NBA 2021-2022

[Message Board User 12,389]

13 minutes ago, ztejas said:

It's actually insane that both Kyrie and Simmons are going to get their way by holding out. 

It's also kind of funny in a sucks-to-be-him way that part of the reason Harden wanted out from BKN was Kyrie's part-time status.

So Harden gets his wish and is traded to a lesser team...and then almost immediately after the trade we get the strong smoke signals that the vaxx mandate will be a thing of the past very soon and Kyrie will likely be available full time for the stretch run and playoffs.

 

[ztejas 43,244]

9 minutes ago, Message Board User said:

It's also kind of funny in a sucks-to-be-him way that part of the reason Harden wanted out from BKN was Kyrie's part-time status.

So Harden gets his wish and is traded to a lesser team...and then almost immediately after the trade we get the strong smoke signals that the vaxx mandate will be a thing of the past very soon and Kyrie will likely be available full time for the stretch run and playoffs.

 

Harden isn't a fan of playing hard or being held accountable for team success. Instead of elevating his play with Kyrie out or being patient and working to steady the ship he bailed and blamed it on Kyrie not getting the jab. I mean he got away with playing like shit on a bum hamstring last year in the playoffs when they came within a cunt hair of getting to the NBA Finals (I don't know if they beat Phoenix or not but KD isn't going down to that Hawks team). But it's just too hard to actually apply himself and earn his contract.

Which makes it hilarious that he bailed for PHILADELPHIA. Talk about a fanbase that will fucking destroy you for going through the motions or disappearing on the biggest stages. Rivers doesn't put up with that shit either. 

Kyrie is a fucking nut off the court but it's at least fairly easy to make sense of him as a basketball player. He had some moody stints towards the end in CLE and with BOS but at this point - with KD - you figure he's going to do his thing and do it within the team as much as his playstyle allows for that. Kyrie isn't going to quit in the middle of a playoff series or go scoreless in multiple 4Qs. With Harden - you might get a beautifully orchestrated 30 point triple double or you might get 17 points on 4/18 from the field with 7 turnovers and a bunch of missed rotations on D. If I'm Philly I'd be nervous about some of the latter type of games fucking up a peak Embiid season. 

Granted - who fucking knows what BKN is going to get from Simmons - but if they get him focused and bought in you know he's going to bring it on D at an elite level for 35-40 mins. KD and Kyrie might not need much else. 

[Message Board User 12,389]

28 minutes ago, ztejas said:

Granted - who fucking knows what BKN is going to get from Simmons - but if they get him focused and bought in you know he's going to bring it on D at an elite level for 35-40 mins. KD and Kyrie might not need much else. 

And don't forget Seth Curry - a huge addition IMO that will make things so much easier for Kyrie, KD, and yes Ben Simmons.

In fact, there are probably just a couple of teams in the league where Simmons wouldn't be a complete net negative in the 4th quarter of a tight playoff game...but Brooklyn is one given all the shooting and the fact that both Kyrie and KD can win a game or 2 by themselves when it matters.

Assuming everyone is healthy, BKN has got to be the favorites out of the East and I am praying for a first round Philly vs BKN matchup.  Please make it happen baby Jesus.

[Make em eat Taco Bell 1,549]

nebraska furniture mart 

 

 

 

Edited February 23, 2022 by Make em eat Taco Bell

[Make em eat Taco Bell 1,549]

 

 

[Wulaw Horn 18,963]

2 hours ago, OB3 said:

Can some of you olds tell me what yall don’t like about Lebron? I’m really just curious

My stuff wasn’t about disliking Lebron. Jordan was a maniacal asshole. Lebron is an egomaniac. It’s probably part of what makes him great. But it would be a bitch to deal with when he’s not great anymore. 

[OB3 3,608]

7 minutes ago, Wulaw Horn said:

My stuff wasn’t about disliking Lebron. Jordan was a maniacal asshole. Lebron is an egomaniac. It’s probably part of what makes him great. But it would be a bitch to deal with when he’s not great anymore. 

