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NBA - The upside down


BigFatCoward

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4 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

The funny problem is the US lacks big men. KAT, AD, Bam and Ayton are probably the best we got. Wings and guards though, eat your heart out.

That said, nobody is ready for the alien from France. 

Isn’t KAT from the Dominican Republic?

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8 hours ago, Rhom said:

Isn’t KAT from the Dominican Republic?

It gets funnier; Deandre Ayton is from the Bahamas. Its questionable if he would every play for the US. 

We already know Towns doesnt. On top of that a lot of great players that are emerging are Canadian ( SGA, Jamal Murray, Wiggins, RJ Barrett, Brooks, Clarke, Dort, Olynyk)

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20 hours ago, Proudfeet said:

That's interesting. Lonzo has never impressed me when I've watched him. He rotates well on defense, but he stalls rather than stop them. He never had the ball with the Lakers, passed it and went to spot up as soon as he passed half court on the Pelicans and when he's had opportunity to conduct a half court offense on the Bulls, it mostly involves him not being able to drive past anyone, barely attempting to even and is usually just dribbling in place waiting for people to get open and eventually handing it to DeRozan or LaVine and then spotting up. And his 3 point shooting was only good last year, so it's not sure how sustainable that is either.

He's a good serviceable player, but I never got the hype nor think he's worth the $20 million he's getting. I didn't realise that he's actually well regarded and important to a roster.

I rather agree with your impression of Ball although I think he looked better when they were winning than your take. While I don't believe he's a transcendent player, his importance to the Bulls grew due to other players underperforming. LaVine and DeRozan are superb scorers who pound the ball and kill team offense. I'm not sure which one tries less on defense. Vuc is a complete sham as a point-center and a terrible rim protector. AKME wanted Vucevic to be a mini-Jokic, dragging defenses out to the perimeter, passing to cutters, and instigating offense. He's shown some flashes of court vision, but his distance shooting has regressed badly, so defenses gladly sag off him and clog the paint. DeRozan has single handedly dragged this poorly built team to wins playing hero ball, but that's not sustainable. Lonzo became important to the roster because he plugs those leaks. I think if his knee hadn't fallen apart, his defense alone would significantly help the team. Alas, Donovan is not a developmental coach and his trusted vets only care about one half of the court.

As it is, I find this team utterly unwatchable and possibly in a worse state than the downslide they were in three seasons ago. There's simply no optimism, and it's going to be another season I pay more attention to fun teams like Denver and Cleveland than I do the team I buy the merch from.

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Misery has visited upon our Pistons this season. Cade is possibly gone for the season if his shin injury is going to require surgery.

Stewart, Bey, Burkes, Bagley have all been injured at various times already. 

Duren and Ivey have been impactful as rookies, but now with the Cade injury, we will miss a critical chance at development for the 3 getting playing time together.

A high draft pick is pretty much a lock with this rosters options for the season.

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4 hours ago, Argonath Diver said:

I rather agree with your impression of Ball although I think he looked better when they were winning than your take.

You'd know better. And my impression of him may have also been coloured by his performance on his previous teams and is out of date. I don't think he's a bad player, but he's just so disappointing, especially when compared to the hype over his passing. Watching one quarter of Chris Paul or even LaMelo is more eventful than watching Lonzo for a game.

I do get your point though. Fit is important, and Lonzo is a versatile all rounder with length. I just hope that he becomes slightly more aggressive or better at driving to the basket.

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Hell I just hope he returns in any useful way. This knee injury started out labelled as a bone bruise but has never been clearly addressed by the team. Now the team's language regarding it sounds like he definitely won't return in 2022, and most Bulls fans are jaded enough by now to wonder if he's out for the season again. Pair that with LaVine missing early games to rest his own balky knee and the future is not bright. 

Even when the Bulls were #1 in the East briefly last year, no one thought they were a playoff contender anyways and it's arguable that roster building and Donovan's nonexistent young player development have hurt the team as much as injury. I expect we'll see more national articles about their failures as this season progresses. 

