I suppose that's what happens when your father is one of the better shooters ever and then you spend your entire life shooting. Still insane though for a PG to have shooting numbers like that.
Reminder: Jonny Flynn was picked ahead of Steph Curry. Thabeet and Rubio, I can kinda understand (giant and once-in-a-generation pure point potential). But Jonny fucking Flynn? And Tyreke Evans, too. Flynn, age 24, couldn't make the Detroit Pistons squad as a backup and played this season in Melbourne, Australia.
Re: Danny Granger. Exactly my point. He's fallen off, but he's fallen off to the point where he's swappable with those guys, and the game stays consistent. He also was tight on defense I do believe. So I'm going to amend my statement. Indiana could do it without Granger, but won't. The Heat are the woodchippers. Can we stop acting like other teams have a chance? They are fucking 41-2 since early February. Who the fuck are we kidding? I'll be damned if they lose 3 games before the Finals. Fucking Heat, Fucking LeBron, fucking smug Pat Riley. I hate them all, pure jealousy. Thank god Gator doesn't post here anymore, I'd wouldn't be able to handle his smugness.
I ultimately agree with you, but for what it's worth, Paul George is better defensively than Danny Granger ever was. He's first-team all-defense good on that end of the floor. I've been tossing around in my head whether a Granger-for-Amare swap makes sense. It seems to involve both teams jettisoning an asset they don't want for one that might help. Indy has a surprising amount of cap room; they're below median in terms of payroll. The roadblock would presumably be Amare's lack of defensive attentiveness.
Youth helps quite a bit. Yeah, I'm taking the Under on that. Watching these games, they obviously created a switch, and you can see it on Spoelstra's and Lebron's face when its off and when its on. I will be hate watching the rest of the playoffs. If Harden was still on the Thunder, and Westbrook didn't get injured, we'd be having a conversation.
Yeah, don't remind me: http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-t...-the-t-wolves-screwed-up-the-2009-draft-right Regardless of what you guys may think of Simmons, the bottom line is that the Wolves drafted three point guards in the 1st round of the 2009 draft and all they have to show for it is Rubio. I hate rooting for this team. I should've just stuck with the Lakers.
In the event that Dwight Howard doesn't sign an extension with LA, which teams out there would be dumb enough to give him a max contract? Can he still be considered a franchise player at this point? I think not. He can still put up big numbers, but is he worth the headache and distraction?
He is absolutely a franchise player. If Roy Hibbert can get a max contract, if Paul Pierce, and Bynum, and Kobe are max guys, then Dwight is absolutely in that category. Even half-assing it, he's still a borderline top-10 player in the NBA. The reason the Lakers lost is that their defense is absolutely atrocious, and he's not the elite, top-2 player he used to be that could cover for some of those mistakes.
Not to mention the fact that they can trade him to a team that would kill for him like Houston, Atlanta, or even Dallas. They won't, but still. Also, Indiana can't beat the Atlanta Hawks, and some people think they can beat the Heat. HA! Also if Kirk Hinrich is out for the season, the Nets are going to beat the Bulls. Nate's offense is going to suffer if he has to try and guard Williams who is bigger than him. Jimmy Butler can only guard one guy.
Keep in mind, there's max, and then there's Kobe's $30M max. The NBA salary rules are so convoluted that there can be $5 million or more separating the values of two "max" players. Some of the "max contract" guys are making less than half of Kobe's salary next year. The Dirk/Gilbert/Amare/Johnson group are in the $20M ballpark, while Hibbert is at $14M-ish, Bynum at $16.5M, Pierce at $16.8M. Pierce gets cheaper next year, and then the contract is done. For Dwight though.... it gets pricey. My understanding is that for a player in his 10th season with Bird rights, the maximum salary is $20,300,000 and 5 years. This makes him one of the four priciest players in the NBA (Kobe Dirk Amare Melo Johnson) and essentially equivalent to CP3, and creates an odd situation where the four of the six priciest players are under contract to two teams (NYK and LAL). The luxury tax situation in LA is really, really ugly but they can pay it if they so choose. What we can probably agree on is that you'd certainly have Dwight over J Smoove at the same price, right? Or versus a $14M Jrue Holiday? Howard or Wall is a more interesting question, but I'd say I prefer a $14M John Wall over a $20M Dwight Howard. There's also Monta Ellis and Al Jefferson out there. Monta seems to think he can do better than $11M, since he opted out. And I honestly have no idea what the market value of Big Al is. Ditto for Bynum. What is crazy hair, sat on a bench all year Bynum worth? Or Brandon Jennings? I doubt Howard will be the biggest free agent mistake of the offseason. Isn't everyone Nate has to guard bigger than him? And hasn't he been guarding Williams this entire time? Or has he been almost exclusively on the court when CJ is on for the Nets?
Kirk Hinrich was responsible for Williams, practically taking him out the game. Thibs played Kirk only when Williams was on the floor and took him off when he wasn't. The Bulls got three wins that way, because Gerald Wallace was inept as Deng locked him down, Johnson was being chased by Butler and Lopez was just being Lopez marginally annoyed by Gibson, Noah, and Boozer. With Nate on the floor, Deng and Butler switch a lot more and were playing this odd zone, help scheme that didn't work 100%. Allowing D Williams and Johnson to get off cleaner looks than previously. Then Wallace got lucky with his 3pt because he wasn't getting tired out by guarding Deng or being guarded that hard because he's the 4th option.
Fuck I wish someone would just deck Fisher. If he's going to dive to the floor after any contact at least give him a reason to get laid out.
Derek Fisher's flops are downright entertaining. He deserves an Oscar. They are wonderful. They are so funny. So blatantly obvious and cause Jeff Van Gundy to lose his shit. I'm pretty excited to see how there series progresses because of ALL the shit the media gives Westbrook for shooting too much, this and that...Durant is in the front seat of the struggle bus. They definitely are missing Harden against the Rockets...OH WAIT....
I'm just glad it's not against my team; I'd be ten times as pissed. Between Fisher and last night's Hack-Ashik I'm pretty much rooting for the Rockets at this point.
Speaking of Minnesota, they finally - FINALLY - ditched David Kahn. Flip Saunders is set to replace him. I'm not sure how good of an executive Saunders will be, but a sheet of drywall can be a better GM than Kahn. Saunders was the head coach when Garnett was drafted, so there's that.
Dwight Howard -- does he deserve a max contract, yes or no? IMO, what's between the ears (or rather, what isn't between the ears), is going to limit him more than his physical gifts are going to make him limitless. He should go somewhere where he can be THE man, like Houston or Dallas or even partner up with MJ on the Bobcats. This year in LA exposed him for what he is, and more importantly what he isn't, which is a franchise cornerstone. I truly don't believe he is worth a max contract, more like 2-3 years with a team option for another year at $7-10 per. However, because he'll put asses in the seats, and because of simply who he is, I do think someone, probably the Lakers, will offer him the max. Then again though, as a Spurs fan, I'm too biased right now because the sweep was too recent, and I'd like to know what y'all think of his situation.
2-3 years at 7-10 million? That's absurd. JJ Redick makes 6 million. Monta Ellis makes 11. Josh Smith makes 12.4, and he hasn't even gotten his raise yet. Raymond Felton makes 7.5. These aren't even "terrible" contracts, these are just random players I decided to look up. A healthy Howard was absolutely a cornerstone.