DRAFT SCOUT: Cooper Flagg, Duke

Pros: Overall versatility, elite defense, competitiveness, size

Cons: Struggles a bit with TOs and passing out of double teams

Questions: Outside shot, handle and playmaking (all promising)

Fav comp: Wing Chris Bosh/Supercharged Aaron Gordon

More below ⬇️

Boris Dirk Draft scouting season begins! Be on the lookout for quick player card scouting reports...

New pod episode w/ special guest @krisap.bsky.social!!

Talking the Rock-Paper-Scissors matchups in the NBA West Conference:

Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/b...

Has a fanbase ever had a worse fanbase than Mavs fans this month?

1. Traded their 25 y/o superstar Luka
2. AD looks dominant for a half then gets hurt
3. Kyrie out for the season and probably next season
4. Gafford hurt
5. Horrific media tour
6. Oh and trade Grimes who drops 44 for Philly

The Jalen Suggs injury sucks - he's the heartbeat of that Orlando team

Magic with Suggs: 20-15 (6 seed pace)
Magic w/o Suggs: 9-18 (13 seed pace)

The bottom of the East is getting weaker and weaker

Just an absurd level of shot creation and playmaking between Lebron, Luka and Reaves. Lakers will have multiple good to elite ball handlers on the court at all times.

Undersold part of the Luka trade from the Lakers' side is this could extend Lebron's career even more...

1. Less offensive workload with Luka shouldering the heavy burden
2. Motivation to chase a 5th chip once they build the team
3. Added spark to mentor Luka, LeBron's current favorite player

Lakers aren't done re-tooling their roster for this year and their are lots of big men out there to target. Luka makes rim-running bigs look ELITE.

Walker Kessler, Nic Claxton, Jakob Poeltl, Mitchell Robinson, Robert Williams, Goga Bitadze all would be great fits.

Rapid reaction to the most shocking trade in NBA history: Luka Doncic to the Lakers www.youtube.com/shorts/E0s1g...

In his last 10 games Scoot Henderson is averaging 17.5 pts 3.5 reb and 6 ast on 51/49/79 shooting splits. In that time he has had:

20+ pts 5 times, 6+ assists 7 times, and shot over 50% 6 times.

Young guards take time (see Ivey, Fox, Westbrook, Garland). But he's starting to figure things out.

New York Knicks with 3 straight double digit wins over tough West competition (Sac, Memphis, Denver)

Knicks averaging 136 pts in those games
Opponents averaging 112

The LA Clippers are now the 2nd best defense in the NBA (107.4 DRTG) and starting to distance themselves from #3 Orlando and #4 Houston

Ty Lue has done a MASTERFUL job and the FO was smart to load up on athletes this offseason to replace PG

Some absurd Thunder stats:
#1 in DEF RTG by a larger gap than between #2 and #10
#1 in Net RTG
#1 in Deflections
#1 in Opp TO%
#1 in STLs and BLKs
Plus their offense is going to improve A LOT. They're 18th in 3P% now, would expect that to improve since they were #1 last year.

Will be following this trend all season - last year each of the top 12 West Teams had a winning record at home
This year the only West teams so far with a losing record at home are: Clippers, Blazers & Jazz. Every road game against the West is a tough game.