A40:
Butler will fight you when he sees you're not serious about winning. In my dealings I've come to realize I would rather deal with someone like Butler who let's me know how he really feels about me than the passive aggressive teammate that will smile in my face and go behind my back telling people how he really feel about me and try to get me traded

Does Noah seem like a serious individual?

Isn't this what we praised Jordan and Kobe for??

Look at Timberwolves, you can see how soft KAT still is since he left 5 seasons ago

Oya look at Sixers. 4 years since he left they can't pass second round while Butler with less talent has made multiple Finals. Butler even beat them to boot

Look at the Embiid now, I'm sure if he was still in Philly he would fight Embiid too for his bad conditioning. And is he not justified for the Tobias Harris comment? With time it is abundantly clear they made the wrong choice

So you see. I don't agree that he's some villain. In Butler I see a guy desperate to win and maximizing his limited talents and squeezing the most from it. I pick one or two lessons from it as well

Don't misconstrue my posts to mean I don't like Butler, I am only stating he has a personality that can be disruptive in locker rooms. infact, if you read closely, you will see where I alluded to the fact that his comment about Tobias is legitimate.

If the Heat are going to bring a star/ superstar player, they absolutely have to consider the player's mentality and temperament in meshing with Butler who likes to be the alpha, otherwise, it will hit the rocks. Like you said, he has maximized the most out of his limited skillset and the bulk of that success is because of his strong mentality.

As for Embiid, y'all already know my position about the lazy mental midget.

chic2pimp:


The greatest offensive Big in NBA history. Duncan, Shaq,Hakeem,Wilt,Russell,Dirk better watch out. He is coming for the throne of Best Big Man in NBA history.

IMHO he his already the greatest offensive big man in nba history. Offensive ability is in 2 categories for me scoring and playmaking.
He his as great a scorer as all of them especially if you add his shooting. His playmaking blows away any big man that has ever played. No big man is grabbing a rebound and pushing it full court to run a set, no big man ever is the primary playmaker on their team.
The more complex conversation is where he ranks on the greatest playmaker rankings irrespective of positions. Now legit arguments can be made that for and against this

birdman:


When I mentioned this 2 or 3 weeks back, you were arguing with me tho. These cats have regressed this season big time. Tatum plays like he did year 3, year 4. Jaylen is essentially a streaky jumpshooter. Udoka really brought out the diamond in those two

We only talked about Tatum and there was clear improvement in his game. Jaylen on the other hand I did not see any, that is why I asked incase someone noticed what I did not

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.

His issues with the bulls was not with Noah and Rose it was with the new coach Fred Hoiberg, who had a more laid back approach than Tom's fiery style which Jimmy preferred, add the bulls cap situation and the fact that at that time he was not even a perennial all-nba caliber player, management chose the coach over him.
As for Philly he was right, they should have paid him instead of Tobias, they should have fired Bret Brown for coddling Simmons, the 6ers would be in a better position now if they had Embiid and Butler instead of who they have right now.

Butler has spoken endlessly about how his nba personality was developed. He came into a Bulls team where the leaders Rose, Noah and co were outspoken and held each other accountable with a coach who not only coached hard but also policed any and all laid back behavior.
Every team that has claimed he was a problem all have the same issues, they lack toughness. We have seen him have loud and aggressive bust off with Spoelstra but you know what they still are tight.

A40:
Butler will fight you when he sees you're not serious about winning. In my dealings I've come to realize I would rather deal with someone like Butler who let's me know how he really feels about me than the passive aggressive teammate that will smile in my face and go behind my back telling people how he really feel about me and try to get me traded

Does Noah seem like a serious individual?

Isn't this what we praised Jordan and Kobe for??

Look at Timberwolves, you can see how soft KAT still is since he left 5 seasons ago

Oya look at Sixers. 4 years since he left they can't pass second round while Butler with less talent has made multiple Finals. Butler even beat them to boot

Look at the Embiid now, I'm sure if he was still in Philly he would fight Embiid too for his bad conditioning. And is he not justified for the Tobias Harris comment? With time it is abundantly clear they made the wrong choice

So you see. I don't agree that he's some villain. In Butler I see a guy desperate to win and maximizing his limited talents and squeezing the most from it. I pick one or two lessons from it as well

Thank you for this, I did not see this before writing my own epistle about the situation. Can Jimmy sometimes be a hard head yes, but so was a lot of other players with winning mentality. Have we forgotten when kobe told Shaq, if I miss grab the rebound and Phil had to reel him in.

