one of stars has played 75, 75, 56, 62, 36 the past five years. the other has played 74, 82, 55, 67, 45. which one is the iron man and which one is mr. glass? anyway, i don't think playing backup c minutes or closing games there should increase AD's propensity for injury.
It should be noted that the 62 and 67 games were in a 71 game season. So both AD and Lebron were basically healthy for a whole season when we won the championship. They've been fairly similar health wise for the last 3 seasons - Lebron has played 74% of games and AD 68%. Roughly Lebron plays 3/4 games and AD 2/3. Westbrook has played 87% of games the last 3 seasons (and 93% of games over the last 6 seasons) - which is incredible for someone who has had to deal with a lot of injuries. Russell is very Kobesque in that way. We'd need a healthy season from all 3 of them to win it all.
I think there is very little chance AD starts at the 5 - he'll most likely play against backup centres and small ball 5's. I think this will be our rotation or something similar. Westbrook (30) / Nunn (18) Monk (24) / THT (18) / Nunn (6) Lebron (18) / Bazemore (24) / THT (6) AD (12) / Lebron (12) / Melo (24) Howard (24) / AD (18) / Jordan (6) Lebron (30) - age 37 AD (30) - age 29 Westbrook (30) - age 33 THT (24) - age 21 Nunn (24) - age 26 Monk (24) - age 24 Howard (24) - age 36 Bazemore (24) - age 32 Melo (24) - age 37 Jordan (6) - age 33 Ellington (injury insurance SG & SF) Ariza (injury insurance SF & PF) Rondo (injury insurance PG) Couple of things to note: If that's the way our core minutes play out, the age of our rotation is 30.8 years - not actually the retirement village everyone makes us out to be. AD, THT, Nunn, Monk & Bazemore are all below 32 - which is the end of ones athletic prime. Westbrook should be added to that younger group at 33, as he is still one of the most athletic players in the league and still a relative ironman. Out of the older guys: Lebron, Howard, Melo & Jordan. Lebron is the only one we really rely on to win and thats the bed we've made. Westbrook should take a lot of pressure off of Lebron in the regular season, hopefully mitigating the risk of injury so he is ready for the playoffs. We have depth so we can afford to rest our 3 stars on back to backs and we should try to limit them to 30 mins a game - hopefully less in blow outs. Come playoffs: Westbrook (36) / Nunn (12) Monk (24) / THT (12) / Nunn (12) Bazemore (24) / Lebron (12) / THT (12) Lebron (24) / Melo (24) AD (36) / Howard (12)
Kind of expected at this advanced stage of his (LeBron) career quite honestly but as far as AD and taking his age into consideration...not comparable. Stats can be skewed anyway you like but if we're being real here age is a huge determining factor in regards to playing time and injury concerns. AD has averaged 66 games a season not including the 72 game season for his entire career. Never once playing a full 82 games because of injury LeBron has averaged 74.5 games a season not including the 72 game season for his entire career. Russ has averaged 73 games a season not including the 72 game season for his entire career. Bryant averaged 55.5 games a season for his entire career and for some reason was considered an ironman LeBron has been the most durable over an entire career out of these players up until he hit 33 years old his first year with the Lakers. In 2019 he played 67 of 72 and last year he only played 45 of 82 at age 35. LeBron even said last year after his ankle injury he didn't think he'd ever play at 100% health for his entire career again. Taking into consideration the miles from teh regular season and playoffs he is the epitome of an ironman while AD leaves a lot to be desired in that department. The only quote unquote superstar that AD has averaged more regular season games then is Kawhi who has averaged 57.5 games a season. Health is definitely a concern with our geriatric team with AD playing more like an age 30+ player for his entire career and our roster of veteran players. In order to build chemistry they need to stay healthy and get those valuable minutes together so Vogel will have a much better idea of what rotations to use for maximum efficiency in different scenarios. Anyone who doesn't think this is a huge concern is out of their proverbial tree
There is no point to look at average games played, there are shortened seasons. It's better to look at percentage of possible games played. Lebron has played 91% of possible games. Westbrook has played 91.6% of possible games. Anthony Davis has played 78.6% of possible games. Kobe Bryant played 84.5% of possible games throughout his career. The reason why Kobe is considered an ironman is because when you take out his final 3 seasons (lost a full season to his Achilles and another to his knee cap) he played a whopping 92% of games in his first 17 seasons - which is INSANE when you realise how many injuries he played through. Westbrook has an incredible record, he didn't miss a game for his first 5 seasons. If it wasn't for Patrick Beverley, he would have only missed 5 games in his first 10 seasons (most of them for suspension). If you want to see some real iron man. The Utah tandem were just made of real steal: Karl Malone played 97.5% of possible games throughout his career. Malone only missed 10 games in his first 18 years, but missed 40 games in his last season with us. John Stockton played 98.6% of possible games throughout his career. Stockton missed 18 games to start the 98 season (when they lost in the final to the Bulls) - apart from that blip he played every game over 18 seasons. The original ironman himself - A.C. Green played 99.7% of possible games throughout his career. He only missed 3 games in his second season - he played every other game over 18 seasons!
Of course. That's kinda like saying: "Jason Kapono shot over 43% for 3 (!) in his career. But in his season with us, he somehow managed to shoot 29.6%. That's truly remarkable!
point was people are freaking out about AD's availability when lebron's has been just as big a concern.
