Howard, Whiteside, or Nurkic?

After last night's game, I'm willing to Homer Up. Nurkic is much younger than Whiteside (by 5 years), and, now that he's a Blazer, much fewer question marks. He also makes our offense much more interesting/better than it would be with Whiteside.

 

I am with you on this. Whiteside is pretty damn good, but from afar...I just don't get the feeling that his chemistry has ever been that great with his teammates. I wanted to wait until Nurk proved that he fit in with his teammates, but it looks like he already has.
Whiteside is the better defender but Nurks passing makes him the better offensive player. And even though Whiteside is a big dude himself, Nurk seems to add the toughness we really needed. And having that "wide body" helps in so many ways that aren't measured in the boxscores. (i.e setting screens, and blocking out so his teammates can rebound)

 

Not making a choice, but I've never seen another player do this more than about once in his career. (We could call these "bleals" or "stocks".)

 

M. Gasol has been my favorite big for some time now. To think we have a young version of him makes me giddy. The screens, the elbow jumper, the post moves, and the passing all shades of Marc.

PS. Lakers don't win their last chips without Pau.

 

So sick. His combination of length and jumping ability is insane. I wonder how many bigs could actually do that on a consistent basis like whiteside. Like is that a skill that can be learned, or is that just because he's so long that he can do that?

 

Whiteside is more athletic than Nurk. But he's not as big. I'll take Nurk.

 

I specifically remember saying that I thought Oden could do this before he kept getting hurt.

 

I still don't understand why we don't invest more in the D league. Buy another farm team and stick them with as many non drafted FA scrubs as possible. But Neil feels otherwise obviously. If even one becomes a contributer it's worth it.

 

I saw Michael Jordan do that once when he played for the Wizards.

 

Here. With TWO hands.

 

Luol Deng too:

 

Javale has some blocks similar.

 

How about both?

 

If we pick up Dwight Howard mid season on waivers or some shit I will laugh so hard

 

I expect to see him do things that are beyond Nurkic's abilities. But as pointed out, Nurkic also has some skills Whiteside doesn't.

 

Whiteside was out sick the day they taught sharing in school

 

Though he did have excellent attendance on the days they taught finishing at the hoop and blocking shots.

 

That is fucking awesome. The whole blocking a shot into the stands doesn't mean much. But when you block and gain possession, well, then, we're talking about something.

 

A while back some math nerd calculated the point value of defensive maneuvers; a block into the stands was worth like 1.5 points, but a steal was worth like 9 points because it starts a fast break, which is way more likely to end in scoring.