Around The NBA : 21-22 Edition

[JohnnyTapwater]

I was liking Marvin, but now I'm giving up our most useless asset for Marvin at this point. He's tanking his value and his history of play leaves a lot to be desired for winning.

[HoopsterJones]

I was liking Marvin, but now I'm giving up our most useless asset for Marvin at this point. He's tanking his value and his history of play leaves a lot to be desired for winning.

I would still be willing to trade for Bagley at a low ball price. Like second round picks and/or end of the bench guys. I’m past the point considering rotational players or a FRP for him though.

[HoopsterJones]

Please explain to me how on earth OKC is winning games?

Weak schedule. They played the Lakers twice already.

According the stats not really and the Lakers are 7-5.

But when I look at the OKC roster, I simply can't understand how they've stumbled into 4-6 record.

They played the Lakers without Lebron twice.

[umfan83]

Looking at the Wizards roster after their hot start, I'm kind of surprised that more people did not see this coming (including myself). The team has a legit start and tons of quality depth. The fact that they were able to get what they got for Westbrook is amazing.

[Dan Z]

Never seen Otto Porter play this hard before like he's doing on the Warriors right now.

He's working for his next contract.

[d boy gentleman]

I was liking Marvin, but now I'm giving up our most useless asset for Marvin at this point. He's tanking his value and his history of play leaves a lot to be desired for winning.

The Kings and Luke Walton by not playing him and not wan ting to trade him are. At best, he's worth a 2nd round pick right now.

[Mbrahv0528]

Remember when some here were talking about how MPJ was the real deal and his back issues were oversold?

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Yeah the worst was when some has tried twist history saying we were anti MPJ not because his back but his game. Hilarious.

The boy had 2 back surgeries at a very young age. Saying it isn't a huge red flag is simple dumb.

Alot of posters on her disliked MPJ for a number of reasons, not including his injury history

Let's not re-write history now. Nobody said his injuries weren't red flags. The posters, like myself, who wanted MPJ at #7 were fine with him red-shirting his rookie season to heal and recover. We weren't going anywhere at the time anyway.

You guys haven't said anything since he's been showing out in denver, now that he's suffered his first injury since it's 'I told u so'

never fails

Not rewriting history sir. As soon as last year (and around when he got the big contract) people here were literally stating that his back issues were overblown and that we made a mistake, blah blah, yadda yadda. Again not talking about when he was drafted, but LONG after. Denver took a shot, but it's not looking good.

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[Michael Jackson]

Never seen Otto Porter play this hard before like he's doing on the Warriors right now.

He's working for his next contract.

Might be healthy this year too. The man is not a bad basketball player at all, he just couldn’t play. Also playing on a team that 8s playing some of the best basketball in the league motivates you a bit too. Consider the wizards, bulls and magic didn’t really get him excited. Glad he is gone but talent was never the problem

[FecesOfDeath]

Yeah the worst was when some has tried twist history saying we were anti MPJ not because his back but his game. Hilarious.

The boy had 2 back surgeries at a very young age. Saying it isn't a huge red flag is simple dumb.

Alot of posters on her disliked MPJ for a number of reasons, not including his injury history

Let's not re-write history now. Nobody said his injuries weren't red flags. The posters, like myself, who wanted MPJ at #7 were fine with him red-shirting his rookie season to heal and recover. We weren't going anywhere at the time anyway.

You guys haven't said anything since he's been showing out in denver, now that he's suffered his first injury since it's 'I told u so'

never fails

Not rewriting history sir. As soon as last year (and around when he got the big contract) people here were literally stating that his back issues were overblown and that we made a mistake, blah blah, yadda yadda. Again not talking about when he was drafted, but LONG after. Denver took a shot, but it's not looking good.

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Not unlike the Blazers taking a shot at Brandon Roy, the Mark Fidrych of the NBA. At the very least, Roy and Porter were able to secure second contracts before their pre-draft conditions flared back up.

