My guy Donovan Mitchell is changing hearts and minds out there. They’re gonna make a deep run next season if healthy.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Getting Conley certainly takes the ball out of his hands some. Which helps.

_________________
There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

Should help a ton. Conley is an improvement over Rubio in every facet. I think we’re done with this nonsense:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TjiU3UZRz_o

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Yep.

_________________

That actually was a helluva strategy and it worked. If Mitchell (your guy) didn't stink so much that series they would have won at least 2 more games. Harden didn't do Jack that series.

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It didn’t work. Harden torched the shit out of Rubio the first two games.

If Mitchell wasn’t asked to do prime Kobe workloads in his 2nd season he would have probably played much better. Conley helps a ton with that. You’ll see this year.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Did you watch series? Doubt it. They didn't implement that strategy during the first couple of games. It actually did work. Harden shot terribly that series.

You're making excuses again. Mitchell is their second best player. He shoots a lot because he chooses to shoot a lot.

He needs to do more than be a volume scorer in order to be the sort of player you want him to be.

Right now he is a below average shooter with below avg dribbling and passing skills.

His best attribute is as a finisher at the rim. He is athletic and he has long arms.

_________________

Yes I watched the series and yes they did.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

James Harden shot 22-50 in the first 2 games of that series.


He shot 36% for the series overall.

He played poorly as I previously stated.

https://www.espn.com/nba/player/gamelog ... mes-harden

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Have the rest of the team close to free buckets. That defense led to drive and kicks and open shots for everyone

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Now you're making up stuff to be right. Those games were closer than they should have been. At least 2 were winnable and had your guy Mitchell played better Utah wins.

Mitchell shot 32% avg 4 turnovers (ouch!) With 3 assist per game. That's atrocious for a guy projected by you to be the next great thing.


As far as the Harden strategy it worked. They took away his step back and forced him to drive into Gorbert. He shot terribly and I'm certain that his assist to turnover ratio was bad too.


That was a helluva strategy and the numbers back it up.

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I already said Mitchell was asked to do more than he was capable of. Conley helps with that. You’ll see this year.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Conley can't help with his below avg skill set. We will see.

_________________

We will. Mitchell’s gonna be awesome with Conley.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Hope springs eternal I guess

_________________

Vegas considers them a contender as well

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Top 3 backcourt in the West with Gobert and Ingles as well; definite contender.

_________________
Sherman remarked, "Well, Grant, we've had the devil's own day, haven't we?" Grant looked up. "Yes," he replied, followed by a puff. "Yes. Lick 'em tomorrow, though."

To do what? Make it out the first round. I'm a huge Conley guy but he isn't the same player he was 3-4 years ago.

Mitchell is an inefficient player with terrible shot selection. That isn't going to change. It has nothing to do with what they ask him to do as much as it has to do with who he is as a player.

_________________

I bet he fuckin has

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Rubio's fun to watch play. Some of the passes Rubio makes, especially his off the dribble passing, are youtube fodder. Not unlike Draymond Green, Rubio's risky passes often end up going the other way.

Conley takes care of the ball much better than Rubio. Conley's consistently among tops in the league in assist to turnover ratio. Rubio had been getting better in that area his last years at Minnesota. Since he's been with Utah Rubio's become a TO liability, dropping below a 2 assist to turnover ratio his first season with the Jazz. He bumped it up to over 2.0 this last season, but that's still below his teammate Joe Ingles by a bit--and well below any season Conley's ever had.

Conley's the better shooter, 38 vs 32 from 3 and similar gaps in 2's and FT's vs Rubio.

At one point Conley was regarded as an elite defensive guard. But this was back when he was sharing the court with Gasol/Zebo/Tayshaun/Tony Allen. Prolly Conley was benefiting from playing on the best defensive lineup in the league. He still rates out on defensive metrics above Rubio in 2019, fwiw.

https://deadspin.com/is-this-kyrie-irvi ... 1835745111

Kyrie calling into a Boston radio station under a fake name

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I wanted to come back to this because while I've thought Ainge deserved to be ripped as a an asset hoarder for a while, I feel like the media has been jumping on him too much for this past season alone compared to his longer tenure. Not going for Kawhi last year is somewhat understandable to me because people were making the Celtics the favorite regardless and there were legitimate questions about Kawhi's commitment to actually playing anywhere outside of LA.

I still think what he did in 2017 was far more questionable, particularly when Paul George and pre-injury Cousins went for pennies on the dollar. While I'm sympathetic to the notion that Kyrie's attitude can be framed as bad luck or whatever, it was pretty fortuitous the Celtics could even trade for him in the first place after standing pat while George, Butler, and Cousins were moved. Likewise, while I get that Davis' refusal to even consider staying anywhere besides the Lakers may have been unforseen prior to this year's trade deadline, that's also a pretty good demonstration for why it's not wise to idealize and myopically focus on a single trade target for years on end.

Nets trying to sign their own John Jay

His fit makes no sense with that roster

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Who would be KD's Yonder Alonso?

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it would make more sense to me to have FA before the draft

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I'm going to bounce from the spot for awhile but I will be back at some point to argue with you about this hoops stuff again. Playoffs have been great this season. See ya up the road.

I'm out.

According to commissioner Adam Silver, the NBA is continuing to move away from the use of the term "owner" to describe those with controlling interest of teams in favor of the terms "Governor of the team" and "alternate Governor."

The change was made due to concerns that the term "owner" can be viewed as racially insensitive in a league where the vast majority of players are African-American and the majority of owners are Caucasian. While the league itself stopped using the term years ago, individual teams are now starting to follow suit;

stupid.

are they going to do away with the word trade as well?

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Great article on the Kyrie/Russell decision for Brooklyn by Lowe who remains the best to do this

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/270 ... t-decision

Supposedly Brooklyn has already agreed to terms with Kyrie though.

I’m wondering if Brooklyn is trying to trade Russell for whatever they can instead of letting him walk. I haven’t heard much about that angle so maybe it’s not possible but if it is they’d have to consider it.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

He has his max offer. Not really a surprise.

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