NBA Games Discussion Thread - Part 5

[FAH1223]

Tyrese Haliburton in a win against Philly last night:

33 points on an .817 TS%
15 assists
0 turnovers

As Kevin Broom has repeated since November 2020.

Haliburton should have been the pick.

[Kanyewest]

Warriors are now 6-7- no Warrior has scored more than 20 since Steph has been injured.

[montestewart]

Warriors are now 6-7- no Warrior has scored more than 20 since Steph has been injured.

They need Poole! Maybe Wizards can trade Poole and Unseld for Kerr

[bsilver]

Watched the Clippers beat the Rockets in an exciting game last night. I was ready to jump on the anti-Harden bandwagon, but he played really well and hit the winning shot.

Harden isn't the problem. At least right now. They're just really old and don't have much depth. They can't seem to put out full effort the whole game. Maybe they're a team better suited to the playoffs rather than the regular season.

[tontoz]

Warriors are now 6-7- no Warrior has scored more than 20 since Steph has been injured.

Wiggins is one of only 2 players in the league with a worse bpm than Poole. He's been horrible.

[TGW]

Tyrese Haliburton in a win against Philly last night:

33 points on an .817 TS%
15 assists
0 turnovers

As Kevin Broom has repeated since November 2020.

Haliburton should have been the pick.

Yea. He also had Sengun the year Kispert was picked.

This year is the first time I’ve seen the Wizards draft Kevin’s pick.

[payitforward]

Tyrese Haliburton in a win against Philly last night:
33 points on an .817 TS%
15 assists
0 turnovers

As Kevin Broom has repeated since November 2020.
Haliburton should have been the pick.

Yea. He also had Sengun the year Kispert was picked....

Dat2U also argued hard that Halliburton was the right guy to pick. & he had a few supporters here as well.

Since Halliburton is by far the best player to have come out of the 2020 draft it's obvious that Dat & Kev & anyone else who pushed for him

Given that he went at 12, & the only player picked before him who has turned into anything special is Lamelo Ball (but Lamelo is by no means Halliburton's equal!), I think we can agree that, yeah, he'd have been the right pick at 9.

Keep in mind that there are simply NO drafts where there's a high correlation between how good a player picked that year was & the position where he was picked (outside of the first 3, that is). Since we are looking at 2020, we might as well confirm that statement by taking a little more of a look.

Of the 11 guys taken before Halliburton, only 3 -- Ball, Okoro, & Okongwu -- have established themselves as consistently above average NBA players. Edwards will have his admirers, & he is pretty good it's true. Some might want to add Obi Toppin.

But, almost all of the other best players taken that year were picked far later. My list by pick position, not who's the best of the best, would be:

Josh Green (18)
Tyrese Maxey (21)
Immanuel Quickley (25)
Desmond Bane (30)
Xavier Tillman (35)
Tre Jones (41)
Isaiah Joe (49)
KMart Jr. (52)

Certainly, every single one of them is a ton better than the #2 pick (Wiseman), the #4 pick (Patrick Williams), the #7 pick (Killian Hayes), the #8 pick (Toppin), the #9 pick (Deni), the #10 pick (Jalen Smith), &* the #11 pick (Devin Vassell).

[tontoz]

Hawks and pacers have combined for over 300 pts in regulation.

[nate33]

Hawks and pacers have combined for over 300 pts in regulation.

They need rule changes. This is ridiculous.

[closg00]

Hawks and pacers have combined for over 300 pts in regulation.

Those are all-star game numbers, crazy

[Kanyewest]

Tyrese Haliburton in the win: 37/5/16 on 88% TS. Trae Young despite the loss: 38/1/8 on 93% TS

[gambitx777]

Hawks and pacers have combined for over 300 pts in regulation.

They need rule changes. This is ridiculous.

They need to bring some physical stuff back into defence. Make size and strength matter again. Beat these guys up a bit. Make the paint a bit more dangerous, being back the hand check loosen up fouls.

Sent from my SM-G991U1 using RealGM mobile app

[pancakes3]

fellas, this is the desired result of rule changes. definitely making the product less watchable though. i think even younger fans realize that watching players walk up and exchange logo 3's is boring. fans who grew up in every decade can watch the 2002 kings or 2014 spurs and say "yeah, that's a beautiful game."

i don't want to Bad Boys defenses brought back but i do think there needs to be some rule changes:

1) gotta start cracking down hard on carries and palming + bring back handchecking. this is probably the biggest offensive advantage that modern players have. average players can blow past good defenders if they're allowed to carry.
2) the travel. i have no idea what a gather step is, and why it's not counted as a step.
3) change how blocking fouls/charges/offensive fouls are called entirely. it's not fair to require the defender, as the reactive player, to be entirely set but allow the offensive player, as the initiating player, to be out of control. i think it should be based on who initiates contact, and maybe some requirement of the defender to be square to to offensive player. needing your feet set just incentives players to get out of the way and give up layups.
4) adopt FIBA goaltending (once it hits the rim, it's up for grabs, even if it's in the cylinder). if you don't like it, swish the ball.
5) not related to scoring, but adopt FIBA rules in general. if you want to make the NBA international, you either force FIBA to play like the NBA or make the NBA play like FIBA.

[tontoz]

The thing that bugs me about the current game is how easy it is to get to the foul line. The offensive player can just lean in and get a call routinely and nobody is that interested in watching foul shots.

[Kanyewest]

No Beal, but the Suns have won 7 in a row. Jordan Goodwin has been very good for them in the outing 14 points on 6-10 shooting, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, and 0 turnovers. Durant was also out, but Booker with the finishing touches to close out the game.

[AFM]

Watch on YouTube

[payitforward]

No Beal, but the Suns have won 7 in a row. Jordan Goodwin has been very good for them in the outing 14 points on 6-10 shooting, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, and 0 turnovers. Durant was also out, but Booker with the finishing touches to close out the game.

For sure!

Booker is playing in the stratosphere!

Plus they're getting a H@ll of a lot of production from journeymen! Not just Goodwin but also Nassir Little, Josh Okogie, Keita Bates-Diop & Grayson Allen.

[tontoz]

Giddey's TS is 47%.

I didn't realize he was that bad.

[nate33]

Giddey's TS is 47%.

I didn't realize he was that bad.

Yeah, he was impressive as a 19-year-old in his rookie year because of his size, ball handling and basketball IQ. But people were projecting that he would develop a jumper to open things up. That never really happened.

At this point, he is basically the 2022 version of Deni Avdija - with better passing and worse defense. Like Avdija he regressed in his 3rd season (at least so far). The question is, will he be a late bloomer and blow up in his 4th year like Avdija did? Or is this basically all he is going to be? In his defense, I'm sure he is having a tough time focusing on basketball given the off-the-court rumors.

Another problem is, because of his draft pedigree and the OKC hype, I think it's highly doubtful he will sign a contract anywhere near as friendly as Avdija's. His next contract will probably be in the $20M per year range - and that's a lot of money for a "connector" type of player who doesn't shoot well and is merely average on D.

[FAH1223]

Lakers win the first NBA Cup.

LeBron is the MVP of the Tournament.

The Pacers offense looked the worst I've seen it this year. LAL has a lot of wings and AD quarterbacking.

AD was dominant last night.