I knew you weren’t. Just know some people on here hate the dude, was just wondering why

[Wulaw Horn 18,963]

13 minutes ago, OB3 said:

I knew you weren’t. Just know some people on here hate the dude, was just wondering why

He is an ego maniac. Some people don’t like that even if it’s justified. 
lots of people probably hate him because he beat their favorite team. That’s always a thing. 
lots of people hate him because they idolized Jordan growing up and he is coming after MJ’s legacy. I was there for both- MJ was better. 
some people (probably not on here) hate him for his political takes. 
Some people probably hate him bc he’s a successful black dude (I doubt it’s more than a handful on here). 
some people hate him bc he’s a bitch. 

[OB3 3,608]

6 minutes ago, Wulaw Horn said:

He is an ego maniac. Some people don’t like that even if it’s justified. 
lots of people probably hate him because he beat their favorite team. That’s always a thing. 
lots of people hate him because they idolized Jordan growing up and he is coming after MJ’s legacy. I was there for both- MJ was better. 
some people (probably not on here) hate him for his political takes. 
Some people probably hate him bc he’s a successful black dude (I doubt it’s more than a handful on here). 
some people hate him bc he’s a bitch. 

I get what you’re saying. Not so much on here but some people just don’t give him any credit whatsoever, like not even top 5 all time credit which is just idiotic. I don’t care if people think Jordan is better, they just act like Lebron isn’t even on the same planet as him

[SilasCoade 2,620]

 

Has Ben Simmons ever shot a basketball? This sure doesn't look like a guy that's been working on his weakness.

[Patrick Bateman 3,903]

5 hours ago, OB3 said:

I get what you’re saying. Not so much on here but some people just don’t give him any credit whatsoever, like not even top 5 all time credit which is just idiotic. I don’t care if people think Jordan is better, they just act like Lebron isn’t even on the same planet as him

Not many here don't recognize that Lebron is a top 5 player of all-time.  In many ways, he's the first Social Media Era Basketball Icon.  A new world type of personality who's focus on brand distracts from his on court accomplishments.  Additionally, the self-aggrandizing and lack of accountability are oft-putting to a lot of folks.  As a basketball player (whining and flopping aside), he's sublime and the best pure talent since MJ.

 

[ztejas 43,244]

1 hour ago, Llogg said:

 

Has Ben Simmons ever shot a basketball? This sure doesn't look like a guy that's been working on his weakness.

What are you referring to? Looks okay to me. Like he's working on FTs just shooting with his left hand. 

KD looks like he could play tomorrow.

[SilasCoade 2,620]

Well, I think he's actually inside the FT line a couple feet but that's not relevant.

Watch the actual motion he's making. He's very inconsistent. Shooters don't have to have the same motion as other shooters, but their shot must be internally consistent. That internal consistency is the hallmark of practice. Ben is over there doing a very basic shooting drill looking like he's just doing it for the first time.

Compare that to KD. You could overlay the film for each individual shot and the frames would be seamless.

I read or head someone say about musicians that the difference between an amateur and a pro is that an amateur practices until they can get it right; a pro practices until they cannot get it wrong. KD's a pro. Simmons is an amateur.

Edited February 24, 2022 by Llogg

[ztejas 43,244]

22 minutes ago, Llogg said:

Well, I think he's actually inside the FT line a couple feet but that's not relevant.

Watch the actual motion he's making. He's very inconsistent. Shooters don't have to have the same motion as other shooters, but their shot must be internally consistent. That internal consistency is the hallmark of practice. Ben is over there doing a very basic shooting drill looking like he's just doing it for the first time.

Compare that to KD. You could overlay the film for each individual shot and the frames would be seamless.

I read or head someone say about musicians that the difference between an amateur and a pro is that an amateur practices until they can get it right; a pro practices until they cannot get it wrong. KD's a pro. Simmons is an amateur.

I guess I felt like you were implying that he's regressed or isn't taking it seriously. He's never been a good shooter or had great form. No disagreement from me there. I've bagged on Simmons plenty for being lazy and not addressing even something as simple as improving his FTs. That said - comparing him to KD seems a bit unfair. 

