OFFICIAL NBA 2017-2018 Off-Season Thread

[paulminus]

Imagine if the Thunder had decided to trade Westbrook and build with Harden and Durant. How many titles do they have now?

Not sure if they'd win one already, likely. But wondered how that would've work out too

 

[atlsfinest]

Not sure if they'd win one already, likely. But wondered how that would've work out too

Harden isn't as stubborn as Westbrook. He's also coachable and willing to adapt his play style to help his team. 100% chance that KD stays in OKC if Harden were there instead of Westbrook.

 

[nick.]

If only there was a guy who was a straight up better player than Westbrook who played alongside him for years...

There was two guys

 

[MVP]

Imagine if the Thunder had decided to trade Westbrook and build with Harden and Durant. How many titles do they have now?

Harden would still be the same choker he is now. No chips.

 

[a-friend]

Horford earned his check and Respect(slander free) this year.
I better not here anybody slander this Man anytime soon.......I need to see that post, so I can smack TF out of you...

 

[B Sox]

Edit- wrong thread

 

[a-friend]

..

 

[equality]

Belineli legit has the worst balance when he shoots.

 

[B Sox]

MVP change the name of this thread man.

 

[3god]

Sixers could have had Tatum... and that’s what they’re missing... a wing

 

[dacomeup]

If only there was a guy who was a straight up better player than Westbrook who played alongside him for years...

Can't fall all on Russ though either. Organization had them playing "your turn, my turn" for 7 years.

 

[geno90221]

Stephen Jackson
Baron Davis
Paul Pierce
Terry Rozier
James Harden

My All Damu Team

F Kobe

 

[Sonny Corinthos]

Can't fall all on Russ though either. Organization had them playing "your turn, my turn" for 7 years.

That's how Russ wants to play. The coach is just going along for the ride

 

[MajinZuub]

That's how Russ wants to play. The coach is just going along for the ride

All the hate Donovan gets, when they had the Warriros they were executing and playing within his system then KD and Russ starting iso'ing for the last few games and blew it.
You can't coach that sophisticated a system with Russ, KD bought in and it worked out for him but Russ is just too erratic for that

 

[noblekane]

Stephen Jackson
Baron Davis
Paul Pierce
Terry Rozier
James Harden

My All Damu Team

F Kobe

what about luke walton? i heard they use to call him bloodhound luke at arizona

 

[wavycrocket]

Mhmmmm—That Part

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/23364202/zach-lowe-russell-westbrook-oklahoma-city-thunder-nba

Some within the Cavs have long hinted that Cleveland's inability to score with LeBron on the bench -- even with both Kyrie Irving and Kevin Loveon the floor -- stemmed from LeBron's similar centrality. Westbrook is not LeBron. He is not quite Harden as a one-man offense.

This is why those who shrugged at Westbrook's 43 shots in Game 6, arguing he had to shoot so often because everyone else failed, missed the bigger picture. The point is not to cherry-pick one shooting binge and explain it away. The point is to look at that shooting binge, and at the specific shots George and Anthony missed, and wonder how it all might have unfolded had the Thunder ever installed a larger offensive infrastructure. Would George have even been there, or might the Thunder have gotten further unlocking the all-around games Oladipo and Sabonis flashed in Indiana? And remember: The Thunder tried to change the offense, and talked about it openly over many years.

It's hard -- maybe impossible -- to win a title with a one-man offense when there are three or four players doing the same thing at a slightly higher level. The Thunder need other stars, and a coherent system that enables them -- an offense that persists beyond one desultory action. To find both, they need Westbrook to play a little differently. It doesn't have to be some sea change. It can be a bunch of little things -- starting with those five shots a game -- that add up to something larger.

 

[wavycrocket]

All the hate Donovan gets, when they had the Warriros they were executing and playing within his system then KD and Russ starting iso'ing for the last few games and blew it.
You can't coach that sophisticated a system with Russ, KD bought in and it worked out for him but Russ is just too erratic for that

Yup

From the same article above: http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/23364202/zach-lowe-russell-westbrook-oklahoma-city-thunder-nba

In November 2014, when both Westbrook and Kevin Durant were out with injuries, Scott Brooks implemented something of a motion offense. Nothing fancy: enter the ball to the elbow, cut and screen for each other, move it side-to-side.

For those Thunder, it was revolutionary. Sitting in the Barclays Center after a shootaround, Andre Roberson talked with something approaching wonder about getting to do things with the ball. It was fun! "Not just a little fun," Roberson told me then. "Sharing the ball, playing for each other -- I'm loving it."

No one expected the Thunder to play that way when Westbrook and Durant returned. That would have been stupid. Stars are stars because they hoard the ball, draw defenders, and set up lesser teammates with easier shots than those teammates could generate on their own. The Thunder had two superstars who could get anywhere they wanted. Embracing a Spursy egalitarian style would have been doctrinaire and self-defeating.

But the Thunder did want Westbrook and Durant to watch and realize they could let go a little -- that the offense would be less predictable in the postseason if they sacrificed some time of possession and moved around a bit. "Every team can take something from what [the Spurs] do," Nick Collison told me then. "We've seen that in the playoffs, we have to move the ball more and rely less on one-on-one."

Two Novembers later, Durant was gone, and Billy Donovan, Brooks' successor, took a seat in the team's practice facility and grew animated discussing the challenge of building a new playbook from scratch. Those Thunder were light on shooting; Donovan knew defenses would clog the paint against Westbrook, and that Thunder could not win big playing a straight-ahead style.

If the Thunder didn't have the shooting to create floor spacing, Donovan said, they would "create floor movement. If we swing it and swing it, it gives the defense more chances to make a mistake."

Donovan was talking about constructing a broader offensive system, just like Brooks and other Thunder elders had years earlier. It never happened. The Utah series laid it bare, again: The Thunder have no system.

 

[dacomeup]

The problem is that they tried to implement this in 2014. After this guys have already had All-NBA success, MVP for KD, and a Finals appearance. KD has bought in, but he definitely is there to get an iso ball bucket when the team needs it.

 

[BIG LEEMELONE]

Russ is either the worst good player or the best trash player of all time

 

[lovehateself]

Russ is either the worst good player or the best trash player of all time

on NT...hes both

 

[MVP]

 

[hardens beard]

 

[atlsfinest]

I told you 4 years ago you were done 4 years ago had me rolling

Dirk is the anti-Melo. Willing to sacrifice money and role and also self-aware. He acknowledges that he's old and his game has declined. I swear Melo still thinks this is 2012

 

[Moheezy]

Belineli legit has the worst balance when he shoots.

I did notice that, especially when he gets hot, his balance is even more off. It's like heat checking every time.

 

[Moheezy]

I told you 4 years ago you were done 4 years ago had me rolling

Dirk is the anti-Melo. Willing to sacrifice money and role and also self-aware. He acknowledges that he's old and his game has declined. I swear Melo still thinks this is 2012

Hearing Melo in the press conference when talking about "sacrificing everything" made it clear he's totally delusional. He will not change but coach really needs to address that and put him in his place (the bench) or at least reducing his minutes to 20 a game, start him, but play him mostly with the second unit.