Yeah, but he should settle for his midrange game and finishing and the rim, not three pointers. That's what I'm saying.
NBA 2016-17
- Thread starter ArmchairCritic
- Start date
He won't always get the chance. He often takes those three pointer at the end of 8-9 seconds of pointless running and looking for an easy way to the basket, with the clock running out.
In nearly every case he does. Defenders are scared of his athleticism and driving ability so they give him space when he charges. Those midrange pullups are his best weapon in that case. He barely takes those threes because the clocks running out but instead because he's overconfident.
Other topic: Zaza is in second place of the West Frontcourt after the first voting return
Would be brilliant if he'd be a starter in the ASG.He's surely a Liverpool fan. Only Scousers can win online voting this way.Other topic: Zaza is in second place of the West Frontcourt after the first voting return
Btw, it was something similar last season too, right? It would be brilliant if he is a starter in ASG. It would be by far the worst starter in the history, heck, even just being in the game would make him the worst All Star ever.
I think fan voting is inly 50% this year. No way in hell Zaza Pachulia should make an All-Star team but because of how many bandwagoners Warriors have, it might happen.
Word.
Is the voting open to anyone, internationally? If so, I'm pretty sure it's not the Warriors bandwagoners but the country of Georgia. I'm from a small country with few internationally recognized celebrities and I know what it's like anytime one of them is up for a vote-based award - every media and facebook is drowned in rallying calls and links.
It's good they changed the system this year. In my opinion fans' voting power should be reduced even further.
It's good they changed the system this year. In my opinion fans' voting power should be reduced even further.
NOTHING EASY
Wasn't he almost voted in last season as well? I remember quite a few articles in Germany about him getting something like 5 times the votes Nowitzki got with a funny social media campaign from other stars, musicians, politicians backing him. I think Kawhi overtook him in the last few days by a really small margin. And somehow I doubt the Mavs have many bandwagoners these days
.Really?Wasn't he almost voted in last season as well? I remember quite a few articles in Germany about him getting something like 5 times the votes Nowitzki got with a funny social media campaign from other stars, musicians, politicians backing him. I think Kawhi overtook him in the last few days by a really small margin. And somehow I doubt the Mavs have many bandwagoners these days
I don't get it then. I also thought it might be Georgian fans voting but their population is 3 million, Poland has a population of 38 million and probably another 12 million living outside Poland and we still could not force Gortat (who is also a better player) into an All-Star game.
Just read up on the rules this year, there is absolutely zero chance Zaza makes the game (as a starter) I think. It's an average of positions from fans (50%), players (25%) and select NBA journalists (25%). He would have to be at least in top 15-20 for both fans and journalists, he won't be.
Yeah, it was just weird. I don't follow the NBA much these days, because once you work, the whole staying up at night to watch sports thing is a bit difficult. But I read quite a bit about that strange story, so it must have been somewhat big, at least in Germany (because of the Mavs - Nowitzki - connection). The final votes last season for Western Conference front court:
1. Kobe Bryant 1,891,614
2. Kevin Durant 980,787
3. Kawhi Leonard 782,339
4. Zaza Pachulia 768,112
5. Draymond Green 726,616
6. Blake Griffin 651,860
7. Enes Kanter 534,499
8. Tim Duncan 431,087
9. Anthony Davis 400,688
10. DeMarcus Cousins 364,270
11. DeAndre Jordan 269,427
12. LaMarcus Aldridge 268,003
13. Dwight Howard 219,761
14. Dirk Nowitzki 173,317
15. Harrison Barnes 155,289
I wasn't aware that you followed basketball! It will be an immensely sad day for me when Dirk decides to hang up his boots, what an absolute legend.Wasn't he almost voted in last season as well? I remember quite a few articles in Germany about him getting something like 5 times the votes Nowitzki got with a funny social media campaign from other stars, musicians, politicians backing him. I think Kawhi overtook him in the last few days by a really small margin. And somehow I doubt the Mavs have many bandwagoners these days
Also, whoever liked watching Dirk must also really enjoy watching Knicks with KP in there . He pretty much looks like Dirk's successor to me and Dirk himself recently responded on the comparisons with a lot of praise for him. One of the players I enjoy watching the most personally and he's certainly going to be a leading big man in coming seasons. Some brilliant upcoming big men in the game right now.
