Commented this the post game thread:

Watching Cade this season, I think the realization is that he’s a great player but not in the way that we thought he would be. He’s probably going to end up being an all-star level connector and amplifier like a Draymond.

Not defensively like Green, but in the sense that if we can find a couple incredible offensive talents, his skill set will amplify that potential. He really does have an incredible sense and feel for the game. He just doesn’t have the scoring ability to be the number 1 option. The shot isn’t elite, the speed isn’t elite, he doesn’t have a bag like a Luka which can erase some of those issues.

It’s gonna be painful until we can either develop that offensive talent or draft it. Maybe we have it already with Jaden, Ausar, and Duren.

Bottom line is that Cade is probably in the wrong role and we still need to find a couple top tier bucket getters to pair with him. He still has elite feel and play making ability which will only grow with better roster talent.

Watching Cade this season, I think the realization is that he’s a great player but not in the way that we thought he would be. He’s probably going to end up being an all-star level connector and amplifier like a Draymond.

Not defensively like Green, but in the sense that if we can find a couple incredible offensive talents, his skill set will amplify that potential. He really does have an incredible sense and feel for the game. He just doesn’t have the scoring ability to be the number 1 option. The shot isn’t elite, the speed isn’t elite, he doesn’t have a bag like a Luka which can erase some of those issues.

It’s gonna be painful until we can either develop that offensive talent or draft it. Maybe we have it already with Jaden, Ausar, and Duren.

No one wins with fewer than one 1st team all-nba player.

There are far more teams with just one 1st team guy, so that means that the chances of team with two such guys winning is higher in any given year than teams with just one.

Kinda rude man. I spent a lot of time on this and it’s fun and interesting to me (and apparently others too).

Aside from that, your condescending and dismissive comment misses the point. This is a way to evaluate who exactly is the type of player necessary to take a team all the way. There are plenty of players - Ja, Derozen, Zion, Lavine, Fox, Sabonis, Trey, Ant, Butler, Mitchell - who do not meet the criteria but would still be considered “elite prime” players by a lot of people.

Delicately shocked.

Talking about Dame. Sorry if I phrased that poorly.

What does their rim protection look like? That, and reliable shooting, concerns me but I haven’t spent much time on them this year.

If Harden can return to form, then that might push them over the top. They have something special in their culture and coaching that allows them to over perform given their talent.

Damn, that’s super interesting. Makes sense.

Yeah, I may regret that after watching 20 or so games. Recency bias mixed with Dames age and lack of post season success probably has me lower on them than they deserve. If that starting lineup is healthy, they’re gonna be very very hard to defend.

Also, they were outside of my weighted age window, which may mean absolutely nothing, but I still used it for fun.

This is my gut too. IF Kyrie plays close to a full season, those two guys are talented enough to be an issue. Luka really has generational talent potential though.

I think it helps to give realistic expectations to teams that are competitive but lacking those guys. You constantly see posts about “can X team contend this year?”, and the answer is usually no if they don’t have “that dude”. I honestly don’t think a lot of people realize that they don’t actually have a shot

Which is why I caveated it with “dark horse”. You may be right. I believe that Luka has the potential during his peak to absolutely drag a bad roster pretty deep though, so I guess we’ll see if he’s there yet.