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HookEm

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Posts posted by HookEm

  1. #1 for me is if PJ Tucker had come back for his senior year to play with Durant, Augustin and company. The team could have really used his experience as the reigning Big 12 POY. Aldridge would have been great too, but at least he was a high draft pick. PJ was barely drafted.

    • Like 1
  2. Lebron James is the only non PG with more career assists than Kobe. This is a narrative for low level thinkers. Kawhi Leonard is averaging 2 assists per game for his career just for reference 
    Kobe finished #3 all-time in career usage. He had a lot of assists because he ALWAYS dominated the ball. He is sandwiched on the all-time usage list between Russell Westbrook and Allen Iverson and just ahead of DeMarcus Cousins.

    Wilt Chamberlain once led the NBA in assists. He was still selfish AF as a player.

    Kawhi had a top-10 usage last year (only 2nd time in his career) and guess what, he averaged 5 assists per game.

    Bottom line: Assists are a terrible measure of a player's unselfishness.
    • Like 1
  3. As a final critique of Dirk, how can you be a top-20 big man, 7 footer and average 0.8 blocks per game over a career, and only 0.6 bpg in his two longest playoff runs? 

    Early in his career, Dallas could never win at the highest level because of his defensive limitations.  They would pair him up with stiffs like Shawn Bradley, Desagana Diop, Raef LaFrentz.

    It wasn't until they added future defensive POY Tyson Chandler in 2011, that the team had the toughness and defensive presence to win it all.  And Dallas let Chandler go like morons the following year.

  4. 10 hours ago, A’Dam Psycho said:

    Anyone that thinks Duncan was better than Kobe doesn’t know basketball 

    The case for Tim Duncan

    • Best player on more titles (5 vs. 2)
    • More NBA MVPs (2 vs. 1)
    • More Finals MVPs (3 vs. 2)
    • More All-Defense Teams (15 vs. 12)
    • More Career Win Shares (7th vs. 19th)
    • Better Career PER (14th vs. 27th)
    • Better Career Def Rating (3rd vs. unranked)
    • Better Career VORP (6th vs. 12th)
    • Better Career plus/minus (16th vs. 29th)
    • NBA rebounding leader x1
    • Career blocks - 4th
    • Career rebounds - 6th

    The case for Kobe Bryant:

    • More All-Star appearances (18 vs. 15)
    • More All-Star MVPs (4 vs. 1)
    • More career points (4th vs. 14th)
    • NBA scoring leader 2x
    • Career steals - 17th
    • More apparel sales
    • More commercials
    • Not boring
    • Lakers, duh
    • Oscar for best short film
    • Like 1
  5. Nobody is arguing that. But to say a 2nd team all-NBA player is is in the same discussion as a 1st team all-NBA player isn't absurd. Especially when he has more win shares and comparable PER.

    But since some of you are having reading comprehension issues, let me state it again. Dirk is better than Pau. Better career. Better peak. There.

    But Pau was not a role playing scrub.

  6. If we are going to talk playoffs, let's not cherry pick the years where either of these guys only played 4-5 games. I'm not saying Pau's career is better.  I'm not even saying his best 3-year stretch is better than Dirk's.  I'm just saying they are in the same conversation.

    Dirk's best playoffs:

    2005-2006 (23 games) - 27.0 pts, 11.7 reb, 2.9 ast, 0.6 blk, 1.1 stl, 2.1 TO, 46.8 FG%  (or)

    2010-2011 (21 games) - 27.7 pts, 8.1 reb, 2.5 ast, 0.6 blk, 0.6 stl, 3.1 TO, 48.5 FG%

     

    Pau's best playoffs:

    2008-2009 (23 games) - 18.3 pts, 10.8 reb, 2.5 ast, 2.0 blk, 0.8 stl, 1.9 TO, 58.0 FG%  (or)

    2009-2010 (23 games) - 19.6 pts, 11.1 reb, 3.5 ast, 2.1 blk, 0.4 stl, 1.9 TO, 53.9 FG%

    Sure, Dirk averaged more points.  But averaging the two years shown (both title years), Pau had more rebounds.  More assists. Waaay more blocks. Fewer turnovers.  And most importantly, a vastly higher field goal percent.  He was a much more efficient player than Dirk, which made him a perfect complement to Kobe.

     

    and just for fun...

    Tim Duncan's best playoffs

    2002-2003 (24 games) - 24.7 pts, 15.4 reb, 5.3 ast, 3.3 blk, 0.6 stl, 3.2 TO, 52.9 FG% - wow!

     

  7. OK, perhaps I overdid it with saying I might take Pau over Dirk. 

    Still, in his early career with Memphis, Pau had them competitive for most of those years despite absolute trash teammates.  In 03/04 they were only 2 games back of Dallas despite a terrible roster while Dallas had Dirk, Nash, Finley and others.

    From 2008-2011, Pau had 39.4 win shares compared to Dirk with 34.3 win shares.  That is 4th in the NBA for that 3-year stretch behind: 1) LeBron, 2) Dwight Howard, 3) Dwyane Wade.  That is also higher than Kobe and Tim Duncan FWIW.

    Also from 2008-2011, Pau averaged 22.8 PER (#9 in NBA over that time). Dirk averaging 23.1 (#8 in the NBA).

