Throw It Down Bigman The 2025-26 NBA Regular Season Thread

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ciderpress, you know what to do

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i am ready to discuss the nba regular season

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watched this 4 times now I'm hyped

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lfg

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whoops

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excellent additions to the pic roll all

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I am watching an NBA basketball pregame show on NBC

lol at Joe Maz in the plane

NBA 25-26 PREDIX

west

1 thunder
2 nuggets
3 clippers
4 wolves
5 warriors
6 rockets
7 lakers
8 spurs
9 kings
10 mavs
11 grizz
12 blazers
13 suns
14 pels
15 jazz

east

1 cavs
2 knicks
3 magic
4 hawks
5 pistons
6 bucks
7 bulls
8 raptors
9 sixers
10 heat
11 celtics
12 pacers
13 hornets
14 wizards
15 nets

finals: nuggets > knicks

MVP: jokic
ROY: flagg
6MOY: anfernee simons
MIP: either one of the thompson twins

knicks huh man the east is extra sad this year

its all happening the nba is back thank god

houston is starting an insane huge lineup

shortest guy is amen thompson

just visually a massive team out there.

wait so you cant get league pass on YTTV any more??????

OKC really booing Durant?? This is like his 4th team since the Thunder and you just won a title chill out

damn did not know that apparently amazon has the exclusive now xp

houston playing the same weirdo offensive rebound based offense as last year except with kd to dump the ball to, not beautiful stuff but you have to respect the ingenuity

damn did not know that apparently amazon has the exclusive now xp

― lag∞n, Tuesday, October 21, 2025 5:13 PM (four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

exclusive access to our completely ass user experience thx amazon. might go back to ill3gal str3ams

otm

chet is balling out

sucks that the team that won 68 games and the title last year did very little in the offseason and improved anyway because all their guys are youths who got better with experience

yeah good chance they wreck the league and repeat this year

yeah really no reason they wont be better than last year barring the usual injury caveats

jinx

i recorded this specifically to go back and watch the first nba on nbc game intro with roundball rock--it was crisp, efficient, and absolutely flawless

What was the point of that Michael Jordan interview

Adams v Hartenstein, love to see it

That mj segment was so bad lmao. But also I guess kinda cool to hear from him in any capacity? Wonder what the plan is there, cos surely there must be more…

is sengun a shooter now, would be pretty cool for him

mj's eyes looked so bloodshot but iirc maybe that's just an mj thing?

he has a condition iirc

great first game if the season, friends

super stoked to spend another season on ilxor.com with the homies :)

good rugged game

thunder should be crushing but they cant buy a shot

shai

SGA too good

2 seconds just enough time for a kd winner

or whatever that was

or a contested sengun miss, also valid

btw how absurd that there is a network called "peacock", so crass to use slang terms, call it urinepenis like a medical doctor

thats society these days for you

straight to the motherfuckin gutter, no class

speaking of the gutter, this rockets offense in OT, peeeee yew

reed sheppards defense is not very good it is very bad

more like bleed jumpers

im still a be-reed-ver tho, he just needs more swagger and then he'll be like american jimmer

udoka must believe in his offense to be giving him all these minutes hes not usually a fan of guys who cant defend

either that or they just dont have anyone else who can dribble

tie game baby

either that or they just dont have anyone else who can dribble

― lag∞n, Tuesday, October 21, 2025 7:34 PM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Think it’s mostly this lol

last-second shot attempts from Houston this year seem like they’ll be an adventure…

Nice blockout from Adams to allow Sengun to rebound his miss

ooh boy

looks like he motioned to timeout about 0.9 seconds? were they out of timeouts?

what is Sengun's nickname anyway? he needs one

his teammates call him alpie

everytime i see his name i recite the following sequence in my head:

you're telling me a shrimp fried this rice?
you're telling me a crab ran with these goons?
you're telling me alperen şenned these güns?

OKC gone cold

sengun is essentially playing point center tonight. he’s taken the ball up a bunch

reed sheppard looks like little mac as a real man

yeah and to do it in 2OT…

hoping this goes to 6 overtimes tbh

so many OTs they both miss the rest of the season

'after a grueling 312th OT, the rockets come away with a squeaker. they sit 48 games behind the spurs in the southwest division with their next game scheduled tomorrow in brooklyn.'

gonna call rockets "AI" this season with all this sloppy play

Alpie Sure

so many OTs they both miss the rest of the season

― petey, pablo & mary (m bison), Tuesday, October 21, 2025 7:52 PM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

;)

"godamn ime are you a data center in the middle of west texas stealing a whole town's water supply bc you drew up some slop out there" etc

Alpie Sure

― sknybrg, Tuesday, October 21, 2025 7:55 PM (six seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol

KD cmon bro

true shai fashion to bait someone into fouling him for the win lmao

yep

O
K
C

olways. kbe. chasing fouls.

i cannot WAIT for when the spurs are in their prime and putting an end to this reign of terror in oklahoma.

ok its horfin time

would be so much cooler if LeBron was playing here

would you accept lebron jr

Nuggets pushed OKC pretty hard last year, and have a much deeper squad this time. And Spurs could get really good really fast.

hurts me to see marcus in a lakers jersey

That mj segment was so bad lmao. But also I guess kinda cool to hear from him in any capacity? Wonder what the plan is there, cos surely there must be more…

― Spottie, Tuesday, October 21, 2025 8:38 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah it's pretty wild for a person with that level of fame just ducking out like that in the era of social media, as far as I know he doesn't even know how the internet works

horf shutting ayton down in the post some things do not change

marcus not smart

luka is too rich to have hair this bad

skinny luka somehow doesnt look any more fit than fat luka

he’s still a thick, slow moving lad

chet on halftime wearing a towel instead of a shirt

somehow very weird to see Lakers Ayton

this lakers side is a bit shit mate

shite

10-6 for ayton in 33 minutes
jimmy butler 16-16 from the line

some things never change

hurts me to see marcus in a lakers jersey

Hurts to watch him play. Forgot how annoying he is. I swear he was on the floor at least 30 times tonight after flopping. Bush league yanking curry’s arm like that too, glad they reviewed it and gave him a flagrant.

Kinda weird body language from Bron on the bench tonight

He just read excerpts of the new lakers book

I cancelled my TV service so can't watch games the old fashioned way. Thinking about getting league pass. What site do ilhors use for ill3gal str3ams for blackout games now?

NBC filming one MJ interview to be broken up into 3 min chunks across the season is ridiculous on principle however i enjoyed that segment, even at this age the man's psyche is fascinating

Earvin Magic Johnson
@MagicJohnson

I went to the @Lakers game last night and watched my Lakers get beat by the Warriors 119-109.

welcome back, king

no lies detected

pure magic

that famous hollywood razzle dazzle

the contrast between his larger than life personality and his tweets is just too good

never gets old

i forget if i posted it here but iirc there was an article about how he has a social media guy who follows him around and he dictates these to

Hey siri

jarrett allen watched the billy joel documentary, thought it was "incredible." my new favorite nba player.

the knicks have played 10 players so far today. what sorcery is this???

edgecomb 14 points in his first nba quarter

embiid looks like hes there for a light jog hes just not doing anything

derrick white! VJ edgecomb! it’s the NBA on league pass

hell yeah thats what its all about baby

good game miami-orlando 2 mins left

I remain concerned about magic end of game situations if banchero is just going to do whatever that was

generally not a good thing when your team is in denial about who their best player is

nice win by the knickerbockers

banchero is the magics best player

he could get there if he could learn to put the ball in the basketball ring

dude flagg breakaway steal on the opening possession then clangs an alley-oop attempt for his first career FGA, brutal lol

tbf no one else on the magic can put it in either

did you know the magic havent had a top 20 offense since dwight howard was on the team

yeah that’s the wildest stat ever lol

seems impossible

Celtics/sixers coming down to the wire too. Edgecomb has 32, maxey has 40

celtics defense could possibly use some work

pritchard missed buzzer beater ah well

brad made the call. said whatever you do make sure to pump fake a couple of times even though there’s like 1.4 secs left

flagg hasn’t hit a shot yet but he just looks so good out there

it seems like something might be weighing on the clippers

whoa just checked that score what on earth

kawhi doing some charity work haha

what can the clippers even aspire to be now

tidy 138 for the Raps opening night, Hawks might not be playing any defense

seems like you could just throw lobs to wemby every play and theres not really any way to guard it

bit of a rude awakening for the east contending hawks

yeah wemby is gonna be MVP it’s over

celtics have been eliminated from the nba playoffs

damn rip

wemby’s had like 5 highlight dunks already. vs maybe the best defensive backcourt in the league?

