msudaisy26
Footballguy
At best they are a second round team in the West. Probably the favorite in the East.
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2024-25 NBA Thread: posters rush in to make final bad Bronny takes before thread locks (27 Viewers)
- Thread starter Capella
- Start date
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At best they are a second round team in the West. Probably the favorite in the East.
Capella
Footballguy
West is fun as hell though.
OKC and Denver in the very first tier.
Houston right after them with Minnesota and I think if the Paul-Beal things happen LAC a half-step behind them maybe. Clippers maybe most upside in the whole league if everybody can stay healthy (spoiler: they cannot).
Lakers have issues but LeBron and Luka together is no easy task either.
OKC and Denver in the very first tier.
Houston right after them with Minnesota and I think if the Paul-Beal things happen LAC a half-step behind them maybe. Clippers maybe most upside in the whole league if everybody can stay healthy (spoiler: they cannot).
Lakers have issues but LeBron and Luka together is no easy task either.
Yo Mama
Footballguy
They’ll also have to figure out how much they want to pay Norm Powell now too since he’s a UFA after this season. Clippers didn’t want to pay him next year.
Desert_Power
Footballguy
Time is a son of a *****
jvdesigns2002
Footballguy
A lot of potential egos on that roster as well. If Lue can manage those personalities and extract maximum output out of them—the talent is there. The ability to stay healthy will certainly be a key factor. One thing that I like about the Collins and Lopez pairing is that those are bigs that can spread the floor. Collins has added 3-point range to his game and he shot nearly 40% from there last season.
Capella
Footballguy
They’re in no man’s land. Lots of decent players, no stars, really no chance of winning a title but maybe you have to pay Herro and Powell? Riley will never tank and I don’t know if they even have all their draft picks if they wanted to. They should probably clear cap space for the next potential mega-free agent. Too bad for them Luka is in what is probably the only more desirable city.
Craig_MiamiFL
Footballguy
Jazz: (After falling to #5 with league worst record) "We're not tanking again!"
GOB
Footballguy
That's the azz to you, buddyJazz: (After falling to #5 after league worst record) "We're not tanking again!"
Yo Mama
Footballguy
Blazers are no longer sending any 2nd rounders to the Celtics in the Jrue Holiday deal.
“According to the source, a recent review of Holiday’s medicals revealed nothing substantial enough to warrant the trade being negated. However, there was enough there to lead the Blazers to slightly alter the terms of the deal.”
Straight player swap now.
“According to the source, a recent review of Holiday’s medicals revealed nothing substantial enough to warrant the trade being negated. However, there was enough there to lead the Blazers to slightly alter the terms of the deal.”
Straight player swap now.
General Malaise
Footballguy
NOTHING STOPPING US NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!111111111111
General Malaise
Footballguy
Played disc golf and had lunch with a fella who runs a web service devoted to high school basketball players and has been covering the sport for decades. Super nice guy but the last thing that resembles a basketball player - he's like 5'5" and a balding Asian man. But his brain is an encyclopedia of basketball knowledge. My twins joined us for the outing and I told them to ask Jed anything and everything about basketball and they did. One question they asked was 'who was the best HS player you covered from the state of Oregon". Without missing a beat he said "Kevin Love". He listed off a few but Love was his 1.01.
Jayrod
Footballguy
That's the azz to you, buddyJazz: (After falling to #5 after league worst record) "We're not tanking again!"
You win the truncated team name contest hands down. Kinda jealous I didn't think of it first.
GOB
Footballguy
LFG!!!
You know who else is getting the max* extension??? Mrs. GOB.
*Vet minimum numbers if we are honest
Yo Mama
Footballguy
I always ask to get signed to a two-way contract for my birthday, but the Mrs.usually sends me down to the G league for more reps.
SWC
Bromigo
i want to see if the bucks can trade away every pick they have until 2050 and it will be like early 90s mike dunleavy years all over again where you buy an upper deck ticket and just go immediately sit in the front row and no one even bothered to yell at you they were just happy to only have to clean up one level of the bradley take that to the bank brohans
mr. furley
Footballguy
heard on an NBA podcast yesterday "the most interesting part of this trade is the 2032 unprotected pick"
no more trades. just stop it.
no more trades. just stop it.
