nba preseason 2013: bring me the knees of youth

Training camps are opening everywhere. Here we can trade our sharp insights, brandishing them like lances against one another's ignorance.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/9cbaf96241adee11b635544f3ebd40eb/tumblr_mtuw4qoWcO1rct6yjo1_500.jpg

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/9755369/eric-bledsoe-anthony-davis-evan-turner-nba-all-intriguing-team

i'm with lowe on bledsoe -- he's one of those guys who's so underrated he's maybe a little overrated now. still love watching him play

i was a bledsoe sceptic but he was ridiculous last season, if he continues to improve watch out nba!

Tristan Thompson, Cleveland Cavaliers

Dirty little secret: The Thompson shooting-hand switch is a less dramatic story inside the Cavs' offices than it is from the outside. The Cavs knew when they drafted Thompson that he was very nearly ambidextrous and that he was a poor shooter with his left hand. The left-to-right change is something the team contemplated even before drafting him.

haha what

whaaaaat

http://i.imgur.com/hYhbFHQ.jpg

http://daylifeimages.newscred.com/imageserve/897bbc43a4e3e5809961bb4d6ca85fb7/561x380.jpg?fit=scale&background=000000

sup

o hey

cavs have a lot of big dudes i never thought about that

so many

@HPbasketball 5m
NBA LEAGUE PASS BROADBAND TO FEATURE ARCHIVE OF NATIONALLY TELEVISED GAMES.

^_^

they actually did that during the playoffs last season, so it's not 100% surprising. still sweet though.

John Henson should switch to shooting free throws left handed (and maybe jumpers too).

"I'm a guy where whoever's on the court I'm going to go at them," Rose said. "If it's my teammates, it could be my mom on the court, she's going to get killed. I could care less who [is out there].

ha wow

Yeeeeeees happy to have you back Rose.

By "killed" I think he means he'd blow by her for the jam as often as he could, then pound his chest and say things about her mama.

kobe gettin that kobe http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba--kobe-bryant-to-have-treatment-on-knee-in-germany-203625485.html

oden on the bench, kobe gettin that kobe, nba got put in a time machine

J Rich got mad fat huh

Was gonna crack a joke that you're supposed to look like that when your 36 years old, but he's 32.

yeah he's a scumbag too so Im cool with making fun of him

http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/1926193ixzv9qjpg/original.jpg

XD

haha

video games r so realistic these days

:D

@HPbasketball 5m
NBA LEAGUE PASS BROADBAND TO FEATURE ARCHIVE OF NATIONALLY TELEVISED GAMES.

― k3vin k., Wednesday, October 2, 2013 12:37 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark

yey yey /ice cube

btwn this and new finals format nba doin work

Kobe, Pau, Nash will miss preseason opener

heh

lol old

http://i.imgur.com/JGPbpZ5.jpg

<3

welcome to the daily mumbo

Hope everyone has dusted off their #TheReturn hashtag!

:-(

Trail Blazers PR ‏@TrailBlazersPR 1m
X-ray's confirm Portland G CJ McCollum sustained a fractured 5th metatarsal bone in his left foot at practice on Saturday at the PF.

:-(

Both teams rusty as fuck but holy shit is all this great to see. Rose looks explosive pressing the action, fucking love seeing Scola and Copeland in Ps jerseys, Granger playing physical and not safe, CJ Watson running the 2nd team pg 10X better than Augustin ever did. yayayayayayayayay loving this.

