If Wood were sign with Miami he and Bam would be considered second after Duncan and "Admiral" in the history of NBA. Media hate Lakers . I don't think that he was pain in a locker room I think part of why Wood became cancerous is that the Rockets traded away Harden and Westbrook and instead of contender they become tanking team almost immediately.
All Christian Wood needs is veterans and a coaching staff that actually have his best interest at heart
yeah, this is key to whether or not he succeeds here. is he going to humble himself and accept his role/the fact that this is likely his last chance? or is he going to go into the season with a mentality along the lines of "me and lebron (the 2 GOATS) finally on the same team!" i'm not so worried about his locker room issues because lebron keeps guys in check. more his mindset and whether he's going to be willing to accept whatever role is given to him no matter what
You make some good points on the 2 big lineups. Especially the Turner's pursuit, it does show a willingness to play 2 bigs. We shall see. I do like big lineups, it's still a "size" sport and I like the pressure it puts on the other team, both to protect the glass on defense or the difficulty to attack the basket on offense I do not agree with your rotation. I think Prince at 2 and Vando at 3 really hurts our spacing and shot creation. Considering one of LeBron/AD is always on the floor and you still plug another big/Rui, I don't like it We do have an opening at the backup 2. Max and Reddish are the contenders to it, but I wouldn't be surprised to see Dlo playing with Vincent at times Bottom line is that we have a super complete roster, able to match against different teams or put different problems to teams. It also allows for a better management of load during the season. You can have guys like Max, Reddish, Hayes, Wood, Vando or Prince having DNPs in a given run and playing 20/25mpg a few weeks after The best thing is that there's competition for all positions, so everyone really needs to be tuned in. Can't wait for the season to start
Why does everyone obsess about Lebron playing 3? There are only two legit superstar or star level 3's in the West...Kawhi and KD...and there is nothing anyone in the NBA, can do with either of them. I'm not really seeing this great "weakness " with Lebron playing SF.
For the obvious reason PFs aren’t as hard to “chase around” at 39 years old? Whether superstar SFs or not?
It's not about the elite talent as much as it's about having to run around the perimeter for no f***ing reason. Bron is more of a center at this point than he is a small forward. You don't cater your starting group to the 6th, 7th, 8th best player on the roster especially when that move lessens the impact of your superstar. You cater to your franchise players and do whatever you can to make their lives easier. Not tougher. I'm not sure how this is even a topic if anyone is willing to take 5 seconds and actually think. Ding ding ding! Thank you! Here's Hollinger's SF efficiency list for last year. I don't care about his rankings but it's a good place to see a listed version of the top 20+ SFs The NBA regular season is a battle of attrition. Why do I want my 39 year old Lebron James chasing those guys all around the perimeter when he can stay close to the paint and move much less against much slower, less mobile PFs. If it's the playoffs and he needs to stick to one of these guys, that's one thing. But we're talking about the 82 grind right now. Let's not forget this year we actually have a handful of SFs who we want to see the floor. If Bron is eating up those minutes, that's not happening. AD is already going to have to cover for Wood on defense. Why add to that ask? And finally, Wood is dumb. He isn't a good defender and it's more so IQ instead of effort. He doesn't understand the schemes or how to make the reads. You want to keep it simple for him. Having Bron at SF and potentiality hiding Bron on an easier matchup and you're doing too much, making it too complex. We need to keep it straight forward for Wood. Fewer switches and cross matches the better.
modern nba offense and the requisite opposing team defense can't have a nominal sf who doesn't want to move across the floor a couple times on every defensive possession. when lebron's at the 4, there are ways to limit his movement schematically. at the 3, it's impossible. right, and he doesn't even love that because of the heavier defensive rebounding and rim protection duties. he's basically a 4-only at this point. with AD at 5, you can play vando with him defensively (i think rui's a dicey proposition but i'm willing to look at it), but not wood.
I’ve been screaming for the last two years that we need an AD lite version on this squad. We finally got one. Just hope he buys into the Lakers culture.
Absolutely agree. When AD went down these last few years we had no one at all who could come in and take minutes. Thomas Bryant to a very small extent. Rob's seen this movie and did what he needed to do to address it. Good on him. You couldn't ask for more for vet minimum either. Wood will be motivated. I would have been good with Biyombo, but he's not really a fit in that role. He'd be more useful for some D off the bench in the playoffs than regular season AD sub.
Now that he's here, I'm hoping for the best. Offensively he gives a lot of options to get creative, and he's a really good fit alongside AD. BUT man, defensively... idk. Like I said, hoping for the best.
