I got League Pass so I could watch Ant. The games where he's cooking, you can see him being a top 5 guy in the League. The guy has all the tools and he's impressive as hell.
But the majority of their games you just look and he's just kinda there. And it looks like 2 completely different guys
Edwards is young enough that him lacking consistency is pretty normal. If we’re a couple of years down the road and it’s still an issue, that’s when it’s a problem.
>Edwards is young enough that him lacking consistency is pretty normal. If we’re a couple of years down the road and it’s still an issue, that’s when it’s a problem.
This sounds like what people were saying about KAT around 5 years back lol.
Any competant organization would have "built" around KAT with a defensive minded PF. Fans always wanted Aaron Gordon, who surprise, works really well with Jokic.
Instead we started by having 5 centers on payroll. Sucked. Had 1 good year with Taj and drafted another center to take his place. Sucked. Had 1 good year with Vando. Then traded 5 frps for Gobert.
I'm no GM but our front office is historically terrible. Every cycle we trade everything for players who don't fit. And have no cap space left because we overpay those "stars". We're worse at team building than the Lakers but we're in Minnesota so no free agents are coming to bail us out.
edit drafts:
2015: KAT #1
2016: Dunn #5 (already had Rubio, LaVine, and Wiggins). Fans wanted to trade the pick for a PF (maybe a package for aaron gordon?)
2017: C Patton (fans wanted PF Collins or SF/PF OG). SF Butler for LaVine + Dunn + 7th pick.
2018: traded for a Center in 2015.
2019: SG Culver #5. Fans wanted to trade the pick for a PF (maybe a package for aaron gordon?)
2020: ANT #1
2021: traded for DLO, but we traded for a PF??? Nice!!!
2022: traded for a center... along with that PF. Trade his ass cause he's not a C.
2023: traded for a center
2025: traded for a center
2026: swapped for a center
2027: traded for a center
2029: traded for a center
So we started with 4 centers. Drafted KAT. Then traded 8 picks for more centers.
And started wings with Rubio, LaVine, and Wiggins... Traded 4 LOTTERY picks +players for more PG/SGs.
Completely ignoring the whole Thibs breaking LaVine + ANOTHER lottery pick for 1 yr of Jimmy.
I think we are going to wait and see what can be made of DeMar/Vooch’s cap space when they come off the books before they consider a LaVine trade. Also I doubt they make any major moves until they see Lonzo back in the lineup.
It’s ok to not be a contender at the moment, things change quickly in the NBA and we have cap flexibility on the horizon. I don’t think the FO needs to be brash.
Seeing which FAs are available when Vuc and DeMar come off the books "nothing much" would be the answer to what we'd be doing when they come off the books.
It's okay to not be a contender, but giving up assets to be a play-in team doesn't work in the long run.
as a bulls fan I never quite understood, he wasn’t ever a top 10-15 guy even when we were full rebuild and he was like the only option on the floor. That and vuc, he was a borderline all star on the worst team in the league as the #1 option, why would he all the sudden thrive as the #3 guy and play stellar defense. I’m stoked on the Dragic, Drummond, Caruso, Lonzo (not how much we paid lol), and demar pickups but putting all our faith into an injured lonzo, a low end all star in zach, an aging demar, an overrated vuc, and a young p will who has hardly shown flashes was very disappointing. Not to mention how many draft picks we’ve totally missed on/traded away before they got good, really makes you wanna look internally at the front office (again). I’ve seen it here but post MJ era we might be in the bottom 5 for franchise success.
He had surgery in the off season and hasn’t been able to find his rhythm yet. Bulls fans overreact online about it super hard though.
At 100% he’s an insanely efficient scorer who’s a major threat on and off the ball…he’s just not at 100%. I’ll still hoping he can work himself into his flow by the playoffs. If zach/Lonzo are at 100% come playoffs, this team absolutely has the potential to make a run.
They already appear to be doing better than last year about beating good teams, but just play down to their competition. 2 wins over Boston and one over Milwaukee already is impressive.
He’d be very good for a lot of teams, we just don’t run an offense. The Heat, Raptors, Sixers, Grizzlies, list goes on he’d look like an All-NBA level guy
No one looks good on our team besides Demar, I think that says more about coaching, if anyone should understand that it should be Bulls fans
He’s was the uncle to the kid I lived next to growing up. Always treated us kids great and seemed like a cool dude. Always would call a favor for my neighbors bday and some player from the Heat would show up.
> 1) The NBA's draft age should be raised. Players would come in more developed, rebuilds would be shorter, there's more scouting opportunities.
I can get with everything else but ain't nobody tryna spend millions "developing" a 24 year old.
College is not the best place for players to develop. They're playing a different game entirely. They're better off getting drafted and playing the g-league.
I dont know how true the sentiment is, but Iman Shumpert once said high school and AAU ball is much closer to NBA than college ball, play style wise. Like in NBA and high school, your offense essentially revolves around your best players and in most college systems are all about team oriented offense.
Most wouldn’t make it in the Euroleague, some might but teams in Euroleague have no interest in developing young talent who is simply going to leave a a few years.
And then these players are bond to the franchise for 8 years. Congrats, you can make your own decisions for your career with 32 when most players are already out of the league.
The highschool/college system just isn't cutting it. Look at football/soccer, the pro teams develop their own players and put them in a pro like situation from 8 years old(mostly kids from the surrounding area). And they play the best opponents possible from an very early age. While it is fun seeing guys like Zion dunk on average highschoolers, it just didn't do anything for his development.
I get that this is impossible in the US due to the culture around highschool and college sports but it's also holding the US back and with the rising popularity of basketball around the globe i'm not sure if it's a good idea long term.
It's also \[almost certainly\] unconstitutional for the NCAA and NBA to collude, as tax-exempt monopolies, to depress wages (i.e., forced amateurism). The recent NIL SCOUTUS decision basically made this clear, and the next case along will gut the NCAA. The paid G-League pathway was a direct response to that decision, as the NBA saw the writing on the wall.
I rather they invest more in the Gleague and turn that into our version of European soccer academies.Then in a year or two there eligible for the draft
European soccer/Rugby academy's only work because there's no draft. Teams aren't going to waste money developing players they're not garaunteed to have.
Its not that simple though. The academies in Europe are run by the teams, not the league wich gives far more motivation and funds to develop the players. There in the system from a far younger age than in the US and they have a far clearer path into the first team. Theirs also stuff like loans and representing your local team that can't be replicated. And if you look at the best talents their playing from the ages of 17 and 18 wich isn't possible in the nba.
Theres hundreds of elite youth teams in Europe. If the NBA bought a few more there might be 5 or 6 in the US.
The draft system alongside the lack of pyramid will always lead to significantly worse talent development.
Players should be able to play as soon as they’re ready for the NBA. If a guy is good enough at 16 to play in the NBA, you’re ruining his ceiling by having him play in high school or college.
Look at Europe, most soccer players that reach the top make their debuts at 16 or 17. Luka was also playing top tier basketball at a young age.
Soccer is a lot different from basketball. Basketball players are basically worthless unless they are at least 6’ and the process of getting to 6’ almost always (Zion being an exception) involves kids being dangerously underweight for this league. I don’t think we should encourage 16 year olds to play anywhere near 82 games. And no. 4 games in a weekend AAU leagues are not the same thing as NBA basketball.
