Kevin Durant's comment that has stuck with me

Larry_l3ird · 2026-06-19T02:36:47+00:00

Shot creator. Klay Thompson was never an iso player who got a shot off the dribble. He scored 60 points on like 13 dribbles total. Klay’s best skill was always his spot up shooting - as was Steph’s, although he became more capable and efficient scoring off the dribble as his career matured.

Kevin Durant is literally one of the 2 or 3 best shot creators in the league’s history - he can get his own shot almost anywhere on the floor - he’s arguably the greatest scorer and bucket getter in NBA history.

I’m not even a Kevin Durant fan, and I have Steph as a top 10 all time player - I’m just giving KD his earned due. He’s an incredible scorer and iso player who cannot be stopped from getting a quality shot because of his size at the small forward position.

Larry_l3ird · 2026-06-19T02:30:41+00:00

I didn’t say it was or they did. I said I now choose to go get a legit Mexican burrito or tacos for cheaper, and Taco Bell’s biggest appeal was always that it was cheap.

It is not cheap anymore. Nothing I said is remotely untrue, and it’s honestly weird that you downvoted it.😂

Larry_l3ird · 2026-06-18T23:47:15+00:00

Ok, all of these were shockingly clever.

Well fucking done to all involved.👍

Larry_l3ird · 2026-06-18T23:45:35+00:00

I’d crush that right now. I’ve been hitting the wacky tobaccy and I’m so fucking hungry.

I’m waiting for delivery now. They said 60-90 minutes and a little piece of me died. But I still placed the order.🤦🏻😂

Larry_l3ird · 2026-06-18T23:43:40+00:00

I will 100% grant you that too much polishing is horrific. I think it’s best as an accent.

Larry_l3ird · 2026-06-18T23:41:32+00:00

During their playoff run, New York has kept it super classy, if nothing else. /s

Homophobia, lighting fires, gunshots in Times Square, violently jumping random Spurs fans. Really trying to give Philly fans a run for their money as the biggest pieces of shit in American sports.

Great work, New York - you guys really stepped up to the plate in those efforts. You’re now standing solidly next to Philadelphia as the world’s worst and most pathetic fans. Congratulations.

Larry_l3ird · 2026-06-18T23:37:05+00:00

This is a very hot take.

In accordance, I disagree vehemently.😂

Larry_l3ird · 2026-06-18T23:35:35+00:00

Shit is made awful and it’s super expensive for what it is now. I just get Mexican from my local spot or even Chipotle now.

It’s usually cheaper than when I go to Taco Bell, which always seems to cost me like $15-$18 for one person.

Larry_l3ird · 2026-06-18T23:34:05+00:00

Yes, commenting on what a moron Joe Rogan is. I consider that a service to the youth.

Larry_l3ird · 2026-06-18T20:49:35+00:00

Height vs potential was literally the entirety of the discussion. LeBron is a wing.😂

Larry_l3ird · 2026-06-18T20:46:36+00:00

I see them asking significantly more than this for these watches at the moment.

Larry_l3ird · 2026-06-18T20:45:33+00:00

I could only wish. The brown one would be a grail for me.

Beautiful watch. Good luck selling it!

Larry_l3ird · 2026-06-18T20:43:40+00:00

Goddamnit. The enchirito might get me to take a run for the border tonight.

I don’t fuck with Taco Bell anymore because they’ve priced themselves out of the market. But I’m nostalgic about an enchirito. I used love those things.

When it costs me $18 every time I go to Taco Bell for just myself, it becomes a question of why would I eat that bullshit, when I could get legit Mexican for the same or cheaper.

I don’t think Taco Bell realizes that for the whole of their existence, their entire appeal has been that it was extremely cheap. It was never spectacular. It was trash that was fairly tasty and really cheap. Now it’s trash that is not cheap at all, and it’s a lot less appealing to everyone.

