Around The NBA: 2019-20 RESTART

[dumbell78]

The issue I have with Shaq is that his strengths are so similar to Kris Dunn's. We really didn't need both of them on the roster.

Archi
Dunn
Shaq
Sato
Coby

There are 5 PG's that actually aren't quality PG's.. None are starting material and 2/5 are end of bench or out of league guys. That is terrible management of the roster.

[MrFortune3]

Giannis has thrown 2 shots at Harden. I dislike harden as much as the next, but I won't fault him for standing his ground.

Plus, defense aside, I kinda agree with him.

Harden is awful to watch. That’s not basketball.

the crime is that he'd be good to watch if he didn't work the refs and they allowed themselves to be worked

it would be cosmic justice if he suffered a major injury while flopping. or sprained an ankle while shuffling his way from the elbow to the 3 pt line w/o dribbling

The Rockets as a team gripe too much about the refs and calls. Just play.

[dice]

Harden is awful to watch. That’s not basketball.

the crime is that he'd be good to watch if he didn't work the refs and they allowed themselves to be worked

it would be cosmic justice if he suffered a major injury while flopping. or sprained an ankle while shuffling his way from the elbow to the 3 pt line w/o dribbling

The Rockets as a team gripe too much about the refs and calls. Just play.

everybody does

i would like some system where refs could assess technical fouls for flopping or complaining excessively about correct calls. all video reviewed. maybe allow a liberal number of foul/flop challenges and assess a tech for complaining w/o challenging or incorrectly challenging

[GameBredAPBT]

Porzingis is lookin like the best pf in the league right now. Without Doncic. The guy was a maniac out there tonight

[dice]

Porzingis is lookin like the best pf in the league right now. Without Doncic. The guy was a maniac out there tonight

both giannis and lebron are playing PF this season, if non-traditionally. and porzingis has been playing center since the game he returned from his last injury...the same game that their other starting big dwight powell got injured in. but yeah, over his last 11 games he's been dominant

[R3AL1TY]

It's odd that the Pelicans let their guards and Ingram defend LeBron on many possessions and Zion doesn't spend a fair amount of time guarding him.

But Zion is crushing it right now despite not playing for half of the season. He still needs to add a jumper to his game though.

[HomoSapien]

I went through a strange rabbit hole and landed on this:

Watch on YouTube

[FriedRise]

Read on Twitter

Cash considerations anyone?

[HomoSapien]

Read on Twitter

Cash considerations anyone?

Regardless of how Bell turns out, the idea of selling draft picks in a rebuilding year always warranted the criticism it got. Outside of Bell, there were some meaningful players selected after that pick in Thomas Bryant, Dillon Brooks, and Monte Morris. Sure statistically speaking, you're more likely to whiff on a second-round pick, but why not give yourself opportunity to find pieces?

[dice]

Read on Twitter

Cash considerations anyone?

Regardless of how Bell turns out, the idea of selling draft picks in a rebuilding year always warranted the criticism it got. Outside of Bell, there were some meaningful players selected after that pick in Thomas Bryant, Dillon Brooks, and Monte Morris. Sure statistically speaking, you're more likely to whiff on a second-round pick, but why not give yourself opportunity to find pieces?

it probably wasn't even smart from a financial savings perspective in the long run

[Payt10]

I went through a strange rabbit hole and landed on this:

Watch on YouTube

Sign him to a 10 day. We need bodies.

[dice]

I went through a strange rabbit hole and landed on this:

Watch on YouTube

Sign him to a 10 day. We need bodies.

better form than coby

[Dresden]

Read on Twitter

Cash considerations anyone?

Regardless of how Bell turns out, the idea of selling draft picks in a rebuilding year always warranted the criticism it got. Outside of Bell, there were some meaningful players selected after that pick in Thomas Bryant, Dillon Brooks, and Monte Morris. Sure statistically speaking, you're more likely to whiff on a second-round pick, but why not give yourself opportunity to find pieces?

Not speaking about you personally, but there were many posters who castigated Paxson for passing on such a great talent as Jordan Bell for cash considerations. They thought Bell was just going to be a steal in the second round, and when he made some noise with the Warriors, the chants grew louder and louder. Maybe it's time now for all those people who thought Paxson was such a poor judge of talent to finally admit that maybe he was right, and they were wrong, when it came to judging how good Bell would be in the nba.

[Dresden]

I went through a strange rabbit hole and landed on this:

Watch on YouTube

He's ready to go one on one with Obama.

[dumbell78]

Read on Twitter

Cash considerations anyone?

Regardless of how Bell turns out, the idea of selling draft picks in a rebuilding year always warranted the criticism it got. Outside of Bell, there were some meaningful players selected after that pick in Thomas Bryant, Dillon Brooks, and Monte Morris. Sure statistically speaking, you're more likely to whiff on a second-round pick, but why not give yourself opportunity to find pieces?

Monte Morris was such low hanging fruit for GarPax but ownership needed that money.

