A healthy Lebron and peak form AD is still pretty good. The concern is how much longer can you expect Lebron to be the best player on that team? Eventually he is going to lose a step. When that happens, it will get ugly. This needed to be the year that AD showed himself to be a top 5 player in the league and best player on that team. Unfortunately, he has not played to his previous level of play this year and has been injured. He also seems fine taking a back seat to Lebron and doesn't seem like he wants to be the alpha. He needs to be that. It would be a good problem to have if AD wanted to prove he was the best player on the team. Lebron might fight it a little though....as he has always been #1.
So in a perfect world Lebron and AD is a good starting spot. The Lakers have got themselves out of messes in the past. Do they have anymore magic left? It is going to be really hard. Westbrook was awful last night. Monk is going to be hard to resign...if they even want to.
I was listening to Zach Lowe recently and he was making the case if they just traded for Heild, signed Caruso and THT, kept their first round pick (wound up being Isiah Jackson who looks good), and I believe they could have used a portion of their MLE and potentially re-sign Schroeder that they would be in a much better spot now. Their salary commitments would have been similar as well. It seems like a long shot that they will be able to turn Westbrook into anything close to that this summer. But we will see.
(03-02-2022, 11:57 AM)Chicagojk Wrote: [ -> ]I know the consensus is the east is better than the west this year for the first time in a while.
This is simply media narrative - and flat wrong.
On every level you might measure it, the W is still far above the E.
W/L in all games between conferences
W/L of top 8 only
W/L of top 4 only
Number of teams playing at a 60-win pace
Number of teams playing at a 50-win pace
(03-02-2022, 01:45 PM)ItsGoTime Wrote: [ -> ]After the AD trade, how many assets do they have to make this happen? OKC is the only destination that might entertain a reunion, but Presti wants more!!!
They have their 2027 pick, and I believe 2029 after the end of this season.
But seriously are they going to trade a pick 7 years out to get off of 1 final year of WB? Lakers are trying to go all in. No one is giving up anything (maybe John Wall) for WB.
I think the Lakers are stuck with him till his contract runs out. No other way around it.
(03-02-2022, 01:45 PM)ItsGoTime Wrote: [ -> ]After the AD trade, how many assets do they have to make this happen? OKC is the only destination that might entertain a reunion, but Presti wants more!!!
Straight-up trade for Porzingis? John Wall?
Who needs Jokic? Poku destroyed him tonight. #Poku2030
Nuggets lose to OKC at home. Starters went 0/24 on threes. They didn't make one until the final 20 seconds when the game was out of reach.
Our very own Isaiah Roby led OKC with 26 pts, 7 rbds, and hit 4-5 from 3!!!
Goes to show that even good teams lose to bad ones. Doesn't only happen to the Mavs.
Kings are cursed. Tonight was the end of the their play-in hopes. If they announced a new 32 team play-off format next week, the Kings would somehow find a way to miss the play-offs. Obviously Sabonis for Fox was never on the table, but if Turner for Fox was the alternative to Sabonis for Haliburton, they should have done that deal. Fox on 30M is just a killer contract.
Haliburton
Hield
Barnes
Turner
Holmes
is probably a better team.
(03-02-2022, 11:20 PM)Mavs2021 Wrote: [ -> ]Kings are cursed. Tonight was the end of the their play-in hopes. If they announced a new 32 team play-off format next week, the Kings would somehow find a way to miss the play-offs. Obviously Sabonis for Fox was never on the table, but if Turner for Fox was the alternative to Sabonis for Haliburton, they should have done that deal. Fox on 30M is just a killer contract.
Haliburton
Hield
Barnes
Turner
Holmes
is probably a better team.
I saw that too. Imagine you're in the Kings FO and how much pressure there is to make the playoffs and this team STILL can't do it even though you just made a big "splash" trade.
Fox doesn't seem to be good enough to compete with the other number 1 options on the other 9 teams in the West. The Pelicans just have better role players and is a tossup depending on who gets hot.
That's the issue with the Kings. Their number 1 is better off being a number 2 (and an even better number 3), and Sabonis isn't good enough to lead a team in the West on his own. They should trade Fox to the Knicks for Barrett and find another cheaper point guard that's a distributor. A guy like Haliburton really fits well now thinking about it.... Well too bad there is no way a front office would ever be dumb enough to trade Tyrese Haliburton!
(03-02-2022, 02:40 PM)F Gump Wrote: [ -> ]This is simply media narrative - and flat wrong.
On every level you might measure it, the W is still far above the E.
