( ( ( ( ( nba bubble ball 2020 ) ) ) ) )

let's take this thread all the way to the finals (if they happen).

HOOP IS BACK

https://images.daznservices.com/di/library/sporting_news/8/88/nba-bubble-072820-getty-ftr_171qre7cfhsui1b802zc3k2pks.jpg?t=-1690856413&quality=100

https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/UgkRlP2B14D-JH5QZTD_MdgIgYs=/0x0:5199x3466/1200x800/filters:focal(2185x1318:3015x2148)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/66775480/AP20076746979318.0.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O49OgQ_kogw

https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/BhUCnYlLiTEpJlkYwCVFnU4CggA=/1400x1400/filters:format(jpeg)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/20046339/BubbledInsideTheBubble_Getty_AP_Ringer.jpg

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/07/20/sports/20200714-marc-stein-web-4/merlin_174407280_da587713-f2ae-4596-8f81-773745c3d34b-superJumbo.jpg

https://clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Lou-Williams_-Magic-City-wings-are-apparently-totally-worth-it.jpg

https://clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/JR-Smith-Dion-Waiters-_make-case_-to-crack-playoff-rotation.jpg

is it just me or does Waiters' face look like a D Wade/Darius Miles mashup

bubble boys are back

xp i see it

http://i.pinimg.com/originals/4a/15/5c/4a155c42d0d5ec94dafb93c686cb548c.jpg

lol

green light for zion playing today.

if I had cable, I'd watch some games.

Can't wait for the hoopage.

Lol @ bubble Lance.

guess we are watching some hoops tonight boys

i for one have "hoops on the brain"

alright i'm in if only for tonight.
i feel a bit like without a crowd this is gonna be a little like watching 2k

https://i.insider.com/5eeb8a3b2618b91aaa25ee83?width=1100&format=jpeg&auto=webp

H.O.O.P.P.E.

i'm in a cabin in maine but i'll join the hoopwatch next week

im watching some hoops

hey y’all. the hoops are on the tube.

be there a bit later on--i'm psyched!

virtual fan situation is very much something I’ll say that

lol announcer commenting on gobert leading the league in screen assists, thank you I had forgotten about that, great stuff

i think they have done a great job getting the sounds dialed in. from the first couple scrimmages i watched to now is drastically improved. the virtual fans is a pretty cool idea and it helps the backgrounds look semi normal.

yeah fan thing is fine in long shots but the closeups are v v weird almost unsettling

hah yah stay zoomed out

lol, you know it's a pels home game because there's "smoothie king" on the court

yah kinda funny the little team logos and the sponsor logos.

Who the hell is tony bradley

damn zion. wasnt even ready for the oop and still got there somehow

agree with this

Stan Van Gundy is constantly dropping knowledge on this broadcast. Really a pleasure to listen to him and Ian Eagle. High-level announcer combo.

— Kevin O'Connor (@KevinOConnorNBA) July 30, 2020

Was wondering who was doing the color commentary cause was thinking he's good but doesn't have that prime time pizzazz the national games usually go for

yah not one to throw out catch phrases or get hyped up

lonzo has missed like 7 layups

bubble boy

utah is just so uninspiring on offense. they are really missing bojan.

Utah has no fucking chance to do anything in the bubble. Their two best players hate each other and the bad vibes are obvious.

They look lukewarm, yes.

weird how svg comes off as sincere and enthusiastic while his bro has become a complete drag

i watch hoop friends

feel like u can only be a tv guy for so long before u just cant care anymore xp

unless ur a lifer play by play pro

gobert shd be deported from the bubble hes a super spreader

xp yeah true

watching baseball during commercials everything is normal

red sox have accomplished the famous home run

i guess i need to learn a bunch of jersey numbers since tons of guys have different hair and education reform on their backs

where is big zion w tho

they're playing him in like hockey shifts

ha yeah jersey names serve a purpose

where as these slogans...

for a second i was all who is this guy peace

mr. metta world peace really was a pioneer in retrospect

ha yeah

cad, that's bugging me too; especially in the replay when the camera is in a position where you can't see player's faces and it's impossible to tell who's who!
i don't know why they don't have the name and the slogan below?
it's leading to unintentionally awkward moments where Black Lives Matter is passing to Say Her Name and then getting blocked by Ally

zion has such amazing touch he just flips it up there and it goes in

magnets

Not a fan of the slogans on the uni thing

gotta say, i always felt concerns about quality of play in the bubble were wildly overblown and i'm feeling pretty good about that take

theyre looking a lil rusty but not awful

Those scrimmages had me lil worried but otm

And lagoon said exactly what I was going to about jvg. His boredom with the nba is so apparent.

have not watched tv since the sports stopped and have to say am not enjoying these weepy pandemic era commercials

the key is to literally shut yr brain off in a state of near death then u dont notice them

ah cool will do

pelicans r blowing this game bigtime

these courts need better lighting. also the chroma key for the team sponsors is shit

pels interior defense is just so bad and there isn't a quick fix for it

Ooh nice pass by Donovan

welp

extremely dumb and more importantly cowardly for the pels to not play zion in the last few minutes

yeah what the point of their team even if theyre not gonna play him

you gotta think that whatever shot the league had to add a bunch of new fans who tuned in bc of the high quality of the bubble product compared to other situations in sports is gonna be flattened by no new viewers having any clue who is who out there

ha lebron isnt doing the jersey slogan thing

brow neither

Woah, Joakim Noah, had no idea he was a Clip now

Looking forward to NO ramping Zions minutes up to 22 per game in his fourth season.

Lebron looks old

he is!

he's significantly grayer than i am and i'm several years older than him

bubble layers

Ballmer & Silver are in the bubble's second/outer layer, which is why they're behind plexiglass. They don't have to quarantine/can go in & out, but they do get tested & are only allowed in upper bowl areas behind glass, never down on the floor anywhere near the inner layer people https://t.co/hUqAOjQEV8

— Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) July 31, 2020

Beverley in the game, after they said he was out like 8 times

i mean for real props to bron on letting that grow out naturally but it is also weird how lebron is older than me, a man who is older than him

Whoa Noah with the strip of AD

Paul George really out of sorts. Weird things in the bubble

just bubble stuff

bron is fine w the gray but still paints his head

I think a random team is gonna win the title tbh

Officiating in this game is DIRE

bron is fine w the gray but still paints his head

― lag∞n, Thursday, July 30, 2020 6:55 PM (fourteen seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah this is why it's weird but i guess most dudes have their own weird hair neurosis no shame

Matt Armstrong
Posted: July 30, 2020 at 9:55:14 PM
I think a random team is gonna win the title tbh

houston is the funniest possibility

noah can't do anything out there

21 fouls in the 1st quarter!!

doc rivers has a goatee

Paul George really out of sorts. Weird things in the bubble

― Matt Armstrong, Thursday, July 30, 2020 9:51 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

i would say he looks.....good

If the clips get pg to have his annual two month mvp level of play during the offs then they are a lock to win it

theyre the best team from a talent/construction standpoint imo but theyve barely played with each other

reggie jackson looks bad

i think reggie's been ok all things considered. the guy i don't get at all is landry shamet, he's been awful.

