2020-2021 NBA Season Thread

[Sport]

1 hour ago, Digby said:

Do we know that CP3 is unvaccinated? Reading that if he’s vaccinated, he could return more quickly. Which suggests that maybe it’s not just a positive test or a symptomatic test that could’ve landed him there. Didn’t the Sixers guys have to sit out due to just contact tracing earlier this year?

 

Well after some googling a lot of places are saying he actually is vaccinated and has been for a while. That is just more wildly bad luck for Chris Paul in the playoffs. I stand corrected and shouldn't have assumed he was an Anthony Rizzo Sam Darnold type. 

[DG_ThenNowForever]

16 minutes ago, FiddySicks said:

The Nets winning would be easily the most groan inducing outcome left (even still, WAY less so than normal), but I’ll be a lot happier with it if it happens because KD is balling out like this. If Kyrie is out and Harden is hobbled bad the rest of the way, the only way they’re going to pull it out is if he puts them on his shoulders. He seems ready for that, too. 
 

It’s obvious why, but this dude is still so underrated. 

 

I don't think anyone underrates KD. People just don't like him.

[FiddySicks]

10 minutes ago, DG_ThenNowForever said:

 

I don't think anyone underrates KD. People just don't like him.

And I think people do. Hate is absolutely a part of it, but another facet is that his championships have been downplayed so much by some people due to the supporting cast that I think a lot of people kind of took for granted how much he contributed to those titles. There was a LOT of talk about how screwed the Nets were when Kyrie and Harden went down and how KD can’t win a title “on his own” or whatever such nonsense it all was. But the truth of it is, I think he really CAN win a title with this team even if those guys are out or limited.

 

I don’t think statistically he’s underrated, but I think people underrate his ability to take a team on his shoulders. He had some issues with that when with the Thunder, but he just seems totally ready now. 

 

Now, this could  blow up in my face and they get whacked in the next two games and he’s way off. But I don’t think so. I think he’s going to lead whatever is left of this team to a title. I just hope what’s left of the west isn’t a total MASH/COVID unit so people can’t use that as another excuse as to why he had the “easy” route to the title. 

[Indigo]

14 minutes ago, FiddySicks said:

And I think people do. Hate is absolutely a part of it, but another facet is that his championships have been downplayed so much by some people due to the supporting cast that I think a lot of people kind of took for granted how much he contributed to those titles. There was a LOT of talk about how screwed the Nets were when Kyrie and Harden went down and how KD can’t win a title “on his own” or whatever such nonsense it all was. But the truth of it is, I think he really CAN win a title with this team even if those guys are out or limited.

 

I don’t think statistically he’s underrated, but I think people underrate his ability to take a team on his shoulders. He had some issues with that when with the Thunder, but he just seems totally ready now. 

 

Now, this could  blow up in my face and they get whacked in the next two games and he’s way off. But I don’t think so. I think he’s going to lead whatever is left of this team to a title. I just hope what’s left of the west isn’t a total MASH/COVID unit so people can’t use that as another excuse as to why he had the “easy” route to the title. 

KD is definitely capable of carrying a team by himself, and I’m certain if he stayed in 2017 he and MVP-like Russ(obviously he wouldn’t have won MVP) would’ve won it all.  The fact that it seems like he doesn’t want to is the “problem”. KD acts like he needs a stacked team to carry him, when all he needs is another star and a good supporting cast. OKC didn’t have that cast as Serge Ibaka and Steven Adams were still developing, 

[The Six]

It's like Lob City all over again. Can't have a postseason without something going horribly wrong, I guess.

 

It's up to Luke Kennard and Terance Mann to win this series.

[Digby]

I think Durant is phenomenal and the fact that he’s done this this year, after his injury, is legendary stuff; I just also think he’s a miserable high-school bully of a personality.

[BBTV]

9 hours ago, CS85 said:

Pro Athlete offered painkillers, HGH, and exotic drugs:    Yes, give me as much of that as you possibly can delivered directly into my heart and blood

 

Pro Athlete offered an almost entirely risk-free vaccine for international pandemic crisis:  I will never in my life take such a thing

 

Maybe we're expecting too much out of guys that don't have above a high-school education, and were probably even coddled then and didn't learn even basic life skills.  They're certainly not all idiots, but most of them aren't qualified for much more than bagging groceries - and Lebron seems to me to be the kind of guy that would put the eggs on the bottom.

