What does Tim Frazier make now? I swear if you're a 20 something PG floating between the D league or whatever it's called now and the L you should come to POR and play behind Dame, it's literally worth millions of dollars. The BAZZ is playing out of his mind and someone will chuck him at least 7 per now.

Evan Turner sucks so much. Tried to structure a trade for DAJ with him involved but let's face it pretty much every FO would LOL. Who do the Kings have?

What is much? Jonas+ filler (Nogueira+Fred Van Vleet or Bruno for salary matching) and what kind of draft pick? 2020 lottery protected?

Good start POR. Just when you think something's on the upswing they SUCK PISS.

I don't think it is a weird position. There are plenty of players who are better than players with better physical attributes or skills because of things like intelligence and heart. I feel pretty comfortable suggesting that Jaylen Brown could become Jeff Green with heart and desire. I feel pretty comfortable suggesting that Lonzo Ball could end up similar to Marcus Smart with significantly worse defense and better rebounding.

Tatum always projected as a guy who might be a solid scoring option. We're finding out that maybe he can play defense. I've always been skeptical of drafting offense-only guys who have the physical tools to be a good defender but are lazy because the goal is to draft a two-way star. I am willing to give teams a certain amount of leeway in figuring out which players are willing to work because all we see is what is on the court and there is more to scouting a player than that.

i keep seeing these melo <-> tatum comparisons.

on some level, i get it. they both came out of college looking like they had a lot of mid-range jump shooting and iso-based offense.

and maybe in some other world, on some other team, that would be tatum. but in this world, it just isnt.

shot dashboards:

tatum: http://stats.nba.com/player/1628369/shots-dash/

melo: http://stats.nba.com/player/2546/shots-dash/

a few numbers jump out to me (all comparisons are tatum - melo):

shot % where touched for 6+ seconds: 3.7 - 13.9
shot % where dribbled 7+ times: 2.9 - 7.6
shot % where dribbled 3-6 times: 14.7 - 17.3

so melo is taking a ton more possessions where he is a total ball stopper (i really wish these #s could remove transition buckets, my eye test tells me that tatum is the primary ball handler a decent amount in transition, not sure how often that applies on a RUSS team).

lets look at where they shoot from:
shot % of 3s: 32 - 40
shot % inside 10ft: 47.8 - 12.7 (!!!) (to be far, melo shot a ton more in earlier years, a fairer number here is probably in the 20s or 30s)

so melo takes a ton of his shots from mid range (always has, although its gotten worse), and tatum takes very few because he's too busy taking bitches to the rim on a regular basis.

he's a much more willing and capable defender, capable of switching screens (super valuable in modern NBA), and helping protect the rim. and he doesnt turn the ball over.

tatum's 1% outcome is more like a less good kevin durant.

(also, passing is definitely his weakness.)

POR started the game 0/13. Mix in a few pregame jumpers in warmups, don't play Meyers Leonard etc

This isn't the first game I thought "I wonder if it's possible Noah Vonleh ends up better than NURK" and that isn't a good thing at all. Nurk total trash out there tonight and him and ET running around toileting it up at the same time clearly is infuriating Stotts. Take them out man.

Tatum’s 1% outcome is Ingram’s 1% outcome?

Tatum finishes the year above/below 40% from 3 this year?

Actually Osis a deal with the pieces being Nurk and DAJ makes some sense, something like Nurk+ET+Future first for DAJ. That would actually make me scurred because the Blazers would get a good bit better.

I just don't understand it. It's like he's running out there like a zombie sometime just watching everything happen around him. Obviously it validates some of what I said, but even this is perplexing.

Sixers throwing the ball all around the gym keeping Portland in it.

What about Leonard? I have no idea what FOs think about him around the league. I'm obviously not the biggest fan but maybe some people see some potential still (lol)? I'd do Nurk+Leonard in a heartbeat for DAJ. POR really should not be cavalierly tossing firsts in but maybe for DAJ. What a fit, what a Millsap he'd be.

I think Tatum's 1% is Paul George with better shooting/selection. He's going to be thicc at 25

Yeah the Sixers are one of my favorite teams to watch now but they really aren't great yet. POR right now down by 12 in the 2nd Q and they're probably still 40% to win this.

Paul Pierce?

Dame just had the worst TO I've ever seen from him. I think the team all got team building drunk last night.

Trading NURK right now after that article about how Dame is his BFF would actually delight the bad (larger) part of me.

Nuggets starting Mudiay and Murray?

Edit: Murray to bench

This has been pretty standard this season unfortunately, big lead only to turn it over constantly and lose momentum.

Think they're at like 18 turnovers per game as team. They also average most passes per game and 2nd in team assists so a bit of comes with the territory but there's still a ton of terrible ones that should be easy to clean up.

I love me some Ed Davis though. Not the most talented but that guy goes to WORK on the glass.

Oh Sixers, you forgot about DAME.

Embiid is not only good, but he's one of those LARGE HUMANS. Vonleh is reportedly unreal strong and he can hardly do anything to keep Joel off the boards, getting tipouts etc.

Blazer offense is basically Dame heaving 3s coming off screens or bricks.

For POR's last 3 or 4 possessions of the half the Sixers literally did not guard ET at all, instead put two guys on Dame. Dame still hit one three but for the most part it worked and seemed like a no brainer. I'm starting to get the impression Stotts is not making every playing time decision.

In4 warriors thunder