2021-22 NBA Season Discussion

[Ballerhogger]

jokic is incredible but if you dont put a good defender with enough size and mass on him you are gonna get 35/15/8 on 64% jokic rather than a more manageable 30/12/7 on 59% jokic (to use random numbers)

But I don't care what numbers Jokic has. I care what Denver does against my team(the Lakers in this case). And I think the Lakers fare better playing Lebron/AD/perimeter guys than playing Jordan just to have a big body against Jokic. I don't care about the individual battles. I care about the war. Think Russell vs Wilt. Wilt put up big numbers and so lots of posters here think Wilt is better than Russell. Russell was only interested in which team won the game/series and his team did that over and over again.

I'm going to play my best team. I think if Shaq came back teams would think much more like Don Nelson than how the rest of the league thought. Your spare big centers were no match for him anyway and they let Shaq coast on the other end a lot. I think today teams would play stretch bigs and smaller lineups and do a combo of letting Shaq feast rather than doubling and conceding open 3's and fouling him a lot. And at the other end he'd have to defend a million pick and rolls and get out to the 3 pt line or watch his man take wide open 3's.

Same thing with Jokic. Don't play a worse player because he is big. Jokic is going to clown that guy anyway and now you are giving Jokic a break at the other end. He's a great player. He's going to have huge numbers. But he can't beat a good team by himself 4x even if he's putting up 35/20/12 every night.

To be fair though, I remember Lakers doing the best job against Denver when they played Davis/Howard together. You shouldn't waste Davis motor to guard Jokic.

Howard played him really well in 2020 playoffs. So he will see minutes if we were to meet in the playoffs. we play them pretty soon here so hopefully we see him out there against jokic

[GSP]

Dallas defense has looked INSANE of late...........theyre top 5 ATM wow. Jkidd is a far better coach than Nash

[BIGJ1ER]

This Cavs Warriors game has been such a highlight of steph's importance (obviously lol), every time he's off their offence collapses, they really need to try get Jordan poole running that bench unit better because it's ugly at the moment. Their Defence is ridiculous either way though, but alot better to be better defensively when your scoring on the other end.

Side note - I wonder if there's anything to steph making players work so hard on the defensive end chasing him wearing them out on the offensive end which ends up showing in any defensive impact and on/off metrics? Looking at Garland tonight kind of brought the idea to mind

[GSP]

Looney is the most underrated player in the league. Remarkable what he was able to do against Cavs frontcourt who have wrecked basically everyone and with no Draymond. Hes a way better switch defender than he should be based on his size too.

[feyki]

I think we could make the conference finals this year. Even without Doncic, this team average SRS team with the improving Brunson and Porzingis. I'm sure about Brunson, but could Porzi still play like this year with Doncic? I've seen he was frozen together with Doncic's hero ball. Doncic also has to consider some parameter, if he wants to win.

Don't think Suns would beat us at our %100 potential, wish for good chemistry with Doncic.

The Suns are a much better team than the MAvs. And they have absolutely owned Dallas in h2h matchups. Luka is always a threat to steal a game or two, but I think that's literally the worst matchup for Dallas in the entire Association.

Clippers were arguably the best team last year, with Kawhi. And that series went game 7. With a better team why it wouldn't possible against Suns. Don't think much of about match-ups, though.

[Ballerhogger]

Vogel refused to play dwight in the 1st half and most of the third why i do not know. Lebron had amazing offensive game sucked on d but memphis is better team than us right now top to bottom. If frank doesnt play dwight against jokic..... he needs to be fired.

[Ballerhogger]

Dallas defense has looked INSANE of late...........theyre top 5 ATM wow. Jkidd is a far better coach than Nash

Jason kidd gets booed a lot but hes great defensive coach. Leaps and bounds better than Chauncey and Nash

[falcolombardi]

Dallas defense has looked INSANE of late...........theyre top 5 ATM wow. Jkidd is a far better coach than Nash

Jason kidd gets booed a lot but hes great defensive coach. Leaps and bounds better than Chauncey and Nash

didnt the bucks have a mediocre defense with him then league best next season with budenholzer ?

bucks fans hated his agressive scheme and when coach bud implemented the drop back scheme they made a 2015 warriors level leap mostly from defense

[Ballerhogger]

