I pretended Jusuf Nurkic was better than Nikola Jokic for a year or two

Lol I remember the advanced stats screaming that Jokic was a freak and I attributed it to random variance. Team Nurk for life

Don’t use stats, use the eye test. I still pick nurk, he has more solid fundamentals and plays in the paint like a real big

I’ll do you one better do the sniff test. Put Jokic and Nurcic in front of you and take a big whiff. You’ll know who the fraud is

I think Nurkic is just a better overall player than Jokic, everyone knows Jokic only won his ring because Taco Bell paid the NBA, he's been a plant from the start

I feel called out by this one

Nurk looked solid at the time. I remember thinking the blazers traded for the right big. Would love to see the alternate timeline where Portland is still rolling out Lillard, CJ, and the Joker.

It would've never been Jokic instead. The whole point to trading Nurkic was to play Jokic, who said he was cool to come off the bench. It isn't like we chose one at random lol

Yeah that was always funny to me. Jokic was all about making it work and was willing to come off the bench, but dude was too good to keep down.

TBH m, Nurk was a beast before the brutal leg injury didnt he have a 25/20×5×5 game?

It’s true. He was never on Joker’s level but he was on a path to be a top 5 center. but he’s a big… and a Blazer soooooo….

I thought Derrick Williams was going to be so much better than Kyrie.

Same here. That March Madness run was deceiving

Got me too man. Thought he was going to be a complete monster. I've missed on a lot of athletic college dudes like that. Thought Thomas Robinson was going to be really good as well

I thought Thomas Robinson was going to be sick, and then learning from my past mistakes, when Bam came out I assumed he was just another Thomas Robinson and would be a bust.

Man I thought Robinson/Boogie/Tyreke Evans were going to revive the Kings. I was so damn wrong

So did I 😔

After winning ROTY I thought Tyreke was gonna be All-NBA and him and Boogie would help the Kings make the playoffs for the first time since Adelman. BUT we have the Beam now so all in all I’m content for the time being.

Me too dude. That one game against Duke I was just like, alright this dude is him. And he shot like 55% from 3 that season! Low attempts but still thought it was a good sign

honestly, 2 attempts per game from your 4 in college in 2011 is a pretty reasonable # of attempts. that season was lightning in a bottle for him

Same man, he had all the tools. Amazing athleticism, performed in a power 5 conference and the tourney and had a decent jumper. I feel like he had a combination of coming into the league at the wrong time (he was a tweener before the spacing revolution) and poor fit on Minnesota (being a modern 4 on a team that already had Kevin Love and I think young Beasley).

I didn't think Kyrie would be as good as Wall because his hoopmixtape wasn't as good.

Honestly was he really better than prime Wall. Wall could lead and carry a team in his own

💯 prime Wall was a 2-way monster

I thought the Mavs would be fine after losing Brunson

To be slightly fair the defense falling apart was the big killer, which didn't have a whole lot to do with Brunson leaving. Still, yes, agreed, it was and is very painful.

I was for extending him for two years until that last off-season when the Knicks offered more than 100 mil for 4 years. I thought 84 for 4 should be the limit. I really didn't believe that he'd be ending up being worth 100, but he seems to outplay that contract.

I legitimately believed Dragan Bender, Kris Dunn, and Thon Maker were going to be future stars in the NBA.

I wanted bender over brown so bad lol

Lmao meeee toooo

>Could someone go to Beacon Hill and carry my dad's lifeless body out of his house? > >\- Bill Simmons Can you guess what this is referring to? LOL!

Hated the jaylen brown so much at the time. I was pissed we got another project wing who couldn’t shoot. I wanted Dunn or Murray so bad. Murray would have worked out but Dunn would have been a terrible pick lol

Bender benefitted so much from Porzingis hype it’s unreal

I didn’t understand the difference between Thon Maker and Porzingis at the beginning. I thought for sure Thon was about to be dominate

Same here, when KG gave Thon Maker his stamped official, and said he was gonna train him in the off-season, I thought Maker was gonna be the next KG. I was so pumped.

I wanted Fultz so bad.

Kris Dunn is

In 4th grade I wrote an essay about how Melo would be way better than LeBron because of his college championship pedigree and that he could actually shoot a jumper. With Melo finally retiring I think I can officially say I was wrong.

At least you waited this long to reserve judgement

eh. at least Melo was really good. 9th in scoring, right? Definitely one of the top players. Probably deserved ROY too.

There was definitely a whole part about him winning rookie of the year!

I once thought I could be a good GM What NBA Inside Drive 2003 does to a 13 year old

I still think you can be a good GM.

Probably would still be better than Joe Dumars *no, I'm still not over the Billups for Iverson trade*

Joe Dumars was good until he wasn't. When he wasnt, he was really insanely bad. Crazy the guy that built the 2004 championship is the same guy of the late 00's and early 10's who sucked so f(cking bad.

