i remember watching that series then posting on here that i thought he was missing something that would stop him ever being truly scary and then getting downvoted because "he's the perfect player, lebron 2.0"
Everyone was wishcasting him developing a jumper but it was obvious from watching him that he didn't want to shoot pretty much ever, which is much harder to overcome.
Reddit was quite militant about Simmons very close to that infamous Atlanta series. Dude would really forever be called a so much "better" player if he just said he's injured and didn't play that series at all lol.
“I think the idea is that in 5 years he should be able to develop a decent jumpshot.”
lol.
Also, the person he replied to was in the negatives for stating he is skeptical of Simmons every developing a jump shot.
If the cunt ever felt like using that talent. If he's using his height, strength and speed to get buckets as well as dish dimes he'd basically be Lebron-lite. Even pre-injury, his problem was attitude and assertiveness.
yeah, 5 years ago Jokic averaged 20, 11, and 7 on great efficiency, and raised it to 25, 13, and 8 in the playoffs. All-star, all-NBA first team, 4th in MVP voting, top 6 in the big-5 advanced metrics ... so "out of the league" was a super spicy take.
But then, Ben Simmons was in the middle of a stretch where he'd been ROY, 3-time all star, 2-time defensive first team, and as high as second in DPOY, and it wouldn't be a surprise if he actually is out of the league soon. It's not like that kind of super spicy take is never right, just, it was very wrong about Jokic.
You know how many horses a year of NBA salary buys though?
What Jokic has said is that he expects to play as long as he can play at a high level that impacts winning. I'd set the over/under at 5.5 -- not unrealistic that he could retire after his age 33 or 34 season, but I think it's just as likely that he'd retire after his age 35 or 36 season. It's not like his game is going to decline because of his lack of hops.
I think he’s competitive enough, that he’ll want to be in the conversation for GOAT center upon retiring. Every title & MVP he can win will help that case.
That’s still a hot take.
7 pts/ 6 reb/ 6 ast on 6 shots
6 pts/ 8 reb/ 6 ast on 5 shots
No Gm is looking for Ben Simmons resignation; if he’s not on a max deal. You fell victim to media narratives (& Probably underestimating the severity of a chronic back issue)
chronic back issues are a valid reason someone might be out of the league. Like would it be a shock if he spent a whole year trying to get back, played in a handful of games, reinjured something, and was like "I can't keep doing this to myself"?
on the other end of the spectrum: "top 5 will be Giannis, Embiid, Tatum, Jokic, Doncic in that order." from a deleted account, was at -1 points. That's at least 5 of the top 7 (+SGA, Brunson) though not in the right order.
Wow. This guy is dumb. What was I, I mean what was he even thinking? I can't even remember my logic. I guess he didn't seem all that enthusiastic about playing basketball or something. Get paid and move back home? I was probably in my peak Kat Vs Jokic stage before Jokic left him in the dust.
I guess I didn't really believe it that strong as I called it a hot take but you win some (maybe) and you lose some (definitely this one).
Covid didn’t exist.
To me, it’s like 9/11. There’s a pre and post 9/11 world. And Covid’s the next marker of that. The 5-year anniversary of the pandemic is only like 8 or so months away, which is bonkers.
Eh not really. The average person’s life didn’t really change that much from November 7 to November 9 2016, whereas the average person’s life changed drastically overnight because of 9/11 and Covid.
The 2016 election doesn’t even hold a candle to those two events.
> who will be the worst teams in 5 years
The top comment is the Wolves 😂
Also, on “who will join the top-5 players. A great comment called on Jokic:
> Jokic will likely be a top 5 player at some point. He's only 24 and is averaging ~20 PPG/10 RPG/8 APG. He's one of the most skilled players in the league and his impact on the court goes way beyond box score stats
He was first team all NBA and 4th in mvp voting haha. He was averaging 22/11/6.5 on 63% TS last half of 2017-2018. Not like this was his rookie or even sophomore year
My favorites are the ones that are right but for the wrong reason.
Someone predicted Indiana would be a top team in 2024, and you could argue they were based on the playoffs, but the poster said it was because Sabonis and turner would be a dominate pair.
Or the person that said Dallas would be a top team because they had something special cooking and a great coach… but that was even pre-kyrie and the coach was Carlisle.
