The Official NBA Season Thread: NBA Cup Begins | Embiid Debut | Klay Return

[trynafeelmink]

If Lebron forces the Lakers to give up the depth that got them to the WCF after playing together all of 3 months…. Man

I’m going rogue & relapsing back into Lebron hate

 

[Blue Mamba]

How many times has the media tried to make this happen?

 

[elpablo21]

Need to get a center to eat up regular season minutes bro. It’s for his health more than anything. There’s only like 2-3 bigs in the league (if that) that can punish you like Jokic can. AD can do a decent job against any big but it’s evident they need bigger bodies to throw at Jokic. I can’t really think of another center that would give AD issues. (Embiid is the only other one really and unless he gets traded to the western conference that won’t be an issue)

Idk where they’re going to get it from tho. Trade market, free agency or the draft.

Free agency - I don’t see much in their price point. I would use the TMLE on a backup point or wing depending on the options because I don’t see a Center worth using it on. Probably only vet Mins available here.

Trade - maybe. They have Bamba, Beasley and the 17th pick available. That’s a decent amount but again I don’t know who they would target. I’d hit Detroit for one of their backup bigs lol. Knowing everything I know now, I wish they would’ve gave up the 2 first rounders for Myles before the year started.

draft - I would honestly consider using my 17th pick on a center but I haven’t been keeping up on the draft like that this year. No way there’s someone like Mark Williams available lol. I don’t think a rookie center would be able to help much against Jokic but I could be wrong, maybe there’s someone available.

Tdlr: lakers need a center, but they’re going to have to get lucky because the options aren’t good.

Yeah this seems to be the consensus, Just gotta find a guy to allow AD to be a 4 more often again.

We'll see what Pelinka can cook up. I'll give him his props for what he did at the deadline after the slander

 

[Blue Mamba]

It’s sad that Melo didn’t get an official on court send off like (technically) Vince Carter

 

[friscostylez]

5t3ph x Le5ron

**** it.

LeBroom backing up Wigs

 

[elpablo21]

This is nasty work.

We need a Finals thread because I’m not trying to hear about Bron’s fake retirement for the next two weeks.

Your time to shine @amitt5504

The Fuhrer pmatic regime has us in a chokehold

 

[sohi 23]

I think Anthony Davis is the best defender in the league but under no circumstance am I taking him ahead of jokic

Lmao so you know how good he is. I’m glad you recognize he’s the best defender in the league (And he gives you 20/10).

After the bubble I would’ve had him in front of Jokic. Everything since the bubble has not broke AD’s way.

First the short offseason. There’s no way he developed his skills or worked to get better that summer. Too short a layover.

Second getting the injury against the Suns ****** him over big time. They were on their way to a finals date against Giannis. AD could’ve solidified himself as the best big in the world and etched his name higher in the nba history tiers. He got hurt against the suns and missed the ensuing offseason.

Third the Russ trade. Every KCP shot was like a bullet thru the heart. Lol let’s not discuss this any further.

Fourth is getting hurt again while he was starting to turn up this year. He came back and played the rest of the year but you could tell he wasn’t right and I’m pretty sure he’ll be getting surgery soon.

On the other side, Jokic has basically had his whole team go down and had to carry them for like 2 years straight. He had to ball and got way better out of necessity. (I’m not saying he was *** before; Im just saying he got way better since then)

Jokic finally got a healthy squad this year and look what happened. Not to mention he basically took a month off before the playoffs started while AD had to fight for 3 months due just to get into the playoffs in the final 3 days (all thanks to the ****** Russ move that basically tanked 18 months).

Jokic improved while AD never did or would get hurt right when he was getting it rolling. What I said at the time wasn’t wrong and still isn’t even that crazy.

One more thing: AD’s defense broke Steph and the Warriors motion offense. I don’t think Jokic could do that. I think the warriors would’ve beat em or at least put up a better fight than the Lakers did.

 

[Hank Scorpio]

LeBron deserves a proper sendoff. It’s not in his style to retire abruptly. He’s going to keep playing until he gets to play with his son for a year. Everyone knows this.

