AROUND THE NBA THREAD. Sept 2021 edition

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wizenheimer said:
I don't think it means much of anything to have 5 players in the top-100. In the NBA what matters is if you have 2-3 players in the top-20 or so
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Last year Milwaukee didn't have a second top20 guy, nor Toronto a few years prior. Phoenix last year might not have had any top 20 player, but did have 5 quality starters. The Blazers have Dame who is pretty dang high.

Years ago teams like the Detroit Pistons won a title without multiple or possibly even any top 20 guy but with a very strong 5th starter. The 2011 Mavs only had Dirk and probably not five players in the top100 but were deep up to 8 good men. So teams can win a title without multiple superstars and with a variety of roster constructions.

Now I agree ideally it would be best to get another top20 player... but of course that is much easier said than done.
 
WesleyMatthews said:
Last year Milwaukee didn't have a second top20 guy, nor Toronto a few years prior. Phoenix last year might not have had any top 20 player, but did have 5 quality starters. The Blazers have Dame who is pretty dang high.
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I'd say Khris Middleton is fringe top-20; he certainly played like it in the playoffs. Jrue isn't, but he's really good as a PG and as a defender. But mainly, the Bucks have 3 fairly elite two-way players. Portland has none. And of course, Dame isn't Giannis

for the Suns, Booker sure played like a top-20 guy in the playoffs. So did Chris Paul for that matter who is clearly, by far, the best pure PG in the NBA. I mean, that guy's career assist/turnover rate is 3.91 and it was over 4.0 last season. And, over the last 5 seasons his TS% is around .600. CP's efficiency is historically great

WesleyMatthews said:
Years ago teams like the Detroit Pistons won a title without multiple or possibly even any top 20 guy but with a very strong 5th starter.
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this again

Detroit had 4 different players who combined for 25 all-star games. Their starting lineup had 3 players who combined for 14 all-NBA team selections. They had a 4-time DPOY and had 3 different players who combined for 15 all-NBA-Defensive awards. IMO, when they won the title they had 3 top-20 players, Thomas, Dumars, and Wallace

it was also a different era. The year Detroit won the championship, the median number of three's attempted by all NBA teams was 14.9. Last season, the median was 34.4. That Detroit template doesn't work any more

WesleyMatthews said:
The 2011 Mavs only had Dirk and probably not five players in the top100 but were deep up to 8 good men. So teams can win a title without multiple superstars and with a variety of roster constructions.
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Dallas. One time in the last 20 years a team has won a title with only one top-20 player. Of course, he was a 14 time all-star with an unstoppable jump-shot because he was 7' tall. He was also an MVP and he wasn't the only PG on the team. And while Kidd, Marion, and Chandler were older, in their careers, they combined for 15 all-star games and 14 all-NBA-Defensive teams. And that was 10 years ago.

you might as well compare the current team to the 77 Blazers that won the championship. Arguably, they only had one top-20 player (it would be a poor argument because Lucas was) Portland doesn't have a team anywhere close to matching the template of Milwaukee & Phoenix last season, or Detroit and Dallas from years past

at this point, Portland would have to make their own template and the primary component of that would be three starters under 6'4, with two of those being terrible at defense and the other only being average. Good luck with that
 
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Not sure which Detroit title team your talking about... I was thinking of the Rasheed team, he and Ben Wallace (who I don't think was much if any better than Nurk/CJ) were the only all stars when they won the title. Yes Billups and Hamilton became all stars in later years but they were not when the team first contended, and never were ranked at the top of their positions.

Yes you can bring up reasons why Milwaukee, Phoenix, Toronto, and Dallas had advantages the Blazers do not. The Blazers also have advantages those teams do not. None of them had an elite distance shooting presence like Lillard.

I'm not saying the Blazers are likely to win a title. Maybe they need another two way player with defense or to make a trade, or a young player to break out.

My point is its very possible to contend for a title without multiple top20 superstar players. The teams I listed have shown it can often be done.
 
WesleyMatthews said:
Not sure which Detroit title team your talking about... I was thinking of the Rasheed team, he and Ben Wallace (who I don't think was much if any better than Nurk/CJ) were the only all stars when they won the title.
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lol...I had a giant brain fart...my bad...comically

and Wallace was better than either CJ or Nurkic, although I suppose you can argue about how each player fits in their era

WesleyMatthews said:
Yes you can bring up reasons why Milwaukee, Phoenix, Toronto, and Dallas had advantages the Blazers do not. The Blazers also have advantages those teams do not. None of them had an elite distance shooting presence like Lillard.
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Milwaukee, Phoenix, and Toronto all did one thing that Olshey refuses to do: make a major change in the starting lineup by taking a risk with a big trade

WesleyMatthews said:
The Blazers also have advantages those teams do not. None of them had an elite distance shooting presence like Lillard.
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that also happens to be Portland's big disadvantage: Dame is Portland's #1 scoring option, and also the only real PG and offensive facilitator. If a playoff opponent takes Dame out of the equation, or even limits him, the Blazers do not have another singular talent who can take over, get his own offense, run the team, and make the opponent pay for focusing on Dame

the irony is that Mike Malone and the Nuggets decided to go a different route last season because they didn't have the personnel capable of doubling Dame and shutting him down. So they chose standard defense and bet that none of the other Blazers were good enough to beat them even when Dame was going off. Turned out to be a good bet

WesleyMatthews said:
I'm not saying the Blazers are likely to win a title. Maybe they need another two way player with defense or to make a trade, or a young player to break out.

