2023-2024 NBA Thread

[StillMcfuu]

Kind of the Clippers MO to get hot for a stretch of games and they look like they are getting hot right now. Might be looking at the champions.

[xmirrors]

The regular season is and has been my least favorite part of basketball. The amount of games we are putting these guys through each and every year is just insane...

[Crissi]

Rick Carisle quit. I dont even know wtf to do...

[StillMcfuu]

Rick Carisle quit. I dont even know wtf to do...

Cuban is in Slovenia begging Luka to not go to another team right about now.

[ProphetFlume]

So are the hawks the only team left not underperforming?


Speaking of underperforming, didn’t the mavs overperform? What an implosion after a successful year.

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Bucks playing angry this q. You love to see it.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Rick Carisle quit. I dont even know wtf to do...

This afternoon everyone I saw was tying him to a potential Bucks opening.

Now everyone is looking forward to Game 7.

Weird 24 hours in Wisconsin.

[xskarma]

Honestly, with all the injuries it feels like there's no point in making predictions right now. Embiid, Harden, Kyrie, Paul (covid), Conley, Kawhi, Mitchell - it's awful. And that's only on the teams still standing, there were host of injuries on the teams that got knocked out.

The NBA owners certainly deserve blame. That said, I don't remember all the details of the negotiations, but I wonder how much the players association actually fought to protect the players' health. Seems like we could have had a 60 game season and playoffs with actual healthy teams.

And yet NBA came out and said that there was no significant difference between this year and other years in terms of injuries, both in general and among star and All Star players.

Going to guess that one of the main differences is that this year, instead of being knocked out cause there were injuries, teams still managed to go through, leaving a lot of gimpy teams duking it out, instead of more healthy teams.

[StillMcfuu]

Celtics seemed to have forgotten that Al Horford is 56 years old and traded Kemba for him (and pieces). I know Kemba kind of tricked the NBA into thinking he was better than he really was, but he surely is worth the money more than Horford.

[ProphetFlume]

Damn did Simmons fuck a ref's daughter in the third quarter? Crazy chain of fouls on him this quarter.

[xskarma]

Celtics seemed to have forgotten that Al Horford is 56 years old and traded Kemba for him (and pieces). I know Kemba kind of tricked the NBA into thinking he was better than he really was, but he surely is worth the money more than Horford.

Yeah this is a bad trade. They are saving $5 mill cap space for two years at the cost of a near lottery pick. Horford might contribute more than Kemba but he's not the answer.

Edit: actually it's 15 mill per year. I guess that's ok... but I'd probably still take the pick and hope to hit a home run. As a fan I'd be more concerned that this is a "Thibs going to Minnesota and signing all his old guys" move. That rarely works.

Last year's team clearly didn't work, so we had to make moves. Moving on from Kemba seemed the logical first step, from a financial and team game play perspective. We have Smart, we have Payton Pritchard, Brown and Tatum have been more comfortable with the ball in their hands and facilitating. We don't need Kemba as much as we did (or THOUGHT we did) 2 years ago.

So then it becomes a question of what team and what player(s) do you trade him for, and what does it cost.

I have read just about every article on Kemba trades and Kemba trade value that the collective Boston sports beat has put out over the past 6 months and this was honestly the best trade out there, in the basic form of Kemba for Horford + pick package + random filler.

The expectation in beat circles was that Kemba for Horford was going to cost us a first rounder. What was not expected was the rest.

Turns out, actually, we got not only Horford, but got a pretty decent upside Big man prospect on top of it. People blow it off as salary filler, but honestly, it's not. Moses Brown had a monster game against the Celtics this year and the Thunder turned him from a 2-way player into a player on a 4year contract. He's only 21 and with no appreciable health concerns far as I'm aware and will play for Vet minimum for another 3 years. I don't think anyone expected us to get this guy on top of Horford, with just the 1st rounder.

So what we got with this trade:

1) Dumped Salary to the point of being able to afford to sign Evan Fournier, which would be huge.

2) Got a HUGE upgrade at the Big/Wing (or Power Forward if you still go by those terms) position with Al Horford, old or not. What we had there was so bad we signed Jabari Parker and he played serious minutes, after being out of the league for a month during the season. We needed someone there with size, some shooting and some passing, who doesn't need the ball in his hands.

