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***2021-2022 NBA Season Thread***


RonArtest15

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Losing Rose was a devastating blow but it happened years ago, and Chicago has coped and they're still a good team. Feels like the very best players in the league are personally good for like 13 to 15 wins. So basically Chicago went from being a low to mid 60's win team to upper 40's to low 50's when they lost him. That's about how it's played out the past couple seasons.

It's the difference between being a good team and a great team.

I think you see teams do one of two things after a star leaves or gets injured. Either they'll tear everything down and go into the tank or they'll stay competitive with carefully built rosters of good role players and fringe stars.

Cleveland post LeBron, New Orleans post CP3, Orlando post Dwight, D.C. post Arenas are good examples of the former strategy. Cleveland gets an insane amount of lottery luck, which they almost completely squandered if not for being saved by the return of LeBron. Washington and New Orleans get lucky with Wall and Davis and slowly begin to become respectable. Orlando is just kind of scuffling.

Miami post LeBron, Chicago post Rose, Denver post Melo, and Utah post DWill are examples where the teams didn't tank and kept a respectable and competitive roster together that still made the playoffs. Chicago and Miami have other All Stars that have helped keep them good. Utah eventually let Jefferson and Millsap go and that plunged them into full tank mode two years later. Denver looks like they're headed that route now too.

I honestly don't know which is the best way to go. You do need a foundation but I'm not sure it has to be a superstar player. San Antonio and Atlanta testify to that. Some teams that decide to rebuild get lucky and get a foundation player at the top of a draft. Others don't or squander those players and stay rebuilding so long that you don't really remember when the rebuild started.

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I know it won't happen, but in terms of the MIP award I think Hassan Whiteside has to be considered. The man simply came in out from of nowhere after flaming out early.

 

Lots of candidates for that award.

 

Whiteside, Butler, Draymond, Gobert, and others still fighting. That one is going down to the end of the season.

Edited by StillUnknown
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Unibrow dropped 39pts, 13rebs, & 8blks against Detroit. He's 21 years old.

Guy is unreal. Hopefully the Pelicans start to make some waves in the next few years or he might be a future Laker. I doubt that will happen, considering their ownership situation is a mess right now.

Just hope the guy doesn't waste away like KG did in Minny

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Westbrook is making a strong argument right now that he's the better player, especially now that Durant's foot has left him looking mortal.  He might be the guard most capable of taking over a game in the NBA right now.  Makes you wonder what he could do with a team built around him where he isn't the 2nd the option. 

 

I think Durant certainly still has the edge but it's a closer race than it's been in the past. 

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Westbrook is making a strong argument right now that he's the better player, especially now that Durant's foot has left him looking mortal.  He might be the guard most capable of taking over a game in the NBA right now.  Makes you wonder what he could do with a team built around him where he isn't the 2nd the option. 

 

I think Durant certainly still has the edge but it's a closer race than it's been in the past.

Westbrook has always been productive. Now without Durant for the first time in his career, his productionhas exploded. Two years ago, after Rose got taken out by the knee injury and before Curry truly blew up, and while people were on some CP3, Westbrook was the best guard in the NBA. Would have been last year too if not for the knee injuries. Now I think he's the second best guard behind Curry.

He's not better than Durant. Last year Durant became the best player in the league and I think he and LeBron are the two who will go down among the ten best ever. Maybe Durant's foot injuries have caused a permanent deterioration to his ability level, but I'm not ready to accept that yet.

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Goran Dragic said that Miami tried to trade for him back when he was in Houston. If they had gotten him in 2011 or 2012 and had him for last season's team, I think they win the championship.

And if Miami is coming off another ring going into FA, does LeBron still leave? Maybe, since there was the factor of him wanting to return home. But I think it's a lot harder to leave a team coming off a ring for a team in disarray.

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Goran Dragic said that Miami tried to trade for him back when he was in Houston. If they had gotten him in 2011 or 2012 and had him for last season's team, I think they win the championship.

And if Miami is coming off another ring going into FA, does LeBron still leave? Maybe, since there was the factor of him wanting to return home. But I think it's a lot harder to leave a team coming off a ring for a team in disarray.

He was not coming back. Home was not the only reason he left

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How did no one know he could play? Is he just awful in practice or something? You expect this kind of thing in the NFL where guys stocking shelves win superbowl MVP, because scouts are wrong more often than not. It's not common in the nba though.

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How did no one know he could play? Is he just awful in practice or something? You expect this kind of thing in the NFL where guys stocking shelves win superbowl MVP, because scouts are wrong more often than not. It's not common in the nba though.

 

Was talking to one of the scouts and he basically said sometimes it takes guys realizing that they're t their last stop before the light comes on.

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