Comments on: Knicks Morning News (2018.05.06)

By: hoolahoop

hoolahoop — Mon, 07 May 2018 02:39:45 +0000

Simmons is a creator, and Lebron is a better one.
Ben would get to the ball with the defense already off balance.

By: hoolahoop

hoolahoop — Mon, 07 May 2018 02:35:49 +0000

Even though Lebron would duplicate Ben Simmon’s strengths, and he’d also take over his position, it would be the best thing to ever happen in Ben Simmons world.

Lebron would make BS a better player . . . while playing off of him. And BS would have the best mentor in the history of the NBA, as Lebron begins to give away his minutes.

By: alsep73

alsep73 — Mon, 07 May 2018 02:21:30 +0000

I think it’s less a spacing issue than a question of diminishing what both guys do best. LeBron is a good enough shooter that you’re certainly not wasting him if Simmons is the primary ballhandler, but you’re not using Peak LeBron in that case. And if LeBron is the primary ballhandler, why is Simmons on the court?

By: Z-man

Z-man — Sun, 06 May 2018 23:25:16 +0000

I agree. It’s a dumb argument. (One side of it, anyway.)

By: Bruno Almeida

Bruno Almeida — Sun, 06 May 2018 23:15:56 +0000

I just don’t see the spacing issue honestly. LeBron himself can shoot and he excelled with Wade beside him who could never space the floor with long range shooting and Bosh, who only learned to shoot 3s late in his Miami career, plus sometimes Anderson or Anthony as centers.

Yes, Simmons can’t shoot, but Embiid, RoCo and everyone else can, you can definitely get away with 2 non-shooters in any lineup.

By: Jack Bauer

Jack Bauer — Sun, 06 May 2018 23:09:28 +0000

“Can’t you guys argue about something more interesting than tweeners?”

By: Hubert

Hubert — Sun, 06 May 2018 22:50:58 +0000

The sixers are struggling because Stevens has figured out how to take advantage of Simmons not being able to shoot. They should name the coach of the year award after Stevens.

Everyone knows he can’t shoot. Stevens didn’t figure out anything. He has the right personnel to guard him, is all. I mentioned it here last week: the Celtics lineup of guards is the perfect match for Simmons, and Horford is a stud

By: MBunge

MBunge — Sun, 06 May 2018 22:35:31 +0000

LeBron, Simmons, and Embiid would bludgeon most teams with sheer talent but there is the little matter of Simmons being unable to, you know, shoot the basketball. Beyond the spacing issue is the reality that LeBron has followed Kobe’s example on defense. He was a terrible defender in the regular season and has only been able to “flip the switch” to become an okay one during the playoffs. That’s not the example you want to set for the rest of the team.

And this “tweener” argument is dumb. Of course “tweeners” exist but it’s hard to prove that by pointing to NBA stats because most “tweeners” spend little to no time in the NBA. The classic “tweener” used to be the “combo-guard” who had point guard size and shooting guard skills. How many teams have wasted years trying to turn those kind of guys into real point guards?

Mike

By: hoolahoop

hoolahoop — Sun, 06 May 2018 22:04:42 +0000

Can’t you guys argue about something more interesting than tweeners?

By: Z-man

Z-man — Sun, 06 May 2018 21:26:18 +0000

“It’s hilarious to me that a person like Z-man has spent the last several years talking about how the positional adjustment in WP and PAWS is inane…”

No, I argued that they overvalued extremely low usage efficient shooting and rebounding, among other things, and were therefore just as flawed as PER. I stand by that. But you go right on thinking that Andre Drummond had a better year than LeBron James, or Hassan Whiteside had a better year than Steph Curry.

“…and declares that there are archetypes for five positions on a basketball court and players who fail to fit into them must be labeled “tweeners” to understand their failures.”

No, I actually have made arguments to the contrary (i.e. role was more important than position) and yesterday I posted the below article from The Stepien regarding positional roles that transcend traditional definitions, which makes lots of sense in today’s NBA.

https://www.thestepien.com/archetypes/#two-way%20swiss%20army-knives