Around the NBA, 2020/21 Edition

[SOUL]

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What do you think of Poku? I know zaymon was high on him but he looks 3 years away from being 3 years away. Enticing talent but looks really raw.. (saying this, he will go off on us tomorrow)

[drsd]

For the Mavs-Clippers game that was 77-27 at half-time, if Dallas had scored ZERO in the whole of the second half; they still win.

Unbelievable!

[pepe1991]

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What do you think of Poku? I know zaymon was high on him but he looks 3 years away from being 3 years away. Enticing talent but looks really raw.. (saying this, he will go off on us tomorrow)

He just turned 19 and it shows. His body is so underdevloped that it's foolish to expect anything this year. He is listed as 86 kilos. That's guy standing at 7 foot, being 190 pounds heavy. Terrence Ross is heavier and he is skinny, and 5 inches shorter

If i'm OKC i would do something i suggested for Bamba in rookie year. Play only home games and not travel, in "off" days main focus on body strenght and physical development. Might be issue with chemsitry ( i still higly doubt it would) but it's worth it.

I think he had signed contract with Olympiakos, might as well kept him in Europe for additional year.

Had nice preseason, but preseason means nothing.

Dragan Bender turned pretty terrible following same footsteps. Almost no experience before nba as pro, rookie at 18 years old, body years away from NBA level, 2 years of jumping up and down in weight scale, team giving up on him, 4 years later he is back in Europe. And it looks like now, at age of 23 he finally figured out his body weight and developed some skills for pros, as he thrives in Europe.

His main issue was probably listening to his coaches too much ( Earl Watson, Triano , Kokoškov... not most spectacular list) and he was just camping at 3 point line without any purpose ( hmm... Mo Bamba... ) and you look him in Europe now, and he takes some threes, but it most defently isn't his "forte" and never was.
Coaches develop players in mold that fits their system, but very often that system really doesn't help player develop in direction he should be developing.
Most bigs don't have Porzingis- Markannen shooting touch, and that's fine. But probably lot of young players waste their careers trying to mimic somebody that, by skillset isn't even similar to them.

Players who always come to my mind are Maker, Bender and Bamba. Where 3 point shot is something they COULD be shooting in some future, it's most defenetly NOT something that should have been big part of their develomental in first couple of years. Those guys can't even set proper sets and roll off pick&roll.
It's much easier to have Lopez and Vuc being very useful post players and later developing outside touch, than other way around. Because what a hell will Bamba, or Maker or Myles Turner do on team if his shot is off? Stand in corner? I would rather play any 6'5 shooter over tham if that's only purpose of their existence on offense.
Myles Turner is poster boy of 3 point and block shots, and every time i watch him and Sabonis it reminds me how much basketball exists between 3 point shot and blocking shots. And Sabonis, doing neither , is 5 times better and more talented.

[Knightro]

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What do you think of Poku? I know zaymon was high on him but he looks 3 years away from being 3 years away. Enticing talent but looks really raw.. (saying this, he will go off on us tomorrow)

When I watch Poku, it makes me wonder if he had a really late growth spurt because he plays like a much smaller player.

The best way I can describe him is that someone took a 6'5" wing, put him on a torture rack and kept spinning the wheel until he was stretched out to 7'0".

This is a good and bad thing. It's good because Poku absolutely has fluid wing skills - ball handling and shooting specifically - with center height. That skill set at that size gives him significant mismatch potential down the road.

But it's a bad thing because he can't really guard anyone right now. He's way too physically weak to defend bigs. Any competent big will just muscle him around. But at the same time he's so tall and gangly that he doesn't have the change of direction skills or agility defensively to guard wings either.

I think his best bet is to gain as much weight and add as much strength as possible in an effort to be a mismatch center, but that's going to take a while.

[pepe1991]

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What do you think of Poku? I know zaymon was high on him but he looks 3 years away from being 3 years away. Enticing talent but looks really raw.. (saying this, he will go off on us tomorrow)

When I watch Poku, it makes me wonder if he had a really late growth spurt because he plays like a much smaller player.

