the lakers have just pooped their big-boy pants: 2012-2013 NBA regular season thread (part 2)

http://cdn2.elitedaily.com/elite/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/elite-daily-austin-rivers-nba-draft2.jpg

not sure those are 1-to-1 comparisons considering team and role

They're both guards who pass and shoot. It's not like I compared him to a center or something. Plus, Rivers played in the ACC, so the competition was tougher.

That said, it seemed like all the scouts saw this coming, and a lot of those same scouts were very high on Lillard. It's interesting!

Lillard is 10x the athlete Rivers is, for one thing

also doesn't shoot like he's tossing a watermelon over a fence

And Lillard busted his ass to get better, hence the jump in shooting % from his first three years to his last, even as his role increased.

lol matt

hence the jump in shooting % from his first three years to his last, even as his role increased.

Why didn't it increase over that three year span?

Lillard is 10x the athlete Rivers is, for one thing

So Rivers was just getting by on his athleticism, but Lillard was working hard. But Lillard also was a better athlete?

Clearly Lillard was more of the focal point of his offense, whereas Rivers had Curry and etc.

Rivers was iso'ing and beating 2nd-rate defenders with elaborate crossovers and then finishing (sometimes). But he's not athletic or quick enough to do that in the NBA.

lillard basically was the offense + he contributed more to the game. i'm sure austin's shooting numbers will improve but even that wasn't exactly the point when he came out of college.

Rudy Gay / Ed Davis & Jose Calderon sounds like it's gonna happen

I don't understand how the hell Ed Davis fits into this. Shouldn't they send him to a (fourth?) team that actually needs a PF?

Since the Grizz gave up Speights they could use another big

but they have Darrell Arthur idgi

maybe toronto is the only workable place for rudy so they're just taking back a good player/valuable asset even if he's a bit redundant for their roster

i think the more impt question is why the raptors want rudy gay

huh

Adrian Wojnarowski ‏@WojYahooNBA
Several league officials tell Y! Sports that Memphis has a plan to route Jose Calderon to a third team for assets in Rudy Gay deal.

well last I checked they were starting landry fields xp

Darrell Arthur is broken half the time.

mostly I'm just sad that Ed Davis won't be starting anymore, dude deserves minutes

figuring out gay/ross/derozan seems like a bigger issue to me than figuring out what to do with ed davis

Gay is a forward, Ross and Derozan are guards.

they're all wing guys to me

also rudy gay isn't even good, so there's also that

All tall dudes, but Gay outweighs the other two by something like 25 pounds.

Gay isn't special, but he's better than what they've got.

for the money, prob not

gay could play the 2 in a pinch

i mean, iguodala starts at the 2 for denver

it's not about size

he's a wing, he can play the 2

he's a horrible ballhandler for the 2

it's about redundancies in playing style and young guys getting enough touches to improve

igoudala plays the 2 because he can guard guys that are 6' 3" and guys that are 6' 8" and offensively he's not ball dominant

his game meshes well with guys like gallo and chandler and brewer

I love guys crapping on Jr. Colangelo:

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/why-toronto-raptors-want-rudy-gay-214423040--nba.html

A deal for the Memphis Grizzlies to send Rudy Gay to the Toronto Raptors has been agreed upon, according to sources.

The Raptors would send out Jose Calderon and Ed Davis while acquiring Gay and Hamed Haddadi.

The deal will eventually involve a third team taking Calderon, possibly the Detroit Pistons or Dallas Mavericks.

The Grizzlies could acquire either Tayshaun Prince or Corey Maggette, two veteran small forwards in the final season of the current deals.

so just cutting salary then?

this new Grizz owner stinks

yeah

well gay's contract is utterly absurd and colangelo would be one of the fools willing to swallow it, so

I don't see how this doesn't torpedo their season though

idk they made the playoff run a few years ago w/o him

don't really see what Detroit wants w/Calderon

calderon is an expiring and Prince has 2 years left

looks like prince and daye to grizz

Daye could be useful

that's a pretty good look for memphis imo

On the trade machine, "Hollinger's analysis" is 3+ wins for the Grizz

hehe

have you ever seen one of those deals where the trade machine says it's like -8 for both teams

@johnhollinger: working on 5,000-word manifesto to be circulated internally.

love this for memphis and detroit i think