Your basketball viewing habits

Post #1 » by **batsmasher** » Wed Dec 30, 2015 1:41 am

This is something I've always been curious about. How much basketball do you watch? Suns ball? NBA ball? College ball? Euroleague? D-League?

Live? Online? On TV? In person? Ballstreams? League Pass?

Who do you enjoy watching? (I feel like this has been asked before)

I usually get to see probably 50-60 games of Suns ball each season live. I've never been about watching archived games. Never seen a game in person, nor been to the States, but if I did go I'd pay an arm and a leg to see the Suns.

NBA games: Not as much. I'm prone to tuning in and out of games, particularly when I want to watch a player for fantasy. But generally if something interesting is happening I'll load up a stream. But watching a game through that wasn't a Suns game? I'd probably see 10-20 of those.

Been watching a lot of Boston lately. I like their team composition and they always seem to be in interesting games. I also watch a bit of Sixers ball to see how Jah/Noel/RobCo are going.

Post #2 » by **bwgood77** » Wed Dec 30, 2015 1:59 am

This year I've watched every game, but that isn't a normal thing. I've found it thoroughly entertaining. Other than the GS, Denver, and Philly games, we have played everyone else that I remember fairly tough except maybe the first game of the year.

I love that we are getting younger and adding great picks every year. That makes it exciting for me. Although Nash was fun to watch, the 10-11, 11-12 season were not that fun..they were ok because we fought and Gortat was a nice finisher from Nash, but we should have started rebuilding after that first season when it was obvious it was time to move on. We could have kept Gortat then, and maybe Dudley, but it was probably time to move on from the others. Then we add Beasley, go after Gordon, draft Marshall, etc, and that was just ugly and less fun to watch. 13-14 was fun to watch, but in all of the seasons I still probably fall into the 30-50 range.

Last year I actually got ballstreams, and besides the great feeds, that team left me depressed. No one looked like they were having fun, the backcourt was a mess, the IT signing didn't work, even though in stretches with all 3 out there they outscored opponents well, and IT scored a lot, but it wasn't team ball. Then the trades and the injuries, and the end of the season were bad.

This season, to start, was more fun to watch, seeing some great performances from Knight and Bledsoe early, starting out 7-5, but then we dipped a bit, but that road trip was fun to watch, except the brutal losses (2 on miscues by Knight at the end) but despite all that we were in every game, which is what a fan is. Gut wrenching losses we experience together, at least we can remember them. I remember in BOTH games where Knight blew it I posted in the game thread on those final inbounds where all we had to do is run out the shot clock or get fouled, "ALL WE NEED TO DO IS NOT TURN IT OVER" and Knight does exactly that.

When we got home I didn't feel too bad about the team, but that Milwaukee loss we blew was tough. You could tell Hornacek was deflated and we were about to play GS, and just got blown out, which took all the confidence away, leading to the next two losses.

I think the shake up was good. I do think this season would be going better and be more fun for most of us (except for those who hated Hornacek before this year started), if he had gotten extended. I think he deserved a chance to coach the completely turned over team...post Markieff and Tucker going....but that hasn't come to fruition, and even when those guys get traded, now we won't have Bledsoe, so he will never have had a completely turned over team. Is that on McD? Is the Morris situation on McD? It's mostly on Morris, and I can understand waiting for a good deal, but this isn't helping the team now, that's for sure.

This year ballstreams says there are billing issues so I haven't gotten it yet, but I wish I could. I hate using firstrow because I feel like it's going to give my computer a virus. I need to find better feeds.

I only occasionally watch other teams, usually when I see the games are close near the end...rarely do I ever watch full games until the playoffs.

I watch about half of the AZ games each year, but more and more as the season progresses, and all the tourney games.

But as for the original question, I usually would probably be between 50 and 70, but this year, having watched them all, I will probably watch 70+.

Post #3 » by **batsmasher** » Wed Dec 30, 2015 2:08 am

I've missed 2 games so far this season. On track for a career high.

I really thought the win @ Chicago would be a turning point for the team. How wrong I was.

