ZoomSlowik

You're the one that said Kobe was fine, not me. Now you're adding excuses. He fell off a cliff after the injury. A lot of guys would score 60 in a single game if they let him take 50 shots and 12 free throws. That was a chucking sideshow. Dominique is basically the one guy who did okay. Wes is a shell of his former self, his efficiency and defense went in the crapper. His counting stats look similar because he went from a 3rd/4th option on a good Portland team to the shitpile in Dallas.

You have an interesting definition of "fine". Kobe played 41 games in 2 years after the injury and sucked ass.

Fultz forgetting how to shoot is one of the weirdest things I've ever seen in basketball.

The Butler trade has gone much better than I expected. I clearly underestimated Lauri's athleticism and I had zero expectations for Dunn. That said, they still need at least one more major piece, especially assuming they move Niko and Lopez. Otherwise I think the best we can hope for is a 2005 like season. I remain highly skeptical that this management group will pull that off, especially since they're playing their way later into the lottery.

That Northwestern game sucked on so many levels. But it was a win, so yay?

Northwestern/Creighton was really entertaining even if my team ended up losing.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Sep 14, 2017 -> 01:26 PM) Maybe it's just because it's been so long, but Destiny 2 seems more fun than Destiny. Also, I have a ways to go till I'll be super relevant in multi-player, but I did make it up to 13 last night, so I'm close. There are two big things they did that improved progression... 1) No more grinding upgrades on your subclass and gear. I had all three subclasses maxed before I even hit 20 and weapons/armor come upgraded already. 2) Most activities (I don't think the story missions) scale to your level so you're not crushing low level stuff for no rewards while waiting for the reset to do the raid/nightfall for 95% of the time. It really helps a lot when basically anything gives you level appropriate gear (or at least until 265). One thing that annoys me is the vertical maps and random ledges across a chasm. Why am I jumping so much? It's a FPS, not a platformer. I fail miserably in most of these sections, as my fireteam will attest.

QUOTE (almagest @ Sep 5, 2017 -> 03:16 PM) If anyone is looking for a Destiny 2 group to play with, I've got a consistent group of at least six, and probably more. We should always be able to fill out a strike/nightfall/crucible/raid team or two. Send me your PSN and I'll give you a clan invite. I'll be back to drag you guys down, especially since I quit before TTK.

QUOTE (2005thxfrthmmrs @ Aug 23, 2017 -> 09:02 PM) Not enough to beat GSW or enough to draw Lebron there. But I give up, think whatever you want. The matter is Kyrie demanded a trade, Cavs had to either trade him for 80 cents on the dollar or end up with a dysfunctional locker room with no financial flexibility or draft pick assets. They virtually had no chance of retaining Lebron. Yet after the trade Cavs end up with two players who look like who should fill in for Kyrie's production, a 20 year old European prospect, a high draft pick in a very top heavy draft. In fact, even if they don't use the pick, they could package the pick to a get another star to play alongside Lebron, Love, Crowder and possibly IT. So yea, I absolutely think Cavs have a BETTER chance of retaining Lebron than before the trade. And I am ok if you don't think the same way. If the bar is beating GS, he might as well retire. Kobe asked for a trade too. Their locker room is probably going to be dysfunctional anyways with Lebron b****ing about not having enough talent, or their owner being cheap, or how they let Griffin go, or subtweeting his teammates or 5 other things I forgot. The constant questions about his FA (and to a lesser extent Thomas) won't help either. Their management team won't calm things either. They did very well if you assume that they had to trade Irving. They didn't get worse, which is better than most do in that situation. How much it helps remains to be seen. They still don't have any financial flexibility and only one future asset (albeit potentially a very good one).

QUOTE (2005thxfrthmmrs @ Aug 23, 2017 -> 03:55 PM) George's tone has changed since the trade. He's mentioned he's willing to stay in OKC if they are competitive next year. Russ is loyal to OKC, so we will see if he could convince him to stay. Even if PG goes to LA, would a core of him, Lonzo, Ingram, Clarkson, and Randle be definitively better in 2018 and 19 than Love, IT, Crowder, Porter Jr (or another top prospect), and Zizic? I think not. Not to mention now they have to play in the same conference as Warriors, Spurs, and Rockets. It could very easily be the Lakers. There are no locks with Cleveland beyond this year and only the pick with potential to improve. Thomas has only been elite for one year and his hip appears to still be an issue, plus he's a FA. Love is trending in the wrong direction and hasn't been able to maximize his production with Lebron. Crowder is fine, not great. Thompson and Smith are overpaid role players and anyone else is barely worth mentioning. Not a lot of defense either. If the pick isn't a stud pretty fast, they're going to be moving in the wrong direction at the end of Lebron's peak. And for about the fifth time, the pick is more likely to end up at 4 or 5 than 1. There's a big difference between Porter (or whomever emerges as #1) and someone that's more of a wild card like Bamba or Williams. Even if it's Bagley or Ayton, it's going to be hard to play them, Love and Lebron. LA would have George (or Westbrook or Cousins) who are all elite players at their peak, and two strong prospects on the roster that won't be rookies. I'll put it this way: the Lakers would be in better shape than Cleveland when he came back.

