De’Aaron “Austin Reaves Sr.” Fox
- Thread starter Tetsujin
- Start date
Fox doesn’t get calls and some of that is his own doing. And when he mocks players for flopping on court, thus indirectly taking shots at the officials in game, it probably compounds why he isn’t getting a friendly whistle. It’s part of the game that is impacting his desire to drive the basket which is still his biggest weapon. He should not be a volume 3 shooter but I’m guessing the less fouls he draws the more he thinks about taking uncontested threes instead of getting hacked and rewarded with a no-call. It’s a legit critique of everyone on the court and their decision process here.
I think you inadvertently left out a lot of context with the T-Wolves.....
2 years ago when they won 46 games, they were the 7th seed and did not have Rudy Gobert yet.
1 year ago when they won 42 games, KAT was injured for most of the year and only played in 29 games.
The reason why the T-Wolves jumped to 56 wins this year is because they traded 4 future 1st round picks + a pick swap for a DPOY candidate and their entire team managed to stay healthy. Also probably helps that Anthony Edwards is a 22-year-old superstar.
2 years ago when they won 46 games, they were the 7th seed and did not have Rudy Gobert yet.
1 year ago when they won 42 games, KAT was injured for most of the year and only played in 29 games.
The reason why the T-Wolves jumped to 56 wins this year is because they traded 4 future 1st round picks + a pick swap for a DPOY candidate and their entire team managed to stay healthy. Also probably helps that Anthony Edwards is a 22-year-old superstar.
”No chance” is literally a drastic over-exaggeration. Because the KINGS clearly had chances in the last 2 matchups, even though both of them got away from them late. Hell, the 2nd game in NO the KINGS held a lead with 5:30 remaining.
It was really only 2 games where the KINGS were a complete non-factor and lost by 36 and 33 points. Two of the others had the KINGS down big early but back to within single digits in the 3rd and early 4th quarters. The 2 others had them in a fairly competitive game until faltering in Q4.
Also, to further demonstrate how quickly the tide can change — the T-Wolves just swept Phoenix 4-0 despite having lost 4 consecutive games to the Suns during the regular season (0-3 this season) and all by double-digits 18, 10, and 19. And the sorry-@$$ed LAL just snapped an 11-game losing streak to Denver. (Fwiw, AD hasn’t snapped his double-digit ‘L’ streak against Domas, though lmfao)
Again, people need to relax on this thing.
It was really only 2 games where the KINGS were a complete non-factor and lost by 36 and 33 points. Two of the others had the KINGS down big early but back to within single digits in the 3rd and early 4th quarters. The 2 others had them in a fairly competitive game until faltering in Q4.
Also, to further demonstrate how quickly the tide can change — the T-Wolves just swept Phoenix 4-0 despite having lost 4 consecutive games to the Suns during the regular season (0-3 this season) and all by double-digits 18, 10, and 19. And the sorry-@$$ed LAL just snapped an 11-game losing streak to Denver. (Fwiw, AD hasn’t snapped his double-digit ‘L’ streak against Domas, though lmfao)
Again, people need to relax on this thing.
No, the Kings literally had no chance against the Pels. All the Pels wings had to do was tighten up the screws and the Kings started wetting the bed.
If they had Zion, it would have been even worse. The "KINGS", as you always put it, need to tighten up their offense against teams that know how to tighten up their defense. We play so loose so often that it's what leads to our losses. Our mental lapses, stupid turnovers, bad shots, is what leads to a close game turning into one that "doesn't just slip away" but becomes out of our reach.
If they had Zion, it would have been even worse. The "KINGS", as you always put it, need to tighten up their offense against teams that know how to tighten up their defense. We play so loose so often that it's what leads to our losses. Our mental lapses, stupid turnovers, bad shots, is what leads to a close game turning into one that "doesn't just slip away" but becomes out of our reach.
De’Aaron doesn’t want to sign an extension.
https://syndication.bleacherreport....ract-in-2024-evaluating-kings-roster.amp.html
https://syndication.bleacherreport....ract-in-2024-evaluating-kings-roster.amp.html
Worth noting, 10 players are selected for All-Defense every year by sportswriters and broadcasters and none of these guys were selected in 2024. I guess steals don't get the same level of respect that blocks do -- which is odd when you consider that backcourt steals almost always directly lead to easy fast break points and blocks only occasionally do.
And yet here's your First Team All Defense for the 2023-2024 NBA season:
Anthony Davis (PF/C)
Rudy Gobert (C)
Bam Adebayo (C)
Herb Jones (SF)
Victor Wembanyama (C)
Four big guys and a wing.... And somehow with 123 voters the guy who led the league in Defensive Rebounds (by a massive margin) got 1 First Team vote and 2 Second Team votes and the guy who led the league in Steals Per Game and tied for the lead in Overall Steals got 1 First Team Vote and 1 Second Team vote.
All these voters care about is blocks.
Anthony Davis (PF/C)
Rudy Gobert (C)
Bam Adebayo (C)
Herb Jones (SF)
Victor Wembanyama (C)
Four big guys and a wing.... And somehow with 123 voters the guy who led the league in Defensive Rebounds (by a massive margin) got 1 First Team vote and 2 Second Team votes and the guy who led the league in Steals Per Game and tied for the lead in Overall Steals got 1 First Team Vote and 1 Second Team vote.
