Official NBA General Discussion 2023-24 V1.0

[WaltFrazier]

I read that Gloria Allred is now representing the girl and her family in the Josh Giddey. I know the original thread was locked, but this is now serious.

[YogurtProducer]

The crowds have been great for the tournament games. The games in Vegas might be dull in comparison.

Eventually I think they will expand the tournament to a sweet 16 setup since these games are a lot more exciting/important than a typical regular season game in Dec. Once there are 32 teams, it will be a cleaner format of 8 groups of 4 with the top 2 in each group making it through to the knockout stage. They could even televise a group lottery like FIFA does.

Would you do 8 groups of 4, or 4 groups of 8? I kind of like the idea of 7 seeding games just to extend the length of the tournament a bit.

Other option is the FIBA route where they do the first stage of group play with 3 games (8 groups of 4), then the top two teams from each group move onto the second stage of group play where two groups merge (for a total of 16 teams in 4 groups), and you play 2 more games for a total of 5 seeding games.

Then, the top 2 from those merged groups move to the round of 8.

My ideal schedule (assuming they go to 32 teams)

Regular Season:
A balanced 62 game regular season (home and away against every team)

Tournament (separate from regular season):
4 groups of 8 (home and away against every team) for a 14 game tournament schedule. Top 4 in each group go to a knockout 16 team bracket. Highest seeds get homecourt until a neutral site final.

Playoffs:
Your typical 16 team playoff system. I don't mind the system currently with the play-in.


You'd be competing for 3 separate trophies every year - regular season title, tournament title and playoff title.

14 games to me might be a bit much. You are getting to the point where each win/loss just is not that meaningful anymore and teams can kind of coast by.

I think a solid middle group would be 8 groups of 4 with a home/away with each team for a 6 game tournament schedule. Then do the FIBA group merge thing and have another home/away with 2 other teams for a total of 10 tournament games. Top 2 seeds from each merged seed make the knockout 8 team bracket.

Then, turn all-star weekend into all-star week.

Wednesday - Round of 8 (might not be able to have this at the all-star game location with 3 games in one day, so maybe have it on Tuesday)
Thursday - Rising Stars Game
Friday - Round of 4
Saturday - dunk contest / 3 point / etc. AND the all-star game
Sunday - Mid-season championship

[OakleyDokely]

Would you do 8 groups of 4, or 4 groups of 8? I kind of like the idea of 7 seeding games just to extend the length of the tournament a bit.

Other option is the FIBA route where they do the first stage of group play with 3 games (8 groups of 4), then the top two teams from each group move onto the second stage of group play where two groups merge (for a total of 16 teams in 4 groups), and you play 2 more games for a total of 5 seeding games.

Then, the top 2 from those merged groups move to the round of 8.

My ideal schedule (assuming they go to 32 teams)

Regular Season:
A balanced 62 game regular season (home and away against every team)

Tournament (separate from regular season):
4 groups of 8 (home and away against every team) for a 14 game tournament schedule. Top 4 in each group go to a knockout 16 team bracket. Highest seeds get homecourt until a neutral site final.

Playoffs:
Your typical 16 team playoff system. I don't mind the system currently with the play-in.


You'd be competing for 3 separate trophies every year - regular season title, tournament title and playoff title.

14 games to me might be a bit much. You are getting to the point where each win/loss just is not that meaningful anymore and teams can kind of coast by.

I think a solid middle group would be 8 groups of 4 with a home/away with each team for a 6 game tournament schedule. Then do the FIBA group merge thing and have another home/away with 2 other teams for a total of 10 tournament games. Top 2 seeds from each merged seed make the knockout 8 team bracket.

Then, turn all-star weekend into all-star week.

Wednesday - Round of 8 (might not be able to have this at the all-star game location with 3 games in one day, so maybe have it on Tuesday)
Thursday - Rising Stars Game
Friday - Round of 4
Saturday - dunk contest / 3 point / etc. AND the all-star game
Sunday - Mid-season championship

ya, 14 games is a lot but I doubt the NBA wants to reduce games so you'd need make them up somewhere. I don't mind that suggestion though.

[YogurtProducer]

My ideal schedule (assuming they go to 32 teams)

Regular Season:
A balanced 62 game regular season (home and away against every team)

Tournament (separate from regular season):
4 groups of 8 (home and away against every team) for a 14 game tournament schedule. Top 4 in each group go to a knockout 16 team bracket. Highest seeds get homecourt until a neutral site final.

Playoffs:
Your typical 16 team playoff system. I don't mind the system currently with the play-in.


You'd be competing for 3 separate trophies every year - regular season title, tournament title and playoff title.

14 games to me might be a bit much. You are getting to the point where each win/loss just is not that meaningful anymore and teams can kind of coast by.

