User Comments, Suggestions, or Complaints | Privacy Policy | Terms of Service | Advertising
|
Demarini, Easton and TPX Baseball Bats
|
AllianceTickets.com has cheap MLB Tickets. Get all your Colorado Rockies Tickets, Seattle Mariners Tickets, San Francisco Giants Tickets and all your favorite baseball tickets here. We also carry cheap Denver Broncos Tickets, Seattle Seahawks Tickets and Denver Nuggets Tickets. |
For wholesale prices on baseball gifts and equipment, check these stores out! |
Page rendered in 0.8662 seconds
54 querie(s) executed
Reader Comments and Retorts
Go to end of page
Statements posted here are those of our readers and do not represent the BaseballThinkFactory. Names are provided by the poster and are not verified. We ask that posters follow our submission policy. Please report any inappropriate comments.
ok
Those rumors started with the Nets. Unless the Wolves had already traded Pekovic, that trade would be even dumber than it looks on its face. I will say that the problem with Lopez is health, not performance. His return to form and ability to stay in the lineup has been what has made the Nets good this year, and it is where I was most wrong in projecting them.
This list seems incomplete, Eric Bledsoe, Ramon Sessions and John Wall are all higher as well. Wall and Bledsoe are both younger than Jennings.
I hate to be so predictable, but I'd at least consider Rubio.
Mike Conley belongs on that list, too. I'd take him above Jennings and I like Jennings.
Not sure I agree with your assessment of Kemba, Moses. He has made strides this year and seems to be starting to understand where he can get his shot. He has a chance to have a Jason Terry career, although I concede your point about his defense.
That sounds right. Does that trade really work for anyone other than the Nets? Love doesn't seem like the player the Lakers need at all, particularly with D'Antoni in the fold, and what's the compelling reason why Minnesota would prefer Lopez over Love, unless if they're firing an extreme advance shot about Love leaving. (Though I agree Lopez seems to have greatly improved this year - given Love's injury woes and the fact that he's just not a great shooter, I think they're a lot closer in value than people think.)
I was a little quick to dismiss Kemba. I hadn't realized he'd been *that* good this year. He's definitely been better than Jennings offensively. So now I don't know who'd I'd prefer between the 2 of them.
and i went by designation of point guard. maybe site had some players listed incorrecly
Rubio was hurt (coming back from an ACL), so he hasn't played all season and hasn't been great yet. Conley's PER is a little lower than Jennings, but the main reason Jennings is higher is because of usage (Jennings plays 3 more minutes a game and shoots/scores more) and PER doesn't include defense (IMO, Conley is better). Overrating usage is one of the main criticisms of PER.
Wall was also hurt, so his minutes are lower. Bledsoe backs up Paul, so he's obviously not playing as much.
By ahead on my comment I meant purely by PER. As for who I'd take over Jennings, I agree no to Sessions, but yes to Conley. Rubio has been poor this year, but was better last year, mostly because his defense. Bledsoe's minutes have been limited because of Paul, but he might be best defensive PG in the league, his block/steal/rebound numbers are insane for a guy his size, pretty much completely unprecedented in the history of the NBA and he's a good defender beyond those stats as well.
Kemba seems more a like a small SG, but he's been good this year.
Jennings is pretty good though, he's young and he's improved since coming into the league. Just a lot of good PGs right now.
That was my initial thought as well, but his AST rate is actually higher than Jennings this year (both guys are higher than Irving).
I don't trust Lopez. You can't question his offensive value, but I don't trust his health, I don't trust his rebounding, and I don't trust his defense. You need pretty great perimeter defensive players to make up for defensive weakness at center contend for championships, and it's the rare team that has that.
Going just off of talent (not contract or a team's scheme), I'd say: Chalmers, Jameer Nelson, Jeff Teague/Devin Harris, Ray Felton (probably), Brandin Knight, possibly George Hill, possibly Jeremy Lin, Darren Collison, Greivis Vasquez (probably), Mo Williams, Isaiah Thomas, possibly Dragic.
We forgot to mention Lawson on the list of guys who are better than him.
Yes, he is playing better, but trading for him now would be an archetypal "buy high" mistake.
