Topic: 2019 NBA Pre-Season - page 2199. (Read 913882 times)

Yeah, I agree that Zion should not get the reward at all. Dude is great and probably a better player than Ja Morant as well if you look at it that way but he missed way too many games if you ask me so I wouldn't give it to him. Rookie of the year should not go to player who plays the best basketball or even to player who has the best talent out of them all, it should go to player who has helped their team the most.

Certainly, Zion is the best talent in rookies and sure he played better when he played but that doesn't change anything about how dude basically missed half the season and pelicans could have been a playoff team if he played all of the season and now they may miss the playoffs because he was injured most of the season.

 There are tons of people that got injured and never became what they could be. Greg Oden is namely one of them that everyone talks about, that dude could have been a great center when centers mattered and could have even played to this day, he was drafted the same year as Durant (and ahead of Durant if I am not wrong?), he wouldn't be a huge influence nowadays since Centers are less important and more defense/rebound but even like that he would have been very awesome. If we go back in history we can only assume Len Bias would have changed NBA a lot, dude was seen as a better player than MJ himself but I disagree to overexxegerate players who never played any NBA game but it is obvious that he would have been a superstar at least if he got to play in NBA.

 Zion is too heavy and he uses his body like trash, he needs to be a lot more careful and I am sure in NBA they will teach him everything, no player with that type of body should be able to do what he does so it is always dangerous when he jumps because when he lands his knees and his ankles are getting alot more punishment than other players and that might hurt him a lot quicker as well so he has to learn how to soft land and how to jump carefully instead of jumping relentlessly.

Bro, I just hope not like Drose. I really looked at Drose in the past with his aggressive way of attacking the basket and his clutches, that is really amazing and then all of a sudden, his injury end his great run. He's doing well now but I think if he's not injured, he's been added to one of the best players in the league with Lebron. Zion will be dominating the game obviously, let's just hope his injury would not affect his career.

I think they'll try to compete to be in the playoffs, the win against the Lakers is a big boost of their confidence and but as far as I see it, it's the Pelicans who are more consistent compared to the Memphis. No doubt he is talented too but everyone has their own choice, either you are right or they are.

Just 3 games, I would still think they are in close competition now and the fact that Memphis is still in top 8, they have the advantage.
The way I see it, Morant was already playing hard here.

That will be the case if he gets careless with his playing styles.
As long as he knows how to land then maybe it will take long before he feels the soreness.
Look at Lebron James. Just how much weight his feet carries everyday but up until now he doesn't have that bad injury with his legs.
It's about being healthy and with the right training on how to land.

My vote is also for Ja Morant here.
Give the guy credits. He changed the way Grizzlies play and they are 3 wins away from the Pelicans.
If he plays harder then he might really experience a playoff game even being just a rookie.

I hope he will not be injured, this young man is fun to watch, once again he led his team for a win against the best team in the West, which is the Lakers. Of course I would also pick Zion over Morant as there are only few big man who have a skills like Zion.

I will take Zion over Morant all day everyday. Zion has been consistently playing very well since his regular season debut. He's been scoring 20+ points per game and becoming the most valuable piece of the Pelicans. I can easily tell, Zion would easily dominate the NBA 2-3 years from now. While on the other hand, I can see Morant have a major injury in the future due to his excessive dunks and careless jumping. I mean, this kid was trying to dunk over big men. 1st he tried to dunk on K.Love and then to AD. If he continues to play like this he'll surely be another Penny Hardaway or Drose in the making.

I wouldn't expect much, maybe Warriors chances of winning will improve but at their standing now, it's hard to expect that they can still make it in the playoffs. Curry is curry, we know he is the best shooter in the NBA, so it's fun to see him play again, hopefully he will not re injured that hand.

Nunn are doing it quitely but stats are showing how good he is and how much he also deserve being a candidate for this season's Rookie of the year. The selections of those candidates will be judged according to the rules of NBA and personally it's difficult for anyone to excel as most of them are really capable to win the award.

Steph Curry is being handled with care.

https://www.nbcsports.com/bayarea/warriors/steph-currys-return-warriors-lineup-will-be-handled-delicately

Playing with G-League first and maybe he will play against the Raptors. But that is still a maybe.
Chances of him still not playing that game is how much good he will do with the practices.
I am excited and so is he. I bet his hands are already tingling to play the game.

Odds are going to change again once he is back. Careful with bets. 

Yeah, that is the reason why I am having second thoughts about choosing Zion. I just thought of maybe Zion can do it since my friend is bragging about how he could win a lot of records and he also thought he might be picked as the ROTY, but yeah, thanks for that info. How about RJ Barrett and Kendrick Nunn? They are good players too.

