₦airaland Forum

Eruditor:
All of them have been wrong. ALL. Only thing Woj gets right is final decisions are communicated via him first.

Chris swore KD was going to Knicks. Now they have come out to pretend he was not offered the max. That was a lie. Even in the Nets KD is not getting the max.

They swore Kawhi was never considering Lakers. Later claimed it was his 3rd choice. Now he has switched to rumblings. Which is another daft lie.

The same people have sworn Kawhi bought a house in Toronto..and how the Clippers was ideal for him. Later said he was planning with KD. All have fallen through. Now pretending Lakers is his top choice when it was clear why he insisted on speaking with Magic first.

KD got maxed out by the nets. That was one of his irrefutable stance from the beginning of last season and that is he will not take a penny less than what he can get

A40:
No self respecting elite level player would derive any joy playing with a megalomaniac like LeNomad. You could win titles and never get your due credit no matter how much you contributed because LeNomad would still take all the glory.

I hope Kawhi does not make that mistake. If he leads Toronto or the Clippers to another chip we might be discussing not LeNomad but Kawhi and KAJ as the runner up to MJ'S GOAT status

So kyrie/wade did not get their due during their championship runs. Kyrie/wade got the same respect pippen/gasol/tony Parker/ got during the times they won.

Roland17:
Spike Lee and Stephen A Smith will kidnap J. Dolan tonight.

Can't wait to see SAS rant

aliondo:
Yh...true..Kemba might just do better then..

Kemba will only prove to be better if and only if Tatum and Brown takes the leap expected of them.next season

Manutd19:
If truly KD is signing with the NETS, then he's affected by the criticism.

If not, why would you leave

1. Steph/Klay for Kyrie
2. Winning org for ....
3. Huge payday for lesser

Don't necessarily agree. First the NETS are building a winning culture and he can help to make that happen. Second kyrie is his friend and if he prefers to play with his friend that's his prerogative.
As for money it depends on how you look at it. Apart from the 5th year(which would have been a team option anyway) the yearly average for the four years is nearly the same give or take $2mil and if you take into account that all his business interests are headquartered in new york then it is seems logical that he moves over there

steady986:
No, it's harder for someone like him. He's a high usage player, not a catch and shoot type like Klay. Klay would do much better coming off an Achilles injury. Well, what do I care, I'm preparing for my 3 peat.

How is KD a high usage player. He has never had the highest usage rate in his own team ever.
He is a beast in Iso situations but most of those leads to him shooting over the his defender.
KD's injury as long as there is no complications will not slow him down cause he is not a Skywalker like Westbrook or Drose.

Voting for these individual awards are always about narrative and subjective opinions. IMO any one of them deserved the award

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

If Porter becomes the scorer he can be, Denver will be hard to beat in the next 3 years.

steady986:
Improved. Well, if you say in three point shooting, yes, but all round game, not so much. He might have been useful if we hadn't acquired AD, but now that we have AD, Lopez is a no no.

His defense around the rim has been better, sometime next season the Lakers will need a rim protector who can shoot three's other than AD.

LarcPickerin:
Rondo has one of the highest basketball IQs in recent times. A backup PG doesnt have to be a knockdown shooter if the second unit has enough shooters around him. Plus playoff rondo is a beast. As for caruso, its one thing for a g league player to play well in useless games and its another playing for a serious championship contender. I'd take terry rozier or collison before alex caruso, easily. Bullock was thrown in the midst of chaos, hard for him to thrive in a situation like that. I'm willing to give him and rondo the benefit of the doubt.

I'm looking at this free agency class and people arent mentioning vucevic among the stars, he is but will be a horrible fit with the lakers. Apart from rondo, javale bullock and KCP I look at the other role players to fill out the bench knowing the lakers might be a little cash strapped after getting a third star star and i see, b bogdanovic (admittedly unlikely), brook lopez, deandre jordan, mirotic, marcus/markieff morris, jeremy lamb, terrence ross, wesley matthews and i like jeff green. Theres enough to build a solid team out there if they play their cards right, they can use potential rings as leverage to get some to lower their salary demands. Good times ahead.

