SilasCoade

who says the spider dribble is a worthless drill?

This. I get the synthetic b/c this is likely to be the last car I buy. I get the oil changed at around 5-6k intervals.

Ummm wut? Just cost me a hundred bucks at jiffy lube yesterday. That's not hurting me but it's not cheap as hell either.

Thunder?

There is a very solid argument that Tom thibodeau has underperformed everywhere he has been a head coach.

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Yeah, the only question for the Nets is what seed they are for the play-in. If they win out they're 7th no matter what. If they beat only the Cavs they could end up 7 or 8 depending on what the Hawks do. If they lose to the Cavs they could be 8-10 depending on what the Hawks and Hornets do.

I was high on Collins when they signed him. He always looked like he belonged when not injured in Portland. Collins, Jakob, and Landale make a solid frontcourt rotation. If they can get consistent shooting and defense from their army of wings they could be really good in 1-2 years.

They'll get Kenny Atkinson and they'll like it.

He's in the same group as Giannis and Embiid, I guess, but no one has a statistical argument over Joker this year.

I'm not suggesting he disappeared in that game. I'm just saying a future NBA superstar should be the obvious guy you go to for a bucket in a close game.

very efficient

I think the most telling thing about Banchero to me is that in a tight Final Four game against a hated rival, Duke was not working to get him the ball either in isolation or post-ups. Seems like the top pick in the draft ought to at least be the clear alpha on his college team. He also gave almost no effort on defense. I know one game is not the whole story, but this particular game was one you expect true stars to seize the moment.

I'm all for fuck the Lakers, but I also like to see good basketball. Anthony Davis fucked this up on the last possession. Sets the screen for Lebron and tries to pick and pop with terrible spacing. He needed to dive and rotate to the corner. You know Lebron's looking for the three, take your defender away from him. You already have the outlet option up top with Monk. If you pop out between James and Monk you let Ingram cover two guys and prevent a good angle for a skip pass (which may not have had time for). I didn't watch the game so I don't know the context of that last play. If that play was drawn up out of a timeout the coaches need to be fired. I don't think AD is the guy you want in the screen action for Lebron. That brings a big into the switch and doesn't give you a catch and shoot specialist on the pick and pop. Put AD in the corner as a decoy/outlet or maybe have a "screen the screener" secondary action where Monk is setting a back pick for AD as the outlet up top. That play began and ended with give Lebron the ball and hope something good happens.

Ben Simmons is going to make Charlie Weis blush getting paid so much for not doing the job.

Well, it sounds stupid when you say it like THAT.

Nuggets currently 5th in the West.

I'm in a mood this morning for some reason. Westbrook since Feb 1 is averaging 16.7 pts, 6.7 reb, and 6.0 ast against 3.1 tov while shooting 43% from the field. His 3pt shooting still sucks (26%) and FTs are not much better (66%). I thought he had been playing more efficiently recently, but looking back at Oct-Dec, his averages were 19.5, 8.2, and 8.4, with 4.6 turnovers/gm. Shooting percentages were modestly better early in the season except for free throws. I guess the conclusion is that Russ is always Russ and is never worth it.

If you have Luka 4th or 5th in your MVP ballot I've got no argument. If you have him first you're a stone cold homer with no objectivity. As to accounting for the impact of the star player raising the level of play of surrounding cast, that's partially why win shares and VORP exist. Just for grins I looked up some other advanced stats. Jokic is absolutely killing everyone in every advanced metric. LEBRON -- Jokic 7.58, Embiid 6.51, Giannis 6.12 ... Luka 2.38. RAPTOR Total -- Jokic 14.5, Giannis 7.8, Embiid 7.6, ... Luka 5.5 RAPTOR WAR -- Jokic 20.5, Tatum 12.4, Giannis 11.2, ... Luka 9.0 This season's MVP is actually a fucking landslide based on performance alone. The only reason Jokic might not get it is the absurd perception that he shouldn't get it twice in a row when other players are having what in normal times would be MVP level seasons.

You missed the point. My point was not that Jokic is better than Luka. My point was that Denver's supporting cast is much much worse than Dallas's. And with that dogshit cast Jokic is exceeding Luka in every meaningful statistic. So if your criteria for MVP is "dominant player overcoming dogshit teammates", there is no way you can endorse Luka as MVP.

Huh? Luka is the Mavs' best player by a fair margin but the supporting cast he has is a definite step up from Denver. The Nuggets have exactly one guy not named Jokic with VORP above 1 -- Monte Morris. Dallas has 3 -- DFS, Brunson, and Powell. In WS the Mavs have Powell and Brunson actually surpassing Luka, while Joker almost triples up the WS of his most impactful teammate. Joker is leading the league in PER, WS, WS/48, BPM, and VORP. The last is ridiculous as his VORP is 9.1 while second place is Giannis at 6.9. That's a huge separation and equal to the difference between Giannis and Jayson Tatum. Joker is doing that while ranking 11th in USG. The only argument for Joker not getting a second MVP after having a superior season with a worse supporting cast than last year is that he already won one and Embiid is having a great year on a more successful team. But let's be real, Joker is blowing the entire league away right now.

We talking about the same KD that went to Texas, right? Chet is closer to Bol Bol than KD.

I expect Chet to be a solid pro with a long career, barring injury, but I don't think he's a championship cornerstone guy. Ivey looks like he could be that guy to me. I'm not sure Banchero looks like that guy. I actually like Mathurin a lot and think a team picking him up in the 5-10 range is going to be very happy.

Substitute keldon for Lonnie and I agree with everything you said. I'm out on Lonnie getting it together at this point.