Around the League: 2023-24 Season

[Bum Adebayo]

I just nod my head and go along with the Cam Thomas discourse. When he’s getting targeted constantly on defense in the playoffs, it’ll be clear why he’s not a real cornerstone player.

Embiid sucks too in Playoffs, yet you guys all love him and still consider him a "cornerstone player", so what gives?

[76ciology]

PJ Tucker in his Clippers debut:

0 PTS
0 AST
0 STL
0 BLK
5 REB
21 MIN

[76ciology]

Anyone knew why David Blatt is not in the league? He’d do a better job that Adrian Griffin

[Kobblehead]

Anyone knew why David Blatt is not in the league? He’d do a better job that Adrian Griffin

Blatt had a bad experience dealing with LeBron James and the player-driven NBA style of basketball and realized it's not for him.

[76ciology]

[tweet] https://x.com/russbengtson/status/1720256804037292167?s=46&t=bJcUtOCSwzTqqyZgysWpbQ[/tweet]

[76ciology]

[youtube] https://youtu.be/_iNwL_xuDhE?si=fFnY0DBnU97k7UZp[/youtube]

Pop is training this kid right. Look at his first half vs second half numbers. He’s training him to have that extra gear.

His TOs are horrible but he’s letting the kid have a taste of all sorts of defense, whereas Wemby can just be a 20-10-2 guy playing a Jarett Allen role with Tre Jones throwing lobs off a 2 man game.

[blargh]

[tweet] https://x.com/russbengtson/status/1720256804037292167?s=46&t=bJcUtOCSwzTqqyZgysWpbQ[/tweet]

This is why his ceiling is higher than Chet. Chet dribbles like an SF; Wemby dribbles like a guard. He’s still too loose with it, but the way he approaches ballhandling is different.

Both of them though still make me crazy nervous to watch from an injury perspective.

[76ciology]

[tweet] https://x.com/russbengtson/status/1720256804037292167?s=46&t=bJcUtOCSwzTqqyZgysWpbQ[/tweet]

This is why his ceiling is higher than Chet. Chet dribbles like an SF; Wemby dribbles like a guard. He’s still too loose with it, but the way he approaches ballhandling is different.

Both of them though still make me crazy nervous to watch from an injury perspective.

Cant wait to see how Biid will perform against those two. Specially wemby

[Stanford]

[tweet] https://x.com/russbengtson/status/1720256804037292167?s=46&t=bJcUtOCSwzTqqyZgysWpbQ[/tweet]

Embiid can do this ****.

[Kobblehead]

Embiid dribbles like a G, too. Just because it's an impressive feat doesn't mean it's not a terrible basketball decision to have a 7 footer handle the ball.

You have to put into context the dribble height of a 7 footer vs. a more size-appropriate ball handler. And then realize how easy it is for help defenders to stick their hands in and disrupt the whole thing and force turnovers.

Wemby should be in the post and then also working on pick and pop. All the offensive stuff he's doing right now (creating off the dribble, stepbacks, and fadeaways) are just training him to be a future playoff loser because all that stuff leads to is turnovers and missed field goals.

[ProcessDoctor]

Suns are terrible.

Quick, everyone act surprised.

[zaz102]

KD has already started writing up his trade request to LAC.

Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk

[Negrodamus]

Yea, Wemby is incredible. If he stays healthy, he should be allowed to do whatever he wants on the court because he's that talented. I'm curious how he fares vs Embiid; I imagine he'll be hanging around the perimeter all game.

[Jailblazers7]

The Celtics look very good but the overreaction is getting a little out of hand. The combined record of the teams they’ve beaten is 6-12 to start the year.

They just did a segment on the Bill Simmons podcast asking if this is the best starting 5 of the past century lmao

[Wilfried]

Suns are terrible.

Quick, everyone act surprised.

Get Booker!

[Wilfried]

The Celtics look very good but the overreaction is getting a little out of hand. The combined record of the teams they’ve beaten is 6-12 to start the year.

They just did a segment on the Bill Simmons podcast asking if this is the best starting 5 of the past century lmao

Well, things (also podcasts) have to sell you know. And such things happen when you’re talking about NBA all the time

[Negrodamus]

I get Terence Davis getting iced out of the league, but wtf is going on with Jaylen Nowell? Still young, has shown his shot is legit despite having a bad 3FG last year. Above 50% from 2FG every year of his career.

[blargh]

Embiid dribbles like a G, too. Just because it's an impressive feat doesn't mean it's not a terrible basketball decision to have a 7 footer handle the ball.

You have to put into context the dribble height of a 7 footer vs. a more size-appropriate ball handler. And then realize how easy it is for help defenders to stick their hands in and disrupt the whole thing and force turnovers.

Wemby should be in the post and then also working on pick and pop. All the offensive stuff he's doing right now (creating off the dribble, stepbacks, and fadeaways) are just training him to be a future playoff loser because all that stuff leads to is turnovers and missed field goals.

I’m willing to give him some time to see if he can make that skillset effective. It’s like big men shooting threes: conventional wisdom for decades was it was a bad idea and they should work on their post moves, and that was not incorrect: it’s only when big men could shoot at a certain level of efficiency that it was worth doing at volume. We don’t know if a 7-4 guy dribbling like a guard is a good idea, because no one has been able to do it efficiently yet. Wemby can’t either yet, but he’s closer.

I do agree the fadeaways are pointless and should be coached out of him. If he developed a face up dribble game and he could rise straight up and shoot a jumper off the dribble, he’d be unguardable.

[FlyingArrow]

I'll toss in some predictions. This looks like the thread to do it. Predictions in tiers of 1/2/3/4/5 teams per conference:

The favorites:
Celtics
Nuggets

The contenders:
Bucks, Sixers
Warriors, Suns

The playoff teams:
Cavs, Hawks, Heat
Lakers, Clippers, Mavericks

The play-in teams:
Pacers, Bulls, Raptors, Knicks
Pelicans, Thunder, Kings, Jazz

The rest:
Wizards, Hornets, Pistons, Nets, Magic
Timberwolves, Spurs, Grizz, Rockets, Blazers

Two biggest thoughts from this exercise:

* Less parity than the past couple of years. I feel pretty confident in saying that the champ will come from one of those top 6 teams. In past years, I'd include somewhere between 8 or 12 teams in the list of contenders.

* The west is deep. Choosing the 4th play-in team was the toughest call for me. It wouldn't surprise me to see the Grizz, T-wolves, or Spurs make the play-in. Contrast that with the east, where it wasn't hard to decide which teams to leave out.

[M2J]

[youtube] https://youtu.be/_iNwL_xuDhE?si=fFnY0DBnU97k7UZp[/youtube]

Pop is training this kid right. Look at his first half vs second half numbers. He’s training him to have that extra gear.

His TOs are horrible but he’s letting the kid have a taste of all sorts of defense, whereas Wemby can just be a 20-10-2 guy playing a Jarett Allen role with Tre Jones throwing lobs off a 2 man game.

So what gives with all these changes to the forum where she tweets/YouTube vids are embedded and others aren't.

Let's all get this figured out