Injuries are plaguing half the teams in the league right now. 

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One bright spot with Banchero out is in the 7 games since Bamba has shown he can still solidly produce.  Averaged about 13 and 7 in 24 minutes on 50 percent from the field and 39 percent from three.  His contract is pretty manageable, might be able to trade him at the deadline. 

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Both you guys' Pistons and Magic have so much young talent and have soul-breaking amounts of injuries robbing us of two really promising young teams. If they were all healthy I think they're playin bound or better, and there's nothing more fun than a young, hungry team in the playoffs (eventually getting beaten by superstars, but still). Look at the Grizzlies. They're looking like a real threat, assuming Bane and Jackson Jr can recover from their bang-ups. And Ja is only 23! 

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21 hours ago, DanteGabriel said:

Olynyk is an emerging great? Is there more than one in the NBA?

I guess I was stretching it a bit yeah ;)

 

But Slurk's point is a good one, Mathurin looks very promising indeed.

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5 hours ago, Argonath Diver said:

Both you guys' Pistons and Magic have so much young talent and have soul-breaking amounts of injuries robbing us of two really promising young teams. If they were all healthy I think they're playin bound or better, and there's nothing more fun than a young, hungry team in the playoffs (eventually getting beaten by superstars, but still). Look at the Grizzlies. They're looking like a real threat, assuming Bane and Jackson Jr can recover from their bang-ups. And Ja is only 23! 

Yes, but we are toast for this season with Cade likely needing that surgery. We really needed our trio of Ivey, Duren and Cade learning each others fit. Next year we will have lots of cap space and another nice frp, but its bittersweet to see a developmental season slip through our fingers like sand.

And then theres the fear of how well Cade can rebound from the injury and lost time, he was playing 20/6/6 ball and i think he had decent upside from that whenever everything started gelling.

Its always worth noting that no matter what you suffer through, i think you only get a 14% chance at VW.

Most of us want the young guys to compete to win now and let the chip falling take care of itself. You cannot sucessfully coach a kid to play at 75% of potential, winners dont work like that.

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7 hours ago, Argonath Diver said:

Both you guys' Pistons and Magic have so much young talent and have soul-breaking amounts of injuries robbing us of two really promising young teams.

While I appreciate this, from the Magic perspective they should've known what was coming with Fultz and especially Isaac.  It's nice to dream about what the team could do FULLY healthy - including them - but it's frankly unrealistic.  At this point for Isaac I just hope one day he can contribute 20-25 minutes a game maybe 50-60 games a year.  The hilarious thing is they are the two highest paid players on the team, and will be next year too -- and it's Isaac then Fultz, respectively.

That being said, others have been hit with the injury bug too, sure.  Anthony, who doesn't have much of an injury history so I'm not too worried about.  Banchero too I'm not worried about in the long run at all, he just rolled an ankle and they're being extra cautious.  Carter's even missed two games now, nothing to worry about.  Suggs is the only one of the non-Fultz/Isaac core I'm worried about longterm, and that's due to his playing style - not necessarily because he's fragile.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Dallas need to get Luka some proper help.  It constantly amazes me how someone with so little athleticism can be so dominant. 

I have no idea who is coming out of the West, the playoffs will be carnage. The east on the other hand, the bucks/celtics walk to the conference finals. 

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1 hour ago, BigFatCoward said:

Dallas need to get Luka some proper help.  It constantly amazes me how someone with so little athleticism can be so dominant. 

I have no idea who is coming out of the West, the playoffs will be carnage. The east on the other hand, the bucks/celtics walk to the conference finals. 

The 4th quarter felt like a playoff game. Very fun. Great performance from Luka, and I do agree, it's a wonder how someone who has a slow shooting motion (at least compared to someone like Curry) can score at will like that. 

Also have Bucks/Celtics in the ECF and Giannis for MVP but still early in the season.

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