I think a change of scenery might benefit him as well as maybe some leadership by example from KD. Or he'll just keep playing the same ball he has since his rookie year and fuck his way through the Brooklyn clout-demon rankings.

We should find out soon enough. 

[Loch Ness Monster 3,533]

Zion is such a joke to me now. Going to be injured more than Street Clothes Anthony Davis and only has interest in playing in NY, LA, or Miami.

[ztejas 43,244]

4 minutes ago, Loch Ness Monster said:

Zion is such a joke to me now. Going to be injured more than Street Clothes Anthony Davis and only has interest in playing in NY, LA, or Miami.

I think someone posted that he's below the Embiid cutoff for games played through their respective careers. 

[d2o 1,602]

19 minutes ago, ztejas said:

I think someone posted that he's below the Embiid cutoff for games played through their respective careers. 

He's played basically one season.  85 gms and will have 30 teams lined up to give him 200M+.   That's one helluva lick

[Message Board User 12,389]

😬

 

[Message Board User 12,389]

13 minutes ago, Message Board User said:

😬

 

 

[OB3 3,608]

Dude is insane. 8 straight games of 35+ points on 50% or better fg%

[Loch Ness Monster 3,533]

Having the best season of his career at 32 years old?

[Message Board User 12,389]

This season has gone completely off the rails.  Garland will finish the month playing 3 total games (4 if you count the ASG!) and it looks like his back is Larry Bird circa 1992.

I don't see any way the Cavs finish top 6 in the East and there's a chance they'll fall out of the play-in.

 

[ztejas 43,244]

6 hours ago, Loch Ness Monster said:

Having the best season of his career at 32 years old?

It's not even remotely close. No need for the Q mark.

(Actually - his 2017 season in Toronto was very good. I thought his previous high in ppg was more like 24 but he put up 27 that season)

5 minutes ago, Message Board User said:

This season has gone completely off the rails.  Garland will finish the month playing 3 total games (4 if you count the ASG!) and it looks like his back is Larry Bird circa 1992.

I don't see any way the Cavs finish top 6 in the East and there's a chance they'll fall out of the play-in.

 

Yeah. I saw this. Your guard spot is fucking cursed this season. 

Edited February 25, 2022 by ztejas

[Message Board User 12,389]

5 minutes ago, ztejas said:

 

Yeah. I saw this. Your guard spot is fucking cursed this season. 

Also Announced today that Rondo is out 2 weeks.  Just a disaster.

Sexton, Rubio, Garland, Rondo...

On the bright side, we'll likely get to keep the pick we sent to Indy for Levert (lottery-protected).

[4doorsMoreWhores 107]

57 minutes ago, Message Board User said:

Also Announced today that Rondo is out 2 weeks.  Just a disaster.

Sexton, Rubio, Garland, Rondo...

On the bright side, we'll likely get to keep the pick we sent to Indy for Levert (lottery-protected).

What happened with Sexton?

[Message Board User 12,389]

1 hour ago, 4doorsMoreWhores said:

What happened with Sexton?

torn meniscus in November, done for the season.

[Francisco 2.0 32,290]

Looks like the Lakers have signaled that they have had enough of Lebron and Klutch, if you have Plaschke openly calling for his trade:

 

https://www.latimes.com/sports/lakers/story/2022-02-24/lakers-must-be-open-to-trading-lebron-james

 

Spoiler

LeBron James is a giant.

He’s not bigger than the Lakers.

James will retire as the greatest player in NBA history.

He’s not greater than the Lakers.

James has spent four years in Los Angeles. The Lakers have been here for 62. James has won one championship in Los Angeles. The Lakers have won a dozen.

These are all inordinately obvious statements that should not require recitation, but some people around town have gotten in their heads that the Lakers need to keep submitting to the King’s commands for the franchise to survive.

Honestly? At this point in his career, there really is only one way LeBron James can help the Lakers win a championship.

They must trade him.

It’s their best chance at getting the fastest start on their inevitable rebuild. It’s their last chance to fix the Lakers brand before it sinks into what could be a decade of mediocrity.

