12-18-2020, 04:21 PM
Some super random stuff on what I thought about DP over the years:
- Loved how he worked his way into the team, I still remember the OKC-series where it looked like we had something with him and Simba for a second. Or how he took charges against Anthony Davis in early matchups.
- Big fan of the DP/KP combo last year as it allowed KP to stay inside on defense but on the perimeter on offense. I’m well aware of the +/- numbers of that duo and DP‘s pnr percentile stats. That was a big part of our strong start.
- Criticized the Imo premature extension a lot back when it was unpopular on this board bc of how the market is set up these days. Non-shooting bigs are just ridiculously cheap around the league these days and I wasn’t fond of how we didn’t take advantage of that market inefficiency. I’m still convinced that we could get 90% of what DP offered even before the injury for a small exception-type salary.
- now after the injury I expect close to nothing. His game relies a lot on athleticism and this injury usually just destroys players in that regard. Even Kobe clearly lost a step and he had a freakish work ethic and a pretty high level athletic abilities when the injury happened (even at his age). He still was not remotely the same physically.
- for this season : my preference would be to ease DP in off the bench alongside Maxi knowing these two have great chemistry and will face lesser opposing lineups. Instead Id let WCS start the year and go from there.
- Loved how he worked his way into the team, I still remember the OKC-series where it looked like we had something with him and Simba for a second. Or how he took charges against Anthony Davis in early matchups.
- Big fan of the DP/KP combo last year as it allowed KP to stay inside on defense but on the perimeter on offense. I’m well aware of the +/- numbers of that duo and DP‘s pnr percentile stats. That was a big part of our strong start.
- Criticized the Imo premature extension a lot back when it was unpopular on this board bc of how the market is set up these days. Non-shooting bigs are just ridiculously cheap around the league these days and I wasn’t fond of how we didn’t take advantage of that market inefficiency. I’m still convinced that we could get 90% of what DP offered even before the injury for a small exception-type salary.
- now after the injury I expect close to nothing. His game relies a lot on athleticism and this injury usually just destroys players in that regard. Even Kobe clearly lost a step and he had a freakish work ethic and a pretty high level athletic abilities when the injury happened (even at his age). He still was not remotely the same physically.
- for this season : my preference would be to ease DP in off the bench alongside Maxi knowing these two have great chemistry and will face lesser opposing lineups. Instead Id let WCS start the year and go from there.