The move itself isn't that hard. Executing the move as a 7 footer is.There hasn't been a big since Olajuwon and none prior who could effectively pull off this move. Without the quickness to be deceptive that shot gets thrown back in the face of 99.9% of bigs who try it. That's like saying Kareem's sky hook was an easy shot but bigs simply don't try it.
The move is difficult for anyone to execute against NBA defenses, thus the reason you don't see anyone doing it.The move itself isn't that hard. Executing the move as a 7 footer is.
That's amazing. Gave me a much-needed chuckle.There's nobody more interesting in the NBA:
They should be more annoyed with themselves for valuing the pick more than a #3 pick that would have allowed them to plug a huge hole in the roster. After watching Brown I'm glad they did.Sixers have to be pretty annoyed with the Lakers right now
People kind of lost their minds over Smart's strong series against Atlanta -- even before Parker took a step forward (so far) this season, he was clearly the better player of the two. Embiid v Parker is an interesting debate -- I think you'd have to roll the dice on Embiid's ceiling, but Parker's floor is awfully high, whereas Embiid's floor is "plays in fewer than 100 career NBA games."At the end of last season there were people arguing Marcus Smart over Jabari. Looks like the range he added in the 2nd half of last year has carried over.
The counterpoint to this is that Wiggins may actually be bad. TL;DR version- low-efficiency high volume shooters who don't do much else tend to be over-rated, and for a guy who was touted as having great defensive potential, Wiggins is currently dead last among SFs in DRPM, and was terrible last year as well. Demakis unfavorably compares Wiggins' 2nd and 3rd year with a bunch of other wings and concludes that with the right development curve, he could be a more athletic Derozan, but a Rudy Ga-type career is a more reasonable expectation.Wiggins/Jabari/Embiid -1/2/3 looking pretty good a bit after people started to write that draft off. Who would be number one today? Without injury concerns Embiid probably, but I would guess as is it would stay the same.
So if a fair compromise is in between DeRozan and Gay how does this make him remotely close to "actually being bad?" He's still only 21 years old, he's not supposed to understand defensive schemes yet while playing with other 21 years olds who also don't and without having learned from veteran teammates to boot. We know how one player not in sync with the others can ruin a defensive sequence so I don't put a ton of weight into defensive metrics in a situation such as this. Wiggins clearly has the physical and mental tools to be a very good defender down the road.The counterpoint to this is that Wiggins may actually be bad. TL;DR version- low-efficiency high volume shooters who don't do much else tend to be over-rated, and for a guy who was touted as having great defensive potential, Wiggins is currently dead last among SFs in DRPM, and was terrible last year as well. Demakis unfavorably compares Wiggins' 2nd and 3rd year with a bunch of other wings and concludes that with the right development curve, he could be a more athletic Derozan, but a Rudy Ga-type career is a more reasonable expectation.
Well, the claim is that while he could eventually develop into a DeRozan-type, currently, he is in fact actually bad.So if a fair compromise is in between DeRozan and Gay how does this make him remotely close to "actually being bad?" He's still only 21 years old, he's not supposed to understand defensive schemes yet while playing with other 21 years olds who also don't and without having learned from veteran teammates to boot. We know how one player not in sync with the others can ruin a defensive sequence so I don't put a ton of weight into defensive metrics in a situation such as this. Wiggins clearly has the physical and mental tools to be a very good defender down the road.
I've always said that the best thing the Cavs ever did for LeBron was surround him with high character vets for his first couple of years. It was everything else they did wrong after. Minnesota did get Garnett for a year and change, but they seriously needed to move the Kiddie Corps bench filler for vets to help teach the kids to win. It never ceases to amaze me how many teams get that part wrong.So if a fair compromise is in between DeRozan and Gay how does this make him remotely close to "actually being bad?" He's still only 21 years old, he's not supposed to understand defensive schemes yet while playing with other 21 years olds who also don't and without having learned from veteran teammates to boot. We know how one player not in sync with the others can ruin a defensive sequence so I don't put a ton of weight into defensive metrics in a situation such as this. Wiggins clearly has the physical and mental tools to be a very good defender down the road.
It is such a disservice to young talents to not have the necessary guidance and leadership from veteran teammates. This isn't new either. It spans back decades and decades in this league.I've always said that the best thing the Cavs ever did for LeBron was surround him with high character vets for his first couple of years. It was everything else they did wrong after. Minnesota did get Garnett for a year and change, but they seriously needed to move the Kiddie Corps bench filler for vets to help teach the kids to win. It never ceases to amaze me how many teams get that part wrong.
I will now bang my head on the wall for not getting to see Len Bias realize his considerable talents after spending the early party of his career with a bunch of future HOFers.It is such a disservice to young talents to not have the necessary guidance and leadership from veteran teammates. This isn't new either. It spans back decades and decades in this league.
4s or 3s is the expectation. 2s would be almost too much to hope for at his size.http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/sports/sixers/Sixers-view-Simmons-as-their-point-guard-when-ready-to-play.html
Brett Brown says Simmons will play point guard when he come back, and Bayliss will play off guard offensively but guard pg on defense. Makes sense since they have so many big men. I wonder if Simmons will guard 2s or 3s.