Think shamets been injured all season

he might warm up

what is this basura

https://i.imgur.com/vX6ceCz.png

it is also weird how lebron is older than me

lebron has been carrying nba teams on his shoulders since he was 18 years old. That's 17 years and counting. he's also been a multi-hundred-millionaire for most of that time, personally managing his brand and his wealth. plenty of wear and tear, both mentally and physically in those jobs.

https://i.imgur.com/qcIMnGX.png

Is jamychel green really gonna be in their crunch time lineup cos uhhh

should be trez. i was wondering the same

aimless are you implying i, a noted bay area billionaire, do not live a life full of constant intolerable stress bc uh maybe check out what my buddies had to deal with in congress yesterday wow

bron looking like the best player in the league tonight

Lebron Dd up Kawhi as well as anyone that 4th q

the clips need these seeding games to figure out their team

kawhi's face when he picked up his dribble was one of pure panic and fear

yep not biting on his shoulder fakes at all

all in all, a good night of hoops

Just what we needed

the denver nuggets will win the NBA bubble

first two games came down to the last shot (misses)

bron looking like the best player in the league tonight

More basketball!!

ooh Celts v Bucks soon

yah, that's gonna be necessary

as we were saying

Who's the best shooter in the bubble? Based on just this year, it's Khris Middleton. Yes, Khris Middleton

At least that was true before COVID-19. Will it still be true now?

Why the Bucks' favorite status and the entire title race hinges on that questionhttps://t.co/L9TC1pz5Et

— Mike Prada. I have spoken (@MikePradaNBA) July 31, 2020

Not sure we needed the Nets in the bubble

if you were gonna have zion you needed to get the nets

And Zion showed up out of shape. Not a great situation

and NO is not really playing him!

Nurkic looks great, whiteside looks like Whiteside

it wasn't about zion it was about money... they needed regular season games to generate tv revenue and salary for the players. thus you needed more than just the playoff teams there, thus the nets, and here we are. in 6 weeks nobody will remember anything about the nets time in the bubble

well the nets were one of the 8 teams but you know what i mean

all the above really

Why couldn’t you have all the playoff teams play regular season game vs each other

Tbf the wizards are the more questionable team rn

doing it this way generates more product and concocting some elaborate 8/9 play in game scheme make it less transparent that they're shipping the kings, suns, wizards etc off to orlando just to wring cash out of regional sports networks. also zion

they've also created the illusion of the restarted season having meaning... if you had the playoff teams playing vs each other simply for seeding purposes nobody would care because there's not even home court

they shdve just brought all the teams and finished the regular season, instead they brought 3/4 of the teams?

It’s a half measure for sure

Tbf the wizards are the more questionable team rn

― Matt Armstrong, Friday, July 31, 2020 1:31 PM (twenty-one minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

otm

i think this weird short end to the season is good. let the players play through the rust for a couple weeks.

Officiating has been so bad in the bubble... I had hoped it would be better with no crowds

i recognize approx half of the people in the blazer's virtual fan pool, this is my shame

love that

Jonathan Isaac refused to kneel...

nurk looks absolutely incredible

Sorry this is bullshit

Griffin: (Zion) will not play significant minutes in the next game, and he may not in the next one."

Nurkic sometimes tosses off a ferociously great game. Then he reverts to the mean, which is only to be expected.

Jonathan Isaac refused to kneel...

― Matt Armstrong, Friday, July 31, 2020 4:24 PM (thirty-four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

he's s trumperton, not unexpected

https://nba.nbcsports.com/2018/01/17/jonathan-isaac-in-sermon-i-invited-my-magic-teammates-to-hear-me-preach-but-none-came/

lol sad man in him prayer room

bubble hoops reminds me of olympic hoops

Me too

Lillard takes some awful shots. Paul George would agree with me.

At least there's no air horns xp w myself

This turned into a hell of a game

Melo colllllld blooded

all those techs were funny. players gonna have to bit their tongue a bit cant hide behind crowd noise and distractions in the bubble

uhhhh the blazers gonna choke this?

nothing would surprise me less

big W for pdx there.

completely different team with nurk/collins back

dame's finish on that drive w/ about 40 secs to go was sublime

Why is this court brighter!?!?

More stars!

digging the bubble games, they remind me of the preseason college ball tourneys they play in puerto rico or the bahamas, and the courts are used as convention centers and ballrooms for the other 50 weeks of the year

The fake crowd noise is so weird, I don’t know if I can get used to this

i may be starting to believe in Ayton.

Did you guys see that 4 players this season have scored on giannis in isolation

Ayton always had good potential in terms of his physical attributes. He just never had to work all that hard at hoops before he came into the league, where everyone on every team is a world-class athlete and even the superstars work their freaking butts off in order to make their way to the top of the heap.

tatum has been soo bad so far in da bubble like not just missing layups missing the rim, keep thinking about how early in the shutdown it was revealed he didnt have a hoop at his house, hope he found a way to get some shots up!

i refuse to believe any of these dudes didn't have any access to a hoop, even in a clandestine way.

one would think

Tatum and Brown been bad, Kemba on minutes limit, yet they're still neck and neck with top team in the league

pretty rugged game w one million fouls

possible hostile act...

no hostile act

WHAT

lol

so giannis does not foul out, they try to give a makeup call on the other end, and it's going to be reversed for an and one

Officiating is so bad. They call the 6th foul on the wrong play

overturned :o

rough game for the refs

You can't blow a whistle to stop the play, not call a foul, say you're reviewing to see if the foul was a hostile act that would merit a technical or flagrant, then say there was no infraction on the play. It has to at minimum be a personal foul if you stop play. https://t.co/2pz6XKxl9S

— Jared Weiss (@JaredWeissNBA) August 1, 2020

its actually totally legal per the actual rules lol

https://official.nba.com/rule-no-13-instant-replay/

Section I—Instant Replay Review Triggers
a. Instant replay will be triggered in the following situations:
4. An Altercation occurs. (For purposes of this instant replay rule only, an Altercation shall mean a situation in which (i) two or more players are engaged in (a) a fight or (b) a hostile physical interaction that is not part of normal basketball play and that does not immediately resolve by itself or with the intervention of game officials or players, or (ii) a player, coach, trainer, or other team bench person commits a hostile act against another player, referee, coach, trainer, team bench person, or spectator (including, for example, through the use of a punch, elbow, kick, blow to the head, shove, or thrown object.)

Section II—Reviewable Matters
d. If an instant replay review is triggered as described in Section I – a (4) above, the Replay Center Official and on-court officials would review the video to determine only the following issues:
The identity of all players, coaches, trainers, or team bench persons involved in the Altercation and the action immediately prior to and immediately following the altercation.
The level of involvement of each such player , coach, trainer, or team bench person.
The appropriate penalty to be assessed against each such player, coach, trainer, or team bench person.

harden just turned his ankle pretty severely landing on finney-smith's foot and stayed in the game.

all those techs were funny. players gonna have to bit their tongue a bit cant hide behind crowd noise and distractions in the bubble

― Spottie, Saturday, 1 August 2020 8:44 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

there might be more bench techs too. definitely more opportunity for the bench to interact w/ the refs

harden now has like 24 points in a quarter where he legit fucked up his ankle

Why are Mark and Doris suddenly emphasizing the second syllable in Rick Carlisle’s last name? I feel like I’m going insane

hahaha i noticed that and i have no idea

i guess everyone is a little rusty

lol im a little behind and just caught that part and came to post about it. almost seemed like they were doing a bit

85-75 at the half, this game kicks ass

Fox career high 39 and some sick moves

🦊 @swipathefox goes off for a career-high 39 PTS in the @SacramentoKings first action in Orlando! #SacramentoProud #WholeNewGame pic.twitter.com/URLfK5O1Co

— NBA (@NBA) August 1, 2020

unforch for the kings, buddy hield shot like dogshit and the spurs won the game.

rly excited bc pop finally let the young fellas play serious minutes and they showed up to varying degrees.

none of their young players rn scream obvious #1 options, but the core of derrick white, lonnie, dejounte, poeltl, and keldon johnson played rly well in various combos last night. losing forbes to injury was such a blessing for them bc hes such a garbage defender that his 3 pt shooting rarely justifies his minutes.

derozan had an outstanding game. he didnt score much until the 4th bc he was in facilitator mode. played a lot of minutes at the 4. it still doesnt make sense to have him and aldridge together, but for now with LMA not playing, you can start to see some rotations that make sense.

