I've only watched a couple of games, that's why I'm asking. I just look at the skill set and worry about his ability to do the same thing in the NBA. As for the jump shot, while he definitely COULD develop one, do you think he HAS to if he's going to become a star? Because if so, that's a leap of faith. The guys you mentioned developed jumpers, which took their games to the next level. But that doesn't mean it works out for everyone. Again, I'm not trying to dump on the guy. I know you've been on the bandwagon since before the season started, so I wanted to get your take on what makes him special. Now that the Heat are in the lottery equation, this becomes relevant.
I think his floor is basically Blake Griffin, which is 20 and 10 type guy, only an ok foul shooter, weakness on the perimeter and may not be great in the playoffs. His ceiling though...ridiculousness. I don’t necessarily think he needs the jumper to become an all star type. He needs the jumper if he wants to be a top 5 player in the league. If you want safe Cam Reddish is safe. He’s likely to be a slightly taller Klay Thompson imo. RJ Barrett is probably similar to Andrew Wiggins. Romeo Langford is likely going to be a strong two way play whose offense still has to develop more. Quentin Grimes is a player I really like a lot as well and reminds me of Paul Pierce; it’s not super flashy but it’s effective. But you kind of know what those guys are going to be. Really good players. Could be all stars. Zion could be great if he wants it.
I'm just delving into this draft class as I didn't think Miami would be much of a player (and I'm still skeptical that they won't win enough to find themselves at the end of the lottery, or even a 1 and done playoff team). To me, Barrett's skill set is the most exciting. I'm ok with the Wiggins comp if we're talking about talent. His limitation is between the ears, IMO. If Barrett has his head on straight with that kind of ability, he could be a star. Langford, and Kevin Porter are guys I like around where the Heat sit currently. Either way, it looks like a strong draft. It's a good year to have a lottery pick. That's why if I'm running the Heat I trade guys like Dragic, Ellington, and Olynyck. They'll never "tank", but those guys won't be around when the Heat are competitive again, so might as well get some value for them now, and if you end up losing more games and getting more lottery balls, that's not so bad.
On the other side of that, as a Spurs fan, I've enjoyed years of following a competitive and victorious team. The 2014 victory over the Heat, following those horrific last second losses, was the most memorable of my life. It's been nice to support a franchise that has been continuously successful while the Dolphins have been anything but successful. Now the Spurs big three have all moved on and it's a new era. I'm looking forward to see what Pop can do with the Spurs 2.0 but the thought of his retirement has me pondering what it might be like for a small-franchise operation to lose that generational coaching talent. I hope his successor can bring success... enjoying it while it lasts though, even if the Spurs are struggling this year.
Being a Spurs fan has to be pretty great. It's like the Heat organization, with more sustained success. You didn't necessarily have that 4 year period of a team like the Heatles, but for over a decade you knew you had a shot to win the title damn near every year. That, and you have maybe my favorite professional coach of all time. Certainly my favorite outside of Miami teams.
The spurs deserved success. I still remember how bad that team was for before David Robinson and Sean Elliott. Their futility was their for a while too. As a Knick fan the only year i couldnt stand them was the year they beat my 8th seed upstart Knicks because Camby and a still hurt Ewing couldnt do much with Timmy D and Robinson even though the Spurs really had no one who was able to stick Houston and Sprewell that series as Van Gundy ran baseline screen after baseline screen.
