I have a hard time believing Green could impart that much rotation to the ball when it looked like it was just on his fingertips. Plus it looked like the ball changes direction a bit. Regardless, even if it was the wrong call it didn’t affect the outcome.
The slo-mo of that (second clip below) is predictably epic, right down to the Ibaka "NOOOOOOO...."
If he waits until the end of the shot clock the game is basically over as long as he even hits the rim, yeah if they need the points he should take it in rhythm, but he gave the raptors their best chance by shooting, he's still a bad shooter. If he waits he's putting up the shot with about 3 seconds left at most the raps have a second left down 2, more likely time runs out or they only have a few tenths.
After watching the replay of 5 Raptors stopping while quitting on the play once the ball got to Iggy I change my position on this. Nobody was closing out on him with Siakam the closest who could have gotten there as the shot clock was running down but Iggy didn’t need to “make” a shot......he only needed to take two dribbles inside the arc and throw up a floater as the shot clock is expiring to run the clock out. Even IF he misses and even IF the Raptors get a clean rebound they would be hard pressed to have the ball witj any time left on the clock.
Are you contractually obligated to remind people that you're the anti-hot take guy once a day or something? We get it.
This can't be right. Do you mean only Calipari Kentucky players? Marcus Camby played under Calipari at UMass and played in the 1999 Finals for the Knicks.
This is fair but I will add that, at least for me, people calling the series over after a sequence or a few games or simply doing drive-by lazy predictions adds no value to the discussion. I strongly prefer some analysis supported by data but I realize others view this forum as more akin to talk radio.
I don’t count out the Raptors because we don’t know who will be able to suit up for GS.
2 things pop out from these clips. One is I hadn't realized with a great pass Livingston made -- a no look pass takes balls at that time, and it moved Van Fleet to Curry which is what explains why AI was so open/had no one to close him out. Two, AI didn't really shoot in rhythm as he had hesitated. So, sure, since he wasn't in rhythm, he really could have waited another second or two.....but who cares? You hit the shot and there's nothing to talk about. And he hit it.
Unless he has 2 different injuries, the Woj tweets don’t really make sense together. The collarbone isn’t a rib at all, I’m guessing the first tweet wasn’t entirely accurate and the second was clarification. The first rib is near the collarbone and are often injured together though, so I guess he could have both injuries.
I mean, aside from having some shots fall and continuing to play the type of defense they can, against a very depleted team.
Durant hasn't stepped on the floor yet for basketball activities and I'm still expecting him to miss the remainder of the series.
Looney has developed into an elite role player in this system much like someone like James Posey was in Boston and Miami. If he signs a 4/$60m deal in Charlotte this summer they will likely be looking to move him the following year after being "disappointed."
I know many gravitate toward Siakam as a comp when looking at a young frontcourt player is mentioned but Siakam also didn't touch a basketball until 5-6 years prior to entering the NBA and was an excellent ballhandler in college for a frontcourt player. He put up 20/12/2 his final year at New Mexico State and named his Conference Player of the Year...….it wasn't like he was raw and unskilled when he entered the league.
This is what I was expecting based on what I've seen/experienced with even mild hammy injuries. Thanks for update.
To be clear, I wasn't comparing Looney to Siakam per se — just using Siakam as a (rather extreme) example of a player in their age 22 season not being anywhere close to a finished product. At the same time, I'm keenly aware that most 22 year-old players don't make anywhere near the leap from age 22-24 that Siakam has.
As I understand it, having no early background in hoops can be much of negative as a positive with respect to projection, since many "late-bloomers" never gain the critical muscle memory, fundamentals, and/or feel for the game of a guy weaned on hoops. Yes, Siakam was productive as a 21 year old in the WAC against the likes of Utah Valley and Grand Canyon; but that should be looked at through a slightly different lens from what Looney — as an 18 year old starting the season coming off hip surgery, and finishing it with a mask from a broken face — did at UCLA. In any case, Siakam's rookie year numbers (9.6 points / 0.7 assists per 36, .523 true shooting, .143 from three) suggest he was indeed pretty raw and unskilled entering the league. I didn't follow Siakam at age 18-21 very closely, but my general sense is that he was significantly behind Looney (a former point guard) in terms of ball skills, shooting, passing, and hoops IQ at similar ages.
They are now, because Siakam has taken the leap from age 22 to 24 that the vast majority of players do not. But I don't think anyone without benefit of hindsight can claim that Siakam in his age 22 season was the better player than Looney in his (current) age 22 season. Looney at 22 is the better passer, ballhandler, rebounder, scorer, and defender, with a much more positive impact on the scoreboard than 22 y.o. Siakam. I would definitely allow that 22 y.o. Siakam had more physical upside: though similarly sized (Looney has the slightly better wingspan and standing reach), Siakam seems like the significantly quicker and more explosive athlete, especially after Loon's multiple hip surgeries. Positionally, I think Siakam's quickness allows him to be more of a modern-day 3-4 in the PG/LeBron/Durant mode, where Loon looks destined to be more of a 4 / smallball 5. That's a pretty significant difference.
Agreed, and he wasn't even putting up big numbers. He averaged about 18/6/5 with average shooting at his peak, which was just 4 years. His claim to fame was that he was the best player on an average (at best) team, was a good (not great) defender, was a great dunker and was incredibly durable (82 games in 5 of his first 6 seasons while averaging about 38 mpg).
His case isn’t even borderline. He’s a good player. He is an amazing fit and has been a great role player (not to diminish him, he just has a specific role) on an all time great team. He also has years of piling up stats behind him to confuse the matter. We probably saw this happen with the Celtics where some of their secondary key cogs started getting into HoF but Igoudala just isn’t a HoF caliber player. We have seen him try to be the guy on a team and it wasn’t anything special. Full credit to him for embracing a more limited role and being truly top notch at it but that can’t make him a HoF player
Would Bosh getting inducted be out of line? Career cut short by injury and his stats dropped when he teamed up with LeBron and Wade, but he was an 11 time All Star and a key piece of two championships as part of a historically significant team.
Chris Bosh is absolutely going to make the Hall of Fame. Some of you haven't realized how low the bar is for induction. 11x All-Star, gold medalist and 2x champion is basically a lock.
Not to pile on but Bosh is a lock for the Hall. He was an 11x All-Star. Those guys have historically gotten in easily.
I picked two examples that were obviously better than Iguodala but still not guaranteed enshrinement (Bosh, I grant).
I love the Kirilenko comp for this exercise and he could have played a similar role as Iggy had he landed in the right situation post-30.
