Around the NBA (non-Wolves talk)

[Monster]

I'm gonna say one guy I was wrong about was Bogdonovic who's i thought could be a solid rotation player at most (thought just watching him he could be better than some) but he is a starting SF for a surprising playoff team that is 2-2 in a series with Lebron. The Pacers seemed to nail pretty much every move they made last summer except drafting TJ Leaf when there have been other players that have been more impressive this season taken after him.

[JasonIsDaMan [enjin:7981157]]

I'm gonna say one guy I was wrong about was Bogdonovic who's i thought could be a solid rotation player at most (thought just watching him he could be better than some) but he is a starting SF for a surprising playoff team that is 2-2 in a series with Lebron. The Pacers seemed to nail pretty much every move they made last summer except drafting TJ Leaf when there have been other players that have been more impressive this season taken after him.

...and it totally has nothing to do with his contract since he is locked up for multiple years. Just kidding, IND can buy him out for $1.5m. That being said, this isn't Biyombo. Bog had a decent season as well to go with his playoff showing.

I don't hate what IND has done, especially hanging in on George and getting a good return. But Bog, Collison, and Stephenson are playing for contracts. And Al would love to be playing for a contract.

[JasonIsDaMan [enjin:7981157]]

Whatever is going on with Rubio it has been a statistical anomaly, he had a career year no doubt. Would have been nice is he played anywhere near this level for longer than 20 games while he was a Timberwolf. I hope he can keep it up, maybe we will add him to the long list of players that forget how to score when they come play for us. Maybe he has finally turned the corner?

Ricky is the same player efficiency wise as he was with the wolves. Which has always been good enough in my eyes.

Career high by a huge margin in eFG with a 23% usage. His scoring contribution has never been close to this. I'm glad for Ricky but I'm not willing to rewrite history because he's shooting and making them. He was "efficient" for us because he stopped shooting and missing.

Ricky always had more scorers around him in Minnesota than in Utah. He's had Pek, Love, Martin, KAT, Wig, and LaVine. In Utah he has Mitchell and that's about it in terms of above average shot creators. That being said, he did start scoring the ball for us once Thibs realized that Point Wiggins and Point LaVine wasn't working very well (I'm referring to last season) and he put the ball in Ricky's hands a lot more often.

My larger point is that some folks argued vehemently that he was the common thread in all of our losing years and all those close games were lost because of him or that he could never succeed at playoff basketball. While I don't think Ricky is more than an average starting PG, he's certainly good enough to start on a winning, playoff-caliber team.

He had points of high usage with really horrible scoring numbers too ( see his Sophmore year). There were Adelman years where the ball was "in his hands" and he couldn't score. It was never Thibs taking the shots, and isn't the only instance in his career he didn't help the offense with his scoring. He's always been streaky from what I can see. Which is why 3 games in the playoffs won't really prove anything anything in my mind. I think everyone agreed that Ricky is average. Sometimes that can be an asset (games 2 and 3 vs OKC) and sometimes that can be a liability (game 1). If he was my starter I'd be nervous if his usage averaged over 20 but the Jazz found a way to make it work. I still think his ideal role on a championship caliber team is manning a second unit, but I'm glad to see him playing some good ball for now.

True, his early years he was very inefficient as a scorer and preferred to get Kevin Love and Nikola Pekovic big contracts by getting them the ball in great scoring position! But starting about three season ago, he began improving his 2-point jumper and his eFG% has been going up every season ever since. He's at least passable now and teams that ignore him or play way off of him are doing so with a risk

I said months ago I thought that Utah was the situation to see if Rubio could be more than just the caretaker type he has been since pretty much a teenager playing professionally. In the playoffs his usuage rate is 28 only Mitchell amping the starters is higher. The next highest starter is 15.5. Some bench players are high usage guys but the Jazz need Rubio to do a lot and even score the basket all. They have scored over 100 points in every playoff game so far and that's no small thing with some teams struggling to score that many points in some of these games. Putting up 20-8-8 innthe playoffs is pretty good for almost anyone and Rubio is doing well enough...at worst. Can he keep it up? Does he have to? Idk it's working out for him there. Good for him. He has proved the doubters wrong to some extent this year. Not overwhelmingly but he overall even though it was streaky he didn't regress.