Hahaha so many airballs

Ahhh FUCK man it started already, ship goin down

At least McCollum didn't blow out a knee.

very disappointed to learn that russ is a cowboys fan

https://vine.co/v/hXJM39g01U9

this is actually how he is irl, just a down to earth goofball

lol

like dwight howard but not an attention whore

our dude P Bev absolutely owning Jrue all game
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DP7lbIOuIA

Speaking of lovable goofballs, really feeling Athony Davis having a massive season. Kinda like the Rose injury, think that people kinda forgot how potentially dominant Davis can be. Basically hoping that the Rockets falter and Pelicans challenge for a playoff spot at the end of the season and reporters barrage Dwight with questions like "How has Anthony Davis surpassed you as the best center in the league so quickly, and why does everyone find him charming and find you so utterly repellent?"

https://vine.co/v/hgVLLi5wm0r

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m2yobrvwZY1r03kk7o1_500.jpg

ya feeling a big season from davis too, tho also kinda feeling a big season from dwight

nba players watching green jump thinking about how wasted that athleticism is

capybara owns that ball fully

watched a little celtics/raptors last night, needless to say tommy is already fully invested in olynyk

Idk, kinda hoping that Harden and Lin dominate the ball too much, Asik plays himself into more minutes and starts taking more of Dwight's shots, then Dwight starts grumbling about how he's being used, etc. basically fuck Dwight now and forever.

Also seems like a big man who can pick and pop would work best in the Rockets system?

I mean I'm sure hell put up 18/13 but would really love to see Dwight blow up in their faces, just wish McHale etc. weren't also involved.

the asik for ryan anderson trade is the most sensible trade & needs to happen asap

feel like houston would have to throw in another piece, maybe beverly. also NOLA probably wants anderson for the same reason houston does, namely that he is very good and has a rare skill set!

asik and lin shd both be traded, rockets can contend imho

feel like houston would have to throw in another piece, maybe beverly. also NOLA probably wants anderson for the same reason houston does, namely that he is very good and has a rare skill set!

― k3vin k., Tuesday, October 8, 2013 1:03 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark

except that anderson-davis were a complete sieve last year defensively (and i don't see how they'll be much better this year). after ditching robin lopez the pellies could use a decent banger.

davis projects to be an elite defender, he was just lost last year, question is i guess whether hes a 4 or a 5

oh he'll be a really good defender in time but he's still only 20 and IMO there's no way he's strong enough to guard 5s let alone some good 4s, which wouldn't be a problem except that the pellies traded away their future to make the playoffs this season

asik and terence jones for anderson and some other throwaway, why doesn't this work

i think he can prob guard most fives now but the few who are huge and skilled hell have trouble with for sure

no comment on pelican goals lol

a line up of holiday-gordon-evans-anderson-davis is gonna give up 554 points per possession and god forbid austin rivers get involved at any point

davis feels like young kg to me physically which means he probably should really be a 4 until he's 30 or so but then if he figures out footwork and puts on a few pounds how many centers are there who will really push him around at the 5 these days, not like when kg was 20 would have been blasted out of the paint by shaq

are preseason games on regular tv? i saw a listing on nbatv but i don't have that

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2013/10/nba-brooklyn-nets-pierce-kidd-garnett/

except that anderson-davis were a complete sieve last year defensively (and i don't see how they'll be much better this year). after ditching robin lopez the pellies could use a decent banger.

― J0rdan S., Tuesday, October 8, 2013 1:21 PM (6 hours ago)

i just don't think you can trade away a player like ryan anderson for a piece like asik who will always limit your upside. in a couple of years davis will be everything asik is on defense and more, pairing him with a guy like anderson is not an opportunity you just pass up

agree asik/davis is not a good pairing, neither is asik/howard, asik needs a home

so does lin

its funny the rockets have inferior facsimile of their two best players

not inferior to be backups tho

asik seems like he'd be good as a solo interior defender surrounded by shooters and a slashing point guard

maybe they should trade him to chicago

btw i just watched like 3 min of nets-zards and basically got my fill of mirza teletovic and a lot of j kidd sitting down on the bench drinking a tiny bottle of water

i forgot how dumb preseason is

its funny the rockets have inferior facsimile of their two best players

― lag∞n, Tuesday, October 8, 2013 8:14 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

heh lin really is like the 40% james harden, controversial cross racial comparison

psycho-t dominated the game last night lol xp

lin's destiny is to have a couple of 16 ppg / 8 apg seasons leading the seattle bucks to a 34-48 record in 2017 and 2018

otm

^^ more than a grain of truth there - xp

davis projects to be an elite defender, he was just lost last year, question is i guess whether hes a 4 or a 5

― lag∞n, Tuesday, October 8, 2013 5:30 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

he was awesome last year, he just missed some games due to injury.

on defense he was not that awesome

he was 10th in the league in stl+blk+chg per minute, pretty great for a 19 year old rookie.

