₦airaland Forum

birdman:
Hehehe. They had barely recovered from the comeback from 1-3. To make it worse, nobody is disputing Lebrons #1 status anymore. No more Kawhi, Durant, Harden (lol). 18 years in the league, MVP type numbers every year, 4 rings with different coaches and systems, in quarantine and out of quarantine. Na yam?

Maybe thats why Kyrie is mad, Lebron was the Uncle Drew in last years finals

It hurts them no doubt . But we ain't going nowhere; we here for the long haul

Mickey Mouse ring, Bugz Bunny ring, Cinderella ring...the ring fits perfectly though. We going for Tarzan ring next year

Looks like the Lakers have a rising star in Horton-Tucker. LeBron endorses too, so you know what that means

Last year's ring still hurts them. LeBron haters right now

Only when it comes to LeBron that all-star equals to 15ppg and 18ppg

Thanos:
It does not matter what you guys are cooking. You guys are not repeating. Not if my mavs have something to say about it.

Lol, who Dallas ain't ready yet.

Thanos:
Guys are making it out as if there's a wide chasm between harden and lillard. The two are practically interchangeable at this point. I do feel lillard benefited from recency bias though. With his heroics in the bubble combined with the media narrative around his loyalty and "love for the grind". lol. Black Americans and their over-glorification of hustle is just weird. But in all I would bump anyone that did not play in the last post season below those that played. So curry and KD should be bumped to 9 and 10. I don't care how good you are. if you are not available, you are useless.

No lies

etidy:
ESPN is just trolling people with their rankings. There is no planet where Lillard is ranked ahead of Harden atm.
Give Harden that Portland team and he will at least take it to the conference finals.
We have given Lillard too much leeway for many years for the sake of faux loyalty while he keeps enjoying supermax dollars.
Even Jamal Murray has had more playoffs impact that dame Lillard

Talent wise that Portland team is at worse 4th in the west behind the Lakers, Clippers and Nuggets.
Let's see the usual excuses again at the end of the season.

Which Portland team, the one that was ravaged by injury last season or this present one as constituted?

On one hand they'll say LeBron had two allstars, and on the other they'll say K. Love averaged 8.5points

The entire NBA fandom mad that ESPN ranked their guys so low on the list . Lol. This ain't 2016, Dame has been cooking in this league for the past 2-3 years. Curry hasn't played for a year, let's wait and see if he picks up from where he left off then we can reconsider. Same with KD, he can't continue to rest on his laurels of best scorer in the league. This is 2020, let's see how you perform off that Achilles then we can talk about getting you back in the top 5. As for AD , I didn't envisage he'll be that high tbh, but he's the best two-way player in the league at the moment. F*ck what y'all heard about Kawhi, we saw holes in his defensive game last season.

But by and large, ESPN really got balls coming up with this top 10

Thanos:
rondo a decent playmaker? I mean he might not be the force he was but the legend of playoff rondo is real. I do understand why there would be a need to change things up a little bit. The west has gotten considerably tougher. And they needed to get younger in the guard position as I believe there would be a lot of "load management " from LBJ this season to keep him fresh for the playoffs. AD is being set up for an MVP season and why i so recognize his chops as an elite rim protector. We cannot gloss over the fact that the considerable size advantage Lakers is lost due to the departures of Dwight and McGee. You just hope this won't be exploited by teams like philly/Denver who seem to be stocking up on giants at all positions

We tricked the entire league into thinking going big is the way to win, now we switching things up and going smaller. We gat something cooking for the league

Thanos:
I really wished the Lakers ran it back. Rondo is a huge loss. While Schroeder is a better scorer, a planning guard is what they really need. And letting Dwight go has made them defensively weaker. I don't know if gasol still has much left in the tank after what I saw last season. Dwight was the anti-jokic last season and there are very few players that match up with him. But I guess time would tell.

Let's get this straight: the major reason we were a defensive Juggernaut last season is largely because of AD. Dwight and Javale contributed, no doubt, but let's not think they were the ones that made us who we were. Same thing applies to Rondo. Playing alongside LeBron can really bring out the best in you, because you know you're expected to win it all. As decent a playmaker as Rondo is, it was his scoring that came to the fore in the playoffs. And it only came in spurts, not regularly but in key moments. With Schroder, we're looking to have more regular scoring from the PG position. And it's not as though he's a liability in playmaking; he still averaged 4 assists last year. Rondo averaged 5.

By and large, LeBron and AD are the superstars of this team and they're still very much in their prime. When we put the team together last year it looked like we put scraps together, giving a lot of deadwood opportunities. Not a lot of people gave us a chance. This year Pelinka decided to break it up because he thinks it could be better, and also because he knows the league would be much tougher with KD and Curry returning. I think we look better than when we won the championship.

E say Kyrie averaged 5 more points than the unanimous MVP. As usual, giving us false information whenever it comes to LeBron. I'll give you a chance to go back and check the stats again

And he said LeBron didn't win when Kyrie got injured. But he didn't tell us that Love also got injured

ESPN have come with their shitty rankings again

DeeMain:
Did not fully understand the rationale for re-signing Cook. Wasn't used much last season and signing another centre as back up for Gasol seemed the logical thing to do.

