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HookEm

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Everything posted by HookEm

  1. The thing is, teams are going to have to give up some big assets to get KD and it is going to weaken them. We have already seen that the Pelicans are a solid team WITHOUT Zion. Add KD to the mix and you really have something. More than anything KD wants to win and I'm not sure there is a much better situation than the Pelicans. They are built to win right now. This starting lineup would be solid AF: CJ McCollum Brandon Ingram Kevin Durant Larry Nance Jonas Valančiūnas Valanciunas is an underrated big IMO. He brings toughness and interior defense, but can also shoot 3s at a 36%+ clip and 82% from the line. Ingram is also making strides and still hasn't hit his peak. With Durant on the team, he would not be drawing the other team's best defenders and should see his efficiency improve. McCollum can also get buckets. Plus they have some intriguing young players in Dyson Daniels and Trey Murphy. The Pelicans also have a some potentially valuable future draft picks. They might not even have to give any up if they trade away Zion. Right now, in addition to their own picks they have: 2023 - Lakers pick swap (likely to use) 2024 - Lakers 1st (could defer by a year) 2024 - Milwaukee pick swap (unlikely to use) If I'm Durant, I look at that situation pretty carefully. He isn't going to find much better. And if I'm the Nets, I won't find a more marketable young player than Zion. That is the ultimate boom or bust trade for them.
  2. in all fairness, Minnesota would probably screw up those picks anyway. So no real loss.
  3. I view this as addition by subtraction for GSW. Yes, he was an important part of their championship this year, but he will be 30 next year and will start to slide soon. Meanwhile they have Kuminga and Moody who need minutes. I would wager good money that BOTH of those guys will be better than GPII as soon as next year. By the end of that 3 year deal, they will be MUCH better than GPII. I think this is a reach for Portland honestly. The most impressive thing GSW has done is have the confidence and patience to hold on to their young talent and not trade them for "stars", trying to extend the title window for their core. Generally (outside of KD), they take on distressed assets, rehabilitate them, and trade them for assets or let them walk before they get too expensive. It always amazes me when teams trade their cheap young talent for aging, past their prime players like Deandre Jordan. It almost never works out.
  4. Until KD starts faking injuries or holding out in order to get his way, I will view him much more favorably that a lot of other stars. You can criticize him, but the dude goes to work regardless of the situation.
  5. I wouldn’t be surprised at all for John Wall to have a career resurrection year with the Clippers. He is only 31 and has had several years to recover from his injuries. He will fit in well there. If Kawhi and PG13 are healthy, that will take all the pressure off of him. He isn’t worth $40M, but he can definitely add value to that squad IMO. He is better than Reggie Jackson in almost every way.
  6. KD to New Orleans is his best shot at a title IMO. And Zion would be a nice building block for the Nets.
  7. Any idea what is wrong with my honeysuckle? It forms tiny leaves that never grow any bigger. It was growing fine before this year.
  8. Yea in my scenario I’m including Durant and Seth and Drummond and probably LaMarcus. At worst they are even with the Celtics of everyone is healthy and playing.
  9. If the Nets get peak Kyrie, Ben Simmons and Joe Harris they are right in the mix for having the best team in the NBA. Yes, they got swept in the playoffs, but they lost those games by a COMBINED 14 points. Add Simmons and Harris and maybe they are the ones doing the sweeping. There is nobody that the Nets can add who is anywhere close to as good as Kyrie. I'm also not quite ready to close the book on Ben Simmons. You are still talking about a 3rd team All-NBA guard and All-NBA defender. He is a perfect fit in Brooklyn because he doesn't need to score to make an impact. Problem is that he doesn't seem to care much about hoops. Same as Kyrie I suppose. I guess the Nets are screwed. But they are so close to being awesome.
  10. Trade Kyrie to Orlando for Bamba, Isaac and one of their young guards. And sign PJ Tucker while you are at it.
  11. I hate politics and don't really have much of an opinion on this topic... But what I do find interesting is that no women are championing their right to prostitution. If a woman's body is her own (and it is), then why does she not have the right to profit from it in a sexual capacity?
  12. I like what Detroit is building. I think Isaiah Stewart is also pretty good and JUST turned 21. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him average 12 boards a game in a few years.