The best way I can describe him is that someone took a 6'5" wing, put him on a torture rack and kept spinning the wheel until he was stretched out to 7'0".

This is a good and bad thing. It's good because Poku absolutely has fluid wing skills - ball handling and shooting specifically - with center height. That skill set at that size gives him significant mismatch potential down the road.

But it's a bad thing because he can't really guard anyone right now. He's way too physically weak to defend bigs. Any competent big will just muscle him around. But at the same time he's so tall and gangly that he doesn't have the change of direction skills or agility defensively to guard wings either.

I think his best bet is to gain as much weight and add as much strength as possible in an effort to be a mismatch center, but that's going to take a while.

So i went through old media stuff from Serbia from 2015-2018 about him.
in 2018 he was part of Europien camp where Greg Popovich praised him.

Since age of 13 he is signed with Olympiakos and lives away from home.
His favorite player is Bryant ( was Bryant, god i hate 2020 ).

He is 7 feet tall for at least 2 years, he had debut as pro 2 years ago,being measured as 7 footer.

[fendilim]

Ugh,

Michael Porter Jr, is still on a minutes restriction but it doesn’t matter. He was out of control last night.

29 minutes (in overtime)
24 points
9-15 on FG
3-7 on 3pt
5 reb
2 ast
2 stl
3 blk


Ugh, I screamed to anyone who would listen that he was worth the risk that year. We clearly have the appetite for drafting injured players and waiting (Chuma) why couldn’t we have done it for a far more talented player?

Completely fair that Denver is rumored to list MPjr as untouchable in Harden trade talks.

We pretty much did that (sitting out) to Isaac and Bamba for half a year and people here already complain. What more for a whole year.

I don’t care about the constantly negative group of people here. I care about acquiring better talent.

Is you point that it is more important to appease whiny fans than to have better players?

Imagine having MPjr and NAW today rather than Bamba and Okeke? ... (as I suspect we would not take F Okeke if F MPjr was that pick).

Just remembered, wthey year we drafted Gordon, Porzingis tested the waters and Hennigan promised him to be picked at 11th or 12th. But the condition was to sit him out for a year. Porzingis didnt want that. He wanted to play right away. What could have been.

[fendilim]

[pepe1991]

East is mess, Pacers might end up being 1st seed due deepest roster.

[Blue_and_Whte]

https://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/261014/Bradley-Beal-Skips-Media-As-Wizards-Fall-To-0-4
Beal isn't happy and its interesting that Wizards fans aren't huge WB fans. Now some of you know why he doesn't scare me.

[PrimeThyme]

East is mess, Pacers might end up being 1st seed due deepest roster.

While I think the overall depth of the East got better, I actually think the top of the East took a step back.

The Kemba injury and the loss of Hayward is really going to hurt Boston imo. It puts a ton of pressure offensively on Tatum/Brown and I think Tatum's shot selection has been questionable as a result.

Milwaukee just isn't close to as deep as they were in years past, especially not as deep as they were last year. Their bench unit has just run teams off the floor during the regular season the last couple of years & I don't see that happening this year (seriously look at some of the names in their current bench rotation and compare it to last year's team).

Toronto's run of being a perennial top 4 seed in the East is done to me. Lowry is aging and Siakam just hasn't taken that jump to becoming a primary scorer on a contender as they hoped. The Crowder loss was an underrated one for Miami too. Crowder just makes whatever team he goes to better. He did it in Boston, then in Miami, && now he's doing it in Phoenix.

Philly is probably the best team if Embiid stays healthy. But with his history and this being a condensed season with a shortened training camp and not much time off between the start of the season and the bubble, that's far from a guarantee. Brooklyn has a case, but I think the Dinwiddie injury is a big one && a Kyrie injury can never be ruled out.

I just think it all leaves room for teams like Indiana, Atlanta, and even Orlando (to a lesser extent) to crack into that 3-6th seed playoff conversation. I would be shocked if a dominant regular-season team like a Milawkee of the past few years emerged from the conference this year.

[Knightro]

Haliburton has been really good for the Kings.