I think Demakis should definitely be wary of confirmation bias based on his pre-draft rankings, but the numbers don't lie. I was mildly surprised at how highly some here seem to rate Wiggins, given the discussions we've had in the past about high-volume scorers like Gay who don't do much else (pour some out for Knucklecup, who somewhere undoubtedly still thinks that Rudy can't fail and that his soft seven will eventually embrace monogamy), and I thought the piece was worth sharing.That article just reads like a guy who hates Andrew Wiggins. He had him 7th on his board and was somehow vindicated because Marcus Smart, Exum, Aaron Gordon, Nurkik and Capela are all clearly better than Wiggins. And Parker too, ftm, who he had 8th.
I think Wiggins in current form is totally overrated and the fact his overall game hasn't improved much is scary, but it does look like he improved his 3 point shot this year. If he's really a 40% shooter from 3 point range, he doesn't really have to do much of anything else to be a productive player. A bust? Nonsense.
Jimmy Butler, Klay Thompson. along with most traditional twos in NBA history?Wiggins obviously has the physical tools to become a plus defender and the form to become a plus shooter, and you're right that if he's shooting 40% from three, he's well on his way (even if his TS% is actually down this year), but how good of a player can he be if he remains a poor rebounder and poor passer?
But Wiggins is a three. A three who rebounds like a two, distributes like a four, and is a major defensive liability.Jimmy Butler, Klay Thompson. along with most traditional twos in NBA history?
Both those examples are exceptional defenders, and I believe efficient scorers typically. If Wiggins is an excellent defender and volume scorer with some efficiency, sure the passing and rebounding isn't going to make him bad. But he's not efficient, he's not a decent defender, let alone elite, so the other flaws matter.Jimmy Butler, Klay Thompson. along with most traditional twos in NBA history?
I think those arguing against Wiggins are coming from the perspective that "pretty good" is a failure for Wiggins based on his pre-draft hype. If he were a Celtic I think a lot of people would be let down by him being "pretty good".many players who played guard in the eighties and nineties would be forwards today.
And there were tons of guys in that wing position who pretty much were not terribly rounded w/re to playmaking and rebounding. I'm not saying that they were huge successes but they definitely had a lasting place in the league. Guys like Anderson and Scott come to mind but you could also throw in Mashburn and Finley.
Virtually all those guys were 3-4 year college players so the comparison isn't completely, since Wiggins' current season matches up with their rookie (or senior seasons).
The promising thing with Wiggins is that his efficiency is holding steady while he's taking on a bigger and bigger role in the offense.
Yeah, he's not going to be Tracy McGrady and I know that's what people were hoping from him, but I'd bet on him being a pretty good player overall.
Yea, that's a pretty big stretch.If he were a Celtic he would have been surrounded by character vets and likely a lot better.
And Avery Bradley. Followed by Lil' Zeke, Jae Crowder, and then Amir Johnson, Jonas Jerebko, etc.. In Minnesota he's been surrounded by his fellow kids, which leads to a lot of boneheaded play. They had a little over a year of Garnett which helped some, but aside from that the other two vets have never managed to play for a .500 team. (Also while Brandon Bass wasn't very talented, he was a vet with a track record of playing for winning teams, which is not a net negative.)Yea, that's a pretty big stretch.
His rookie year he would have been surrounded by Rajon Rondo, Brandon Bass, and Gerald Wallace.
The Comp that gets thrown out a lot is Tyson Chandler, it's not perfect, but it's not terrible.I never got the love for Noel. Who is his comp? A rich mans Amir in his Toronto days? He should be pissed and trying to get moved out of town as a FA this summer but nobody will give up anything for him.....because he'll be a FA this summer.
The situation still sucks here.
That's my take. Elite defensive 5 that you don't need to run much for on offense, gets points on slashing and lots etc. His rebounding is sub elite though but partly offset by his hands, his steals numbers are superb, and his ability to switch to smaller players. In a pnr league the latter is a significant offset to his rebounding.The Comp that gets thrown out a lot is Tyson Chandler, it's not perfect, but it's not terrible.
The argument for him is that based on his first two years he can be an elite defensive 5, who can protect the rim, and has enough agility to shut down PnR. That has real value.
I keep seeing this same point made ad nauseam about Noel, and without fail, people are simultaneously critical of Noel's game and insistent that there's some giant market for him in restricted free agency that is scaring teams away from trading for him.How would you deal with the Noel situation? He's injured, doesn't yet possess even Amir or Tyson's offensive component, and is a FA in 7 months who wants to get paid.
Nobody is trading for him and he's a bad fit with the current group. What other options are there for him? It reminds me of our own Rondo situation from years past in a lot of ways.
I don't understand your point about it not being both. A team can absolutely not like Noel's physical history, his limited game.....AND that if he remains on the floor this year that someone will offer him the type of deal that they woudn't want to commit to long term.I keep seeing this same point made ad nauseam about Noel, and without fail, people are simultaneously critical of Noel's game and insistent that there's some giant market for him in restricted free agency that is scaring teams away from trading for him.
Noel is either an injury prone one-dimensional role-player, or he's an RFA that's about to get so overpaid that a team acquiring him in a trade will be forced not to match his offer. It's one or the other, not both. If a team thinks Noel helps them, and he fits what they're doing, they'll trade for him.