big night for the mavs ex knicks

Top 30 finish for me last night on DraftKings, the game is back. Also misery

As an aside to the giannis thing, I was once watching a Timberwolves-Sonics game around 2000 or so, and they called double technicals on Gary Payton on Anthony Peeler. But Payton had a technical already. So he begged the ref and they changed it to just a tech on Peeler. A part of me died that day.

hahahaha

Adebayo is such a wonderful player. Can score off ball, on ball, would work on any team

BOL BOL REGULAR SEASON MINUTES?

i was lolling thinking about you after he turned the ball over twice in 45 seconds but we'll give him a pass on the step out of bounds

Adebayo is such a wonderful player. Can score off ball, on ball, would work on any team

― Matt Armstrong, Saturday, August 1, 2020 1:48 PM (thirty-six minutes ago)

the growth in his offensive game has been really crazy, just completely out of nowhere. the only thing keeping him from being elite elite is being able to shoot like anthony davis, but otherwise he checks almost every box you would want for a modern 5. can legitimately D up 1-5, is a creative and sound playmaker in transition, with touch around the basket and a really consistent floater type game. i just love watching him... the way he moves his feet at his size is wild

Absolutely unreal pass by Bol

Bruh that pass by Bol Bol pic.twitter.com/YWE5tQkqmD

— gifdsports (@gifdsports) August 1, 2020

porter jr and bol getting minutes at the same time.... heat up by 16... we're all winners today

Am I losing my mind of is officiating in the bubble just awful every game?

Like that out of bounds call on Bol. That can’t happen. He didn’t even move his feet

This also is going to be a 3 hour game

i've seen ppl saying the reffing has been rly bad

Mark Jackson said Dragic is a “very poor man’s Ginobili” which seems a little harsh

kelly o hitting pull up threes like he's klay thompson in the midst of a 25 point quarter you gotta love it

Mark Jackson said Dragic is a “very poor man’s Ginobili” which seems a little harsh

― Matt Armstrong, Saturday, August 1, 2020 3:31 PM (forty-seven seconds ago)

this was really rude

Disappointing game from Monte Morris, really got worked by the very poor man’s Ginobili

nuggs need these kinds of mins from jerami grant, he's a playoff style player w/ his size/athleticism combo

Bol is a good player, it’s pretty obvious

kelly o hitting pull up threes like he's klay thompson in the midst of a 25 point quarter you gotta love it

― J0rdan S., Saturday, August 1, 2020 3:32 PM (six minutes ago)

well he went off for 20 in the quarter so fair play to him

bol is obv very uniquely skilled for his size and has a good feel for the game, but he's gonna have to play a lot more before he can contribute consistently in real games over real minutes

when he drove to the rim on butler in the first half he got ripped immediately, that kind of stuff. malone won't tolerate him getting punked by vets in important minutes, which would inevitably happen.

Offensively he’s clearly a PROBLEM, defensively he is a QUESTION

i think it makes sense for them to give him some run in these games when jokic is off the floor and the other team has backs up in. i don't think he's ready to be playing w/ 8 or 9 other starters on the floor even on offense, but i could see him torching some back up big men over the course of a few minutes like boban does every once in a while

It’s kind of absurd how good the Thunder are

they just have good players, like *checks box score* L. Dort

PG came into the bubble sharp as hell

they just have good players, like *checks box score* L. Dort

*nerds

So, The Pelicans

def not better than the clippers

Marc Jackson is a very poor man's Steve Kerr

So is TJ Warren a top 40 player?

Feel like there are definitely some teams that don’t have a player as good as he is

huh are the suns really in the bubble

how did this happen

Bol is a good player, it’s pretty obvious

― Matt Armstrong, Saturday, August 1, 2020 3:40 PM (seven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

this was consensus right, he was a top five recruit, teams just thought his body couldnt hold up, and then he dropped way further than he shouldve because of like network dynamics or whatever you call it

There were a lot of draftniks who argued he wasn’t good because of various scout type things

ah i thought it was all injury worries but dont think i followed it too closely

starting to think the raptors can really make some noise this year

they play good

Um, Embiid had 41/21 in 34 mins, Simmons had 19/13 and Harris had 30/8 and the Sixers lost.

plus they got photoshop xp

“Adobe”
🤣😂😅🤣
(And he has 23pts, not 19)
(I am dying 😂🤣) pic.twitter.com/D4anBSraaM

— BBALLBREAKDOWN (@bballbreakdown) August 2, 2020

xp i respect the hell out the raps tbh

i've looked at tj warren's box score line from today like 5 times and i'm still amazed.

scored 19 in the 4th quarter of a close game. dude can really score.

TJ Warren is an elite defender now too, it’s a serious glow up

so this victor wembanyama kid is 7'3" at SIXTEEN
https://hoopshype.com/2020/07/30/victor-wembanyama-nanterre-france-basketball/

Yeah he can really play

i was gonna say, he has nice handles and really good court awareness; seems like the full package.

extremely long and thin limbs that get trapped in crevices

There's no reason for anyone to be taller than me. Not cool.

It's pretty confusing when there are like five guys on one team named Equality

Simmons’ defense on warren last night was pretty bad

Terence Davis is a COVID-19 conspiracy theorist so he’s purposely wearing a mask with a hole in it... pic.twitter.com/TkzosKC3J6

— Rob (41-24) (4-3) (@Hou5ton4L) August 2, 2020

Lonnie Walker just retweeted a qanon human trafficking thing

Out of the bubble you go

Xp

lonnie walker seems to be on the side of good, based on his twitter feed

lonnie is def a conspiracy theory guy tho

(he's the age of a lot of my former students and a lot of them share the pizzagate shit which i constantly have to go snopes and be like WHAT THE FUCK DID I TEACH U)

youtube algorithms have so much to answer for

Lonnie’s been through a lot, wasn’t he the one who recently cut his hair and had an accompanying players tribune essay about having been molested as a kid?

thats right, yeah

celtics are forcing the blazers into bad shot selection and the blazer big lineup hasn't slowed the celtics down any. if the blazers go smaller they will lose the battle of who can put the best talent on the floor, unless some blazer bench players play over their heads.

tatum cut his hair and is good again now

not sure i understand the metaphysics of whether a game can still be a fabled ilx bowl even it is happening in "the bubble"

much like light is both a particle and a wave this game is a bubble bowl

namaste

theis seems like a v intense dude, never noticed him much before

theis is dece

Let’s be honest: this is great basketball

didn't think i'd ever ever say it about this particular squad or a team with whiteside but theres no quit in this portland team

Nurkic and Lillard have huge balls and really really want to make the playoffs. It’s great to see

Celtics have lots of haters but the Brown/Tatum combo is so impressive

idk where this version of gary trent jr came from but i am v cool w/ it

gary f'n trent cannot miss

he has some very real sam cassell big balls dance energy

big quarter for liberation

if this celtics iteration was a different team besides boston they'd be everyone's leaguepass darlings

i guess they couldn't be the lakers either

wtf there's no foul there

messed up the backcourt violation call too

ya

Absolutely insane officiating, almost every game

bubble life has driven the refs nutty

people were worried about the players being rusty when they should have worried about the refs

my least fave thing about the celtics is definitely hayward's kinfolf cover model lifestyle thing i just ... i get enough of that just driving around here u know

good game!!

obviously tatum scored a lot but 8 assists is really encouraging for him and he also guarded dame in crunch time.

blazers going for 2 down 3 with 4 seconds left and no timeouts was an interesting decision

"an interesting strategy there" indeed

my least fave thing about the celtics is definitely hayward's kinfolf cover model lifestyle thing i just ... i get enough of that just driving around here u know

― Education Reform (Clay), Sunday, August 2, 2020 6:05 PM (seventeen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

https://sneakernews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/gordon-hayward-anta-gh1-barbershop-7.jpg?w=1140

Markelle Fultz just hit a 70 footer

NBA teams took 124 shots this season when down by exactly 3 points with less than 20 seconds left in the 4Q or OT.

