NBA 2021-2022

elmo

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Well that's not my point at all, I didn't try to define greatness for all players and didn't attach it to a title. I meant that a player that has great individual stats that do not translate to winning meaningful games has his greatness in question. In the case of Westbrook, the issue with looking solely at his stats is that he generally has good stats whether we are talking about triple doubles, double doubles or being very close to it, he has great games with good stats and poor games with good stats too, which was the point of the sentence you quoted. We are talking about a player that often matches triple doubles or double doubles with double digits negative +/-.

He is fun to watch, he is a good player, he gives everything all the time but his overall contribution to winning is questionable.
Can't be that often considering his team has above 70% win rate when he has a triple double.
 

JPRouve

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Can't be that often considering his team has above 70% win rate when he has a triple double.
I didn't just mention triple doubles and his plus-minus are a strange one in the playoff. He routinely has double digits negative plus minus despite otherwise decent stats.
 

JPRouve

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Yes that is the main issue i had with your statement so I'm glad we agree on that now. However as to your point I've bolded, I don't usually look at the best player on a team who is consistently performing like the best player and say he is the reason i have a lower seed or i can't win. I'd say he is a big reason they have a chance to win or got into the playoffs to begin with. In those 5 years post Durant i think he overperformed in 3 out of five years. Does his game have issues in the playoffs especially against the best of the best absolutely but it doesn't cancel out all his other great qualities.
And I tend to look at everyone including the best player unless I have a very good reason not to. And in the case of Westbrook I have no reason to not question him alongside his teammates. He has great qualities but also great flaws; I think that it puts him in the good/maybe very good category and not in the great category because in the latter I have the likes of Durant or James. But that distinction isn't that important as long as we agree that there is a question whatever the answer that we respectively have.
 

Desert Eagle

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And I tend to look at everyone including the best player unless I have a very good reason not to. And in the case of Westbrook I have no reason to not question him alongside his teammates. He has great qualities but also great flaws; I think that it puts him in the good/maybe very good category and not in the great category because in the latter I have the likes of Durant or James. But that distinction isn't that important as long as we agree that there is a question whatever the answer that we respectively have.
Fair enough seems like we're having the basketball version of the world class debate. I agree he's a level below Durant and James as those two are probably going to end up in the top 10 all time conversation. Westbrook probably still makes the top 50/60 all time though which to me makes him absolutely "world class"
 

mazhar13

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Uh oh

What's the worst that can happen here? I'm expecting a fine, but can trades be vetoed because of this?
 

ZDwyr

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It's unfair to dismiss Westbrook's playoff success in OKC with Durant. Obviously Durant was a huge part of it but they were both integral. Westbrook also had a positive on/off against Houston in 2016. OKC won the Harden v Westbrook minutes...as the 6th seed.

Fair to discuss his failures outside of that. He was pretty clearly injured in his Houston playoff tenure, however. But he isn't the player he was and I don't see how he raises the Lakers playoff ceiling at all
 

edcunited1878

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Uh oh

What's the worst that can happen here? I'm expecting a fine, but can trades be vetoed because of this?
Don't think the trades can be vetoed and reversed...but hefty fines and future picks taken away, I believe. NBA has tried to stop this in recent seasons, but it's a lame attempt.

NBA thrives off this stuff! But remember when the NBA was in control of New Orleans and there was a trade with CP3 and the Lakers...but NBA vetoed it?!
 

elmo

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Don't think the trades can be vetoed and reversed...but hefty fines and future picks taken away, I believe. NBA has tried to stop this in recent seasons, but it's a lame attempt.

NBA thrives off this stuff! But remember when the NBA was in control of New Orleans and there was a trade with CP3 and the Lakers...but NBA vetoed it?!
It literally happened last year with Bogdan and the Bucks. Deal got cancelled and he signed with the Hawks instead.
 

Beans

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Don't think the trades can be vetoed and reversed...but hefty fines and future picks taken away, I believe. NBA has tried to stop this in recent seasons, but it's a lame attempt.

NBA thrives off this stuff! But remember when the NBA was in control of New Orleans and there was a trade with CP3 and the Lakers...but NBA vetoed it?!
I had already moved Chris Paul to the Lakers on 2K, never forgave Stern for that!
 

edcunited1878

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It literally happened last year with Bogdan and the Bucks. Deal got cancelled and he signed with the Hawks instead.
But Bogi never agreed to the contract, which preceded the trade in the first place. Then the contact before free agency was what the Bucks got hit for.

