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2015-2016 NBA Thread

I don't know how they are 3.5 games behind the Jazz but this Kings team looks like they have given up. The announcers are a pain to listen to.
 
Deangelo russell doe.
39 points, 14-21 from the field, and 8-12 from three
 
ONE LOVE said:
He has had really good games since Byron Scott changed their offense to motion offense. Interesting to see how he does for the remainder of the season.
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I wish we could trade exum for him
 
fishonjazz said:
I wish we could trade exum for him
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We could really use a PG with good size and solid 3pt shooting right now. Russell has been pretty pedestrian so far this year but 1 thing you can't fault him on is his 3pt shooting. He is shooting 3's at a respectable 36% for the year. That's pretty solid for a rookie PG ...
 
Is anyone else really surprised at how OKC is playing? They have two top 5 players(Arguably, and they seem to really struggle in close games....everyone seems to wanna do the OKC method of tanking for good picks, but they don't strike me as legit challengers to the Warriors or even the Cavs
 
Crawlnstall said:
Is anyone else really surprised at how OKC is playing? They have two top 5 players(Arguably, and they seem to really struggle in close games....everyone seems to wanna do the OKC method of tanking for good picks, but they don't strike me as legit challengers to the Warriors or even the Cavs
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And how is that because of their tanking strategy?
The way I see it they drafted subpar in the late lottery/late first round. Had they went a "chase the 8 seed and try to get high profile free agents to OKC"(which btw would have never showed up there), they wouldn't be in a promising position to deliver quality playoff series and have a fanbase with legitimate contention hopes.
In the other case they would have drafted ****ty anyways in the middle of the first round, and slowly bottomed out because the lack of draftee value would have snowballed in a bad way, where they got overrated, overpaid sub star players carry you into a "even worse than now mans land" position.

Look hypothetically at their position, had they drafted the guys we assume to develop the best from '14 backwards and the post Harden guys we KNOW at this point turned out best.

'14:
to OKC: #21 Mitch McGary
potential better picks:
#23 Rodney Hood(Might have stopped them from making the silly Dion Waiters trade)
#25 Clint Capela(Promising rim protector, maybe not on the same trajectory as the rest of the Thunder core. Could have been a good trade chip though now after 2 years)

to OKC: #29 Josh Huestis
potential upgrades:
#41 Nikola Jokic(Better prospect than Kanter imo at this point)
#46 Jordan CLarkson(Could have saved them from trading for DJ Augustin)

'13:
to OKC: #12 Steven Adams
upgrades:
#15 Giannis(His development would have been probably slower there, but imagine having him either as an insurance for Durant leaving or using him as a trade chip now in year 3/4. Would return superstar talent from a team deciding to rebuild)
#27 Rudy Gobert(Imagine them having the Stifle Tower together with Durant playing mainly PF. Would open up their O so much together with better wings -> Imagine they drafted Hood+Jokic the following year)

'12:
to #28 Perry Jones
upgrades:
#34 Jae Crowder(Versatile wing)
#35 Draymond Green
#39 Khris Middleton

'11:
to OKC: #24 Reggie Jackson
upgrade:
#30 Jimmy Butler(Jackson was good value though)

'10:
to OKC: #11 Cole Aldrich
upgrades:
#15 Larry Sanders
#18 Bledsoe(They owned that pick, but drafted it away for a conditional future 1st)
#19 Avery Bradley

So once they didn't have top5 picks any longer that they hit in '07-'09, the crucial failure were bad decisions by GM and owner.
They used the value of first round picks to establish a core, but then failed to recognize the value of those for future roster development.
They decided to pick the wrong prospects way too often or make bad decisions in general when it came to trading away 1st rounders. That blame has to be shared between the talent scouts and the GM. It's the talent scouts job to recognize the talent and convince the GM to select that talent. If you can't successfully sell the value of a prospect to your GM, if you're really good you should hire somewhere else.
If you're the GM and listen to the wrong people/don't listen to ppl, then you shouldn't have those ppl in the organization/shouldn't be the GM.

Their top picks were all flawed stars:
Durant never fully embraced the concept of sharing the ball to this day and his defensive commitment is shaky. That hurts the talent around him, who mostly don't feel involved enough just standing in the corner watching Durant operate.

WEstbrooks defensive commitment is inconsistent, his defense contains a lot of gambling and offensively, his 3 point shot isn't a strength. He can compensate for that though with being very good in other situations, his ball handling is careless at times though.

Harden straight up refuses to play defense and his offensive style, while effective also disengaged teammates when he dribbles the air out of the ball.
With Harden the GM/ownership failed hard. They didn't anticipate league wide growth, weren't willing to move into luxury tax region temporarily, and traded him for inferior talent and picks, which they whiffed since as pointed out above, they aren't exceptional at drafting outside the top5.

TL;DR
-drafted poorly outside top5
-GM ****ed up draft picks and trades and couldn't convince his owner to spend more
-owner misjudged growth, was too cheap to take a credit against the rising evaluation of his team(Like what 300M investment that rises 10% or faster per year, isn't worth taking on a couple of millions as a credit to see the team have success and maybe even increase the local income as a result of the success)
-talent has flaws that prevented the team to have ultimate success despite weak front office
 
spycam1 said:
Lyles is promising... but yes.

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk
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Coming out of college I didn't think he had an off the dribble game.. more of a catch and shoot type guy with little defense. He has surprised me with how versatile he is with the ball.


In the past if in doubt you always go with size .... now with the rise of Curry, Lillard, McCollum, I think you might be better off going with someone with a dribble, speed, and range.
 
ONE LOVE said:
We needed a legit PG this season but not really a SG since Hood has been pretty solid... so I dunno if Booker would have improved our records very much.
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And with Burks presumably here and not injured.
 
Soooo.... The lakers beat the warriors
and devin booker is an *******
 
ONE LOVE said:
Coming out of college I didn't think he had an off the dribble game.. more of a catch and shoot type guy with little defense. He has surprised me with how versatile he is with the ball.


In the past if in doubt you always go with size .... now with the rise of Curry, Lillard, McCollum, I think you might be better off going with someone with a dribble, speed, and range.
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He was more than catch and shoot in college.

Murray is a rich man's Booker.
 
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