2023-2024 General NBA Season Thread
- Thread starter BigSoxFan
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But they're not - the tweet says they are last in the league at driving to the hoop. So in theory they shouldn't have such a massive FT edge.
yea if we just ignore that its lebron and AD and pretend everyone in the league is equally adept at drawing fouls when driving to the hoop.
AD and Lebron are good but not exceptional at getting to the FT line. They're 10th and 24th in the league in FTAs/game. That's nice, but combined they average fewer FTAs/game than Tatum/Porzingis (12.5 to 12.9).
Interesting to note that Boston actually has a greater FTA/2PA rate. Boston has 1052 FTAs and 2236 2PAs (.470), LA has 1180 FTAs and 2731 2PAs (.432). LA may average fewer drives to the basket than anyone else but they also average fewer 3PAs than anyone else. They take a ton of midrange shots.
Per PBPStats, the Lakers are 5th in the league in shooting fouls drawn over field goal attempts + shooting fouls drawn, so its not like they are some huge outlier. On 2 point shots their rate is 12th in the league. So yea as you say they just shoot a lot of 2's, and guys generally dont foul on three point attempts these days. They are also 12th in the league in possessions in the penalty, also not a big outlier or anything.
And despite "drives per game" however that is measured, the Lakers are 3rd in the league in rim attempts per possession.
This Lakers get a way better whistle than everyone else is very lazy.
Yes they still are with that personne. That stat is skewed since so many of their 3’s are off dribble kick outs and passes out of the low post when the drive is defended. Also, AD’s may not be classified as “drives to the hoop” since they are on post ups. Their entire offense is predicated on threats inside the perimeter either off the dribble or post ups.
A good chunk of their FTAs are just due to shot selection, but really the discrepancy is their defense. They allow the 2nd fewest FT attempts in the league, and it's because AD is (when healthy and engaged) the best defender in the league (and because their lousy defenders are so lousy they don't even foul, they just get beaten again and again).
Absolutely.
There are drawbacks to a Thibs coached team, but when the pieces he has to work with fit together, it's fun even without big stars. The ceiling with this team isn't high, but the floor definitely is.
The question is if he can keep them healthy. We all know Thibs has a history of burning dudes out. For the record, I don't like the Knicks but I think the NBA is always better than the Kniocks are good.
130+ points allowed four straight games and all against mediocre/bad teams (Bulls, Warriors, Rockets and Hawks).
ESPN article with trade speculation
Bridges goes across the bridge
New York Knicks get: Mikal Bridges
Brooklyn Nets get: Evan Fournier, Quentin Grimes, 2024 first-round pick (from Dallas, top-10 protected), 2025 first-round pick (from Milwaukee, top-4 protected), 2025 first-round pick (from New York, unprotected), 2027 first-round pick (from New York, unprotected) and 2029 first-round pick (from New York, top-5 protected)
The NOVA Knicks would be something with Bridges
Bridges goes across the bridge
New York Knicks get: Mikal Bridges
Brooklyn Nets get: Evan Fournier, Quentin Grimes, 2024 first-round pick (from Dallas, top-10 protected), 2025 first-round pick (from Milwaukee, top-4 protected), 2025 first-round pick (from New York, unprotected), 2027 first-round pick (from New York, unprotected) and 2029 first-round pick (from New York, top-5 protected)
The NOVA Knicks would be something with Bridges
Injuries are always a concern with the hard physical style that they play, but I'm a little less worried about guys getting burned out as the newest additions mesh with the team. I think the more guys Thibs has that can play his style of ball, the more we'll see minutes get spread around. At least relative to how he usually rolls. We'll see.
Yeah, I don't see Brooklyn ever trading Bridges to the Knicks. I think the most the Knicks can reasonably hope for is Brogdon.
The TNT backup halftime crew is quite good, nice balance between relaxed and informative. Kind of nice not listening to Chuck and Shaq talk all over each other.
Embiid really looks nowhere near 100% (4-16 so far). It almost feels like he's been bullied back on the court, which is wild to consider.
There's been a good amount of talk about this in New York this year and the word is that there were two parts to Thibs burning his teams out, one was practice and one was minutes. He has apparently adjusted practices quite a bit and adapted to the feedback.
Honestly, Embiid is too important to play him if he's not healthy. Philly is dumb, fuck the MVP race. He's already won one and everyone knows he'd be the MVP as of right now.
No love for Philly, but hoping he's okay and it's just a mild hyperextension. He looked like crap tonight though even before Kuminga fell on his knee.
No love for Philly, but hoping he's okay and it's just a mild hyperextension. He looked like crap tonight though even before Kuminga fell on his knee.
Agreed. If he is hurt he shouldn't be playing - especially if it endangers the team's ability to contend.
If he cannot qualify for an award, too bad. That's baseball.