Every single team that took a 2 instead of a 3 in that situation lost the game: 0-31.

Teams that took a 3 went 10-73.

— Yaya Dubin (@JADubin5) August 2, 2020

you can't say though that is not an interesting strategy

its interesting, in some ways more interesting than trying to win

MARKELLE FULTZ FROM CLERMONT FERRAND pic.twitter.com/ubATVs4N0L

— TrashTalk (@TrashTalk_fr) August 2, 2020

when keith van horn is right keith van horn is right

I wish America would just go to the euro club model for all sports and we could just be done with the NCAA. The NCAA’s foundation is so flawed that it’s just never going to be right, ever.

— Keith Van Horn (@Coach_Keith44) August 2, 2020

well, yes, ofc. but an entrenched system that generates many billions of dollars of revenue and has a huge, highly loyal fan base is not going away just because there is a more rational alternative to it.

Jonathan Isaac planted on his left leg going into the lane, and immediately began grabbing for his left knee, going down to the ground in a ton of pain. He's only just now being put into a wheelchair after probably being on the ground for two minutes or more.

— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) August 3, 2020

wow god is NOT good all the time?

lol ouch

sucks for issac, just got back from a pretty bad knee injury.

I guess he’s just one of those guys

https://youtu.be/xpVfcZ0ZcFM

so as i was saying....

the bucks have ~3 weeks to figure out how to score when the butts tighten

bud ran a really nice play for giannis out of a time out to get him the ball at the top of the key w/ a wide open lane, but pretty much every other possession in the final 90 seconds was a catastrophe

couple of rough offensive possessions down the stretch. i don't think middleton is a pull the fire alarm type of shooter.

I have a hard time believing in a title for a team that starts DiVincenzo at guard.

they'll get eric bledsoe back but that presents its own set of issues

suns mavs is good. ayton and bridges both bad games but they are still in it.

just a MASSIVE w for the suns. huge comeback by the bench.

Yeah Middleton cannot run and gun 3s like that

That game def felt like a preview of how they could lose a playoff series

that's m/l how they lost last year iirc?

acl tear for isaac

damn, kinda feelin bad for jokes

You're forgiven my (bi)son

I love my not dead bison

it never turns out well when a guy jumps and then immediately falls out of midair in a heap

.@satou_sabally tells @sportsiren the Wings are playing for Sandra Bland today.

Bland, a Black woman, was found dead in police custody in 2015. pic.twitter.com/rmkzcHijo8

— espnW (@espnW) August 2, 2020

has anyone seen an nba player do anything like this?

seems like the layoff did a zinger good

He was putting it together before the quarantine, I think he’s just really good now

porzingus now gets to play w/ doncic and under carlisle instead of whatever mess the knicks cooked up. lucky man.

Isaac is a complicated situation now because it looked like he was a future all star but he’s officially injury prone now

He’s up for an extension but do you even bother negotiating that?

i'm sure they will... steph curry signed a $40m extension bcuz he was injury prone and then all of a sudden he stopped getting hurt and the warriors had the best contract in the nba

Yeah but wouldn’t Isaac just play out this next season? Idk I guess it’s up to him

The nba tv studio host just had his dog barking in the background

Yeah but wouldn’t Isaac just play out this next season? Idk I guess it’s up to him

― Matt Armstrong, Monday, August 3, 2020 1:38 PM (eleven minutes ago)

i feel like guys who have blown their knees out twice usually don't take risks on extensions esp when they've never been paid

i'm not sure this one will be very complicated honestly... isaac is the most talented player in the magic organization by far, and isaac -- i assume -- will be pretty happy to take the life changing amount of money, whatever it ends up being

^ that sounds otm, unless Isaac is unfathomably arrogant or incurably optimistic

guess it's up to god

Nets are resting like 5 rotation players tomorrow

these jerseys that have both slogans and player's names are just too busy

they shd just let the players write whatever they want on their their nicknames or ACAB, blank jerseys whatever

Emojis

anti police emoji sentence lol

change my jersey number to 1312

legalize punching all players with 14 and 88

i have to say it's been weird to see players with SAY HER NAME or SAY THEIR NAMES on their jerseys when i haven't heard the names of breonna taylor, george floyd etc once in any NBA broadcast... that's why i posted that clip from the WNBA. there's all these slogans plastered everywhere but nobody is saying anything

really good game between the raps and heat on nba tv rn... esp w/ no homecourt these feel like dead even teams to me

Maga Porter Jr needs to show something today

fred van vleet looking like a splash brother out there today

This game is blacked out, what was the name of the new streams site?

NBATV

Btw it’s insane that they couldn’t get a local tv deal done during quarantine

yeah great NBATV doubleheader today

This game is blacked out, what was the name of the new streams site?

― Matt Armstrong, Monday, August 3, 2020 4:06 PM (nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

http://nba-streams.xyz/schedule/

Nuggets much more engaged, actually running plays and whatnot

Thanks xp

Porter a different guy today

I heard somewhere that the Nuggets will win the NBA bubble.

chris paul iso-ing bol bol is not gonna be a winner for the nuggs

Porter kind of dominating tbh

chris paul iso-ing bol bol is not gonna be a winner for the nuggs

― k3vin k., Monday, August 3, 2020 1:47 PM (thirteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

bit behind but this was awesome

TJ Warren is a SITUATION

SGA is crazy good

his game is very similar to ja's it will be interesting to see how their careers play out

refs wildin all over this okc denver match

incredible free throw shooting contest here

i like both of these teams

Omg grizzlies throwbacks

I got super into basketball back when the grizzlies were still in Vancouver so the retro vibes are serious

not really seeing the SGA/Ja comp. sga seems way more smooth, methodical and crafty to me. ja more violent, speedy and reckless.

Ja has more flair. They’re both lanky combo guards I guess

Huge win for the nuggets and a statement by MPJ

37 pts

MPJ was really engaged on defense which is a great thing

One of the great things about being a homer is that I do not care at all that MPJ is qanon

are jamal murray and gary harris playing in the bubbble?

Murray has a sore hammy and Harris is in covid quarantine of some kind

Ah ok

Brandon Ingram is probably the MVP of the 2020 “he’s good now” team. Who are the other guys?

Isaac was on this team RIP

the aforementioned tj warren

TJ was already good imo. But now he’s a top 40 player

I feel like a bunch of guys went from kinda bad to clearly good this year

SGA and ja are both tall guards who can shoot and are really difficult to guard downhill esp when they both get to the rim. ja is obviously more explosive and SGA more floater-y, but SGA can be dominant in the same way around the basket

looked it up and ja is listed as 6'3" which kinda blew my mind. thought he was 6'5" at least, not the same height as curry.

yeah sga def a finesse dude

jas got a lot higher ceiling than sga because of his explosiveness imo

Ja is more of a genius. SGA more of a craftsman.

well said

It’s very hard for me to imagine Zion having a 10 year career in the nba

jas got a lot higher ceiling than sga because of his explosiveness imo

― lag∞n, Monday, August 3, 2020 8:30 PM (thirty-two minutes ago)

prob but conversely means ja prob has a better shot at a longer career

It’s very hard for me to imagine Zion having a 10 year career in the nba

― Matt Armstrong, Monday, August 3, 2020 8:59 PM (five minutes ago)

shaq played almost 20 years i think zion can pull off 10

i meant SGA obv xp **

Shaq was miraculous. Unique.

Shaq also didn’t walk and run like a nose tackle

joel embiid with a robust 9 points in the first half against a team that has one guy with any sort of chance of guarding him

Shaq was miraculous. Unique.