my god wemby

he would be so good if he just played like a traditional center but hes also crossing guys over and hitting fade aways

wemby dunks the ball so hard like the rim is made of capitalism

bc he is going to lead us in revolution, btw if that was not clear

gotta agree with chuck that playing flagg at point is incredibly dumb and nonsensical

and now a wemby step back four point play come on

i think i giggled for about 30 seconds straight after that

don't really understand why they're playing flagg in 4 minute spurts. he's 18, I think he can run a little

i think i giggled for about 30 seconds straight after that

― petey, pablo & mary (m bison), Wednesday, October 22, 2025 8:24 PM (twenty-three seconds ago)

it's not funny bise this is serious

playing flagg at point is incredibly dumb

kidd wanted to see what happens when you throw flagg into heavy surf on day one. now he'll have it on film to study.

i think i giggled for about 30 seconds straight after that

― petey, pablo & mary (m bison), Wednesday, October 22, 2025 8:24 PM (twenty-three seconds ago)

it's not funny bise this is serious

― comrade jhøsh (k3vin k.), Wednesday, October 22, 2025 10:25 PM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

hon hon hon au contraire mon ami c'est très drôle

that was some crazy shit from Wemby back there

Portland is playing such tough D, incredible energy

Also, hey ILH looking forward to the season 🙂

wemby is making anthony davis look mediocre

just my 2c but I would probably take wemby out now

what if he wants to get a 40 piece

i think they should let him

how many dunks does he have

last i counted, 1 million

bout what i thought

Also, hey ILH looking forward to the season 🙂

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, October 22, 2025 11:48 PM (ten minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

yell yeah brother

this mavs team looks demoralized

They are being destroyed by an extraterrestrial, it does tend to send one into a dark existential place

Wemby holy smokes man

anthony edwards aka the lad on a warpath to win mvp looks like

an admirable ambition, but there's too much competition for him unless the Wolves put up 61 wins or thereabouts

tidy 138 for the Raps opening night, Hawks might not be playing any defense

― symsymsym, Wednesday, October 22, 2025 9:31 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

watching this hawks team with great interest (spurs have a 1st round swap with them this year)

it's very pleasant to get a benefit from some other random team flailing

Ant is really fun to watch when he's in takeover mode

https://bsky.app/profile/johnhollinger.bsky.social/post/3m3tbdfxuks23

Raps scoring a ton at the rim

DNP-CD for rob dillingham tonight… is that pick just a write off at this point? what’s going on there

That Edgecomb debut was sweet. Covered up for the fact that the Sixers were better with Embiid on the bench. He looks immobile out there.

edgecomb looked like a vet out there very composed blown crunchtime free throws notwithstanding, and yeah embiid looks cooked cooked rip bigman

in other news

shams: Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier was arrested early Thursday morning as part of an FBI sports betting gambling probe, sources tell ESPN. The Eastern District of New York and FBI director Kash Patel will hold a press conference at 10 am ET to announce arrests from investigation.

woww

smdh kash patel infiltrating a hoops thread. not happy about this development

whaaa

shams: Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups has been arrested by the FBI for alleged illegal gambling, sources tell ESPN.

wtf

incompetent vindictive delusional trump admin, please don't f with our hoops!!!

tbf im sure these investigations predate the current admin

probably so but making a big spectacle and having preening press conferences, ugh

and the case made it through a grand jury so prob terry and chauncey are fucked

what dummies my lord

Holy shit @ Billups

My friend is now a judge but was a federal public defender, she told me once the greatest federal defender lawyer ever might have a 5% win rate, if they get to the point where they are arresting you, you're fucked

tbf im sure these investigations predate the current admin

― lag∞n, Thursday, October 23, 2025 8:45 AM (thirty-five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

holeeee shit

could be for sure, also prosecutors just known to be that way in general xp

My friend is now a judge but was a federal public defender, she told me once the greatest federal defender lawyer ever might have a 5% win rate, if they get to the point where they are arresting you, you're fucked

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, October 23, 2025 9:14 AM (sixteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah its known that if the feds show up at your door youre in a world of hurt, they are very thorough, part of their incredible 98% conviction rate or w/e it is tho is theyll plea out any case they think isnt totally airtight, in order to preserve the conviction rate

Ant made a big deal about how his goal this off-season was working on his midrange, encouraging so far

https://www.twitter.com/JaceFrederick/status/1981223975389974622

Anthony Edwards went 5 for 7 on non-paint 2s tonight, including the game winner

Save u a click

good stuff, def need that to be a top guy

terry is a known idiot but chauncey self-presents as this upstanding leader, what an ass.

seriously what is he doin

theyll plea out any case they think isnt totally airtight, in order to preserve the conviction rate

― lag∞n, Thursday, October 23, 2025 9:31 AM (nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

should say plea out or drop

“at least 31 people in custody” including damon jones too

jesus christ

This is really the least surprising thing ever after the NBA like the other sports got in bed with gambling.

yup

altho idk if it’s been announced yet if it’s that kind of thing or more like illegal poker games and such a la gilbert arenas

all rumors around terry were that it was sports betting tho

according to adam schefter via le batard, it’s the poker stuff with billups

what exactly is the issue with the poker games? was something else happening there? otherwise who cares?

Taxing authorities.

yeah avoiding taxes is probably the biggest thing. according to schefter/le batard the mafia was involved too so, maybe some other bad stuff the mafia is known for

kash patel just said as much

oh yeah, I forgot we have to build a quarter billion dollar ballroom

working in these guys’ favor is kash patel was in charge of putting the finishing touches on the case

apparently the "Toronto Rangers" are involved as well

wonder if that’s referring to jontay porter

This is really the least surprising thing ever after the NBA like the other sports got in bed with gambling.

otm

terry rozier should have hooped instead of gambled, he's tall as hell

i mean it's a pretty clear risk if you are running mafia connected poker games and you get too far in debt, like old school boxing type shit in terms of fixing for them

in my poker game if there's a basketball game on we'll usually bet amongst ourselves on it, I wonder if similar things happen in the poker games involving actual NBA players, I'm sure it does

well maybe this will be the thing that turns scoot henderson’s career around

Isn't Chauncey a rapist? That really got forgotten

this sounds bad

More from the NBA poker game indictments:

* mob used a card shuffler that predicted who had the best hand, then sent data to off-site operator, who texted to a player at the table.
-- Chauncey Billups and Damon Jones were "face cards" to real in the "fish," or big-$ players destined to lose.

https://bsky.app/profile/johnannese.bsky.social/post/3m3uofiafvs2u

hah, that is pretty much the plot of the ESPN poker drama Tilt, which is probably one of the dumbest and most insane shows I've ever seen

this x a million

This is really the least surprising thing ever after the NBA like the other sports got in bed with gambling.

chad millman
@chadmillman

Details of the rigged poker games that Damon Jones and Chauncey Billups were involved (from the US Attorney press conference):
+ X-ray machines built into tables to read face-down cards
+ Contact lenses/glasses that read pre-marked cards.
+ Secret cameras in card trays

oh gosh thats bad, was thinking why are they targeting nba players card games thats some bs you never hear about other high stakes games getting busted but yeah thats warranted, wonder if billups and jones knew about the cheating or they just knew they were getting paid for the celeb razzle dazzle

still, I find it hard not to feel some schadenfreude over the big-$$ pigeons getting plucked. yes, it was rigged so that only some of the players were really gambling, but pigeons are pigeons bcz they tend to think they're the ones who aren't really gambling.

tiago splitter coaching the b;azers now lol

blazers*

b-zers

not mad about Chauncey being gone tbh also as a few times a month $1-$2 cardroom player fuck cheats

it remains to be seen if billups was aware of the rigging or if he was just being paid a little too handsomely to sit in and schmooze the pigeons, while other player(s) were the ringers at the table who were wired into the scam. if he knew, then absolutely fuck him.

reports are saying he was the face of it but was also involved more heavily in some specific games like 6 years ago

why do people need so much money

why do people go to flea markets every weekend and pile their homes with trashy knick-nacks

Lol, I don't multi-millionaires/billionaires and hoarders is a great comparison. "I have a mental illness. I like hoarding money."

