ATL - 2021-22 Regular Season Begins

[CharityStripe34]

It's getting annoying and disrespectful to spout things like "Just have Ben play like Giannis." Gianni is a one-of-one unicorn, with all-time great work ethic and workman's mentality. His strength, agility and ability to finish within 10-ft of the basket is unparalleled. It's not all dunks either. It's layups, hooks and floaters.

Simmons is a great defensive player, a talented passer and super-dangerous in the open court but he's not (nor may never be) GIanni. Besides, Freak is still improving as well. Just wait now that he unleashed his talent in the playoffs and won what that will do for his confidence and assurance moving forward.

[Ayt]

This is pretty crazy from ESPN's top 100.

Doncic staked a claim as the most dominant driver in the NBA last season. According to Second Spectrum tracking, Doncic led the league in points off of drives (804) and ranked third in assists (150). He shot 59.2% from the floor in those situations, tied for second behind Giannis Antetokounmpo among the 48 players with at least 600 drives.

[emunney]

This is pretty crazy from ESPN's top 100.

Doncic staked a claim as the most dominant driver in the NBA last season. According to Second Spectrum tracking, Doncic led the league in points off of drives (804) and ranked third in assists (150). He shot 59.2% from the floor in those situations, tied for second behind Giannis Antetokounmpo among the 48 players with at least 600 drives.

Giannis shot 63.8% and Luka was tied with Jalen Brunson, in case anybody was wondering.

[skbucks1985]

ESPN ranked Simmons as No. 28 on their top 100 and I thought that was a really fair spot to put him in. He's below a number of guys that if you were doing the whole 'if I was starting a franchise who would I want' thought exercise you'd take him ahead of because he's such a weird fit alongside so many of the top players but your ceiling is probably 2nd round if he's your best player. So he gets graded down a little bit because of that

[drew881]

ESPN ranked Simmons as No. 28 on their top 100 and I thought that was a really fair spot to put him in. He's below a number of guys that if you were doing the whole 'if I was starting a franchise who would I want' thought exercise you'd take him ahead of because he's such a weird fit alongside so many of the top players but your ceiling is probably 2nd round if he's your best player. So he gets graded down a little bit because of that

Too lazy to do it but did prime Ben Wallace or prime Dennis Rodman take more jumpshots than Simmons?

[Matches Malone]

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[drew881]

Utah reporter interviews “Jazz fan” Jordan Clarkson: did you go to any Jazz games this year?
https://www.yahoo.com/sports/utah-reporter-interviews-jordan-clarkson-about-jazz-and-doesnt-realize-it-222121388.html

[MickeyDavis]

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[Plossum]

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Ben's smart. He saw what the Clips did to Jordan.

[BroncoBuck]

The Kyrie doomsday clock in Brooklyn continues to tick away. That latest piece on him being a big time conspiracy guy is a horrendous look for the league.

[BUCKnation]

'Proudly Unvaccinated' Jonathan Isaac too...

[MartyConlonOnTheRun]

The Kyrie doomsday clock in Brooklyn continues to tick away. That latest piece on him being a big time conspiracy guy is a horrendous look for the league.

Its unbelievable he is a VP for the players association.

[skbucks1985]

Kyrie comes off really bad in that Rolling Stone article, its also utterly unsurprising.

The one thing about this generally that I've been curious about is that I've seen it reported in multiple places that 90% of players are vaccinated but only I think 2 teams have said they're fully vaccinated. If those things are both true that means the unvaccinated players are very evenly split among the teams. Which would speak to how little influence the unvaccinated likely have because for most of them among their team they are probably either on an island or have one other person with them.

[MickeyDavis]

As expected this has turned into personal insults, political stuff and derailing and I've had to delete some stuff. So stop with the vax and conspiracy stuff. And discuss it on the general board or current affairs board. Thx

[raferfenix]

I have now been persuaded the maximum entertainment value from the Simmons saga would be seeing the reaction from Sixers fans if Morey makes him choose the money or trotting out onto their home court to face them.

To be fair to Baby Ben it’s a lot of money he’d have to give up to sit out games. And of course Morey screwed all involved by not bailing on Simmons last year.

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[raferfenix]

Minnesota appears motivated.

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Maybe they bail out Morey. But their board also flagged this, which seems like a simple enough package for them to put together if they really want to:

Derek Bodner (Sixers beat writer for The Athletic) on reasonable expectations for return on a Simmons trade: "I think the kind of package you’re looking at is a few picks, maybe a pick swap, a useful (but not star-level) player in return and salary-cap filler".

https://theathletic.com/2773658/2021/09/25/zach-harpers-76ers-offseason-report-overall-grade-roster-breakdown-goals-for-2021-22/

[MickeyDavis]

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[Ron Swanson]

I know it doesn't make a ton of sense anymore with this roster, but god dammit, get RoLo back to Milwaukee...

[MickeyDavis]

SVG back to TNT as a game analyst. Great. Make him the top guy. I thought he was good a couple years ago in that role.

[MickeyDavis]

I know it doesn't make a ton of sense anymore with this roster, but god dammit, get RoLo back to Milwaukee...

He's a riot