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Around the NBA 2019-20

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Re: Around the NBA 2019-20 

Post#861 » by SunsLyf3 » Thu Aug 6, 2020 7:24 pm

Bogdan is killing the Pelicans today. Arguably the biggest mistake made by McD, IMO. Still mad about the trade.
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Re: Around the NBA 2019-20 

Post#862 » by sunsbg » Fri Aug 7, 2020 7:46 pm

Clippers vs Mavs will be very entertaining series (almost guaranteed first round match-up).

Last night's game was not the usual walk in the park for Luka, no video game numbers. He had to work hard for all his points, which is obviously much more entertaining than watching him do layups and shoot FTs all game.

Wish more teams played good defense like Clippers and Heat and the Suns were one of those teams.
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Re: Around the NBA 2019-20 

Post#863 » by Revived » Sun Aug 9, 2020 4:25 am

36 pts, 19 assists, 14 rebounds and just 2 turnovers against the team with the best record in the league.

I really do want to not think about it but jesus christ man.
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Re: Around the NBA 2019-20 

Post#864 » by SunsRback4Good » Sun Aug 9, 2020 4:46 am

Revived wrote:36 pts, 19 assists, 14 rebounds and just 2 turnovers against the team with the best record in the league.

I really do want to not think about it but jesus christ man.


He's truly generational player that comes around once a decade. Also had 34/10/12 against the Kings few games ago. Kinda feels like Mavs drafted Jordan and we drafted Hakeem which isn't too bad at all. Both players will excell at the highest level, Doncic is just a monster from the start while Ayton has to grind and work a bit harder but overall he will be special.
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Re: Around the NBA 2019-20 

Post#865 » by DirtyDez » Sun Aug 9, 2020 5:17 am

I don’t think anyone wants San Antonio in the play-in. Not even Spurs fans.
fromthetop321 wrote:I got Lebron number 1, he is also leading defensive player of the year. Curry's game still reminds me of Jeremy Lin to much.
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Re: Around the NBA 2019-20 

Post#866 » by bwgood77 » Sun Aug 9, 2020 5:32 am

Revived wrote:36 pts, 19 assists, 14 rebounds and just 2 turnovers against the team with the best record in the league.

I really do want to not think about it but jesus christ man.


It really is amazing that anyone can put up that stat line ever, much less a 21 year old. And of course he's been having games somewhat similar to that on occasion.

He's definitely the highest iq player for his age ever. I mean we've probably known that since he was like 13 or whatever, but it's pretty amazing to see the #s he puts up already.
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Re: Around the NBA 2019-20 

Post#867 » by SunsRback4Good » Sun Aug 9, 2020 6:16 am

bwgood77 wrote:
Revived wrote:36 pts, 19 assists, 14 rebounds and just 2 turnovers against the team with the best record in the league.

I really do want to not think about it but jesus christ man.


It really is amazing that anyone can put up that stat line ever, much less a 21 year old. And of course he's been having games somewhat similar to that on occasion.

He's definitely the highest iq player for his age ever. I mean we've probably known that since he was like 13 or whatever, but it's pretty amazing to see the #s he puts up already.


How come more European players don't turn out like Doncic has? I mean there was Dirk but he wasn't a all-star/superstar caliber player until his fourth season. Has there ever been an Euro player that had such an impact from the start like Luka?
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Re: Around the NBA 2019-20 

Post#868 » by sunsbg » Sun Aug 9, 2020 6:22 am

bwgood77 wrote:
Revived wrote:36 pts, 19 assists, 14 rebounds and just 2 turnovers against the team with the best record in the league.

I really do want to not think about it but jesus christ man.


It really is amazing that anyone can put up that stat line ever, much less a 21 year old. And of course he's been having games somewhat similar to that on occasion.

He's definitely the highest iq player for his age ever. I mean we've probably known that since he was like 13 or whatever, but it's pretty amazing to see the #s he puts up already.


