Around the NBA, 2020/21 Edition

[Ducklett]

Doesn't matter that we won all those games late.

We would have probably drafted Ayton if not Bamba even with a top 3 pick

LOL incredible. This is why Weham still have jobs.

[GelbeWand09]

These Dallas & Washington games will hunt us for the next decade (I know we played some g-leaque players but Dallas was just so much smarter that year. The 2nd half of season they let there starters begin the 1st quarter & the g-leaque players the last 3. Vuc, Gordon & Co played much longer each game, despite limited minutes & some rest nights). But watching ''Playoff P'' is almost as enjoyable as Luka

[pepe1991]

¸And just like that, buzzerbeater step back 3 for a win to tie playoff series, without second best player aveliable....

Zion- Luka comparison is like comparing Durant to Blake Griffin. Just because one can jump higher that doesn't make him better at playing basketball

I get what you're saying but why compare those two out of nowhere? 2nd year player to a rookie? I think a lot of people felt Luka could be this good.

I just can't see Zion as 1# option on contender. I also can't see him staying healthy while rolling around with 300 pounds.
He is interesting freak athlete and gifted player to watch, i highly doubt he will ever be top 5 basketball player in this league.

[basketballRob]

I kind of hope Lowry misses the same number of games Gordon has. He could've ended Gordon's career.

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[SOUL]

I just can't see Zion as 1# option on contender. I also can't see him staying healthy while rolling around with 300 pounds.
He is interesting freak athlete and gifted player to watch, i highly doubt he will ever be top 5 basketball player in this league.

He has a lot of incentive to get his body right though. A lot of pressure to be great with #1 pick.. not some chubby roleplayer like Big Baby.

He could be prolific scorer though. 22 points in 27 minutes is

Needs to improve defense but it all starts with his body. If he gets that right then he may be really hard to stop.

[pepe1991]

I just can't see Zion as 1# option on contender. I also can't see him staying healthy while rolling around with 300 pounds.
He is interesting freak athlete and gifted player to watch, i highly doubt he will ever be top 5 basketball player in this league.

He has a lot of incentive to get his body right though. A lot of pressure to be great with #1 pick.. not some chubby roleplayer like Big Baby.

He could be prolific scorer though. 22 points in 27 minutes is

Needs to improve defense but it all starts with his body. If he gets that right then he may be really hard to stop.

I'm really not sold on him nor Pelicans.

Team just run like maniacs, boost pace, shoot with 20 shots on the clock and inflate stats like no other team.

There is no other way how to explain how 23 ppg allstar wing, 19 ppg former allstar PG, 15 ppg starter, 22 ppg rookie, 12-7-6 third year player all combine for... 30-42 record.

Just like Hawks have, on paper , 30 ppg pg, 22 ppg center and 15 ppg bench scorer and they all combine for... 20-47 record ...

I think Zion will always have nice numbers, i'm not sure it will ever translate into nice teams. i also simply can't see value of 6'7 center in half court who can't shoot to save his life.

This is relative to his hype tho, i don't think he will suck or be terrible. I just imagine him being 24-26 ppg player who never leads teams anywhere. Pretty much Blake Griffin for whole lenght of his career. Also early peak and fast decline as amount of force they use kills their knees and joints over time.

[SOUL]

I just can't see Zion as 1# option on contender. I also can't see him staying healthy while rolling around with 300 pounds.
He is interesting freak athlete and gifted player to watch, i highly doubt he will ever be top 5 basketball player in this league.

He has a lot of incentive to get his body right though. A lot of pressure to be great with #1 pick.. not some chubby roleplayer like Big Baby.

He could be prolific scorer though. 22 points in 27 minutes is

Needs to improve defense but it all starts with his body. If he gets that right then he may be really hard to stop.

I'm really not sold on him nor Pelicans.

Teams just run like maniacs, boost pace, shoot with 20 shots on the clock and inflate stats like no other team.

