2024-25 NBA Season Discussion

[ShaqAttac]

Sure--so why did they pick White instead of Brown?

1) He is a better fit
2) He is a better player
3) Nike!

Good theories! Step up from the last one, at least

I don't want to overload you with too much thought.

It's because he is a better player and better fit--but we all know that already.

well thats cap

[ShaqAttac]

idk why brown shouldn't say what he thinks. brown not making the team after winning finals mvp is disrespectful tbh

Derrick White is a straight up better player than Jaylen Brown

How is white better than finals mvp, ecf mvp, lockdown d bro who scores 2x as many points?

Bro was literally 2 wins away from winning finals mvp again when white wasnt even starting.

white being better is just crazy

[tsherkin]

idk why brown shouldn't say what he thinks. brown not making the team after winning finals mvp is disrespectful tbh

Derrick White is a straight up better player than Jaylen Brown

How is white better than finals mvp, ecf mvp, lockdown d bro who scores 2x as many points?

Bro was literally 2 wins away from winning finals mvp again when white wasnt even starting.

white being better is just crazy

My first thought is that he is a 3+D guy who can fill in at the point, but doesnt need lots of touches or dribbles. Brown is good, but what he does best, the team already has in much better form. Also, White is a better 3pt shooter.

[Peregrine01]

Derrick White is a straight up better player than Jaylen Brown

How is white better than finals mvp, ecf mvp, lockdown d bro who scores 2x as many points?

Bro was literally 2 wins away from winning finals mvp again when white wasnt even starting.

white being better is just crazy

My first thought is that he is a 3+D guy who can fill in at the point, but doesnt need lots of touches or dribbles. Brown is good, but what he does best, the team already has in much better form. Also, White is a better 3pt shooter.

Brown is better as an individual talent. White is better at making a team already stacked with individual talent even better.

[therealbig3]

All I’ll say is, there are times that the Celtics can have Tatum, Brown, Holiday, White, and Porzingis on the court. And depending on how they’re all playing, Brown could legitimately be their 5th best player on the court for not just a game or two, but potentially entire series. That’s insane and just speaks to how stacked the Celtics are.

I guess I’m saying that it’s not so much an insult to Brown as it is a compliment to the fact that the Celtics have a lot of really good players.

[IlikeSHAIguys]

Lebron being the best player on team USA at 40 is pretty cool.

[tsherkin]

How is white better than finals mvp, ecf mvp, lockdown d bro who scores 2x as many points?

Bro was literally 2 wins away from winning finals mvp again when white wasnt even starting.

white being better is just crazy

My first thought is that he is a 3+D guy who can fill in at the point, but doesnt need lots of touches or dribbles. Brown is good, but what he does best, the team already has in much better form. Also, White is a better 3pt shooter.

Brown is better as an individual talent. White is better at making a team already stacked with individual talent even better.

That sounds about right to me.

[tsherkin]

All right. Well. 24-25 season.

Things I'm looking forward to.

What is Lebron gonna do? He's in uncharted territory for performance at age. The team isn't gonna be that good, he has no title hopes, so that's sad for me. I was hoping they'd be able to do, you know, anything at all so he might have a more extended postseason this upcoming season but that's clearly not happening. So I'll just enjoy whatever's left of his RS career and maybe another first round out.

Wemby Year Two! That's gonna be fun. He needs to cut his turnovers down and be a little more judicious with his 3pt shot selection. But with CP alongside him, that should make a really interesting dynamic and some strong offensive development. It's hard to think of a BETTER stylistic running mate at the 1, and for the 55-60 games he's likely to be healthy, that should be something to witness.

Klay in Dallas. Luka's finally made it to the Finals, and he's got some more shooting support, even at the cost of defense, so we'll see how that unfolds.

Jokic. Denver isn't looking too promising for contention, but I do love watching him play.