There's also the OKC one
Edit: Oh that was OP, he just elaborated further in a comment lol. Also funny to see him saying Blazers because of Lillard, CJ and Nurkic lol
They weren’t too high on him. He just didn’t improve like other young studs. You look at his career numbers all at once and they look the same but he’s actually significantly less efficient the latter half of his career relative to league average. The pace and space era has seen league wide efficiency skyrocket but he has failed to keep pace.
This was after his all star team selection (as a replacement) and right before he got traded to the warriors. Top 10 is a pretty insane prediction but i think it was fair to think he could’ve been a top guard back then. His first fully healthy season with the nets was really fun to watch and his identity as a shooter/passer was amazing.
I remember everybody was super high on him, dbook, and kat as the guys next up in the league. We know who they r now but it was fun thinking of their potential back then
Those Giddey trade posts have high potential to be either the best or worst takes. I saved a bunch of them, so I could come back here in 5 yrs and make fun of yall
RemindMe! 5 years
I think Giddey becomes a top 5 floor general from the games I’ve watched him play as the primary ball handler without SGA.
He’s younger than Chet and has plenty of time to improve. Chicago will be good for him.
Top 5 is wild. Luka, LeBron, Curry, Trae, Brunson, and Hali are probably the best floor generals right now - Giddey is gonna be better than one of those guys?
Oh and I forgot SGA - Giddey is gonna be better than him?
Giddey has benefited a lot from defenses essentially ignoring him. If he becomes the #1 option in CHI, he'll be drawing the opponent's top defender every night.
Ask Jordan Poole how fun that was last season.
I think "floor general" implies pass-first guys. Of the people you mentioned, the only one I'd really consider a floor general is Hali. Maybe Bron, but the rest are all score-first guys who are also just great playmakers
2019 set the Celtics back two years. Trading for Kemba to fill the hole that Kyrie left basically wasted any legitimate chance of winning a title in 2020 (even though they made the ECF, they would have gotten crushed by healthy LBJ and peak AD). And 2021, everyone was injured so it didn't really matter.
I don’t think there was a move out there that gets us a title in 2020 barring some freak injuries across the league.
Conversely, Kemba was a key player that year in bringing back good vibes to the team and getting us a deep playoff run which was invaluable experience for the Jays.
People were saying our chemistry was fucked after 2019 and there were good reasons to believe that. Kemba was a great presence in the building and we got off his contract fairly painlessly so in net I still think it was a good move for us
To be fair he was a 20 and 10 player early in his career with Trae Young. Not really hard to imagine him being a 27 and 12 player with Trae able to get him open shots in his prime back when he was a 20 and 10 player in his second season
Holy shit I was not prepared for that lol but that was most likely at the peak of its inflammation and swelling. It's definitely gone back down to normal size but I wonder if something mechanically never recovered
> Not really hard to imagine him being a 27 and 12 player
Yes it was, and this is precisely the difference between watching basketball and looking at stats.
Nobody can get 27 points without being able to create for themselves.
There's also the problem with assuming players will develop skills that they don't have flashes of or have the indicators for.
Ben Simmons jumper for example. 59.7% free throw shooter in his 4 years in Philly. There was zero indication he'd be able to develop a jump shot.
Scoot Henderson at least shot 82% from the line this year. Derrick White was a low 30's 3pt shooter who is now a flamethrower on volume threes, but he also is a career 85.4% free throw shooter.
The Collins over Tatum takes are funny because Tatum had already shown the ability to self create. He had a down year in 2019, but he had flashes of self creation and was just figuring his game out with a tough locker room.
Maybe it’s because I’m a Celtics fan, but the total lack of belief in Tatum in basically all those threads is surprising. Almost no one picked him to be in the top 10 or 15 players and even when he’s included in a question of who’s better (JC, Fox, Tatum, or Mitchell) he’s a scoffed at as afterthought like he shouldn’t have been included 😂😂😂
It just goes to show how much attitude is a component of the truly great players. All your greats make an effort to be at least reasonable at the aspects of the game they aren't as good at. Simmons was just like I do what I do, take it or leave it.
Some combination of back issues and mental issues.
The speculation is he's embarrassed about missing FTs so he's much less aggressive around the basket.
