ATL - Trade Deadline 2/10/22

Ron Swanson · Post #341 » by **Ron Swanson** » Wed Dec 8, 2021 2:43 pm

Watched some of the Mavs/Nets game and I was stunned with how.....chunky Luka has gotten. Between him and Zion, I just don't understand how you can be a young 21-22 year old pro athlete and let your weight get this out of control. Even Jokic finally wised up and started taking his conditioning seriously, and it turned him into an MVP-caliber player.

raferfenix · Post #342 » by **raferfenix** » Wed Dec 8, 2021 2:48 pm

If I'm the Nets I consider it an abject emergency that Durant is playing so many minutes and load manage immediately, losses be damned.

If KD has another serious injury that team is toast. Potentially long term at that.

Upper management shouldn't trust Nash as a newbie coach to handle it. If their playoff seeding sucks who cares as long as Durant at least is healthy when it counts.

sidney lanier · Post #343 » by **sidney lanier** » Wed Dec 8, 2021 2:55 pm

PG Graveyard wrote:
MartyConlonOnTheRun wrote:
PG Graveyard wrote:Luka looks super fat

He looks like my high school friends junior year of college after they stopped playing organized sports 12 months of the year.

Yeah seriously I am surprised. I haven’t watched him much this year. I didn’t know that he lost his chin. You have to be doing something wrong diet wise to look like that

He's waiting for Zion to get back so he can stand next to him and look thin. Can Zion really be up to 330?

https://sports.yahoo.com/zion-williamson-weighs-330-pounds-083727976.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=ma

WeekapaugGroove · Post #344 » by **WeekapaugGroove** » Wed Dec 8, 2021 4:09 pm

I expect we'll start seeing NBA media types rip Luka. He deserves it for being out of shape but we're also hitting the tear down point in the natural media cycle with a young player. First is all praise when they are new and exciting, next phase is tear them down (can win a chip, good stats bad team guy, not developing ect.), last phase is to build them back up.

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BucksFanSD · Post #345 » by **BucksFanSD** » Wed Dec 8, 2021 4:21 pm

I don't think anyone was expecting Luka to be on some fanstastic diet, just not a super horrible one. His weight is on the wrong trajectory. He first needs to learn how to maintain his weight, and after he will need to lose what he has lost. At least he is young and can prevent injuries if he turns it around. Zion is already getting injuries that are due to weight control.

Ron Swanson · Post #346 » by **Ron Swanson** » Wed Dec 8, 2021 4:36 pm

Don't think it's just the weight issues with Luka though. My question now in Year 4 is, where is the skill development? He's improved zilch as a defender (they're an atrocious 113.8 D-RTG with him on the court vs. 104.5 off). He's shooting a career low 69% (nice) from the line, and both his career FT (73%) and 3PT shooting marks (33%) are closer to Giannis than they are to the best perimeter scorers/shooters, and he's only attempting an inexcusable 11% of his FGA's at the rim (the only spot where he's efficient at this point). Right now he's basically a Harden-level defensive sieve without the Harden-level scoring efficiency.

emunney · Post #347 » by **emunney** » Wed Dec 8, 2021 4:42 pm

Yeah, you've got to be concerned about guys who have a hard time controlling their weight in their early 20s.

Siefer · Post #348 » by **Siefer** » Wed Dec 8, 2021 5:54 pm

Pretty worried about Luka on multiple fronts. The weight issues at a young age, the behind the scenes drama within the org, and now Kidd.

CharityStripe34 · Post #349 » by **CharityStripe34** » Wed Dec 8, 2021 6:12 pm

This is why I’ve been gun shy to anoint Luka as the next perennial transcendent superstar of the nba. Incredible skill but he hasn’t gotten better. I was asking a friend of mine last year “is Luka a winning player?” I think he is but to a point.

PG Graveyard · Post #350 » by **PG Graveyard** » Wed Dec 8, 2021 6:32 pm

sidney lanier wrote:
PG Graveyard wrote:
MartyConlonOnTheRun wrote:He looks like my high school friends junior year of college after they stopped playing organized sports 12 months of the year.