― Matt Armstrong, Monday, August 3, 2020 9:14 PM (thirty-two seconds ago)

how do those two words not also apply to zion

I hope Zion makes it work but he showed up out of shape after 4 months of quarantine, moves like no other player in nba history etc

Shaq putting on all that weight and being able to carry it for 10 years in the nba is exceptional. Will Zion be able to do it? I highly doubt it

from a body composition perspective, young shaq was light years ahead of zion iirc

Young Shaq had a great build. Then he went to LA and put on a ton of weight and somehow it still worked.

shaq was listed at 325 as a 27 year old in 1999... zion is listed at 285 now and prob won't even put on much more weight as much as he will just replace fat for muscle over time. he'll prob hit 300 once he's that age but he's going to be much more lean than shaq was at an older age even tho he's much pudgier now. you can tell zion's frame will be able to hold muscle & we've never heard anything negative about his work ethic. i'm not going to judge his physique too harshly post-injury and post-pandemic... btw he put up 23-7-5 in 25 mins tonight and was physically dominating everyone on the court in the crunch time lmao

well never know how much shaq or zion really weigh

that game turned on plays in which zion got the ball w/ less than 5 seconds on the shot clock and put his shoulder into ja, sending him back 2 feet before laying the ball in over top of him and a second where he drove baseline and elevated thru 3 dudes for a lay up

i really have the opposite view... i think eventually he'll be healthy and the world will be more normal, he'll be able to get in shape, and there won't be anyone in the nba outside of like embiid who will be able to handle his physicality

rookie shaq was listed at 300! he had to have been over 400 at some point

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a1/99/18/a199180a07d201f3105a7de3ded23c6d.jpg https://www.celticshub.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/shaqretiresx-large.jpg

it's one thing if zion's knees break down but i rly don't get the vibe that he's going to eat his way out of the league

yeah injuries is what worry me hes such a tank and plays with so much force jumps so high etc, carrying around the extra weight obvs isnt great for that

hopefully with an offseason of nba level training he can drop 50lbs or w/e

yeah i'll feel better once zion has time to seriously change his body and add muscle. as we see above, young shaq was basically 100% muscle and there's no real comparison to him.

their games are so different too

Zion leaps high and often, runs the break hard, and makes very hard cuts (witness the exploding shoe incident). It's his knees and ankles that will get torqued around most. If they hold up, it seems like everything above the knees will do fine.

shaq was listed at 325 as a 27 year old in 1999... zion is listed at 285 now and prob won't even put on much more weight as much as he will just replace fat for muscle over time. he'll prob hit 300 once he's that age but he's going to be much more lean than shaq was at an older age even tho he's much pudgier now. you can tell zion's frame will be able to hold muscle & we've never heard anything negative about his work ethic. i'm not going to judge his physique too harshly post-injury and post-pandemic... btw he put up 23-7-5 in 25 mins tonight and was physically dominating everyone on the court in the crunch time lmao

If you think Zion is gonna have a healthy career at 6’6 300, ok! Shaq not a great comparison for that

This isn’t a moral question. For however long Zion’s career lasts his absolutely insane physical presence will make him a great player. But if you ask me, 6’6 290 pound nba players have an expiration date

derrick white! wow.

lebron is 6' 8" and likely played at or around 300 pounds for most of his 20s and is gonna play 20 years

zion's problem isn't weight it's just the composition of his body... if he puts in the work to get in better shape i don't see why he wouldn't be able to carry the weight. as a senior in high school (two years ago) he was in good shape. if he can stay healthy (no evidence yet he's particularly injury prone) and able to work out consistently i'm absolutely placing my bet on "zion is a dominant 15-18 year player in the NBA" and not "zion washes out of the nba before 10 years"

there's a group that is like the shawn kemps and larry johnsons ... and another that is like the charles barkleys and karl malones. zion feels like the latter to me

lebron played at 300? really??

during the heat years i def remember windhorst type ppl talking about how bron was playing at about 300 even tho the heat were listing him at 250 or w/e

he def made an effort to slim down the second go round in cleveland tho... remember the first few months were super weird bcuz he couldn't finish at the rim even against big guys who sucked at defense

that's crazy, i mean i trust windy et al on all things lebron but i just don't remember him ever looking that big

there's stuff online where ppl speculate about leborn playing as high as 295... idk it never seemed crazy to me

reddit thread where lebron says on rj & channing frye's podcast that he's weighing 295 https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/6nnzbm/lebrons_weight/

bleacher report article w/ matt moore citing scuttlebutt

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1751682-evolution-of-lebron-james-post-game

lebron was big in his heat years... i bet he was playing at 275-280. 300 prob a bit much but there was a point where he was built like a defensive end

275-280 makes more sense to me

i cld see it bron is huge

philly is going to escape with a 1-point win over the spurs

god and the spurs gutted out that 4q to be in a position to win. last 10 seconds were not ideal.

there's a group that is like the shawn kemps and larry johnsons ... and another that is like the charles barkleys and karl malones. zion feels like the latter to me

Zion is built like a football player, he’s fucking HUGE, there’s no comparison for him.

This is when Charles Barkley was considered a fat guy


https://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/c30bdb6c33f7916a017d27f400468892461a707e/c=11-0-292-374/local/-/media/Montgomery/2014/06/15/0615aucol.jpg?width=280&height=374&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp

in other fat player news, i feel like the jazz gradient uniforms make everyone look like they have wide hips

you can also be built like blake griffin or amare and barely have a 10 year career it’s pretty random

Has the solution to the mystery of Blake griffin’s injuries never occurred to you

The 300 pound guy with the 45 inch vertical may have more in common with Blake Griffin than you think

brow is crazy

Larry Johnson is the player that reminds me a bit of Zion. Dude could shoot for a big guy.

That UNLV team looked like men playing with highschool kids, I still can't believe Duke got them that second time.

This dude was 22 at the time.

https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/basketball-final-four-unlv-versus-georgia-tech-moses-scurry-picture-id162034746?s=612x612

The 300 pound guy with the 45 inch vertical may have more in common with Blake Griffin than you think

― Matt Armstrong, Monday, August 3, 2020 11:39 PM (four minutes ago)

sure but again even if that's considered a pretty bad outcome, blake will end up playing 13+ years in the league

ultimately i just think some guys have bad knees and others don't. maybe zion does maybe he doesn't but one minor knee surgery doesn't tell us much yet.

I loved Nikola Pekovic. I rooted for Nikola Pekovic. But I knew what would happen. That much weight in nba basketball doesn’t last. Look at the statistics for 7 footers over 300 pounds.

Realistically, I don't think anyone on ILH, if handed the #1 pick in the last draft, would have spent it on any player other than Zion. Too gifted, too unique, too exciting to pass up for anyone else.

There’s something to be said for drafting a guy with the understanding that you probably only get 5 years from him. The trailblazers got one healthy season out of Walton and it was a title.

I loved Nikola Pekovic. I rooted for Nikola Pekovic. But I knew what would happen. That much weight in nba basketball doesn’t last. Look at the statistics for 7 footers over 300 pounds.

― Matt Armstrong, Tuesday, August 4, 2020 12:30 AM (one hour ago)

ok but pekovic played in europe for 6 years before he came to the NBA. im reading his wikipedia.... he was first team all euroleague at age 23... zion is 20. and this is before we even get into the obvious athletic differences between the two

the idea that zion is going to play 5 years in the NBA... i'm not sure what that's based on. there would have to be something medically wrong w/ his knees like on a brandon roy level but we've never heard that about zion

the precedent i guess is like andrew bynum? i really don't put zion in that category

philly is going to escape with a 1-point win over the spurs

― call all destroyer, Monday, August 3, 2020 10:49 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

The mojo around this team is so bad right now. I watched the Butler interview on Reddick's podcast again this week and it just convinced me that the team needs to be blown up: trade Simmons, fire Brown, bring in shooters to space the floor for Embiid seems like the smartest move I guess. Not going to happen though, which is discouraging.

unless they make a run this year you gotta think brown is gone at least

they have a good shot of beating the celtics in the first round considering theyve got 3 guys bigger than the celtics biggest guy

the way the celtics supporting cast was assembled this year, not great!