Dallas defense has looked INSANE of late...........theyre top 5 ATM wow. Jkidd is a far better coach than Nash

Jason kidd gets booed a lot but hes great defensive coach. Leaps and bounds better than Chauncey and Nash

didnt the bucks have a mediocre defense with him then league best next season with budenholzer ?

bucks fans hated his agressive scheme and when coach bud implemented the drop back scheme they made a 2015 warriors level leap mostly from defense

wasnt his best stint but I think grew as coach with lakers and finally found the right team for him

[Colbinii]

Dallas defense has looked INSANE of late...........theyre top 5 ATM wow. Jkidd is a far better coach than Nash

Jason kidd gets booed a lot but hes great defensive coach. Leaps and bounds better than Chauncey and Nash

didnt the bucks have a mediocre defense with him then league best next season with budenholzer ?

bucks fans hated his agressive scheme and when coach bud implemented the drop back scheme they made a 2015 warriors level leap mostly from defense

They added Brook Lopez. They had 0 rim protection in 2018 and the 2018 was ravaged by injuries.

[Goudelock]

I, for one, cannot wait to listen to Paul Finebaum's show tomorrow afternoon.

[GSP]

Nash is a really really bad coach. Cant be more than 5 worse coaches in the league if that.

[BIGJ1ER]

Man I don't see how Brooklyn can build a championship defence with that roster, they simply don't have the personnel.

That said, Nash is also not coaching well at all.

The surpsing thing is their offence hasn't been that great either, and when your roster looks like that you better be a top 3 offence to have a chance at the title. I still think getting harris back will be big for them, as they're really lacking shooting, but I can't say that I'm unhappy seeing the Brooklyn experiment underwhelm as that is not a roster full of players I'm fond of.

[Doctor MJ]

Nash is a really really bad coach. Cant be more than 5 worse coaches in the league if that.

So here's how I see it:

1. I think the Nets are being horribly coached.

2. Nash has no proven track record to establish that he's better than this, so he doesn't necessarily deserve the benefit of the doubt.

3. But I think Nash is largely being a "coach" the way that the superstars on his roster said they want their coach to be. The KD/Kyrie theory was that they didn't need a boss, they needed someone who would let them do their thing.

4. Perhaps the most disturbing thing about the Nets this year to me is the sheer MPG with which the superstars are playing, which Nash himself has said publicly is unsustainable. To me, that says that it's not been Nash's call. The players want to play the minutes they feel they need to play to win, and Nash isn't saying "No", because that would be a violation of the relationship he agreed to at the beginning.

So, not saying "No, Nash is a great coach!", but I think the worst things about the Nets' "coaching" aren't about Nash specifically, but are about what KD & Kyrie said they wanted when they got the legit good Atkinson fired and put Nash in place.

I think that the Nets are certainly playing with fire, and at any moment we could get a devastating injury to any of these players, and poof, there goes the entire experiment.

I also think that KD in particular playing so much tells us that the Nets' record is actually inflated compared to how good they are as a playoff team (Kyrie's missed time aside). The assumption that the superstars will have an extra gear in the playoffs now I think is naive, and already we see how they struggle whenever they play an actual contender.

I think these Nets easily could have won a title last year, but I'm not optimistic that they will win one now.

Obviously things can change if the Big 3 looks good enough together, and that Big 3 gets to play together every game. But given where we are with Covid, I'm not sure when that's actually realistic to expect.

[eminence]

It's wild to me that the Nets defense ranks higher than their offense this season (#8 vs #13 per BBref currently).

[falcolombardi]

Nash is a really really bad coach. Cant be more than 5 worse coaches in the league if that.

So here's how I see it:

1. I think the Nets are being horribly coached.

2. Nash has no proven track record to establish that he's better than this, so he doesn't necessarily deserve the benefit of the doubt.

3. But I think Nash is largely being a "coach" the way that the superstars on his roster said they want their coach to be. The KD/Kyrie theory was that they didn't need a boss, they needed someone who would let them do their thing.

4. Perhaps the most disturbing thing about the Nets this year to me is the sheer MPG with which the superstars are playing, which Nash himself has said publicly is unsustainable. To me, that says that it's not been Nash's call. The players want to play the minutes they feel they need to play to win, and Nash isn't saying "No", because that would be a violation of the relationship he agreed to at the beginning.