At 17 he didn't look all that great though. He was 7-8 pick in mocks. Our own Dragan was considered a high IQ player and we know how that ended.

Luka had a huge leap in development his last year(regressed a bit later) in RM helped by his early start in development. Then his skill-set and mentality turned out to be a great fit in NBA as well.
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Re: Around the NBA 2019-20 

Post#869 » by bwgood77 » Sun Aug 9, 2020 8:19 am

He's been followed as a superstar since he was an early teenager. It was fairly obvious he was a generational superstar from an early age. There were people here talking about him early. I remember jcsunsfan saying he'd take Doncic over Booker a year or two before he was going to be drafted and carey saying "thats a bold statement" or something along those lines. Funny thing is jcsunsfan later started arguing for Bagley.

But yes, a lot of people were against drafting a "Euro". Asking how more "Euro's" don't end up like Luka is odd. No one ever has been more talked about from Europe. He was talked about from an early age like LeBron was, though probably earlier. And he was playing against pros while he was hs age...when a guy like LeBron was in hs.

I see a lot of complaints about Ayton. Ayton has been better than I expected, improving a great deal on defense and was surprised he added a 3 that he hit consistently upon return. Sure, I wanted Luka,but that boat sailed a long time ago. No real reason to still defend the pick or bash Doncic...or say he was not a high ranked prospect and made a huge leap to excuse things. McD made terrible picks pretty much every year when we had high picks. Ayton is actually one who at least isn't a bust and was better than a lot of other choices he could have made. I had him 2nd despite knowing his tendencies.
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Re: Around the NBA 2019-20 

Post#870 » by sunsbg » Sun Aug 9, 2020 9:13 am

FWIW even Doncic said Ayton is a favorite for ROY. I think even he didn't know how good he'll be in this league. It's easier to project a US-style player's game in the league like in LeBron's case. Luka didn't get the same talk in Europe at age 15, no way, and competition is obviously weaker. Great players can also exceed expectations especially at such young age. Hard work pays off. I'm sure DA knows that.
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Re: Around the NBA 2019-20 

Post#871 » by bigfoot » Sun Aug 9, 2020 7:18 pm

Revived wrote:36 pts, 19 assists, 14 rebounds and just 2 turnovers against the team with the best record in the league.

I really do want to not think about it but jesus christ man.


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Re: Around the NBA 2019-20 

Post#872 » by bwgood77 » Sun Aug 9, 2020 8:27 pm

Yeah, Luka was talked about at 15 in Europe...already playing for Madrid teams. He was even being talked about on the forums. viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1369376

I think to many his will to win and competitiveness was obvious early on. Many drooled for Ayton because of his size, but for those of us who watched him in college, we knew he didn't usually have that fire or fight hard for his team to win and his defense was awful. You could see super skill on occasion but the fact that he was not always dialed in was worrisome. Strange thing is there were people who watched him who blamed everyone but him for this (his coach, his teammates, the guards being bad defenders, playing with another C, out of position, etc).

I always liked the thought of what Ayton could become IF he was dialed in and played with passion all the time, I just was pretty worried it would never happen...and I was worried his help defense would never come because he was overthinking things.

But I have been very happily surprised at how far Ayton came defensively this year. I didn't think it was possible for it to happen that quickly. There are games where he goes back to what he was like last year or at AZ sometimes like last night which are frustrating, and you wish he always had the passion..you'd think he'd have it when we have won 5 in a row and fighting for the playoffs....however, I think part of it is a coach like Spoelstra throws everything at him and he may get a little overwhelmed and go back to his overthinking things...hopefully natural instincts take over more.

It's amazing the range of people's thoughts on Ayton though. You have a lot of people thinking he sucks defensively and others saying he could be DPOY. Heck, you had one guy say with a 3 ball he is the best player in the league, better than Giannis.