[BullChit]

Looking at the Wizards roster after their hot start, I'm kind of surprised that more people did not see this coming (including myself). The team has a legit start and tons of quality depth. The fact that they were able to get what they got for Westbrook is amazing.

The most amazing this about this NBA season is how much i can't wait to play some of these teams.

Match ups like the Warriors, Heat, Wizards, Knicks again... Bring them the **** on!!!

[MrSparkle]

Looking at the Wizards roster after their hot start, I'm kind of surprised that more people did not see this coming (including myself). The team has a legit start and tons of quality depth. The fact that they were able to get what they got for Westbrook is amazing.

Weird to me that Lebron allowed 4 championship rotation players go (incl. Caruso). In the Lakers position, the best you can hope for is deep depth with market-value guys. KCP, Kuzma and Harrell were all paid at or below market, and Caruso obviously got a very fair deal. The one thing they did right was letting Schroder walk. I got the desperate logic of a Westbrook trade from LA's side, but I would've expected Wizards to be sending more compensation for unloading that $90m albatross. Seemed like Lakers decided to give them 3 market-value starter-caliber players, which is plain weird.

[Michael Jackson]

Looking at the Wizards roster after their hot start, I'm kind of surprised that more people did not see this coming (including myself). The team has a legit start and tons of quality depth. The fact that they were able to get what they got for Westbrook is amazing.

Weird to me that Lebron allowed 4 championship rotation players go (incl. Caruso). In the Lakers position, the best you can hope for is deep depth with market-value guys. KCP, Kuzma and Harrell were all paid at or below market, and Caruso obviously got a very fair deal. The one thing they did right was letting Schroder walk. I got the desperate logic of a Westbrook trade from LA's side, but I would've expected Wizards to be sending more compensation for unloading that $90m albatross. Seemed like Lakers decided to give them 3 market-value starter-caliber players, which is plain weird.

Terrible moves by LA… just awful. All 4 of those players were proven and good rotation players and Westbrook along with Wall are the two most awful contracts in the league (yeah I see you Kevin Love but we all forgot about you hiding in the corner). So OKC and Houston kind of helped the Wizards rebuild and ruined the Lakers. Gotta have some respect for that lol. All things considered too, Westbrook would have been better on Washington than in LA, while this is still better for Washington. Completely 100% don’t understand why they let AC walk.

Yes let Schroder walk was smart, sorta. He still would have been better in LA than Russ is currently and well they didn’t let him walk, he turned down a big contract from them lol.

I think most people saw this as a very possible outcome for LA, no one really saw Washington being this much better though.

[ImSlower]

Not rewriting history sir. As soon as last year (and around when he got the big contract) people here were literally stating that his back issues were overblown and that we made a mistake, blah blah, yadda yadda. Again not talking about when he was drafted, but LONG after. Denver took a shot, but it's not looking good.

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Even being nearly certain that Porter Jr would never read one of my posts on this forum, it still felt, I don't know, uncouth for me pre-draft to say "This dude's back is a huge, huge red flag and at any time in the next decade, we just won't know if his next back injury could end his career outright." It just seemed too harsh to say - though certainly a lot of people voiced that. Seeing him drop so far in the draft was such a surprise, even still. Plenty of well-paid people in nice suits were looking at those reports and saying "let's take this other guy instead even if the ceiling isn't there."

Once he came back kicking all sorts of ass, I was really happy for him. Even still, the back of my mind kept thinking "He's gonna get hurt again though." Regardless, my personal hunch that he'll always be a very high risk liability to rely on as a starter is approximately valid as the guys who looked at his terrific play and felt that was a sign his back would hold up. I didn't agree with the guys saying we made a mistake passing on him then, and if he comes back sooner rather than later, I'll be really happy for him and the Nugs. But I will never think that contract was a good bet unless this latest setback turns out to be just a blip, and they hoist some banners.

Imagine being their GM and watching every hard hit on him in the paint, every awkward landing or hard fall, just thinking "please don't wince, just get up." For his entire career, every minute on court. I'd be a nervous wreck. Similar to how a lot of us felt when D Rose came back from his first injury and was still letting his incredible athleticism lead to dangerous landings.