So, not saying "No, Nash is a great coach!", but I think the worst things about the Nets' "coaching" aren't about Nash specifically, but are about what KD & Kyrie said they wanted when they got the legit good Atkinson fired and put Nash in place.

I think that the Nets are certainly playing with fire, and at any moment we could get a devastating injury to any of these players, and poof, there goes the entire experiment.

I also think that KD in particular playing so much tells us that the Nets' record is actually inflated compared to how good they are as a playoff team (Kyrie's missed time aside). The assumption that the superstars will have an extra gear in the playoffs now I think is naive, and already we see how they struggle whenever they play an actual contender.

I think these Nets easily could have won a title last year, but I'm not optimistic that they will win one now.

Obviously things can change if the Big 3 looks good enough together, and that Big 3 gets to play together every game. But given where we are with Covid, I'm not sure when that's actually realistic to expect.

i dont even thinl durant and harden are playing so much because they want to play so much (only)

they are doing it by necessity, their record is strong but their .net differential is not

they are playing (and to their credit winning) a lot of close games that would become losses if durant and harden were on strict minute reductión

i am not saying they would be out of the playoffs if they played durant and harden less, but they could quickly have found themselves closer to the play in than the 1st seed

[eminence]

Also, the Jazz are playing like butt without Gobert.

[Colbinii]

Also, the Jazz are playing like butt without Gobert.

They don't appear to care.

[eminence]

Also, the Jazz are playing like butt without Gobert.

They don't appear to care.

I'm unsure if it's an effort or an ability thing, but regardless, it's been rough.

[Doctor MJ]

Nash is a really really bad coach. Cant be more than 5 worse coaches in the league if that.

So here's how I see it:

1. I think the Nets are being horribly coached.

2. Nash has no proven track record to establish that he's better than this, so he doesn't necessarily deserve the benefit of the doubt.

3. But I think Nash is largely being a "coach" the way that the superstars on his roster said they want their coach to be. The KD/Kyrie theory was that they didn't need a boss, they needed someone who would let them do their thing.

4. Perhaps the most disturbing thing about the Nets this year to me is the sheer MPG with which the superstars are playing, which Nash himself has said publicly is unsustainable. To me, that says that it's not been Nash's call. The players want to play the minutes they feel they need to play to win, and Nash isn't saying "No", because that would be a violation of the relationship he agreed to at the beginning.

So, not saying "No, Nash is a great coach!", but I think the worst things about the Nets' "coaching" aren't about Nash specifically, but are about what KD & Kyrie said they wanted when they got the legit good Atkinson fired and put Nash in place.

I think that the Nets are certainly playing with fire, and at any moment we could get a devastating injury to any of these players, and poof, there goes the entire experiment.

I also think that KD in particular playing so much tells us that the Nets' record is actually inflated compared to how good they are as a playoff team (Kyrie's missed time aside). The assumption that the superstars will have an extra gear in the playoffs now I think is naive, and already we see how they struggle whenever they play an actual contender.

I think these Nets easily could have won a title last year, but I'm not optimistic that they will win one now.

Obviously things can change if the Big 3 looks good enough together, and that Big 3 gets to play together every game. But given where we are with Covid, I'm not sure when that's actually realistic to expect.

i dont even thinl durant and harden are playing so much because they want to play so much (only)

they are doing it by necessity, their record is strong but their .net differential is not

they are playing (and to their credit winning) a lot of close games that would become losses if durant and harden were on strict minute reductión

i am not saying they would be out of the playoffs if they played durant and harden less, but they could quickly have found themselves closer to the play in than the 1st seed

Good clarification, I don't disagree with anything you said.

The thing is that while it's natural (and admirable) for players to want to play enough to ensure the wins, smart regular season strategy means conserving energy - and sacrificing some wins - relying on being able to make the playoffs even if you stumble a bit because the NBA makes it so easy to make the playoffs.

That's what the Nets need to be doing, and the fact they aren't is a coaching issue...but as I said, I think it's an issue based on who is wearing the pants in the relationship. If Nash were really calling the shots, I don't think they'd be doing this.

And not for the first time, I wonder if Nash really understood what he was getting into when he signed up for this gig. Major contrast from Steve Kerr, who so wisely turned down his mentor (Phil Jackson) to go to GS instead.