Craig_MiamiFL
Footballguy
jvdesigns2002
Footballguy
That’s a bit surprising as his contract is not terrible for what he provides. I’m guessing that the rest of the league knows that the Kings are motivated to move him and are holding back. Myself personally—and I’m not sure if it’s feasible for either—but I think he would be a nice fit for the Grizzlies or the Pistons.
jvdesigns2002
Footballguy
I agree with most of this except for the Lakers. I think health will be the biggest concern for the Lakers—and if they stay reasonably healthy—I personally would put them right up there with Denver and Houston—and possibly slightly ahead of Minnesota. Here is my rationale—even if Lebron drops off a bit due to age—that team is set up to where Luka and Reeves are more than capable of picking up any slack from a potential Lebron decline. Every indication that I’ve seen so far indicates that Luka is has been a lot more disciplined with his fitness this offseason—which is huge. We also are looking at a team that finished as a third seed in a crazy western conference even with having a rookie head coach and dealing with a massive shift in strategy when they traded AD for Luka. I think that JJ will b more equipped to be a better coach with one season under his belt, I think that Luka is in better shape, I don’t see any reason why Reeves wouldn’t continue to evolve as a player, and I really think the Ayton pick up is big for them. I think the Lakers might be one of the only teams in the West that could suffer an injury to one of their superstars (luka or lebron) and one of their stars (reeves or ayton) and still end up with a top 4-5 seed. I think I’d have it as
OKC-tier 1
Denver/LAL-tier 2
Minny/Hou/LAC/GS-tier 3
This is not the order that I think the teams will be seeded at the end of the regular season—but rather—this order represents my power rankings of the teams coming out of the west to be in the finals. Keep in mind—these order is based on Jonas playing with Denver this season, and assuming that Beal does go to the Clippers. If those things don’t happen or if other moves do happen, I’d come back and edit this post and make changes.
the moops
Footballguy
Tied for third and just 2 games from finishing 9th. Just to add context
Kev4029
Footballguy
I'm not sure if this is trolling or the best JMon impression we've ever had here.
Who is the Lakers 4th best player? Do they have a definitively plus defender that will be in the rotation? Did you just call the guy that the 36-46 Blazers were so desperate to get off of that they ate 20-something million dollars for the privilege?
The Lakers were a good story last year but they had a +1.2 net rating (that is the expected net rating of a 44-38 team).
Instinctive
Footballguy
I think the Lakers might give up a record setting amount of points every game.
jvdesigns2002
Footballguy
Do you want to talk about Denver’s defensive performance in the regular season last year? Were the Pacers a defensive juggernaut? Who is the Lakers 4th best player is your question? How many teams have a best player that is better than an in-shape Luka? How many teams have a 2nd best player that is as good as Lebron? How many teams have a 3rd best player that is as dynamic as Reeves?? Last I remember, the Suns that had Ayton as their 4th option (a double double machine that is capable of getting 16-10+ as a 4th option on 60% from the field) made a finals run.—and frankly—Booker is no Luka—and Mikal Bridges is no Lebron. No—I don’t think that the notion that the Lakers are an actual contender to come out of the west is a troll.
Mister CIA
Footballguy
My Spurs and My Zards are dealing. Welcome to SA, Kelly Olynyk.
Twitter link (be careful): https://x.com/ShamsCharania/status/1942732972727362004
Twitter link (be careful): https://x.com/ShamsCharania/status/1942732972727362004
dgreen
Footballguy
Olynyk was a great Zard. We're going to miss him.
Link says Spurs also getting Heinrich Himmler to help in the back court.
msudaisy26
Footballguy
The Pacers were in the East where everyone died, and they were a top 10 defensive team in 2025 after their horrible start. That finals run that the Suns made was the worst finals run in history. Every team they faced had a major injury. They were down 2 - 1 in the first round to the Lakers when Davis got hurt and missed the rest of the series or they would have been the 76ers of the West.
