2023-24 NBA Season thread

[SailorOfSilence102]

4 hours ago, who do you think said:

 

"He was okay that one year when they were top 15 in a 30 team league" isn't the endorsement that you think it is, especially for a guy at a position that's supposed to serve as a team's defensive anchor.

 

If Gobert is fine - better than fine, certainly better than Towns - when he gets dragged out and has to guard the perimeter, then legitimately what do you need Towns for? He's always a step slow defensively. If his best offensive play comes around the rim, why does he camp the perimeter all the time? Because he's soft. It's 2023, big guys that shoot threes and underwhelm on defense pretty much grow on trees now. No reason to pay one of them $36M to be doing that, especially in a league where there's always a handful of foolish GMs infatuated with underachievers like Towns and probably willing to part with something more valuable.

 

 

Your words, not mine. Regarding fit issues, what the hell do you call last season?

 

 

 

I mean last year is pretty simple, Towns missed training camp due to illness, Gobert had back issues, and then Towns missed most of the year. It's hard to say the reason the Wolves had a bad offense last year was due to Towns and Rudy playing 15 games together, that's just kinda weird.

 

The top half is just kinda weird, having another fine perimeter defender who's long, in addition to a top 5 defender in the league, is a good thing ? That's not like...an overlap that can't exist together. Especially when one of those guys has consistently been an All NBA player when healthy. And Towns doesn't really camp on the 3 point line, he probably takes less shots there then he ought to given the spacing and effectiveness, he posts up and drives fairly often. Here's his shot profile from the last few years for context: https://3stepsbasket.com/player/karl-anthony-towns/shooting?season=nba24

 

Towns is 100 percent not above criticism, but trading a All NBA talent who so far has had no issues fitting with a future All NBA talent and a DPOY contender, is just kinda silly.

[Discrim]

On 10/31/2023 at 8:04 AM, BBTV said:

 

This is the same league where Jamal Mashburn was traded for several times after he had retired.  How does anyone think the CBA is good for anyone?  It's great for superstar players, but pretty lousy for everyone else.

Between the former Eagles player who was still technically on the roster despite not suiting up for them since 1994 and this guy I heard about who robbed a store, got sentenced...and then the cops forgot to take him to jail until the day he was supposed to be freed...then yes, a retired Jamal Mashburn being traded to and from teams he'd never play for makes perfect nonsense.

[SFGiants58]

On 11/23/2023 at 8:07 AM, DG_ThenNowForever said:

Josh Giddey is sure happy Pop is today's lead story.

 

Giddey even looks like a Warped Tour creep, so this isn’t surprising.

[GDAWG]

 

[Digby]

Kyrie Irving getting his paychecks signed by an Adelson. *chef's kiss*

[Digby]

Boston just put their starters back in and instituted a Hack-a-Drummond strategy with 7 minutes left and a 30-point lead over Chicago because they needed a big point differential for Tournament reasons, I guess???

 

If someone blows out a knee ligament in one of these games, on one of these stupid painted courts, because they need to pad the score to "advance" ... 

[GDAWG]

Mark Cuban must be super optimistic that the State of Texas will pass Casino gambling to sell a majority of his team.  

[Fowler2]

I've always heard the rumors that Cuban wanted to sell the Mavs so he could try and buy the Lakers from Jeanie. 

[Digby]

On 2023-11-23 at 2:24 PM, the admiral said:

I remember Popovich always being kind of tedious in a basketball-Belichick way. The healthy-scratch crisis was like 2011 or 2012, but that was in service of winning a title.  He didn't join LeBron James as one of America's leading public intellectuals until the Silver era.

 

I hate to agree with Dan Shaughnessy, but he recently noted with both Pop and Belichick how the grumpiness of older figureheads in the games seems less charming when they aren't winning anymore.

[Digby]

On 2023-11-28 at 11:07 PM, GDAWG said:

Mark Cuban must be super optimistic that the State of Texas will pass Casino gambling to sell a majority of his team.  

 

On 2023-11-28 at 11:21 PM, BottomlessPitt said:

I've always heard the rumors that Cuban wanted to sell the Mavs so he could try and buy the Lakers from Jeanie. 