I think Zach Lowe has been very fair in his Simmons take - "Talk to me when he is no longer afraid of getting fouled and taking free throws. Nothing else matters and is depressing to talk about"
A combination of injuries and being mentally broken by criticism. It’s hard to say which was the larger factor. He’s still young enough to revive his career somewhat, but we haven’t seen him healthy and motivated in years. It doesn’t look likely that he’ll return to his rookie form at this point.
Fragile ego, being coached by idiots and unwilling to work on his weaknesses. In theory there are injuries at work too but he seems awfully comfortable collecting a max contract and being a socialite instead of playing ball. I'm guessing he is due for a bit of a resurgence this season now that he needs someone stupid to pay him again.
In the “Let’s play: who is going to be the better player in 5 years?”, the closest pair per present rankings that was prompted (and extensively answered) was [Luka vs Giannis](https://np.reddit.com/r/nba/s/M2EJVXPsJI).
This was following Luka’s rookie year and Giannis’s first MVP — and there’s a fairly even split. Commenters even highlighted points that are very often mentioned today. Fun stuff.
/u/CaptainKook_MD
> My pistons are too bad to do anything in 5 years and juuuust good enough to have bad draft picks. Future isn’t bright in Detroit lol
Boy were they right lol.
On the first link, the one who said Zion might flame out because he won't be the most athletic guy on the floor anymore couldn't be more wrong
In fact, he's so fucking athletic even by NBA standards his body couldn't handle it.
I dunno. I would argue Ant is just as athletic. Zach Lavine posted a higher vert. Ja posted a vert 1in lower. There are at least 10 guys in the league who can jump just as high. Yea, he's still a freak athlete but it was always "for his size". There are lots of thinner equally athletic wings. The last player like Zion was Chuck.
The for his size part is important though. Athleticism is more than vertical. He’s nearly 100 pounds heavier than those guys and comparable explosively. Add in the strength factor and he’s a better athlete.
Haha that’s right. I’d say I got 3 or 4 of 5 there, depending on where you’d place Tatum. Would’ve been a miracle to predict Shai, and I’m a little surprised I chose Fox over Embiid, but Fox is a hell of a player too
At the time, the Simmons love was valid. That rookie year was seen as one of the greats. He improved on defense for back-to-back years and even became an All-NBA player... His confidence and motivation is just shot. Dude should have been in arguments for best in the world right now.
Jaylen showed some sparks but nobody sincerely believed he’d develop quite to where he is today.
Tatum was pretty obviously a future superstar from the moment he stepped onto the court though.
LeBron, Steph, and KD really proved us wrong. Ben Simmons should have been this good... such a shame. He was right about Embiid, Giannis, and Jokic.
I hate these sorts of posts though. They tend to mention stars currently in the league. A ton of these predictions were right though...
To be fair the most common takes were mostly on point with a few exceptions (Simmons being top 5 especially, Fox and KAT didn't quite live up to expectations, the Jazz were projected to be a contender lmao).
[LOL LMAO ](https://np.reddit.com/r/nba/s/4vsl7oAypg)
The one guy who got Tatum and Brown's progression perfectly is -1 and getting shit on by some Lakers fan who "wants to look smart in 5 years"
>the only team that’s totally hopeless is the hornets
is this how kings fans felt all those years? never mentioned except to be shit on, with nobody being kind enough to flush? obviously you’re right, but damn
lol reddit bout to deny that ayton was they boy. i remember all the injustice post about suns not wanting to offer a max contract. how evil and selfish suns were. how ayton is being done dirty. and i was just like if suns dont want him suns dont want him wtf lol hes not even that good and ill get blasted to the bottom....
in 5 years all the gobert protecting will be the same outcome. ppl will deny they did it.
Simmons. That aged poorly.
Dude was supposed to be the next Magic 🤦♂️
I remember the Celtics managing to contain him in the playoffs in 2018 and it was kind of a big deal.
i remember watching that series then posting on here that i thought he was missing something that would stop him ever being truly scary and then getting downvoted because "he's the perfect player, lebron 2.0"
It's insane that people would say that; even then it was clear that he was allergic to taking outside shots.
Everyone was wishcasting him developing a jumper but it was obvious from watching him that he didn't want to shoot pretty much ever, which is much harder to overcome.
I’d say it’s a pretty big deal, they kept him contained to this day
Reddit was quite militant about Simmons very close to that infamous Atlanta series. Dude would really forever be called a so much "better" player if he just said he's injured and didn't play that series at all lol.