If he doesn't make it as a starter (which he won't, because of the new voting system) then he doesn't make it at all, cause the non starters all start are not chosen by votes.
It is surely Georgians voting him (not Warrior fans, otherwise Green would have more votes) or people who find it hilarious to vote an extremely average player for an all star game.
I think that the starting five for Western conference should be Curry - Harden - Kawhi - Durant - Davis. Other players who should be there are Westbrook, Thompson, Green, Cousin, Aldridge, M. Gasol and Paul.
Westbrook might be the most annoying player in the history. To have such a great night like him yesterday, and to only ruin it by missing the three final shots which of course he was going to miss considering that he was doubled each time, is so Westbrook. Really, if he could realize that passing is legit in basketball, he would be a terrific player.
On the other side of the pitch, Harden scored 'just' 26 points (compared to 49 from Westbrook) but on the final action of the match when he was doubled, he decided to pass to his center and Rockets won the game. I mean, it is quite simplistic. Everytime you get doubled, there is one player on your team who is free and so by passing to him, you raise chances of your team winning.
Now I know that people might say that Thunders are shit and Westbrook has no players to pass, but I think that is fake. He was doing the exact same thing before despite that he had one of the best shooters in the history of NBA there. And now, while they are not great, Steve Adams is developing into a wonderful player and surely he can make a shoot from 5 yards when he is not doubled better than Westbrook can do from 25 yards while there are 2 players defending him.
On the other side of the pitch, Harden scored 'just' 26 points (compared to 49 from Westbrook) but on the final action of the match when he was doubled, he decided to pass to his center and Rockets won the game. I mean, it is quite simplistic. Everytime you get doubled, there is one player on your team who is free and so by passing to him, you raise chances of your team winning.
Now I know that people might say that Thunders are shit and Westbrook has no players to pass, but I think that is fake. He was doing the exact same thing before despite that he had one of the best shooters in the history of NBA there. And now, while they are not great, Steve Adams is developing into a wonderful player and surely he can make a shoot from 5 yards when he is not doubled better than Westbrook can do from 25 yards while there are 2 players defending him.
Triple doubles should come about as a
Been saying this for months. At the end of games his "Team Westbrook" persona takes over and often all his previous good work is undone. However, IMLTHO it's not so much annoying as frustrating. He really is bloody brilliant to watch but it's almost like waiting for a car crash that you know is inevitably going to happen.
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No way that our esteemed Warrior bandwagon brethren would vote Zaza Pachulia over JaVale McGee at center. The All Star game is about entertainment and JaVale is a God when it comes to entertainment.
Which one do you prefer as a player? To me, both of them look like they won lottery ticket to play with 4 teammates which are a million times better than them.No way that our esteemed Warrior bandwagon brethren would vote Zaza Pachulia over JaVale McGee at center. The All Star game is about entertainment and JaVale is a God when it comes to entertainment.
Warriors should have gone all in for Pau Gasol, although his wages are probably higher than Zaza and JaVale combined.
Zaza and McGee are on minimum ($980k a year), Pau makes $15.5M. The reason why they have Pachulia and McGee as centers is because they needed to sign players on veteran minimum and they were the only ones willing to come for this little. They had to fill the roster with minimum players after giving a max contract to Durant.
Yeah, but Warriors are filthy rich. So, I think that they could have gotten Pau for a year or two (until Curry has to get the new contract).
I didn't know that Zaza and McGee are on less than a million per year though. I thought that they are on 2.5m per year (for whatever reason), which would have made the difference 10m. A lot of money, but Pau is still a very quality player who would have increased their chances of winning the title, in addition to being a very Warriors type of player (always looking for the team). With 13m difference, I think it was a no-go regardless.
