2020-21 NBA Season Discussion

[Ballerhogger]

If perfer suns in the first

I mean, duh, they've got the worst starting lineup (of the contending teams) by quite a margin.

By the way, how the hell are the Hornets #4 on the East with such a terrible terrible terrible terrible terrible starting lineup? I mean, I've kind of answered my own question, but... how?

weclome to the east

[parsnips33]

If perfer suns in the first

I mean, duh, they've got the worst starting lineup (of the contending teams) by quite a margin.

By the way, how the hell are the Hornets #4 on the East with such a terrible terrible terrible terrible terrible starting lineup? I mean, I've kind of answered my own question, but... how?

If you're Minnesota, would you trade KAT to an Eastern conference team (let's say Charlotte) to switch conferences?

[Doctor MJ]

I'll say this just for solidarity - trying to avoid getting sucked in to something that will just piss me off:

What Durant said was clear cut homophobia.

I've seen a lot of folks online say stuff like "Oh, in 2021 now THAT's homophobia, ridiculous?", but these people just never understood the concept in the first place. When a straight man looks to insult another straight man by insinuating he's gay, this is an attempt to make the other man feel like he's something "less than a real man" by playing on societal notions of being afraid to be seen as gay. Hence, "homophobia".

It really isn't that complicated. Whenever you try to insult someone by equating them with something their not, you're demeaning that thing their not, and there are concepts attached to it.

Worth noting that Rapaport has all sorts of misogeny all over the stuff he says. It may be that he draws the line with homophobia, or it may not, but from a perspective of understanding Durant, arguing he's better or worse than Rapaport misses the point. Durant is quite clearly someone who has internalized a great deal of homophobia and misogeny to go along with his ever-present insecurities pertaining to his basketball play and his stalker-like tendency to obsess in anger toward people in the media.

I honestly don't say any of this to damn or "cancel" him. He's a ball player. I expect he's going to be able to keep playing ball for a long time because he's great at it. But he's also a remarkable case study of someone who probably has a pretty decent IQ just stepping on rakes over and over again in the social media age, and each time he does so he adds to his list of people he considers his adversaries, which only makes things worse.

[Doctor MJ]

Any day now AD ....
Nuggets look like the best team in the west right now .

That Gordon acquisition really seems perfect doesn't it? They definitely feel like a contender now.

[Doctor MJ]

I don't really get Toronto either right now. Never thought they'd be tied with Washington. And to a lesser extent Boston having their record.

Honestly, the fact they're playing based out of Tampa Bay makes me want to just look at this as a lost year that won't necessarily predict future performance.

That said, the experience of this is real and the memories will linger. If, say, Pascal ends up in a dark place going forward because of this season, well, that won't be good.

[Doctor MJ]

If perfer suns in the first

It's a funny thing.

The Suns should look at this season as a great success, but the playoffs may change that. I won't be surprised if the Suns get "upset" in the first round - quotes because we may not even see it as an upset. But even if the Suns end up losing to a healthy-again Laker team, it's going to hurt losing in the 1st round after being a 2 seed.

[Peregrine01]

I'll say this just for solidarity - trying to avoid getting sucked in to something that will just piss me off:

What Durant said was clear cut homophobia.

I've seen a lot of folks online say stuff like "Oh, in 2021 now THAT's homophobia, ridiculous?", but these people just never understood the concept in the first place. When a straight man looks to insult another straight man by insinuating he's gay, this is an attempt to make the other man feel like he's something "less than a real man" by playing on societal notions of being afraid to be seen as gay. Hence, "homophobia".

It really isn't that complicated. Whenever you try to insult someone by equating them with something their not, you're demeaning that thing their not, and there are concepts attached to it.

Worth noting that Rapaport has all sorts of misogeny all over the stuff he says. It may be that he draws the line with homophobia, or it may not, but from a perspective of understanding Durant, arguing he's better or worse than Rapaport misses the point. Durant is quite clearly someone who has internalized a great deal of homophobia and misogeny to go along with his ever-present insecurities pertaining to his basketball play and his stalker-like tendency to obsess in anger toward people in the media.

I honestly don't say any of this to damn or "cancel" him. He's a ball player. I expect he's going to be able to keep playing ball for a long time because he's great at it. But he's also a remarkable case study of someone who probably has a pretty decent IQ just stepping on rakes over and over again in the social media age, and each time he does so he adds to his list of people he considers his adversaries, which only makes things worse.

Can't say I find anyone in sports more unlikable than him right now. Also find it blatantly hypocritical how the NBA and the media have handled this...they've kind of swept it under the rug yet they had no problem cancelling Meyers Leonard, who we haven't gotten his side of the story from and perhaps didn't even know the word was a racial epithet.

