2020-21 NBA Season Discussion

[Doctor MJ]

Good lord. Trae Young.

Okay, yeah, I see it now. Hyper-aggressive, inertia-free next gen Nash/Curry hybrid.

[MyUniBroDavis]

Good lord. Trae Young.

Okay, yeah, I see it now. Hyper-aggressive, inertia-free next gen Nash/Curry hybrid.

This hawks team should be hilariously good on offense

If trae becomes a passable defender he'll be scary, i dont see him much as a nash curry hybrid type though, hes game reminds me more of saucy lillard (not saying hes better or gonna be better). He doesnt do as much off ball which is fine since that isnt his role (and tbh kerr needs to just give curry the damn ball sometimes, it should be a different look not option 1 to open things up for wiggins lol)

His passing looks great but i ddint realize how saucy he was and how good he was at changing his pace and direction

He has a "style" that i think is gonna more be his own than anything that resembles guys like curry or nash. I see the similarities in terms of shooting well and passing, but curry and nash both personify control in a way even eith their flashy passing. Like more so the way they habdle the ball and get past players you think more, "tight, angles, patience" where trae resembles more of a kyrie/kemba in that its sauce, loose, sudden if that makes sense.

Theres a free flowing nature to his game thats really fun to watch, and while having saucier handles doesnt mean his handles are better or anything since its a style, and esp since curry is prolly up there all time in terms of handles, i do feel traes more "explosive" stop and go athleticism should help him against switchy guys more

Future if the nba looks really good tbh, trae/luka/ja/zion/tatum/ingram/murray/mitchell/Dbook

among others. I heard Cade is a top tier prospect too, i know next years draft is insane and they were calling him a zion/AD tier prospect. I havent seen him much and I dont see any worldbreaking stuff, it seems more super solid guy that reminds me of a typical good frame great skillset and change of pace and ability to reas the floor, but theres a level of poise that (not comparing him to this guy) almost gives me luka vibes.

Also murray is the same age as ingram which is kinda suprising lol.

Im really curious to see whose the "headline" in the future. Zion/luka seem the likeliest, luka's doing stuff unorecedented at his age (although you wonder how much better hes gonna get from here on out) and zion was also historically good at his age when he played, and hes the furthest away from his ceiling among all young guys right now (but obvious health concerns and you wonder if hes gonna ever develop that top tier iq most greats need)

i dont think any prospects from 2020-2024 have that level of hype, maybe except cade but i feel the upside isnt as much as the floor is really high

I do think sometimes were sleeping on trae, his impact might not match his box numbers (although its worth noting the hawks with trae on last year were offensively better than youd expect, at 112.4, theybjust went sub 100 with him off, might be a lineup thing but who knows)

But i mean the mans averaged 30-9 in season 2. The questions for him are if he can cut down the turnovers and increase that three point percentage a bit, but trae does have a path to being the best offensive player in the league at some point, maybe even sooner than anyone expected

Its kinda dumb to say but it also feels trae has that IT factor at times, idk how to explain it

[Heej]

Anyone else feel like Lukas been more of a ballhog this season? I know his usage rate has always been crazy high, but this seems like the first time watching him that he doesn't really care to sense whether his teammates are out of rhythm from lack of touches.

[MyUniBroDavis]

Hot take

Pelicans if they keep ingram/zo/zion will be better than the nuggets and the mavs in three years

[eminence]

Some defensive work to do for sure, but the New Orleans young trio is looking solid so far this season. Surrounding pieces decent too.

[Heej]

Am I crazy to think Zion could potentially be the best scorer of his generation? He's getting such simplistic buckets from little muddy points during the flow of a game it just seems infinitely sustainable to me as long as he stays healthy

[MisterHibachi]

Am I crazy to think Zion could potentially be the best scorer of his generation? He's getting such simplistic buckets from little muddy points during the flow of a game it just seems infinitely sustainable to me as long as he stays healthy

Only if he can supplement that with some go to moves. Garbage man type buckets don't translate as well to the playoffs. He's unstoppable in scramble situations right now, but not yet against set defenses.

[MyUniBroDavis]

Some defensive work to do for sure, but the New Orleans young trio is looking solid so far this season. Surrounding pieces decent too.

Ingrams looking really nice and better defensively, lonzos looking more confident

Zions interesting because his passing is looking alot better even though he commits to his drive more still, you can tell theyre progressing to putting him in a more on ball role and his still figuring it out, but hes gone against 2 of the three best defensive coaches in the league and did pretty well twice

That rookie on the heat looks nice tho, defended him better than bam for a minute lol

[MO12msu]

Man I wish Giannis would work on developing his post game. Was listening to the Lowe Post earlier and Lowe admitted that he got enticed at the idea of Giannis being a 3 point shooter but ignored the fact that teams will always give him that shot.

I think having a go to move in the post and working on passing out of double teams instead of the full speed ahead all the time approach would unlock the bucks to their full potential. Unfortunately after watching Giannis these first few games of the season, he still looks so out of control in the post and is focused on getting 3s up.

