Agreed. From the tweets, I assumed he was trolling, but it wasn't that at all. He contrasted Luka's passing ability against Harden, *after* pointing out that Luka isn't close to the shooter that Harden is. And he didn't really say Harden's assists are all "cheap assists". The tweet had to do some surgery on what his words actually were to give the impression that it was an intended dig against Harden. The "you must be racist if you think Luka is better than Harden at something" take is so tired.
That's an easy one -- Charles Barkley. Loved him as a Rocket, but he clearly has a thing against our team.
Both Simmons and Kellerman was picking the Rockets over Golden State last year, weren't they? As for Cowherd, I don't really follow him that much, but he seems kind of all over the map as far as his basketball takes.
the data pool is big enough, sys development not a big deal cost-wise, but for some reasons the league intentionally give a back door to this kinda man-made glitch scientifically....we name Bill Simmons, the glitch or BUG. though it just occurred from time to time, overall to say quite predictable due to its origin.
Interesting point. So you're saying if Luka grows exponentially every year, his end game will be similar because of how teams gameplan around him? This is worth of a mental post-it note if that should ever happen...
https://www.theringer.com/the-bill-...-next-tiger-and-dame-vs-pg-with-ryen-russillo The discussion on Luka starts at -1:20:00. Russillo makes the initial comp to Harden, pointing out he isn't close to the shooter that Harden is, and then talks about his impact on offense through his passing (he also says that watching Doncic play in what he called his best game reminded him of how similar he was to Harden). Simmons continues: "I don't think there's ever going to be another Bird. I think the stuff that Luka does in 2020 reminds of the stuff Bird does in the mid 80s ... The thing with Luka is the assists are not like cheap assists. Like as you said, he has the typical James Harden type of assist where he brings the second guy over and hits the guy in the corner or the cross court, all the stuff he does to get guys open threes. He's also creating the cutter passes, and like you said earlier guys learn how to play with him and they're more active and more engaged when the team is doing well ... (talks about how Bird and Magic would have played more like Luka in today's era) ... My point is, I think some of the stuff Luka sees is at a higher level than Harden, even though they're very similar with the effect they have on the game. I think he's a better passer than Harden. I think Harden is a very good passer .. (Russillo interjects that Harden is an awesome passer) ... Harden is a very, very ,very good passer and a very good creator. Luka will see a couple things a game where I don't know who else would see it." I don't know how anyone can listen to this exchange and take away from it that Simmons is hating on Harden. You could maybe charge him with being overly enthusiastic about Doncic; but having perhaps over-the-top enthusiasm about a young player's skills level and potential is nothing new for him. And Simmons wouldn't even be comparing Doncic's passing ability to Harden here if he didn't already have a very high opinion about Harden's passing. That was the point, Harden is a really good passer, and yet Doncic at a young age is doing things that he thinks even Harden doesn't do, passing-wise. The tweet that started this thread transforms what he was saying into: "Doncic is a really good passer, unlike Harden who only gets cheap assists". That isn't at all what he said.
Like another poster said, Simmons use of "cheap assists" is dog whistle politics. I hope that this is not racially tinged and is not being used to communicate with his target group of listeners who hate Harden and relish in disparaging him. That Rusillo is part of this discussion and is a self admitted hater only exacerbates the point. This is not some CF exaggeration, twitter and even real media are sincerely outraged. https://rocketswire.usatoday.com/20...iticism-for-harden-doncic-passing-comparison/
Except he didn’t. He said Luka’s assists aren’t cheap, and then he goes on say he has passes, like Harden, for getting open 3s and also passes to teammates cutting to the basket. At no point did he say Harden’s passes to generate open three pointers are “cheap assists”.
So people can’t express their dislike of what Simmons said? What If they like the show, but don’t like what was said in this instance? He was certainly insinuating that Harden is cheap, and it wouldn’t be the first time.