[Ballerhogger]

Any day now AD ....
Nuggets look like the best team in the west right now .

That Gordon acquisition really seems perfect doesn't it? They definitely feel like a contender now.

It’s going tough WCF if we make that far .

[Ballerhogger]

If perfer suns in the first

It's a funny thing.

The Suns should look at this season as a great success, but the playoffs may change that. I won't be surprised if the Suns get "upset" in the first round - quotes because we may not even see it as an upset. But even if the Suns end up losing to a healthy-again Laker team, it's going to hurt losing in the 1st round after being a 2 seed.

We’re going find out what booker really made of. They got the shooting and a decent big , and vet in CP3. This cp3 last real shot at title at as main focus point. So there will be no excuses for them .

[Doctor MJ]

I'll say this just for solidarity - trying to avoid getting sucked in to something that will just piss me off:

What Durant said was clear cut homophobia.

I've seen a lot of folks online say stuff like "Oh, in 2021 now THAT's homophobia, ridiculous?", but these people just never understood the concept in the first place. When a straight man looks to insult another straight man by insinuating he's gay, this is an attempt to make the other man feel like he's something "less than a real man" by playing on societal notions of being afraid to be seen as gay. Hence, "homophobia".

It really isn't that complicated. Whenever you try to insult someone by equating them with something their not, you're demeaning that thing their not, and there are concepts attached to it.

Worth noting that Rapaport has all sorts of misogeny all over the stuff he says. It may be that he draws the line with homophobia, or it may not, but from a perspective of understanding Durant, arguing he's better or worse than Rapaport misses the point. Durant is quite clearly someone who has internalized a great deal of homophobia and misogeny to go along with his ever-present insecurities pertaining to his basketball play and his stalker-like tendency to obsess in anger toward people in the media.

I honestly don't say any of this to damn or "cancel" him. He's a ball player. I expect he's going to be able to keep playing ball for a long time because he's great at it. But he's also a remarkable case study of someone who probably has a pretty decent IQ just stepping on rakes over and over again in the social media age, and each time he does so he adds to his list of people he considers his adversaries, which only makes things worse.

Can't say I find anyone in sports more unlikable than him right now. Also find it blatantly hypocritical how the NBA and the media have handled this...they've kind of swept it under the rug yet they had no problem cancelling Meyers Leonard, who we haven't gotten his side of the story from and perhaps didn't even know the word was a racial epithet.

Good point. They are punishing Durant, and but it would seem no suspension. Maybe they think the fact he's injured makes this moot, but they shouldn't. Durant should be getting at least as much as Leonard got.

[Ballerhogger]

Where about to find out if booker really is franchise material

[Texas Chuck]

I think this Suns season is already an unqualified success making the Paul trade one as well. Nobody should dismiss their season if the Lakers slide and take them out in the 1st round.

They needed this badly and building upon what their team did in the bubble has been terrific. Now the big decision in front of them is what do you do with Ayton. I'm of the mind that he probably still holds enough value as a trade piece that this off-season they should make another major addition using him as a big part of the bait. Not sure he represents value on a giant new contract and as Paul ages out and Ayton and Bridges get paid, mediocrity is staring them in the face again very quickly.

Would hate for this to be a 2 year blip with Paul and the rookie scale contracts so I hope Jason Jones is aggressive this summer and Sarver lets him be. He's gotten off to a great start as a GM for sure.

[bondom34]

I'll say this just for solidarity - trying to avoid getting sucked in to something that will just piss me off:

What Durant said was clear cut homophobia.

I've seen a lot of folks online say stuff like "Oh, in 2021 now THAT's homophobia, ridiculous?", but these people just never understood the concept in the first place. When a straight man looks to insult another straight man by insinuating he's gay, this is an attempt to make the other man feel like he's something "less than a real man" by playing on societal notions of being afraid to be seen as gay. Hence, "homophobia".

It really isn't that complicated. Whenever you try to insult someone by equating them with something their not, you're demeaning that thing their not, and there are concepts attached to it.

Worth noting that Rapaport has all sorts of misogeny all over the stuff he says. It may be that he draws the line with homophobia, or it may not, but from a perspective of understanding Durant, arguing he's better or worse than Rapaport misses the point. Durant is quite clearly someone who has internalized a great deal of homophobia and misogeny to go along with his ever-present insecurities pertaining to his basketball play and his stalker-like tendency to obsess in anger toward people in the media.

I honestly don't say any of this to damn or "cancel" him. He's a ball player. I expect he's going to be able to keep playing ball for a long time because he's great at it. But he's also a remarkable case study of someone who probably has a pretty decent IQ just stepping on rakes over and over again in the social media age, and each time he does so he adds to his list of people he considers his adversaries, which only makes things worse.

