Lakers On/Off Net Rating for DFS was +14.0 in the playoffs though. The whooping happened when he was off the court.
LeBron in the bubble was pretty old and they won a title - but I agree with you that teams built around old players don't win titles very often.... and the reality is that this Rockets team only has like a 5-10% chance to win the title next year. It is better than it has been in years, but it is still relatively low. I don't have an issue with the Rockets adding another creator but the reality is that if KD is hurt a lot, the Rockets are probably screwed regardless. KD was just a big swing without a lot of cost, and the same would be true for DFS if they sign him - the Rockets are waiting on another massive star being available or for Amen to explode. I am just going to be open minded and watch this season and see what happens good or bad. If nothing else, I will get to watch arguably the greatest all around shooter ever at 37.
...because it's much easier to defend a player or a series of players if all of them are only a threat from one position on the floor. This is basketball 101 - the chapter on Defense type of stuff. Steph Curry is one of the most dangerous offensive players at all time and was a phenomenal long range shooter but the fact he could get to the hoop and score at a high percentage and could hit a mid range floater at a high percentage is WHY he was able to get good looks from deep in the first place. If he wasn't crafty enough to finish at the rim at a high percentage it would be much easier to guard him(and the Warriors) by simply running them off the 3pt line. Right now Amen can only hit shots from within 5ft of the hoop, Sengun can only hit from 3'-10', Jabari and Fred can only consistently hit set shots and Jabri is particularly bad when he tries to take more than 2 dribbles, and Tari is not reliable at anything. Durant is a legit 3 level scorer but as he has aged he rarely has the burst to get to the rim anymore...those all have real impacts to what defensive schemes we face. It won't show up on a Tuesday night in the regular season but in a 7 game series against the most disciplined teams? You better believe that makes a difference...and that's why OKC has a title right now.
Yes, that's where I'm at too. I think we're still unlikely to win a championship here, but I guess the window is cracked open a little bit? The real value of getting KD in terms of future planning is twofold--one, we get a chance to see what this team looks like with a truly great perimeter shotmaker, and whether that opens things up for guys like Amen and Sengun. Two, we should (if KD is healthy) at least be able to go deeper into the playoffs and get the young guys more experience, whereas another first round exit would have been much more likely without him. If the cost had been too high, those things wouldn't have been worth it, but since the cost was low, it's a reasonable call.
Jalen and DB were our least efficient creators - replacing them with a Durant that plays at least 60% of our games and is ready for the playoffs and adding DFS I think gets us into the second round at least...while we wait for a "star" to become available - the "addition by subtraction" with Jalen I think is real in this case....and if we catch some injury breaks just right - there might be a chance at competing for a title.....which I think would be an AWESOME story arc to end Durant's career considering he was largely villianized for joining the Warriors earlier in his career. Side note - its going to be funny all the people next year saying "why are we not getting as many offensive rebounds this year?" when we don't have to clean up bad Jalen/Dillon shots.
A little bit? This team was second seed last year, imagine everyone a little better due to age and then you add KD. At worst IMO this is the 3rd best team in the league only behind Cavs and OKC. Not sure if they can prevail against OKC but the window is def here.
There are two things that make me skeptical--one, this roster still doesn't have a lot of playoff experience outside of FVV and KD, and most of the rotation is still very young, not even mid-20s yet. Two, I'm baking some age-related decline and/or injury problems for KD into my assessment. If I thought there were very good odds of him playing at his peak level, then we could at least arguably have the best player against the majority of playoff opponents. But if you assume that he won't be at his peak at age 37, then we're clearly still not going to have the best player against top contenders. I think there's a chance we could win a championship, but I still wouldn't put us in "top contender" status. You never know though, I didn't think Indiana would get anywhere close to as far as they did. So I guess I would say we have the window open, but we're not by any means the favorites and don't have it thrown open wide like OKC does, to continue with that metaphor.
Feels like a bit of an overpay, I was hoping we'd get him for $11M or $12M. But I do like the addition.
Seems they got him for 13.25 million per year. Which seems in the vicinity of your numbers; even if an overpay, it’s not by much. Rockets needed 3 point shooting, and they have done an excellent job of acquiring high percentage 3 point shooting this offseason!
Yeah, it's not a huge overpay, just feels like a little too much given his age and production. Doesn't matter too much in the grand scheme of things though.
Not an overpay considering the cap is expanding. Players of his skill will be going for $15k plus easily after a few years.
Why? He just replaced Dillon but since he is not as good of a scorer Tari is ahead of him in the depth chart.
OKC has a title right now because Haliburton blew his Achilles, Pacers were even up at halftime without him, don't let that escape your logic...
The Thunder have been the title favorites ALL year and were the odds on favorite throughout the playoffs. Dont try to act like a few good Haliburton quarters EVER changed that fact. The Pacers gave us a surprisingly competitive Finals - leave it at that.
