Good player, bummed to lose him and Trev both, but flexibility is KING and it is the reason we have had success and will continue to have success. We need the best roster in June, not October. Relax... Knight will be back to help, Carmelo will improve as we figure out his fit, Ennis will adjust, MCW will adjust or get benched, and above all else, Morey will DELETE anything that needs to be deleted, and he has a War Chest of picks and movable pieces to figure it out. I have faith in CP3-Beard-Tucker-Gordon & Clint. Mike and Morey WILL figure out how to assemble the rest of the bastards. And hey, let’s give these new guys some time. Chemistry does not happen overnight. Relax.
Thank you. It's easy to complain that "we just didn't bring him back" but there are so many other factors. Also, is it even confirmed that he 100% would've chosen us over the Clippers if the money was the same?
Did someone know the reason that Grizzlies reject the deal to trade Tyreke Evans for a 2nd round pick in February dealine?
I remember Durant averaging 30/game against us but I especially remember him dropping 38 and 37 points on us in games 6 and 7. 75 points on 49 shots. That I remember all too well.
Hey, dont let the stats be end all be all in this situation. Ariza was playing damn good defense, the best he could. A healthy Luc would have probably guarded him better though no lie.
I don't doubt that he was playing the best that he could but Durant still torched us. Even when LMM was healthy, Ariza was the main defender on Durant.
They were only going to trade him if they could get a first rounder. Otherwise, they had intentions of resigning him. Things changed at the end of the year. https://www.commercialappeal.com/st...eft-indiana-pacers-nba-free-agency/764328002/
Yeah, if Ariza wasn't there and all we had was a one-armed LMM, then we'd have been in trouble. If Ariza had been replaced by another SF who was a competent defender then we would have been fine. Ariza did his job but he wasn't indespensible. All you have to do is to check our record in the games that he missed.
Well that was because at that time, Luc was a better player than Ariza, but we'll leave that. Ariza played great defense, Durant was scoring on everyone, I'd like to see how many possessions he actually guarded Ariza for, not to meniton his FG % when guarded by Ariza. Also I'd like to know what competent(non all star) forward you think would have done a better job in Ariza's place.
Non-All stars, off the top of my head , here's some guys that could have done as well as Ariza (again nobody is going to stop Durant). J. Tatum R. Covington K. Anderson O. Porter J. Winslow J. Johnson D. Carroll J. Richardson B. Ingram H. Barnes K. Bazemore D. Green J. Crowder J. Green A-F. Aminu Any of those guys could play comparable defense on Durant (i.e. give up 30/game) and likely all of them could shoot better than the 20% that Ariza shot from behind the arc in the GSW series.
Trevor is better than more than half the guys on this list. Man, I didnt realize how little you actually valued him. Bro you have Kyle Anderson on this list who shot .8 3s a game last year on 33% shooting. I'm guess I might have to go look at the advanced stats for this series. Cause I feel you are looking at 30 a game and thinking hey thats the end of it, he did an average job. Also I would like to note that you are not taking team defense into account. Also I'm not trying to be a dick, sorry i come off that way haha.
Man, folks is spoiled... Everybody rants about how they want a superstar, gotta get a superstar.... Welp, you got the MVP... and he got his super duper ubur max deal to keep him happy... Then it was gotta get another star, gotta get another, harden cant do it by himself... Alright... you get CP3 and he got his 4/160 to keep him in the fold... Then it was oh we gotta have a big 3, we gotta have a big 3... Well everybody loves Clint and he had a good year, looked phenomenal early in the playoffs...rumor was he was get max offers (he didnt) - but he gets his payday to keep him... How much did people think mgmt was gonna spend? Over cap, luxury tax, repeat offender... Who do u think we are - Golden State? lol Be thankful we still got PJ and EGo...
Just watch, the moment Luc gets injured this season, it will be a blessing in disguise and Morey got lucky. I hope he doesn't get hurt, but the way he was scared to even drive to the basket after hurting his shoulder multiple times last season, it didn't bother me that much that we didn't bring him back. At end of the day, market was limited and Tilman is in savings mode. I'm more upset that we did bring Melo on board. I didn't believe in Olympic Melo. I do hope he proves me wrong.
I have to agree thus far Ennis and MCW have not provided anything. Probably should give it 10-12 games to make a full assessment, though. But so far not looking like good choices. That being said we didn’t have a lot of money to offer.
We were discussing defending Durant in that series. Ariza shot 20% on 3s. His shooting from behind the arc isn't a plus for him. He shot horribly. Look, as I said, nobody stops Durant. My original reply was to a post that implied that Ariza shut down Durant in that series. He didnt. Ariza played well here but his 3 point shooting and defense get way overblown. He was a better than average defender but not close to elite. As a 3 point shooter. He's average. League average on 3s last year was 35.8 and the prior year it was 36.2. Ariza shot 36.8 and 34.4 in those years. Average. BTW never thought that you were being a dick. Nothing wrong with arguing your point.
What about games 3, 4, and 5 where Durant shot under 40% from the field in all 3 games with Ariza as KD’s main defender? We won 2 of those games. KD only shot under 40% from the field 4 times in his 21 playoff games...3 straight with Ariza being his primary defender KD of course still lit Ariza up many times in that series, but being able to hold Durant to that level of inefficiency in 3 straight games is huge.
