Rondo was a very unique player. I’m not sure we’ll see another creature like him for awhile. Wingspan way longer than his height and hands as big as 7 footers Wait I guess Scoot has just as long a wingspan. ugh
No, we need a player who would be in the top 4 when the do the re-draft in a decade. That guy should be available where we pick.
It really is a boring product these days. To make matters worse they just selectively sit out a handful of players every night. Either by making up injuries or calling it ‘load management’ NBA players of yesteryear wouldn’t miss a game unless there was a legit injury. They just cared more.
It starts at AAU/HS. It’s a totally different sport/system/environment and it’s not good. And we will just continue to see more and more foreign players dominate the NBA. I’ve watched about 30 mins of the NBA this season, mostly due to not having access to Blazer games. And I don’t really enjoy watching Boston/LA/Denver on repeat.
We currently only have the Hawks 2nd round pick if they are picking within 31-40. They're 45 right now.
I truly think forcing the league to run more can be mentally and physically exhausting while also being far more taxing on the body, in the long term. Basketball isn't the same thing as running a marathon, where slow twitch muscles are emphasized, nor is it soccer, where you have both slow and fast twitch but not as much physical contact since there is plenty of space to move around. Basketball is explosive impact and physical, anaerobic and aerobic, played within a smaller and more confined space relative to the other major professional sports, and involves lots of travel and little rest. Therefore, why risk your body? Why not just run back and forth and shoot 3s all day? Why not play full 82 game schedules if you can extend your career with another multi-million dollar contract? My point is that the play style causes the game to be stale and the players to become too tired, too quickly. As such, I do think if the game slowed down to 80s/early 90s levels (as opposed to 2000s levels), you would reduce load management and make a more impressive product. I don't know if Silver understands this since he's merely just managing the league that Stern set up rather than setting forth his own vision and I get the feeling a bean counter/manager type like Silver might not understand what the physical demands playing a sport entails. But if you can replicate a system that previously worked and was incredibly popular - namely, the 80s/90s, why would you want to ignore that possibility? I think a way to deal with this would be to extend the 3 second rule into a 7 second rule, at minimum. This should make big men more effective again. I also think limiting 3 pointers made to 7 per quarter with the exception of the 4th quarter could force players to score via more unique methods. Then, the 4th quarter could be where the 3pt made limit is removed and shooters given free reign and therefore, making for an exciting finish (if that's too limiting, you can make 1st and 4th quarter 3pt free). ********************************************************************************** Anyway, trying not to veer this off topic. I noticed Demin had a bad game today and previously watched his other game where he was okay but still impacted the game in other ways. I think that is the reality with a player like that. There are shades of Franz Wagner but Wagner was a little more offensively fluid and versatile than what Demin currently demonstrates. For that, I want to say he's showing that he's more Lamar Odom tier. It's similar with Deni, too, who is very Odom-like right now. Josh Giddey with better defense is another comparison I've seen that fits here. Otherwise, it's still Cooper Flagg at #1, who is like Siakam but can muscle his way in like healthy Ben Simmons. Despite him patterning his jumper after Bird, he has shades of Magic Johnson to his offensive game but his defense is a lot like Bird and a few of those 80s Celtics players, where his hustle and his defensive stance/shuffling of feet is just second nature. Pretty good for a 17 year old. But Dylan Harper, I see some Jalen Brunson, some Brandon Roy, some Kyrie where his offensive game is pure skill. Frye previously stated Kyrie and Roy were the two best offensive players he's ever seen and you have various players - Aldridge, Paul George, Lebron, Kobe, KD, etc - confirming their takes here. I really wouldn't be surprised if he's the biggest superstar in this draft but maybe has less overall impact that Cooper Flagg might have. Good if you need offense (he plays good defense too) but might not be ideal if you lack the 3-4 combo that has been present in every championship since 2008. I think he can play next to Sharpe but that would mean Scoot is probably out of the picture. Either way, I just wanted to say that the Flagg vs Harper conversation is reminding me of Oden vs. KD back in 2007.
I've been saying for years, that they play too many games. Play less games, they become more meaningful, like the NFL. The regular season is one large pre-season, especially with 2/3rds of the league making the playoffs if you count the play in.
Yeah, that's a good comparison. Although, pound per pound, I think Harper is a better athlete and more agile. For example, I read somewhere that Cade only had 5-6 dunks his entire Freshman year while Harper already has that many in the first month. Harper might be a better defender and I don't if his playmaking would translate into the NBA. Cade seems to be doing well in this regard though so maybe Harper can be a primary playmaker. The shooting, I'd worry a bit about from Harper, especially since Portland has so many inconsistent shooters
Zero quality starters rofl ok. We’re the youngest team in the league and so your solution is more 18-19 year olds. Mmk
Jeremiah Fears is so freaking good...he'll be a top 7 guy by the end of the cycle imo He and Harper are the top guards for me right now.
I agree with POP that the three point shot has had a negative impact in how the game is played. However, its marketed the game as more offense than defense, which has sold.
Sure, I agree with that sentiment and I think the NBA knew this was the future. Stern spoke about it in the mid-2000s at the height of the Run n' Gun Suns and Pritchard was going on and on about it when he was GM, too. But ratings (even before all these streaming issues) might suggest, otherwise. I feel that when we hear "people like to watch games for offense", we need to understand it as a variety of offense and not just 3pt barrage after 3pt barrage. I still think the early-mid 2010s was the ideal model and NBA ratings were returning around then before sinking in 2017-18. Faster paced than the 2000s, emphasized 3pt shots and movement but still utilized elements that worked in the past like posting up. Otherwise, my thing is that limiting three point shots per quarter....wouldn't change the league average very much since the current average 3PM per team is only 12-13 shots a game (out of the 34-37 attempt averages from 2019-present day). In that case, maybe it shouldn't even be 3PM. Maybe it'd be better if the NBA had an allocation of only 7 3PA per quarter until the 4th where it becomes unlimited (otherwise, the 3pt shot becomes a 2pt shot if the allocated number of shots gets used). Btw, that still averages out to a similar number as the current status quo (30+ 3PA) once you factor this hypothetical 4th quarter. Imo, this would also bring back the mid-range which, I argue, is a staple of the highly marketable superstar ala MJ, Durant, Kobe, Wade, T-Mac, Larry, Iverson, Dirk, Carmelo since it involves some ball handling and footwork to juke a defender rather than just camping the three point line. Thus, it would make the NBA resemble the early-mid 2010s when teams were a mix of traditional basketball and new era basketball. ************************************************************** On the topic of this thread, I think doing this would also benefit the Top 3 prospects into becoming future faces of the league since they have either smooth looking jumpers or ball handling or both. Mid-range and being able to play some iso to either attack the rim or settle from that range = recognizable superstar.
