Why Lillard's move might herald the destruction of Small Market teams

Giannis was picked up at #15 in the same draft. Gobert was picked up #27. I would argue that CJ is either 2nd or 3rd best pick in that draft.

 

Forget about his contract and I am not sure which one contributed more to winning - CJ or Gobert.

Based on basketball reference's career VORP - Gobert is at 29.2, CJ is at 17.4, WS/48 - Gobert is .221, CJ is .101 (about twice as more impactful per minute) and since they played about the same amount of minutes, career WS is double for Rudy over CJ.

Yes, I pretty much convinced myself that Rudy is the #2 best pick from the first round of that draft class.

 

if you're gauging by impact, and using winshares as a primary gauge. Steven Adams has an argument over CJ. Since that draft was 10 years ago, if you just look at the gauging...

https://www.basketball-reference.com/draft/NBA_2013.html

one big component is availability. VORP is cumulative and welded to availability. CJ is 3rd in minutes and 3rd in VORP. CJ is 5th in winshares., 14th in winshares/48, and 6th in BPM. I suspect CJ would be 2nd to Giannis in usage and FGA
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speaking of availability, here's a question:

which C has actually been more valuable: Nurkic who has averaged 51 games/season; or Mason Plumlee who has averaged 74?

 

The fact that Dame just signed that super extension seems to be a big part of the youtuber's problem with Dame demanding a trade. I really haven't been paying attention to the contract status of guys that have demanded a trade. I'd be real curious to see the numbers on guys that have demanded a trade and how much money was left on their contract.

 

Does anyone think a disgruntled player on a big market team is somehow in a better situation for the big market team? Because that is not the case.
Josh Hart has been tweeting for Mikal Bridges to join the Knicks. I'm not saying bridges is disgruntled, but that's exactly the point. He's not disgruntled. Players are putting stuff out there like that. Even if it is in fun.

 

Golden state was a dumpster fire before they won championships. Nobody was interested in going there.

 

Look at where the top three draft picks went: San Antonio, Charlotte, and Portland.
There might be at sometimes a particular market that has a particular player that might have an advantage. But that isn't as often as people like to think.

 

Fair, Adams has a higher WS/48 - so we can certainly argue that CJ is maybe even below Adams with his impact from that draft class.

Mason Plumlee for sure. Surprisingly, Plumlee had actually a higher WS/48 last year in his LAC stint as a reserve / limited role player than even the best season Nurk had (2018-2019), but I think that Nurk when healthy was clearly a better player. Injuries sure diminished his production.

BTW, anyone who claimed Stotts was holding Nurk back, his production and efficiency sure fell down after Stotts was removed.

 

I really wanted Adams in that draft class. I didn't know how good he would be, but I loved his personality. He also did great in the combine, and when all of the other centers were completely winded, he was still running around like he wasn't tired at all.
I wonder if Aldridge would have stayed if we had drafted Adams. Probably not, but who knows.

 

Yeah, that really sucked for Nurkic. The beginning of the season with Billups they had lillard CJ and Norman, Powell and Covington. Yuck.

 

At this point I wouldn't be surprised if Nurk has to eat media crow and be the starting center next season until we can sign another rim protector..Badji is not that far from being able to be that guy.

 

I wanted Adams or Giannis and moved onto team Giannis by the draft. You can look on Blazersedge and see me saying it before the draft.

 

The guy in Summer league that lost us the first game cause he couldn't catch a lob pass?