2022/23 NBA REGULAR SEASON THREAD "TANKING FOR WEMBANYAMA"

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I just had something cancel and now I am free to watch PHI-BOS opening night.

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tired: tank for wembanyama
wired: scoot it and boot it

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nuggets will win the nba playoffs

finally

as good a shot as anyone else really

pau + yao photo makin me feel three thousand years old

the fellas struttin their stuff at the big game

fucking hyped for the madness

dont forget this guy

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NBA back

its happening

this season has been scientifically proven to have a wide open title race. let the games begin.

nuggets
warriors
suns
clippers
grizzlies
wolves
------
pels
mavs
kings
lakers

celtics
76ers
bucks
heat
cavs
hawks
------
raptors
bulls
knicks
magic?

mvp: embiid
coy: malone
6moy: poole
dpoy: draymond
roy: banchero
mip: uhh maxey?

"[Russell Westbrook is] not gonna come off the bench. We all know that... I need him in the first unit with me. [The media] trying to kill my boy Russ, man."

— @patbev21

(via @PatBevPod)pic.twitter.com/XMfAvAYnaL

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) October 18, 2022

i'm gonna take the over on 10 games with russ on the lakers but not there for the season

to be the catalog catalyst i need russ in the starting line up with me

expecting the mavs to overachieve just got that feeling

jeff van gundy, appearing on zach lowe’s podcast, came out of absolutely nowhere with a take that the lakers should trade for willy hernangomez. he had an entire argument for it ready to go. and he repeatedly called him “billy.”

jvg chaos mode

thats the move that will put them over the top i agree xp

maybe he watched the adam sandler movie

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yeah

if anyone else wants to join in on the fun (opening yourself up to being insulted between the next 6 and 36 months)

nba 2022-2023 prediction thread

insult me early and often

inside the nba has adam silver on and shaq is telling everyone how he punched many teammates over the years "as a leader"

they moved on without acknowledging it lol

haha shaq

“I had to touch people up.”

Shaq killing it real on how he had Draymond moments behind the scenes 🤣 #NBATipOff https://t.co/1UsJKl3EcJ

— Andrew Jerell Jones, Luke 1:37 (IG:twdbk3) (@sluggahjells) October 18, 2022

draymond thing not getting positive reviews on twitter! idk why i personally find the "maybe im not sorry at all and btw who came to mind when i was talking about someone caring about internet comments too much" vibe compelling

“I never really knew how much it blew up. … I was just at home chillin with my children.”

Draymond reflects on the viral video of his altercation with Jordan Poole

(via @NBAonTNT) pic.twitter.com/gOqWpFDfYG

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) October 18, 2022

that's what we like to call the ultimate teammate right there

dray just doing way too much

i appreciate how proud dray is its a genuine personality trait, but he sabotages things by being not nearly as slick as he thinks he is, you cant just say "i dont care about peoples opinions" its obviously not true, better to do some reverse psychology and pretend to care

ha first possession horf stones embiid some things never change

yeah this woulda just been a good opportunity for him to just stay quiet for a few weeks, ball out then say some stuff. he just cant stop the content machine now that he's engulfed in the media side of everything now xp

he like saying stuff lol

don't like these celtics uniforms they're not bright enough green i keep thinking I'm watching the bucks

ah the nba welcome back... harden getting fouled on a stepback three and coaches doing helicopters with their index finger for a review.

yeah why the bucks green and not just their regular green or white for these unis?

That's a tough call on Horf.

don't like these celtics uniforms they're not bright enough green i keep thinking I'm watching the bucks

― ciderpress, Tuesday, October 18, 2022 7:41 PM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

i hate it, teams should not use different hues of their main color its all wrong, thats the trademark baby, how sick would a normal celtics uni with gold details have been

first take foul call its a new era

refs agree and are punishing them accordingly

Shaq always says touch people up for punching, I'd never heard that before him

shouldve just brought back the old st paddys ones and put a bunch of lil trophies somewhere

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blake griffin two offensive rebounds his first celtics possession

lol cmon

Draymond Green in good spirits ahead of the Warriors matchup against the Lakers 🔥

Money Green seems to be in full effect.pic.twitter.com/Z3S0CkZWm7

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) October 19, 2022

lmao dray going heel great look for him

gotta free the jacket flap cut the lil strings man

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is he wearing google glass

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lmao theyre telling us now that the script on these celtics unis was inspired by a steakhouse bill russell owned

gotta free the jacket flap cut the lil strings man

― lag∞n, Tuesday, October 18, 2022 7:11 PM (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah major tailor foul there

well the fucking dumb tnt overtime thing on nba league pass where you can at least watch the game from one of four of the most annoying camera angles isn't working tonight

did they start paying the refs by the foul this year haha my god

It's terrible.

Found a stream. Don't like how the new Celtics coach chomps on his gum.

ill talk to him

would appreciate it

early season tatum watch

Between that floater and getting low to draw fouls, we've already gotten some glimpses of the things Tatum worked on this summer.

— Tom Westerholm (@Tom_NBA) October 19, 2022

A couple of years ago, Jayson Tatum floaters were either left a foot short and he put way too much on them, that they had no chance.

You can see he's worked on that and getting low and going through guys when he drives.

There's another leap coming.

— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) October 19, 2022

harden looks good for a time in the season when he usually looks absolutely terrible

internet shamed him into getting in shape

the computer is such a powerful tool in society

ive been saying that

Harden's slick bounce passes are awesome

Tatum is unreal

great game

james harden throwing up multiple air balls. allah is great.

he tried to recreate the wesley johnson play on marcus

marcus flopping so hard that he looked like a stunt man getting ejected from a car crash and nearly ending up getting plastered all over the internet as having his ankles epically broken but harden shooting the ball off the bottom of the backboard is just a perfect sequence of events in my book. i really can’t ask for anything more.

lol

marcus and embiid flop off lmao

theyre in midseason form

A pair of physical comedians out there.

it's truly some buster keaton shit

embiid is really the long lost fourth stooge

love all this running from the celtics love the fast break baby

this game is great, everyone is bringing it

This is so fun

do you think embiid or harden know maxey is on the team

right?

ah yes the nba is back and you know what that means, that's right it's time to find out jon hamm does insurance commercials now

im thinking the sixers defense might not be totally "top notch"

they’re def testing the limit at which you can have two F defenders at guard and still be great. but most teams don’t have tatum and brown putting up 60+ points

classic embiid front running performance tonight huffing and puffing to the crowd in the first half and then packing his shit and going home once the sixers got down 10

tough spot to draw embiid lol

I just scanned game logs really quickly so I apologize if I'm wrong, but I believe this is Noah Vonleh's first game with at least 20 minutes played since Dec. 28, 2019.

— Jay King (@ByJayKing) October 19, 2022

I love him but you're not wrong.

xp

classic embiid front running performance tonight huffing and puffing to the crowd in the first half and then packing his shit and going home once the sixers got down 10

― J0rdan S., Tuesday, October 18, 2022 9:57 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

it's truly one of my favorite recurring nba bits

he gets tired

vewy sweepy

ty ty

jays go for 70 very nice

they were on a complete tear

interesting thybulle didnt see the court under those circumstances

i even like the minutes distribution for a marquee game, good stuff from mazzulla

thybulle stinks

he is bad but man do they have anyone who can guard the perimeter

muting this ring ceremony whos got time for it zaza pachulia things of that nature

i will say… mazzulla threw an all bench line up out there in the third quarter and only got spared almost squandering the lead by grant williams throwing in a blindfolded three pointer. at least one jay should be on the floor every minute against real teams

i enjoyed seeing mareese speights and shaun livingston xp

brogdon should be able to handle being the guy with bench units but idk its his first game with the team

he is bad but man do they have anyone who can guard the perimeter

i do like these warm up shirts that look exactly like pajamas but why no matching pants

lol steph just standing there screaming cute

xp they're going to have to have all-bench units at some point, best to start figuring it out now

both Steph and LeBron both rocking the long beard look.