I want to be excited about Golden State. I'm not, sadly. I hope something happens for Steph, because I still enjoy watching him play. Same same with Giannis and the Bucks. Giannis healthy for the playoffs would be nice. I'd like to see if Ant can get himself together for a strong RS scoring campaign, get that middle and slashing game going a little more. Very much interested to see what happens with the Knicks. Would like to see if Banchero learns how to score better. He's got the tools, that's clear enough. Should be equally interesting to see Maxey in Philly and if Embiid can stay healthy (hah!), as well as how Demar plays out in Sacramento.

Super unenthused about my Raptors, though. Bleh. Tank year, I guess. We'll see what Scottie does and if he can get his mojo back post-hand.

[Colbinii]

All right. Well. 24-25 season.

Things I'm looking forward to.

What is Lebron gonna do? He's in uncharted territory for performance at age. The team isn't gonna be that good, he has no title hopes, so that's sad for me. I was hoping they'd be able to do, you know, anything at all so he might have a more extended postseason this upcoming season but that's clearly not happening. So I'll just enjoy whatever's left of his RS career and maybe another first round out.

Yeah, it's rough just how bad the Russell Westbrook trade was and how far it set LAL back. LeBron can still be the best player in a non-Jokic series, which means he as a player can still be the best player [or 1B] on a title team. This isn't a retirement tour which makes it frustrating to see him not in competitive series.

Wemby Year Two! That's gonna be fun. He needs to cut his turnovers down and be a little more judicious with his 3pt shot selection. But with CP alongside him, that should make a really interesting dynamic and some strong offensive development. It's hard to think of a BETTER stylistic running mate at the 1, and for the 55-60 games he's likely to be healthy, that should be something to witness.

I am expecting him to leap into Top 10 [Top 5?] discussions this year.

Super unenthused about my Raptors, though. Bleh. Tank year, I guess. We'll see what Scottie does and if he can get his mojo back post-hand.

Raptors will be decent. Pitiful Eastern Conference. Quickley will be the "best" player by most all-in-ones and +/- family data. Scottie will try and cement himself as an actual star and likely be a pseudo-star. I think they will be fun to watch if you are a Toronto fan.

[tsherkin]

I am expecting him to leap into Top 10 [Top 5?] discussions this year.

We shall see. We need to see more from him beyond 10 feet. Good foundation, but now he needs to actually be a threat from 11 feet out to the foul line and needs to be smarter with his 3pt shot selection. I imagine Paul will help drive him more to roll action and all that, which will be very good for him. I'm excited to see what he can do defensively with, you know, any kind of help, heh.

Raptors will be decent. Pitiful Eastern Conference. Quickley will be the "best" player by most all-in-ones and +/- family data. Scottie will try and cement himself as an actual star and likely be a pseudo-star. I think they will be fun to watch if you are a Toronto fan.

They stank last year and without an immense leap from Scottie, they will again this year.

Remember, on the SEASON, they were the 6th-worst defense in the league and 7th-worst O. We were what, 13-16 when Quickley actually played? That overlapped with Scottie being out, but we have nothing.

They will be terrible to watch unless you watch Raptors games just to say you watch Raptors games and that in and of itself is fun. From an actual quality of play perspective, I am expecting them to be quite poor. They definitely have no defense and there's no one on that team who has shown anything like the ability to carry and offense. MAYBE this is the year Scottie starts scoring above league average, but that's heavily dependent on a bunch of stuff he hasn't yet shown. It's gonna be rough. Would love to be wrong, but I very much doubt it.

[AEnigma]

Super unenthused about my Raptors, though. Bleh. Tank year, I guess. We'll see what Scottie does and if he can get his mojo back post-hand.

Spurs have this pick. EDIT: Mandela effect.

[tsherkin]

Super unenthused about my Raptors, though. Bleh. Tank year, I guess. We'll see what Scottie does and if he can get his mojo back post-hand.

Spurs have this pick.

I know, man. I know. It isn't a WILLING tank year, lmao. I just don't think we have any choice in the matter. The pick IS top-6 protected, though.