3) Added a healthy Big man on a cheap contract that will help fill out the rotation when Rob Williams goes down inevitably. Back up Big, after we traded Theis, was a point of concern too. Tacko Fall is not that guy and neither was any of the guys we picked up in the deadline trades. Kornet was reasonable, but he doesnt have the floor nor the ceiling of Moses Brown.

4) Didn't lose the veteran, positive presence in the locker room that Kemba brought (and Horford already brought before he collected his bag in Philly).


So, this trade works out favourably in just about every way that the Celtics needed it to.


What's left over now is sorting out the Big rotation, cause we have too many players there now. I think we probably move Tristan Thompson, unless someone blows us away with a deal for Rob Williams. That would leave us with one of those 2, Horford, Moses Brown, Grant Williams. That's a nice mix of youth and veterans. Celtics also will need some kind of ball handler (or Point Guard if you will) to compliment Smart and Pritchard. Smart is another issue. We probably need to extend him or *gulp* trade him, since he's going into the last year of his deal.


I suspect the Celtics won't make further moves though until they have their new head coach, so that he can have some input on matters and on roster construction and maybe allow the coach to bring in a veteran player he's worked with before as someone in the locker room who knows the system they'll run etc.

The offseason had 2 major parts to it, get a new HC and find a solution to the Kemba situation and one of them is now at least done. I hope the 2nd part is done soon too. Reportedly Celtics were getting ready for 2nd interviews with at least 3 candidates, so let's hope that yields the candidate Stevens is happy with.

[StillMcfuu]

Last year's team clearly didn't work, so we had to make moves. Moving on from Kemba seemed the logical first step, from a financial and team game play perspective. We have Smart, we have Payton Pritchard, Brown and Tatum have been more comfortable with the ball in their hands and facilitating. We don't need Kemba as much as we did (or THOUGHT we did) 2 years ago.

So then it becomes a question of what team and what player(s) do you trade him for, and what does it cost.

I have read just about every article on Kemba trades and Kemba trade value that the collective Boston sports beat has put out over the past 6 months and this was honestly the best trade out there, in the basic form of Kemba for Horford + pick package + random filler.

The expectation in beat circles was that Kemba for Horford was going to cost us a first rounder. What was not expected was the rest.

Turns out, actually, we got not only Horford, but got a pretty decent upside Big man prospect on top of it. People blow it off as salary filler, but honestly, it's not. Moses Brown had a monster game against the Celtics this year and the Thunder turned him from a 2-way player into a player on a 4year contract. He's only 21 and with no appreciable health concerns far as I'm aware and will play for Vet minimum for another 3 years. I don't think anyone expected us to get this guy on top of Horford, with just the 1st rounder.

So what we got with this trade:

1) Dumped Salary to the point of being able to afford to sign Evan Fournier, which would be huge.

2) Got a HUGE upgrade at the Big/Wing (or Power Forward if you still go by those terms) position with Al Horford, old or not. What we had there was so bad we signed Jabari Parker and he played serious minutes, after being out of the league for a month during the season. We needed someone there with size, some shooting and some passing, who doesn't need the ball in his hands.

3) Added a healthy Big man on a cheap contract that will help fill out the rotation when Rob Williams goes down inevitably. Back up Big, after we traded Theis, was a point of concern too. Tacko Fall is not that guy and neither was any of the guys we picked up in the deadline trades. Kornet was reasonable, but he doesnt have the floor nor the ceiling of Moses Brown.

4) Didn't lose the veteran, positive presence in the locker room that Kemba brought (and Horford already brought before he collected his bag in Philly).


So, this trade works out favourably in just about every way that the Celtics needed it to.


What's left over now is sorting out the Big rotation, cause we have too many players there now. I think we probably move Tristan Thompson, unless someone blows us away with a deal for Rob Williams. That would leave us with one of those 2, Horford, Moses Brown, Grant Williams. That's a nice mix of youth and veterans. Celtics also will need some kind of ball handler (or Point Guard if you will) to compliment Smart and Pritchard. Smart is another issue. We probably need to extend him or *gulp* trade him, since he's going into the last year of his deal.


I suspect the Celtics won't make further moves though until they have their new head coach, so that he can have some input on matters and on roster construction and maybe allow the coach to bring in a veteran player he's worked with before as someone in the locker room who knows the system they'll run etc.

