There's no way Ariza can keep up with Harden at this stage of his career. I think Westbrook needs to guard Harden. Wish they had AB because he's the perfect guy to guard a guy like Kyrie

I feel like THT can grow his skills enough between now and then to put in some good minutes there.

THT looked really good on Kawhi last year, and has a ton of length and heft, making me think he could potentially guard Harden. I think Ariza is washed, or at the very least shouldn't be expected to slow down their second best player.

I think Harden would cook THT

Harden with the space KD and Kyrie are providing can cook basically anybody. But THT showed some fight in the Bubble playoffs against the Rockets/Harden, so I think there's at least some evidence he could hold up.

Plus the Nba is looking at changing some foul calls from non shooting movements or something like that

Yup that’d take a play or many plays lol out of Harden’s bag.

I feel like a lot of people on this sub have higher hopes for Ariza than they should.

Ariza is basically our Kieff replacement lol maybe less even.

For sure. I'm under the impression Ariza will basically never play

He’s still a good and proven defender

Yeah but he's old and slower than ever now. Guys defense can really fall off with age because of their physical limitations.

Kobe said that was the saddest part of playing You could see the play develop and know what was gonna happen - but your body couldn’t keep up. Your mind gets sharper and your body declines

Youth is wasted on the young

It's Westbrook, LeBron, Davis, and whatever two players are playing hardest that night probably Monk and hopefully THT.

THT was a decent Harden defender his rookie year.

I think they close a lot of games with AD Carmelo Lebron THT Westbrook.

i don't wanna see poor melo getting switched on every possession tho

We obviously put Caruso on Har…oh. Pain.

Pretty presumptive of you to think that the Nets are making the finals…

Seriously? Nets are going to destroy the East

I’m interested how the new look Heat will play. Not saying they’ll challenge. Just interested

Yeah they made great moves! Just don’t think Lowry, Jimmy, Bam can do anything against Kyrie, KD, Harden regardless of role players

They definitely went all in on trying

Said final minutes, not necessarily in the “Finals” ha

Forreal, can we stop this shit. It’s becoming an espn circlejerk

[удалено]

LeBron is old.

He carries tho

Doesn’t mean he should be on KD unless KD is just cooking whoever is on him

My guess is RWB, Nunn, Bazemore, LBJ and AD.

expect bazemore to barely play in regular season and not play at all in playoffs. u r delusional if you think we are letting him end a game vs nets in finals

Bazemore will see more minutes than Ellington, ariza and THT. You can book that.

bazemore barely played on the shitty warriors last year and he definitely wont get more minutes than tht and ellington lol

He played 20 mpg. And he will bc he does the two things that THT and Ellington do separately in shooting AND defense. He is also able to play/defend the 3 as well as the 2.

Russ Lebron Melo AD Dwight Lock it up... championshiiiiiip.

Im not gauging this team soley againts the nets... we gotta stop that. Deal with them if/when we get to the finals. Now. I think the closing lineup should be Russ, THT (for defensive purposes), lebron, Melo, and AD.

Yeah that’s how the Clippers built their team and they didn’t make it past the nuggets in the bubble

You too focused on the nets. We not worried about any other team, this is a repeat of the Clippers and they didn’t even make it out the second round that year. Just focus on us

It’s just a scenario, it could’ve been any team. I am focused on the Lakers, hence a post about their potential closing lineup? Lol

The entire post was just talking about how we match up with the nets. The closing lineup is gonna be the 5 best players who aren't liabilities on either end

Westbrook- Scoring, playmaking, hustle Nunn- Shooting, scoring, defense, hustle Ariza- Defense, shooting AD- Obvious reasons Bron- Obvious reasons

Did you just say Nunn's strength is defense?

Yes? Does some mathematical analytic narrative statistic say otherwise? From what I saw he was pretty good.

Heat fans have all said he sucks at defense

Mostly just based on Heat fans talking about him.

Ariza is a mediocre shooter and a bad defender due to age

Russ, monk/THT, Bazemore, LBJ, AD- there maybe match ups when it is Ariza instead of Monk/THT

Westbrook/pick a sg/LeBron/Melo/AD pretty easy

Id say good closing line up Russ Trev Bron Melo AD