nurkic looking pretty good for portland so far - was great vs okc today. can already lock that trade in as a big win for them (not that there was much doubt)

today's highlights:

Even if he was terrible and Kendrick Perkins level of unplayable the trade was good for Portland

Portland traded the right to pay a bad Center for 2 mid-late first round pick

Great to see Nurk crushing. Sometimes you just need to get out of a cancerous situation in a bad organization. I hope the Blazers make the playoffs. Having 8 seeds trading this guy away with cash coming back the other way is some shameful **** that deserves karmic justice.

Those 2 games without KD really showed us how Warriors crush in the clutch without him

__________

By the way, too much overreaction since the "loss of KD". Still strongly the best team in the league. SA are big big dogs to catch them imo. GSW would crush SA in a series and any other team other than cleveland.

Their title equity probably went down to by 5% maybe up to 10% if KD's injury turns out to be longer than forecasted. But then if Kyle Korver adds 25% to the cavs equity what do i know

I'd put my money where my mouth is if i could stand the woyas

Zach Lowe is definitely a big fan of me

his 10 things like and dislike includes a rant about buy-out market and as a fan he likes Durant injury

Him and ulis have been awesome

"Goliath is never all that likable, especially when he talks trash, gets his pick of the buy out market, and kicks at people."

They'd be favored against your squad. Blood in the water got you dreaming

Yeah, the trade goes from really good to a slam dunk if Nurk plays like that. And after watching the highlights it's like a completely different player. The hater in me cites his thin skin or outright sabotage, but I really think it's because he's playing with guards who are much better on that end. Denver's offense has been historically elite without him, but that's because of their other center. Expecting Nurkic to come in and have the same impact lifting up a bunch of mediocre wings is going to end bad, but when he's playing with dynamic guards he can be a great complementary piece.

I just wish he wouldn't bad mouth his old org.

[edit] but then I think about the fact that he couldn't finish at the rim or make a free throw and think wtf.

still think the nuggs trade was bad, but it doesn't have a great deal to do w/how nurkic has performed for the blazers tbh. he was a malcontent, so it's not like that production was available to the nuggs. however, getting plumlee was not worth

theyd be dogs to cavs and even money to spurs imo.

Yeah Plumlee is not worth a first in a vacuum and Nurk is worth more than a second. From a fit perspective they wanted to try and get a backup center who didn't suck and moved the ball in a similar way to Jokic but could also play a few minutes with him. So far it's been successful especially when the two play together, but it wasn't worth a first.

Supposedly Portland was going to get Oakafor and Denver felt the need to sweeten the deal, and part of me thinks they should have just said "good luck with that" and assumed that Oshley was smart enough to cave... or be stuck with Oak which isn't a bad thing as a division rival. Then again the franchises are going in different directions and I can see why Connelly wasn't worried about Portland.

think this is reasonable. obv they are vulnerable w/o durant-- the jazz would certainly be live. think he said not a top 8 team, that's prob subtracting close to 20 wins off their projected total

putting a little more thought into it, and spurs should probably be favored. if the jezz shot more 3s their slow pace + shot selection might give them the variance to beat...the clippers.

Yeah top 8 is a massive overration to the last couple game imo. That is completely reasonable however, and I'd even say they could be dogs to San Antonio.

I think one of the things people aren't considering with the Warriors without Durant is that

the funny thing is if they actually were "not a top 8 team" (read: behind jezz), it would completely exonerate Durant for ring chasing since the next best teams would be the thunder and the warriors

Yes I think Clippers, Spurs, Rockets, Jazz, Cavs, Raptors, Celtics are better than 2017 Warriors without Durant

Losing Harrison Barnes, Bogut and Ezeli + Iguodala 1 year older is not relevant when you swap them for a top 3 player, but when you lose that top 3 player and those 3 players you really drop in the rankings

There's an odd thing where the media is pretending Love and Smith are going to come back 100% healthy for sure despite having pretty serious injuries, the Warriors with no/gimpy Durant>the Cavs with no/gimpy Love imo

Lol, cmon. The warriors will be betting favorites on the road vs all of these teams, I assume you're gonna go all in when they play at Utah.

What the ****?

The warriors could beat the clippers if I replaced Durant in their lineup.

Cavs, Spurs,Rockets and possibly Jazz are now live against the Warriors. But let's not act like the Warriors won't be favored against almost everyone still. Cavs may now be favored (may be pick em). Spurs may be favored if they have home court, but I doubt Warriors lose home court. With home court, I think Warriors will still be favored against every team. Doesn't mean they win, but I think they will be favored.

You're insane

that point wasnt critiquing dropping the ws or even dropping the ws that far. it was critiquing you bitching and whining about a super team when you have OKC sans durant = Ws sans durant

sans means without in french