I think a solid middle group would be 8 groups of 4 with a home/away with each team for a 6 game tournament schedule. Then do the FIBA group merge thing and have another home/away with 2 other teams for a total of 10 tournament games. Top 2 seeds from each merged seed make the knockout 8 team bracket.

Then, turn all-star weekend into all-star week.

Wednesday - Round of 8 (might not be able to have this at the all-star game location with 3 games in one day, so maybe have it on Tuesday)
Thursday - Rising Stars Game
Friday - Round of 4
Saturday - dunk contest / 3 point / etc. AND the all-star game
Sunday - Mid-season championship

ya, 14 games is a lot but I doubt the NBA wants to reduce games so you'd need make them up somewhere. I don't mind that suggestion though.

Definite upside to having 4 or 8 teams (an even number) is you can do a tournament game for every team every Tuesday and Friday. If you did the 10 games like I suggest that would be 5 weeks of tournament play. For 14 games like you suggest that would be 7 weeks.

I think a pretty cool schedule would be to start the tournament games right near New Years Eve each year. The arbitrary change of the calendar right after Christmas really feels like the "2nd half" of the season (even if it is not technically the real "second half"). Using this year as an example you would have games Jan 2, 5, 9, 12, 16, 19, 23, 25, 30 and Feb 1. The Super Bowl is Feb 11th so you would want to avoid that. The All-Star Weekend is Feb 18th. They take off the 15th-21, so now all I would say is take off like Feb 4th - Feb 11th, and then kick up the tournament knockout games the Wednesday following the Super Bowl with the finale a week later.

While we are at it, why not use the in-season tournament to try out some new rules like the ELAM ending. Something a little more to distinguish it from a real game, while simultaneously trying out potential rules for the "real" NBA in a competitive NBA environment.

82 Games Broken Down As assuming the 10-game format I used above and 32-teams in 4 conferences of 8:
10 Tournament Group Games
3 Tournament Knockout Games
62 Regular Season Games (home and away)
7 games against your conference (so in total, 3 games against your conference mates).

You might end up with a slightly skewed home/away schedule however with this. Say you guarantee 40 home and 40 away games, and then your last 2 are dependent on mid-season performance, as well as your ranking within your conference in the last year (as 7 conference games will need to be split 4 / 3 home / road.

[HumbleRen]

Read on Twitter

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[Vampirate]

Read on Twitter

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The absolute irony is Siakam is likely going to facilitate his own trade.

If Siakam, GTJ, OG (FTs), McDaniels were shooting closer to their career norms, we're likely 11-8 or something.

Siakam shooting 19.8% from three at 4.1 attempts is one of the big reasons why we are under .500 ironically.

So I guess, the moral of the story is, if we want change to the core.........keep shooting those threes Siakam?

[WaltFrazier]

I read that Gloria Allred is now representing the girl and her family in the Josh Giddey. I know the original thread was locked, but this is now serious.

https://www.foxsports.com.au/basketball/nba/nba-2023-josh-giddey-case-takes-twist-with-lawyer-gloria-allred-releasing-statement-latest-news/news-story/c33c2ff0d521368b6769ab8902eb4fe2

[GP2]

500K is 500K. These players who were talking **** about the tourney are suddenly ultra motivated.

[HumbleRen]

Julius Randle is **** strong lol.

[WaltFrazier]

Bucks looking strong. I haven't followed them much lately but the announcer was going in about Dame's 4th quarter stats this year. It's a classic offense vs defense debate, are they a better team with Dame or Jrue?

[Scizzup]

Bucks looking strong. I haven't followed them much lately but the announcer was going in about Dame's 4th quarter stats this year. It's a classic offense vs defense debate, are they a better team with Dame or Jrue?

too early to say one way.

But they were already regressing on defense even with Jrue on the team. Dame is obviously a much better offensive player and allows Giannis to be even more efficient. They do need more perimter defense to win it all though.

Edit: Jrue is so good on offense and defense in the regular season that it makes it closer than their talent would say in a vacuum.

[HumbleRen]

Bucks looking strong. I haven't followed them much lately but the announcer was going in about Dame's 4th quarter stats this year. It's a classic offense vs defense debate, are they a better team with Dame or Jrue?

too early to say one way.

But they were already regressing on defense even with Jrue on the team. Dame is obviously a much better offensive player and allows Giannis to be even more efficient. They do need more perimter defense to compete for a title though.

Edit: Jrue is so good on offense and defense in the regular season that it makes it closer than their talent in a vacuum.

I think the trade was worth it. Jrue was definitely fallen off on both ends of the court this year. Like Derrick White is better than him.

[WaltFrazier]

Bucks looking strong. I haven't followed them much lately but the announcer was going in about Dame's 4th quarter stats this year. It's a classic offense vs defense debate, are they a better team with Dame or Jrue?

too early to say one way.

But they were already regressing on defense even with Jrue on the team. Dame is obviously a much better offensive player and allows Giannis to be even more efficient. They do need more perimter defense to win it all though.

