Around the NBA - 2024-25 Season Continued

[FrozenEnvelope]

No player on a 13-37 team should be an All-Star. I don't care what stats they put up either.

[FrozenEnvelope]

Not sure if already mentioned but CHI was up 80-57 on GSW at the 9:07 mark in the 3rd. They ended up losing by 21 - 132-111. That’s 75-31 run in the final 21 mins Butler had 25 in his debut. Post adds a nice element as a stretch 5. Have to see if they can get some buyout guys, but they might make some noise this postseason

Is there a Matas Buzelis fan club here yet? B/c I would like to join.

https://youtu.be/

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**** like this is why it amuses me when some here kill Thibs for not taking out starters in games up like 15 with 6 minutes left.

No lead is ever safe and I would only pull the starters when the opposing team does it first. Which is what Thibs does.

[thebuzzardman]

No player on a 13-37 team should be an All-Star. I don't care what stats they put up either.

STARZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Guano]

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[spree8]

Not sure if already mentioned but CHI was up 80-57 on GSW at the 9:07 mark in the 3rd. They ended up losing by 21 - 132-111. That’s 75-31 run in the final 21 mins Butler had 25 in his debut. Post adds a nice element as a stretch 5. Have to see if they can get some buyout guys, but they might make some noise this postseason

Is there a Matas Buzelis fan club here yet? B/c I would like to join.

https://youtu.be/

Watch on YouTube

?si=Zt4CwUJNlMghVzMT

**** like this is why it amuses me when some here kill Thibs for not taking out starters in games up like 15 with 6 minutes left.

No lead is ever safe and I would only pull the starters when the opposing team does it first. Which is what Thibs does.

lol what?

[KnicksGadfly]

Not sure if already mentioned but CHI was up 80-57 on GSW at the 9:07 mark in the 3rd. They ended up losing by 21 - 132-111. That’s 75-31 run in the final 21 mins Butler had 25 in his debut. Post adds a nice element as a stretch 5. Have to see if they can get some buyout guys, but they might make some noise this postseason

Is there a Matas Buzelis fan club here yet? B/c I would like to join.

https://youtu.be/

Watch on YouTube

?si=Zt4CwUJNlMghVzMT

**** like this is why it amuses me when some here kill Thibs for not taking out starters in games up like 15 with 6 minutes left.

No lead is ever safe and I would only pull the starters when the opposing team does it first. Which is what Thibs does.

lol what?

Man is exaggerating again. He basically lies and denies reality to protect his love for Thibs.

The 15 points is a classic example. In his brain, he knows Thibs is crazy for continuing to play starters in blowouts. But his heart cannot accept this. "THIBS MUST BE PROTECTED," FrozenEnvelope screams from his soul.

What is the solution? The solution must be to deny everything else. Deny deny deny. The truth doesn't matter. Brainwash himself, if he needs to. PROTECT THIBS.

No, it's not a blowout; it's actually a 15 lead in a 6 minute game. No, it's not unreasonable to keep playing players 40 minutes; Joel Embiid keeps getting hurt so everyone needs to play 40 minutes...in fact, the Sixers are crazy for not playing him 40 minutes and in all back to backs. In fact, all this moaning and whining about Thibs is why we lost so MANY good posters over the past decade. In fact, all these posters keep whining about the postseason, when we all know the postseason doesn't exist. Thibs is forced to play Achiuwa after OG gets hurt..."see, you guys say Thibs doesn't play his bench, but he actually does!!!!"

[dakomish23]

Not sure if already mentioned but CHI was up 80-57 on GSW at the 9:07 mark in the 3rd. They ended up losing by 21 - 132-111. That’s 75-31 run in the final 21 mins Butler had 25 in his debut. Post adds a nice element as a stretch 5. Have to see if they can get some buyout guys, but they might make some noise this postseason

Is there a Matas Buzelis fan club here yet? B/c I would like to join.

https://youtu.be/

Watch on YouTube

?si=Zt4CwUJNlMghVzMT

**** like this is why it amuses me when some here kill Thibs for not taking out starters in games up like 15 with 6 minutes left.

No lead is ever safe and I would only pull the starters when the opposing team does it first. Which is what Thibs does.

How TF was that your takeaway

[Jalen Bluntson]

Not sure if already mentioned but CHI was up 80-57 on GSW at the 9:07 mark in the 3rd. They ended up losing by 21 - 132-111. That’s 75-31 run in the final 21 mins Butler had 25 in his debut. Post adds a nice element as a stretch 5. Have to see if they can get some buyout guys, but they might make some noise this postseason

Is there a Matas Buzelis fan club here yet? B/c I would like to join.

https://youtu.be/

Watch on YouTube

?si=Zt4CwUJNlMghVzMT

**** like this is why it amuses me when some here kill Thibs for not taking out starters in games up like 15 with 6 minutes left.

No lead is ever safe and I would only pull the starters when the opposing team does it first. Which is what Thibs does.

How TF was that your takeaway

[3toheadmelo]

AD out indefinitely after one game for the Mavs

You can't make this up.

I was recently reminded by a piece in the times of the quote "Against stupidity we are defenseless".

And that's exactly where the Mavs are.

Completely defenseless in the face of Nico Harrison's incompetence. The same person who fumbled Steph for Nike.

None of the rationale for trading Luka had merit. Absolutely missing the forest for the trees.

I think the issue here is getting true value for Luka, not about trading him. The conditioning and awful defense are legit reasons and it seemed like Luka didn’t care to improve on that. He had a record of being blown by in the finals and came to camp fatter than ever. So I think they had a good reason to move him, although I would’ve kept him with the hopes he eventually starts conditioning seriously at some point. What the Mavs should’ve done was create an open bidding war to get the biggest haul of all time for him.

