m still doubtful that they actually did.
Who’s ready to buy low?? Pick up FULTZ NOW! I say Suns can do both Jackson and Warren and Bridges and Ariza plus a few draft picks. Fultz is a sure thing!!
I have early onset osteoporosis, but I can still hit the trey 4 out of 10. And I’m ready to go immediately!
Following up on a prior conversation about Dragan Bender, I was just reading that the Suns declined their option on Bender for next year meaning he will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season.
https://www.latimes.com/sports/nba/la-sp-suns-dragan-bender-20181204-story.html?
As such, the Suns have no motivation to see how good Bender can be by playing him. Thus, Bender will likely be cheap to sign next summer. I can think of one team that might be willing to sign him cheaply and see what they can develop him into…the Warriors. Think Bender might be interested in that?
oooohhh I disagree completely. a great many teams should be willing. again, sixers seem by far the most obvious to me.
I don’t disagree that many teams should be willing to sign him cheaply. Just noting that the Warriors can only sign players on the cheap and Bender’s size and ability to stretch the defense with his shooting ability would fit in well with the Warriors style. If I’m Bender, I might do a year with the Dubs, get a ring, rehabilitate the reputation, and then sign for bigger money the following year.
OK. How does this work exactly? It all starts with Bender needing to go on the lowest income plan for a year like Boogie? Because if he comes out of there …
I love it. My God just imagine if the Dubs now become the sort of Kentucky of the NBA (while keeping their core in tact). Between the 10th and 11th men and all their G-League players … maybe the Silver can install some kind of new “pre-draft” starting with the One-And-Dones coming out of the “Warriors Factory”
It probably won’t happen because I think some team will be willing to sign Bender for more than the minimum salary that the Warriors could afford. But with players wanting rings and some players needing to rehabilitate reputations after injuries or misuse, the Warriors will be a go to destination for a Kentucky-like one and done player. You had David West and JaVale McGee doing that the last couple of years. DeMarcus Cousins and Jonas Jerebko doing it this year. Maybe Bender next year if no team is willing to spend more on him next year.
I’m sure you heard KD’s comments by now about the media environment around LeBron being toxic and why some players may not want to play with LeBron:
https://www.si.com/nba/2018/12/05/warriors-kevin-durant-lakers-lebron-james-environment-toxic
I’m guessing this is a good indication that KD will not end up with the Lakers next year.
once again Durant seems to have trouble just keeping quiet.
I don’t think it means anything at all. Still, I hope he ends up in Clipperland with Kawhi;-)
I like that KD is willing to speak his mind and he’s not wrong about the LeBron environment and other stars’ willingness to play in it.
ok. i’m not sure I care either. when i write seems to have “trouble” I mainly mean that it doesn’t seem good for his legacy, or rather I’m guessing he’ll regret it looking back. but yeah, I do like players speaking their minds as long as they have something to say which he did here.
I’ve removed my bookmark for that mvp link listed above. No trouble with Freak at number 1, but Durant at 2 and with no Curry on the list after 2 games back makes no sense to me. Am guessing that once Steph plays enough games that will invert, but still: Kawhi should be ahead of Durant right now, LeBron should be way ahead of Davis, Embiid can’t possibly be behind Lowry. So, maybe too much reliance upon metrics of the past to make this sensible.
Meanwhile am looking for other lists that take more human factors into account, like chatter around the league regarding who is really most likely to win. That would be Freak, Curry and Kawhi right now at least from what I’ve been hearing.
but back to the original point … I think it will come down to a “whose turn is it” decision …
FIRST and foremost whoever’s turn it is will be based on team record up until the end of March. Previously, it might have been decided by the end of Feb or beginning of March, but this season because there are so many candidates and such a lack of stability wrt rankings … any prognostication, in my opinion, will need to be regarding what is expected by the END of March 2019.
SECOND point is that Bledsoe is quietly amazing for the Bucks. I have no idea if he’s in the running for most improved, but he is absolutely the second most important reason to think the Bucks will maintain their excellent record throughout. In other words, if he continues his excellent play an excellent reason to believe Freak will stay in the top 3 all season.
THIRD point is that it will be close, unless (and yes, I’m sticking my neck out here but maybe not too far) Steph and Harden start breaking scoring records at a pace we’ve never seen. In both cases I see these two doing just that. It means that as much as Kawhi, LeBron, Davis and Embiid might charge ahead as 4 of the most complete players to ever play … scoring will win when it comes to the MVP race as long as it means team wins related to it.
None of this looks good for Davis or Durant or Lillard, so I will easily drop them off my list. The unspoken candidate remaining however is Jokic.
Denver, if they can get over their current injury issues, may very well end up with the best record in the league come late March.
Whose turn will it be? What if that question is the problem, and instead those voting cannot decide and instead look at numbers: wins and stats.
That will mean a 4 man race if it’s that close: Freak, Kawhi, Lebron, Jokic.
But will it come down to that?
Too complex a question now, and unless Harden and/or Steph completely go off then I think the only way to make a decision is to ignore the complexity. I think it will come down to team records and of those teams with the best records which player is most impactful on those teams?
Hmmm …
too many factors which leads me to believe it will simply come down to whose turn it is.
I’ll stick with LeBron with Kawhi rapidly rising, and that’s because it’s not Freak’s turn. Or Embiid’s. Or Jokic’s. They get next.
My current ranking and having little to do with current standings and much more to do with which teams will excel at the end and, of course, whose turn is it …
1. LeBron/Kahwi
2. Steph
3. Freak
4. Jokic/Harden
…
…
also rans
OK fun topic time: what if the Lakers could put together an awesome package resulting in acquiring Dray with Kuzma, etc winding up on the Warriors. Only if they decide (likely next summer) that they can’t keep Dray and that Bell/Looney/Jones aren’t quite the cerebral quick PF presence they’re hoping for.
It’s a question out of left field, but I’m already seeing Kuzma being primed for the Dray kind of role – one that every team would like to fill but very few have the right personnel to do so. Just throwing it out there, and especially if there’s any hope of keeping Boogie on the roster next year.
Heck, make it Kuz pluz McGee.
That’s a deal that would be hard to pull off because of the salaries. Kuzma, McGee, and Caldwell-Pope for Draymond might work. Such a deal would mean the Warriors would have to cut some players and not sure who those would be. Its probably unlikely that either team would be willing to help the other anyway.
that’s what i meant by etc.
I started with this idea of one team not wanting to help the other, and then thought there might be away that the Dubs think they get the better end of it. But a long term contract starting with Green at 29 …
probably not
So we got a trade today between the Bucks and Cavs:
Bucks get: George Hill and Sam Dekker
Cavs get: John Henson and Matthew Dellavedova
I’m trying to figure out why this deal was made. The Cavs are in a terrible salary cap situation, so if they were clearing payroll for next year, I could understand it, but the end result is that they have added a million dollars to their payroll next year. Henson and Dellavedova are younger than Hill, but Dekker is the youngest player in the deal. On the Bucks end, Hill is a better back-up PG than Dellavedova, but their bench loses some rebounding ability going from Henson to Dekker. So this seems like a deal that got made because the GMs want to make their fan bases think they are doing something.
There’s more to this deal. The Bucks are also sending protected 1st and 2nd round picks to the Cavs, so deal makes more sense on the Cavs end now. The Bucks are also sending Sam Dekker to the Wizards for Jason Smith’s expiring contract and a 2nd round pick. Apparently George Hill’s contract for next year can be bought out for $1 million, so the net effect of these deals is that the Bucks have freed up about $20 million for next year and have a better bench with Hill for this year.