In terms of on-court value, for sure. He hasn't played this well and remained healthy this long in, what, four years?
Wow. I didn't know he had a starting PG job. Yikes.
This is what I find interesting -- he's very talented, but its looking like he's a below median starter. I'm not sure what it means to have overall league talent at that high of a level...other than that being a very good thing for the NBA.
I think it means, in part, that the job on offense has gotten easier (in the absolute sense) - what with no handchecking and all. Mind you, what matters is relative performance - right?
I am more concerned about his health, but you make a good point that his age is a big factor in his favor.
Forbes released its franchise valuations today. the average team is worth 30% more than it was a year ago as the lockout was coming to an end.
As for Jennings' future - again, he's another in this class of Tyreke Evans type guys who need the ball in their hands to succeed but aren't consistent or efficient enough scorers for their teams to be successful with them in that role. Jennings has to go one of three ways - he has to figure out a way to score more efficiently (his 3P% imporvement this year not withstanding, hard to see that happening), or he needs to develop better playmaking skills (seems even less likely), OR, ideally, on a contender, he's a guy who comes off the bench for instant offense. He gives you 24 points in 30 minutes on the nights he's on, but when he's not, you don't have to give him 30 minutes. He also needs (ideally) to be paired with a taller guard who is better defensively - so, not Monta Ellis, basically.
Basically, if he's your starting point guard, I think your team is going to be limited unless you have just the right other pieces around him.
I was also surprised at how well Kemba was doing this year. Wow. But Moses is right - that guy will never be a good defender in the NBA.
Finally, I would also consider trading for Brook Lopez right now as buying high.
I think he is right around the middle. He scores a lot, so he looks superficially better than he really is. His biggest weakness is defense, which is a perpetually underrated part of the game. Is he better than an average starting PG from a prior era? If so, is it by a bigger margin than the average starter at another position compared to that of the corresponding era? I don't know, maybe, but the usual red flags about misperceiving a player are very present with him.
Again, feel like I should say that I like Jennings.
You're describing Jamal Crawford, but smaller. I think he could excel in that role.
Forbes released its franchise valuations today. the average team is worth 30% more than it was a year ago as the lockout was coming to an end.
Link. Knicks and Lakers over $1 billion. Knicks $83mil in profit by their calcs. Teams in the red: Portland, Philly ($0.8mil), Memphis, Minny, Hawks ($19mil - the high), Charlotte and Milwaukee ($0.5mil).
Wow.
3rd in the league in assists this year! He was a hell of a college player-a big guard and a fierce competitor.
Exactly, Moses. Or Nate Robinson for the '10 Celtics. Or JR Smith, ideally.
didn't watch the lakers game - how bad was howard's injury? it would be pretty funny if orlando winds up the winner in that deal from last year.
Jimmy Butler with another good game - 46!!!min, 18pts, 9reb, 4ast, only 1 TO (and a steal and block).
I was impressed with what I saw of Drummond - raw, but great rebounder already and moves well for someone his size.
They need to stop putting Harden in so much that's for sure. he turned it over 7 times this game, meanwhile, in a rare game where both Patterson and Morris actually played pretty well, they decided to keep both's playing time down while Parson couldn't hit any shots .
Also, Greg Smith actually DIDN't run into foul trouble this game but they kept Asik in basically 3/4 of the game, why?
I guess McHale's main concern is that Harden doesn't technically have a backup? who the F cares? just put in Lin + Douglas or Beverly or Delfino, most of the team is sort of the multi purpose type anyway.
They need to have a better plan B / C for their half court set, right now it's.... pass it to Harden and everyone waits for the corner 3 95% of the time (and it's not like they have several Ray Allens out there)
But against the Lakers, Kirk Hinrich, Marco Belinelli, Nate Robinson, Mike Conley, Jerryd Bayless, and Troy Wroten all had good-to-very good-to great games. Belinelli and Robinson are good bench scorers, Bayless is OK as backup 1, and Conley is a pretty good starting 1. But none of them is as good as the Lakers made each of them look, and both Chicago and Memphis each sailed past their usual ORTGs playing the Lakers.