We'll see. I would love to play the Celtics because I hate them and it will be easy to get hyped to exorcise their recent losses to them. But I think the Sixers would find a way to lose.

celtics are def a better team but the matchup is not great for them

the precedent i guess is like andrew bynum? i really don't put zion in that category

6' 6" nose tackles play at like 325-330... i think zion can hold 280-300 and jump around and be fine. he just needs to trade fat for muscle and get in better shape conditioning wise. i would be worried if we knew a. there were off court concerns about his work ethic or mentality b. he had something structurally or medically wrong w/ his knees. otherwise i'm willing to roll the dice on him making his body work in the longterm

there's a great clip in hollinger's most recent athletic article of shake milton and embiid blowing a defensive assignment vs indiana, arguing about it as they inbound the ball and walk up the court, and then tj mcconnell stealing the ball from milton and passing it to TJ warren for a wide open 3

i guess until we see them lose there will be ppl who delude themselves into thinking the sixers will do anything in the playoffs, but we watched them for a whole year and i think we can feel safe in saying that moving simmons to the 4 and putting milton in the starting line up isn't a panacea that's suddenly going to fix all the structural problems w/ the team/franchise. if they get a 3-6 w/ boston they'll be lucky to win 2 games

to start the second half of the spurs game they ran a bunch of postups for embiid, and he scored on a few of them and i think passed out once for a 3. san antonio couldn't do anything against it.

then they got away from it and the spurs got back in the game and almost won. they'll be a tough out for boston if embiid is the best players for 5 or 6 games in a row. but what are the odds of that happening?

They've been terrible at the end of games for years (thinking of the especially painful Game 2 v. the Celtics a couple years ago). Some of it is construction in that they don't have a guy who can create his own shot off the dribble, which is what you want. But some of it is just terrible execution and/or coaching.

I am just so stunned how good Toronto is this year.

their defense is sick and offense good enough

to start the second half of the spurs game they ran a bunch of postups for embiid, and he scored on a few of them and i think passed out once for a 3. san antonio couldn't do anything against it.

then they got away from it and the spurs got back in the game and almost won. they'll be a tough out for boston if embiid is the best players for 5 or 6 games in a row. but what are the odds of that happening?

― call all destroyer, Tuesday, August 4, 2020 12:31 PM (thirty-four minutes ago)

yeah i'll take the under on that

the plan also goes out the window in any game where you can put fouls on embiid early

6' 6" nose tackles play at like 325-330... i think zion can hold 280-300 and jump around and be fine. he just needs to trade fat for muscle and get in better shape conditioning wise. i would be worried if we knew a. there were off court concerns about his work ethic or mentality b. he had something structurally or medically wrong w/ his knees. otherwise i'm willing to roll the dice on him making his body work in the longterm

The thing about being 300 pounds is that your knee ligaments don’t become bigger. This is why the only 300+ nba player who didn’t have a shortened career (or play himself out of the league) was Shaq

Here’s a question about his work ethic: there was a 4 month quarantine and he showed up out of shape
― Matt Armstrong, Tuesday, August 4, 2020 1:34 PM (thirty-one minutes ago)

eh... he also missed most of "training camp" for some personal matter. i'm not going to judge him too harshly for being out of shape right now. people are really hysterical about him... i was just listening to the 1 day old windhorst/marks/goldsberry podcast and they're all talking about how zion shouldn't even be playing, he looks awful... meanwhile the same night he goes out and puts up 23-7-5 in 25 mins

you might be right about zion, he also levitates in the air unlike anyone who has ever carried that weight. the dude is not tractor traylor

On a summer camp field trip to NYC in 1998 a friend and I saw Tractor Traylor in the Nike store and exchanged "What's up"s. Our camp then went to see improv group Chicago City Limits that night and they based a long form sketch around it.

40 year old jamal crawford played 6 mins today before pulling his hammy ._.

Here’s a question about his work ethic: there was a 4 month quarantine and he showed up out of shape
― Matt Armstrong, Tuesday, August 4, 2020 1:34 PM (thirty-one minutes ago)

eh... he also missed most of "training camp" for some personal matter. i'm not going to judge him too harshly for being out of shape right now. people are really hysterical about him... i was just listening to the 1 day old windhorst/marks/goldsberry podcast and they're all talking about how zion shouldn't even be playing, he looks awful... meanwhile the same night he goes out and puts up 23-7-5 in 25 mins

you might be right about zion, he also levitates in the air unlike anyone who has ever carried that weight. the dude is not tractor traylor

The reason Zion looks awful is the defense btw. Out of breath, zero effort

Bucks are gonna get roasted for this performance

You seem to have this idea that vertical leaping ability is correlated with longevity. I don’t think that’s true.
― Matt Armstrong, Tuesday, August 4, 2020 3:17 PM (eight minutes ago)

no but i am saying that zion specifically leaps in a way that to me is totally unique... it's violent bcuz he's so big but also graceful and he appears light in the air. i dunno maybe his knees will become turkey meat but i'm just going with "zion is a 1 of 1 human"

Bucks are gonna get roasted for this performance

― Matt Armstrong, Tuesday, August 4, 2020 3:18 PM (eight minutes ago)

i've been internally debating for 20 mins how concerned we should be by the bucks losing to the nets d league squad... even their second unit is getting played to even

i created a poll

2020 east bubble playoffs: bucks vs. the field

You ever just stop and think about Marvin bagley being picked over Doncic

lol its v v v funny and sad, wasnt it bc vlade had beef???

Yeah Vlade hates Luka’s dad

hahahahahahah

honestly, as soon as that story came out, they should have immediately fired vlade for letting his petty personal bullshit get in the way of saving their bum ass franchise. imagine fox and luka, good lord.

i feel bad for bagley, not only did he get sent to the nba development graveyard but he has to carry the burden of having been picked before luka. odds are really stacked against him

34-20-12-2 for luka

seems good

derrick white is avging 20-5-5 in the bubble, could be helpful for the spurs

guards playing a little more freely without LMA maybe?

a lot of that, a lot of pop prioritizing the development of their young guys. their starting lineup has been white-murray-lw4-demar-poeltl which is v small ball but is kinda working with keldon johnson as the 6th man. demar has actually played really well in this setup. tons of driving and kicking on O, lots of switching on perimeter D. poeltl is the perfect pick n roll complement for derrick as well.

spurs fans have been clamoring for this all year. no amount of losing seemed to dissuade pop but the pandemic + injuries to lyles, forbes, and aldridge have kinda forced his hand. and it's working.

feels a little like the fabled EWING THEORY

so many of these games have been awesome it's kind of insane

suns and clips throwing blows in crunch time rn

gonna finally watch a basketball game

devin booker buzzer beater fatality

TJ Warren is doing it again!!!

how do you get to be one of these virtual fans

family and friends of the team & team office from what i can tell

some virtual fan lady let her titties air out the other day

yikes

Grizzlies: Memphis F Jaren Jackson Jr., suffered a meniscus tear in his left knee and will miss the rest of the season.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) August 4, 2020

this suns team is good. this shot was crazy.. reverse pivot over kawhi and pg and got fouled

DEVIN BOOKER FOR THE WIN.

pic.twitter.com/cuYWMiYvu7

— Complex Sports (@ComplexSports) August 4, 2020

heat looking crispy without jimmy butler this evening

xxp

shit thats pretty bad for the grizzlies playoff hopes. they have a 2 game lead over the competition, but they could easily lose it in the 6 games left.

