₦airaland Forum

Roland17:
Haha... Congrats boss! I know say d pikin go “Bleedgreen” las las!!

As for the Lakers, Drummond will struggle with this roster in my opinion and this is because the style is not remotely tailored towards his strength... The Lakers roster was built around LeBums strength. More importantly, the 2 kingpins LeBum and AD need that interior space to operate which means Drummond has to find a way out of that interior except on defense. That is why Gasol is going to be important in the post season depending on where the Lakers fall.

I am worried you guys deny others their due credit because you want to always credit LeBum.. LeBum did not have and still doest have the degree of impact AD has on this Lakers team. Despite playing with a groin injury against a solid Knicks team, AD’s defensive presence was obvious. He commanded double teams which was the reason they even tied the game in the first place.

No one is dragging LeBum’s leadership but at this age and stage of his career, it is okay to say he is being carried and can no longer do everything he used to be able to.

As long as he doesnt bleed Utah Jazz, I can live with his choices. I should get him a Curry or LBJ jersey so he doesnt stray into unwanted territories

You right Drummond doesnt really fit with AD. But there are points in the game where AD likes to camp on the perimeter, even Lebron gets tired and chucks 3s. Im hoping Drummond can be a big body still hanging around the rim, keeping everybody honest. Kind of how Howard used to do, when one of the big 2 is on the bench. I think at this point Drummond is ok with no explicit plays drawn up for him. Just clean up on the inside. In theory, Gasol is a better fit, spreading the floor with his passing and midrannge shot, giving the big 2 room to work. Somehow, it hasnt worked out. Might as well try what worked last year

I wish what you say on Lebron being carried is true. For real. If AD steps up consistently, Lebron rests more and has a few more years in the league. AD has the skills to do it - he just isnt consistent at it yet. The guy who chose AD as first pick in this years fantasy nba is here. He can shalaye what really happened

Roland17:
I know you did not watch last night’s game but I want you to come tell us how it went..especially how AD played and how the Lakers got the W.

I didnt watch it, but I think its the one where Drummond doubled doubled? and they played Gasol and Montrez reduced minutes. Its a good sign to me, because I feel like Drummond SHOULD fit in this system, especially if they go back to their defensive identity. Granted a lot of that defense worked with LBJ on the floor.

I will try and catch the game vs houston today. Hard to do these days though, my attention is severely divided. Small pikin wey dem born yesterday thinks he owns the house and everything in it

Hardetayour:
So Max Kellerman has been saying Steph chokes in the finals. Bar 2016 finals, how true is it?

Max Kellerman is so annoying to watch, I'm just trying to give him benefit of doubt

He knows how to press the right buttons to keep the shows ratings. I cant even blame him

benji93:
Not just that, he needs to tell us how the floor general couldn't get his team to win yesterday. .
@birdman over to you.

I no dey argue for argument sake boss. You can come to any conclusion you want based on one game. Even rookie on houston rockets dropped 50pts the other week. Is he now an all-star? Great guys can have bad nights, wether cp3 or curry.

Lets be guided friends. If Buhari enter dis matter, it wont be funny again o

I think Lakers should let this season go, rest AD, Lebron and miss the playoffs if need be. There is no point going into the playoffs half healthy, aggravating an injury that not only costs you this year, but next as well. Lebron has been bullet proof up till now, but this ankle injury feels to me like it can get worse. AD is heating up, but I dont think the team has gelled the way it should. To me Drummond should still be averaging a double-double in this system, but he is not. These guys need another season to gel

Roland17:
You are being extremely ingenuine and petty!!! The fact that you will even highlight a 36/12/5 as a LOSS speaks of your pettiness. You even delved too deep by highlighting a game where he limped out injured after 9 minutes!

IS LEBUM THE LEADER OF THE LAKERS? Absolutely! I won't debate that but is he the most important player to their journey to a championship? Absolutely not!!!!

Unlike you, in my stats I stated CLEARLY that he was injured in one of the losses. That is fairness. You on the other hand, waited until the struggling lakers won a game with AD doing well to post stats that tell half the story. Just to undermine Lebron. Who is petty? Bro, look mirror

Roland17:
IS LEBUM THE LEADER OF THE LAKERS? Absolutely! I won't debate that but is he the most important player to their journey to a championship? Absolutely not!!!!