There is no other way how to explain how 23 ppg allstar wing, 19 ppg former allstar PG, 15 ppg starter, 22 ppg rookie, 12-7-6 third year player all combine for... 30-42 record.

Just like Hawks have, on paper , 30 ppg pg, 22 ppg center and 15 ppg bench scorer and they all combine for... 20-47 record ...

I think Zion will always have nice numbers, i'm not sure it will ever translate into nice teams. i also simply can't see value of 6'7 center in half court who can't shoot to save his life.

Hawks entire team is young as hell. At least 5 of them that are getting minutes. Trae, Huerter, Collins, Hunter, Reddish, etc. Magic team from rebuilding past years had collection of decent-good talent at best but too young to win. A team with all of those players NOW is like a "solid" playoff team but still not getting past 2nd round or beating a team with a legit 1-2 punch + solid roleplayers. But not as bad as they were years ago. Hawks will probably trade the ones that they can't wait long on and mix them with Trae/Collins.

Pelicans team also young even though they had a mix of vets and young or inexperienced NBA guys. Zo/Ingram/Zion/NAW/Melli (not young but inexperienced in NBA)/Hayes. A lot of guys who played minutes who are 22 and younger and even the older young guys like Zo/Ingram aren't good enough to carry teams with a year or 2 of experience. That team will look drastically different in the upcoming years around Zion.

Too early though. I know you like to judge people quick pepe but even the goats have waited 7, 8, 9 seasons for teams that are even close enough to sniff championship. Even if these guys aren't #1 options on great teams like LeBron or what Luka seems like he's turning into.. gotta give them time to learn and improve. I can see Zion doing a lot of damage in small ball teams.

All of those teams that have big hype with a lot of young players always disappoint. Sixers might have been the only one recently that hadn't but they surrounded them with steady guys in the past few years and that was after they moved a lot of their other younger guys like Nerlens, Okafor, MCW, etc.

We'll see what happens though. I think there is a lot of talent in the league so for Zion to crack top 5 or top 10 might be hard but like I said it all starts with his conditioning.

[dsg2021]

The difference between Kobe, LeBron, and Luka is that I won't let my underdog bias stop me from becoming a massive Luka fan. Luka and Kawhi are my personal, top two players in the NBA at the moment. Might be disrespecting Giannis, Harden, KD, AD, and Curry a little, but its my opinion. Ain't my fault we didn't take a someone with the floor of Hedo Turkoglu, a top 5 Triple-Double getter in his best season! (salty)

[Xatticus]

I just can't see Zion as 1# option on contender. I also can't see him staying healthy while rolling around with 300 pounds.
He is interesting freak athlete and gifted player to watch, i highly doubt he will ever be top 5 basketball player in this league.

He has a lot of incentive to get his body right though. A lot of pressure to be great with #1 pick.. not some chubby roleplayer like Big Baby.

He could be prolific scorer though. 22 points in 27 minutes is

Needs to improve defense but it all starts with his body. If he gets that right then he may be really hard to stop.

I'm really not sold on him nor Pelicans.

Team just run like maniacs, boost pace, shoot with 20 shots on the clock and inflate stats like no other team.

There is no other way how to explain how 23 ppg allstar wing, 19 ppg former allstar PG, 15 ppg starter, 22 ppg rookie, 12-7-6 third year player all combine for... 30-42 record.

Just like Hawks have, on paper , 30 ppg pg, 22 ppg center and 15 ppg bench scorer and they all combine for... 20-47 record ...

I think Zion will always have nice numbers, i'm not sure it will ever translate into nice teams. i also simply can't see value of 6'7 center in half court who can't shoot to save his life.

This is relative to his hype tho, i don't think he will suck or be terrible. I just imagine him being 24-26 ppg player who never leads teams anywhere. Pretty much Blake Griffin for whole lenght of his career. Also early peak and fast decline as amount of force they use kills their knees and joints over time.

The Pelicans were pretty good after that 6-22 start.

