The 2018-2019 Around the NBA thread

[sunsfan88]

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[Carolinacacti]

Who was guarding him? Young trey Young

 

[GatorAZ]

Watching Sacramento take the next step is making this season more unbearable.

 

[Errntknght]

Bogdan hasn't played for them yet this year and he was a very good contributor last year.

I thought Yogi Ferrel would be a big help for them but he's only had 1 good game.

Giles isn't doing much since the real season started and his minutes keep dropping

Labissiere is all but out of the rotation.

Frank Mason and J.Jackson have fallen off some, from what I've noticed.

Bagley is doing well but nothing outstanding.

Yet they're on a five game win streak - against avg opposition. It's Fox, Hield, WCS and Bjelica all stepping up their games and Shumpert doing okay with Bagley helping. Koufas is chipping in, too.

 

[Russ Smith]

Watching Sacramento take the next step is making this season more unbearable.

It also again points out how meaningless preseason is. In the preseason the Kings were so bad it was epic, they were the worst defensive team in the league by a mile. They were so bad the local media in Sacramento was openly talking about another coaching change and how crazy it was teh Kings couldn't find a good coach, that Bagley was a bust, Harry Giles was outplaying Bagley, and I actually read one comment pointing out how the Kings even struck out on free agent target Zach Lavine.

Now they're off to an excellent start, Bagley is looking quite good off the bench, and Hield is putting up 20 PPG shooting 53, 49 and 82 and unlike Lavine he actually tries to play defense.

I didn't see the game but from the highlights it looks like Fox absolutely abused Trae Young, not totally surprising and it was a high scoring game but still 30 15 10 is nothing to scoff at.

 

[Yuma]

Watching Sacramento take the next step is making this season more unbearable.

No. Watching SA and LAL take steps back in their teams and STILL kicking our A$$es, that's unbearable!

Wasn't the plan we knew they would have guys retiring, and we were building our team to peak when they went bad? Yeah, that worked well!

 

[Russ Smith]

Bogdan hasn't played for them yet this year and he was a very good contributor last year.

I thought Yogi Ferrel would be a big help for them but he's only had 1 good game.

Giles isn't doing much since the real season started and his minutes keep dropping

Labissiere is all but out of the rotation.

Frank Mason and J.Jackson have fallen off some, from what I've noticed.

Bagley is doing well but nothing outstanding.

Yet they're on a five game win streak - against avg opposition. It's Fox, Hield, WCS and Bjelica all stepping up their games and Shumpert doing okay with Bagley helping. Koufas is chipping in, too.

Bagley has a long ways to go on defense and he has to get better passing, Ayton is light years ahead of him as a passer right now, but he's putting up 13 PPG and 7 RPG shooting 55% in 23 MPG as a rookie so yeah he's doing well and after the summer league and preseason talk he was a bust it's nice to see. I knew he had limitations and his defense is going to be the gating factor on his playing time this year but I'd seen him enough to know the talk about him being a bust was ridiculous, he's going to figure it out. Statistically they probably should have taken Doncic but I don't think Bagley is going to be a terrible pick at all.

 

[GatorAZ]

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So you want to coach in the NBA huh?

 

[hcsilla]

Now they're off to an excellent start, Bagley is looking quite good off the bench, and Hield is putting up 20 PPG shooting 53, 49 and 82 and unlike Lavine he actually tries to play defense.

I didn't see the game but from the highlights it looks like Fox absolutely abused Trae Young, not totally surprising and it was a high scoring game but still 30 15 10 is nothing to scoff at.

The Kings are surprisingly good and they seem to be real.

They play at a high pace and are quite difficult to stop when run. Their defense is much better, Fox improved heavily as a slasher and significantly as a distributor, while Hield, Bjelica and even Shumpert are hitting open jumpers. Moreover they use Bjelica in ISO-plays, plus as a secondary ball-handler and he excels at both areas without showing these abilities in previous seasons.

I laughed when I heard that the Kings signed him to a 18 mil.//3 year contract and thought it is another mistake of Divac and now it seems that he was one of the best signings of this past summer.

It is quite painful that even the Kings, the former laughing stock of the NBA seems at least a step ahead in their rebuilding comparing to the Suns.

 

[Hoop Head]

The Kings lucked out the Bulls matched LaVine's offer sheet, 4 years/$80 million. That might have kept them from this start. LaVine is Kevin Martin 2.0, the athletic version.

 

[JCSunsfan]

I'm not passing judgement on Koko yet, it's far too early, but I really like Dave Joerger. Anyway, I had the same concerns about Fox that I had about JJ, hopefully Jackson will find his game before it's too late for him and for us.

Yep. Fox and JJ had similar strengths and weaknesses. JJ just seems to be in a funk lately. We saw at the end of last year that he is capable.

 

[JCSunsfan]

The Kings are surprisingly good and they seem to be real.

They play at a high pace and are quite difficult to stop when run. Their defense is much better, Fox improved heavily as a slasher and significantly as a distributor, while Hield, Bjelica and even Shumpert are hitting open jumpers. Moreover they use Bjelica in ISO-plays, plus as a secondary ball-handler and he excels at both areas without showing these abilities in previous seasons.

I laughed when I heard that the Kings signed him to a 18 mil.//3 year contract and thought it is another mistake of Divac and now it seems that he was one of the best signings of this past summer.