That would be both of them lol

i listened to a billion podcasts this summer talking about how much the sixers upgraded their roster and i still feel like they have a critical lack of shooting on the wing
― J0rdan S., Tuesday, October 18, 2022 9:17 PM (four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

doug mcdermott and/or josh richardson are very available

i relish sixers pain but putting josh richardson back on that team feels like a level of cruelty even i wouldn’t stoop to

hes actually good as a role player specifically the role they need!!!

he was good for the celtics last year but he was bad when he was on philly

idk his game is pretty atrophied at this point, i'm not a fan

yeah he can’t do all that much anymore but now i’m reminiscing on the heat trading him for jimmy butler and i feel nice and warm

lol dece trade

it’s so good that the lakers get to get stomped on national TV first night of the season

James Harden said transition defense was the difference in tonight’s game. Said he felt good about Philly’s half court defense, but that giving up the kind of transition points the Sixers did isn’t nearly good enough.

— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) October 19, 2022

harden covered head to toe in blood standing over a dead body asking anyone if they know who did it

tbf they took the take foul away from him so not sure what hes supposed to do

lol

can't believe how much I missed hoops

it’s great to be back with you guys posting about hoops

<3

otm

love to watch the game of basketball with my friends from message board

i like the purple in these lakers jerseys, looks good on the floor, but they're lakers jerseys so they're otherwise boring

hi5 ilh

goat board

wiseman looking good out there

lmao they look like they're sitting at the kid's table

lakers look alright, but they will have to hustle on defence all season long if they want to make the playoffs and i dont know if they have it in them

the guys who need to hustle to be good defenders arent, and the guys who are not good defenders are hustling

Westbrook airballed a three. NBA is back baby!!!!

can't keep my eyes off Russ. he just moves around so funny

classic player

the lakers stink

im a fan of lonnie the person, but lonnie the basketball player shouldnt be getting these kind of minutes

love to see russ out-rebounding AD

Coming off the bench is physically harmful

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/34827948/lakers-russell-westbrook-cites-coming-bench-hamstring-strain

feel like that belongs here

shit that looks like an onion article but isn't

dr russ

starting him is a silly conversation tho just start him and then pull him early and stagger his minutes with lebron as much as possible, or you know trade him to indy

is this good

The Lakers have 2 of the least efficient jump shooters in the NBA in their starting 5

Lowest eFG% on Jump Shots last 2+ seasons*
1. A. Davis ... 35.99
2. J. Butler ... 40.31
3. A. Pokusevski ...40.35
4. G. Antetokounmpo ... 41.13
5. R. Westbrook ... 41.68

*min. 500 attempts

— Kirk Goldsberry (@kirkgoldsberry) October 19, 2022

i just checked and it’s not

damn

what happened to brows shot might be the biggest story in lakerland

guys who dont have big passion for the game seem to decline early, maybe cause your athletic peak is in your early 20s so you need to compensate by getting better at basketball in better shape savvier etc, and if youre not really about that your career just ends up following your athletic curve

reflecting upon it the thing that hes seems to care most about in basketball is not playing center

tbf he looked pretty great last night

its true he did, especially at the beginning of the game he was just everywhere

love to manage the knee

Bulls All-Star Zach LaVine (left knee management) will miss tonight’s opener vs. Heat.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) October 19, 2022

ugghh. the bulls entire situation right now feels deeply cursed

A *hyped* up Karl-Anthony Towns, pounding the table at post-practice media this morning when asked about tonight’s game.

I’m sure video will float around. But it was clear, he wanted everyone to know that he’s serious and the expectation tonight is a win.

— Dane Moore (@DaneMooreNBA) October 19, 2022

weird guy

he has this really odd effect where it's like he's cosplaying as an NBA player while actually being an NBA player

yeah everything he does is performative

he's the Garth Brooks of the NBA

the pounding mightve been a little over sold

"It's always talkin about us being good and are we good enough and sh*t. It's time to be great. It's not time to be good anymore. It's time to be great. We made these trades, so gotta be great. Good is not good enough anymore."

— Karl-Anthony Townspic.twitter.com/mKgtfsQtXc

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) October 19, 2022

well look he's certainly not wrong about any of that

idk seems unrealistic imo the wolves be good would be fine

yeah thats more normal than anticipated

i'm def of the position that if the wolves don't at least make the west finals at some point in the next 3 years the gobert move will be a failure. would be great for them to win a playoff series and all but you shouldn't have to give away the largest trade package in NBA history just to win a first round series

i mean it was a bad trade but whatre you gonna do somehow become one of the best teams

i think that's their thinking!

no doubt, but theyre dumb (traded 20 picks for rudy gobert)

idk maybe if edwards becomes a truly elite player but hes still only 21 so it wouldnt happen for a while anyway

hes their only hope. and its not impossible

KAT has the same energy as Russell Wilson

kat reminds me of when nerdy actors have to play tough guys

Yeah he is just a nerd and I don't think he's a bad guy, I think if he just started being a goofy nerd like he probably is people would like him more

If I were his PR agent I'd get him in a D&D group with Vin Diesel

the thing w/ russell wilson is not just that he was a robotic cornball but that his teammates despised him bcuz he was phony and did stuff like made them call his manager to get in touch w/ him. i don't get the sense that KAT's teammates dislike him. aside from one prominent example lol

guys who dont have big passion for the game seem to decline early, maybe cause your athletic peak is in your early 20s so you need to compensate by getting better at basketball in better shape savvier etc, and if youre not really about that your career just ends up following your athletic curve

― lag∞n, Wednesday, October 19, 2022 8:48 AM (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

brow not caring:

Looking through the game, it’s actually shocking that he doesn’t set more screens lol. But let’s take a look at the few he did set (oh there’s more in the 1st & 4th too). Tell me right now this is a serious basketball player. https://t.co/wT3em5NQPz pic.twitter.com/svFdNw3WkE

— kingtisemedia (@kingtisemedia) October 19, 2022

its actually crazy how bad some of our best players are at the most basic and fundamental parts of basketball

man, unhealthy flashbacks to watching hundreds of lamarcus aldridge games and constantly harping on how he doesn't ever set a screen, just kinda feints towards a defender and immediately pops or rolls without the tiniest bit of contact

maybe noted most valuable screen setter daniel thies can become the next big man sensei like when guys would go to olajuwon to learn post moves

lmao id honestly be more excited about a star player doing that in the offseason vs watching olajuwon footwork, trying it for a couple hours then forgetting it forever.

12 games tonight.

zinger has facial hair now and it looks pretty good

20-4 pels over nets to start love to see it

Current Magic lineup is

Mo Bamba (7'0")
Wendell Carter Jr (6'10")
Bol Bol (7'1")
Caleb Houstan (6'8")
Franz Wagner (6'10")

— Brian (@BrianJDraft) October 19, 2022

wow god bless

lil caleb houstan

good to have the world famous 'dunk' back in our lives

JALEN DUREN CAUGHT A BODY 💀pic.twitter.com/uF7ylFhKnL

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) October 19, 2022

brandon ingram looks like he put on some muscle i was like who is that guy

ooo

KEVIN DURANT WITH THE NASTY REJECTION ON BRANDON INGRAM 😱pic.twitter.com/xfsQbbJpP0

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) October 20, 2022

net are bad

nets and lakers being train wrecks is such a gift, we live in blessed times

Simmons 1/1 from the field and 0/2 from the line for 2 points in 20+ minutes. Savage.

maate

already beat his scoring mark from last season though, gotta find the silver lining

Simmons 1/1 from the field and 0/2 from the line for 2 points in 20+ minutes. Savage.