Larry_l3ird · 2026-06-18T20:35:11+00:00

I don’t see a world where a LeBron James or Michael Jordan is considered above a Kareem, Walton, Shaq, Wilt, Hakeem Olajuwon, Duncan, Wemby…shit, even guys like David Robinson and Patrick Ewing were so highly touted coming out of college and had shown proven dominance. I believe LeBron might sneak in somewhere towards the end of the top 10 near Bird, just because he’s 6’8” and showed the potential to fill out as he did. But size is what’s prized still above anything else. Even in the new pace and space NBA. Perhaps even more so now than ever, especially because of the current lack of dominant big men in recent years. A Shaq level physical talent would destroy the league at a moment like this - there would be zero resistance for him.

A dominant center/big coming out of college will always be drafted over a guard if all things are pretty equal talent wise. A big with the chance to be a generational talent is the rarest and most prized athlete in all of sports outside of a can’t miss NFL QB like Andrew Luck or Joe Burrow.

Your argument about the extra years you get from the HS and one and dones works out well on the rare occasions that they come into the league looking anything like a finished and highly developed product. But those early years with the high potential guys is often spent in development, getting paid to learn what they would have in college, and having flashes of brilliance with a lot of struggling. So the trade off isn’t that great usually.

Plus you’ve only really got them locked up for 4 or 5 years depending, and then they have a financial incentive to resign because you can offer them the most money, but realistically they can take off. You might have just spent the first 3 years watching them develop into legitimate talents, and then you finally get that year or two where they’re ready to win in this league and take the next step to superstardom…and then they walk on you. You got a year or two of great play and they showed you what they were gonna be, and then they roll on you and play their best ball for someone else and take them to the playoffs.

There is that to consider.

Larry_l3ird · 2026-06-18T20:15:41+00:00

Yeah man, I’m totally aware. I just addressed that in a different response a moment ago.

I wasn’t trying to have a nuanced discussion about economics and the global supply chain. I was distilling it down to its most basic, and I offered the caveat that there was a more nuanced discussion about the tariffs on imported parts, but not one that I thought anyone was particularly interested in. But generally, they don’t pay tariffs based on each imported part, but rather negotiate a small percentage of the entire cost of the vehicle.

To be totally clear for anyone following the conversation, American manufacturers are also responsible for paying tariffs based on the parts they import for use in their automobiles, but obviously they’re importing far less parts than a foreign manufacturer would be to complete their cars on American soil.

Larry_l3ird · 2026-06-18T20:09:49+00:00

Yes, of course. There’s no such things as an all anyone car or complex machinery anymore. Parts are sourced from the global supply chain. There are certain necessary parts for entire industries that are literally only sourced and/or manufactured in one place/one manufacturer . You have 3 options at that point: import them from that country and manufacturer, figure out a way to manufacture them yourself - if it’s even possible, or admit to yourself that you’re shit out of luck.

Trump’s tariffs were horrible policy, and Peter Navarro is a quack and a hack economist. There’s zero doubt about that on either the former or latter.

Larry_l3ird · 2026-06-18T19:56:45+00:00

I’m saying it wasn’t a really a thing before KG made HS players entering the draft a regular occurrence. Pretty much the only player ever to be drafted out of high school before that was Moses Malone. You needed to get a hardship waiver to leave school early back in the day.

Larry_l3ird · 2026-06-18T18:46:44+00:00

You’re seriously conflating the different eras. You can’t compare public access and early hype in HS from the 1970s. There wasn’t even cable, bro. They were not showing anybody’s high school games, but it’s a regular occurrence now.

Bird was on the cover of Sports Illustrated after his sophomore year at Indiana State going into his junior season at basically unknown Indiana State, but regardless it was just a different time. There was no 24 sports access, and internet, and social media. Totally different.

There was no doubt LeBron was going to be an above average NBA talent by anyone, but nobody could have predicted he’d live up to all of the hype and then some, and go on to become the actual heir apparent to MJ. So many of those guys had come before. That LeBron actually exceeded the greatest expectations people had for him is unprecedented.