Having a healthy and in shape Luka could be huge as you said, but you are really reaching with some of the other things.
jvdesigns2002
Footballguy
The Denver Nuggets were one of the worst defensive teams in the league last season and took the defensive juggernauts championship winning thunder to 7 games in the playoffs. They were clearly a contender even with their laughably bad defense. This was due to having a player that is absolutely masterful and elite on the offensive end. The Lakers have that and more. The Houston Rockets were a team that most considered defensively dominant last season—and they got bounced in the first round by a 7 seed. I don’t disagree that the Lakers do have some flaws—-but the notion that calling them legit contenders to come out of the West is a troll—is laughably false. Defense might win a lot of regular season games—but championships tend to be won by teams that have players that can make plays in clutch times in the playoffs. Denver showed that last season. Shai also stepped up and became “that guy” this season. The Pacers also rolled because they had guys like Haliburton and shooters that hit clutch shots at opportune times. The Lakers have at least 3 guys that are capable of making clutch plays in Luka, Lebron and Reeves. The Lakers might also be the team that can handle an injury to their best player the best. If shai, jokic, ant, KD, steph, Kawhi were to suffer an injury—do you like their chances more than if the Lakers were to lose either Luka or Lebron? Lastly- I do think that people are overlooking some of the unsung guys beyond the top 4. I thought Rui played very well last season. When Vanderbilt came back, he was a defensive pest for the Lakers. Laravia was a quiet but good pickup for them as well. I think the bigger reach is counting the Lakers out—as opposed to counting them in.
Kev4029
Footballguy
1. Again, Ayton was bought out because the 12th seeded Blazers didn't think he was worth having around. Not to say that I don't think Ayton is useful, but two teams have given up on him in three years because both because of his play and his off the court antics. He's a very good defensive rebounder and a good midrange shooter but the rest of his game is sub-average and he is arguably the softest big man in the NBA.
2. I would argue that Denver had a very disappointing defense last year during the regular season and trying to compare the 25 Lakers vs the 24 Nuggets defensively is kind of my point - remember the Nuggets fired their coach because the season fell apart. The Lakers are even worse than that and they don't have arguably the best offense in the NBA. Being a good offense and a terrible defense is not a recipe for success. The only plus defender (in the regular season - Lebron is still a plus when he is locked in... he's 41 years old this year) on the Lakers' entire roster is Jarred Vanderbilt and the last time we saw him playing for real in the playoffs, he was played off the floor because he's so bad offensively.
3. This is a team sport - the Lakers are going to be relying on serious minutes from LaRavia, Vincent, Hayes, Vanderbilt, and Knecht (if healthy, three of those 5 will probably end up with ~1800 minutes and the other two will probably end up with ~1200 minutes) while having Reaves be their #1 perimeter defensive option to start and close games.
4. They are one of the least athletic teams in the NBA. Their best athlete is probably 41 YO Lebron James. Luka for all of his offensive gifts has generally played at a very slow and deliberate pace. With a bad and unathletic defense, they will also get very few pick-six type opportunities for easy transition buckets. I suspect they will be near the bottom of the league in both pace and fast break points - they might end up with a top-ish tier half court offense but the lack of easy transition points will drag their overall offense down.
5. Again, their record was incredibly deceptive last year, they were a middle of the pack net rating which is typically much more predictive for team success. And they probably got worse this offseason, as compared to the 2024-25 team on the whole season. I don't know where to look this up, but I remember that they inexplicably had a top 5 defense after the Doncic trade that was driven by an easy schedule with lots of opposing players out.
Ultimately, I expect them to be ~8th in offensive efficiency and close to bottom 5 defensively. That is a 24-25 Kings or Suns sort of team (i.e. roughly a .500 team/neutral net rating). Optimistically, if they are roughly the 5th best offense and 20th best defense, you are looking probably more like a repeat of last season in terms of quality which was the expected win-loss of 44-38. They are nowhere near the quality of a healthy Nuggets, Rockets, and TWolves and very unlikely at the level of the Warriors or Clippers (pending Leonard which is a crapshoot). They are the Grizzlies-Spurs-Kings-Mavs Tier.