QUOTE (2005thxfrthmmrs @ Aug 23, 2017 -> 02:15 PM) Well does that sound more ridiculous than saying Lebron is 100% going to Lakers next year (Not you, but you were supporting Jenk's proclamation)? What if KD and Curry gets hurt and Cavs wins championship this year? What if Lonzo totally bombs and Ingram doesn't improve? A lot more can go wrong with that theory than Nets landing a top 3 pick next year. All I said was Cavs have a higher chance of retaining Lebron with the 4 pieces they got than they did before the trade, which I still think is true. Those scenarios are way less likely. Even if the Nets are the worst team (which isn't a lock), they only have a 64% chance at a top-3 pick. Then they have to take the right guy. Then he has to be good relatively fast. Oh, and Thomas has to resign. All the Lakers need is to convince someone like George, who already said he wants to go to the Lakers. Then they're at least in the running if not the favorite.

QUOTE (2005thxfrthmmrs @ Aug 23, 2017 -> 10:45 AM) Cavs definitely wouldn't be drafting someone like Ingram with the Nets pick next year. Ingram is a raw kid with upside, Cavs would likely be targeting someone in the Tatum or Fultz profile, guys who can come in day 1 and be a contributor. So no, even though Ingram was a high pick, he's the not the type of player 2018 Cavs would be targeting if they want to convince Lebron to stay. Like you said, if Lebron leaving, he's leaving to go to the best situation to win. I don't think Laker is unless they could fit 3 max contracts, and that won't happen unless they trade Deng, and Clarkson (and use Randle as a sweetener ). It could happen, but no guarantees. Again, we have no idea what the pick will be. What if the Nets win 30 games? What if they get bad lottery luck? What if the top guys right now disappoint or get hurt? Someone like Ingram or Brown could very easily be their top option. Even then It's no lock they're good early. Look at Wiggins, he's the 3rd best player on a 6-seed type team. You're assuming great things for the pick but discounting development for a guy with as much raw talent as almost any draft prospect.

QUOTE (2005thxfrthmmrs @ Aug 22, 2017 -> 10:42 PM) Because we did not know those 3 guys were going to be good and 90% of the league didn't pick them to win ROY. Just as we do not know Markelle Fultz is the most NBA ready rookie this year. What? That's not the story. And how many years of Lebron's career will it take off for Lonzo/Ingram to be real difference makers on a championship team? I purposely did not mention Ingram because he looked BAD last year, and he's also a bad fit on the floor at the same time as Lebron. I lost a bigger post I don't feel like retyping. This is the cliffnotes. You're putting so much stock in the 2018 pick while hand-waving the last two #2 picks. It's a good asset, it might be as good as Ball and Ingram! We have no idea where the pick will be right now, who it will be or how ready the player will be. Ball will have a year in the NBA and Ingram will have 2. That's big on the development curve. They don't fit any worse than Irving and Love. Kyrie does plenty of dribbling and Love is a bad defender that can't switch. Ingram has tons of talent and another year to develop before Lebron arrives. He has the length and athleticism to switch and his shot isn't broken. He needs polish. It's close to impossible to have too many versatile wings in the current NBA environment. Ball looks like as good a bet as any rookie guard right now. Minimally he shouldn't suck. Is he Kyrie? Probably not. The big deal is the other FA. As for Kyrie, if it was just a LeBron issue, he could have waited a year. He got out first to get away from a bad management group that creates drama (with a big assist from Lebron).

QUOTE (2005thxfrthmmrs @ Aug 22, 2017 -> 10:25 PM) You said Lebron don't have patience to wait for young guys to develop but he would go to LA to play in a much tougher conference with Lonzo/Randle and whoever else they could fit under cap? Lonzo, Ingram (pretty big one to skip) and Randle are in the league already. That's a big difference. He's also likely not going alone. It's obviously a concern for the Cavs, otherwise Kyrie wouldn't have been so anxious to get out of there.

QUOTE (2005thxfrthmmrs @ Aug 22, 2017 -> 10:21 PM) I said the chance of him staying is greater after this trade than before. Much of it depends how ready are the top 5 guys in the draft. If they show that they could come in year 1 and play like a rookie KD, Towns or Davis, add that to IT, Love, and Crowder, it's a more convincing case for Lebron to stay. He's not going to know how good they are before he has to make a decision. Also, none of those guys were superstars as rookies. It's going to be 2 more years off his career before those guys are real difference makers even in the best case scenario, probably more. Kyrie and Love weren't enough to make him commit, so downgrading at PG and adding a role player aren't likely to swing things much.