2021-22 NBA Season Discussion

[parsnips33]

The thing I love about Luka is he doesn't just want to beat you, he wants to make you look stupid. I think the compare and contrast of Luka and Jokic from a mentality perspective is very interesting and something I've been thinking about lately

And I can't even properly dump on the Suns because I'm scared of what Luka might do to us next round

[Dr Positivity]

Don't remember if they ever did it in the series for a few minutes and then gave up, but I would have tried going super small if I was the Suns. Shamet and Biyombo adjustment doesn't change the play style that much it just throws in new guys. I think against Mavs lineup one of the weaknesses is they wouldn't have bigs to punish you if you played gimmicky lineups like Crowder or Cam Johnson at center.

[parsnips33]

Interesting questions for last year's finalists - do you run it back next year? If not, what kind of changes need to be made?

[Clyde Frazier]

This would definitely be a series we'd want to have Payton and Iguodala. Hopefully OPJ will be good to go, but who knows with him. This is the danger of the Warriors "now & later" approach. We've got GP, Andre, and OPJ injured and Wiseman, Moody, and Kuminga either can't or won't be played. That's almost half the roster right there

I can't remember who mentioned it, but someone suggested giving JTA a shot with payton out. Not the craziest idea.

[falcolombardi]

The thing I love about Luka is he doesn't just want to beat you, he wants to make you look stupid. I think the compare and contrast of Luka and Jokic from a mentality perspective is very interesting and something I've been thinking about lately

And I can't even properly dump on the Suns because I'm scared of what Luka might do to us next round

i am excited to see draymond vs luka

as far as i remember the only players who i have felt that "solved" draymond (or at least out talented him) is lebron from 16-18 with jokic as another mention (although it took him a few games)

if luka can do it too that would be insane, 23 year old players are not supposed to be resilient against the best defenses in the world, it would be absurd but doncic is so ahead of the usual development curves thst is possible

i still have worries about his efficiency never being better than slightly above average, which at the offense goatness level is a serious handicap against other great stars like magic, lebron or jordan

but otherwise i am more and more convinced he may end as a contender for best offensive player of all time

[Clyde Frazier]

i see people with anti giannis agendas are going all out lol

how dares him taking a potential champion to 7 without middleton, what a choker

Seriously embarrassing takes on twitter last night (i'm sure similarly on the general board). Even more absurd when you look at what he did in the finals last year. They pretend it never happened. Sorry the fact that durant likes to wear clown shoes doesn't make Giannis any less of a player.

[Texas Chuck]

The thing I love about Luka is he doesn't just want to beat you, he wants to make you look stupid. I think the compare and contrast of Luka and Jokic from a mentality perspective is very interesting and something I've been thinking about lately

And I can't even properly dump on the Suns because I'm scared of what Luka might do to us next round

i am excited to see draymond vs luka

as far as i remember the only players who i have felt that "solved" draymond (or at least out talented him) is lebron from 16-18 with jokic as another mention (although it took him a few games)

if luka can do it too that would be insane, 23 year old players are not supposed to be resilient against the best defenses in the world, it would be absurd but doncic is so ahead of the usual development curves thst is possible

i still have worries about his efficiency never being better than slightly above average, which at the offense goatness level is a serious handicap against other great stars like magic, lebron or jordan

but otherwise i am more and more convinced he may end as a contender for best offensive player of all time

I don't know that Kerr puts Draymond on Luka though right? I think they are going to need his help defense. This is what Wiggins is supposed to be for you. I think you ride that as long as you can. Not that it matters that much because Luka is simply going to hunt for matchups. Looney, Klay, Steph, and Poole should all be targeted repeatedly I would think.

[falcolombardi]

Interesting questions for last year's finalists - do you run it back next year? If not, what kind of changes need to be made?

suns is trickier but bucks are proven

they won a ring and took a possible champion to 7 without ome of their best players playing. you can always make adjustments and shore up weaknesses which they should do (they need a better guard than hill, a healthier backup big than ibaka, another legit 3 and Ding so they dont have to backup middleton with grayson allen)

but you dont fix what is working, only tune it and adjust it

suns are more conplicated, but at the very least they should keep the ayton/mikal/booker core

[eminence]

This would definitely be a series we'd want to have Payton and Iguodala. Hopefully OPJ will be good to go, but who knows with him. This is the danger of the Warriors "now & later" approach. We've got GP, Andre, and OPJ injured and Wiseman, Moody, and Kuminga either can't or won't be played. That's almost half the roster right there

I can't remember who mentioned it, but someone suggested giving JTA a shot with payton out. Not the craziest idea.

