Around the NBA (and other Sports), 2025-26 – (Old Thread)

[phincsfan]

Perhaps..doesn't make anything I said as wrong.

The idea that we should only criticize players is laughable. But it seems like anyone who criticizes a coach is considered out of line.. Never understood why.

It's fine to criticize the coach, but if the constant mantra is that everything that's bad is the coach's fault and anything good is purely the players in spite of the coach then don't be surprised when folks eventually start rolling their eyes.

and this idea that young guys should be force-fed minutes when they suck is bizarre. this isn't pee wee basketball where everyone gets a chance, this is the NBA and livelihoods are at stake. when the goal is to win, every player has to earn their minutes and contribute to winning whether you're a rookie or a 10-year vet. maybe i'm old school but to me this isn't a difficult concept.

i view joe as a weird cross between doc and obie. obie obviously for the 3-ball fetish, and doc because while he isn't amazing at x's and o's and rotations, he is terrific at managing egos and empowering every player to fit into their role in the most productive way possible. while it's tough to measure in stats, it's an absolutely crucial skill.

Spot-on!

But if they suck why are the even on an NBA bench?

Knock on wood, outside of KP, the roster has been pretty rough for end of the bench minutes, with that said though there is something to gaining experience from real NBA minutes. Not just garbage time against other end of the bench guys.

I've said before that I won't criticize Walsh and Neems this season because their minutes are so inconsistent. That makes it pretty impossible for a project like Walsh to even find a groove and the same goes for Neems as a big. Bigs need to play to understand their teammates defensive tendencies, so IMO that is why Neems struggles on the defensive end at times. Offensively, I was pissed at Joe the other night for ripping into Neems for not finishing a basket. In that instance I will criticize Joe and say "coach this isn't practice, totally different in the real world game situation".

I think if they were given minutes regularly and consistently they may be playing a bigger role in games this season. They've both shown flashes outside of garbage time.

Do those two "suck"? I don't think so and if they do, I'd rather they not take a spot on the bench.

[Fierce1]

It's fine to criticize the coach, but if the constant mantra is that everything that's bad is the coach's fault and anything good is purely the players in spite of the coach then don't be surprised when folks eventually start rolling their eyes.

and this idea that young guys should be force-fed minutes when they suck is bizarre. this isn't pee wee basketball where everyone gets a chance, this is the NBA and livelihoods are at stake. when the goal is to win, every player has to earn their minutes and contribute to winning whether you're a rookie or a 10-year vet. maybe i'm old school but to me this isn't a difficult concept.

i view joe as a weird cross between doc and obie. obie obviously for the 3-ball fetish, and doc because while he isn't amazing at x's and o's and rotations, he is terrific at managing egos and empowering every player to fit into their role in the most productive way possible. while it's tough to measure in stats, it's an absolutely crucial skill.

Spot-on!

But if they suck why are the even on an NBA bench?

Knock on wood, outside of KP, the roster has been pretty rough for end of the bench minutes, with that said though there is something to gaining experience from real NBA minutes. Not just garbage time against other end of the bench guys.

I've said before that I won't criticize Walsh and Neems this season because their minutes are so inconsistent. That makes it pretty impossible for a project like Walsh to even find a groove and the same goes for Neems as a big. Bigs need to play to understand their teammates defensive tendencies, so IMO that is why Neems struggles on the defensive end at times. Offensively, I was pissed at Joe the other night for ripping into Neems for not finishing a basket. In that instance I will criticize Joe and say "coach this isn't practice, totally different in the real world game situation".

I think if they were given minutes regularly and consistently they may be playing a bigger role in games this season. They've both shown flashes outside of garbage time.

Do those two "suck"? I don't think so and if they do, I'd rather they not take a spot on the bench.

It's just a case of waiting for their time to come.

Just like PP asked for a trade in 2023.

PP's time came when Smart and Brogdon got traded.

Walsh is a year or two away from being comfortable with the NBA game.

Queta still fouls a lot and gets lost on defense.

It's just a matter of time.

[Smart2Nesmith43]

"Force feed" sounds quite extreme. I view young players like a seed. The ones that get more sunshine, more water and planted in good soil grow better and more rapidly. The others wilt while sitting in the dark.