Chauncey made 100m in his NBA career (though with contracts that are pitiful compared to the current ones), was set for life with jobs coaching or doing NBA media. It just seems so irrational, though obviously there is no shortage of other examples of greed and idiocy in our society, these days

you get rich enough you start feeling invulnerable which tbf is often the case

one thing I know about high stakes gamblers is it's not really about the money itself

exactly

well these guys weren’t high stakes gamblers so idk if that explains it, these aren’t gambling addicts. billups wasn’t even participating in the poker games from what i can tell?

i think what i would offer is that even for rich people the allure of large amounts of illicit liquid untaxed money is still prob quite strong. i would imagine that most of them don’t have the level of liquid wealth that we imagine in our heads when we hear that someone has made $100m in earnings. rozier is accused of having $200k in cash brought to him the night that he pulled himself out of the game. i think that even to a lot of NBA players $200k in straight cash (homie) is not like random pocket change

the mob ties here probably explains more than anything, for the poker stuff

can we post twitters again? asking for a friend. i tried bluesky i really did.

pablo torre

After reading the two DOJ indictments, it seems pretty clear that Chauncey Billups is a central figure in both the poker and betting investigations (which are intertwined in multiple other ways). He isn't named in the latter, but the allegations for "Co-Conspirator 8" are huge:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G396ufLXUAAzF9f?format=jpg&name=large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G397Y7NXIAABPk9?format=jpg&name=large

chauncey out there straight up doing crimes god bless

committing coaching crimes while also committing actual crimes get you a man who can do both

also SA in the past so yeah lets ship this guy out of the league and never look back shall we

otm

Tanking is a fact of life in the modern NBA. It gets openly discussed by the sports media and fans alike and often is treated approvingly as good team strategy. The idea is widely accepted that once the playoffs are off the table you should play your young high draft picks and give them more game time instead of playing your veterans who'll give you a better chance for a W, because the W isn't worth anything. It's an open secret.

The worst thing in that excerpt was Billups directly revealing the tanking plan to a specific outsider before the game, but not telling the media about the lineup changes (and thus becoming liable for an NBA fine). It would help to know who ERIC EARNEST is and how the conversation took place. The implication is that ERIC is the contact person for a sports gambling consortium, but that's not explicit in the excerpt.

i don't really understand what point your are trying to make here

lmao just remembered I sat across from Chauncey at a late night poker table like six months ago ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Co-Conspirator 8 is allleged to have shared inside information with JIZZLE JAMES

CLAY!

clay is our inside man

My point was that I'm trying to understand what billups did and the excerpt that supposedly shed light on his crime was at best a very murky light. Tanking is so accepted as part of the game that the odds setters in Las Vegas would more or less expect a team in the blazers' position, rebuilding, late season, out of contention, to try to tank using various pretexts to put a fig leaf over their real motives. Veterans suddenly develop strains or contusions that need rest and things of that nature.

I read the excerpt as being another interesting allegation, rather than the meat of the alleged crimes

rozier is accused of having $200k in cash brought to him the night that he pulled himself out of the game. i think that even to a lot of NBA players $200k in straight cash (homie) is not like random pocket change

i get that in theory, but if you're making $25 mil a year and you're at the height of your career and you're assured of making a similar amount for several more years, then 200k should in fact amount to random pocket change. and the idea that you would basically throw games and risk your career for that pocket change is certifiably insane.

idk a lot of these players are so leveraged in a thousand directions that quick cash feels like freedom

right like, i'm not gonna defend risking your livelihood over gambling. my point is just that there is plenty of evidence across many years that our perception of athletes' wealth based on our knowledge of their salaries does not always or even often line up with the reality of the situation. malik beasley, for instance, has $60m in career earnings and appeared to have been flat broke last season when he was allegedly engaging in gambling shenanigans. does terry rozier strike you as someone who has managed his wealth carefully? to shake your head in disbelief at these stories also requires ignoring the many many tales of athletes who spent their money poorly, gave it away to friends and families, had it stolen by financial advisors etc etc

performance bonuses in contracts are often for sums $50k, $100k, $200k. when the league started the in season tournament you had established stars admitting that the possibility of winning $500k was going to make them take it seriously. i think you have to have blinders on to think that terry rozier was engaging in behavior this risky for $200k if that was a meaningless sum of money to him. clearly not the case, in my estimation, and i think it's more worth probing why that might be then it is dismissing it out of hand as insanity

there have been a lot of articles written about how these guys go broke, my impression is that a lavish lifestyle is part of it but there are a lot of other factors, for one agent fees are pretty significant, for two some of them spend a lot of money keeping in shape, for three it sounds like they get scammed a lot

it's more worth probing why that might be then it is dismissing it out of hand as insanity

totally fair point

back when I worked in family law I did a former player’s divorce settlement and his wife was a really low level Am*zon exec and her low six figure salary was their entire income and he had zero in savings and just his nbapa pension, he was pretty screwed, really eye opening

Watching the second season of The Sopranos and these poker game busts are reminding me of Robert Patrick's gambling addict character

Maybe some of these dudes got an itch for the vibes and the rush

it is also not a coincidence that the players who are not smart about managing and solidifying their wealth are also the players who are not smart about handling dumb illegal opportunities when they are presented to them

McMenamin has a story up that Damon Jones was passing info about LeBron injuries and when he would sit games

The federal indictment alleges that before a Lakers game against the Milwaukee Bucks on Feb. 9, 2023, Jones texted a coconspirator to "get a big bet on Milwaukee tonight" because James was going to be out.

James, who passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the NBA's all-time leading scorer in the previous game on Feb. 7, 2023, would go on to miss three straight games because of soreness in his left ankle.

Jones allegedly added via text: "Bet enough so Djones can eat (too) now!!!"

I imagine it's beyond unlikely that Lebron is gonna get rolled up in this in any kind of significant way, but he can't be too thrilled to have his name showing up in the press on it

Also add talking about himself in the 3rd person to Damon Jones list of crimes

someone on bluesky pointed out that damon jones was also the coach who jr smith threw soup at

not mad about Chauncey being gone tbh also as a few times a month $1-$2 cardroom player fuck cheats

― Jizzle James (Clay), Thursday, October 23, 2025 2:28 PM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

lmao just remembered I sat across from Chauncey at a late night poker table like six months ago ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

― Jizzle James (Clay), Thursday, October 23, 2025 4:20 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

chauncey out there playing 1/2, only game running?

chauncey staring a clay’s 7-4 off suit with his infrared contacts in

lmao

We got a financial planner a year or so ago. It was eye opening hearing them compare our relatively conservative financial position with people they work with that make like $1M who were in terrible shape because they basically hire a charter plane to go on vacation and fly first class without thinking about it, etc., etc.

chauncey out there playing 1/2, only game running?

― lag∞n,

lol yes! tbf it's a very uniquely stupid game that gets really wild like every other pot

whats the deal

it's a table positioned at the entrance to a well-trafficked strip club in old town and the fellas entering bug their eyes out when they see there's poker, so they sit down and lose a couple hundo in two hands to the regulars who then mix it up in bomb pots because they're bored, just a ton of new dead money being spilled into the pots every half hour

ha nice

that does sound like a good game lol

lol yeah i just sit and play the hold-em hands tight aggressive and push when i've got a made hand and it prints

chauncey billups: drafted by the boston celtics

terry rozier: drafter by the boston celtics

damon jones: played for the celtics his rookie year

coincidence?

thats right boston baby

if this really blows up it might get Bill Simmons to write longform again

siakam game tying 3 with 6 seconds left

no hali no turner, pacers still got that dawg in em

Good game

nuggets went down 0-10 and then went on a 10-0 run of their own

I’m really enjoying the thunder strategy this year of going to OT every game

Kinda annoying tho cos both time eating into the game I really want to watch lol

This game is good tho

if you have espn sub you should be able to watch nuggs

Aaron Gordon is a volume 3 point shooter now btw (serious)

I posted that after his first three and now he’s 3/3

horford seems to have quickly picked up on the warriors illegal-screen-on-every-play strategy

another screen addict in this screen addicted world, sad

Nuggs fans gotta be crying tears of joy seeing Jokic sit and valancunias come in in his place.

it’s so beautiful

Some pretty depleted squads by the end of the Thunder/Pacers game.

