Kobe on Kobe vs.MJ vs. LBJ debate (answer at 02:39)
LeBron James ‘Proud’ Of Lonzo Ball For ‘Taking Control’ Of His Career
Since Ball has hinted at signing with Nike on social media, he and his family reportedly have had discussions about potentially ‘folding’ Big Baller Brand.
“I love the fact that he’s taking control of his [stuff],” James said. “I mean, he’s, that’s what’s really, really dope to me. Once I saw that story I just seen a kid turning into a man. ‘This is my career and I’m taking this. I done had enough with — whatever. I done had enough. Whatever. If I’m not going to be successful, I’m not going to be successful on my terms.’ I saw a lot of that. We’ll see.”
On March 27 2019 10:55 KelianQatar wrote: Jeremy Lin has been the worst player on the Raptors since he joined the team.
Welcome new user to the thread.
Why is this your opinion? And why are you voicing it? Could you perhaps give us your break down of the worst players for every team? Are you a raptors fan? What made you one?
It is very interesting that a 3rd string player on the raptors is getting such hate from two sources out of blue. Did he do something that was noticeable?
On March 27 2019 10:55 KelianQatar wrote: Jeremy Lin has been the worst player on the Raptors since he joined the team.
Welcome new user to the thread.
Why is this your opinion? And why are you voicing it? Could you perhaps give us your break down of the worst players for every team? Are you a raptors fan? What made you one?
It is very interesting that a 3rd string player on the raptors is getting such hate from two sources out of blue. Did he do something that was noticeable?
On March 27 2019 09:19 Jerubaal wrote: *takes a sip of haterade*
Giannis is Blake Griffin 2.0 until proven otherwise. [...]
That seems far-fetched. Giannis has a different player profile from young Blake. His body is very different: he's taller, leaner, much longer (especially wingspan). He's faster too arguably. Blake has never had the defensive impact Giannis can have, he's never had the rim protection abilities nor even the rebounding numbers (granted, Blake has always played next to hungry rebounders ). Giannis' stats (advanced or not) this year are far above Blake's best year.
Mine is not so unpopular for old basketball fans, but will become more and more unpopular with the new bball school of thought. I'm quite a rational person, even what you could call a numbers guy (computer scientist), but here it is: Despite all tangible evidence of the contrary (expert opinions, advanced stats, etc), I still believe Kobe is an (easy) top 10 player of all time, AND not too far from Lebron in term of skill and impact on the game. People have Jordan and Lebron as 1a 1b, and Kobe far behind, behind a whole slew of other players. I think the difference between Jordan and Lebron is greater than the one between Lebron and Kobe. I believe it, I feel it, but I don't really have anything to back it up.
On February 12 2019 09:37 zev318 wrote: raps have picked up 0 shooting, i think that will doom them in the playoffs
This is an interesting insight. They picked up very little shooting. I think the defensive strat against the Raptors this year has been "make them shoot 3s".
That said, the Raptors have shot 40% from 3 the past month. They jacked up almost 450 3s the past month so they are not only hitting at a high rate they are taking a lot of 3s. Other than Jeremy Lin, whose shooting has been horrible, the Raptors 3 point shooting has been excellent.
I think the doom for the Raptors in the playoffs is that the Milwaukee Bucks are a better all around basketball team.
My unpopular opinion is that talent wins most of the time regardless of system. Because the greats can do it however is needed in whatever game. Like the GSW won because they have 4 all star talents not to mention an incredible bench. SA won because they had Duncan, Robinson, Parker and Ginobli not because Pop is a wizard. Same with all Phil Jacskson's teams. I think coaching in Basketball might mean less than any other sport.
On March 27 2019 22:46 ZenithM wrote: Mine is not so unpopular for old basketball fans, but will become more and more unpopular with the new bball school of thought. I'm quite a rational person, even what you could call a numbers guy (computer scientist), but here it is: Despite all tangible evidence of the contrary (expert opinions, advanced stats, etc), I still believe Kobe is an (easy) top 10 player of all time, AND not too far from Lebron in term of skill and impact on the game. People have Jordan and Lebron as 1a 1b, and Kobe far behind, behind a whole slew of other players. I think the difference between Jordan and Lebron is greater than the one between Lebron and Kobe. I believe it, I feel it, but I don't really have anything to back it up.