Jordan Bell got 800 minutes of playing time on an all time championship team as a rookie which is about six times more than Derrick White got on a decent Spurs team. By your logic Bell grew better and more rapidly than White who was left to wilt in the dark. But I've seen both of their career and that's not what happen. Just one example among many.

Do you know for a fact that mixing in the young players more often would have resulted in poor play? Can you confirm our team as a whole would have less wins rather than more? At minimum the young players always play hard, certainly harder at times than our vets. And consistent hard play was definitely a major issue this season.

I mean yeah if we can't agree that playing Jordan Walsh over Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown is going to cost the Celtics some games what are we even discussing ?

[playa-hater]

"Force feed" sounds quite extreme. I view young players like a seed. The ones that get more sunshine, more water and planted in good soil grow better and more rapidly. The others wilt while sitting in the dark.

Jordan Bell got 800 minutes of playing time on an all time championship team as a rookie which is about six times more than Derrick White got on a decent Spurs team. By your logic Bell grew better and more rapidly than White who was left to wilt in the dark. But I've seen both of their career and that's not what happen. Just one example among many.

Do you know for a fact that mixing in the young players more often would have resulted in poor play? Can you confirm our team as a whole would have less wins rather than more? At minimum the young players always play hard, certainly harder at times than our vets. And consistent hard play was definitely a major issue this season.

I mean yeah if we can't agree that playing Jordan Walsh over Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown is going to cost the Celtics some games what are we even discussing ?

Didn't realize Tatum and Brown played 48 minutes. By your thinking, no one is good enough to "play over" Tatum and Brown. So, we have some new Logic . just play 5 players then.

And since you mentioned D White, was this the same D White who our coach wouldn't play over Smart and Brogdon in almost every 4th quarter?? Keep acting like Coaches always make the right decisions. Don't question any of them. After all they are the Professionals. right?

Meanwhile good thing LAL didn't say that they wouldn't play undrafted Austin Reaves his rookie year. Averaged 22 min on a team full of veterans that had high expectations to win with Lebron. So foolish of them.

Jalen Wells with his ZERO NBA experience got Marcus Smart exiled. What was their coach thinking? Hope you realize I have many more examples as well. But why bother. It's the everything Joe does is right group-think.

[phincsfan]

If the Nets get the #1 pick and their other 4 picks stay in the current slots they could potentially draft a decent starting 5:

1- Cooper Flagg PF
18 - Nique Clifford SF
26 - Kam Jones SG
27 - Labaron Philon PG
35 - Johni Broome C

[Parliament10]

If the Nets get the #1 pick and their other 4 picks stay in the current slots they could potentially draft a decent starting 5:

1- Cooper Flagg PF
18 - Nique Clifford SF
26 - Kam Jones SG
27 - Labaron Philon PG
35 - Johni Broome C

They have that many Draft picks?
That's a good amount.

[Smart2Nesmith43]

"Force feed" sounds quite extreme. I view young players like a seed. The ones that get more sunshine, more water and planted in good soil grow better and more rapidly. The others wilt while sitting in the dark.

Jordan Bell got 800 minutes of playing time on an all time championship team as a rookie which is about six times more than Derrick White got on a decent Spurs team. By your logic Bell grew better and more rapidly than White who was left to wilt in the dark. But I've seen both of their career and that's not what happen. Just one example among many.

Do you know for a fact that mixing in the young players more often would have resulted in poor play? Can you confirm our team as a whole would have less wins rather than more? At minimum the young players always play hard, certainly harder at times than our vets. And consistent hard play was definitely a major issue this season.

I mean yeah if we can't agree that playing Jordan Walsh over Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown is going to cost the Celtics some games what are we even discussing ?

Didn't realize Tatum and Brown played 48 minutes. By your thinking, no one is good enough to "play over" Tatum and Brown. So, we have some new Logic . just play 5 players then.

And since you mentioned D White, was this the same D White who our coach wouldn't play over Smart and Brogdon in almost every 4th quarter?? Keep acting like Coaches always make the right decisions. Don't question any of them. After all they are the Professionals. right?

Meanwhile good thing LAL didn't say that they wouldn't play undrafted Austin Reaves his rookie year. Averaged 22 min on a team full of veterans that had high expectations to win with Lebron. So foolish of them.

Jalen Wells with his ZERO NBA experience got Marcus Smart exiled. What was their coach thinking? Hope you realize I have many more examples as well. But why bother. It's the everything Joe does is right group-think.