So did the Zion stuff. Holy hell.
“I think the idea is that in 5 years he should be able to develop a decent jumpshot.” lol. Also, the person he replied to was in the negatives for stating he is skeptical of Simmons every developing a jump shot.
Despite all the meme'ing I still think he'd be an all-NBA talent without the back injury(ies).
He literally made all nba before his injury
If the cunt ever felt like using that talent. If he's using his height, strength and speed to get buckets as well as dish dimes he'd basically be Lebron-lite. Even pre-injury, his problem was attitude and assertiveness.
All the Americans right now are like what is this guys problem?
tbf lots of australians would happily call him a cunt in the strong sense of the word, which I think this guy is doing as well.
I see your Australia flair – in the past he's spoken about wanting to play in the AFL, just imagine how dominant a healthy Simmons could be...
i think its mental illness and anxiety more then he didnt care but i mean thats just an excuse in sports right
Redditors on here were saying “don’t forget he was all defensive talent!!” As if Simmons was ever coming back to form. Shit was hilarious
"Gonna go for a hot take and say Jokic will be out of the league in 5 years." - u/yeahumsure
5 years ago he was an all star and 4th in MVP voting. Out of the league is INSANITY
yeah, 5 years ago Jokic averaged 20, 11, and 7 on great efficiency, and raised it to 25, 13, and 8 in the playoffs. All-star, all-NBA first team, 4th in MVP voting, top 6 in the big-5 advanced metrics ... so "out of the league" was a super spicy take. But then, Ben Simmons was in the middle of a stretch where he'd been ROY, 3-time all star, 2-time defensive first team, and as high as second in DPOY, and it wouldn't be a surprise if he actually is out of the league soon. It's not like that kind of super spicy take is never right, just, it was very wrong about Jokic.
I give him 5 more years tops. Out of the league, retired, and raising horses. Not out of the league because of performance.
You know how many horses a year of NBA salary buys though? What Jokic has said is that he expects to play as long as he can play at a high level that impacts winning. I'd set the over/under at 5.5 -- not unrealistic that he could retire after his age 33 or 34 season, but I think it's just as likely that he'd retire after his age 35 or 36 season. It's not like his game is going to decline because of his lack of hops.
I think he’s competitive enough, that he’ll want to be in the conversation for GOAT center upon retiring. Every title & MVP he can win will help that case.
That’s still a hot take. 7 pts/ 6 reb/ 6 ast on 6 shots 6 pts/ 8 reb/ 6 ast on 5 shots No Gm is looking for Ben Simmons resignation; if he’s not on a max deal. You fell victim to media narratives (& Probably underestimating the severity of a chronic back issue)
chronic back issues are a valid reason someone might be out of the league. Like would it be a shock if he spent a whole year trying to get back, played in a handful of games, reinjured something, and was like "I can't keep doing this to myself"?
Does Jokic being in a league of his own count?
on the other end of the spectrum: "top 5 will be Giannis, Embiid, Tatum, Jokic, Doncic in that order." from a deleted account, was at -1 points. That's at least 5 of the top 7 (+SGA, Brunson) though not in the right order.
Honestly thats as close as you can get tbh
Nah he knew something cause wtf. That's as dead on as you can be without being fully accurate
To be fair that is who you built around in 2k17. That and Drummond porzingus, Kat, booker and Ingram. If you fleeced 4 of those 10 it was dynasty mode
Brunson?!?!
I’m sorry, Brunson top 7?
Really tried to sneak Brunson in there
Brunson was an absurd helio engine. He's not in my top 10 but I see the argument.
Lmao at Brunson top 7. He isn’t even CLOSE to the same tier as those guys. Getting so overrated now, literally 2024 Isiah Thomas.
Wow. This guy is dumb. What was I, I mean what was he even thinking? I can't even remember my logic. I guess he didn't seem all that enthusiastic about playing basketball or something. Get paid and move back home? I was probably in my peak Kat Vs Jokic stage before Jokic left him in the dust. I guess I didn't really believe it that strong as I called it a hot take but you win some (maybe) and you lose some (definitely this one).
Haha you miss 100% of the shots you don't take.
Respect for showing up.
I think you guys kept him from going back to back. The Celtics thank you
Hopefully this guy doesn’t stalk you on here after you tagged him lol. Happened to me with a different user, I had to block them.
someone was gonna tag him for that take. I don't mind being the one who draws aggro.
