Around the League - Curry Out "A few weeks"

[Milbucks96]

I haven’t watched much Boston this year but I think the biggest improvement is just Tatum and Brown taking a solid step up each this year. Tatum went from top all star/all nba guy to MVP fav, and brown went from low end all star to legit all star/all nba.

Their offense will slow down a bit but their defense will get a lot better once Williams is back. Nothing about their dominance seems flukey either. They could steamroll to a ring and I wouldn’t be surprised.

[KidA24]

Hard cap would be great. Contrary to what's being reported, I do believe it will be used as a chip to get other things and ultimately dropped by the owners. We'll see.

Yeah, didn't that happen last time. Ultimately even the small owners valued BRI split more than competitive measures

Yes, crushing labor is always better for the owners than fighting one another.

[Neuromancer56]

Sheesus Boston up 45 on the Suns in the 3rd quarter?!??! and don't look now but the Nets are 4th in the east and will be 3rd soon.

[MickeyDavis]

Loved to see the Warriors choke.

Read on Twitter

Before that things got chippy

Read on Twitter

[paulpressey25]

Interestingly, Walker Kessler appears to be a more fundamentally sound player than Wiseman and Moody. And may turn out to be more valuable than Kuminga eventually.

Thank god for the leagues sake the Warriors biffed 3 lotto picks like that.

[blazza18]

Legit laughing at how Olynyk can just clumsily fall on top of Poole and nothing get called. Good job by him.

[MikeIsGood]

Before that things got chippy

Read on Twitter

I don't even care if they're right - the Warriors announcers are awful. F-tier bad announcing team.

[Antinomy]

Phoenix was 26-5 by Christmas this time last year. And what they were doing seemed a lot more sustainable.

I don’t think Boston is as good as they appear — lots of hot shooting from several of their players to start the year.

Not counting on that to hold up for 6 months.

Stylistically, I don’t see anything they are doing that puts them clear above last season — Jaylen Brown has taken a step for sure though.

We still cause them major issues with our ability to lock down the paint — imo they don’t have a way to get easy buckets in the paint once the games slow down.

[emunney]

Interestingly, Walker Kessler appears to be a more fundamentally sound player than Wiseman and Moody. And may turn out to be more valuable than Kuminga eventually.

Thank god for the leagues sake the Warriors biffed 3 lotto picks like that.

I like Moody best of those guys, but yes it's unreal how badly the Ws screwed up that opportunity. They should have Haliburton (or LaMelo), Franz Wagner, and Sengun. But really they should have traded those picks.

[Tyakack]

I think people are still sleeping on Boston a bit if that’s possible. They are not just a good team, they are a juggernaut.

I agree with the first part and disagree with the second. SOME people are literally saying what we are doing is a fluke. I'm sorry but flukes don't last this long into the season. On the other hand when you say "juggernaut" I think of a team that can't be beat unless they beat themselves. Not willing to go there yet. I definitely think the bucks could beat them in a 7 game series. I wouldn't favorite them but they could win. You still have giannis. Long way to go. Being the favorite in December means literally nothing.

[Pachinko_]

Really sucks what a good fit Brogdon is in Boston.

He's gone from wanting to start and being concerned about Milwaukee segregation to not starting in possibly the most racist city in the north.

But yeah, he's perfect on any team in his current role

I'll never blame a man for getting $21m a year which he was never gonna get from us.
Everybody was getting paid and he was still on a rookie contract at age 26 and with questionable health.
He did the right thing for himself.

[Turk Nowitzki]

I think you have to tip your cap to Boston and I'm ok with that. They have to be considered the best team and frontrunners at the quarter mark of the season. Their best players are in their mid 20's and still hungry after losing the Finals so they have the youth and motivation to go hard every night. We've seen first hand that crushing the regular season doesn't guarantee anything come playoff time. If they keep up this level and it comes down to us as a #2 seed vs. then as the #1 then I can live with that. Could they beat us again, sure they could, there's no easy path to the Finals. We just have to make sure it's a ECF series this year and not the 2nd round.

