2023-2024 NBA Thread

[xskarma]

Watching Sixers at Celtics, and the offensive/defensive play the last coupld of minutes this 4th quarter were atrocious. Kemba Hero Ball and just falling asleep while rebounding and closing out. 8 point lead now for the sixers with 4 min to play, at home. Going to be tough to come back from unless they start playing cohesive as a unit again.

I will say in their defense that they played an away game yesterday, so they are on the second leg of a back to back. Still, at home against the Sixers you expect more intensity in the 4th.

[Crissi]

Ah yes, a Luka-less Mavs beat a Bucks team with Giannis. Just as we all suspected.

Thank you for KP and THJ, Knicks <3

and clearly S. Curry best Curry

[StillMcfuu]

Ah yes, a Luka-less Mavs beat a Bucks team with Giannis. Just as we all suspected.

Thank you for KP and THJ, Knicks <3

and clearly S. Curry best Curry

I have a theory that between the 2 Curry's (technically 3) there is one hall of fame player, so some nights steph gets the power, some nights Seth gets the powers. It explains why Steph can be so bad sometimes, it's because Seth is stealing back the power at inopportune times.

[xskarma]

First decent look at Romeo Langford, Celtics first round rookie tonight. He's made some plays and looked pretty good. Nice addition to the team if he can keep developing.

[Rennadrel]

Ah yes, a Luka-less Mavs beat a Bucks team with Giannis. Just as we all suspected.

Thank you for KP and THJ, Knicks <3

and clearly S. Curry best Curry

Then proceeded to choke away a 30 point lead against a Raptors team missing 2 starting players including the teams current best player in Pascal Siakim, as well as Marc Gasol and Norm Powell

[Crissi]

Then proceeded to choke away a 30 point lead against a Raptors team missing 2 starting players including the teams current best player in Pascal Siakim, as well as Marc Gasol and Norm Powell

Yeah that was inexcusible, although we're also missing Luka but thats such a defensive failure form everyone.

The Mavs are an enigma wrapped in a mystery. I think our coach is still a COTY candidate given what he's done with the team as well as how he's handled THJ, but yeesh.

Yestersy was not a good day for Dallas sports

[Pendulous]

Anyone have thoughts on Jordan Clarkson? Apparently the Jazz are sending Dante Exum and a couple future second-rounders to Cleveland for him.

[StillMcfuu]

Anyone have thoughts on Jordan Clarkson? Apparently the Jazz are sending Dante Exum and a couple future second-rounders to Cleveland for him.

He's a solid player, worth his salary. I believe this was so the Jazz could have a Mitchell-lite come off the bench.

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Yeah that was inexcusible, although we're also missing Luka but thats such a defensive failure form everyone.

The Mavs are an enigma wrapped in a mystery. I think our coach is still a COTY candidate given what he's done with the team as well as how he's handled THJ, but yeesh.

Yestersy was not a good day for Dallas sports

Raps are a tough deep team, wouldn't take a come back loss from them personally.

[-aiko-]

Well, it's finally time to say goodbye to Dante Exum. I liked him but it he was injury prone and it was always clear that he was shy on the court and could never get past it. Maybe a new home will help.

[xskarma]

Starts like this by the Raptors make me worry that the Celtics just don't quite have it on defense to hang with the top teams. They're going to have to outscore other teams and I'm not quite sure they are there yet to be able to do that.

Maybe they'll turn it around when they have more time to play together, cause a lot of players have been out injured at points, but it's starting to become an actual point of concern.

[Crissi]

David Sterns has died

[StillMcfuu]

David Sterns has died

I saw that, it's a sad day. He did a lot for the NBA, it's players, and basketball as a whole.

It's a hard job being the head of a global association, and even harder to do it for 30 years without leaving a wake of devastation while also improving yearly.

[StillMcfuu]

I'm mystified why the Knicks aren't starting Mitchell Robinson. He is their best player - leading the team in PER, Win Shares, Offensive and Defensive Plus Minus. His overall BPM is 5.4 and second best on the team is -0.2. He's playing 22 minutes a game, behind Taj Gibson on the depth chart. Why isn't our best player starting?

