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2021 NBA Offseason Thread

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@ShamsCharania

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Free agent guard J.R. Smith will work out for the Los Angeles Lakers early this week, league sources tell
@TheAthleticNBA

AND:



@ShamsCharania


Lakers have completed workout with free agent Dion Waiters and he had an impressive showing, sources tell
@TheAthleticNBA

@Stadium
. Next portion of Waiters' visit to the Lakers: Meeting with Frank Vogel, Rob Pelinka and Kurt Rambis.

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I'm simply saying that New Orleans can field a really good starting five and they are way better than their record thanks to the Zion injury. They would not be the typical 8th seed.

They're 9-7 since Zion came back and here are their losses: two the Lakers (both close), OKC, Houston, MIlwaukee, Denver, San Antonio. And two of those losses were his first two games back in which be played 17 and 21 minutes.

Their WORST loss since he's been back was by 12 points against Milwaukee.

Holiday, Reddick, Ingram, Zion, and Favors will not be a walk in the park. For anyone. And I don't think LeBron wants to spend a lot of time having to guard Zion in round 1. Because poor Kyle Kuzma has no shot at it.

The other part of this is I think people are sorta ignoring the Lakers lack of really good talent after LeBron and AD. AFter his last season with the Cavs, this is probably the least talent team overall LeBron has been on since his last season in Miami. The 3rd best player was supposed to be Kyle Kuzma and frankly, he's sucked ass this year. It's probably been Dwight Howard.

Would the Lakers probably win? Of course. They have the first and second best player in that series. But after that the next like, 5 best players are all on New Orleans. And it only takes one goofy thing to happen. We almost lost to the Pacers in 7 games.
 
The Pelicans have a lot to feel good about. Their future looks promising.
Old DG is sleeping well I'd guess.
 
You look at TJ Warren for 11 million a year and you think "isn't this just the far cheaper version of Andrew Wiggins?" He doesn't realy do much other than score at a fairly efficient clip. Not a great defender. Doesn't pass. Doesn't really rebound. But for the money, he's pretty solid.
 
I honestly don't think the Lakers have any guards capable of checking Murray and I like the guys they can throw at LeBron whether it's Craig, Millsap, Harris, or Grant. There's not a team out there that is going to shut him down, but I see the Nuggets doing as well as anybody on that front.

On the other end, I don't see them stopping Jokic at all. AD would probably do fine, but the energy expended would limit his effectiveness offensively. And I just flat out don't believe Dwight Howard can stop Jokic to any extent.

Lakers should ultimately win having the best player on the floor, but it would be no cakewalk.

You must have missed the lakers vs denver game before the all star break where Davis and Howard literally took turns offensively and defensively neutralizing jokic. They wore jokic out and he absolutely looked exhausted and out of shape. Jokic didn't have the foot speed to handle Davis or the strength to handle howard.
 
You must have missed the lakers vs denver game before the all star break where Davis and Howard literally took turns offensively and defensively neutralizing jokic. They wore jokic out and he absolutely looked exhausted and out of shape. Jokic didn't have the foot speed to handle Davis or the strength to handle howard.
It went to OT and Jokic had an efficient 22-11-6 while Jamal Murray went off for 35 and 10.

So, I guess we have different definitions of neutralized.

Not to mention, regular-season matchups rarely mean much regarding playoff matchups

Either way, I think the two teams are set up to play a tightly contested series. It would be fun to watch.
 
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The Rockets choking last night helps my dream of them playing the Lakers in the second round.

I want to see LeBron hang Harden out to dry over the course of a series.

While the Lakers would be favored in that series, the Rockets are definitely an opponent that they would be better off avoiding. Just from a math perspective, Houston will take and likely make way more threes than the Lakers. They will also get to the line more than the Lakers since their two stars are two of the most notorious floppers in the game. It's entirely conceivable that the Rockets could just get hot four times and knock out a better team. At the very least, it'll likely be a long series meaning additional wear and tear on LeBron and AD that the Lakers would rather avoid in the second round. Facing the Rockets and then the Clippers all before the Finals would be exhausting. But I do think that if these teams met, the absurd rebounding and size edge the Lakers have would wear down the Rockets over the course of a seven game series.
 