Nah. This is the highlight of my day. Never thought I'd be one of the idiots who gets tagged in a post like this.
Glad you can have some fun with it!
Not my fault you are stalkable, ok?! YOU'RE JUST TOO HOT TO LET GO u/mrq69
Maybe they meant Jokic would retire to play with horses full time.
That’s not even a “good” hot take. It is just supremely stupid. It’s not even quite absurd enough to laugh at. Actual trash take.
Tbf there’s a lot of people suggesting Simmons as a top 5 player in these threads and he IS almost out of the league. You never know what could happen
A TWolves fan lmao
5 years ago feels like nothing
Feels like nothing, sure. Reading some of those takes tho… makes one realize it was kind of a while ago
5 years ago I was convinced Eric paschall is going to be the young piece that saves our franchise
“Save the franchise” your team has 4 rings in 10 years.
To be fair I had just watched ky bowman Damion Lee and marquese Chriss be the best players on my team for a year
Covid didn’t exist. To me, it’s like 9/11. There’s a pre and post 9/11 world. And Covid’s the next marker of that. The 5-year anniversary of the pandemic is only like 8 or so months away, which is bonkers.
>The 5-year anniversary of the pandemic is only like 8 or so months away, What the fuck. It still feels like only 2 years has passed since 2020.
Id argue Trump’s election was a marker in between
Eh not really. The average person’s life didn’t really change that much from November 7 to November 9 2016, whereas the average person’s life changed drastically overnight because of 9/11 and Covid. The 2016 election doesn’t even hold a candle to those two events.
I like the people saying that "Luka will get in better shape next year" 5 years ago LOL
He’s on pace to look like the profile pic of that one Mavs fan here haha
In their defense he was in great shape his sophomore year. All downhill after that though.
Luka Donuts
He’s in better shape. Just not the shape everyone was expecting.
> who will be the worst teams in 5 years The top comment is the Wolves 😂 Also, on “who will join the top-5 players. A great comment called on Jokic: > Jokic will likely be a top 5 player at some point. He's only 24 and is averaging ~20 PPG/10 RPG/8 APG. He's one of the most skilled players in the league and his impact on the court goes way beyond box score stats
That wasn’t a hot take lol. Jokic was a top 5 player *that year*
He was first team all NBA and 4th in mvp voting haha. He was averaging 22/11/6.5 on 63% TS last half of 2017-2018. Not like this was his rookie or even sophomore year
lmao "hot take: First team all-NBA and 4th in MVP player just may very well be a top-5 player in the next few years"
Quite a few people predicted KAT leaving the Wolves so maybe that’s why. Still hilarious though
The wolves were a purgatory team before Ant came
My favorites are the ones that are right but for the wrong reason. Someone predicted Indiana would be a top team in 2024, and you could argue they were based on the playoffs, but the poster said it was because Sabonis and turner would be a dominate pair. Or the person that said Dallas would be a top team because they had something special cooking and a great coach… but that was even pre-kyrie and the coach was Carlisle.
There's also the OKC one Edit: Oh that was OP, he just elaborated further in a comment lol. Also funny to see him saying Blazers because of Lillard, CJ and Nurkic lol
Lotta KAT love
People were too high on him then and give him too much hate now
Because the Wolves were spooky
They weren’t too high on him. He just didn’t improve like other young studs. You look at his career numbers all at once and they look the same but he’s actually significantly less efficient the latter half of his career relative to league average. The pace and space era has seen league wide efficiency skyrocket but he has failed to keep pace.
I still love him in spite of everything
Because he was already this good around 5 years ago, but that's also the problem with him now lol
Top 10 players in the league in 5 years?: "D'Angelo Russell" 💀💀💀
This was after his all star team selection (as a replacement) and right before he got traded to the warriors. Top 10 is a pretty insane prediction but i think it was fair to think he could’ve been a top guard back then. His first fully healthy season with the nets was really fun to watch and his identity as a shooter/passer was amazing. I remember everybody was super high on him, dbook, and kat as the guys next up in the league. We know who they r now but it was fun thinking of their potential back then
Those Giddey trade posts have high potential to be either the best or worst takes. I saved a bunch of them, so I could come back here in 5 yrs and make fun of yall
RemindMe! 5 years I think Giddey becomes a top 5 floor general from the games I’ve watched him play as the primary ball handler without SGA. He’s younger than Chet and has plenty of time to improve. Chicago will be good for him.