[Ron Swanson]

Lol there's absolutely no one "sleeping" on Boston at this point. They're the Vegas betting favorites and getting talked about in Block A of every national sports talk segment/show and podcast. As has been discussed, the only thing fluke-ish is their 3PT shooting. If anyone wants to go ahead and believe that they're gonna continue to shoot like the 73-win Warriors on 10 more attempts per game throughout an 82-game season and playoff stretch, then be my guest. But it ain't happening. I do fully expect their defense to settle in the Top-10 to make up for the inevitable cooling off though, so really it's just a matter of who's gonna try-hard more for the 1-seed between us, Boston, and Cleveland.

[soxperry]

the real edge for Boston is that they haven't won a title and are coming off of a finals loss. theres just a different, desperate kind of energy and focus that comes with that. Its what powered us through to our victory. When the time comes, i hope we can match that somehow.

[CharityStripe34]

No one's sleeping on Boston. They've been the best team out of the gate and are clearly playing with a chip on their shoulder. But they're not some unstoppable juggernaut. For as sluggish as the Bucks have looked at times, they're only two games behind Boston.

I think more people are sleeping on Brooklyn. They're now #4 and playing quietly better.

[BigO]

I wouldn't count on Boston's shooting to drop significantly. What makes them dangerous is that everyone can shoot and everyone is switchable defensively. The Bucks can't say that, nor can any other team.

What boggles my mind is how the Pacers gave Brogdon away for a late draft pick.

[ShootingtheJ]

I wouldn't count on Boston's shooting to drop significantly. What makes them dangerous is that everyone can shoot and everyone is switchable defensively. The Bucks can't say that, nor can any other team.

What boggles my mind is how the Pacers gave Brogdon away for a late draft pick.

Sure, but it only seems like a terrible deal until Brogdon gets hurt and misses 40 games.

[Ruben Quevedo]

Lol there's absolutely no one "sleeping" on Boston at this point. They're the Vegas betting favorites and getting talked about in Block A of every national sports talk segment/show and podcast. As has been discussed, the only thing fluke-ish is their 3PT shooting. If anyone wants to go ahead and believe that they're gonna continue to shoot like the 73-win Warriors on 10 more attempts per game throughout an 82-game season and playoff stretch, then be my guest. But it ain't happening. I do fully expect their defense to settle in the Top-10 to make up for the inevitable cooling off though, so really it's just a matter of who's gonna try-hard more for the 1-seed between us, Boston, and Cleveland.

Even if their shooting comes back to earth, it’s still going to be very very good. They almost always have 5 guys on the floor who can shoot (sometimes smart is off but sometimes you have to respect him) and the 3’s are usually open and generated within the flow of the offense. These aren’t high degree of difficulty looks.

And even if the 3’s aren’t falling, they have 2 guys who can score in the midrange and multiple guys who can get to the basket and score in the paint (especially when the defense is stretched out guarding their shooters).

They really don’t have any glaring weakness that I can see. They can play small or big, they can score efficiently at all 3 levels, they get to the line, they can defend bigs, wings, and guards, they defend the paint and the 3 point line, they’re deep, they’re tough, they move the ball and play as a team, and they have a legit star player who can carry them in crunch time. To my eyes they are the best non warriors/heat team of the last 15 years.

[Ron Swanson]

Yes, they'll still be a very good team even when they cool off from 3. There's also a massive difference between "very very good" and "statistically the greatest offense ever".

[Prez]

I think the Celtics have earned the right to be considered the clear favorites at this time. But we’ve seen too many examples of teams that look like dominant title favorites in the regular season fall flat on their face in the postseason (2020 Bucks, 2022 Suns as recent examples) and also too many examples of teams that are just kinda chilling in the RS crank up the intensity to 11 in the playoffs and win it all (2016 Cavs, 2021 Bucks, 2022 Warriors) to put too much weight on who looks the in December.

I’d like to see how they handle our size/physicality with a full squad. Giannis, Brook, Bobby pose issues that pretty much nobody else does and we got two borderline all-stars next to them as well. I’m kinda hoping we get multiple healthy matchups this year, not just the Christmas one.

If people want to favor Boston that makes sense to me. But give me a healthy top 8 in our rotation and I’m rolling with 34.