NBA 23/24:season

eagle eye

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121318165#Comment_121318165

This hate word?

Lots of people just think it's pointless. The object of every season is to make the playoffs and try win a championship.

They already created the play in to add extra games. Now it's a nothing tournament. How can anybody get excited about that?

I think it's just ruining the regular season which I love.

I'm not a hater just somebody who is happy as things have been for many years.

I just don't see what this will add to the season. It's nearly like something that would entice me not to watch for a couple of weeks. I presume it won't affect the standings. If that's the case I'll just give it a miss like I do the all-star stuff.

That doesn't make me a hater, just somebody who is not interested in it.

ButtersSuki

Jesus, I just woke up to see Wemby went for 38 and 10 v Phoenix…..in his 4th NBA game. Wow.

Carcharodon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121318222#Comment_121318222

Fair enough, you don’t like it, everyone is entitled to their opinion. I’ll just wait until it plays out to give my opinion, I may very well not like it but I hope it’s a success, nothing wrong with adding another competition for nba teams for me, it gives anothe team an opportunity to win something like other sports do, obviously it won’t be the main objective of the top tier teams but for mid teams it gives a little extra motivation for these teams as it gives them an opportunity to win something now rather than the constant building for the future stuff

Osmosis Jones

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121318222#Comment_121318222

I'm not sure how it's ruining the regular season when all it's doing is making certain regular season games also count towards the In-Season Tournament standings.

For example, tonight's games are all part of the tournament. They count towards the regular season standings like any other game, but they also contribute to the Tournament stats.

Osmosis Jones

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121318243#Comment_121318243

He's looking exactly as "cheat code" as the remaining 29 teams could possibly fear.

Looking forward to seeing him match up with some strong frontcourts to see if they can stop him.

hole in my lovelywall

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121318487#Comment_121318487

Unreal, already.

He can only get better.

He’s so well spoken too. Seems very well trained, and smart.

Here’s hoping he won’t succumb to any serious injury.

pjohnson

I wonder when Spurs will push the contend button Pop will want another go, thats why he signed the 5 year deal.

They have a truckload of cap space so could theortically become very aggressive if they want.

Corvo

Any good point guard worth his salt will want to play with Wemby. You can feed him all day and you know he'll cover you on the perimeter at times and erase mistakes in the paint.

I can see them pushing that compete button very quickly - 12 - 24 months.

Osmosis Jones

Another reason to like the in-season tournament is that it gives a chance for players on the worse/younger teams to experience meaningful matches.

I doubt Portland win 25 games this year so the 4 games against these opponents are the only time I'll see them play some high-stakes basketball.

Zero-Cool

I wasn't a fan of this tournament but whatever motivates the players to play harder (or play at all), I'm all for. I'm all for shortening the regular season as a lot of games just don't have much stake for players. If this drives players to push that extra bit, I'm all for it.

eagle eye

I'd see this tournament as the perfect time to rest starters.

Osmosis Jones

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121322835#Comment_121322835

You know it's still a regular season game right? It still counts as 1 of 82.

ButtersSuki

Just watched highlights from last night’s games. Those courts are very hard on the eyes, it is not an enjoyable or enhanced experience. It’s too distracting tbh.

ButtersSuki

I watched the full SA v Phoenix game the other night. One thing Wemby does that isn’t captured in stats but is way more obvious with him than even Gobert is you see players (guards especially) go into the lane on a drive and then see him or catch a glimpse of him in their peripheral vision and even though they’ve beaten their primary defender they change direction and leave the lane completely or pass etc. He might never lead the league in blocked shots but he stops so many shots before they actually become shots just by his presence. Even Booker had one where he blew by his defender and normally would take the lay up but made a bad pass as soon as he saw Wemby covering.

eagle eye

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121322966#Comment_121322966

If it's a tournament does the later rounds count as regular season games?

If they do then do fixtures get reset afterwards so that the best teams don't meet each other more times?

Osmosis Jones

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121323303#Comment_121323303

Not sure how they structure it so teams aren't playing opposition too often, but yeah every game (including quarter and semi finals) aside from the actual final itself will be part of the 82 regular season games.

