Comments on: Pistons CAN trade Rodney Stuckey this season

By: tarsier

tarsier — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 03:36:25 +0000

Yeah, which is fair. Most of what he brings to the team (in terms of development) is available without him playing. So it comes down to whether the young players are more benefited by watching him play in games or by havin more minutes themselves. You could argue it either way.

By: tarsier

tarsier — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 03:28:50 +0000

I know Shaq is two decades ago. I did say that there were nearly 10 players “in two decades” of Durant’s caliber. Sure, they are better at some things and worse at others, but they are of the same caliber. And if you get 10 of them in 20 years, that makes them a once in two years player. And I forgot Wade, somehow. That was totally my bad.

Rose as MVP was not a travesty as the playoffs have nothing to do with MVP (it is a regular season award). I thought Dwight deserved it, but Rose had a legit case, so it was not a travesty (like Russel getting it over Wilt and Robertson in the season they averaged over 50 ppg and better than 30-10-10 respectively).

Also, include Love among those who could end up being on the same tier. Again, probably not, but the more players who could end up there, the more likely that at least one or two will.

Also, highly unlikely Durant will be a better player than James. He is better at one thing: shooting. James is better at defense, passing, and driving.

By: Max

Max — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 02:07:55 +0000

But they do complain that he plays minutes.

By: Max

Max — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 02:06:25 +0000

He is a once in a decade or maybe even a once in league history example of his kind of player who is also in the conversation for the league’s best player. Shaq is two decades ago. Duncan is at least a decade ago. The last player of Durant’s caliber was James and Durant might wind up being the best scorer ever. He could pass Kareem. Also, I was only naming players who are still with the team they originally played for since we were talking about the idea of acquiring young talent.
BTW: I disagree that Rose, Griffen or Cousins can be better than Durant. He and James, with Wade and Bryant standing alone on the next tier, are head and shoulders above everyone else unless Dirk gets hot in the playoffs. Howard is only in the conversation of best player because of the league’s lack of dominant centers. Rose as MVP last year was a travesty and the playoffs proved it. This year; the way the Bulls win whether he plays or not continues to prove it. The MVP jumped the shark a long time ago and there have been several players named who had no business in the conversation.

By: tarsier

tarsier — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 01:05:22 +0000

Wallace is payed what a vet who is there to be an example/mentor/influence/leader is supposed to be paid. Prince is not. Hence why no Pistons fans complain about having Big Ben.

By: tarsier

tarsier — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 01:02:03 +0000

I love Durant but he is hardly a once in a decade player. There are several better players in the league: Lebron, Howard, Paul. Plus Kobe, Duncan, and Shaq all were better. And Rose or Griffin or even Cousins could turn out better. So in about two decades, that is 7-10 players of that caliber (even if you disagree about who is better than whom, you can’t disagree that they are on at least the same tier as Durant).

By: Max

Max — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 23:23:17 +0000

Further, the Wizards players suffer in my belief from the lack of a Wallace. Players like McGee and Blatche seem to fall short of people’s expectation every time they play but neither player has every had a veteran big men to help iron out their deficiencies and show them how it’s done. We will never really know, but to my mind, McGree already seems like he will fall far short of his potential and I’d posit that throwing him into the fire and just giving him tons of minutes hurt his long term prospects and development because losing is acceptable. He continues to start every game and faces no adverse consequences for all of his frequent mistakes and if anything his mistakes are almost becoming his habits.

By: Max

Max — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 23:14:29 +0000

The Thunder are good for the same reason any team was when they drafted a once in a decade transcendent player. I would only compare the Thunder at this point to the Spurs who drafted Duncan, the Magic when they drafted Howard, the Mavs when they drafted Nowitski, the Heat when they drafted Wade or the Lakers when they acquired Kobe. That’s it. I wouldn’t even count Derek Rose. You can’t follow these teams methods because these type of players are nearly impossible to draft or trade for on draft day. It is fine to celebrate these organizations but their great luck was indelible to every bit of their success because it provided the foundation. These level of players almost guarantee 50 win seasons every year no matter what their general managers or coaches do.
So unless the Kings draft Anthony Davis and he is everything people expect and more, accumulating young talent will not help the Wizards because it is what they have been doing since they had Ben Wallace on their team and it has not worked.

By: tarsier

tarsier — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 22:30:21 +0000

They have talent on the roster, but it is very young talent. And not yet enough either. Look at the Thunder, they were terrible in spite of having lots of too young talent. Then once their good young guys hit their third or fourth season, they really took off. If the Wizards and Kings can be that successful with accumulating talent (not culture), they too will start winning. I fully expect this of the Kings in the next two years. The Wiz, I don’t know. Wall looks to have been somewhat overrated, although still quite good. But I really didn’t like their haul in the last draft (I thought Vesely would be a complete bust and I expect him to continue to justify that expectation).

By: Max

Max — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 21:34:06 +0000

Seems like you are in favor of the Wizards and Kings.