Stay tuned for some great sound clips from David Griffin and Joel Myers. I think I’ve finally figured out how to post these, and if so will likely create another blog post. Frickin outstanding stuff as Griffin is no so comfortable and obviously prepared more than ever by researching what he needs to research – NBA junkie and always outrageously detailed and precise.
prior to that a shout out to the Dubs. awesome performance last night without Dray. the best team in basketball very early on. a gut check maybe.
hopefully celtics were watching or will watch. this is what they’ll need to defend.
Whether it was just good timing, or luck or instincts …. (doubt it was instincts) ….
I caught the perfect portion of Doncic’s season in just the last 10 minutes. MVP type of stuff.
Steve Clifford on the Orlando Magic so far this year. SiriusXM with Griffin and Myers. In 2 parts. This was recorded in THREE parts, but somehow the second part was overwritten by the first – some sort of MS Sound Recorder bug I guess as it was saved and named separately. Good to know so I never use this application again!
Sorry about the typing noise. This is a first pass with a high quality mic that was nowhere near my keyboard, so now I know what high quality means!
Totally disappointing. The KEY part was the second part which is why I posted these. A great discussion about Aaron Gordon, Bamba and Isaac. So I left only the last little part which is a tiny summary from Griffin.
This is why I will never work for Microsoft in any capacity.
Nurse loses another one. Seems like he decides to not coach at all during the last 2 minutes. He has now lost at least 3 games for his team single handedly.
I didn’t see it, but I saw the Raptors-Sixers game the other night. To me, it looks like the Raptors are becoming the Cavs of the past few years. Those Cavs basically gave LeBron the ball and let him do his thing while spreading the floor for any kick-out pass. The Raptors do a lot of that with Kawhi. At times, there is not a lot of movement as teammates wait to see what Kawhi will do. Kawhi’s game works really well in a Suns-Spurs-Warriors movement offense. Why the Raptors don’t do much of that is beyond me. In looking at the boxscore of tonight’s game, it looks like the Raptors bench got crushed by the Bucks bench. The Greek Freak was once again a monster on the boards.
Nurse lost this one on the defensive end in the final minute and a half. As if he forgot to make sure his young players IN NO WAY left anyone wide open for a 3pt shot. Also, kind of important to foul Giannis if he looks like he has a free path to the hoop? No effort at all even related to recognizing these points. That’s fine with veteran teams but …
Bucks won only because Brogden was wide open for 2 shots at the end and Giannis walked in for a dunk. Game was over otherwise.
Woj is reporting that the Lakers are trying to acquire Ariza from the Suns. Ariza cannot be traded until January 15th (according to the ESPN Trade Machine because of when he signed his free agent contract) and he has a $15 million, one-year contract. I’m thinking it will take Caldwell-Pope and some draft picks to make the trade work.
I’ve always heard Dec 15th. Isn’t that what you mean? I think you’ve always told me Dec 15th.
It’s usually December 15th, but the rule is that a free agent who signs a contract cannot be traded until December 15th or 3 months after they signed, whichever is later. The ESPN Trade Machine must be wrong though because I just looked up when Ariza signed his contract and it was on July 6th. So he should be available on December 15th.
I’ll add that Caldwell-Pope has veto power on any trade, so the Lakers would need him to approve a deal. Part of the Woj report is that the Lakers are looking for a third team to be involved in the deal. Perhaps that is to find a landing spot for KCP as he may not want to go to Phoenix.
Phoenix has little reason to jettison Ariza for KCP. They’re going after a PG.
I’m thinking the Knicks could be the 3rd team in the deal as they have Trey Burke, Emanuel Mudiay, and Frank Ntilikina at PG. Knicks are unlikely to give up their 1st round pick in any such deal, at least not without protection. Or maybe Cleveland would give up Jordan Clarkson.
SI has an article today on how bad ownership is sinking the Bulls and Suns.
https://www.si.com/nba/2018/12/11/chicago-bulls-phoenix-suns-bad-ownership-robert-sarver-jerry-reinsdorf
What it comes down to is Bulls ownership doesn’t care enough about the team and Suns ownership (Sarver) controls everything too tightly and making all the decisions instead of having good basketball minds to do that for him.
I’m not sure I understand this at all. I know I should read the article, but everytime I do (w.r.t. Suns) I get the same thing: bad ownership from THE PAST has screwed them up CURRENTLY. In order to convince me that Sarver has done anything at all wrong in 2018, you’d have to prove that all these were bad moves …
1. Hiring Jones
2. Hiring Kokoskov
3. Drafting Ayton
4. trading for Mikal Bridges
5. Getting rid of Chriss and Knight for Anderson
6. Signing Ariza
7. Firing McDumbass
8. Letting go of Chandler
I don’t see anything there that is outwardly a bad ownership move. Most look very good to me. I think the Anderson signing was questionable but it’s not like it will hamstring the team for long. I could be wrong about that, but then McDumbass was still around when that happened.
I think the Ariza signing was awesome and there’s every reason to expect an excellent player out of this.
The MAIN issues with the Suns are easy to spot: a team for years built around Bledsoe – purely foolish. Horrible management that pissed off Dragic and Markieff Morris, two AWESOME players. getting rid of PJ Tucker, meaning their entire grit and defensive backbone. and then whatever else they did to put all their chips into trying to sign either Aldridge or LeBron when hopes of that were completely ridiculous. Stupid.
So many problems it will take time for the Suns to recover. As far as I’m concerned, and as much as I was high on Josh Jackson, I never did understand why there wasn’t more talk of drafting D’Aaron Fox. I fully expected that at the time but was willing to at least hope Jackson could fill in for PJ Tucker. From what I can see, Jackson’s main issue is immaturity which sucks. Seems like bad luck from where I sit, because he’s got a hell of a lot going for him but well … if you’ve seen him play lately he just seems lost on many plays. At least he tries unlike a similar guy in Minneapolis.
Suns are in a great place to pick up an awesome player in next year’s draft. Obviously, they need toughness, size and a focus on ball movement. They need Doncic – obviously, but I won’t go so far as to say he was the better draft pick. Prospects in the mold of LeBron are coming from everywhere now. Let’s give the Suns ownership a GOOD amount of time to recover from all the setbacks and find at least that one guy that can change the culture. I have a strong feeling there will be two of those kinds of guy by training camp 2019.
Two more things to mention:
1) viewpoints on the Suns poor ownership have become so popular, I see it as just another way for journalists to write easy pieces. they can’t possibly go wrong when so many others have already said the same things, especially that loudmouth Lowe with ESPN who just seems ridiculous to me.
2) small sample bias. if you don’t know much about statistics then you get caught up in the game of looking at a small sample of bad moves and generalize because of them. in other words, with relation to the Suns I see all of this as BS generated simply because it’s the easiest thing to assume: bad decisions from last year and a few years back NECESSARILY imply more of the same even though changes are clearly happening.
That last point seems too stupid for me to take it seriously. It’s one thing to see Wolves management do the same thing over and over again and make no changes in style or outlook as we’ve seen just recently. It’s another to see massive changes in Phoenix – as many changes as there has been for any franchise over the past 6-10 months. When you see the changes happening you NEED to wait for the outcome, because to assume changes will lead to the same things that happened before the changes?
That’s pretty stupid in my opinion.
i skimmed part of it. exactly the fluff I thought it would be. easy to write and nothing of interest. and no mention of the wolves or wizards which is just stupid to me.
You are right that it is too early to judge Sarver’s 2018 moves and that the article is based on Sarver’s previous (and extensive) record of mismanagement, but the point of the article was to show how two completely different styles of management can sink a team. Unless and until Sarver’s most recent moves bear fruit though, I’m not going to be optimistic.
