BY LINCOLN DOOLITTLE
The 2020 NBA season was like no other. From the passing of some great names in the league including Kobe Bryant and David Stern to the obvious impact of the Covid 19 Pandemic, which started the NBA Bubble. Today, we are going to answer 5 questions that emanated from this last season and what comes next.
1 - Should the Clippers trade Paul George?
The answer is simple. NO! To start, Paul George is a great defensive and offensive player with the awards to prove it. In 10 years, he has been an All Star 6 times, a 5 time member of the All NBA Team, and a 4 time member of the NBA All Defensive Team.
Secondly, think about Kawhi Leonard. Kawhi had just come off an NBA championship [with the solid team x] against the Golden State Warriors, a team that had made the finals previously for the last 4 years.. Veterans, including Serge Ibaka, age 31, Kyle Lowry, age 34, Danny Green, age 33, and Marc Gasol, age 35, as well as some younger players including Pascal Siakam and Fred VanVlet, both 26. He left to go home to LA, a city with TWO NBA teams, the Lakers and the Clippers.
So why not play with Anthony Davis and Lebron James on the Lakers? If Kawhi was on the Lakers he wouldn’t be the first option and he wanted to play, but he still wanted to WIN. So he decided that he would play for the Clippers, but only if they traded for Paul George. In other words, the reason he went to play with the Clippers was because of Paul George.
What if you take Paul George out? Kawhi would go. The team would now be Kawhi Leonard with Lou Williams, Marcus Morris, and Montrezl Harrell. The team would have a lot of trouble in the hard core Western Conference.
Therefore Kawhi would request a trade and Clipper’s fans dream of finally winning a championship wouldn’t be reachable.
2 - Will the Warriors be playoff contenders next season?
Yes. To start, they are expected to have Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry back in the roster after they were taken off for their respective injuries. (Stephen Curry broke a metacarpal in his left hand after Aron Baynes, 260 pounds, fell on it. Klay Thompson, in a dying effort to keep the Warriors in the championship, played on an injured knee and tore his left ACL in the process.) With the two back, they are adding about 43 points to their lineup according to Basketball Reference.
Not only that, but Draymond Green plays much better as a third or fourth option, like when the “Splash Bros” [names of these guys] were in the lineup. He is a gritty, all around player that will give them another way to win. If you add that to Andrew Wiggins 19.7 PPG, you have a great 4 front.
Also, the Warriors are in many trade moves and they have a great draft position. According to the latest mock draft via BleacherReport, the Warriors are likely to draft the University of Memphis’ Center, James Wiseman. This would make the Warriors starting lineup Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins, Draymond Green, and James Wiseman. That team looks better than teams that were in the playoffs this year, including the Rockets and the Trail Blazers who TRULY only have 2 great guards. And this doesn’t even begin with trade rumors. At the moment, the Warriors are trying to get the two time MVP, the “Greek Freak”, Giannis Antetokounmpo. The trade would involve Draymond Green and Andrew Wiggins as well as the No. 2 overall pick but if you were to pair up the “Splash Brothers” and the “Greek Freak”, you would likely make the championship- Giannis could wipe out the paint, and Klay and Steph could control deep. Since it involves the No. 2 pick, they could also pick up the Stretch 4 power forward Brook Lopez. With these four, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Brook Lopez along with their young bench, this team could ALSO win.
Therefore, there are many ways to get into the playoffs if you are the Golden State Warriors.
3 - Will the Philadelphia 76ers keep their two keystones, Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid, together?
I believe that the answer is yes. The main trade rumor right now is James Harden coming to the Sixers. For him, the 76ers would most likely have to give up either Embiid or Simmons. But I truly believe that they won’t separate them.
To begin, James Harden isn’t the best pick for the Sixers. James Harden’s game is one-on-one, usually after bringing the ball up. He is what you might call a “ball hog”. But, when you look at the Sixers, they play together and usually pass a lot. This is in contrast to James Harden so I hope they don’t dismantle this team by trading for him.