― sometimes you have to drink to kill the paranoia (PBKR), Wednesday, October 19, 2022 9:15 PM (four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

5 fouls

jamal murray looking good out the gate

that AD screen compilation is incredible btw, it's fascinating how many of these guys hate the contact aspect of basketball.

tbf AD's bones might be made of candy and he doesnt want to die

banchero 27-9-5 in his first game

Sixers fans watching Ben Simmons only taking one shot this game pic.twitter.com/E9L9FitpGW

— NotACritic (@IAmNotACritic) October 20, 2022

simmons fouled out in 23 mins 4-5-5

1pt and 2 TO away from 5x5

pels outrebounding the nets 55-36

sometimes i forget that rebounding is important, it's one of my blind spots

nuggets getting smoked by the jazz, danny ainge bout to pay the coaches a little visit at halftime

Jamal Murray just got hit on a screen and is hobbling. Then he asked to come out.

— Mike Singer (@msinger) October 20, 2022

also this

love to watch ja just wiggle in there every time

fucking lmao at Simmo the Savage's stat line

the nuggets gave up 75 points in the first half to the jazz what the shit

read and listened to a lot of stuff that suggested the jazz would be a credible offensive team and honestly i did not believe a word of it!

Less conspicuous than Simmo's night but also satisfying was kyrie's line of 15/2/5 on 31/0/100 shooting in 34 minutes.

the nets dont seem like the most motivated team

sleepwalk into the 6th seed if they're lucky

Nets roster should look a lot better with Joe Harris and Seth Curry out there

Cam reddish showed signs of life tonight

spurs lost to the lamelo-less hornets at home by 27 points, god this is gonna be glorious

Whew Wolves stunk it up in the second half but squeaked it out

I know that ppl hate Gobert but he really single handedly kept us in it

Ant was really really bad tonight

Whew Wolves stunk it up in the second half but squeaked it out

I know that ppl hate Gobert but he really single handedly kept us in it

Meant to add that Gobert is an incredible floor raiser

fun win for the raps, OG and Scotty B do a lot for a team

OKC is really fucking scrappy fun team

OKC is really fucking scrappy fun team

OKC is really fucking scrappy fun team

good to know

this was hard to see coming but the suns vibes are not good

luka still has the suns completely figured out

Cruel world having to play him game one after what they did to them in game 7, love it

i dont agree with jokic being viewed as an mvp level player while he can still be so completely embarrassed by a player like sexton

lol what

looks like the nuggets missed a bunch of threes i mean you never see jokic with only 6 assists but i don’t think this game is gonna be used as evidence by ppl who think denver has enough defense to make a real run

they were just out of sorts, murray looked pretty lost, too careless with the ball, and shot poorly. not a great first game. the biggest killer was the glass though, utah outrebounded them 56-37

it’ll take a little bit to get everyone in the flow of the game, murray is going to start slow and a lot of rotation players are new. the defense I’m not too worried about, their personnel is too good. I am a little worried about their size though.

Who is Jack Landale

Murray definitely very rusty. Porter looked like he’s all the way back.

oh my god this Dwyane Wade game show is so gloriously stupid

Sorry phone bugged out

I think it will burn out but this Jazz team has a lot of good role players and guys like sexton have a lot to prove

they were fun to watch for one game at least!

christian wood going nuts lol

Who is Jack Landale

Insanity

17 straight for wood started w a bank 3

Suns comeback w no cp3

mavs are hunting damion lee every time down the floor… feels like he’s playing just a few too many minutes

They have no choice

end of blazers and kings is spectacularly incompetent in every way on both ends, but it’s october

Cam j hurt. Cp old.

They really need a jae crowder to eat up 30 mins a night

I’m not feeling the Luka MVP leap here

dame clanking open threes off the backboard, he looks like he’s at about 40%, but idk what his ceiling is anymore. great contract!

Why are they leaving Lee on an island w luka hahah

did monty williams go home halfway thru the 4th quarter?

Wow Lee just saved them lol

nice win but man i can’t believe that’s the suns’ bench

what a prayer of a shot on that winner

nice win but man i can’t believe that’s the suns’ bench

mavs are no better than last season

well they did make the conference finals…

Brooklyn Nets first 6 minutes of the season (18-4 Pelicans) pic.twitter.com/sIqVcmEQ4p

— a hoop (@A_hoop_) October 20, 2022

zion looking explosive btw

nets for sure look like a team who just played together for the first time

and wants it to be the last time

i would pull a middle schooler for that over and back violation

1pt and 2 TO away from 5x5

― sometimes you have to drink to kill the paranoia (PBKR), Wednesday, October 19, 2022 6:41 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

almost did an arby's

Watching the Nets/Pels from last night and focusing on Simmons, he's unreal just zero effort

seems like he just might be totally done with wanting to play basketball, he does want the money tho

Not sure why everyone lacks confidence in him

"Slowly getting back to who I am and who I'm supposed to be," Simmons said when asked what he's improved most from the start of training camp until now.

"Still taking a lot of time. I've only played four games -- but over time I'm going to get there."

seems like he just might be totally done with wanting to play basketball, he does want the money tho

― lag∞n, Thursday, October 20, 2022 1:33 PM (ten minutes ago)

i'm trying not to overreact to the last few months but it really does feel like his basketball career is on the precipice of being over in a real way

he really got his feelings hurt

Luka and Dirk are very different players but it seems like we’re back in that era where the franchise can’t really get a second star and instead is based around an ever-changing series of role players. It eventually worked and they got a title but was that just lightning in a bottle?

hold that bottle up with enough $$$ behind it, you just might catch lightning twice

Simmons thing has just spiraled in such an insane way. Other guys have had a precipitous fall and washed out of the league from all-star status quickly, but it's wild that he was so ambivalent and fragile that the media turning on him disintegrated his whole life as an nba star. i mean he was never mr tough hard-working lover of the game, but it is incredible that he was able to accomplish what he did given that that was all it took for it all to come crashing down

There are a lot of guys who just don’t like basketball that much and this was his vibe in college. On the other hand Anthony Edwards had that vibe and seems to have decided basketball is cool

it helps when you’re actually good at the sport

Ben Simmons is a very good basketball player

well, in theory he is. or he has been in the past. but...

it's been 18 months since ben simmons has scored more than 8 points in a basketball game and that's including the preseason

Just you wait - he's going to be aggressive any day now.

catching up on highlights and sexton really did show up jokic hahah
jokic still has no control of his temper

Jokic got cooked by Colin sexton then decks him lmaoo pic.twitter.com/p3mubwxJGP

— John (@iam_johnw) October 20, 2022

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

idk i felt like sexton got in position where he was begging jokic to bowl into him and jokic obliged. it was a bad play in the context of the game insofar as it caused a turnover but i don't think it was unnecessarily vicious or anything

i'm more interested in the fact that you can attack the nuggets by iso-ing jokic w/ a smaller quicker player and just going right at him. it doesn't look too dissimilar from reggie jackson or jalen bruson vs gobert

but i don't think it was unnecessarily vicious or anything

― J0rdan S., Thursday, October 20, 2022 2:47 PM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

i would buy this if he didnt have a history of dirty work

yeah idk. i think if you're a guard and you're gonna set up in front of a big who you just scored on to take a charge and the big puts his shoulder into you and flattens you like a bug you were a consenting individual in that exchange

he def put a lil extra on that one, i dont see how sextons previous play was at all noteworthy tho, pretty typical guard on center action

nugs need to do more to keep joker out of those isos

idk sexton kinda sized him up and was doing that gesture w/ his feet whatever that was

the game was over on that last blow by so it served no purpose except for sexton to show up jokic. and the pull up was nothing special. just funny interactions all around. sexton might avg 25 this year.

xp sextons nickname is 'young bull' so he was doing the bull rush thing w his feet lol

nugs need to do more to keep joker out of those isos

xp sextons nickname is 'young bull' so he was doing the bull rush thing w his feet lol

thats very silly

i think the common response to your c being victimised on switches is to bench him and go small

I venture to say that you guys are overthinking Colin sexton making a jumper and drawing a charge

it was game 1, overreacting is the name of the game.

speaking of overreactions... was talking through that suns game with my friend today and he said that was a must win game for them. i kinda agree honestly ha

Embiid's been stoned at the rim at least 3 times tonight.

that last one was rough

doesnt look like hes in top fitness

hes 28 - not going to get any quicker

what the hell is going on here

Crazy run with Embiid (and Giannis) on the bench.

