Grantland's All Star Team

[Strenuus]

Pretty thorough article detailing how and why they picked... LMA would be a starter in the west.

http://grantland.com/features/our-nba-all-star-team/

 

[Rhal]

Nicely Written article. I like the indepth discussion on the picks instead of the 1 liners that I'v been reading on other sports sites that are predicting the all-star game.

 

[Natebishop3]

Happy to see both Dame and Aldridge on there.

 

[Strenuus]

Nicely Written article. I like the indepth discussion on the picks instead of the 1 liners that I'v been reading on other sports sites that are predicting the all-star game.

Exactly. He gives cases as to why, instead of just saying "Good team." He harps on Dame a bit, but it's true.

 

[Rhal]

Exactly. He gives cases as to why, instead of just saying "Good team." He harps on Dame a bit, but it's true.

He Harps on Lillards D, which I think I can safely say, every poster on this forum has done as well. The mention of our offense not being as good with Lillard on the court and LA off the court is a little redundant since you can probably say the same when any teams #1 goes to the bench.

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[crowTrobot]

His list would require Stern naming a big - Cousins or Davis instead of another guard such as Dragic to replace Chris Paul (or Kobe). There is precedent for him doing that but he has been pretty erratic and hard to predict so it could go either way. Otherwise the team is spot on.

If Stern does choose to leave the west with only 4 guards and 8 bigs Lillard could potentially get more PT than Aldridge, which would be weird.

 

[Strenuus]

He Harps on Lillards D, which I think I can safely say, every poster on this forum has done as well. The mention of our offense not being as good with Lillard on the court and LA off the court is a little redundant since you can probably say the same when any teams #1 goes to the bench.

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Exactly. I'm fine with the criticism because it's true. But it doesn't deny the fact that he's still one of the best PG's in the league, and (hopefully) growing his game to finish at the rim better and get that mid range game going. Once he gets those two things, he could easily be battling Chris Paul for awhile as #1, IMO.

 

[Natebishop3]

All I care about is that his defense is improving. That's the most important thing.

His DRTG was 112 last year. It's 110 this year. That's a small improvement, but it shows that he's trying to improve.

If you look at a guy like Steph Curry, he started out with a 111 DRTG his rookie season, a 112 his second year, and then he progressively got better and better. He's currently at a 102 DRTG.

Derrick Rose is another guy that started out with a really bad DRTG at 113, but he got better every year and he got it down to 101 2011-2012. So basically I just want to see improvement every year from Dame. That's all I ask. I don't expect him to be Gary Payton in his second year, but if he works on it and he shows effort, he will get better.

 

[BoBoBREWSKI]

Good read. Thanks for posting it.

 

[Strenuus]

All I care about is that his defense is improving. That's the most important thing.

His DRTG was 112 last year. It's 110 this year. That's a small improvement, but it shows that he's trying to improve.

If you look at a guy like Steph Curry, he started out with a 111 DRTG his rookie season, a 112 his second year, and then he progressively got better and better. He's currently at a 102 DRTG.

Derrick Rose is another guy that started out with a really bad DRTG at 113, but he got better every year and he got it down to 101 2011-2012. So basically I just want to see improvement every year from Dame. That's all I ask. I don't expect him to be Gary Payton in his second year, but if he works on it and he shows effort, he will get better.

I agree. I've seen some really good things from Dame this year.... Pretty much, as a team, if we can duplicate what we did in the first 3 quarters at Dallas... we'll be damn near unstoppable.

 

[Natebishop3]

I agree. I've seen some really good things from Dame this year.... Pretty much, as a team, if we can duplicate what we did in the first 3 quarters at Dallas... we'll be damn near unstoppable.

I just think people are overreacting to the loss last night. Houston had a game similar to our games against Philly and Charlotte where we flat out couldn't miss from three. That was the difference in the game. Of course, we shot over 73% for the whole game against Philly, while Houston's percentages dropped by the end of the game.

Houston's shooters don't average anywhere near what they shot last night ,and it didn't have much to do with defense. They just got lucky. It happens. Move on.

 

[PtldPlatypus]

I do love how he had Kyle Lowry as one of his Eastern Conference starters, yet people in here were saying recently that trading Mo Williams+ for him would be a bad deal.

 

[Strenuus]

I just think people are overreacting to the loss last night. Houston had a game similar to our games against Philly and Charlotte where we flat out couldn't miss from three. That was the difference in the game. Of course, we shot over 73% for the whole game against Philly, while Houston's percentages dropped by the end of the game.

Houston's shooters don't average anywhere near what they shot last night ,and it didn't have much to do with defense. They just got lucky. It happens. Move on.

To a point, I haven't seen any gross overreactions to last night. It was just one of those games where you tip your hat to the other team. They pretty much beat us at what we've done to beat other teams. I have no problem about what happened last night, because we still shot well (45%) and to our average. Shit happens.

But, on both sides of the ball, we saw what Portland is capable of if they switch it on. It's weird to say that so soon, when "switch it on" is usually reserved for the Miami's of the league.

 

[Strenuus]

I do love how he had Kyle Lowry as one of his Eastern Conference starters, yet people in here were saying recently that trading Mo Williams+ for him would be a bad deal.

I'd sure as hell do it.

 

[Natebishop3]

I'd sure as hell do it.

I think Lowry is too good to have coming off the bench though.

 

[Strenuus]

I think Lowry is too good to have coming off the bench though.

That's a good problem to have. Think about it though, you could have Lowry come off the bench as PG, have dame come off the ball to SG... play them together in the first half when Dame is usually passive, then flip it in the second half when Dame is more aggressive. And CJ can fill the gaps.

 

[Natebishop3]

That's a good problem to have. Think about it though, you could have Lowry come off the bench as PG, have dame come off the ball to SG... play them together in the first half when Dame is usually passive, then flip it in the second half when Dame is more aggressive. And CJ can fill the gaps.

Dame is such a good scorer though. If you could acquire Lowry, would you consider playing them together in the starting lineup?

 

[Strenuus]

Dame is such a good scorer though. If you could acquire Lowry, would you consider playing them together in the starting lineup?

And move Wes to the bench? Yeah. I'd do it.

 

[KeepOnRollin]

I think with CJ that a distributing PG is more needed on the bench then having another SG.

 

[Natebishop3]

I think with CJ that a distributing PG is more needed on the bench then having another SG.

I would like to add a defensive minded point guard who can pass and shoot threes.

Essentially, I want Greg Anthony.