NBA Games Discussion Thread - Part 5

[trast66]

Who's the next former Wizard to win a championship?

Ish Smith, Caldwell-Pope, Calvin Booth, Popeye Jones ya heard!

You can make that argument about lots of teams every year.

Look at all the former Detroit Pistons who won a championship this year. Man, that team lets all their talent get away before developing them!
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
Reggie Jackson
Ish Smith
Bruce Brown

Look at all the former Clippers who won a championship this year. How did they let these guys get away?
DeAndre Jordan
Reggie Jackson
Jeff Green

Look at all the former Brooklyn Nets who won a championship this year. What are they doing?
DeAndre Jordan
Jeff Green
Bruce Brown

OKC Thunder:
Ish Smith
Reggie Jackson
Jeff Green

LA Lakers:
Thomas Bryant
DeAndre Jordan
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope

Orlando:
Aaron Gordon
Ish Smith
Jeff Green

An old thread somewhere that states “So in the 50 years from 1964-2014, 496 out of 3,071 players have won a ring.
This means 16.2% of all NBA players have won a ring.”

My daughter’s team won 2 high school championships in volleyball and it’s something she (and I) will cherish forever. I can’t imagine how incredible it feels for that 16.2% to win a ring at the highest possible level. When I see someone selling their rings on eBay makes me sad!

[Zonkerbl]

https://www.vice.com/en/article/qjvvxp/employee-of-the-month-rewarded-with-more-work

"A Denver area worker was shocked and saddened to learn Monday evening that, in line with American tradition, his employer was requiring him to work additional hours as a result of his being identified as one of the organization’s top performers of the year.

“No… I need to go home,” said distraught union employee Nikola Jokić, 28, before he put his head in his hands and rubbed his forehead to ease the stress."

[CntOutSmrtCrazy]

Who's the next former Wizard to win a championship?

Ish Smith, Caldwell-Pope, Calvin Booth, Popeye Jones ya heard!

You can make that argument about lots of teams every year.

Look at all the former Detroit Pistons who won a championship this year. Man, that team lets all their talent get away before developing them!
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
Reggie Jackson
Ish Smith
Bruce Brown

Look at all the former Clippers who won a championship this year. How did they let these guys get away?
DeAndre Jordan
Reggie Jackson
Jeff Green

Look at all the former Brooklyn Nets who won a championship this year. What are they doing?
DeAndre Jordan
Jeff Green
Bruce Brown

OKC Thunder:
Ish Smith
Reggie Jackson
Jeff Green

LA Lakers:
Thomas Bryant
DeAndre Jordan
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope

Orlando:
Aaron Gordon
Ish Smith
Jeff Green

Thank you for doing the leg work on this always present topic of conversation at the end of the season on this board. Always a dumb exercise.

I reiterate too Bryant and Ish didn't play in the run, and KCP wasn't anything more than he was here. Just had Joker and Murray to cover up his flaws, because dude played pretty horribly in the Finals on the offensive side of the ball, made some stupid mistakes on the other end too. His dumb fouls were more than the margin of victory in MIA's sole win.

[closg00]

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[NatP4]

Hasn’t even been selected by a team yet.

I bet he plays in the first half of game 1, absolutely dominates, then sits out the rest of summer. No reason for him to play in that. It’s a massive step down from the French league playoffs.

Will be fun to see Bilal back in a high usage role in summer league though. Just stood in the corner with Metro 92

[FAH1223]

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[closg00]

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[closg00]

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[nate33]

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Man, they are going to be unstoppable on offense, particularly in the playoffs. The amazing thing is that all three guys have deadly midrange games. Most defenses are geared to protect the rim and the 3-point line, and the best ones know how to take those shots away in the playoffs, but no defense can take away the midrange shot. You can't do that with schemes, you need great individual defenders with agility and length. And who has 3 great individual wing defenders (that don't suck on offense)?

[Kanyewest]

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Man, they are going to be unstoppable on offense, particularly in the playoffs. The amazing thing is that all three guys have deadly midrange games. Most defenses are geared to protect the rim and the 3-point line, and the best ones know how to take those shots away in the playoffs, but no defense can take away the midrange shot. You can't do that with schemes, you need great individual defenders with agility and length. And who has 3 great individual wing defenders (that don't suck on offense)?

