Landsberger wrote:Michael Lucky wrote:Landsberger wrote:
Oh... this again. There is no way to say that for certain. I'd wager that if we didn't rid ourselves of Mozgov we had other trades teed up as plans B, C etc. I'd also wager none of them had Kuzma as a priority with our late first round pick.
Obvious? Not at all. Overly simple evaluation of a dynamic situation. Yeah. One to diminish the fact that we got Kuzma to make it seem like we totally dumped Russell?... Yup. That too.
This is like saying that the Lakers drafted Kobe and then saying well.... we would have gotten him anyway if we hadn't traded Divac.
Ok this again.....it was pretty obvious. Stop making the situation more dynamic than it was simply because you were completely and totally on the get rid of Russell train. We can all make your argument and go forever backwards in history at any point in time and make a claim of plan a,b,c,d that would possibly lead to us not even having any of the players we currently have.
Again, what was obvious? If Kuzma was off the board do we not trade with the Nets? If he was and we did and we drafted Hart with that pick who did we get?
I don't get how anyone can say that a trade where we sent out Russell and Mozgov while getting back Lopez and Kuzma didn't add Kuzma to the team. Defies logic. To purposefully say that we added Hart is the revisionist blather.
As for my "get rid of Russell" bend... I think he has skill but he isn't a top 2 player on a contender sort. I think that will be shown over time. He's scoring better but that's on more opportunity no necessarily on progress. That said, he'd fit better here next to LeBron than Ingram at the 2 guard IMHO. Then again, we wouldn't have LeBron if we didn't trade him with Mozgov. I think we traded him to clear the way for Ball.
He's scoring better but that's on more opportunity no necessarily on progress.
He increased his shooting percentages everywhere on more volume. Also increased his AST% while keeping his turnover rate roughly the same. All of his other advanced stats increased as well, PER, BPM, VORP, WS, you name it really. Hell even his defensive stats increased as well and show he's at least average defensively(which is pretty shocking from where he was when he was on the Lakers). I'd say that's progress over opportunity.
I think he has skill but he isn't a top 2 player on a contender sort. I think that will be shown over time.
That may be true. He's got a lot of improvement to go to be a top 2 player on a contender. And he's going to get a big contract this offseason. The question is whether he'll put in the time and work or if he'll be content with getting paid and being on a fringe playoff team until his contract runs out. I'd be worried about the latter if I was the Nets. But they don't really have much of a choice, but to take the gamble and hope he turns into that type of player.
+ 
= 
