Around the League: Week 16 2/6 - 2/12

[Ring_Wanted]

I would normally chalk that up to having such a young team. But we play our vets a LOT, and it doesn't help.

Being dead last or close to it in assists and TOs will make sure the other team will have a chance if it plays tight defense regardless of our lead. That's the ugly and dumb brand we've been playing for three seasons now.

[Ring_Wanted]

Dragic is having himself a game against the T-Wolves. He has 21 points at 1/2 time (8/9FG, 5/5 3pts) and Miami's put up 71(!) in the half

Quietly having a close to career year and leading a depleted Heat team to a surprising surge (two games away from the playoffs).

[Mori Chu]

Good thing we got rid of that loser!!

[Superbone]

Good thing we got rid of that loser!!

Yeah!

[JCSunsfan]

Dragic is having himself a game against the T-Wolves. He has 21 points at 1/2 time (8/9FG, 5/5 3pts) and Miami's put up 71(!) in the half

Quietly having a close to career year and leading a depleted Heat team to a surprising surge (two games away from the playoffs).

Dragic does that. But it he is your best player, you are in trouble. But if you have players better than him, he doesn't seem to play as well.

[Indy]

Good thing we got rid of that loser!!

Just to be clear, he got rid of us.

[Superbone]

Good thing we got rid of that loser!!

Just to be clear, he got rid of us.

It's not that clear.

[JustWinBaby]

McDonough turned Dragic, Thomas and the Laker's pick into Brandon Knight. Brilliant.

As much as I would like to support him, it is really difficult.

Can't wait for, "well we could never have won a championship" with either Dragic or Thomas as our PG.

Championships should not even be a target at this point. I just want a team that is respectable night in night out and gets to the playoffs at least once each decade.

I hope the Celtics play the Heat in the ECF and one of them wins the championship. I know that is not possible but it would be really cool if it did happen.

[Split T]

Dragic and Thomas had nothing to do with the Brandon knight trade. Hate on the Lakers pick for Knight trade all you want, but don't start making up facts.

[JCSunsfan]

McDonough turned Dragic, Thomas and the Laker's pick into Brandon Knight. Brilliant.

As much as I would like to support him, it is really difficult.

Can't wait for, "well we could never have won a championship" with either Dragic or Thomas as our PG.

Championships should not even be a target at this point. I just want a team that is respectable night in night out and gets to the playoffs at least once each decade.

I hope the Celtics play the Heat in the ECF and one of them wins the championship. I know that is not possible but it would be really cool if it did happen.

I thought Dragic was traded for two Miami picks three months before he would have walked away for nothing. Did I miss something?

[carey]

I thought Dragic was traded for two Miami picks three months before he would have walked away for nothing. Did I miss something?

No. You didn't miss anything. There were 3 separate trades that day and boiling it down to Dragic, Thomas, and a pick for BK is just silly. We got 3 1st rounders back that day too. It's whatever at this point though.

[pickle]

And I also disagree that championships should not be a target. This is a personal preference obviously, but I'm more in the Hinkie school. If we are playing poorly, then just suck the right way and set ourselves up for the future. I'm sick of basketball purgatory where we chase the 8th-6th seed every year without a real chance to win it all. I loved the Barkley years, I was a huge 77ol fan, but in between, when we had Kidd/Marbury, those were some tough years to follow.

[JustWinBaby]

Dragic and Thomas had nothing to do with the Brandon knight trade. Hate on the Lakers pick for Knight trade all you want, but don't start making up facts.

Excuse me.

Dragic and Thomas had everything to do with the Knight trade. What are you smoking.

I doubt that we would have made the deal for Knight if both Thomas and Dragic were not dealt. Thus we also would not have dealt the Laker pick to acquire Knight. What don't you understand?

[Split T]

Dragic and Thomas had nothing to do with the Brandon knight trade. Hate on the Lakers pick for Knight trade all you want, but don't start making up facts.

Excuse me.

Dragic and Thomas had everything to do with the Knight trade. What are you smoking.

I doubt that we would have made the deal for Knight if both Thomas and Dragic were not dealt. Thus we also would not have dealt the Laker pick to acquire Knight. What don't you understand?

My apologies you made it seem like we packaged dragic, Thomas, and the Lakers pick together for Knight. And conveniently forgot to mention the 3 first round picks we also got in return.

We traded dragic for two firsts. Thomas was traded for a 1st. The Lakers pick was traded for Knight. Each was a separate deal.

Would we have traded for Knight without trading IT and Dragic? Probably not, you're right in that regard, but leaving out the 3 picks we got completely changes things.

Dragic for two firsts looked good at the time and still looks like a good haul. IT for a first was kind of an after thought at the time, but does look pretty bad now. No one was really complaining at the time though and we were never going to give IT the freedom to do what he's doing in Boston with Bledsoe on the team.

[pickle]

I still think that the IT deal is not as bad as many make it out to be. We signed him for basically nothing, and we got a first rounder for him. We might have been able to get more for him in an alternate world, but at the time, as I recall, most people thought that his ball pounding was a huge chemistry negative, and couldn't wait to be rid of him.

That and the fact that had he remained with the Suns through the Markieff saga, there's no telling what production he might have put up and what he might have done to Booker (assuming that his presence on the team allowed us to still get Booker at the 13th pick). I for one have 0 faith that IT on the Suns is a 29/6 guy. So if anything, instead of faulting McDonough for moving IT, I'd rather a) blame McDonough for not assembling the type of talent around IT that maximizes his value (and thus trade value), or b) blame our coaching staff for not developing the young players in a way that maximizes their value.

Signing a free agent in the off season that was turned into a late 1st rounder in the middle of a lost season is a good thing.

I feel like we played jeopardy and won $1,000 and are complaining that we didn't take a bigger gamble to win $10k. Winning 1k is a good thing.

[UglyTruth]

I think playing under one of the best coaches in the league in Stevens has helped IT become more consistent.

Under Watson, he would've got better at yoga and that's about it.

[UglyTruth]

Good thing we got rid of that loser!!

Just to be clear, he got rid of us.

They got rid of him by forcing his hand and signing and drafting multiple PGs after he just had an All NBA season.

[UglyTruth]

Dragic is having himself a game against the T-Wolves. He has 21 points at 1/2 time (8/9FG, 5/5 3pts) and Miami's put up 71(!) in the half

Quietly having a close to career year and leading a depleted Heat team to a surprising surge (two games away from the playoffs).

Dragic does that. But it he is your best player, you are in trouble. But if you have players better than him, he doesn't seem to play as well.

What proof do you have of this? Or is this one of those, "well if you add Kevin Love to 'Bron and Kyrie, then Love's stats will obviously decrease since he's getting less shots now" type of thing?

Cause in that case, Wade and Bosh are similar to Dragic too. Cause both Wade and Bosh stats suffered after LeBron signed with them in Miami.

As far as "being in trouble" if Dragic'a your best player...Miami is on like a 11 game winning streak.

[Indy]

Good thing we got rid of that loser!!

Just to be clear, he got rid of us.

It's not that clear.

He specifically said that he did not want to be a part of this team. You can argue that signing IT is what made him feel that way, but either way, he is the one that said he did not want to be here. He dumped us. And we still got 2 first rounders for him.

[Hermen]

Good thing we got rid of that loser!!

Just to be clear, he got rid of us.

It's not that clear.

He specifically said that he did not want to be a part of this team. You can argue that signing IT is what made him feel that way, but either way, he is the one that said he did not want to be here. He dumped us.

Because we wanted to see other people