Only team that really comes to mind for me is the Celtics with Tatum, Brown, and Holiday. Plus they could go to a more effective defensive lineup with Derrick White and Horford - or just play Porzingis since Phoenix has no one who can stop him. Still, I don't even know if a great defensive lineup can slow them down, especially with switching. And there are times when Brown/Holiday offenses look mediocre in the postseason

A team like the Nuggets can cheat a bit since they have Jokic, and sacrifice a little offense with their wings and can throw out KCP, Gordon, and Murray. Murray isn't known as a good defender although he did have key defensive plays in the playoffs against LeBron. The big thing though is even if the Nuggets do not have a great defensive trio to slow down Phoenix, they have the ultimate cheat code in Jokic and Phoenix doesn't seem to have the bigs to deal with that.

But it should be an exciting season for sure. If the Suns do end up winning, I wonder how much the narrative of players change including Durant/Beal.

[doclinkin]

I'm happy for Beal --- even if I ultimately want the Suns to fail so that those pick swaps are worth something good

[closg00]

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Man, they are going to be unstoppable on offense, particularly in the playoffs. The amazing thing is that all three guys have deadly midrange games. Most defenses are geared to protect the rim and the 3-point line, and the best ones know how to take those shots away in the playoffs, but no defense can take away the midrange shot. You can't do that with schemes, you need great individual defenders with agility and length. And who has 3 great individual wing defenders (that don't suck on offense)?

Beal is going to Beal though, he is also going to sink them on many nights. Btw, who gets the ball in clutch-time with this Big-3?

[Kanyewest]

Beal usually played better in the postseason than in the regular season although let's see how he holds up now. Beal in elimination games in the playoffs; 28/5/3.6 with a 57.7 TS% in 8 games.

[DCZards]

Sharing the court with Durant and Booker will make life so much easier for Beal who won’t have to face the double and triple teams he often faced here in DC.

[queridiculo]

I hope Beal blows the **** up and finally gets the kind of recognition he deservers.

Shamelessly being able to root for a "super team" is also quite nice.

[pancakes3]

Sharing the court with Durant and Booker will make life so much easier for Beal who won’t have to face the double and triple teams he often faced here in DC.

I think they're going to try him out at PG, which I don't think will make life easier.

[nate33]

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Man, they are going to be unstoppable on offense, particularly in the playoffs. The amazing thing is that all three guys have deadly midrange games. Most defenses are geared to protect the rim and the 3-point line, and the best ones know how to take those shots away in the playoffs, but no defense can take away the midrange shot. You can't do that with schemes, you need great individual defenders with agility and length. And who has 3 great individual wing defenders (that don't suck on offense)?

Beal is going to Beal though, he is also going to sink them on many nights. Btw, who gets the ball in clutch-time with this Big-3?

I disagree. Beal is going to thrive as the tertiary focus of the opposition's defense. Beal is a very good basketball player. He was just in over his head as the number 1 option.

[nate33]

Sharing the court with Durant and Booker will make life so much easier for Beal who won’t have to face the double and triple teams he often faced here in DC.

I think they're going to try him out at PG, which I don't think will make life easier.

I don't think they will really have a "point guard". All 3 of Beal, Booker and Durant are capable of dribbling the ball up the court and initiating sets. They also have Eric Gordon and Jordan Goodwin.

Offensively, Phoenix is going to be terrific. If they fail, it will be because of their defense.

[DCZards]

Sharing the court with Durant and Booker will make life so much easier for Beal who won’t have to face the double and triple teams he often faced here in DC.

I think they're going to try him out at PG, which I don't think will make life easier.

I don't think they will really have a "point guard". All 3 of Beal, Booker and Durant are capable of dribbling the ball up the court and initiating sets. They also have Eric Gordon and Jordan Goodwin.

Offensively, Phoenix is going to be terrific. If they fail, it will be because of their defense.

Yup...BB won't be a true PG. In fact, he'll probably handle the ball less in Phoenix than he did with the Zards.

[doclinkin]

Sharing the court with Durant and Booker will make life so much easier for Beal who won’t have to face the double and triple teams he often faced here in DC.

I think they're going to try him out at PG, which I don't think will make life easier.

I don't think they will really have a "point guard". All 3 of Beal, Booker and Durant are capable of dribbling the ball up the court and initiating sets. They also have Eric Gordon and Jordan Goodwin.

Offensively, Phoenix is going to be terrific. If they fail, it will be because of their defense.

Right. And if teams can go big and beat the helloutta them up front. They start KD as their power forward, and are relying in Nurkic in the middle who only was able to play 52 games last year. They really better be good at the midrange, as you suggest, since the teams with size will choke off the paint in the post season and force them to live and die by the jumper. I'm curious if it can work.