Absolutely. It’s one of those unlucky breaks (excuse the pun) we had. Malone stays injury free like he did his whole career and we win the championship. I know we like to play up the shooting curse and other bad luck etc, but it could be worse, we could be Portland. For those who don’t know they’re the most unluckiest franchise in the NBA. They were geopolitical tensions, 2 injuries and 4 alternate draft picks away from being one of the most successful franchises in history. They selected La Rue Martin, Mychal Thompson, Sam Bowie and Greg Oden in the draft and this is who went after those selections; Bob McAdoo, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan & Kevin Durant. They had Bill Walton and Brandon Roy retire early due to injuries. And they drafted Sabonis, one of the greatest centres of all time in 1986 and because of international tensions he didn’t come to the NBA until he was old and injured in 1995. I’ll take our shooting curse anyday and twice on Sunday’s!
You cut out 3 guys who will absolutely get playing minutes and their average age is 35+. You actually think Ellington, Ariza & Rondo are injury insurance only and gonna DNP?
This is how I would personally look at the team right now. We have Bron and Russ who are great in transition, I'd try to maximise that facet of our team with youth that can get up and down the floor with them. This athleticism gives Vogel something to work with on the defensive end - I think Nunn and THT could really surprise on the upside and cover what we lost in Caruso and KCP. I think Nunn is the better player than Rondo at this stage. However if he beats Nunn out, it's because he is more conductive to winning or Nunn plays at the SG. Ellington could very well win the starting spot at SG, he is a pretty good shooter. But so is Monk, who is also far more athletic. THT is going to get minutes at backup SG because of his contract, so one of Ellington or Monk will be the third stringer. I went with the higher upside more athletic option. Trevor Ariza is still one of the better defenders we have and I believe he has some gas in the tank, so if he beats out Bazemore it's because he is shooting and defending well. All 3 of these old guys are still quality players. We have a legitimate 13 deep team, the reality of the situation is, older guys will get injured or rest and everyone will get some playing time. Only Westbrook, Lebron and AD's spots are set in stone. Competition is good and training camp and preseason will be an opportunity to cement the back up PG, starting and backup SG, backup SF, backup PF, starting and backup C.
Never knew this. Well done, GC. Excerpt from: https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-04-...nged-NBA-history-Part-1-PYZMEZFxQs/index.html "Moses Malone traded by the Portland Trail Blazers and the Buffalo Braves in 1976 When the American Basketball Association (ABA) merged with the NBA in 1976, Moses Malone needed a new job. [My note: This is because Malone’s previous team, the Spirit of St. Louis, was disbanded after the ABA-NBA merger.] Unlike "Dr. J" Julius Erving, "Skywalker" David Thompson or "The Iceman" George Gervin, Malone's game was not much exciting, not to mention that he was a high-school professional player. Not many teams wanted to bet on him. The Trail Blazers already had Bill Walton, who would become one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History as their center in the future. So they passed on Malone – although the team did not know that Walton only played 40 percent of the games in his 14-season-career. The Braves also sent Malone away at the price of two first-rounders. It does matter why they did so and this was simply one of the terrible decisions made by the team's front office. Then Malone went to Houston where he became five-time All-Star, three-time rebounding champion and two-time regular season MVP. In 1981, he led the Rockets to knock out the Lakers, the San Antonio Spurs and the Kansas City Kings to reach the Finals before losing to the C Bags in six games."
I didn't know what they meant when they said Portland passed on him, so I found this on his wikipedia page: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses_Malone "In the 1976 dispersal draft, held for the remaining ABA players, Malone was selected by the Portland Trail Blazers with the fifth overall pick in the draft.[3] The Blazers, however, had also acquired power forward Maurice Lucas in the draft and believed that Malone and Lucas had similar skill sets. Concerns over the team's salary costs compelled Portland to trade Malone to the Buffalo Braves prior to the first game of the 1976–77 season for a first-round draft choice in the 1978 NBA draft and $232,000.[19] Malone played in two games with Buffalo. Because they could not meet Malone's demands for playing time, they then traded him to the Houston Rockets in exchange for first-round draft picks in the 1977 and 1978 drafts."
With the most recent rumors looks like we're going to see this Russell Westbrook / Kendrick Nunn / Rajon Rondo Wayne Ellington / Malik Monk / Austin Reaves Trevor Ariza / Talen Horton Tucker / Kent Bazemore Lebron James / Carmelo Anthony Anthony Davis / Dwight Howard / DeAndre Jordan Duke starting makes sense, he's the team's best shooter. Didn't expect Ariza to be a starter when he signed but makes sense if Lebron and AD are shifting up a spot. I still would prefer starting with Dwight or DeAndre for a few mins instead of AD right from the get go though. (15th spot waiting for a Kevin Love mid season buyout?)
Don't think Monk sees the court before THT or Baze. I think those two will be backup SF/SG and Nunn will get minutes at the two guard too, in order to see the court. Baze was assured of some role that I don't think is 3rd string SF. Nunn was the only player signed to more than the minimum, which has to equate to PT. I was in favor of Ellington starting regardless of who the C was because he's our best shooter. Ariza is a bit surprising but based on the article, they like his defensive versatility. But this is before camp and a lot could potentiality change between now and the GS game.
Baze is our 1st or 2nd SF IMO if Bron moves to the 4. He needs to play. Can shoot and is pretty solid on defense. Reaves won't get many minutes at all, THT should play both 2 & 3 and continue to develop. Also, we'll load manage some people for sure. We should.