My point is its very possible to contend for a title without multiple top20 superstar players. The teams I listed have shown it can often be done.
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yeah, well my main point is that the template Portland currently has is nothing like those other templates. I can't see any way, at all, a team with 3 starters under 6'4, and two of those being terrible perimeter defenders, can be a contender. But it sure looks like that will be what Portland runs with this season

Olshey is betting that the 7th time will be the breakthrough with the Dame/CJ experiment.
 
Oh man, if this is precursor to a KAT trade..... we better throw everything we can at Minny.

Apparently he was fully onboard the rebuild pitched to him by the new FO they hired two years ago. Remains to be seen if he's still interested in that chaos.
 
wizenheimer said:
yeah, well my main point is that the template Portland currently has is nothing like those other templates. I can't see any way, at all, a team with 3 starters under 6'4, and two of those being terrible perimeter defenders, can be a contender. But it sure looks like that will be what Portland runs with this season

Olshey is betting that the 7th time will be the breakthrough with the Dame/CJ experiment.
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You well may be right.

I'm fine giving it a shot right now as this is the first time DameCJ have had a different coach, first time the Blazers have had such a strong 5th starter, and best 6th man the Blazers have had in awhile.

People also said a jump shooting team would never win a title like the Warriors did, Dirk would never win a title as a big who doesn't play defense, and Powell has a 6'11" winspan so maybe the core of this roster can contend. Then the team only needs an xfactor addition such as a breakout year from NAS, Simons, or another Roco/Nance type trade acquisition.

If it doesn't look close to working out the Blazers can make a big trade at the deadline or even in the summer. I don't think Dame or CJ are losing a ton of value between now and then.
 
WesleyMatthews said:
You well may be right.

I'm fine giving it a shot right now as this is the first time DameCJ have had a different coach, first time the Blazers have had such a strong 5th starter, and best 6th man the Blazers have had in awhile.

People also said a jump shooting team would never win a title like the Warriors did, Dirk would never win a title as a big who doesn't play defense, and Powell has a 6'11" winspan so maybe the core of this roster can contend. Then the team only needs an xfactor addition such as a breakout year from NAS, Simons, or another Roco/Nance type trade acquisition.

If it doesn't look close to working out the Blazers can make a big trade at the deadline or even in the summer. I don't think Dame or CJ are losing a ton of value between now and then.
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Exactly!
 
calvin natt said:
Dumbass. He’ll be forced to when he’s not getting paid.
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We'll see what other stars are unvaxxed. Rumors are LeBron is, and these ordinances will change around the top 2-3 stars in the league. Kyrie? Durant? Harden? They will introduce exceptions to the ongoing rules.

They always do. Money and fame trumps the science.
 
EL PRESIDENTE said:
We'll see what other stars are unvaxxed. Rumors are LeBron is, and these ordinances will change around the top 2-3 stars in the league. Kyrie? Durant? Harden? They will introduce exceptions to the ongoing rules.

They always do. Money and fame trumps the science.
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Science? Shows they are barely at risk and with breakthrough cases popping off the arguments for protecting others falls flat.
 
The fuuuuuck

league pass renewed with my new debit card. How the fuck did they get that card number. I don’t want it this year

Smh
 
ehizzy3 said:
The fuuuuuck

league pass renewed with my new debit card. How the fuck did they get that card number. I don’t want it this year

Smh
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If you got a new debit card with the same institution, the # doesn't change.
 
julius said:
Ok, that is strange.
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it even has the new expiration date in my nba profile but I haven’t logged in since the year ended. I got this card last month after losing my wallet in Mexico

I just assumed the payment would be declined and all would be good. They don’t give refunds either according to their site
 
HailBlazers said:
Science? Shows they are barely at risk and with breakthrough cases popping off the arguments for protecting others falls flat.
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There's so much wrong with thst last part you said and why the vaccine is really here for but I'm not gonna delve further than that. Because it honestly should be common sense at this point when it comes to vaccines. If you don't know by now, then you're not looking.
 
ehizzy3 said:
The fuuuuuck

league pass renewed with my new debit card. How the fuck did they get that card number. I don’t want it this year

Smh
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Most people don't realize their card companies have a convenience service that automatically updates merchants with the new number and expiration date. Not all do, but it's pretty common.
 
handiman said:
Most people don't realize their card companies have a convenience service that automatically updates merchants with the new number and expiration date. Not all do, but it's pretty common.
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wasn't it one of those convenience services for Mastercard that got hacked and gave out info on several million cardholders?
 
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