2020-21 NBA Season Discussion

[MisterHibachi]

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I mean...

Draymond has to be a top 10 most impactful player ever given how much this team has changed since he came back.

[GSP]

Clippers might lose in the 1st round this year. Might've been the case last year if Kp was healthy

If they draw the Warriors 1st round I'm not losing my chance to bet against these paper tigers this year. They're such a fraud team lol

[Clyde Frazier]

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I mean...

Draymond has to be a top 10 most impactful player ever given how much this team has changed since he came back.

In a vacuum on the warriors specifically I'd probably agree. The familiarity he and Steph have at this point plays a big role too. He also looks motivated even if somewhat out of shape.

[MartinToVaught]

Lou Williams is basically unplayable at this point if he's not scoring. The Clippers' bench is a mess and the first thing they need to do to fix it is move on from him. If they get blinded by sentimental loyalty, he will ruin the season like Doc and Trez did last year.

[MyUniBroDavis]

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I mean...

Hey look it’s a bad shot

[bondom34]

The Nets so far look a lot like the old OKC Thunder - at the end of tight games, they seem to devolve into a KD/Kyrie your turn/my turn isolation offense. I was hopeful that Nash would bring a more balanced approach but maybe that's too much to hope for when your stars aren't great playmakers and fall into tunnel vision all too often.

I've been a bit lower on them, just due to the defense, and not knowing what Durant would be on return. He's been good, but the defense is a real concern.

But they whooped the Jazz last night so now Kyrie is top 5 all time

Lol I would love for us to be as good as those OKC teams. They were legitimately great teams.

We’ll probably look back at them and consider them to be some of the best teams to never win a title. 2016 especially. I would take the 16 Thunder over the 90s Jazz and Sonics from that perspective, for example.

I stand by 2013 being their year, Westbrook taken out by Bev in round 1 and it all went downhill. Showed how fast it can all go wrong.

Don't know they beat the Cavs in 16, always felt they were playing over their heads a bit in the playoffs but that whole season is just one full of questions.

This season really has so much variance and I have my picks but its been incredibly wild night to night. Wish I were a bit better w/ programming or something as I'd be interested to see how much shooting/scores/MOV is varying game to game between teams and players.

Edit: And thinking just quickly, on paper this Nets team has depth those OKC teams didn't have. Dinwiddie going down hurt there though too. Still offhand like their depth a bit, granted it's basically a playoff team from last year lol.

[therealbig3]

I really love watching the Clippers lose. It brings me a lot of joy lol (sorry Clippers fans, just can't stand them after the hype train from last off season, a lot of it from the Clippers themselves, not to mention I think Kawhi is a huge diva that gets a pass because he's quiet).

[Statlanta]

Lou Williams is basically unplayable at this point if he's not scoring. The Clippers' bench is a mess and the first thing they need to do to fix it is move on from him. If they get blinded by sentimental loyalty, he will ruin the season like Doc and Trez did last year.

I'm against this take. The team's last positive karma happened when the core was hardworking with Doc, SGA, Shamet, Lou, Trez, Zubac, Gallo and Pat. Now most of that core is gone for players with inflated ego, washed up players or unproven players.

You need to keep whatever's left of that core as much as possible.

[Peregrine01]

I remember talk about Kawhi's playmaking improving last year but I think he has gone back to his usual ways. Clippers went away from what worked in the second half to go into repeated Kawhi, and to a lesser extent, PG ISOs. Don't think Kawhi is the type of guy to make plays for his teammates which is why I don't think the Clips get far without another Lowry type manning the point.

[parsnips33]

Lou Williams is basically unplayable at this point if he's not scoring. The Clippers' bench is a mess and the first thing they need to do to fix it is move on from him. If they get blinded by sentimental loyalty, he will ruin the season like Doc and Trez did last year.

Haven't watched Clippers outside of the last two games but it looks like he's hardly touching the ball, even in bench heavy units. Feel like he was involved in just about every possession he was in for last year

[limbo]

Lou Williams looks cooked, but the Clippers offense has actually been good so far...

