Love is gonna shoot a ****ton of freethrows this year. The Cavs seem like they're gonna run their offense through him in the post and the small ball 4s guarding him are really overgrown 2s that have never defended a postup in their lives.

Also he made Taj his *****:

Cavs are +1.3 with Love on and -44.7 with him off for an on/off of +46.0

Yeah they are very weird team. Starting lineup is somewhat solid and competitive and then they hand the keys to a rookie PG with predictable results.

No idea what they're trying to achieve with this roster.

Not top fifteen. Not even close.

Not if you were a Knicks fan it didnt

Wat

I’m a huge curry fan, and to say he would go down today as a top 3-5 player is preposterous. If he were to never play another game, I’d say he’d be top 30-40. Just among PGs He is never catching Magic. I think he needs a few more years to pass Isaiah Thomas, Oscar Robertson , and maybe Stockton.

Why all the hate for Donovan Mitchell? I don’t get the sense he is currently overrated like Carmelo Anthony was his entire career. I get the sense Mitchell is seen as a top 15-20 player.

Lol

Last one (for now)

I think seadood is saying it's substantially lower. Maybe top 40?

I grew up watching Stockton and Thomas, in fact Isaiah was one of my favorite players. My unbiased opinion, Curry is already a better basketball player; Barring injury he has a better career.

I wish I had a responsible response to Oscar Robertson. When I see highlights I’m not blown away but I get it - avgeraged a triple double for a season. And, I doubt the athleticism of his opponents is near what it is his today but that’s not his fault either.

Donovan is not a top 15-20 player. No way. The Jazz are good because they have a lot of good players that play super connected.

When you are talking about players of differing eras, I think the conversation has to be centered around “great” instead of “best”. Players today are bigger, faster, and stronger than players even 15-20 years ago. It was like the dream team debate when they compared the 1992 to the Olympic team from 2012. Dream team was made up of players that were greater and might be more accomplished ,but IMO the 2012 team would beat them handily.

Mitchell isn’t top 50. He’s the 4th best player on the Jazz.

Melo was way better at the same age.

Guy averaged 20.5/3.7/3.7 as a rookie and upped that to 24.4/5.9/4.2 in the playoffs. I like him because it doesn’t seem like shys away from the big moments.

Also, I think it’s a credit to him to be able to fit into a system like the Jazz. I think that’s harder for a lot of NBA players who just want to play iso ball ala (Carmelo, Wiggins, Westbrook etc)

They appear to be making a real effort to make sure they lose their top-10 protected pick but at the same time still giving the Hawks a lottery pick. It's a very narrow band but they are aimed straight at it.

Interesting you say that. His age 21 as Ricky Rubio's backcourt mate season reminded me of another player's age 21 season as Ricky Rubio's backcourt mate.

Don’t compare him to Andrew Wiggins.

20 point difference in efg seems pretty big. Mitchell is at least almost league average, while Wiggins was well below average.

Throw in the fact that the T-Wolves had two high scoring efficient players, while Mitchell was pretty much the Jazz's only decent scoring option (other than Ingles but he was only scoring 12 a game), so I don't think the situations are really comparable. T-Wolves would have been much better if Wiggins had shot a ton less, don't think that you can make the same argument for last year's Jazz.

With like 5 games to go in the season their Usage, PER, and TS were all identical which is what got my attention. It's just interesting how disparate the fan narrative is. Wiggins 'loves isos' but when Mitchell spends huge swaths of games dribbling the air out of the ball and chucking hero shots it's because he's got so much WIM.

JTM- thumbs up good posting

Boston and Toronto are the overwhelming favorites to go to the ECF. I think Boston would be a 60/40 favorite. The Bucks and Pacers don't have as much talent in their rotation. The 76er's don't have the same team chemistry.

I do not like what Marcus Smart does on offense. He takes far too many shots for his skill level. I understand that you want to punish teams for sagging off on d, but a Smart mid-range jumper is not the answer. Smart could learn some techniques from Rubio and Rondo.

If the season plays out the same way the first two games have gone, I think Kyrie is gone. His shooting will improve but I think his role will only decrease as the season goes on. Tatum is an All-Star and his usage is only going to go up. Rozier and Smart take alot of Kyrie's touches and Hayward is only going to get more as well. No matter what he says to the media, I think Kyrie wants to be the top dog on the team. I don't see Boston ever being Kyrie's team.

Utah made a good case for being #2 in the West. Very balanced offense and good to great defenders at most positions. Rubio is awesome to watch. Ingles is an old Larry Bird. Gobbert-Favors probably the best 4-5 combo ITL(maybe 2 behind AD/Mirotic). Their success comes down to how efficient DMitch can put up 25 ppg.

GSW is just too good. Utah hit everything, (loved the Ingles double clutch 3 at the buzzer) and still lost at home. Utah was on to something when they constantly attacked the basket on offense in the 1st.

Boogie is going to be a huuuuuuuuge upgrade when he's back. I'm not worried at all that his game won't fit in. KD and Jones where doing alot of pick and roll clear outs from the elbow that got KD to great spots. Replace Jones/Looney with Boogie and KD gets too any spot on offense he wants.

Curry and KD looked amazing when they took over on offense. They look unstoppable when they pick n roll together. GSW were down about 18 and it never felt like they were out of it.

I want to see KD play somewhere he is the unquestioned first option scorer. He is impossible to cover one on one around the elbow. I just want to see what he can do if he needs to take 30 shots a night.