Around the League: Week 18 2/20 - 2/26

[UglyTruth]

[Superbone]

Would be kind of hilarious if the Kings went on a huge run now WITHOUT Boogie. I still don't totally buy the idea that Davis + Boogie will work well together. Granted, tonight Boogie had 27p/14r/5a/4blk, and Davis had 29p/9r/1a/2blk. So, ... yeah.

And they lost by 30.

So, ... yeah.

[Mori Chu]

^ The only other Pelican who scored in double figures barely did so and then promptly broke his hand. I think the Pels will still have a tough rest of the season ahead of them.

[Aztec Sunsfan]

Would be kind of hilarious if the Kings went on a huge run now WITHOUT Boogie. I still don't totally buy the idea that Davis + Boogie will work well together. Granted, tonight Boogie had 27p/14r/5a/4blk, and Davis had 29p/9r/1a/2blk. So, ... yeah.

And they lost by 30.

So, ... yeah.

Having two players with those statlines, and still losing... on top of that by 30 points... Wow, just wow... that's no easy to do.

[In2ition]

Ben Simmons won't play this season. Foot hasn't fully healed. It will be quite a ROY battle next season.

[Mori Chu]

Philly is king of drafting the rook who misses his entire rookie year.

[In2ition]

Philly is king of drafting the rook who misses his entire rookie year.

Yeah, you noticed that too? I thought it was a strategy they had. We thought that Simmons and Embiid would have been competing for ROY this year, but now they may have 3 rookies competing for it next year.

[O_Gardino]

Would be kind of hilarious if the Kings went on a huge run now WITHOUT Boogie. I still don't totally buy the idea that Davis + Boogie will work well together. Granted, tonight Boogie had 27p/14r/5a/4blk, and Davis had 29p/9r/1a/2blk. So, ... yeah.

And they lost by 30.

So, ... yeah.

Just what I came to talk about. I didn't get to see the Kings game, but Willey CS and Buddy H had very good stat lines. I'm a big fan of Willey; I hope he can show his talent now.

I did get to see the 2nd quarter of the Pels game, and they looked as bad as you could expect. The Rockets didn't care about the Pels at all, they just ran down the court, took thier shots, and ran back to defend. In the part of the game I saw, Cousins never caught a pass in the paint. He would get it about one step in from the 3pt line and have to work from there. Basically the same spot Davis always gets the ball. Opposing teams can live with that.

I do think the Pels will get in a rhythm and grab that 8th playoff spot. But they have a lot of work to do.

[The Bobster]

Three top picks overall who missed the season with injuries -

Mychal Thompson, Portland, 1978-79 (broken leg)
Blake Griffin, L.A. Clippers, 2009-10 (knee injury)
Ben Simmons, Philadelphia, 2016-17 (broken foot)

Other #1 picks who were injury-prone - Doug Collins (1973), Bill Walton (1974), Ralph Sampson (1983), Danny Manning (1988), Yao Ming (2002), Andrew Bogut (2005), Greg Oden (2007)

[Ring_Wanted]

Haven't seen a lot of chat about OKC acquiring Gibson and McDermott (plus a second) for Payne, Lauvergne and Morrow.

Lauvergne and Payne are nice but Presti robbed CHI. Can't believe they added McDermott. Every deadline you can count on Presti stealing with no apparent reason.

[pickle]

Not impressed by that OKC CHI trade. Comes pretty close to a lose lose trade in my book.

[INFORMER]

Can't expect cauley-stein and labissiere to play like they have tonight each night.

Nothing surprising about Skal's performance; he's a good prospect.

[INFORMER]

Haven't seen a lot of chat about OKC acquiring Gibson and McDermott (plus a second) for Payne, Lauvergne and Morrow.

Lauvergne and Payne are nice but Presti robbed CHI. Can't believe they added McDermott. Every deadline you can count on Presti stealing with no apparent reason.

I actually didn't like that trade at all for OKC. Should have kept Lauvergne.

[Split T]

Can't expect cauley-stein and labissiere to play like they have tonight each night.

Nothing surprising about Skal's performance; he's a good prospect.

Just don't think you can count on him to be as efficient as he was last night. I didn't watch the game, just the box score, but he was 4/4 for 10 points when I saw it. Finished 5/7 with 12 points in 14 minutes.

WCS was much more surprising and I don't doubt skal will do this again, just think we'll see some 1/6 with 2 points from him as well.

[INFORMER]

Of course we'll see games like that; he's a rookie and a raw one at that.

[SDC]

i like OKC upsetting the spurs in the playoffs. and houston outshooting the warriors.

[Ring_Wanted]

Haven't seen a lot of chat about OKC acquiring Gibson and McDermott (plus a second) for Payne, Lauvergne and Morrow.

Lauvergne and Payne are nice but Presti robbed CHI. Can't believe they added McDermott. Every deadline you can count on Presti stealing with no apparent reason.

I actually didn't like that trade at all for OKC. Should have kept Lauvergne.

You have to give something to get something. Always liked Lauvergne but Gibson is a much more solid player and has a ton of experience playing for a ballhog PG. If they intend to pay for him, the trade gives them a very respectable rotation of Adams, Gibson, Kanter and Domantas. McDermott is the icing to play off Westbrook. Flawless in my opinion even if Payne and Lauvergne develop and produce in Chicago or elsewhere.

[pickle]

How much do you think Gibson will command? If he's gonna get upwards of 15 mil a year, that's gonna be one very expensive front court rotation that outside of Kanter really hasn't shown an ability to create scoring. Of course that will be the most physical front line in the league, but if you are OKC would you want to be pushing the luxury tax line for this? I am not a fan of this trade at all. But the second rounder coming back is useful, somewhat. I was shocked by the direction this pick conveyed.

[Ring_Wanted]

I wouldn't be surprised by 18M per, but that's today's NBA. Gibson is certainly not a creator, but he defends, can make midrange shots plus garbage stuff and has playoff experience. That's perfect to put around Westbrook and this current OKC roster. If Presti thinks his price is too high, he can just let him go considering that what he paid was not too rich, especially looking at how he acquired Payne and Lauvergne (which I concede is an imperfect evaluation) and also since he'd still have McDermott to show for it and OKC has putrid 3pt shooting.

[pickle]

So does Chicago though... If McDermott was that good, why didn't he get minutes there in what may very well be the worst shooting back court rotation in the last 20 years? All he had to do was to beat out Mirotic... not a massive ask wouldn't you say? Don't get me wrong, I love what Gibson brings to the table. He's a slightly bigger version of PJ (maybe with less stubbornness and less a corner 3), which is very very valuable, but probably not 18 mil valuable to me. Also he brings to the table pretty much exactly what Adams does, and he's going to stunt Sabonis if he re-signs. Just all in all not making a lot of sense.