OKC were missing 7 of their 15 squad members before the game started.

Pacers had 3 players foul out, and Nembhard didn't come back after halftime.

6/6

AG is 6/6 from 3 in the first half. don’t say I didn’t warn you

it’s a real thing I’m telling you he got a basketball court in his house and learned how to shoot

thats the way to do it

now 7/7

7/7

7/7

8/8

9/9

trying out some prophecying here

DON'T JINX IT

ocean waves, lavator. ocean waves

This is gross

grossball

8/8

if this really blows up it might get Bill Simmons to write longform again

― lakini's juice newton (theStalePrince), Thursday, October 23, 2025 8:41 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

lmao once the shit with the mafia and card cams came out I instantly thought this is the perfect Bill Simmons story

biggest positive sign for me is the nuggets have taken 30 threes in 3 quarters. I would bet that hasn’t happened in at least 2 years

9/10

This Gordon game is nuts

10/11 from 3 for AG. steph answers, nuggets get the last shot...

Insaanittyyy

Pretty good shot pretty good D Jokic makes that 7/10 times

Dubs gotta fly to pdx and deal with those 20 year old legs in less than 24 hours

Horford you beautiful hoops gawd

So many smart players w horf in there

good game. dubs picking up horford is annoying

Not sure if this goes in the “conservative opinions” or whatever but fuck gambling. Shit should be Illegal it ruins sports. Fantasy sports is just a shade below imo

Fantasy sports is D&D for bros.

my brain had a hard time adjusting to horf in a warriors uniform, i definitely had some "wait, who is that?" moments.

ok let’s leave fantasy sports out of this….

Fantasy sports is D&D for bros.

― il lavoro mi rovina la giornata (PBKR), Friday, October 24, 2025 6:52 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

totally; i love it

im cool with fantasy sports as long as no one tries to talk to me about it

DNP-CD for rob dillingham tonight… is that pick just a write off at this point? what’s going on there

― slob wizard (J0rdan S.), Thursday, October 23, 2025 1:54 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Dillingham is a real source of consternation with Wolves fans. Generally, Finch and Tim Connolly seem pretty aligned, but Rob always really felt like a Connolly pick.

Finch keeps super tight rotations, sometimes too tight imo, I suppose he's like a lot of coaches, he just wants people that know how to play (cfe his attachment to Mike Conley). I suspect he doesn't think Rob has good enough decision-making and obviously at his size he's going to be a defensive liability his whole career even if he become a standout offensive player. If Finch does play younger guys, they tend to be like Terrance Shannon and Jaylen Clark, who I fully expect to be regular parts of the rotation this year, because they can bring a defined skill to the table (Clark with defense, TSJ with real physicality and forceful offensive play). I don't think Rob has one particular NBA skill that he can leverage at this point.

All of which is super concerning. And there have definitely been player like Josh Minott that seemed to be in his doghouse forever. The big question is how can players improve without playing?

I'm optimistic about the team this year, mostly because I believe in Ant. I also think Clark and Shannon Jr. are going to be great rotation players that contribute to winning. But we saw it in the Portland game, we are really stuck at point guard right now. Conley looks cooked and Donte was a fucking mess. He said he went to Bones Hyland down the stretch at PG because he's just bigger and better on defense than Rob, which is objectively true, but I do feel like we need to give Rob a chance given the assets we spent on him.

“ ok let’s leave fantasy sports out of this….”

I’m ready to burn it all down. For now on you’re not allowed to like basketball unless you had an older brother that relentlessly beat you down in one-on-one. Or if you cry every time you watch Hoosiers

D&D rules

fantasy is good fun dont be lames.

pretty awesome opening week of hoops thus far.

Fantasy sports is like poker... you can have a low-stakes game with your pals that is really more about hanging out and bragging rights, and then there are high-stakes games that are for degenerates.

otm playing for no money is the best way

seeing the imagery from the arrests yesterday and loling that billups was wearing a klutch hoodie and rozier was wearing hornets gear.

poker games for no money are lame as hell. nobody ever folds nor do they have reason to

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G4B0HtqX0AA97e-?format=jpg&name=large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G3-0eSTXEAAn8Bq?format=jpg&name=large

poker games for no money are lame as hell. nobody ever folds nor do they have reason to

― frogbs, Friday, October 24, 2025 11:27 AM (forty-nine seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

sorry was talking only about fantasy. otm about poker obv

handcuffs? for stat shaving? rly?

Fantasy sports for no money can be lame too. Not every free league is as competitive as the ILX league. A small stake can keep people honest, or it can be a small incentive to keep playing even if other players have dipped.

xp you never know when he's gonna pull some sudden movement and try to shave your stats

The big question is how can players improve without playing?

feel like this is one of the dwindling areas of real deviation in how teams are assembled and coached. the template is easy to follow when you bottom out, no barriers to playing your yung'uns then. but for serious teams trying to win games, knowing how to structure rotations to build up your raw and unproven guys seems like an area where competitive advantages in coaching stand out. i think about the dynasty spurs as the gold standard, obv having a tim duncan on your team helps. in the converse example, it's the sheer awesomeness of steph that saved the warriors from being devastated by their own bungling of the same balance

playing young guys is especially tough in the west cause its so competitive

theres always the g league tho

terry split $100k with his friend at a time when he was making $200k+ a game, think the friend part is prob key to understanding this his boy brought him a deal and he thought why not help him out, same dynamic is at play when you see like samuel jackson making a visa ad what does he need that money for but other people hes associated with are getting paid too, his agent is bringing him these deals and wants to get paid he figures why not do a day or twos easy work and everyones happy

Before a March 23, 2023, game against the New Orleans Pelicans, Rozier, who then played for the Hornets, allegedly told Laster, a childhood friend, that he would remove himself from the game in the first quarter due to a supposed injury, according to the indictment. Laster allegedly sold the information to two bettors for about $100,000.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/46695228/sources-terry-rozier-arrested-part-gambling-inquiry

Fantasy sports is like poker... you can have a low-stakes game with your pals that is really more about hanging out and bragging rights, and then there are high-stakes games that are for degenerates.

― reggae mike love (polyphonic), Friday, October 24, 2025 1:15 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

mine is honestly more about the one weekend a year i get together with some old friends from my hometown, no money on the line. it's a good excuse to get everyone together and goofing in the group chat throughout the season.

fantasy baseball is an intellectual pursuit…

Seems like it's time for our favorite part of the beautiful game to have its own thread (and ghettoize it out of here)

NBA-Gambling Ecosystem ~ Prop Bets, Parlays, Last-Minute Scratches, X-Ray Poker Tables ~ brought to you by our partners DraftKings and FanDuel

i still can’t get over chauncey wearing a klutch hoodie. what signal was he sending

went to turn on the celtics game nowhere to be found on youtubetv, fuckin amazon

ah nm maybe ill watch the world series

the knicks are currently outrebounding the celtics 200 to 2. enjoy the series.

but shoutouts to joe mazzulla for subbing out the entire starting five halfway through the first qtr, and to hugo gonzales for his first nba points about 30 seconds later. hugo may be the best reason to watch this team this year.

i also very much enjoyed the ref who went over to the celtics bench to explain a questionable call to assistant coach jayson tatum.

franchise record 86 points at halftime for the heat tonight in memphis. that is so many points

i still can’t get over chauncey wearing a klutch hoodie. what signal was he sending

― slob wizard (J0rdan S.), Friday, October 24, 2025 1:27 PM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

https://tenor.com/bVQhf.gif

checking in on paolo banchero’s end of game decision making…

i've watched portions of the first two magic games and paolo's shot selection is concerning

his whole career so far!

luka looks incredible. he had 23 in the first quarter tonight. tho he went for a heat check 3 near the end of the quarter and got it blocked by naz

blazers are gonna be really interesting with billups gone, offense is just push push push chaos and they're probably a top 3-5 defensive team. halfcourt stuff needs some work but gonna be the first time it's fun to root for these guys in 6-7 years