This NBA season may have had the most parody of any I can remember. The Pacers are a legit threat to take down the Cavs and are a pretty good team that was supposed to be innthe lottery. Utah lost their best player and ended up with only 3 less loses and is looking like they might beat the sorta superteam of OKC. Pelicans came out of nowhere and swept a good team in the playoffs. This league isn't perfect but it's pretty fun.

Google Bob Thate. UTA hired him right before dealing for Rubio. AND FOR THE LIFE OF ME.....do we know the name of MIN's shooting coach, or why they don't have one?

[JasonIsDaMan [enjin:7981157]]

Are we just going to ignore the fact the Pelicans just swept the Blazers? AD with 47 points and Jrue Holiday with 41 points. All this without Demarcus Cousins (coincidence or not)?

Good question, Matt. I was going to put the Pelicans on my list of great stories this season and I probably should have. What held me back was my assumption a while back that the Pelicans would probably be better without Cousins. I remember the last time we played them at Target Center I can shouting for Cousins to take the shot whenever he had the ball. Of course, whether he heard me or not, he almost alway took the shot. Yes, he made a number of them, but he also missed a lot and would turn the ball over more than a few times. In any event, the key is that Cousins actually disrupted the Pelicans' offense. The Pelicans had a hard time getting into an offensive flow because Cousins was dominating the ball. And it took the ball out of Holiday's hands and out of AD's hands.

Otherwise, no doubt the Pelicans have been impressive. I love the way they push the pace and move the ball. Like Rubio, Rondo is a master at running the offense and making players around him better. They're a fun team to watch and I'm glad they beat Portland.

Speaking of Portland, it will be interesting to see what they do this off-season. Will they try to add a piece or two around Lillard and McCollum or will they try to shake things up by possibly dealing either Lillard or McCollum? It will be an interesting off-season for them.

They have 10 players signed at $113.5m, which is projected to be well over the cap and less than $10m under the lux. I think they are who they are.

[Coolbreeze44]

Until Giannis gets more consistent on his jump shot, I'm sorry but you can't count him among the top 5 players in the league.

I think I actually Agee with what you are saying. Not being in the top 5 in the NBA isn't the worst thing. He turned 23 in December and is putting up Some pretty impressive numbers regardless of age. I think there are times he lacks consistency in general but looking at the stats are pretty impressive. The NBA is gonna be fun to watch the next 10+ years with some of these guys.

It's interesting that two of the most promising young players in the game struggle to shoot from distance.

Giannis.
Ben Simmons.

They are SO GOOD at still getting their shots from elsewhere, and shots for others, that it doesn't really hurt them as much as we might think. Personally, I think Giannis is right on the cusp of Top 5 players already. And Simmons could get there, too.

Part of it is because both are two-way monsters. They are very good defensive players who can guard multiple positions.

My point was that he already is hailed by a lot of pundits as a top 5 player. I don't think he's there yet. Davis, Harden, Westbrook, Curry, Durant, Lebron. There's 6, what two do you take out of there to put Giannis in?

[Monster]

Whatever is going on with Rubio it has been a statistical anomaly, he had a career year no doubt. Would have been nice is he played anywhere near this level for longer than 20 games while he was a Timberwolf. I hope he can keep it up, maybe we will add him to the long list of players that forget how to score when they come play for us. Maybe he has finally turned the corner?

Ricky is the same player efficiency wise as he was with the wolves. Which has always been good enough in my eyes.

Career high by a huge margin in eFG with a 23% usage. His scoring contribution has never been close to this. I'm glad for Ricky but I'm not willing to rewrite history because he's shooting and making them. He was "efficient" for us because he stopped shooting and missing.

Ricky always had more scorers around him in Minnesota than in Utah. He's had Pek, Love, Martin, KAT, Wig, and LaVine. In Utah he has Mitchell and that's about it in terms of above average shot creators. That being said, he did start scoring the ball for us once Thibs realized that Point Wiggins and Point LaVine wasn't working very well (I'm referring to last season) and he put the ball in Ricky's hands a lot more often.

