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Mitch Cumsteen

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Everything posted by Mitch Cumsteen

  1. Some of the Luka criticism is definitely hot take du jour and magnified by the finals spotlight, but there is a definitely a good portion of validity to it. The foul baiting and excessive whining while not getting back on defense is abhorrent. There is a clear lack of effort on defense in many cases. I don't see how that any of that is debatable. Some of it may be defensible. Much of it is not. And just because he's in better shape, doesn't mean he's in good shape. Round is a shape, too, as the saying goes.
  2. Look, I hear you about the rosters. Certainly Boston is much deeper and much better and more well rounded and it's not really close. But there's a bigger philosophical discussion to be had about the style that Luka plays that doesn't necessarily empower or elevate his teammates. You can't just look at it in a vacuum and say that Brown or Tatum are not as good as he is. They are just different and play in a different system. To paraphrase Luka's spirit animal James Harden, "I'm not a system player. I am the system." Meanwhile, everybody else sits around and waits for something to happen. Sure they get open looks and lobs because of him, and got damn he is a pick and roll savant, but that's really the only kind of actions that Dallas runs. And Boston choked that shit out by switching everything and daring Luka to beat them one on one. You want to go ask Derek Lively or PJ Washington to go create their own shot for the first time all season in Game 3 of the finals? Doesn't seem optimal to me. Even Kyrie, for all his basketball brilliance, doesn't play off Luka as much as they take turns running the show - which consists of setting a couple of picks to hunt the matchup you want, and then making some cool shit up and/or taking a bad step back three. Sure, you can look at the ends justifying the means, "Hey, this cat dragged this ragtag outfit of flawed role players to finals!" But then, he took them to the WCF in 2002. Is it fool's gold or are they just that close to getting over the hump? I really don't know. But I do that his team would have a better chance of winning if he stopped foul baiting and bitching to the refs instead of getting his ass back on defense.
  3. Trading 8 to move up three spots in this flat draft wound be monumentally stupid.
  4. Wow. Luka gone.
  5. Oh boy.
  6. Boston finally started hitting their threes. It’s the only thing that has kept these games remotely close. Those shots have been wide open. Figured it would happen eventually.
  7. Dallas only up one after that start. Not a great sign. They got killed when Luka went to the bench.
  8. No disrespect the the Rocket fans, but @Wulaw Horn would have a much better case for 1986 if Sampson doesn't hit that shot and it's the rubber match between the Lakers and Celtics from the previous two finals. Sorry, but that would have been much, much bigger. But in that same vein of overvaluing your own team in these types of discussions.... I could make an argument for 2014. It was the last of the Duncan-era Spurs rings, winning the title playing the beautiful game and avenging the prior year's loss to Miami in the finals. Lebron was at his absolute peak with the Heatles. Durant won MVP and OKC won 59 games. The Splash Brothers Warriors were just hitting their runway, one year away from their first title. Lebron, KD and Steph really defined the NBA for nearly the next 10 years. The west was ridiculous that year -- you had Lob City Clippers and the Harden/Dwight Howard Rockets. Portland with upstart Lillard and Aldridge, and the Grit and Grind Grizzlies. And it was probably Dirk's last great year before he started tailing off.
  9. It's probably inarguable that he had the greatest basketball career in history, all things considered. Never saw him play and by all rights he was an all time great, but what an absolutely legendary front office man. Put together the Showtime Lakers, the Shaq-Kobe Lakers, the grit and grind Grizzlies, and the Splash Brothers Warriors. And after all that, he probably gets remembered as a psycho from a TV show that took way too many artistic liberties.
  10. There are at least what, 30 players more deserving than Brink to be on that team? I’m so appalled.
  11. All fair. Clingan did shoot it better from the line in the last half of the season and his form looks okay to me. I don't think his outside shooting is a lost cause. And sure, emulating Boston seems like a fine idea, but they have had to defend zero bigs in the playoffs that offer any sort offensive threat. They were lucky to dodge Embiid and Giannis. You aren't going to have that luxury in the west.
  12. I've been saying since day 1 that we need to lean hard into this narrative. These inbreds need to be reminded endlessly that they invited a vampire into their home. The conference system is destined to crumble into an EPL like system. I hope like hell we get full credit for its demise. Lamborghinis for everyone!
  13. I'm obviously an outsider, but I would be all over Clingan if I were Houston. Not only is Sengun's range evolving, there's even the better than zero possibility that Clingan grows into a stretch 5 or at the very least becomes respectable from 15-20 feet out. He doesn't have terrible touch and actually shot really well at the combine, if you believe in such things. I look around the west and who are the contenders over the next 5-10 years? Jokic is still only 28 years old with a game not predicated on athleticism that should age very well. Minnesota plays two seven footers, at least until they have to salary dump one of them. OKC has Holmgren and is almost assuredly adding another big sooner rather than later. Dallas has an interior presence now with Lively and Gafford. Wembanyama is lurking in San Antonio. Sengun is at a size disadvantage and is a defensive liability to all of them. Unless you believe in Steven Adams knee that he hasn't been able to play on in two years or want to invest in a Mason Plumlee-level journeyman, this team has a gaping need for an interior defender and rim protector. It's not news. They chased the hell out Brook Lopez last summer. Clingan seems like a no brainer to me.
  14. I don't really follow this shit, but is a 41 year old Diana Taurasi really better than Clark is right now? Taurasi is averaging 17.0, 4.4 and 3.9. Clark is averaging 16.8, 5.3, and 6.3, and doing it while being hounded from the second she leaves the locker room.
  15. I guess you can stop masturbating to your Bill Russell poster then, huh?
  16. Not only that, but Boston was 10/38 from 3 last night and still rolled. They missed one wide open look from three after another. Granted, Dallas was 6/26 including a putrid 2/15 by people not named Luka, but that was far from a vintage performance last night by the C's. Also, Tatum has shot the ball poorly in the first two games. He's 12/38 for the series and 4/14 from three. It just shows you how well balanced and talented Boston is. Granted, he's been impactful in other ways, but Boston has the luxury of their best player being average and winning while Dallas needs Luka to be world class to even stay competitive. The Dallas role players are going to have to be special at home for this series to become competitive. Somewhere, on some other message board, a couple of weeks ago there was a Nuggets fan saying this exact thing about Edwards, Townes and Gobert during their series against the Mavericks. Seriously?
  17. Boston didn’t play well at all and still won rather easily. Let’s see how Dallas does at home but this was a bleak start to the finals for them.
  18. Luka with some pretty awful defensive effort last couple of possessions. I get that he’s probably exhausted, but that’s losing basketball in the NBA finals.
  19. Up until that last play, they haven’t been blitzing Luka on the pick. They’ve been switching everything so there’s no free run at the rim. I’m surprised they switched it up. I don’t think they were supposed to. They should try to make Luka score 60 tonight to beat them.
  20. Terry is probably the most critical recruit in the class if we are serious about locking up that Alamo Heights pipeline.
  21. Boston seems like they’re playing like crap but still winning. Getting to the rim at will with Gafford and Lively on the bench. If they start hitting their threes, look out. Of course it wouldn’t hurt for the mavs to start knocking down some free throws.
  22. Zero chance she declines. You think Nike is paying her all that dough to not play in the Olympics? You don’t think they would be cramming her commercials non stop during the games? Hell, they will probably will anyway. David Stern has got to be doing backflips in his grave today.
  23. I’m not really a marketing guy but maybe, just maybe, they would have a better chance of growing the game if they included its most popular player on its biggest stage? Like, are you being serious?
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