 

It's totally the casinos. The rumor already was that Cuban and the Adelsons were already planning to partner on facilities whenever Texas gets around to legalizing sports betting, this just starts their partnership early. 

 

If I'm a Western Conference team I'm thrilled that this happened with Cuban staying in charge. A continued future of gambling fratbros and former marketers leading basketball ops, twice-failed coaches leading the bench, misshapen rosters around a generational talent. (And also a bottom-5 brand in the league with so much potential just sitting right there, but that's our problem.)

[TrueYankee26]

Pistons went 0-fer in November, 1st team since 2016 Sixers to go winless in a month

[Germanshepherd]

Don’t really have any strong thoughts for or against the In Season Tournament,  but the running up the score for point differential aspect is great. 
 

If we’re ever gonna see a player threaten 100, this would be the circumstances to do it under. 

[TrueYankee26]

I don't even mind the IST to be honest, it is something different and I always saw it as NBA's answer to the FA Cup in soccer which connection came immediate since I also enjoy watching soccer

[dont care]

39 minutes ago, TrueYankee26 said:

I don't even mind the IST to be honest, it is something different and I always saw it as NBA's answer to the FA Cup in soccer which connection came immediate since I also enjoy watching soccer

The FA Cup isn’t just premier league though, it’s teams from nearly every level of English play, also FA cup games don’t count towards the tables. The inseason tournament is a complete fabrication. There is no benefit to the teams, and minimum impact to the players making a few extra bucks. 

[GDAWG]

On 12/1/2023 at 8:49 AM, Digby said:

 

 

It's totally the casinos. The rumor already was that Cuban and the Adelsons were already planning to partner on facilities whenever Texas gets around to legalizing sports betting, this just starts their partnership early. 

 

If I'm a Western Conference team I'm thrilled that this happened with Cuban staying in charge. A continued future of gambling fratbros and former marketers leading basketball ops, twice-failed coaches leading the bench, misshapen rosters around a generational talent. (And also a bottom-5 brand in the league with so much potential just sitting right there, but that's our problem.)

 

Reportedly, the Adelsons have donated to Governor Greg Abbott's re-election campaign last year, so he would not be a problem.  The issue would be Lt. Governor Dan Patrick (not the former ESPN guy), who has been vehemently opposed to casino gambling.  He'll be hard to be swayed, because as Lt. Governor, he controls the Texas State Senate and he's very religious.  

[The_Admiral]

Good. Gambling should be opposed. It's a decadent and corrosive force. 

[MJWalker45]

On 12/2/2023 at 6:03 PM, the admiral said:

Good. Gambling should be opposed. It's a decadent and corrosive force. 

I'm surprised Texas leadership hasn't allowed it, since they're settling for handing their buddies mistresses jobs they aren't qualified for instead.

[gosioux76]

On 12/1/2023 at 8:13 PM, dont care said:

The inseason tournament is a complete fabrication. There is no benefit to the teams, and minimum impact to the players making a few extra bucks. 

 

It also doesn't really hurt them either. It's not like these are extra games; they count toward their regular season record. And it adds a degree of intrigue and gives a reason to watch some of these early-season games that might otherwise be easy to ignore. 

 

As as far as there being "no benefit," it seems logical, at some point, that winning this trophy will become something teams come to covet. Just look at the Pacers. They're not going to win an NBA title this year, but winning the NBA Cup would be a positive takeaway from what would otherwise be a lost season. 

[DG_ThenNowForever]

1 hour ago, gosioux76 said:

As as far as there being "no benefit," it seems logical, at some point, that winning this trophy will become something teams come to covet. Just look at the Pacers. They're not going to win an NBA title this year, but winning the NBA Cup would be a positive takeaway from what would otherwise be a lost season. 

 

Each player on the winning team gets a $500k bonus. For the max guys that's nothing. For the end of the bench and minimum guys, that's huge and most definitely a motivating factor.

[FiddySicks]

On 12/2/2023 at 4:03 PM, the admiral said:

Good. Gambling should be opposed. It's a decadent and corrosive force. 

As someone who grew up in Nevada, I couldn’t agree more.