irvchilichill1

Zion didnt play damn near his 1st year and last season was a Van Gundy, wtf?, mulligan year.... I expect Zion to finally enter this year in a comfort zone and ball out. Top 10 in the League by December. TOP 5 come playoffs. Top 3, if he can get us to Semis.


Side note: Durant is the BEST offensive scorer EVER in the League, Jordan included. Dude is unselfish and still drops 35+. If he had Jordan/Kobe mentality and was the TRUE PRIMARY/ONLY scoring option, he would likely avg. 40+ a night/career. I wish he would of had his OWN team, we would see what an absolute Monster he should have been. Last year playoff series against Bucks, Game 7, would be an every game occurence for KD.

Tomas will be key running the 2nd team. I believe Tomas play will lead to him starting eventually. He is gonna be key to the Pels run.

Honestly, Kira will be an average player in this league.

If NAW starts, I would say no... He would probably need to be the 4th or 5th leading scorer if we are winning games. So, I would say 12.5 a game. If he is 3rd, then we actually may have an issue with Graham or Joe V not producing to their mean.
If Joe is not getting you 15+ per game, then he is likely missing easy mid range shots, the majority of his 3's, offensive rebounding and putbacks are lacking and he is not getting to the line and/or hitting them at a 75% rate. Not good. U then are repeating a Steven Adams scenario but 2x more frustrated bc Joe is actually better offensively than Adams by a considerable margin. Joe should put up 17+ way more efficiently than in Memphis bc he should not be a focal point of a team's defensive strategy to key on this team like he was in Memphis. His dirty work game cleaning up behind Zion's action should merit him 6 pts alone per game.

Joe has to be the 3rd leading scorer for this reset to pay dividends. Graham, NAW and in the 2nd half of the year, add Trey (some nights), being able to alternate games who's got the hot hand in a given game, but Joe V HAS to be the 3rd consistent scorer, which he is more than capable of. He was 2nd on Memphis. They made the Playoffs. He has to be 3rd here. Period.

NAW will be counted on along with Graham to take pressure off of BI with end of quarter looks and possibly BI decoying for Graham/NAW to get a few game winner attempts, whomever is feeling it a particular game.

Also, we have too much depth for NAW to not be 1st or 2nd subbed-in for, especially if he's not impacting early or struggling defensively on his man. Hart and Graham will average more minutes than NAW. So that puts him as a 6th man in minutes. Plus, I expect Naji to impose his will on the coaches to give him quality minutes with the starters this year as well.

If NAW can just give double digits starting then he is doing his job. Trey and Naji, are the 2nd unit scorers, along with Zion if we dont go with Jax at the 4. Hart is lagniappe across the board. Kira is the enigma bc he may struggle with his role if its Point Zion with the 2nd unit.

But, like I said, almost rather Hart start, let him guard the best peremiter player and have a bomb squad for a 2nd unit and allow Zion to play point and find the shooters.

I see Zion, BI and Joe as the 20 per night guys and the rest of the squad, any # of players, on a given night, chippin in 10+ by committee until someone asserts themself. Might not be NAW every night, but hopefully we may not HAVE to have him put up 15+ a night to win.
If NAW is averaging 17+ and Joe getting his 17... We are a Top 5 seed in the West.

28(Zion)+25(BI)+18(NAW)+17(JV)= 88
Thats alot from just 4 off the starting unit and thats not accounting for Graham who I expect to average, low double digits himself if he plays to what is expected of him.

Scoring will not be a problem this year, as a team, but NAW averaging 18 is not likely as a starter. Maybe at or after the All Star break if he's just ballin out and knocking down 3 or 4 three-pointers a game on 7-10 attempts.

Maybe in the latter half, but early on Im just looking for double digits.

NAW will be good offensively. Thats his calling card to sticking in the League.
But, Im not so sure if he should start with the rest of the starters, maybe excluding Joe, not being considered good defensive players themselves.
Im thinking now Hart should start if Graham is the PG. We need SOMEONE with the starters to take the best wing player. Graham nor BI can right now guard elite players, although BI should be significantly better at Defense than he shows, but that may be due to his lack of weight/strength and/or having to conserve energy for offensive end.

If the goal is to have a fresher BI in the 4th so he doesnt run out of gas like many times last year, then Hart needs to start to take that burden off BI. Especially if Hart can bounce back with his shooting to keep teams honest.

