Game Thread 2021 NBA Finals - Suns vs Bucks!

Why would he keep him if the coach isn't playing him? Also, I thought Neil couldn't draft?

 

The trio of Giannis+Middleton+Jrue is astronomically better than our big 3. If you can call them big anyway.

 

Giannis
Dame
Middleton
Jrue
McCollum
Nurk

Our issue is that our “3rd star” (Nurk) is closer to their “3rd star” (Holiday) while their 3rd star is closer to our #1 Dame.

In other words, Nurk isn’t nearly as good as Holiday, but Holiday is almost as good as Lillard.

the trick is finding an available player that is better than Middleton and Holiday for Nurk or CJ + picks.

 

I think I understand what you mean and I absolutely agree with your order but Holiday almost as good as Lillard?

I would rather argue that Middleton and Holiday strongly outperform Nurk and CJ (especially Middleton is a great 2nd Option) but there are in my view some differences between these two and Dame.
Nevertheless, a better 2and3 options are needed to improve the team significantly.

 

Dame is as good as The Greek Freak at this point, imo. Middleton and Jrue are both better than CJ & Nurk.

 

Yes, I knew this would be controversial but on a “scale”… holiday would be much closer to Lillard than he would be Nurk.

G-D—M-J—C——-N

This is a visual representation LOL of my thoughts.
Giannis and Dame are fairly close, I give Giannis the edge because of defense, size and positional versatility.

Middleton and Jrue, imo are pretty interchangeable. Middleton is a bit more consistent. But jrue’s defense is game changing and he has a CP3 quality to him where he brings so much more than scoring. Slight nod to Middleton.

I think CJ is a clear step below Jrue. If he hasn’t scoring, he is bringing nothing to our team really. Atrocious on defense. No versatility.

Then way in the back youve got Nurk who is… a glorified Robert Covington.

so per my amazing visual art, Jrue is nearly as good as Dame while I think Nurk is… quite a ways off from Jrue. The chart isn’t to scale. Like if we were to put players in tiers holiday would be a good tier or three above Nurk, irrelevant of position

 

Disagree with Dame being as good as Giannis. They’re close though. If you factor in leadership it’s a possibility but there is a massive gulf in defense, versatility and Giannis is a little more unstoppable in my opinion due to his rebounding, paint points, etc.

 

Good points but he has struggled big time with FT's at critical moments and Im not sure he's as good when it comes to clutch moments?
Since he's in the finals and has won mvp, I guess the tie goes to him...

 

Definitely not as good in the clutch moments but this is how I see it, and is part of the reason I’d tolerate Simmons.

The amount of points he saves with his defense offsets the amount of free throws he bricks.

I would also say that the amount of points Dame gives away with woeful defense more than makes up for the difference in FT disparity.

But if the game is on the line and I need 1 or more points, give me Dame all day every day.

 

in his 3rd season in Portland he played in all 82 games and averaged 18 minutes a game. So, the coach did play him in a consistent rotational role

not only that, he signed for a minimum contract in Milwaukee after Portland let him walk so it isn't like the Blazers couldn't have afforded him. Of course, Olshey has just drafted Simons and Trent so he wanted to clear room for those two and Pat would have been in their way

 

I think you meant 18 minutes

 

right...thanks!

 

The Bucks mindset, who cares about draft picks. Let’s go get Jrue Holiday for Bledsoe. It pays dividends now. Neil should say the same thing, who cares about Simons and all our young players, let’s go bring help for Dame and improve the team.

 

http://www.cbafaq.com/salarycap.htm

 

If comparing Big 3's, it bears painfully pointing out that Lopez (#4) and Nurk are toss-ups. Pretty close on production, with Lopez being more versatile and clearly more durable.

Where the comparison crumbles a bit for the Bucks is Middleton is their only polished offensive player. Giannis has major limitations and Jrue is crazy streaky. Middleton is the full package, but isn't consistent enough in the alpha role. Contrast that with Dame/CJ who you have a much better idea what you're getting from each night. Milwaukee is less than the sum of their star parts, except on occasion like Game 5 when they're all clicking simultaneously. Basically, it's why they've underachieved so much the past three years, while Portland has overachieved pretty regularly.

 

Phoenix twice blew big leads. Got to be discouraging.

 

Bucks were at 130M in salary last year, 136M this season, and are at 150M in salary next season

Blazers were at 137M last season, 132M this season, and are at 90M in guaranteed salary next season

I don't see any CBA constraints on Portland's flexibility that weren't on Milwaukee's

 

$90M doesn’t include the all but certain decision Jones will make to pick up his option, and the Blazers will pick up their option on Nurk (unless you’re of the opinion that they could get a better center for less than $12M). So the real number is more like $112M. That’s a bit of a difference over what the Bucks had last season. The Blazers are starting from a position of being over the cap.