They are complete hell on defense feel like they had at least 50 deflections. With a team as loose as the dubs with the ball (plus old) that’s a recipe for disaster. Really fun team, I think if deni could get to an all star level they might have something cooking

Edgecombe with 15/6/8 with 3 steals. He really looks like he knows what he is doing out there. His floor seems like it is going to be pretty high.

he really does look like a vet out there

jokic has 11 assists in the first half. I think it’s because I’m at the game and cheering for him

nice job

it’s hard work but someone has to do it

literally braver than the troops, kev

coming together a bit slowly for the magic

early returns on this rookie lotto class are promising

cedric coward averaging 19/4/2/2 on good efficiency and limited minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFRCkLfV7Dk

ant out 2 weeks w hammy

and the wolves are on national TV four times out of their next five games, the NBA really needs to have a mechanism to easily flex out of games where the best player on a team is known to be out

what do you mean, america demands more rudy gobert post ups

nuggets will still find a way to lose tonight sadly, doesn’t matter who’s wearing those minnesota uniforms

america demands more rudy gobert post ups

― Lavator Shemmelpennick, Monday, October 27, 2025 5:24 PM (nineteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

--rudy gobert

the NBA really needs to have a mechanism to easily flex out of games where the best player on a team is known to be out

― slob wizard (J0rdan S.), Monday, October 27, 2025 4:22 PM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

they should just broadcast every wemby game, easy

change the channel to e-wemb-pn

otm

zach lowe & goldsberry talking about concerning offensive numbers for the magic tonight who are getting killed by maxey & edgecomb at halftime

bane has had a rough move to orlando it seems

goldsberry comparing paulo to josh smith and lowe almost whispering oh no was pretty funny

gonna be tough for the magic as long as their two best players cant shoot, would be best for them to learn how to shoot

which seems unlikely so what i would do is build a team where they can play giannis ball with paulo, theyre pretty far from that tho

goldsberry comparing paulo to josh smith and lowe almost whispering oh no was pretty funny

― lag∞n, Monday, October 27, 2025 8:53 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

yikes!

its pretty scary

who he play for deandre jordan (pelicans)

goldsberry comparing paulo to josh smith and lowe almost whispering oh no was pretty funny

― lag∞n, Monday, October 27, 2025 5:53 PM (eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

:)

i dont think its a good comparison fwiw but it was good radio

i generally like goldsberry but he said leadership like five times over the course of the pod should be one of those max

i think paolo is a lot better than josh smith

the other thing with the magic is that they seem like one of those classic teams that makes a big move in the offseason and everyone talks about how good the starting 5 looks on paper while never talking about players 7-11 and then you get to the season and realize nobody on the bench can be trusted to do anything with the ball

ditto for the hawks

the hawks at least had a couple moves that could do something in the aggregate (though one of those guys was porzingis who now only plays when the moon is correctly aligned to the earth). the magic were pinning a lot on one guy who has never been an all star.

atl would be fucked if they had a horrible season due to the spurs swap but they lucked out in fleecing new orleans for THEIR pick

josh smith is actually a really good comp for paolo and I’m mad I didn’t think of it before

Hot tip if any of your teams ever find themselves in this situation: the key to breaking out of a season-opening losing streak is to head down and pay a visit to the New Orleans Pelicans

more like old *not orleans, some other shittier french city* pelicant's

josh smith is actually a really good comp for paolo and I’m mad I didn’t think of it before

― comrade jhøsh (k3vin k.), Monday, October 27, 2025 10:31 PM (twenty-four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

feel like paolo is more of a pounder and josh was more of a gunner, but the end result is similar in terms of offense-leaning power forwards who take up shots inefficiently

guys, paolo is a lot better than josh smith. this is crazy

maybe time permitting we can all look at some stats tomorrow and figure this out? i'm just reacting to a statement on a podcast i haven't listened to.

career TS%

paolo - 54%
josh smith - 50%

josh smith played in 73 career playoff games, his career high in points was 29. paolo has played in 12 career playoff games and has games of 31, 31, 32, 36, 38 and 39. paolo is on another level as a scorer, it’s not even close. paolo gets to the line way more most notably. i’d compare him to jimmy butler before i did josh smith

at least on the offensive end. josh smith was probably a better defender to say nothing of butler but nowhere near enough to outweigh how much better paolo is as a number 1 option. was josh smith ever more than a number 2 on any of those teams? as far as the comp goes i guess you could say they both are athletic freaks that play power forward?

j0rdan is right

I’m a little confused I guess. are you saying current paolo is better than peak josh smith? that’s not remotely true. paolo could certainly be significantly better once all is said and done…though he might not…

career TS%

paolo - 54%
josh smith - 50%

now adjust for era……

paolo has played his entire career with 1990s spacing so i’m gonna deny that motion

sorry i’m a little confused too. are we talking about the same josh smith? yeah ill take the guy who can average 28 ppg in the playoffs as a 20 and 21 year old over josh smith

lakers are a rough watch folks

when bronny is second off the bench....

i don’t even see the stylistic comparisons between josh smith and paolo. watch this highlight video of josh smith scoring 34 points during his best season (2011) — there’s zero on ball creation. he’s taking inefficient midrange jumpers a la paolo bcuz the spacing in this era was still shit and he’s basically being left unguarded by his defender but wasn’t being coached to be at the three point line. he is good finishing at the rim and they feed him some paint touches again bcuz it was still the 1990s mentally

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJ6_66LRayA

if you watch this video and think this guy would be paolo in today’s NBA you’re crazy. he would be a rim running + floor spacing 5 who was a menace on defense bcuz of his ability to switch and defend wings and also provide rim protection. he would be much closer to like chet or bam or someone like that than a number 1 scoring option, if he was on a good team he’d basically never have the ball in his hands. this comp is bogus and an insult to paolo and possibly even an insult to josh smith who could do lots of cool things paolo can’t

just for the record, smith topped out in the mid-50s low-60s percentile true shooting, plus elite defense. a orrttt good player! paolo has yet to break the 40th, and is a good but not elite defender. I don’t see how that’s such an insulting comp, unless you really think he has top-5 DNA. I can agree just from a scouting/projection POV he stands a good chance to be better than him…but his low/mid-low projections very much are coming up josh smith.

orrrrt = pretty, lol

can’t believe I of all people am here defending josh smith’s honor. who for all of his crimes against watchable basketball also had a direct hand in derailing one of the most promising chris paul postseason runs. I have no love for josh smith

only time will tell of course, the thing about paolo is he’s still so young and he has so many possible pathways for his career to go. but as you said jordan, smith could at least finish at the rim, which paolo has not been able to demonstrate. (as mediocre as paolo is everywhere else on the floor, smith was actually considerably worse. looking up his splits is actually painful)

but paolo is the number 1 option ball handler creator on his team whereas josh smith was always a complimentary player so even if their stats are comparable one guy is just inherently a better player by being able to equal the stats of the guy whose job is a lot easier

the argument for josh smith is that he prob would have been an elite defender in the spacing era if he put his mind to it. he finished second in DPOY as a 24 year old and his defensive skillset would have been much more valuable now. he also would have been elite in transition and as a pick and roll lob finisher in an era where that ability was far more valued. i actually think bam is a really good comp for him, bam has a bigger frame and is stronger than smith but those are guys who have the wiry athleticism to guard a guy on the wing then block a shot at the rim and then dribble coast to coast and finish at the other basket. that’s not really paolo’s game. at the apex we’re talking giannis

if you wanted to convince me that bam was better than paolo i’d prob say you’re wrong but you might be right. in some instances he probably is. but we don’t compare those guys bcuz they do different things on the court

paolo is the #1 option by default, not really because he is suited for it. he plays for the magic, a team that has famously not had a top 10 offense in 15 years (and paolo has not, at least yet, reversed that trend). again, I’m not foreclosing the possibility that paolo is better. I’m just saying that it’s not clear on the evidence thus far that he is

at the end of the day we are using our eyes to make projections, and we agree that paolo has the potential to be better than his production has been this far. but his production so far soeaks for itself, and it’s not great!