One thing I will say about two moves in particular…elevating James Jones to GM and hiring Kokoskov as head coach both reek of moves that could be done cheaply. I am not arguing (yet) that Jones or Kokoskov aren’t good at their jobs, but far better and more experienced candidates were available that would have cost a lot more money. Sarver always seems to look for the cheap options in management.
And yes, while the Suns are well-positioned to have a top pick in next year’s draft, I’m not sure you can trust Sarver to make the right choice given his track record. They drafted Jackson over Fox last year as you mentioned. They drafted Ayton over Doncic this year. Ayton looks like he will become a perfectly fine big man, but Doncic was built for the current NBA style of play and is leading a renaissance in Dallas. This pick seems really peculiar since it occurred after they hired Kokoskov, who has experience with Doncic in Europe, before the draft.
We’ll see how this year’s “changes” bear out, but until positive things start to happen, you cannot expect sportswriters to say anything other than Sarver has been bad for the Suns.
it’s just old news in the Suns case, and the Bulls clearly have a great team to build on. The story is in DC and Minneapolis with the horrible contracts. That’s where owners blow it mostly.
When teams get too fancy…For amusement purposes, this sequence of plays from last night’s Lakers-Heat game.
https://twitter.com/SportsCenter/status/1072361658012631040
(couldn’t find it on YouTube yet, hence the Twitter paste)
I’m guessing Luke had something to say about it after the game.
ha. lonzo and lance on the same team … i kind of like it though. just keep that out of the playoffs!
Kawhi in Clipperland tonight. I’d love to see the Clippers clobber him.
Looks like Kawhi is sitting out tonight. They are claiming a sore hip, but since he hasn’t played back to back games this year, they are probably just sitting him tonight so that he can play tomorrow against the Dubs.
Was sure he wasn’t going to play until ESPN announced that he was playing. Oh well.
Heard an interview with one of the Raptors’ announcers while driving home. He said that everyone was expecting Kawhi to play because he usually plays the front ends of back-to-backs and looked good in today’s practice. The announcer was surprised when Kawhi was listed as questionable later in the day with a sore hip. I really think it is just a smokescreen to play him tomorrow instead. Looks like the Raptors are handling the Clippers pretty well without Kawhi so far.
Check out this Quora thread, my comments and how it led to an interesting stat about Pistol Pete. I did not know this!
https://www.quora.com/Who-would-your-starting-5-be-if-you-could-pick-NBA-players-from-any-era-And-why/answer/Scott-Guile
I found your comment, but did not find the interesting stat about Maravich, even though I did a search on his name so that I could find every instance where he was mentioned. What was the stat?
I’m sure you heard that SI named the Warriors as their Sports Person of the year (the 4th team to be so honored). Here’s the article about it:
https://www.si.com/nba/2018/12/12/golden-state-warriors-2018-sportsperson-of-the-year-inside-the-organization
There’s some good stuff about how things work internally in the organization. Much of it is pretty well known here, but not sure how much the rest of the country knows.
Also heard an interview with Chris Haynes, a basketball writer for Yahoo Sports this morning. He’s the one who interviewed KD for his podcast. Some of KD’s comments from the podcast came out yesterday (though the podcast itself doesn’t drop until Christmas eve), which you may have heard. I’m sure we don’t have the full context around the comments yet, but KD apparently mentioned how much he loves the Bay Area and that if they win another championship, they will build statues of the players at the new arena (which he has been visiting fairly regularly). Not quite a statement that he intends to stay with the Warriors, but fans and sports talk radio are trying to read that into it. Of course, KD owns a home in LA, so Clippers and Lakers fans can hope he’s coming down there, much like LeBron buying a home there years before signing with the Lakers.
That Quora comment thread mentioned Maravich’s 3pt % late in his career.
He took about 30 or so and made over 60%.
The big surprise for me was how poorly Barry did from 3pt land. I’d like to know more about that, because it doesn’t seem right at all.
What happened in Oakland last night? I wasn’t expecting that.
They didn’t shoot well and had very little defensive intensity. The Dubs missed a lot of open shots, particularly in the first half. After half-time, it looked like they stopped caring about the game. That being said, Fred VanVleet did a great job defending Steph. Steph has taken advantage of Kyle Lowry defending him in the past. If these teams meet in the finals, Toronto will have to consider moving VanVleet into the starting line-up (he started last night in place of Kawhi). In fact, they should consider doing so now. I know Lowry is leading the league in assists, but he is a liability on defense. A starting line-up of VanVleet, Green, Leonard, Siakam, and Ibaka is a great defensive line-up and since Kawhi is often handling the ball on offense, I don’t think they lose anything by not having Lowry in the starting line-up.
Let me add that while we’ve seen many instances of poor coaching by Nurse this season, the Raptors had a really good offensive game plan last night where they used the superior size of Ibaka, Valanciunas, and even Greg Monroe in the paint (Durant is the tallest with Damian Jones out and he is skinny compared to those guys) and constantly worked to get size mismatches on Curry, usually Danny Green or Siakam. Curry usually plays the entire 1st quarter, but Kerr pulled him before the end of the quarter, I think because he saw how much Curry was getting worked on defense. Still, when the Dubs shoot 6-for-26 from beyond the arc, you know its not going to be a good night for them.
FWIW, I think Nurse does fine except within the final minutes of close games in which case he’s the worst. Not only does he have mix-and-match type of talent out there, he has enough versatile guys that you can almost just pick two wings out of a hat and you’ll get good ball movement and solid defense. Agreed VanVleet is playing extremely well. A big part of what makes that team so solid along with Siakem.
What’s going on with the Suns’ arena situation? I read that Sarver threatened the city council that he would move the team to Vegas or Seattle if they didn’t pony up some huge amount for arena renovations. Also saw a video of some old woman at the city council meeting just verbally abusing Sarver. Frankly, if I’m the Phoenix city council, I’d tell him to piss off and move the team. Here in California, most cities have stopped funding stadiums and renovations, so the teams have learned how to pay for it themselves with minimal public support. The Giants, 49ers, and now the Warriors all built new stadiums/arenas with private funding. I believe the new LA Rams stadium being built is the same. Of course, Vegas is spending a ton for the new Raiders stadium and also did so for the new hockey team’s arena, so Sarver could probably get some public money there.
Sarver very POORLY miscalculated. Should be no surprise, but I can’t think of another city in the US that would be less likely to pay simply out of SPITE. That he didn’t understand that tells me he’s clearly some sort of renegade – running amok without the benefit of sound council/advice.
He’s so hugely unpopular. I think this goes in an entirely different direction. I think Colangelo (at least) and a lot of other extremely proud Phoenicians (Barkley for instance) figure out a way to simply buy him out. It is ONE HECK of a market. Way beyond Vegas or Seattle. Whatever it takes.
It’s probably obvious that I’m having a HECK of a time including quality audio clips from siriusxm radio and especially justin termine. Most likely this is the result of the combination of SiriusXM Nazis not allowing public links to the recordings as well as heavily censoring Termine w.r.t. public exposure.
And I’m pretty sure this is true w.r.t. David Griffin as well. All very very frustrating because it’s all so stupid. All SiriusXM needs to do is leak about 25% of their stuff and they’ll get more listenership. The reasons are simple: the league changes every day. The past is the past. They could make EVERY SINGLE ONE of their recordings public and still gain tons of listeners. Somewhere in there is the sweet spot of allowing only a few per week. Done. Easy Peasy. You can make a lot more $$ by surprising thousands of NBA fans by cold-cocking them into the realization that “OH! THIS IS THE SHIT!” Such an easy call that they’re not making for obviously stupid reasons.
OK, well anyhow ….