A40:
He wanted to fight KG for her honor as well

She's the mother of his kid sha so I can respect it.

Moving in with a woman or leaving your city to her city only makes sense if you don't have your own agenda and at that point the question now becomes why do you not have your own agenda and how quickly can you rectify it.

He did go to Syracuse so I understand his familiarity with NY. Plus he was born there. I won't put it all on her

Lol. It's a no brainer. The only 15 retired would be Jokic's and that's if they don't build him a statue outside the arena as well

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

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

A40:
This power couple of a thing. If you're rich rich I don't see why you go for a celebrity or wannabe celebrity that will not play her role and position. Find yourself a homely Suzy homemaker.

Not some Miss Independent Miss Feminazi that thinks her $25k TV roles put her on equal footing with you and your high 8 digit salary. What modeling is she doing and how much are they paying her? That will not stop them from wanting your money

And if such woman is adamant on her career then don't marry her. Cos if she divorces you she will still want your half.

As a man you don't listen to anything women talk about on these matters. They will never speak from any angle that's beneficial to you

As a paid man your woman's response to any city you're moving to is Baby when are we packing? If you don't have that you don't have no woman at all

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

Na them sabi. They cheer when Cardi says Broke boys don't deserve poosie so why will a man now be paid and not call the shots of his own life. No law that says they have to be in it

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

As a rule of thumb I always blame the man before involving woman. If na your wife influence you na you dey at fault for not using your God given leadership. E follow for wetin God take punish Adam.

IMO it was probably Melo's dream to put on Knicks uniform. I don't really understand the allure of the Knicks but I guess I'm not a New Yorker so I don't really know. All I see is another overpriced capitalist hellhole city but what do I know

With Melo I think the fit, finding a fit might not have been easy. I think they paired him with Stoudemire for a bit but it didn't work. The Knicks didn't build or couldn't construct a roster of matching parts to complement Melo. Neither did Melo evolve as a player to be able to get the best from his teams sometimes

A40:
As a rule of thumb I always blame the man before involving woman. If na your wife influence you na you dey at fault for not using your God given leadership. E follow for wetin God take punish Adam.

IMO it was probably Melo's dream to put on Knicks uniform. I don't really understand the allure of the Knicks but I guess I'm not a New Yorker so I don't really know. All I see is another overpriced capitalist hellhole city but what do I know

With Melo I think the fit, finding a fit might not have been easy. I think they paired him with Stoudemire for a bit but it didn't work. The Knicks didn't build or couldn't construct a roster of matching parts to complement Melo. Neither did Melo evolve as a player to be able to get the best from his teams sometimes

There are just people whose personalities are just Homer's, I once knew a guy who had the opportunity to stay in Abuja who turned it down to stay in one small village in Taraba of all places. When I heard his decision I couldn't fathom it at all but that was him.
So it is possible that Melo has that type of personality, although on the business side after basketball the move paid off for him though, if you observe during this playoffs some of his products were been advertised up and down. Good for him

PS: By the time Amarie came to NY his knees were gone, he was another player the Knicks overpaid to come and do squat.

The Golden knights have this already won. Congrats to Stanley Cup Champions.

Omo the Knights have a power offense that can pour it.. The Knights have been consistent in the pursuit of the Stanley Cup and today they have earned it.

Congrats to the Knights..

Khanben:


IMHO he his already the greatest offensive big man in nba history. Offensive ability is in 2 categories for me scoring and playmaking.
He his as great a scorer as all of them especially if you add his shooting. His playmaking blows away any big man that has ever played. No big man is grabbing a rebound and pushing it full court to run a set, no big man ever is the primary playmaker on their team.
The more complex conversation is where he ranks on the greatest playmaker rankings irrespective of positions. Now legit arguments can be made that for and against this

I was simply waiting for Him to win His first chip before officially crowning Him. His unique combination of scoring and playmaking at that size makes Him not only the Greatest offensive Big of all time, it also makes Him one of the greatest offensive weapon of all time.

