2023-2024 General NBA Season Thread
- Thread starter BigSoxFan
- Start date
OG will guard the opponent's #1 WING threat, which lets the rest of the Knick defenders guard down.
Plus OG is very aware & helps 1-5
Agreed, he matters a lot more than Randle.
I'm hoping they finish 2nd, the Heat finish 6th, the Sixers win the play-in, and we get to see Giannis-Embiid round 1.
Heck, if they end up paired against Indy in the first round, I could see them one and done against them as well. Indy is a terrible matchup for them.
Yes. But a part of me wants Philly as the 8 seed. Tatum and the Celtics knocking Embiid and the Sixers out of the playoffs for the fourth time in the seven years both those guys made the playoffs would be satisfying.
He’s been healthy all year though. Aside from LeBron and DAR the rest of team has underachieved in the non in-season games.
Yeah I was/am hoping for the OKC hype train. The Lakers should be a significant favorite in that series I’m hoping it occurs and is as close to a pick as possible.
MVP voting is easy when you just look at vertical leap, skin color, and call it a day!
It was funny when he was showing that chart of guys who had huge on/offs on teams that were also really good.....
.....you know who else is on that chart, his entire career, and yet continually gets ranked behind Luka?
Also, wow, these Luka defense clips are damning, and they weren't even intended to be.
Embiid looked ready to keel over and die the other day, too, and was walking and landing gingerly on that leg. He wasn't trying at all on D, either. Philly wouldn't scare me much at all, having watched Embiid (Despite his decent-good results).
Yeah. He’s big. He can shoot. He can pass. He was late or nonexistent everywhere on defense. He’s out of breath a lot
Sort of reminded me of a more buff Magic Johnson,
I mean when Magic came back in 1996.
Much like the JAYs were too early with a flawed roster around them a few years ago, the same applies to OKC.
The NBA media will have a ball labeling JDub, SGA, & Chet chokers because they had a great regular season
Not only are they way way WAY too early but they are missing critical elements of a playoff rotation that will be exposed in their lack of interior size and physicality….and already have been even in the regular season.Much like the JAYs were too early with a flawed roster around them a few years ago, the same applies to OKC.
The NBA media will have a ball labeling JDub, SGA, & Chet chokers because they had a great regular season
This always seemed fairly inevitable.
He was out for the season even if with immediate surgery so probably no real harm done by giving the rehab a try.
Luka's defense is a perfect mix of not giving a damn combined with a lack of quickness or hops.
Kyrie's ball-handling on offense with a disinterested Luka standing around at the half-court is brutal. Makes Ky's life twice as hard. MVP Harden used to also turn himself into a potted plant when he didn't have the ball on offense.
Shouldn’t rest/rehab allow him to play though? It sounds as though this is purely a business decision which I have no problem with since this is first and foremost a business. The team cannot be happy with this decision however….like legit pissed off and done with him.
Not necessarily. When you dislocate your shoulder, you usually tear your anterior/anterior-inferior labrum and also sometimes chip of a piece of bone from your anterior glenoid. If the labral tear and fracture are minor enough, sometimes you are lucky and they will heal and scar down enough to get stability back.
Plenty of times these things don't heal well and the despite time/rehab, the shoulder is still unstable and you need surgery to fix things. I can understand why they hoped rehab would work (surgery right away meant 6 month recovery anyway), but sounds like even after a couple months things still aren't healed enough for them clear him.
If it was purely a business decision, he probably would have just had surgery right away and been out for the season at that point.
Charles Lee expected to be considered for the CHA job.
https://www.audacy.com/weei/sports/celtics/celtics-assistant-candidate-for-hornets-head-coaching-job
https://www.audacy.com/weei/sports/celtics/celtics-assistant-candidate-for-hornets-head-coaching-job
Yeah, Rui was mostly injured, and there were a lot of other injuries to the supporting cast types. Not devastating like losing a superstar would have been so easy to overlook. But not only did it take away key supporting pieces,, but it also seemed to open the door to some questionable decisions by Ham -- namely benching first Reaves and then D Russell, playing Cam Reddish (!) and Taurean Prince way too many minutes
As cited in another post, the Lakers simply having their 5 best players healthy (well, 5 of their best 6 or 7, depending on how one rates Vanderbilt and Vincent) and actually starting them has been the key to turn them once again into an above average team. Go figure that playing your best players the most would have good results. .That said, while they really are a terrific offensive team with the current 5, the bench still sucks and the defense is not good -- Reaves and D'lo are very sub-standard defensively so, while Ham was stupid to bench them, I can kind of see what he was trying to do...desperately create a more balanced team by playing guys like Reddish way more than he should have.
I did predict that both the Lakers and the Warriors would go on runs and I still stand by that -- it wouldn't surprise me if either somehow turn into formidable playoff teams. Given how good AD and LBJ are when locked in, I could see the Lakers building off this current run and be competitive once the games really start to count. Not that I think they could win the West...but get out of the play-in to the playoffs and then win a series? Sure.. Per the mention above about a Lakers-OKC play off series, the Lakers could really give the Thunder trouble due to match-ups. On the flip, the Nuggets and T-wolves would likely dispense of L.A. without much trouble.
The West is super stacked this year.
Brunson is a hell of a player, but he does that Tre Young sniper head shot cranium snap back thing (TYSHSCSBT) whenever there’s any contact, which makes me hate him.