[parsnips33]

I'm excited to see 2nd year Podz tbh, ideally still in SF and playing with Markkanen lol

[SK21209]

The thing I'm most excited about for next season is the possibility of an actually compelling Eastern conference. Specifically, I find the jockeying between the Sixers and Knicks for the title as primary threat to Celtics to be fascinating, both because I enjoy watching players on both teams and because they represent very different approaches to teambuilding under this new CBA. The Sixers still believe the 3-star model represents the best chance to compete when you can get the fit right with the 3 guys, the Knicks have 1 superstar and waves of rock-solid players. From there, my next tier in the East (Bucks, Pacers, Cavs, Magic) is also really interesting.

Sticking with the East, I hope we finally get a Sixers/Bucks playoff series. It's crazy they've never matched up despite each making the playoffs the last 7 seasons. I want to see the physical matchup between Embiid/Giannis over the course of 7 games. In general, I want to see Embiid be healthy in the playoffs and have a moment.

I really don't know what to expect from my Lakers. By the end of last season, I thought they'd rounded into one of the 5 or so best teams in the league. Similar to the year prior. KCP just went on Draymond's pod and said he thought the Lakers should have beaten them. I've liked a lot of what Redick has been saying since the hire in terms of his vision for how he wants this team to play. But we don't have the collective talent/fit to realistically come out of the West. Regardless, I love watching LeBron night to night. He's the last guy left from the early/mid 2000s when I fell in love with both the NBA and the NFL.

[tsherkin]

I really don't know what to expect from my Lakers. By the end of last season, I thought they'd rounded into one of the 5 or so best teams in the league. Similar to the year prior. KCP just went on Draymond's pod and said he thought the Lakers should have beaten them. I've liked a lot of what Redick has been saying since the hire in terms of his vision for how he wants this team to play. But we don't have the collective talent/fit to realistically come out of the West. Regardless, I love watching LeBron night to night. He's the last guy left from the early/mid 2000s when I fell in love with both the NBA and the NFL.

All Redick has to do is be better than Ham. Then he has justified his hiring.

The trick is, LA still has bleh depth. Hopefully Vanderbilt is healthy. We'll see what happens. Lebron isn't quite the same as he used to be even a few years ago, but he's still wild and fun to watch.

[Colbinii]

Super unenthused about my Raptors, though. Bleh. Tank year, I guess. We'll see what Scottie does and if he can get his mojo back post-hand.

Spurs have this pick.

Spurs don't have Toronto's 2025 1st.

[tsherkin]

Super unenthused about my Raptors, though. Bleh. Tank year, I guess. We'll see what Scottie does and if he can get his mojo back post-hand.

Spurs have this pick.

Spurs don't have Toronto's 2025 1st.

Oh right, it was either/or, wasn't it?

Either way, if they do have our 2025, it's protected anyway.

[Colbinii]

Spurs have this pick.

Spurs don't have Toronto's 2025 1st.

Oh right, it was either/or, wasn't it?

Either way, if they do have our 2025, it's protected anyway.

Yeah it was Top 6 protected in 2024 [and would have rolled over to 2025 if it didn't convey] but because of the lottery balls it conveyed. Toronto finished with the 6th worst record [and the Pick was Top 6 protected] but then Atlanta and Houston jumped up to #1 and #3 respectively.

[parsnips33]

Do people generally have Knicks over Bucks going into the year? Not sure what I should be thinking about Milwaukee

[tsherkin]

Spurs don't have Toronto's 2025 1st.

Oh right, it was either/or, wasn't it?

Either way, if they do have our 2025, it's protected anyway.

Yeah it was Top 6 protected in 2024 [and would have rolled over to 2025 if it didn't convey] but because of the lottery balls it conveyed. Toronto finished with the 6th worst record [and the Pick was Top 6 protected] but then Atlanta and Houston jumped up to #1 and #3 respectively.

I think I might have confused 2024 and 2025 then. But I guess regardless, we're clear to suck and maybe get a decent pick out of it, heh.