I think (and could be wrong) people are just thinking it's not because it became normalized in locker rooms, which is what goober was saying previously. I'd never been someone to talk that way because I'd always thought it childish and inappropriate in general but it didn't really hit me until now exactly why it's that way, and yep it is. Demeaning someone in that way is just making them a lesser person.

I don't really get Toronto either right now. Never thought they'd be tied with Washington. And to a lesser extent Boston having their record.

Honestly, the fact they're playing based out of Tampa Bay makes me want to just look at this as a lost year that won't necessarily predict future performance.

That said, the experience of this is real and the memories will linger. If, say, Pascal ends up in a dark place going forward because of this season, well, that won't be good.

Well in one game they increased their point differential by over 1 point per game .

[Dr Positivity]

Durant has narcissist written all over him

[bondom34]

Admitting I haven't watched a ton lately (SGA being out, timing, finding streams, etc)...Poku is fascinating and there are things there you can really see and seems the G league did some good.

[Ballerhogger]

Lakers shooting 61% from 3 this is not a cap..

[Doctor MJ]

I think (and could be wrong) people are just thinking it's not because it became normalized in locker rooms, which is what goober was saying previously. I'd never been someone to talk that way because I'd always thought it childish and inappropriate in general but it didn't really hit me until now exactly why it's that way, and yep it is. Demeaning someone in that way is just making them a lesser person.

Oh totally. Culture is the water we swim in.

It's normal for people to not ever think to deconstruct the actual meaning of that which they consider normal. I've had a number of experiences where I push back on people and they are literally just confused. It makes it really hard to know the right way to change things.

[goober]

I'll say this just for solidarity - trying to avoid getting sucked in to something that will just piss me off:

What Durant said was clear cut homophobia.

I've seen a lot of folks online say stuff like "Oh, in 2021 now THAT's homophobia, ridiculous?", but these people just never understood the concept in the first place. When a straight man looks to insult another straight man by insinuating he's gay, this is an attempt to make the other man feel like he's something "less than a real man" by playing on societal notions of being afraid to be seen as gay. Hence, "homophobia".

It really isn't that complicated. Whenever you try to insult someone by equating them with something their not, you're demeaning that thing their not, and there are concepts attached to it.

Worth noting that Rapaport has all sorts of misogeny all over the stuff he says. It may be that he draws the line with homophobia, or it may not, but from a perspective of understanding Durant, arguing he's better or worse than Rapaport misses the point. Durant is quite clearly someone who has internalized a great deal of homophobia and misogeny to go along with his ever-present insecurities pertaining to his basketball play and his stalker-like tendency to obsess in anger toward people in the media.

I honestly don't say any of this to damn or "cancel" him. He's a ball player. I expect he's going to be able to keep playing ball for a long time because he's great at it. But he's also a remarkable case study of someone who probably has a pretty decent IQ just stepping on rakes over and over again in the social media age, and each time he does so he adds to his list of people he considers his adversaries, which only makes things worse.

Great post and I wish more people would see it this way. I have played sports all my life. In high school I hung out with the basketball team. Hearing the things Durant said constantly really diminished my self value, I knew I was gay, but because of my surroundings using those insults, it made it so incredibly difficult for me to acknowledge my sexuality let alone come out. This behavior breeds heteronormativity and hurts LGBTQ+ youth heavily. I am out and proud now, but I know there are still a lot of closeted youth out there that hear those things and feel less as a person. This type of homophobia especially hurts them. We need to help them realize they are amazing the way they are and aren’t weird for it.

[Joey Wheeler]

If perfer suns in the first

It's a funny thing.

The Suns should look at this season as a great success, but the playoffs may change that. I won't be surprised if the Suns get "upset" in the first round - quotes because we may not even see it as an upset. But even if the Suns end up losing to a healthy-again Laker team, it's going to hurt losing in the 1st round after being a 2 seed.

This'd be extremely unfortunate. The Suns are an excellent team, I think they might be the 2nd best team in the West/my bet to reach WCF if they're on the opposite side of the bracket to the Lakers.

I've never been very high on Chris Paul, but the evidence is too overwhelming at this point, every team he joins gets exponentially better immediately or greatly surpasses expectations.

[Texas Chuck]

I've never been very high on Chris Paul, but the evidence is too overwhelming at this point, every team he joins gets exponentially better immediately or greatly surpasses expectations.

Same. But he's basically become Jason Kidd 2.0 for me. I have some specific criticisms about his game, but the bottom line is when those guys come to your team you quickly do a lot more winning than you did before and when they leave, you do a lot less.

Chris Paul has mastered how to win NBA games and when it comes down to it nothing else much matters really.