2023-24 NBA Season Discussion

[yoyoboy]

There's a legitimate possibility Wemby breaks basketball and is the most impactful player in the league by the end of the season.

I would be stunned if he was a top 8 player by the end of the season.

I'm not guaranteeing it, but I'm just not discounting the chance. We've never seen a player like this, and so the ceiling for what rookies can accomplish has been broken in my mind. I don't even think he's being optimized at all yet on either end. And to see him looking as dominant as he has the last 3 games has me terrified of just how good this guy will be with more experience and better utilization.

[eminence]

There's a legitimate possibility Wemby breaks basketball and is the most impactful player in the league by the end of the season.

too small to take so seriously but..Spurs have jumped by 7-points of srs despite Wemby's best teammate getting injured.

Not saying it's going to happen, but if Wemby somehow wins 50 or something and looks the part, let's --not-- do the thing we did with the last guy and artifically curve down how good we think he was based on age.

I chose to interpret this as John Stockton love.

[OhayoKD]

There's a legitimate possibility Wemby breaks basketball and is the most impactful player in the league by the end of the season.

I would be stunned if he was a top 8 player by the end of the season.

He was a top 1 player last game lol

[OhayoKD]

There's a legitimate possibility Wemby breaks basketball and is the most impactful player in the league by the end of the season.

too small to take so seriously but..Spurs have jumped by 7-points of srs despite Wemby's best teammate getting injured.

Not saying it's going to happen, but if Wemby somehow wins 50 or something and looks the part, let's --not-- do the thing we did with the last guy and artifically curve down how good we think he was based on age.

I chose to interpret this as John Stockton love.

touche

[OhayoKD]

There's a legitimate possibility Wemby breaks basketball and is the most impactful player in the league by the end of the season.

I would be stunned if he was a top 8 player by the end of the season.

I'm not guaranteeing it, but I'm just not discounting the chance. We've never seen a player like this, and so the ceiling for what rookies can accomplish has been broken in my mind. I don't even think he's being optimized at all yet on either end. And to see him looking as dominant as he has the last 3 games has me terrified of just how good this guy will be with more experience and better utilization.

Edit out "rookie" for 20-year olds and you're not too far off.

[LukaTheGOAT]

There's a legitimate possibility Wemby breaks basketball and is the most impactful player in the league by the end of the season.

No, because Jokic exists.

[itsxtray]

Draymond in the short roll is legitimately one of my favorite things to watch. Dude's just so smart.

[LukaTheGOAT]

I would be stunned if he was a top 8 player by the end of the season.

I'm not guaranteeing it, but I'm just not discounting the chance. We've never seen a player like this, and so the ceiling for what rookies can accomplish has been broken in my mind. I don't even think he's being optimized at all yet on either end. And to see him looking as dominant as he has the last 3 games has me terrified of just how good this guy will be with more experience and better utilization.

Edit out "rookie" for 20-year olds and you're not too far off.

Lebron finished 6th in MVP voting and Shaq finished 7th in MVP voting. Shaq was a MVP-level guy in his rookie year, so we will see where Wemby ends up.

Shaq in particular was a fringe top 5 guy at that point.

[The-Power]

Losing Nick Nurse to a dysfunctional philly team is looking pretty bad. Maybe they can talent their way to a championship anyway, but not seeing Giannis used properly in his prime would be sad.

For me, that depends. How much of that would be on Giannis himself, and how much on factors beyond his control? If he's a main reason why he won't be used optimally going forward, I wouldn't feel sad about it.

Giannis is one of my favorite players since he entered the league but his decision-making has at times been very frustrating – and more so this season – and that leaves me wondering whether the theoretical idea of an optimally used Giannis alongside an elite perimeter offensive talent is even a possibility at this point.

It's early but I will be very reluctant to lay the blame at the coach's feet without clear evidence that it's warranted; and not just because the outcome is not what we hoped for.

[Colbinii]

I just made the mistake of going onto /r/NBA during a long work meeting/training (4 hours). I responded in a Celtics/Timberwolves thread about the #1 Ortg vs #1 Drtg and made a comment about Towns being a better offensive player than Jaylen Brown.

Am I wrong for thinking Towns is a better offensive player? Or is /r/NBA simply the General Board without Racism?

[itsxtray]

I just made the mistake of going onto /r/NBA during a long work meeting/training (4 hours). I responded in a Celtics/Timberwolves thread about the #1 Ortg vs #1 Drtg and made a comment about Towns being a better offensive player than Jaylen Brown.

