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2017-18 official NBA discussion thread


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QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 23, 2018 -> 05:02 AM)
Man Lavine may have looked decent on offense but his defense is like watching wade last year.

He is not a good defensive player. He's going to have to be coached up and buy into that end of the court. Has all the physical ability to be a quality defender so we'll see what Bulls coaching staff can do. Offensively he looked EXPLOSIVE last night.

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QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jan 23, 2018 -> 11:49 AM)
He is not a good defensive player. He's going to have to be coached up and buy into that end of the court. Has all the physical ability to be a quality defender so we'll see what Bulls coaching staff can do. Offensively he looked EXPLOSIVE last night.

I hope he makes it to the Bulls. I would love that in Chicago.

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QUOTE (Sox-35th @ Jan 23, 2018 -> 03:15 PM)
Give me Trae all day. Defense? Meh.

 

I'm not crazy enough to believe Jalen Rose saying Leonard wants out of SA, but he's clearly unhappy.

 

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/2217953...coming-strained

 

I would blow up the tank for that.

 

It always scares me to separate a guy from a coach in a situation like San Antonio. Similar to taking Tom Brady out of New England. Would he have had the same career with the Bears? If you look him out in the middle of his career, would he still be as good under another coach? I feel the same way about Leonard and Popovich.

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QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 23, 2018 -> 03:19 PM)
It always scares me to separate a guy from a coach in a situation like San Antonio. Similar to taking Tom Brady out of New England. Would he have had the same career with the Bears? If you look him out in the middle of his career, would he still be as good under another coach? I feel the same way about Leonard and Popovich.

Yeah, I'm not sure Hoiberg would know what to do with Leonard, anyway. They'd have to blow up the whole thing again and hire a new coach.

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QUOTE (Sox-35th @ Jan 23, 2018 -> 01:28 PM)
Yeah, I'm not sure Hoiberg would know what to do with Leonard, anyway. They'd have to blow up the whole thing again and hire a new coach.

I would think Leonard would fit in perfectly and fill a major void by providing strong wing D (which when combined with Dunn would allow Lavine to focus more on the offense). Leonard would be an outstanding get and I'd be all over getting him.

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QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 23, 2018 -> 01:38 PM)
I agree, I'm not saying Hoiberg is popovich but I think Kawhi would fare very well in this offense. I would assume mirotic isn't there but especially on lineups like dunn-lavine-leonard-markannen-mirotic.

It feels weird, but I literally don't have a bad thing to say about Hoiberg right now. I've came to the realization that with the team of personalities we had and with the switch and how we switched from Thibs that pretty much any coach (outside of a really proven champion such as Phil or Pop) would have failed. It just wasn't feasible. An unproven NBA coach wasn't going to get that ship right and deal with what had to be done. This year, with Fred being given a blank slate (from a personality perspective) it has enabled him to get buy in from top-to-bottom and truly implement his scheme, etc. We finally get to see him actually coach. I will admit part of a coaches job is to adapt but I think I downplayed just how bad of a situation Fred was put in (and that isn't Fred's fault). Amazing what a year makes since I became pretty anti Hoiberg very early in his coaching tenure (to now have a 180).

 

While I absolve Fred of the past two years, I don't necessarily absolve the front office because they should have had that level of awareness.

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Yeah, I can't complain about Hoiberg, either. It looks like a much better hire with players that work with him. I'm waiting on the Thibs thing to collapse in Minnesota. That starting five has so many minutes.

 

 

From here

Among all NBA players, Andrew ranks first in total minutes (1,628), Karl ranks second (1,607) and Jimmy ranks third (1,580). When you look at the total miles run, Jimmy is fourth in the NBA (111.9), Karl is fifth (108.9) and Andrew is sixth (107.9)
Edited by Sox-35th
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QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jan 23, 2018 -> 03:42 PM)
It feels weird, but I literally don't have a bad thing to say about Hoiberg right now. I've came to the realization that with the team of personalities we had and with the switch and how we switched from Thibs that pretty much any coach (outside of a really proven champion such as Phil or Pop) would have failed. It just wasn't feasible. An unproven NBA coach wasn't going to get that ship right and deal with what had to be done. This year, with Fred being given a blank slate (from a personality perspective) it has enabled him to get buy in from top-to-bottom and truly implement his scheme, etc. We finally get to see him actually coach. I will admit part of a coaches job is to adapt but I think I downplayed just how bad of a situation Fred was put in (and that isn't Fred's fault). Amazing what a year makes since I became pretty anti Hoiberg very early in his coaching tenure (to now have a 180).