They seem to be content to kind of bottom out/hope for a season altering trade. The issue is there are 3 other teams with not a real reason to tank going for that 9-10 spot.
Crazy that Philly dropped down to 5th in the East with tonight's loss.
I'll qualify this and say they don't want to risk further injury, but at the same time, they really do need Embiid on the court. They're 3-9 when he sits, and only part of that is that he tends to sit on the road against good teams (seriously...@Minnesota, @Boston, @Denver, @Miami, @Orlando, @New Orleans...yesterday's DNP @ Porland was the first game he's missed in which the opposing team isn't even competing for the play in). They dropped to 5th place today (ending a streak of 46 days in which Boston/Milwaukee/Philly were 1/2/3 in the standings) and like Indy, are lucky that Miami is just blowing up because even though they are closer to 8th than they are to 1st, there's no real danger of them falling so far as the play in. Unless Embiid misses a month.
Absolutely can make the ECF imo. Might even be the most likely outcome for them, since they're well on track to get the #2 seed, and they could play any of Mil/Phi/Cle really well. Obviously have to see how the OG/Randle injuries play out.
Knicks need to spend those picks somehow, given how solid they are across the board. If you're going to trade that many 1sts though, I wonder whether Markkanen is a more realistic target?
I think there's a good chance they're peaking too early, and Thibs is running whoever is available into the ground, but that might have been the best regular season month in team history. They went 14-2 with a +246 point differential, against a pretty weak schedule but they also gave PHI and DEN each their worst losses of the season, beating them by 74 points combined.
Also it's maybe not so interesting, but NY actually ruined their own perfect record against under .500 teams by winning tonight. Utah beat them in Utah earlier in the season, and tonight's loss dropped Utah to 24-25. So NY's win meant that Utah fell below .500, so NYdropped to 22-1 against under .500 teams, whereas a loss would have kept them at 21-0.
Jonathan Kuminga in January (12 games, 30.5 mpg).
20.6 pts / 5.8 reb / 2.4 ast
.586 / .400 / .798 shooting splits for a .665 TS
Basically playing like a *much better* version of Jaylen Brown at the same age. Who knows if he’ll blossom from age 21 to 27 the way JB has, but he has Dub Nation drooling in an otherwise miserable season. Sounds like the brass feel the same way and are sending him nowhere (holding my breath till the trade deadline, tho…)
Meanwhile, Old Man Steph put up 37 points on 17 fga last night with 8 rebounds and 7 assists.
Ws seem to have figured something out with Dray moving to starting C and a 3-4 of Kuminga and Wiggs (who seems to be slowly dislodging his head from wherever it was). Take your pick of Podz, Klay, or Moody at the 2, but they’ve been looking like the Warriors. Just hope it isn’t too late…
20.6 pts / 5.8 reb / 2.4 ast
.586 / .400 / .798 shooting splits for a .665 TS
Basically playing like a *much better* version of Jaylen Brown at the same age. Who knows if he’ll blossom from age 21 to 27 the way JB has, but he has Dub Nation drooling in an otherwise miserable season. Sounds like the brass feel the same way and are sending him nowhere (holding my breath till the trade deadline, tho…)
Meanwhile, Old Man Steph put up 37 points on 17 fga last night with 8 rebounds and 7 assists.
Ws seem to have figured something out with Dray moving to starting C and a 3-4 of Kuminga and Wiggs (who seems to be slowly dislodging his head from wherever it was). Take your pick of Podz, Klay, or Moody at the 2, but they’ve been looking like the Warriors. Just hope it isn’t too late…
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As Miami showed last year, it's never too late for a play-in team with talent.
The challenge I see for the Warriors, as an 8 seed, would be that the top 4 teams in the West are really good, and the Suns are too, if healthy. If you're the 8 seed, you probably have to play those teams in every round, so you are counting on Steph going nuclear for 3 straight 7-game series.....that's tough. This isn't a 2022 path to the Finals, with Dallas as the other West finalist.
I'm never counting them out, and I'd be terrified if the Cs have to play Steph in the Finals, but the West is really good at the top this year.
Yea, their own Firsts are deteriorating in value with every win. Those with their fake firsts probably get moved. The NYK's front office has been on point for a few years now.
Probably summer business, but I could see Markkanen as an upgrade on Randle, so a JR + picks may interest both teams.