my point is less about which player is better and more than i don’t think the comparison really makes much sense if you go back and watch how josh smith played basketball

bam is an interesting comparison. of course they have very different roles, bam being a complementary player and paolo being (for better or worse) a primary playmaker

https://imgur.com/a/UykyuYP

the difference in roles could be looked at in one of two ways: paolo obviously has the higher ceiling as a primary playmaker, because a great offensive player will always be a more valuable player than a great defensive player. but if he doesn’t improve at the things he struggles at, he could end up being a millstone just by continuing to eat up so many possessions, while bam is not really going to present that problem as he’s always going to be a secondary guy and do the little things. to reiterate, paolo’s ceiling is yet undefined. but he does need to at some point show he can do it. maybe this year is the year!

paolo is the #1 option by default, not really because he is suited for it.

his game is that of an on ball player in a way josh smith’s never was. now whether he ever has the efficiency of a great on ball player is a fair thing to ask. but regardless he is an on the ball player

an interesting thing that’s stuck with me is the idea of the archetype of player who drags their team to the middle in either direction. jerry engelman mentioned this on nate duncan’s podcast last year and cited players like derozan, lavine, a couple of others I can’t remember now, but it’s basically guys who are #1 options but not terribly good at it, and they’re the kind of guys you absolutely want to avoid when building a team because with a good roster they will never elevate you to the upper crust, but at the same time will drag you upward toward .500 if your roster otherwise sucks, leaving you in the sort of purgatory of neither truly contending nor bottoming out, essentially what you don’t want given how the lottery system is. I’m not saying paolo is definitely going to be that type of player, he’s too young to say for sure, I’m just saying I am monitoring the situation

Please stop with this Josh Smith shit. I had to live through that

if he was on a good team he’d basically never have the ball in his hands. this comp is bogus and an insult to paolo and possibly even an insult to josh smith who could do lots of cool things paolo can’t

― slob wizard (J0rdan S.), Tuesday, October 28, 2025 12:45 AM (seven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

jordan, thank you

ive said this a number of times on here but paulo has had exactly the wrong team around him his entire career is something to factor in, now if you want to dock him because he needs the right kind of team around him thats fair imo, aslo as mentioned hes still very young

the thing that gives me faith in paulo is that hes a beast just an extremely physical player, superior physicality is an nba cheat the ultimate example of which would be giannis, now paulo isnt giannis giannis is one of one, but with the right team around him (shooters, secondary playmakers) some refinement to his game and the increased strength that comes with age he could use his combo of physicality and skills to find a lot of easy shots, the other thing that gives me faith in paulo is his already many very good to great playoff performances, its not like hes just beating up on suckers here hes done it in the offs too

I only watched the hawks game but I liked da Silva when he was on the floor

Zion already sitting out a game for ‘rest’ and the Pels are now 0-3 lol.

I’m gonna be sad if he doesn’t play tomorrow. I went to a duke-syracuse game where he was a late scratch too, still haven’t seen him live

I really hope Wemby keeps it up and wins MVP this year. What a force

I bought tix to see him him on November 10th, hopefully losing to the undefeated Bulls.

he is 100% on my must-see-live-with-lower-bowl-seats list

brandon miller seeking a 2nd opinion on his shoulder injury, never a good sign

kalkbrenner the rookie C they have is giving bam and ware absolute fits as a rim protector tonight. not sure he has much if any offensive game but his rim protection might be pretty legit

classic lamelo in the first half put up 15-4-3 with some objectively great offense, crazy kick out passing to wide open shooters etc. he made his first four threes all of which i think were off the dribble step backs. so of course he then starts shooting one legged threes, pulling up from anywhere, misses his next 5 threes, picks up two terrible frustration fouls, and hornets down 76-60 at the break

should current trends continue were looking at two of the alltime biggest wastes of nba talent in zion and lamelo, sad

where lamelo plays and 1 ball (derogatory) james harden in this warriors game is playing and 1 ball (complimentary)

thank god jimmy ended up in golden state and not phoenix, he and steph are two guys who should be playing together

Pretty impressive win on the 2nd half of a back to back allowing only 79 points from the Clips. Jimmy 0 fta. Also Quinten Post +34 dayum. Didn't realize they had lost to them 7 times in a row too

the clippers looked old. kawhi didn’t have much lift. cp3 + brook lopez bench combo got shredded. the warriors are old and were running by them

thank god jimmy ended up in golden state and not phoenix, he and steph are two guys who should be playing together

Yeah it’s been super fun so far

I imagine cp3 and brook won’t be playing much by the end of the season if tonight was any indication

Podz lebron-ing cp on that fast break brought a tear to my eye. Can’t wait to not have to see that man play basketball anymore.

The Clippers need to hang on for a couple more years of mediocrity before bottoming out in 2028 when the Sixers own their pick and in 2029 when they own a pick swap.

at tonight’s nuggets game too. I cannot escape deandre jordan

I’m sitting next to aaron gordon’s cousin. unsurprisingly, a solid dude

I have Serious Concerns about the Timberwolves

whats the issue

might be an awkward presser "yeah we couldn't stop Jake Laravia tonight"

I mean the way they're playing they probably couldn't even stop Jake from State Farm

I guess the Pels aren’t gonna be league pass darlings after all lmao. What on earth is going on over there. Can’t imagine Willie makes it much longer.

free trey murphy

Horseshit performance by the Wolves tonight

well they're awake now

jfc man

Goddamn

Sheesh

Reaves being good really pisses me off lol

i'm starting to think he might be better than grayson allen

lol

I just looked at the Kings roster for the first time this year. No one is going to play defense are they?

Reaves being good really pisses me off lol

― Spottie, Thursday, October 30, 2025 12:18 AM (seven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

take solace in the fact that he and luka a very bad defensive fit destined to be shredded in the offs

lakers no where near having a contender wonder what theyre going to do maybe theyll trade reaves for giannis

also why havent they resigned reaves yet

think it’s some sort of artificially low cap hold situation they’re taking advantage of or something like that

ah yeah makes sense

no it’s that thing where the max amount they can offer him is way below his market value. they offered him the most they could this summer — 4/90 — and he turned it down

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6453010/2025/06/26/lakers-austin-reaves-contract-extension/

oh damn gotta think someones going to poach him sucks for the lakers

that really puts them in a hole wonder what the plan is

does LeBron have any more kids

maybe they can find reaves a no show job

gonna be funny to see lebron leave the lakers next year and the team immediately cut bronny btw

i see bronny has yet to score this season

the lakers have $100m in cap space this summer so they’ll be able to re-sign reaves but it will be at a huge number obv. i think it’s more a question of the wisdom of paying $100m+ to a backcourt duo of he & luka but they seem intent on doing it

i mean you gotta do it unless you cant get someone better, then maybe trade reaves later

luka/reaves as your 1-2 is not championship material. their skill sets overlap too much, positively and negatively.

sign n trade maybe idk

I just looked at the Kings roster for the first time this year. No one is going to play defense are they?

― il lavoro mi rovina la giornata (PBKR), Thursday, October 30, 2025 4:18 AM (six hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

evergreen

been thinking about luka/reaves in the context of luka/kyrie but i guess the difference is that kyrie was just better than reaves

yeah way less overlap in skillsets too

cant believe this shit with billups what a scumbag

oops intended for the gambling thread

gonna be fascinating this season whenever OKC plays the Spurs

Ryan Rollins huh

gonna be fascinating this season whenever OKC plays the Spurs

Christmas day! (and also 23 December).

Luka/Trae back court let’s do it

big day for the association thats right its halloween and the nba cup is back baby excited to see what sort of monstrous court uniform combos theyre handing out this year

Ryan Rollins huh

― Spottie, Thursday, October 30, 2025 11:42 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

looked at his game logs and he was putting up good numbers (on low volume) for the last couple months of last year too

also i have watched a video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2k_2XGtuKhw

thats a long video (i watched)

yeah that guy is pretty rambling but i like him hes funny hes all oh look at this shin parallel to the floor thats crazy

was gonna call out the shin angle call out lol

hes def very into flexibility which gotta be honest i think hes on to something

the beloved emirates rapid support forces NBA cup begins tonight

and the celtics game is on amazon, a perfect evening

the NBA presented by jeff bezos and MBZ, gamble responsibly

Ryan Rollins huh

― Spottie, Thursday, October 30, 2025 11:42 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

looked at his game logs and he was putting up good numbers (on low volume) for the last couple months of last year too

― lag∞n, Friday, October 31, 2025 9:45 AM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

he balled out against the knicks, made it so they couldn't overcome that awesome giannis game

I totally forgot about Lonzo Ball, didn't know he was on the Cavs

the original ball brother

o'ball

the first ball

Julius Randle is playing really well, biggest bright spot so far

raptors feel like one of those stuck in the middle teams but actually theyre just bad

‪Keerthika Uthayakumar‬ keerthikau.bsky.social‬

The four-man unit of Immanuel Quickley, RJ Barrett, Brandon Ingram & Scottie Barnes have a -23.7 net rating in 92 minutes together, second-worst of any 4-man lineup this season (min. 60 min).

