Optimism Discussion: The Laker's Sky Is Not Falling

Or he was being the usual BI.

 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

 

eh, i think he was never asked to be a top option here, and that helped. when he was in AD's position in NO, he didn't look as good. again, if he's an incredible offensive player, then what's davis, who has put up bigger numbers in similar roles with similar outcomes?

i'm a big pau fan, but AD is the better player, certainly at age 26.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/d/davisan02.html

https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/g/gasolpa01.html

bear in mind that at this point, pau had zero playoff wins (sound familiar), then got to join the game's very best player near his apex (AD's getting a good but not apex lebron) in order to get two titles before starting a pretty steep decline.

so, you say we focus too much on late pau, and i say we're focusing too much on peak pau--which was a pretty brief moment in time and arguably not anything better than what we've seen from AD.

 

I'm not arguing Pau is the better player. I think it's just clear that he is more well rounded offensively, he can pass, shoot and post up. You can have an offence run through him. AD to me is clearly a better defensive player. His athleticism allows him to dominate that side of the ball way more. AD's offensive game in some way is similar to Stoudemire - not in how they play - but rather that they benefit from being set up, into a situation they can dominate in.

 

I'm not sure how that is a shocking statement. I'm not talking career wise (although Pau's had a pretty incredible career), but rather live during a particular season. At the time Tim Duncan's minutes and stats were dropping across the board as he was taking a back seat to Parker and Ginobili, Dirk was labelled a choker as he hadn't had his incredible playoff run yet and had only 1 playoff series win since the Mavs imploded in 06 and Pau had gone toe to toe with KG (and Dwight) over three years and come off best in '09 and '10 and recency bias reflected that.

I have Pau rated below all 3, but you only need to write "Pau vs" any of the above into Google to see articles, forum posts and reddit channels all debating the subject.

 

i think that's something of a slight to AD. he never played with an elite set up guy in NO and still put up numbers better than stoudemire, generally speaking. he was the focal point of their offense basically the entire time. he's a lot closer to pau than amare, imo.

and plays d on par with prime td and kg. honestly, i've always thought kg was the perfect analog for AD. had the lakers nabbed kawhi in addition, the career arcs would be similar, too, in that he'd have immediately gotten a title upon moving teams to join two other stars after carrying a pretty crappily-run organization for many years.

 

So, after tonight, we will be 17-2; after that, I think December the most difficult part of our schedule...

However, we took care of business in November, so, at worst if we go .500 next month, I am not too worried; what I want is to see exactly what we need and what weakness we need to address from a roster standpoint.

We all have a very good idea(s), but I want December to solidify that for the FO, so they can try to address those weaknesses going forward...

FYI: January doesn't look very difficult; and I can see James taking a game here or there after the New Year...

I think we'll finish in the top 3 provided good health...

 

We may end up going 50/50 December with how we have been playing lately.

 

We will learn if we've been playing down to the opposition, or whether we have that gear that allows us to rise against superior opponents.

Hopefully it's the latter, and we've grown since we last played the Clippers or the Raptors.

 

I guess going 16-2 in the west isn't what it used to be. Hahahah.

 

Yay a blowout!

 

Excellent month.

 

17-2, WOW. Despite the easy schedule, this exceeds my most optimistic expectations.

 

the stars had under 30 minutes in a game

 

I think we will do better in December than many think.