W/L in all games between conferences
W/L of top 8 only
W/L of top 4 only
Number of teams playing at a 60-win pace
Number of teams playing at a 50-win pace
Yet the East has won 2 of the last 3 titles... 4/1/2 games separate the top 6 teams in the East, 14 games separate the top 6 in the West. The East teams in the 7-10 play-in spots have a higher winning % than the same 7-10 teams in the West. It's called parity which is good for the league. The East has closed the gap and that's a fact, not media-driven.
(03-03-2022, 05:12 AM)HoosierDaddyKid Wrote: [ -> ]Yet the East has won 2 of the last 3 titles... 4/1/2 games separate the top 6 teams in the East, 14 games separate the top 6 in the West. The East teams in the 7-10 play-in spots have a higher winning % than the same 7-10 teams in the West. It's called parity which is good for the league. The East has closed the gap and that's a fact, not media-driven.
I'm all for the parity and I do feel this is the most parity we've seen in a long long time but those first two stats are very misleading...the 2019 Raptors beat like 40% of the Warriors team in the finals and you're punishing the west in that second stat for the incredible success the Suns have had this year. The 6th seed in both conferences had the same record until last night.
(03-03-2022, 05:12 AM)HoosierDaddyKid Wrote: [ -> ]Yet the East has won 2 of the last 3 titles... 4/1/2 games separate the top 6 teams in the East, 14 games separate the top 6 in the West. The East teams in the 7-10 play-in spots have a higher winning % than the same 7-10 teams in the West. It's called parity which is good for the league. The East has closed the gap and that's a fact, not media-driven.
None of that speaks to the question of the relative strength of the conferences.
The top 3 teams this season are all in the W. Records of all the 6 playoff teams (1 vs 1, 2 vs 2, etc) are all better in W than E. Most meaningful, the W has won many more than the E when they play inter-conference.
Re past titles, that doesn't speak to it at all. No matter how weak the E is, a team from there will get to play for the title, and only has to win against one of all the better teams in the W. That's been the issue, and still is. Plus, when getting to the Finals, the E winner will have been playing against easier teams, so the E champ might not be as exhausted when they arrive. (That what we thought was unfair re the success of Lebron's teams, that they were in essence getting a free pass to the finals, each year, comparatively speaking.)
It's true that the gap between E and W is not as far apart as it has been in previous years. But the narrative that the E is now better, or has even caught up, is just not true. Not yet.
(03-03-2022, 11:32 AM)StrandedOnBeauboisHill Wrote: [ -> ]I'm all for the parity and I do feel this is the most parity we've seen in a long long time but those first two stats are very misleading...the 2019 Raptors beat like 40% of the Warriors team in the finals and you're punishing the west in that second stat for the incredible success the Suns have had this year. The 6th seed in both conferences had the same record until last night.
I'm not punishing the Suns for their record. When whole, they are the best team in the NBA this year I believe. But that doesn't mean they can't get upset in the playoffs either. (I doubt it, but possible) Also, people are ignoring what Memphis is doing, saying they don't have playoff experience,
Phoenix didn't have any either until last year. Memphis reminds me of last year's Suns IMO. Team health is imperative. GS doesn't have their key players so you can't leave them out of the picture. I never said the East was better than the West. I said they were closing the gap, and they have at least this year.
(03-03-2022, 01:22 PM)F Gump Wrote: [ -> ]It's true that the gap between E and W is not as far apart as it has been in previous years. But the narrative that the E is now better, or has even caught up, is just not true. Not yet.
I agree.
I think people are just jazzed that 8 actual decent teams are going to fill up the Eastern playoffs for a change.
(03-03-2022, 02:06 PM)HoosierDaddyKid Wrote: [ -> ]I'm not punishing the Suns for their record. When whole, they are the best team in the NBA this year I believe. But that doesn't mean they can't get upset in the playoffs either. (I doubt it, but possible) Also, people are ignoring what Memphis is doing, saying they don't have playoff experience, Phoenix didn't have any either until last year. Memphis reminds me of last year's Suns IMO. Team health is imperative. GS doesn't have their key players so you can't leave them out of the picture. I never said the East was better than the West. I said they were closing the gap, and they have at least this year.
The stat of how many games separate the Top 6 is what I was referencing in terms of how your numbers unfairly punish the strength of the west. The west has a bigger gap because Phoenix has pulled away from the rest of the league, not just relative to the west. The 6th seeds in both conferences have been very comparable all year long but you're presenting a point of data to make it seem otherwise is all I'm saying.