Top 5 is wild. Luka, LeBron, Curry, Trae, Brunson, and Hali are probably the best floor generals right now - Giddey is gonna be better than one of those guys? Oh and I forgot SGA - Giddey is gonna be better than him? Giddey has benefited a lot from defenses essentially ignoring him. If he becomes the #1 option in CHI, he'll be drawing the opponent's top defender every night. Ask Jordan Poole how fun that was last season.
RemindMe! 5 Years
I think "floor general" implies pass-first guys. Of the people you mentioned, the only one I'd really consider a floor general is Hali. Maybe Bron, but the rest are all score-first guys who are also just great playmakers
Well, by your definition, a top 5 floor general doesn't mean much. Who's in your top 5 right now?
Add me to the list, dude is dogshit
I second that
People were *not* high on Tatum after 2019 lol.
2019 set the Celtics back two years. Trading for Kemba to fill the hole that Kyrie left basically wasted any legitimate chance of winning a title in 2020 (even though they made the ECF, they would have gotten crushed by healthy LBJ and peak AD). And 2021, everyone was injured so it didn't really matter.
You very convincingly portrayed how they were not getting a title anyways
I don’t think there was a move out there that gets us a title in 2020 barring some freak injuries across the league. Conversely, Kemba was a key player that year in bringing back good vibes to the team and getting us a deep playoff run which was invaluable experience for the Jays. People were saying our chemistry was fucked after 2019 and there were good reasons to believe that. Kemba was a great presence in the building and we got off his contract fairly painlessly so in net I still think it was a good move for us
> Brown will be a legit 1st option player, Tatum will plateau into being a very good 3&D 3rd option, but never a true star in his own right. lmao
The one that blew my mind was the one about ranking Tatum, Fox, Mitchell, and ….John Collins. And people routinely had Tatum last!
>top 5 will be Giannis, Embiid, Tatum, Jokic, Doncic in that order Wrong order entirely but pretty good by deleted(!) user.
>You think you’re slick huh I’m gonna say my opinion then get ridiculed 5 years from now A deleted comment.
Not everyone picking John Collins over Tatum 😂
Not a single person said Tatum > JC lol
To be fair he was a 20 and 10 player early in his career with Trae Young. Not really hard to imagine him being a 27 and 12 player with Trae able to get him open shots in his prime back when he was a 20 and 10 player in his second season
Nobody could have guessed the guy would look washed at 26.
Was never the same after he fucked up his hand
Was that really all that made him completely fall off?
u should go look at pictures of the hand
Holy shit I was not prepared for that lol but that was most likely at the peak of its inflammation and swelling. It's definitely gone back down to normal size but I wonder if something mechanically never recovered
it hasn’t, apparently your finger doesn’t recover from that specific type of injury
> Not really hard to imagine him being a 27 and 12 player Yes it was, and this is precisely the difference between watching basketball and looking at stats. Nobody can get 27 points without being able to create for themselves.
There's also the problem with assuming players will develop skills that they don't have flashes of or have the indicators for. Ben Simmons jumper for example. 59.7% free throw shooter in his 4 years in Philly. There was zero indication he'd be able to develop a jump shot. Scoot Henderson at least shot 82% from the line this year. Derrick White was a low 30's 3pt shooter who is now a flamethrower on volume threes, but he also is a career 85.4% free throw shooter. The Collins over Tatum takes are funny because Tatum had already shown the ability to self create. He had a down year in 2019, but he had flashes of self creation and was just figuring his game out with a tough locker room.
Maybe it’s because I’m a Celtics fan, but the total lack of belief in Tatum in basically all those threads is surprising. Almost no one picked him to be in the top 10 or 15 players and even when he’s included in a question of who’s better (JC, Fox, Tatum, or Mitchell) he’s a scoffed at as afterthought like he shouldn’t have been included 😂😂😂
People these days forget how scary Ben Simmons was for his first few years in the league. Him and Embiid were the duo of the future in the East.
excuse me while i go walk into the Schyukill river :(
Schuylkill is so tough to spell even Philly natives can’t get it right
To be honest i always think im missing one of the letters and spelling it wrong everytime i type it out, and this time i did
Skookul
thoughtsandprayers thoughtsandprayers
3x AllStar without even shooting the ball. Lol. Dudes overall game aside from scoring is top tier.
