ATL -Fizdale Fizzles Out in NY

[Coach Carter]

For the mid season tournament, soccer does something similar right? Do soccer fans over there care about it? I'm honestly curious. Is it like NCAA where they have different tournaments around this time of year?

In european soccer, teams can prioritise competitions depending on their squad strength and preference. For the latter, a good example is liverpool who last season won the prestigious champions league (the best european club trophy on offer. This season, they're prioritising the english league (also prestigious), in an attempt to end a long drought.

Regarding squad strength, there's the example of alaves from spain. Back in 2000-01, they made a push for a european trophy (the uefa cup, now known as the europa league which is the 2nd best european club trophy on offer), reaching the final before eventually losing to liverpool. The same season, in their domestic league, they finished mid-table (20 teams). They didn't have the squad strength to compete against their spanish rivals for domestic honours, meaning the league title, so they prioritised accordingly. After all, the uefa cup or europa league doesn't house the very best sides.

Offcourse, alaves could've made a push for the domestic cup which was won by another outsider that very same season. Note, every european league has at least one domestic cup competition. If you were to bring something like this to the nba, i can see the mid-table and lower ranked sides competing for such a tournament. There's incentive to play at full strength and take advantage of the better sides who won't play as hard and perhaps even load-manage their stars, as their priorities start in late april.

[truly]

Earv is straight comedy.

There is so much going on with his list.

The number of MVP candidates.
The candidates.
2 players from the same team(Lakers bias)
Top 16 but only 13 candidates.
I just can't

[machu46]

I think having both Lebron and Davis in the top 5 or 6 in the MVP rankings is probably the consensus right now.

[Ron Swanson]

The Lebron "Look at the roster outside of the Lakers TWO TOP-5 PLAYERS IN THE LEAGUE" narrative is my favorite, dumb MVP narrative thus far.

[machu46]

The Lebron "Look at the roster outside of the Lakers TWO TOP-5 PLAYERS IN THE LEAGUE" narrative is my favorite, dumb MVP narrative thus far.

I think his case is mostly built on how bad the Lakers are whenever Lebron sits (on top of his great numbers).

[mattg]

Lou shot 43% and 33% last year in the playoffs. His usage was sky high and he was a big negative defensively. He was anything but amazing. He had 2 good games and 4 terrible ones in a 6 game series. He hit more than 1 three in only one game. He shot 3/21 in Game 6 lol this board went bananas when Khris went 3/16 against Toronto. He’s become the most overrated player on here.

Awesome 6th man. Starter? Meh

First there’s no way you watched that series last year. Let’s address a few things:

Why would you use averages over a six game sample size? That doesn’t make sense and tells so little of what actually happened, just look game by game. You say 4 terrible games? Did you just pick the losses? What is game one?

Lou definitely had 3 bad games including one epically bad game (you know, the one that drastically skews the full playoff averages thus obscuring impact). But, he was also the number one option playing against full strength GS with Curry/Klay/Durant/Green. He absolutely dominated them twice by masterfully running the PnR nonstop. Lou isn’t a #1 option and isn’t expected to be one, so why would you judge him on the standard of not being able to lead a team past the healthy warriors? That’s also why the Middleton parallel you mentioned is absurd, Khris has Giannis getting triple teamed in the paint when he goes 3/16.

It’s hard to say for sure with how our whole team melted down last year, but I feel pretty comfortable saying if we had Lou instead of Khris last year we win the title just based on the stylistic advantages he offers with his ability to play ball screens and run an offense. Like think of all Lou does to help Harrell feast...now imagine that with Giannis.

Last year was the best season of Lou’s career and it didn’t even match Middleton’s career average. He’s exactly the type of player you wouldn’t want paired up with Giannis. He needs the insane usage to be effective, that’s why he was always so good as a 6th man. The Bucks need guys around Giannis who feed off of him, not the other way around.