Bogi was a restricted free agent. In this instance, this year, think they just jump the gun officially.

Think this rule is a little weak as players, intermediaries, and of course agents just talk way before free agency. Heck, you have players scheming in the off season and calling each other to team up.
 

edcunited1878

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I had already moved Chris Paul to the Lakers on 2K, never forgave Stern for that!
Haha! Bless Stern, but he/the NBA should have never done that. Trying to save face or whatever, but that wasn't right to do. The trade was totally fine and NO would have had a nice haul...

Goran Dragic, Kevin Martin, Luis Scola and 2012 first-round pick from the Knicks....that's a very good return for NO
 

elmo

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But Bogi never agreed to the contract, which preceded the trade in the first place. Then the contact before free agency was what the Bucks got hit for.

Bogi was a restricted free agent. In this instance, this year, think they just jump the gun officially.

Think this rule is a little weak as players, intermediaries, and of course agents just talk way before free agency. Heck, you have players scheming in the off season and calling each other to team up.
Bogdan claims he didn't agree to the contract being offered by the Bucks and yet the league wanted to check his phone records and agent for contact with the Bucks. It was a face saving move by Bogdan because he was never going to reject the max offer he could get.

The Kings didn't need him to agree to anything because even if he was going to ignore all offers and take the qualifying offer to become a UFA this season, the Kings could still trade him to the Bucks. He basically chickened out and fecked the Kings and Bucks last summer.
 

Stobzilla

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I love this Lakers Summer League team. Cacok has been great to watch and both Austin Reaves and Mac McLung look like they are ready made to be Caruso 2.0
 

Desert Eagle

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Haha! Bless Stern, but he/the NBA should have never done that. Trying to save face or whatever, but that wasn't right to do. The trade was totally fine and NO would have had a nice haul...

Goran Dragic, Kevin Martin, Luis Scola and 2012 first-round pick from the Knicks....that's a very good return for NO
Stern takes most of the blame but it's also the other owners who were/are scared of the Lakers and jealous of their success. The anybody but the Lakers mentality you still see in these smaller teams (and boston) today.
 

giorno

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I love this Lakers Summer League team. Cacok has been great to watch and both Austin Reaves and Mac McLung look like they are ready made to be Caruso 2.0
Attack dogs at the point of attack on defence? Yes please :drool:
 

mazhar13

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Apparently, Dragic prefers to play elsewhere instead of Toronto.

He doesn't necessarily say that he doesn't want to play for Toronto, but he looks like he wants a ring now and would rather play for a team that'll compete. We'll see if he does an Iggy, but for now, he's not necessarily throwing a tantrum. The Raptors didn't want to keep him anyways, hence the delayed announcement and reports of wanting to trade Dragic beforehand.
 

HTG

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Not exactly what the Lakers had offered.:lol:
 

elmo

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This has got to be maybe the worst instance of financial management in NBA history, arguably in all of sports history.
Latrell Sprewell went from 21m/3 years to out of the league is up there. Contracts weren't that big that time too.

If we're going by per year, Oladipo rejecting the Rockets extension only to sign for the vet's min is worse than Schroeder too.
 

RobinLFC

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Nah. Just in the last two years, Oladipo went through the same.

We all love it when players bet on themselves and it works out, unfortunately in this case it didn't. Can't really fault a guy for believing in himself and, if he had played like he thought he would (and a lot of people thought he would too), he could've / would've gotten a lot more than 20 odd million per season.

If he ups his level to what he was doing at the Thunder, or even gets better than that, he'll have a bigger offer after next season as well.
 

WeePat

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I watched the Cade vs Green SL game last night. I thought it was a fun battle to watch. Both had good games, but they were both outshined by Sengun though, that kid's footwork and passing is just silky smooth. It's kind of crazy that Houston transitioned from Harden to Green in just one year. This kid can score with ease at all 3 levels. He's got some things to improve, of course he's a teenager but he's so explosive, it's incredible. The Rockets will be fun to watch next season.
 

UweBein

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Nah. Just in the last two years, Oladipo went through the same.

We all love it when players bet on themselves and it works out, unfortunately in this case it didn't. Can't really fault a guy for believing in himself and, if he had played like he thought he would (and a lot of people thought he would too), he could've / would've gotten a lot more than 20 odd million per season.