With regards to playmaking,He is easily Top 5 of all time with time to move up that list and that's me being slightly harsh. Tbh barring any catastrophic injury, what He is fighting for is His standing amongst the greatest Big men to ever play the game. Another 6 to 8 years at this level will bring more Mvps and Championships and now we are asking ourselves where He ranks amongst the pantheon of greats. Top 5 a possiblity,may be Top 3?

Khanben:


That is what I keep telling people, it's the world as a whole that has caught up to the USA not one country, a talent pool of 350mil against 7.8billion

Man, it would take a miracle for 95% of the national teams to produce even a quarter of the talent of the USA. 😂

Another thrashing! This time it was at the FIBA Americas women U-16 tournament 🤣😁

Nba finals ratings best in 5 years.

That Golden Knights team too stacked no surprises they absolutely destroyed the Panthers

Saw an interesting take by Richard Jefferson on NBA today. Basically said this Jokic run is a combination of

KD scoring
Magic passing
Tim Duncan rebounding
Steph shooting
Giannis defense

And he brought out numbers and a solid argument to back it up. As we know the NBA is a copy cat league so it will be interesting to see if the league goes back to the traditional big man route. They will ultimately fail cos it takes a 1 of 1 like Jokic to pull that off

Just like teams have failed trying to spam 3pters like Steph. Denver showed that you can shoot horribly and still win,

We will see if teams will be able to come up with an antidote for Jokic, another underrated aspect of his game is his defense. Even till now people still bring up Embiid being better on defense I don't know maybe cos Embiid is black people just assume he's better but he was holding guys to 39% shooting as the closest defender

A40:
Saw an interesting take by Richard Jefferson on NBA today. Basically said this Jokic run is a combination of

KD scoring
Magic passing
Tim Duncan rebounding
Steph shooting
Giannis defense

And he brought out numbers and a solid argument to back it up. As we know the NBA is a copy cat league so it will be interesting to see if the league goes back to the traditional big man route. They will ultimately fail cos it takes a 1 of 1 like Jokic to pull that off

Just like teams have failed trying to spam 3pters like Steph. Denver showed that you can shoot horribly and still win,

We will see if teams will be able to come up with an antidote for Jokic, another underrated aspect of his game is his defense. Even till now people still bring up Embiid being better on defense I don't know maybe cos Embiid is black people just assume he's better but he was holding guys to 39% shooting as the closest defender

I love listening to him...he's so knowledgeable about basketball..He reminds me of @Roland17

aliondo:


I love listening to him...he's so knowledgeable about basketball..He reminds me of @Roland17

Far and away the best on the panel. Better than the overhyped JJ Redick sef

Khanben:


We only talked about Tatum and there was clear improvement in his game. Jaylen on the other hand I did not see any, that is why I asked incase someone noticed what I did not

What part of Tatum's game has improved. For real, I'm curious. From last season to this one o

A40:

KD scoring
Magic passing
Tim Duncan rebounding
Steph shooting
Giannis defense

This is essentially the GOAT. Tbf, He just had the greatest offensive season of all time and barring any injuries this team will win it again next year as I don't see any team stopping them.

A40:
Saw an interesting take by Richard Jefferson on NBA today. Basically said this Jokic run is a combination of

KD scoring
Magic passing
Tim Duncan rebounding
Steph shooting
Giannis defense

And he brought out numbers and a solid argument to back it up. As we know the NBA is a copy cat league so it will be interesting to see if the league goes back to the traditional big man route. They will ultimately fail cos it takes a 1 of 1 like Jokic to pull that off

Just like teams have failed trying to spam 3pters like Steph. Denver showed that you can shoot horribly and still win,

We will see if teams will be able to come up with an antidote for Jokic, another underrated aspect of his game is his defense. Even till now people still bring up Embiid being better on defense I don't know maybe cos Embiid is black people just assume he's better but he was holding guys to 39% shooting as the closest defender

Jefferson's take on this is nonsense. What he does is have a complete set of skills. I know media always needs something to make noise about, but if Joker is as good as they are saying, what happened last 4, 5 years?

