NBA Season 2014-2015

[Jay]

The elite talent of Love alone should be enough though. Even if he gets swept in the first round.

Dont think you understand how bad his supporting cast was. Rubio averaged 9.5 points on 38% shooting and he was 2nd on the team in win shares.

Then you have Pekovic who is a nice offesnive player but a shocking fit next to Love since neither can defend the rim.

[Mat0369]

I have watched quite a few Wolves games the last few years, when they look best is when they are playing open free wheeling ball. They are a good fast break team due to the full court passing ability of Love and Rubio's exceptional vision, when they get forced to play half court it was Love or bust. Rubio is a brilliant passing PG but not a threat offensively shooting the ball. He was a year off his knee reco but still has not developed any sort of a shot. Pekovic has no D but would get some points under the rim due to the spacing and double teams that Love commands. Martin spent most of his time jacking up bad shots, JJ Barea spends most of the time doing the exact same thing. Forget about Budinger who coming off a knee was brought in to shoot 3's and spent most of his time there jacking up bricks. Who else do they have? Corey Brewer? Dante Cunningham? Ronny Turiaf, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute and Alexey Shved? Love and Rubio aside, the rest of that team is a bunch of role players and guys who can't play defense. The fact they got 40 wins is a good effort.

Gorgui Dieng looks alright but is still raw, Shabazz spent most of last year in the D-League and is likely to be a bust, Hummel had back issues in college and is nothing more then a bench player in the NBA.

[Master Q]

First off, we all know that Westbrook is a critical piece to OKC - last year without him they got knocked out 2nd round so lets just establish that they need Westbrook to win.

Irrelevant

I think Westbrook's inflated turnover stats are because he's being forced to play out of position, I still see him as a natural SG. And he actually played very well next to Reggie Jackson when those two shared the floor together.

Not an excuse. He's spent his whole career at PG and like you said he has played SG, so no excuse.

Its no secret that Durant went missing often during the playoffs, so Westbrook was relied upon to carry the burden and he put up 27 8 and 7. [

That's one game.  He doesn't do that consistently even though he has the highest USG in the league.

Tbh I love Westbrook's mental game, he's got a crazy will to win and on the court you can easily tell he's the leader of that OKC team. So yeah I really rate his intangibles. Averages 7 assists a game over his career so its hard to call him selfish.

Shame you can't measure mental game. Clearly not the leader of OKC, but that's irrelevant anyway. Got nothing to do with being the 3rd best in the league.

Sure, he's got his flaws e.g. poor 3pt shooting and high turnovers but he's still young and is playing under a very average coach. I just respect the fire he plays with.. This season will be huge for him.

Being young is irrelevant. We're talking about now. Coach is irrelevant. Next season is irrelevant.

3rd best player shouldn't have major flaws. Besides you left out many of his other ones - Shocking decision making, terrible playmaking, bad shot selection, awful team defense, iffy shot.

When you have a discussion, you are meant to bring up arguments that support your point.

[Andrew3747]

Its the same thing with Knicks imo. Melo should be making the playoffs. Same with Love. Charlotte, PHX, Dallas should not be getting more wins with teams.

[Mat0369]

Melo is playing in the crappy East with a better supporting cast.

[Jay]

So how he affects the success of his team is irrelevant? Okay...

But he is being forced to play PG on a team with apart from Durant has no offensive threats. He carries the load and does very well both passing and scoring. He's always aggressive and yeah this can lead to turnovers but its exactly what OKC need.

His stats of 27 points, 8 assists, 7 rebounds were throughout the whole playoffs. You know the other guys to put up those numbers of the course of at least 19 playoff games? No one.

If you're looking for a no.3 player with no flaws good luck. Even LeBron and Durant have flaws.

I cant see how you can call him a terrible playmaker when he averages 7 assists per game over his career.

[Jay]

Melo is playing in the crappy East with a better supporting cast.

Without Melo that team would have barely won 15 games.

[Andrew3747]

Point still stands. People supposedly of that calibre cannot be missing the playoffs, no matter what team they are in.

[Mat0369]

Without Melo that team would have barely won 15 games.

Same goes with Love in Minny

[Jay]

Without Melo that team would have barely won 15 games.

Same goes with Love in Minny

No disagreement there. LeBron's supporting cast in Cleveland was better than what Melo and Love had this year.

[Jay]

Actually doesn't look too bad to me.

[Jay]

I'm liking this Pierce to Washington signing the more I think about it.

One last chance to have a crack at LeBron! I sense a nice Cavs v Wizards rivalry building  ;D

[Jay]

Chandler Parsons to Dallas. Their offense is gonna be crrraaaayyyyy

[RiOtChEsS]

http://espn.go.com/nba/truehoop/miamiheat/story/_/id/11210494/luol-deng-joining-miami-heat

C/PF Bosh
PF McRoberts
SF Deng
SG/SF Granger
SG Wade
PG Napier
SG Cole
Needs a lot more work but i can see us still going to the playoffs with that team already

[Jay]

http://espn.go.com/nba/truehoop/miamiheat/story/_/id/11210494/luol-deng-joining-miami-heat

C/PF Bosh
PF McRoberts
SF Deng
SG/SF Granger
SG Wade
PG Napier
SG Cole
Needs a lot more work but i can see us still going to the playoffs with that team already

Could see that team making the conference finals in the east if Wade is healthy.

Although the east really is a crapshoot at the moment ::)