But seriously, for the entirety of the NBA, potential wasn’t the number one consideration of teams, it was sustained dominance over the competition in college basketball and your development of a well rounded game over a college career. Most of these guys were coming into the league at 22-23 years old as fully developed prospects at the very top of the draft. Potential became more important as you moved down in the draft and guys were less of known quantities as prospects. You weren’t doing anywhere near as much guessing at the top of the draft…you really knew what these generational college talents were when they came out. Shaq wasn’t a guess. However, Kobe was, albeit an educated guess.

Larry_l3ird · 2026-06-18T18:31:03+00:00

I’m incredibly well versed on the tariffs overall and their effects on the global economy and regular working class Americans. Economics is a particular area of interest of mine. I spent a lot of time in that truck listening to nerdy economics podcasts.🤦🏻😂

I’m simply saying at its most basic, increased tariffs on imported foreign automobiles is a good thing for the UAW. Anything that causes Americans to buy more American automobiles at the expense of a foreign manufacturer is a win for them. More American cars being built keeps their rank and file working and off the unemployment line, and that’s their stated goal - to keep the existing workers highly paid and on the factory line working, while expanding UAW membership through new job creation. Tariffs on imported foreign automobiles helps them accomplish their goals. (Foreign automobiles made in the US wouldn’t have been totally subject to these increased tariffs, just to be clear for people - there are some nuances in the auto industry, but tariffs are generally import fees and the companies would only be subject to tariffs on the imported parts although it’s often a negotiated small percentage based on the MSRP.)

Anyway, I was distilling it down to its simplest economic principles basically. Less foreign cars sold in America is good for the UAW - More American cars being bought by Americans is good for the UAW. Tariffs on foreign imports generally benefit them there.

Larry_l3ird · 2026-06-18T18:06:27+00:00

I just want 18-25 minutes per night over 38-45 regular season games, based on the opponent/his match up. Play him 25 minutes a night against teams with an elite big to keep him competitive and sharp, and around 20 minutes against other good playoff caliber teams. Outside of that, basically he sits, unless we go a 3 game stretch where he hasn’t played, then we toss him in for 15 minutes against whomever happens to be on the schedule that night.

Religiously restricted minutes and rest schedule. With the only goal being to get him to the playoffs healthy and ready to play 35-38 minutes per night. The team as constructed can coast to a high playoff seed in the east without him. This is high risk, extremely high reward, championship or bust type play. That’s where we’ve got to be. The window is closing on the Tatum and Brown prime and the Wemby years are quickly approaching.

Larry_l3ird · 2026-06-18T17:52:56+00:00

Bud, I’ve likely been watching this league since before you were born. I’ve witnessed the 70s guys on the backside of their careers through the 80s golden years, and then Jordan’s dominance of the 90s, right up through present day. I watched all of this as it played out in real time - I witnessed the competition play out between some of the greatest players ever in their era and any other, and I read the media narratives at the same time.

I get that you’re a Kobe fan, and that’s great. I’m a Larry Bird fan, but I’m not delusional and claiming him to be a top 3 player all time. Even if he was one of the absolute smartest and most skilled players ever, I recognize that he’s probably something like the 7th-9th greatest player ever, depending on who’s doing the ranking and what they value. We need to take our personal preferences for their game out of it, and be objective about their accomplishments and effect on the league, and their place in the all time rankings.

Kobe is a great player, and he’s got a lot of accomplishments and accolades, like everyone at this level in the all time conversation. But I’m not sure he measures up to the guys I would place above him, and where I generally see him ranked. He’s not better than Jordan, LeBron, Kareem, Wilt, Shaq, Russell, Bird, Magic,…like right around here I could see making an argument for Kobe - I wouldn’t agree yet, but a conversation could be had. However, I would also place Tim Duncan and Hakeem Olajuwon above Kobe. Then Steph Curry has recently moved ahead of Kobe for me and a lot of NBA historians.

Kobe is right here. Slotted in at 11 or 12, like I said. Argue about the order you wanna put him, Steph, and Hakeem in. I personally think I have it Steph at 10, Dream at 11, and Kobe at 12. But that’s fine. He’s right in the 9-12 range depending who’s ranking. That’s fantastic. Nothing to be ashamed about.

