NBA Games Discussion Thread - Part 4

[Kanyewest]

The Celtics CAN'T LOSE!

With Kyrie Irving (and of course, Gordon Hayward) out, they just beat Toronto for their 12th straight win.

I just caught the last few possessions of that game. The Raptor's late game offense is a joke. In their last two possessions when they were down by 1, they settled for 2 mid range fade away jumpers by Demar DeRozan with practically zero ball movment.

[Kanyewest]

Well... no green font so maybe you actually think that's a "slight negative?" Anthony Davis had a better outing while scoring fewer points.

I also was impressed by Cheick Diallo's 19 minutes. E'Twaun Moore, who was picked #55 in 2011, is having a good season for NO as well.

As to Cousins, he started the season like a ball of fire. His numbers are still very good overall but trending downhill.

Two key facts from my pov:

1) Cousins turnover level negates much of his rebounding prowess. I would think the reason must be obvious.
2) if a Center shoots 34% on 3 pointers, it's not a positive stat -- that translates to 51% if he was taking 2-pointers instead -- which is average for a 4 or 5.

I would just say considering he had 35/15/5 and the fact that the Pelicans won against a team they are competing for a playoff spot that you can overlook that deficiency of 8 turnovers. Right now the Pelicans are 7th in the West. You are right though that Cousins numbers have been trending downward.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Trending down with after having been the NBA player of the week....



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[Kanyewest]

Cousins is number 1 in the league in defensive wins shares. He is also 4th in Defensive Box Plus/Minus only behind Drummond, Capela, Golbert. And the Pelicans would make the playoffs if they started today.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2018_leaders.html

[tontoz]

Marcus Smart has a TS of 40.6% so far. That is amazing for a guy taking 12 shots per 36 minutes. His career high TS is 48.6%.

[closg00]

Warriors VS Celtics tonight, game of the year so-far.

[long suffrin' boulez fan]

Warriors VS Celtics tonight, game of the year so-far.

Finals preview?

[nate33]

Joel Embiid against the Lakers last night:
46 points
15 rebounds
7 assists
7 blocks
16/19 FT's
.811 TS%
only 2 turnovers

[Illmatic12]

Joel Embiid against the Lakers last night:
46 points
15 rebounds
7 assists
7 blocks
16/19 FT's
.811 TS%
only 2 turnovers

I couldn't fall asleep and stayed up past 1am to watch that game.. man, my mind still can't process what I saw.

Embiid is like some unholy cross between Shaq and Olajuwon - and that might sound like an exaggeration until you actually watch him. I have not seen anything like Joel Embiid in a long time. He has potentially the GOAT footwork, shooting touch, coordination ever for a man of that size . He did a euro step at 7'3!

Read on Twitter

The footwork

Read on Twitter

And defensively he will be in the conversation for DPOY sooner than later.

Also Ben Simmons .. wow. I have to admit I severely underrated how good he'd be right off the bat. If those two stay healthy, it's not hard to predict that the Sixers are going to make numerous Finals appearances over the next decade. This is bad news for the Wizards team lol, but as a fan of basketball I'm on the bandwagon rooting for Philly to reach their potential.

[trast66]

Joel Embiid against the Lakers last night:
46 points
15 rebounds
7 assists
7 blocks
16/19 FT's
.811 TS%
only 2 turnovers

Incredible. Wonder if Nance, Jr. could have slowed him down some if was not hurt. From box score Simmons also had great game.

At least we know Embiid will rest when playing us to avoid going against Mahinmi.

[nate33]

Also Ben Simmons .. wow. I have to admit I severely underrated how good he'd be right off the bat. If those two stay healthy, it's not hard to predict that the Sixers are going to make numerous Finals appearances over the next decade. This is bad news for the Wizards team lol, but as a fan of basketball I'm on the bandwagon rooting for Philly to reach their potential.

Yup. The Wizards better make their run right now. The Sixers are going to be dominant in another year or two. All they need are a couple of 3&D guards. They can run the offense through their bigs.

[Ruzious]

And Fultz hasn't begun to show what he can become. Coaching that team has to be like a kid in a candy store. With Simmons and Embiid, they remind me of the University of Houston teams led by Drexler and Olajuwon - in there ability to dominate at both ends.

[Illmatic12]

Also Ben Simmons .. wow. I have to admit I severely underrated how good he'd be right off the bat. If those two stay healthy, it's not hard to predict that the Sixers are going to make numerous Finals appearances over the next decade. This is bad news for the Wizards team lol, but as a fan of basketball I'm on the bandwagon rooting for Philly to reach their potential.

Yup. The Wizards better make their run right now. The Sixers are going to be dominant in another year or two. All they need are a couple of 3&D guards. They can run the offense through their bigs.

Yep, we have maybe this year and next to try to break through to the Conference Finals or beyond. Window is now

Even Boston has to capitalize now and try to get to the Finals. They may need to cash in their chips for an Anthony Davis trade, because otherwise Simmons and Embiid will be better than anyone on their roster.

And Fultz hasn't begun to show what he can become. Coaching that team has to be like a kid in a candy store. With Simmons and Embiid, they remind me of the University of Houston teams led by Drexler and Olajuwon - in there ability to dominate at both ends.

Would it be an exaggeration to say those two could aim their sights at becoming the new age Magic and Kareem?