Wow Wes

God I love Jrue

clutch defender, through and through

missed the game but if i'm just looking at the stats joel going 6/21 in the second game of the season doesn't seem great

i would pull a middle schooler for that over and back violation

― Clay, Thursday, October 20, 2022 1:48 AM (twenty hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I actually need a serious X’s and o’s breakdown on why NBA teams are obsessed with this action where they swing the ball across the court starting with the guy who has just barely crossed half court

Yeah Embiid looked kinda banged up?

kawhi coming off the bench feels a bit *audibly groans from pain as i get off the couch*

its unacceptable how pat bev has become an announcer fave, they think hes so wonderful but actually everyone hates him and he sucks

announcers know their casuals love a "scrappy blue-collar lunchbox-type defense-minded natural leader" and they think they can sell patbev to them as that, instead of as a "moderately washed complete a-hole".

lakers 0-2

lakers will win the nba draft lottery

Russ 0-11
Bev 1-7
Nunn 0-7

They need to cut Russ

Or just get the Myles/Hield 2 picks trade over with

sheesh, that sounds almost staged

Russell Westbrook was walking into the locker room and a fan yelled, “You fuckin’ suck!” and Russ heard him and came back out and told him something along the lines of “say that to my face” and then the fan went ahead and said it to his face…🥴 pic.twitter.com/jGSUntPZdG

— NAT THE PEOPLE’S CHAMP (@habibiting) October 21, 2022

I mean you can also ask for like… at least one made shot idk

Russ on his 0/11 performance tonight: “Solid….played hard” pic.twitter.com/kgvcwiqUPu

— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) October 21, 2022

just 6 blocks away from the ultra rare 2-3-4-5-6

bucks-philly was good! love seeing maxey turn on the afterburners.

thank u nba basketball I LOVE THIS GAME

nice scrappy win for Milwaukee but yea i'm starting to think they may need Middleton out there

I really don’t understand why the Hield/Turner trade hasn’t happened, I think it would be great for the Lakers. If they had their pick this year it would make more sense to me to just give up

yeah two quality guys who can shoot and dont need the ball, idk what they think theyre going to get thats better, kyrie?

would allow brow to play his most favored position

the lakers need shooting extremely badly and they also need russ to not be on the team

funny that the lakers have been throwing draft picks around like confetti for as long as anyone can remember but now theyre drawing the line at a pretty reasonable trade

it’s hard to know how reasonable or unreasonable it is for them to not do that trade w/o knowing what the protections are

if indiana is really asking for two unprotected picks there’s no way i’d do that

hard to imagine indy wouldnt agree to some sort of protections its not like theyve got amazing players everyone is beating down their door to get

the lakers concluding that turner and hield don’t move the needle for them in a significant way and they’re better off just riding this season out & making major moves in the offseason when they have real cap space again and even more picks to trade is a completely justifiable position to me

keeping in mind that bron is fading so they might not have another year of competing, win now pressures etc

their inaction on that trade (assuming it is actually still on the table) feels like an indicator of one of two things: either lebron is not really calling the shots anymore and they are trying not to blow up all their future equity for a win-now move that won't actually help them become a true contender anyway; OR lebron is absolutely calling the shots and doesn't want to trade a fellow star of his era if he's not getting back another player he personally sees in the same class. i'm gonna put my money closer to #2

its a fun place for the lakers to be

lakers trade options are somewhat limited imo - the tanking teams who would be willing to take on westbrooks contract have already traded away their good players. you could probably get markannen, maybe jerami grant but there arent a lot of options

maybe jerami grant

never. the blazers would have to be out of their minds to take on Russ and his contract in exchange for grant.

everybody loses!
http://i.imgur.com/AfyK0dj.png

lakers should trade brow while the microscope isnt on the fact that hes been the worst shooter in the league since the bubble.

The Lakers need shooting!

They have made just 24 of their 101 jump shots this season.

Starting 5 Jump Shots, First 2 Games:
LeBron James ........ 6 of 22
Lonnie Walker .........3 of 14
Anthony Davis ........ 2 of 12
Patrick Beverley ...... 2 of 11
Russell Westbrook ... 2 of 11 pic.twitter.com/qPaqvezchn

— Kirk Goldsberry (@kirkgoldsberry) October 21, 2022

i think this is fine they don't need to bother

just do dunks everytime

the lakers concluding that turner and hield don’t move the needle for them in a significant way and they’re better off just riding this season out & making major moves in the offseason when they have real cap space again and even more picks to trade is a completely justifiable position to me

― J0rdan S., Friday, October 21, 2022 10:44 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is not laker culture

lol they only have five players under contract next season and theyre still spending ~$90m

https://en.hispanosnba.com/salaries/los-angeles-lakers

Doc Rivers said Joel Embiid had plantar fasciitis this offseason, which has contributed to his conditioning not being at its best early in the year.

Rivers said Embiid isn’t bothered by that now, that he expects him to get into better shape and a better rhythm.

— Noah Levick (@NoahLevick) October 21, 2022

five is all you need

five guys

explains a lot about embiids start. maybe doc should play him 25-28 minutes a game until he gets going tho ffs.

is austin reeves the lakers third best player?

embiid had plantar fasciitis which left him in the same condition to start the season as he had been every year except for last year

Of course he did poorly he was guarded by Brook

I didn't hear one mention of planta fasciitis in the offseason.

jo whyre you so fat

my... foot sore

brook took TWELVE attempts from three last night lol. made 4 so like.. kudos i guess.

he can shoot!!!

it seems so, i never realised. in the playoffs last year he didn't really do that

Thats pretty much his game space the floor on one end and clog the paint on the other

i thought brook looked good. we don’t really think about centers as 3 and D players but he’s prob one of the better 3 and D players in the league when he’s healthy

never. the blazers would have to be out of their minds to take on Russ and his contract in exchange for grant.

― more difficult than I look (Aimless), 

thought he was still on the pistons

i rewatched that blazers game and i kinda like the roster? scrappy bunch

they dont have the starpower to compete with the best of the best but they should be competitive every night. of course this is all dependent on dame playing like a top 10 player and all these role players staying healthy. gp2, winslow, hart will be hell on defense and hustle.

dame looked pretty bad in that game, he’s 32 and coming off a weird surgery for an athlete…

yeah hope it was just rust and getting back to it. likely his best years are behind him tho

seems like a lot of star PGs succumb to age faster than other positions, cp3 excepted. isaiah thomas, kemba, dame, russ, etc

yeah the quick guys are in trouble when they lose a step, cp3 solved the problem by turning his midrange shot into a layup

cp very crafty and was always a plus on defense too. those things age well along w the midrange sniper game.

kemba russ dame all SO bad at defense where if the offense slips even just a bit it all comes crashing down pretty quick

kyle lowry also looked unplayable in the heat’s opener

he'll be 37 by end of season. he lasted longer than the normal PG expectancy

yeah i didnt include kyle bc he's been such a solid defender, but he looked cooked the other night

i thought gordons hair was like a fake out funny thing for a day type thing but uh no thats his hair im seeing it now on my tv

Lauri!

LAURI MARKKANEN DESTROYS RUDY GOBERT 🤯pic.twitter.com/dnpEo3xHH8

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) October 22, 2022

kyrie was awesome tonight vs toronto

lowry also looked lightyears better

some really nice minutes for christian braun for the nuggets so far

jazz 2-0 lol

nuggets look incredible

Damian Lillard has 28 of the Blazers 47 points in the first half.

