2022-23 Team Developments: News / Trades / Free Agents / Rumors

he took issue with you emphasizing narrative over substance. caruso's not a curiosity like casual fans think. he's a baller.

 

No..he is a decent player..." baller" is a stretch...well I guess all NBA players can be considered "ballers". Again cult icons are so because they have a following that tends to overrate their importance or impact. IE Caruso

 

I don't think we can say anything about Nunn based on current observations... he has only played a preseason game and it's not fair to call him Schroder. Personally, I'm going to give it half a season before making judgements on impact and fit. In terms of significantly, I agree that's very vague, but we can assume at least a few million more, which is Alex Caruso money.

In terms of Alex's fit; he was an excellent intangibles guy, that was also very good at defending the PnR and running through screens. So he meshed well in key defensive moments with our starters. But I think an argument can be made, that his offensive contributions from the bench were lacking quite a bit and put a lot of undue pressure on Lebron to play large minutes. There was many times over the last two seasons where it was noticeable that our bench would go through dry spells and let the other team creep back into the game. I don't solely blame Caruso for this, but it's a reality of what was happening.

Nunn may not be the defender that Caruso is but his defensive metrics aren't bad (although it'll be interesting what playing with AD and Dwight does to him and what Vogel can coach out of him). However, Nunn can take more of a scoring/playmaking load when Lebron/Russ sit and help alleviate that offensive drop from our bench unit. That also has a lot of value too.

 

It's going to be an entirely different universe with Russ on board. We played the way we played, because all we had was Lebron and AD. Some guys found a nice little niche playing with those two. It's going to be the same thing now, we have three go to caliber players. For instance..I watch these preseason games and say...this AD and 4 little guys lineup is garbage. However substitute Russ for say Rondo and that lineup has some possibilities. It's going to be interesting to see who finds their footing early with this team. I'm liking what I'm seeing from Monk so far. Nunn and Talen are kinda easing into it at the moment.

 

Don't get what we have against signing another wing player.

 

Where are the minutes going to come from for him? Melo, Ariza and Lebron are wings. This Brown kid has a little something from the brief look I've seen.

 

More of a chance than the guard we just signed. Banking on Ariza to stay healthy doesn't seem ideal.

 

It's going to be interesting...Ariza played 28 min a game in Miami. Melo avg 25 in Portland. Throw in Lebron and Bazemore...not sure if there is really going to be a problem. I would have taken flyer on a young jumping jack at center over another guard tho.

 

i think people tend to overrate iso scoring as a skillset. teams can only have so many of those, and being better at it as a second-line player is not useful and can actually be counterproductive, imo.

we'll see. you say we're a cult. i say we know useful role players when we see them, and you can't get caruso value at the vet min (or probably mini mle).

 

You can never have too many scorers in the NBA the way the game is officiated today. It's an offensive player's league right now, especially in the backcourt. Caruso had value in the way we were constructed, now we have Russ. The guy is still an elite player. The entire dynamic has changed. We still had a top rated defense without Lebron and AD. And we struggled to score on anybody without them too. We also struggled to beat anyone without them. You are not going to defend your way to a Championship today. Whatever we lost on defense, we more than made up for it on the offensive end IMO. I seriously don't believe that we are going to miss any of the guys gone off of last year's team. This team is just going to be different, better IMO.

 

I hope you’re right; I’m less sure.

I liked hanging the hat on defense.

 

I like the whole, "Well he's good, but he'll never be a Caruso"

 

Cult status. Please. You do realize that after the won the Finals, every team called up Pelinks trying to get Caruso. Every single team.

All the other GMs must have been drinking the same kool aid I guess.

 

No..I don't believe that every single team called trying to get Caruso. Caruso wasn't some deciding factor in our championship run either...that is complete absolute CAP. Alex was a good player in his role for us, but some folks go overboard about his impact. Yeah Cult status...I stand on that comment.

 

Wow insurance fraud for a lot of ex-NBA players including Shannon Brown and Ruben “Kobe stopper” Patterson

 

it's almost like some people don't watch the games

 

link?

 

As long as Glen Davis is on the list, I’m good.