D'Angelo Russell Discussion: Adopting A Professional Attitude

if we could nab a healthy backup pg with gabe and 2nds (schroder), that would be nice and solve lots of problems.

 

Yeah Gabe screwed us big. We used our biggest FA tool in our thinnest position for a guy who's not playing. Hurts a lot this team.
He's also a huge negative asset until he plays again. Right now he's seen as a bad contract. If he plays, he's more of a hustle vet who you (a team we can trade him to, now) can trade later for expirings from a contending team. But he has to play

 

Did Mays die too already for crissakes?? He's done fairly well in that role for a few years, right?

Ham, "No, he is something NEW and I will not leave my comfort zone .... so STFU about any of these silly conversations. I'm NOT that kind of a coach!!"

 

The problem with D'Angelo has never been a talent issue, it's will he show up in the playoffs? Not for a series or two, but all the way through the Finals. If we made a trade, the objective is to better the team's position for a Championship run.

Swinging for the fences would be Murray /Grant, but that will cost a lot more.

A Jones /Gafford trade, is lesser deal that would still keep Rui and Austin. That places more weight on those two, stepping up big in the playoffs.

Or...I think CP3 will probably get packaged in a deal by Golden State, by the deadline. He's a prime buyout target for a title run. If we could flip Vincent and Hayes for Gafford alone would be great too.

 

We went to the Conference Finals as a 7th seed, I don't think homecourt means anything. There is just too much talent, on this team not to make the playoffs IMO. These other teams aren't locks to stay in the same positions, by the playoffs anyway. The Nuggets, Suns, and Flippers are legit problems, but does anyone really fear a 7 game series against Minn,Ok or Sac?

 

We aren't beating Denver, Phoenix or the Flippers with that. It's possible if Lebron and AD ball out throughout the playoffs. Possible but those teams have elite players that can ball out too.

 

Because a 7 game play-off series is totally different than random regular season games. We beat Denver in the regular season last year too...

Superstars are out here carrying their teams, that's why they are Superstars. If Lebron and AD can't get this team to the playoffs, it's a wrap for that pairing.

 

You have to understand where the problem comes from before making those claims.
Are LeBron or AD underperforming in any capacity? No. It's been DLo, Reaves, Rui and so on underperforming. Which leads to the coaching problem.
I'm 100% over Ham, he's not him. It's not the players, we have good depth and healthy stars. Stop the excuses

 

Talk about picking the wrong horse .... in the dialogue here on LB .... Ham over Vogel

 

The Nuggets just lost by 40 to a contender. They truly miss Jamal Murray, and if he isn't back, I don't think they make the WCF without him. With him healthy, they are a problem. for anyone.

 

Nah..The Superstars have to make up any slack, that's their job.Lebron and AD make over 100M..they don't have the luxury to blame the role players or the HC. Ham can't hide Austin, D'Angelo and Rui on defense, we made up for their lacking on defense last season, because 1.They were scoring more consistently. 2. Shroeder covered up just enough on D, as the primary POA defender, to make it work..until Denver.

Reaves, Russell, Rui and Vanderbilt, are pretty much who they are, there hasn't been any real huge drop off this season, with any of them. However we never properly replaced Dennis, and TBH...this team isn't as good as last season's team IMO.

That being said...Lebron and AD can alleviate a whole lot of the issues, by playing like Superstars more frequently.

Milwaukee just fired a coach because he supposedly, had no clue how to run an offense or defense. Yet he was 30-13 with the 2nd best record in the League. Perhaps "coaching " in the NBA , is a bit overrated, especially in the regular season. Talent wins...when it performs.

 

No doubts on that take...

Nobody can survive missing a star or Superstar in this league in the playoffs. The Flippers made a little run a couple of seasons ago, but the Claw had powered them to a lead in the semifinals before he got hurt. They lost in the next round.

 

payton watson and braun are emerging role players, especially Watson

 

still think this take isn't as solid as everyone suggests. we signed dlo to 18 per this year because there wasn't a market for him at a higher number. and he's outperforming his salary number. why is it a guarantee that someone--who didn't want to pay him last year--will suddenly pony up the cash this summer. if you look at the list of teams that will have space, most of them probably won't use it on dlo for various reasons, and if they were thinking about it, apparently the cost is nothing but expiring contracts, so they should just do it now!

if he has another bad playoff series, the worst case is we're stuck with the same guy we have this year, who is probably our third best player. and he'll be on an expiring contract then.

if he plays well and opts out, we have his bird rights. why wouldn't we want him if everyone else does?

i just think you can turn these arguments completely over. buha sort of acknowledges that and then calls it a fantasy for no good reason. i call his take doomsaying.

but these are the same people telling us a year ago that it was going to take 2 unprotected 1sts just to get off westbrook only to see us trade a protected 1st for three better players than westbrook.