₦airaland Forum

KarnThornheart:
The truth is the future is filled with too many unknowns if CP3 leaves. At least him staying allows them to compete for a year or 2. It all comes down to Chris pauls ability to keep playing at a high level. I think his game ages well, hes never relied on athleticism. Hes a good shooter and a good passer and guys like him tend to keep playing at a very high level for a long time. They should be more worried about potential career ending injuries.

That is the problem. They are or were playing safe. If CP3 leaves they would have had cap room to replace him. With this coming free agent window they could have been in play for an AD or a Kemba or guys that could provide dynamic offense to take the load of Harden and bail him out when he has his inefficient nights.

CP3 and Capela spent significant time on the treatment table in the regular season and then could not deliver come playoffs. Capela a complete non factor.

You have known Chris Paul how many seasons now. Remind me how many post-seasons he's suffered season ending injuries then tell me what were the odds it would suddenly get better at 34.

CP3 relied on his quickness in the past. However if you watched the Rockets closely you would notice CP3 has already lost a step, he can barely blow by his man anymore

Now maybe he ages like Duncan but how confident do you feel about CP3 moving forward with younger cats like Dame Lillard, Jamal Murray and Steph of course battling it out in the same conference

Khanben:
Like your analysis but it's your opinion that Kobe was slightly better, there are others who believe that Duncan or Shaq were better.

That's their opinion to be honest and they are entitled to it. However to me, I rate Kobe ahead of both and if you look at their entire body of work for that timeframe (2000/2001 to 2010/2011) it's not hard to see why

Khanben:
My stance is I've heard of the 2000's been called the Shaq/Kobe/Duncan/ AI era and I completely agree with that cause these guys defined those years.

From 2000/2001 season to 2010/2011 Kobe never failed to make All-NBA team and only finished outside the All-NBA second team once! This is who Nick Wright said didn't have an era? Naa that man is mad

Khanben:
Same argument can be made for Tim Duncan and he had two MVP's to show for it. Tim Duncan finished in the top 10 for twelve straight seasons so how can his era be termed the Kobe era when he had more MVP's and finals MVP's than Kobe

But Kobe waxed the Spurs almost everytime they faced. Their playoffs H2H was 4-2 with Kobe easily being the best player in Lakers uniform for probably all 4 of their wins.

Btw if you say it was Duncan's era, that is also accurate. Between 2000-2010 they were the two best players in the league within that timeframe, though I give slight edge to Kobe. Somebody used a perfect example anyway, Messi and Ronaldo

Khanben:
Big time chokers.
Another thing that Nick got right IMO, I recall him saying that if the rockets don't beat the warriors out and win a championship in the first two years of CP3's contract, then said contract becomes the 2nd worst contract in the NBA behind John Wall's contract.

You can see why I don't take this guy serious

etidy:
Anyone who calls Nick Wright a basketball analyst is a joker. The guy makes my ears bleed everytime I listen to him, at least with Chuck you know he's either trolling or being plain dumb but Nick Wright actually believes the nonsense he's saying.

So happy for the warriors showing up tonight. I don't mind any other team winning the playoffs this year but definitely not the rockets. I can't stand them and their shitty brand of basketball.

He is the worst analyst on TV bar none.

KarnThornheart:
I agree, its subjective. LBJ, Harden, Curry, Durant, Kawhi. Only players consistent/well established enough to be listed in this list in my books. Would have added westbrook too a while ago but.... yikes. Mind you brodie has done what jokic did this year and still doesnt make the cut. i guess your career just isnt as strict as mine. People throw the word superstar around too lightly.

The point is that was not even a Wait and see how he performs Tweet. That was a derisive and dismissive one which suggests that he didn't believe the Nuggets were a good team nor Jokic an elite player.

KarnThornheart:
You cant be a numbers guy and an experienced athlete at the same time, given how difficult that is its almost a paradox.

Analytics, Numbers, its always been there. Just that no one ever paid attention to it until recently.

Daryl Morey built the only team capable of rattling the warriors in the past couple of years and probably wouldve won it all if not for them.

Street cred has nothing to do with it. If i cite a research to a doctor and he dismisses it because he doesnt understand it or has never heard of it of course i would argue with him.

Morey has been the Rockets GM for eons. Credit for taking on the Warriors in this incarnation but he has been GM of that team for quite sometime and they didn't do much till they got Harden.

We shall see if he's able to build a roster that can compete when CP3 invariably starts aging and he cannot add any quality support cast to help Harden.

Of course credibility has a lot to do with analysis. How can he sit across to one of Kobe's teammates or Tim Duncan and the San Antonio Spurs and say that Kobe never had an era. Won't they slap him silly?

KarnThornheart:
The rockets have a small window and its either pay chris paul or he bounces. Who do they replace him with then? They had to go all in especially since that deal was probably agreed before he signed.