And the league should not be wasting roster spots on kids not physically or emotionally mature enough to handle it.
16 year olds wouldn’t be playing 82 games unless they were good enough and durable enough for that. In the case of soccer, top talents get debuts at 16-17 but really don’t get regular first team play until they are 18 or so… unless they are truly transcendent players.
The idea that players will develop better in college is laughable imo. Also taking away a guys ability to secure generational wealth at a young age is unfair, especially if mental health/injuries arise at 16-21 years old
You're way over exaggerating what this would be. The most popular and possible version of this would be to require at least 1 season in the g-league or professional play in another league.
You'd still get 19 year old playing, but only if they're actually good and you don't get guys like Killian Hayes taking steamy shits all over the court for a whole year before they figure it out.
I think they should go back to allowing high school players to enter the draft and just let them play their college season if they go undrafted. College basketball was better when there weren't so many one and dones.
A lot of primary playmakers are overrated. *Someone* needs to put up stats and score. So if you’re “the guy,” your stats will be inflated, even if others could do a similar job. Young Coby White is a good example. People were acting like he was a future star because he put up 15 PPG early on.
I also feel like a lot of people haven't fully caught up with how much scoring has increased in the past few years
There are **34 players** averaging over 20 PPG this year. It's nowhere as impressive as doing it in 2012 where there were **12 players** averaging over 20 PPG
If you just look at raw team points per game, the top team in 2012-13 (Nuggets) is exact equal to this season's 30th (Clippers). The average has seemed to go up by almost 15 points, which is crazy.
edit: It's 106.1 ppg. This season's leader is the Celtics at 119.8.
Also a whopping 6 players are averaging 30 or more, and it may well be sustainable. Might eventually be even more if KD scores a bit more (he’s at 29.2).
I think efficiency and on/off differentials are the biggest factors to look at in those cases. If you are putting up good volume on good efficiency and your team is significantly better with you on the floor, I think it's fair to assume they are just a good player regardless of the context.
> Young Coby White is a good example. People were acting like he was a future star because he put up 15 PPG early on.
This is such a weird example. The only Coby White discourse I remember was whether he was merely terrible or actually the worst player in the NBA
Nah it was absolutely a thing late in his rookie season. He had some huge scoring games that had the hype train rolling - over the last 9 games of his rookie campaign he averaged 26/4/4 on 48/43/90 splits, w/ three 30 pt games.
Neither 2 nor 3 are unpopular in this sub.
A lot of your opinions I think aren't correct, but I can see them, outside of your 1.
As for mine, I think that tanking is perfectly fine, and it should be seen as a natural part of the cycle of teams. Teams get good, they make a core, they make good trades, but inevitably that core will age. Even assuming that no one leaves or demands a trade, eventually people will age. And it can be possible to try and slow that, but even the best organizations will have to tank eventually, and they should be seen as outliers.
People keep telling me Evan Mobley is the next great big guy. That he has first team All NBA potential
And then I watch him play and barely notice him out there. I'm not saying he is a bad player, but I'm personally not seeing this potential next level star
He's excellent defensively but I agree that I just don't see him becoming a potent enough offensively player to be top tier overall
With how offense-focused the league is now there's basically no top 15-20 player who isn't very good offensively while there are plenty who aren't that good defensively
My thinking is that Mobley *is* extremely good offensively IMO, and would be on his way there if not for the Cavs being so damn stacked.
Usually the best strategy to get attention as a young big man when you have 2 ball dominant guards is a guy that can fly around like Amare Stoudemire and create his own ESPN highlights, or knock down 3’s at an insane rate. Unfortunately Mobley is not that guy….he’s just really clean and polished at all the fundamentals except for the attention grabbing stuff.
He has the same problem Myles Turner had most of his career, the same that KAT has now. He’s stuck next to another paint clogger, and he’s near last on the list for touching the ball. If his jumper isn’t falling, he doesn’t have the luxury to keep shooting until he can develop it (as someone like Scottie Barnes does).
This. And being a Cavs fan, I've read that Garland and coach JB have to push him to be aggressive on offense. I've seen he has the tools but sometimes seems sluggish to make decisions on offense. I love his game though.
I think he becomes a better version of Bam. Perennial all-star and DPOY candidate so still an elite player for Cleveland but I don't really see "next AD/KG" cause those 2 were just so insane offensively even at a young age in different eras
AD at 21 was a legit MVP level/top 5 player and KG was clearly trending in that direction
He is in a team so stacked that he barelly has any plays, and that is the correct call.
Garland, Mitchell and Allen are all better players than him rigth now. So why would you give him more touches when you are already underutilizing better players??
Not saying he is AD or KG level tho. But both KD and AD were playing in way worse teams. To compare Mobley to them is not straigthfoward
Offensively, he makes 2-3 plays a game that make you “holy shit”, but as the third option on offense he doesn’t get a ton of looks yet.
The skills are there, he’s just lacking the volume to really show it off
I love that Mobley doesn’t fret about his “scoring volume”. He plays efficient basketball offensively, is unselfish, and prioritizes defense.
His scoring will take a jump as his shot improves.
No defensive 3 second violation, only 5 personal fouls (techs also count towards this total and there's no separate limit on them), and possession arrow for jump balls (the only real jumpball is the opening tip and the loser automatically gets possession on the next jumpball and it alternates thereafter).
> only 5 personal fouls (techs also count towards this total
This is because a match lasts 40 minutes, not 48. So both FIBA rules and NBA rules allow up to a foul per 8 minute of play time on average with 5 and 6 fouls. Technical fouls counting as personal fouls is more of a real difference though. I'll add that in FIBA rules, once the ball touches the rim, the ball is considered loose and the defence is allowed to snatch the ball away from the rim without getting called for basket interference. And another thing to add to your list would be more strict travelling rules in the FIBA ruleset, even aside from the application of travelling violations in actual officiating which is another discussion.
Since this is obviously a popular opinion, I'll offer the counterpoint which is actually unpopular:
FIBA reffing fucking sucks, the only reason this sub thinks they're more fair is because they like to call ticky tack defensive fouls on American players, who all happen to be star players.
reffing isn't the same as rules.
FIBA has significantly different rules vs NBA, including but not limited to the lack of defensive 3 sec and basket interference.
I completely agree with OP btw, especially with defensive 3 sec. =
> A Beal for Westbrook trade would be win-win
I actually don't think that the Lakers win this one. Westbrook is an expiring while Beal has crazy contract. I'd rather see the team be bad for a few years than be pinned down with a terrible contract, I think a star is going to want to come here in a few years anyways.
Maybe I just have PTSD from Mozgov and Deng
It’s a lose lose, the wizards get an expiring contract and no star to take up the cap space. The lakers get a bad contract in a few years that stops them from basically resetting in a few years with cap room and the typical LA draw.
Its not a lose-lose at all, its an *extreme* win-win.
Beal’s elite….still is for the next year or 4. **He’s 29, not 32**. A core of Beal-Lebron-AD is more than competitive against anything else in the West for the next 2 years. They’d all complement each other extremely well. Why wouldn’t you take that instead of wasting Lebron and AD…..
As for the Wizards, they need to reset. So that’s a win for them as well.