It's not like he's a bad fit either, he's a prototypical center for today's NBA. Huge wingspan, great finisher on lobs, excellent defender who's quick enough to switch onto smaller players. I know he's got foul problems but to me that's not a reason to sit him early in games... you need him out there against the best players as much as possible.

We've got the new Marcus Camby, and I'm concerned because of how we treated the OG Camby (ignoring the fact that he was the best player on the team and trading him for a washed up McDyess). That said, the new coach does seem to have something of a clue, playing Robinson more and Gibson less.

Probably tanking again for a draft pick.

[StillMcfuu]

That's not it. This is a roster that seems built to tank, full of young players who have potential but don't have an NBA game. But for some reason, they're giving a combined 48 a minutes a night to Taj Gibson and Marcus Morris, two 30+ players who aren't close to centerpieces and aren't expected to be on the team long term. Morris is likely gone after this year and Gibson after next.

And it's not like they're doing this because they don't have anyone else... they have Randle, Knox, and Portis as younger, higher upside options to Gibson, and Morris is taking minutes from some combination of Payton, Ntilikina, Smith, Barrett, and Knox agan - more young guys with (mostly theoretical) potential.

It seems like they could very easily go Process here and play all those young guys. Their team would be terrible, improving their draft position but also seeing which one or two of their fleet of 24 and under players is gonna learn how to shoot threes and pan out. But I'm mystified by their approach right now.

To me, playing older players who are still good enough to put on a show and keep people in the stands and letting the young guys get some exp without getting put in stress or injury situations is tanking 101.

The Process (sixers) is still up in the air on if it works. Embid was hurt multiple times in his gaining experience time with a rebuilding team when in reality they could have used a solid 30 year old that could still play and put up numbers and not have embid getting hurt.

And I think he's losing confidence, Shaq and Bark are right, he is playing very passively and the team is hurting for it.

[Blueobelisk]

Tell Knicks to make their tickets cheaper. I'm not paying premium to see a shifty team. It's kind of ridiculous actually.

[StillMcfuu]

With the current Kevin Love situation; I find it incredibly telling that Love, a guy who played with Kyrie Irving, thinks Sexton holds on to the ball too much. I don't know if they will be able to deal Love to anyone, if I recall he signed a fairly decent contract after LeBron left for LA and Cleveland needed to show people there is a reason to still be a fan on the team. That didn't really work out for Cleveland because you can get good tickets for home games for $5.

[StillMcfuu]

NBA has a few veterans - Paul, Westbrook, Love, Griffin - who have priced themselves out of any trade value by signing contracts for far more than they're worth. It's interesting to see and I wonder if they're gonna do something about that in the next collective bargaining.

If Love was at about $25m... solid All-star money, I'd say he was right where he needs to be. His ~30m contract is just a little too much. The best part of Love is you know what you get and you know he will perform, play-offs, clutch, championships, you want a guy like that on your team. But I don't know if that would carry a premium over typical $24-25m all-star money. I would think that would be icing on the cake, or something you would carry in to negotiations to get more performance bonuses.


I watched the Celtics game tonight... Nice of Walker to argue a flop and get tossed. I feel he cost them the game or at least a real shot at winning.
NBA needs a hard-line no flopping/no creating contact rules. They should review calls between quarters and assess fouls for flopping players, and remove fouls for flagrant contact that gets a whistle (the team can keep their free throws, no need to change the score).

[Malmmoc]

I'll just drop this little gem here for your viewing pleasure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neg4SsIDlIc

[StillMcfuu]

Disagree completely that you want Love on a team going for a championship. Love was routinely terrible against the Warriors in the playoffs. His playoff totals look ok because he did well in the early rounds, but against good teams he was fairly useless.

I can respect that, I still think he has solid post season stats. I think he is reliable in the clutch. He's also been playing as a PF/C, I think we often think of him as a SF or a ball dominate star, but that's not the role he's been playing. For PF/C to be shooting 43% from 3, and 85% from the line... you really don't find that from that position.

[xskarma]

Well, that started poorly for the Celtics... I was hoping this game against the Lakers would be competitive and a bit of a measuring stick after a tough period and some injuries.

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That's more like it

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Lakers going to their bench for the final minutes. That was satisfying. Only wish the Celtics could play like this all the time, they looked amazing tonight.