Edit: Jrue is so good on offense and defense in the regular season that it makes it closer than their talent would say in a vacuum.

For sure Boston wouldn't be as good if they still had Brogdon instead of Jrue

[Madvillainy2004]

Bucks looking strong. I haven't followed them much lately but the announcer was going in about Dame's 4th quarter stats this year. It's a classic offense vs defense debate, are they a better team with Dame or Jrue?

too early to say one way.

But they were already regressing on defense even with Jrue on the team. Dame is obviously a much better offensive player and allows Giannis to be even more efficient. They do need more perimter defense to compete for a title though.

Edit: Jrue is so good on offense and defense in the regular season that it makes it closer than their talent in a vacuum.

I think the trade was worth it. Jrue was definitely fallen off on both ends of the court this year. Like Derrick White is better than him.

Jrue was also pretty terrible offensively even in their title year he scored at 50 TS% (and I believe he's around that for all his Bucks playoff games). Dame is just a different level of player, Jrues defense is great but I think Lillard adds a dimension to an offense that's hard to replicate. Once Dame and Giannis find their chemistry it's gonna be near impossible to stop.

[Scizzup]

Bucks looking strong. I haven't followed them much lately but the announcer was going in about Dame's 4th quarter stats this year. It's a classic offense vs defense debate, are they a better team with Dame or Jrue?

too early to say one way.

But they were already regressing on defense even with Jrue on the team. Dame is obviously a much better offensive player and allows Giannis to be even more efficient. They do need more perimter defense to compete for a title though.

Edit: Jrue is so good on offense and defense in the regular season that it makes it closer than their talent in a vacuum.

I think the trade was worth it. Jrue was definitely fallen off on both ends of the court this year. Like Derrick White is better than him.

Yea, trade was worth it but this is just 20 games for Jrue on a new team and he is playing a much different role on offense. Dame is not playing like his usual self either.

The previous 3 regular seasons he has been great and all star level impact, I expect him to get better as the seasons goes on. Also, yea White is really good.

[HumbleRen]

too early to say one way.

But they were already regressing on defense even with Jrue on the team. Dame is obviously a much better offensive player and allows Giannis to be even more efficient. They do need more perimter defense to compete for a title though.

Edit: Jrue is so good on offense and defense in the regular season that it makes it closer than their talent in a vacuum.

I think the trade was worth it. Jrue was definitely fallen off on both ends of the court this year. Like Derrick White is better than him.

Yea, trade was worth it but this is just 20 games for Jrue on a new team and he is playing a much different role on offense. Dame is not playing like his usual self either.

The previous 3 regular seasons he has been great and all star level impact, I expect him to get better as the seasons goes on. Also, yea White is really good.

I don't know man, Jrue was pretty god awful in the playoffs. I think he's in the exact role he's meant to be in right now.

A great 6th man.

[HumbleRen]

too early to say one way.

But they were already regressing on defense even with Jrue on the team. Dame is obviously a much better offensive player and allows Giannis to be even more efficient. They do need more perimter defense to compete for a title though.

Edit: Jrue is so good on offense and defense in the regular season that it makes it closer than their talent in a vacuum.

I think the trade was worth it. Jrue was definitely fallen off on both ends of the court this year. Like Derrick White is better than him.

Jrue was also pretty terrible offensively even in their title year he scored at 50 TS% (and I believe he's around that for all his Bucks playoff games). Dame is just a different level of player, Jrues defense is great but I think Lillard adds a dimension to an offense that's hard to replicate. Once Dame and Giannis find their chemistry it's gonna be near impossible to stop.

Yep. Buck's biggest issue in my opinion is their coaching. Adrian Griffin is just a clear downgrade on Bud on almost every level. I think Bucks are missing one piece too.

I'd be giving up all my assets to get Caruso if I was them.

[kieferli]

Happy to see stupid NYN blow out loss

[Scizzup]

I think the trade was worth it. Jrue was definitely fallen off on both ends of the court this year. Like Derrick White is better than him.

Yea, trade was worth it but this is just 20 games for Jrue on a new team and he is playing a much different role on offense. Dame is not playing like his usual self either.

The previous 3 regular seasons he has been great and all star level impact, I expect him to get better as the seasons goes on. Also, yea White is really good.

I don't know man, Jrue was pretty god awful in the playoffs. I think he's in the exact role he's meant to be in right now.

A great 6th man.

I think Jrue playoff struggles are overstated outside last year. He is a defensive beast and Bucks won/competed in the playoffs because of defense. he obviously has issues on offense but all his non box score numbers and impact numbers in the playoffs still looked good cause he was also a good playmaker.

Dame is obviously a huge upgrade on offense but he is also one of the worst defenders in the league. If Bucks get one more perimeter defender they are fine, if they don't then they are cooked imo.

[C_Money]

Hmm, yesterday’s games were better.