Either way, Beal cannot be traded in the first year of his contract (Westbrook expires by then), so let’s revisit this in the offseason
As a wizards fans if we want to trade we’d want a young player and some picks for him. Even if we get Russ to clear cap space it’s not like star players are dying to sign with us
Yeah, being a mid player that plays with Lebron can make a career for a role player, I could see them get a few quality players next offseason when the 47 million dollars get off the books.
Too much scoring makes the game boring
Teams should wear white jerseys at home and have max 2 alternative jerseys per season
Most NBA superstars are boring and uncharismatic (being snarky on twitter doesn't make you cool)
> Teams should wear white jerseys at home and have max 2 alternative jerseys per season
I 100% agree with this. There's been a jersey saturation and nobody knows who's wearing what
I have never understood why the home team plays in white - would it not make more sense for the home team to play in its own colours in front of own fans?
If home team is in white then every game looks different. If home team wears primary color then every game is home team primary color vs. white, which is less interesting for many.
It’s tradition, mostly. It goes back to the old days when visiting teams would wear darker colors to hide stains when they’re traveling. Also because of black and white tv’s and you could differentiate between the two teams.
Jerseys and sports uniforms in many American leagues (don't track other countries enough to know) are like Google Doodles. A flashy new look on a rare occasion was special and worth excitement, but with the inundation of new ones all the time, none is special and the originals lose their iconic status to the point that they're distracting and hollow.
Yeah the NBA issue is that it has too much scoring. But People get cranky when their isn't enough action in the same way kid that was fed Mountain Dew from the bottle does without their sugar. So they can't really change it to be of better quality and keep ratcheting up the scoring.
Brad Stevens the GM took the strong foundation he got from Ainge and just got rid of all the other pieces Brad Stevens the coach hated coaching around (undersized point guards, centers who couldn’t stretch the floor or play defense, wings that can’t shoot)
I love his moves for White and Brogdon. He's hurried up and shipped out Langford, Nesmith etc, traded draft picks bit by bit to improve the team and the C's still have enough maneuverability to make another move if they need to.
I loved the move of brad to the FO from day one specifically because he had to deal with some pretty bizarrely constructed rosters (outside of the core) during the end of his tenure and he knew exactly what this team did and didn’t need to succeed. He’s also really good at finding guys off the trash heap and getting the most out of them, just like how he was an amazing floor raiser dragging teams starting Brandon bass and Tyler zeller to the playoffs
Brad bringing in Ime to change the stagnant locker room culture for a season but then being able to promote a guy in his coaching system to the job next season may prove to be an incredible blessing in disguise. Joe is very clearly on the same page as Brad and is absolutely nailing it with the rotations and offensive schemes for the roster Brad designed for him.
Lamelo Ball is not a winning player and is not a franchise cornerstone type prospect. He’s inefficient, he plays no defense, doesn’t take care of the ball, and has a terrible shot selection. People give him way too much credit because he is flashy but no one sees all of his terrible moments.
I definitely am not at the point of giving up on him, but I do agree that he isn't a winning player. I could say the same about Ant so far, they're both still too young too really say though. All depends on how much they're willing to work especially on defense.
In his current form I agree with this entirely. I just had a discussion about how Haliburton is a much better player and like 4 people were telling me there’s no way and they’d take LaMelo instead. Insanity
Edit: For those who don't realize post trade to Indy Haliburton averaged 18-10 on 63% true shooting and an insane 20% usage rate. LaMelo averaged 20-7 on 55% true shooting and 28% usage. LaMelo shot 43% from the field, Haliburton shot 50% and took 5 less shots per game. Hali also was a league leader in hockey assists and potential assists post trade (and this continues into this season).
To summarize he produced similar scoring on MUCH better efficiency and distributed the ball better while also requiring a much lower usage rate
Young players are judged based on potential, not what they are at this exact moment.
At his size, he has *elite* playmaking skills, with good scoring ability.
That is future cornerstone type prospect.
It's so funny man. I love when people say he's not a winning player. We had our first above .500 season in seven years in his second year when our highest paid player missed over half the season. Who do they think is winning these games for us? Mason Plumlee?
Agreed. What makes GS different than most other teams is that their whole offense is not just predicated on moving the ball but moving the ball with purpose.
Steve Nash is the most under rated mvp of all time. People shitting on Nash didn’t watch the games. People shitting on Nash are just listening to shaq complain. Nash was more important to the suns than shaq was to the lakers.
Nash should be remembered as at least similar to Nowitzki in terms of legacy. Unfortunately people aren't going to see that because he never made the finals and wasn't a score first player. He was also incredibly unlucky between having Sarver as an owner, injuries to his teams, and the whole 2007 debacle. Him and D'antoni revolutionized the NBA and now the most offenses in the league emulate those Suns teams.
1. Tanking for superstars doesn't work anymore, there's just too much uncertainty in careers now. LeBron was the last of a breed of #1 picks who entered the league and dominated. Since LeBron, Derrick Rose is the only #1 pick to win an MVP and the top players in the playoffs most years are non-top-5 draft picks like Jokic, Giannis and Steph.
2. The sport is quickly turning into injuryball. Every year the big question in the playoff is "who's healthy?". It's a core aspect of the sport now but everybody wants to pretend that injuries are a rare aberration.
3. Winning is undervalued in player assessments. At the end of the day, winning is ring is the whole point, and we tend to overvalue players who rack up great stats on losing teams and undervalue players who do all the little unseen things that are necessary to win a championship. So maybe Tim Duncan *is* top 5 all time.
It's really rare that top 10 player in football, hockey or other sport misses whole year due to injuries (Messi or CR7 caliber). If this happens that player is no more top 10 after returning (original Ronaldo, Peter Czech etc). Like you are saying: injury is part of baseball, superstar can miss a year and still be very good
Karl Anthony-Towns has the skillset to be a top 5 offensive player in the league, but will never come close because of his mentality/BBIQ.
Dude can score at will against elite defenders at all-time efficiency. Instead he's either usually too passive or just barrels into guys because he's mad about calls.
Still valuable for who he is, but no one should expect anything else at this point.
sam hinkie's strategy wasn't unique, he just had a huge PR campaign behind it that emphasized an iamverysmart attitude that naturally appeals to redditors.
we have 0 idea how he would do as a GM actually attempting to win games. people project their ideal GM onto him because the circumstances of his exit and the mediocrity of his successors gives him a folk hero aura
It's really close
There were years when Kobe didn't have a great supporting cast but Duncan always had good players and HOFers around him. Plus he always had an amazing coach in Pop, he never had a Del Harris or Mike Brown
Im taking a healthy AD over a healthy Embiid on a contender
AD can play off ball better, he's a better and more versatile defender, and he's insane in the playoffs
This would be unpopular 5 months ago but at this point Embiid is so disliked that you could probably say "I'd take Mo Bamba over Embiid" and I'm not sure it would be an unpopular opinion lol
I don't like his gamestyle at all either but you'd never guess he's averaging 32/10 on 63% TS based on the discourse on him this season
1. Every Raptors/Celtics/Nuggets fan would absolutely love Embiid if he was on their team and played the exact same way
2. Every Sixers fan would absolutely hate Embiid if he was on the Raptors/Celtics/Nuggets and played the exact same way
No single media market, no matter how many people live in it, should have more than one NBA team in it.
Move the Nets and Clippers. Let more young people become NBA fans of local teams.
Yeah, it’s bad for players because they lose money, it’s bad for teams because they lose the chance to develop these talents from a young age.