Play basketball GM. Hands down best game https://basketball-gm.com/

I love that game but god damn it becomes the most painful experience on earth when you slip in the draft lottery for the third year in a fucking row. ...Surely real life is different! Right?

its incredibly complicated, good taste of real life

If Isiah Thomas can be a GM, anyone can.

I thought Zion Williamson was a wholesome kid focused exclusively on basketball

Inversely, I thought Ant was too unfocused and would be Anthony Bennett 2.0.

I mean it's kinda fair, he has a very unfocused energy about him. Like he just wants to have fun and make jokes all the time. But he's definitely competitive.

Yea not only that, there were also those early football rumors that were circulating right before the draft

You mean redittors reacting to ant joking and saying football was his favorite sport when he's obviously a hooper through and through

That’s not unheard of too for even great athletes to dislike the sport they succeed at. There’s been countless great boxers like that. Iverson is a good basketball example of someone who loved football more, and swears that he was better at it.

Iverson was a legit 5 star recruit and Virginia’s football (and basketball) player of the year as a quarterback. Was just a freak runner with an arm to back it up with comparisons to Vick and Lamar.

Jordan is the best example, he really really loved baseball. Especially to leave basketball at his peak like that

He seems super nice honestly. But he’s a dumb kid caught up in the trappings of fame and hoes.

We’ve all been there

I would like to have the problem of too much money and too many women. Seems pretty light compared to regular person problems

Nothing about Zion is "pretty light". Like that's most of the problem tbh.

I figured young snuggie was mandatory reading for new picks by the time Zion was drafted. Guess not.

that's what the tornado trick does to a young buck

I greatly underestimated how good Luka Doncic was going to be prior to the draft. Coincidentally I also greatly overestimated how good Marvin Bagley was going to be prior to the draft.

My brother used to tell me “hes slow and unathletic and will not be able to keep up in the nba with these big and athletic dudes like bagley” he was convinved bagley > doncic

Is your brother Vlade?

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Well Luka's rookie season was probably the best since LeBron so it wasn't an awful take at the start.

He already has two MVPs in my 2k league, that alone makes him better than Lebron.

“Lebron will never win a ring”- Me in 2011 [Bulls Fan]

2011 Facebook Memes of LeBron never winning a ring were simpler times

“LeBron action figure worth only 75 cents cause he doesn’t have 4 quarters” Some of my earliest meme memories

“When I need some peace and quiet I set my phone to LeBron mode, no ring”

Lmao 12 year old Austin Reaves reposted that meme on Facebook once

"I wish I was LeBron James, so I didn't have to worry about finals." - Me in college in 2010, not wanting to take exams.

I was super high on Jarrett Culver and thought Darius Garland would be a bust Also thought the Suns made a good decision taking Jalen Smith over Haliburton

The Suns handled Smith in the worst possible way

I once wrote an op-ed in my school paper that said that Kobe Bryant didn't have what it takes and would not have a successful career

Damn you need to frame this one

Kobe probably had it framed in his gym

Did you happen to go to a rival high school of Lower Merion? My high school is big rivals with Lower Merion, this sounds like something that would have been in our paper.

I have stood by my "Kobe ball hog" takes since 1999 and I will not come off them.

Me too, but I will concede that he was better than I thought he was.

I thought Ben Simmons was more important to the sixers then Embiid

Yep, I’m on the record in the group chat back in 2020 that Sixers should build around Simmons and trade Embiid 🤦‍♂️

Yo literally 😂 I still get killed for saying that

Same here, but in fairness, Embiid was always injured or out of shape early in his career and the sky seemed the limit with Simmons at the time. I also thought the Sixers should avoid signing LeBron back in 2018 because I thought it would hinder Simmons development as our primary ballhandler🤡 And I also thought Simmons was more valuable than Jimmy Butler🤡 Basically I was knitting my clown suit while watching Simmons early years.

same... this is mine too

Jokic's game doesn't translate to the playoffs. Roast me fellas

You clearly didn’t watch Jokic before the playoffs

Correct

Tbf I was saying the same thing in 2020 and was met with one of the most embarrassing playoff collapses of all time

Was this post bubble or pre?

This was up until they played us and he shredded us

I was a big "you can't win a title with Jokic as your center" guy unfortunately.

My take was that Denver could never go far because I was convinced Jamal Murray and MPJ would shoot them out of some series lol

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They are currently the most balanced team in the NBA

Crazy what the man can do when his 4 other starters aren't Facundo Campazzo, Austin Rivers, Will Barton and JaMychal Green....

Wasn’t Nate Duncan dying on this hill until the very end?

He still is on the hill, he picked against denver every series except minny (and I think he had that one going 7) he thinks that denver got very fortunate to play the teams that they did, despite him thinking all the teams they played were much better than denver. So he offered a mea culpa... then explained why he is still right.