So not agreeing with you means I think Mazzulla does everything right. Ok then, at least I'm be right more often than the people that think he does everything wrong.

As for the Mazzulla group-think, please let me know where those discussions are happening because I haven't explored that part of the forum yet and I love discovering new stuff.

[doogie_hauser]

Cade Cunningham is one clutch Star !!

[djFan71]

Thunder not thinking at the macro level. They should’ve let Philly win. Most likely pick 7 is theirs anyway,but if nobody jumps PHI could keep it. Instead OKC rolled them.

[NYCelticsfan136]

Are the lakers really this good? What a **** show by the denver nuggets. No defense.

[redslastlaugh]

Wizards lost
Pelicans won
Jazz won

Celtics back in possession of #31 draft slot!

[NYCelticsfan136]

The west is very up and down which means that the thunder are gonna be in the finals. I don’t trust any of these teams.

[doogie_hauser]

Cavs lose 3 in a row, this time to a Kings team without Lavine and Sabonis !

Are the wheels falling off Beliveland ??

[Shak_Celts]

Cavs lose 3 in a row, this time to a Kings team without Lavine and Sabonis !

Are the wheels falling off Beliveland ??

We let go of games we should’ve won at the end of last season too. The games mean nothing to them just like it didn’t for us. This doesn’t tell me anything. We can’t bank on whether a team is falling apart or not, I just hope for health and our guys to play to their highest capabilities.

Let’s get 19!

[Triple7]

Learning more and more that Nico Harrison is only partially to blame for the Doncic debacle. Their owner might be a bigger idiot than he is. Hopefully the Cs don’t get someone like Patrick Dumont or Matt Ishbia.

Come on it’s very obvious from the start the owners were the primary reason Luka got traded. In fact, i think they specifically told nico to trade Luka. No GM have the guts to even suggest trading away a generational talent coming off a finals stint. The owners doesn’t want to pay the supermax, and they ordered nico to trade him. Nico is in a no win situation. Plus they are contradicting themselves. Owner saying this was a long term plan, and Nico saying this was a short term win now move lol.

[Triple7]

Are the lakers really this good? What a **** show by the denver nuggets. No defense.

Nah. Luka and Reeves playing well without ball stopper Lebron. Plus Jokic and murray out. Nuggets can’t afford to have both guys not playing. They don’t have players that can actually create shots outside of those two.

[Smart2Nesmith43]

Insane Mamu heater last night: 13-14 shooting, 7-7 from three. 34 points and 9 rebounds in 19 minutes.

Watch on YouTube

I thought Mitchell Robinson's return was going to single handedly save the Knicks defense. Did someonoe lie to me ?

[zoyathedestroya]

Learning more and more that Nico Harrison is only partially to blame for the Doncic debacle. Their owner might be a bigger idiot than he is. Hopefully the Cs don’t get someone like Patrick Dumont or Matt Ishbia.

Come on it’s very obvious from the start the owners were the primary reason Luka got traded. In fact, i think they specifically told nico to trade Luka. No GM have the guts to even suggest trading away a generational talent coming off a finals stint. The owners doesn’t want to pay the supermax, and they ordered nico to trade him. Nico is in a no win situation. Plus they are contradicting themselves. Owner saying this was a long term plan, and Nico saying this was a short term win now move lol.

For the billionth time, the issue isn’t in trading Doncic if they really didn’t want to keep him. The big blunder is getting so little for him. That’s mostly on the GM. They could’ve paid him and traded him afterwards. Or they could’ve opened up discussions with more than one team who had them on a vise grip because they chose to not negotiate with other teams. Wanting to trade Doncic is on the owner if that’s what really happened. Getting so little is on Nico.

[Hal14]

Tatum's dad, Justin Tatum got a big win the other day..forcing a game 5 which will decide the NBL championship. Game was tied early in the 4th quarter but then the Hawks took control and won by ..even with one of their best players and starting big out of the lineup with an injury,.

Justin's team plays hard..they're deep..they have a pretty balanced attack with like 8 really solid players who all play team basketball and play their role..everyone has a role, accepts their role and plays hard.

And it's only his 1st full season coaching this team.

Let's see if he can win the championship on Sunday.

[Fierce1]

Heat 11 games under .500.

Players make the coach, not the other way around.