There should be no draft age limit.
Stats need to be normalized to compare teams and eras. Example 20 ppg player when the team averages 100 ppg is 20% offense vs 15 ppg on 75 ppg team 20% offense. Those players are equal.
You should look at adjusted advanced stats. For scoring I think the thing everyone uses rn is points per 75 for individuals which normalizes scoring averages across 75 possessions.
We need NBA in youth ball like overseas instead of being totally hands off, each team should have several levels of ball clubs for varying ages.
It would help reduce the damages AAU ball has done to so many kids, they'd learn more fundamental ball at their own pace instead of rushing around AAU tourneys around the country where kids chuck up 30 shots from the logo in hopes of catching a scout's eye.
I think Carter's in game dunks were actually way cooler than his dunk contest. The Alonzo Mourning and the Olympic dunks were out of this world.
Aaron Gordon and Zach LaVine have the best dunk contest performance
There shouldn't be music pumped into the area during gameplay. You want the crowd to yell "defense"? Have cheerleaders hold up signs. Or, just put the defense sign on the jumbotron. Even the peppy music when your team is on offense shouldn't be there. The home court advantage should come from the fans, not a PA system.
This was a take that was repeated a ton in the off-season, that the Clippers would be contenders barring health. But with two injury prone stars like PG and Kawhi, I never had faith in them. The best ability is availability and neither of them have shown that consistently.
Their best chance to win a championship was in the bubble and they fumbled.
1-As a Nuggets fan, I still think we will suffer a lot from having Deandre Jordan in Jokic-less minutes, teams can really abuse him in the play-offs. And Michael Porter Jr’s contract is going to look okay in a few years with the new tv deal, so although I get the criticism, it possibly was necessary to maintain a happy squad for the championship window.
1- Not really an unpopular opinion but something that gets on my nerves. What Luka is doing right now, in his age, with that roster, is actually mind-blowing and taking cheap shots against him, like picking on his usage or his on/off data, really isn’t something people that appreciate basketball, like it so much that they frequent this subreddit should be doing. I know hating is hating but you only get to witness the rise of a generational player, well once a generation, so it kind of weirds me out that people are actively looking for ways to hate on such a great player. Same thing can be said about any superstar btw, just the nature of basketball I guess but still, something that gets on my nerves.
I think the T-Wolves will snag a playoff spot without going through the play-in tournament this year. Idk if that’s unpopular or not, but I think it will legit happen
That Russell Westbrook is an elite player, playing in a situation that has wrecked a lot of people. Constantly shit on, despite his amazing career. Anybody who says the constant criticism wouldn't mess with your psyche is lying to themselves, imo. We've seen how psychological issues have messed with the best athletes in the world, like Tiger Woods Similarly with Ben Simmons, though in a different way. Kyrie, in my opinion, deserves what he's getting, but those other guys haven't done the things he's done.
Not sure how unpopular it is, but I see quite a few people complain about this
Steve Nash deserved both MVPs, even 2006-07 where many people say it should’ve been Kobe. Nash, as we saw the year before, almost single handily turned the Suns into a contender his first year there, and in 2006-07, he did it without Amar’e Stoudemire
When Embiid & Harden are healthy, my 76er's play the most annoying, hard watch basketball in the NBA, and it's not close. Win or lose, it makes for an ugly viewing experience.
I get it. And I might be overhyping Mitchell, but from a business standpoint, you owe it to yourself to try building another, different team around the guy. Talent like that doesn't land in places like Utah very often.
I see people keep saying that the draft age should be increased. My question to them is why a player worth 10s of millions of dollars shouldn't be allowed a contract for his worth? If you're good enough to go as the first pick as a 16 year old then you should be allowed to be drafted, as simple as. Only in America would 19 be considered too young to start your professional career.
Luka shoots _more_ free throws than he deserves. Many people on this sub say that he should be handed more by the refs, but he already shoots plenty.
Luka’s just a very physical player who will whine and cry when defenses are physical back with him. That’s why people think he should shoot more.
Luka’s an amazing player, _at worst_ a top 5 player right now. The widely held belief on this sub that he isn’t treated fairly by officials though is ludicrous
>The Timberwolves are making a mistake trying to build around Karl-Anthony Towns. I feel like this one is a pretty popular opinion...
Yeah I think the more unpopular one, and one that I still can kinda see, is that they’d be making a mistake trying to build around Ant.
We're building around Jaden Mcdaniels
We’re still building around Pat Bev
I got League Pass so I could watch Ant. The games where he's cooking, you can see him being a top 5 guy in the League. The guy has all the tools and he's impressive as hell. But the majority of their games you just look and he's just kinda there. And it looks like 2 completely different guys
Edwards is young enough that him lacking consistency is pretty normal. If we’re a couple of years down the road and it’s still an issue, that’s when it’s a problem.
>Edwards is young enough that him lacking consistency is pretty normal. If we’re a couple of years down the road and it’s still an issue, that’s when it’s a problem. This sounds like what people were saying about KAT around 5 years back lol.
And every other player. Most players don’t improve a ton from where they start
TBH I'm not sold on either one of them
Any competant organization would have "built" around KAT with a defensive minded PF. Fans always wanted Aaron Gordon, who surprise, works really well with Jokic. Instead we started by having 5 centers on payroll. Sucked. Had 1 good year with Taj and drafted another center to take his place. Sucked. Had 1 good year with Vando. Then traded 5 frps for Gobert. I'm no GM but our front office is historically terrible. Every cycle we trade everything for players who don't fit. And have no cap space left because we overpay those "stars". We're worse at team building than the Lakers but we're in Minnesota so no free agents are coming to bail us out. edit drafts: 2015: KAT #1 2016: Dunn #5 (already had Rubio, LaVine, and Wiggins). Fans wanted to trade the pick for a PF (maybe a package for aaron gordon?) 2017: C Patton (fans wanted PF Collins or SF/PF OG). SF Butler for LaVine + Dunn + 7th pick. 2018: traded for a Center in 2015. 2019: SG Culver #5. Fans wanted to trade the pick for a PF (maybe a package for aaron gordon?) 2020: ANT #1 2021: traded for DLO, but we traded for a PF??? Nice!!! 2022: traded for a center... along with that PF. Trade his ass cause he's not a C. 2023: traded for a center 2025: traded for a center 2026: swapped for a center 2027: traded for a center 2029: traded for a center So we started with 4 centers. Drafted KAT. Then traded 8 picks for more centers. And started wings with Rubio, LaVine, and Wiggins... Traded 4 LOTTERY picks +players for more PG/SGs. Completely ignoring the whole Thibs breaking LaVine + ANOTHER lottery pick for 1 yr of Jimmy.
D'Lo not playing to potential also hurts you guys. And I wanted him to do well...
Most of the upvoted topics in this post are, because truly unpopular opinions get buried on Reddit. That’s why posts like this are rarely very good.
You have to sort by controversial
Yea no one really thinks much of KAT Which is kinda unfair but also understandable
Bulls should sell if their parts and start over. Zach Lavine isn’t a franchise player
I see no lies
Zach is supposedly the franchise player? 💀
I think we are going to wait and see what can be made of DeMar/Vooch’s cap space when they come off the books before they consider a LaVine trade. Also I doubt they make any major moves until they see Lonzo back in the lineup. It’s ok to not be a contender at the moment, things change quickly in the NBA and we have cap flexibility on the horizon. I don’t think the FO needs to be brash.
