What's weird is that KAT and Wiggins have elite defensive potential but have sucked on defense up until this year (Wiggins still does).
Can I give Stotts some credit here, I know you and I have our problems with Stotts, but about 3-4 weeks ago, when CJ's shooting didn't seem to "get better" I think Stotts made the critical move of saying we're going to run through Nurkic a lot more and a lot less of CJ. CJ still has some ball stopper in him at times, but I think the team runs much better with Nurkic being a facilitator. Stotts did obviously have something to do with the shift in offense there.
Guys, a C averaging 15/10/3 just isn't going to make the all-star game unless they're on the best team in the conference. It has no chance of happening.
I agree but I could see him getting some votes from coaches, I'm sure they have taken notice to what he's doing. Not enough to get him in the ASG though, maybe next year if he's at 18-20ppg or something.
Doncic actually has a good shot to make it if he remains in the fan vote. Rose not so much. The reason is simple math. There are 2 spots for guards and 3 for forwards. Assuming the fan votes stay the same: For guards it would be Curry and Rose with 50%. Players would probably vote Curry and Harden? Media maybe Curry and Harden too? That would basically make it 50% Rose and 50% Harden, but Rose won't even show up on the media or players votes and Harden is 3rd for fans so Harden would likely move into 2nd. For forwards with that 3rd spot, unless the players and media have the same exact 3 players for both (which is unlikely given how many forwards are deserving between LeBron, Durant, AD, PG13, Jokic, etc), the fact that Doncic is locked in with 50% gives him a pretty good chance to keep one of the 3 spots since the voting for in the media and players will likely be spread out over a bunch of guys.
See, we could, but the past two games they've completely reverted back to how it was before. He's taken 13 shots the past 2 games combined? That's the problem I have with Stotts, is yes, we could praise him for doing something well for a two-week stretch, but often times it reverts back to how it was before. Stotts also has 0 sets designed to free up Nurkic in good spots. Getting Nurkic more looks was simply running more Horns with more entry passes going Nurkic's way, as well as walking up the ball to FT-line extended before trying to throw an entry pass. No sets designed for him to get the ball in a powerful spot. I've been begging for a cross-screen set, which is a common staple in every offense at every level of basketball. With Nurkic, it's common sense to have one. If Stotts put one in, I'd have people yelling at me to praise him, and it's just like "Guys, why should we praise a coach for finally using common sense and putting in a play we all know we should have, that almost every team everywhere has?"... As a weird example, it's like having a kid at night who leaves the front and back door open at night. The one night he only leaves the backdoor open, I wouldn't praise him "Well at least you closed the backdoor!". He shouldn't be leaving doors open at night. That's common sense. I'm not going to praise him for coming around to using partial common sense! That's just my view on it.
For the most part nationally the average person has no clue how good Nurk has been over the last month.
It drives me crazy when we make an effort to post up Nurk that it's almost always while he's trying to fight for position and then has to work his way to the paint instead of just moving him around to where he gets the ball on the block and can go into his moves.
I think they should expand the all-star game a spot to 13 players in each conference. What about you? Or my favorite: They should expand to 28 players + 4 legacy spots (for players over 36 or in their final year) and have four teams of 8 (Voting wouldn't be dependent on conference). That'd be about 30 minutes per player per game. Could maybe shorten the quarters to 10 minutes if players wished. This would get in a couple more players, get rid of conferences, get older players in based on legacy, would create extra all-star games (if they were like last years all-star game, who wouldn't love this?), a potentially more competitive structure, and players would get more minutes on the court. Out of the 28 players, you'd have 11 backcourt, 13 frontcourt, and 4 wildcards. Backcourt: Curry, Harden, Lillard, Westbrook, Irving, Walker, Lowry, Simmons, Butler, DeRozan, Beal Frontcourt: LeBron, Durant, Giannis, Davis, Kawhi, Embiid, Jokic, Griffin, Harris, Towns, Gobert, Vucevic, Drummond Wild Card: Lavine, Oladipo, Aldridge, Doncic Legacy: Wade, Nowitzki, Carter, (Crawford / Parker / Gasol) Snubs: Booker, Holiday, Nurkic, Siakam, L.Williams, Middleton Coaches: The two leading head coaches from each conference, as well as the top assistant from each conference (as voted by other coaches) The Rookie/Sophomore game and Celebrity Game would get moved to Thursday (Times in ET) Thursday: 5:00 - Celebrity Game 7:30 - Rookie/Sophomore Game Friday: 5:30 - Semi-Final All-Star Game 1 8:00 - Semi-Final All-Star Game 2 Saturday: Normal Skills Contest, 3pt Contest, and Dunk Contest schedule. Sunday: 5:30 - 3rd Place All-Star Game 8:00 - 1st Place All-Star Game
It's true. My friend is a Laker fan who underrates the hell out of him. Next year I'm hoping he can get 18/12/4 in 32 minutes per game. Then he'd have a chance.
The only exception I have is AD. Nurkic seems to be really bothered by his athleticism, but maybe he can prove me wrong tomorrow!
Name 6 frontcourt players who will. LeBron Durant Jokic PG13 Aldridge, Gobert, Capela (hurt), Adams, and Nurk. 2 get in. Am I missing something? I’d pick Gobert and Nurkic.
Lebron, Durant, Jokic, Anthony Davis, Gobert, KAT, Aldridge, PG13, Tobias Harris, Luca Doncic that's 10 players, and 8 of them seem like much bigger 'locks' than Nurkic. I mean if only 7 of those first 8 names make it, which one gets left out? Probably KAT
2018-2019 RPM 1 Nikola Jokic DEN +6.20 2 Rudy Gobert UTAH +4.89 3 Jusuf Nurkic POR +4.88 4 Nikola Vucevic ORL +4.64 Nurk has passed Vucevic, but now Gobert has eeked past Nurk. Nurk soon to be #2. (This site counts A. Davis as a power forward)
