- What to think of the Pascal Siakam trade. For the Raptors they are not quite rebuilding but transitioning. Bruce Brown gives them a piece they can use to trade. A few teams are interested in him and the Raptors appear to have some guards that can play and he is another one though he can play bigger than his size. The need for them is some size and shooting. As for Indiana, people think the trade was good but I don’t know if I agree. Siakam is a player that needs the ball and is adept at driving to the foul line area and scoring. Indiana is a fast paced offense that wants their players making quick decisions. I can see Siakam as a last option if the opposition takes away Indiana’s break but his more methodical game may slow Indiana down.
- Dillon Brooks is one of those players that has an effect on games. He is the type of player you don’t like to play against but love when he’s on your team.
- T.J. McConnell is an interesting player. For a guy that can’t shoot real well, he is a 33% from the three, he is quite effective. He defends well and always seems to be in the right place at the right time causing havoc.
- The Nets are struggling. This week they lost to the Portland Trail Blazers. They seem to have an over abundance of decent wings, the position every team wants, however the team needs a feature player and with the Nets struggling need to make a move. I thought Mikal Bridges could be that number one player but I was wrong. Mikal is a number two or three player on a good team. The Nets can either blow it up and start over or try to trade some of their wings for a scorer.
- The Washington Wizards are asking for two first round draft picks in exchange for Kyle Kuzma. When you look at their record you realize they may be asking for too much.
- The Portland Trail Blazers beat the Nets this week. Before that they lost four straight. In that stretch they lost by an average of 31 points. Included in that stretch was a 62 point loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Losing is one thing but not competing and losing like that is the extreme.
- Joel Embiid is dominating games in a way I have not seen in a long time. He is averaging 35.1 points and 11.6 rebounds in a little over 34 minutes. This is in no way a comparison to the great Wilt Chamberlain for many reasons. All I’m saying is that I haven’t seen this type of big man offensive dominance in a long time probably since Wilt. I know you’re thinking of Hakeem Olajuwon and Shaquille O’Neal but compare their stats to Embiid’s.
