I like Adams a lot. He's sets strong screens, plays solid defense, and doesn't make many mistakes. He's also a very good rebounder. I don't know about a two-way player, but I like him.
We're making the next step right now. Randle's been starting, finally, which was killing us all the time he didn't pretty obviously now .... and we've got the ...what .... next best record in the NBA since ? with the 10-4 and finally no more Ennis with 6'9" BI stepping into that role and another 2 way player into the starting lineup in Hart. Defense has been looking great. Fastest paced offense in the league. This isn't last season's team or even the first half team any more. Lopez is being used better. For the like 5th time let the season play out. Don't get all the doom and quit almost as to our ultimate success this year before it's even over. Learning well now to win without Lonzo as well very importantly.
Also, we are winning these games when they matter. Last season we won several games at the end when everyone had shut down their team's for the season. This team is completely different than last year's team. Realdeal posted some stats in a thread comparing our win-loss records, how many times we've been blown out, etc. We are a better team, a more complete team and we haven't really gotten older and more experienced. Some of our guys are a year older, but we are relying heavily on 3 rookies.
um, yes it is. being a consistent lob threat is really important to an offense. aren't you the capela fan? adams can do all that AND punish you for playing small against him in isolation. okc just doesn't go to it much because they have, you know, westbrook, george, and melo. adams has a little floater, too. he's way better than he was a couple years ago offensively (when he was basically erick dampier). on d, he can move his feet better than people think and can bother post scorers. add in his durability and tell me which centers you're taking over him? i probably take jokic and embiid over him. cousins, pre-injury. jordan, gobert, drummond, valanciunas, whiteside...toss up for me. anyway, point is that he's a lot better than pretty much all our guys and isn't much older. okc has two important pieces on their roster.
I really like Adams. A lot! He seems to be incredibly underrated here. Truly one of the better C’s in the league. Here are a few of the things he does amazingly well: - sets bone crushing screens (ask jimmy butler) - rolls hard to the rim - athletic to be the alleyoop option - can switch onto guards during a P&R successfully - quick enough to rotate back to his man once he has iced the P&R - can protect the rim at a high level - great iso defence on the block - in a pinch can post up effectively - enforcer for his team - scores with the second highest TS% in the league showing how efficient he is - doesn’t need any plays run for him to score 12-15 points a game Then we get to his best quality. He is far and away the best offensive rebounder in the league. He routinely pulls down 7 a game. When he is on the floor he gobbles up 18% of all misses from the thunder. THATS INSANE! You get second chance opportunities 1/5 shots you miss when he is on the floor with you. This has a secondary positive outcome, on the thunder no one else tries to go for offensive rebounds, so when anyone throws a shot up the whole team starts sprinting back. He is the reason why the thunder give up so few points in transition defence with his ability to rebound offensively. Some players are extremely flashy, like Porzingis and KAT. But they currently don’t do enough of the intangible things well to impact winning on their teams enough. A player like Adams is all about having a winning impact. I would love to have him on the Lakers. He is a draymond green like player and I really believe every team needs someone like that.
if hes that great defensively how come okc is falling to pieces on that end with merely just roberson gone? is roberson some sort of defensive jugglerknot?
Roberson was actually one of the front runners for DPOY this year. He takes their defence from middle of the pack to the best in the league. For what it’s worth, with Adams, Roberson and George playing, the thunder were turning other teams over at a rate that hasn’t been seen since the late 80s. With all 5 of their starters playing, OKC hasn’t lost a game this season, 16-0.
so 1 less roberson destroys okc defense n somehow you want me to believe adams is that great defensively?
defense involves 5 guys. you can live with one guy not pulling his weight (against most teams--gets harder in the playoffs), but more than that starts getting beyond what one person can clean up.
I don't know. I could be wrong but I think, that 16-0 is since December 1 when they started to turn things around. Because I'm pretty sure they've lost a handful of games at the start of the season with all 5 starters playing. As to their defense though, OKC is consistently one of the best in the league if not the best with those three on the floor this season. There's just this little skewed perception Roberson is what makes them the best necessarily at that end when really OKC with him and Adams last year isn't exactly a known elite defensive team. I'm just saying, being a great defensive team is more of a collective and compatible team effort than a mere gathering of elite individual defenders. Sent from my E6533 using Tapatalk
right. the spurs continue to be a good defensive team this year, even with leonard out for much of the season. this is with pau gasol and lamarcus aldridge as the back line! and may i add another ! the point is that adams is definitely someone who helps on both ends, and his physical presence is, literally and figuratively, huge.
You don’t look at things in a vacuum like that. Who replaced Roberson in the starting line up? An 18 yr old rookie who has the effort but not the brain to be a lock down defender. So immediately you replace the best defender on the team with the worst defender in the starting lineup. That has a knock on effect from moving PG to the main on ball defender, where he is only trying to slow down the main offensive threat. So PG’s impact gets nullified a bit, because before he was dominating from the weak side and totally shutting down the second best offensive player. Then you have Westbrook or Melo move onto the secondary offensive threat, and they routinely get caught out on rotations and don’t fight through screens. Which means that Adams now has to cover too many holes. Their ideal scheme is Roberson slows down the other team’s best scorer, George shuts down their second best scorer, Westbrook plays free safety and picks pockets, Melo bodies up his 3/4 player and tries not to mess up while Adams ices P&R’s and uses his help rotations to protect the rim against penetration from the perimeter. This doesn’t even take into consideration the help Defense Roberson was providing. Having 3 amazing help defenders alongside Westbrook and Melo was huge. Most teams don’t have 3 great offensive threats (only GSW do really).
Roberson deserves the credit but if anything, the dip in the defensive rating of OKC with him out is indicative and just magnifying of how terrible their bench is. Ferguson is a kid and Abrines has no defense whatsoever. And for a team who pride themselves of being able to switch 1 through 4 on the defensive end and they do really love to switch with no players getting lost in the process except Melo at times, it makes the injury stings even more. So the numbers support it. I just don't agree with the perception that discredits both PG and Adams defensively. It simply is a case of a system missing one indispensable element. Sent from my E6533 using Tapatalk
1 Roberson less shouldnt take you from 1st to the bottom when there is supposedly 2 elite defenders are still there...it should at least be a middle ground n since rob went down they giving up 100+ almost every gm
The Thunder are terrible defensively because of Westbrook and Carmelo. Adams, Roberson, George, and most of their athletic bench players are good-to-great defensively.
