2021-22 NBA Season Discussion

[falcolombardi]

is interesting that despite being the current champion, giannis doesnt seem to be getting a narrative boost for mvp

[Statlanta]

The champion boost is counteracted by voting fatigue and having better RS Bucks teams

[falcolombardi]

minnesota catching denver and sending them to the 7th seed is probably the only way jokic loses this mvp (the other one is if sixers get the 1st seed in the east)

is oddly fitting that the two teams that essentially played the first ever play-in game back in 2018 now may play each other to avoid it

[Clyde Frazier]

Read on Twitter

This is crazy.

[falcolombardi]

i wish wilt and jordan had played a bit longer to go above karl malone in the scoring leaderboard

a kareem/lebron/jordan/wilt top 4 would feel "right"

[falcolombardi]

Read on Twitter

This is crazy.

old habits die hard, refs got accosgumed to reffing one way and probably went back to it when the spotlight over the new rules went away

other more "cynical" possibilities is that teams más players complained cause some stars were struggling early without free throws or that the nba was worried about a too low scoring season

and in all that lebron still gets none lol

[sp6r=underrated]

Read on Twitter

This is crazy.

old habits die hard, refs got accosgumed to reffing one way and probably went back to it when the spotlight over the new rules went away

other more "cynical" possibilities is that teams más players complained cause some stars were struggling early without free throws or that the nba was worried about a too low scoring season

and in all that lebron still gets none lol

I think it is the first explanation. They were used to calling games a certain way. Their general framework was when contact occurs you must call a foul. When a foul occurs unless (i) the offensive player initiated the contact; (ii) the defender fell over; and (iii) the defenders feet were perfectly set and body totally still to call a foul on the defender.

This eventually led to problems as savvy offensive players (i) understood the importance of FTA and (ii) gamed the rules to create contacts to create fouls to get FTA. The result was the NBA eventually realized a change was needed as fans were complaining.

It is going to take the refs a period of years to fix this problem just as it took a period of years to fix the problem of Rileyball

[GSP]

Memphis is absolutely loaded and deep. Theyd win at least 50 games without Ja IMO. Great coach too. 14-2 without Ja. 4 straight wire to wire wins hasnt been done in 25 seasons. Oh and the biggest blowout in Nba history.

Jjj/Bane giving me strong feelings of 15 Draymond/Klay too

[BIGJ1ER]

Memphis is absolutely loaded and deep. Theyd win at least 50 games without Ja IMO. Great coach too. 14-2 without Ja. 4 straight wire to wire wins hasnt been done in 25 seasons. Oh and the biggest blowout in Nba history.

Jjj/Bane giving me strong feelings of 15 Draymond/Klay too

I agree, they're a bit 12-14 spurs esque where they have so many guys above replacement level that they can just beat you into submission over the course of the game. Of course they don't have the vet star power of guys like Duncan and Manu, but they have two guys with super high ceilings in JJJ and Ja who could end up being top 15 players (and in the case of Ja, may already be there).

I do think Ja has become a bit overrated this season, and will develop a cult following over the years ala rose, AI, westbrook due to his captivating play style, but I don't think the 14-2 argument should be held against him too much, only his actual on court production, which I think is trailing behind his explosive reputation. As it stands, I think he's struggled to find a good balance between scoring and playmaking, and he seems to develop tunnel vision when driving to score, only doing his mid air jump passes when he's cut off and seems to prefer kickouts to any other type of pass. When you watch someone like Darius garland on the other hand, he seems to blend his playmaking and scoring far better, although he obviously doesn't have the explosive rim pressure and scoring volume that Ja has.

[falcolombardi]

if there is one team that resembles the early 2010's spurs is probably Phoenix tbh

specially the mix of veteran all star with young talent and athletism although they lean more into youthful athletism than long experience compared to those spurs

[LukaTheGOAT]

I think something that has gotten under the radar this year is Donovan Mitchell's jump as a finisher at the rim.
He's getting less fouls drawn which could be tied to the new foul rule, etc. but he has improved from finishing at 61% in the restricted area to an elite elite 73%. As I said in another thread, I think he is a dark horse for a spot in the top 10 player convo.

[jasonxxx102]

Memphis is absolutely loaded and deep. Theyd win at least 50 games without Ja IMO. Great coach too. 14-2 without Ja. 4 straight wire to wire wins hasnt been done in 25 seasons. Oh and the biggest blowout in Nba history.

Jjj/Bane giving me strong feelings of 15 Draymond/Klay too

Too bad Ja isn't Steph.

Grizz are a really fun team but I just can't see how they get past the 2nd round right now.

They're a pretty distant 3rd, I think, in terms of playoff potential. They're more on par with the Jazz, I think.