I was curious if Embiid actually does miss an inordinate amount of road games, so I did a quick scan of the top 50 active scorers and their percentage of home vs road games played. Unsurprisingly most players do play slightly more often at home (39 of the 50 have more home games than road games played), but there are a few who do seem to sit more at home (Mike Conley and Gordon Hayward have the biggest split, each with 50.8% of their total games played on the road). 42 of the 50 play have between 49% and 51% of their games played on the road, leaving 8 players with more than a 2% spread between home and road games played:
Steph Curry - 48.75% road games
Jimmy Butler - 48.73% road games
Damian Lillard - 48.71% road games
John Wall - 48.69% road games
Eric Gordon - 48.54% road games
Danilo Gallinari - 47.88% road games
Kawhi Leonard - 47.23% road games
Joel Embiid - 44.16% road games
I don't think it's a coincidence that there are a lot of injury prone guys at the low end of the list, but that is a giant spread between Embiid in 50th and Kawhi in 49th (greater than the spread between Kawhi in 49th and Jeff Green in 8th). There's potentially a sample size issue with him (he's played fewer games than anyone else on this list), but for him to catch Kawhi, he'd have to play 25 straight road games. It's beyond my capability to discern whether or not he's more likely to sit against high quality opponents, but this answers pretty clearly for me that yes, he does miss an inordinate number of road games. Whether there's any specific intent behind it I don't know, but it absolutely helps to juice his per game stats over the course of a season.
Steph Curry - 48.75% road games
Jimmy Butler - 48.73% road games
Damian Lillard - 48.71% road games
John Wall - 48.69% road games
Eric Gordon - 48.54% road games
Danilo Gallinari - 47.88% road games
Kawhi Leonard - 47.23% road games
Joel Embiid - 44.16% road games
I don't think it's a coincidence that there are a lot of injury prone guys at the low end of the list, but that is a giant spread between Embiid in 50th and Kawhi in 49th (greater than the spread between Kawhi in 49th and Jeff Green in 8th). There's potentially a sample size issue with him (he's played fewer games than anyone else on this list), but for him to catch Kawhi, he'd have to play 25 straight road games. It's beyond my capability to discern whether or not he's more likely to sit against high quality opponents, but this answers pretty clearly for me that yes, he does miss an inordinate number of road games. Whether there's any specific intent behind it I don't know, but it absolutely helps to juice his per game stats over the course of a season.
I have no sympathy for Embiid at all. Availability is a skill, and if Embiid was more available, maybe his team wouldn't be 5th in the East right now. I also think its ridiculous the scoring title goes by ppg and not total points--part of the reason Embiid's ppg is so high is because he misses so many games and only plays at an optimal level.
If the following is true -
As one Sixers source indicated late Tuesday night, he has been dealing with soreness in that same left knee all season. And while Nurse indicated that the injury that forced his late exit was somehow different from the one that had been dogging him of late, the Embiid theme remained unchanged: He was battered and bruised before February even arrived, and his ability to be at his best from here on out is suddenly in serious question again.
perhaps PHI needs a new medical staff. I mean why would the medical staff let the 350 pound player run out there for this many games with a sore left knee?
If he is pressuring them to let him play because the MVP is his superbowl?
Maybe if your most important player is sore, you don't put him back into the game against the awful Spurs with 6:38 to play and up 14.
Or at least you take him out 2.5 minutes later up 15.
Oh wait, he's on pace to score 70+points... well, too bad, either you rest him because he needs rest or you play him because he can play.
But gtfoh playing the victim and talking about the the scrutiny of media and fans.
Or at least you take him out 2.5 minutes later up 15.
Oh wait, he's on pace to score 70+points... well, too bad, either you rest him because he needs rest or you play him because he can play.
But gtfoh playing the victim and talking about the the scrutiny of media and fans.
Yes but Embiid usually waits until closer to the playoffs to say that he's been hurt all season.
The thing with Embiid is that I can't really remember him completely dominating a playoff series, even a lower round series. Compare him to his peers; Jokic, Tatum, Luka and Giannis. I can vividly remember series those guys all had where they just overwhelmed the opposition and dominated in path to victory. Embiid's best series is probably against Atlanta in 2021, when he put up 30-12 on decent efficiency, but his team lost in seven games.
It's not even that he hasn't advanced past the second round, it's that he hasn't really shown an unstoppable, killer instinct in the playoff series, despite seemingly possessing the best physical attributes for doing that.
It's not even that he hasn't advanced past the second round, it's that he hasn't really shown an unstoppable, killer instinct in the playoff series, despite seemingly possessing the best physical attributes for doing that.
The numbers back this up. He drops off precipitously in the playoffs every year, and it's unfathomably bad in elimination games.
Last year against the Celtics was his big chance--I thought he was very good in games 1-5. Then Tatum had a heater at the end of game 6, and the rest is history.
So why did Philly wait so long to list his injury in the first place? If they had just listed his initial injury, it probably never would have gotten to this point.
As for Embiid, I thought he was set up pretty well 2 years ago, but then he broke his face and got concussed, ending the dream.
As for Embiid, I thought he was set up pretty well 2 years ago, but then he broke his face and got concussed, ending the dream.
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Embiid really does look hurt (and it seemed like he rushed back last night), but at this point he's a victim of the Sixers botching this (how could he not have been on the injury list prior to being declared out against Denver) and his own history of dodging more difficult games and matchups in the regular season followed by collapsing in the playoffs. Boohoo.