Hali for sure cause he’s hyper efficient and low turnover

True, though that’s probably more of an indictment of Russ and Harden than it should be. Like, with those two players, Mann should not be your third most important. The fact that he is is testament to things not working as intended

I just know him from years of seeing him in game highlights catching some nasty lobs so I’ve always thought he’s at least valuable for being a big body and good pick and roll option with pretty much every PG/ball handler he’s played with. Also just on the topic on Mavs, lot of love for JJ Barea and even Devin Harris. I liked them as role players in the mid 2010s, especially Barrea.

He doesn’t help himself by being inexplicably bad at catching a basketball for a man of his size, but yeah Rudy is great he’s just not your modern centre but he’s not a dinosaur like Drummond or Jordan stylistically so he’s caught in a kind of no mans land perception wise

yeah was crazy seeing people hate on someone putting up 30 ppg in that way

He’s been killing it lately for sure, been noticing him lights out from 3

I’ve always absolutely loved Buddy Buckets since his college days. And his jumpshot on 2K has always been money for me. And he just seems like a likeable guy

Hahaha. I vividly remember his last year in LA, his comeback during Kobe’s farewell tour, him saying loudly ‘I love basketball’ during a free throw and thinking what a wholesome guy he turned into by the end. And there was a lot made of his attitude being a real positive to the young guys on the team at the time.

Unfortunately Lebron arrived and blew up the entire young core (Randle, D’Angelo, Clarkson, Ingram, Nance, Zubac) but he did win a chip so hey. But I’m a Brit and got into NBA by watching the Lakers be terrible but being excited by their young core, so Lebron trading the entire team ruined it for me. I realised as a Brit I can’t support a team, I tend to support groups of players I really enjoy. Not that you asked, just a tangent.

I saw someone say (haven’t checked) Zion had a negative plus minus, only one on the Pels with negative plus minus this game, it true?

Jordan Poole is so much like Nick Young at his worst as a player it’s uncanny. I hope he has a similar (or better) redemption arc. Lakers and Warriors fans will remember Swaggy P was a surprisingly good 3-and-D role player off the bench. Had never showed any signs of Defence before. Hope we see something like that from Poole. Accepting a smaller role in future but becoming more efficient and beneficial to the team as a result.

Watching Zion for the first time this season (neutral fan here) and watching him was kinda confusing. He’s still objectively a good offensive player, but he definitely looks a step slower than he was, and is it true that he has basically completely abandoned shooting any jumpers so far this year?

If so I’m interested in how he keeps scoring so much and so efficiently. He’s such a limited player and even his crazy athleticism seems to have waned a little, and he’s actually removing tools from his offensive game (the jumper).