It is quite painful that even the Kings, the former laughing stock of the NBA seems at least a step ahead in their rebuilding comparing to the Suns.

It takes patience. Young players take a while to develop. Sometimes you just have to be patient with them and not dump them too soon.

Oh. Wait.

 

[Chaplin]

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So you want to coach in the NBA huh?

Magic shouldn't talk. He's the one that put together that horror show of a roster.

 

[AzStevenCal]

It takes patience. Young players take a while to develop. Sometimes you just have to be patient with them and not dump them too soon.

Oh. Wait.

I think that when you have a large number of young prospects, it becomes more of a challenge to develop all of them and even more of a challenge to patiently wait on their development. And it also becomes easier to decline their extension because you look around and think, well, I still have a bunch of other kids trying to learn the game. I think it's partially the reason that bottom of the barrel teams stay down there as long as they do.

 

[95pro]

Magic shouldn't talk. He's the one that put together that horror show of a roster.

Hmmm a team LeBron is on is having coach issues...

 

[BC867]

Hmmm a team LeBron is on is having coach issues...

Triggered by it being made public that LeBron is dissatisfied with the play of his teammates after a few games.

Magic's then going public is obviously a sign that he is appeasing LeBron.

The only fault I see is that it is public. For the sake of the team, it should be going on behind the scenes.

But then, maybe they've both gone public to keep the fans attending games. It is Hollywood, after all.

 

[elindholm]

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So you want to coach in the NBA huh?

Time for Magic to step in and coach them himself, since that went so well the last time he tried it.

 

[Superbone]

Time for Magic to step in and coach them himself, since that went so well the last time he tried it.

He should do a talk show too while he's at it.

 

[CardsSunsDbacks]

I'm not really sold on the Kings just yet. None of their wins have been all that impressive thus far (a lot of weak opponents thus far). I think they are certainly better than us, but I suspect that they still end up well under .500 this year.

 

[Russ Smith]

The Kings lucked out the Bulls matched LaVine's offer sheet, 4 years/$80 million. That might have kept them from this start. LaVine is Kevin Martin 2.0, the athletic version.

Yep the only one luckier than the kings, was Zach, who got the money. That was amazing, I was stunned Sac offered that and before I could even digest what a crazy offer it was, Chicago matched it.

Terrific scorer, highlight reel player, gym rat but just not a good defender at all.

 

[AzStevenCal]

I'm not really sold on the Kings just yet. None of their wins have been all that impressive thus far (a lot of weak opponents thus far). I think they are certainly better than us, but I suspect that they still end up well under .500 this year.

Oh, I don't think they're playoff bound or anything, just considerably improved. I think they'll fall a few wins shy of 40.

 

[Russ Smith]

Triggered by it being made public that LeBron is dissatisfied with the play of his teammates after a few games.

Magic's then going public is obviously a sign that he is appeasing LeBron.

The only fault I see is that it is public. For the sake of the team, it should be going on behind the scenes.

But then, maybe they've both gone public to keep the fans attending games. It is Hollywood, after all.

I haven't watched that much of them but in a sense I could see Magic being upset, they have LeBron, Javale McGee has been amazing 15.5 7.5 3.25 blocks in 27 minutes, 63% with a PER of 24, 2nd to LeBron on the team. Lonzo is not even 100% yet and he's playing as well now as he did at any time last year 10 4.5 4.5 46% 41% (he still is under 60% from the line which puzzles me) advanced stats he's been better on defense than even Rondo. So several of the big question marks going into the season, have been answered so far with good answers, and yet they suck.

But the reason they suck IMO is terrible defense largely due to roster construction by Magic, not coaching by Walton. They have 4 average to above average defenders in the starting lineup IMO, Lonzo, McGee, Hart and LeBron, with Rondo and Born Ready on the bench, they should be a much better defensive team than they are but the pieces don't fit. As soon as they take McGee out their defense falls apart due to lack of size and rim protection. Despite all the length and athletes, it turns out in the NBA if you can't protect the rim.

and on offense of course it makes no sense to construct a roster around LeBron that shoots 35% from 3, when Rondo, Lance and Lonzo are 1,2,3 in 3% on your team it probably means you don't have enough shooters so the guys teams dare to shoot 3's are having to make them.

 

[Suns_fan69]

Terrific scorer, highlight reel player, gym rat but just not a good defender at all.

Well, a lot of people would describe Devin Booker the same way, so I don't know how I feel about that.

 

[SirStefan32]

Well, a lot of people would describe Devin Booker the same way, so I don't know how I feel about that.

I think most people would agree that Booker is a far superior scorer.

 

[Russ Smith]

Well, a lot of people would describe Devin Booker the same way, so I don't know how I feel about that.

I don't watch Booker enough to have an opinion on him. My issue with Zach is that he's actually the type of athlete you would assume would become a good defender, he's not incredibly laterally quick but he's certainly not slow, he's long, he can jump out of the gym, yet he's an indifferent defender IMO.

With Zach it's hard to say if it's the teams he's been on or just him, Thibs loved him, speaks very highly of him, but even for him, Zach didn't really play much defense. Hopefully for him he'll get to that point where he realizes if he wants to win he has to play both ends of the court.