My larger point is that some folks argued vehemently that he was the common thread in all of our losing years and all those close games were lost because of him or that he could never succeed at playoff basketball. While I don't think Ricky is more than an average starting PG, he's certainly good enough to start on a winning, playoff-caliber team.

He had points of high usage with really horrible scoring numbers too ( see his Sophmore year). There were Adelman years where the ball was "in his hands" and he couldn't score. It was never Thibs taking the shots, and isn't the only instance in his career he didn't help the offense with his scoring. He's always been streaky from what I can see. Which is why 3 games in the playoffs won't really prove anything anything in my mind. I think everyone agreed that Ricky is average. Sometimes that can be an asset (games 2 and 3 vs OKC) and sometimes that can be a liability (game 1). If he was my starter I'd be nervous if his usage averaged over 20 but the Jazz found a way to make it work. I still think his ideal role on a championship caliber team is manning a second unit, but I'm glad to see him playing some good ball for now.

True, his early years he was very inefficient as a scorer and preferred to get Kevin Love and Nikola Pekovic big contracts by getting them the ball in great scoring position! But starting about three season ago, he began improving his 2-point jumper and his eFG% has been going up every season ever since. He's at least passable now and teams that ignore him or play way off of him are doing so with a risk

I said months ago I thought that Utah was the situation to see if Rubio could be more than just the caretaker type he has been since pretty much a teenager playing professionally. In the playoffs his usuage rate is 28 only Mitchell amping the starters is higher. The next highest starter is 15.5. Some bench players are high usage guys but the Jazz need Rubio to do a lot and even score the basket all. They have scored over 100 points in every playoff game so far and that's no small thing with some teams struggling to score that many points in some of these games. Putting up 20-8-8 innthe playoffs is pretty good for almost anyone and Rubio is doing well enough...at worst. Can he keep it up? Does he have to? Idk it's working out for him there. Good for him. He has proved the doubters wrong to some extent this year. Not overwhelmingly but he overall even though it was streaky he didn't regress.

This NBA season may have had the most parody of any I can remember. The Pacers are a legit threat to take down the Cavs and are a pretty good team that was supposed to be innthe lottery. Utah lost their best player and ended up with only 3 less loses and is looking like they might beat the sorta superteam of OKC. Pelicans came out of nowhere and swept a good team in the playoffs. This league isn't perfect but it's pretty fun.

Google Bob Thate. UTA hired him right before dealing for Rubio. AND FOR THE LIFE OF ME.....do we know the name of MIN's shooting coach, or why they don't have one?

His name is Patton he came over from the Spurs he was the assistant to shooting Guru there (name starts with an E).

[AbeVigodaLive]

Until Giannis gets more consistent on his jump shot, I'm sorry but you can't count him among the top 5 players in the league.

I think I actually Agee with what you are saying. Not being in the top 5 in the NBA isn't the worst thing. He turned 23 in December and is putting up Some pretty impressive numbers regardless of age. I think there are times he lacks consistency in general but looking at the stats are pretty impressive. The NBA is gonna be fun to watch the next 10+ years with some of these guys.

It's interesting that two of the most promising young players in the game struggle to shoot from distance.

Giannis.
Ben Simmons.

They are SO GOOD at still getting their shots from elsewhere, and shots for others, that it doesn't really hurt them as much as we might think. Personally, I think Giannis is right on the cusp of Top 5 players already. And Simmons could get there, too.

Part of it is because both are two-way monsters. They are very good defensive players who can guard multiple positions.

My point was that he already is hailed by a lot of pundits as a top 5 player. I don't think he's there yet. Davis, Harden, Westbrook, Curry, Durant, Lebron. There's 6, what two do you take out of there to put Giannis in?

Westbrook.

But that still leaves him at #6. So we can agree he's on the cusp of a top 5 player...?




[Note: Granted, Westbrook has a better midrange game... but Giannis actually outshot Westbrook on three pointers this season...]