You cannot be the most important player if your healthy play does not let you smell playoffs. There is no way for you to spin this. But Im not surprised. The fact that you have the energy to mistype the name every time means you can never be convinced, even if the guy quadruple double.

LONG LIVE LEKING!
LONG LIVE LEKING!
LONG LIVE LEKING! May the rock prosper in his hands!!!

Roland17:
Before dem go say the Lakers can’t win without the Bum.. AD pouring it in and carrying the Lakers all by himself.

I know why I dey put am out here like I did during the bubble because I know dem well well..

AD vs Blazers-36/12/5
AD vs Suns-42/12/5

Lets go deeper

AD vs Blazers-36/12/5 and it was a LOSS
AD vs LAC 4/1/0 and had to exit
AD vs Den 25/7/1 W
AD vs Tor 12/9/7 L

You cannot be cherry-picking games to prove your point. AD is a heck of a player, but without a healthy Lebron, these guys will not even be smelling the playoffs even with healthy AD. The Lakers have lost 4 games, and won only 2 in the full games AD played. These are the facts. It is team Lebron until AD can prove otherwise. And yes, that means last years ring was primarily due to Lebron.

A40:
Floor general ko floor corporal ni. All I know is equipped with the same team Steph Curry will do more, has done more and his apex is higher than anything CP3 will ever reach

It only means this era is maybe not as good as being advertised.

I think the rules favor jump shooters and guards waaay too much in this era. But the skill and strength level is undeniable. Those Steph/Lilard/Durant 3s will work even in the 90s. Lebron, Jokic, AD and Embiid will eat breakfast in any era.

steady986:
At this point, Jokic is surely the MVP. I've seen enough. You lose your sidekick to injury and what follows is you leading your team on a 9-1 run. Naah, give that man his MVP.

No doubt. I was hoping AD would step into that role this year, but I do not remember him ever being so fragile. Are Lakers just being cautious?

A40:
Do you know how many times Chris Paul has choked or can you compare his playoff performances to Steph?

See, you Curry apologists keep missing the point. You assume I am attacking Curry. Im simply putting out the facts - Curry is far better offensively than CP3 will ever hope to be. But CP3 is by far the better floor general. Everything is not shade my peoples, accept the fact of life as it is.


While you are accepting that fact, also accept that a half injured Lebron in his 17th year and so much mileage still being in the top 5, maybe top 3 players in the league is bananas.

I am not stressing the Lakers - regular season wins mean jack at this point. They need to get back in sync, tinker with the rotations in prep for the playoffs. Everything else, including seeding is secondary

DeeMain:
Guy, most of your debates are laced with insults. Pipe down and learn to engage in robust arguments without personal attacks.

sometimes he makes good points. but once I see the agbero software loading, me I duck

Blueelf:
Gary Payton no get ring?

Lmao, you dey watch basketball at all?

Google na your friend oga

I had to google that, for real. with dwade, shaq, I dont even remember him playing . na to collect ring ba? lol

benji93:
Oh and he's still yet to get a championship with all that knowledge?

So yesterday, Curry went off as usual for 27 pts, on 50% shooting, including 5 3s . Killer stats, yeah? Guess how many assists the "PG" had? 2. And they lost by 30+. At one point Mavs went on a 25-0 run!

shey u now understand why playoff rings doesnt mean best player. Barkley has 0, but Draymond has 3. Robert Horry has like 8 lol. Even Steve Kerr get ring and Gary Payton no get ring. Tmac no even smell WCF. Beal will likely never get one either. Such is life boss.

A40:
Na wa oh. Same CP3 that could not lead that Clippers squad to a conference final?

Is it Steph that would teach Wiggins and Oubre to score efficiently?

OK lets break down the clippers odoriferous saga. I know you remember Mr Glass, who always got injured come playoffs. In fact, all the playoff runs in those years was CP3 doing the best he could, getting them into the playoffs in spite of injuries. Do you remember CP3 feeding Deandre lob passes? Where do you think "lob city" came from? And that is my point! He turned DeAndre into an offensive weapon by studying the guys game. You can say they never reached WCF, true, but I can tell you DeAndre got huge contract out of it, looking like he could double double every night. If they had Mr glass consistently playing they would have come out of the WCF several times.