Part of being a great GM is anticipating just not the present but the future. What were the odds that CP3 a year older would be better than he was last year? Would you bet on CP3 playing better in his age 34, 35 seasons when he is already showing glaring signs of decline?

Could it be that the sheer amount of workload and usage rate of Harden pretty much means he is doomed to fail come playoff time?

Khanben:
The Chris Paul deal is an anchor that will sink the rockets, the only solution is (and I don't know if this is even allowed) for the contract to be restructured where they take some money from him and pay a player of the ilk of Tobias Harris or Gallinari guys who can play in a system and also create their own shot especially in the midrange.
If something is not done their window just got shut down for good. Harden on the other hand has to decide whether his priority is money via a supermax contract or championships.

Lool we told them the deal was a bad one at the time. Unfortunately this isn't the NFL so nothing like restructuring.

Now I can understand not wanting to lose Chris Paul after potentially being a hamstring away from beating Golden State and playing for the title but why would you double down on a player that has consistently showed the ability to get injured at the most inopportune time. They should have gone for a shorter deal or let CP3 walk and get good two way wings that could carry the offensive burden from Harden and enable them match up better with Golden State

Harden and Paul are locked and joined at the hip for the next 3 seasons. Gordon would definitely test himself in the market and Capela who they paid the big bucks was unplayable in this series. By the time the likes of the Kings, Nuggets and Clippers come of age there might be real problems for Houston

KarnThornheart:
No, none of the guys i mentioned won MVP throughout their era but it was clear who the top dawg was. No one accomplished more than them individually during this era, Wilt had 4, Kareem had 6, Magic had 3, MJ had 5, and lebron has 4. This players also consistently proved how far above everyone else they were during this time especially in the off season. During "his era" duncan had 2 and nash had 2, more than him which is less than you can say about these other lads. You could argue Kobe should have had one more but whose fault is that? No one asked him to go ra.pe someone.

That is my point. The idea that you need a regular season MVP award to validate how good or dominant a player was in a certain era is rather erroneous to me. There has to be a healthy combination of Regular and post season excellence for you to tell me a player was consistently dominant

Kobe between 1999/2000 to 2010 only had 3 seasons where he didn't finish in the top 10 in MVP voting. In fact on 6 occasions he finished top 5. When you also consider he was also the best or second best player to teams that went to 7 Finals between that timeframe and the best playoff performer overall then suggesting Kobe didn't have an era is borderline irresponsible

Griffon:
He who laughs last, laughs best

No comments

birdman:
No such thing. Either you are a good GM or not. You cant judge the GM based on decisions made by a coach. Morey has been good. He knows how to make deals and get the right pieces. But his handicap is over reliance on analytics. No matter what your formula says, Melo was not a fit on this team. Ariza should still be here. And we needed some toughness down low, but toughness is not in the analytics formula

Lol you're making my argument for me. I'm not judging purely by decisions made by the coach. I'm just saying he is not as good as cracked out to be. Just look at the contract he gave CP3. You don't give a 33 year old a 4 year/$160m deal no matter what. I'm surprised his analytics didn't tell him that

The problem right now is the upside for the Rockets is almost nil! Should KD leave the Warriors sef it could be argued that the Rockets are somehow not best positioned to take advantage because they are capped out

Ohh and btw I won't blame him for taking a flier on Melo. It was a pretty low risk maneuver anyway

KarnThornheart:
You dont become a superstar off of one season. This man literally just made his first all star game I'm not ready to put him in that category yet. If most dont consider AD a superstar then Jokic certainly isnt a superstar.

Jokic should have been an all-star last season as well. The All-star game has long been a glorified popularity contest anyway. Kyle Lowry has been a 5 time All-star for crying out loud and his numbers as an all-star this year weren't as good as Jokic last year.

AD is definitely a superstar, I don't know what niggas are smoking.

Anyway the term superstar is just semantics. What makes a superstar to you might not make it with somebody else, but as far as pure on court production this guy led a #2 seed in Points, Rebounds and Assists and is doing it again in the post season. That's superstar production to me

KarnThornheart:
Without numbers all we have is opinions and narratives and all of that is subjective. Nick also tends to hold back on going at his guests i guess just to be polite sometimes but i've seen him hold his own. Hes not my favorite analyst not even close, but the man gets a bad rap for no reason other than he loves lebron. All numbers guys love lebron, daryl morey loves lebron, thinks hes the goat by a mile, very few people know numbers better than daryl morey so i dont think these numbers wright uses have no context.

I agree but at the same time there has to be some kind of balance. Guys like Daryl Morey and Nick Wright. What do they have in common? They never played the sport! At any level and so they will never understand the intangibles and why players who rode both eras rate Jordan over LeNomad.

