2018-2019 NBA Season

[Murat B.]

We will agree to disagree there. Scoring efficiency is an enormous piece of the NBA puzzle. That is why we would easily put guys like LeBron, Durant, Curry and Harden over Westbrook. Don't get me wrong, Russ is a great player because of everything he does. It goes without saying he doesn't have to score well to have a positive impact on the game. But even with a legit MVP candidate on his team in Paul George the team hasn't exactly been world beaters this year or last year for that matter.

I have a feeling you're seeing games like 25,12,14 on 23 shots and rating that over someone doing something like 30, 5, 5 on 18 shots. If I don't know anything else I'm taking the latter in a heartbeat. But I pound the table hard on scoring efficiency, it's huge in the current NBA. And it only gets tougher in the playoffs

No worries, I know what you mean. I am just looking at it from a different perspective. "Almost" like winning a single year grand slam. A very rare feat, no? And you may not have to be "efficient" throughout the year to win a single year grand slam. You may win 6 Masters1000s and a bunch of other tournaments and even be the year end number one. That's darn efficient. But you still have not won 4 slams in a year because for one reason or the other, it is darn tough! Pete could not do it , ditto for Roger, Rafa , Nole, etc...It may or may not make you the best player in the game that year, but it does put you in a very special spot that might warrant consideration for an award like MVP.

 

[Federberg]

No worries, I know what you mean. I am just looking at it from a different perspective. "Almost" like winning a single year grand slam. A very rare feat, no? And you may not have to be "efficient" throughout the year to win a single year grand slam. You may win 6 Masters1000s and a bunch of other tournaments and even be the year end number one. That's darn efficient. But you still have not won 4 slams in a year because for one reason or the other, it is darn tough! Pete could not do it , ditto for Roger, Rafa , Nole, etc...It may or may not make you the best player in the game that year, but it does put you in a very special spot that might warrant consideration for an award like MVP.

but... averaging a triple double analogous to the grandslam? I would have thought something like regular season MVP + finals MVP + scoring leader + All NBA first team etc etc… you get my point

 

[Murat B.]

but... averaging a triple double analogous to the grandslam? I would have thought something like regular season MVP + finals MVP + scoring leader + All NBA first team etc etc… you get my point

I sure do. Your analogy may well be correct too. I based mine on rarity . Before Westbrook, there is only one person that did it. So it is even more rare than a single year grand slam.

 

[DarthFed]

No worries, I know what you mean. I am just looking at it from a different perspective. "Almost" like winning a single year grand slam. A very rare feat, no? And you may not have to be "efficient" throughout the year to win a single year grand slam. You may win 6 Masters1000s and a bunch of other tournaments and even be the year end number one. That's darn efficient. But you still have not won 4 slams in a year because for one reason or the other, it is darn tough! Pete could not do it , ditto for Roger, Rafa , Nole, etc...It may or may not make you the best player in the game that year, but it does put you in a very special spot that might warrant consideration for an award like MVP.

If we are comparing him to tennis I'd say he's the vastly talented player with all the shots, one that will blast winners from anywhere and thrill the crowd with many brilliant moments every match. But and it's a huge "but", he is way too erratic and blasts too many errors and comes up small in the clutch and therefore pretty much never goes anywhere. Only time his teams have been relevant is when he had a far greater player on the team than himself.

Westbrook is more Dimitrov than Fedalkovic IMO. And in the NBA he is way far behind the guys everyone has long had as top 3 in some order (LBJ, KD, Curry). And the reason is efficiency. He shot 42.5% from the field this season and that's atrocious. There is no reason someone with that athleticism and all around ability should be so damn inefficient with the soft rules in the current NBA. And the main reasons are lack of control and all-around poor bball IQ. Yeah he isn't a great shooter but it really shouldn't stop him from doing a lot better. Always a piss poor 3 point shooter and yet he's jacking up nearly 6 per contest this year. He thought he was 1A with Kevin frickin Durant on the team... alright yea I admit I don't like him but I don't have much love for Harden either but he's improved tons over the years and I tip my hat to him. Legit mega superstar, much more so than his old running mate.

 

[Federberg]

If we are comparing him to tennis I'd say he's the vastly talented player with all the shots, one that will blast winners from anywhere and thrill the crowd with many brilliant moments every match. But and it's a huge "but", he is way too erratic and blasts too many errors and comes up small in the clutch and therefore pretty much never goes anywhere. Only time his teams have been relevant is when he had a far greater player on the team than himself.

Westbrook is more Dimitrov than Fedalkovic IMO. And in the NBA he is way far behind the guys everyone has long had as top 3 in some order (LBJ, KD, Curry). And the reason is efficiency. He shot 42.5% from the field this season and that's atrocious. There is no reason someone with that athleticism and all around ability should be so damn inefficient with the soft rules in the current NBA. And the main reasons are lack of control and all-around poor bball IQ. Yeah he isn't a great shooter but it really shouldn't stop him from doing a lot better. Always a piss poor 3 point shooter and yet he's jacking up nearly 6 per contest this year. He thought he was 1A with Kevin frickin Durant on the team... alright yea I admit I don't like him but I don't have much love for Harden either but he's improved tons over the years and I tip my hat to him. Legit mega superstar, much more so than his old running mate.

I blame the GM and owners in OKC. Jeepers you had Harden, Durant, Westbrook, even Oladipo. And no rings? Really??? That's not just bad... it's negligent

 

[Murat B.]