Here’s the best I can do and it’s not very good. Twitter recordings that are chosen for some reason. It’s by no means the best of termine. It’s just average termine. Which is dumb. There’s at least 50 recordings of Great Termine available but not available apparently. In any case, here’s a way to get to know him NOT at his finest …
and …
after writing all that i find that apparently it’s all been removed. even after he and Eddie Johnson promoted a video on Instagram … removed.
annoying as hell. sorry.
ok. here’s something. watch/listen quickly before it’s Nazied\
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKJDbKvES7I&feature=youtu.be
apologies (sort of) but i’m too pissed off to stop this. i’ll remove this later but for now more videos just to point out that videos can be GOOD and not EVIL as SiriusXM seems to believe. So yeah, almost completely randomly …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RN27demSPXg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwiKFho6qYc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0BCvV0oX9o&t=91s
Moving on …
I think the Raptors’ trouncing of the Warriors was the best thing that could happen this season and for a few reasons. Mostly, because I assume it bothers Curry and Durant, but mostly Curry. And since prior to this game it seemed (to me) that Curry was thinking of this as “his year” , well …
He’s a pro. He knows there’s tons of work to do now. Skill-wise and leadership-wise.
If we get the best Curry out of this it will be one of the greatest results the NBA has ever seen. ONE of the greatest, but (for one) am hoping that’s all that the Warriors need.
If I have any one solid takeaway from that game the other night it’s this: Klay and Iggy will need to play 40+ minutes vs the Raptors if the finals comes down to that. The good news?
Those are exactly the two guys that I want to be playing those 40+ minutes.
Regardless, Celtics aren’t going to let the Raptors slide into the finals. That Eastern Conf finals should both teams remain uninjured … a 7 game Eastern Conf finals between those two could be THE series to watch. Defense vs. Depth. Both teams with versatility offensively. And then there’s whichever team ends up with the Dubs in the Western Conf Finals.
I really have no idea what team that will be. Best I can say right now is that, if someone will take my bet, I will gladly put down $1000 that the other WCF team will be …
Utah
Houston
OKC
Clippers
Lakers
Denver
I can’t do any better than that.
Breaking down the Lakers-Rockets last night. A quick summary …
Refs were terrible. They made between 3 and 5 terrible calls sending Harden to the FT line for as many as 10 un-deserved points.
Harden was a magician. The Messi of the Hardwood. Rockets still win regardless and it’s not close.
Call me crazy, but really liking Rivers on the Suns.
You spoke too soon. The three-team deal appears to be dead because the Grizzlies thought they were trading Dillon Brooks and the Suns thought they were getting MarShon Brooks.
HA!
Ariza for Rivers and Oubre – did that really just happen? There’s got to be more to this, right? How is this possibly a good deal for the Wizards unless …
Beal and Ariza to the Lakers for X, Y and Z? Regardless, Suns just got two good young-ish bodies that should give them flexibility with trades going forward. Josh Jackson not really needed at all anymore, and with Warren peaking … I like the Suns chances to land a very good player in trade for one or both of those guys.
And really like Rivers as a back up PG for the Suns future. Seems like some solid building blocks, and the kind of deal that McDonough didn’t seem to even understand enough to consider.
something tells me that the rumors of Suns incompetence is going to set them up with more deals like this. suns might want to move Warren while GMs across the league are thinking “fire sale” in Phoenix. the more teams involved the better chance the Suns have at acquiring more leadership and toughness. and who knows … maybe even a very good young PG.
I keep thinking about what Bender and Warren (for instance) could do in Philly. Maybe Suns can get that unprotected Miami pick back;-)
Is this a done deal? Haven’t seen confirmation of that yet. Not sure the deal really helps either team. Ariza alone averages more assists per game than Rivers & Oubre combined and shoots the 3 better than either of them.
I like that there are two “decent” players for one here for several reasons. I very much like that Oubre takes the pressure off the coaching staff and management to play Jackson possibly setting the stage for dealing him to a team willing to take on a talented yet very immature project. I like very much that Rivers and Oubre come in as by far the toughest hard nosed players on the Suns. I like that both are effectively “elder statesmen” that know so much more about what it means to have guts than almost any Suns player outside of Booker. Either or both of these two additions can and should get in Ayton’s face and get him to suck it up and get dirty – Ayton, who is arguably the NBA’s most talented pussy now that Towns seems to be toughening up.
I think Rivers helps the Suns immediately and should start, because he’s fills a huge void: SIZE at the PG position which the Suns haven’t had since Dragic. I think of Rivers as a 75% version of George Hill, which I think is a great backup PG going forward. If he improves maybe he gets to be the Suns poor-man Livingston. I like that he CAN score but there’s no pressure for him to do any more than be solid at the rim and hit his FTs. I like that he’s a better all-around defender than any PG the Suns have had since Dragic.
Oubre – no idea why the Wizards gave him away like this. Just seems stupid. He can step into the starting lineup immediately and make things happen. Pressure is completely off him now – just play and foul if it comes to that and don’t worry about doing anything other than what Kokoskov tells him to do. He’s in a great spot to shine even if he gets techs and or gets into fights. Suns need that.
Rivers isn’t your back-up PG, he’s your back-up SG. He had one season in LA where he averaged 4 assists per game. Every other year, its been about 2 assists per game. This is his 7th year in the league, so I don’t think we’re going to see much better out of him. I think the Clippers realized that and that’s why they got sold high on him despite his dad being the coach and now the Wizards are giving up on him after a couple of months. I’d like to see what Oubre can do, but he’s more of a supplemental piece than a building block. Frankly, I thought the Suns would be getting at least a good pick for Ariza.
He’s the starting PG now and *likely* for the rest of the season. Once the Suns get their PG then he can back up either PG or SG. Not sure why you think he’s a SG – that’s a horrible position for him as he’s really awkard and slow at getting his shot off.
oh – I think I know why you think that: the Clippers needed him to score. the suns need a solid PG with size and no need to score much. a la Dragic who scored because he had to, but if Dragic was on this team now he wouldn’t need to shoot often but rather play solidly in the paint. I’m pretty sure this will be the idea behind the “Rivers Experiment”: give him minutes because you can this year. Get him a lot of time at that Hill, Dragic, Livingston role and see how he develops.
another comment on River’s assists with the Clippers …
for many reasons he had zero chance to be a leader on that team. he had 4 guys and a dad that had him under their thumbs, and that meant in many cases getting rid of the ball early-ish in the shot clock to 1) griffin who’d establish position after receiving the ball 2) Crawford getting the ball wherever and whenever he or Doc wanted him to get it which rarely meant for the spot up and 3.) remember … they didn’t call plays for Jordan so who was he assisting to while Paul was out? So I’m not sure where Rivers was going to get his assists in limited minutes with such a weird if not dysfunctional team.
I was simply looking at Rivers entire career stats. He’s never been much of an assists guy. He had his best year last year, pretty much all around, and the Clips after 3 years of trying to get something out of him, sold him while his stock was high. He is smart, which will be useful for the Suns, but he (and Oubre) are free agents after the season (Oubre might be a restricted free agent). This does nothing for the Suns long-term, so what was the point of the trade? Ariza was a great trade chip and they didn’t get the PG they needed, nor a decent draft pick for him. So why? Suns are going nowhere this year, so they should be playing Bridges and Jackson more to see if they can get improvement and/or show them off for trade purposes. Instead, Oubre will take minutes from them and may be gone at the end of the year.
The Wizards’ end of the deal is even stupider because Ariza doesn’t make them a contender. They are still well below the top 5 in the Eastern Conference. However, if they turn Ariza into actual building blocks like the Suns should have done, then they will come out ahead.