Am I wrong for thinking Towns is a better offensive player? Or is /r/NBA simply the General Board without Racism?

I stopped going there BECAUSE of the racism. The Lebron china situation had people saying some crazy **** about black people. Criticize Lebron all you want but how you bring black people as a whole into this? Then the Kyrie & Jaylen Brown incidents did the same thing. People who know nothing about our community talking as if the NOI is some major staple in the black community and that all black people agree with them and that black people only care about themselves and are antisemitic. I had to leave cause it was legitimately affecting my mood.

Anyway, yeah, Towns is better on offense. He's off to a slow start but should pick it up over the course of the season.

[AEnigma]

I just made the mistake of going onto /r/NBA during a long work meeting/training (4 hours). I responded in a Celtics/Timberwolves thread about the #1 Ortg vs #1 Drtg and made a comment about Towns being a better offensive player than Jaylen Brown.

Am I wrong for thinking Towns is a better offensive player?

I am low on Towns as a player but the idea that Jaylen Brown is a better offensive player than him is not something I comprehend anyone outside of Boston thinking, and even in Boston it seemed like most of the people there had come to terms with Jaylen’s offensive limitations several months ago.

Is /r/NBA simply the General Board without Racism?

That would never be my description of Reddit.

[rk2023]

I’ve enjoyed time on r/NBA discussion and NBA draft. I don’t like the open-sourceness of some online communities and platforms (includes r/nba), as I feel such can be a double edged sword with diminishing returns.

[Texas Chuck]

I mean Wemby isn't even going to be the best Spurs rookie ever much less the best player in the league this year. Tim Duncan was much closer to being the best player and defender in the league as a rookie than Wemby is likely to be.

I know I'm too skeptical of the next great thing, but man some of you just won't even let a guy play before making these grandiose proclamations.

[Ambrose]

I just made the mistake of going onto /r/NBA during a long work meeting/training (4 hours). I responded in a Celtics/Timberwolves thread about the #1 Ortg vs #1 Drtg and made a comment about Towns being a better offensive player than Jaylen Brown.

Am I wrong for thinking Towns is a better offensive player? Or is /r/NBA simply the General Board without Racism?

Ultra low on Towns.

He's clearly the better offensive player between the two.

[Ambrose]

I mean Wemby isn't even going to be the best Spurs rookie ever much less the best player in the league this year. Tim Duncan was much closer to being the best player and defender in the league as a rookie than Wemby is likely to be.

I know I'm too skeptical of the next great thing, but man some of you just won't even let a guy play before making these grandiose proclamations.

Typically, I'd be with you on downplaying some of the early success but I honestly don't think a lot of what's being said about him is grandiose. He's already so good in what is clearly a less than ideal situation. He's not going to be the most impactful guy in the league by the end of the year but everything else that's being thrown out there seems legitimately possible.

[AEnigma]

I mean Wemby isn't even going to be the best Spurs rookie ever much less the best player in the league this year. Tim Duncan was much closer to being the best player **and defender** in the league as a rookie than Wemby is likely to be.

Generally agree with the rest of your comment, but not sure this holds up. Rookie Duncan was not a top five defender in my eyes, nor do I think he was better than what Wemby has showed thus far even if we grant that competition for that “best defender” title was much stiffer in 1998.

[Peregrine01]

Assuming both are healthy, I don't think Wemby will be as good of an offensive player as Chet. He looks like a giraffe out there so it'll be hard for him to put the ball on the floor and his shot isn't as good. He's most lethal as a lob threat but I think there's a ceiling to how good those kinds of players can be on offense.

On defense, this guy has GOAT-level potential, health permitting.

[eminence]

I'd take rookie Robinson over rookie Duncan.

[Texas Chuck]

I mean Wemby isn't even going to be the best Spurs rookie ever much less the best player in the league this year. Tim Duncan was much closer to being the best player **and defender** in the league as a rookie than Wemby is likely to be.

Generally agree with the rest of your comment, but not sure this holds up. Rookie Duncan was not a top five defender in my eyes, nor do I think he was better than what Wemby has showed thus far even if we grant that competition for that “best defender” title was much stiffer in 1998.

Who did you have better than Duncan defensively that year? Deke and his own teammate Robinson certainly have strong cases, but who else? I'd really struggle to find 5 guys with greater defensive impact that year.