2021 NBA Offseason Thread

[Lee]

Kinda makes me wish you could drop prime Barkley into the modern NBA and give him some shots at "guarding" Young.

Barkley would have gotten a T or two, but he'd have made them worth it. You'd have needed a spatula to scrape Young off the floor while Barkley stood there with a "who, me?" shit-eating look.

Barkley would have gotten thrown out of every game against Atlanta, but other NBA players and teams would have contributed to the gofundme page to pay for Barkley's fines, lol

 

[Rich]

Is....is anyone actually good this year?

I don't see the makings of a single truly great team so far. Unless Phoenix/Indiana/Atlanta are totally for real....?

 

[Sir'Dom Pointer]

Avdija looks like a veteran glue guy. Really high floor. Lacks the ball handling to break down the defense in isolation, but once they start running some PnRs for him and running him off screens off the ball he is going to look much better as a creator. His IQ is off the charts.

He barely gets the ball and it seems like his +- has been consistently the highest on the team.

 

[pinoycavsfan]

Avdija looks like a veteran glue guy. Really high floor. Lacks the ball handling to break down the defense in isolation, but once they start running some PnRs for him and running him off screens off the ball he is going to look much better as a creator. His IQ is off the charts.

He barely gets the ball and it seems like his +- as been consistently the highest on the team.

His length, defense and playmaking would have helped Sexland. But Okoro is still a nice player with upside.

 

[Photon]

What do you guys think of Ace Ventura on Mavs bench, Dallas fans are terribly overrating him, he WAS good, but I think he got lost... I think they have quite nice set of players, just not guided properly (masked with Luka, who should improve even more imo).
Don’t like their fan base, just very superficial mostly.
Too bad we didn’t get LD, if I understand correctly there is a small slovenian emigrated community in Cle area, would be cool on top of LD potential.
So Carlisle?

 

[Sir'Dom Pointer]

His length, defense and playmaking would have helped Sexland. But Okoro is still a nice player with upside.

He would have helped them mainly because of his off-ball defense. He consistently rotates off his player from the corner to help on the roll and he forces the Big man to pass it out. That by it's lonesome would have helped the small guards defend the PnR with greater success. Just overall off the ball he is always in motion and help everyone on the floor. On the ball he can guard 1-4 and will be able to guard 1-5; and by being able, I mean guard well.

I hope Okoro can be a difference maker on the ball because he just doesn't have the versatility in terms of size to do everything on the defensive end. Like helping from the weakside and such and being a deterrence at the rim. Hopefully with his build he will be able to use some kind of verticality and make players bounce off him, but with how the NBA refs do their business nowadays, it looks like they give very little leeway in that regard and just call so many fouls when they see contact, even if it is generated by the offensive player.

I love the group that we have, but I also know that at this point i'm not objective because Okoro is the guy we got. So I'll be okay with him regardless of who becomes better. And it's not because of his basketball skills right now, it's because of who he is and his intangibles. Just fun to watch and easy guy to root for.

But as far as basketball skills, floor and versatility is concerned, Avdija is ahead right now. He was drafted to a pretty shitty spot all things considered, and it will take some time for him to get any meaningful touches and role.. but you can just see that the guy can play solid basketball on both ends.

I really want to see Okoro attack and create well in the next few games and see how he defends the bigger, more versatile forwards. I'm looking forward to a matchup with Harden and see how he handles him.

 

[cabs]

Lamelo will probably win ROY once the hornets boot Graham from the starting lineup

 

[Sir'Dom Pointer]

Lamelo will probably win ROY once the hornets boot Graham from the starting lineup

Let's see if he can maintain consistency. Great last 2 games.

 

[cavsfever]

Lakers looking a little wobbly early on, maybe not a surprise after going long into the postseason and only getting a short break. But what stands out to me is that Gasol+Harrell are not looking as good as the McGee+Howard duo did early last year. McGee and Howard had plenty of issues but they supercharged the defense with size in the middle, scored opportunistically, and ate up lots of regular season minutes. Gasol looking possibly a bit washed up and Harrell is not really a center.

 

[Pioneer10]

Is....is anyone actually good this year?

I don't see the makings of a single truly great team so far. Unless Phoenix/Indiana/Atlanta are totally for real....?

Lakers looking a little wobbly early on, maybe not a surprise after going long into the postseason and only getting a short break. But what stands out to me is that Gasol+Harrell are not looking as good as the McGee+Howard duo did early last year. McGee and Howard had plenty of issues but they supercharged the defense with size in the middle, scored opportunistically, and ate up lots of regular season minutes. Gasol looking possibly a bit washed up and Harrell is not really a center.

The Lakers will be really good once they decide to put AD at the 5 and sit Harell.
Harell is really bad at defense. But the fact is that McGee was benched in the playoffs and Howard barely played outside of the Denver series. The Lakers are at their best which they don't do often with Kuzma/Morris with Lebron at the forwards.

Schroeder looks awesome as a 3rd banana and they have all the pieces to fit around an AD at the 5 lineup. Basically guys like Harell and Gasol (similar to McGee and Howard) are regular season minutes eaters to protect AD. We won't know what the Lakers best is till the playoffs I suspect.

 

[Derek]

What do you guys think of Ace Ventura on Mavs bench, Dallas fans are terribly overrating him, he WAS good, but I think he got lost... I think they have quite nice set of players, just not guided properly (masked with Luka, who should improve even more imo).
Don’t like their fan base, just very superficial mostly.
Too bad we didn’t get LD, if I understand correctly there is a small slovenian emigrated community in Cle area, would be cool on top of LD potential.
So Carlisle?

I think Carlisle is one of the best coaches in the league

 

[Cavatt]

Celtics don't look that great. Will they be good? Thinking they slide a couple playoff spots

 

[Soar]

The cream will rise to the top as the season wears on and playoffs get closer.

But there is a ton of parity among teams 3-12 in both conferences.

 

[pinoycavsfan]

Westbrook has been pulling the wizards down. I know they just won against the nets, but the wiz would be better off with a semi competent pointguard who can make open shots instead of westbrick.

 

[Rich]

Did Gary Harris Jr. just give up on an off-season shooting regimen?

What in the world has happened to that guy? He was developing into a really solid starter and just...poof. Gone. He can't shoot the ball at all now.