I wish him the best and hope the guys clamoring to have drafted him prove me (and the other skeptics) wrong.

[cool007]

Looking at the Wizards roster after their hot start, I'm kind of surprised that more people did not see this coming (including myself). The team has a legit start and tons of quality depth. The fact that they were able to get what they got for Westbrook is amazing.

Wizards will be #1 in the East by early next week. They have another 2-3 easy games coming up. They are playing pretty good and Kuzma and Trez fitting in nicely with Dinwiddie and Beal while KCP gives them great backcourt defense.

[AKfanatic]

Kuzma is yet another example of the fallacy of the “Lebron makes teammates better” narrative.

[Michael Jackson]

Kuzma is yet another example of the fallacy of the “Lebron makes teammates better” narrative.

Of that Lakers team, Kuzma, Ingram, Ball and maybe Caruso we can add. Some of it was circumstantial for sure, some was experience and health. In the bubble though, AD definitely looked better. I’m not sure overall though AD has looked better with LBJ. Russ doesn’t but that’s not on Lebron. Way more than Lebron, you know who makes players look better…… Thibs!

[Andi Obst]

What’s the average punishment for aggressively hugging an opposing player?

Asking for Rudy Gobert and Myles Turner.

[HomoSapien]

Kuzma is yet another example of the fallacy of the “Lebron makes teammates better” narrative.

Of that Lakers team, Kuzma, Ingram, Ball and maybe Caruso we can add. Some of it was circumstantial for sure, some was experience and health. In the bubble though, AD definitely looked better. I’m not sure overall though AD has looked better with LBJ. Russ doesn’t but that’s not on Lebron. Way more than Lebron, you know who makes players look better…… Thibs!

Dependable role players like Donyell Marshall and Eric Snow basically had their careers die next to LeBron. They got old, but the drop off was pretty quick. Kevin Love was never the same either.

[AKfanatic]

Kuzma is yet another example of the fallacy of the “Lebron makes teammates better” narrative.

Of that Lakers team, Kuzma, Ingram, Ball and maybe Caruso we can add. Some of it was circumstantial for sure, some was experience and health. In the bubble though, AD definitely looked better. I’m not sure overall though AD has looked better with LBJ. Russ doesn’t but that’s not on Lebron. Way more than Lebron, you know who makes players look better…… Thibs!

Dependable role players like Donyell Marshall and Eric Snow basically had their careers die next to LeBron. They got old, but the drop off was pretty quick. Kevin Love was never the same either.

Role-players, particularly those that can park at the arc are usually good with him historically. It’s guys like Love and even Bosh that end up lesser versions of themselves with him. Players like Kuzma and Ingram struggled with Lebron because he pretty much took away any option for them to be more than spot-up guys.

Now that’s not to say it’s not always warranted as Lebron is the far superior player. But there’s always this narrative that he makes all of his teammates better and that’s been proven false multiple times.

[Michael Jackson]

Of that Lakers team, Kuzma, Ingram, Ball and maybe Caruso we can add. Some of it was circumstantial for sure, some was experience and health. In the bubble though, AD definitely looked better. I’m not sure overall though AD has looked better with LBJ. Russ doesn’t but that’s not on Lebron. Way more than Lebron, you know who makes players look better…… Thibs!

Dependable role players like Donyell Marshall and Eric Snow basically had their careers die next to LeBron. They got old, but the drop off was pretty quick. Kevin Love was never the same either.

Role-players, particularly those that can park at the arc are usually good with him historically. It’s guys like Love and even Bosh that end up lesser versions of themselves with him. Players like Kuzma and Ingram struggled with Lebron because he pretty much took away any option for them to be more than spot-up guys.

Now that’s not to say it’s not always warranted as Lebron is the far superior player. But there’s always this narrative that he makes all of his teammates better and that’s been proven false multiple times.

I never liked Love’s stats in Minny. I think he more became what he really was in Cleveland.