  13. I think the article was right in a lot of ways. Kevin Love was a beast with Minnesota. He averaged 26.1 pts, 12.5 reb, 4.4 ast on pretty efficient shooting. He would have fit into the Warriors system and culture perfectly. He is a great passer and rebounder and would have kept the ball moving while also being a threat from 3. A lineup of Curry, Iggy, Barnes, Love and Draymond still wins the title in 2015. I'm not convinced they wouldn't have been better with Love. Also, if Love was in GS, Cleveland obviously couldn't have traded for him. In 2014, there weren't that many all-stars available for trade. Other potential options would have been LaMarcus Aldridge or Dwight Howard. Maybe Carmelo Anthony. None of them would have fit all that well with LeBron - and none could stretch the floor like Kevin Love. I don't think in any of those scenarios Cleveland beats Golden State in 2016. Meanwhile, Klay would be in Minnesota doing his best Bradley Beal impersonation.
  14. I won't be surprised at all. Their young players are really talented and are only going to get better. Poole, Kuminga, Moody and Wiseman are an excellent young core to build around. And they will be able to take their time and develop them. Klay was also not "right" for most of the year. This could easily be a 15-20 year run with another title or two thrown in. Curry really should have 2 more titles, and probably 2 more Finals MVPs. Imagine the conversations if he had 6 titles right now... and then got a couple more in the coming years. The GOAT talk would start heating up.
  15. Yes the Big 3 are a year older, but people don’t talk enough about how good Jordan Poole is. That guy is a straight baller with championship swagger. Wiggins was also great. He is much better than Harrison Barnes ever was: scoring, defending and especially rebounding. Looney is also better than Andrew Bogut, especially on the defensive end. The Big 3 may have lost a step, but the team is deeper and more talented than the early GSW teams in my opinion. And they have elite young talent that isn’t even really seeing the floor yet.
  16. Curry was awesome, but I don’t think they win without Wiggins. He had so many key defensive stops and rebounds. Hit a few big shots too. Also did it all with a little humility. Glad to see it.
  17. Any idiot security guard who thinks he looks like Klay should also be banned for life.
  18. I’m not saying he is going to be Embiid. But nobody expected much from Wiggins either and look at him now. Golden State has shown they have an eye for talent and know how to develop their players. Almost every player they have drafted in the last 10 years has outplayed their draft position. Wiseman just turned 21. Embiid didn’t even step on an NBA court until he was 22. I think I will withhold judgement for 3-4 years and see how things play out.
  19. It is crazy to me that they still have Kuminga and Moody just sitting there soaking it up and getting better. And then you have a #2 pick in Wiseman who could turn out to be a future nothing... or Hassaan Whiteside... or even Joel Embiid. They can develop those guys for YEARS before they are needed. Who knows if they will ever be good enough to carry a title team, but they are assets for sure. They were very wise not to unload them (and Poole / Wiggins) to try to chase a title with Curry's expiring window. It is like they got to rebuild while keeping all their main title pieces. It is amazing.
  20. I LOVE to travel. Or rather I USED to love to travel.
  21. As a defender, Gobert and Draymond are on a similar level. But somehow people forget that Draymond is averaging 7 assists per game - close to his career high. People will argue that Draymond's assists are a result of playing with Steph, Klay, etc. Blah blah blah. Complete BS. If that were the case, you would see a spike in assists when other players are in the Golden State system. Andrew Wiggins is averaging almost exactly the same assists in GS as he did in Minnesota. D'Angelo Russel averaged more assists in Brooklyn and Minnesota than he did in GS. Durant is averaging more assists in Brooklyn than in GS. Odds are that if Draymond went somewhere else, he would still average 7-8 assists per game. Draymond has a tremendous talent for getting people involved on the offensive end. He manages the whole flow of the offense from his point forward position. He has an infectious way of eliminating hero ball. The ball hits him in the high post and it is out of his hands in a millisecond finding cutters or open players on the perimeter. And then on the defensive end, he is directing other players and challenging them when they F up. It doesn't matter if the other player is Curry or Durant. Draymond will challenge them. If you put him on say Portland a few years ago, they would have been soooo much better. If I were a team like New Orleans, I would do whatever I could to sign Draymond. Dude makes plays that result in wins. Tonight, watch how many times Draymond sets a pick or makes a skip pass that results in a mismatch. He makes a huge impact outside the stat sheet.
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