Not gonna lie imma miss reggie, really popped of since he was a Knick. He will be good on any title contending team.
-
Welcome to Smogon! Take a moment to read the Introduction to Smogon for a run-down on everything Smogon, and make sure you take some time to read the global rules.
-
Congrats to the winners of the 2023 Smog Awards!
Sports NBA Thread: 2022-2023 Season
- Thread starter Celticpride
- Start date
- Status
.... you think my Spurs are title contenders? Hehehehe
IceYBall3r
Banned deucer.
Hot takes:
Darius garland is the best player on the Cleveland cavaliers
Jayson tatum is overrated
Warriors are a top 2 contender with cp3 running the bench
Embiid cannot win as the best player on a team lebron is top 10 still
Dame is overrated (still good and perfect fit for the heat)
Bucks are not a championship contender atm
Clipper win the chip if they stay healthy. They won’t tho so we’ll never know
Darius garland is the best player on the Cleveland cavaliers
Jayson tatum is overrated
Warriors are a top 2 contender with cp3 running the bench
Embiid cannot win as the best player on a team lebron is top 10 still
Dame is overrated (still good and perfect fit for the heat)
Bucks are not a championship contender atm
Clipper win the chip if they stay healthy. They won’t tho so we’ll never know
1. Garland is not the best player, it's Donovon Mitchell
2. This is interesting, I think depends where you rate him. I think Tatum sits outside of the top 5 list, but if you put him in the top 5 yeah he's overrated.
3. Yeah I'm excited for the warriors they just have to add some youth
4. Embiid take is stupid, Embiid is a top 3 player easily, his problem is not being healthy during the playoffs.
5. Luka, Giannis, Jokic, Embiid, Durant, Curry, Tatum, Shai, Lillard, Mitchell. Lebrons probably 11/12
6. Dame will be a decent fit to be honest, they direly need a ball handler.
7. Yeah there def championship contending
8. Eh I think Clippers will never win a ring with this squad that boat left last year tbh
lebron is better than all of these players except jokic/giannis/embiid on days i'm feeling generous. the disrespect y'all show this man because "he's old" is INSANE
Last time Lebron was better then any of these players was the bubble :x
He's old, last season showed. You can make an argument for the 8/9 spot but no shot he's better then a majority of these players.
HIGHKEY im taking Shai over this Lebron 10/10 times
idk bro i watched lebron once again show in the playoffs that he's just about always the best player on the court in every series the lakers played bar vs denver, where he was checks notes the second best. trying to rate dudes like lillard/mitchell/doncic over him that play less defense than a traffic cone over him is quite disgusting given bron has continued to show that when it matters, he will take the toughest defensive assignment on the opp (this happened in the denver series, the lebron on jokic stats are quite ugly for the should've-been mvp) and make them irrelevant. like yes offense is king in the league now but... lebron is still the best or at worst second best offensive engine in the league.
i wont even address the shai comment thatd be disrespectful to basketball discourse
Rabia, its an honor to converse with you. First I will say I think Lebron is the 2nd greatest player of all time after Michael Jeffrey Jordan. Which is extremely high praise, to praise Lebron about his defensive capability in the last 2 years is pretty nasty behavior at best he's an average defender.
I think Lebron has the same defensive capability as a lot of the guys on the list.
Giannis > Lebron (Offense and Defense)
Luka > Lebron (Offensively)
Jokic > Lebron (Offensively and pretty similar defensively)
Embiid > Lebron (Defensively, pretty identical offensively)
Tatum > Lebron (Offense and Defense)
I'll just argue those 5 points because they're easy. How can Lebron be the 2nd best offensive force in the league at worst when there's at least 4 guys above better then him offensively?