This draws a line under three things:
1. As noted ad nauseum in many quarters, D’Antoni’s poor coaching, both in terms of the D and arguably WRT usage of Meeks.
2. Kupchak’s inability to provide the Lakers with decent backup perimeter players. Whether Meeks is more of a D’Antoni or a Kupchak problem is debatable, but either way, Meeks has not been as helpful as I had hoped he would be.
3. That as cool as it sounded, having what I and others noted in preseason is “the oldest starting backcourt in NBA history” comes with a real downside, particularly when your starting 3 is 33, and and your best bigs are a slow 32-year-old and a guy with a bad shoulder and a bad back.
There is more to it--OREBs, TOs. But I think it starts with perimeter D.
One of the most interesting things to me about the Lakers season so far is how much Nash is let off the hook- he isn't even mentioned by name in this post. Instead, #1 is D'Antoni's poor coaching of the defense...as if 2-3 guys that are terrible on defense are somehow terrible as a result of his coaching. I mean, Hinrich (who is LONG GONE) had a career game with Nash guarding him...yet it's D'Antoni's fault. No Laker's fan wants to discuss Kobe's defense either...it's all D'Antoni and Howard's fault.
That as cool as it sounded, having what I and others noted in preseason is “the oldest starting backcourt in NBA history”
Who exactly did you think I was talking about in that sentence? Further, I mentioned, by name, every opposing backcourt player on Memphis and Chicago who torched the Lakers, starting with Hinrich. I kind of figured that people would make the connection.
Also, I have specifically talked about Kobe's D here on the thread more than once, I linked to and endorsed a Zach Lowe piece calling out Kobe on his D, and as to the fans, the guys who run the SB Nation and True Hoop Lakers blogs both ran lengthy pieces, with video, specifically talking about how bad Kobe's defense has been. On the Lakers blog I hang out at, people talk about Kobe's D, along with all the other problems, pretty much every day.
A lot of Lakers fans are of course pissed off at Howard, and to some extent rightly so. My point, however, was that I think perimeter D is the worst of all the problems--which obviously means Kobe and Nash, among others. People are mad at D'Antoni because he seems to be making the team's weaknesses worse (and because he is not Phil).
To be fair, the Dow/Nasdaq/S&P 500 have all had similar increases during the last year (especially if you go September-September; a 15-20% increase is basically the norm for that time period.) A lot of the change may just be the economy getting better.
Edit: I'm sort of impressed that the Warriors have improved enough that beating two of the Western powers back to back doesn't even merit a comment.
Something I was wondering while watching last night's NBAtv doubleheader, which team deserves to be taken more seriously, Warriors or Nuggets and why? At this point, it's clear that LAC, SAS and OKC are the class of the WC with MEM-GSW-DEN a level below (I suppose some might have MEM on a middle tier by themselves) so how do people sort it out?
only problem is that mchale is quicker on lin than larussa with a platoon situation, and asik often doesn't get to play through his bad games. and everything else you said is spot-on.
about the dow/stock valuations - part of that also is because the fed rates / interest rates are so low. when times don't look terrible and rates are low, money travels to anything that looks like it might be a decent investment.
kobe wasn't looking good on defense the past couple years; what i'd see is someone who could pump it up for a couple plays and play really good defense, but mainly looked as if he was either saving himself (for offense) or just was getting older. no idea which, but kobe the-all-world defender is long gone.
and no fan of d'antoni (i think he's only marginally better than mchale) but the lakers bench roster (as stated above) is awful. you've got an old starting unit (when gasol was starting), and you know that they're going to need quality backups OR good youthful sparkplugs, and have neither. chris duhon? jamison and meeks should be the lower end of what they get off the bench, not the higher end. kobe can't run 38 every night, and nash shouldn't be running more than 30.
I remain a huge Pau fan. I just don't know how you run this guy's psyche and game into the ground the way LA seems to have done. He is going to help you win/get better, even limited as he is now. He is not the problem. I'd kinda like to see Dwight out for 6 games while they play Pau at C and see what happens.
I also feel for D'Antoni a bit. His interviews read more and more like every other coach. The humor is straining under the weight of unmet expectations, I guess.