Certainly, the mere act of saying it — trade LeBron James! — sounds crazy. It seems absurd. It feels like a hot take. But the cold truth is, the Lakers are not about one player, they’ve never been about one player, they’ve endured and preserved and triumphed through sudden retirements and stunning trades and awful injuries.

Jerry West has come, and gone, and they’ve survived. Magic Johnson has come, and gone, and they’ve figured it out. Shaquille O’Neal has come, and gone, and they’ve won three titles since.

Before placing James on a lofty pedestal above the town’s loftiest sports franchise, understand he needs the Lakers more than the Lakers need him.

And right now, for their own survival, the Lakers pretty much need him to leave.

Start with the fact agreed upon by anyone who has watched this mess of a basketball team. As constituted, they’re not going to win a title before James’ contract expires after next season. Period. End of debate.

They can’t add enough pieces to fix the misfit combination of a 37-year-old James, a broken Anthony Davis and a lost Russell Westbrook. They don’t have enough draft assets or financial flexibility to undo the roster nightmare created by James himself, who has been a terrific player and a terrible general manager.

Even if James continues his current incredible individual play, keeping those three players together ensures another meager season, James gets another year older, and misses even more games with injuries, and then what? When he is a free agent in the summer of 2023, do you really want to give James a Kobe Bryant retirement contract? And put the Lakers’ future on hold for another five years? So, you let him walk and get nothing and then where are you?

Now for the second fact. Of the Lakers’ three best players, James’ trade value offers greatest rewards for the lowest risk. Nobody wants Westbrook and that onerous $47 million final season on his contract, so forget that. There would be interest in Davis, but his fragility greatly lowers his attractiveness.

James is one of the few players in the NBA who could instantly turn a championship contender — which the Lakers are decidedly not — into champions. He’s not built for the long haul, but as a one-year rental, even at his age, he could command a bounty that could set up the Lakers to become something they haven’t been in years.

A young team full of promise. An exciting team filled with growth. The sort of team that Lakers fans would more easily embrace than this current band of confused attackers and slow defenders.

Absolutely, there are questions. Like, even with all the Lakers’ problems, how can any team possibly survive the departure of arguably the greatest player ever immediately after one of his greatest seasons ever?

Consider, James left the Miami Heat in 2014 and, while they wandered in the desert for five years, they were in the NBA Finals against the Lakers in 2020 and are on top of the Eastern Conference today.

Also, James left the Cleveland Cavaliers for a second time in 2018 and they only struggled for three years before rising to the No. 4 slot in the Eastern Conference this year.

A trade of James might initially feel like an ending but, really, it’s only a beginning.

Another concern might be, if James doesn’t want to be traded — and there’s been no indication he wants to leave Los Angeles — how would his unwelcomed departure effect the club’s relationship with all the great players repped by James’ Klutch Sports?

There will indeed be lots of rumbling from Rich Paul’s group, but in the end, while James would be leaving, Hollywood isn’t going anywhere. The entertainment capital is still the entertainment capital. Players are still going to want to come here. The Lakers will still be the Lakers.

A third concern might be that Lakers fans would be heartbroken at the loss of James. Except, really, he’s never quite found his way into their hearts.

He did what he came here to do, but their 2020 championship run was short and played in a bubble and few really shared the experience. He’s yet to win a title with Lakers fans in the stands, and he probably won’t win one, and so he’s viewed more as an entertainer than a family member. He’s no Magic, no Kobe, no Shaq.

Over the weekend at the All-Star game, James tried to assert his franchise value by basically calling out the beleaguered Lakers basketball vice president Rob Pelinka. Out of nowhere, in a pregame news conference, James praised Oklahoma City Thunder general manager Sam Presti. Then, privately, he apparently passed the word to several outlets that he was unhappy that Pelinka publicly said James agreed with the team’s trade deadline inactivity, which he didn’t. He also told The Athletic he wouldn’t close the door on a return to Cleveland.

It was clear that, in his trademark side-door way, James was setting up a showdown with Pelinka and perhaps forcing the Lakers to choose between the two.

Except, as much as Pelinka seems consistently overmatched in his job, many of his recent moves are ones recommended by James. This is not about Pelinka’s future, which was constantly in question long before this weekend. This is about the Lakers’ future, and, in that battle for value, LeBron James loses.