Heres my theory:
On the GOAT debate, we can group people in 2 categories: 1. Those who play AND watched NBA since Jordan 90s and beyond 2. (Basketball skills irrelevant here) People who just mostly WATCH basketball and mostly tune in to sports media/social media for NBA news/info.
#1 would surely be Jordan/Kobe and #2 would be LBJ fans. Those who play ball AND saw 90s and 2000s NBA grew up idolizing and understanding that basketball skills and iso heroism was the way it is. This is why . Ive said this before and I say it again, This is the era of Jordan, Drexler, Kobe, AI, TMac, Stoudemire, Marbury, Shaq, etc. We all know Kobe's comment about 1/30 being better than 1/5. This is because Kobe was a basketball player who lives to play and win and doesnt care about hurting his stats or reputation for a chance at victory. Hell, stats was not even a thing in the 90s and early 00s. A 40pt off of 17/35 is always better than a 20pt off of 6/11. What mattered then was, Did the player have a great showy game and did his team win.
Lebron greatest legacy is that he hacked the system in a way that there is actually a method to get the numbers efficiently. He is not a great passer, not a great ball handler, and not even a great playmaker. (Fight me). But he has hacked the system to know and do just enough to get good marks on all this categories and appear great. His assists are not a result of some divine court vision and defense manipulation (Magic, Kidd, Nash) but simply having a team built for him (he plays the point and has shooters he can kick out to in order to get assists). His scoring efficiency is not in the similar level or Jordan (perfection), Kobe (we may be down 20 at the start of fourth but I will single handedly win the game for us by scoring everywhere on the court in all possible offensive moves), or Durant (clutch situation? no chill dagger). He is more like I can score on you anytime I want by ramming to the rim, a weapon he seems to lose more and more as he ages.
For sure, he is a great athlete, think Karl Malone who can sprint and has respectable handles. But that's it. The difference is that he became self-conscious of his legacy from day 1 that he has done everything in his power to manage and control his image.
To those who watch UFC, LBJ is like GSP, he does everything right, but not really spectacularly, but MJ/Kobe would be Silva/Jones.
Finally, on your last point, you can back it up. Kobe has better footwork, better handles, much much better offensive arsenal, and better shot. So this is my unpopular opinion to stat-watchers here: MJ>Kobe>>LBJ
On March 27 2019 23:15 JimmiC wrote: My unpopular opinion is that talent wins most of the time regardless of system. Because the greats can do it however is needed in whatever game. Like the GSW won because they have 4 all star talents not to mention an incredible bench. SA won because they had Duncan, Robinson, Parker and Ginobli not because Pop is a wizard. Same with all Phil Jacskson's teams. I think coaching in Basketball might mean less than any other sport.
I kinda agree, but here are some quick counterarguments:
Wallace/Wallace Detroit vs. Lakers? 2011 Mavs vs. Heatles
On March 27 2019 23:15 JimmiC wrote: My unpopular opinion is that talent wins most of the time regardless of system. Because the greats can do it however is needed in whatever game. Like the GSW won because they have 4 all star talents not to mention an incredible bench. SA won because they had Duncan, Robinson, Parker and Ginobli not because Pop is a wizard. Same with all Phil Jacskson's teams. I think coaching in Basketball might mean less than any other sport.
I kinda agree, but here are some quick counterarguments:
Wallace/Wallace Detroit vs. Lakers? 2011 Mavs vs. Heatles
It doens't happen every time. But I don't think it was coaching that caused either win. And I think Sheed was stupid talented, just a head case and everyone on that team peaked at the exact same moment.
For the Mavs, the team was less talented but Dirk is one of the true greats, and was the best player in that series. And Chandler is very elite at what he does especially at that point. Kidd had fallen off but still a HOF Peja is a stud, Terry a great 6th man. Marion could do it all before that was common place. There was still a ton of talent there.
Good arguments. The 2011 Mavs victory was special!
If a team has tier-1 superstars who are intelligent enough to not be team cancer despite the talent, then the coach becomes simply a ego-manager and and a to-do-list reminder.
My unpopular opinion is that MJ is the GOAT and I don't really understand why people would even question this.