People like Lou so much because of his contract, not because he is better than Middleton. Swap Midds for Lou last year and we’re worse. Better financial situation, worse product on the court.

This is a troll job. You keep using playoff averages so you can gloss over the 2 exceptional games better than any Khris has ever played in the playoffs by lumping them with one horrific shooting night. Why would you do that on a six game sample unless the goal is to be disingenuous?

The usage stuff is hilariously dumb. Lou is an excellent PnR player (which naturally leads to high usage when you’re good enough to generate either an assist or good shot practically every time). That kind of player is EXACTLY what you want to pair with Giannis. Nothing he does takes away from Giannis and is going to accentuate his abilities if anything.

Lou the last few years is easily good enough to start wherever. Earlier in his career when he was still more of a gunner then yeah, he was more fit strictly as a sixth man, but he’s evolved quite a bit and improved in the years since.

[Ron Swanson]

Idk, I find it pretty convenient that AD is all of a sudden a -5 differential guy after being a +8 and +11 guy the previous two seasons and pretty much crushing it in RPM and +/- throughout his career. I don't buy into the whole "Lebron-ball is detrimental to team success" angle, but this has always been a pattern with how skewed and misleading on/off numbers can be. When you have a superstar in his prime putting up 25/9/3/3 and playing DPOTY-level defense as your 1b to your 1a, your MVP case isn't super compelling to me based on what other guys are doing (Giannis, Luka, Harden).

[Chuck Diesel]

Always suspected there was some decades old Balkan grudge shhit between Vlade and Luka Doncic’s dad that kept Vlade from drafting Luka. Confirmed by Tim McMahon on the WOJ Pod that Vlade passed on Doncic because “he didn’t think much of his Dad.”

[blazza18]

Really would love to know how the NBA comes up with who to pick for the player of the week awards. It's not really a big deal but it seems like they pick a name out of a hat at times.

[TroyD92]

For as many people on here seem to like to **** on him, Christian Wood has been pretty good. Officially a positive player.

[emunney]

Always suspected there was some decades old Balkan grudge shhit between Vlade and Luka Doncic’s dad that kept Vlade from drafting Luka. Confirmed by Tim McMahon on the WOJ Pod that Vlade passed on Doncic because “he didn’t think much of his Dad.”

How could ownership possibly have confidence in Vlade after that? You'd have to think that was a valid factor going into that choice in order to stick with him. Not all information is good or useful. How well you got along with his dad is pretty ****.

[LuessiT]

Always suspected there was some decades old Balkan grudge shhit between Vlade and Luka Doncic’s dad that kept Vlade from drafting Luka. Confirmed by Tim McMahon on the WOJ Pod that Vlade passed on Doncic because “he didn’t think much of his Dad.”

How could ownership possibly have confidence in Vlade after that? You'd have to think that was a valid factor going into that choice in order to stick with him. Not all information is good or useful. How well you got along with his dad is pretty ****.

I mean the major reason behind the pick was probably that Bagley was the only one willing to work out for Sacramento. I really can't fault them for the pick when basicly every rookie projected in the lottery declined to work out for them or share medical data except Bagley.

[LuessiT]

Btw I'm on the Wiggins train. I'm pretty sure he'll be a top 10 player in the league at some point.

[DrWood]

Btw I'm on the Wiggins train. I'm pretty sure he'll be a top 10 player in the league at some point.

YMCA league in 20 years?

[Nightfall]

Embiid just had the Statline of a life time 0% 0% 0% 4TOs 5PF

[emunney]

I've decided I also have no use for a midseason tournament. Down for the play in game though.

If they do have a midseason tournament, automatic playoff berth should be the prize.

[blazza18]

Will need to watch the Sixers game cause it should be impossible for a player like Embiid to score no points.

[truly]

[TD75]

Read on Twitter

[Coach Carter]

Btw I'm on the Wiggins train. I'm pretty sure he'll be a top 10 player in the league at some point.