Around The NBA 3.0

[HornetJail]

Calling it now, #1 pick is going to LA

[JDR720]

Calling it now, #1 pick is going to LA

you know the draft is rigged if that happens

[Marvel]

Sucks for Kobe, oh well back to the 3 pg starting lineup for D'antoni

[JDR720]

Sucks for Kobe, oh well back to the 3 pg starting lineup for D'antoni

problem with that is all their PG's are hurt lol

[HornetJail]

Sucks for Kobe, oh well back to the 3 pg starting lineup for D'antoni

problem with that is all their PG's are hurt lol

Xavier Henry is playing PG for them now.

[thruthefire]

Klay Thompson is very overrated.

[mrknowitall215]

Klay Thompson is very overrated.

I don't think so. The opinion & distinction of who he is as a player in the NBA is just about right. It's not as if anybody is calling him a top tier SG or anything. He's not even considered a all-star yet. He gets his just due as a 3rd year shooter averaging 20 points on decent efficiency. Now, if people were comparing him to Dwyane Wade & James Harden? that would be "very overrated"

[thruthefire]

Klay Thompson is very overrated.

I don't think so. The opinion & distinction of who he is as a player in the NBA is just about right. It's not as if anybody is calling him a top tier SG or anything. He's not even considered a all-star yet. He gets his just due as a 3rd year shooter averaging 20 points on decent efficiency. Now, if people were comparing him to Dwyane Wade & James Harden? that would be "very overrated"

His hype far exceeds Kawhi Leonard's, for instance.

[mrknowitall215]

I'm sitting here watching this Spurs-Warriors game, and I was left wondering "who the hell is Jeff Ayres?", until I looked it up only to find out that Jeff Pendergraph had changed his last name

Also...

...the Bulls front office dropped the ball once again by not retaining Marco Belinelli (as well as Nate Robinson), but it might pay off if their tanking efforts can land them Jabari Parker

[mrknowitall215]

Klay Thompson is very overrated.

I don't think so. The opinion & distinction of who he is as a player in the NBA is just about right. It's not as if anybody is calling him a top tier SG or anything. He's not even considered a all-star yet. He gets his just due as a 3rd year shooter averaging 20 points on decent efficiency. Now, if people were comparing him to Dwyane Wade & James Harden? that would be "very overrated"

His hype far exceeds Kawhi Leonard's, for instance.

I agree with that, but it's all about the flashing lights of offensive ability to the casual NBA fan...and media markets as well. I look at that and say that Leonard is slightly underrated. There's a decisive discrepancy between their raw numbers though

[thruthefire]

Fair point, although I just mentioned Leonard as an example since he's playing in this game. I do feel you could switch Klay with a number of shooters and get similar results, none of whom get the same buzz as he does.

On another note, I'm not sure how to feel about Diaw. Fun guy to watch play, absolutely disgusting how he quit here.

[thruthefire]

Also, at some point Mark Jackson will need more X's and O's and less rah-rah.

[BigSlam]

I'm sitting here watching this Spurs-Warriors game, and I was left wondering "who the hell is Jeff Ayres?", until I looked it up only to find out that Jeff Pendergraph had changed his last name

That is too funny.

I was watching the Spurs vs Jazz game the other night and they had a close up of him and I thought "oh, I didn't realize that Pendergraph had gone to the Spurs" and then I saw the name "Ayres" on the back of his jersey and I thought "wow, that dude seriously looks like Jeff Pendergraph!".

Thanks for letting me know I am not totally nuts!

[BigSlam]

Klay Thompson is very overrated.

I don't think so. The opinion & distinction of who he is as a player in the NBA is just about right. It's not as if anybody is calling him a top tier SG or anything. He's not even considered a all-star yet. He gets his just due as a 3rd year shooter averaging 20 points on decent efficiency. Now, if people were comparing him to Dwyane Wade & James Harden? that would be "very overrated"

His hype far exceeds Kawhi Leonard's, for instance.

In all fairness - Leonard has kid of sucked this season.

[LamarMatic7]

Sucks for Kobe, oh well back to the 3 pg starting lineup for D'antoni

problem with that is all their PG's are hurt lol

Xavier Henry is playing PG for them now.

They just signed Kendall Marshall to avoid that.

[LamarMatic7]

I don't think so. The opinion & distinction of who he is as a player in the NBA is just about right. It's not as if anybody is calling him a top tier SG or anything. He's not even considered a all-star yet. He gets his just due as a 3rd year shooter averaging 20 points on decent efficiency. Now, if people were comparing him to Dwyane Wade & James Harden? that would be "very overrated"

His hype far exceeds Kawhi Leonard's, for instance.

In all fairness - Leonard has kid of sucked this season.

Please elaborate because I don't agree at all. He has shown improvement on offense as he seems way more comfortable when handling the ball. The defense has been as good as it has always been with Kawhi.

If you want to point at the numbers, then the Spurs are the last team for which to do so. Nobody is averaging more than 30 minutes for them and Pop is basically playing all 13 guys in some games. They're throwing out whatever line-up Pop wants to try now, winning by their system and just waiting for the post-season to start.

