GT: Charlotte Vs Washington - April 10th 3:30pm

[amcoolio]

When you finish 9th or worse in a 15 team conference 14 times out of 17 seasons, lose embarrassing games against bottom feeders Detroit, Houston, Sacramento and Portland, when just one win would get you to the 8 seed, you tend to get a little jaded.

I have zero confidence in winning a single elimination game in Atlanta, I feel it will be very similar to last year where we got ass-blasted by Indy on national television. The players and coach aren't up for it and needed two chances to get in. Hope I'm wrong

[Bassman]

Win percentage last 3 seasons 35, 45, and now 52. I think we win 50 games next season.

We don’t win 50 without a significant addition, ideally at center, but could be at the 4 as well.

[BigSlam]

Well, that was less than convincing.

Up until the 4th quarter that is.

[yosemiteben]

When you finish 9th or worse in a 15 team conference 14 times out of 17 seasons, lose embarrassing games against bottom feeders Detroit, Houston, Sacramento and Portland, when just one win would get you to the 8 seed, you tend to get a little jaded.

There's basically a 4 way tie 7 through 10, and 4 games over .500 is a much better performance than that seeding normally suggests.

MIA, the current 1 seed, lost games this season to all those teams you mentioned.

[KembaWalker]

so I'm not crazy right, LaMelo has definitely ascended to another level the last couple weeks. he looks bigger physically, is playing stronger. looks 100x more comfortable in the half court (sloppy beginning of this game aside). i'm not a x's and o's guru but it looks like the staff has expanded his playbook. I was doom and gloom when the "play LaMelo off the ball for IT" thing hit the press whenever that was, thankfully that was overstated immensely and to me it looks like they've just straight up increased his workload with some added off the ball stuff on top of his other duties and he's thrived in it. even defensively he's looking better and better to me aside from the fouling problem , he isn't lockdown (if you believe in the concept of a lockdown guard, I don't think such a thing exists or is really possible in the current league rule and skill meta) but he doesn't stick out as just terrible as much and his gambling has actually been incredibly effective lately imo

[LofJ]

You guys are too pessimistic. This is the first winning season since 2016 and the team is clearly on the way up. The East is tough this year, they don't have anything to be ashamed of.

[SWedd523]

When you finish 9th or worse in a 15 team conference 14 times out of 17 seasons, lose embarrassing games against bottom feeders Detroit, Houston, Sacramento and Portland, when just one win would get you to the 8 seed, you tend to get a little jaded.

I have zero confidence in winning a single elimination game in Atlanta, I feel it will be very similar to last year where we got ass-blasted by Indy on national television. The players and coach aren't up for it and needed two chances to get in. Hope I'm wrong

Detroit has beaten the Sixers, Raptors, Heat, Bucks, Jazz, Cavs, Celtics, and Hawks
Houston has beaten the Bulls, Nets, Hawks, Jazz, and Grizzlies
Sacramento has beaten the Suns, Mavs, Heat, Nets, and Bulls
Portland has beaten the Suns, Grizzlies, Raptors, Bulls, Sixers, Nuggets, Hawks, Nets, Celtics, and Bucks

In an 82 game season, you're going to beat a few teams you probably shouldn't, and you're going to lose to a few teams you probably shouldn't. That's just how the cookie crumbles sometimes.

I just don't understand how folks are STILL so negative at the season. Especially with how they finished, even more so after Squidward went down and everyone thought it was the end of the world.


