Around the NBA, Season 2016-2017

stitches · Post #361 » by **stitches** » Thu Mar 16, 2017 5:12 am

MKE did us a solid and beat the Clippers in LA. Nice.

KqWIN · Post #362 » by **KqWIN** » Thu Mar 16, 2017 5:14 am

This one is going to be hard to explain. Skal is ridiculous.

stitches · Post #363 » by **stitches** » Thu Mar 16, 2017 5:19 am

KqWIN wrote:This one is going to be hard to explain. Skal is ridiculous.

I had to check where he ended in my pre-draft rankings. I don't want to be too self-absorbed and self-congratulatory, but he ended up in my top 5:

stitches wrote:My 1 week before the draft big board:

1. Ben Simmons
2. Brandon Ingram
3. Dragan Bender
4. Jaylen Brown
5. Skal Labissiere
6. Jamal Murray
7. Kris Dunn
8. Jokob Poeltl
9. Marquese Chriss
10. Deyonta Davis
11. Thon Maker
12. Buddy Hield
13. Timothe Luwawu
14. Wade Baldwin
15. Furkan Korkmaz
16. Domantas Sabonis
17. Juan Hernangomez
18. Ante Zizic
19. Taurean Prince
20. Malik Beasley
... Dejounte Murray
... Malachi Richardson

Second round stashes - Isaia Cordinier, Georgios Papagiannis, Rade Zagorac

KqWIN · Post #364 » by **KqWIN** » Thu Mar 16, 2017 5:23 am

stitches wrote:
KqWIN wrote:This one is going to be hard to explain. Skal is ridiculous.

I had to check where he ended in my pre-draft rankings. I don't want to be too self-absorbed and self-congratulatory, but he ended up in my top 5:

I don't want to sound like this is taking credit away from you, but the most remarkable part about all of this is that he was just forgotten. You did not. Skal spent time in every single person's top 5 at some point. Top one most likely. If I'm a top 5 HS player I am staying the hell away from NCAA. There is no benefit.

How many rookies from this class are you honestly taking over Skal at this point. Two or three? Maybe one? It's not crazy at all.

stitches · Post #365 » by **stitches** » Thu Mar 16, 2017 5:27 am

KqWIN wrote:
stitches wrote:
KqWIN wrote:This one is going to be hard to explain. Skal is ridiculous.

I had to check where he ended in my pre-draft rankings. I don't want to be too self-absorbed and self-congratulatory, but he ended up in my top 5:

I don't want to sound like this is taking credit away from you, but the most remarkable part about all of this is that he was just forgotten. You did not. Skal spent time in every single person's top 5 at some point. Top one most likely. If I'm a top 5 HS player I am staying the hell away from NCAA. There is no benefit.

How many rookies from this class are you honestly taking over Skal at this point. Two or three? Maybe one? It's not crazy at all.

Yep, it was easy to put him in top 3 when he was balling in HS. It's a bit harder to have conviction in your evaluation and projection when all you have is traits and skill and size and athleticism... with no production. Actually scratch that... I will keep saying this - this was NOT hard. It should have been so damn easy, especially for people who do it as their job and are paid to make those decisions. You cannot ignore the combination of size and athleticism paired with all the skill in the world. HOW THE **** DID THEY MISS ON HIM? I still don't get it and will never get it.

KqWIN · Post #366 » by **KqWIN** » Thu Mar 16, 2017 5:34 am

stitches wrote:
KqWIN wrote:
stitches wrote:I had to check where he ended in my pre-draft rankings. I don't want to be too self-absorbed and self-congratulatory, but he ended up in my top 5:

I don't want to sound like this is taking credit away from you, but the most remarkable part about all of this is that he was just forgotten. You did not. Skal spent time in every single person's top 5 at some point. Top one most likely. If I'm a top 5 HS player I am staying the hell away from NCAA. There is no benefit.

How many rookies from this class are you honestly taking over Skal at this point. Two or three? Maybe one? It's not crazy at all.