It speaks to the greatness of Jordan that despite not playing in an analytics ruled era he rates favorably and even higher than a lot of superstars in this era do

And between me and you Daryl Morey is an overrated GM low-key

Lemme reiterate people don't hate Nick Wright because of LeNomad. He's an awful pundit and that's the truth, of course he has to hold back on his guests. What street credibility does he have? What sport did he play? Would you argue with a Doctor just because you watch Grey's Anatomy? Or argue with lawyers cos you watch Suits?

Khanben:
In all fairness to Nick, he called Jokic a pretend superstar before the playoffs. His stance was he needs to see him do it in the post season, something I think a lot of people also do.
Now he has acknowledged the jokers genius after almost all their games and Cris Carter keeps laughing at him about that

Nope. This what he said after Game 1! He basically did a Paul Pierce and ended up looking like a donkey.

People get takes wrong all the time but he gives BS takes with authority as if he's some type of expert

A40:
I'm just saying that for all their tough talking I don't believe that deep down in their heart of hearts they believe they can beat the Warriors without something extraordinary going in their favor especially without home court. I personally think not winning Game 5 could bite them in the behind.

The pressure is on Houston now.

Color me not suprised

KarnThornheart:
Calling Jokic a pretend superstar is actually a compliment. Jokic is not a superstar. There are about 6 or fewer superstars in the nba and the joker is certainly not one of them, he may be getting there but hes not there yet.

Shannon is entertaining, keeps it real and has a magnetic persona. Of course everybody loves uncle shay. Even skip has started to grow on me. But objective is one of the last words i'd use to describe either of those two. They're good for what they are, entertainment and entertainment only. At least nick wright uses numbers and doesnt just pull arguments out of his arse. Dude you actually like Rob Parker, Ewwwwww!

It was used in a derisive and dismissive manner. Jokic leads the entire playoffs in rebounds and wait for it... Assists

If some people peg Joel Embiid as a superstar then Jokic is a superstar as well

Shannon and Skip might drop the odd shock value yarns when they are stanning their faves but Shannon is a HOFer and very intelligent, he knows the X's and O's of the Sports he breaks down as well as Skip who has been covering these games before anyone on these pages were born

Nick Wright mostly quotes and regurgitate stats, a lot of time without context and he is no different than the average nerd on Twitter or Reddit. This is why he always runs into problems when they bring actual people that played the sport and know numbers aren't everything

KarnThornheart:
In the period that was supposedly kobes era, he won 1 mvp and two rings as the best player on his team. Never was heads and shoulders above everyone in the league like these guys were. I hate to sh-t on peoples nostalgia, kobe is undoubtedly a top ten all time great but can we stop with the revisionist history please?

You lot swear LeNomad is the best player in the league but he's not won a regular season MVP since 2014. Using your logic his era ended in 2014

For context, between 2017 and 2019 James Harden could easily have been a 3 time MVP. This does not mean he holds a candle to Kobe.

KarnThornheart:
If that was the case he wouldn't run out of superlatives for the warriors players.

Kobe was the best player in the league a few years, most popular in the world for a lot more. But saying kobe had an era is akin to saying shaq had an era or curry has an era.

How does a player that went to 7 NBA Finals and was a top 5 playoff performer from 2000 to 2010. How can you claim said player didn't have an era?

Khanben:
Nick wright is just like most of all the pundits, sometimes they get it right but most times they get it wrong. They are paid primarily for ratings.
PS: If I remember well he was one of the first person's to join the Pat Mahomes bandwagon and in that case he was right.

Lmaooo cos he was a Homer not because he possessed any elite knowledge. He's a Chiefs fan! Nobody who knows the NFL didn't know Mahomes was going to be a bonafide stud. He was the second QB picked in his draft and even Alex Smith knew he was just marking time. Go and look up his duels with Baker Mayfield in their college days. Mahomes was an open secret

My major problem with Nick Wright is his bias for players and teams always leads to him dropping asinine takes ad nauseum. There is no middle line with him. Besides any mugu can visit any stats collation resource and spew any agenda they like. For an analyst to open mouth and say Kobe never had an era. That should tell you he is a permanent joke

Nick Wright is that guy that binge watched Grey's Anatomy and suddenly thinks he is a medical consultant

KarnThornheart:
People like to piss on Nick Wright because he demystifies their childhood god. Thats fine, but take that perception of him being a lebron stan off the table the man is one of the best NBA analysts period. He trades in facts and numbers to back them up, you cant go wrong with that.

You mean the same clown that called Nikola Jokic a pretend superstar. He knows zilch!

