parsnips33 wrote:Beyond that, I just don't think individual player comparison is the best framework for understanding the sport. It's like using particle physics to try to explain a player's shooting percentage versus like their shooting form. Just because something can be broken down into smaller and smaller constituent parts, doesn't mean we actually gain anything by doing so
I mean, there's value to looking at their individual ability, it's just that some abilities are over-favored and some are less appreciated. It's much harder to evaluate and credit defense which doesn't turn into a lot of obvious box score stats, for example. You CAN link it to stuff like persistent defensive success over the years, even as Klay has declined and without rolling with a major center much of the time, of course. But it's not like he kills it in terms of deflections or charges taken and stuff, though he contests a reasonable number of shots for a forward. It requires more effort to parse.
But ultimately, you can see it in the argument from some, which focus entirely on scoring and ignores the other salient elements of the game.
Gooner wrote:You haven't acknowledged it. Reading what you wrote alone could lead to an assumption that he is some kind of one dimensional iso scorer with a limited scoring skill set.
You can't have seriously read what I wrote and think that. I specifically mentioned his ability to score in isolation and the post. Now you're just wasting time, man. I didn't say what you wanted me to have said.
We've seen Siakam in two teams so far and he has been one of the key players in both. Won championship in Toronto and now in the finals with Indiana. His play has always been very realiable and consistent with big impact on winning. With Green we've only seen him in a specific context as a role player in a team built around Curry.
Yes, he's a good player. He's also generally been a league-average efficiency scorer as a 20+ ppg guy without Haliburton, apart from the portion of the trade season before he was moved to Indiana. His proportion of assisted baskets is very high; he relies on it to create efficiency more so than a real anchor would.
I disagree. Warriors could benefit a lot from having another scoring threat on the team to help Curry, and someone who can replace Draymond as a passer at the same time.
He cannot replace Draymond, neither as a passer nor as a defender. And they have Butler. They need to be healthy. Now, if they added Siakam ON TOP of that situation, that'd be something else to ponder, but that's not the same thing.
It can never be individual in a team sport. But an individual can have a tremendous impact, you agree on that right? Like when Gasol was traded to the Lakers and made them a contender. Siakam trade impact is similar.
Hmm. Not in the RS. They were on 46-win pace without him, 48 with him. They were the 19th-ranked offense the year before him and made a HUGE overall jump in 2024, even before the trade. One thing was Haliburton playing more than 56 games. Another was Turner playing 15 more games. Mathurin started hitting 3s at a much better clip. They got Hield out of the starting lineup and then traded him to Philly. They acquired Obi Toppin, and in the process of acquiring Siakam, they got Bruce Brown out of the starting lineup, replaced with Nembhard.
They were coming up to begin with and they weren't really winning a ton more with him than they had been before, though obviously Haliburton's injury did affect that.
Obviously, Siakam was quite helpful. They got an AS for fairly little and that's a big deal.
Talking about intentionally disingenuous statements, this is the one. They have more similarities than being two men with arms and legs. They are two basketball players that play same position, that are known for their versatility, two-way play and impact on winning. Obviously they have their differences and that's what we are talking about here. They do approach the game with different arrangements of skill because one is significantly more skilled than the other. Siakam is both defense and offense - focused because he is capable of that, unlike Green.
They approach the game with SIGNIFICANT differences. Calling them similar is ridiculous. Siakam is nowhere near Draymond as a defender. No one sane has ever confused him for a DPOY-level player. And he's considerably less skillful as a passer as well. Those together are fairly analogous to the large difference in scoring ability which favors Siakam.