Yep, it was easy to put him in top 3 when he was balling. It's a bit harder to have conviction in your evaluation when all you have is traits and skill and size and athleticism... with no production. Actually scratch that... I will keep saying this - this was NOT hard. It should have been so damn easy, especially for people who do it as their job and are paid to make those decisions. You cannot ignore the combination of size and athleticism paired with all the skill in the world. HOW THE **** DID THEY MISS ON HIM? I still don't get it and will never get it.

You deserve credit for keeping him that high. I think most people had him 9-15, so the NBA GM's screwed up the most. I was looking back at where I had ranked him...I didn't rank the top 8 players because they were for sure the top 8 and I wasn't that interested in the top. I had Wade Baldwin #1 (RIP) and Skal #2. Call it rank #10 I guess. I watched Skal and thought he stunk, but even I had him top 10. I lost hope for drafting him at #12 because I thought he would be too good in workouts. The tools were blatantly obvious.

Another interesting thing about this is that Skal's D-League numbers were not that great. It backs the theory that some players are just better in an NBA setting. I think Skal is one of those guys. He's dominating guys 1 on 1 in the mid post area.

Deandre Ayton needs to #takenote and stay home. Go anywhere except a basketball court where people can see you play. It's putting million dollars at risk.

stitches · Post #367 » by **stitches** » Thu Mar 16, 2017 5:40 am

KqWIN wrote:
You deserve credit for keeping him that high. I think most people had him 9-15, so the NBA GM's screwed up the most. I was looking back at where I had ranked him...I didn't rank the top 8 players because they were for sure the top 8 and I wasn't that interested in the top. I had Wade Baldwin #1 (RIP) and Skal #2. Call it rank #10 I guess. I watched Skal and thought he stunk, but even I had him top 10. I lost hope for drafting him at #12 because I thought he would be too good in workouts. The tools were blatantly obvious.

Another interesting thing about this is that Skal's D-League numbers were not that great. It backs the theory that some players are just better in an NBA setting. I think Skal is one of those guys. He's dominating guys 1 on 1 in the mid post area.

Deandre Ayton needs to #takenote and stay home. Go anywhere except a basketball court where people can see you play. It's putting million dollars at risk.

Strangely enough I hear similar concerns about Ayton - that he doesn't have the killer instinct and that he coasts a lot. I still haven't watched a ton of him.

KqWIN · Post #368 » by **KqWIN** » Thu Mar 16, 2017 5:43 am

stitches wrote:Strangely enough I hear similar concerns about Ayton - that he doesn't have the killer instinct and that he coasts a lot. I still haven't watched a ton of him.

Well in that case, go ahead Ayton. Play for the NCAA and we'll be happy to draft you 30th overall after our 74 win season :nod:

stitches · Post #369 » by **stitches** » Thu Mar 16, 2017 5:59 am

BTW, this Kings team has suddenly become a fun thing to follow. Both Skal and WCS seem to be flourishing without cousins. Buddy, as much as I was lower on him than most, can probably be an OK starter if developed. And they have two top 10 picks in a strong draft. Right now their picks are slotted at 6 an 8. Imagine a team of Dennis Smith Jr - Buddy Hield - Jonathan Isaac - Skal - WCS. That's super fun team going forward IMO.

sipclip · Post #370 » by **sipclip** » Thu Mar 16, 2017 1:35 pm

stitches wrote:BTW, this Kings team has suddenly become a fun thing to follow. Both Skal and WCS seem to be flourishing without cousins. Buddy, as much as I was lower on him than most, can probably be an OK starter if developed. And they have two top 10 picks in a strong draft. Right now their picks are slotted at 6 an 8. Imagine a team of Dennis Smith Jr - Buddy Hield - Jonathan Isaac - Skal - WCS. That's super fun team going forward IMO.