On the other end, the Mavs definitely got better in the short term. It’s disappointing that AD got hurt though. He was absolutely dominating and the Mavs looked amazing on both ends. Healthy AD makes them title contenders and Max Christie is breaking out for them. But banking on AD’s health is incredibly risky, so it might not work out for them at all.

I mean personally I wouldn't trade Luka at this age for any player or return besides Wemby, SGA or Jokic. Maybe Chet but the list ends there.

But the process with which they traded him, and the return they got, are the most egregious part of the trade, as you said.

Luka led Dallas to the Finals last year, two years after taking them to the Conference Finals. So this notion that you can't win with him because of his flaws is just silly. He was obviously hurt against Boston, one of the main reasons why Boston hunted him (also to tire him out like the Cavs did with Curry). His defensive rating surprisingly wasn't even that bad for the series, so the Mavs defense didn't collapse with him on the court as much as the optics suggested.

Talks of culture are irrelevant when you're on the cusp of a championship. It's just meaningless talk, devoid of substance or context, and above all devoid of pragmatism. Shaq was infamously lazy, but any team would've signed him in the early 2000s.

I don't see the Mavs as contenders at all. Their window is closed, even with a healthy AD. They are first-round fodder for the foreseeable future imo. They don't have enough shot creation with AD taking Luka's place, even with a healthy Kyrie.

Luka's one of the most talented players the league has ever seen. You accept the flaws and build around that.

I definitely agree that I wouldn’t trade him just because of how talented he is. No disagreement there. However, his defense definitely limits his team from winning a chip. They pretty much attacked him on every play. I don’t care how talented you are, if this is the effort you play with you aren’t going to win a chip.

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What really forced the Mavs to trade him was that instead of coming back motivated to change the narrative about his defense and conditioning, he came back much much worse. That’s a major red flag. Let’s see if he changes the narrative on the lakers. I have my doubts and I don’t think he’s gonna win a chip there either.

From what I saw in the Mavs game against Houston, they were absolutely dominating them. They looked like a championship contender (small sample size of course). I know you hate AD but the dude won a chip for a reason. He’s the best two way big man in the league by far (unless you count Giannis).

[dakomish23]

[nykballa2k4]

I think he'll make Wemby's life easier just by being a capable scorer, and I think because he's not a true PG it will eventually mean Wemby has the ball more as an offensive engine, like Sabonis. I don't like what I've seen from Wemby playing off CP3, he's much more inclined to be a jumpshooter & finisher playing off someone that can set him up. I feel like he was creating more for others last season than he is this year.

Long term you want Wemby to start creating offense and being a hub passer, I know Fox can play off someone doing that role, I don't know if LaVine can do that. I look at it like this, the best bigs in the NBA don't need superstar teammates, it's a luxury if they have one, but Jokic won with Murray and Giannis won with Middleton.

The position they're in with the Hawks picks, and almost all of their own picks this was a no brainer move to me. If you run the tankathon right now, they're ending up with the top pick like a 1/3 of the time because they currently have 2 top 10 picks. All of this is moot if they somehow end up getting Flagg too, which is in play

That was I was about to say. Wemby will ultimately make his life easier. They still need their Manu.

This kid has a lot of two way potential.

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Great size & strength for such a young guard, he's 6'5.5" without shoes, OG is 6'6.25" without shoes.

His coach (CP3) is great at developing point guards (like SGA) so this might be his best case scenario

[Fat Kat]

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[Fat Kat]

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[Enzo954]

Not sure if already mentioned but CHI was up 80-57 on GSW at the 9:07 mark in the 3rd. They ended up losing by 21 - 132-111. That’s 75-31 run in the final 21 mins Butler had 25 in his debut. Post adds a nice element as a stretch 5. Have to see if they can get some buyout guys, but they might make some noise this postseason

Is there a Matas Buzelis fan club here yet? B/c I would like to join.

https://youtu.be/

Watch on YouTube

?si=Zt4CwUJNlMghVzMT

**** like this is why it amuses me when some here kill Thibs for not taking out starters in games up like 15 with 6 minutes left.

No lead is ever safe and I would only pull the starters when the opposing team does it first. Which is what Thibs does.

I think most of the time people in here are complaining about the starters playing when we're up 20 with 3 minutes left, not up 15 with 6 minutes left.

[ctorres]

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It should have been Domantas Sabonis. His numbers justify it and the Kings are a .500 team right now.

The only thing Irving has over Sabonis other than star power is that the Mavs are 1.5 games ahead of the Kings in the standings.

[nykballa2k4]

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It should have been Domantas Sabonis. His numbers justify it and the Kings are a .500 team right now.

The only thing Irving has over Sabonis other than star power is that the Mavs are 1.5 games ahead of the Kings in the standings.

Silver is going the Mavs a favor here...

[Fat Kat]

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[nykballa2k4]

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Dream shake at 1:17

Gifted offensive player, could be used in spurts against specific matchups

Not a bad piece to have for your 3rd or 4th center.

[Fat Kat]

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Dream shake at 1:17

Gifted offensive player, could be used in spurts against specific matchups

Not a bad piece to have for your 3rd or 4th center.

That was quite the draft thread back then

[nykballa2k4]

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Dream shake at 1:17

Gifted offensive player, could be used in spurts against specific matchups

Not a bad piece to have for your 3rd or 4th center.

That was quite the draft thread back then

Tank4Oka4
I wanted KAT and I was scared about KP

Winslow was popular, Stanley Johnson was popular.
I thought Mudiay was going to be a guy.
KAT, Payne, and Wright were all in that draft.