I could see him being lost on defense and doing that tho, because he's that talented so I guess I don't disagree.

haha ok I just checked his synergy numbers and boy is my face red

hah

this season is shaping up pretty nicely http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/9790038/ranking-nba-tiers-power-2013-14-season

warriors shd be in that 2nd group obvs imho

pretty nice first game for Antetokounmpo

I feel like the Blazers are gonna be really bad

Robin Lopez is going to be their starting center and their backup 4 is Thomas Robinson.

i thought they made a number of really nice moves but the cj mccollum injury is concerning

it seems like the first 6 seeds in the west are set: spurs, thunder, clippers, grizzlies, rockets, warriors (in whatever order)

then for the final two playoff spots you have: nuggets, blazers, pelicans, lakers, mavs

i think the blazers could def take the eighth seed in the west

i think the nuggets are gonna tank... hated their offseason

the lakers are a total mess

the pellies will need a bunch of guys to play way above career norms to make the playoffs

the mavs will be competitive but man that offseason was wack too

the blazers meanwhile have a really good nucleus and updated the absolute worst bench in the league to something that should resemble at least league average?

oh and i guess you have the wolves. i dunno, they'll probably be in it.

idk, it might be a stretch to see the blazers being better than denver, dallas and maybe minnesota? but they could hit the 45 win mark imo

I don't see how they've improved enough. McCollum is gonna miss a ton of games (and I'm not a huge fan of his anyway). Mo Williams and Robin Lopez are enough to get them in the playoffs?

yeah not buying it

yeah i'm not high on the blazers at all

the mccollum thing hurts def. i think allan crabbe is gonna be one of those second round guys who breaks out early and causes everyone to be like "how the fuck did this guy go in the second round"

but robin lopez is probably better than jj hickson once you include defense, you have some upside plays in thomas robinson and meyers leonard, dorrell wright was a good pick up. and mo williams is a really good back up PG.

also, like, they were playing a bunch of guys last year who were sub-replacement: maynor, babbit, pavlovic, claver, will barton etc. so even getting competence out of the bench is a huge upswing, more than you would see with a team that wasn't playing a bunch of non-roster players in their rotation last year.

yeah to think about how portland is going to do look at last season's roster compared to this year and recall that last season's team was theoretically in a playoff chase until they tanked the last 13 games.

otoh i think anyone bullish on portland making the playoffs is kinda crazy atm.

well i think the difference separating the four or five teams that can realistically expect to compete for the final 2 spots in the west is... 5 games or something? if the blazers stay healthy i don't see why they can't get the 8th spot.

seems totally reasonable to me. that's a roster with some star level talent and some depth from my perspective.

you def. have a point about them playing riff raff like Babbitt

riff raff is prob better at basketball than luke babbitt

I think the Nuggets are pretty much a mystery. They addressed a lot of their weaknesses, but who knows how they'll respond to this new offense.

pretty much hinges on how quickly gallo can get back onto the court and back up to speed. if he plays the majority of the season i don't see how they can suck

Javale McGee in the triangle.... looks surprisingly reasonable so far.

dude

seems totally reasonable to me. that's a roster with some star level talent and some depth from my perspective.

It's totally reasonable, just remember I talk to blazer fans / employees everyday who are convinced we'll have home court in the first round this year. It's a pretty impenetrable bubble. 7-8 seed is plausible but I see the blazers as right on that 8th seed / lottery bubble edge.