Mister CIA
Footballguy
As a Spurs fan, I kind of like the current state of the Lakers.
the moops
Footballguy
Lakers were 15th in defense last year. I don't see why they can't replicate that again this year
Kev4029
Footballguy
The Def Rating ranks of the last bunch of champs (in order from most recent to least recent):
OKC - #1
Bos - #3
Den - #15
GS - #1
Mil - #10
LAL - #3
Tor - #5
GSW - #11
GSW #2
Cle - #10
GSW - #1
SAS - #3
Mia - #9
Mia - #4
The big outlier was Denver in 22-23 but that comes with two huge caveats - #1 Jokic was far and away the best player in the NBA and their defensive rating with Jokic on the court that year was 111.6 which would have been good for 4th in the regular season. Not coincidentally, the Nuggets had a 110.8 Drtg in the playoffs (which would have been #2 in the regular season).
The other teams that were more decent then good included the Warriors that were coasting after playing in the finals the previous three years, the Cavs who were definitely coasting with arguably the best player of all time playing near his peak, and the Bucks who had a 107.3 Drtg with Giannis on the court which would have been good for #2 in the NBA.
TL;DR - Every championship team of of the last 15 years has had an elite defense. Outside of maaaaybe the Nuggets, every championship team has won with an elite defense and a somewhere between a good and great offense. The Lakers might have the offense to win a title if they had the defense of the 04 Pistons or Spurs.
msudaisy26
Footballguy
While 15th is league average, I would say it is misleading because once you are in the playoffs you will one of the worst defensive teams left and you really aren't going to get any help with that rating from the teams that are tanking. Those teams will both be behind you in the rankings and help your ranking when they are starting G league players.
Kev4029
Footballguy
They have nobody that can either guard the ball nor protect the paint. While the Doncic trade was great, they traded one of the very best defensive players in the NBA for one of the very worst. They also replaced a good defensive player (DFS) with a mediocre one (LaRavia).
Their defense was bouyed by some crazy defensive three point shooting luck just before and after the Doncic trade. They had a 20 game sample around that time frame where they had a 106 Drtg and teams were shooting less than 32% from three (on a higher volume). In April they had a 116 Drtg, in March they had a 117 Dtrg but in January and February they had the best defense in the NBA. Its worth noting that Doncic only played 7 games in that stretch for the Lakers while Davis played 11 (out of 26 Lakers games total for those two months).
the moops
Footballguy
If you listed the offensive rating you would see a similar trend.
OKC - #3
BOS - #1
DEN - #5
GSW - #17
MIL - #5
LAL - #11
TOR - #5
GSW - #3
GSW - #1
CLE - #3
Turns out you probably just need to be a really good offensive and defensive team to win a championship
Instinctive
Footballguy
I thought the rule of thumb was anyone not in the top 10 of both didn't really have a chance. Some exceptions, but those are generally when a team clearly can be top 10 in both but wasn't for an obvious reason (like Jokic in Denver playing more, and defense being very good with him playing).
Zow
Footballguy
Really impressive analysis here. Well done.
Kev4029
Footballguy
Agreed. That ties in to my tl;Dr right after those rankings.
General Malaise
Footballguy
LeBron: "I can fix him".
GLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
jvdesigns2002
Footballguy
1. Again, Ayton was bought out because the 12th seeded Blazers didn't think he was worth having around. Not to say that I don't think Ayton is useful, but two teams have given up on him in three years because both because of his play and his off the court antics. He's a very good defensive rebounder and a good midrange shooter but the rest of his game is sub-average and he is arguably the softest big man in the NBA.
2. I would argue that Denver had a very disappointing defense last year during the regular season and trying to compare the 25 Lakers vs the 24 Nuggets defensively is kind of my point - remember the Nuggets fired their coach because the season fell apart. The Lakers are even worse than that and they don't have arguably the best offense in the NBA. Being a good offense and a terrible defense is not a recipe for success. The only plus defender (in the regular season - Lebron is still a plus when he is locked in... he's 41 years old this year) on the Lakers' entire roster is Jarred Vanderbilt and the last time we saw him playing for real in the playoffs, he was played off the floor because he's so bad offensively.