Raptors have been outscored by 47 points in their minutes together.

funny heated argument about the raptors on the hoop collective a few weeks ago & i was def on bontemps’s side seeing them as a top 6 contender… i think i still see that but maybe it’s just a cursed roster build

its a fascinating experiment of "can you build a whole team out of pretty good starter-level players but no real star power" and the answer is no

barnes was supposed to be the star

if the answer to that question in this year’s east isn’t “yes” then they have a severe problem

xp re: barnes his offensive numbers look good, shooting 50% from 3 on moderate volume, 20.8/6.7/4.5. they are just a dogshit defensive team tho. i think all the guys they are building around are just not great at it.

scottie is a career 30% 3pt shooter have a feeling that 50% wont hold up, but i mean hes a good player hes just not really good

yeah, and thats kinda the classic sign of a mid team, your best guy(s) is(are) merely good (see: every demar derozan team)

think the answer to that question is yes, but it has to be the right kind of starter-level players who make sense playing together. talent isn’t the issue in toronto as much as fit imo

and yeah as bise alludes to, allocating a lot of usage to players who have average efficiency AND don’t elevate teammates is a recipe for being .500

i think barnes profiles as a pretty strong number 2. i don’t think he’s as good as jaylen brown but i don’t think he’d be very far off at his peak if he ever got to play with a true number 1. but idk when that is happening or how

idk barnes hasnt shown the same ability to improve at basketball that jaylen has

that’s true tho he may be (definitely is) in a situation less conducive to developing. siakam is another guy who would be overstretched as a number 1 option but in the right situation has made a second and third team all NBA. i think barnes could do something similar if he was playing next to someone better. developing as a reliable off the ball shooter feels like the key thing, siakam became a very skilled player

barnes still has some upside its true but his development trajectory just doesnt look great imo, he has a jack of all trades master of none thing going, which now that i think about it torontos roster does altogether like brandon ingram rj barrett what are the things those guys do really well, and yeah getting better at shooting and playing off ball would go a long way for barnes but might be asking a lot, right now hes much better with the ball in his hands but isnt really good enough to be the primary creator on a good team

the comparison to siakim is interesting cause siakim does do some things really well which is why hes been a playoff riser, get him the ball late in the clock and he can get you a decent shot hes a great fastbreak player and has a lot of defensive versatility, plus hes just a gamer hes got that dog

he is both that dog and has it within him, tough quality to develop

btw icymi in july, new orleans traded their 2026 first rounder unprotected to atl for the opportunity move up and take derik queen.

unrelated note, new orleans just dropped to 0-6 after getting thumped by the oklahomas, kinda thinking this trade might not pay off for them and also wondering if joe dumars is the right man for the job.

scottie could be a great #2 if he reaches his ceiling for sure. it’s hard to overstate how much being an awful shooter limits a player’s ceiling… there’s a thin line between aaron gordon, mediocre shooter and aaron gordon, good shooter for instance

orlando aaron gordon was traded for gary harris, rj hampton and a 1st round pick that became jase richardson. denver aaron gordon could probably get 4 1st rounders from a contender now if denver wanted to trade him (they wont bc he's obv awesome).

that dumars trade was universally panned by everyone who cares about such things and what do you know it does not seem to be working out, sucks when every hardcore nba fan is smarter than your gm

yeah and he was brought in as the #3 or sometimes even #4 option offensively. he’s made great strides the past couple of years shooting wise

xp

siakam and gordon both interesting careers for supporting star pf's, athletic to cover wings, beefy enough for the post. kinda hoping jeremy sochan's career develops that direction, tho his shooting is still a work in progress that i dont think will ever be current aaron gordon level.

that dumars trade was universally panned by everyone who cares about such things and what do you know it does not seem to be working out, sucks when every hardcore nba fan is smarter than your gm

― lag∞n, Sunday, November 2, 2025 5:41 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

it is crazymaking and i feel bad for all 4000 pelicans fans who are watching their team like krusty betting against the globetrotters

gotta tip your hat to gordon for being such an enthusiastic role player when he came into the league as a high draft pick with a ton of hype

you know whos another important player on a champ team that was acquired for a first and some randos, derrick white

I don’t know her

spurs fans are v proud of the buffalo exceeding expectations en route to a championship

me too

looking at the nets roster and this has to be one of the worst teams ever assembled right their best player is micheal porter jr? cam thomas?

they are pretty bad lol

I'm starting to adjust to the idea that, while they're not a legit contender in the West, the blazers are going to be competitive enough that contending teams can't afford to overlook them. It's good to see Time Lord back on the court now giving them good minutes.

theyve got some quality wins, too! that defense is no joke.

im glad blake wesley is getting some run, he showed flashes of really pestering defense in sa but never figured out the scoring part

yeah theyve done a good job of scrounging up some guys

they're a lot of fun to watch which i haven't been able to say since like uhhh.. it's been a decade of anyone other than dame being "fun" really and dame is so dour lol

sean marks having pop level job security despite making almost exclusively bad decisions is one of the NBA’s great mysteries

when its your job to be bad, you cant ever fail

marcus smart doing marcus smart things on the lakers is an experience that could only have come straight from the mind of satan himself

otm

bronny is a playing a lot tonight and every guy on the heat is taking it as a personal affront anytime he attempts to score

lmao

As they should

looking at the nets roster and this has to be one of the worst teams ever assembled right their best player is micheal porter jr? cam thomas?

The two biggest black holes in the league lol amazing tank construction

marcus smart doing marcus smart things on the lakers is an experience that could only have come straight from the mind of satan himself

Otmfm. I was legit blood boiled in the warriors lakers game

If he had torn Steph's arm off a la Olynyk, maybe Adam Silver would have sent dudes to bust his kneecaps

I'm starting to adjust to the idea that, while they're not a legit contender in the West, the blazers are going to be competitive enough that contending teams can't afford to overlook them. It's good to see Time Lord back on the court now giving them good minutes.

― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Sunday, November 2, 2025 7:00 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

wolves got lucky and won because Ant kinda blacked out in the fourth quarter, but I was so impressed by their defensive effort in that game, they had the Wolves really shook for 3/4ths of the game. So much energy, they were full court pressing the entire game.

full court press def trending league wide as is total commitment to running, coaches were impressed with the pacers playoff run i guess

interesting style of play def a way to leverage a deep bench if you have one, and force teams that dont into uncomfortable spots

imo there is a pretty strong incentive for the offense to play fast, you don't let the defense get set and you make the most of the clock. relatedly, there is a pretty strong incentive for the defense to slow the offense down, bleed the clock, stagnate things etc. but it seems like for most of its lifetime the NBA at large has looked at pressing and running as something beneath the league, it's what you do at lower levels of basketball when you don't have NBA athletes. which is pretty dumb

prob part of it is its a tiring way to play and teams dont want to tire their best guys out they want them to play a lot of minutes, but with the skills explosion and the way defense is played these days theres some flatting out of star power going on that maybe makes running and pressing more attractive, and you are tiring out the other teams guys too

i think there is also an expectation nowadays that players are going to be in the type of shape where they can run up and down the floor for 35 mins a game

35 mins is a lot no pacers player averaged that last year, not even in the playoffs

well whatever the number is, that’s not the point. i’m just saying that the days when one of the best players in the league can openly talk about never working out are long gone & that should lend itself more to this style of up and down play

it is a real trade off tho you cant play yr guys as much in that style no matter how well conditioned they are

btw maxey is averaging 42mins a game which doesnt seem great

wonder how much longer ja is going to be in the league might be headed for a ben simmons type situation where physical decline and not really wanting to be there anyway intersect at a point where hes out of the league way sooner than anyone wouldve thought

btw i learned on hoop collective today that ja started his own sports management agency but has yet to hire any actual agents

you cant play yr guys as much in that style no matter how well conditioned they are

well, portland tried and failed for a decade to pair dame with another top tier talent, so for them the concept of maxing minutes for 'yr guys' was reduced to just 'yr guy'. it didn't work out. the apparent reality these days is that there's less and less of a gap between the 20th best player in the league and the 60th best player, so there's more opportunity out there for a team to load up on hungry young guys who are just 'good' and try an ensemble approach that throws fresh legs onto the court every 8 or 10 minutes.