I love JTA and would love to see he or Kuminga absorbing some more minutes if OPJ is still out. Especially over Bjelica, who I don't see having a real use vs the Mavs.

[falcolombardi]

The thing I love about Luka is he doesn't just want to beat you, he wants to make you look stupid. I think the compare and contrast of Luka and Jokic from a mentality perspective is very interesting and something I've been thinking about lately

And I can't even properly dump on the Suns because I'm scared of what Luka might do to us next round

i am excited to see draymond vs luka

as far as i remember the only players who i have felt that "solved" draymond (or at least out talented him) is lebron from 16-18 with jokic as another mention (although it took him a few games)

if luka can do it too that would be insane, 23 year old players are not supposed to be resilient against the best defenses in the world, it would be absurd but doncic is so ahead of the usual development curves thst is possible

i still have worries about his efficiency never being better than slightly above average, which at the offense goatness level is a serious handicap against other great stars like magic, lebron or jordan

but otherwise i am more and more convinced he may end as a contender for best offensive player of all time

I don't know that Kerr puts Draymond on Luka though right? I think they are going to need his help defense. This is what Wiggins is supposed to be for you. I think you ride that as long as you can. Not that it matters that much because Luka is simply going to hunt for matchups. Looney, Klay, Steph, and Poole should all be targeted repeatedly I would think.

draymomd never defended lebron directly either (that i remember) but those series always felt like lebron vs draymond tactical duels

and it usually felt like lebron came on top which is evidenced by how well cavs scored on warriors

[jalengreen]

yeah im p sure wiggins was the primary defender on luka in the regular season

[jalengreen]

i am excited to see draymond vs luka

as far as i remember the only players who i have felt that "solved" draymond (or at least out talented him) is lebron from 16-18 with jokic as another mention (although it took him a few games)

if luka can do it too that would be insane, 23 year old players are not supposed to be resilient against the best defenses in the world, it would be absurd but doncic is so ahead of the usual development curves thst is possible

i still have worries about his efficiency never being better than slightly above average, which at the offense goatness level is a serious handicap against other great stars like magic, lebron or jordan

but otherwise i am more and more convinced he may end as a contender for best offensive player of all time

I don't know that Kerr puts Draymond on Luka though right? I think they are going to need his help defense. This is what Wiggins is supposed to be for you. I think you ride that as long as you can. Not that it matters that much because Luka is simply going to hunt for matchups. Looney, Klay, Steph, and Poole should all be targeted repeatedly I would think.

draymomd never defended lebron directly either (that i remember) but those series always felt like lebron vs draymond tactical duels

and it usually felt like lebron came on top which is evidenced by how well cavs scored on warriors

fair but iguodala often played fantastic defense on lebron in those finals that makes things way easier for draymond

[MartinToVaught]

Sorry the fact that durant likes to wear clown shoes doesn't make Giannis any less of a player.

I'm so tired of hearing about Durant's shoes. I guess we're supposed to ignore that the Nets blew a 9-point lead with three minutes left, or that the game still went to OT and Durant disappeared. Milwaukee earned that win fair and square.

[Colbinii]

Wiggins and Klay will be the primary defenders but Luka is going to be hunting Curry/Poole in switches.

[The High Cyde]

I’m picking Dallas in this series, they’re playing with house money at this point and I think their defense will wear Steph and Klay out. Luka is just a load, they won’t stop him, they’ll try to put Wiggins on him and while he’s good, he’s not stopping a young GOAT candidate. I’m also picking the Mavs cause I’m tired of seeing the Warriors in the Finals, I’ve had my fill thank you very much. Need some new blood.