Suns and Warriors are so so dangerous in playoff basketball and the Grizzlies just don't have the weapons to keep up

[SeniorWalker]

Luka Doncic has been on my mild "Haterade" list the past few years. There's always a handful of players I irrationally hate every few years and I'm not a huge fan of guys that tend to play an overly heliocentric style (except for Jokic, who does it in ironically the most unselfish way).

But recently he took account for his constant whining to the refs. Big character move, I really like to see stuff like that. Gonna be watching him to see how he develops as a leader going forward because the talent is ofc undeniable. I may end up rooting for him.
He plays so much like Harden (who ha been #1 on my haterade list for years) but unlike Harden has huge gonads in the clutch. He may rank higher on the ATG list than Harden when its all said and done.

[parsnips33]

Luka Doncic has been on my mild "Haterade" list the past few years. There's always a handful of players I irrationally hate every few years and I'm not a huge fan of guys that tend to play an overly heliocentric style (except for Jokic, who does it in ironically the most unselfish way).

But recently he took account for his constant whining to the refs. Big character move, I really like to see stuff like that. Gonna be watching him to see how he develops as a leader going forward because the talent is ofc undeniable. I may end up rooting for him.
He plays so much like Harden (who ha been #1 on my haterade list for years) but unlike Harden has huge gonads in the clutch. He may rank higher on the ATG list than Harden when its all said and done.

No better feeling than having someone win you over from haterdom - recently went through this with Kyrie

[falcolombardi]

i think all this talk about avoiding nets is distracting us from the nets potentially missing the playoffs

as of right now, they are likely finishing in 8th seed where they would play Toronto away -without kyrie- and if they lose then hawks/Hornets at home -without kyrie-

the chance they outright miss the playoffs are very high imo

[parsnips33]

i think all this talk about avoiding nets is distracting us from the nets potentially missing the playoffs

as of right now, they are likely finishing in 8th seed where they would play Toronto away -without kyrie- and if they lose then hawks/Hornets at home -without kyrie-

the chance they outright miss the playoffs are very high imo

Yeah speaking from experience from last season, play ins is a very scary place to be. All it takes is a little bad shooting luck in 1 or 2 games and your season is over

[falcolombardi]

i think my ideal playoffs right now would be

first round: sixers (2) vs nets (7), bucks (3) vs Chicago (6) miami (1) vs hawks(8) and boston (4) vs cavs (5)

with the winner of sixers/nets grudge match vs bucks and then probably heat vs boston

hopefully simmons can play by then but his back injury seems serious

in the west i would like to see suns vs clippers with george or kawhi (or both?) back, and warriors vs denver or mavs for the curry/luka/jokic duels

i have zero hopes on lakers but if they can get their **** together it would be fun to see them vs suns and ser if lebron/davis can make somethingh happen and make a series

[LukaTheGOAT]

The Phoenix Suns have a 120 ORTG since CP3 last played a game for them. This is higher than the ORTG they had with CP3 ON the floor since the start of the season.

The average DRTG they faced in this span was 112.2, which would rank slightly below average in the league. However
a +7.8 ORTG is historical pretty much anyway you slice it.

They also were a +11 offense against the two top 10 defenses they did face (Miami and Utah), so it's not like they solely beat up on Houston and collapsed against higher level competition.

Are we witnessing one of the GOAT coaching peaks in Monty Williams?

[falcolombardi]

The Phoenix Suns have a 120 ORTG since CP3 last played a game for them. This is higher than the ORTG they had with CP3 ON the floor since the start of the season.

The average DRTG they faced in this span was 112.2, which would rank slightly below average in the league. However
a +7.8 ORTG is historical pretty much anyway you slice it.

They also were a +11 offense against the two top 10 defenses they did face (Miami and Utah), so it's not like they solely beat up on Houston and collapsed against higher level competition.

Are we witnessing one of the GOAT coaching peaks in Monty Williams?

suns are giving me crazy 2014 spurs vibes

[sp6r=underrated]

Luka Doncic has been on my mild "Haterade" list the past few years. There's always a handful of players I irrationally hate every few years and I'm not a huge fan of guys that tend to play an overly heliocentric style (except for Jokic, who does it in ironically the most unselfish way).

But recently he took account for his constant whining to the refs. Big character move, I really like to see stuff like that. Gonna be watching him to see how he develops as a leader going forward because the talent is ofc undeniable. I may end up rooting for him.
He plays so much like Harden (who ha been #1 on my haterade list for years) but unlike Harden has huge gonads in the clutch. He may rank higher on the ATG list than Harden when its all said and done.

No better feeling than having someone win you over from haterdom - recently went through this with Kyrie

Given Kyrie's behavior this year, how did he win you over?