It's amazing year after year here people argue about how good/bad our prospects are.....but after Bender, Chriss, Jackson, etc, it's at least nice to have guys who are at least overall solid players in Bridges, Ayton and Cam.

I can't imagine how Mavs fans feel or how we would though if we had a 2nd year player putting up stat lines like Luka did last night and a few games ago. Seems kind of surreal. As much as I say I think it was pretty obvious to many he would be special, I'm certainly not saying anyone expected him to be putting up these kinds of numbers. How could anyone have expectations THAT high?
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Re: Around the NBA 2019-20 

Post#873 » by Revived » Sun Aug 9, 2020 8:39 pm

bwgood77 wrote:He's been followed as a superstar since he was an early teenager. It was fairly obvious he was a generational superstar from an early age. There were people here talking about him early. I remember jcsunsfan saying he'd take Doncic over Booker a year or two before he was going to be drafted and carey saying "thats a bold statement" or something along those lines. Funny thing is jcsunsfan later started arguing for Bagley.

But yes, a lot of people were against drafting a "Euro". Asking how more "Euro's" don't end up like Luka is odd. No one ever has been more talked about from Europe. He was talked about from an early age like LeBron was, though probably earlier. And he was playing against pros while he was hs age...when a guy like LeBron was in hs.

I see a lot of complaints about Ayton. Ayton has been better than I expected, improving a great deal on defense and was surprised he added a 3 that he hit consistently upon return. Sure, I wanted Luka,but that boat sailed a long time ago. No real reason to still defend the pick or bash Doncic...or say he was not a high ranked prospect and made a huge leap to excuse things. McD made terrible picks pretty much every year when we had high picks. Ayton is actually one who at least isn't a bust and was better than a lot of other choices he could have made. I had him 2nd despite knowing his tendencies.

Yeah Luka was a rare Euro prospect that seemed NBA ready from a young age. I remember reading before the draft that there were scouts who said the worst case scenario for him would be to end up being a 6’8 version of Manu Ginobili and the best case scenario was basically sky high.

We probably won’t see another Euro prospect like Luka in our lifetimes because again, it’s extremely rare for kids in Europe to be looking NBA ready and making grown men look foolish game after game like he was doing.
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Re: Around the NBA 2019-20 

Post#874 » by sunsbg » Sun Aug 9, 2020 8:53 pm

Nice thread about early-Luka. Just for the record I didn't say nobody talked about him, but certainly not as the next NBA superstar like Lebron. I had a quick look at some comments. One of them mentions Dario :

"Saric put something like 18 ppg, 10rpg and 3,4 apg with 51% FG% as a 17 years old in a u-19 WC and was in the tournament all star team.
He led Croatia to win against the USA and was the key man getting 17/8/2. Against Lithuania when he was matched up with Jonas he put up 22/13/4.
That is how dominant he was as a kid,and now Saric, even though is considered an elite Euroleague PF at the age of 21, is probably going to end up as an average PF in the NBA.
Dominating youth tournaments doesnt mean so much in terms of NBA potential, we just have to wait and see how he turns up in the next few years. Saric for example even at 21 is still kind of a mystery.I'll read thru the thread out of interest."

At 15 it's really hard to predict an average at best euro kid as the next NBA superstar. IMO also hard to argue someone who trained for a Euro-championship and role increased from role player to an MVP for his club in the span of a year didn't make a big leap in development.
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Re: Around the NBA 2019-20 

Post#875 » by bwgood77 » Sun Aug 9, 2020 9:07 pm

sunsbg wrote:Nice thread about early-Luka. Just for the record I didn't say nobody talked about him, but certainly not as the next NBA superstar like Lebron. I had a quick look at some comments. One of them mentions Dario :

"Saric put something like 18 ppg, 10rpg and 3,4 apg with 51% FG% as a 17 years old in a u-19 WC and was in the tournament all star team.
He led Croatia to win against the USA and was the key man getting 17/8/2. Against Lithuania when he was matched up with Jonas he put up 22/13/4.
That is how dominant he was as a kid,and now Saric, even though is considered an elite Euroleague PF at the age of 21, is probably going to end up as an average PF in the NBA.
Dominating youth tournaments doesnt mean so much in terms of NBA potential, we just have to wait and see how he turns up in the next few years. Saric for example even at 21 is still kind of a mystery.I'll read thru the thread out of interest."