[JasonIsDaMan [enjin:7981157]]

Whatever is going on with Rubio it has been a statistical anomaly, he had a career year no doubt. Would have been nice is he played anywhere near this level for longer than 20 games while he was a Timberwolf. I hope he can keep it up, maybe we will add him to the long list of players that forget how to score when they come play for us. Maybe he has finally turned the corner?

Ricky is the same player efficiency wise as he was with the wolves. Which has always been good enough in my eyes.

Career high by a huge margin in eFG with a 23% usage. His scoring contribution has never been close to this. I'm glad for Ricky but I'm not willing to rewrite history because he's shooting and making them. He was "efficient" for us because he stopped shooting and missing.

Ricky always had more scorers around him in Minnesota than in Utah. He's had Pek, Love, Martin, KAT, Wig, and LaVine. In Utah he has Mitchell and that's about it in terms of above average shot creators. That being said, he did start scoring the ball for us once Thibs realized that Point Wiggins and Point LaVine wasn't working very well (I'm referring to last season) and he put the ball in Ricky's hands a lot more often.

My larger point is that some folks argued vehemently that he was the common thread in all of our losing years and all those close games were lost because of him or that he could never succeed at playoff basketball. While I don't think Ricky is more than an average starting PG, he's certainly good enough to start on a winning, playoff-caliber team.

He had points of high usage with really horrible scoring numbers too ( see his Sophmore year). There were Adelman years where the ball was "in his hands" and he couldn't score. It was never Thibs taking the shots, and isn't the only instance in his career he didn't help the offense with his scoring. He's always been streaky from what I can see. Which is why 3 games in the playoffs won't really prove anything anything in my mind. I think everyone agreed that Ricky is average. Sometimes that can be an asset (games 2 and 3 vs OKC) and sometimes that can be a liability (game 1). If he was my starter I'd be nervous if his usage averaged over 20 but the Jazz found a way to make it work. I still think his ideal role on a championship caliber team is manning a second unit, but I'm glad to see him playing some good ball for now.

True, his early years he was very inefficient as a scorer and preferred to get Kevin Love and Nikola Pekovic big contracts by getting them the ball in great scoring position! But starting about three season ago, he began improving his 2-point jumper and his eFG% has been going up every season ever since. He's at least passable now and teams that ignore him or play way off of him are doing so with a risk

I said months ago I thought that Utah was the situation to see if Rubio could be more than just the caretaker type he has been since pretty much a teenager playing professionally. In the playoffs his usuage rate is 28 only Mitchell amping the starters is higher. The next highest starter is 15.5. Some bench players are high usage guys but the Jazz need Rubio to do a lot and even score the basket all. They have scored over 100 points in every playoff game so far and that's no small thing with some teams struggling to score that many points in some of these games. Putting up 20-8-8 innthe playoffs is pretty good for almost anyone and Rubio is doing well enough...at worst. Can he keep it up? Does he have to? Idk it's working out for him there. Good for him. He has proved the doubters wrong to some extent this year. Not overwhelmingly but he overall even though it was streaky he didn't regress.

This NBA season may have had the most parody of any I can remember. The Pacers are a legit threat to take down the Cavs and are a pretty good team that was supposed to be innthe lottery. Utah lost their best player and ended up with only 3 less loses and is looking like they might beat the sorta superteam of OKC. Pelicans came out of nowhere and swept a good team in the playoffs. This league isn't perfect but it's pretty fun.

Google Bob Thate. UTA hired him right before dealing for Rubio. AND FOR THE LIFE OF ME.....do we know the name of MIN's shooting coach, or why they don't have one?

His name is Patton he came over from the Spurs he was the assistant to shooting Guru there (name starts with an E).

Chip Engelland. And if you read one basketball book: The Art of The Beautiful Game By Chris Ballard. Great interviews with about 7 shooting coaches, Steve Kerr, and Shane Battier.

[BloopOracle]

Why does Lebron's team wiltng and the Raptors yearly choke have to both be happening at the same time? I wish I could watch both!

[thedoper]

Why does Lebron's team wiltng and the Raptors yearly choke have to both be happening at the same time? I wish I could watch both!

Post of the playoffs right there. Everything is changing. Steph better get back quick.