Shannon Sharpe is an unrepentant LeNomad stan as well but he's one of my favorite analysts. His takes are mostly objective and is not a wannabe stat nerd like Nick Wright who would actively argue with actual experts in their field of expertise because he is privy to a few numbers

steady986:
Why are y'all taking panadol for someone else's headache? It's like we haven't still understood the kind of man Lebron is, even after 16 years. We are going through a phase right now. Lebron knows it, the players know it, who ever is going to join knows it. Because Ty rejected them for offering him 3 years, now hell has been let loose? Just relax and stop letting the media fool you. By October, we are going to have a new coach and at least one more superstar. We are the Lakers, remember.

What is this one even saying??

Roland17:
The entire Lakers organization is totally dysfunctional and in shambles at this point. I don't know how this franchise will convince another superstar to join the Lakers going forward. At this stage, there is no head coach, no president of basketball operations, no idea what they are doing with trades that are inevitable?

Lol I don't know what has to happen for the Lakers to realize that players are no longer falling over themselves to play for the Lakers.

The idea that they are this dream Free Agent destination is a strong form of delusion. LeNomad joining them kinda reinforced this delusion and in a way I kinda feel bad for LeNomad, he must be low-key regretting why he didn't just go to the Clippers with Steve Ballmer and his bottomless pockets

Hardetayour:
What of the Warriors win? If they were hoping for an injury to a player for them to win, then I'm sorry for them. Funny enough, even if they beat the Warriors, the finals is going to be a crazy one for them especially if they face the Bucks.

I'm just saying that for all their tough talking I don't believe that deep down in their heart of hearts they believe they can beat the Warriors without something extraordinary going in their favor especially without home court. I personally think not winning Game 5 could bite them in the behind.

The pressure is on Houston now.

KarnThornheart:
The true beneficiaries are in the East.

What I've said all along

So KD officially out for the series at the same point CP3 was last year. The basketball gods do have a great sense of humor, considering the beneficiaries then are the victims now

For all the Rockets braggadocio I'm pretty sure this injury or some kind of break more than anything else was what they were hoping for

KarnThornheart:
I was literally just watching this video. But seriously, i know i've called him annoying because of his mouth before but you are just straight out killing this dude. What did he do to you?

How?? I just came across a hilarious article that chronicles his love for falling and even posited a plausible explanation for it echoing what the writer wrote.

I have nothing against Embiid, he's a bit of a loudmouth who talks a good one and fluctuates from annoying to a bit of a nuisance but his antics make him very easy to target.

Look at what he did in the Nets series, then Game 3 vs the Raptors when he was celebrating every single field goal he made only for Games 4 and 5 for him to look like a White Walker.

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/26655483/why-world-does-joel-embiid-fall-much?device=featurephone

Lool this makes a boatload of sense now that you think about it. I don't recall a big man ever making it such a habit of taking falls. He will go down in history as the most floppy big man of all time but appaz a lot of it is deliberate cos of the knees

The block on him by the Greek Freak where he almost got paralyzed and then the game where he nearly took off Regina King's Head stands out for me

darkelf:
My comment was just banter bro. Should've added a smiley at the end.

Ahh. I for fear

birdman:
I feel like the celtics expended so much negative emotional energyduring the season, they really dont have enough energy to muster a fight.

I know yall want to call Kyrie out, and yeah, I agree he deserves major blame. But what of all your role players that spent all season yapping about how they didnt need Kyrie to reach ECF?

I think your team is young, and they bought into thr media circus of evil guys like SAS and Jalen Rose. This is a terrible way for a team with so much promise to go out!

Like Shaq always said Phil Jackson used to tell him "Beware of the switch, cos when you turn it on it might not work" the truth is the Celtics showed us who they are all season long and we refused to believe them

I think Kyrie must shoulder majority of the blame. He wanted to be the #1 guy, the leader and he failed woefully. He was 6/21 last night and has arguably been worse than Westbrick. He didn't make shots, he didn't get his teammates involved, just kept jacking shot after ill-advised shot!

I won't hold Kyrie responsible for the terrible play of Tatum and Hayward though but since the competition and quality of teams in the East have improved it would have been a bit naïve to believe the Celtics without Kyrie would have made the Finals this year. This is however not a case of Kyrie playing well and the role players holding him down. He shot 25/83 in the series!!

4 guys on Milwaukee shot better than that from 3pt range

KarnThornheart:
Its the opposite really, I feel like if he signs with the Lakers that's what everyone will say so thats probably not going to happen.

Kyrie does not strike me as someone that cares about public opinion

KarnThornheart:
People really forget cousins was in the MVP conversation before he went down. He's not a point centre but he too was racking up triple doubles. Unfortunately the twin towers didn't make the playoffs together but boogie would have taken a lot of scalps that year too. That version of cousins was a monster.

But he went down as early as January, Jokic and the Nuggets were down 2 of their starters. And they still finished with the second seed

Boogie put up numbers but it could be argued New Orleans played better after he got hurt

Kyrie Irving is a walking brick machine! He is running to LeNomad's arms for sure because he clearly isn't about this leading a team life