“This does nothing for the Suns long-term, so what was the point of the trade?”
wow. either you didn’t read what I wrote or you’re acting like I don’t know what I’m talking about.
it’s a great trade long term. whatever.
I did read what you wrote, but I:
a) don’t believe that Rivers can be a Hill/Dragic/Livingston type player;
b) don’t believe that Rivers/Oubre will be interested in staying in Phoenix;
c) don’t believe in the Suns’ ability to get the Oubre/Bridges/Jackson situation at SF figured out; and
d) still think the Suns could have found a much better deal for the Ariza trade chip (which if the Wiz are smart, they will cash in).
Last comment for now on the 2018 Suns moves which I think are pretty damned good with the exception of the Anderson signing …
Somehow somewhere along the line there was this idea put forth that the Suns were in “win now” mode. I’m guessing that was a McDonough-Sarver fantasy. It was worth entertaining but not announcing. In any case it’s just wrong. I think Suns are following an excellent time line and should be playing the long game which is exactly what this move tells me. Gather bodies but not just any bodies, and in the meantime use your assets wisely but a bit at a time. DON’T get a Bledsoe or an IT. DON’T panic and get rid of your foundations (i.e. Tucker). DON’T grab wishy washy players simply because you think they add frosting to the foundation that you never had.
I’d like to know what Jones thought about the whole “win now” plan. I’m guessing he thought it was absurd long before he was hired.
Ariza turning Wizards into a contender? If their front office is trying to do anything along those lines they’re even dumber than this trade proved them to be. They need to start over, and the only way to do that is trade the Wall contract this year or next. Contender? Maybe in 2025 after a LOT of excellent drafting and a complete reversal with respect to how trades can improve them long term. They’re on the same time table as the Suns, but only because Wall might get them some bodies. Right now the Suns are way way ahead of them in that regard.
And yes, I 100% understand you were saying that Ariza does NOT help turn them into a contender. Of course not – to try and do anything at all in the next 3 years that attempts to turn them into a contender is asinine. Foolish. They shouldn’t be making any moves at all right now to move toward contender status. They need to rid themselves of the Wall contract and start over.
The Ariza trade was specifically made to move forward but not in the direction of contender hopes. At least it better have been. More than likely they’ll end up with some nice assets from the Lakers or Rockets in trade for Ariza. That’s all this was … Suns did the right thing and happened to find the right team that more than likely will take advantage of the Lakers or Rockets interest. To think otherwise is to value Ariza way too highly at this point of his career.
Suns ARE playing Bridges more and they absolutely should be playing Jackson LESS. They need to deal Jackson and Bender ASAP. They need to dangle Warren and see what they can get. He’s currently a top 10 scorer in the NBA, so they should be in no hurry. Again, they should continue to play the long game.
As far as Rivers and Oubre as FAs next year … EXACTLY. Suns are in a better position to sign them. Great reason to trade for them now!!
I feel like I need to explain everything I’m writing today, so for some reason I probably have to explain the TJ Warren comment …
eFG% = 58.6
min/g 29.2
pts/g 18
outstanding numbers for a team that allows every single opponent to do their best to shut down Warren. clearly defensive pressure means nothing to him.
https://www.teamrankings.com/nba/player-stat/efg-percentage
only Steph and Freak are better “scorers” % wise
Good to hear that the Suns are playing Bridges more. However, what kind of market are they going to have for Jackson and Bender if they don’t show them off by playing them some more? Bender, in particular, seems to be a forgotten man in Phoenix.
Warren is a great trade chip, but if they trade him, I hope they get the PG they need or a great draft pick. Otherwise, they may as well hold on to him and build around him, Ayton, and Booker.
Yes. And whatever they do, even if it means picking up a draft pick, they will always be in the same position of having to worry about whether the “next guy up” will choose to sign with Phx at contract time.
I think you’re completely wrong about Rivers and Oubre. They just got out of jail. This idea that Phoenix is somehow a lateral move for them because of dysfunction no longer makes any sense. It’s like blaming Obama for all of Dubya’s screwups. Who cares what the media is saying? The EASIEST thing going right now is jumping on the bandwagon of NBA media kicking the Suns while they’re down. Pretty effin insulting to all the Suns fans that are being patient and waiting for all the recent moves to gain traction. The EXACT same BS was going around w.r.t. the Sixers just two years ago. Exactly when I was saying the same thing:
“wait! they just made all these changes – you have NO IDEA if those changes are good yet, and there’s absolutely no reason to think that they *aren’t* good”.
Meanwhile, Jones hasn’t been part of the organization for even a year! Apparently objectivity is dead in NBA circles.
Again, no reason to play Jackson and Bender more. The key is to get these guys to enjoy playing with one another as they build going forward. That will start with giving Rivers and Oubre tons of opportunities to put their stamp on this team, realizing that it has two future superstars in Ayton and Booker. Those two have a chance to be big time players on an up and coming team. Minutes for Bender and Jackson will just get in the way. Regardless, it’s very clear what kind of players Bender and Jackson are. It’s all there on video. Watching more of it (especially the way Jackson might actually lose games for the Suns going forward) won’t do the Suns any good.
I’ll say this again: there is NO comparison between Suns management and the idiocy currently in place in Minnesota. The Wolves give Wiggins huge minutes and $$ because they not only want to believe he’s the next coming, but that somehow they know more than anyone else that the Wiggins contract was a smart move. Complete denial. I think Sarver et al. are clearly realizing that Jackson wasn’t the pick they wanted and aren’t going to let that bad decision hold them hostage.
Again … give things a chance to work out. Jones especially.
Meanwhile two substantial observations and changes to my outlook for 18-19 NBA …
Jazz lost again. This time to a good, but not great Orlando team. I was sure they’d be on the sharp upswing by now. Instead, I don’t see how they even make the playoffs because this isn’t about Mitchell as it seemed to be. Almost every loss seems to be the result of crappy scoring contributions from Gobert and Ingles as well as Mitchell. I wonder if they’ll panic and do something nuts like get rid of Rubio or Favors. It almost looks like they’re cursed, or their hoops are.
Paul George is flat out a better player than I realized, even though I knew he was top 20. I’m not sure what it is about him that’s so deceptive for me, but now completely agree that he would have been an awesome fit alongside LeBron in LA. Consider how easy it would be for them to move Ingram and Hart now if George was there. The upshot is that OKC is flat out better than I realized. So maybe I take all my earlier prognostications and simply swap OKC in for Utah. Could be as simple as that going forward;-)
Austin Rivers chooses not to play with Suns – won’t show up. I can’t imagine his dad approving of that move.
I noticed some things during interviews (older interviews) that might indicate something’s wrong with the kid – possibly more than just a chip on his shoulder. Maybe he’s just a frickin idiot to not want to at least try out a situation that will put him on the floor for huge minutes with shooters and a guy he can throw lobs to. He may never get another similar opportunity, at least not while still in his prime.
laughing at Rivers now – and wondering if it’s not him at all and instead the Suns having no interest. rumors are that he’s on his way to … GRIZZLIES?? i hope that’s not one of his main choices because he’ll likely get less than half the minutes he would on the Suns. LOL
That is stupid of Rivers if it was his choice. I haven’t seen the reports yet that he refused to report, just that the Suns were waiving him because of a mutual decision. I read some reports that Rivers was a locker room cancer in L.A. Chris Paul fell out with Doc after Austin joined the team and others from that locker room were disenchanted with him. Now the Wiz have unloaded him pretty much when they were first able. So the Suns may be dodging a bullet there. I wonder where Rivers will end up signing. Further wonder if Doc will push to bring him back to the Clips.
counting on my fingers … 1,2 ,3, 4, 5
a potentially $60 million decision, because he may have just shortened his career by 5 years.
a good ringer article here. makes me wonder if he had to tone it down before publishing. clearly not an Austin Rivers fan …
https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/12/18/18146522/austin-rivers-phoenix-suns-washington-wizards
12/19 MVP thoughts …
too many candidates. Embiid is having a rough time I think. Maybe an energy issue. I don’t see how huge kids like that have energy anyhow. I think he’s out, even if he turns it way up.