[MyUniBroDavis]

Am I crazy to think Zion could potentially be the best scorer of his generation? He's getting such simplistic buckets from little muddy points during the flow of a game it just seems infinitely sustainable to me as long as he stays healthy

Its mixed, theres an element of he doesnt seen aggressive enough even though he had 18 shots and 15 free throws

You can tell theyre putting uim in a more perimeter in ball role now, which is fine, but its been awhile since hes done it so im expecting alot of rust (he did it a bit at duke and did great). You can kind if see him figuring it out as he goes

Defensively hes iq is catching up but you can tell hes going for gambles he tried in college th at wont work (when he committed everything to go for the steal on dragic when they were hard recovering in the p and r was bad lol) but you get a sense that theres alot of potential defensively for him to be the switchy roamer type, and his iq isnt bad more so his maturity

Offensively its just his touch man, like its insane how he can finish in the paint. Like with zion he can fit in gaps better than anyone because of his freak athleticism, 280 frame + being a condensed shaq, and he can finish in a packed paint better than anyone already, its only he gets stuffed sometimes and other times he'll drive in and he can still get walled off if he doesnt get low enough or try to use hus leverage to go through without charging

But you see the more experienced guys driving in dont get walled off like zion does and thats because zions lacking in experience even compared to the guys of his age, he didnt really face any competition till Duke, and hisbhighschool competition was REALLY bad, so hes played maybe 40-50 competetive games (not counting AAU or Team USA stuff), hes basically less experienced than lamelo lol, outside of those few nba games last year he dominated

Im really encouraged by his passing, he still has a problem of overcomitting on drives (i mean hes 20 lol) but his vision when he does pass has been really good at times

Hes the furthest from his potential out of prolly all the prospects right now, hes been great and he'll prolly hit 25-10 on 60% shooting this year as a 1B option, but once he gets a more passable jumper, gets better at leveraging his body and getting lower on drives, like not relying only on his athleticism but using angles more than he does now, its gonna be insane

I mean he went against the raptors who are the best coched team in the league by a country mile that doubled zion on the catch at times and he still got hisnbuckets, then he went against iggy, bam and that rookie that for some reason defended him better than bam and played kinda like crap and hit 32 on 11/20

I think the best way ti put it is, im absurdly high in THT, i think he can be a near all star calubre guy in his peak based off akillset altho obv its preseason and skme other clips here and there so it might be homerisn, but obv right now hes barely in the rotation. I think zions prolly further from his peak than THT is, and hes coming off a year when pre bubble post minutes restriction he scored at a rate similar to first mvp giannis


I do think hes gonna struggle in the playoffs if he makes it this year though, at least if they face a smart team. Zion having a post game along with his insane jump in and yeet everyone game is gonna make him more reselient than alot of other guys though

[MyUniBroDavis]

I have a feeling the nets are gonna get blown out today

This isnt me sayinf the nets sucj because i think theyre a top 2 team in the east (them and bucks) but idk lol i feel aft the last game they just gotta chill

[MyUniBroDavis]

Inrealize i spam whenever zion does something but one random thought

Zions standing reach based off his max vert jn the duke testing (or what it looked like, based on him clearing the vertec by his full finger ish), given his measured vert is 8ft5, which is an two inches higher than kyrie

His max reach then is (conservatively) 12ft2 which is 5 inches lower than dwight

Man I miss duke zion lol foh with this bootleg discount pelicans one XD

[eminence]

Warriors played 12 guys in the first half, need to shorten the rotation up a bit. And run more Wiseman/Curry PnR.

[ShotCreator]

Oubre is just terrible. No substance to his game outside decent finishing a tendency to make bad jumpers.

No wonder Phoenix was better without him.

Looney is still good in this Tim Duncan way. But most of the team is bad.

Kerr’s rotations are questionable if they don’t include Wanamaker.

Warriors won’t even look like a decent team. There’s no hope for it.

If Draymond comes back in prime mode they’ll be a .500 team. That’s it.

[MyUniBroDavis]

Oubre is just terrible. No substance to his game outside decent finishing a tendency to make bad jumpers.

No wonder Phoenix was better without him.

Looney is still good in this Tim Duncan way. But most of the team is bad.

Kerr’s rotations are questionable if they don’t include Wanamaker.

Warriors won’t even look like a decent team. There’s no hope for it.

If Draymond comes back in prime mode they’ll be a .500 team. That’s it.

Ive heard kerrs offense sets have been questionable for awhile now

The curry and dray p and r would help alot, gives them a short roll llaymaker but you almost feeling giving some of these guys open shots doesnt matter lol

[Heej]

When I think about Steph and the Warriors system the one idea that keeps coming back to my mind is 'feedback loops'. Kerr is damn near spiritually committed to playing this system because of his and, to a lesser extent, Currys basketball ethos. With good players in their motion system the openings that Curry creates gets pried open even wider by better players and it can feed into a lot of those wide open spot ups and slips the Warriors have long been known for. When you plug in worse players, the openings simply get completely shut off or at best remain the same level of 'advantage created', and this in turn doesn't lead to the same feedback loop that sustains Curry and the Warriors. I think this is also why the offense can also get bogged down in the playoffs. Make of it what you will, but these are my observations

[eminence]

Didn't think I was super high on Oubre/Wiggins (thinking of them as serviceable 5th-7th man sorts), but oof, they've been rough the first two games.

[RCM88x]

Oubre and Wiggins are both trash, chuckers and don't play defense.

They desperately need a guy who isn't just gonna stand around and shot jumpers, one of them had to actually do something on the court.

[limbo]

Ok, i've seen enough. The Nets are coming out of the East this season.

edit: I'm just kidding. They'll probably get beat by a better coached more cohesive team like Miami or Boston, or Kyrie will get injured or something...

[GSP]

Prolly too early to call but Steph doesnt look the same physically. Those quick shift and jerky movements in his game arent the same. Its much easier for defenders to stay glued to him. He has to really purely on his handle/dribble much more to get separation now