The biggest steal will be if they can get Malcolm brogdon and Brook Lopez away from Milwaukee. These two will mesh perfectly with lebron and AD.

Rich Paul is really sending a message. Loving this off season already

donlittle25:
Did you watch prime Dirk? This is actually disrespectful on all accounts

An athlete's ability to recover from injury is usually dependent on their physical condition. Boogie has never been in prime physical condition through out his career and it showed during his recovery and his play since he came back.
KD's conditioning on the other hand has always been top notch, in game 5 after nearly a month out his run out for 12 minutes was as if he had not left at all.
The difference between prime Dirk and Prime KD is KD's explosiveness and ability to put the ball on the floor and beat guys easily off the dribble. The ACL will only reduce his explosiveness and nothing more. With KD's skill set and a determination to prove himself after injury I reiterate that the worst that will happen is a KD at prime Dirk. Unless anyone somehow believes he will suddenly forget how to shoot the ball like Ball and Fultz.

My heart goes out to KD, wishing him the best. For those like kellerman who think this should detract teams from giving him the max, I humbly beg to disagree.
KD's skill set means that at the worst what this injury will cost him is a bit of explosiveness, from the 12 minutes he played in game 5 I saw a peek into what at the very worst KD will become and that is a prime Dirk, purely a perimeter and elbow/ post killer.
So For the opportunity of having prime Dirk playing for your team for 3 years, that in it self is worth swallowing the first year payday.
#freeagencywillstillbeawesome

etidy:
This KD Injury just changed the NBA landscape

1) Suddenly, the Knicks are likely not to get KD and Kyrie. Subsequently they may not want to trade a their assets for Davis

2)The Davis sweepstakes becomes more complex. Will he team up with Kyrie at the Celtics or LeBron or just go to another team?
3)Suddenly the raptors are the defacto favorites to make a run at the title out of the east next season. Cos the sixers may lose butler and the Knicks are likely to still be shit.

Points 1&2 are quite likely. But the Raptors only become defacto favorites to use your own words if they keep kawhi.
IMO the East is very much up for grabs next season as it was this season. The Bucks and Sixers need to consider who to let go and who to resign( they also have to make the huge decision whether to go into the luxury tax).
The Celtics needs to decide if they are going for it(if kyrie stays) so as to get rid of and add pieces who fit not only his style of play but also his timeline and if he is not staying play the long game and hope Tatum and Brown become who they hoped they could be when they were drafted.
The Raptors have the best shot at winning the East if kawhi stays and the longest rebuild if he leaves cause without him Ujiri just needs to start all over again with guys like spicy P and FVV as the foundation pieces.

CuteRedd:
at least he would help the spacing and free up steph and klay kinda or give kd easy buckets.

But for how many minutes and how much of a liability will he be on defense because he will definitely not have his legs under him.
I'm only saying this cause it seems that there is a certain narrative that as soon as he gets back they can immediately sweep the raptors. In game 5 It will be 3weeks give or take 2 days since he got injured and for a majority of that he has been favouring that leg. GSW will have to win with what they had in game 4 IMO. That's all they should really rely on

If KD plays in game 5. I don't see how anybody no matter how great comes back from an injury that has limited them for weeks and is in any condition to play the NBA finals. No practice can simulate the back and forth with kawhi.

If Raptors win this finals it will IMO add more fuel to the belief that kawhi's camp has that he doesn't need another superstar.

GOZ the reverse psychology by Beverley is just epic. . The monster the bucks are just hilarious

Roland17:
Finally!!!! A Danny Green sighting in the 2018/2019 playoffs.