To me at least the lottery class is strong, particularly the first 6-7 picks (depending who declares of course). It falls off some after that. The depth of the class is average imo. But if you can get one of the 3 duke guys, Nassir Little, Grimes or Langford, youre Gucci at that point
Last season's debacle with Kawhi hurt. It looked as though the FO had hit it out of the park again by acquiring Kawhi as a rookie no-one particularly cared about and seeing the coaches help develop him into a top player in the league and the future of the franchise after the big three. I bear no ill will towards him, I hope he's done what will make him happy, but it felt maybe like a heavier blow than most because SA has built its success on drafting well and maximising/developing talent in house. The coaching and player development is really the engine driving much of the Spurs success, in combination with forward thinking drafting, and a culture first approach. SA is never going to be a big pull for free agents, which makes losing talented players all the more frustrating. Pop wouldn't cry about it though. So I can't either. It's been a pleasure watching DeMar this season, and though I don't have high post-season hopes, seeing the old man Pop work with these younger, next Gen Spurs, has been really enjoyable. It's a shame Murray is out for the season, but we'll hopefully get our first round pick back soon, and some other injuries out of the way, and see what this mix of vets and misfits can create. My greatest wish for the Dolphins is that they could cultivate the same, "pound the rock" culture that Pop and Spurs have. They've been a model franchise for sustained success. I wonder if Pop feels like learning how to coach football?
Robinson was the reason I became a Spurs fan, albeit towards the middle/back end of his run. Over in the UK it was difficult to watch any games because it was early internet days, so nothing online really, and the games were all late night. NBA fever was moving through my circle of friends and while Jordan and the Bulls were rocking along, the Magic with Penny and Shaq drew attention, and my brother was enamoured with Barkley, the Sun, but also Shawn Kemp and the Sonics, none of them had that appeal. It was Robinson, this super-athletic giant who was also a man of character that really appealed. So I became a Robinson fan, and with that a Spurs fan. They weren't up to much as a team back then, but Robinson was amazing, and I was generally surprised when they started to find success. As I said, it had been hard to follow the team the way we can now. Getting hold of results etc was difficult. Next thing I know they've drafted some guy called Tim Duncan, and they're starting to dominate. That was a nice surprise. Then more additions came - who-is-he? sort of picks - Ginobili, Parker - and a legend was born. Really satisfying to see how they came together and find the success they did. As for the Heat, since it was hard enough to follow my preferred team I lost track of them for a while. They were actually something like my second favourite team, in a way, because during my younger years of following ball Miami were Tim Hardaway and Alonzo Mourning, both favourites of mine. Tim might have been my favourite PG in that era, and Alonzo was another quality guy but with a hard-nosed edge to him. Loved me the big centres of that era. So when the Heat morphed later on, it was unfamiliar territory for me. But they'll always have a soft spot in my heart, and Spo goes down as great coach in my book. I gained new respect for him as I watched the Heat and Spurs go at it for those few years of semi-rivalry. Here's to hoping both teams can make it back there again soon!
The deal that they got for Kawhi was pretty impressive when you consider he's on the last year of his deal, and you see guys like Jimmy Butler going for a couple of role players. Personally, I didn't think they'd get that much.
Yeah it wasn't fun waiting to see what happened. DeRozan was a win. Although losing Danny Green too made me a little angry.
I haven’t had the time to watch too much college ball outside of the Longhorns and canes, but you’re right, we’ll probably be picking somewhat high so I need to get on it. We’re currently sitting with the 6th worst record, and i hate to say it in Dwades last season, but I hope the losses continue. Let Dwade shoot 20 times a game. And I get the RJ Barret/Wiggins comp, but I would be surprised if RJ isn’t the better nba player.
A recent sound bit from Popovich is being discussed right now. It's nothing new for Pop, but with things being as they are, its an interesting and possibly controversial (light) question. The 3 point shot. He's never liked it but he's had to adjust to it. The video and quotes are below. “These days there’s such an emphasis on the three because it’s proven to be analytically correct,” Popovich offered with what appeared to be a sneer. “Now you look at a stat sheet after a game and the first thing you look at is the threes. If you made threes and the other team didn’t, you win. You don’t even look at the rebounds or the turnovers or how much transition D was involved. You don’t even care. That’s how much an impact the three-point shot has and it’s evidenced by how everybody plays.” “I hate it, but I always have,” Popovich said even as he’s adjusted over the years. “I’ve hated the three for 20 years. That’s why I make a joke all the time (and say) if we’re going to make it a different game, let’s have a four-point play. Because if everybody likes the three, they’ll really like the four. People will jump out of their seats if you have a five-point play. It will be great. There’s no basketball anymore, there’s no beauty in it. It’s pretty boring. But it is what it is and you need to work with it.” These came from a story looking at the 3 pointer here - https://www.nba.com/bulls/news/how-has-three-point-shooting-changed-game Jalen Rose jumped in on it: It an interesting question, but what can be done about it, realistically? No one is removing the 3 point line, so I think the only conceivable change that could be made is to move it backwards... or forwards. Either make 3's more difficult to try to bring their influence back down to previous levels, or make them easier so that there's less of a difference in terms of spacing the court, making them a little easier to defend ,and not needing as elite three point shooters. Thoughts?
