Howard has better individual defense, but Trez brings so much more. I tend to agree with @Helljumper , Dwight's impact on the championship is starting to be overstated. Howard made a huge difference in the Denver series. But to be frank - it was getting Jokic in foul trouble. That was Howard's biggest contribution to that series. He played between 12-15 mins in the close games, and 30 in the closeout. Outside of that series and that roster, there should be better ways to beat Denver. I think we're re-tooling this roster to do so.
Well this isn't unique to Harrell, the hard-cap limitations were always going to be in play if we used the full MLE. I agree that if this does force us out of KCP, it changes the dynamics a bit. But I'm still optimistic on that front.
$9 million for the current 6MOTY is amazing value but you have to wonder how much he cost himself playing poorly in the playoffs. I heard Charlotte offered him more $ but if the Lakers win a title and he puts up 18/8 again, there's no question he will get a nice deal for himself. Frank will have to speed Montrezl up on defense ASAP.
At his best, Harell reminds me of a smaller Amare before the knee injuries. That Nash and Amare PnR would just put the big man on skates and you can see a similar vibe when he ran it with Harell. You should be able to replicate that with Schroder.
Nah, Amare had a killer midrange game. Harrell reminds me of Faried. Undersized workhorse who dominates the paint.
What OKC is doing is just overkill. I know Presti wants to make a splash with getting multiple superstars for draft picks but damn.
I would like to give credit to Trez as a smart roll-man, so he has a higher bball iq in that sense. Faried had all the physical tools to succeed (similar to Trez), but reportedly no mind for the game. As the game spread out in the last decade, I think it brought on more situations where PFs make decisions with the ball. That was the end of Faried and other pure motor/physical guys. On top of that Trez can at least take bigger players off the dribble. I was surprised to see some of those clips where he's slashing and driving from the 3 point line. The defensive numbers are not encouraging for Trez, but Faried had a lot of problems with rotations also.
He is 26 and has never played for a normal organization. If Kuz can improve defensively, so can he. And I am pretty sure, we are not rolling with 1 real C. We are going to get someone, like Marc and then you will understand how amazing it is to be able to go up 10 in first half, roll Dennis, AC, Kuz, Trez and MCG and rest AD and Bron. So, for me, a backup C (Dwight is still an idiot, smdh) and KCP is a AAAAAA++++++ offseason. Finally, there 1 Jokic. 1! But there are a lot of Adebayos, who Trez, with some help and improvement can deal better.
Trez does have defensive issues. Significant ones. But he also has the physical tools to develop into a good defender. What he needs is: A really competent defensive coach to teach him = Vogel A model he can imitate = AD An accountability framework around him = LeBron He's going to improve on D this year. Book it.
Agree. He's high energy and only 26 years old. Hardest thing to teach is effort and high energy guys are all effort. AD got Bron to play the best D of his career. Vogel and AD can get good team defense out of Trez, I have no doubt about that.
I'm starting to look at first rounders as fiat currency that the GMs around the league know are worthless (unless they're in the top 5), but the rest of the world thinks are valuable. GMs shuffle them around and it keeps fans and ownership from blinking when they give up a superstar player, but the reality is they will likely only amount to bench fodder and borderline starters. OKC isn't going to be able to flip those first rounders for a true star. All those picks are from teams that won't finish in the bottom 5. No one in the top 4-5 of the draft is going to give up that pick for 3 picks in the 20's.
Harrell is going to learn a huge difference between why LeBron can't be compared to Kawhi. LeBron is going to include his team in everything to make it fun for everyone. Kawhi will just ignore everyone and show up to play basketball. You can't have a championship team like that. Kawhi got lucky with the Spurs and Raptors. GSW would have destroyed them if Klay and KD were healthy and that Toronto Raptors team was loaded.
^ if only he showed up to play ball. Main gripe in the tennants ranks, was that he was f***ing around all year. Hope they fail again and go back to the Kings level... where they belong.
There were reports saying he skipped team meetings, practices and every game he wanted. Basically he is the King (the real one... not the washed one we're stuck with)
i've been hearing clippers fans say that too. basically that harrell was the reason for the chemistry issues not sure how much truth there is to that
