Official Game Thread #20: Nets @ Cavs

[Shark]

Would be nice if that other dude they drafted with the #4 pick(?) started playing good to help them out. He's no Lebron, but not a bad player to replace him with. Now you wanna talk court vision, Rubio is looking like Kidd out there at times.

Thompson. They might have reached a bit with that pick.

[Shameer1016]

Would be nice if that other dude they drafted with the #4 pick(?) started playing good to help them out. He's no Lebron, but not a bad player to replace him with. Now you wanna talk court vision, Rubio is looking like Kidd out there at times.

Thompson. They might have reached a bit with that pick.

College numbers weren't very impressive to justify the pick, but he's only 20 and the Cav's might have seen potential in him to make a project out of him. You never know how good/bad he might turn out.

[NyCeEvO]

Would be nice if that other dude they drafted with the #4 pick(?) started playing good to help them out. He's no Lebron, but not a bad player to replace him with. Now you wanna talk court vision, Rubio is looking like Kidd out there at times.

Thompson. They might have reached a bit with that pick.

Might have? No, they definitely did.

[vincecarter4pres]

Would be nice if that other dude they drafted with the #4 pick(?) started playing good to help them out. He's no Lebron, but not a bad player to replace him with. Now you wanna talk court vision, Rubio is looking like Kidd out there at times.

Thompson. They might have reached a bit with that pick.

Might have? No, they definitely did.

We'll see.

He's raw, but he's an upside pick in what was a weak lottery.

I actually thought they were better off going with Kawhi Leonard or Burks or even Klay Thompson there if they wanted to reach, or really Jonas Valancinius(spelling?) but he has potential.

Could be like Kenyon Martin.

But that's a reason I don't like that pick too much in hindsight, cause even if he pans out it means your defensive guy is your power forward and you then need to have your center as a serious low post threat which is so rare in this league.

[624]

Nets and Knicks both have 7 wins.

[Jersey Generals]

Sorry about not starting a game thread, I didn't do it earlier because I figured I'd be home in enough time to do it, but no such luck.

If the Cavs wanted Tristan Thompson so badly, they should have traded back a bit, even if the only asset they get in return is a future second rounder, it's still better than reaching. Say you trade for the 6th pick from the Washington Wizards, Tristan would have still been there, and if he wasn't, then you get Bismack Biyombo.

[deepblueday]

hump has really been beasting lately. more solid on those js, finishing well under the hoop, and his rebounding has been huge in the last two wins.

[NyCeEvO]

K-Mart was an absolute monster for Cincinnati and he always had that tenacity. He was the #1 overall pick for a reason.

Thompson is emotional in bad way and deals with weight and conditioning issues. Almost everyone was surprised that he went so early.

And that's the problem. Too many teams are ranking raw potential over pure skill.

The problem that often occurs when evaluating talent coming out of the NCAA is that you'll have guys that put up pretty good stats on a monster team and everyone expects them to do well in the NBA. However, that player all of a sudden enters a situation that they've almost never been in before: being THE focal point of a bad team and playing against (not AAU, not NCAA, but) NBA talent.

Usually the top 3 picks are too talented to remain undeveloped and become busts, but after that the talent level decrease markedly.

Sadly, I see more and more scouts being more enamored with age than actual talent. Heck, that was the reason MarShon fell, because he wasn't 19 and raw yet with tons of potential. Look at how many dudes came out of HS or took a short stint in college and did not refine their game and now they're that guy who had potential but never tapped into it.

I can almost guarantee that Jeremy Tyler's decision to drop out of HS to make money overseas before going to the NBA will haunt him for a long time. He should've turned that potential into talent by spending a few years in college. Maybe he gets a shot and becomes a decent 12/8 PF, but I can almost guarantee he won't be monster because he's mentally immature and doesn't have the work ethic to be great. That's what players should be going to college to work on.

While one side of me feels that 18 years old should have the ability to make money as a player since they're technically an adult, the other side says all of them should be forced to go to college for at least 2 years to actually grow up more and spend time refining their games.

I guarantee if MarShon declared after his freshman year and some team picked him he either a) would never see the playing time to prove himself because the NBA is a win-now league b) or he would never become as developed as he is now, because he had 4 years to grow and he got better every single year.

Message for the day: College kids and athletes should stay in school. It helps the NBA weed out the good from the bad and stops the scouts from sniffing that miracle drug that tells them, this player is a potential superstar.

Just look at Kwame Brown...smh. What a waste of a 1st overall pick and solely based on potential.

/rant

[JoseRizal]

Missed the game, but I'm glad we won! Deron's in beast mode...

[Ronito]

Tristan Thompson was a reach? Hard to reach in a **** fest of a draft, and he's not even playing poorly like others (read: Jimmer) - he's just not getting PT for whatever reason. And when you're drafting that high, it's understandable to take someone raw if you like them. Front offices don't care if they reach on someone, if they REALLY like the guy and think someone else will take him a few spots later (which is where Thompson would have gone), it's worth it.

If you want to talk about a reach, bring up Jimmer. Many people actually liked MarShon Brooks and thought he was better than Jimmer as a NBA prospect, but when you get as much attention as Jimmer you're bound to get drafted early.

[treiz]

Did we just win back-to-back and have the same the same record as the Knicks?

It's that blue headband I tell you, his crossover is just nasty. Force if you're reading this, come back ASAP so you can make some blue headband sigs!

Would also like to clarify I'm 4-0 in games I've watched

[vincecarter4pres]

Wait, when did we start this little run of good play? Was it right after you did a name change?

Could be on to something...

[NyCeEvO]

Tristan Thompson was a reach? Hard to reach in a **** fest of a draft, and he's not even playing poorly like others (read: Jimmer) - he's just not getting PT for whatever reason. And when you're drafting that high, it's understandable to take someone raw if you like them. Front offices don't care if they reach on someone, if they REALLY like the guy and think someone else will take him a few spots later (which is where Thompson would have gone), it's worth it.

If you want to talk about a reach, bring up Jimmer. Many people actually liked MarShon Brooks and thought he was better than Jimmer as a NBA prospect, but when you get as much attention as Jimmer you're bound to get drafted early.

OK, maybe he wasn't as much of a reach as I portrayed him to be but I'm pretty sure that everyone was surprised that the Cavs picked Tristan rather than a few other guys.

I remember Jay Bilas and other guys were kinda surprised that the Cavs went with him with the 4th overall pick. They could've easily traded down to get him, even if it was a few spots. I could understand if the guy had a super-athletic frame like KG or muscular athletic frame like Favors. I just don't see him panning out to be anything great. At best, I could see him being a 3rd option on a championship team.

Also, Byron Scott is all about winning. Even if he has rookies on his team, he always feels the need to put the best talent out on the floor and let the rookies earn their shot. Despite Kyrie doing great offensively, Scott ripped into him for not playing defense first. He said that he know that the kid is only 19, but that's not Scott's problem. He's the first overall pick and he needs to be treated like a star.

[jeff1624]

Did we just win back-to-back and have the same the same record as the Knicks?

It's that blue headband I tell you, his crossover is just nasty. Force if you're reading this, come back ASAP so you can make some blue headband sigs!

Would also like to clarify I'm 4-0 in games I've watched

You've only watched 4 games this season? I think I might start doing the same. Maybe that way less things end up broken at my home.

[vincecarter4pres]