Threekola wrote:SensiBull wrote:Threekola wrote:
Well from a basketball perspective he can create his own shot, get to the rim and finish, and hit 3s at a high rate. Who can we get that has that skill set?
The question is pre-mature, couched in subjective terms and ignores the entire supply-and-demand argument I've laid out.
1. The question, particularly the use of the expression "go out and get" presumes that there is no one on the current roster who can ALREADY do what LaVine does. Yet, in the very post you're disputing, I already named slashers who can create their own shot and get to the rim, including Dunn, Kilpatrick, Jerian Grant and Nwaba, for much less money.
You kind of just breezed past that.
2. You conveniently use the expression "hit 3's at a high rate" rather than actually naming that numeric rate. That "high" rate that you refer to is 34%. I've already pointed out that that's the 9th highest on the team. So, what other than slashing and 34% shooting are we paying for?
http://www.espn.com/nba/team/stats/_/name/chi/cat/threePointFieldGoalPct
3. There is no need to obfuscate this with a myriad of unprovable hypothetical trade scenarios. I'm not taking that bait.
Sean Kilpatrick.
The problem with naming a bunch of guys who can do one thing LaVine can do is you can only play 5 guys at once. None of those guys can shoot, create their own shot, and finish at the rim. Dunn is the only guy who can be a good NBA player, but he plays another position, and can’t shoot. By the way, I think we should keep Dunn too.
And LaVine is a career 37% shooter. I don’t see any reason to think moving forward that last years numbers are some kind of high water mark. He was obviously forcing it last year.
And Kilpatrick is not a good NBA player. Any argument that you don’t need a guy like LaVine because you can get Kilpatrick leads you to nowhere but being horrible. I’m not making serious arguments based on 9 game sample sizes.
There goes that subjectivity.
"Sean Kilpatrick is not a good NBA player."
This reminds me of that scene in Austin Powers, when he takes his son to the therapist, and the son, Scott, says:
"I don't know. I was thinking I might become a vet."
And Dr. Evil asks:
"An EVIL vet?"
"No. I was thinking maybe I could open a petting zoo?"
"An EVIL petting zoo?"
Your entire prism, your whole paradigm is designed around floating names of players on other teams that you can get excited about, based on what kind of 'buzz' they've created for themselves. You still just want to float names as trade bait.
That's the endless game many come here to play.
Meanwhile, Boston and Golden State run the league.
A. Even championship contenders, so-called 'super-teams', are based on players coming in who have more talent than is required, but, confining their actual play to a lesser, more specific role, not on their ability to 'do it all.' You're putting a financial premium on that which the rest of the league is not paying.
Kevin Love, Chris Bosh, Kevin Garnett, and to a less noticeable degree, even Kevin Durant.
Players of a much higher caliber than Zach LaVine are taking pay cuts and confining their use of their wide arrays of skills to more specific roles, and here we are talking about paying money to Zach LaVine because he MIGHT be able to get BACK to 37% shooting, and because he is coming off of an injury.
That's backwards.
B. Teams are digging deeper into their own rosters to find specialist talent, rather than splashing cash around the league for 'do-it-all' types of players.
I mean think about this: Nobody laughed when Marcus Morris said that he was going to cover LeBron James during the playoffs. Marcus Morris!
Marcus Morris??????
Yes. Marcus Morris.
C. No one would have been excited if the Bulls had traded Lauri Markkanen on draft day for Donovan Mitchell or Kyle Kuzma, and don't understimate the role that former Bulls like Jimmy Butler, Nikola Mirotic, Taj Gibson
This whole 'give-me-a-name-and-I'll-try-to-imagine-it-lights-and-tell-you-how-I-go' paradigm is SO last millenium.
The false need to embody all of these skills into one single physical player is an obstacle that today's NBA doesn't see, except a certain type of Bulls fan.
D. That doesn't mean you don't do good trades. There are players out there who just aren't feeling with their current teams who, with the right package, could probably be had.
There is young talent in OKC, and I could see players on that team having doubts about their ability to get anywhere in the playoffs in the West. Minnesota, Portland, Washington.
There are teams around the traps with really talented players who just haven't bought into their respective systems, or don't have the right chemistry with their current teams, but, we shouldn't have to open up that whole can of worms to admit that the fact that Zach Lavine can 'PROBABLY' return to 37% shooting means that you pay him a big contract.
As for his injury, which I never mentioned by the way, those are the kinds of things that make teams pay LESS money in contract negotiations for an Isaiah Thomas, a DeMarcus Cousins or a Michael Porter, Jr., not more.
You don't shell out sympathy money for that.