ESPN's really pushing the narrative that D'Antoni is the reason for everything, and if Phil were around this team would challenge OKC. Because what the Lakers need now is another huge ego that's more concerned with his money and off court issues while only working part time.
What's really amusing is every analyst and coach they bring on says the same thing: The D is terrible, Dwight and Nash are hurt, they haven't played together enough and D'Antoni needs to adjust.
Some fans are falling back on that as well, and it is obviously wrong. People, me included, overrated this roster. This team was based on the premise that the Core Four could play at recent levels and play well together; they have not been up to it, either mentally or physically, and that has exposed the rest of the team. A lot of that is not MDA's fault.
But at the same time, JC is correct. I backed the Pringles hire, but I specifically said, in more or less these words both here and and at a Lakers blog, that "I think D'Antoni will be smart enough to make some adjustments." I think he has kind of tried to do that, but I really haven't seen enough of it. The pace is too fast; the D is bad in large part due to athletic limitations, but also has execution and intensity problems. Some of that has to fall on the coach.
In Phoenix, MDA had Golden Retriever Nash and four greyhounds. Here, he has an older Nash and a Doberman, an Afghan, a Pit bull, and a Mastiff with a bad shoulder, as well as several shelter mutts. He needs to run the kennel diffently.
Correct. This is an organizational failure; Lakers fans are arguing about who is to blame, but it's everybody. Buss and Kupchak did a poor job of planning/adding around the flaws of the stars (conceding the limits of the money after the stars get paid) and the laundry list of potential interconnected questions from preseason (age/health/depth/D/coaching/personality conflicts) that could drag the team down have in fact done so, albeit in a more dramatic fashion than almost anyone anticipated.
Asking a 41-year old Mariano Rivera to not only come back from knee surgery, but to change sports and anchor a defense is too much to expect.
You seem to be suggesting that they are trying to hit 60, but can't. They aren't trying. It just makes too much sense for some teams that can't get top talent to take the air out of the ball, run the shot clock down, jack up a bunch of 3s and hope enough fall, and scramble back on defense to slow down the opponent if they don't fall. The longer shot clock, shorter three point line and ability to stick a big guy in the paint all night make the game a lot different. Sure, I get that you're saying you don't like that, but it's a very different game, not just bad-NBA.
But they did expect Dwight to be good. And while he's better than his teammates, he's not the old Dwight Howard.
I think people looked at Howard did in his best seasons in Orlando, where they were consistently one of the best defensive teams in league, despite giving big minutes to guys like Turkoglu, Rafer Alston Rashard Lewis, Jason Williams, Jameer Nelson, JJ Reddick, aging Vince Carter and assumed that Howard would be able to cover for Nash and Kobe the same way he covered for those guys, but Howard just isn't the same caliber of defender since his injury.
this whole situation is actually pretty odd. he had the surgery before the end of last season, but comments at the time made it seem as if the situation wasn't that serious and that he only did it because he didn't want to play for orlando. then, as a result of the surgery, it was assumed that he'd miss a few months at the start of this season, but he was in the lineup the first week. and now, while he's playing, he's not playing at his previously established level of dominance.
and going back to that trade (howard to LA, bynum to philly, iguodala to denver, "stuff" to orlando) it really seems to buck against the history of the NBA to think that orlando actually got the best end of that deal, and that they still have 3 first round picks coming to them.
I'm not so sure about that. Do you really think nobody is going to give him max money this offseason?
ESPN sure seems to think so as they ran 3 stories on the Lakers before even getting to the Warriors/OKC game coming out of the break last night.
Agree, and I'm not sure how much else they can/should do. If you move the 3 point line back and crack down on zone defenses, you pretty much turn the game into a race for schools to recruit future NBA PGs. A guy like Trey Burke, who is going to be only a mid 1st round pick, can already dominate the current game, even with little room to operate. You change more than the shot clock and you are only going to turn it into bad-NBA, and eliminate a lot of respectable schools ability to contend.
Also, as a Mike Brown defender - that early run without Nash doesn't look so bad now.
The shot clock bothers me more than anything. 35 seconds is enough time to let a team run their offensive set, have the defense totally shut it down, then reset to do the whole thing over again. People can disagree, but I find that grating.