While the Lakers would be favored in that series, the Rockets are definitely an opponent that they would be better off avoiding. Just from a math perspective, Houston will take and likely make way more threes than the Lakers. They will also get to the line more than the Lakers since their two stars are two of the most notorious floppers in the game. It's entirely conceivable that the Rockets could just get hot four times and knock out a better team. At the very least, it'll likely be a long series meaning additional wear and tear on LeBron and AD that the Lakers would rather avoid in the second round. Facing the Rockets and then the Clippers all before the Finals would be exhausting. But I do think that if these teams met, the absurd rebounding and size edge the Lakers have would wear down the Rockets over the course of a seven game series.

I don't disagree with this. Whichever conference finalist plays Denver should theoretically have an easier pathway than the other.

That said, as a fan of the game, I want to see the Lakers and Rockets play as this sort of clash of styles. I've also wanted to see LeBron get a playoff series against Harden for years.

I don't think Harden and Westbrook will get anywhere near their normal amount of calls both in the postseason and against another team with superstars defending them.
 
I don't disagree with this. Whichever conference finalist plays Denver should theoretically have an easier pathway than the other.

That said, as a fan of the game, I want to see the Lakers and Rockets play as this sort of clash of styles. I've also wanted to see LeBron get a playoff series against Harden for years.

I don't think Harden and Westbrook will get anywhere near their normal amount of calls both in the postseason and against another team with superstars defending them.

You are probably right about Harden and Westbrook getting less calls - they certainly have in past playoffs relative to their regular season rates. But I still think they'd get to the line a lot more than the LeBron would. LeBron basically hasn't gotten calls for a decade as evidenced by free throw rate per shot in the paint and free throw rate per drive. And the other factor here is that Harden and Westbook also convert free throws at a way higher rate than any non-AD Lakers. Thus I think they'll have a math advantage from the free throw line and with threes.

But I agree that it would be an interesting style clash. Harden has faced LeBron in the playoffs before in the 2012 Finals. Obviously that was a very different Harden and LeBron was in his absolute prime. What I remember from that series was OKC deciding for some reason to designate Harden as their primary defender against LeBron down the stretch of all the games. Predictably, LeBron just destroyed Harden in the post over and over again.
 
I think the Lakers would struggle mightily defensively against the Rockets. I could see Westbrook really having an all-time type series.

However, I stand firm that the Nuggets are being slept on a criminal amount. They've won 67% of their games in the last two years. They have a legit superstar in Jokic and some big-time players in that supporting cast.

They've dealt with a significant amount of injuries to rotation players, but just keep plugging along and winning games.
 
I think the Lakers would struggle mightily defensively against the Rockets. I could see Westbrook really having an all-time type series.

However, I stand firm that the Nuggets are being slept on a criminal amount. They've won 67% of their games in the last two years. They have a legit superstar in Jokic and some big-time players in that supporting cast.

They've dealt with a significant amount of injuries to rotation players, but just keep plugging along and winning games.

It's all motherfuckin Mike Malone.
 
Maybe but Houston just doesn't worry me if I was Lebron: I think after 2-3 games Houston likely starts wearing down as the Lakers now that they have Morris have the personal to go big and small at their leisure. AD and Howard are two of few centers who have the ability to rotate out and still get back inside to contest shots and protect the glass

They also just match up pretty well with Denver as they have the bodies to throw at Jokis and Lebron doesn't have to worry about guarding someone like a Tatum or Kawhii.
 
Barrett starting to look much, much better.
Interesting..

The biggest problem for Barrett this year has been that the Knicks have the worst spacing in the league. There's just no space for Barrett to operate. He's not a guy with a lightning quick first step that can just blow by his man and finish through a packed paint. Like more than some players, RJ needs the lane to be clear to get to the hoop and finish. On the whole I've been impressed with how he's been able to generate offense with lineups straight out of the 1990s.
 
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