Secondly, the Rockets and the 76ers both have different ideas for the perfect trade. The Rockets, who would still have point guard Russell Westbrook, would rather trade for Joel Embiid. However, if they added James Harden to the Sixers, they would rather team Joel with Harden. Therefore, if it was either Ben or Joel that would be traded for him, it would not work.
Lastly, Joel and Ben are tight. They have both said that they want to win a championship with the other. If James Harden doesn’t work with Joel, considering that the Sixers would probably trade Ben Simmons, and they don’t win a championship, Joel Embiid is an eligible free agent in the 2022 - 2023 season. Then the process would start over again. AGAIN! Who wants another Process?
Therefore, for the good of the fans and the team, they should keep Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid together.
4 - Should the Lakers trade Danny Green?
Yes. To start, Danny Green, who is known for his excellent 3-point shooting, had a terrible year. In the bubble, his 3-point percentage was less than Center Dwight Howard’s. Plus, compared to his career average of 40%, it was worse, going down to 36.7%. Now, that might not sound so bad, but compare it to the league average, which is 35.8%. Danny Green, in other words, would be like a C+ shooter.
However, one may argue that since they don’t have any depth they shouldkeep him, but that would be a mistake. At the moment, including Danny Green, the Los Angeles Lakers have 8 guards on the team. These also include KCP, Avery Bradley, Rajon Rondo, J.R Smith, and Alex Carouso. All of them would work well in a starting lineup as 3rd or 4th options under Lebron and AD.
Lastly, they only have 3 centers, and only two, Dwight Howard and JaVale McGee, played decent minutes. Centers Steven Adams, Andre Drummond, and Rudy Gobert are all free agents this season. They should think of trading Danny Green and two of their younger guards as well as a few picks for one of these guys. Right now, I’m looking at Steven Adams because OKC is most likely going to go into a remodeling process.
Now look at the starting lineup- Rajon Rondo, one of the greatest passers in the league; KCP, who can shoot pretty well; Lebron, (I’d be here forever listing everything about him); Anthony Davis, all around Power Forward; and Steven Adams, who can play the paint with AD, but not overly threaten him in the offensive game. Now, you might be wondering So, why trade for Steven Adams instead of buying him in free agency? Well, the Lakers don’t have much room, money wise, to sign him, so they would need to trade for him. His 22 million dollar contract would be about worth Danny Green and Avery Bradley, so this would work fine.
To conclude, it would be best to trade Danny Green.
5 - Should the NBA use the Bubble again after the Covid 19 pandemic?
I believe that that is a very good idea.
At this point, most likely, we won’t have a 2021 All Star Game in the NBA. What I think we could do instead is have a Mid - Season Tournament. Now, I bet that those that are reading this article just asked themselves, why? Why change the structure of an NBA season that is already so perfect? Why would team’s put their players in a situation where they could get hurt?
Those questions are understandable. To answer,, many names around the league believe that the seasons are too long and in return, want to shorten the seasons. I, and many other people, believe that this is wrong. A back-up option is to have a mid-season tournament. This idea was so big that it was talked about in NBA 2K 20. Therefore, in order to maintain the perfect length of the season, it would make sense to have a tournament.
Secondly, there could be a prize for the tournament so it makes sense to play your players. I think that a great idea would be giving the winning team a specific pick in the draft i.e the 4th pick of the 1st round. This solves a few things. It let’s two more players every year be drafted, letting more people pursue their dream of playing in the NBA. It also solves teams losing on purpose to get another young star in the draft. If the pick was the last lottery pick, 14, one of the non-playoff teams would be forced out. Therefore, it will be important enough that it will be a big event.
Now, this is the reason to keep it in Disney, in the NBA bubble. It would be isolated which means that there would be no bias in the seats to a team. Secondly, there are three different stadiums in close proximity. This means that this could last a few days, like the All Star Games, because teams wouldn’t have to fly to and fro.
So, yes, the NBA should consider reusing the NBA Bubble.
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