For that future to be the foundation of a new championship era, the Lakers must go on without him.

 

 

 

[Message Board User 12,389]

 

[Message Board User 12,389]

LOL.

 

[Message Board User 12,389]

nm

Edited February 26, 2022 by Message Board User

[Message Board User 12,389]

 

[CurlyDumps 4,439]

Love when a player vigorously makes the replay hand sign with 6:30 left in the 3rd qtr.

[CurlyDumps 4,439]

Is “Ariza” Trevor Ariza’s son, or did he just grow his hair out?

[aggie08 21,380]

A Nets/Sixers playoff series would be the first truly epic, these teams really don't like each other series since the last Warriors/Rockets series. Would watch.

[Js1 85,056]

Are the Clippers regarded? Seriously. 

[Message Board User 12,389]

 

[Dutchrudder 11,103]

Melo had an open man to his right, but passed it up so he could come up short on a contested 28 footer lol....

[Braff Zacklin 13,399]

4 hours ago, Message Board User said:

 

[Message Board User 12,389]

 

[Message Board User 12,389]

Nets at Sixers March 10...hmmm...

Or maybe he's just developed bed sores from not doing anything for 10 months.

[Radical Larry 28,523]

[Underdog 28,437]

Momma, there goes that man again. 

[Wulaw Horn 18,963]

So, looks like Harden fits perfectly in Philly. 
I can’t tell you how much I want to see them and the nets on opposite sides of the bracket and meet in the conference finals. That would be epic. 

[ztejas 43,244]

I'm not sure if there's really a solution for this but this was a fucking beating to sit through. 

[Wulaw Horn 18,963]

Easy solution- the Elam ending. 

[Dutchrudder 11,103]

Can't believe you screenshot all of that, but yeah I felt the same way; it's a problem. The game stops feeling like a basketball game and feels more like a skills challenge. Just a boring, deflating way to end a close game that should be riveting and exciting. 

 The way to fix it is to call those fouls as intentional fouls, 1 or 2 shots and the ball back. If they can't force the ball to turn over back to their team, this dumb shit ends. Games will be better, faster and more entertaining. 

[ChickenSandwich 9,797]

3 hours ago, Dutchrudder said:

Can't believe you screenshot all of that, but yeah I felt the same way; it's a problem. The game stops feeling like a basketball game and feels more like a skills challenge. Just a boring, deflating way to end a close game that should be riveting and exciting. 

 The way to fix it is to call those fouls as intentional fouls, 1 or 2 shots and the ball back. If they can't force the ball to turn over back to their team, this dumb shit ends. Games will be better, faster and more entertaining. 

My fix would be to simply allow the offensive team the option of FTs or the ball out of bounds w/time added to the shot clock in some fashion (back to 12 seconds if under 12?) for all non shooting fouls (while in plenalty) in the last 2 mins of the game. Remove the benefit from these intentional fouls. 
 

A simple solution that doesn’t disrupt the game. The goal is to stop the clock and hope they miss FTs, this easily solves that problem  

Edited February 27, 2022 by ChickenSandwich

[HornOnTheBayou 8,877]

7 hours ago, Wulaw Horn said:

Easy solution- the Elam ending. 

Yep. Start using it in the G League next year. NBA can adopt a few years after that.

[Fastbreak 3,948]

Harden watch:

Has tied Ben Simmons on the Sixers all-time 3 pointers list.

[Wulaw Horn 18,963]

3 hours ago, ChickenSandwich said:

My fix would be to simply allow the offensive team the option of FTs or the ball out of bounds w/time added to the shot clock in some fashion (back to 12 seconds if under 12?) for all non shooting fouls (while in plenalty) in the last 2 mins of the game. Remove the benefit from these intentional fouls. 
 

A simple solution that doesn’t disrupt the game. The goal is to stop the clock and hope they miss FTs, this easily solves that problem  

College tried that one year in the pre season tournament season.  It was an utter and complete disaster. You want no part of this- trust and believe everyone hated it. Like, they might have e even cancelled it for later tournaments after seeing it in action a couple times.