At 15 it's really hard to predict an average at best euro kid as the next NBA superstar. IMO also hard to argue someone who trained for a Euro-championship and role increased from role player to an MVP for his club in the span of a year didn't make a big leap in development.


That was just a quick search of an early thread on him...I did notice people saying he had the smarts and not athleticism at 15, or had everything you'd want as far as skills, iq and stuff go.

That was just one thread though. They were all over the place for years...people talking about him. There was mention of other euro prospects, usually when they were a little older....I just remember a lot about Luka and then hearing his age and I kept thinking "wow this guy must be impressive......he is basically high school freshman age" and stuff. I had never seen people talk about people at that age THAT much except maybe LeBron, or maybe now LeBron Jr.

I think between the sky high bbiq and then later the level of fire, will to win he had...to me, that combination seemed like can't lose, and even if he people could knock the athleticism, as I watched I felt he was deceptively athletic with his misdirection, and used his iq to just confuse defenders to where he was hard to guard..plus his size, and height really help him see over defenses as well, and allow him to be a good rebounder as well. Then you always saw his knack for crazy shots...half court shots and stuff...his %s decreased late due to the defensive focus he received, so I remember him getting knocked for that as well.
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Re: Around the NBA 2019-20 

Post#876 » by schnakenpopanz » Sun Aug 9, 2020 9:16 pm

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/29629411/hall-famer-paul-westphal-diagnosed-brain-cancer
former suns HC diagnosed with brain cancer. really hope the best for him. sad very sad news to hear.
free steve nash!
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Re: Around the NBA 2019-20 

Post#877 » by WeekapaugGroove » Sun Aug 9, 2020 9:48 pm

Read on Twitter


I get this sense watching the Pels too, they don't seem to like playing together and they really don't play hard on D. Funny how everyone loved that roster in the off-season. Shows you really can't tell how a group will perform until they actually play together. Curious to see if they make any major moves.

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Re: Around the NBA 2019-20 

Post#878 » by bwgood77 » Sun Aug 9, 2020 9:56 pm

schnakenpopanz wrote:https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/29629411/hall-famer-paul-westphal-diagnosed-brain-cancer
former suns HC diagnosed with brain cancer. really hope the best for him. sad very sad news to hear.


That sucks. Not just a former Suns HC, but one of the better Suns players in their history.
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Re: Around the NBA 2019-20 

Post#879 » by bwgood77 » Sun Aug 9, 2020 10:00 pm

WeekapaugGroove wrote:
Read on Twitter


I get this sense watching the Pels too, they don't seem to like playing together and they really don't play hard on D. Funny how everyone loved that roster in the off-season. Shows you really can't tell how a group will perform until they actually play together. Curious to see if they make any major moves.

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It's weird though....the Suns and Pelicans have 1 difference in win. People feel the Suns are overachieving or at least playing really well and the Pelicans the opposite this season. Now of course Ayton missed all that time, but Zion missed a lot more.

It will be interesting to see where they go from here though and what they end up with in the draft...then there is talk about going after Kidd or Lue.
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Re: Around the NBA 2019-20 

Post#880 » by Saberestar » Sun Aug 9, 2020 10:13 pm

WeekapaugGroove wrote:
Read on Twitter


I get this sense watching the Pels too, they don't seem to like playing together and they really don't play hard on D. Funny how everyone loved that roster in the off-season. Shows you really can't tell how a group will perform until they actually play together. Curious to see if they make any major moves.

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One of the keys of their overall bad play is this guy...
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