All these voters care about is blocks.
And yet here's your First Team All Defense for the 2023-2024 NBA season:
Anthony Davis (PF/C)
Rudy Gobert (C)
Bam Adebayo (C)
Herb Jones (SF)
Victor Wembanyama (C)
Four big guys and a wing.... And somehow with 123 voters the guy who led the league in Defensive Rebounds (by a massive margin) got 1 First Team vote and 2 Second Team votes and the guy who led the league in Steals Per Game and tied for the lead in Overall Steals got 1 First Team Vote and 1 Second Team vote.
All these voters care about is blocks.
Anthony Davis (PF/C)
Rudy Gobert (C)
Bam Adebayo (C)
Herb Jones (SF)
Victor Wembanyama (C)
Four big guys and a wing.... And somehow with 123 voters the guy who led the league in Defensive Rebounds (by a massive margin) got 1 First Team vote and 2 Second Team votes and the guy who led the league in Steals Per Game and tied for the lead in Overall Steals got 1 First Team Vote and 1 Second Team vote.
All these voters care about is blocks.
But I still firmly believe that Gobert is incredibly overrated as a defender. He is absolutely a guy who really only blocks shots.
I'm not necessarily saying that any of those guys don't deserve to be on the All-Defense team. There are a lot of ways to analyze defensive production and lots of guys who deserve to be there are going to be left out since there's only 10 spots. But for the rebounding leader to get 3 votes out of 123, the steals leader to get 2 votes out of 123, and not one guard to make the first team tells me that there's a pretty large perception gap here between guys who have the reputation of being a stopper and guys who are actually contributing to defensive stops. That's the part I take issue with.
REBOUNDS -- Most of the guys being recognized in the DPOY voting and the All-Defense voting are great at forcing tough shots and misses but someone still has to grab the rebound or it's not a stop right? This is the most fundamental measure of defensive production.
STEALS -- Every team should have a defender in the paint who can erase layups and force guards into taking awkward angles in the paint that lead to missed shots but a consistent point of attack defender disrupting the ballhandler, icing the shot clock, disrupting plays before they get started, and forcing TOs that lead to easy offense is equally important and equally worthy of recognition.
If all you have is a shotblocker the other team is just going to shoot over you all game. Guarding the perimeter has only become more important in recent years so shouldn't we be recognizing elite defensive guards more now rather than less?
I can understand why the move was made to make the All-NBA and All-Defense teams positionless as the talent distribution in the league isn't necessarily going to be even but in this case (with the All-Defense teams in particular) I think it's only contributing toward a continued misreading of how team defense works. Based on these voting results someone might conclude that a team with 4 Centers on the floor is going to win every game. Of course we know that's not true. Guards are just as important and the point is that the skillsets of your guards, wings, and centers need to compliment each other.
REBOUNDS -- Most of the guys being recognized in the DPOY voting and the All-Defense voting are great at forcing tough shots and misses but someone still has to grab the rebound or it's not a stop right? This is the most fundamental measure of defensive production.
STEALS -- Every team should have a defender in the paint who can erase layups and force guards into taking awkward angles in the paint that lead to missed shots but a consistent point of attack defender disrupting the ballhandler, icing the shot clock, disrupting plays before they get started, and forcing TOs that lead to easy offense is equally important and equally worthy of recognition.
If all you have is a shotblocker the other team is just going to shoot over you all game. Guarding the perimeter has only become more important in recent years so shouldn't we be recognizing elite defensive guards more now rather than less?
I can understand why the move was made to make the All-NBA and All-Defense teams positionless as the talent distribution in the league isn't necessarily going to be even but in this case (with the All-Defense teams in particular) I think it's only contributing toward a continued misreading of how team defense works. Based on these voting results someone might conclude that a team with 4 Centers on the floor is going to win every game. Of course we know that's not true. Guards are just as important and the point is that the skillsets of your guards, wings, and centers need to compliment each other.
Far be it for me to defend a dirty Laker, but lots of good defenders have guys that they just flat out struggle against. Basketball is a game of matchups and for AD, Sabonis being strong and aggressive in the post gives him fits. I think Domas is a tougher cover for him than Jokic is. Just the way it goes.
Fair enough.
One of the strangest things to me with the NBA is how much teams and various media outlets have latched on to analytics and advanced metrics and yet league awards still seem to just come down to the most basic counting stats.
Fair enough.
One of the strangest things to me with the NBA is how much teams and various media outlets have latched on to analytics and advanced metrics and yet league awards still seem to just come down to the most basic counting stats.
There are a countless number of non-counting stats; and while these can be useful in decision making, and in describing the impact that players are making, it's difficult to figure out how to weigh them to assemble a ranking of who's the best player of a given category, unless the category itself is defined by a formula of advanced stats.
It's true with counting stats too, but at least there are less of those. (Besides wins, all stats are advanced and artificial)
It's true with counting stats too, but at least there are less of those. (Besides wins, all stats are advanced and artificial)