I'm however biased since I was born around MJ's peak and while I could not watch that much of him at the time I grew up with MJ. Looking back at some of his games, stats and such, I don't really see why people think LeBron would be GOAT Instead of MJ, but maybe it's because I don't understand basket that much. The argument of "I came back 4-3 against a 73-9 team, best team in history of NBA, that makes me the GOAT" seems pretty silly to me precisely because no matter the regular season record of GSW that year, since they lost in the finals they weren't that unbeatable team anyways. The 72-10 Bulls team that won was retrospectively a better team at the time because they could have a very good regular season record and win the playoffs.
So don't get me wrong beating GSW in 2016 was a great feat but I don't see that as a proof of GOAT-ness. Plus I think GOAT in sports in general is more of an era thing anyways so all times can't really mean that much anyways (especially since we suffer from recency bias)
On March 28 2019 00:47 TropicalHaze wrote: You might misunderstand the term unpopular opinion... MJ is highly considered as the GOAT by majority of basketball fans.
Yes but since there is a GOAT debate it's not popular to think there is no debate about it.
Plus when I asked some friends that watched way more basketball than me, they were saying it depended on era so they weren't saying MJ was the GOAT no questions asked, which surprised me a bit since I thought it was a given.
On March 27 2019 23:15 JimmiC wrote: My unpopular opinion is that talent wins most of the time regardless of system. Because the greats can do it however is needed in whatever game. Like the GSW won because they have 4 all star talents not to mention an incredible bench. SA won because they had Duncan, Robinson, Parker and Ginobli not because Pop is a wizard. Same with all Phil Jacskson's teams. I think coaching in Basketball might mean less than any other sport.
You think coaching in baseball is more important?
This is a pretty difficult question to tease out because it's so difficult to isolate coaching as a variable. There are so few coaches that seem to make a difference. You might name 4 in the league right now. In the last 22 years the only coach that wasn't really considered top tier is Lue. Of course, we could have it backwards and just call coaches good that have good teams. I think there may be a floor and a ceiling for the coach. You might just need a decent coach, like Doc Rivers, and then it doesn't matter much. Of course, it is important that a coach implement the right system and use his players the right way.
I honestly don't know enough about baseball to know about how much the managers matter so I can't really answer that one intelligently.
And I'm not saying it doesn't matter at all, just a lot less then lots of people give it credit for. Compared to say the NFL where I think it matters an absolute shit load.
On February 12 2019 09:37 zev318 wrote: raps have picked up 0 shooting, i think that will doom them in the playoffs
This is an interesting insight. They picked up very little shooting. I think the defensive strat against the Raptors this year has been "make them shoot 3s".
That said, the Raptors have shot 40% from 3 the past month. They jacked up almost 450 3s the past month so they are not only hitting at a high rate they are taking a lot of 3s. Other than Jeremy Lin, whose shooting has been horrible, the Raptors 3 point shooting has been excellent.
I think the doom for the Raptors in the playoffs is that the Milwaukee Bucks are a better all around basketball team.
when i made that statement raptors were an awesome 22nd in the league in 3pt%. of course after the all star game they have been 1st in the league in 3pt%, if they can shoot like this in the playoffs, where everyone is basically shooting above 40% from 3 i think they will be very hard to beat (which is probably true for every team)
but every playoffs for the last 5 years, with the exception of last year, raptors have shot in the low 30s for 3s so that has usually been a bad spot for them
Yeah I don't think the Raptors 3pt making ability is very robust. When I watch their games I don't see anybody confident in taking 3s on a fast close-out outside of Lowry and Green (maybe FVV), and that's a key characteristic of good shooters, they'll take and make shots under pressure. The wide open kickout to Siakam in the corner won't be there in the playoffs. Or it'll be there because opponents will trust that Siakam will not shoot them well. Ibaka has that money pop at the elbow, but I've noticed his efficiency in that situation drops a lot when he's even slightly contested. My point is, in the playoffs, teams scheme more appropriately, close-outs are faster on everybody, and I don't think the Raps have enough shooters able to make those tougher shots. At the start of the season, I had hoped Kawhi would shoot more 3s but it's not his thing. He's never going to kill a game because he shot 5/8 from 3. He's a very good spot-up shooter but I find him still a bit too prone to passing out of midly contested looks. Honestly I think he should try shooting more sometimes.
They're still a very good team, I look forward to the East this year, should be fun