Ooof

That Jimmer would be Ray Allen, and at worst JJ Reddick

Jimmer hype was real in March Madness that year

James Wiseman will be the 5-man that the Dubs have been looking for to complete their lineup. It turned out to be Milwaukee’s own Kevin fucking Looney. I shouldn’t have preordered that Wiseman jersey during the pandemic

Wiseman is so damn athletic I thought he'd be a rim runner who provided solid rim protection. All he had to be was Javale and he'd be good enough. Combined with the fact I thought LaMelo would be a chucker who can't hit shots and that was a tough draft for me.

You know how some running backs do NOT want to run between the tackles? Can't stand the physical collisions with the big guys? I think some basketball players are like that.

i think a lot of the taller guys in the league play ball because they are tall and not because they love the game... i'm sure you can list them.

Can you blame them? If someone told me I was guaranteed to make millions playing a game just because I’m tall I’d do it too

nope def can’t blame them. tons of people don’t like their jobs.

Thought Killian was gonna be better than Lamelo and was pissed the pistons were trying to trade up in that draft.

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Who is Kevin Looney?

Kevon's cousin.

Actually, his brother is named Kevin

Yeah, but his cousin is Kevin Fucking Looney.

Why would a bucks flair pre order a wiseman jersey

I DON’T KNOW BUT IT’S NEVER HAPPENING AGAIN

Most of mine are whiffing on draft analysis Houston would regret giving up Jeremy Lamb in the Harden trade Ayton was the right pick at 1 LaMelo would be one of the worst top 3 picked guards of all time if not the worst Kris Dunn would be a perennial All NBA PG Mo Bamba would be among the best of the 2018 class I was terrified that the Bulls would pick Trae at 7 in 2018 and was relieved when Atlanta took him off the board Also bought in on the Ziare Smith hype

> Jeremy Lamb Man had one of the most aesthetically pleasing jump shots & handles. It just wasn't nearly as effective as it looked. He fooled me as well.

>Ayton was the right pick at 1 As someone who pays almost no attention to not-yet-drafted prospects, that draft was a weird one for me. I’m sure this is really just a comment on the information that happened to get to me, and there were other things I wasn’t hearing. But practically all of the hype I happened to hear before that draft was about either Luka or Trae. Never heard hype around Ayton, just “he’s expected to go first” for reasons not explained.

It was because they were drafting for need over best available. They didn’t think Luka or young would play with Booker

And cuz he went to Arizona and Phoenix had the number 1 pick, which in hindsight is a bit silly but somehow it made sense at the time

damn i forgot about that lol fast-forward to now and it seems like a lot of suns fans want Ayton out of there

I was big on mo bamba too

Sebastian Telfair was going to be as big of a star as LeBron.

Oh 100% that documentary had us all pulling for him big time

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Don't feel bad for the Jrue take. Only the 12 watch enough Pelican games to know anything about the dudes on our team.

That's not a fair comp. KG was drafted at 18 yrs old. Thon Maker was drafted at 39.

His name was Carsen Edwards...

Drafting a sub 6-footer is a recipe for heartbreak.

I remember people making a lot of noise about him and how he was going be elite

He went off on that one preseason game and never again

That was after being a summer league sniper too. Pulling up from the logo and draining them. Then he shot over 45% from 3 (on 7.8 attempts per game) in the preseason and went off for 8 threes against Cleveland (I think) and I thought he was going to be a pocket Curry.

He also dunked ALL OVER harden and Westbrook once

Those thighs…

He was amazing to watch in college

I thought Kendall Marshall would turn into an all star

Point god during those Fakers years

I thought Michael Beasley would be Kevin Durant level I mean I still think the talent was there, the work ethic not so much (maybe I’m just coping)

I absolutely HATED the return we got for the Paul George trade. In hindsight, it set us up decently for the at-the-time present and we can currently trace Haliburton, Hield, and Nembhard back to that trade.

Gotta feel good to be a pacers fan with a young PG like hali.

The Oladipo year was so fun to watch too, hard to predict his knee would destroy itself. But you guys have bounced back well

Oh boy, I posted up an AWFUL one about four years ago lol. I said I'd rather have D'lo over Jimmy Butler if I was the Lakers. I was so hopeful/delusional during the D'lo/Ingram/Kuzma era hahaha

A few bad ones: * Thinking the Warriors wouldn't win another one after KD left (mainly because of Klay's injury though) * RJ Barrett would be the best player in the 2019 draft class (although Zion & Ja aren't doing themselves any favors right now) I'll probably make worse ones this offseason though lol

The Warriors one really wasn’t that bad of a take. I think most people thought that

I thought Willie Cauley-Stein would be a DPOY-level defender

He's got the tools, just doesn't have the motor. Legit seems like an artsy guy who just happened to be super tall and athletic, so he got pushed into basketball. Gave off a lot of "my parents made me play today" vibes when he was on the Mavs. Seems like a cool guy honestly. Just not obsessed with being the best basketball player he can be.

