>>>I’m going to miss Kyle Lowry- One of the most under-appreciated traits in the NBA is the ability to find out what your teams needs of you and slide into that role. Lowry is a long time favorite of mine as there are few players of his caliber that have the ability to change roles seamlessly depending on what his team needs of him. Throughout his career he has excelled at letting DeRozan and Leonard shine when sharing the floor with them, and sliding over to the alpha role when he was riding solo.
This year he looked like he was well on his way to another all star campaign, in what I hope eventually becomes a Hall of Fame career after another hot start. Here’s to hoping he can put this thumb issue behind him as the Raptors are still a really fun team that will make the playoffs in the East a little more interesting with him behind the wheel.
***I also want to acknowledge Nick Nurse here. I haven’t given him enough for how good of a coach he has been the the last two years. For a team that came into the year with little projected depth and then suffered some injuries he has this team playimg at a high level. He deserves credit for the teams defensive effort and intelligent approach on offense.
>>>So much for my theory about Harden not chasing the MVP as hard- I can’t stand his playing style, but you have to give credit where it’s due. James Harden is in a shooting slump yet is dropping 38 a game. How is that possible? I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s dropping 40 a game by the end of the year.
What gets me even more excited about the Rockets though is the success they’re having when going small. I was and still am worried about how it would work out defensively, but by switching everything they are able to at least somewhat overcome their height disadvantage.
And offensively, it’s Peak Warriors Hampton 5 good. The Westbrook-Harden pick and roll makes every other coach in the league gulp. When they’ve busted it out, it seems like they wind up with either a layup or a good look from 3 for an at least decent 3 point shooter every time down the floor.
If Harden’s historic start continues to combine with good enough team defense, then the Rockets will deserve to slide up a tier from fringe Title contenders, to that Milwaukee/Clippers/maybe Lakers level of true level 1 contenders.
>>>DeAndre Jordan is terrible- DJ is a sad example of what happens when a guy who’s game is completely dependent on size and athleticism loses said athleticism. He never really had a true skill set outside of lob man/rim protector, but now he’s not even that. I’m not sure he even can be called a league average backup center at this point.
I said it the day they signed them all in Free Agency that by bringing DeAndre in with Irving and Durant they were giving back a significant chunk of whatever surplus value they had in the other 2 contracts. Having him sink all the value is what may end happening.
Getting Durant back next year obviously will help, but asking a 32 year old coming of an Achilles tear to bring a .500 team to a championship level is a pretty ridiculous ask. Even expecting 50 wins might be a little bit of a reach.
Brooklyn should be at least a solid team for a while. Still, after being seen as big winners this offseason, the path to a championship doesn’t seem really clear.
>>> The Lakers have been off to a better start than I expected and there really is just 2 words I have for that: Wow. Lebron!
Seriously, what else is there left to say about that man? He has the wisdom of the balding gray bearded man he is, with the athleticism no other individual in the world possesses. Just when you think he cannot possible surpass what he’s accomplished, here he is in year SEVENTEEN leading the league in assists with a career low in turnovers. Incredible!
What might be impressing me the most is the defensive intensity is there. The Lakers have been shockingly the best defensive team in basketball, and Lebron is playing as big of role in that as anyone. I thought he was destined to spend the rest of his career hiding on the opposing teams weakest offensive threat, not really doing transition defense, and only ratcheting up his defense when the game was on the line. But no, Lebron is as engaged on that end as I’ve seen since his Miami days 6 years ago.
Still, when it comes to the Lakers surprisingly hot start and guys playing defense like it’s 6 years ago, there’s no bigger story than Dwight Howard. In a wild turn of events Boogie Cousins’ injury shaped the teams fortunes in a positive way by giving them the opportunity to bring in and play Howard. Really those 2 playing defense at a high level is the entire difference between the merely good team I projected them to be and the elite team they are now.
2 other quick notes on LA:
*As a Laker hater, yes! Please keep on posting up Anthony Davis as a 4. Good idea by getting the ball out of Lebron’s hands. And you definitely shouldn’t use Davis more as the most lethal lob man in the game catching passes from arguably the best passer in the history of the sport. Keep up that offensive philosophy Frank Vogel.
*Danny Green is one of the most underrated players in the sport. Every team he’s on sees their defensive performance immediately spike when he joins. He’s a solid floor spacer as well. How guys like Klay Thompson and Otto Porter get max contracts while he gets labeled as just a role player is crazy to me. He’s at most a half tier below those guys.
>>>I’m not high on Atlanta- The Hawks are seen as one of the bright and upcoming teams in the league, but I’m not sure I buy it.
It starts with Trae Young and his defense. Evaluating defense is difficult. Normally, only in the most extreme cases you can tell immediately who’s really good and bad. For the rest it takes so much time that I more or less rely on the numbers. A person can tell after 5 minutes that Draymond Green is really good defensively and that Isaiah Thomas is not. Trae Young might be the best current example in basketball of the easy to see right away bad defender. He gets stuck on screens, is slow to rotate, fails to get his hand up and gets pushed around with ease. He made Tomas Satoransky look like Kawhi Leonard for a night last week.