It’ll be Dallas v Miami round 3

Lol I’m not sure who wins between Miami and Boston. I wouldn’t mind seeing either. First to score 55 probably wins haha I’ll be very surprised if this isn’t a slow, methodical, low scoring series. It’ll be physical though.

[eminence]

Where on NBA.com do they have the defensive assignment stats, I remember them having them, but can’t currently find them for whatever reason (likely a series of brain farts)

[Doctor MJ]

Interesting questions for last year's finalists - do you run it back next year? If not, what kind of changes need to be made?

I think in the case of the Bucks, the rest of the league breathed a sigh of relief with Middleton's injury. Injuries are a part of the game, so if I'm the Bucks I'm largely rolling things back. Doesn't mean it's entirely the same roster, but the Giannis-Khris-Jrue core is legit.

Suns are a tougher question. I think the loss was bad enough that there should be no expectation that there's a title in their future without the young guys taking a major leap forward, and that means patience should be a virtue. On the other hand, of course, Paul's getting older by the year, so a patient mindset is essentially treating Paul as someone hanging around mentoring the other guys until they are ready to compete without him. Not the worst position to be in for the Suns or Paul to be honest, but I could see Paul wanting something else and the Suns being fine letting him go for the right deal.

[eminence]

The personal relationships with Ayton seem to be the main potential issue for the Suns.

If he’s still on board the Booker/Bridges/Johnson/Ayton core is still super promising. If he’s not, not so much.

[Doctor MJ]

I’m picking Dallas in this series, they’re playing with house money at this point and I think their defense will wear Steph and Klay out. Luka is just a load, they won’t stop him, they’ll try to put Wiggins on him and while he’s good, he’s not stopping a young GOAT candidate. I’m also picking the Mavs cause I’m tired of seeing the Warriors in the Finals, I’ve had my fill thank you very much. Need some new blood.

So, I do think the bigger question is what happens when the Warriors are on offense and the Mavs are on defense.

The Warrior D let Jokic have 31 PPG on 64% TS and still won that series handily, and while I'll be the first to say that defending Jokic and Doncic are just two different things, it seems unlikely that the difference between the Nuggets losing and the Mavs winning against the Warriors will be about Doncic putting up numbers so much bigger than that that that alone swings the series.

On the other hand, the Warriors had a 123 ORtg in that series, and the Mavs just allowed far less than against two teams with higher regular season ORtgs than the Warriors had. The route, therefore, for the Mavs to win seems pretty clear.

I'm picking the Warriors still, but the Mavs certainly represent a "scary underdog".

Re: tired of the Warriors in the finals. I'm seeing a lot of sentiment along these lines which I find funny because I remember how seemingly everyone wrote them off as washed after 2019, and this is their first playoff since then. It's a bit analogous to saying you were sick of the Bulls in '95-96, but I don't recall anyone back then thinking that about the Bulls, and but it's more extreme because the Bulls went into that season as strong contenders where as most people predicted the Warriors would be mediocre this year. Hence, it's strange that anyone would actually feel fatigued by the Warriors based on what's gone on in the 2020s.

On the other hand, if you've just decided you don't like the Warriors, it certainly makes sense to keep cheering against them until they retire.

[MartinToVaught]

The personal relationships with Ayton seem to be the main potential issue for the Suns.

If he’s still on board the Booker/Bridges/Johnson/Ayton core is still super promising. If he’s not, not so much.

This is going to sound weird, but what would scare me a lot about Ayton if I was a Suns fan, or a fan of another team trying to acquire him this summer, is that he claims to only sleep two hours a night. First of all, no wonder he often looks like he's in a mental fog on the court, but more importantly, he could damage his heart (along with other serious health issues) by doing that:

Sleep provides time for the body to restore and recharge, playing a key role in nearly all aspects of physical health. For the cardiovascular system, insufficient or fragmented sleep can contribute to problems with blood pressure and heighten the risk of heart disease, heart attacks, diabetes, and stroke.

https://www.sleepfoundation.org/sleep-deprivation/how-sleep-deprivation-affects-your-heart

No matter which team he's playing for next season, the first thing they need to do is make him go to a sleep therapist. He'll never live up to the contract without it.