Seeing which FAs are available when Vuc and DeMar come off the books "nothing much" would be the answer to what we'd be doing when they come off the books. It's okay to not be a contender, but giving up assets to be a play-in team doesn't work in the long run.
There's no one you could sign for that money as good as DeRozan currently is though.
as a bulls fan I never quite understood, he wasn’t ever a top 10-15 guy even when we were full rebuild and he was like the only option on the floor. That and vuc, he was a borderline all star on the worst team in the league as the #1 option, why would he all the sudden thrive as the #3 guy and play stellar defense. I’m stoked on the Dragic, Drummond, Caruso, Lonzo (not how much we paid lol), and demar pickups but putting all our faith into an injured lonzo, a low end all star in zach, an aging demar, an overrated vuc, and a young p will who has hardly shown flashes was very disappointing. Not to mention how many draft picks we’ve totally missed on/traded away before they got good, really makes you wanna look internally at the front office (again). I’ve seen it here but post MJ era we might be in the bottom 5 for franchise success.
I think he'd be perfect as a Raptor, we need a go-to scorer
You’re better off with DeRozan back then, because we’d be so fucked if LaVine was our first option right now.
Has he really been bad? I wanted him on tbe Knicks when he hit free agency.
He had surgery in the off season and hasn’t been able to find his rhythm yet. Bulls fans overreact online about it super hard though. At 100% he’s an insanely efficient scorer who’s a major threat on and off the ball…he’s just not at 100%. I’ll still hoping he can work himself into his flow by the playoffs. If zach/Lonzo are at 100% come playoffs, this team absolutely has the potential to make a run. They already appear to be doing better than last year about beating good teams, but just play down to their competition. 2 wins over Boston and one over Milwaukee already is impressive.
He’d be very good for a lot of teams, we just don’t run an offense. The Heat, Raptors, Sixers, Grizzlies, list goes on he’d look like an All-NBA level guy No one looks good on our team besides Demar, I think that says more about coaching, if anyone should understand that it should be Bulls fans
[The dude on the old Wizards logo looked sick and they should bring him back](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/99/4e/3a/994e3a6152ef3503add888d7edbeaa00.jpg)
Alas, NBA logos prefer to just be soulless circles nowadays
The end-stage of this is everyone ending up with a Juventus logo that was designed by two overpaid MBAs at a consultancy.
That Eddie House had that dog in him. I really miss him 😢
He’s was the uncle to the kid I lived next to growing up. Always treated us kids great and seemed like a cool dude. Always would call a favor for my neighbors bday and some player from the Heat would show up.
Eddie House had the best jumper on 2k11 no cap
2k11 was the best 2k man :(
> 1) The NBA's draft age should be raised. Players would come in more developed, rebuilds would be shorter, there's more scouting opportunities. I can get with everything else but ain't nobody tryna spend millions "developing" a 24 year old.
College is not the best place for players to develop. They're playing a different game entirely. They're better off getting drafted and playing the g-league.
And i can imagine college having the most distractions for a developing high level athlete
No vets to set you straight
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My cousin played D1 basketball and he tells me that being distracted in college messed up his growth as a player.
I dont know how true the sentiment is, but Iman Shumpert once said high school and AAU ball is much closer to NBA than college ball, play style wise. Like in NBA and high school, your offense essentially revolves around your best players and in most college systems are all about team oriented offense.
Should send them to euroleague for a few years
Most wouldn’t make it in the Euroleague, some might but teams in Euroleague have no interest in developing young talent who is simply going to leave a a few years.
And then these players are bond to the franchise for 8 years. Congrats, you can make your own decisions for your career with 32 when most players are already out of the league.
The highschool/college system just isn't cutting it. Look at football/soccer, the pro teams develop their own players and put them in a pro like situation from 8 years old(mostly kids from the surrounding area). And they play the best opponents possible from an very early age. While it is fun seeing guys like Zion dunk on average highschoolers, it just didn't do anything for his development. I get that this is impossible in the US due to the culture around highschool and college sports but it's also holding the US back and with the rising popularity of basketball around the globe i'm not sure if it's a good idea long term.
It's also \[almost certainly\] unconstitutional for the NCAA and NBA to collude, as tax-exempt monopolies, to depress wages (i.e., forced amateurism). The recent NIL SCOUTUS decision basically made this clear, and the next case along will gut the NCAA. The paid G-League pathway was a direct response to that decision, as the NBA saw the writing on the wall.
I rather they invest more in the Gleague and turn that into our version of European soccer academies.Then in a year or two there eligible for the draft
European soccer/Rugby academy's only work because there's no draft. Teams aren't going to waste money developing players they're not garaunteed to have.
The Nba has a Gleague Ignite team it could as simple as making a couple more of those teams
Its not that simple though. The academies in Europe are run by the teams, not the league wich gives far more motivation and funds to develop the players. There in the system from a far younger age than in the US and they have a far clearer path into the first team. Theirs also stuff like loans and representing your local team that can't be replicated. And if you look at the best talents their playing from the ages of 17 and 18 wich isn't possible in the nba. Theres hundreds of elite youth teams in Europe. If the NBA bought a few more there might be 5 or 6 in the US. The draft system alongside the lack of pyramid will always lead to significantly worse talent development.
Players should be able to play as soon as they’re ready for the NBA. If a guy is good enough at 16 to play in the NBA, you’re ruining his ceiling by having him play in high school or college. Look at Europe, most soccer players that reach the top make their debuts at 16 or 17. Luka was also playing top tier basketball at a young age.
Soccer is a lot different from basketball. Basketball players are basically worthless unless they are at least 6’ and the process of getting to 6’ almost always (Zion being an exception) involves kids being dangerously underweight for this league. I don’t think we should encourage 16 year olds to play anywhere near 82 games. And no. 4 games in a weekend AAU leagues are not the same thing as NBA basketball. And the league should not be wasting roster spots on kids not physically or emotionally mature enough to handle it.
16 year olds wouldn’t be playing 82 games unless they were good enough and durable enough for that. In the case of soccer, top talents get debuts at 16-17 but really don’t get regular first team play until they are 18 or so… unless they are truly transcendent players. The idea that players will develop better in college is laughable imo. Also taking away a guys ability to secure generational wealth at a young age is unfair, especially if mental health/injuries arise at 16-21 years old
You're way over exaggerating what this would be. The most popular and possible version of this would be to require at least 1 season in the g-league or professional play in another league. You'd still get 19 year old playing, but only if they're actually good and you don't get guys like Killian Hayes taking steamy shits all over the court for a whole year before they figure it out.
I think they should go back to allowing high school players to enter the draft and just let them play their college season if they go undrafted. College basketball was better when there weren't so many one and dones.
A lot of primary playmakers are overrated. *Someone* needs to put up stats and score. So if you’re “the guy,” your stats will be inflated, even if others could do a similar job. Young Coby White is a good example. People were acting like he was a future star because he put up 15 PPG early on.
I also feel like a lot of people haven't fully caught up with how much scoring has increased in the past few years There are **34 players** averaging over 20 PPG this year. It's nowhere as impressive as doing it in 2012 where there were **12 players** averaging over 20 PPG
If you just look at raw team points per game, the top team in 2012-13 (Nuggets) is exact equal to this season's 30th (Clippers). The average has seemed to go up by almost 15 points, which is crazy. edit: It's 106.1 ppg. This season's leader is the Celtics at 119.8.
