LaMarcus' ranking v. other PFs, and other players in general, is a good thing. In the past such disrespect has motivated him. A healthy LaMarcus will beast this year.
When? If disrespect motivated him, he'd be a lot better. Scoring is bottom priority to a PF with his head on straight.
griffin is one of the better passing big men. And who cares how he scores if he scores a lot and efficiently unlike aldridge (mid range lover) http://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/pcm_finder.cgi?request=1&sum=0&p1=griffbl01&y1=2013&p2=aldrila01&y2=2013
I am still amazed by the numbers he has put up in his career. Not a huge fan, but when he's healthy......
Griffin and Aldridge are actually quite similar, in terms of actual "worth to their team". The big difference is Aldridge is a much better scorer than Griffin and Griffin is a better rebounder. You can look at the advanced stats and you will see Aldridge shows better defensive type numbers; while scoring is around the same; but I wonder how much better Aldridge would be with CP3 on the team?
I have to say, it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside that James Harden is ranked above Russell Westbrook. The blessed Thunder finally fuck it up.
I knew when they overpaid to resign Ibaka that they fucked up and wouldn't be willing to pay Harden what he was worth, too. Seems like I was right. Those hillbilly owners could have had a dynasty, but they were too cheap to go into luxury tax range too keep the talent they drafted. If they had, we'd have a decade long Heat/Thunder rivalry like the Lakers/Celtics of the 1980s. Boo fucking hoo! BNM
Yeah, but even funnier is that they traded the wrong guy. I think a lot of people knew at the time that they should have traded Westbrook. He's talented player, but he doesn't recognize that Durant is the main guy, and his ego is far too big for OKC. I wouldn't be surprised to see him end up in LA at some point.
I keep thinking they were an inch from a dynasty. All they needed to do was to trade Westbrook for Lillard + expirings which the Blazers would have been thrilled to do before Lillard's rookie season. Lillard/Harden/Durant/Ibaka would destroy the Heat, and anyone else for years to come. But, yes I hate their owner and am thrilled they didn't do it.
It just shows they have no clue how to manage talent. Not only did they trade the wrong guy, but the trade they did make was flat out horrible. They dealt Harden, Cole Aldrich, and Daequan Cook and Lazar Hayward to Houston. Houston sent them Jeremy Lamb, Kevin Martin, two first round picks, and a second round pick. Martin is gone, Lamb looks like a bust, and they drafted Steven Adams with one of the picks they got from Houston. Adams might turn out to be a solid contributor, but worthy of James Harden? What made no sense to me was that it didn't seem like they even tried to get a better deal. It was the beginning of last season. They had plenty of time to try to make a better deal. Just plain stupid.