Lebrons just gotten old :(
in the past two years yes lebron has been pretty depressing on defense due to injury and the amount he's had to work on offense to compensate for how dreadful the lakers have been in reg szn. I'm talking about the playoffs where he had a better drtg than every player you just listed (and was only a tick behind embiid).
it's naturally a difference of opinion for some of this because I do believe these guys to all be tier 1 guys on offense. if you mean offense as purely scoring, then sure tatum/giannis/embiid are in that category. if you mean overall, yes jokic and doncic can be referenced alongside bron and jokic is who i alluded to as perhaps the best offensive engine (which i mean as the guy literally running the offense, i.e. take the entire o into acc and lebron gaps guys like embiid giannis tatum who just arent on his level playmaking wise and not really that ahead of him in scoring).
gotten old and I'd still take him over everyone bar jokic and giannis with ease
i respect your opinion though and i do understand this last point in the sense of injuries. lebron has had really bad injury luck in 4/5 years he's been in la. kawhi is another player who i look at through this lens of "god where the hell do i rate you" because he similarly has just not been able to stay on the court yet still shown he's THAT GUY when healthy. i just think with bron especially you need to be careful when taking the regular season into account. not that there's been much else to take into account lately but hey he was mvp + all defense candidate in 2021 and almost lead the league in scoring in 2022 (would've likely done so if he played the final games). i'd say that's pretty good for an old man
Jokic and Embiid had a better defensive rating tbf, and Luka wasn't in the playoff.
If you're talking playmaking, I think Doncic and Jokic are better. I can see the arguement of okay well if he's play making then he's better then Tatum. To be honest, I don't think he was that much better then Giannis at playmaking last year. Offensively in terms of usage and efficency Giannis better, so I would take Giannis. I can see the argument with Embiid / Tatum in terms of play making so I won't go there, Lebron provides more offensively.
all defensive candidate in 2021? wdym???gotten old and I'd still take him over everyone bar jokic and giannis with ease
I do think Lebron is the best 38 year old in NBA history tbh, but that doesn't mean you automatically sit in the top 5 when the competition is this high.
Lebron stans still exist huh, even at 38?
Believe what yall want about his decline I guess. Being injured most of the past few years is luck, and not simply aging. I *suppose* one could get behind that...
But I'd have to ignore declining attempts at the basket, the declining percentages of shots made outside the paint, and the clear decline in defensive intensity. Heck, LeBron doesn't even want anything to do with guarding a top 10 player for more than 20-30 minutes. That defensive rating you read likely had to do with help defense and not individual defense, because who the heck does he guard one-on-one of any note? Dude rests on defense with offensive liabilities all the time. Always combine eye test with defensive statistics.
But he's easily "top 5"
Believe what yall want about his decline I guess. Being injured most of the past few years is luck, and not simply aging. I *suppose* one could get behind that...
But I'd have to ignore declining attempts at the basket, the declining percentages of shots made outside the paint, and the clear decline in defensive intensity. Heck, LeBron doesn't even want anything to do with guarding a top 10 player for more than 20-30 minutes. That defensive rating you read likely had to do with help defense and not individual defense, because who the heck does he guard one-on-one of any note? Dude rests on defense with offensive liabilities all the time. Always combine eye test with defensive statistics.
But he's easily "top 5"
Last edited:
Bol Bol with the Suns...
Not saying they're guaranteed Champs, but they are being overlooked for their offseason choices based on their circumstances. This is as good as it gets building around a super team.
Not saying they're guaranteed Champs, but they are being overlooked for their offseason choices based on their circumstances. This is as good as it gets building around a super team.
They're legit but I think they need a real PG
I don't know if a PG will do anything special with 3 ball dribblers on the court
Yea thats crazy
And yet still a better deal than what Jaylen Brown received.
Legit makes you wonder when and even if lol, man's killed his value with the only heat bs and the blazers won't take his current value as a result.
https://x.com/wojespn/status/1707096933708509295?s=46&t=nPLK-pQZhJNhsNXzs5if1Q
Damian Lillard to the bucks, gg America
Damian Lillard to the bucks, gg America
- Status