1. They finished the last quarter of the season 13-6 with wins over Cleveland, Pelicans, Hawks, Mavs, Jazz, Nets, and Bulls
2. They just had their first winning season in 6 years, with Mason Plumlee being the only true Center on the roster and Hayward playing roughly half the year
3. Melo and Miles might be playing their best basketball of the entire season

[BigSlam]

so I'm not crazy right, LaMelo has definitely ascended to another level the last couple weeks. he looks bigger physically, is playing stronger. looks 100x more comfortable in the half court (sloppy beginning of this game aside). i'm not a x's and o's guru but it looks like the staff has expanded his playbook. I was doom and gloom when the "play LaMelo off the ball for IT" thing hit the press whenever that was, thankfully that was overstated immensely and to me it looks like they've just straight up increased his workload with some added off the ball stuff on top of his other duties and he's thrived in it. even defensively he's looking better and better to me aside from the fouling problem , he isn't lockdown (if you believe in the concept of a lockdown guard, I don't think such a thing exists or is really possible in the current league rule and skill meta) but he doesn't stick out as just terrible as much and his gambling has actually been incredibly effective lately imo

I thought LaMelo was terrible for very large stretches of this game.

Really reckless with the ball, wasn’t playing with any real effort, looked like he was playing a glorified pick up game for most of it.

When he looked good, he looked great, but I thought it was more bad than good for him (and most everyone).

Might just be me though?

[SWedd523]

so I'm not crazy right, LaMelo has definitely ascended to another level the last couple weeks. he looks bigger physically, is playing stronger. looks 100x more comfortable in the half court (sloppy beginning of this game aside). i'm not a x's and o's guru but it looks like the staff has expanded his playbook. I was doom and gloom when the "play LaMelo off the ball for IT" thing hit the press whenever that was, thankfully that was overstated immensely and to me it looks like they've just straight up increased his workload with some added off the ball stuff on top of his other duties and he's thrived in it. even defensively he's looking better and better to me aside from the fouling problem , he isn't lockdown (if you believe in the concept of a lockdown guard, I don't think such a thing exists or is really possible in the current league rule and skill meta) but he doesn't stick out as just terrible as much and his gambling has actually been incredibly effective lately imo

Highly doubt he's put on any size or weight throughout the season, but I have touched on him playing much better in the past few weeks. I really think it's just him shooting better recently and having more confidence in himself. He's back out of the sophomore slump and back on the trajectory he was looking at early season.

He still does a lot of dumb **** (especially the reach fouls in the half court which takes him out of games prematurely), but he's continuing to grow into his game, which is awesome for the team.

Probably the biggest thing has been the tightening of the lineups as they approach playoff time. It really appears they've settled into a post-Hayward hierarchy of Melo/Miles first and then work the other guys in from there.

[KembaWalker]

so I'm not crazy right, LaMelo has definitely ascended to another level the last couple weeks. he looks bigger physically, is playing stronger. looks 100x more comfortable in the half court (sloppy beginning of this game aside). i'm not a x's and o's guru but it looks like the staff has expanded his playbook. I was doom and gloom when the "play LaMelo off the ball for IT" thing hit the press whenever that was, thankfully that was overstated immensely and to me it looks like they've just straight up increased his workload with some added off the ball stuff on top of his other duties and he's thrived in it. even defensively he's looking better and better to me aside from the fouling problem , he isn't lockdown (if you believe in the concept of a lockdown guard, I don't think such a thing exists or is really possible in the current league rule and skill meta) but he doesn't stick out as just terrible as much and his gambling has actually been incredibly effective lately imo

I thought LaMelo was terrible for very large stretches of this game.

Really reckless with the ball, wasn’t playing with any real effort, looked like he was playing a glorified pick up game for most of it.

When he looked good, he looked great, but I thought it was more bad than good for him (and most everyone).

Might just be me though?

yeah I meant this more as a general vibe over the last couple weeks. today was really bad with the turnovers (still learning how to stand in a corner with his feet in bounds) but i still saw the expanded offense and confidence

[Diop]

8 times in the last 16 years a .524 winning percentage would have gotten the hornets a 6 seed minimum in the east. Not sure why all the gloom and doom.

i generally expect doom and gloom for this team. even where there good, they find a way to piss me off

[Benjamin Linus]

Small random stat but LaMelo going 6-7 from three yesterday boosted his 3p% from 38.4 to 38.9 percent which is basically like a full percentage point when ppl round out for reference