Post #4 » by **bwgood77** » Wed Dec 30, 2015 2:37 am

batsmasher wrote:I've missed 2 games so far this season. On track for a career high.

I really thought the win @ Chicago would be a turning point for the team. How wrong I was.

Did we play Memphis before or after them? If after, just inbounding and getting a shot off or winning in OT would have been a huge confidence booster in addition to the Chicago game. I really think, as good as Bledsoe is, when he takes games or possessions off, and dogs it a bit, or gets tunnel vision (Knight does the tunnel vision too), it really hurts us. If both of these guys listened more to Hornacek and got the ball flowing I think this team could be really fun to watch. Hopefully that happens now with Knight...he needs not to do too much on his own, because he has weapons he can use if he passes. He should really only shoot wide open threes, or if he feels it, midrange twos, and going to the basket, but he should usually try and set guys up.

Sunsss · Post #5 » by **Sunsss** » Wed Dec 30, 2015 4:56 am

I don't remember the last time I missed a Suns game. Maybe in the Beasley season? Even if I can't watch it live at night (rarely happens), the next day I watch it online without knowing the score. I've been downloading/watching archived League Pass videos since they hit the internet. (about 2009? 2010?)

For non-Suns NBA games, I usually watch a couple of games on nights Suns don't play. Also every playoff game.

For other leagues, I probably watch about 10 games a week from Euroleague, Eurocup and our local league.

That makes it about 20 games a week, so you can call me a basketball junkie, I guess.

Post #6 » by **batsmasher** » Wed Dec 30, 2015 5:08 am

Sunsss wrote:I don't remember the last time I missed a Suns game. Maybe in the Beasley season? Even if I can't watch it live at night (rarely happens), the next day I watch it online without knowing the score. I've been downloading/watching archived League Pass videos since they hit the internet. (about 2009? 2010?)

For non-Suns NBA games, I usually watch a couple of games on nights Suns don't play. Also every playoff game.

For other leagues, I probably watch about 10 games a week from Euroleague, Eurocup and our local league.

That makes it about 20 games a week, so you can call me a basketball junkie, I guess.

Wowzers. That's impressive. I can't begin to imagine a basketball game being on at night time (the NBL used to be on lateish sometimes). A problem for a lot of Australian NBA fans is the timing. Games are between 10AM and 5PM here and a bit earlier in the west. If the NBA was on at night I'd probably binge the hell out of it.

sunskerr · Post #7 » by **sunskerr** » Wed Dec 30, 2015 6:06 am

I live on Guam so I only watch 1, maybe 2 (if I'm lucky). Same time zone as Brisbane, Au. When I was in high school I was able to catch almost all of them, even if they were on at 3 in the morning. But now the games almost always coincide with my uni schedule and as an upper level biology student there isn't a lot I can do to view more. When I'm done with classes I'll try to find extended highlights of our games on youtube.

However, this lack of time to watch Suns games has also been somewhat of a gift. I've now begun to rely on sources like basketballreference and 82games to form more of my opinion on players. I don't fully understand all of the advanced stats, but it has definitely peaked my interest and I really want to try and break into this new world of sports statistics (as an amateur).

SarcasticSun · Post #8 » by **SarcasticSun** » Wed Dec 30, 2015 7:59 am

Was on pace for 70ish, now that Bledsoe is out and we are probably tanking, I might drop down to 50 or lower.. Guess I'll see. Used to do all 82 in SSOL era. Dropped to like 60 after amare left. Beasley season I was less than 30. The McD era I am hovering around 60 games a year

Matt1979 · Post #9 » by **Matt1979** » Wed Dec 30, 2015 11:42 pm

I watch as many Suns games as I can. Also watch a team here in the UK who I have a season ticket for.

Revived · Post #10 » by **Revived** » Wed Dec 30, 2015 11:59 pm

I usually watch most games on week days because I'm usually at work and can find the time.

Weekends are harder just because I have other responsibilities but even then I attempt to watch as much as I can or at least try to follow along on the ESPN box scores. This season I'll probably end up watching about 50-60 games.

