AboveLegit

Not even going to bother.

As good as Chandler was last year, he's not Dwight Howard. Point I'm trying to make here is D'Antoni's reputation has been overblown for years. He's always been a great in-season adjuster. He lost Amare twice in his stint with Phoenix, management brought in Shaq, and even lost Joe Johnson to free agency. He's smart enough to adjust to the Lakers personnel, and you're crazy if you think he's bringing the seven seconds or less offense to LA. He has his flaws, he's notorious for playing 7-8 man lineups, even in the regular season, his offenses generally rely on floor spacing (which doesn't come at a premium in LA), and he doesn't have a great systematic approach to defense, but by no means is this signing something to be down on. Just imagine those Phoenix teams with a healthy Dwight Howard in place of Amare Stoudemire.

If that leads to defenses being around league average and winning 55+ games, I'm all for it. They have a 3 time DPOY on the floor, D'Antoni has never came close to coaching that.

Can't stand all these erroneous proclamations stating that D'Antoni doesn't coach defense. His PHX teams were ranked around the league average, and with Dwight, it could only get better from there. And don't tell me his offenses don't work in the playoffs either. This is a solid hiring, one of the brightest offensive minds we've ever seen in this league is joining a star studded team. Sure there are some questions regarding floor spacing, Nash's injury concerns, and their lack of depth at the PG position, but don't overreact to not getting Phil Jackson.

Based on the past 3 games? Easily Okafor.

He's already one of the best off ball players in the league. He played that way a lot in the triangle. Anyway, you know my stance on this subject. Everything should go around Nash, there's just too many pieces here that fit's his style in Phoenix perfectly.

Yeah the Princeton is read and react as well, but it requires a lot more off ball movement and screens, which is hard for a lot of players to grasp initially. Everyone has to buy into it, which makes it that much more tougher of a task in Laker Land where you're berated after every loss. It's why I never bought into this system for this particular team. If anything, we'll probably just see LA get rid of the Princeton altogether before we see a coaching change. I get that the Bus Family is wealthy, but paying a coach $18 million to sit at home while bringing in another high profile coach isn't done very often. And yeah, defending PG's has never been easy on you guys haha. But again, it's more of a shot at Dwight than anything else. He's just not close to 100% yet.

That's more of a read and react offense. You see those motion offenses all the time in college (Calipari loves running it), and really, it relies on good judgement and good perimeter play. The Princeton is much, much more complex. And as I've said before, Kobe can adjust to any offense, he's that good. And to be blunt, the only reason why this years' offense is in the top 10 currently is because of how good Kobe's been. I suffered through Eddie Jordan for 5 straight seasons. He's hell bent on the Princeton, and if you're bringing him in as your assistant, he'll consume the majority of each practice session working with the offense. Obviously that's not the only reason why. We're not seeing a ton of energy on defense (Pau is the biggest culprit here), and the perimeter defense has been terrible. Steve Blake deserves a lot of the blame, but as with every PG's, their defensive struggles are tied to their bigs not rotating and protecting the middle. Every PG, with the exception of Brandon Knight, has torched the Lakers this season. Randy Foye and Mo Williams both did it last night, Lillard, CP3, and Collison.

Doesn't get any simpler than this: When you're attempting to establish a brand new offensive system (and where two of your core players have been in one system their entire career), you're not going to spend much time working on the defense. Dwight looks exactly how I pictured he'd look to start the season. Late on rotations and getting beat to rebounds.

Not one game where Durant has shot more than Westbrook this season. That is a problem.

Part of running the point is having the right mindset all the time. No one says he's not capable of it, he averaged 8apg just 2 years ago, but he's developing a gunners mentality a la Gilbert Arenas. That needs to go.

Huge loss, a lot of what Vogel does offensively relies on Granger's ability to hit shots. Definitely George's time to shine, but I'm skeptical based off his poor ball handling.

Chris Paul is the best PG in the league by far, so him.

Ugh, really hope he's not out for an extended period of time.

Because defensively, he struggles. And offensively, it's easier for him to take slower 4's off the dribble.

Well yeah, but that's always been his biggest flaw. So for him to play smarter and harder is huge.

Said it plenty of times in the past, they are, especially if Melo keeps playing like this. I know this is the NBA, and no one is untradeable, but I don't think they could get anything in return for him right now. He has to build up some value.

First two definitely go to the Lakers and Dwight Howard respectively. The most underrated acquisation goes to Kyle Lowry. He showed his worth in the first week of the season, while he won't sustain those ridiculous numbers through a span of 82 games, I believe he will take the Raptors to the playoffs. Most surprising is Harden to Houston. I thought all along that Presti will sell him on resigning with OKC. Harden consistently talked about his great relationship with the organization, and more than anything, I didn't think they'd immediately call up Morey and make a deal that quickly.

Then what the hell are you arguing over? That he's a better shooter? Fine. And no, he's not a better scorer either. If you're simply going to cite a year in which the Rockets didn't even get into the playoffs, where he shot just over 43% (something Westbrook has eclipsed the past 2 seasons), then you're out of luck. I really don't know how else to put it. Westbrook gets to the line more frequently now, is one of the best fastbreak players in the game, one of the best finishers in the game, and commands more attention. He led all PG's in scoring last year and is primed to do so again this year.

AJ Price.

I know you tried downplaying this, but sorry, it's only been 3 games. And even putting them into consideration, Martin is shooting .429 while Russ is shooting .422. Westbrook's scoring rate is much higher, he's assisting more crashing the glass more frequently, and is getting to the line more. Nothing suggests that Martin is the better offensive player. Martin is streaky, and most of the time, is pretty inefficient. Earlier in his career he was a dead eye shooter, but since then, his FG% has plummeted. He can still get to the line, not at the rate of Westbrook mind you, and can still create some off the dribble, but he never has, or never will, attract the defensive attention Westbrook commands on a nightly basis regardless of how awful his numbers are.

Kobe buying into the whole "catch and shoot" philosophy is scary. And of yeah, Pistons are awful.

Kevin Martin is not a better offensive player than him. But I agree, with all that talent, you need to utilize it more. I do put some blame on the system Scott Brooks has implemented, too much high pick and roll/iso action, not enough players consistently getting touches on a given possession.

Westbrook's decision making is so discouraging for the offense at times. No reason to keep hoisting up shots early in the possession. Work it around.

Shocking that a 38 year old is taking more than week to recover from a fracture.