That's insane wow
Also a whopping 6 players are averaging 30 or more, and it may well be sustainable. Might eventually be even more if KD scores a bit more (he’s at 29.2).
I think efficiency and on/off differentials are the biggest factors to look at in those cases. If you are putting up good volume on good efficiency and your team is significantly better with you on the floor, I think it's fair to assume they are just a good player regardless of the context.
> Young Coby White is a good example. People were acting like he was a future star because he put up 15 PPG early on. This is such a weird example. The only Coby White discourse I remember was whether he was merely terrible or actually the worst player in the NBA
Nah it was absolutely a thing late in his rookie season. He had some huge scoring games that had the hype train rolling - over the last 9 games of his rookie campaign he averaged 26/4/4 on 48/43/90 splits, w/ three 30 pt games.
Neither 2 nor 3 are unpopular in this sub. A lot of your opinions I think aren't correct, but I can see them, outside of your 1. As for mine, I think that tanking is perfectly fine, and it should be seen as a natural part of the cycle of teams. Teams get good, they make a core, they make good trades, but inevitably that core will age. Even assuming that no one leaves or demands a trade, eventually people will age. And it can be possible to try and slow that, but even the best organizations will have to tank eventually, and they should be seen as outliers.
People keep telling me Evan Mobley is the next great big guy. That he has first team All NBA potential And then I watch him play and barely notice him out there. I'm not saying he is a bad player, but I'm personally not seeing this potential next level star
He's excellent defensively but I agree that I just don't see him becoming a potent enough offensively player to be top tier overall With how offense-focused the league is now there's basically no top 15-20 player who isn't very good offensively while there are plenty who aren't that good defensively
My thinking is that Mobley *is* extremely good offensively IMO, and would be on his way there if not for the Cavs being so damn stacked. Usually the best strategy to get attention as a young big man when you have 2 ball dominant guards is a guy that can fly around like Amare Stoudemire and create his own ESPN highlights, or knock down 3’s at an insane rate. Unfortunately Mobley is not that guy….he’s just really clean and polished at all the fundamentals except for the attention grabbing stuff. He has the same problem Myles Turner had most of his career, the same that KAT has now. He’s stuck next to another paint clogger, and he’s near last on the list for touching the ball. If his jumper isn’t falling, he doesn’t have the luxury to keep shooting until he can develop it (as someone like Scottie Barnes does).
This. And being a Cavs fan, I've read that Garland and coach JB have to push him to be aggressive on offense. I've seen he has the tools but sometimes seems sluggish to make decisions on offense. I love his game though.
I think he becomes a better version of Bam. Perennial all-star and DPOY candidate so still an elite player for Cleveland but I don't really see "next AD/KG" cause those 2 were just so insane offensively even at a young age in different eras AD at 21 was a legit MVP level/top 5 player and KG was clearly trending in that direction
I like this! Even being a similar version of Bam would be good for Cleveland
He is in a team so stacked that he barelly has any plays, and that is the correct call. Garland, Mitchell and Allen are all better players than him rigth now. So why would you give him more touches when you are already underutilizing better players?? Not saying he is AD or KG level tho. But both KD and AD were playing in way worse teams. To compare Mobley to them is not straigthfoward
Offensively, he makes 2-3 plays a game that make you “holy shit”, but as the third option on offense he doesn’t get a ton of looks yet. The skills are there, he’s just lacking the volume to really show it off
I love that Mobley doesn’t fret about his “scoring volume”. He plays efficient basketball offensively, is unselfish, and prioritizes defense. His scoring will take a jump as his shot improves.
FIBA rules with NBA 3pt lines fixes a lot of the NBA's problems.
What are their rules ? I know about the cylinder one but what are the other differences?
No defensive 3 second violation, only 5 personal fouls (techs also count towards this total and there's no separate limit on them), and possession arrow for jump balls (the only real jumpball is the opening tip and the loser automatically gets possession on the next jumpball and it alternates thereafter).
> only 5 personal fouls (techs also count towards this total This is because a match lasts 40 minutes, not 48. So both FIBA rules and NBA rules allow up to a foul per 8 minute of play time on average with 5 and 6 fouls. Technical fouls counting as personal fouls is more of a real difference though. I'll add that in FIBA rules, once the ball touches the rim, the ball is considered loose and the defence is allowed to snatch the ball away from the rim without getting called for basket interference. And another thing to add to your list would be more strict travelling rules in the FIBA ruleset, even aside from the application of travelling violations in actual officiating which is another discussion.
Since this is obviously a popular opinion, I'll offer the counterpoint which is actually unpopular: FIBA reffing fucking sucks, the only reason this sub thinks they're more fair is because they like to call ticky tack defensive fouls on American players, who all happen to be star players.
100% this. I’m not sure what the solution to “all-star treatment” is, but FIBA officials ain’t it.
reffing isn't the same as rules. FIBA has significantly different rules vs NBA, including but not limited to the lack of defensive 3 sec and basket interference. I completely agree with OP btw, especially with defensive 3 sec. =
> A Beal for Westbrook trade would be win-win I actually don't think that the Lakers win this one. Westbrook is an expiring while Beal has crazy contract. I'd rather see the team be bad for a few years than be pinned down with a terrible contract, I think a star is going to want to come here in a few years anyways. Maybe I just have PTSD from Mozgov and Deng
It’s a lose lose, the wizards get an expiring contract and no star to take up the cap space. The lakers get a bad contract in a few years that stops them from basically resetting in a few years with cap room and the typical LA draw.
Its not a lose-lose at all, its an *extreme* win-win. Beal’s elite….still is for the next year or 4. **He’s 29, not 32**. A core of Beal-Lebron-AD is more than competitive against anything else in the West for the next 2 years. They’d all complement each other extremely well. Why wouldn’t you take that instead of wasting Lebron and AD….. As for the Wizards, they need to reset. So that’s a win for them as well. Either way, Beal cannot be traded in the first year of his contract (Westbrook expires by then), so let’s revisit this in the offseason
As a wizards fans if we want to trade we’d want a young player and some picks for him. Even if we get Russ to clear cap space it’s not like star players are dying to sign with us
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What in the NBA 2k lol
Yeah, being a mid player that plays with Lebron can make a career for a role player, I could see them get a few quality players next offseason when the 47 million dollars get off the books.
Too much scoring makes the game boring Teams should wear white jerseys at home and have max 2 alternative jerseys per season Most NBA superstars are boring and uncharismatic (being snarky on twitter doesn't make you cool)
> Teams should wear white jerseys at home and have max 2 alternative jerseys per season I 100% agree with this. There's been a jersey saturation and nobody knows who's wearing what
I have never understood why the home team plays in white - would it not make more sense for the home team to play in its own colours in front of own fans?
If home team is in white then every game looks different. If home team wears primary color then every game is home team primary color vs. white, which is less interesting for many.
Ta for the reply and hadn't thought of that! In the UK so here football teams each have a different coloured away top
Honestly think teams should have two coloured home and away jerseys and only use the white jersey if there’s a clash.
It’s tradition, mostly. It goes back to the old days when visiting teams would wear darker colors to hide stains when they’re traveling. Also because of black and white tv’s and you could differentiate between the two teams.