[dougthonus]

Regardless of how Bell turns out, the idea of selling draft picks in a rebuilding year always warranted the criticism it got. Outside of Bell, there were some meaningful players selected after that pick in Thomas Bryant, Dillon Brooks, and Monte Morris. Sure statistically speaking, you're more likely to whiff on a second-round pick, but why not give yourself opportunity to find pieces?

Because you don't believe in any of the pieces available and already have a roster full of young guys and want to balance it out better?

On the human side of things where you need veterans on your team to help build the team into good habits, it makes a lot of sense not to just try and take every low roster spot available and toss it to a 2nd rounder or UDFA or some dude whom has a less than 1% chance of having meaningful success in the league.

I get why people didn't like the move, but if you don't believe strongly in a second round talent on the board then passing makes the most sense. The Bulls clearly HAVE believed on second rounders at times and have traded up aggressively to get guys they wanted or used them at times, but they seem to only do so when there is someone they really like and don't collect them just to collect them.

As a strategy, I think that's probably better more times than not. Now if you have a veteran laden team, it might be a bit different, but the Bulls instead been one of the youngest roster in the NBA. There is only so much time available with coaches and minutes to develop guys.

Beyond this, it matters because if your form of judgment is always "I can find a guy they could have taken that would have been better" then you are always setting yourself up to have the GM fail. Unless on draft day, you picked the guy in the 2nd round who was the steal and strongly advocated from him, then so what if one of the 100 guys available to choose from turned into a role player. If you judge your staff with an expectation of always making the perfect pick instead of the reasonable pick you will be disappointed regardless of whom is running your org.

The fanbase here absolutely was pissed about Jordan Bell specifically and specifically thought he would be a good player. Well he isn't and hasn't been a good player, and selling the pick was a reasonable decision if the FO wasn't in love with the options.

[HomoSapien]

Because you don't believe in any of the pieces available and already have a roster full of young guys and want to balance it out better?

Do you sincerely think this was their reasoning, or do you think it was financially motivated? Additionally, your above reasoning doesn't reflect well on the Bulls since there ended up being good options that could have helped this rebuild.

The fanbase here absolutely was pissed about Jordan Bell specifically and specifically thought he would be a good player. Well he isn't and hasn't been a good player, and selling the pick was a reasonable decision if the FO wasn't in love with the options.

Sure, many were. And many, like myself and Mark had an issue with specifically selling the pick when we were rebuilding.

[dougthonus]

Do you sincerely think this was their reasoning, or do you think it was financially motivated? Additionally, your above reasoning doesn't reflect well on the Bulls since there ended up being good options that could have helped this rebuild.

I sincerely think if they liked someone that they would have taken them and kept the pick.

By the standard you just set there every single GM in the NBA that has used more than 2-3 second round picks will fail. Every single one. Which makes it an unreasonable and poor standard to hold.

If your GM gets a viable role player in the second round on more than 20% of his tries, then he's probably a superstar of picking second rounders. The Bulls basically don't use second rounders unless they feel strongly on them, but their hit rate on second rounders used is the highest in the NBA last I looked (which was 2-3 years ago where I studied it extensively) and the gap between them and the second best team was absolutely humongous.

[dougthonus]

Sure, many were. And many, like myself and Mark had an issue with specifically selling the pick when we were rebuilding.

Say you are rebuilding and are a GM, and you have the youngest team in the league which is in the locker room means you will have a lot of various problems and no leadership. You have a second round pick and look on the board and don't like anyone or think anyone is a viable future player.

What do you do? I'd try and flip it for future assets of some type. Cash can be one of those things depending on how ownership behaves. I'd have rather seen them grab two second round picks from someone else for future drafts but I wouldn't use it just to use it, and if you were trading to GS then their second rounders didn't project as valuable in the future.

[HomoSapien]

Do you sincerely think this was their reasoning, or do you think it was financially motivated? Additionally, your above reasoning doesn't reflect well on the Bulls since there ended up being good options that could have helped this rebuild.

I sincerely think if they liked someone that they would have taken them and kept the pick.

By the standard you just set there every single GM in the NBA that has used more than 2-3 second round picks will fail. Every single one. Which makes it an unreasonable and poor standard to hold.

If your GM gets a viable role player in the second round on more than 20% of his tries, then he's probably a superstar of picking second rounders.

I still don't really understand your point. Even if the chances of getting someone steller are poor, it's basically risk-free move to keep your draft pick (especially a relatively high 2nd round pick). In a rebuild, you need to take every opportunity you can to add pieces because you rarely know who is going to end up emerging as a valuable player. There's absolutely no way that this trade was about adding veterans. It couldn't have been, because we bought out Wade and Rondo. After the trade we added Kay Felder, Blakeney, and Arcidiacano to the roster.

I also don't understand why you're so inclinded to give the FO the benefit of the doubt. They haven't earned that. They've made a ton of bad decisions over the past 5-10 years that have brought this franchise to such a bleak place. This move alone isn't what got them there, but it says quite a bit about their lack of creativity and resourcefulness.