I'm more shocked at how bad their defense looks... This is a team that's fielding Kawhi, PG, Batum, Ibaka, Zubac, Beverley... All these guys have a reputation of being good/great defenders... I know there's like super outlier games in there like the one against Dallas where they lost by 52 points, but they can't defend anything right now...

[Texas Chuck]

Draymond has to be a top 10 most impactful player ever given how much this team has changed since he came back.

Yep.

But its hilarious how hard so many Warriors fans are still trying to make Wiggins the hero of the story. Warriors Twitter is comical at times with it and on RealGM, whooooooa.

[parsnips33]

Draymond has to be a top 10 most impactful player ever given how much this team has changed since he came back.

Yep.

But its hilarious how hard so many Warriors fans are still trying to make Wiggins the hero of the story. Warriors Twitter is comical at times with it and on RealGM, whooooooa.

There is an element of Wiggins having such a bad reputation, that him playing pretty well for a stretch feels like a huge deal. Think it's always been a case of terrible contract, decent player with him, but the former tends to overwhelm the latter

[Texas Chuck]

Draymond has to be a top 10 most impactful player ever given how much this team has changed since he came back.

Yep.

But its hilarious how hard so many Warriors fans are still trying to make Wiggins the hero of the story. Warriors Twitter is comical at times with it and on RealGM, whooooooa.

There is an element of Wiggins having such a bad reputation, that him playing pretty well for a stretch feels like a huge deal. Think it's always been a case of terrible contract, decent player with him, but the former tends to overwhelm the latter

The contract definitely does cause people to exaggerate just how bad he is for sure, but Warriors Nation right now is trying to sell us on Andrew Wiggins, elite defender and that's just not remotely who he is. He's a taxpayer MLE type player or maybe a bit more than for a bad team in desperate need of someone who can score even if inefficiently.

But nothing about his play this year suggests all he needed was a competent organization, but that is absolutely a narrative right now. He is who he is. He's durable, he's a good athlete that struggles to turn that athleticism into defense or rebounding and he's a bad shooter. Obviously this season his shooting numbers are well up from 3 and mid-range, but I think we will see some regression.

And I realize the Warriors have almost no options made worse by Oubre being dreadful offensively to start this season(should also regress up to the mean over time), but I'm wondering why Bazemore isn't getting more run. He's not great, but he's competent at both ends and can hit open shots. And he's still young enough to handle more minutes.

[whocurrz]

Yep.

But its hilarious how hard so many Warriors fans are still trying to make Wiggins the hero of the story. Warriors Twitter is comical at times with it and on RealGM, whooooooa.

There is an element of Wiggins having such a bad reputation, that him playing pretty well for a stretch feels like a huge deal. Think it's always been a case of terrible contract, decent player with him, but the former tends to overwhelm the latter

The contract definitely does cause people to exaggerate just how bad he is for sure, but Warriors Nation right now is trying to sell us on Andrew Wiggins, elite defender and that's just not remotely who he is. He's a taxpayer MLE type player or maybe a bit more than for a bad team in desperate need of someone who can score even if inefficiently.

But nothing about his play this year suggests all he needed was a competent organization, but that is absolutely a narrative right now. He is who he is. He's durable, he's a good athlete that struggles to turn that athleticism into defense or rebounding and he's a bad shooter. Obviously this season his shooting numbers are well up from 3 and mid-range, but I think we will see some regression.

And I realize the Warriors have almost no options made worse by Oubre being dreadful offensively to start this season(should also regress up to the mean over time), but I'm wondering why Bazemore isn't getting more run. He's not great, but he's competent at both ends and can hit open shots. And he's still young enough to handle more minutes.

