Sun 16th May - Lions v Eagles 5:30pm PLAYOFF FINAL (SKY)

Ooh look who crawled out of his hole to (once again) trr0ll my posts with such bitterness 😂😂😂

Why do you seem intent on ruining every thread with your childish baiting?
Move on and ignore- you’ll feel better

One final thought from me on the final was Eagles very well rehearsed routines for both the announcement of the MVP and the lifting of the trophy.
I guess winning so many trophies as a club gives them plenty of experience to hone their celebration game as well as their actual game!

Not sure how I would have felt as a Lions player watching that....other than jealous of course :-)

I too liked the tenor of Crandall's remarks when he was asked directly whether he'd stay at Leicester. Obviously, money plays a key part in players' decisions as to where they'll play but other factors also have a big role too, e.g. feeling good about your coach and that relationship plus ambition and the potential for success. Crandall has seen for himself the setup at Leicester and he and the coach seem very comfortable together. He'll know that no other coach will be MORE ambitious! Does he like Leicester? Perhaps, perhaps not. Is it cheaper to live here rather than London? Absolutely. Would home fans take to him? They already have - big time. Do we have decent facilities? Definitely. I certainly want him to re-sign and I think Rob Paternostro will be doing all he can to facilitate that.

The other thing is that I don’t think it’s genuinely understood how good a situation being a high (MVP calibre player) in one of the top bbl teams is.

I think we can be pretty sure that no bbl Americans are going to fly off to the ACB, Serie A, Turkey div1, German BBL, France Pro A, Belgium euro millions, But outside of those top leagues and a couple of others I have no doubt forgotten to mention, the BBL package can be pretty enticing.

Now it’s different for someone like Crandall at age 24 to someone like fletcher who came back form Slovakia at 30. Fletcher isn’t getting any taller and the reality is that is US pgs at 5’9/10 are not exactly hot commodities in the top leagues. Crandall is younger and will no doubt test the water at some point. His flaw is correctable (his shooting, 28% from 3 in the BBL isn’t going to make the euroleague come calling). So with him it will be a question of how much improvement he can make in that area. But if Leicester are willing to pay BBL MVP US money I think staying would be more attractive than people make out.
That in itself would be a sea change for riders who prefer to spend budget on uk players and fill out the roster with cheaper Americans. It will be interesting to see if they change/make an exception for Crandall.

I imagine the reason overall W/L records receive less attention than they probably should is that you have to fiddle about figuring them out yourself. I've honestly never been less interested in the Cup and Trophy than I am now. But obviously you do have to take into account the full picture. It is unfortunately true that Riders have done very little in the knockout competitions. And have amassed a so-so, perhaps even mildly disappointing H2H record versus Lions and Eagles in the process. Makes it hard to argue us as the clear-cut best team this year and I'm not intending to do so. I think this has been one of those seasons where we've ended up without a clear-cut best team. But I do honestly think that Riders have won the most important piece of silverware. And that it's reasonable to attach a bit more meaning to performance in what many feel is the most important competition.

I remember thinking Zaire was the right MVP choice in 2013/14. And I remember thinking Wolves were the best team. But didn't they actually top the table for the majority of the season? They only finished one game back regardless. If Newcastle had had that type of league season, and won the Cup, and Fletcher had put up 19 and 9 in the process, I'd probably have (reluctantly) called him the MVP. But Eagles league form was quite a lot poorer than that. They finished six games off the pace and were basically out of the race with weeks left in the season. Clearly doesn't bother some but in my view, that pours quite a lot of cold water on his MVP credentials. The playoff success does change things a bit though based on your calculations, Eagles have still ended up with comfortably the worst overall win percentage of the three sides.

Certainly not forecasting a Euroleague future for Geno. In terms of just making it to one of the top domestic leagues the odds are obviously against him though it isn't unheard of. One of yours Andre Jones has played top tier Italy and VTB United League in the last five years. Funnily enough he was a pretty bad three point shooter during his time in the BBL too. I personally don't remember him being as good in other areas as Geno either though I obviously saw a lot less of him. I didn't think the Belgian league was a particularly unrealistic level really. Rundles has been there on his travels and I'm sure there have been others. Chris Tawiah started the 2019/20 season with Charleroi though it seems he did get released pretty quickly. Regardless of how you rank the various leagues I figure that in between the BBL and top European level there's quite a bit of middle ground where players can make a bit more money and play a slightly better standard. And whilst I don't know how 'attractive' playing in say the Hungarian league is, compared to playing in the BBL, my assumption has always been that most players will want to take these opportunities when they present themselves. I couldn't possibly know whether that assumption is correct.

Agree with mctowelie on just about everything here.

The team success vs individual success MVP thing will go on forever. And I’m not sure there is ever a definitive right answer. But certainly not trying to re argue it. Coaches choose and I’m comfortable with that.

Andre was an athletic transition based scoring 2 guard and an excellent on ball defender and has demonstrated a great work/improvement ethic. Wasn’t a great shooter with us but we had a ton of shooters (Martin, smith, Thomson) so his ability to get to the rim was key for us). But He has also picked up a Slovakian passport which helped him get picked up with champions league teams etc (unfortunately our immigration rules mean that UK passports for bbl Americans are out of the question : so comparisons between him and those Americans who remain in bbl is not really fair).

Yes.

Yes

I answered your question. I'd ask what your problem was, but that's a very wide ranging question

Appreciate the support. As you can see I was simply asking a question - that’s all.