3. This is a team sport - the Lakers are going to be relying on serious minutes from LaRavia, Vincent, Hayes, Vanderbilt, and Knecht (if healthy, three of those 5 will probably end up with ~1800 minutes and the other two will probably end up with ~1200 minutes) while having Reaves be their #1 perimeter defensive option to start and close games.
4. They are one of the least athletic teams in the NBA. Their best athlete is probably 41 YO Lebron James. Luka for all of his offensive gifts has generally played at a very slow and deliberate pace. With a bad and unathletic defense, they will also get very few pick-six type opportunities for easy transition buckets. I suspect they will be near the bottom of the league in both pace and fast break points - they might end up with a top-ish tier half court offense but the lack of easy transition points will drag their overall offense down.
5. Again, their record was incredibly deceptive last year, they were a middle of the pack net rating which is typically much more predictive for team success. And they probably got worse this offseason, as compared to the 2024-25 team on the whole season. I don't know where to look this up, but I remember that they inexplicably had a top 5 defense after the Doncic trade that was driven by an easy schedule with lots of opposing players out.
Ultimately, I expect them to be ~8th in offensive efficiency and close to bottom 5 defensively. That is a 24-25 Kings or Suns sort of team (i.e. roughly a .500 team/neutral net rating). Optimistically, if they are roughly the 5th best offense and 20th best defense, you are looking probably more like a repeat of last season in terms of quality which was the expected win-loss of 44-38. They are nowhere near the quality of a healthy Nuggets, Rockets, and TWolves and very unlikely at the level of the Warriors or Clippers (pending Leonard which is a crapshoot). They are the Grizzlies-Spurs-Kings-Mavs Tier.
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1) your take on Ayton is absurd. A player getting bought or traded out doesn’t mean that they are trash. Last I checked—the most recent time when the Suns had a chance to win the finals was when Ayton was on the team. How have they performed after moving on from him and got Nurkic/KD/Beal. The Suns were a far bigger train wreck AFTER Ayton left than they ever were with him. The trailblazers are a rebuilding team that has a young center in Klingon that they want to develop. Ayton was not ever going to be a foundational building block of that team—and I assure you that several teams were after Ayton’s services. I would bet that the Pacers were in on it—and should Jonas end up retiring or going to Europe—I assure you that your Nuggets would have gladly taken him. Damian Lillard just got bought out—is he trash too? I will say it again—if my 4th option is a big that can get me 16-10, on 60% shooting, 75% from the free throw line—that’s a pretty dang good lineup. When I think of Ayton, I see a guy that is really good when he’s motivated and a guy that is still serviceable when he’s not.
2. I don’t think that the Laker defense will be as bad as the Denver defense was last year. Denvers defense was atrocious and I even called out Jokic’s defensive as being atrocious in this very thread. If you think Ayton is the softest center in the league defensively, you should look at tapes of Jokic on his historic march 7th 30-20-20 game against the Suns where everybody glazed him—but I brought up the fact that the Suns opposing big men NICK RICHARDS AND MASON PLUMLEE combined for 36points-16 rebounds on 16-21 from the field (nearly 80%). Secondly—you put up another post showing the defensive rating of other champions—but I said that I think Lakers are a contender to come out of the west. Thirdly—you didn’t mention any of the offensive team ratings of previous champions either—so that is incomplete. Lastly—did you do any research on how the Lakers performed defensively AFTER trading Anthony Davis last year? The Lakers traded away potentially the best defender and rim protector in the league away—and their defense did not suffer. In fact, in a lot of metrics—it improved. Calling it a product of a schedule and injuries is bogus because every team plays against injured teams—and the lakers themselves were dinged up.
