Minnesota Sports Forum

Awesome article today in the Wall Street Journal. Guess who LeBron James' all-time best player pairing is in terms of Net Rating? Drum roll please.....The great Alex Caruso!

They have played 540 minutes together and have a net rating of +18.6. The second best player pairing for LeBron is D-Wade. Then its Bosh, Love, and Irving.

The point of the article wasn't to suggest that Caruso is the best player that LeBron has ever played with. It was to suggest how critical it is to have smart role players that know how to fit in next to stars.

The key to this franchise over the next year or two is to turn two or three of these young guys on rookie deals into legit complimentary pieces for KAT and DLO. The other key is for KAT and DLO to toughen up and start leading more on the defensive end.

Q12543 wrote:Awesome article today in the Wall Street Journal. Guess who LeBron James' all-time best player pairing is in terms of Net Rating? Drum roll please.....The great Alex Caruso!

They have played 540 minutes together and have a net rating of +18.6. The second best player pairing for LeBron is D-Wade. Then its Bosh, Love, and Irving.

The point of the article wasn't to suggest that Caruso is the best player that LeBron has ever played with. It was to suggest how critical it is to have smart role players that know how to fit in next to stars.

The key to this franchise over the next year or two is to turn two or three of these young guys on rookie deals into legit complimentary pieces for KAT and DLO. The other key is for KAT and DLO to toughen up and start leading more on the defensive end.

I agree, Q.

Regarding our need for complementary pieces, Rosas has identified player development as a high priority for his regime. To that end, he has assembled what I'd consider a solid group of developmental candidates to potentially file that complementary role. He brought in some intriguing undrafted free agents in Naz Reid and McLauglin last year. I still like Nowell as a talented second round pick from last year's draft. Layman has some talent and is still young, but we didn't get to see much of him because of his big toe. Culver doesn't look like he'll ever live up to being the #6 pick, but he definitely has potential to be a very good rotation role player who defends, slashes and provides some playmaking. Okogie is a physically gifted athlete with a high octane motor and he showed marked improvement in his second season. And of course, you wouldn't want me to forget about Jarred Vanderbilt. :) Add to all that the fact that the Wolves have two first round picks this year, including the top pick in the draft, and the 3rd pick in the second round. There's quite a bit to work with there.

Regarding DAT and DLO, I think you hit the nail on the head. It's time for both of those talented players to toughen up and I'd say to grow up.

AD with the buzzer beater on just an atrocious play by Plumlee. That's a heartbreaker for Denver. Plumlee didn't even get screened off he just went to LeBron and expected Grant to switch for literally no reason. Brutal

Anthony Davis scored the last 10 points for the Lakers including the game-winner. Nikola Jokic scored the last 12 for the Nuggets. Ho-hum.

Draft the wing that isn't as good as the big because bigs don't win in the NBA. Or something like that.

(You all get the point. I'm saying this in jest. Kek is one of my favorite guys on this forum. We just disagree on that one. 8))

Camden0916 wrote:Anthony Davis scored the last 10 points for the Lakers including the game-winner. Nikola Jokic scored the last 12 for the Nuggets. Ho-hum.

Draft the wing that isn't as good as the big because bigs don't win in the NBA. Or something like that.

(You all get the point. I'm saying this in jest. Kek is one of my favorite guys on this forum. We just disagree on that one. 8))

Hahaha. Right when he hit i was like cam is going to give me shit. I still don't think Wiseman is even close to the prospect Davis was.

Also you can give me shit all in good fun, like the back and forth

khans2k5 wrote:AD with the buzzer beater on just an atrocious play by Plumlee. That's a heartbreaker for Denver. Plumlee didn't even get screened off he just went to LeBron and expected Grant to switch for literally no reason. Brutal

You see this more and more... from pros to young kids.

It used to be a badge of honor of sorts to get through screens. Now, the switches are basically automatic. Obviously, there's a reason why fighting through screens doesn't work as well anymore in the pros... But it's times like this when relying on switches EVERY time seems rather foolish.

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

khans2k5 wrote:AD with the buzzer beater on just an atrocious play by Plumlee. That's a heartbreaker for Denver. Plumlee didn't even get screened off he just went to LeBron and expected Grant to switch for literally no reason. Brutal

You see this more and more... from pros to young kids.

It used to be a badge of honor of sorts to get through screens. Now, the switches are basically automatic. Obviously, there's a reason why fighting through screens doesn't work as well anymore in the pros... But it's times like this when relying on switches EVERY time seems rather foolish.

It wasn't even a screen which is the problem. Lebron didn't move that entire play. Plumlee got beat and rather than even make an attempt at recovering he just ran at Lebron and yelled for the switch hoping Grant would save his ass. If he actually got screened off then a switch makes sense there, but Grant didn't switch because his guy didn't set a screen to warrant a switch. Just a terrible play by Plumlee.

Jamal Murray was fantastic tonight. What a great playoff run for him.

thedoper wrote:Jamal Murray was fantastic tonight. What a great playoff run for him.

Yep. Murray's a stud. Jerami Grant was also great tonight.

Camden wrote:

thedoper wrote:Jamal Murray was fantastic tonight. What a great playoff run for him.

Yep. Murray's a stud. Jerami Grant was also great tonight.

I thought Murray played a bit of an uneven game while watching it. He seemed to make more poor decisions than normal last night.

But he also hit big shots, made sweet passes and filled the boxscore. I woke up really surprised at just how efficient he was. I still think he struggled throughout the game at times... but you'd never know it looking at his fantastic boxscore. He's definitely legit... which might be illustrated in guys like me pointing out his flaws in an otherwise great game/win.