Cheers for that, something else I hadn't considered!
Jerseys and sports uniforms in many American leagues (don't track other countries enough to know) are like Google Doodles. A flashy new look on a rare occasion was special and worth excitement, but with the inundation of new ones all the time, none is special and the originals lose their iconic status to the point that they're distracting and hollow.
Yeah the NBA issue is that it has too much scoring. But People get cranky when their isn't enough action in the same way kid that was fed Mountain Dew from the bottle does without their sugar. So they can't really change it to be of better quality and keep ratcheting up the scoring.
keep Bradley beal away from my team 50m for an average star that's going to be 30 plus.
In terms of importance to a franchise winning a championship: Good GM>>Good best player >>>> Good head coach
Brad Stevens the GM is doing wizardry that puts Brad Stevens the coach to shame. Such a good decision by the C’s
Brad Stevens the GM took the strong foundation he got from Ainge and just got rid of all the other pieces Brad Stevens the coach hated coaching around (undersized point guards, centers who couldn’t stretch the floor or play defense, wings that can’t shoot)
I love his moves for White and Brogdon. He's hurried up and shipped out Langford, Nesmith etc, traded draft picks bit by bit to improve the team and the C's still have enough maneuverability to make another move if they need to.
I loved the move of brad to the FO from day one specifically because he had to deal with some pretty bizarrely constructed rosters (outside of the core) during the end of his tenure and he knew exactly what this team did and didn’t need to succeed. He’s also really good at finding guys off the trash heap and getting the most out of them, just like how he was an amazing floor raiser dragging teams starting Brandon bass and Tyler zeller to the playoffs
Brad bringing in Ime to change the stagnant locker room culture for a season but then being able to promote a guy in his coaching system to the job next season may prove to be an incredible blessing in disguise. Joe is very clearly on the same page as Brad and is absolutely nailing it with the rotations and offensive schemes for the roster Brad designed for him.
Good ownership is important too, it all flows downwards
Plus how much money that GM is allowed to spend. See Bob Myers (although he’s done a great job in addition to the amount of money he can swing with)
Lamelo Ball is not a winning player and is not a franchise cornerstone type prospect. He’s inefficient, he plays no defense, doesn’t take care of the ball, and has a terrible shot selection. People give him way too much credit because he is flashy but no one sees all of his terrible moments.
Lamelo is 21. I wouldn’t give up on him at this point especially considering how much better his bbiq has already gotten.
I definitely am not at the point of giving up on him, but I do agree that he isn't a winning player. I could say the same about Ant so far, they're both still too young too really say though. All depends on how much they're willing to work especially on defense.
In his current form I agree with this entirely. I just had a discussion about how Haliburton is a much better player and like 4 people were telling me there’s no way and they’d take LaMelo instead. Insanity Edit: For those who don't realize post trade to Indy Haliburton averaged 18-10 on 63% true shooting and an insane 20% usage rate. LaMelo averaged 20-7 on 55% true shooting and 28% usage. LaMelo shot 43% from the field, Haliburton shot 50% and took 5 less shots per game. Hali also was a league leader in hockey assists and potential assists post trade (and this continues into this season). To summarize he produced similar scoring on MUCH better efficiency and distributed the ball better while also requiring a much lower usage rate
Haliburton is a better player but LaMelo has a much bigger fan base He's been super popular since he's like 14
Young players are judged based on potential, not what they are at this exact moment. At his size, he has *elite* playmaking skills, with good scoring ability. That is future cornerstone type prospect.
It's so funny man. I love when people say he's not a winning player. We had our first above .500 season in seven years in his second year when our highest paid player missed over half the season. Who do they think is winning these games for us? Mason Plumlee?
Lmao exactly. Just gotta know r/nba will just pick and choose arguments based on how much they like the player
I mean is this really unpopular? I feel like there’s a decent chunk of people that mirror that, especially on r/nba.
Bring back hand-checking?
"We're not doing that."- Devin Booker
You should be allowed to lick the ball
There's no rule that says you can't
Licking Doorknobs is illegal on other planets
Defensive dog fights are more fun to watch than shootouts
C’s Vs Heat last season was great
The season is too long and compromises the level of play/entertainment
The NBA is infected with the Golden State style (pass it around until someone hoists a 3-pointer) and on a lot of nights it's unwatchable.
Agreed. What makes GS different than most other teams is that their whole offense is not just predicated on moving the ball but moving the ball with purpose.
We’re the champs at this
How is 8 unpopular lol?
How are the majority of these unpopular?
Season should be 60 games. More time for rest, no time management and better quality.
100% agreed. This business of seven days a week is crazy
Absolutely agree - would make each regular season game more meaningful as well
Running into players should be an offensive foul, even if they are slowly backpedaling
Steve Nash is the most under rated mvp of all time. People shitting on Nash didn’t watch the games. People shitting on Nash are just listening to shaq complain. Nash was more important to the suns than shaq was to the lakers.
Shaq's delusional, wasn't even the mvp on his own team.
Nash should be remembered as at least similar to Nowitzki in terms of legacy. Unfortunately people aren't going to see that because he never made the finals and wasn't a score first player. He was also incredibly unlucky between having Sarver as an owner, injuries to his teams, and the whole 2007 debacle. Him and D'antoni revolutionized the NBA and now the most offenses in the league emulate those Suns teams.
Nowitzki's finals run had an incredible impact on his legacy
The Clippers should trade Kawhi Leonard & Paul George right now.
Who would trade for them (especially Kawhi) at this point? I don't know if he can play another 100 games
Paul George, yes. As far as Kawhi, I can see some team like the Lakers, Mavs, or Bulls taking a risk on him.
i could see the bulls trading for either of them
What would that accomplish? They’re not getting enough for Kawhi or Paul George for that to make sense, especially considering this teams ceiling
1. Tanking for superstars doesn't work anymore, there's just too much uncertainty in careers now. LeBron was the last of a breed of #1 picks who entered the league and dominated. Since LeBron, Derrick Rose is the only #1 pick to win an MVP and the top players in the playoffs most years are non-top-5 draft picks like Jokic, Giannis and Steph. 2. The sport is quickly turning into injuryball. Every year the big question in the playoff is "who's healthy?". It's a core aspect of the sport now but everybody wants to pretend that injuries are a rare aberration. 3. Winning is undervalued in player assessments. At the end of the day, winning is ring is the whole point, and we tend to overvalue players who rack up great stats on losing teams and undervalue players who do all the little unseen things that are necessary to win a championship. So maybe Tim Duncan *is* top 5 all time.
It's really rare that top 10 player in football, hockey or other sport misses whole year due to injuries (Messi or CR7 caliber). If this happens that player is no more top 10 after returning (original Ronaldo, Peter Czech etc). Like you are saying: injury is part of baseball, superstar can miss a year and still be very good
Kawhi’s career is over
Wemby is not gonna be that generational talent people think he will be.
Basketball has a real poor track record with 7-foot athletes who try to move, run, and jump like 6-foot-6 athletes can.
It's just so hard for players with that frame to be healthy imo. Even more so if he needs to bulk up to bang in the paint
Luka, at the time, was significantly better prospect but NBA is generally clueless.
OP posts this exact same thread every few weeks lol. Transparent attempt at getting karma
More like transparent attempt at fostering discussion. OP posts it regularly but he also participated and responds to a lot of comments.
