NBA Season 2017-2018 - Page 56

It was the height of absurdity that not only was Deng considered a potential game-time decision for Chicago’s Game 6 loss to the Brooklyn Nets on THE DAY he underwent the spinal tap, but also that coach Tom Thibodeau refused to stand up for his player after the disappointing defeat – referring to Deng’s “flu-like symptoms” following the game while meeting with reporters.

This was hours after reporters had witnessed Deng barely able to walk as he skulked through the back corridors of Chicago’s United Center. Thibodeau had to be more than aware that his All-Star small forward had undergone a spinal tap so as to determine the cause of what the doctors at the time thought was meningitis, and still decided to drop that “flu-like symptoms” quote because, I don’t know, he was unhappy about a loss?

(And this was also before Deng revealed that he lost 15 pounds in the aftermath of the spinal fluid leaking from his spinal tap, while confirming that he had been playing with a fractured thumb.)

Thibodeau’s remarks spoke volumes about the disconnect with just how good the Chicago Bulls are at preparing for actual basketball games, and how terrible the coaching staff and front office can be when it comes to treating their players like actual people with actual problems that go beyond suiting up. Thibodeau is an absolute genius when it comes to directing traffic on the court, but he’s often out of his league when it comes to publicly handling things like these, or limiting minutes for players that badly need the rest. And after Thibodeau sold Deng out as being stricken with “flu-like symptoms,” you’ll recall, Deng had to take to Twitter in order to defend his name.

On December 13 2017 18:08 Twinkle Toes wrote:

The first cavs stint is never the issue. The issue was him forming the superteams in Heat and Cavs 2.0


There's a continuation to that that you miss - they never asked for 2 more superstars on their team. If Cavs pre-Heatles has acquired Wade and any other superstar, they could win 10 or 0 and it will never be the issue.


I hope I can express my core point in a sentence: Prime superstars are and should alpha killers who want to compete with prime contemporaries, and if you continuously form or jump from one superteam to the next to secure a championship, abandoning your previous superteam in the process, then your championship wins are diminished.

On December 13 2017 18:11 Twinkle Toes wrote:

Ok how about this, lets have an objective criteria/term to discuss. How does Lebron's court vision and assists compare to Nash or Kidd?

Not as good, equal, or better?

On December 14 2017 08:32 Twinkle Toes wrote:

I wanted to move on but let me answer also, objective in the sense that we have a rough comparison of Lebron great as a great passer compared to other universally recognized great passers in three distinct objective categories, is he worse, equal or better?

On December 14 2017 11:23 BlackJack wrote:


I think LeBron is not as good as any of the all-time greats at doing what they did to become an all-time great. LeBron's greatness comes from the fact that although he's not the best at anything, he's great at almost everything. He can't score like Jordan, or pass like Magic, but he passes better than Jordan and he scores better than Magic. He's not as good at all-time greats at doing what they do, but he's probably within the top 5 of active players doing it at any one time.

Edit: except free throw shooting, obviously