I expect the Hawks to get a lot better and quickly. They had some terrible players in their rotation, but they have a solid core and their young guys have improved a lot. If they can get some competent help to fill out their rotation, they will be competing for the playoffs next year.

Williamson will be an exceptionally valuable player if he doesn't eat himself out of the league. He must've had a massive caloric intake to build all that muscle. If he isn't careful, that could get out of hand. He already has the muscle built, they should start to rein in his diet. He isn't really the guy that you want to give the ball to in a tight game where you need a basket, but he piles up so many easy baskets over the course of the game that it won't much matter. His combination of usage and efficiency is impressive. His turnover rate is low and he has the potential to become a playmaker. There should always be someone on the floor that he can defend capably. He is just going to be really good as long as he can stay on the floor.

[pepe1991]

He has a lot of incentive to get his body right though. A lot of pressure to be great with #1 pick.. not some chubby roleplayer like Big Baby.

He could be prolific scorer though. 22 points in 27 minutes is

Needs to improve defense but it all starts with his body. If he gets that right then he may be really hard to stop.

I'm really not sold on him nor Pelicans.

Teams just run like maniacs, boost pace, shoot with 20 shots on the clock and inflate stats like no other team.

There is no other way how to explain how 23 ppg allstar wing, 19 ppg former allstar PG, 15 ppg starter, 22 ppg rookie, 12-7-6 third year player all combine for... 30-42 record.

Just like Hawks have, on paper , 30 ppg pg, 22 ppg center and 15 ppg bench scorer and they all combine for... 20-47 record ...

I think Zion will always have nice numbers, i'm not sure it will ever translate into nice teams. i also simply can't see value of 6'7 center in half court who can't shoot to save his life.

Hawks entire team is young as hell. At least 5 of them that are getting minutes. Trae, Huerter, Collins, Hunter, Reddish, etc. Magic team from rebuilding past years had collection of decent-good talent at best but too young to win. A team with all of those players NOW is like a "solid" playoff team but still not getting past 2nd round or beating a team with a legit 1-2 punch + solid roleplayers. But not as bad as they were years ago. Hawks will probably trade the ones that they can't wait long on and mix them with Trae/Collins.

Pelicans team also young even though they had a mix of vets and young or inexperienced NBA guys. Zo/Ingram/Zion/NAW/Melli (not young but inexperienced in NBA)/Hayes. A lot of guys who played minutes who are 22 and younger and even the older young guys like Zo/Ingram aren't good enough to carry teams with a year or 2 of experience. That team will look drastically different in the upcoming years around Zion.

Too early though. I know you like to judge people quick pepe but even the goats have waited 7, 8, 9 seasons for teams that are even close enough to sniff championship. Even if these guys aren't #1 options on great teams like LeBron or what Luka seems like he's turning into.. gotta give them time to learn and improve. I can see Zion doing a lot of damage in small ball teams.

All of those teams that have big hype with a lot of young players always disappoint. Sixers might have been the only one recently that hadn't but they surrounded them with steady guys in the past few years and that was after they moved a lot of their other younger guys like Nerlens, Okafor, MCW, etc.

We'll see what happens though. I think there is a lot of talent in the league so for Zion to crack top 5 or top 10 might be hard but like I said it all starts with his conditioning.

it's all fun and games until you find yourself 1-2 years later paying same guys $30M a year and still not winning anything.
Collins and Young are eligiable for extension after 2020-21 .
Dedmon and Capella combining for $31M a year for next 2 and 3 years.
Huerter also needs new contract within 2 years. Guy is payed $2,5M a year.

Pelicans same story, Ingram can ask as much as 5 years, $167M deal ( average salary of $33 M ). Actually it looks like he can actually scale up to $200M total over 5 years Lonzo needs new contract, add $18-20M there, add Jrue Holiday and his massive $27M for next 2 years and that's your team, for better of worst, for next 3 years ( or so, since in about same time you get rid of Jrue, you have to pay Zion ). Zion's contract is already scaling up to $10M a year.


