AROUND THE NBA THREAD. Sept 2021 edition

So nice. Always loved B-Roy, such a class act. I think he is the only NBA player I had any real interaction with (and even that was not long, maybe 45 minutes talking to him with my wife and big kid) - and he was a class act at that point as well. Thanks for posting this. I have to admit that I did not pay any attention to Porter Jr. as a person before - and he seems like a pretty intelligent young fellow as well.

 

Pat is a fantastic dude! Has a good head on his shoulders.

 

I really hope this is true

 

My brother is buddies with him. I’ll ask him.

 

thats the most Ron Artest thing I’ve heard

 

What will the slogan be when Bronny comes into the picture though?

 

This is adorable:

https://tubitv.com/movies/514977/finding-big-country?start=true

 

I REALLY hope THIS is true

 

Last year Milwaukee didn't have a second top20 guy, nor Toronto a few years prior. Phoenix last year might not have had any top 20 player, but did have 5 quality starters. The Blazers have Dame who is pretty dang high.

Years ago teams like the Detroit Pistons won a title without multiple or possibly even any top 20 guy but with a very strong 5th starter. The 2011 Mavs only had Dirk and probably not five players in the top100 but were deep up to 8 good men. So teams can win a title without multiple superstars and with a variety of roster constructions.

Now I agree ideally it would be best to get another top20 player... but of course that is much easier said than done.

 

I'd say Khris Middleton is fringe top-20; he certainly played like it in the playoffs. Jrue isn't, but he's really good as a PG and as a defender. But mainly, the Bucks have 3 fairly elite two-way players. Portland has none. And of course, Dame isn't Giannis

for the Suns, Booker sure played like a top-20 guy in the playoffs. So did Chris Paul for that matter who is clearly, by far, the best pure PG in the NBA. I mean, that guy's career assist/turnover rate is 3.91 and it was over 4.0 last season. And, over the last 5 seasons his TS% is around .600. CP's efficiency is historically great

this again

Detroit had 4 different players who combined for 25 all-star games. Their starting lineup had 3 players who combined for 14 all-NBA team selections. They had a 4-time DPOY and had 3 different players who combined for 15 all-NBA-Defensive awards. IMO, when they won the title they had 3 top-20 players, Thomas, Dumars, and Wallace

it was also a different era. The year Detroit won the championship, the median number of three's attempted by all NBA teams was 14.9. Last season, the median was 34.4. That Detroit template doesn't work any more

Dallas. One time in the last 20 years a team has won a title with only one top-20 player. Of course, he was a 14 time all-star with an unstoppable jump-shot because he was 7' tall. He was also an MVP and he wasn't the only PG on the team. And while Kidd, Marion, and Chandler were older, in their careers, they combined for 15 all-star games and 14 all-NBA-Defensive teams. And that was 10 years ago.

you might as well compare the current team to the 77 Blazers that won the championship. Arguably, they only had one top-20 player (it would be a poor argument because Lucas was) Portland doesn't have a team anywhere close to matching the template of Milwaukee & Phoenix last season, or Detroit and Dallas from years past

at this point, Portland would have to make their own template and the primary component of that would be three starters under 6'4, with two of those being terrible at defense and the other only being average. Good luck with that

 

I created a new thread with the ESPN player ranks.

Utah and ATL have 6 top100 players, Portland has 5, and 13 other teams have 4.

http://www.sportstwo.com/threads/espn-2021-22-player-rank.369299/

 

Not sure which Detroit title team your talking about... I was thinking of the Rasheed team, he and Ben Wallace (who I don't think was much if any better than Nurk/CJ) were the only all stars when they won the title. Yes Billups and Hamilton became all stars in later years but they were not when the team first contended, and never were ranked at the top of their positions.

Yes you can bring up reasons why Milwaukee, Phoenix, Toronto, and Dallas had advantages the Blazers do not. The Blazers also have advantages those teams do not. None of them had an elite distance shooting presence like Lillard.

I'm not saying the Blazers are likely to win a title. Maybe they need another two way player with defense or to make a trade, or a young player to break out.

My point is its very possible to contend for a title without multiple top20 superstar players. The teams I listed have shown it can often be done.

 

lol...I had a giant brain fart...my bad...comically

and Wallace was better than either CJ or Nurkic, although I suppose you can argue about how each player fits in their era

Milwaukee, Phoenix, and Toronto all did one thing that Olshey refuses to do: make a major change in the starting lineup by taking a risk with a big trade

that also happens to be Portland's big disadvantage: Dame is Portland's #1 scoring option, and also the only real PG and offensive facilitator. If a playoff opponent takes Dame out of the equation, or even limits him, the Blazers do not have another singular talent who can take over, get his own offense, run the team, and make the opponent pay for focusing on Dame

the irony is that Mike Malone and the Nuggets decided to go a different route last season because they didn't have the personnel capable of doubling Dame and shutting him down. So they chose standard defense and bet that none of the other Blazers were good enough to beat them even when Dame was going off. Turned out to be a good bet

yeah, well my main point is that the template Portland currently has is nothing like those other templates. I can't see any way, at all, a team with 3 starters under 6'4, and two of those being terrible perimeter defenders, can be a contender. But it sure looks like that will be what Portland runs with this season

Olshey is betting that the 7th time will be the breakthrough with the Dame/CJ experiment.

 

Oh man, if this is precursor to a KAT trade..... we better throw everything we can at Minny.

Apparently he was fully onboard the rebuild pitched to him by the new FO they hired two years ago. Remains to be seen if he's still interested in that chaos.

 

unsubstantiated but ...