The Zion – Ja debate has moved into a new phase it would appear

Zero of the players you mentioned have ever scored 33 points in a single game during their entire careers. Grimes did it in his first 70.

Donte DiVincenzo has never scored as many points in a single game as Grimes put up in his first NBA start. Bruce Brown exceeded that total just once.

Zero of the players you mentioned have a TS% over .600 this season. Grimes does.

Maybe they’re better on defense than Grimes or have other skills, I don’t watch them often enough to say, but they just flat out haven’t shown the scoring potential that Grimes has shown.

Just wait til 7’6” Wemby gets to town.

i’m not sure if you’re old enough to remember.. but one year al davis drafted sebastian janikowski … a field goal kicker.. in the first rd… IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FIRST RD #17 in fact… and janikowski turned out to be a pretty decent kicker all things considered probably maybe hall of fame worthy… and besides shaun alexander who had a couple good years.. everyone else in the first round kind of sucked after that…

but that’s STILL lampooned as one of the worst picks of all time because you can get kickers off the literal street….

now the Grimes pick is not on that level but you should get the sense of what i’m talking about… 3pt specialists are freely availablle in the nba… donte divencenzo would be making a pretty darn good grimes impression now.. probably better in fact… and he signed for 2 / 9… bruce brown 2/13.. delon wright 2/16… lonnie walker 1/6..

and how likely is Grimes going to be better than any one of them? that’s the problem…. maybe you ‘miss’ and pick a guy like jaden springer (who wouldn’t be a miss yet but argument’s sake)…. the kind of front office that misses with jaden springer maybe/probably doesn’t miss with hali.. and that’s why we have the collection of youth that we have and why we are ALL hung up on the upside of it all despite the embarrassment of draft picks that we had…

this front office’s problem is that it thinks so narrowly about all of its opportunities.. it’s like they act like the sixers or bucks where all they need is to top off the roster… when you really need to figure out how to get top flight talent… maybe that’s too risky for them… but what they’re doing now is even riskier… and the proof is in the pudding… not taking enough risks before is going to lead them to take much more risk and a much higher price when it’s all said and done… and that’s the problem with their mentality and strategy….

I think it shows more than that. We are talking about the guy who, along with his teammate, literally changed the game to what it is today. And even during the transformation, when he doubled his 3pt attempts, he was still at a .450 3PTr (vs Grimes’ current .650). Klay Thompson was a more dynamic scorer than anything Grimes has displayed thus far.

Our SRS is a bit inflated. Not hugely inflated, but a lil’ bit.”

I agree with this take.

Back in the days I was gambling, I was using the exact same spreadsheet used to calculate SRS, but added in a few features. One was a home/away adjustment that took each team’s home advantage into account (it also varies for city to city).

I made estimates for each team’s main player’s value based on how much the betting lines changed when they missed a game and what my own data was saying. Then I built those adjustments into the SRS rating every time any major player was missing from any team.

But we have to keep in mind, the Knicks were also missing Mitch and Grimes for a lot of games and both played at subpar levels for awhile.

Half of me wishes I still did all that work and could tell you what my data was saying about our true SRS, but I do about 25 hours of work every week on horse racing and I just don’t have time for both.

Well Jowles, you can wait two more years to ask them, or you can call them up now. Your choice.

Technically he’s been an All-NBA 1st Teamer since 2020, which I think qualifies, so I was four years off.

My god, the Mavs are lucky as hell. How the hell do you stumble upon a generational talent at #3 the same year that your last generational talent just finished his 20-year career?

re: Bol Bol, that guy will always have a place in the league so long as he’s healthy. That’s just absurd.

I’ve mentioned it before, but I went to a Ducks game when he was on the roster — injured, in a walking cast — and I stood next to him within arm’s reach. He’s so tall that it seems like he’s an alien. I know we’ve all been to Knicks games and seen very tall men. Ewing sure was one. But there’s something about 7’2″ that just feels impossible, especially with his frame.

It’s like going to see Chappelle perform just to watch the security guards confiscate cell phones.”

lmao

When I watch games I’m half scout and half fan. I’m trying to determine which skills and weaknesses each player has, how they fit together on that team, what’s missing etc… I’m using over 50 years of watching games to inform my opinions on what works, what doesn’t work, what wins, what wins during the season but not in the playoffs, etc… I think part of that comes from gambling. When you are gambling you are always looking for things other people may be missing hoping to uncover the rare nugget that leads to EV+ bet. I don’t have to know everything about everything. I just have to know one thing that other people that may be smarter than me haven’t figured out yet.