₦airaland Forum

Khanben:
That's the thing, the whole New York move was not all on his wife, did she prefer NY yes, it was closer to her place of business. but we are forgetting that Melo also was from that area and he on his own without his wife would have made the same decision.
His one failure IMHO is that he didn't want Denver to get nothing in return for him. If he had kept his mouth shut and left in FA, the Knicks might have had the pieces to build a real contender around him

benji93:
Your mouth no good. Make the feminist people catch you. Oppressor.

donlittle25:
No be the marriage wey don end be that?

I tell people all the time, Never move in with a woman, or leave a city and move to her city. That nonsense rarely works, I have never seen it work honestly. Dude didn't make a smart decision .

Btw, Melo wore 15 at Denver, same as jokic, I wonder what happens.

birdman:
His wife Lala was from new york, and I think she was a model at the time, so it sorta made sense. Even she admitted everything started falling apart after that trade, the spotlight was too bright. Plus imho, its a very bad idea to move back into your wife's family's sphere of influence. Women will say there is nothing wrong with it, but I have never seen it work out well for the marriage. Cut dem strings and keep em cut.

donlittle25:
Honestly forgot about melo. This buttress someone point on this thread about European being loyal to their teams than Americans.

Melo left denver and went to the knicks? wetin you wan do there? Fashion? Anyways, we don see am now. Among that class, he is the only one without a ring.

Roland17:
From what we have seen Butler has a unique personality and thrives ONLY in certain situations that is catered towards that personality. He has the tendency to be disruptive in the locker room in certain situations

Chicago Bulls
He wasn't regarded as a good locker room guy in Chicago, he had issues with Rose and Noah which ultimately led to him being traded to the Sixers. He tried to usurp the leadership of Rose and Noah causing disruption and a divided locker room. Infact, he asked that players not interact around certain members of the coaching staff/ leadership.

Sixers
The same issue plagued him in Philly. He couldn't get along with other players except Embiid and had several disrespectful arguments with coach Bret Brown. Remember the 'Tobias over me" comment? while legitimate, buttresses the point about him being disruptive in the locker room.

birdman:
Wasnt he initially a Chicago Bull, back in the day with D Rose? I think he has the personality type that will play hard wether he is #1 or #2 . He might request a trade, but he gon max out on the court in the meantime

birdman:
I missed this game, but I think that is Butler's feature, not a flaw. Its why he will always be an all star. But he will never be a super star imo. The fuundamentals that he knows, he owns them and maxes them out. But you know what you gon get every night

Khanben:
Tatum and Brown have a lot of growing to do, Brown needs either develop a tighter handle or if he cannot learn how to score with less dribbles. As for Tatum this is the 2nd year in a row the team has struggled in zone coverage, if non of the big men can do the inside work, he has no choice but to learn how to post up, he needs to take one for the team.
Watching that Heat vs Celtics series I truly believe if you switch Luka and Tatum the Celtics will win in 5, because you are not deploying that zone with such success against Luka


PS: can you see anywhere Jalen improved from last finals appearance to this season, I cannot see any? He had the same handling issues in the conference and nba finals last year

Khanben:
Embiid needs to learn what it means to have a mismatch. If you are playing against guys like Jokic, Lopez and Gorbert I have no issues with you taking 10 jump shots. But if a team is leaving AL or Bam on you 1v1, dude get your ass into the post and eat

Khanben:
He already said if he wins he automatically dethrone Giannis as the best player in the league

A40:
Denver might phuck around and be the new Golden State.

So they have Jokic, Harris, Trey Lyles, Jamal Murray, Monte Morris, Malik Beasley, Michael Porter Jr who should be healthy and then Manute's son as well on mostly cheap deals. Now if they could just offload Will Barton and Mason Plumlee they would be perfect. The issue is what do with Millsap who would be a useful veteran mentor, do they pick up that heavy team option for one year or try to get a marquee FA with that money

A40:
I don't see it in Harden, AD as #1 guys that can lead a team to a title. Even Embiid has not showed that yet in my eyes

I have a little more faith in Jokic and Giannis

A40:
People are always hung up on athleticism. Power, muscle. Dem forget say ogbon ju agbara lo. This is why I ranked Jokic higher than Embiid as the league's best Center and niggas were arguing with me on other platforms

A40:
Imagine Nick Wright calling Nikola Jokic a pretend superstar. This man is a disgrace and a cancer to sports punditry

A40:
I will have a problem with anybody with two working eyes calling Nikola Jokic a pretend superstar.

I don't hate him. He's just an all-round terrible pundit. Period

joshboo:
Wait So Jokic is already Greater than KD and Giannis in your Books??

A40:
Abeg why is nobody talking about the Joker? Nikola Jokic. That boy is the sweetest and smoothest passing big man I have seen in a very long time.

Khanben:
The zone was the Celtics Achilles heel. Zone defense can negate size differences (that is why it is a Shaq rule), and also make penetrative dribbles hard because players can easily collapse, that is why guys like Jalen who don't have tight handles always lose the ball in such situations.
Also the Celtics had no big man that could receive the ball in the low block or in the paint who is a capable scorer and passer. Whenever the Heat went Zone against the Celtics and AL got the ball without nobody within 3 ft of him, he could not even look at the rim and was just looking for someone to hot potato it to. When they tried it against Jokic, he just looked to score, if they collapse he passes out of it, if they leave him 1v1 it was barbecue chicken .

You cannot play zone against a player who is an excellent passer and who is comfortable taking both a 12-15ft midrange and also backing you down.

Khanben:
Same opinion, also they just made a trade to get some future 1st from OKC, which if they continue to hit at the rate they've been might net them another rotation piece.

Khanben:
Your centers list is same as mine, you can argue Malone and Jokic, I personally will take Jokic because he is easier to build around. As for him and KD, IMHO projecting forward, if he wins another ring and KD retires with just 2, then there is no argument, Jokic is absolutely better. But as it stands now, I say it's a toss-up

PS: I have the same issue with Bill Russell era of basketball. 8 teams and even some of your bench players are in the HOF.

Khanben:
Their size is seriously underated. Personally that is why prefer tall players who can move their feet on defense, with just great effort that kind of player can automatically be an average defender, with coaching he can become a plus defender easily. We can see it in MPJ, Jamal and Jokic, not known for defense but their size and ability to move laterally for their position already gives them a huge starting point on turning into good defenders.
Going forward I doubt they can keep brown but I like what I saw from the rookie Braun, so that helps them there. If in FA all you are looking for is a 6th to 8th man, as a team you are good

Khanben:
Jokic status in the game all time is now up for debate, guaranteed top 10 center all time, arguably a top 5 center( the case can be made). A top 30 player all time and if he gets another one a top 15 is possible and a discussion will be had if he has overtaken KD

donlittle25:
2 more now, he go they on the same with leTravel

Khanben:
The thing is Denver had the good luck that their primary defender on Butler is not only taller than him, he is more athletic and one of his unique gifts is that he hardly jumps on pumps fakes. That is why nba basketball at it's highest level is about matchups and personnel

Roland17:
Just like I said about playing on 2 feet for Butler. No one bit on the drive and the pump, he planted his feet and can’t play any other way..

Roland17:
2 NBA final losses will not look good on Butler’s resume when all is said and done. It looks bright now because of the effort but trust me, the narrative after he is done will be hard on him.

Roland17:
You see why I can’t forgive Mazzulla and get over the loss? The Meerkat got in the way of a team that should be in the finals.