Davis is coming on, but the West is so deep I don’t think he’ll win enough games. Embiid and Davis might both be the MVPs after the all star break, but I don’t think it will sway voters away from the candidates.
Curry isn’t quite where I’m expecting him to be. Same with Harden. But it’s only mid-Dec and well … in less than 4 games they can change everything. Harden seems ready but not sure about his team. Curry’s team is ready, but I’m starting to wonder if Steph cares about MVP at all. Or rather, putting together like 7 games in a row averaging 40 pts or more. Looking less likely now.
Kawhi … on the one hand Lowry is stealing his thunder. On the other, dude is just so frickin unselfish and SOLID that I see him leaning away from amassing stats rather than padding them. Plus the obvious point: Raptors win without him so … there.
1. LeBron
2. Jokic
3. Freak
and then a pretty substantial drop off right now. could change in a week tho. but Jokic is simply IMPROVING in a way and at a rate that’s weird to watch. and that makes me wonder if there’s going to be a sentimental vote in his direction. certainly at this rate the trend is that Jokic wins MVP. but let’s see where we’re at next week.
Can’t disagree with your top 3, though I’d place KD as a pretty close fourth and my order of the top 3 might be LBJ, Freak, Joker.
I’ve kind of written off KD, almost entirely because there’s so much media saying Steph is the more valuable Warrior. I’m not sure who my 4th would be right now. Probably Kawhi before either of the Warriors but only if he starts playing in both back to backs.
I completely forgot that I could bet on MVP. According to this, looks like Jokic has to be one of the best bets around.
https://www.sportsbettingdime.com/nba/mvp-award-odds/
I don’t agree with some of these rankings, but this is the closest I’ve seen in print so far. At least they seem to have all the right names in the top 10 (including Paul George who I agree with).
https://ftw.usatoday.com/gallery/nba-mvp-power-rankings-the-case-for-and-against-each-contender
Based on the odds listed in those rankings, it appears the top 3 are Freak (+250), AD (+500) and LBJ (+550). You’re right that Joker is a good bet at +6000.
Chris Paul injured his hamstring again last night, though this time in the other leg. Not sure yet how long he will be out. Right now, Houston is one of three teams tied for the 8th spot in the Western Conference. If Paul is out for an extended period of time, it doesn’t bode well for the Rockets’ playoff chances.
Not sure where I saw it, but the vegas betting odds was Freak at +150 and Joker at +10000
I could be wrong, but I thought it meant that if you bet $100 on Freak and he wins you get $150 back, and if $100 on Joker and he wins you get $10000 back. Seems outrageous, so maybe I got something wrong there.
I think you are right about how it works with the betting, but, to be accurate, the odds are not completely based on who the bookmakers think will win the MVP. It also has a lot to do with how they believe bettors will bet. If bettors are likely to bet money on LeBron, the return on a bet on him will be low. If bettors are unlikely to bet money on Joker, the return on a bet on him will be high. As money comes in, the odds get adjusted. I’d be willing to bet that before the season, the return on a Freak bet would be a lot higher than it is now. I’m guessing that right now, very little money has been on Joker as the MVP, which is why you could make a lot of money on a bet on him if he were to win MVP. If Joker continues to play this well and the Nuggets stay at the top of the Western Conference, money will start to come in on him and lower the odds on him (i.e., lower the return on your bet).
Good take. Today I remembered that I had some online betting account setup from years ago and have some $$ in it. More than $100. I’ve decided I’m willing to risk $50-$75 on the Jokic bet (which objectively speaking, is between 10% and 20% likely to win at THIS point in time – so at best 80% chance I lose all my $$ on this). But I wouldn’t be be betting according to what is the current state of affairs. I’d be betting according to all the players I’ve ever seen play in the last 30-35 years and assessing Jokic relative to any of those that *appeared* to be coming on this fast. It’s a short list – very short. Bird, Magic, Butler. Probably Wilt and Embiid. Duncan? Guys that went from point A to point B within only a few months during a single season (most of them their first season). I’m sure there are many others, but those are the ones that come to mind. Obviously Butler is a huge exception, and it has me wondering about where Jokic is headed now that he knows he’s unstoppable everywhere and just about anytime on the court.
Problem is that the online betting account doesn’t list Jokic so I can’t bet on him. I assume that’s because they’re too smart to allow it. So hopefully I can find another way to bet on Jokic legally without spending much time on it. I’ve already wasted too much on this keeping in mind the 80% ish chance of losing $50 – $75.
I was surprised (very) to hear a couple of “my guys” state that Siakem is leading the pack w.r.t. most improved. I disagree and hope that’s wrong. All-Star? Absolutely – Toronto should have three this year IMO. Whatever position he plays. Still, he was pretty damned good last year.
I hope it doesn’t come down to some sentimental vote where these media guys get carried away. At this point just before Christmas I think there are too many most improved candidates to count. But Siakem was great and somewhat unknown last year. This year there are flat out better candidates for that award. Although Vucevic is my guy right now there are plenty of others before Siakem’s name should come up I think.
Well Siakam has doubled his points total and increased all his other stats as well. He only started 5 games last year. So I get why many think he’s a leading contender for MIP.
But he *was* this good or almost this good at the end of the year last year, and was expected to do this given the opportunity. So many other players have actually surprised. Here’s one that’s maybe so obvious that I missed him. Maybe you mentioned him: Derrick Rose. Another is a guy I didn’t even know about until last night – Hidden Wizard Gem – Thomas Bryant.
Awesome list below. Sortable!
Siakem’s worthiness is questionable when viewing the numbers as straightforward consequence of more minutes. Vucevic is just the opposite and should go to the top of the list if it had a column “Eff / Min” which it really should have as long as minutes played is above some minimum. Like 23.
http://www.hoopsstats.com/basketball/fantasy/nba/trends/19/13/pts/1-1
If simply a mathematical process using an Eff/Min stat, these guys are at the top (leaving out Kawhi and Hayward) …
Gallinari, Sabonis, George, Ibaka, Vucevic
this list of MVP odds looks legit, but I’m thinking updated only once a week …
http://www.vegasinsider.com/nba/story.cfm/story/1951731
I watched the Buck-Celtics last night. First thing to mention: absolutely most obviously Brogdon has to be the most underrated player in the league. Coach Bud obviously trusts that guy. Second is that Freak has now moved up to my #1 or #2 spot for MVP likelihood. I say that for two reasons …
1) It’s almost Christmas, and for some reason voters tend to over-emphasize the beginning of the year.
2) It was clear to me that a top 5 defensive team (not top 2 because Horford was out) didn’t seem to know what to do about him. Top 5 and coached by a guy that you’d think would have a plan.
Mostly I think Freak gets the “domination” vote along with LeBron meaning that if you watch the game as a fan which is what almost all the voters will do, you will see domination every night. That’s not a good sign for Jokic, Kawhi and Curry who effect dominance in more insidious ways. So, unless one of these three start scoring through the roof for a good stretch before the All-Star break we may have only a 2 man race.
Did AD actually say this??