Here's an article that explains about Zion's chances for the ROTY award.
https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/nba-buy-or-sell-zion-williamson-could-still-win-rookie-of-the-year-bradley-beal-belongs-in-the-all-star-game/

he missed half of the season, so IMO, he would not be deserving for that award, Ja Morant has a bigger chances here and I believe Zion was the heavy favorite to win, but I think those chances now looks dim.

I am just choosing between Ja Morant and Zion but I think it would be Zion. Despite the time he played, he showed us what he can do and we are now even talking about the legacy he can build despite his penguin ways of walking. Jokes aside, if he bring his team in the playoffs and won as the ROTY, that would be more amazing.

^^ Checking the odds here, https://www.sportsbettingdime.com/nba/rookie-of-the-year-odds/. It looks like Ja Morant is the heavy favourite because as you have said, he has a seizable head start as Zion sits out because of the injury. And I don't think that Zion can overtake Ja, well Zion can bring his team to the playoffs but it will not be enough, in my opinion.

All Zion can do for now is play as best as he can, and lead his team to playoff, ROTY decision is out of his hands. As i said before, if we base his chances according to previous years, they are not very good, but surprises are  always possible.

In 2016/2017 Embiid played 31 game, averaging 20.2 points and 7.8 rebounds. On the other hand, winner was Brogdon, who had 10.2 points and  4.2 assists. ROTY winner with least games so far was Patrick Ewing, back in 1986, with 50 games played in regular season. Carter and Irving won with 50/51, but that was lockout season. So obviously, this is an important part when deciding the winner.

This year, Zion can play at maximum 37 games of the regular season. While his stats are great, main contender so far, Ja Morant, is pretty good too, averaging 17.5 points and 6.9 assists for Grizzlies. Another interesting thing about those two players is that their teams will fight against each other for that 8th spot, and maybe that could be a factor in the end. Whoever gets his team in the playoff (and keep playing at current of better level), gets ROTY. I think that would be fair.

If he will continue playing like this or if there are more coming from him that huge chance to advance and have a playoff appearance is really possible. Like what you have said it's not a big deal if he might not be able to receive the ROTY but bringing his team to the next round will add more hypes to his name.

Yeah, last years Celtics and this years are totally different two teams. I am not saying bucks will lose or even the result would be different, it could still be 4-1 at the end and nothing may change but that doesn't mean Celtics are the same team. When Irving was with the team he was trying to be the "leader" of the team but he had very young core there so he wasn't seen as a leader because both he wasn't leader type of person to begin with but also he wasn't really all that veteran neither.

With Kemba Walker he is not trying to be the leader there, he is just trying to play as well as he can and be healthy and make a difference. He also knows how hard it is to be in playoffs because he failed it with hornets so far so he knows he is getting a chance there as well.

ROTY is still a a bigger achievement for me, so he should go for that, however Rikafip has a point, Zion was not able to play many games due to injury and with that, he might loss his chance to compete in the ROTY competition, now he should focus on his team so they'll be in the playoffs.

It doesn't matter if he will not get the ROTY as long as he qualifies to the playoffs, not getting the award is understandable since he was injured during the pre season and he was advised to rest for quite some time, but this guy is now doing what we are expecting of him and it looks like the chance of the Pelicans to advance to the playoffs is more clear now.

While it's true that Bucks are not top team when it comes to 3 point shooting, they are not thrash either, and they  can be dangerous. Currently they are at 36.3 % (rank 12), with 38.5 attempts per game (rank 4). Giannis is the main threat of course, and key will be to stop him, but rest of the team is not afraid to shoot when he gets doubled, and they improved as team compared to last season, while Raptors, despite looking  very good this , will miss Kawhi in the playoff.


Considering all these injuries  and roster issues, somehow i doubt it. They could  eventually reach conference SF and that's about it. They might have been  contenders at the beginning of the season (if i remember correctly they were ranked 6th by the bookies) but they lost that "title" imho.

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Pelicans continue they run for the 8th spot, last night they beat Cavaliers 116-104. Since Zion joined them, they are 9-5. This is his 10th game in a row that he scored at least 20 points, and overall 12th with 20+ points. They are front runners at the moment  for that 8th spot race without the doubt, if Zion stays healthy.
Another thing that im curious about; whether Zion has chance to get ROTY, considering the amount of games he played.
I remember  when Brogdon got ROTY award back in 2017, despite Embiid having much better numbers, but he lacked the games.