that lead is meaningless anyway because 9 only needs to be w/in 4 games to trigger the play in

yeah true

from what i've seen of the griz losing jjj is it for them

for sure, he's amazing. that eighth seed is wide open

lol gordon hayward has been feisty inside the bubble

awesome bam game tonight

another incredibly competitive game overall

too many fouls

Yeah, Griz are done. I will lol eternally if someone other than NOP get in and the NBA diapers become soiled.

i wonder if the refs are getting psyched out by no fans

there's def a strong undercurrent of sloppiness to these games but everyone is playing super hard and there has been good scoring

bam doing his giannis impression tonight

marcus smart just fouled out in the 3rd quarter lol

that's dope as hell

i'm not gonna lie when reggie miller said that a minute ago i simply thought i had misheard him

lol

tatum has 5 fouls still the 3rd quarter

i don't see the issue personally

i heard today that there's like 10 more fouls per game, which is completely nuts. i guess one theory is that they hear contact more easily without crowd noise?

is the fake crowd noise just on tv they shd play it in the stadium

they probably should at this rate

the celtics should play “kemba walker”

its a good idea

That really sucks about JJJ

i heard today that there's like 10 more fouls per game, which is completely nuts. i guess one theory is that they hear contact more easily without crowd noise?

i do think some of it has to be chalked up to the odd alchemy of intensity and sloppiness that could only come from dropping the players into the final 2 weeks of the regular season after a 4 month layoff

Tbh I haven’t been super upset about the number of fouls but there’s been a lot of clearly wrong calls (many of which aren’t challenged for reasons I can’t grasp)

there's a few sequences in each game i've watched that are like benny hill preseason level play w/ bodies flying everywhere and 6 missed shots in the span of 20 seconds but at playoff level intensity

forgot how completely weird the rockets are now

pretty wild that melo is now a functional role player on a playoff (?) team

harden missed four or five threes in the last 2 minutes

harden is the anti-clutch

You love to see it

margins of victory in today's games were 3, 4, 2, 11, 6, and 8 points

Bubble ball has been a delight and the playoffs haven’t even started

Seems like Grayson Allen is pretty good now

he has the funniest body language he really looks like a little kid out there

Michael Porter Jr is a CONSPIRACY

the conspiracy would be a good nba nickname

Starting to believe in this Thomas Bryant guy

Sixers have their hands full with the championship contender Wiz.

Michael Porter Jr is probably just a starter now

is he a black hole or just a bad passer?

MPJ will be an all-star next year

Michael Porter is absolutely a black hole. He plays with Jokic, it’s fine

true

Key thing is the defense, which is definitely getting better

I like this Dort guy! Gonna be an elite defender it seems

it’s kinda nuts how the thunder completely changed their team and are still a really good team in the west one wing shooter away from being a finals team

also i have to say... after years of being a massive cp3 hater i’m ready for him to have the last laugh especially at morey and harden’s expense. bring me the cp3 revenge tour i wanna see them beat the clippers

CP3, Gallo and Steven Adams are serious professionals. They just went out and won games.

i still feel like it's snake oil when i look at their roster after the top 4 guys but what hell, it's working and everyone is happy.

also i have to say... after years of being a massive cp3 hater i’m ready for him to have the last laugh especially at morey and harden’s expense. bring me the cp3 revenge tour i wanna see them beat the clippers

― J0rdan S., Wednesday, August 5, 2020 10:00 PM (eleven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

hes a lil bastard, but he's OUR lil bastard this year. honestly this year's team is the most impressive thing cp3 has done imo.

otm, for a guy who could legitimately say he has better things to do i'm incredibly impressed at the amount of effort he's put into a middling playoff team in a small market. most people aren't wired like that.

yeah i'm very much w/ you guys on this one cp3 deserves much more praise than he's been getting for keeping this squad near the upper echelon of the death conference and i hope they can sneak past a team or two

gotta how his holdover love for okc hosting the new orleans team he was on as a very young man is playing into this which is truly some of his best work

I was worried the change of scenery would end what gallinari found in LA but he’s been just as good if not better

would just like to point out I have always been otm about cp3

Dort Dort Dort

i stanned cp3 in new orleans, turned on him in LA, reveled in his failures in houston, but now am back on his side.... he’s like a pop star or a wrestler. there are eras

CP3 is a narc, a cheat and an asshole. But a lot of players would have bailed on this season and it deserves respect.

Gallinari is a free agent I wonder what happens there

i respect cp3 for clearly being as psychopathically driven and resentful as kobe or jordan without talking about it non stop to the media / creating a dumb persona around it, instead he does backroom deals with the owners and creates and endless string of the worst commercials known to man

most small guards careers get real short once they lose a step and cant get to the rim, he just examined the situation and became the best midrange shooter in the game, he even yells layup sometimes when hes launching from 15 lol

shd be noted too that this thunder team does have a lot of talent, i think people looked at them and didnt see a star but theyre deep with quality players and have had good health too

CP3 is a jerk but I kinda love him, he's really fun to watch at least when he's not on the Rockets

Fuck him!

-signed Julius Hodge

lol

matt otm re cp3

Brett Brown on Ben Simmons' injury, wouldn't give a timeline when asked if Simmons could be out for the entire season: "Some of the information is fluid... It's just that the stuff is still being evaluated."

— Rich Hofmann (@rich_hofmann) August 6, 2020

Anything over 3 weeks is the probably the rest of the season, lol.

yeah not looking great for the sixers

i'd call them the fivers now

horford back into the starting line up?

shd be noted too that this thunder team does have a lot of talent, i think people looked at them and didnt see a star but theyre deep with quality players and have had good health too

― lag∞n, Thursday, August 6, 2020 10:03 AM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

the thing is they do have a star, cp3. even when he’s changed his game a couple of times in major ways, he’s still been impactful in elite ways that don’t necessarily show up in the box score. his teams win, they are much better with him on the floor — but this has been the story of his whole career: quarterbacking winning teams that come up just short for reasons that are sometimes not entirely in their control. obviously things like griffin getting hurt in the playoffs in the prime of his career, paul getting hurt a couple years ago in the WCF — those things are baked into the measure of a team. staying on the floor is part of being good. but it is without question the case that he’s had shit luck and also imo certain that if he had played in the eastern conference, he’d have played in the finals at least once. I mean there are some people who still put guys like kidd above he when stacking up the greats ... his only current peers in terms of career body of work are lebron, steph, durant, and harden probably (AD and giannis will get there soon). he’s a top 25 player easily imo, too 20 probably

i found this picture of kevin

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/dd/3e/41/dd3e41b93333ae720d917fe37e289ddc.jpg

the commercials are soooo bad lol.
I feel like as an NBA fan and as a paul fan in particular I have a warped view of his general popularity, but my sense is he’s not well-known enough for these commercials? like even lebron doesn’t have a similar personality-driven ad campaign (or does he?)

prob just kind of a random thing where the insurance company signed him up to make some ads then never stopped

theyre doing it im assuming to torment nba fans

my thought, too. the insurance company wanted a recognizable, but not too expensive, athlete for their ads placed during televised games. cp3 looked like a good deal and they signed him long term. it's about as random as Michael Jordan pitching Hanes underwear.

Kneecap things are weird because the recovery truly can go fast.

It’s possible to dislocate it, pop it back in place with no significant damage to tendons

isnt that what happened with mahomes?

big Ewing Theory vibes with Simmons out

(irony noted)

I thought the bucks would show some pride here

an interesting fact about the potential bucks-heat match up is that the bucks defense is designed to give up three pointers and the heat had the highest three point percentage in the league this year

yeah something is not right with Milwaukee

still decent amount of time before the playoffs but I'm starting to doubt that they're big favorites in the East

though I guess every good team this year has had stretches like this

guys, is cam payne a serviceable role player now?

in the bubble he's been exactly what the suns needed all season

the bucks are good again

gotta say i love that the wizards were invited to the bub and lost a bunch of games and now have a worse winning percentage than charlotte and might fall below the bulls in the next couple days

the suns look pretty damn good. they were playing fast and sharing the ball.