Anyway, Spurs won an another match yesterday. They might easily be the second best team in the league this season, and will likely give a very good match to Warriors. I never expected them to do so well in year 1AD, but Gasol and Aldridge are doing a very good job to fill in Duncan's shoes. It will be very interesting to see if Warriors can defeat them, having being embarrassed at home in the first match.
On another note, Gasol is shooting 47.5% on three pointers (while also keeping his usual >50% from 2 pointers). That is INSANE.
Edit: Zaza is on 2.9m per year, while McGee is on 1.4, so in total it is 4.3m per them.
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They are paying their players $107M now and acquiring Gasol would have given them another $14M so would have taken them to $122M, $9M above luxury tax limit. Not only that but would also hamper their ability to re-sign Curry next year as he will become UFA meaning they won't be able to just match another offer and pay a crazy luxury tax. Durant will also have to extend, he has a player option and with the cap again going up he might well decide to opt out. Bear in mind Gasol's deal is two years guaranteed.
Basically under the current cap there was no way they could get Pau Gasol.
Yep, you're right (bar the wages of Zaza/McGee).
Interesting to see how Gasol actually doubled his salary by making the switch. He was just on 7.5m last year. Popovich likely knows what he is doing by giving him that salary (and convincing him to join Spurs). Realistically speaking, they couldn't find a better replacement for Duncan.
Also, am I the only one who doesn't understand the wages of players in NBA?
Why for example, Curry is payed less than Thompson. Considering that wages scale based on the number of years, and considering that Curry is both better and more important than Thompson, why he is payed less? Why the MVP of last two years (who plays for one of the richest teams) is just the 74th most payed player in the league (and fourth - if not fifth - on his team)?
Why for example, Curry is payed less than Thompson. Considering that wages scale based on the number of years, and considering that Curry is both better and more important than Thompson, why he is payed less? Why the MVP of last two years (who plays for one of the richest teams) is just the 74th most payed player in the league (and fourth - if not fifth - on his team)?
Because he signed his contract before the hype started. Back than giving him a big contract was somehow considered as a gamble with his fragile ankle.
Sure, he is an extreme case, but there are other weird cases, with some shitty players who barely play being very payed.
I find the entire concept of draft, players not having any choice where they will play, luxury tax and the contract getting depended on seniority a bit too absurd. Much prefer the straightforward football approach.
Or James, whom despite has been the best player in the league for almost 10 years, only this season is getting a very high contract (compared to other people). In football, you always have the likes of Messi and Ronaldo on the top of the list.
Yep Zaza is $2.9M and McGee is $1.4M. Somehow I thought both were minimum.
All players who were worth something got very high contract this year because of salary cap going up from $70M to $94M. I mean, we have Crabbe $18M and Turner $16.7M when neither would have gone above $10M under the previous cap. You had players like Mozgov being commited to $16M deals.
Yeah, Mozgov getting payed more than Curry is the equivalent of Lee Cattermole getting payed more than Neymar.
There are many factors. Once you sign a contract you are tied for the length of it and they hardly get negotiated outside of free agency (unless teams want to tie players sooner like Portland did with CJ and Dame but even their contracts only work after previous had expired). It doesn't matter how good you are doing, contract stays the same even when you move to a new team. There is also the salary cap playing its part - players signing contracts in 2012-2015 were signed under a cap that was between $55M and $70M so the max deal for veterans, which is 35%, was considerably lower than now that the cap has gone up to $94M (next year it will be $110M I think). Curry signed his current deal in 2013 I think, before he was this good and salary cap was $58.5M so he basically signed for more than 20% of it (his max would have been 25% or 30%?). Klay signed his current contract a year later and cap went up by 10% so naturally he got a better deal.
You're comparing apples and oranges.