I should have added to that: once you get below the 60th (or so) best player there's just a milling crowd of highly talented, athletic players fighting for minutes, who get so little air time they are difficult to distinguish. that's where a smart team can go prospecting for a deep, complementary bench.

reading about the pelicans and reminded that the cj mccollum trade was josh hart, nickeil alexander walker and a first for CJ. just an unbelievably bad trade

woof

a david griffin classic

the lakers are sitting luka and reaves in portland tonight with lebron already out, the NBA should refund every fan’s ticket or just suspend all payments at concession stands and team stores. looting is legal in the arena for one game

tonight's the back half of a back 2 back and LA is throwing in the towel before the tip off, eh? I see they got the fear put in them.

Ban B2Bs

Giannis fadeaway walk off game winner!

haven’t gotten a chance to watch the celtics at length this year but the models really like them despite their record. dunks and threes’ updated projection has them at 48 wins for the year

thats insane we need a wellness check on the models

lol yeah that is not going to happen

one thing i will say is they have a very obvious way to improve the team if they feel like it which is to acquire a starting quality center, its something theyll need to do by next season anyway so i could see it happening if the right deal came along

one of the craziest no calls ive ever seen jazz get the layup on the other end celtics lose by two refs do manage to call a push off on jaylen with the celtics inbounding with .6 left tho

Tudo bem o time ser sem vergonha e perder, mas isso aqui é tiração já

Maluco deu um carrinho no Jaylen Brown em quadra, essa falta não marcada é padrão CBF, se tivesse um Var teria alguém avisando que foi sem querer e lance de jogopic.twitter.com/7Tnawtew1U

— Celtics Br (@CelticsBrr) November 4, 2025

zach lavine is playing the 4. in related news, aaron gordon is having a nice game

hell yes Giannis

it pains me to say this (no it doesn’t) but having watched both of these two players get major bench minutes on consecutive nights, there’s not a ton of difference between chris paul and bronny james at this point

Bronny made some decent choices as a ball handler this game

early and all that but i’m not sure the norm powell out for john collins and brad beal switch is gonna work out for the clippers. i continue to not really understand the idea of john collins being good & beal just looks cooked

i did not like that at all for the clippers, it just seemed to miss the point that norm is easily the best of those players right now

wonder what the clips are going to do their team is aging out theyve got no one under contract in 27-28 seems like theyll have to bottom out

are they gonna get any punishments for the tree thing?

if they don't get slapped for it the league will open a truck-sized loophole in the salary rules

guessing theyll get a pretty decent punishment couple firsts and a fine kawhis contract voided something like that, assuming the other owners want ballmer punished for this which logically they should but otoh billionaires generally do not want see other billionaires punished for anything, if the league doesnt do anything or just gives a slap on the wrist theyll be creating a huge problem for themselves, and they should be smart enough to understand that, which doesnt mean they are

voiding kawhi’s contract is like the most punitive option available and from what I’m reading and hearing that is still considered to be pretty unlikely

might be doing the clippers a favor tbh

not if they lose picks too lol

itd save them some money at least

watched a few clips games this season and it just seems like kawhi and harden are going through the motions. weird roster with two weirdo aging top dogs. bropez/cp/bogdon/batum/beal are all completely washed. zubac peaked last season.

Sixers have the Clippers 2028 pick (unprotected) and the 2029 pick swap (protected 1-3). I think those are going to be pretty good assets.

yeah for sure

i think kawhi and harden have looked pretty awesome and zubac is obv good. but they legit don't have a single young player in their rotation, chris paul is taking 3.5 shots per game and is shooting 25%, he's just totally ineffective as someone allegedly supposed to be running a second unit, he's barely even brook gives them no offense, beal barely does anything. forgot bogie was on the team until i saw him dapping up norm after the game. evern worse is that they're 26th in def rating per cleaning the glass, might be hard to be a good defense the way the game is being played right now when you're the oldest team in the league

meant to say that chris paul is barely even being guarded*

the DRTG thing is interesting, because they're 10th in adjusted defensive rating on dunks and threes. the small sample of games must exaggerate whatever difference in inputs the two have. I know CTG filters out garbage time so I wonder if it just didn't count much the second half of their blowout loss to the jazz

agree on the overall point though that their path to a top seed is looking pretty shaky. I was always skeptical of their playoff ceiling but if the one thing they were supposed to be good at (depth) is a mirage they're cooked

just the phrase "blowout loss to the jazz" says enough

has this guy ever put like ten games straight together?

The Pelicans announced Tuesday that Williamson will miss at least one week due to a strained left hamstring.

https://www.theringer.com/2025/11/04/nba/paolo-banchero-orlando-magic-shooting-midrange

michael pina on the paolo question

I don’t really like how much goga bitaze looks like tall but equally sad ricky rubio, he should have to change his hair

Bulls vs 76ers battle of the 6-1s.

thunder are gonna win 70 this year huh

they have an undrafted rookie named chris youngblood

I only watched the hawks game but I liked da Silva when he was on the floor

― Heez, Tuesday, October 28, 2025 10:22 AM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

Also Mo Gueye is turning into a nice backup to Jalen

sorry 4 twitter but good video of the sixers end of game offense stinking, embiid in particular basically just not moving at all taking crazy spin around one legged midrange fadeaways on vuc

The Sixers went 0-11 FG in the last 6:26 of loss vs. Bulls. They managed just 2 points, both from the free throw line, in that stint.

Here is every Sixers possession from it — note the complete lack of movement off the ball, terrible Joel Embiid iso, wild shot selection, etc. pic.twitter.com/zcYMRacY6v

— Erin Grugan (@eringrugan) November 5, 2025

been kinda lost in phillys hot start how cooked embiid is

oh no

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

embiid is shooting 42% from the field and averaging 5.2 FTA per game. two seasons ago those numbers were 52.9% and 11.6, respectively

ive had the pleasure of watching him in two games vs the celtics and hes just not moving at all out there sometimes he gets the ball and shoots it but thats about it hes not defending hes not trying to get position or doing moves once he gets the ball

thunder are gonna win 70 this year huh

― comrade jhøsh (k3vin k.), Tuesday, November 4, 2025 11:09 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

if they want to they can def make a run at the record. they got smoked in the 1st quarter yesterday and still had the game wrapped by about 2 min into the 4th. and of course doing this without their 2nd best player

is bams 3pt shooting real? shooting 6+ a game at ~36%

dominant regular season team vs a league thats as beat up as its ever been, they should go for it

those embiid clips ooooof

is bams 3pt shooting real? shooting 6+ a game at ~36%

― Spottie, Wednesday, November 5, 2025 12:52 PM (twenty-eight seconds ago)

personally i don't think his shot looks great, to me it looks like he's shooting too early in his jump. so i do want to see him keep shooting at this clip in order to further buy into it, but he is definitely being given the green light to shoot and i think bcuz big man spacing is so important in an offense fully centered around driving into the paint that he will be encouraged to keep it up even if the shooting percentage ebbs a bit. i do think that this year his threes are overall more often in rhythm and in the flow of the offense, last year there was a lot more "well nothing is happening on this possession and i have the ball outside the three point line with my man sagging off me so i guess i'll shoot it." i think ultimately i'd bet that the corner 3 shooting is more real than the above the break shooting, he has looked really comfortable pulling it from the corners

shooting in rhythm and flow can go a long way

kessler season ending shoulder injury/surgery

encouraging xp re bam. was just checking his stats this morning and didnt realize his block numbers were so low for a DPOY level center. hasnt even averaged 1 bpg per season since 2020. i guess he's more of a switchy draymond prototype defensive player