And that is what the best PGs do. They take time to learn each players style of play. And feed them where they are most effective. Magic did it. Lebron does it to an extent. Timmy D is the only other big I know that had flashes of it. One guy pushes his teams capabilities because he studies everyone and makes them better. Another keeps his team in the game by prodigious scoring ability. You can pick which you prefer, I just happen to think making a team stronger is more valuable.

benji93:
Bullshit. Did he not have Harden, the MVP? Abi he makes everyone better now. He could have helped him get a ring. Everyone was all over the place on how they would have won if he didn't get injured the first time. But well the floor general got another chance at it and instead of taking advantage, he choked. . And don't forget Curry had one without Durant.

He was injured, and Rockets consequently lost the series. On the other hand, Curry still had Klay. so yeah, he is still >>> Curry as a floor general. Next?

AjanleKoko:
I visited yet again, but nobody home

agba ti de

benji93:
I beg komot for there. Maybe CP3 should study Steph more and get a ring. . They impact the game differently. At most double team? Now i know you don't watch the games. Besides, by draw i was also referring to attention. You could sometimes see the whole team focusing on the man.

If he had Klay and Durant, he would have rings too boo

benji93:
Bullshit. The stats say otherwise. They would probably be worse. CP3 may be the epitome of floor coordination, but let me put this out there, the situation Curry consistently creates by drawing, in some cases all 5 players of the opposition to himself is as effective as floor coordination if not more. Besides curry missed about 7 games at a point during the season, and the team was 1 of 7 in those games. I assume you were looking past that. First of all this team will likely be at the very bottom cos CP3 will need to bring a lot of points to the table. Are you talking about a team whose starter, Oubre was terrible early on? or a team whose center is a rookie and injured? or the fact that even Wiggins who is averaging 18 points per game scores most of his points when they are meaningless. I would rather not talk about Draymond green, the triple single master with 6.7 points, who missed some games early on too. Stop talking as if all you look at are certain aspects of the box score. Look at the minutes, games played, and the contribution of the starters. Go and look at the stats sheet of OKC last season and check the production of the starters. Some may assume that perhaps CP3 made them better, but that's hard to argue cos the only guy that fared worse Danilo Gallinari, dropping from 18.7 points to 13.4 points this year also has his minutes average reduced from 30 to 24, so it's not quite clear. So please you can praise CP3 for all his floor commanding abilities but opining that he would do better with this GSW team is something else.

curry draws at most a double team. Never all 5. Even then its usually another player helping, not a full double team. You know why? Because Curry will make his supernatural 3s, and you cant do much about that. But Curry cannot pick apart a defense the way a CP3 can. So you bother him with help defense, and live with his shot. But you know Wiggins and co will remain under-utilized, so you have a shot of still beating the warriors.

Before you respond all angry, I m just telling you that Curry has the same issue a lot of offensive juggernauts have, that is people will live with your 40 as long as the rest of your team under achieves. The next evolution in Curry's game is to study CP3 and know how to pick spots for his teammates.

A40:
Any healthy form of Brooklyn will rinse Miami. Of course like boxing they might have a puncher's chance to steal a game or two but that's about it

The Game has so much changed from the 04 Pistons era. You can't rough up players now like you could then

Remember, refs do take into account the style of play of teams and let them play to an extent. But like you said, even breathing on Durant or Harden will draw fouls. Make we dey look

A40:
A healthy Brooklyn squad will tear Miami to shreds. Their danger right now is injury as that team just feels jinxed

But thats the point isnt it? I mentioned if Heat stays healthy and gets enough time to gel versus Nets getting Harden and Durant back in the last 2 weeks gives the Heat a shot at an upset. Not because they are more talented, but just are a better team. That championship Detroit Pistons team was ugly, but they would grind it out as a team.

. Una see unaself? Is it ok to now revisit CP3 being a much better floor general than Curry will ever be? CP3 on the warriors team will be in the playoffs right now, bank on it! True, he will never be the lights out shooter Curry is, but he has more impact imo. Not only in terms of bball IQ, but leading the troops to war. The way the Suns win games is the way OKC was wining games last year

Father protect me from the arrows of the alacurrys. Back to sender

A40 I told yall the Heat are a clear and present danger for Nets

aliondo:
Lamarcus Aldridge .

A good player in his heydays tho especially at Portland...Wish you all the best in your future endeavors...

