Scase wrote:JB7 wrote:Scase wrote:Ah gotcha, honestly, in that case I would take Smart. Granted this takes into account all of Jas stupidity as of late. But you can easily argue a DPOY award winning guard (deserved or not) is more than Ja has accomplished.
Setting aside past discretions and accomplishments, if you had to pick between Smart and Ja, who would you pick.
Ja is out pretty much all season, and they end up with the 7th worst record, compared to the previous season, where they were #2 in the West, with Ja missing some of the season.
Attributing that record solely to Ja is disingenuous AF. They put out the most unique 5 man lineups in the league, and had 207 more man games lost than the team with the 2nd most. Not to mention setting aside past accomplishments is kinda dumb, then you cant judge either player lol.
in 99% of the cases yeah, you're picking Ja. But the gap between Suggs and IQ is not even remotely close to a Ja vs Smart gap. Ja is one of the best scorers in the NBA, Suggs is closer to Smart, than IQ is to Ja.
I agree that Suggs is closer to Smart than IQ to Ja, but scoring is just so important. The Knicks without Brunson are nothing, even with all the tough minded D.
I would still take IQ over Suggs.
Everything in Memphis is built around Ja's offensive abilities. Even if all the other players on the team were healthy, without Ja, they are probably a play-in team at best.
Smart could not carry that team like Ja could.
Same issue with Suggs. For as great the D he brings is, at the end of the day, when the team needs a bucket he can't be relied on.