Could it be the fact that Nuggets revamped the roster and Jamaal Murray is finally healthy have to do with anything? Anyhow what do I know, its summer, media must come up with nice soundbites

Has Steph's shooting? What are folks smoking! And no, he does not have Magics passing. Youtube dey nah, ahn ahn

PDPGuy:
Another thrashing! This time it was at the FIBA Americas women U-16 tournament 🤣😁

Leave this thing jare, na 2 men wey convert I dey see for front so

KNIGHTBlaed:


Leave this thing jare, na 2 men wey convert I dey see for front so

Nah. Those are girls

birdman:


Jefferson's take on this is nonsense. What he does is have a complete set of skills. I know media always needs something to make noise about, but if Joker is as good as they are saying, what happened last 4, 5 years?

Could it be the fact that Nuggets revamped the roster and Jamaal Murray is finally healthy have to do with anything? Anyhow what do I know, its summer, media must come up with nice soundbites

Has Steph's shooting? What are folks smoking! And no, he does not have Magics passing. Youtube dey nah, ahn ahn

Infact, this thing weak me o. Yankee media sabi blow things up ehn, I come begin wonder if na the same Jokic them dey hype like this or na different one. The guy no kuku send all these hype, if na like Giannis wey go let the hype enter him head, he go begin flop. When Jokic was winning back to back regular season MVP, where all these hype dey? Na so them do take finish KD, Giannis and some other guys

birdman:


I know media always needs something to make noise about, but if Joker is as good as they are saying, what happened last 4, 5 years?

While I agree with every other thing you said, I have to disagree on this one. Joker is HIM.

As for the last 4,5 years, players don’t wake up one day and become as good as he is. Not even the best of the best. There’s a timeline for improvement as an athlete to reach your ceiling and you get there with time, not at once.

chic2pimp:


This is essentially the GOAT. Tbf, He just had the greatest offensive season of all time and barring any injuries this team will win it again next year as I don't see any team stopping them.

Oga rest Denver won't win it next season

Honlucas:


Oga rest Denver won't win it next season

Shey na Lakers go win am

birdman:


Jefferson's take on this is nonsense. What he does is have a complete set of skills. I know media always needs something to make noise about, but if Joker is as good as they are saying, what happened last 4, 5 years?

Could it be the fact that Nuggets revamped the roster and Jamaal Murray is finally healthy have to do with anything? Anyhow what do I know, its summer, media must come up with nice soundbites

Has Steph's shooting? What are folks smoking! And no, he does not have Magics passing. Youtube dey nah, ahn ahn

This guy calm down. That's what Jefferson is trying to tell you. That he can actually do it all.

Nobody can win it all by themselves and Jokic has been knocking on the door since the 2019 season.

Of course Murray is healthy is Jokic supposed to not have any help? Steph missed back to back playoffs without Klay so why should Jokic be any different? Lebron nko? Has he not missed multiple playoffs without AD and lost a series where AD missed the last 2 games since he came to the West. Gbagbe story

Jokic at least made the 6th seed without Murray and even won a playoff series without Murray

In fact we have to legitimately ask just how much could they have achieved had Murray not been absent the last 2 seasons.

You're taking these comparisons too literally. He might not be able to do it exactly like these guys but what he's doing is yielding the same results. Since I've been following Jokic in the playoffs I can't think of any series where I can say he choked and simply didn't lose to the better team.

What I gleaned from his take is that there's really no flaws in his game and that is incredibly rare in any superstar. You cannot objectively say he has any weaknesses

Kibbs:


While I agree with every other thing you said, I have to disagree on this one. Joker is HIM.

As for the last 4,5 years, players don’t wake up one day and become as good as he is. Not even the best of the best. There’s a timeline for improvement as an athlete to reach your ceiling and you get there with time, not at once.

Exactly. Why are we acting like these things are not a process. He's winning his first chip at exactly the age Jordan, Shaq and Lebron won theirs.

He's obviously going to need a bit of good fortune and a Superteam or two to win as much as they did but injury permitting I'm heavily convinced they can win at least one more.

They're at that sweet spot where the Bulls were in the 90s with Lebron, KD and Steph entering their twilight years and these guys really just entering their primes. They have stability and continuity. The next two seasons barring injuries I struggle to see who beats them and what is their path to victory. Someone like MAGA Mike has not even hit his prime yet and barely knows what he's doing on the court but the championship pedigree is already there. I'm also assuming guys like Braun and Watson their two rookies improve

I boldly predicted they could be the Warriors many years back and I will be somewhat disappointed if they don't get at least another ring

A40:
Shey na Lakers go win am

Let's wait till season start before we start ...
Season never start una don conclude