Post #11 » by **bwgood77** » Thu Dec 31, 2015 2:15 am

Sunsss wrote:I don't remember the last time I missed a Suns game. Maybe in the Beasley season? Even if I can't watch it live at night (rarely happens), the next day I watch it online without knowing the score. I've been downloading/watching archived League Pass videos since they hit the internet. (about 2009? 2010?)

For non-Suns NBA games, I usually watch a couple of games on nights Suns don't play. Also every playoff game.

For other leagues, I probably watch about 10 games a week from Euroleague, Eurocup and our local league.

That makes it about 20 games a week, so you can call me a basketball junkie, I guess.

Wow, that's crazy.

Post #12 » by **bwgood77** » Thu Dec 31, 2015 2:18 am

sunskerr wrote:I live on Guam so I only watch 1, maybe 2 (if I'm lucky). Same time zone as Brisbane, Au. When I was in high school I was able to catch almost all of them, even if they were on at 3 in the morning. But now the games almost always coincide with my uni schedule and as an upper level biology student there isn't a lot I can do to view more. When I'm done with classes I'll try to find extended highlights of our games on youtube.

However, this lack of time to watch Suns games has also been somewhat of a gift. I've now begun to rely on sources like basketballreference and 82games to form more of my opinion on players. I don't fully understand all of the advanced stats, but it has definitely peaked my interest and I really want to try and break into this new world of sports statistics (as an amateur).

nba.com has really gotten impressive with stats (including best units for each team on the floor) too. There are a bunch of links on that Link Reference post I made with shot charts and stuff. I hope more people post good links for stats there.

Since I am not so interested in this Suns game at the moment I just spent 5 minutes researching Guam.

RaisingArizona · Post #13 » by **RaisingArizona** » Thu Dec 31, 2015 3:13 am

I would say I watch most games every season and have for the last 15 years. Probably average around 70-75 games a year. This squad is testing my patience though. I don't remember the last time I've shut off the TV in the 2nd quarter before but I just did.

I'm using ILP this year but in the past have watched on Fox Sports AZ.

sunskerr · Post #14 » by **sunskerr** » Thu Dec 31, 2015 11:41 pm

bwgood77 wrote:
sunskerr wrote:I live on Guam so I only watch 1, maybe 2 (if I'm lucky). Same time zone as Brisbane, Au. When I was in high school I was able to catch almost all of them, even if they were on at 3 in the morning. But now the games almost always coincide with my uni schedule and as an upper level biology student there isn't a lot I can do to view more. When I'm done with classes I'll try to find extended highlights of our games on youtube.

However, this lack of time to watch Suns games has also been somewhat of a gift. I've now begun to rely on sources like basketballreference and 82games to form more of my opinion on players. I don't fully understand all of the advanced stats, but it has definitely peaked my interest and I really want to try and break into this new world of sports statistics (as an amateur).

nba.com has really gotten impressive with stats (including best units for each team on the floor) too. There are a bunch of links on that Link Reference post I made with shot charts and stuff. I hope more people post good links for stats there.

Since I am not so interested in this Suns game at the moment I just spent 5 minutes researching Guam.

NBA.com certainly does have an amazing database. One could spend hours there sorting through everything. Only one complaint:They should widen their "shot clock ranges" option to include more seconds. Right now they only have options between 24-22, 22-20 etc which is basically useless. They need to change it to 5,7 seconds into shot clock etc.

saintEscaton · Post #15 » by **saintEscaton** » Fri Jan 1, 2016 12:34 am

I don't think TJ and DBook getting burn is enough to convince me to tune in to every game from here on out. Economy of time.

DRK · Post #16 » by **DRK** » Fri Jan 1, 2016 4:00 am

Dont really get as much time as before to watch games. Working full time during the uni break and entering my final year at Uni next year with my Civil Engineering degree, I dont think I will have much time next year either.

Try to follow it on my phone as much as I can and Im pretty regular on the forums to catch up on the latest chatter. Wish I had more time to watch the games.

To be honest though, Ild rather spend two hours actually playing basketball than watching it. I spend about 4-5 hours a week playing ball with mates and a mens league.