I don't know about all that, it sounds logical but guys switch all the time in the NBA now, so he wouldn't be chasing anybody around all the time anyway. Well first of all Holllinger"s efficiency ratings aren't considered to be some kind of sure thing by everyone. https://nbastatsgeeks.wordpress.com...f-players-value/player-efficiency-rating-per/ Secondly..with as much switching that goes on in today's NBA.I think that the whole idea of Lebron constantly chasing these guys around all game is a bit exaggerated. I think Lebron actually gets more taxed physically by his offensive load than anything. I could totally understand not wanting him chasing 1's or 2's. This SF stuff...I'm not as moved by that argument. Thirdly...I'm more concerned with catering to AD'S wishes than Lebron's. I've said this in every season since the bubble too. We won a chip playing other bigs at 5. Yes AD is awesome at 5, against small ball teams..like Portland, Houston, Miami from the bubble, and Golden State this season. He's not as great against size though..He's a 4 that can play 5 to me, if he feels like he needs more quality bigs to play with, we should most definitely accommodate his wishes IMO. Lebron will be just fine, he's going to coast some on D anyway, he's always done that. Lastly...YESSS!!!! We shall most definitely find out, if you actually have any real clue about Wood's defensive shortcomings or not this season sir. You've spent a whole lot of airtime advancing that narrative, well now we get to see what's what, in live action!! He's no AD, but he is a decent shot blocker/rim protector. It's also a fact that he played on 3 terrible defensive teams, in Detroit, Houston and Dallas. So I'm still a bit perplexed. as to why he seems to get all the blame, for playing mediocre defense, when everyone around him was doing the same thing. Some of you guys are pretty cavalier about throwing around " dumb" " low IQ" blah blah etc..statements about some players. I ask you specifically this...We've seen this guy up close 12-15 times in Houston and Dallas over the last 3 seasons. What games stood out to you, illustrating just how terrible his defense and low basketball IQ was? I think that's just some more overhyped CAP myself. I didn't expect to get him, he should fire his damn agent IMO. HOWEVER...I do look forward, to seeing whether you actually know WTF you are talking about, concerning Christian Wood or not this campaign. I think we hit on another vet min home run. Just like with Monk and Dennis, I believe this guy is going to be even more impactful. He's one of the top lob threats in the League, (88 dunks in Dallas) and he shoots 41% on catch and shoot 3's, and is a career 38% 3pt shooter with volume. While rebounding and blocking shots at an efficient clip.to boot. That's a rare combination for a bigman, sounds like a great fit for Lebron and AD. Soo..his DEFENSIVE issues are going to negate all of that? Says you and some of these internet gurus...fine...we shall see soon buddy.
Well, one thing is this gives Hayes and Woods some competition to see if one of them can step it up on defense. The one that becomes a good defender, is going to be the one that gets more guaranteed minutes off the bench. If AD goes down, Woods will likely be his replacement but the best defender is getting playoff minutes.
Excellent post.what’s really dumb is people pretending to know what a person is or isn’t when they have never spoken to them let alone been on the court at the highest level with them.That’s true ignorance
The problem with Bismarck is that you can't play him in the playoffs. He only averaged 10min a game in both seasons in Phoenix. He gets overpowered by the bigger guys, and if you get him 8ft or more out of the paint, he gets roasted a lot like Thomas Bryant. I was told that Denver "brutally exposed" the Suns lack of depth. Yet Lawndale took all his minutes in that series. He couldn't do anything with Zubac in the series prior..I would take Wenyen over Bismarck.
Guys who have played for two decades? Including 11,654 post season minutes (that's 3.5 additional seasons of basketball) + three tours with Team USA. They don't, so just stop. Grab these and be sure they fit As listed above, the SOLE REASON for using Hollinger's rankings was it was a clean, tidy place to find a condensed listing of the top 20+ SFs. That's it. By now, we're all fully aware that logic does not sway you one iota. We got a front row seat to that circus with every single Russ post. Bron requires more catering to, always has, always will. It's part of the cost of doing business with him. Fine by me, it's results in winning championships. He's also the alpha until he retires, just how their personalities are wired. If AD is the 4, he has to be able to stretch the floor offensively. He can't. He cannot make 3s. The bubble was an anomaly in that regard. Box score watching, Wood is a good fit next to AD and could be the stretch 4 who really helps. This isn't NBA 2K though and the game is more nuanced than that. There's a fairytale version of this where that happens, but I'm going of history, track record and the fact that Wood couldn't help getting a shot in at Dallas on his way out. No growth. No maturity. Same bum. Also a big issue with your thought here... that version of Bron and AD was four seasons ago. They're not those guys still. If a block a game is what gets you there, you should start campaigning for Bol Bol (13 more blocks than Wood). Even these bad teams sat him and happily moved on from him because he was a liability defensively. When you see a player consistently getting lost, confused, turned around, scored on by any and everyone AND it's agreed by those covering him that he's s*** on that end AND that's it's not an effort issue. Guess what the issue is? Basketball IQ. I refuse to break down film with you because you see a very different game being played than 95% of the population. We learned that during the Russ tenure. So that would be a waste of time for all parties involved. And even on the off chance you saw something that poked a hole in your current opinion, Captain Goal Post Mover would never ever admit it. Dumpster fire defense that gets him played off the court when it matters, ego, IQ, fit, and me-first approach. Yes, that negates empty calorie stats offensively. Hope I'm wrong since he's here now, but history repeats itself until a lesson is learned. He's got a long way to go in a short period of time and I don't think he gets there.
Facts.. It's not really even about basketball with some of these cats. It's more about "Schooling " Ole Slick, and proving him wrong about something. Lol..I don't give a flip, I welcome all the smoke at anytime from anybody. We are all just voicing opinions here.
So nearly all opinions on every topic by all but the <1% of the people who have frontline experience in that field at the highest level equates to being "really dumb" and ignorant? And yet, here you are on a message board.
