looking at the last 15 NBA champions: the Lakers had Gasol. Spurs had Duncan but he was close to aged out that year only averaging 16 & 9 in the playoffs; Kawhi was MVP. The Raptors had an aged-out Gasol who average 9 & 6 in the playoffs. The Lakers had AD but he played PF while Howard & McGee played C. Buck had Lopez who was a 4th option. I just don't see C's as being a key anymore. It's true you need competence, but you don't need excellence. More than that though is you don't need to pay much for the C position. Warriors won last season with Looney and Bjelinca combining for 7M. Bucks won with Lopez making 12.6M. Cleveland won with Tristan Thompson making 14M
I thought the Clyde for Otis Thorpe trade was awful. It’s like we were doing Clyde a favor. I feel we could have got a lot more. There’s been so many bad trades in the NBA if you think back.
Give it a rest. That was absolutely an idiotic post. The center position played by a 7 footer or a guy 6-9 anchors your defense. It’s absolutely the most important position on the court. Always has been and always will be. Now let’s talk about Kickers. Tell me exactly how many games this year both pro and college have been won by the fucking kicker? Next go look up who holds the records for scoring in the NFL? It’s all fucking KICKERS! Get that shit outta here! Just admit that was a terrible take and move on.
This does not read like a post from someone interested in listening to others' opinions and/or having a legitimate conversation.
Probably not. If you read the post that I was originally responding to about Centers not being an important position and comparing it to kickers in football you would understand.
talk about idiotic....I didn't mention one fucking thing about kickers...that was you guys and I wasn't participating in that at all. what I did say was that C's not a key position and should be paid like it; for certain they shouldn't be paid like Gobert, unless they are Jokic or Embiid. I'll expand by saying like all positions, C is morphing into something more varied than traditional C's
Nowhere close? Think of how many potential all stars they may get with the picks plus all the players they got! Meanwhile, Minnesota got worse and they owe him $170 million. What trade is worse than that?
Wait til you see what Utah gets with the picks. Nets traded us 1 pick for Gerald Wallace and we got Dame. Now imagine them trading us FIVE picks! No one has convinced me there has been a worse trade.
I was wondering about that because you usually don't come out so hot in a post, at least not toward me, even when I do make an idiot post
Last two champs had role playing centers making less than the MLE. There's "good" enough centers to win a title available to every team in the league, just like a kicker or punter in the NFL. Center is an irrelevant NBA position in 2022. Who was the last team to win a title with a center as the best player? Statistically as it's one of five positions it should be one out of five years. The last was probably Shaq, although maybe some even argue on his teams it was actually Kobe/Wade making the big title winning shots. So Hakeem in 1995 was the last team a center dominantly led his team to a title, almost 30 years ago.
When I said "irrelevant" position I meant in terms of allocating scarce team resources to fulfil it. NBA teams need to have competent coaches, 9th men, practice facility, etc to win. But all 30 teams can get those needs met without sacrificing huge amounts of the salary cap or draft picks as in the Gobert trade. Similar to how all NFL teams can get a good kicker, there's more than 32 of them on the planet. Teams can't all have great wings or dominant offensive guards, or in the NFL elite quarterbacks. There aren't enough of them. So those are more important positions to allocate limited resources to in building a contending team. Paying massive salary for a center as well as draft picks is stupid in 2022 (and 2023....) Minnesota is in a terrible position because of that decision. I'd argue the Blazers are in a worse position similarly from the Nurk contract, although obviously to a much lesser extent as the cost was much less.
So have we moved on from thinking that the Powell and RoCo trade to the Clippers was the worst trade ever?
This is where you lose all credibility in my opinion. Again If you think the Warriors don't win last year without Loony and Green (Who plays center quite a bit) and Wiseman you are dead wrong. Your idea that the money they make correlates directly to their value is laughable. You do realize Giannis plays center quite a bit right? There are pages on the (Nurk shooting threes) Idea about what Lopez brought coupled with his defense not to mention Bobby Portis. Do you not watch what happens to the Blazers when Nurk is out of the game? I love Drew and his effort but he ain't Nurk. Have you ever heard "It takes Big men longer to get the game to slow down"? That is because they are being asked to do things all the other positions don't have to do. Things that don't show up in the stat sheet. I will say this once again. Find any team on the NFL or College that has not won a game this year because of their kicker. Now you try to add "Punter" to the mix? That right there tells me you have never played the game at any level above High School if that. You obviously have no idea. The Comparison is not only wrong it's flat out ridiculous.
I jump on a Bandwagon pretty much every year after the Blazers are out. I usually choose a team I'm pulling for. This year if the Blazers get knocked out I'm probably going to pull for Jokic to get a ring before Luka. You don't have to divorce your team to be a fan of the game.
Maybe. Because Minny is not a FA draw (similar to Portland), this trade will cripple the Wolves for a decade. Yes, some other trades involving HOFers for jank are tough to take, but most of those didn't impedes a team's to progress in the future.
Never understood the concept that you could have a lifelong favorite team and NOT enjoy watching and rooting for other teams. As a kid growing up, they always had the Celtics/Sixers/Bucks/ and other teams on CBS every weekend. That was probably the reason my 2nd favorite team growing up was Philly. Also loved the Run TMC teams in The Bay.