— Nate Duncan (@NateDuncanNBA) October 22, 2022

wow dame lurking rude

make a post coward

DO YOU WANT TO HAVE THE CONVERSATION OR NAH pic.twitter.com/bnal7pAExj

— Steve Jones Jr. (@stevejones20) October 22, 2022

dpoy is when you stand at the ft line pointing its mostly a pointing award

just completely atrocious effort from the nuggs on the glass the last 5 minutes, smh

bruce brown was such a steal for denver

malone needs to use a fucking timeout and advance the ball

nuggets are trying their best to complete an epic meltdown but there just might not be enough time on the clock

oh my fucking god

they got really lucky klay took that horrible shot

Despicable by Draymond

end of that game is a reminder that monte morris is going to be missed, honestly might be no one on the roster I trust to advance the ball in a high leverage situation

I trust Ish Smith, who Michael Malone took out of the rotation I guess? Malone also called a timeout as Jokic threw a pass to a wide open teammate under the basket

ish is a steady hand but I’m not sure you want him closing out games

defintely no problem with taking the timeout there, should have called it before the foul that set up that out of bounds play. nuggets were unraveling and unable to get the ball across half court

Really fun game there. Wiseman and Kuminga are unplayable together. Poole was very passive tonight, did not look happy out there. Jokic is so smart so many little things he does to affect the game. Kcp and Brown really good pickups. Klay didn’t play all off-season and it shows. Draymond still the best defensive player in the league, 3rd q was dominant. Bones is chaos and I love every second of his playing time, really fun guy to watch

Anfernee w a sky hook over mikal to take the lead

Simons for the lead! pic.twitter.com/luAKY77nla

— 🚁Sky Wob🚁 (@WorldWideWob) October 22, 2022

fun game, Ayton played well but got pushed around by Nurk

dame is good I never said anything bad about him ftr however you guys should be ashamed

Brutal

"You think they trust you with the game on the line? Hell nah" pic.twitter.com/5LYiwFLoii

— B (🏀(2-0)🏈(3-3)) (@BradenEP) October 22, 2022

some rookies putting up nice numbers out of the gate this year

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aWMogvOUEI

mathurin was really aggressive last night and looked way more seasoned than his age or experience would suggest, him and paolo both have impressed from what ive seen

bol bol just blocked two three point attempts in 45 seconds

the spurs on the second night of a road back-to-back are beating philly with one quarter to play, cant tell if this speaks worse about philly or better of the spurs

Vassell is a stud.

Poeltl should net Spurs a good haul pre deadline.

68-68 at the half here

celtics have not played a ton of defense so fat this season

Great effort

??????? pic.twitter.com/btQtwj3Sf5

— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) October 23, 2022

too much lazy man energy between harden and embiid

tre jones getting to the rim on two must stop possessions in a row

not even the premiere jones brother

false, tre is better

Doc already under pressure.

Embiid was probably begging Brett Brown to come back at the end there.

tyus jones is the #1 jones

I'm not sure it's his fault, but I wasn't in favor of bringing Doc back.

not gonna be a good look to bring the guy back against virtually all popular opinion and then fire him 15 games into the season

The Jones boys are the pride of MN prep basketball

not gonna be a good look to bring the guy back against virtually all popular opinion and then fire him 15 games into the season

― frogbs, Saturday, October 22, 2022 7:43 PM (eleven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

gonna be an even worse look if they struggle to make the play-in

27 from mathurin tonight as well

Brook has 5 blocks already

27 from mathurin tonight as well

― micah, Saturday, October 22, 2022 9:42 PM (thirty minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

just how much he scores now i guess

averaging 24 in 3 games, not bad

banchero didnt look too good tonight, think his shot has a ways to go, not stopping him from launching tho

i do feel like few star players escape scrutiny to the level that embiid has in his career. every failure of that franchise has been chalked up to someone or something else. i can’t think of a player who has been as close to winning MVP as he has on multiple occasions and still gets zero blame for not ever getting past round 2. and of course now being 0-3 is doc’s fault. the third rail that nobody wants to seem to touch is whether embiid has the personality to lead a franchise to a title. i would find it alarming if i was invested in the sixers that embiid openly looks elsewhere (to jimmy butler, to PJ tucker) to try and import the leadership, discipline, toughness etc that a player of his stature is supposed to possess himself.

dallas is smoking memphis off the floor. christian wood trade looking like it might be one of the best moves of the offseason.

same reason people don't really scrutinize Aaron Rodgers, the team has a lot of other legitimate problems and when he's out you get a glimpse of how bad they can really be. you had the shit that happened with Fultz and Simmons, plus he was badly banged up last year. so I think he kinda gets a pass but people have been turning on him and he'll definitely catch a lot of shit this year

yeah well there is one major difference between aaron rodgers and joel embiid

in case you missed it Giannis went 40/10 in 30 minutes on 80% shooting. first time that's happened in the 3 point era apparently

to be clear though this was against the Houston Rockets

i do feel like few star players escape scrutiny to the level that embiid has in his career. every failure of that franchise has been chalked up to someone or something else. i can’t think of a player who has been as close to winning MVP as he has on multiple occasions and still gets zero blame for not ever getting past round 2. and of course now being 0-3 is doc’s fault. the third rail that nobody wants to seem to touch is whether embiid has the personality to lead a franchise to a title. i would find it alarming if i was invested in the sixers that embiid openly looks elsewhere (to jimmy butler, to PJ tucker) to try and import the leadership, discipline, toughness etc that a player of his stature is supposed to possess himself.

Even though I love my guy, I pretty much agree with this. You have to give him credit for working on his game each year, but he is also incredibly immature - looking to get bailed out by the refs all the time and the endless turnovers drives me nuts. When they don't get past the second round this year, I think you will see Philly turn on him, maybe even before.

lol

"We're not ready yet, honestly. We're just not. We're not ready to win yet. You can feel that. We got a lot of work to do."

Doc Rivers kept it real after the Sixers lost to the Spurs at homepic.twitter.com/vh5ClNCYmn

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) October 23, 2022

lol doc is so getting fired

Probably a bigger issue is their four offseason acquisitions had a total of 5 points v the Spurs. They all look like guys who will be hunted for mismatches in the postseason.

banchero didnt look too good tonight, think his shot has a ways to go, not stopping him from launching tho

true, watching him in that game + highlights of others id say hes less skilled but more physical than advertised, he can do a lot of stuff hes clearly put the work in but maybe doesnt totally have the fine touch, but he is actually a beast and very not afraid to mix it up, his fullest manifestation is maybe more of a guy who creates easy shots via bullying than a great shot maker, but to really achieve his potential he will need to learn to hoist, getting to average seems pretty doable and would be fine, but if he became a good shooter then thered be real trouble, not sure about the defense if he could get to the point where he can play small ball 5 he could be pretty sick

Probably a bigger issue is their four offseason acquisitions had a total of 5 points v the Spurs. They all look like guys who will be hunted for mismatches in the postseason.

the biggest thing is that joel is shooting really inefficiently even tho he is getting his numbers, but yeah the lack of bench output is concerning, like melton and house and harrell are all good players!

debatable

PHI post-Harden trade vs the beginning of this year.

Hmm. pic.twitter.com/XFxAOkT4hW

— Nekias (Nuh-KY-us) Duncan (@NekiasNBA) October 23, 2022

saw some thing that said he had dribbled more than the rest of the team combined

I noticed the lack of shots by the supporting cast, but House doesn't look like he does anything on offense or defense.

three games into the season and everyone is already rubbernecking random laker plays

14 secs left on the shot clock...immaculate vibes pic.twitter.com/BvuwJOaJ6P

— Iztok Franko (@iztok_franko) October 23, 2022

At halftime, the Lakers are now 1-for-16 from 3 today. On the season, they are now 20-for-101 – 19.8 percent. https://t.co/ObO8IAb9SK

— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) October 23, 2022

Visualized pic.twitter.com/IgzJ2yUCWk

— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) October 23, 2022

line go down

1/16 from three, and 0/1 from four

dame is good

lakers 0-3

need more four pointers

jelly k just hit a game winner in ot, jazz 3-0

oh my lord. Nurkic didnt even walk over there.