.760 TS%, 21 assists to just 3 turnovers, 8-16 from three. You never know if anyone was willing to move down or not, but I really thought he was a guy worth going after.

Watch on YouTube

[zaymon]

Haliburton has been really good for the Kings.

.760 TS%, 21 assists to just 3 turnovers, 8-16 from three. You never know if anyone was willing to move down or not, but I really thought he was a guy worth going after.

Watch on YouTube

His shooting form looks more broken than Fultz lol

[pepe1991]

East is mess, Pacers might end up being 1st seed due deepest roster.

While I think the overall depth of the East got better, I actually think the top of the East took a step back.

The Kemba injury and the loss of Hayward is really going to hurt Boston imo. It puts a ton of pressure offensively on Tatum/Brown and I think Tatum's shot selection has been questionable as a result.

Milwaukee just isn't close to as deep as they were in years past, especially not as deep as they were last year. Their bench unit has just run teams off the floor during the regular season the last couple of years & I don't see that happening this year (seriously look at some of the names in their current bench rotation and compare it to last year's team).

Toronto's run of being a perennial top 4 seed in the East is done to me. Lowry is aging and Siakam just hasn't taken that jump to becoming a primary scorer on a contender as they hoped. The Crowder loss was an underrated one for Miami too. Crowder just makes whatever team he goes to better. He did it in Boston, then in Miami, && now he's doing it in Phoenix.

Philly is probably the best team if Embiid stays healthy. But with his history and this being a condensed season with a shortened training camp and not much time off between the start of the season and the bubble, that's far from a guarantee. Brooklyn has a case, but I think the Dinwiddie injury is a big one && a Kyrie injury can never be ruled out.

I just think it all leaves room for teams like Indiana, Atlanta, and even Orlando (to a lesser extent) to crack into that 3-6th seed playoff conversation. I would be shocked if a dominant regular-season team like a Milawkee of the past few years emerged from the conference this year.

If Durant and Kyrie are healthy, i'm betting my money on Nets.

Just so much overall firepower, for start nobody has 2 great defenders to contain both of them other than maybe Bucks, but i don't trust Giannis in half court offense, and Durant is god of half court.

On top of that their supporting cast, Harris, Jordan, Allen, Prince and Levert is rock solid. They will aslo get some nice injury exception to fill salary with Dinwiddie being done for a year, he didn't really fit to that team anyway.

Imo Raptors are just... one dimensional. They play defense but their guard are , as you said, aiging or simply miniature. Vleet is good player but he won't be locking down anybody. Siakam is definition of complimentary star to me.

[Knightro]

His shooting form looks more broken than Fultz lol

Shooting forms are only broken if they don't go in.

Give me a call the next time Fultz confidently takes (much less makes) a three that deep against a contest

[KillMonger]

the way durant is looking gives me a lot of hope that JI returns and he's more or less himself and not a shell of himself....KD looks legit back....all the way back like how he used to look

[SOUL]

the way durant is looking gives me a lot of hope that JI returns and he's more or less himself and not a shell of himself....KD looks legit back....all the way back like how he used to look

ACL/achilles aren't what they used to be, especially for younger guys in a lot of sports. Usually hampers or ends careers of the older/out of shape ones.

[cedric76]

Batum is looking good, it s a shame he would have been perfect here

[Worst_to_First]

Congratulations guys! Last unbeaten team standing.

[drsd]

the way durant is looking gives me a lot of hope that JI returns and he's more or less himself and not a shell of himself....KD looks legit back....all the way back like how he used to look

ACL/achilles aren't what they used to be, especially for younger guys in a lot of sports. Usually hampers or ends careers of the older/out of shape ones.

Plus Isaac's game is not based on "how-high-can-he-jump".


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[SOUL]

Plus Isaac's game is not based on "how-high-can-he-jump".

Yeah, he's not reliant like Gordon on athleticism but I do hope it doesn't affect his movement on defense since he moves laterally and covers space like not many his size. There's a certain level of athleticism it takes for those sorts of movements. I think he'll be fine though.