[I_Like_Dirt]

Yup. The Wizards better make their run right now. The Sixers are going to be dominant in another year or two. All they need are a couple of 3&D guards. They can run the offense through their bigs.

The rest of the league really screwed the Sixers by pushing Hinkie out when they did and bringing in Colangelo. Embiid and Simmons are absolutely otherworldly. And I still believe Fultz will be pretty damn good, though not as good as those 2 guys. The catch here is despite Embiid looking like a rich man's Olajuwon and Simmons continuing to do his Lebron James impression, they still barely beat a rather crappy Lakers team. Their supporting cast is absolutely awful. I'm sure Chris Bosh would give a glowing review of Colangelo's ability to build a quality supporting cast. While it looks like the Sixers keep that Lakers pick, I won't be shocked at all to see them move it for an aging vet without a particularly long shelf life, and they've already basically traded that Kings pick from 2019, which is looking like it will be pretty damn good. All to get Fultz, who they likely would have gotten at 3 anyway. And then they decided to play Fultz on an obviously bum shoulder for several weeks for whatever reason.

They haven't paid any anchor contracts yet, but they have a limited time to build a supporting cast because their own draft picks aren't going to be all that high anymore, and instead of targeting younger utility players, Colangelo invariably targets veterans, usually ones that don't fit quite as well as you'd think, either. Amir Johnson and JJ Redick are alright enough, but they do nothing long term for the Sixers and with Embiid's extension about to kick in, and Simmons due his max in 2 seasons after this one, they don't have a particularly long time to leverage that cap into a quality bench, and Colangelo simply won't leverage the draft that well, because he really doesn't.

The Sixers look like a future powerhouse, but they also look like they're poised to hamstring themselves for no particular reason, settling for quality team and contender when they were set up to be a future dynasty.

[Ruzious]

Also Ben Simmons .. wow. I have to admit I severely underrated how good he'd be right off the bat. If those two stay healthy, it's not hard to predict that the Sixers are going to make numerous Finals appearances over the next decade. This is bad news for the Wizards team lol, but as a fan of basketball I'm on the bandwagon rooting for Philly to reach their potential.

Yup. The Wizards better make their run right now. The Sixers are going to be dominant in another year or two. All they need are a couple of 3&D guards. They can run the offense through their bigs.

Yep, we have maybe this year and next to try to break through to the Conference Finals or beyond. Window is now

Even Boston has to capitalize now and try to get to the Finals. They may need to cash in their chips for an Anthony Davis trade, because otherwise Simmons and Embiid will be better than anyone on their roster.

And Fultz hasn't begun to show what he can become. Coaching that team has to be like a kid in a candy store. With Simmons and Embiid, they remind me of the University of Houston teams led by Drexler and Olajuwon - in there ability to dominate at both ends.

Would it be an exaggeration to say those two could aim their sights at becoming the new age Magic and Kareem?

Simmons is an amazing talent for his size, but I can't compare him to Magic. As great as people thing Magic was, he's underrated, imo. But if Embiid stays healthy, he could be up there with Kareem.

[I_Like_Dirt]

It's tough with Simmons. He's getting compared to all time greats, and admittedly he isn't that good yet, but as a rookie, I think he's underrated right now, too. He's averaging 18/9/8/2/1 on 51% shooting. Some of his peripherals aren't amazing, but they aren't bad, either, just good not great.

Ignore the rookie part and drop the standards a bit. The list of players who, in any given season (rookie or not) have averaged 15 ppg, 8 rpg and 6 apg or more:

Wilt, Harden, Lebron, Oscar, MJ, Bird, KG, Grant Hill, Magic, Havlicek, Westbrook, Fat Lever, Detlef Schrempf, Maurice Stokes, and Simmons

I mean, Lever and Schrempf weren't as good as those other guys, and Stokes had a 3-year NBA career back in the 50s, but basically, those guys had a peak prime and were allstars in their late 20s and Simmons is playing like that as a rookie.

link

Now let's add in another qualifier, with a bit of a drop from where Simmons is right now, and count for the same type of season with a 48 FG% or more. Suddenly the list becomes:

Wilt, Oscar, MJ, Lebron, Bird, KG, Magic, Grant Hill... and Simmons

link

Honestly, I don't feel Simmons is getting enough hype. Even if he winds up being the worst player on that list, he's basically already putting himself on lists of all-time greats as a rookie. I don't think this can be underscored enough. And it isn't like his team is losing or anything. Embiid is great, too, and I feel is overshadowing just how amazing Simmons really is. I mean, while I cherry-picked that list a bit, I didn't do it outrageously, imo, and I actually dropped the requirements so that it isn't Simmons just barely squeaking into the group and he's actually got a certain cushion where, if he drops his production for the remainder of the season, he still meets those criteria and if he maintains his production right now he'll exceed those levels pretty handily

[long suffrin' boulez fan]

Hate to say it cuz I don’t like em. But the Celts are tough as nails.

[trast66]

Hate to say it cuz I don’t like em. But the Celts are tough as nails.

They really are good. Ainge is a mastermind. Getting Stevens as coach was brilliant. And roster really built for the modern NBA. Kyrie is a great fit already, I thought he would struggle for a few month, props to him. Looking forward to see how Wiz match up this year with them.

[FAH1223]

Read on Twitter

[closg00]

Wow, the Celts pulled it off, they are no joke. I wonder if they would have had the same record with Hayward starting?


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