 

[elpablo21]

I forgot about this

 

[Air273]

SWEPT??? wow

wonder if they get swept if they played this series in a bubble???

you guys know damn well if lakers won this series lebron post game would have made comments "guess we didnt need a bubble after all"

 

[freeze]

How many points Bron having in his last game?

 

[Nike Jordan]

 

[moe200069]

aint no way Lebron is retiring via post-game press conference. that man's farewell tour is going to be a movie series as long as the fast and furious franchise

 

[elpablo21]

First Among Equals

Tuff

 

[Maximus Meridius]

If Lebron forces the Lakers to give up the depth that got them to the WCF after playing together all of 3 months…. Man

I’m going rogue & relapsing back into Lebron hate

Why are we putting this in the air??

 

[freeze]

First Among Equals

Tuff

'Man of the people, not above, but equal'

- J.Cole

 

[JD617]

Fraud Shamgod

Wow. I'm mad I didn't think of this.

 

[Brosizzlew30.23]

Dude was ultra aggressive from the start, playing solid at PF, crashing the boards next to Jokic.

Lakers had no answer

 

[elpablo21]

 

[freeze]

They trashing all that weak *** footage they collected this season for poverty Last Dance?

 

[sohi 23]

He can't create a thing for himself on offense. The game is about buckets.

Now this is a discussion I’m willing to entertain.
The number 1 most important skill in basketball is getting a bucket. Everything else is secondary.

You could argue rebounding, rim protection, passing, three point shooting….whatever. The most important thing is if everyone in the building knows player x is going to be shooting… and they can still get their shot off or get their team a good attempt. They can’t be gameplanned against. You can’t gameplan to stop Jokic, you fasho can with AD.

I think elite Rim Protection is the 2nd most valuable skill & I don’t think anybody is better than AD. And he gives you 20/10 while basically being one of the best “cleanup” men of all time. Yeah he isn’t an offensive engine like Jokic but he can still eat for you if you build the team the right way. And all that with Elite defense? Come on man. We slander this dude way too much when in reality there’s like what 2-3 big men in his category tops. I hate it for bruh. That’s why I try to big him up, he basically gets ****ted on by everybody.

If the Lakers don’t run into a center like Jokic, they prolly win the championship honestly. I love Bam but he doesn’t have weight on AD like Jokic does. He bossed AD around all series, but let’s give credit to Murray for outplaying Lebron as well. Denver had a good team built around him. The Lakers were running on fumes (like I touched on earlier)

I do have to give Jokic more props for his defense though. Initially I thought the Lakers defense was going to be better than the Nuggets defense, but I was wrong. AG & KCP being better two way players than any of the Laker players (other than maybe Bron but it was usually Only 1 side of the court… if he turned up on defense he wasn’t playing much offense and vice versa) mattered more than AD being elite defensively. Vando couldn’t help either because you have to be able to play both ways in the conference finals; every half he started we basically got killed. Other than AD & the occasional Lebron stint, the Lakers were pretty weak on defense since Vando got played off the court.

I thought it would be:

Jokic >>>> AD on offense & AD >>>>>>>>> Jokic on defense but it was basically

Jokic >>>>>>>>>>>>>> AD on offense & AD >>> Jokic on defense.

I was wrong as hell. Salute Jokic. But I’m the wrong one to come at with Jokic slander. That’s my dawg. He plays basketball the exact way I love.

 

[picasso swerve]

what more does bron have left to do with the lakers? he got the all time scoring in laker uniform, brought the bubble title, and put butt in seats post-kobe era. jeanie probably has the statue designed and ready to be erected.

as an organization, do you continue giving bron max contracts yr after yr?

He can maybe get a real ring for the Lakers, not something with a * next to it.

 

[akajae]

SWEPT??? wow

wonder if they get swept if they played this series in a bubble???

you guys know damn well if lakers won this series lebron post game would have made comments "guess we didnt need a bubble after all"

another wild Bulls fan appears

 

[sohi 23]

as the number 1 AD fan in this thread, I accept all Ad slander for this series. He wasn’t good enough.

But I’ll also remind you he’s been the 3rd best player in the playoffs. The Lakers losing to the Nuggets does not take away what that man did to the Grizzlies and Warriors. Please remember that before you **** on him or come up with trade packages.

 

[flaminhotcheeto]

Man, even the Timberwolves got a W against the Nuggets