3. We all agreed that Denver was a contender in the West last season. What kind of depth did Denver have? What kind of athleticism did they have? We’ll see. I really don’t care about what their seed is in the playoff as long as they avoid a healthy OKC team. I think they can easily compete with the rest in playoff basketball where the game slows down. Keep in mind, my assessments are based on Luka being fit and healthy—which I don’t know if we saw at all last year. I think Minnesota losing Nickeil is going to hurt them. He was a solid ball handler for them, a great defender that would back up a hugely foul prong guy in Mcdaniels., a guy that could hit from range— a great glue guy. Even if the Lakers end up as a 7 seed next season and play a team like Houston in the first round. If both teams are healthy—I’d take them over Houston in a 7 game series. I’m a wolves fan, but I’d take a healthy Lakers team over a healthy Wolves team regardless of seeding in a 7 game series. I could absolutely see them beating Denver as well. I just don’t see the drop off of them versus the other top tier western conference teams (aside from OKC) that seem to be getting glazed in here.
2. I would argue that Denver had a very disappointing defense last year during the regular season and trying to compare the 25 Lakers vs the 24 Nuggets defensively is kind of my point - remember the Nuggets fired their coach because the season fell apart. The Lakers are even worse than that and they don't have arguably the best offense in the NBA. Being a good offense and a terrible defense is not a recipe for success. The only plus defender (in the regular season - Lebron is still a plus when he is locked in... he's 41 years old this year) on the Lakers' entire roster is Jarred Vanderbilt and the last time we saw him playing for real in the playoffs, he was played off the floor because he's so bad offensively.
3. This is a team sport - the Lakers are going to be relying on serious minutes from LaRavia, Vincent, Hayes, Vanderbilt, and Knecht (if healthy, three of those 5 will probably end up with ~1800 minutes and the other two will probably end up with ~1200 minutes) while having Reaves be their #1 perimeter defensive option to start and close games.
4. They are one of the least athletic teams in the NBA. Their best athlete is probably 41 YO Lebron James. Luka for all of his offensive gifts has generally played at a very slow and deliberate pace. With a bad and unathletic defense, they will also get very few pick-six type opportunities for easy transition buckets. I suspect they will be near the bottom of the league in both pace and fast break points - they might end up with a top-ish tier half court offense but the lack of easy transition points will drag their overall offense down.
5. Again, their record was incredibly deceptive last year, they were a middle of the pack net rating which is typically much more predictive for team success. And they probably got worse this offseason, as compared to the 2024-25 team on the whole season. I don't know where to look this up, but I remember that they inexplicably had a top 5 defense after the Doncic trade that was driven by an easy schedule with lots of opposing players out.
Ultimately, I expect them to be ~8th in offensive efficiency and close to bottom 5 defensively. That is a 24-25 Kings or Suns sort of team (i.e. roughly a .500 team/neutral net rating). Optimistically, if they are roughly the 5th best offense and 20th best defense, you are looking probably more like a repeat of last season in terms of quality which was the expected win-loss of 44-38. They are nowhere near the quality of a healthy Nuggets, Rockets, and TWolves and very unlikely at the level of the Warriors or Clippers (pending Leonard which is a crapshoot). They are the Grizzlies-Spurs-Kings-Mavs Tier.
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1) your take on Ayton is absurd. A player getting bought or traded out doesn’t mean that they are trash. Last I checked—the most recent time when the Suns had a chance to win the finals was when Ayton was on the team. How have they performed after moving on from him and got Nurkic/KD/Beal. The Suns were a far bigger train wreck AFTER Ayton left than they ever were with him. The trailblazers are a rebuilding team that has a young center in Klingon that they want to develop. Ayton was not ever going to be a foundational building block of that team—and I assure you that several teams were after Ayton’s services. I would bet that the Pacers were in on it—and should Jonas end up retiring or going to Europe—I assure you that your Nuggets would have gladly taken him. Damian Lillard just got bought out—is he trash too? I will say it again—if my 4th option is a big that can get me 16-10, on 60% shooting, 75% from the free throw line—that’s a pretty dang good lineup. When I think of Ayton, I see a guy that is really good when he’s motivated and a guy that is still serviceable when he’s not.