Mike Brown would be getting some heat if he was a Cs coach rn. Knicks are starting to stone the Kings and not a TO in sight
Miami with one bucket (a highly contested three from Scary Terry) in the last eight minutes.
HEAT CULTURE
HEAT CULTURE
"Mazzulla is learning and getting better at the stuff we keep saying he needs to get better at" has been one of the most underrated and under-discussed parts of this legendary season.
Now we just need him to draw up some genius ATO plays that get a dunk with a little trickery... and then have the camera cut to Brad Stevens, high up in his suite, nodding sagely with a half smile.
i’d like to point out once they took a 3 point lead with like 2 minutes to go the sixers abandoned any offensive scheme and just isod maxey every trip
Did you count the dribbles? My favorite thing of the '23-24 regular season is that legions of "film nerds" are now studying end of game ISOs like its the Zapruder film.
Ham benched Reaves, Dlo, and Rui (Rui also had an early injury) due to them starting the season slowly for Cam Reddish and Taurean Prince. Darvin Ham simply decided that the thing that was incredibly effective through the end of the season/playoffs was not the identity and as soon as he put the playoff starting 5 back as the starters they made the run. That's it, that's literally the big "switch" that they flipped.
View: https://twitter.com/jeaniezk/status/1775257074152460595
A little more color on that change, which doesn't even really reflect Prince's ability but him just being placed in a role he's able to be more effective
Wait! Did I miss a Laker “run” or something? They’ve beaten a bunch of lottery and play-in teams the past 3 weeks, many by single digits, with their only quality win being against Milwaukee….who just lost 4 of 5 including the last two to Memphis and Washington.
They’ve taken care of business in games they have been favored in but I’m talking about flipping the switch like they did during the IST when they approached them like playoff games and executed like it.
Shhh, let them delude themselves.
It's just a matter of days before Laker Nation starts talking about a rematch with Denver in the WC Finals.
I’m a bigger fan of a LeBron/AD playoff team stepping up than I am of the Heat doing so which says a lot! But they certainly haven’t flipped any switch yet nor would I expect them to until the games really mattered.
Denver gets beat and not a peep, hmmm.
Must be a time zone thing, but they probably have the biggest home-court advantage with their altitude. I'm hoping it takes them multiple long series of huge Joker/Murray minutes before the Finals.
Must be a time zone thing, but they probably have the biggest home-court advantage with their altitude. I'm hoping it takes them multiple long series of huge Joker/Murray minutes before the Finals.
Denver’s bench stinks. It’s 33-year old Reggie Jackson and a whole lot of nothing. Their starters are going to have to eat a whole lot of minutes to make the finals.
Yeah, DEN only playing 20 playoff games last year was a real boost to them, particularly in terms of Murray's health, which sometimes seems to be somewhat tenuous (he's missed the last six games). Hopefully the Cs can get some playoff karma like DEN got last year.
Jokic and Murray are as dangerous of a playoff tandem as there is in the league. Now that Gordon has learned how to play off him the bench isn’t going to be much of a factor except for eating a few minutes each half.
Agreed, but I'm with Wade, Jamal Murray's health is tenuous at best. We need a bunch of long WC series & Malone running their TOP5 into the ground w/out many choices.
Nugget Nation puckers' up when Joker sits for those 8 minutes or when Jamal limps.
Yeah, I’m just saying it’s a heavy burden, and they likely won’t be getting the same cakewalk through the finals they had last year.
No def not the west won’t be easy.
Jokic won’t be sitting 8 min in the playoffs though. He’ll again be in the low to mid-40’s. If Murray ankle is a problem that obv hurts them a lot but I expect him to be rested until the playoffs and be at full strength. If this weren’t the end of the season he’d probably already be out there.
You're right, they are going to have to ride Joker hard this year. That bench is pedestrian. Hope the Lakers draw them in R1 since those games were somewhat tight last year. AD, Bron, & Laker rim runs will bump Nikola's wear-n-tear
FWIW Joker was a shade under 40 in their 16-4 playoff cakewalk & only went above 43 mins twice
Luka is so flashy and looks so good but god do players look worse around Luka. It is weird how a guy who averages ~10 assists a game routinely has guys leave his team and look better for it. It is pretty clear it is better to play with Tatum than Luka, and honestly I don't see a path for Luka to win a Championship as a 1A with Tatum, SGA, Joker, and Wemby in the league.
It's pretty obvious why when you watch the tape. He literally just stands there if he's not initiating. His screens are a joke.
Now, one might say "oh, well he obviously needs to rest if he's initiating on the other possessions." To which the obvious response is "huh, maybe my-turn-your-turn offense isn't actually as valuable as holistic offense, including screening and movement, that stresses the defense more continuously?"
I will die on the hill of Tatum being a better offensive player than Luka, particularly if you have good surrounding players. Personality....quirks...aside, I think Tatum+Kyrie would destroy the league.
Durant has a similar issue to Luka, in terms of his overall impact being less than you'd think based on his numbers, due to not stressing the defense as much when he's not initiating.
I completely agree on Durant. I actually started a post the other day to argue Durant was (while historically awesome) also overrated relative to others who he's often mentioned with. That's a relative statement---he's one of the 20 greatest players of all time--but may be the only one of those 20 who isn't actually a great 'alpha' on a team. W hich, which I know some will argue, I beleive is the reality of Durant especially today
Thinking Basketball piece on Luka which (without having yet watched the whole thing) touches on a lot of the stuff written here: View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dZfufGaRhHg
i think people were discussing it because this video was posted a few posts up