All that in... shrining salary cap years...

[Optimus_Steel]

wow, philly gave tobias harris 180 million for this kinda performance?

Him and Horford are money pits right now

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Its one of those that was an obvious disaster from the time it was agreed to. Tobias has been journeying around the league for a reason and Horford already well into his 30's while they have a star bigman.

[Optimus_Steel]

I didnt watch any playoff games other than Magic games and some of the Philly series. What happened to Indiana? Why did they get sweept like that? Not having Sabonis is not a good enough reason.

[MartinsIzAfraud]

I didnt watch any playoff games other than Magic games and some of the Philly series. What happened to Indiana? Why did they get sweept like that? Not having Sabonis is not a good enough reason.

Pacers bench is pretty doo doo and Miami did shot 52 free throws this last game. Miami's role players in Hero Robinson & Crowder have stepped up while Pacers missing Sabonis is like us missing Isaac. Dude does a lot of stuff that's not box score related that you can't just replace

[basketballRob]

I didnt watch any playoff games other than Magic games and some of the Philly series. What happened to Indiana? Why did they get sweept like that? Not having Sabonis is not a good enough reason.

Oladipo isn't good right now. Maybe he'll get it back, maybe he won't. He just isn't explosive.

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[PrimeThyme]

Bam is what I wish Bamba was. Just so impactful on both ends. Doesn't stretch the floor much, but what he brings to the game as a playmaker from the 5 spot and as a lob threat can't be understated.

Heat are as good as anybody at developing young talent. It also helps that they draft players like Nunn, Herro, and Robinson who have modern offensive skillsets unlike most of our players.

[Knightro]

Bam is what I wish Bamba was. Just so impactful on both ends. Doesn't stretch the floor much, but what he brings to the game as a playmaker from the 5 spot and as a lob threat can't be understated.

Heat are as good as anybody at developing young talent. It also helps that they draft players like Nunn, Herro, and Robinson who have modern offensive skillsets unlike most of our players.

Want to hear something that will make you really depressed?

They didn't even draft Robinson or Nunn. They just uncovered them both as undrafted free agents!

Throw in Derrick Jones and the Heat have 3 very capable rotation players, none of which were drafted.

[Hogified05]

2017 I wanted Tatum in that draft. 2018 I wanted Luka. Damn it.

[pepe1991]

During previous Heat game commentery team said that Adebayo was doing center defensive drills in predraft workout and he killed it, than they made it harder for him and gave him wing defense drills .And he was confused, yet he killed it.

So Riley said they just found their guy.

Adebayo is top tear athlete for center.

[drsd]

Doesn't matter that we won all those games late.

We would have probably drafted Ayton if not Bamba even with a top 3 pick

LOL incredible. This is why Weham still have jobs.

I predict Ayton to mirror Towns in a high-stat-line career that leads to no wins.

Look: I was all for Orlando trading its roster for the draft rights to Dončić, and here we are in a world were Ayton was drafted over Dončić (and some marginal semi-starting talent called, something like, umm, Bagley).


Look: Bagley, Jackson, and Bamba could all end up with similar careers. All still project as such. But Ayton at overall #1 was never defensible in a draft that had Dončić as draft eligible. I hope a lot of Suns scouts lost their jobs over this blatant horrible draft selection. p.s. the Kings did actually fire their management. So ....

Dončić was always a generational talent coming to the 2018 draft, AND there was no other player in the draft that was generational. Thus he must have been selected #1.


..

[PrimeThyme]

I think the whole Dipo slander is a bit much personally. I don't know how you could watch him over the course of that series and think he was even playing at 60% of his former self. He couldn't even beat a 45-year-old Dragic off the dribble last night. The only thing he can really do is settle for long contested jumpers.

After that year he had as a legitimate top 20 player, he hasn't been able to stay healthy and one of the injuries he suffered was major. People seem to be forgetting that.