Gasol might still have some situational value thanks to his shooting and passing; but athletically he just looks cooked and I can't see him playing big minutes. Thought he was pretty cooked last season too.
2020-2021 NBA Game Thread
- Thread starter Kliq
- Start date
Yup. No bubble makes this inevitable. It’s really a matter of how bad it gets.
Didn't see the interview, but that sure seems weak. His play went way down during the playoffs...hard to explain that by virtue of not being fully healed when it was so much worse than what he did earlier in the season.
Just take responsibility, move on, and use the gibes as motivation. Used to like PG, but dang he seems a bit broken (great game last night, though).
I'll add I think the Clippers are being underrated going into this season. That talent is still the best in the league to my mind
Atlanta scored 83 in the first half
With 8+ min to go in the 3rd, Young has 33 points on 8/9, 5/6, 12/14 shooting, 6 assists, 4 rebounds
Hawks are up in Chicago, 96-64.
With 8+ min to go in the 3rd, Young has 33 points on 8/9, 5/6, 12/14 shooting, 6 assists, 4 rebounds
Hawks are up in Chicago, 96-64.
looks like PJ Dozier has earned himself a spot in the rotation in Denver
In the first half, he played 11 minutes and had 5 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists on 2/4, 0/1, 1/1 shooting.
In the first half, he played 11 minutes and had 5 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists on 2/4, 0/1, 1/1 shooting.
Hayward and Rozier combined for an efficient SEVENTY points tonight, and they still lost to Cleveland (without Kevin Love). Oops.
Hayward seems like a guy who is happy to put up nice looking empty numbers on an awful team that absolutely nobody is paying attention to. Good for him I guess.
Devin Booker just gave the universal "jerk off" sign to Josh Richardson, who was complaining to the refs.
Dame with zero points in the first half - and the Blazers are down 21 at the half. Could have had a better start to the season.
Wizards probably should have beaten the 76ers but lost due to a combination of throwing the ball away, bad calls, defensive breakdowns, and for some reason Brooks deciding to play Ish Smith and Raul Neto together.
RWB also missed a breakaway dunk. 'Zards are definitely better than last year (should be in playoff contention).
As for PHI, I think their downgrade defensively is bigger than their upgrade offensively. Harris looked horrible.
RWB also missed a breakaway dunk. 'Zards are definitely better than last year (should be in playoff contention).
As for PHI, I think their downgrade defensively is bigger than their upgrade offensively. Harris looked horrible.
The Suns will be fun to watch (even more fun than they were last year). Chris Paul legit looks like that old ass gym rat that somehow owns the young'ins with guile. Like, he legit looks like a father of 4.
They need to be under more control, tho. 14 TO's in the first half?
They need to be under more control, tho. 14 TO's in the first half?
Does Fenix have the best backcourt in the nba with Klay being injured?
Maybe Washington and Portland to round out the top 3
Maybe Washington and Portland to round out the top 3
Ice Trae with 37 points on 10-12. That is the most points on 12 or fewer FG since Barkley scored 36 points back in '87-88. He has a bit more floor spacing and Do to feed him in the best spots. He is going to be must see every night as his looks have never been this good.
Interesting: Last night only two teams had fewer than 10 turnovers. The Celtics were one (with six). Portland was the other (also with six). The low turnovers was characteristic of the good games from the Celtics team last year; I was a bit surprised to see that in the box score of the first game of the year and with Kemba out and two new vets, but I'll take it.
Fortunately the Celtics made up for it with maybe the worst transition D I’ve ever seen from an NBA team.
He’s been listening to sports talk radio and the absurd talk about him being league MVP. People should be selling these bubble stories yet instead they are buying them. Lillard is obv a super player but the MVP is silly talk. Remember Jamal Murray in the bubble......yeah, he went 1-9 in a loss to the Kings. Be careful of the bubble ascenders.....players and teams (Heat I am talking to you).
If Hayward went full Rasheed Wallace/Randy Moss, I will become just a huge fan of his.
Yeah, it was pretty bad, but luckily mostly confined to the first quarter. Four quarters of that and they would've lost by 20.
Don’t worry about Harden, he has to self isolate until Friday (tomorrow) and test negative.
