AROUND THE NBA THREAD. OCT 2021 edition

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Serious question: by playing Westbrick along side LBJ, are they turning Russ into a jumpshooter?
 
Rastapopoulos said:
Under the radar signing: Bjelica has finally landed on a good team and his true value may show. He's like a poor man's Jokic.

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Agree. I was impressed with him last night. I have seen flashes in the past, but he looked very solid with the Warriors offense, and loved his crisp interior passing and ability to drive and dish. Very underrated signing.
 
Rastapopoulos said:
So high school = first year in NBA. Got it.
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To the discussion of what position those players play now, the position KD played in 2007 is as relevant as the position AD played in 2007. Fact is, both are frontcourt players now. Do you honestly want to dispute that?
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The other addition I'd make to the "Durant at shooting guard" conversation is that Durant looked terrible that year, hated the position and Carlisimo was pilloried for that decision. I don't think that's why Durant has good handles for a big man--I think causality flows the other direction: Durant had good handles for a big, so Carlisimo tried to play him as a super-sized guard. It's not like Durant couldn't use his dribbling skills at small forward.

Funny enough, now I think he could probably play any position in a pinch just due to how all-around skilled he's become, but I doubt he'd ever agree to play guard again. He's much more likely to move up the positional spectrum, not down. He's a 3 who's comfortable playing small ball 4 or 5.
 
Minstrel said:
The other addition I'd make to the "Durant at shooting guard" conversation is that Durant looked terrible that year, hated the position and Carlisimo was pilloried for that decision. I don't think that's why Durant has good handles for a big man--I think causality flows the other direction: Durant had good handles for a big, so Carlisimo tried to play him as a super-sized guard. It's not like Durant couldn't use his dribbling skills at small forward.

Funny enough, now I think he could probably play any position in a pinch just due to how all-around skilled he's become, but I doubt he'd ever agree to play guard again. He's much more likely to move up the positional spectrum, not down. He's a 3 who's comfortable playing small ball 4 or 5.
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All correct, but it's not obvious Carlisimo was wrong. Remember Durant was a girlie-man who couldn't do the minimum bench at the combine even once. Playing him at PF would have been a disaster then. SF was probably his best position, but he didn't get beat up much at SG.
 
Wizard Mentor said:
All correct, but it's not obvious Carlisimo was wrong. Remember Durant was a girlie-man who couldn't do the minimum bench at the combine even once. Playing him at PF would have been a disaster then. SF was probably his best position, but he didn't get beat up much at SG.
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Oh, I'm not saying that "3 who can play 4 or 5" was at all viable back then. Not only has he put on muscle since then, the league has changed a lot. I'm saying that today, he's much more suited to play up a position or two, not down.
 
Wizard Mentor said:
Serious question: by playing Westbrick along side LBJ, are they turning Russ into a jumpshooter?
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Yeah I can see where Russ will be very beneficial throughout the season when LBJ goes to the bench, is injured, or just sits out various games. He will give them that energy and offense. But the Lakers took more 3's last night than the Warriors did. (42) Together they are not exactly simpatico.....yet.

Lebron shot it great (5-11) from deep, but there were times when he demanded to initiate the offense (like he always has preferred to do) and Russ looked like a spectator. Let's hope that blows up in their faces. Going down the stretch of close games, Russ is the 3rd option at best, can he hit those clutch jump shots?
 
Watching the Bucks yesterday and Damn, looks like Giannis got better
 
On NBA Today on ESPN Magic Johnson and Kendrick Perkins both said that the Lakers and Warriors would be in the Western Conference finals.
 
Strenuus said:
If that isn't following the script that allows them to be on ESPN I don't know what is.
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Such a normie take. The dank take would have been Blazers (with Ben Simmons) against the 76ers (with CJ McCollum) in the NBA Finals.
 
BigGameDamian said:
On NBA Today on ESPN Magic Johnson and Kendrick Perkins both said that the Lakers and Warriors would be in the Western Conference finals.
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That does not surprise me that they would say it. But I think Phoenix, Utah, Denver, and the Clippers might think otherwise. The west again is deep.
 
F1 is racing in Texas this weekend. It's nice to see Charles Leclerc and Pierre Gasly enjoying an NBA game


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Pinwheel1 said:
That does not surprise me that they would say it. But I think Phoenix, Utah, Denver, and the Clippers might think otherwise. The west again is deep.
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I'd remove the Clippers from that list unless Leonard is back this year, which seems possible but unlikely.
 
Minstrel said:
I'd remove the Clippers from that list unless Leonard is back this year, which seems possible but unlikely.
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You are correct. I misinterpreted the title of the article 3 weeks ago when they said he was ahead of schedule. Reading the whole article I now see that the date is still March or April.
 
Minstrel said:
The other addition I'd make to the "Durant at shooting guard" conversation is that Durant looked terrible that year, hated the position and Carlisimo was pilloried for that decision. I don't think that's why Durant has good handles for a big man--I think causality flows the other direction: Durant had good handles for a big, so Carlisimo tried to play him as a super-sized guard. It's not like Durant couldn't use his dribbling skills at small forward.

Funny enough, now I think he could probably play any position in a pinch just due to how all-around skilled he's become, but I doubt he'd ever agree to play guard again. He's much more likely to move up the positional spectrum, not down. He's a 3 who's comfortable playing small ball 4 or 5.
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IIRC, that one playoff where Westbrook got hurt, they played Durant at PG the rest of the way. Didn’t work.
 
I was reading LakersGround (for amusment, since I was curious to see if they were at all worried) and the Lakers fans helpfully noted something that I lost track of--KCP wasn't part of the supposed Hield deal. Not only that, they probably let Caruso go because they were absorbing Westbrook's gigantic deal.

So it was really Westbrook for Hield, KCP and Caruso. Killer--one of the worst deals in recent history, especially for an all-in contender.
 
Rastapopoulos said:
Under the radar signing: Bjelica has finally landed on a good team and his true value may show. He's like a poor man's Jokic.

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Oh, and he signed for a minimum vet's contract. I think somebody on here thought we should try to get him, but if it's same salary for us or Warriors, well.....
 
Houston coming out of the gate strong for the last spot in the west; but we haven’t seen whether or not we will throw away tonight’s game…
 
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