Has anyone written an article about the seeding scenarios? I would assume the nuggets and clippers want the 2nd seed but idk

Nurkic dunks on Bol Bol 😳 pic.twitter.com/IffR5E2mZX

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) August 7, 2020

an interesting fact about the potential bucks-heat match up is that the bucks defense is designed to give up three pointers and the heat had the highest three point percentage in the league this year

yea I think they really need to clean that up lest they get rocked by fucking Fred VanVleet again

lakers are not that good without bron

i think nurkic is the happiest player in the bubble. dude looks so energized to be playing basketball again.

kyle kuzma is the evolutionary jeff green

btw harden has finally transitioned to a mature hairstyle

Malone benching Jokic in the 4th could cost me a lot of money. I’m upset

matt, are you betting on bubble seeding games? do you need help?

hes playing the fan duel

btw did just regular sorts betting become legal seeing all these ads not sure how i missed that

they need to legalize online poker so i can become wealthy

sports betting is legal in oregon since january there's an app and eveyrthing, been surprised so far that it has not ruined the life of any men i know

i have a handful of vices but every day i thank the higher powers that gambling is not one of them

the few absolute degen gamblers i know are basically unsalvageable as humans

some light wagering here and there is fine but as far as something to ruin yr life with its kinda lane

betting on random prime time games makes them way more fun to watch but you have to find that middle ground between "not trivial amount of money" and "won't hurt much to lose"...for me that's about 20 bucks

Again though I have questions about all of this. I feel like there’s lots of weird jockeying considering home court doesn’t exist anymore

its all about da matchups now baby

tho im sure teams are also trying to balance that with "finding their groove"

feel like the first round will still be dealing with rust but then by the second round teams shd be up to speed, but its still gonna be different than it wouldve been, different teams will be peaking, theres no home court and so forth

Denver never wants to play Houston so they probably have some stats guy running all the scenarios for maximizing that avoidance

sort of feel like houston is less scary to me matchup-wise this year, but yeah I'd still rather not play them

there was an interesting segment on lowe's pod today about the lakers' half-court offense, apparently it ranks 18th or 20th or something in the NBA (they're first by a mile in transition offense), and their offense overall is dead last since the re-start of all the bubble teams

no one is making shots on that roster

*since the return

Utah is probably the 6th seed and they seem to be completely out of sorts so maybe it’s the right plan

interesting contrast watching the heat minus butler beat the celtics and then w/o dragic beat the bucks for 3.5 quarters for running out of gas vs the sixers (fully healthy) struggling to beat the wizards and spurs and now w/o simmons playing the magic even

not sure theres too much to learn from bubble ball thus far. its basically summer league for good players.

except it's not bcuz the games matter and the preparedness of your team is a reflection of your franchise!

it's not a coincidence that the pacers are 3-1 despite losing sabonis and having a gimpy oladipo, the heat are 2-2 vs four of the best teams in the league despite their injuries, and the sixers are going to be lucky to go 3-1 w/ wins over wizards, spurs, and magic. the 4-5-6 battle in the east actually matters, this is an incredibly important season for the sixers -- the coach's job depends on it -- and i don't think anyone would seriously argue the sixers are better off facing the celtics than miami or the pacers. they need to win games, which they are, but they look bad and nobody will deny that, and if they keep playing like this they're gonna get the 6 seed and lose to boston and it will be a miserable offseason.

I'm going to disagree slightly, because I don't think it matters at this point who the Sixers play as they are going to lose.

I mean it's Embiid, a diminished Horford, and a 50-50 chance you get the all-star version of Harris.

i think they'd be underdogs at this point vs the heat, prob not vs the pacers. but the bubble started w/ those teams separated by like 1 game each, and the sixers have *by far* the easiest schedule of the three, to expect them to get into the 4-5 and then maybe win a series and save a little face on the season is pretty reasonable. even still!

i'd also point out that one of the things trumpeted by the front office in defense of the decision to sign horford was that he provided embiid insurance. well he's providing simmons insurance now, at the 4, at a cost of $100 million, and it doesn't appear to be helping the sixers very much at all. i think it's fair to use "how does the sixers roster react to an injury" in judging the front office... again the pacers and heat are going thru the same thing and the results are night and day. it's relevant info to me

also the magic are playing without isaac and aaron gordon

The Sixers had some issues with the Embiid-Simmons pairing and their overall structure and Brand just exacerbated everyone of their problems with the moves he made. It's a guard-driven league you dumbass!

He's the anti-Hinkie.

I really think every team is a different story. Everyone knows the Heat are deep and have great chemistry. The Bucks? Not sure they care about these games really. The Lakers seem to have truly bad vibes.

the bucks have been trying hard save for the second half against brooklyn

the lakers offense has been the worst per efficiency in the bubble, they def have a problem

some teams like the bucks, clippers, lakers, rockets, etc were always only going to be judged based on what happened in the postseason, so in a sense nothing has changed for them in the bubble. but everyone is treating these games as if they are real.

i dont think anyone really wants to play the rockets, too weird

im watching the nba tv show film room where kevin mchale rick mahorn and isiah thomas are watching game 7 celtics pistons 1987 and present day mahorn just got legit heated at a bad call against 87 him lol

I feel like in a seven game series the Rockets are going to run into their usual problem, which is that any really weird-ass team becomes significantly less weird when you get to play them game after game. and now they're weirder than ever, so that issue might only be magnified.

my guess is they don't want to draw OKC, Rox have more talent but the Thunder are smart and disciplined and CP3 would be looking to bust ass on a level that's extreme even for him.

but everyone is treating these games as if they are real.

― J0rdan S., Friday, August 7, 2020 8:17 PM (thirty-five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

to illustrate: utah's deep reserves really put some heat on the spurs' starters earlier today. everyone is putting their best foot forward whether they're fighting for seeding or a playoff spot or a roster spot next year.

stan van likes the virtual fans

stan van stans fans

otm

celtics came to play tonight

stan van is great... if you heard him on zach lowe pod he does crazy stat prep compared to other ex coach/player analysts (such as his brother)

the celtics play the raptors very tough for whatever reason.

and yeah, stan has been awesome so far as an analyst. he was a very engaging interview when he was a coach as well. it was funny listening to him steal all of zach's planned stats.

what a weird game. the celtics are playing 8 guys like it's a playoff game and the raps are playing a pretty short rotation too but the celtics clearly wanted to make a point in this one.

they played good, raps not so much

i very much enjoyed not just the quality of the celtics play but also their style, good smart scrappy team ball

also tonight i learned marcus smart leads the entire nba in pull up 3 percentage at 42 which is frankly shocking

surely for this season only

i also saw that stat and it blew me away, i would have had no idea

i for one encourage marcus smart to keep shooting as many pull up threes as he can possibly take

same, hoisting is key

I feel like the Celtics' only real shot to make the Finals would've been if Toronto had somehow ended up the 4 seed. I think Toronto can beat the Bucks (probably would still pick Milwaukee in that scenario though) yet I just can't see Boston beating Milwaukee given their egregious lack of size. However, even before last night I would've given the C's a slight edge over the Raps in a series.

the bucks will fall to the orlandos magic due to their 7 game home court advantage

The craziest thing about the bubble to me, and it took me a sec to really get a handle on it, is this is really a new season and a lot of guys made an off-season leap. Like is this just who Thomas Bryant is now? Seems like it

yeah was thinking the same young guys had an opportunity to process and work on stuff

rob williams has looked really good the last couple games for the celtics if he can take kanters minutes/give them some legit size it cld make a difference

Gary Trent Jr looks like a 13 year nba player. Legit on defense