Lakers now 2-21 from 3.https://t.co/KATe2kYAyu pic.twitter.com/XYkeazwmZ2

— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) October 23, 2022

lol nurk making a classic pretend you didnt see him gesture

here is LeBron’s reaction to Westbrook’s decision with 30 seconds lefthttps://t.co/KATe2kYAyu pic.twitter.com/0iE0dEGwef

— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) October 23, 2022

leadership!

god I love how Westbrick has become an integral part of LeBron's story

as russ passed the three point line and went to his spot i was legit whispering shoot it at the tv

lauri markkanen has apparently been freed to just rock n roll and is averaging 20.5/8.5/4.5

lmao xp

L0l-k3rs

its crazy that a guy who won an mvp cant hit an absolutely perfect look from 15

i mean he bricked it

he can't shoot. his form is a disaster.

he kinda shouldn't be in the league

wild to think the the old okc big three are all sabotaging different teams

like once nobody wants you on their team at all you should just respectfully pack it up and go dominate euroball for 3 years

utah/new orleans was exciting! those two teams are fun!

lmao

pic.twitter.com/UBBcOCC10y

— Big Terry (@Bigbigterry) October 24, 2022

i'm sort of assuming that this is russ's last nba season at this point

this jazz thing is wild

it really is. do they have one of the 50 best players in the nba?

Don’t think so. Maybe lauri was all along and needed to be unleashed

Lauri always did seem like a guy who could break out

Maybe the Lakers realize that the world needs more Vacation Mode LeBron content.

so many tall white men in utah

I really can’t believe they started this year w Russ on the roster still. They thought Darwin ham was the Russ whisperer or what

🐦[here is LeBron’s reaction to Westbrook’s decision with 30 seconds lefthttps://t.co/KATe2kYAyu🕸 pic.twitter.com/0iE0dEGwef🕸
— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) October 23, 2022🕸]🐦

leadership!

I really can’t believe they started this year w Russ on the roster still. They thought Darwin ham was the Russ whisperer or what

― Spottie, Monday, October 24, 2022 12:15 AM (six hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

its really remarkable that this was the plan. that all russ needed after years of declining play and pouty behavior, and after a year in a dysfunctional organization, was the guidance of a novice head coach. that and a bevy of klutch clients to fill out the roster.

jazz in the mix w indy i guess

Via @KevinOConnorNBA https://t.co/RpbRP9PmIZ pic.twitter.com/crOJB4jfDF

— pickuphoop (@pickuphoop) October 24, 2022

and charlotte i guess

New Inside Pass from @ShamsCharania:

🏀 Where things stand with Russell Westbrook, Lakers
🏀 Los Angeles has high interest in Terry Rozier
🏀 Suns talking Jae Crowder trade with East title contenderhttps://t.co/WPhB2DHYtn pic.twitter.com/VTmv5KaXC0

— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) October 24, 2022

would be cool if the jazz just won 50 games again like they have every year, undeterred by losing their good players

just jazz stuff

their next 2 games are vs houston, so

danny wont allow it

the thing about danny is he knows he should tank but he doesnt really want to its not in his nature, all his tanks with the celtics were minimum length affairs, having said that i suspect he will be able to keep his eye on the ball for the good of wembanyama

though as with danny's previous tank he has a pretty nice treasure chest of picks so the team can simultaneously try and reload. he really set the template

seems like it’s not that big of a deal, whether they finish with the worst or sixth worst record it’s not a huge difference in the ping pong ball percentage iirc, plus yeah he has tons of picks he can package if the possibility is there. tanking for a specific player doesn’t really seem like a viable strategy in 2022

2022/23 utah, the scrappy role-player's delight

lakers filling our buckets with content candy this halloween season

Rewatching, here I don’t think Russ was a fan of Bron/AD getting the ball from him and sending him to the corner on the two prior possessions, so before that could happen Russ decided he was taking a shot regardless of clock situation. I know, a reach🤷🏾‍♂️
pic.twitter.com/1oBJIOcdVK

— 🏆LakersGuru🏆 (@GuruLakers) October 24, 2022

unserious

Bron can shoot from anywhere 🔥 pic.twitter.com/VOaXqGzoDp

— HaterMuse (@HaterMuse) October 23, 2022

it’s funny how bad those two possessions are too. russ’ shot was actually the best look of the three by far

LeBron+AD, Russ OFF (38 possessions):

115.8 ORtg. 102.6 DRtg. +13.2 net.

LeBron+AD, Russ ON (127 possessions):

96.9 ORtg. 104 DRtg. -7.1 net.

👍🏿

— Coach James 🇭🇹 (@JamesEdrick3) October 24, 2022

though as with danny's previous tank he has a pretty nice treasure chest of picks so the team can simultaneously try and reload. he really set the template

― Lavator Shemmelpennick, Monday, October 24, 2022 12:07 PM (thirty minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah his willingness to blow it up while he can still extract max picks really pays off

it’s funny how bad those two possessions are too. russ’ shot was actually the best look of the three by far

― J0rdan S., Monday, October 24, 2022 12:32 PM (four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

ha I mean it was a good look, but I’m sure the lakers would have preferred to run some clock before taking a shot there

what was the score there were they ahead

There’s no such thing as a 2 for 1 when you’re ahead I wonder if anyone’s ever told Russ that

oh nm i see they were

no one wants to watch these weirdo mopes

“Nets are dead last in the NBA when it comes to season ticket sales…demand off more than 30% from last year…money-losing franchise had sold roughly 5,500…according to an NBA owner & an insider who both saw a recent confidential league report” https://t.co/9ceixhZeet

— New York Basketball (@NBA_NewYork) October 24, 2022

wow prayers up for the nets sales guys

they should move to seattle and become the sonics bring KD full circle

does really feel like a chargers in l.a. thing where there's no inherent fanbase

mbas commissioning studies that say yes there are a lot of people in this area

*danny ainge voice*

"Somebody cautioned me before the season: If this [Utah Jazz] team gets off to a good start, don't be surprised if they hang on to some of these veterans for awhile. They don't need to be in any hurry to start this rebuild."

🗣️ @ramonashelburnepic.twitter.com/xSUmFmaQC6

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) October 24, 2022

James Harden has dribbled the ball 1,507 times through three games this season for the Sixers.

The rest of the roster combined: 1,242 dribbles 😳

(via @ESPNNBA) pic.twitter.com/E3d4x9SBD0

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) October 24, 2022

loving it

hes winning the dribbles title

76ers, nets & lakers blessing us

the superteam era is over baby

hollinger not loving what he's seeing from the hawks:

Next year, Hunter’s contract puts the Hawks in a bind, especially if one presumes Bogdan Bogdanović will pick up his $18 million player option. (Bogdanović had knee surgery in June, at which time the Hawks announced, “He is expected to make a full recovery before the start of the 2022-23 season.” Bogie hasn’t completed a full practice yet, and I didn’t see him on the floor before any of the Hawks’ three home games this week. Yikes.)

The out years don’t get any better, especially if one presumes the Hawks have interest in re-signing Dejounte Murray in 2024 after trading three first-round picks and two swaps to acquire him. (Murray has been as advertised through three games as a secondary playmaker and defensive pest.) Without another deal, the Hawks are likely to be limited to using the taxpayer midlevel exception and still ending up several million into the tax in 2023-24, and then landing much deeper in the tax to retain Murray in 2024-25.

All of this circles back to Sunday and the Hawks’ jarring 126-109 home loss to a Charlotte team that was missing LaMelo Ball and Terry Rozier. While Atlanta won the first two games in its low-hanging fruit early-season slate (home dates with Orlando and Houston), those weren’t exactly dominant performances either. Atlanta won 44 games and lost in the first round a year ago; is this really going to be a team worth paying millions in luxury tax for?