The offseason had 2 major parts to it, get a new HC and find a solution to the Kemba situation and one of them is now at least done. I hope the 2nd part is done soon too. Reportedly Celtics were getting ready for 2nd interviews with at least 3 candidates, so let's hope that yields the candidate Stevens is happy with.

I like your take on the situation, but I think some aspects of it are bordering on hot-take territory.

1 Salary Cap: Absolute the big positive of the deal, likely the reason it was made, Kemba is the only value they are willing to part with.

2 Upgrade at Wing/Big: This is betting big on Horford being in any kind of playing shape as he only played 28 games last year.

3 Moses Brown: He's so cheap it's a positive for the roster. He doesn't even need to work out.

4 Veteran: Ehhh.... Both Horford and Kemba are "empty veterans". We aren't talking about Iguadala here or guys who are key parts of deep run playoff teams. They don't bring anything more to the team than their stats. At least in this respect, Kemba can run an offense and knows what it is to be "the team". Horford was never that player.

I think the deal can be beneficial for the organization, but still be a bad trade overall. The other issues you bring up, Smart is a questionmark and now they need another guard anyway. Celtics would probably save more money letting Smart walk (I don't think he is worth the money he is likely to command).

I would say overall the deal looks like Celtics realized the only asset that is worth anything that they are willing to let go is Kemba and the math sort of worked with Horford and they got some extra they wanted. There are silver linings, but overall the deal is mostly the rain cloud.

[ProphetFlume]

Aw, can't believe they didn't give the Bucks that buzzer beater lay up.

[StillMcfuu]

Bucks pulled off the upset in a series they were favorite to win going in. What an absolutely crazy series.
I saw a tweet when looking for news that sums up the Nets experience.
"For all the new Nets fans, let me prepare you for the disappointment thats about to come."

Dude made that tweet after KD sent it to OT.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Bucks pulled off the upset in a series they were favorite to win going in. What an absolutely crazy series.
I saw a tweet when looking for news that sums up the Nets experience.
"For all the new Nets fans, let me prepare you for the disappointment thats about to come."

Dude made that tweet after KD sent it to OT.

The irony is I saw almost that exact same tweet on the Milwaukee side of things.

"Wisconsin sports and Overtime, I know how this ends."

[ProphetFlume]

KD went from buzzer beater hero to air ball bozo fast.

[StillMcfuu]

Even though the Nets lost this series, I think this playoff run has shaken off KD's snake reputation. He played with real heart and did everything he could for the team, he was completely gassed.
He might not be adding a championship to his collection, but I think he cemented his legacy as an all time great without any kind of doubt due to his GS move.
Harden, not so much.
Kyrie... his whole career is banking on that one shot in 2016. I really hope he drops the galaxy brain crazy bullshit and concentrates on basketball. He should have been playing this game. He might be the most overrated player in the nba right now. Couple of months ago Barkley caught shit for saying he is the 25th best player in the nba, but I'd say with the baggage he brings, he isn't top 25.

[ProphetFlume]

Yeah Durant and Westbrook both impressed me this year. I never realized how skinny Durant was for his size, compared to like lebron or giannis.

[StillMcfuu]

Suns take game 1. Booker with a 40pt triple dub. 6 guys in double figures. Story of the game is Clippers trapping Booker late, and him just getting an outlet pass to an easy 3. Also Damarcus Cousins gets a foul for stepping on the court, he put in quality minutes, he was good on the floor, but in the 12 minutes he was out there he got 5 fouls. It's ridiculous at some of the petty fouls he was getting. Come to think of it Payne got a lot of petty fouls too.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

Remember like early last week they were looking for the Bucks replacement coach already.. the media in these playoffs has been kind of unhinged as the major market teams fall more and more to the side.

[StillMcfuu]

Hawks beat 76ers. The game honestly just looked like both teams wanted to lose until about the 5 minute mark of the 4th quarter where the hawks reluctantly decided they wanted to win.

I wonder how hurt Embid is, he had another passive game where he never got closer than the foul line.

Also curious if this is it for Simmons, I swear he just resigned with them but your arguable best player can't play in the final minutes of a game. The irony here is hack-a-shaq works better on Simmons than it ever could Shaq.