The kid is already special offensively, but with defense so bad I’m not sure he’s even a league average starter. As time goes on I’m sure he’ll improve, but he’s the only player I’ve seen this year who I’ve thought, “Man. He’s so bad that Zach Lavine is closer to being a league average defender than being as bad as him.” Starting in such a hole makes projecting him as merely bad in the future as unlikely.
What really has me doubting their future though is the most recent draft. I wasn’t high on either DeAndre Hunter nor Cam Reddish on draft night, and they’ve failed to meet the low bars I had set for them. I don’t know if I’d bet on either of them ever tuning into even a true starter, that’s crippling for 2 lottery picks.
Throw in the 25 game suspension for John Collins and things look even more bleak. Having the Leagues worse uniforms seems appropriate. At least Jabari Parker looks solid for once. Maybe finally playing the right position helped.
Some quicker thoughts:
>>>I’ve seen Lebron, Giannis, Kawhi, and Jimmy Butler all 3 times this year. I remain unconvinced that JB doesn’t belong in the same breath as those first 3. At most he’s a half tier below them, but he’s an easy top 10 player in the league for me and anyone who has them outside of 15 shouldn’t be taken seriously. FiveThirtyEight’s RAPTOR has him as the second best player on a per minute basis in the league right now. Life’s good Butler Island.
>>>A year from now Ty Lue and Alvin Gentry will have each other’s jobs. The Pelicans have been one of the most disappointing teams in the league up to this point even when accounting for Zion’s injury. Gentry has never been able to get this squad to play defense at a level it’s talent says it should. David Griffin will hire Lue like he did in Cleveland, and hope for similar results, albeit on a longer timeframe. Gentry will be highly sought after as an assistant, and won’t be able to find a better opportunity that being Doc Rivers’ right hand man for what could be a championship team.
>>> Will Dragan Bender get some minutes in Milwaukee? Robin Lopez isn’t a good fit with the way Milwaukee likes to play. Will Bender, who’s skill set screams Bud Ball, find himself with an opportunity to show that his disappointing time in Phoenix was more a result of him being in a poor system rather than him being a bust? I wouldn’t bet on it, but after watching Alex Len break out and hearing some of his comments as to why I’d like to see him try.
>>> As for the Bulls:
*Theres a lot of talk about how the Bulls “can’t close” and there is some truth to that, but the trend is more teams start hitting 3’s against the Bulls in the second half. In the first of games the Bulls defense is allowing a paltry 30% of three point attempts to go in , and 40% to go in the second half. Expect the Bulls to have less games where they collapse not due to any tactical or change in effort, but rather having those numbers revert to the mean.
*I can do without Chandler Hutchison. Sure, he’s athletic, tries hard on D, and is exciting when he pushes it up the floor after rebound, but he doesn’t really have the size to consistently play up to the 4 nor any kind of confidence in shooting it from behind the arc. Coming in as a college senior, he doesn’t have nearly as much projected development left as most second year players. There’s enough in this package to float around the league for a little bit, but with the 22nd pick in what was a pretty decent draft you’d hope for more than a Ronnie Brewer/David Nwaba type of guy.
*I am excited about Lauri at the five, but I don’t know about him there with lineups that have both Hutch and Dunn in them. If you’re going to put Lauri at the five the thought is to get as much shooting on the floor as possible, not to comp for two perimeter guys who aren’t threats from deep. When Porter gets back I want to see a little bit of the Porter-Young-Lauri front court.
*Speaking of Porter, the Bulls are rediculously dependent on him. Those 3 guard lineups haven’t worked out well, and Hutch is overused when starting. On a related note, what does Denzel Valentine have to do to get some minutes?
*It happened over a week ago, but I’m still upset about how loud the UC got when the Lakers made that 16-0 run to start the 4th quarter against Chicago. The Bulls are a global brand that have the largest unshared market in the entire NBA. To be at a point where some prissy Southern California team can come to the Windy City on a chilly November night and drowned out the home team is a new pathetic low for the clown show that is Boylen, GarPax and most of all Reinsdorf.
While teams that lack the prestige of the Bulls, like the Heat and Clippers, refuse to rebuild while landing stars, we get fed lies about how we have to go through this process. The Bulls have a bottom tier payroll, and even when given the opportunity to acquire future draft capital, Jerry, despite being wealthier than most people can ever imagine, chooses instead to pocket even more cash he’ll never use.
Watching that lead collapse was the epitome of the Reinsdorf era. Get dealt a huge head start, only to watch carelessness, cheapness and promotion of ass kissers fumble away the gift others had provided.
Before the game Anthony Davis talked about how he would love to come home to play in Chicago someday. With even average management that dream might come true for all parties involved. Instead the most we can reasonably hope for is 34 or so year old AD signing with his hometown as his career winds down.
I’ve deservedly ripped into GarPax plenty, but the truth is that the real cancer lies in the seat above them. Jerry Reinsdorf is the shit stain of Chicago sports and an embarrassment to the entire city. Sell the team Jerry. Your stench is decaying one of the 10 most prestigious clubs in North American sports in a city’s that deserves far better.
Then sell the Sox too.
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