What we needed was a center and point guard, and Pelinka opted for the latter. You know there could be injuries, there could be suspensions too. And with this team that we have, there's going to be lots of blowouts. You don't want Caruso or Schroder playing blowout minutes. As for the center position we have Cacok and Kostas who can play those minutes. We're likely to get a center though in the next agency, when our hard cap softens.

mattfeuter:
Are you sure about this with the addition of Dennis?

We have only 3 point guards, including Cook. He should see more minutes

Quinn Cook back. Nice addition, and I think he'll get more opportunities this year than last knowing he's one of just 3 point guards in the team. Unlike last year that we had 5. But by and large he'll play more of garbage time than good minutes. Good to see him back though.

mattfeuter:
Right. I liked how everyone pretended like the 10 points didn’t happen.

To his credit, man had 41, then followed it up with 34 and 30.

That series was one for the books.

That's how you separate the best from the phonies. Can your team count on you to always deliver? And he was lucky to be playing alongside a very unselfish player like LeBron. I wonder how many points he scored off LeBron's assists. That's why I'm curious to see how he thrives with a score-first guy like KD. We've already seen glances of who he is without LeBron.

mattfeuter:
I usually agree with many of your posts but I think “Carry” might be a bit of a stretch here.

This sure doesn’t look like carry

I wonder how many people would be calling for LeBron's head if he scored 10 points in a finals game

Thanos:
It's one team to average 23 on a bad team where all the offense runs through you. To be in the GSW system and average that? where ball sharing is key to their offense? That is why I'll say it anywhere. Klay Thompson is the most underrated nba player ever

He had KAT at Minnesota, and at times Butler. It's expected that Wiggins will be the second scorer on this team too.

Thanos:
The way kyrie milks that one ring eh. Like he was not carried to that championship by LBJ and love. Kyrie is just more marketable because of his streetball style which is more appealing to the fans. But asides from handle, Dame supersedes kyrie on every other criteria

Exactly. I can imagine a pairing of Dame and AD succeeding more that Kyrie/AD would

birdman:
Yep. Just like that. OKC almost beat us, remember?

But they made the playoffs. No one is saying they'll win the championship.

mattfeuter:
Dame is a star, Kyrie is a superstar plus he’s an NBA champion.

Lol. Why is he a superstar? Because he's a champion?

birdman:
Westbrook will subtract from Beal, so I expect them to miss the playoffs. Just the facts

Just like Westbrook subtracted from Harden?

mattfeuter:
Say what Did KD and Kyrie die?

Kyrie is a borderline superstar. I mean, if we can't call Dame a superstar then why should we call Kyrie a superstar?

Washington with Westbrook and Beal just made them a playoff contender. The East is stacking up real good.

Thanos:
Bruh, Imma sleep on them with the lights out and the AC on. As long as it's doc rivers, there's no way he is getting out of the second round. People are really sleeping on the hawks. Now that is a team to watch out for. Trae young is already a star, John collins is beefing up, capela is returning, Bogdanovic is a grossly underrated baller, and the floor general himself rondo would be there to lead the bench mob. The east better be scared

They have 2 borderline superstars, some might even argue it's 2 outright superstars. That's usually what you need to go far. Looking at the east, no team has 2 outright superstars. The Bucks, Celtics, Heat, Raptors and even the Nets don't have 2 outright superstars.

As for Atlanta, the best they can fight for is the 7th or 8th position and a first round exit. Trae is magnificent no doubt, but can he lead? Can he make the right decisions to make his team successful? Will he be willing to sacrifice filling up his stat sheet in favour of winning?

But let's not forget that the Pacers are still a decent team with Warren, Brogdon, Oladipo and Sabonis. They should male the playoffs with that. Then there's Washington now that they have Westbrook. I won't be surprised if Atlanta don't make it.

And don't forget Orlando, they had 7 players who averaged double figure points last season. I fear such teams.

Thanos:
wiggins 23ppg? on which planet does he want to average that? Puhleaaaaseee

When he's serious he can be, even more so now that he's on a good team and playing for a playoff spot at least. He's averaged 22 and 23 before.

Everybody's talking about the Bucks and the Nets in the east, but watch out for the Sixers. Don't sleep on them. They added tremendously to their roster. They got shooting from Danny Green and Seth, and defence from Danny and Dwight. Add that to their core of Simmons, Embiid and Harris and you have a decent six. If healthy I think they'll make it to the conference finals at least.

The Clippers sign Nick Batum
Enough said

DeeMain:
Steady, Bam has shown he is good enough for the max. He can guard all 5 positions and the Heat run their offense through him. For me, he ticked all the boxes.

The way we lower the bar for max contracts these days. If Bam was on the on the Nets or the Warriors as they presently are constituted, will he get the Max? Or if the Heat traded for Giannis this off season, will he have gotten the max?

Khanben:
He has earned it, IMHO at the time of getting the max he has outperformed lots of other players who also got the bag e.g Wiggins, J Murray ( who proved after he had got the bag, that he was worth it), D Booker.
His offensive output is just going to continue to improve so he has earned it

All these guys have reasonable outputs. The only problem is they haven't had decent teams. Wiggins is at least a 23ppg player. Booker is a 25ppg player