I totally agree. I have no specific issue with the skill gap between NCAA and NBA, but I find it infuriating to watch a team kill 20 seconds trying something that doesn't work at all, and still have more than enough time left in the shot clock to run a whole separate set.
Saying he's struggling this year isn't saying his career is over. I do think he's more a high risk/high reward player going forward than sure thing superstar though, but his upside still going to be well worth the risk for most teams. He's going to max contract from someone this off season no matter what.
Congrats, Pelton! So, I figured that you had to leave the Pacers and Storm, didn't know about BbPro 'til your tweet. What does this mean for the future of the annual & SCHOENE projections?
Someone will give him max money.
NCAA Men's Basketball would be improved with a 30s shot clock.
I'd think about going down to 25.
Agree, and I'm not sure how much else they can/should do.
Call the ######## that happens in the paint. It's way too rough, too much fouling. Call the handchecking on the perimeter. Pat Riley ball caught on, and it never went away. That's on the refs.
Yeah, congrats Kevin! I am especially happy since right after I signed up for Insider, Hollinger left for the Grizzlies. It will be nice having Kevin replace him.
Sure, absolutely, enforce the rules as they are written. I'm just thinking about changes to the actual rulebook.
Though I think the powers that be don't mind it too much as it helps prevent that race for the PG i described above. You start to call handchecking tight and the teams with the top 5 or so PGs are going to be in the bonus mighty quick. The vast majority of college perimeter players won't be able to prevent Burke (just because I mentioned him above) from going for 25 and 10.
Frankly I haven't followed the Bulls that closely up until about the last two weeks. I can't say I'm shocked what Thibs is getting out of that bunch, but I am sorta shocked. On paper there is no way this bunch (sans rose) is anywhere near last year's. But there they are playing just about the same as they did last year without Rose. I don't want to digress this into a tangent about Reinsorf, but sometimes when you have to get creative as a GM due to money GarPax has shown ability to do it. Bellinelli? Nate Rob? Jimmy Butler as the 30th pick? Just more guys to plug into Thib's system. Butler could be good enough to where Deng gets traded as an expiring. That would be a huge bonus for a team with perenial luxury tax issues.
Also, the have Mirotic coming over perhaps in 2014. This team could be setup for a 5-7 year run if Rose can stay healthy. Knock on freaking wood.
Watch Michigan play they have 3-5 future NBA players on the roster and they have the best offense in college ball on a PPP basis. In Beilein's system with that many studs it's a joy to watch.
I will. They play my boys in about 30 minutes (though, I'll be watching it well after it ends due to work and child responsibilities).
West: Aldridge, Duncan, Harden, Lee, Parker, Randolph and Westbrook.
I'm surprised Harden didn't make it. Otherwise, I guess it looks good to me, but I don't know. Glad Noah and Deng made it though.
Just look for my posts, including this page.
Yay Warriors! (Our last All-Star rep was Sprewell.) I'm glad at least one of Lee/Curry made it.
Ah well.
Do I get to take a victory lap on that one yet? Who was on the other side of that one, besides everyone else?
I've never understood why the handchecking was so terrible, yet jamming an elbow into someone's back was ruled to be kosher.
Whoops. Yes, I did. I don't know what I was thinking, maybe I meant Gasol. Not sure now. Oh well.
Doesn't quite show up because of their good start, but the Bobcats are now 3-27 in their last 30.
I remember saying that I wouldn't draft him at 4 - that he had the chance to be pretty good, but that he wasn't worth the risk.
I didn't want to touch him. I just don't like the motivation questions that some guys have.
Kevin, is Per Diem your gig now?
Drummond has certainly been better than I expected. I drafted him in my deep fantasy league and have been thrilled. I would wait to bathe in glory on him, though, because he needs to produce in more than 20 MPG or he is more Amir Johnson than Dikembe Mutombo.
quite frankly (yeah, i think i'm gonna steal that for a while), if he was this good last year at uconn, he'd have been the #1 overall pick.
This, the Bulls record, and Derrick Rose's absence are his qualifications.
You must be Registered and Logged In to post comments.
<< Back to main