And if not, is it too early to discuss how to reshape the roster before it drives off the tax cliff?

I know what you’re thinking — more John Collins rumors! — but I’m actually wondering about another spot instead. Because while Collins is balling out thus far, Charlotte scored at the rim on Sunday over and over and over again, with Nick Richards (9-for-9) in particular seeming completely undeterred. That points the finger at another optimistic extension of yore — the two years and $43 million added onto Clint Capela’s deal. Capela led the league in rebound rate and blocked 6.0 percent of opponent shots in 2020-21 but hasn’t been at the same level since. In a related story, Atlanta slipped to 26th in defense last season.

This is perhaps focusing too much attention on Capela; Atlanta’s defense basically requires him to be awesome because of all the hemorrhaging at the point of attack. Part of the idea behind bringing in Murray, and to a lesser extent Aaron and Justin Holiday, was to fix that. So far it seems unfixed; Atlanta has allowed 34.7 percent of opponent shots to take place within three feet of the rim and permitted 63 dunks and layups through three games. The Hawks’ overall defensive numbers look OK mainly because of unsustainable Jedi 3-point defense (29.5 percent); again, this is with arguably the league’s softest opening week schedule.

Bogdanović’s situation obviously doesn’t help either; he’s not going to upgrade the defense, but Atlanta’s basic formula to win is with awesome offense and average defense. Bogdanović was arguably the league’s best sixth man in the second half of last season, but in his absence, the Hawks have gotten absolutely zippo from the bench. One potential answer may be sitting in front of their faces — after watching rookie A.J. Griffin shoot 99 percent on pre-game warm-up 3s from all kinds of platforms and locations this week (all numbers approximate), he finally got some game run on Sunday and proceeded to do the same. He needs to play.

yeah they maxed out a mid roster, lot of overpaid guys in there

kinda wild to write off a team thats only 3 games into the season and is 2-1 lol. if anything tho they need to fire mcmillan asap

they are cooked. donezo

i wouldn't say he was writing them off...

does really feel like a chargers in l.a. thing where there's no inherent fanbase

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, October 24, 2022 2:39 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

s much as knicks fans clown on nets fans, it did feel like they were making inroads with the community with that team. i was definitely more likely to buy a ticket to see the nets back when they were a fun little team with d-lo, jarrett allen, levert, and my boy rodians kuruc. now, they're just an island of misplaced superstars with terrible vibes playing for a franchise with perhaps the least distinctive identity in the whole league. the irony is that the very thing that is repelling new fans is inflating the value of these tickets.

they tried and failed to build two super teams instead of just playing it cool and building a team the fanbase could grow with

the celtics did use their picks to select jayson tatum jaylen brown and marcus smart tho which is nice

never realized that lmao Nets

OK, hi again NBA thread, it's been a minute. please allow me to parachute in and ask this earnestly:

can Darvin Ham not just bench Russ? i mean, i realize he's a rookie head coach and Russ has starpower, etc. i fully understand how Russ will react, what (even more of a) circus it will cause, etc. but the whole world can see that the Lakers are significantly worse with Russ on the court. so ... be a basketball coach and bench him? that's an option, right? it's an option with consequences, but it's an option.

am i missing some legit reason this isn't even *talked* about? is it just that ... like, do people think Ham will lose LeBron and AD if he benches Russ?

apologies if this has already been discussed.

a big part of the lakers' brand is that they're an extremely star-friendly organization, which allows them to get guys like lebron and davis and whoever else to go to the team even when they suck. LA culture, etc. if they send russ off to a hermitage it could hurt the lakers' long-term viability as a team that can always turn it around when, say, vic wembanyama decides he's sick of playing for the wizards and wants to sprint to hollywood, baby

- they probably thought last year was an outlier and that he would be at least a little better this year. they want to build up a hair of value so they can trade him and maybe only have to include one of their 1st round picks and not two. but thats backfired and hes worse and theyre worse so his already non-existent value is now 'can we even take this guy on for a season?'. so likely a team would just cut him once they get him, but two picks might not get the return that they want now anyway.

- benching a past superstar who players around the league 'respect' never looks great on an organization, future stars could say 'look how they treated russ' and look down on it. this is really doubtful now cos the whole league has seen the fit doesnt work. (basically what clay just said)

- ham prob thought he could get him to buy in or get something more out of him. prob thought he could convince him to be a 6th man too but that didnt go over. so likely if they are gonna move him to the bench they might as well tell him to get away from the team until they can work out a trade.

- im sure lebron and ad want him out but everyone has to bite their tongue on this one cos lebron is the one that actively recruited him to come to the lakers and bought off on the trade. so it looks bad on lebron to outright kick him while he's down but hes doing it in his own passive aggressive way (body language, saying they have zero shooters on the team, etc)

they should have never started this season with him on the roster, the vibes are killing them and they might not be able to recover them even once he gets moved.

it's such a disaster lol

defense is like hey wait this wasnt in the scouting report

Harden with a backcut? WHAT??? pic.twitter.com/BnJWwaPOeD

— Mo Dakhil (@MoDakhil_NBA) October 24, 2022

all great points, thanks. agree w/ and understand all.

re: hurting their star-friendly rep ... no one will remember this in 2 years. Wembanyama (or whoever) certainly isn't going to give a shit what they did to Russ in 2022 when it's his time. not disputing Clay at all - agree w/ that 100% - but if that's holding them back, they're doing it wrong. they'll still be the Lakers and they'll still be in L.A.

the solutions in my head, of course, are infinitely simpler in my head than they would be in real life. but if they can't bench him or just say "you're in the second unit now, deal with it" they should send him home.

but i suspect Spottie is right ... this may have already effectively ended their season. that answer LeBron gave last night when someone asked him about the Russ 2-for-1 shot smelled of death.

i def agree it's dumb as hell if they're motivation is the star-friendly stuff but my understanding is that's literally a mandate put forward by jeanie buss (and makes sense as that was her dad's #1 M.O.)

"they're" lol nice work from my plodding dead brain

this doesn't seem tenable and i do think ultimately russ will get separated from the team, but it probably happens more at game 15 or 20 than game 3

i think it really just boils down to the fact that russ is going to make the day to day lives of everyone on the coaching staff & front office even more miserable if he’s benched and there’s no real upside in exchange for that given the state of their roster. he said the other week in the preseason that his hamstring got hurt bcuz his routine isn’t adjusted to not starting and last year when he got benched in the fourth quarter he said his back got hurt from sitting that long and i believe he sat out a subsequent game? he’s already let it be known what they’re in store for if they don’t start him

i think it would be one thing if the lakers actually had a real team and russ was taking minutes or a starting role away from 2-3 guys who needed to be on the floor more. but i think the staff is probably looking around like, ok i’m gonna make this situation even more toxic all to get kendrick nunn in the starting line up? austin reaves?

of course a real franchise would tell russ to suck it up or even better just send him home until they can agree on a buyout. but the lakers are broke and desperate and overall not normal

oh yeah there's no way he comes off the bench, he starts or he goes home and waits for a trade or buyout. if lebron tells them to do it (and it's obviously on the tip of his tongue) i think they will

i def agree it's dumb as hell if they're motivation is the star-friendly stuff but my understanding is that's literally a mandate put forward by jeanie buss (and makes sense as that was her dad's #1 M.O.)