Plus, NAW would be ideal this year as the 6th man and lead the 2nd unit's offensive attack with Naji and Trey. Kira would just need to set them up and they could really be a bomb squad with Jaxson's value being a force at getting offensive rebounds and tip outs for extra possessions/3 ptrs.

Let Hart start, increase his value hopefully due to being a solid "starting" 3&D guy and wait for teams to start possibly selling off star players at the deadline. Its a win-win.

I know Griff has this in mind so he welcomes open competition for the 2guard spot, despite reports of him demanding NAW start. And if they both struggle out the gate as starters, I see 3M3 sliding in and never relinquishing it from that point on.

Just dont think he is physically ready this year nor should he bear the difficult responsibility to guard the big dogs, but he may be the best one overall in giving what this team will need next to BI.

All else fails, I have no reservations in throwing out Straitjacket Jones with the starters and seeing if it gels. For some reason I think dude will be the suprise player for us this year. Idk when, but I can envision him getting significant minutes down the stretch and in the playoffs. He ran alot of point forward at Alabama last year and did well. Would like to see if he could replicate that success on this team.

The lawsuit states that Rich Paul withheld offers, so Noel wouldn't even have the option to accept if he didn't know they existed. That's the sticking point.

And its a valid assertion, one that if it were completely true, would constitute an injury and should merit a compensatory judgment in his favor.

I didnt touch upon it for a few simple reasons. I don't believe it to necessarily true bc 1.) Noel wasn't worth more than that particular offer from the Mavs as he was not a Stretch 5 and he got hurt, to boot 2.) Noel's value was declining due to the traditional Center position overall's worth to team building being of less importance. 3.) Klutch Sports has the league hostage right now and they are securing above market deals for nearly everyone of their clients. 4.) Noel KEPT Klutch as his agent presumably AFTER allegedly learning of the transgressions 5.) Noel sues Klutch ONLY AFTER Paul files his grievance.

Nevermind "learning of" alleged, withheld offers, one would think Noel would have fired Paul immediately after the Mavs contract was off the table bc he hired Paul solely to beat the Mavs offer. Soon as that didnt materialize and I've lost millions and become a laughingstock, one would reasonably assume a person would fire the agent ASAP. That didnt happen here and that is Noel's biggest problem to his assertions.

Kira is so not Bobby Jack. Not physically strong like Bobby and likely wont ever be regardless of his physical maturation. Kira, at least now, does not drive with intentions of creating physical contact like Jack. Nor does he shoot with confidence like Jack, currently. People forget, but it seems like B Jack was the 1st to consistently use the step back to create space for his jumper. Step back Bobby Jack was always said on SportsCenter (Craig Kilborn) when he played for the Kings. Nostalgia.

If Kira comes close to Bobby Jack during his career, and stays with the Pels, we will be contending for years to come.

quote:

---

Hawks barely make the playoffs, flash in the pan.

---

U trippin dude... If Pels could swipe 2 players off just the Atlanta bench, say Cam Reddish or Bogdanovich and a Jalen Johnson, we would be saying this team is Top 3 in the West and legit title contenders if everyone played to their basic potential.

Atlanta goes into the season as a projected 2nd seed and 1st if the Big 3 for Brooklyn has a few setbacks like this past year. Every 1 of Atlanta's players should further develop and be even better this year even if its nominal, sans Solo.

Dunno what u thinking my man. They beat Philly (again), Heat (in 6), and Celtics (not even close). They were healthy Trey and Cam from beating Milwaukee this past year and they lost P.J. Tucker and Forbes (in 6).

Barring internal strife or a rash of key injuries, as the Eastern teams are constituted, TODAY (reserving right to change one's opinion at the trade deadline bc of possible blockbuster trades obviously), Brooklyn is their only barrier to a Finals appearance this year.

'21 Pels... Better than '20 Hawks. Dead Serious. If NAW gives you Bogdanovic type impact and Trey gives you Gallinari timely 3's, our superstars are better than theirs.

Now, I didnt say '21 Hawks bc I believe they are officially a bonafide contender after the draft. They hands down have the best bench in the League. Their 2nd unit could be a legit starting 5 if it was 2 years from now. They have no dropoff at any position and Cooper/Johnson is Trey/Collins lite. No need to run different sets. Plug and play. If Cam is the same guy from here on out that he was in their last game, its Brooklyn and Altanta in the East and I honestly think its 50/50.