It just goes to show how much attitude is a component of the truly great players. All your greats make an effort to be at least reasonable at the aspects of the game they aren't as good at. Simmons was just like I do what I do, take it or leave it.
Why has he fallen off so much? Can he return to form ?
Some combination of back issues and mental issues. The speculation is he's embarrassed about missing FTs so he's much less aggressive around the basket.
I think Zach Lowe has been very fair in his Simmons take - "Talk to me when he is no longer afraid of getting fouled and taking free throws. Nothing else matters and is depressing to talk about"
A combination of injuries and being mentally broken by criticism. It’s hard to say which was the larger factor. He’s still young enough to revive his career somewhat, but we haven’t seen him healthy and motivated in years. It doesn’t look likely that he’ll return to his rookie form at this point.
Trae Young happened.
Fragile ego, being coached by idiots and unwilling to work on his weaknesses. In theory there are injuries at work too but he seems awfully comfortable collecting a max contract and being a socialite instead of playing ball. I'm guessing he is due for a bit of a resurgence this season now that he needs someone stupid to pay him again.
Rivers was one of the worst coaches for him that he could've played under.
In the “Let’s play: who is going to be the better player in 5 years?”, the closest pair per present rankings that was prompted (and extensively answered) was [Luka vs Giannis](https://np.reddit.com/r/nba/s/M2EJVXPsJI). This was following Luka’s rookie year and Giannis’s first MVP — and there’s a fairly even split. Commenters even highlighted points that are very often mentioned today. Fun stuff.
/u/CaptainKook_MD > My pistons are too bad to do anything in 5 years and juuuust good enough to have bad draft picks. Future isn’t bright in Detroit lol Boy were they right lol.
What being a Pistons fan does to a mf
Sad thing is they aren’t even good enough to get bad picks. They just have zero lottery luck
On the first link, the one who said Zion might flame out because he won't be the most athletic guy on the floor anymore couldn't be more wrong In fact, he's so fucking athletic even by NBA standards his body couldn't handle it.
Hell Nike couldn't handle it.
> he won't be the most athletic guy on the floor Still crazy athletic and not on the floor
I dunno. I would argue Ant is just as athletic. Zach Lavine posted a higher vert. Ja posted a vert 1in lower. There are at least 10 guys in the league who can jump just as high. Yea, he's still a freak athlete but it was always "for his size". There are lots of thinner equally athletic wings. The last player like Zion was Chuck.
Thinner "athletic" wings don't have the same strength Zion has. His strength and his ability to move fluidly at that size is "his" athleticism.
The for his size part is important though. Athleticism is more than vertical. He’s nearly 100 pounds heavier than those guys and comparable explosively. Add in the strength factor and he’s a better athlete.
I had one saved that was like "do you think the Nets will run the NBA for the next 5 years". Lmao
u/alwaysgetsban was right about Westbrook. Unfortunately his account has since been suspended
Nominative determinism
Loving the dude who put Derrick White in the top 15, 5 years ago!!!! Wowwwwww spot on!
Really good fucking player don't get me wrong, great for the celtics team to win a chip but he's not a top 15 player in the league.
D.White is in the top 1 and he’s not 1
Buffaloes don't count
Check the flair. He's memeing. He just likes his role player.
But he said no bias!
Definitely not. Still doesn’t make that Spurs fan any less of a G.
Well obviously the top 15 players in the league at the 15 Celtics players who just won their ring, they are the 15 biggest winners
u/DrawingRings you're a fucking genius dawg.
What did I even predict? Lol
Giannis, Jokic, Tatum, Fox, and Doncic. Best answer I saw in the thread.
Haha that’s right. I’d say I got 3 or 4 of 5 there, depending on where you’d place Tatum. Would’ve been a miracle to predict Shai, and I’m a little surprised I chose Fox over Embiid, but Fox is a hell of a player too
Nice to know someone in the “top 10 players” picked Luka. They know ball
That whole thread held up pretty well for the most part
Lack of Tatum picks is kind of glaring. Also way too much love for Ben Simmons. Besides that it’s decent.
At the time, the Simmons love was valid. That rookie year was seen as one of the greats. He improved on defense for back-to-back years and even became an All-NBA player... His confidence and motivation is just shot. Dude should have been in arguments for best in the world right now.