Yep but Mozgov was signed by a crap team who had $50M of free cap and could not get anyone better, at a time when they could spend $100M on salaries a year. Curry signed his deal when the cap was $60M. He will easily get his $35M a year next year though with the Warriors (they can offer him $209M for 5 years but he might take a discount to accomodate Durant's contract too, he cannot get more than $132M for 4 years from anyone else than Warriors).
Wtf? Have you ever watched Mozgov play?
I actually played Basketball myself during the 90's, was also a huge NBA fan back then. Still remember most of the finals from that era with the Bulls - Sonics one being probably my favourite. I don't really support a team, never have, so I was always drawn to the few Germans that were successful like Schrempf and Dirk. Once I finished university and started working, I kinda lost interest. Still watched both of Dirk's final series. I think I celebrated the Mavs championship in 2011 almost as much as Bayern's treble in 2013. There really isn't a German sports person I admire as much as Dirk.
Isn't it right though? Mozgov is not even a top 20 center.
Same here man, I believe that's the case for a lot of followers who aren't originally from the US. I've always followed the sport to watch certain individuals and rarely ever cared about results. Of course like you said you inevitably tend to root for their teams when they're playing but not to the point of really caring as long as that player did well. 2011 Finals were special, and Dirk is my favourite power forward of all time (not counting Hakeem as one). What kind of a 7 footer takes fadeaway jumpers, ffs!
He's up there among German sports people for me as well, probably Schumi alongside him.
I swear I added white text there. My bad.
Just out of interest: Are you following the German league or do you regulary go to Bayern Basketball matches?
I went to a few matches, not necessarily Bayern though. Probably equally often to Würzburg, Bayern and Ulm. I have a soft spot for Ulm and I'm quite excited so far about this season.
Cheers, I somehow never got into the BBL, it's a nice league and all but the quality is just far far below the NBA and therefore just less entertaining in my opinion.
Other topic, Hawks are trading Korver to the Cavs for their 2019 first round pick. Bit annoyed about that, I mean it's probably time to part ways and we'll get something in return but as long as James is there that pick will be 25th+ which is barely any value. And strengthening the best East team sucks either way, would've prefered to send him to Houston or something.
Be interesting now what happens with Millsap, Toronto seems like the perfect fit, they have something in return like Ross or Poeltl and it would definitely make the ECF more interesting as they'd have a strong starting 5 to match with the cavs. However, Denver and Sacramento seem to be interested as well and they've far better assets I'd take. Obviously it be quite idiotic from them to go for him, they'll just get swept in the first round anyway, lose Millsap in the summer and miss out on a lottery pick. However they seem desperate to finally make the playoffs even if that means a spanking by GSW so I hope they throw the farm at us.
Will Ross for Millsap work salary wise? Toronto makes most sense as Millsap will actually make a difference for them in the rest of this season and will give them a glimmer of hope against Cavaliers, they need to do that because they are obviously not winning anything without him.
Denver and Sacramento are idiotic destinations, I agree. Pelicans have also been linked and they will also be swept, Millsap or not. Portland have been linked and we have the assets to get this done but not sure what's the point either as we will not win the championship anyway and will have no cap to re-sign Millsap. Maybe if it was cheap, like Leonard + Ezeli, but otherwise pointless. Or maybe if the board decided Crabbe's contract needs to go but even then, I would imagine trading him for one of Philadelphia's bigs will be preferable. Actually if we could get BOTH Noel and Millsap then it would actually make sense for this season and we would be competitive but targets will have already been set for next season not this one IMO.
Not directly but Ross+Patterson or Sullinger would work.
Agree with what you said. Portland would clearly be better but still a tier below GSW, Spurs and healthy Clippers, so a second round exit at best. And unlike the Kings or the Pelicans they aren't desperate to get into the playoffs just for the sake of it.
I'm really hoping Sacramento is so dumb and throws future picks at us, they won't improve within the next 3 years, I'm sure about that so we could get a great return.