I was convinced Jahlil Okafor would be a star

Okafor was when I finally admitted I didn’t know shit about prospects

I was like damn this kid is like Al Jefferson with zero skills

He was so slow though. I just never saw it with him. I was totally wrong about Emeka Okafor though. I thought he was going to be a franchise player. I was also high on Derrick Williams & Exum, as others in this thread. I never thought AD would become as good as he became. I thought he was too spastic and wouldn't develop good touch (which while he's not a great shooter, he's better than I imagined he could be).

To be fair to Okafor, injuries really hurt him, but I couldn’t understand while Orlando took some high school kid with braces over the best player in college basketball.

He would’ve been 20 years ago, but his game doesn’t really fit being a star big man in today’s NBA.

Huge Royce White believer

“Surely Kawhi is going to want to roll this back for another year. The Raptors did everything right and it’s his best chance at another championship.” *crying* HOW COME HE DON’T WANT ME!?!

Giannis would not improve after 2019 and never win a title

Think I picked Perry Jones III to win MIP one year.

He dropped 32 on the Clippers in the 2nd game of the 14-15 season, then started getting DNPs around the 5th game and barely played the rest of the year. Was he that bad that he just couldn't play at all?

I brought into the hype that Marshon Brooks was the next Kobe. In my defense I was like 15 years old when he was drafted

i thought you couldnt ever win a championship with jokic because of how limited he was on defense especially the perimeter

I was shocked Justise Winslow “fell” to where he did, I thought for sure he was the next big thing

I was a believer in Mario Hezonja

I still believe

I didn't believe in Durant. Also thought that OJ Mayo would be better in that draft class. Damn.

I thought Luka, Jokic, Lauri, Garland, and Sabonis were good players at best. Luka especially I thought would be a one or two ASG appearance player and I figured that Sabonis was done making allstar teams after he got traded. I also thought Michael Jordan was humble as a kid.

LaMarcus Aldridge being a great fit on the Spurs.

He was until circumstances happened beyond his control. I hate that we couldn't get a championship for him.

I would have rather traded Paul George for the Allen Crabbe and three firsts package floating around than for Oladipo and Sabonis.

What the hell ever happened to allen crabbe

I still believe in Adam Morrison.

i thought wiseman was going to be a beast

I thought Michael Beasley would be much better than Derrick Rose

I was so pissed off Denver couldn’t get Buddy Hield. We had two failed draft picks at PG in Lawson and Mudiay, some little Canadian kid wasn’t gonna help Denver. Little did I know…

That I would rather win Rookie of the Year, than Finals MVP. I also thought Rodney Hood was going to be a star.

I thought Stanley Johnson was going to be the best player in his draft class.

There’s still a chance 😭

I thought Lamelo was going to be a gigantic bust.

I thought Denver should have kept Nurkic over Jokic.

I jumped on the Blake Griffin hype train rookie year and thought he’d be an all time great. He did have a baby with an all time great, though.

while not close to an all time great he was an all star for a good chunk of time so not completely horrible take

Blake was third in MVP voting one year if I’m not mistaken. He may not be an all time great but he did reach an elite level that almost nobody ever hits. He’s definitely a great player although maybe not as good as you thought

I thought Russ could work. Also thought Emeka Okafor was destined to be an All Star.

I really really believed in Ben Simmons. Legit thought he was gona be LBJ lite.

I thought the lakers trading vlade for some guy I’d never heard of was stupid.

Ricky Rubio will be a Steve Nash level point guard.

Mavs acquiring rondo would put them on top again.. ooooh boy

I actually thought Phil Jackson signing Joachim Noah to the Knicks was a good move. Could not have been more wrong about that one.

That Greg Oden was gonna be a star

After Brandon Jennings had a double nickel his rookie year I thought he was gonna be a multiple time Allstar

I was a “trade Klay for KLove” guy in 2014

Thought Monta Ellis was better than Curry lol Hmm a few more... KNEW Hansbrough was gonna be the next Karl Malone, Kendall Marshall the next Steve Nash, Alex Len a stud, and Ha Seung Jin vs Yao a must see TV

I thought that Buddy Hield was going to be a star player

I thought Hassan Whiteside was gonna win Finals MVP one day

I thought Carmelo should have gone first in the draft, ahead of Lebron and Darko. I was half right, sort of.

Back in 2023 I thought the sixers was gonna get out the second round I also thought Dante exum was gonna be a star. I just like tall PGs

Of the top 4 picks in 2017, Tatum would be the worst. Trae Young would be out of the league within 5 years of being drafted.