View: https://mobile.twitter.com/wojespn/status/1342139253782929409?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet
View: https://mobile.twitter.com/wojespn/status/1342139253782929409?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet
Not that I think he’s going to sustain the 1.02 TS%, but I do wonder if Trae’s Steph Equity (Stephquity?) is higher than most have given him credit for. I don’t think it’s a given that Luka has the higher offensive upside. It’ll be interesting to see him work off ball more when playing with Rondo.
Steph is an average defender. Trae Young is horrifically bad at defense. He has an undeniably high offensive ceiling but his defense is so bad that it’s hard to see him ever being a top tier player.
Also, Luka already is one of the best offensive players ever and has a lot of potential to improve as a shooter.
I didn't see the game but this Athletic article suggested that since Trae has more offensive help, he can devote more energy to defense and his defense was better.
But it was his defensive effort that arguably was key to the most encouraging moments of the night. His off-ball awareness was great. He was fighting through screens and not simply dying. He was hustling and was a willing defender. I’ve said this countless times, but the ceiling of this team rises if Young can simply go from being graded as one of the worst defenders in the league to just a regular minus. If you’re a Hawks fan, you have to love seeing plays like this ("Free safety @TheTraeYoung gives up his body to make a play."):
I didn’t say that the Stephquity = 1, but yes, I’m well aware that Trae is a very bad defender.
And since I was talking explicitly about offense, you must agree if you think Luka’s one of the best offensive players ever, and Trae’s scoring and passing numbers were virtually identical to his last year, with slightly higher turnovers but slightly higher efficiency. Luka’s a couple of months younger, and maybe he can get to where Trae is as a shooter, which would put him very high on the offensive GOAT hierarchy, but Trae can improve too.
Edit- now that I’m looking at the stats, I might not have even given Trae enough credit. I don’t think there much of stat-based argument that he was worse than Luka last year on offense. In addition to the nearly identical rate stats for scoring and passing, his ORPM was significantly higher- 7.14 (second overall behind Giannis and ahead of Harden) vs Luka’s 4.88. He’ll be an interesting case study for the “offense > defense” and “PG defense doesn’t matter that much” people. Celtics made it work with IT, but it takes some conscious effort.
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Without a doubt, and again, I'm talking strictly on offense, where I get the sense that Luka’s generally considered meaningfully better even though the numbers don’t really support it. But even if their defensive skills and effort are comparable, Luka's size is going to give him a significant edge overall. Steph as a measuring stick for Trae is important because of the secondary effects of Steph's court-warping gravity. Trae doesn't have to be a 43% 3PT guy, but if he's a 39% with a similar shot profile as Steph while getting to the rim 9 times per game, with even better vision than Steph, that's a guy worth building around regardless of terrible defense. Schlenk's banking on this, and surrounding Trae with shooters and long defenders is the right way forward, but the Hawks won't really be a serious threat until they get guys that are both, rather than loading up on dudes who only fit one or the other. For as good as he was in college, Oklahoma was barely a winning team, in large part because they had the same problem.
I will say that it is an insult to Luka to say that a player who physically cannot compete on one end of the floor has potential to be better than him. But hey, that’s just my opinion.
Edit: Disregard if we are only discussing offensive end of the floor.
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This is the thing that people have a hard time unpacking. Trae is such a black hole defensively that his offensive dominance is discounted. It would probably be productive if we could focus the conversation on how much his obscene defense costs the team, particularly in a playoff environment. Problem is that the defensive analytics just aren't where they need to be.
We instinctively realize that his bad defense puts Luka miles ahead of him in value overall, but it's good to call out that there isn't a whole lot of daylight between them on the offensive end of the floor. Trae is that elite already, and there isn't much of an age difference between them either.
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Trae doesn't have the physical tools to be a good defender, but if he can become even a mediocre defender, he could easily become an All-NBA level player.
People seem to regret that the trade was ultimately Luka for Trae and Cam Reddish, not just Trae. There's definitely a scenario in which Reddish blossoms and becomes a borderline star, and Atlanta wins or at least ties the trade even if Luka is better than Trae.
I think it's underselling Luka. It's really hard in the NBA for a couple of guys to equal the impact of an MVP level talent. Trae and Cam can be good and that's great, but Luka had one of the best seasons ever for a player his age.
This team is ready to take off. The culture change with Adams and Bledsoe is something to watch for on the defensive end.
Edit:This post was immediately followed by the Pelicans watching Duncan Robinson catch and shoot a couple open 3’s while failing to get back on defense a few times. Magic.
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