I'm just here to quibble about your hyping Ant as a "brilliant" passer. Dame is much better and he isn't a brilliant passer and as good as Ant was this season, he only had a 22.2% assist rate; ranked 48th in the league. He also had a 1.92 assist/turnover ratio this season, and a career ratio of 1.83. None of that is anywhere close to the zip code of brilliant and yeah, I know, cue up the mention of how he did once given the start. He had 156 assists in 27 games (5.78); and 68 turnovers (2.52). That's a 2.29 ast/to. That's better and decent for his first stint running a team, but it's not brilliant or elite
CJ isn't mentally weak. He doesn't have the court vision that others have and yes he might call his shot too much at time. That's just part of his skill set, you take the good with the bad. Most players don't have those amazing passing and vision abilities, CJ just looks bad in comparison to the greats. CJ was huge in the game 7 to get into the WCF, and the bubble playin against the Grizzlies with a broken back. Dame hasn't been able to figure out a trap in the postseason over a decade, whereas CJ figured it out in his first game without Dame against the trapping Lakers. Pass quick, its simple. Dame takes shitty early long 3's all the time. So you can look at any of these players and harp on their negatives. There are plenty of criticisms for CJ and I agree in that at times he shoots too much. But that doesn't make him mentally weak. I'd have been very interested to see a team built around CJ on offense in his 20's with great defenders all over the roster where he didn't have to share shots with a 50ppg scoring guard like Dame. People talk about what Dame sacrificied with CJ, but CJ also sacrificed his offense deferring to Dame.
Ok well, that's my opinion based on a breakdown I saw earlier this year. Compared to the league's best Brilliant is probably a big overstatement. He's a very good, very efficient passer who reads defenses very well. He's certainly on a completely different tier than CJ.
CJ stepping out of bounds against Denver is one of the worst plays I've ever seen by a player in that kind of position and he would regularly call his own number at critical junctures in games and then faceplant when he had open teammates. I see that as mental weakness, ego not matching skill and mental mistakes. He also would often fold and cough up turnovers and so forth during games and rarely if ever put in back-to-back strong performances like he was still high off the last one. Mental weakness is arguably the most subjective thing in the game, but I stand by my statement. He's not mentally weak compared to the huge basketcases of the league, but he's not mentally tough and smart.
Hasn't Durant said he would never ever play for Portland due to drafting Oden over him? I swear he said that on CJ's podcast years ago.
Agree. Why the hell would you want a guy who has been nothing but injured during his career. Hellooooooooo. You can't meet your potential in the rehab room.
i keep seeing KD's tweets from a year ago today about Dame's historic playoff performance and also recall Dame repeatedly referring to KD as the best player in the world. Can't help but dream. What are the cap mechanics needed to take on his 44 million of salary? Can we workout a S&T of Ant along with Bledsoe and the pick for KD? Throw in a S&T of Nurk if they want.
Using our pick wouldn't really work with the S&T aspect. We could get there with Bledsoe, Hart, and keon financially. Our pick, 25 pick, little, whatever other assets needed.
ya with like a 3 yr window. surround Dame and KD with a bunch of role players like Hart/Winslow/etc. We'd be certainly more competitive than BK was. All hoops, no drama. I honestly think KD would fit perfectly with Dame and in this environment. I think his desire to stay in BK will depend on what they do with Kyrie. If they let him go, we need to keep an eye out.