Yeah seriously I am surprised. I haven’t watched him much this year. I didn’t know that he lost his chin. You have to be doing something wrong diet wise to look like that

He's waiting for Zion to get back so he can stand next to him and look thin. Can Zion really be up to 330?

https://sports.yahoo.com/zion-williamson-weighs-330-pounds-083727976.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=ma

Yeesh....I did read somewhere that Luka is at least 260 now.

jschligs · Post #351 » by **jschligs** » Wed Dec 8, 2021 6:56 pm

raferfenix wrote:If I'm the Nets I consider it an abject emergency that Durant is playing so many minutes and load manage immediately, losses be damned.

If KD has another serious injury that team is toast. Potentially long term at that.

Upper management shouldn't trust Nash as a newbie coach to handle it. If their playoff seeding sucks who cares as long as Durant at least is healthy when it counts.

He's 5th in MPG. At 33 with his injury history I wouldn't want to keep that up all season. Hell even Harden is 8th in MPG.

Jez2983 · Post #352 » by **Jez2983** » Wed Dec 8, 2021 8:59 pm

jschligs wrote:
raferfenix wrote:If I'm the Nets I consider it an abject emergency that Durant is playing so many minutes and load manage immediately, losses be damned.

If KD has another serious injury that team is toast. Potentially long term at that.

Upper management shouldn't trust Nash as a newbie coach to handle it. If their playoff seeding sucks who cares as long as Durant at least is healthy when it counts.

He's 5th in MPG. At 33 with his injury history I wouldn't want to keep that up all season. Hell even Harden is 8th in MPG.

Hardens actually pretty durable, recent history aside. At a glance Patty may also be playing a career high mins too. I'm with you though, can't see Harden and Durant playing 2500+ mins a season as the best use of resources.

raferfenix · Post #353 » by **raferfenix** » Wed Dec 8, 2021 9:04 pm

If the Nets were to trade Kyrie for Simmons they would immediately pick up a versatile player that could ease the minutes crunch with just about everyone else.

I'm not saying it'd be smart for Morey to do it but I could imagine Brooklyn monitoring the situation with increasing interest -- especially if KD is getting sick of Kyrie making his life so much harder.

Licensed to Il · Post #354 » by **Licensed to Il** » Wed Dec 8, 2021 9:54 pm

raferfenix wrote:If the Nets were to trade Kyrie for Simmons they would immediately pick up a versatile player that could ease the minutes crunch with just about everyone else.

I'm not saying it'd be smart for Morey to do it but I could imagine Brooklyn monitoring the situation with increasing interest -- especially if KD is getting sick of Kyrie making his life so much harder.

Yeah, Simmons and Durant would be a great pairing.

Not sure it works with Harden, though.

JayMKE · Post #355 » by **JayMKE** » Wed Dec 8, 2021 10:41 pm

raferfenix wrote:If the Nets were to trade Kyrie for Simmons they would immediately pick up a versatile player that could ease the minutes crunch with just about everyone else.

I'm not saying it'd be smart for Morey to do it but I could imagine Brooklyn monitoring the situation with increasing interest -- especially if KD is getting sick of Kyrie making his life so much harder.

I was under impression that Ben Simmons wasn’t vaxxed so that can’t work

SupremeHustle · Post #356 » by **SupremeHustle** » Wed Dec 8, 2021 11:13 pm

You guys. Y'all. Everybody!

Read on Twitter

jakecronus8 · Post #357 » by **jakecronus8** » Wed Dec 8, 2021 11:16 pm

When I see Luka I see euro-Harden and that’s not just the flopping and aesthetically ugly game. Both have tremendous offensive skill sets with no defensive ability or effort. Both will always look good in the box score but I don’t think they are the kind of guys you win a title with as your best player.

WeekapaugGroove · Post #358 » by **WeekapaugGroove** » Wed Dec 8, 2021 11:20 pm

Interesting exchange between Cuban and Bob.

Read on Twitter

?t=pzEs-4YjzSpSf_WbcOiuCA&s=19

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DrWood · Post #359 » by **DrWood** » Wed Dec 8, 2021 11:43 pm

Harden is not a bad defender overall, though I guess he never looks like he's trying hard.

Ron Swanson · Post #360 » by **Ron Swanson** » Wed Dec 8, 2021 11:53 pm

Oh Harden is absolutely a bad defender overall. It's weird that the "Harden is actually an elite post defender cuz of this one stat" narrative got so much traction a few years ago considering teams run post-ups for like, 10% of offensive possessions these days. If you're a PG/SG who can't defend in space then yeah, you're a bad defender. Harden getting fatter and losing lateral mobility has only made him worse.