one more reason to play in another city? just kidding
Cold, small-market, Lilly white with recent race issues makes it a really rough NBA spot. They had all that Play-In Magic from last season and punted those vibes away. There are better NBA cities and it wouldn't shock me if moving them is part of ARod/Lore's strategy
I totally agree that taking a shot and dealing picks to do so is the way to go for such a franchise.
due to the draft equity, I'm with @lovegtm on ranking the awfulness
I agree with almost all of that (and don't think at all inconsistent with my post). As you note, what they did well was hit on a couple high draft picks---and they've blown the enormous benefit of doing so by doing pretty much everything else wrong.
Nets have been 16-3 since November 17 with (according to this article) the best offensive rating in the league, the ninth-best defensive rating in the league, and the second-best net rating. Maybe a team can obviate having two non-scorers on the floor at the same time if they have KD and KI and then TJ Warren. Also, from what I am reading (did not see the game), Simmons' defense on Giannis and Mitchell was pretty key in getting BRK their last two victories.
It would be a classic sell-low situation for MIN to trade Gobert after not even one season but who knows? The sane thing is to realize that MIN has been hit with a lot of injuries (Gobert and KAT have only played like 16 games together) and Edwards is still trying to figure out how to play with bigs. This article - https://dunkingwithwolves.com/2022/12/23/are-the-minnesota-timberwolves-actually-better-without-rudy-gobert/ - notes that Edwards plays best on offense with one big, and that big is Naz Reid, which obviously opens up the floor for him (although according to this article, MIN has rebounding issues that are exacerbated when Reid is on the floor).
No 17-year old is an NBA player but he certainly has the athleticism to develop into one. Bronny could be hindered by his lack of height which I’d say right now limits his ceiling. He’s probably in that group of 20-25 in his class who could go either way and most will ultimately fail to make it. He does have the advantage in that unlike some he will undoubtedly have every opportunity to develop.
I did some number crunching last year and looked at prospects ranked in the 40s/50s of each draft class and tried to see how many went on to relevant NBA careers, there are only like 1-2 per year basically. It's unclear how honest Bronny's ranking is, of course he is the most famous high school player in the country with a ton of attention on him. It's very unlikely that if he is ever an NBA player, he will be in only one-or-two years, which seems like the most likely way he will ever play with LeBron, unless LeBron plays until he is 45.
Yes people don’t realize how low the pct of players actually make it in the NBA. Look at how few end up being #1 picks…..then look at how few outside of top half of the lottery even make it. The odds are stacked against Bronny but as I said above, it comes down to opportunity and number of opportunities sometimes. He’s going to get them. If Austin Rivers was the son of a steel worker in Pittsburgh he never gets a second NBA contract. If Bronny can show that he can physically, and mentally, compete at this level he’ll have these same opportunities as Austin did in playing for his Dad which resurrected his career.
Rivers was the top recruit in his class though. Being Doc's son certainly got eyeballs on him at first, but he was widely regarded as top NBA prospect and they don't just do that because you have a famous father. I'd say having that pedigree as a prep player gave teams more confidence that he could eventually turn into an NBA player than just being Doc's son did.
That should be enough to get them to a top 4 seed, but they've got two sub 50% FT shooters in their starting lineup. How on earth does that hold up in the playoffs? Simmons and Claxton will have to be pulled in every 4th quarter, they'll basically need Kyrie/Durant to score 30+ each game.
Yea, not fouling Ben/Clax is coaching malpractice when the other scoring options are a hot Kyrie/KD.
Luka finished with 61/20/10, a line that only he (and maybe Jokic) could dream of. Hard to give Embiid too much credit tonight, despite his crazy numbers (and positive +/-) the sixers lost to the thoroughly mediocre wizards, snapping a nice 8 game winning streak for philly.
He dragged the entire Mavs roster back to a win. That was a statement-type performance for MVP voters, right?
I think if Luka gets the Mavs to a top 4 finish in the west, he's the favorite.
I mean, no Brunson or Barrett for NY, and the two NY guards had career highs in points (Grimes-33) and assists (Quickley-15), before collapsing because Thibs played his top 3 guards 51, 48 and 46 minutes while playing Rose just 12 minutes and Reddish 0 again.
Literally nobody has ever done it, NOBODY, not even Wilt who was 7'2" playing against 5'8" asthmatic gym teachers. going for 60/20/10 against an NBA opponent is insanity.
2 of the 3 best guys in the Association look like their best sport should be pinball
This guy student taught at my school and then joined Wilt’s Sixers. So Wilt played with a teacher. And Bobby Weiss was 6-foot-2!
These are good reasons why the Mavs shouldn't feel great about the game, but none of this diminishes Luka's unbelievable numbers.
No Ewing Effect upcoming? Getting more looks for Morris and Kispert, and more minutes to a guy like Goodwin (who I think can be a player, but I guess we'll find out) might be interesting. I know Beal has been shooting better than he has in a while, but he's still pretty bad on defense.
It could be if teams relax. We’ve seen two stretches without Beal and this team competes nearly every night. Their problem is that he’s one of their few shot creators and a real good one at that. Once he went down a 4:00 to go the Wiz really struggled getting good looks down the stretch. As an aside, Gafford really did a great job on Embiid and is quickly figuring out this league and how to consistently give effort. He’s going to be one of those “surprise” contracts that leave every saying “WTF” but he’s a keeper.
Delon Wright could help with that Ewing Effect. He brings some perimeter D that Brad doesn't offer