He never really broke out, and I am not sure why. He had a good post game, had a sure banker midrange jumper. Was it defense, game smarts? I really dont know, but I felt he should have had more impact in the league than he did. I dont think going to the Spurs was a good move either - it was a small market, with boring basketball, which killed his visibility. On the right team, he could have done more.

Anyhow, life with fam is more important. I hope he enjoys his retirement! 15years is not beans. Still a great career anyhow you look at it

A40:
The Nets have figured out who runs their ship already. So long as Harden plays the point and KD and Kyrie stick to scoring they would be fine

Forget Heat they are not sneaking up on anybody this year. I really think the only team that poses any real threat to Brooklyn in the East are the Bucks. Ben Simmons and his refusal to be anything other than a 6'10 Rondo will likely doom the Sixers

I agree about the bucks, but then I think about how Giannis perpetually flames out in the post season

Thanos:
Well, I'm calling it. The nostardamus-esque psychic that told Skip Bayless that TB12 would win last years's championship has told me that the nets are not even going to make the finals. Bookmark this post.

No wonder the time infinity stone disappeared with you. It is well.

The one problem the Nets have is that there is only one ball. This is the same issue the Lakers had with Kobe, Shaq, GP and Karl Malone vs Pistons 2004. If the Nets run into a team like the Detroit Pistons of 2004, they could be in trouble. That team had a world class coach (Larry Brown), world class defense (all 5 starters were stingy), a savvy floor general (Billups) and everybody bought in. Ben Wallace didnt have to get the rock. You didnt have to draw up plays for Tayshaun Prince. Rip Hamilton was fine getting 15 or 30 points.

Three teams in the league right now that could have that identity by end of the season: Heat, Utah, Lakers*. I put asterisk on Lakers because their star players have missed too much time to gel. The Heat fit the bill 100%, so its possible the Nets might not come out of the East

Roland17:
The Celtics did what I predicted. Danny Ainge is a very careful GM and I did not expect him to splash. We got Fournier who is a decent scorer and can help shoulder some of the burden.

Are the celtics serious about coming out of the east, or they just want to win games. This roster may not get out of the second round the way teams are loading up!

Afromentalist:
Lamarcus aldrige to the Nets.

I thought KD wanted to win on his own?

Anyway the game is more likely than not, OVER

I spoke too soon

aliondo:
Hey guys..been a while...

Something to discuss on....pretty good trades ranging from Tucker to Bucks, Gordon to Nuggets, Oladipo to Miami...

But Rondo to Clippers and Sweet Lou to Hawks, cool to discuss about?

A40
Roland17
SmooshCHN
Deemain
Birdman

Rondo is done imo. Even last year he had to will himself every time he shot the ball. I feel like this is a bad move for the clips.

I am happy for Oladipo to get a chance to make some noise in the playoffs. The guy has a lot of doubters in the league and I hope he disappoints them. I just like how the guy composes himself. Even when he was in the sinking ship of the rockets, he was a class act.

The Nuggets getting Gordon is the only eye popping thing I see so far. The west was already going to be a blood bath come playoffs. Now it will be a vicious blood bath

Actually I have been eyeing Aldridge and Drummond to see where they end up. I would like Lakers to pick up Drummond, I think they need him badly. My fantasy team needs him badly . I dont know what Aldridge has left in the tank, but Im sure theres a team out there that will need him.

A40:
Well. The losing streak is now officially over

On paper this team should not have racked so many losses. But then you have guys like John Wall going 8/30

The 4 best players on the team have been out for good chunks of this losing streak. Plus there is a lot of mental baggage from the the best player, the coach and GM exiting so acrimoniously and on short notice. I feel bad for Silas sort of, but things like these should toughen him up. I liked his dad, and I can just see the old man encouraging his son in that coach's voice...patience son

A40:
20. You lost to a Thunder team without Gilgeous Alexander and Horford. It's clear your team is tanking hard

At this point it is mental. Even the coach's body language is not good, if you see as e wan cry during the interview. He was dealt a bad hand, but such is life. He needs to suck it up and press on. Yeah I know, easy to say, hard to do. This looked like a great job with a great team. And then it wasnt. Life

Roland17:
15 seed Oral Roberts have pulled the upset against No 2 seed Ohio State. It’s March, it’s madnesss!!!

ORU of all teams. LOL. I havent had the mind to follow ncaa this year.