[The_Admiral]

The old Deadspin was pretty irresponsible in casting Dr. LeBron as the intellectual force of the NBA. Interesting approach from a No Public High School Graduates Need Apply institution like them.

[Kramerica Industries]

7 hours ago, DG_ThenNowForever said:

post All-Star break.

 

They also scheduled an All-Star game on short notice that absolutely nobody asked for or wanted.

[BBTV]

Why is that quoted text in a black box?  Is it showing like that for everyone?

[Digby]

36 minutes ago, the admiral said:

The old Deadspin was pretty irresponsible in casting Dr. LeBron as the intellectual force of the NBA. Interesting approach from a No Public High School Graduates Need Apply institution like them.

 

Only popping up in the NBA thread to complain about LeBron AND the long-gone Deadspin, we've got an admiral exacta.

[Kramerica Industries]

6 minutes ago, BBTV said:

Why is that quoted text in a black box?  Is it showing like that for everyone?

 

My post? I use dark mode extensions, but I just turned it off and it looks perfectly normal to me (and I had it turned off before quoting your post right now). 

 

In any case, I'll edit the post to fix it. 

[Rockstar Matt]

3 hours ago, Digby said:

I think Durant is phenomenal and the fact that he’s done this this year, after his injury, is legendary stuff; I just also think he’s a miserable high-school bully of a personality.

He also has one of the more fragile ego’s I’ve ever seen from a professional athlete. The dude literally makes burner Twitter accounts to defend himself lmao. 

 

If I were that good at what I do, that crazy rich, I wouldn’t give a damn about what any internet rando says about me. 

[Digby]

22 minutes ago, Rockstar Matt said:

He also has one of the more fragile ego’s I’ve ever seen from a professional athlete. The dude literally makes burner Twitter accounts to defend himself lmao. 

 

If I were that good at what I do, that crazy rich, I wouldn’t give a damn about what any internet rando says about me. 

 

I think that's as much as anything why the Nets inspire a special kind of disgust, at least speaking for myself. Not just the usual "wahh players deciding where they play, God forbid" stuff. Between Durant's homophobic and psychotic insecurity, Kyrie's emotional maturity of a baked college philosophy major, and Harden's passion for his job at roughly DMV-clerk levels ... so much talent that's such a slog to care for. 

 

That and their parade of money/image laundering ownership, their weird entitled exploitation of dead black artists, being built on eminent domain ... and mostly the continued lack of any real fanbase? Like look how wild Knicks culture got this year just rooting for Julius Randle -- imagine if this talent played in that borough?

[BBTV]

Does the NBA dress the coaches now?   Or do they have any freedom to choose what they wear?  Curious because in the few games I've watched, the Sixers coaches have been either all in the exact same red quarter-zip, a gray one (that may have caused a turnover in the Washington series) or in a navy one like tonight.  

[BBTV]

This Atlanta comeback is one of the most amazing things I've ever seen.

 

Ben Simmons is complete and total trash.  How a professional can't (or simply won't) learn to shoot free throws (or any shot at all) blows my mind.  He's a complete liability and he should be ashamed of himself and his complete lack of ability to do the first fundamental thing of the game.  Joel Embiid should slap the ever living crap out of his non-caring ass.

[Unocal]

The way things are playing out in the NBA playoff war of attrition, the Hawks are probably the new title favorites

[Digby]

Talking myself into a Trae vs. KD one-on-one series for the ECF. Sure why not.

[BBTV]

Ben Simmons is a point guard that attempted 4 shots in 38 minutes, was 4-14 from the free throw line, and has a max contract. He’s the biggest fraud in sports I think I’ve ever seen.   I don’t need players to pout and punch walls all the time, but he doesn’t seem to give a F about the game of basketball. He’s a loser, and no team he’s on will ever be a winner. 
 

Edit: and doc rivers says that sixers fans should “cherish what they have here with Ben”, and that Simmons makes enough free throws for him, and actually needs to be LESS aggressive offensively. To hell with him too. 

[Unocal]

But wait, wasn't Giannis the guy everyone calls a fraud and has FT issues?