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Dame is never one to be defensive, so it figures he'd beat it in record setting time by going on the offensive.

I'm well aware of all that -- you repeat it relentlessly -- which is why I led with, "Of all the people." Slightly rephrasing what he said seemed like coincidence, not a joke. So, as a joke, it was a weak one.

Biggest surprise there is Clingan finishing with only 5 more rebounds than Deni. Obviously, minutes are a big component of that, but with DC's historic rookie rebound percentage numbers, I'd have expected a bigger gap.

Of all the people to be saying the identical thing... And it's not even true. There's the future 1st, I believe two future 2nds, and Brogdon who was a significant part of the Dame/Jrue haul. Considering how weak this past draft was largely viewed as, I would consider that 14th pick the least...

The new transfer portal...

Hell, if the Lakers win this year, one could argue that AD was the MVP, seeing as he brought Luca.

He was -4 for the game. It wasn't that hard to see that we played our best when our top scorers were off the floor. That obviously won't happen every game, but when it does, the reasonable thing is to not question Billups for rolling with it.

It seemed to me, we rolled with the guys in the 4th who played well in the 2nd. Deni and Sharpe scored a lot, but they didn't have a big impact on the point differential. I didn't get the sense at the time that Billups had intentionally gone into tank mode.

Camara is chasing DPOY consideration -- well, the team is chasing it for him, and he's not going to sit by choice -- so I doubt he misses any games unless that shoulder stinger has lasting injury concern.

I remember his rebounding prowess, but the 30+ scoring caught me by surprise. With only one such game that year, having it coincide with a teammate's 30+ pt triple double is pretty damn low odds.

I wouldn't have guessed Whiteside would fill out that feat.

And Sharpe with a 30 point double-double. How often has that happened in the same game for the Blazers?

Were any Pistons ranked in the top-15 when Billups' team won? (Were rankings like that even done back then?) That's the image this team is being built in. Sure, Rasheed had top-15 talent despite not being the star of the team, but his attitude always kept him from achieving that level of...

How? Would Dame have played off the ball so Deni can push it, or would Deni have been primarily a spot-up shooter? Maybe Deni's slashing ability works in the PnR, but I'm not sure we've ever seen him in that role to know. Or is this Demi person you speak of better suited to that pairing than...

Yes, that's the gist of it. I think Deni is always going to be a point of attack player, so he's a focal point of the team's direction and identity even if he doesn't end up being its best player. That's what I meant by relative ease of building around vs Dame.

I was simply responding to the comment that Deni can't lead us to anything significant because Dame was better and he couldn't. That only holds true if both are equally easy to build around. It's a flawed premise.

He played at his own pace, didn't defend, and needed (IMO) to be surrounded by spot-up shooters who excel at the PnR but don't mind rarely getting the ball on the roll. He's a phenomenal offensive force, but has never shown the ability and/or willingness to adapt.

I already know it's pointless to discuss anything with you, so this will be my last reply. I compared his first half+ season in NJ to his rookie season, because the scant 18 game period in between saw him play only 7.4 minutes per game. And his shooting percentage plummeted. It was the...

Dame's issue was never how good (great) he was, rather what pieces would fit around him. Deni seems a lot more flexible in that respect.

Not exactly true. He averaged 20 during his first full season there, but in the half season after the trade he averaged only 12.6 per game. That's a modest 5 ppg increase from his rookie season (his minutes increased similarly; points per 36 were remarkably steady throughout), so he was...