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/25593855/anthony-davis-new-orleans-pelicans-says-legacy-more-important-money
Oh shit. He’s gone I think. Can’t wait to see him playing alongside Horford;-)
or … what’s the best the Pels can do? Holiday looks like a legit 2nd guy to me. Randle your #4 guy. Who’s a very solid talent alongside Holiday that could propel them further and that Pels can afford? Kawhi of course, just to mention the kind of talent that would make them contenders. Pels can pick up shooters in FA next year. OK, but …
They need Doncic or someone like Doncic. Who would that be besides LeBron, Curry, George and Kawhi?
Getting crazy here, but what would it take for the Pels to pick up Siakem next year. Completely unlikely, right?
Well, no way the Raptors let Siakam go. He’s under contract for next year at a very cheap price and I believe only would become a restricted free agent at that time. What the Pelicans really need is three-point shooting around AD. If defenses don’t have to respect the Pelicans’ perimeter shooting, they can collapse on AD inside. They’ve been hurt in that regard by Payton’s injury. He should be back in January, so the Pelicans can have a chance to see what kind of difference Payton can make before the trade deadline in February.
Clippers. Damn. Just Damn!
I really don’t see any reason for why both KD and Kawhi wouldn’t sign there next year. What a group that would be. However, if the Dubs keep Dray and the Celtics pick up AD? A sound prediction from where I sit is that LeBron never wins the big one ever again.
The next off-season will be a big indicator of whether LBJ wins another championship. If the Lakers can bring in another superstar, then maybe they do. But if not, I don’t see them winning with too many other teams getting really good.
I only saw the replays later, but the last second shots by Doncic against the Blazers to force OT and by Steph to win the game against the Clippers were both frigging awesome. Doncic had no business burying the 3 while falling out of bounds in the corner with a defender all over him. Mavs may have lost the game in OT, but Doncic has become the runaway leader for RoY. Trae Young was hanging with Doncic for awhile, but it’s not close anymore. And Steph dribbling through the Clippers defense for the game winning layup is why the hashtag #StephGonnaSteph exists. Almost every game he does something that just blows you away.
saw it. precise clock management by steph and excellent spacing by the team as the clock ran down. i watched a couple replays this morning. what i think is most incredible is how far he let the clock run down knowing damn well that he still had time to dish if a defender collapsed on him quickly enough, although just as likely he’d go for a circus shot drawing a foul. worst case OT. extremely high % offense.
You’re right about that. It was a well-designed and well-executed play. Steph and Dray ran the pick and roll to get Avery Bradley off of Steph and a big man, Montrezl Harrell on Steph. Steph can eat a big guy alive off the dribble, which he proceeded to do. Meanwhile, after the pick, Dray headed down the left side of the lane with Bradley on him. When Steph came down the right side of the lane, Bradley is right there to slide over and take away the lay-up, but he knew that if he did, Steph would dish to Dray for the easy lay-up, so he never slid over. The Clippers were damned if they did and damned if they didn’t.
just this minute see that Rivers signed with Houston. that’s one lucky S.O.B.
i’m not sure he would have signed with *any* team before mid-January if not for Paul’s injury.
So, it’s time apparently. For “that moment” to discuss A.D.’s most realistic future …
Celtics aren’t ready for the championship and it’s becoming more clear (not less) that they’re unlikely to be Eastern Conference Champs this year. Let me be clear! I still pick them as the favorites, but by much less of a margin than just 2 weeks ago.
So … back to my Ainge “man crush” is what I’d guess you’d call it (yes – I’ll delete those words later. the perk of being webmaster;-). He doesn’t make mistakes, or at least he doesn’t make big ones. So yeah … he’s getting close to doing everything in his power to pick up Davis.
So here comes THE BIG QUESTION … if you put Kyrie in the trade offer but Kyrie indicates he won’t or may not want to play in New Orleans then …
From where I sit I’d answer that with “the whole thing falls apart”. Am I right? And if so how does Anige get A.D. without losing Horford and Tatum????
Next up … TJ Warren
It makes no sense to me why every single team in the league isn’t after this guy, so I’m pretty sure at least 50% of them are trying to figure out how to get a leg up trading for him prior to the Feb deadline. This really should be an easy call – the Suns don’t *need* a PG right now even though they’d like one. But a big-body ball mover, defender and scorer maybe? Or two good players for Warren?
I like what the Suns are doing, so maybe not wise to second guess right now. However, this Siakem guy and very few players like him could start to separate some teams from others. Are more Siakems coming on the scene? More Doncic’s? Ben Simmons’s? Dray Greens? These kinds of players scare me if the Suns commit in one direction keeping them from being flexible in another that allows them to grab someone that no-one knew about just a year earlier.
going out on a limb here … I think Warren is more valuable to the Clippers than Shai-Alexander. Now and in the future. Especially if they pickup Kawhi who can run the point 80% of the time. Maybe more if he says he wants to do that.
This would be a good trade for both teams.
plus minus assets and whatever is needed to make it work.
what does trade machine say about alexander and gallinari for warren and bender?
Gallinari makes more, $21.5 million, than Warren and Bender combined (almost $16.5 million) and Alexander adds another $3 million+ to the equation. So it won’t work. It would probably work with Gortat instead of Gallinari.
Irving with TWO turnovers tonight. That’s absurd. Very Well Done young man!
Last night’s Lakers-Dubs …
Yes, clearly a coming out party for “Zu” (bac), and yes he’ll be a challenge in the playoffs but Dubs should have several answers to slow him down or at least get him into foul trouble. Rondo was a pest of course, and I’m sure Kerr knows all about that already and has multiple game plans starting with the hope that Rondo controlling the ball means it’s in LeBron’s hands less of the time. But from here it appeared that Ingram was the one that could cause the most headaches for the Dubs and Klay and KD in particular. A little scary to think about the beast he could become once he learns to stop wasting time with iso-ball on the perimeter.
That game has me re-thinking his value to this team … if he can stop that iso-crap that is. Really no reason for it whatsoever with all the ball movers around him. Magic has a decision to make here – do you trade him for anyone?
more points on last night’s game …
1) looney was terrible defensively. not sure why kerr needed him in for 27 minutes.
2) damian jones – this would have been a very different game if not for his injury. crossing fingers that he’s back in time for playoffs. of course, boogie will change things as well but hard to know what that means defensively while he babies the achilles.
3) maybe iggy shouldn’t be trying to cover the faster-younger guys? problem there is that between kuz, hart and ball he’s kind of outnumbered. and not sure what the answer is beyond making sure that klay and bell are well rested and ready to go all out next time. save iggy for ingram is my take-away.
4) well … yes of course dubs need to make their shots. i’d like to know kerr’s true strategy here as opposed to what he gives us through the media. for instance, what is/are the top reasons for Curry playing “only” 37 minutes in that game. i realize that’s a lot of minutes, and that he got into foul trouble, but I’d like to know the answer(s). I assume it starts with the idea that this really wasn’t a huge game for the Dubs, but is that true for the Lakers as well? I’m not so sure. Did Kerr consider the confidence building among the young Lakers core that will result from this? Maybe Kerr doesn’t care and wants his guys to get scared into playing their best long before March? I suppose that’s possible. Also note that Klay played only 33 minutes. What’s up with that when the Dubs really needed his D?
i revised a bit of the above post. In case you read it already. Maybe worth reading it again with the revisions.
Short answer to the last part of your post…Kerr truly did not care about the game. He continues to try out different rotations and does not play the starters more than 37-38 minutes per game and less if he can. This was the third game in four nights for the Dubs, so once the game got out of hand, Kerr threw in the towel (Klay would have gotten more minutes, but did not return to the game as he normally would have because of the blowout). I missed big portions of the game as we were moving around last night, but caught the end. While Kerr had all his starters on the bench, Walton still had some of his starters on the court despite the blowout. The game meant much more to the Lakers than it did to the Dubs.