2. I don’t think that the Laker defense will be as bad as the Denver defense was last year. Denvers defense was atrocious and I even called out Jokic’s defensive as being atrocious in this very thread. If you think Ayton is the softest center in the league defensively, you should look at tapes of Jokic on his historic march 7th 30-20-20 game against the Suns where everybody glazed him—but I brought up the fact that the Suns opposing big men NICK RICHARDS AND MASON PLUMLEE combined for 36points-16 rebounds on 16-21 from the field (nearly 80%). Secondly—you put up another post showing the defensive rating of other champions—but I said that I think Lakers are a contender to come out of the west. Thirdly—you didn’t mention any of the offensive team ratings of previous champions either—so that is incomplete. Lastly—did you do any research on how the Lakers performed defensively AFTER trading Anthony Davis last year? The Lakers traded away potentially the best defender and rim protector in the league away—and their defense did not suffer. In fact, in a lot of metrics—it improved. Calling it a product of a schedule and injuries is bogus because every team plays against injured teams—and the lakers themselves were dinged up.
3. We all agreed that Denver was a contender in the West last season. What kind of depth did Denver have? What kind of athleticism did they have? We’ll see. I really don’t care about what their seed is in the playoff as long as they avoid a healthy OKC team. I think they can easily compete with the rest in playoff basketball where the game slows down. Keep in mind, my assessments are based on Luka being fit and healthy—which I don’t know if we saw at all last year. I think Minnesota losing Nickeil is going to hurt them. He was a solid ball handler for them, a great defender that would back up a hugely foul prong guy in Mcdaniels., a guy that could hit from range— a great glue guy. Even if the Lakers end up as a 7 seed next season and play a team like Houston in the first round. If both teams are healthy—I’d take them over Houston in a 7 game series. I’m a wolves fan, but I’d take a healthy Lakers team over a healthy Wolves team regardless of seeding in a 7 game series. I could absolutely see them beating Denver as well. I just don’t see the drop off of them versus the other top tier western conference teams (aside from OKC) that seem to be getting glazed in here.
FarFromHome
Footballguy
As a long time Blazer fan I was thrilled when we got Ayton. Loved his skill set. The problem was that at some point he didn't want be there any longer. Tardiness to practice and team meetings is horribly unacceptable and selfish in my opinion. I don't know the guy. His temperament said it was time to move on. I wish him well.
General Malaise
Footballguy
I mean.....Ayton is pretty good when he plays. Thing is, he didn't really play all that much for a very bad Portland team. He didn't take rehabbing seriously, doesn't like hard coaching, isn't going to play hurt and may be the only professional player to miss a game because of snow. Imagine if a Green Bay Packer or Buffalo Bill didn't make a game because of snow. And Portland ain't the Frozen Tundra.
So, I think at this point, anything you expect positively from Ayton is wish-casting. I'm sure it's possible LeBron will reach him in a way every other veteran NBA player has not, but that's a big ask. His last two coaches despised him and JJ doesn't strike me as a guy who is going to take kindly mercurial, moody, dismissive, petulant behavior either.
On the court, when he's motivated, sure, good player. Look, I wanted to like him too! But you lose me as a fan when I go to work in the snow and you don't. And you get paid millions and millions more than I do.
So, I think at this point, anything you expect positively from Ayton is wish-casting. I'm sure it's possible LeBron will reach him in a way every other veteran NBA player has not, but that's a big ask. His last two coaches despised him and JJ doesn't strike me as a guy who is going to take kindly mercurial, moody, dismissive, petulant behavior either.
On the court, when he's motivated, sure, good player. Look, I wanted to like him too! But you lose me as a fan when I go to work in the snow and you don't. And you get paid millions and millions more than I do.
FarFromHome
Footballguy
Yep. I think the transition from the city of Portland to wearing purple and gold in LA is gonna do wonders for his desire to play. Imo
Encyclopedia Brown
Footballguy
At his press conference, Ayton went out of his way to praise Luka. He seemed genuinely excited to play with him.
I am not making excuses for the Ayton, but how many million trillion times has he heard from opposing fans that he was selected ahead of Luka. That has got to wear on you after awhile.
Yo Mama
Footballguy
I’m hoping there will be another move coming to consolidate a few of their expiring contracts to get a defensive wing, preferably someone that can be a solid point of attack defender. Someone like Herb Jones is probably too pricey asset wise, but maybe even a guy like Marcus Smart especially if he gets bought out (I know he’s not perfect though).
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