Official NBA General Discussion 2022-23 V4.0

[Randle McMurphy]

Curry’s been the best player this series. That normally bodes well

I would say AD was and by a fair margin (he's the Lakers' entire defense).

But seeing as he probably won't be playing again this series given he was wheeled out on a wheelchair with a towel on his head (concussion), it doesn't much matter. It's gonna be LeBron fighting uphill against the Warriors once again with the much worse roster, except this time he's 39 years old and playing on a bad foot.

yep. lebron is contributing in spots but he's largely being carried instead of doing the carrying.

gonna hinge on dlo and reaves' (and whatever random roleplayer) shooting if ad is out. warriors need to keep up that same pace they had in this one. run it down their throats and make lebron work on that foot.

Yeah, LeBron is seemingly conserving energy and playing off ball more than he ever has in his career. That might be because he's hurt or old or both, but it's a striking difference from what he's been the last 20 years.

The Lakers ultimately are going only as far as AD takes them.

[Basketball_Jones]

DLo’s been trash for a while since back from injury they need big games from him again

[Kingsway_fan]

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander this season:
- 31.4 PTS on 51.0/34.5/90.5 splits (4th in PPG)
- Youngest player to average 30 PTS on 50 FG% since Michael Jordan in 1988
- 1 of 15 players in NBA history to average 30 PTS on 50 FG%
- Led NBA with 45 30-point games




A shame none of these canadian stars play for the Raptors ....

[HumbleRen]

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander this season:
- 31.4 PTS on 51.0/34.5/90.5 splits (4th in PPG)
- Youngest player to average 30 PTS on 50 FG% since Michael Jordan in 1988
- 1 of 15 players in NBA history to average 30 PTS on 50 FG%
- Led NBA with 45 30-point games




A shame none of these canadian stars play for the Raptors ....

I mean they haven't been real free agents yet lmao.

[InfraRedshaw]

I love guards who use floaters, Harden uses them pretty well, and I think it's good for the guard with good quickness / ball handling but perhaps not the vertical ability to cram it down

[ArthurVandelay]

Damn 60M/year is nuts. Used to be a teams payroll back in the day.

Definitely makes you wonder if guys are gonna start retiring early. Tatum and Brown might have almost half a billion in the bank at age 30. Would they even want to play anymore with that kind of money ?

I can remember when Larry Nance signed for $6M per. The $6m dollar man. Highest paid contract at the time. Early 90s.

Or when Magic Johnson signed for $25m for 25 years.

[WaltFrazier]

The floater is an awful shot, there is a distinction between a floater and a push shot in that the floater is released while the body is in motion while a push shot is released when you are more set/stable and can control the trajectory more easily with muscle memory so it will fall at a much higher % than a floater. If Brunson can do it there's no reason Fred shouldn't be able to but here we are at almost 30 years old and Fred hasn't learned **** because he's delusional and believes that he can get to the hole and finish with the best of them when we fans watch him hoist up awful shots and get rejected constantly. He keeps doing it again and again and failing again and again, it's quite sad. It's no secret by now that when he gets hot from deep you press him and force him to drive into traffic (which usually results in awful, high degree of difficulty shots or blocked shots), drive into and out of traffic (overdribbling) or force him to kick out to one of our awful shooters which usually happens with little time left on the clock.

As much as getting better shooters would help Fred, he'd still be a 1 level scorer who can't put pressure on a defense with his mere presence on the court like Maxey can unless he becomes an elite 3 point shooter but the guy hasn't shot the ball at a 40% clip even once during his career as a starter. Fred was 122nd in the league in 3pt FG% this year.

Not sure on the semantics of runner, floater, push shot. But the rest of your post captures perfectly the limited nature of Fred's game, aside from catch and shoot 3s.

[WuTang_CMB]

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[Lord_Zedd]

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RIP

Even I don't think Coach Bud would play Kendrick Perkins in the finals, with every single evidence pointing against that.

Edit: forgot about their previous majority owner bailing on them too lol. It's as if he knew the trainwreck was about to happen

[T-d0t]

Who are y'all cheering for in the playoffs? For me I either want the Heat or Nuggets to win the championship

[Dalek]

Who are y'all cheering for in the playoffs? For me I either want the Heat or Nuggets to win the championship

I want either the Nuggets or 76ers to win it. Denver would be great because I really respect their org and star players.

Golden State is my most hated team. Honestly watching all the moving screens and obvious fouls that were not called last night, it is just how things go with that team when they play at home. I think I saw like four Laker guys get hit on the head and no calls were made on Warriors, including the free head shot Looney got that took AD out of the game. It likely changes the whole series and no one will go there because of the Steph love affair makes everyone look the other way on their dirty play.

[mdenny]

Once again....these are the best nba playoffs of my lifetime.

I don't want any of this to end.

these playoffs have been crazy. usually i don't tune in until the ecf unless raps are involved, but this second round's been next level for sure.

The first round was crazy too. Even the series that ended up going 4 - 1 still had close individual games.

This playoffs bodes really, really well for NBA basketball from a viewing perspective. Still have to wait and see if this parity is short-lived. Upsets, close games and long series. The first round almost never has those 3 things historically. They are often pretty rare in the second round too.

[mdenny]

Good news for the eastern conference. There is something missing with those guys. Can't put my finger on it. Just something missing.