I think most people are excited that he looks like a capable starting wing who can fulfill Barnes role with maybe better man defense and better off the dribble/ capable of better nights if his shot falls. The gamble was that a change of scenery and defined role could make him a useful player and despite being overpaid he looks capable of being a good wing alongside Curry and Klay. The improved defensive effort with his athletic tools is encouraging for the role we need him to play. You have to realize that after we lost KD, Iguodala and Livingston our wings were small and really bad.

Offensively he still has some bad drives with tunnel vision and I don’t know what to make of his shooting but Kerr is utilizing him to initiate some offense by having him make simple drive and kick reads that help on the bench unit and hopefully start to help keep defenders honest if they aren’t certain he is gonna shoot and this can help with his paint scoring. Many posters are encouraged with some small improvements in areas we need to make him a useful player for the complimentary wing role. Anyone without blinders on doesn’t expect him to blossom into some #1 pick type superstar he was supposed to be

[parsnips33]

Yep.

But its hilarious how hard so many Warriors fans are still trying to make Wiggins the hero of the story. Warriors Twitter is comical at times with it and on RealGM, whooooooa.

There is an element of Wiggins having such a bad reputation, that him playing pretty well for a stretch feels like a huge deal. Think it's always been a case of terrible contract, decent player with him, but the former tends to overwhelm the latter

The contract definitely does cause people to exaggerate just how bad he is for sure, but Warriors Nation right now is trying to sell us on Andrew Wiggins, elite defender and that's just not remotely who he is. He's a taxpayer MLE type player or maybe a bit more than for a bad team in desperate need of someone who can score even if inefficiently.

But nothing about his play this year suggests all he needed was a competent organization, but that is absolutely a narrative right now. He is who he is. He's durable, he's a good athlete that struggles to turn that athleticism into defense or rebounding and he's a bad shooter. Obviously this season his shooting numbers are well up from 3 and mid-range, but I think we will see some regression.

And I realize the Warriors have almost no options made worse by Oubre being dreadful offensively to start this season(should also regress up to the mean over time), but I'm wondering why Bazemore isn't getting more run. He's not great, but he's competent at both ends and can hit open shots. And he's still young enough to handle more minutes.

Bazemore should absolutely be getting more minutes. Believe it or not, Kerr actually had him completely out of the rotation for a couple games there. But between him, Damion Lee, and Mulder I've been pleasantly surprised by our wing depth considering what it looked after the Klay injury

[bondom34]

Suns just posted the fewest TOs for a team w/ at least 30 assists in a game since at least 83-84, at least from NBA.com.

https://www.nba.com/stats/search/team-game/?CF=AST*gt*30%7CTOV*lt*10&sort=TOV&dir=-1

Also, great Draymond quote/quotes:

https://streamable.com/tmpdrv

[therealbig3]

It might be time to just suspend the season for like a month, let everyone quarantine for a while, and then resume. Cuz there are too many health concerns keeping players out right now.

[HeartBreakKid]

Wiggins is not the case of someone who is underrated because he is a decent player with a bad contract.

He's a bad player with a bad contract, and has always been a bad player. There is just the lazy "oh, how many bad players are there who have 20 PPG?!" type of response (ignoring that he's inefficient and one dimensional in his scoring methods). He's not a rebounder, not a shooter, awful passer and an awful defender. His criticism up to this point is entirely valid, his shooting is actually probably the best thing about him during his years in Minny and he wasn't even a good shooter.

It's obvious why fans of teams champion their teams players, so maybe Wiggins has improved on defense a bit but nowhere near the point where someone can say "I told you so!". Also, while his 3 point shooting is at 40% that's because comparable size - even if he improved from 3 point range he's not averaging that for a full season.

By the time the season ends we're probably back at square one. Wiggins still adds close to nothing.

[limbo]

If Wiggins didn't have the hype of a #1 draft pick behind him, making people be overly-invested in his potential, he'd been out of the league by now...

There's plenty of guys in the NBA that can average over 20 ppg given the right opportunity... **** Tyrese Maxey who nobody even knew who he was until yesterday can average 20 ppg if that's what his team asks him to do and he's not getting an absurd amount of money to do it either...