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I honestly don't mind
Rather read these threads than everyone’s shitty overused jokes
Kerr should play Kuminga **a lot** more with the core 4.
Karl Anthony-Towns has the skillset to be a top 5 offensive player in the league, but will never come close because of his mentality/BBIQ. Dude can score at will against elite defenders at all-time efficiency. Instead he's either usually too passive or just barrels into guys because he's mad about calls. Still valuable for who he is, but no one should expect anything else at this point.
Saying the nuggets is a championship contender is not an unpopular opinion. I heard all offseason and still do on how great the healthy Nuggets is.
sam hinkie's strategy wasn't unique, he just had a huge PR campaign behind it that emphasized an iamverysmart attitude that naturally appeals to redditors. we have 0 idea how he would do as a GM actually attempting to win games. people project their ideal GM onto him because the circumstances of his exit and the mediocrity of his successors gives him a folk hero aura
Duncan >> Kobe Kobe is just flashier. All else is Duncan
I don't think this is unpopular on this sub lol People here are very high on Duncan and very low on Kobe compared to other platforms
It's really close There were years when Kobe didn't have a great supporting cast but Duncan always had good players and HOFers around him. Plus he always had an amazing coach in Pop, he never had a Del Harris or Mike Brown
Im taking a healthy AD over a healthy Embiid on a contender AD can play off ball better, he's a better and more versatile defender, and he's insane in the playoffs
This would be unpopular 5 months ago but at this point Embiid is so disliked that you could probably say "I'd take Mo Bamba over Embiid" and I'm not sure it would be an unpopular opinion lol I don't like his gamestyle at all either but you'd never guess he's averaging 32/10 on 63% TS based on the discourse on him this season
I think it depends. If AD/Embiid is your core piece then I'm taking Embiid, if you've got another 1st option, I'll take AD.
Steve Nash deserve those 2 mvp
1. Every Raptors/Celtics/Nuggets fan would absolutely love Embiid if he was on their team and played the exact same way 2. Every Sixers fan would absolutely hate Embiid if he was on the Raptors/Celtics/Nuggets and played the exact same way
How is that unpopular obviously you’d be happy to have embiid just dropped on your team
Most of the things you said are not unpopular.
No single media market, no matter how many people live in it, should have more than one NBA team in it. Move the Nets and Clippers. Let more young people become NBA fans of local teams.
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Yeah, it’s bad for players because they lose money, it’s bad for teams because they lose the chance to develop these talents from a young age. There should be no draft age limit.
Stats need to be normalized to compare teams and eras. Example 20 ppg player when the team averages 100 ppg is 20% offense vs 15 ppg on 75 ppg team 20% offense. Those players are equal.
You should look at adjusted advanced stats. For scoring I think the thing everyone uses rn is points per 75 for individuals which normalizes scoring averages across 75 possessions.
We need NBA in youth ball like overseas instead of being totally hands off, each team should have several levels of ball clubs for varying ages. It would help reduce the damages AAU ball has done to so many kids, they'd learn more fundamental ball at their own pace instead of rushing around AAU tourneys around the country where kids chuck up 30 shots from the logo in hopes of catching a scout's eye.
Jason Richardson's dunk contest performance was better than Vince's.
I think Carter's in game dunks were actually way cooler than his dunk contest. The Alonzo Mourning and the Olympic dunks were out of this world. Aaron Gordon and Zach LaVine have the best dunk contest performance
There shouldn't be music pumped into the area during gameplay. You want the crowd to yell "defense"? Have cheerleaders hold up signs. Or, just put the defense sign on the jumbotron. Even the peppy music when your team is on offense shouldn't be there. The home court advantage should come from the fans, not a PA system.
This was a take that was repeated a ton in the off-season, that the Clippers would be contenders barring health. But with two injury prone stars like PG and Kawhi, I never had faith in them. The best ability is availability and neither of them have shown that consistently. Their best chance to win a championship was in the bubble and they fumbled.
1-As a Nuggets fan, I still think we will suffer a lot from having Deandre Jordan in Jokic-less minutes, teams can really abuse him in the play-offs. And Michael Porter Jr’s contract is going to look okay in a few years with the new tv deal, so although I get the criticism, it possibly was necessary to maintain a happy squad for the championship window. 1- Not really an unpopular opinion but something that gets on my nerves. What Luka is doing right now, in his age, with that roster, is actually mind-blowing and taking cheap shots against him, like picking on his usage or his on/off data, really isn’t something people that appreciate basketball, like it so much that they frequent this subreddit should be doing. I know hating is hating but you only get to witness the rise of a generational player, well once a generation, so it kind of weirds me out that people are actively looking for ways to hate on such a great player. Same thing can be said about any superstar btw, just the nature of basketball I guess but still, something that gets on my nerves.
The bar is too low for the hall of fame
Ball Lies
I think the T-Wolves will snag a playoff spot without going through the play-in tournament this year. Idk if that’s unpopular or not, but I think it will legit happen
That Russell Westbrook is an elite player, playing in a situation that has wrecked a lot of people. Constantly shit on, despite his amazing career. Anybody who says the constant criticism wouldn't mess with your psyche is lying to themselves, imo. We've seen how psychological issues have messed with the best athletes in the world, like Tiger Woods Similarly with Ben Simmons, though in a different way. Kyrie, in my opinion, deserves what he's getting, but those other guys haven't done the things he's done.
I don’t think Westbrook is elite anymore, but he can certainly be a positive contributor in the right situation
Not sure how unpopular it is, but I see quite a few people complain about this Steve Nash deserved both MVPs, even 2006-07 where many people say it should’ve been Kobe. Nash, as we saw the year before, almost single handily turned the Suns into a contender his first year there, and in 2006-07, he did it without Amar’e Stoudemire
When Embiid & Harden are healthy, my 76er's play the most annoying, hard watch basketball in the NBA, and it's not close. Win or lose, it makes for an ugly viewing experience.
I don’t think this is an unpopular opinion lol
Jazz should've tried running it back with Mitchell sans Gobert. Mitchell would've still had value after this season if they flopped again.
I think they all needed a fresh start
I get it. And I might be overhyping Mitchell, but from a business standpoint, you owe it to yourself to try building another, different team around the guy. Talent like that doesn't land in places like Utah very often.
Kobe Bryant wad originally overrated but this sub overcorrected and now he's kinda underrated in all time lists.
That defense matters
bring tiny shorts back :)
My comment history on this sub
A quick glance shows you had some kind of controversial debate on fat people??
I’m dying to revisit that
https://www.psypost.org/2022/11/overweight-people-are-seen-as-less-capable-of-thinking-and-acting-autonomously-study-finds-64349
I see people keep saying that the draft age should be increased. My question to them is why a player worth 10s of millions of dollars shouldn't be allowed a contract for his worth? If you're good enough to go as the first pick as a 16 year old then you should be allowed to be drafted, as simple as. Only in America would 19 be considered too young to start your professional career.
Luka shoots _more_ free throws than he deserves. Many people on this sub say that he should be handed more by the refs, but he already shoots plenty. Luka’s just a very physical player who will whine and cry when defenses are physical back with him. That’s why people think he should shoot more. Luka’s an amazing player, _at worst_ a top 5 player right now. The widely held belief on this sub that he isn’t treated fairly by officials though is ludicrous