I hear you. Ideally, we could have pulled a 2008 OKC type season where they tanked/developed continuously to where the next season they were able to draft Harden and make the playoffs. Although it appears unlikely at this point that we'll match their same development arc, one thing that keeps me optimistic that we can reach the same point they did by end of next year is the fact that we will have many more resources in free agency then they did, which can hopefully make up some of the difference.
Wait did someone say "tank"? No ...no ....no I can't do this 3 years in a row. But I can't help myself. Who doesn't like "tank" pics?? Here, this one is for the tank commander Boron himself this year when no one wanted a tank season. Eat bleep and die, Boron!!
Yeah it's not looking like we'll follow that arc. You need a semi competent coach and tons of time for the kids to develop to follow that arc. Instead our guys are still playing in below 30 minutes a game.
Yeah I don't get how anyone can not be impressed with Russell. He's 19 years old and has to deal with the worst coach in the NBA who benched him even after he was playing well. He's been very good since then and still can't find his way back into the starting lineup. He's had a few clunkers, but for the most part he's been very impressive since being benched. He's making plays, facilitating, driving and finishing more, been good in crunch time, even decent defensively from time to time.
Dammit, I'm trying hard not to even think about the draft and get my hopes up for keeping that pick. We suck so bad though, it seems we WILL end up with the 2nd worst record at LEAST. I'm not rooting for tanking, I'm rooting for wins, but we suck so bad we lose no matter what I root for, and if we get that #2 pick, Ingram is a seemingly easy choice if we keep it, and then we also have the option of trading it for a nice player.
Ingram would be my number 1 choice. Not that I think we are keeping the lick, but if we did, I think the higher likelihood is that it gets traded.
For what it's worth Simmons is getting compared to LeBron James/Lamar Odom. I think Nbadraft.net has Simmons' jumper too highly rated as well. Simmons' jumper is about as nonexistent as Julius Randle's.
Now I'm spending time reading up on Ingram. He's at 16.6 per game, but over his last 10 it's 19.9. I'm looking to see him have a breakout game. FWIW when I was in grad school I had a friend who did his undergrad at Oklahoma State. He once picked up Tony Allen as a hitchhiker on campus during a rain storm. We watched a lot of Big 12 basketball, and I ended up watching Kevin Durant a good bit (I was living in TX). Durant had a ridiculous run in which he posted six straight games of 20+ points and 10+ boards. He averaged 30 points and 14 rebounds over that stretch, and his team lost only one of those games - against OKSU. That run happened right around this point in the season. Ingram hasn't hit 30 yet, and he has been under 20 points in six of his last nine games. I won't put him in the same breath with KD until he can rattle off some big games. I'll say this about him: he can score however he wants, he moves well off the ball, and even when he's working toward a bucket, he is a willing passer. Seems like a great teammate, always praising guys who score off his passes, and his release is impressive. A lot more fire than I would've thought from such a scrawny dude.
I just think it'd be nice to have someone with Simmons' athleticism. He's so fluid with at his size and has a lot of strength to go along with it.
I still like the comparison to Durant, but he obviously isn't popping off the page the same way. I don't think he'll be as effective as Durant, but he's still got the potential to be a very, very good player in the NBA. He's got the perfect skill set offensively to fit in with what we've got going on. He's a willing defender even if we can't expect much from a kid his size. In a few years to me he projects as a very competent and perhaps better than that SF from what will end up being a pretty underwhelming draft class.
Simmons to me is still the number one pick even without a jumper. His ability to get to the rim and find open players is truly impressive. He never takes a jumper so it's hard for me to tell how broken it is, but he's got the kind of size and strength to LeBron at the rim by today's NBA defensive standards. Still if we got #1 and couldn't find a trade partner and got Ingram instead of Simmons, I don't think it'd be the end of the world.
Lebron's jumper was pretty broken coming in from high school as well. He still isn't a prolific shooter from outside either. I watched a couple highlight videos of Simmons and he will be a player living in the paint. His ability to knife to the paint and his sound footwork in the post with his athleticism is solid. Not to say that he'll take the occasional 10-15 footer. How I would differentiate in comparison to say, Randle, is that Simmons is in control vs Randle's steam train approach. Simmons is able to maneuver around defenders and elevate to score, whereas Randle seems to put his head down, try to bump and create space, and go up. Both have the passing ability off the dribble, but Simmon's is a little more guard-like with his passes.
I've harped on this already, but I think the simmons/LeBron comparisons are really selling LeBron's strength and athleticism short. even at 18, he was a monster. simmons isn't like that. not really close, imo. who knows, maybe I'm wrong, but i'll be surprised if he can live up to that very lofty comparison. odom with a better motor seems more appropriate. and that's still quite good.
Those are his two main comparisons and I tend to agree with them. I'm not saying he's LeBron just like I'm not saying Ingram is Durant BUT their games are similar in style. Where LeBron could rise up over the top of you, I see Simmons struggling with that at the next level. Where Ingram has a tremendous shooting stroke, I don't see him being able to do what Durant does on a regular basis off the bounce. I think the point is though that they're very solid prospects and they're maybe the only real solid prospects in the draft. Labissiere is wholly unimpressive. Jaylen Brown looks like a copy of Winslow or Stan Johnson. Dragan Bender could be Bargnani or he could be Porzingis, it's almost impossible to tell.
I think if we get the #1 pick and Simmons, we will look to trade Randle. The two of them together would get ugly. If we get Ingram though, Randle will work well with him. That #1 pick would really help our rebuild possibly spring into high gear, as in contenders next season. If Boogie continues to be pissed in Sactown, Randle, Clarkson and maybe Swaggy for cap filler isn't a bad haul. Russell, Boogie and Simmons is an awfully nice core to tempt Durant with. Especially if we can get another free agent like Derozen to kind of talk to Durant and maybe come in a package together.