 

While I absolve Fred of the past two years, I don't necessarily absolve the front office because they should have had that level of awareness.

 

 

Realistically, you'd have to have the NBA equivalent of Robin Ventura/Renteria coaches who fill the transition but probably aren't the ones to take you to the promised land.

 

The other interesting thing to note is that Luke Walton is from that same generation of "youngish" coaches who grew up around the game, learned under Steve Kerr...and is having, at the very least, his own set of struggles in LA despite DeAngelo Russell being removed from that situation.

 

Just like the Bulls, you have all those players like Julius Randle that are in "no man's land" in terms of waiting to see where they'll end up but still playing out the string. When all those players are veterans, it can make for a really toxic environment, especially when the veterans are getting pushed aside to give playing times to youngsters since those vets are going to end up on another team. Then you have Jordan Clarkson, Nance, Jr., and the Luol Deng contract mess, that might get in the way of making offers to both Paul George and LBJ.

 

When you have 4 players in limbo like that, and you're not competing for the playoffs but draft position, it can be impossible for nearly any coach...then you add the ego of the Ball Family into the mix, and undercutting every single coach they've ever been involved with when things don't go their way.

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As far as Trae Young goes...he's definitely grown up in the last two games and learned how to be more unselfish.

 

Against OkState down the stretch, he was dribbling into double and triple teams and firing up quick shots (one of the quickest releases since Dan Marino, haha) from 25-30 feet there at the end of the game (as well as in the first half). That's not the way to be a winning player...against KU, he started looking to get his teammates more and more involved, which is the ONLY way Oklahoma can be a Top 10 team. Otherwise, everyone's just standing around waiting for him to launch or dribble penetrate. His assist and rebound numbers have been outstanding (granted, they're a high scoring team, like Loyola Marymount back in the day)...but the turnovers really crept in against WV, K-State and OSU.

 

On defense, he's got a long ways to go, but his father was a strong defender at Texas Tech under Knight and I think he's definitely a coachable kid. It's hard for anyone who averages 40-45 points in high school not to focus first on their offensive game, it's just human nature.

Edited by caulfield12
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Russell Westbrook was upset when he saw the list for the all star game because he was picked last. This inspired him to go for 46 against the Wizards and John Wall (who he was picked immediately after).

https://nypost.com/2018/01/26/the-nba-has-r...l-of-petty/amp/

Turns out the list was sent out in alphabetical order. Westbrook is such a moron.

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QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Jan 27, 2018 -> 07:06 AM)
Bulls tied for the 7th worst record. If they can trade Niko & Lopez I think they can finish bottom five. A potential top five pick combined with Cousins could actually make this team incredibly dangerous very soon.

 

Cousins most likely will not be the same again, so don't bank on it.

 

The impact from the DMC injury is Niko and Grant may now have a taker.

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QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jan 27, 2018 -> 12:08 AM)
Cousins out for the rest of the season. Terrible. They would've been a nightmare first round matchup for any of the top seeds out west.

 

I was more mad cause he was putting up a historic season for a big man that we haven't seen since Barkley.

 

Hope he comes back. The good news is he isn't as ancient as Kobe when he tore his. Matthews, Gay and notably Dominique tore theirs and came back. Hope the same for him.

 

 

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QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jan 27, 2018 -> 04:31 PM)
I hope Cousins comes back. Love that guy and really was hoping he'd be a Bull. Now we'll just go all in on AD instead :)

2 and a half seasons from now? That's a long wait to keep cap space available. They'll have to let guys like Lavine and Dunn go.

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QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 27, 2018 -> 03:46 PM)
2 and a half seasons from now? That's a long wait to keep cap space available. They'll have to let guys like Lavine and Dunn go.

I presume it would be via trade. I imagine by next trade deadline AD is dealt. Losing Cousins has a huge impact on their future, imo.

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