OFFICIAL AROUND THE NBA THREAD- February 2021

The Lakers don't have a backup to their 2nd best player that shoots just as well from '3' and plays better defense.

 

Portland has played the same with CJ and Nurk (8-5, 0.615) than without CJ and Nurk (10-7, 0.588). Still with the 28th ranked defense in the league.

 

He started 4 games

 

Gary Trent never looks to pass while CJ is an excellent passer. And the numbers say CJ is the better defender.

Oh and Gary was 4/18 tonight with 0 assists. CJ’s PER is Top 10 in the NBA.

The drop off from CJ to GT is STEEP.

 

Yes but in the couple games before Nurk went down, he was finding his groove and our defense, as a result, was improving. If those guys don’t get hurt, I think we are two wins better. That’s 20-10 and only 1 game out of the 2 seed.

 

The Lakers do have Marc Gasol to back him up though. Davis is a huge loss for sure but they do have a rather talented back up Center that can play defense and can pass well. Gasol can also hit a three. If you don't guard him he will light you up.

 

And yet the team until the last 2 games, had a higher winning percentage without CJ and after 2 straight losses, it is about the same with or without. So the STEEP drop off from a bigger picture, doesn't seem that big. Sure, Gary had a terrible shooting night. I don't have time to go through the stinkers CJ has put up in his career as a much older, more seasoned player than Trent. I would HOPE CJ is much better since he is getting paid 15X the salary Trent is.

 

Exactly... crazy huh.

 

Jazz had three players off the bench last night score 20 plus. Man, you hardly ever see that.

 

So if the Lakers continue to struggle, one would think this would hurt LeBron's chances of winning MVP, right? Not that I give a shit about regular season accolades, but I think Embiid is in the driver's seat IMO.

 

Certainly one of them.

 

Would you trade Nurk for Domantas Sabonis?

 

I think so.