The final itself is not part of the 82, that game will exist outside the regular season and be solely for the trophy.

2smiggy

https://twitter.com/TheHoopCentral/status/1723196561591865392?t=cjJ6__w-ULS91BqKMiQMDg&s=19

..

Whoever goes furthest out of Denver and Dallas wins the championship.

Celtics look like they have a procession to the Eastern finals.

Bucks are muck.

hole in my lovelywall

Would love to see Luka in serious MVP contention this year. He’s earned it.

ButtersSuki

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121357136#Comment_121357136

I love Luka, he's probably my favourite player to watch (along with Curry and Jokic maybe); but Dallas' great start shouldn't I feel be seen as indicative of how their season will go. They're still far too dependent on him.

irishguitarlad

This Clippers team are ass, to lose 5 on the trot now with the 5th loss tonight against such a depleted Grizzlies team. Make it 6 in a row when they lose to Denver the next night.

Osmosis Jones

Harden with the worst +/- on the court in 3 of his first 4 for LA.

Corvo

It's been a disaster so far for the Clippers, its been pretty obvious for awhile that with regards Harden that -

• His offensive ability has taken a huge hit
• His assist numbers seem to be down (compared to feeding Embild quite easily)
• His defense is even worse than ever, and it was never good to begin with
• His attitude / patience with teams is at an all time low. He was playing with the reigning MVP and still wanted out - is he even wanting to win?
• Westbrooks time at the Lakers showed how bad he is with a ball dominant player like LeBron, why did the Clippers think that putting a even more ball dominant player in Harden beside him would work? Fair enough, Westbrook is now on a team friendly deal but its obviously totally jarred the team and its make up

He's not alone of course, Paul George had 7 turnovers last night and as a whole, a depleted Grizzlies team crawling along at 1-8 record before the game should not be beating the Clippers.

I can only think that its true that Harden is wildly popular among superstar players and that they pushed the front office for the trade.

Because if not the GM needs a serious shake.

How long before Harden asks out?

Corvo

Some shocking stats, courtesy of The Athletic -

• Harden: 13.5 points per game, 5.0 rebounds, 4.3 assists, 2.5 turnovers, 47.2/36.8/100 shooting splits, minus-67 on court.
• Kawhi Leonard: Before: 23 points, plus-80| Since: 18.8 points, minus-35
• Paul George: Before: 28.8 points, plus-87 | Since: 17 points, minus-26
• Russell Westbrook: Before: 57.2 true shooting percentage, plus-64 | Since: 48.2 true shooting percentage, minus-28

Osmosis Jones

Kawhi, PG, and Harden are 32, 33, and 34. They don't have a single first round pick until their own in 2030, that's 6 drafts in a row without a FRP. They are well and truly in hell if they don't defy all expectations and win a championship.

Osmosis Jones

6 losses on the bounce for the Clippers now.

Draymond likely in for a decent suspension now after this last night:

irishguitarlad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121370187#Comment_121370187

Nah I doubt it will be lengthy. He plays for the NBA's darling team, belongs to Clutch Sports, is friends with LeBron and all the U.S superstars, going to be on tnt when Chuck retires. He's well protected.

pjohnson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121365869#Comment_121365869

They need to sign DeMarcus Cousins.

Plug Cousins in for Zubac at center and they've a potential circa-2018 All Star starting lineup.

Osmosis Jones

Kawhi is also not playing anywhere close to what they're hoping.

He's often referred to as "Top 5 when healthy" and I would've agreed but he's healthy right now and he's playing bad. Maybe he figures it out, but maybe this is closer to his actual level now after all the injuries.

ButtersSuki

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121372312#Comment_121372312

Look at how well he played in his last few games (play offs last year, lakers game earlier this season). The problem is Harden is totally unsuited to be the Point Guard. Leonard is an iso-heavy player, so is Harden. There’s only one ball. It was always going to be the case that he got less shots with Harden on board.

Its really astonishing that everyone bar the clippers it seems saw this and could see it wasn’t going to work.

