Everything 2017 Off-Season

[Mess]

starting to think Shaolin is Lewro

Nah I think he's actually RR's version of Neil deGrasse Tyson - but only when he's tweeting about movies.

Mysteries of #Gravity: Why Bullock's hair, in otherwise convincing zero-G scenes, did not float freely on her head.

— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) October 6, 2013

In @StarWars #TheForceAwakens, BB-8, a smooth rolling metal spherical ball, would have skidded uncontrollably on sand.

— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) December 21, 2015

"Wait...you Raptor fans are cheering for Toronto and razzing the Celtics?"

[KeonClark]

I think maybe it's the way I worded the original post that has Shaolin hung up. I wasn't trying to say contributes to losing in the sense that he's a below average pro. No, Kyrie has very elite skill sets, and is better than a replacement level point guard, so he can and will help you win.

What I meant was, for lack of a better term, he needs a proven Batman to be a successful Robin. I'll believe it when I see it that a "Kyrie Irving as best player" team can even be above .500. Now Boston will definitely be above .500, but I also think Hayward is better than Kyrie so he's the 2nd best player on the team. But it remains to be seen how good they will be. I think Ainge sold the farm on the wrong guy. We shall see. Pundits have them neck and neck with the Lebron's, I'm more inclined to think they take a step behind Toronto and Washington. Again, we shall see.

[Rudy Bargnani]

I was posting here while Lewro was here (and eventually got banned) and I also sent him a PM at one point, so no I'm not Lewro.

Are you Barolt?

[MixxAOR]

Are you Barolt?

Nah Barolt is Doyle. He's not high on Celtics.

[Shaolin Fantastic]

No I'm not Barolt.

[KeonClark]

No I'm not Barolt.

[Shaolin Fantastic]

I think maybe it's the way I worded the original post that has Shaolin hung up. I wasn't trying to say contributes to losing in the sense that he's a below average pro. No, Kyrie has very elite skill sets, and is better than a replacement level point guard, so he can and will help you win.

What I meant was, for lack of a better term, he needs a proven Batman to be a successful Robin. I'll believe it when I see it that a "Kyrie Irving as best player" team can even be above .500. Now Boston will definitely be above .500, but I also think Hayward is better than Kyrie so he's the 2nd best player on the team. But it remains to be seen how good they will be. I think Ainge sold the farm on the wrong guy. We shall see. Pundits have them neck and neck with the Lebron's, I'm more inclined to think they take a step behind Toronto and Washington. Again, we shall see.

Why not add this earlier? My whole problem was that you said he contributes to losing not winning. This basically isn't true for any above average NBA player, let alone a top 20 or so player like Kyrie who has proven he can be the #2 on a title winner against the best team in the NBA history.

I agree that you don't necessarily want him as your batman and you're not winning a championship with him as that. However you could have a 50 win team with him as your top guy if it's built well. I illustrated earlier how 50 win teams can be built around high usage, volume scorers if they are built correctly and anchored by a top defense. We saw that with DeMar for 21 games last year. It's also the formula Larry Brown had with Iverson.

[Shaolin Fantastic]

Fwiw Lowry isn't good enough to be the best player on a championship team either.

[KeonClark]

Fwiw Lowry isn't good enough to be the best player on a championship team either.

Was Chauncey Billups?

[tDotted]

Pump the damn brakes. Kyrie hasn't been the best player on a PLAYOFF team, let alone one that's competing for a championship

[Shaolin Fantastic]

Pump the damn brakes. Kyrie hasn't been the best player on a PLAYOFF team, let alone one that's competing for a championship

Kyrie hasn't had the chance to. His first 3 years he was on a terrible team that was deliberately tanking. Since then he's played with LeBron, arguably the best player in the history of the game depending on who you ask. Hard to be the best player on that team.

He's arguably Boston's best player now. Do you think they'll miss the playoffs?

[tDotted]

Kyrie hasn't had the chance to. His first 3 years he was on a terrible team that was deliberately tanking. Since then he's played with LeBron, arguably the best player in the history of the game depending on who you ask. Hard to be the best player on that team.

He's arguably Boston's best player now. Do you think they'll miss the playoffs?

No, they were not deliberately tanking. I used to be a big Kyrie fan and I followed those Cavs teams closely. Just because they sucked doesn't mean they were trying to suck. They made a whole bunch of trades/moves in the 2014 season to try and get Kyrie help but he was only able to lead them to a whopping 33 wins.

And before you blame the team, the talent around him wasn't even bad. They were 5-6 in the games he was out and were +4.3 points better when he was off the court.

Now, as for Boston. Well it's impossible for a team with any semblance of talent to miss the playoffs in the East this season. So there's my take on that.

[Scraptor]

No, they were not deliberately tanking. I used to be a big Kyrie fan and I followed those Cavs teams closely. Just because they sucked doesn't mean they were trying to suck. They made a whole bunch of trades/moves in the 2014 season to try and get Kyrie help but he was only able to lead them to a whopping 33 wins.

And before you blame the team, the talent around him wasn't even bad. They were 5-6 in the games he was out and were +4.3 points better when he was off the court.

Now, as for Boston. Well it's impossible for a team with any semblance of talent to miss the playoffs in the East this season. So there's my take on that.

Dude the 2013-14 Cavs was led by Thompson (22), Irving (21), Jarett Jack (30), Waiters (22), and Varejao (31) in minutes. Jack and Waiters were both sub-51% TS, which is abysmal. Deng was sixth in minutes and was also sub 51%. Frankly it's a miracle they got to 33 wins imo.

[MixxAOR]

The @Raptors announce the hiring of @lukewinn as Director, Prospect Strategy. pic.twitter.com/3ElfR8nmVa

— RaptorsMR (@RaptorsMR) September 8, 2017

[MixxAOR]

Star sports editor Jennifer Quinn leaving to run the Raptors communications dept. Best wishes!

— Lance Hornby (@sunhornby) September 7, 2017