Amidst this talk of MVP for Dame and MIP for Noah, etc etc, we're forgetting AC. Dude absolutely brought it tonight. Major step in the right direction towards him being 6MoY. We even saw him put the ball on the floor tonight-- just sick. I love our versatility to finish out games. Need spacing and a deadeye shooter with Dame and CJ? -- play AC. Need another ball handler and stronger post defender? -- play ET. Need another board crasher and versatile defender? -- play Moe. But AC is gonna make a serious attempt at that award. He's gonna get his shots and he even had 3 rebs and 3 asts tonight. Great performance. I predict he finishes as our third leading scorer.
He looked fantastic tonight and exactly the kind of versatile player we need off the bench or at the end of games. Let's hope he can keep it up.
He was excellent tonight and stepped it up when it mattered most. One of his threes in the final quarter was sort of game changing.
I remember looking up his stats in the summer after we gave him that contract and his %'s compared very favorably to JJ Reddicks, but he is a way better defender then JJ was at this point in their careers.
lol I made that very same comparison here in a post this summer. Crabbe compares very favorably to Redick and Demarre Carroll.
Dame, CJ and AC are our 3 best pure shooters "off the dribble". We don't need advanced stats to tell us that....it is obvious. Napier might also be good at it, but he plays the same position as Dame and CJ so unless one is hurt he is irrelevant when the game is on the line. Others have decent "set" shots, (i.e Meyers) and that is important too, but I am talking about go to guys when we really need a basket. Because of that , AC is extremely improtant to the success of this team. If a big can emerge as the 4th reliable jump shooter (come on Noah!) that would be huge. But again....we need AC to play like last night. (and like he did in the playoffs last year)
He COULD be the third scorer, but he's going to need to do it consistently night after night. The starting lineup is still Dame/CJ carrying the offensive load. Plumlee - 2 points off 1-4 shooting Harkless - 0 points off 0-2 shooting Aminu - 9 points off 3-6 shooting Someone else in the starting lineup is going to have to step up. Plumlee only played 15 minutes, so that's not really a fair sample size, but Harkless played 22 minutes and only attempted 2 shots. That's no bueno.
If Noah plays like this the rest of the season I don't feel bad about my 50 wins and 3rd seed prediction. Hell if Noah keeps playing like this we might be able to actually trade for a disgruntled star without giving up CJ.
If Noah develops then we might be going for third scorer that is not a big like it's been mentioned forever, but rather a small forward who can dribble and get to the basket. We will have assets and it will be easier to trade some of Meyers/Plumlee/Davis/Aminu for a small forward to a team that has too many often and too few of bigs, than consolidate several bigs for a center/power forward. For a center you could trade someone like Crabbe or Harkless, to a team that is missing this sort of player. But why talk about trades when we have so much room for internal development for now. Focus on giving Crabbe, Harkless and Vonleh time to work on their skills and see where it takes us.
So we can have another Jermaine Oneal scenario? NO thanks. Vonleh should be off the trade sheet. Too much upside and the one missing link in our offense is his type of game. An inside out guy who can shoot but can also pound in the paint. He is right below Dame and CJ as untouchable as far as im concerned. Plus he has no monetary value, so trading him would not get us anything. Guys on the trade block will be Crabbe, Turner, Leonard, Plums.
I hate to be one of those guys.. but it's just the first game. If he can play like he did last night with consistency, he might have a shot at sixth man of the year (though I doubt it). I remember him starting last year very hot and then cooling off a lot. The thread about Vonleh is worse than this though.. Vonleh is not going to win MIP. Man, I feel like a downer but it was just one game people! Stop adding ridiculous expectations to players.
Its more than one game though. If you watched the preseason, Vonleh has been ramping up. Based on how little of numbers Vonleh put up last year, if he can average 12 pts per game and 6-8 rebounds. MIP isnt out of the question I think. I thought I( read somewhere that CJ had one of the largest number increases in history for an MIP?
I hear you, but you have to give up the goods to get the goods. That being said "why trade" and "who's available" are legit questions.
Hmm, Not sure I buy that so blanketly. the legit question are the key. Why trade a guy who has an unknown ceiling for someone who does? Unless its a superstar. I can think of maybe 5 guys in the league that could benefit this team that I would give him up for in a package. And none of those guys are getting traded or coming here: LBJ Durant Big dude from Minni (forgot his name, but his upside is mvp caliber) AD I even wonder about AD.
This thread is about Crabbe, who is becoming who we'd all hoped he would. That being said, Boogie would be amazing on this team.