I’m a traditionalist on most sports and don’t really care for alterations to the rules unless it’s a safety issue which I understand. I still enjoy the triangle offense and variants because I understand the concepts which some nba players don’t or don’t want to. I still believe the game you watch is more the result of crappy coaching at the college and HS levels where these kids are not taught the skills they need to be anything other then 1-1 players because those coaches are trying to win games and stay employed rather then develop kids. Pop is 100% correct.
I am a huge fan of the NBA. The 3 point shot is fun. I watch basketball because it is fun. 90s basketball, where guys like Anthony Mason and Charles Oakley we’re beating each other up was not as fun as the game today. My opinion. Go Pels! Beat the Heat tonight!
I honestly couldnt disagree more. Todays game is 50% acting over who can draw fouls and flail their arms the best. The league is so scared of another incident like they had in detroit theyve removed all contact from the game. Ive barely watched the regular season because its intolerable and boring. And i love watching the NBA. But theres literally minimal differences in offensive styles from team to team and more about simply who has the most talent and can shoot the best from 3. Its just an awful product to watch right now imo.
Hell yeah dude. The NBA needs more toughness and less flopping and whining. More contact allowed, less ticky tack fouls. Not sure how a replay system would work to review for flopping, but something should be done. The flailing and flopping is just **** to watch and deceitful.
We are a very bad team right now... we should be doing everything we can to free capspace... rolling into next year with this squad is a recipe for failure
That franchise will be bad for as long as I can even imagine. Wouldn’t surprise me if that is the team LeBron ends up buying. My conspiracy theory before he left Cleveland is that he knew but the time he was ready to make the purchase, the value would be at an all time low. Or maybe I’m reaching here, dunno.
That sounds plausible to me. Remember, he left Cleveland and only returned once they collected enough assets to trade for another elite player. He’s playing the long game.
Oh that would be fun. Lets see how anxious he is to dole out 20m a year to guys like Tristan Thompson as an owner.
Eh, it wasn't really a LeBron issue. They built a team that would have challenged the Cavs, but right after the Dragic trade, Bosh goes out with the blood clots. That was the beginning of the end, but the nail in the coffin was riding out the 2016 team instead of selling the parts at mid-season, then doubling down by giving James Johnson and Dion Waiters those extensions. That put them in cap hell with a mediocre team. I'm still hoping they come to their senses. A bad road trip right now could do it. Sell what you can, and create a short rebuild similar to what the Grizzlies did. Then wait on another Jimmy Butler-type situation, and don't get cold feet.
You don’t have to explain it anymore bro, we’re well aware of the potential this team had if bosh was healthy and wade stayed. No one should be hating on the route we took - all of our teams suck balls this year.
I just watched a great game. PELS/OKC. Not a lot of flopping and stupid drawing fouls. I don’t know what Boik is talking about.
Pelicans played like crap tonight against Heat. It was good to see Wade one last time in person. He got a huge ovation from the New Orleans crowd tonight. A lotta respect from a city with zero history with him.
I don’t know how ya miss it? At some point we can watch a game and I’ll point it out for you. There’s a lot of it most nights.
Sure, I see it when I watch Houston and some other teams, but I think you’re overstating the frequency.
Been losing to scrubs all year...heat are no different. Sigh. And like clockwork, Chris Paul is hurt AGAIN. Harden can't catch a break. Personally, i'd go after John Wall and pay off a couple of refs before playoff start.