Smart has it imo.

I still have some hope they can pull this series out but I agree. There is something missing with these guys. The organization built an incredible supporting cast around Tatum and Brown. They are the deepest team in the league and everyone in their rotation are capable two-way players. It's on them to deliver.

I think Tatum is still too young to get over the hump. He has the talent but you can see the lack of composure when games get tight. He doesn’t have that grip over a 48 minute game like other superstars do. That comes with age.

Tatum just turned 25 2 months ago.

Lebron - first ring at 27
MJ - first ring at 28
Giannis - first ring at 26
Kawhi - first ring as a first option at 27
KD - first ring at 28

It's a good point. Maybe I'm expecting too much too early. There just seems to be an emotional element missing from his game. But I guess one could say that about kawhi too.1

Something robotic and kinda joyless in both Tatum and brown.

Boston is gonna end up having to go DEEP into the lux tax to continue to surround them with this level of depth.

Smart/brogdon/white are all gonna be 20 to 25 milly per year players right?

I mean...you're already up to roughly 155 million for those 5 guys and you haven't signed any bigs yet. I suppose Boston can afford it given their market.

Things could really fall apart if Boston tries to avoid going too deep into lux tax and attempts to replace all their role players for cheaper options. Brown/Tatum don't strike me as "carry the franchise" type players. Both of them getting the supermax might be a case of "the depth propped them up to elite guys when they are actually just allstar level players".

[LBJKB24MJ23]

so if you had to choose one of FVV or Brunson, who would it be?

[mdenny]

AD out next game for sure. Gonna be a game 7

I think he'll be good to go next game. AD is pretty dramatic when he gets hurt, he usually bounces back quickly when its an upper body injury.

He reminds me of Vince. He expresses pain on the court so often that I assume it's not serious when it happens. Some players, like butler, when you see them stay on the floor you get worried that he's gonna miss games.

[HumbleRen]

AD out next game for sure. Gonna be a game 7

I think he'll be good to go next game. AD is pretty dramatic when he gets hurt, he usually bounces back quickly when its an upper body injury.

He reminds me of Vince. He expresses pain on the court so often that I assume it's not serious when it happens. Some players, like butler, when you see them stay on the floor you get worried that he's gonna miss games.

Scottie's got that in him too.

[mdenny]

I think he'll be good to go next game. AD is pretty dramatic when he gets hurt, he usually bounces back quickly when its an upper body injury.

He reminds me of Vince. He expresses pain on the court so often that I assume it's not serious when it happens. Some players, like butler, when you see them stay on the floor you get worried that he's gonna miss games.

Scottie's got that in him too.

He does....i'm honestly hoping a bunch of stuff that can be observed about scotty is an age thing.

This next season is pretty important. He's still at the age when a guy can return from the off-season and appear to be a completely different mentality.

Demar did that. His first season or two he had flashes of immaturity. Dancing during timeouts and whatnot. Something happened where he really matured in a short period of time - "became a grown man" or whatever. Seeing that change in scotty is probably more important than our record next season imo.

I swear it seems like video games are killing some young players development. Ben simmons being prime example. Kobe talked about it. "Erect a hoop in your backyard and get addicted to THAT LOL. Do THAT to unwind". Even non-basketball young men. Imagine if they spent all those hours learning an instrument?

[HumbleRen]

He reminds me of Vince. He expresses pain on the court so often that I assume it's not serious when it happens. Some players, like butler, when you see them stay on the floor you get worried that he's gonna miss games.

Scottie's got that in him too.

He does....i'm honestly hoping a bunch of stuff that can be observed about scotty is an age thing.

This next season is pretty important. He's still at the age when a guy can return from the off-season and appear to be a completely different mentality.

Demar did that. His first season or two he had flashes of immaturity. Dancing during timeouts and whatnot. Something happened where he really matured in a short period of time - "became a grown man" or whatever. Seeing that change in scotty is probably more important than our record next season imo.

I swear it seems like video games are killing some young players development. Ben simmons being prime example. Kobe talked about it. "Erect a hoop in your backyard and get addicted to THAT LOL. Do THAT to unwind". Even non-basketball young men. Imagine if they spent all those hours learning an instrument?

Having kids changed Demar.

I don’t think Scottie is settling down any time soon lol.

[mdenny]

Scottie's got that in him too.

He does....i'm honestly hoping a bunch of stuff that can be observed about scotty is an age thing.

This next season is pretty important. He's still at the age when a guy can return from the off-season and appear to be a completely different mentality.

Demar did that. His first season or two he had flashes of immaturity. Dancing during timeouts and whatnot. Something happened where he really matured in a short period of time - "became a grown man" or whatever. Seeing that change in scotty is probably more important than our record next season imo.

I swear it seems like video games are killing some young players development. Ben simmons being prime example. Kobe talked about it. "Erect a hoop in your backyard and get addicted to THAT LOL. Do THAT to unwind". Even non-basketball young men. Imagine if they spent all those hours learning an instrument?

Having kids changed Demar.

I don’t think Scottie is settling down any time soon lol.

Right...I guess that change in demar coincided with his first kid. Makes sense. All of a sudden he was much more business-like and intense.

[mdenny]

Maybe OG should develop a floater. He led the raps in getting blocked this season.