    Again, I'm not saying that Pau had a better career than Dirk. But he was far better than a role player during those years. He was definitely a top-10 player in the NBA and borderline top-5. 

  8. Here are some stats on the Gasol brothers.  A lot of people have forgotten how good Pau was in his prime due to the longevity of his career.  He was a VERY skilled big man. 

    People like to talk a lot about Dirk's greatness, but at his peak Pau was right there with him. He was a better rebounder, defender and ball distributor. He did the little things that produce wins.  Back in 2009 before the Mav's title, fresh off back-to-back Lakers titles, I'm not sure I would have taken Dirk over Pau.

     

    Pau Gasol:  2x NBA Champ (2nd best player), 6x All-star, 4x All-NBA, Rookie of the Year 

    Best 5-yr avg of 19.4 pts, 9.6 reb, 3.7 ast, 1.6 blk, 54% FG

    Averaged 19 pts, 11 reb, 2 blk, 56% FG during the playoffs in the two Lakers title runs. 

    Solid all-time career marks:  37th in Points, 28th Rebounds, 21st in Blocks, 27th in Win Shares, 93.3% HoF probability.  One of 4 players with 20K pts, 10K reb, 3.5K ast, 1.5K blk.

    Solid international experience:  2008 and 2012 Olympic Silver Medals, 2004 Olympics Scoring Leader, 2014 FIBA World Cup All-Tourney Team, 2015 EuroBasket MVP and more

     

    Marc Gasol:  1x NBA Champ (role player), 3x All-Star, 2X All-NBA, 1X DPoY

    Best 5-yr avg of 17.2 pts, 7.3 reb, 4.0 ast, 1.4 blk, 46% FG

    2nd player to win FIBA World Cup gold and NBA Title in the same year

     

  9. I haven't seen Peja Stojaković getting any mention.  He was really good in his prime.  Averaged 21.1 ppg, 5.5 rpg, 2.2 apg, 1.2 spg shooting 47% FG, 89% FT, 41% 3PT over a 5-year stretch, with 3 all-star appearances. He came very close to being in the 50, 40, 90 club.  In today's NBA, he could have averaged close to 30 ppg with his ability to shoot the 3-ball.

    Drazen Petrovic was starting to really get going at the time of his death.  He was averaging 22.3 ppg, 2.7 rpg, 3.5 apg shooting 55% eFG% in his final year in the NBA.

    • Like 1
  10. Haven't caught up on the whole thread, but I would never have Kobe over Bird. Ever. And I really like Kobe.

    Put Bird on any team where Kobe won the title and they still win the title. Plus they probably would have won another couple.

    Kobe was a killer but also a selfish prima donna. He loses points for wanting to be "the man" and forcing the trade of Shaq in his prime. He also was responsible for some pretty bad Lakers teams before the Pau years. Put Bird on those teams and even the scrub players get better.

    People forget that for a good while nobody wanted to play with Kobe. He also only won 1 MVP.

    Honestly if I'm picking teams and can have a prime Kobe or Kawhi, it is a hard decision. Kobe definitely has a better career resume, but a healthy Kawhi is just so freaking disruptive on the defensive end, and is just as clutch.

    • Like 2
  11. It is much more interesting to discuss the top-10 white players in the modern NBA era.  In the early years, ALL the players were white, so why even discuss them?

    For the post-merger era, I would go with:

    1. Larry Bird

    2. Dirk Nowitzki

    3. John Stockton

    4. Bill Walton

    5. Kevin McHale

    6. Steve Nash

    7. Pete Maravich (borderline modern era)

    8. Chris Mullin

    9. Arvydas Sabonis

    10. Tom Chambers

    Others: Paul Westphal, Pau Gasol, Marc Gasol, Manu Ginobli, Detlef Schremph

     

    What about the best bi-racial players of the modern era?  I would go with:

    1. Steph Curry

    2. Jason Kidd

    3. Tony Parker

    4. Klay Thompson

    5. Blake Griffin

    6. Ben Simmons

    7. Devon Booker

    8. Zach Lavine

    9. Shane Battier

    10. Joakim Noah

    Others: Mike Bibby, Deron Williams

  12. Here's a bit of an unusual tax question regarding real estate.  My wife is the agent on a new home build.  The builder offered and paid her a slightly reduced commission last December as opposed to a full commission when the house completes in May of this year.

    We went ahead and filed our taxes and counted it as a sale last year.  Now I'm wondering if it would be possible to revise my taxes and instead count it against THIS year since the closing hasn't actually occurred yet.  Basically treating it as a deferred revenue. 

    Any ideas?

  13. I'm wondering if anyone can give strategies on the cheapest / most effective way to hedge a largely S&P 500 portfolio. I've played around with options over the years, so not a complete novice. I'm wondering if buying out of the money 3x ETF put options would be the cheapest way to hedge.  Any thoughts?

  14. Why not form a new conference with 10 members instead of a big merger? Something like:
    USC, UCLA, CAL, Stanford, CU +
    Texas, OU, TT, OSU, Kansas

    Have everybody play everybody just like the current system. Would have great matchups every game. No dead weight, easy road trips with a lot of direct flights.

    Great football, great hoops, great academics.

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