ButtersSuki

Draymond going full Draymond with his second ejection this week, both of which were pretty stupid btw.

Corvo

Draymond gets 5 games and somehow also happened to turn opinion around on one of the most disliked players in the league in Rudy Gobert

Osmosis Jones

5 games is more than I expected and less than I think he deserves.

These incidents are far too common from him, it's his second ejection in like a week and we're still not far of the stamp on Sabonis (and that's not even considering his 10 years of incidents prior)

eagle eye

Is he trying to get cut or something?

pjohnson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121375245#Comment_121375245

Even by his standards he seems to be really loosing it recently.

ButtersSuki

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121372146#Comment_121372146

Except it’s 2023-24….

ButtersSuki

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121376482#Comment_121376482

Agreed.

ButtersSuki

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121375245#Comment_121375245

Completely agree on your opening statement. I think he should have got 10 games for that.

ButtersSuki

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121375355#Comment_121375355

I have seen some stuff online that he wants to play with LeBron in LA. He does seem to be craving LeBron’s attention at times, witness Iguadola’s gesturing after they were chummy chummy last year….was funny.

pjohnson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121378323#Comment_121378323

That was the joke. The Clippers are a good few years late with the team building.

2smiggy

Watching the Celtics play in Toronto, where the play in tournament floor not only is an assault on my eyes, but also changing colour

Osmosis Jones

Really can't get over how bad the Pistons are, they're in for another season of being the worst team in the NBA despite having seemingly plenty of talent in Cade, Ivey, Duren, and Thompson, and the second highest paid coach in the NBA.

2-13 this season, making it 4-31 over their last 35 games.

eagle eye

Pistons have always been the same. I remember when they had Grant Hill, one of the best in the league and all they needed was to put a few decent players around him and they'd be serious contenders but no, they brought in players with questionable characters and wasted his time there. Hill left because of it.

eagle eye

So all these, imo stupid, team changes by the Celtics. Exact same record at the same stage as last year.

Scoring less, better defense are the differences.

2smiggy

the celtics look a lot better than last year IMO. bad loss last night, but a few missing and the end of a road trip.

eagle eye

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121396648#Comment_121396648

It was exactly the same last year. Brogdon and Horford missed a couple of games.

11-3 just like last year.

As I said they scored more last year but conceded more as well. The average gap in points was very similar.

How you can come to the conclusion that they are better this year with the same record is beyond me?

I can't remember every game obviously but I know they beat the Bucks and Heat early and I'm not sure if the Nuggets was in the first 14 games but it was early on for sure

Can we all gather in prayer that Caruso gets the f*ck out of Chicago...

pjohnson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121396895#Comment_121396895

I think this era of Chicago must be one of the biggest "what ifs" ever.

If they had Lonzo at the point surrounded by DeRozan and LaVine with Vooch in the middle (need to find a better fit beside Vooch at the 4 granted) I think they'd be competing quite well.

But with Lonzo just being crippled throughout his time they've just meandered aimlessly.

Zero-Cool

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121396895#Comment_121396895

It's bizarre watching them. They're actually a great squad but they're not gelling at all. Talks of Lavine jumping ship which I'd be for but they need to keep AC, his hustle is an absolute joy to watch. And as much as I want him to stay with the Bulls to help them, he deserves to be on a note successful team.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121397284#Comment_121397284

I get ya regarding Lonzo but they've known for far longer than the public that he was fucked and wasn't coming back and made no moves to address it.

I've always said LaVine was a criminal max contract. Quite possibly the worst "franchise player" in NBA history, a total joke that got his reputation from an uncontested dunk competition.

DeRozan is on the decline and is still more important than prime "Fly 8" (what c*nt came up with that nickname for such a sh*t player??)

Vooch gets the most hassle from fans because of what we gave up for him but **** it, I love Vooch, him and Caruso I have nothing but love for, they play ball every night.

AKME are worse than GarPax. Two even clueless-er pricks.

Bulls are f*cked until at least the 2040s but hopefully we're not around by then an I can go follow another team.

F*ck. F*ck. F*ck being a Bulls fan.