― Clay, Monday, October 24, 2022 8:14 PM (twelve minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

one other thing about the lakers is theyre still basically run as a family business in an era where every other team is private equity, the inferiority of this set up is somewhat offset by their ability to... attract stars

the lakers and by extension media people around the lakers still trumpet that last kobe extension which singlehandedly tanked the franchise for 5 years as a momentum to the laker way. but there’s no evidence that any of that shit actually matters. they got lebron bcuz he wanted to move to LA and got davis from a trade. they could act like a real franchise if they wanted to

monument not momentum*

Starting to think Ja Morant will win mvp

lebrons combo of bad gming and tendency to team hop has caught up to him which would be even more obvious if he hadnt fluked into a title cause of the global pandemic, really dates back to cleveland refusing to trade for paul george, now the lakers dont want to move their picks with russ even tho bron is 37

spurs up double digits on the wolves, what is happening

― terence trent d'ilfer (m bison), Monday, October 24, 2022 7:56 PM (fifty-four seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

the lakers and by extension media people around the lakers still trumpet that last kobe extension which singlehandedly tanked the franchise for 5 years as a momentum to the laker way. but there’s no evidence that any of that shit actually matters. they got lebron bcuz he wanted to move to LA and got davis from a trade. they could act like a real franchise if they wanted to

― J0rdan S., Monday, October 24, 2022 5:39 PM (thirty minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

otm. honestly one of the worst run franchises ever since the pau titles. lebro wanting to live in LA + the bubble saved them a bit.

Starting to think Ja Morant will win mvp

― Matt Armstrong, Monday, October 24, 2022 5:40 PM (thirty-six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

he was in the mix last season for a while too. just gotta sustain it and not get injured and hes got a good shot

Hyped on Sochan, fun roster which is much more enjoyable to watch than anticipated, slightly worried Spurs are too good for the Wemb sweepstakes.

Hope the Wolves get the ship right (yes I know it's early days, but this fan base deserves something good).

praying the hoops gods will honor us a la pels getting zion

It’s not Gobert’s fault but I just don’t think you can have a good defense with Towns chasing 4s around. And they never punish the mismatch, he just shoots with Gobert around.

spurs up by 31 on the wolves, jesus

Collins is a great creator for this bench unit - just need to pray for fitness.

tre jones is a real pg, devin is making a leap, keldon looks like a seasoned vet, poeltl is still my tall austrian son, sochan having the game of his life (he was p bad on offense in the first 3 games). jrich is playing with fire, primo looks good in spurts. this is a fun team!! theyre supposed to be shitty but if they keep winning, fuck it

lebron’s “that’s not who I am” response to the reporter’s question about russ’s shot seems like it’s gonna be part of a meme before long

bise, your enthusiasm about the scrappy spurs who are not supposed to be good is basically mirroring what i would tell blazer fans when i was arguing the team should just be dismantled. the fun part of being bad is you find some guys to root for! it's a joy when you win over a good team! you look back on those years later like "that's what we went through to become the contenders we are now!" it honestly feels so much better than being some perennially hopeless 6 seed type

my favorite random nuggets subplot is MPJ stealing defensive rebounds from jokic

turns out Simmo is just too savage for this league

somehow completely forgot that chauncey was the blazers head coach

Ja Morant just hilariously baited Ben Simmons into fouling outhttps://t.co/pU9Em4dJRC pic.twitter.com/tH7fAzQmtp

— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) October 25, 2022

poor ben begging his coaches to challenge the call…the coaches are like yeah we’re good actually

totally was not a foul though

Fouled out of 2/3 games so far lol

Turns out the jazz aren’t going to go 82-0 this season

may as well concede the large wager i made in preseason that ben simmons would win mvp

lillard looks pretty good!

yeah he has been on an absurd tear since looking a bit off in game one

you know what does not look good it's chauncey's billups' beard

the portland trail blazers are "the team to beat in the national basketball association"

after their having felled the mighty lakers, this is self evident. maybe. but anyway, beating L.A. will never lose its appeal.

Why does Jokic only have 3 shot attempts

It’s not Gobert’s fault but I just don’t think you can have a good defense with Towns chasing 4s around. And they never punish the mismatch, he just shoots with Gobert around.

Jamal Murray just feels off, understandable but I wonder if maybe he should chill out and stop forcing it so much these games do count after all

xp i saw tre jones guard KAT and on multiple times jones shut him down, towns just is not him

durant and KD played 39 mins each tonight and scored 37 points each on a combined 28-44 shooting and the nets lost by 10

7-3-8 and 6 fouls on 2-5 shooting in 28 mins for simmons

The nets have a bunch of good role players too! I guess some are injured

I get that it's early but the Timberwolves have been embarrassing to start the season.
-Horrid transition D
-No boxing out
-Constant ball watching
-No communication
-Lazy passing
-No attention to detail

Fixable but much bigger issues than simply not hitting shots.

— Tyler Metcalf (@tmetcalf11) October 25, 2022

from this weekend:

MINNEAPOLIS — Anthony Edwards leaned back in his chair and tried to digest a frustrating defeat to a team with much less talent than his Timberwolves.

As he considered what went wrong, and what went right, in a 132-126 overtime loss to the Utah Jazz on Friday night, Edwards was asked about how things felt during a third-quarter run that had him on the floor with Jordan McLaughlin, Jaylen Nowell, Taurean Prince and Naz Reid.

“The smaller we go, the better it is for me,” Edwards said.

Why does Jokic only have 3 shot attempts

― Spottie, Monday, October 24, 2022 8:53 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

forgot to answer this: he was in terrible foul trouble all game for one, but he just was really passive out there? i have no other read here, he just honestly seemed completely out of it

been a couple years since we've seen passive/weird joker.

Speaking of passive aggressive and weird

KAT can’t do this to his young guy in public like this, especially with his struggles. Two weeks in and you can see how fragile this team is after it legitimately went all in on Gobert. Y’all know I like KAT. Been through so much. But this will not help anyone involved, honestly. https://t.co/RSTP1Ewzcq

— Myron Medcalf (@MedcalfByESPN) October 25, 2022

being weird for the media, in a big purple sweater

ah yes noted workout warrior karl anthony towns will impart his wisdom

i like when he says "you know that old cliche... it falls on you" cuz it's classic weird guy behavior to say "you know that old cliche" about a phrase nobody says

lol

yeah i don't agree with the tweet, that doesn't seem bad, just weird kat being weird as he does

what he said was out of line, and weird

https://uproxx.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/katnaked.jpg

katnaked.jpg

that feeling when you show everyone your weird basketball shaped dick

i would never

I've done this several times and it's never ended well

get in the paint

being weird for the media, in a big purple sweater

― lag∞n, Tuesday, October 25, 2022 6:52 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

ah yes noted workout warrior karl anthony towns will impart his wisdom

― call all destroyer, Tuesday, October 25, 2022 7:00 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

i like when he says "you know that old cliche... it falls on you" cuz it's classic weird guy behavior to say "you know that old cliche" about a phrase nobody says

― J0rdan S., Tuesday, October 25, 2022 7:26 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

i lol'd at all this

nothing better a crazy flurry of buckets

ANFERNEE SIMONS 🔥🐜
Caught fire in the 3rd quarter & the Blazers are 4-0!

22 POINTS
6/7 THREES
IN 6 MINUTES

Dame: "It was crazy, like he's blowing the roof off this place.”pic.twitter.com/dY7nOViBoK

— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) October 25, 2022

glorious

in the best of all blazer worlds, dame will finally be able to dirk this team into a title.

something i wasn’t aware of until i heard about it on a podcast is that simons was one of the best catch and shoot 3 pt shooters in the league last year

Love to see a player get hot and everybody just start feeding him/screening for him.

nice that he hit the heat check at the end too

Report: Jazz were willing to trade Bojan Bogdanovic, Mike Conley, Rudy Gay and 1st-round pick to Lakers for Russell Westbrook and 2 1st-round picks https://t.co/K7amL5oJaZ

— NBACentral (@TheNBACentral) October 25, 2022

wait they still have first round picks this decade

that sounds like something the lakers should consider

they have 2027 and 2029 baby!

bron’s a bad guy to have on your team bc he is the worst gm

that's interesting. if the lakers didn't want to do that deal i question their desire to make any trade this year. or their understanding of what the market is for two first round picks that can't be used for 4 years