Just like clockwork, Danny Green always comes up big in at least one finals game.
Stinks up the joint offensively for most of the playoffs and hits big shots in the finals. This is a conscise description of his career

Max kellerman is only ever accurate when he talks boxing. I only watch first take for the hilarious punchlines SAS sometimes drops and the insider info he sometimes gets.

Probably the most boring UCL finals I've watched in a long time

The one fear for GSW is that they have looked vulnerable at times at Oracle this season. If the Raptors nick just one games there then it at the very least gets to 6 games

KarnThornheart:
A lot of people are going to cry if KD stays with the Warriors. Myself included.

Players will have to not only team up but take pay cuts to ensure the talent to compete with them. Cause without other super teams GSW will continue their domination for at least 3 more years

KarnThornheart:
There are still a lot of iso players thriving in the league. Some of the best players in the league are iso players. Plus he was adapting and playing well with the rockets before he was made into a scape goat. Now he's been ostracized by the NBA. Not fair at all.

Evolving with the times is not necessarily about iso ball. He should have fully embraced a bench role (6th or 7th man). He is definitely no longer a starter in a contender, and if he wants to play for one he has to understand that.

aliondo:
You gotta give Melo some props...Arguably the best thing to happen to the Knicks....He got me upset tho when we suggested he comes off the bench cos of his dwindling performances and he strongly refused...I don't think he's that bad tho just that the NBA has moved on from his strong point which is iso ball play...

His inability to evolve with the times is his greatest weakness

Eruditor:
Like, hyperbole.

He damn sure near did that.

32 shots is not damn near 40.

smoosh20:
So Kyle Lowry made it to the NBA finals before Chris Paul. So satisfying.

Bros you are wicked LMAO

Eruditor:
You know why you are stupid? You don't even hide that you just guzzle Nick Wright's nonsense to come and spew here without actually watching games. You are giving me box scores to explain Iggy's role in guarding Lebron. LOL.

Lebron was at his most inefficient best in that series. Do you know how many shots he needed to take to average 35ppg? Try 40 shots per game.

If KD shoots 40 shots per game, he will average 70 ppg.

Fvck outta here.

Lebron never averaged 40 shots per game in that series

Roland17:
Baba, I can tell you Iggy’s defense is better than all the guys you mentioned there. The only thing holding the man back now is his age and even at that he moves his feet and is more intelligent that than those guys you mentioned when it comes to timing, deflections and one on one defense. The only person that may have a legitimate argument on that list is Butler and rightfully so.

What of Giannis

Hardetayour:
For you to even compare Middleton and Brogdon to Iggy defensively sef dey one kind. Or u seem to forget Iggy won finals MVP that year all because he was guarding LeBum

Lance the prankster also plays great D against Lebron. Iggy is a great defender but he cannot stop the likes of kawhi, KD, offensively.

benji93:
But you seem to have forgotten Iguodala's Defence, Kawhi has to be dominant on both ends of the court for them to stand a chance.

Is Iguodala's man to man defense better than Jimmy Butler's/giannis/brogdon/Middleton. Cause the Klaw just schooled these guys in the last two series.

Eruditor:
Kawhi has never been able to guard Curry. Add Danny Green and Siakam to the mix. It seems people have forgotten what GSW looked like in 2015/16. If Curry is to have a bad game, it will have to be system basketball doing the job. Since I have watched him, I have never seen individual players guard him well apart from one or two odd events like Dellavadoa. And that was one game, he got torched the next game and Cavs had to re-strategize.

Kawhi is great and all that, but he will need to be better than he has been to get over the hump. Even for him, that is a tall task.

Not saying the raptors will win, but you seem to have forgotten that kawhi's spurs was beating GSW by 20pts before Zaza's curse struck. Kawhi's defense is just extraordinary(one of the things Nick has said recently that I agree with is that there is elite defense and above that is what kawhi can do). Imagine a scenario where they put him a Draymond from full court especially when Green is initiating the offense. The amount of steals/turnovers kawhi can force in this scenario can hurt GSW.