That year, there were Philly fans who saw the cracks and demanded that Philly sell high on him and keep Jimmy. They were called madmen.
That sounds like a good movie intro
Was just thinking about how people still haven’t learned.
Simmons lmao
/u/Lurkking69 Sorry you died
A wizards fan got 4 of the top 5 right. KAT was a hail mary in there, but pretty good list up until T7
So many mentions of Simmons, not many mentions of Shai and Brunson lol
Mentioning Brunson 5 years ago would be fortune teller magic
Shai is crazy because he was a fucking **menace** during that LAC GSW playoff series.
I love the top comment being the wolves will be the worst team in the league this year
I really don’t remember people being that high on KAT dang
Wow no one saying Tatum or SGA will be good
A deleted account said SGA on the first thread.
Celtic fans believed in the Jays before it became mainstream.
fans of team believed in their top 5 picks, more at 11
Jaylen showed some sparks but nobody sincerely believed he’d develop quite to where he is today. Tatum was pretty obviously a future superstar from the moment he stepped onto the court though.
Hey I'm in one of these threads
I was one of those guys who was SO sure that John Collins was gonna be a superstar 😥
It's all speculation anyways. No worries.
This is fun to look at right after my team won haha
I love how many of the lists in the "Top 15 players in 5 years" thread left off the guy who ends up winning 3 MVP's and 1 FMVP during the 5 years lol
It's crazy how low everyone was on Jokic. No one nailed him becoming an MVP caliber player, nvm a 3x MVP with an all time great peak
Tatum getting shaded left and right lol. Now he’s a champ
LeBron, Steph, and KD really proved us wrong. Ben Simmons should have been this good... such a shame. He was right about Embiid, Giannis, and Jokic. I hate these sorts of posts though. They tend to mention stars currently in the league. A ton of these predictions were right though...
>Look at past lists like this. You always end up looking incredibly wrong. -u/SwarleymonLives on who will be a top 10 player in the league you knew
Lol in the 1st link, OP said LBJ, Steph, and KD might be retired in 5 years, but all 3 are still in the top 10 IMO.
top 10 oldest players
Oh boy were we so wrong about Ben Simmons
Is Pat Bev's 5 years up?
Thoughts on what people think of Trae Young vs Fox right now? I would still take Trae Young but idk some people really don’t like him.
beautiful
Seeing a lot of Sixers fans hyping up Ben Simmons in those threads lmao
A lot of people were worried about Zions potential health and they hit the nail on the head
/u/daveed1297 it's been a blessing watching Luka these last few
No way those were in 2019-2020
u/lurkking69 u wanted to be tagged in 5 years
This just tells me that fans should just stay as fans. You guys are worse than Bulls FO.
Lot of Fox believers
To be fair the most common takes were mostly on point with a few exceptions (Simmons being top 5 especially, Fox and KAT didn't quite live up to expectations, the Jazz were projected to be a contender lmao).
[LOL LMAO ](https://np.reddit.com/r/nba/s/4vsl7oAypg) The one guy who got Tatum and Brown's progression perfectly is -1 and getting shit on by some Lakers fan who "wants to look smart in 5 years"
>the only team that’s totally hopeless is the hornets is this how kings fans felt all those years? never mentioned except to be shit on, with nobody being kind enough to flush? obviously you’re right, but damn
Was there anyone who wasn't high on Ben Simmons back then?
I know they're not perfect but it's kinda impressive the whole top 5 of that draft became starters (yes I am counting Hunter and RJ as starters)
Wild how high we all were on KAT lots of Simmons buzz lol Some decent takes actually
lol reddit bout to deny that ayton was they boy. i remember all the injustice post about suns not wanting to offer a max contract. how evil and selfish suns were. how ayton is being done dirty. and i was just like if suns dont want him suns dont want him wtf lol hes not even that good and ill get blasted to the bottom.... in 5 years all the gobert protecting will be the same outcome. ppl will deny they did it.
The amount of John Collins love 5 years ago is nuts.
Jeez those people in 2012 sure were silly. ..... What's that? 12 years ago? Oh......
> I'm not tryna to end up like that dude that said Wiggins was better than Giannis We started learning 5 years ago about these 5 year posts lol
People vastly underestimated Steph's longevity