You can't forget that Kawhi is pretty much the third or fourth option whenever he's on the floor. But the dude has shown that he can subtly take on a huger role if they need him to do it as evidenced by last night's 20/10 against the Warriors. He was probably their best player. The thing is that besides Tony Parker, everyone on the Spurs pretty much is equal. On given nights Duncan and Ginobili will excel, but other than that there aren't any individual accomplishments.

Has he had a silent season? Yes. But that's the Spurs way. Has he "kind of sucked"? No way.

If I'm the Spurs, I'll take the improvement he's shown and continue moving him forward slowly.

By the way, I so enjoyed last night's game at Golden State. It might have been the most fun game I've seen this year.

[BigSlam]

After his playoffs last year he was projected to really bust out.

He hasn't and his numbers regressed.

Pop he opted to bench him often up to this point of the season.

Hey, I like the kid, I wanted us to draft him, I have him as a key member of my fantasy keeper league. I'm not hating on him but if you think he is where 99.9% of the basketball world expected him to be with his progression I think you are mistaken.

[LamarMatic7]

After his playoffs last year he was projected to really bust out.

He hasn't and his numbers regressed.

Pop he opted to bench him often up to this point of the season.

Hey, I like the kid, I wanted us to draft him, I have him as a key member of my fantasy keeper league. I'm not hating on him but if you think he is where 99.9% of the basketball world expected him to be with his progression I think you are mistaken.

But as I said I don't think there's any possibility of him breaking out while playing for the Spurs.

Yes, his basic numbers have stayed the same (not regressed, by the way) but if you take a look at Synergy Sports these are the numbers that are more important than point and rebound averages during a regular season which the Spurs don't care for:

He's 4th in the league in post ups. Fourth!!! He produces 1.13 points per possession in these situations. When the possession ends with his shot, he's made 16/27.

He's 20th in pick-n-rolls as the ball handler with 0.89 points per possession.

Isolations have also been good - he's 26th with 0.9ppg.

That just shows that it isn't my faulty eye test, he really has grown more comfortable with handling the ball. I doubt he makes the leap Paul George did on offense, but the growth does remind you of George last season. Only George had no other choice of doing it all himself, Kawhi is held back by Pop's rotations and five or six other creators on the team.

We don't have the access to his last year's stats but I would be shocked if they were that good last year. You can also just compare them to any other similar small forward (maybe check out the similar Jimmy Butler) and see how good they are in comparison.

One idea I had was looking up Zach Lowe's article on Kawhi Leonard he did this summer. They should have his last year's Synergy stats if I remember correctly. So then you could compare them. But as much as I want to do that on my own, I have to run, run and run now, as always I will be late for something in real life because of these long posts on RealGM .

[mrknowitall215]

I can't agree with the premise that Kawhi Leonard has 'sucked', but I will say that I'm a little disappointed in his progress. The Spurs are looking for somebody to take the team over, allowing grizzled veterans like Tim Duncan & Manu Ginobili to take a backseat or fade off into the sunset, but the lack of marginal progress from Leonard hasn't allowed them to do so yet. Leonard is on his 3rd year in the league, and I expected him to be averaging close to 15 points by now, but aye...shrug...they're still winning

[JDuaneWayne]

After his playoffs last year he was projected to really bust out.

He hasn't and his numbers regressed.

Pop he opted to bench him often up to this point of the season.

Hey, I like the kid, I wanted us to draft him, I have him as a key member of my fantasy keeper league. I'm not hating on him but if you think he is where 99.9% of the basketball world expected him to be with his progression I think you are mistaken.

But as I said I don't think there's any possibility of him breaking out while playing for the Spurs.

Yes, his basic numbers have stayed the same (not regressed, by the way) but if you take a look at Synergy Sports these are the numbers that are more important than point and rebound averages during a regular season which the Spurs don't care for:

He's 4th in the league in post ups. Fourth!!! He produces 1.13 points per possession in these situations. When the possession ends with his shot, he's made 16/27.

He's 20th in pick-n-rolls as the ball handler with 0.89 points per possession.

Isolations have also been good - he's 26th with 0.9ppg.

That just shows that it isn't my faulty eye test, he really has grown more comfortable with handling the ball. I doubt he makes the leap Paul George did on offense, but the growth does remind you of George last season. Only George had no other choice of doing it all himself, Kawhi is held back by Pop's rotations and five or six other creators on the team.

We don't have the access to his last year's stats but I would be shocked if they were that good last year. You can also just compare them to any other similar small forward (maybe check out the similar Jimmy Butler) and see how good they are in comparison.

One idea I had was looking up Zach Lowe's article on Kawhi Leonard he did this summer. They should have his last year's Synergy stats if I remember correctly. So then you could compare them. But as much as I want to do that on my own, I have to run, run and run now, as always I will be late for something in real life because of these long posts on RealGM .

The one thing I really love about his game is he has very solid handles. I think that facet of the game of so badly overlooked nowadays. There are too many guys in the NBA who all they can do is put the ball on the floor a time or two and pull up and have trouble controlling the ball in traffic.

While his shot does need work I really wish one offseason would be spent on really tightening up MKG's already solid handles that would buy him multiple seasons to work on his jumper.