If he ups his level to what he was doing at the Thunder, or even gets better than that, he'll have a bigger offer after next season as well.
Bigger than 21 m per year, though?
 

Beans

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Isaiah Thomas scored 81 in a pro-am game and announces on Twitter that he's back, word is Lakers are gonna look at him.

Isaiah Thomas
@isaiahthomas
That emotion was tied up from the last 4yrs battling every single day!!! I ain’t talking about the “league” giving up on me. THE WORLD GAVE UP ON ME & WAS SHITTING ON ME WHILE I WAS DOWN AND OUT!! When you love something you’ll do whatever it takes to get that!!! I’m back
10:28 AM · Aug 11, 2021

https://ftw.usatoday.com/2021/08/isaiah-thomas-81-points-pro-am-crawsover-jamal-crawford
 

Stacks

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Isaiah Thomas scored 81 in a pro-am game and announces on Twitter that he's back, word is Lakers are gonna look at him.

Isaiah Thomas
@isaiahthomas
That emotion was tied up from the last 4yrs battling every single day!!! I ain’t talking about the “league” giving up on me. THE WORLD GAVE UP ON ME & WAS SHITTING ON ME WHILE I WAS DOWN AND OUT!! When you love something you’ll do whatever it takes to get that!!! I’m back
10:28 AM · Aug 11, 2021

https://ftw.usatoday.com/2021/08/isaiah-thomas-81-points-pro-am-crawsover-jamal-crawford
I saw that. Would like to see him at a lesser team like Memphis so he can support Ja and school him on some game like CP3 did with his young charges
 

Beans

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Dennis Rodman, in his autobiography, said John Stockton was the dirtiest player in the league. But then he’s short and slow so he has an excuse.
 

JPRouve

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Dennis Rodman, in his autobiography, said John Stockton was the dirtiest player in the league. But then he’s short and slow so he has an excuse.
A few months ago, I tried to find a lot of things about him and this one of them.
 

Beans

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I haven’t watched as many summer league games as I like to (I actually enjoy them for some reason unlike most nba games), but this class looks amazing.

Summer league used to be a bit of a joke, often couldn’t even find a stream for the games, some played in gyms with no fans, the Lakers especially would have incredibly poor rosters, and a few guys would be there year after year for seemingly no reason at all (John Lucas III was one iirc).

Now the teams are packed with talent and they actually play some defense! You used to see a lot of 30 point games because no one defended and talent was sparse, one good player would usually dominate his teams box score.

Anyway, impressed with what I’ve seen from Cade Cunningham (DET), Jalen Green (HOU), James Bouknight (CHA), Alperin Sengen (HOU), Payton Pritchard (BOS) and Jalen Johnson (ATL) and it seems Evan Mobley (CLE) and Jalen Suggs (ORL) have been good too.
 

elmo

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I haven’t watched as many summer league games as I like to (I actually enjoy them for some reason unlike most nba games), but this class looks amazing.

Summer league used to be a bit of a joke, often couldn’t even find a stream for the games, some played in gyms with no fans, the Lakers especially would have incredibly poor rosters, and a few guys would be there year after year for seemingly no reason at all (John Lucas III was one iirc).

Now the teams are packed with talent and they actually play some defense! You used to see a lot of 30 point games because no one defended and talent was sparse, one good player would usually dominate his teams box score.

Anyway, impressed with what I’ve seen from Cade Cunningham (DET), Jalen Green (HOU), James Bouknight (CHA), Alperin Sengen (HOU), Payton Pritchard (BOS) and Jalen Johnson (ATL) and it seems Evan Mobley (CLE) and Jalen Suggs (ORL) have been good too.
The Lakers have poor rosters in summer league usually because they're filled with vets and summer league is usually only for up to sophomores or those trying to make the team.

I think third year players onwards are allowed to skip summer league if they don't want to play in it.
 

Beans

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The Lakers have poor rosters in summer league usually because they're filled with vets and summer league is usually only for up to sophomores or those trying to make the team.

I think third year players onwards are allowed to skip summer league if they don't want to play in it.
Absolutely, but there's no reason for it to have been so poor for so long. They clearly didn't care, didn't think they'd find anyone through that process. Caruso is the first Laker summer league standout that I can think of. There are always talented undrafted players these days, and it seems like second round draft picks are finding a lot of success too. I imagine the Lakers have seen the light.