He’s smooth, absorbs contact well, seems at home in traffic in the paint, nice touch on his shot, likable. Basically Minny doesn’t deserve him.
i've learned i have a very different standard for pg play than most on this forum. wade was most definitely not a good pg, imo. tunnel vision, could only make passes to predictable spots after drawing defenders. standard ballhandling sg stuff. i guess it's because he dribbled a lot? but lebron, for example, was much more of a pg for most of his career, even if it didn't look like it as much. (aside: i really didn't think tony parker was much of a pg, either, but pop's system and ginobili's presence in closing lineups helped hide it. i think this was why early on speedy claxton got some of his crunchtime minutes and they tried to dump him for jason kidd.) anyway, i'd put edwards and wade on the same tier as "can handle out top against sgs, break guys down of the dribble, and dump off". wade was better at the latter part, but he was also much older when he started. drexler? he gets forgotten a lot, but he was a great athlete with a big body for his position who could shoot the ball. he just got overshadowed by coinciding almost entirely with jordan. ant's not as graceful as carter (or jordan). sg version of dominique wilkins also makes sense to me, more power than grace, though not entirely un-graceful. he'll be out of there two years into the first extension.
Don't disagree about Wade and the PG position - maybe what I'm trying to get at Wade is a lot like Schroeder in the way he plays - explosive off the dribble and able to play the PG position because of the advantages he creates but not exactly a natural passer. (of course Wade is much bigger but play style fit pretty well but Wade extra size just made everything a lot better). I haven't seen enough of Ant to see if he can do this type of playmaking yet. Drexler from what I recall: things are getting hazy was an explosive finisher off the break but necessarily in 1/2 court. nique/VC/Ant all seem pretty similar - big guys with explosion who could shoot.
Bill Simmons @BillSimmons Team USA’s biggest issue for the actual tournament — accepting that Haliburton and Reaves are 2 of the best guys on the team. They’re gonna have to be out there in any big situation even if feelings get hurt
you have to think all of these top level players are going to be leveling up after this experience. Like young Dwade, Melo, Bron, etc playing with Kobe and seeing first hand how the champion operates. Probably the best thing that could have happened to them after getting their arses handed to the them on the world stage. Thinking of Reaves adding more tricks to his bag is cool. Seeing him earn his teammates respect and them enjoying playing with him is pretty cool. He doesn't have to say anything to be recruiting them either. "He's HIM" and LA is back baby. We're back to being perennial contenders even after Bron is long gone. And it feels good. And how do you not look at this young US roster and find yourself saying "We could use that guy"? Some bright young talent out there. Looking forward to the possibility of some future Lakers on this team.
Too many egos on this team in 2019, or what the hell happened for a 7th place finish? Pop coaching and Kerr assisting. Guess the other power houses had their superstars all available, but we had some big names on this squad too and big centers.
I like a lot this year’s Bigs with Jackson, Portis, Banchero and Kessler. They’ve all played well in their given minutes and Kessler has that biggest size and just kind of being held in reserve so far with not a lot of minutes, but he’s mobile and a good rim protector and pretty coordinated.
i haven't seen much evidence of it yet, but usually if you can handle a bit with that level of athleticism, you learn to move the bodies around so that most passes are easy. yeah, his handle wasn't that strong, but big, explosive and could shoot fits i think. not a lot of playmaking/hoop iq out there. kemba was always a scoring guard, no real pg on the roster. same reason gs smashed boston in the finals a couple years ago, including several of the same characters.
Clyde … Wow! Another guy with the huge hands to go with uber athleticism. That last dunk was Jordanesque!!
I stand by statement: even in those highlight only a few came off in halfcourt. Drexler ballhandling was very mechanical and really hampered him in the 1/2 court. But man in the open court that guy could fly - the #1 dunk on that list is crazy - he looks like bird with that hang time
Gilbert Arenas would rather sleep than watch Anthony Edwards and Team USA at FIBA World Cup 2023: "I'm not a drug dealer" While speaking up on watching Team USA compete on "No Chill with Gilbert Arenas", he expressed his belief in the team's ability to win the gold. However, when asked whether he would watch it, he said: "I'm sleep. I'm gonna be asleep like the rest of America. When do they come on? Like three four in the morning? I'm not a drug dealer. F**k am I up that late for? Like, let's be honest. I'm asleep. " I agree with him that time is very inconvenient when game like USA- New Zealand or Jordan playing ,due to time difference in Asia,,but he is part of national media now and USA sucked big time in 2019
Shai and Canada destroyed France. BTW this is the first Canadian team win over the European team at the World Cup since 1986.