Guys, screw Westbrook! Tell me about the playoffs. What kind of early possible surprises are you seeing? Is anyone 100% shoe in for the finals?

 

[DarthFed]

I blame the GM and owners in OKC. Jeepers you had Harden, Durant, Westbrook, even Oladipo. And no rings? Really??? That's not just bad... it's negligent

I don't blame them too much actually. No one knew Harden would become quite like this and they already had to look ahead to having 2 max contracts in KD and Russ. I still think the only reason KD left is because of Russ. I figured he'd leave and 100% because he saw a guy who simply thought he was way better than he is. Westbrook often took more shots in playoff games than KD, which is beyond retarded. Think back to other recent dynamic duos and you didn't have that.

As for Oladipo they had him for 1 year and then traded him for a better player.

 

[DarthFed]

Guys, screw Westbrook! Tell me about the playoffs. What kind of early possible surprises are you seeing? Is anyone 100% shoe in for the finals?

If it is OKC-Denver I will give Thunder about 50-50 shot. Golden State still pretty much a shoe in. They have HCA and only the Rockets are the slightest threat.

 

[Federberg]

Wow! Magic stepping down!! I didn't see that coming. He hinted at backstabbing. And hearing Stephen A Smith talking about Magic wanting to get rid of both Walton and Polenka it makes you wonder. I can't see anyway that any of the top free agents are going to want to go to Lala after this. Looks like Lebron's stay in the Western Conference is going to get even more ugly

 

[DarthFed]

https://mashable.com/video/dwyane-wade-budweiser-tribute-ad/#WDNfaVVwJqq2

Got to say, that was an incredibly moving tribute to Wade. His last season has been pretty nostalgic for me. I remember him playing at Marquette (a local University for me) as a sophomore and junior. His last year was the year I graduated high school. I knew he was going to be good but not like what he became. And clearly he did a lot of amazing things off the court too.

His retirement had me thinking about the famous 2003 draft. From that amazing class it is pretty much just LeBron that is left and that guy has a ton more mileage than any of them.

 

[DarthFed]

Wow! Magic stepping down!! I didn't see that coming. He hinted at backstabbing. And hearing Stephen A Smith talking about Magic wanting to get rid of both Walton and Polenka it makes you wonder. I can't see anyway that any of the top free agents are going to want to go to Lala after this. Looks like Lebron's stay in the Western Conference is going to get even more ugly

I love Magic as much as anyone but as a GM he's like another LeBron and that's obviously not a good thing. Their personnel moves are bad enough but it runs deeper than that. The problem some of these older guys have is that they aren't adapting to the mindset of the young generation. You can't talk about trading guys and not expect it to have a negative impact anymore. The younger players have to feel valued. LeBron is obviously a lot younger than Magic but things are still a lot different than they were 15 years ago in that regard.

The issue with LA going forward is that these guys won't want to play with LeBron after all the trade talks. So either they trade their young talent for pennies on the dollar or they go forward with a disfunctional team led by a guy with crazy mileage who is only becoming more difficult to play with. It is a mess and one LeBron mostly created and Magic isn't really any different. I knew he'd cause problems as soon as he was threatening Walton's job after a 4-6 start or whatever it was.

 

[DarthFed]

http://theundefeated.com/features/three-nights-with-dwyane-wade-as-he-says-goodbye-to-the-nba/

Another great one on Wade!

 

[Federberg]

Is it just me or have GSW been given the best playoff path possible?

 

[DarthFed]

Is it just me or have GSW been given the best playoff path possible?

Actually they get Houston in the 2nd round instead of WCF. I had thought Houston was locked into the 3rd seed.

 

[DarthFed]

OKC has to be happy. They have Portland in round 1, heavy favorites IMO, and they'd have a serious chance against Denver in round 2. I will take Portland seriously when they aren't easily molested in the playoffs. Lillard is very good but having him as your best player is where the Blazers come up short. Raps had a similar even worse problem for many years, DeRozan as the best player on your team led to many post season failures.

 

[Federberg]

my bad...

 

[Murat B.]

Wade stuff was classy. Nowitzki as well. These are guys that had a huge impact on the game. All the best to them on their next adventures.

 

[DarthFed]

Wade stuff was classy. Nowitzki as well. These are guys that had a huge impact on the game. All the best to them on their next adventures.

Too bad Miami didn't make it. I think Milwaukee would've handled them in 4 or 5 but then Wade's last game would be in the playoffs either at home in front of his Miami fans or at Milwaukee where it all started and where he will always have tons of love.

 

[DarthFed]

The only one out East with upset potential is Philly because Embiid doesn't seem healthy. Philly has a ton of talent even outside of Embiid but they haven't put it together and Brooklyn with very little talent is still a hot team that has been playing every game like it's a playoff game for a month now.

Pacers are too weak without Oladipo no surprise. That is quietly the most important injury of the season as Indy definitely would have the 3 seed if he didn't go down. Now they are nothing.

 

[kskate2]

Name of the game is efficiency and he ain't remotely an efficient scorer. That is his major shortcoming. The guy isn't even the #1 MVP candidate on his team. Alright I'm trying not to hate on Russssie too much . @kskate2 what do you think about this?

Sorry for my late response, some personnel changes at work this week had me blitzed. Listen I think Russ is a fine player, but I wouldn't build my team around the guy. Russ in OKC will probably never get another bite at a ring unless he goes to a championship caliber team. Much like what's been said before, way too erratic. As for the MVP, I say give it to the Freak. Harden and Russ have both won it already. Time for some new blood.