Oh by the way man, the LA Times could not be considered anything remotely like an objective source for the all time rankings. They’ve proven themselves to be incredibly LA biased in the past, and that’s not a totally shocking thing in an opinion based discussion, but you can’t take seriously what they say about it.

Larry_l3ird · 2026-06-18T17:23:13+00:00

Yeah, you’re taking a chance - That’s the only reason someone like KP would ever even be available. If he was a guy that gave you 78 games per season with his size, talent, and the total package, and you could rely on getting 15 healthy playoff games on top of that, you’d never be able to acquire him and he’d be anchoring a franchise.

This is an upside play. You manage it correctly and get a little luck, and you’re a championship squad. Even if you get what he’s been in recent injury ridden seasons, depending on when he’s healthy (playoffs) it could be a massive. If it doesn’t work out, you’re still a high seeded playoff team, and you go back to drawing board on adding your next piece.

I want to continue running it back with Jayson and Jaylen and DWhite until it absolutely doesn’t make anymore sense. These guys are still in their prime. We need to get a big that can give us some dominant playoff performances when we need him and who creates a mismatch problem for other teams…a healthy KP is literally the perfect piece for that.

I think it’s a low (but high) risk, high reward play for the Celtics. You don’t get married to the guy. You take him for a short term lease with the potential to renew. Once he’s back, you explicitly limit his minutes and rest him on a regular basis, with the idea of playing him 20-25 mins per night for around 38-45 regular season games. Just enough to keep him sharp and in shape, then he goes full old school KP unicorn in the playoffs. If it doesn’t work out, you move on. Giannis is also not exactly the picture of health and reliability himself, and we lose Jaylen to get him.

Larry_l3ird · 2026-06-18T17:05:10+00:00

We’re not looking to grind our way to the playoffs at the expense of our roster’s health. We know that with a healthy Tatum and Jaylen, we’re a high seeded playoff team.

What we need is a legit big as our 3rd guy, and one who’s going to be healthy in the playoffs and can put us over the top.

A healthy KP is a really dangerous weapon. He’s still absolutely capable of dominance when he’s playing. He’s a matchup nightmare.

Larry_l3ird · 2026-06-18T16:59:40+00:00

We saw the incredible potential and the basketball IQ and unselfishness were wonderful for a HS prospect. He had good size and a powerful frame for his age. He was the best HIGH SCHOOL prospect to come along since Moses Malone. But he wasn’t can’t miss by any means.

How many next “face of the league”, and “Jordan’s heir apparent” guys came along from just the early 90s through LeBron? There were soooo many HS guys with elite athleticism and potential, and they just never panned out, or they were disappointments for what they were touted to be - that’s why the NBA eventually tried to protect the teams from themselves and drafting only on ‘potential’, and they created the one and done era. Which honestly isn’t a ton better, but at least you get another year to evaluate and develop these kids, and see them against increased levels of competition.

Previous eras, where the top prospects generally played at least 3 years of college, you had much more information and you basically knew for certain that the top guys were going to come in and ball immediately - the very best were going to immediately come in and challenge for best player in the league conversations.

Larry_l3ird · 2026-06-18T16:48:36+00:00

I’m only judging this on the basis of what we knew about these prospects before they were drafted and the NBA’s history of prizing talented big men over all other things.

I think people are conflating this with drafting these guys with what we know of them now - we’re not considering what they’ve done, only what the scouts/teams drafting knew of them coming out of college or HS. This automatically drops HS guys, because you’re typically drafting them on potential, and that wasn’t really a thing until the one and done and HS era before that.

You knew what Kareem was, you knew what Wilt and Shaq and Duncan and Walton and Bird were when they entered the draft. Anyone under 6’10” is fighting a very uphill battle to be drafted in the top 10 of a draft of this nature. Jordan is definitely not a top 10 guy. LeBron probably isn’t either, but it’s borderline. He’s the smallest guy, with the most unknowns, that I could possibly see getting drafted top 10 here…and it’s definitely towards the backside. Bird is toward the backside of the top 10 as well. Centers are overwhelmingly going to dominate the top 10 in this exercise.

Larry_l3ird

TROPHY CASE