It WAS rare. Bigs don't just dunk anymore. They distrıbute the ball, used as offensive hub, their assist numbers are increasing every year. Time is changing old man adapt or die.
The Nuggs model is encouraging every big out there to play like a guard and beyond. I do not see it any different than the direction that the whole NBA has been heading for years now. And yes, having good European players who know the fundamentals of the game well helps a ton.
Then you DO lose something. I'm not worried about Tilman's money, I'm worried about the effects dumb decisions will have on this team over the next 5-10 years.
His first year he already averaged 10/7/2 in just 20 mins of play while shooting 33% from 3. His 2nd year he already averaged 16/10/ and 82% ft. Nobody expected he would be this good coming into the draft, but once he got to the league you already know he was a future star. Nuggets didn't allow him to grow as anybody can see he was untouchable from his rookie year.
Because none of our players will ever be top 20 all time players and we still will have a shot with a competent coach. Is Butler top 20? No but they got to the finals with him. They did pretty well even in losses and they clearly missed Herro let's not deny that. Struss' fg% was 16% in the finals. I agree that you need an elite player to be in the mix but top 20-25 all time? Not anymore. Listen Heat eliminated Bucks, a team that has Giannis. I like Ime a lot even if we don't win it we will ne in the mix 3-4 years later.
Miami also had probably the single greatest lucky streak in the history of the sport, something we may never see again. Their series against boston was unconscionable luck, so hoping for that isn’t ideal. Herro being hurt helped them a ton as well. You can certainly be in the mix, but historically winning a title without a top 20 guy basically doesn’t happen. If jokic was the 8th best instead of the 1st best player in the league, denver doesn’t win the title, they likely lose to the suns or la
Without Murray Nuggets threw the towel in the first round last year. The game isn't entirely about "The man" it's 50% being team with great chemistry, 50% having an elite player on your team will make things easier for you. In a world where Embiid, Doncic didn't even come close to sniffing the ring yet, Durant had to leave OKC to join GSW, Lillard, Harden achieved pretty much nothing with their teams i'm more on the side of building a functional bb team from scratch and see how far we could go.
Jimmy Butler is low key a top 10 player in the league and I'd even argue is borderline top 5. Bam is a DPOY contender and 2-time All-Star. I don't think there's anything that crazy or that unusual about those two guys being the best players on a Finals team. It just feels weird because for both of those guys, a huge percentage of their value comes on the defensive end, so their stats don't look as good as most championship-caliber stars on the surface. The most surprising thing about the Heat is not their stars, it's the level of play they got out of their roleplayers, which I think is partly good coaching, partly intangibles, and partly just plain good luck.
I don’t think there’s anything special about what they did. They had one of the best players in the league and built a great team around him over time. Getting AG/KCP made a huge difference. Like putting shooters around Giannis, or moving screen setters and dirty defenders for Curry. We did the same with Harden up until CP3 for Westbrook. We just need to find our next star player and not **** it up.
I can't understand how people can say you don't lose anything by signing Harden. We tanked years to get this cap space. You lose $40m+ per season that's what you lose. You're not paying another declining player that much. You lose shots for the young players. You lose usage for the young players. You lose the opportunity to catch up on slowed development by not acquiring someone who is a great mentor. We can afford to be patient about a title and playoffs more than anyone in the NBA, but we certainly cannot afford to delay any more development. We delayed development to get the cap space and picks, imagine we now use the cap space to put a band aid on slowed development. Jesus. What about how much everyone whined about culture? Your next move is to sign the guy who clashed with every 1B or 1A superstar he ever played with? The guy who doesn't play defense? The guy who wants to leave a title contender for his 22-win adopted home? The guy who struggles to stay in shape? This is the fit with Udoka? That would be ridiculous. You wanted a culture change, it's fast and easy but you can't be stupid about it. Of course it was going to take years to change the culture if you're empowering a James Harden to be a role model in the culture change lol. We have to do this right Ime and every other guy we sign has to be willing to play off ball defense and off ball offense and practice hard and stick to the game plan. What the hell do you gain? We'll win 30+ this coming season and make the playoffs the following season no matter who we sign. Harden is not bringing a major improvement on that except for one season. What's going to happen after you put 2 more years on a 34 year old who has been beaten up at the rim his whole life, played a ton of minutes in his career, drinks a lot, struggles with fitness and saw a sharp decline on his interior play? He is obviously the most likely star player to decline fast. The only skills that will last are 3pt shooting and assists but that will not make up for his disappearing FT rate which was making up for constantly being one of the worst regular season defenders on his own team. If he loves Houston, let's see a big hometown discount on salary and years then we can talk about it. Seems totally unlikely right now.
Sooo I take it you’re taking back the flowers? Took ya long enough to realize the truth. https://bbs.clutchfans.net/threads/lets-talk-about-james-harden-clutchfans.316335/#post-14153568
They got a lot of luck on their side for their model; finding the best player in the league in the 2nd, MPj falling in the draft because of his injury history, and the first from the carmelo trade being high enough to get Murray. Having the right coach helps too and making clever moves like getting Aaron Gordon to fit in and Bruce brown and KCP. Also they played a relatively weak schedule to win the title this year
I'm really against calling Sengun baby Jokic but I'm definitely in favor of letting the guys we tanked for play it out. Denver took 9 years, if you were guaranteed a chip in 2029 you'd be a damned fool to throw it away. We have a ton of blue chip talent, 2 years ago it seemed like we never would have anything ever again. Phase 1 was accumulate talent, that's over this offseason. Phase 2 isn't win-now it's development. These guys aren't ready and Harden doesn't get them there. Harden may actually impede development. Phase 2 is probably another 2 seasons, maybe 3 and hopefully it includes making the playoffs and announcing we're back. The 2-3 season window (Phase 3) after that will be win-now moves.
I’m pretty patient, but 9 years? I’ll be 74 if I live that long. I’m ok with 2 more years, but hell no to nine.
Imagine if young Melo played in the Jokic era, that is a great duo for years to come. They still had Chauncey for couple of years. The Syracuse boi is back.