Suddenly they could be flush with young talent. They also still have Papagianis and Malachi Richardson who have potential. I thought after the Cousins trade you would see the pelicans push for that 8th spot but it has been the complete opposite and set the kings up nicely with that pick.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using RealGM mobile app

stitches · Post #371 » by **stitches** » Thu Mar 16, 2017 2:08 pm

sipclip wrote:
stitches wrote:BTW, this Kings team has suddenly become a fun thing to follow. Both Skal and WCS seem to be flourishing without cousins. Buddy, as much as I was lower on him than most, can probably be an OK starter if developed. And they have two top 10 picks in a strong draft. Right now their picks are slotted at 6 an 8. Imagine a team of Dennis Smith Jr - Buddy Hield - Jonathan Isaac - Skal - WCS. That's super fun team going forward IMO.

Suddenly they could be flush with young talent. They also still have Papagianis and Malachi Richardson who have potential. I thought after the Cousins trade you would see the pelicans push for that 8th spot but it has been the complete opposite and set the kings up nicely with that pick.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using RealGM mobile app

The Kings knew the cancer that is Cousins. They depleted NOP's wing depth even more than before, then put the ultimate sore loser on that team and viola! You have a team without much chance to win consistently.

pickIBL · Post #372 » by **pickIBL** » Thu Mar 16, 2017 5:35 pm

Yea just go play in Australia. Actually if I was advising a kid I'd probably send him to the 2nd division in Spain or something. heck even sign a long term deal... as long as it has an nba out.

stitches · Post #373 » by **stitches** » Sat Mar 18, 2017 9:51 pm

But guys... is he tough enough? (wait for the highlights)

:banghead:

Edit: there you go:

Watch on YouTube

Daddy 801 · Post #374 » by **Daddy 801** » Sun Mar 19, 2017 6:31 am

Tonight on the radio Locke said Burks had the worst field goal percentage in the entire NBA in the restricted area, or possibly he said within five feet of the hoop. Something along those lines. If that's true, that's horrendous.

Crunch 99 · Post #375 » by **Crunch 99** » Sun Mar 19, 2017 3:26 pm

Crunch 99 wrote:Kerr is resting all the Warrior stars. In addition, Leonard is out with a concussion and Parker is questionable with a stiff back. (Aldridge didn't play either.) Man, I would be royally ticked off if I had paid real money for a ticket to this game!

For the second weekend in a row, ABC, who undoubtedly paid huge money for rights to televise the games, and fans who bought tickets to the games have been screwed on a big prime time, weekend televised NBA game. This time it was the Cavs versus Clips in LA last night. The Cavs rested James, Love and Irving. Not surprisingly, the Clips blew out the Cavs 108-78.

Crunch 99 · Post #376 » by **Crunch 99** » Sun Mar 19, 2017 3:37 pm

Daddy 801 wrote:Tonight on the radio Locke said Burks had the worst field goal percentage in the entire NBA in the restricted area, or possibly he said within five feet of the hoop. Something along those lines. If that's true, that's horrendous.

Burks is way off on finishing around the rim from where he was his last full season --- 2013-14. According to 82games.com, he finished close in at a 62% rate and on dunks at a 93% rate for that 2013-14 season. For this season, he is only at 45% close in and 60% on dunks.

stitches · Post #377 » by **stitches** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 6:19 am

I hope you guys forgive me my obsession with Skal, I just love this kid.

Watch on YouTube

AingesBurner · Post #378 » by **AingesBurner** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 1:47 pm

stitches wrote:I hope you guys forgive me my obsession with Skal, I just love this kid.

Watch on YouTube

I don't know because if we traded for him and he was injured you would probably want to keep him...

stitches · Post #379 » by **stitches** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 1:56 pm

GobertReport wrote:
stitches wrote:I hope you guys forgive me my obsession with Skal, I just love this kid.

Watch on YouTube

I don't know because if we traded for him and he was injured you would probably want to keep him...

Especially if he's injured. :lol:

But seriously - trading makes least sense when the player is injured.

KqWIN · Post #380 » by **KqWIN** » Sat Mar 25, 2017 2:12 am

Devin Booker just scored 70 points against the Celtics...but of course Trey Lyles would be doing the same thing if he was on PHX.

Granted, it was the weakest 70 ever, but 70 points is 70 points. He's 20 years old!