If he “truly did not care” than he’s fucking up in a very big way. Huge mistake!
By truly did not care, I mean that Kerr was not going to play star players more minutes in an effort to win a December game at the possible expense of exposing star players to injury. That’s why Curry was on the bench at the end of the 3rd quarter when the Lakers, after losing their big lead, began increasing it again. He stuck with the same rotation pattern he has used in the past couple of weeks. If it was a playoff game, the stars would have stayed in when the Dubs reduced the Laker lead to 4 pts, due largely to Curry dropping some 3s. Kerr has stated several times in the past few years that he will not overplay the stars during regular season games.
ok. makes sense if he’s that concerned about injuries. got it. and they’ll play the lakers again.
Back to the MIP candidates. I’ve left this one out because I don’t want him to win. However, this is a huge reason for the Buck’s current standing as SECOND in the East?!!
Bledsoe. Eric Bledsoe. In terms of effectiveness toward team wins right up there with Paul George and Gallinari and Siakem. As great as Vucevic and Fox have been I’m starting to think of Bledsoe as most improved toward the end of team wins.
Which leads me to my next crow-eating-fest …
Hands down and without hesitation Budenholzer no question with an enormous lead Coach of the Year wise.
I like my pick (McMillan) for second place but as of 12/26/18 no question coach Bud.
Bud was my pick for Coach of the Year, so I’m not surprised that he is the clear front runner right now, but the way he turned the Freak into a real monster so quickly is pretty amazing. Makes you realize how bad JKidd was at a coach (which we had realized already). Budenholzer adapted the offense to make the most out of Freak’s talents and, as you noted, made better players out of Bledsoe, Brogdon, and Middleton in the process.
hmmm … i don’t really see Bud’s influence on Freak at all. I see Bledsoe and Brogdon in newer roles, and especially in Bledsoe’s case much much more fundamentally sound.
I’m sure Freak has benefited in some ways, but more through the “osmosis” of the betterment of those around him as a more fundamentally sound game plan on both ends of the court for 48 minutes a game.
Bud’s influence on Freak’s game has been in adapting the offense to work better with him. That means all the things you said…Bledsoe, Brodgon, and Middleton in newer and, in some cases, more fundamentally sound roles. The offense has opened up bigger lanes to the basket for Freak to take advantage of and spreads the floor with moving shooters that Freak can pass to if the other team doubles or triples down on him.
right. Bud is amazing. perhaps the next iteration of Pop
Extremely scary thought now that I’m entertaining thoughts of Budenholzer as some sort of outlier …
Kawhi paired up with Freak. How can the Raptors turn down the offer of Middleton and possibly 2 other guys not named Bledsoe or Brogdon for Kawhi?
OK. Yes. Kawhi may not stick around. But make this trade before the Feb deadline and I think that’s the 2019 NBA champ.
Toronto likely won’t trade Kawhi while they continue to look like the best team in the East, even if Kawhi has made it clear that he will be leaving at the end of the season. If in some bizarro world, the Raps decided to unload Kawhi, a Bucks’ package of Middleton, Maker, and Snell (and likely some draft picks) would work according to the trade machine.
barely best in the east and unlikely to make the finals. unless they want to rebuild, trading is easily the smartest way to go.
of course, all stated with this critical caveat: there may be no reason at all for the Bucks to want a championship if it’s only for this one year.
https://www.quora.com/unanswered/If-the-Milwaukee-Bucks-trade-Middleton-Maker-and-Hill-to-the-Toronto-Raptors-for-Kawhi-Leonard-then-the-Bucks-likely-win-the-2019-NBA-Championship-Agree-or-disagree-and-why
i had to make this point, simply because it’s such a huge pet peeve …
last night while watching highlights of Dallas/Pels I’m not sure of his name, but a well known sportscaster said something to the effect that “Doncic is actually starting to look like a young Larry Bird”. Yep – the white man comparison. Larry Bird??!! While it’s not the worst comparison stat wise, he does NOT “look” like Bird out there.
am trying to come up with the best comparison. i’ve got a couple of ideas in terms of looks + stats. let’s see what the numbers say …
except for Bird, these are some of the guys that come to mind when thinking about Doncic’s game. Maravich only because he was 6′ 5″ – I thought about Penny Hardaway, but not really the same kind of shooting threat from outside if I remember correctly …
https://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/pcm_finder.fcgi?request=1&sum=1&player_id1_hint=Luka+Doncic&player_id1_select=Luka+Doncic&player_id1=doncilu01&y1=2019&player_id2_hint=Larry+Bird&player_id2_select=Larry+Bird&player_id2=birdla01&y2=1980&player_id3_hint=Grant+Hill&player_id3_select=Grant+Hill&player_id3=hillgr01&y3=1995&player_id4_hint=Danny+Manning&player_id4_select=Danny+Manning&player_id4=mannida01&y4=1989&player_id5_hint=Pete+Maravich&player_id5_select=Pete+Maravich&player_id5=maravpe01&y5=1971&player_id6_hint=Kawhi+Leonard&player_id6_select=Kawhi+Leonard&player_id6=leonaka01&idx=players&y6=2012
With the way that Luka slashes, shoots from deep, spots up shoots and dishes, I’m thinking he plays a little like KD only about 6 inches smaller.
yes. i was going with players in their first year though. and even though I put Kawhi in there, I was trying to stay away from shooters but … then I put in Maravich. hard to know if Doncic should be classified as a shooter just yet.
but agree that his game is similar to Durant’s now, but he crashes the boards like Kidd and LeBron. and well … hmmmm … Bird;-) guess there’s just no way to get away from that comparison fully. maybe some of these white man comparisons are going to stick.
thinking a bit more on all this … the best comparison I come up with for Doncic (looks + stats) is Kidd+Kawhi.
scary as hell thinking of it that way. especially inside the paint. now in terms of his impact on the league and his team and the energy he brings in his rookie year? yeah – Larry Bird definitely.
hard to believe what I’m seeing here without couching in terms of “bad pelican defense” but then there’s this …
why don’t we see Kawhi drive all the way to the hoop more often and finish with crafty layups? maybe Curry is a better example than all these guys minus the shooting %. i don’t see how this kid can come along and already look like one of the greats. one thing is for sure – he is FAST or at least way faster than I expected and apparently faster than opponents realize. no other way he can possibly keep getting to the rim!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCsqf1eiLEc
OK. He’s not Larry Bird or LeBron. And he’s clearly lost a good amount of weight since the season opener and is a full half step faster. I think he’s a PG and a damned good one, so … Fran Fraschilla – YOU WERE WRONG. Maybe he couldn’t see the speed, but then again maybe Doncic is simply faster cuz he’s still growing and losing weight.
lots of plays to choose from that game last night, but this one separates Luka from almost anyone I’ve ever seen play at his height. 6’7″. this reminds me of kidd. fast, quick, powerful and against a GREAT defender. Just ridiculous …
https://youtu.be/dCsqf1eiLEc?t=229
POINT GUARD. ALL STAR. FUTURE MVP. All of the above. I won’t fault the Suns or Kings for their draft choices, but Atlanta wanted a shooting PG and … the rest is history. Cuban gets executive of the year.
Finally something happening with Patrick McCaw. The Cavaliers have signed him to a 2-year, non-guaranteed, $6 million contract. I believe the Warriors have until January 7th to decide whether to match or not. One local sportswriter (for the SF Chronicle) doesn’t think they will match. I’m not so sure. They could use his shooting and defense as a better back-up for Klay and Steph.
Let’s say the Dubs had interest in KCP.
after what I saw from Looney the other night I’m not too sure that’s the guy giving them the right effort. KCP on the other hand. what about it?