I'd give Minny one of those last two playoff spots; also wouldn't be surprised if they crept up and ended up somewhere in the top six. Am also clearly under THE FLOCK'S spell, would give them the 8th seed. I guess the Mavs could have a sneaky good season but their bench is pretty bad considering how many olds they'll be depending on.

Would love to see the Blazers make noise but wonder if Lilard just had a Damon Stoudamire-like rookie season or a Derrick Rose-type rookie season. Dude is athletic enough where I could see hm making a major jump defensively. Lotta trash on their bench, too, tho.

Also kinda sucks trying to prognosticate Warriors season and having to guess how many of their players will be felled by catastrophic injuries. Like, if they somehow make it through the season relatively healthy, I have no problem seeing them as one of the top WC teams. Curry-Klay-Lee-Andre-Barnes-Bogut is a contending Top 6.

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/9795591/kirk-goldsberry-introduces-new-way-understand-nba-best-scorers

LeBron James is the best player in the world. That may be obvious to anyone who has watched basketball over the past few years, but for some reason it's hard to find many statistics to support this claim.

what

awesome

what hes saying Jordan is bron didnt lead the league in any traditional stat

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BWHkqdaCMAAVwtf.jpg

Flavio Tranquillo

~_~

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-OFTIAW-Hw

weak form deron cmon

The Blazers have a lot of new faces that need to learn their roles and their teammates. They'll likely improve as a team as the season wears on, but then so will most of the other teams. I don't have any strong belief they'll end the season above .510, if that.

blazers can compete for a playoff spot imho, w all those borderline teams it always comes down to health close games and other flukey stuff, so who knows

#hoopideas http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/63184/on-behalf-of-skywalkers

i support playing in the cylinder for offense but not defense, tho maybe thats unfair

At the least they ought to give it a year to see how it goes. But defense in the cylinder is goaltending and you can't do away with that rule or things would get sucky fast.

well just after the ball hits the rim, which is how they do it in euro iirc

i support this #hoopidea

bargnani knicks #77

i am watching preseason basketball

theyre playing in the providence college gym

Homer: The other day I was so desperate for a beer I snuck into the
football stadium and ate the dirt under the bleachers.

hah

its too bad gerald wallace didnt play for a good team in his prime, hes fun to watch swooping around the court

ho man shumperts hair has morphed into some sort of high top pompadour hybrid

LOL SHUMPERT HAIR

oh man the celtics are gonna be so bad this year

celtics look like a dull summer league team

they look like garbage time

olynyk looks like an nba player tho

Danny needs to trade Rondo and finish this masterpiece

yeah i wouldnt be surprised, obvs needs to wait til hes back tho

also bass-lee-humphries

where do you guys think rondo would be a good fit? what would you realistically want back for him?

not really sure, obvs hes best on a team w a lot of scorers/shooters thatll let him rack up assists and not have to bother shooting

apparently the only time they were srs abt trading him was for chris paul so they value him pretty highly, thats maybe different now that theyre tanking, maybe theyd be happy w picks/prospects

#freerondo

celtics have this guy apparently http://espn.go.com/boston/nba/story/_/id/9503638/vitor-faverani-brings-size-intrigue-boston-celtics?ex_cid=espnapi_public

ainge on the other hand might consider rondo-bradley-green-etc a good foundation to lay some high draft picks on top of and maybe if they hit the lottery right theyre only bad for a couple years

there's no way this guy is real xp

they gave him a three year contract and paid a buyout and who is he even

they have two brazilian centers cause why not

i mean literally i do not believe he is a real person

celtics got catfished

wait they traded fab melo didtn they

yes

actual news story:

Fab Melo: Celtics 'didn't give me a chance'

lol fab melo 'i dont know how to play basketball'

Fab Melo: 'What is this round thing that is also orange"

in other news, jeff pendergraph changed his name to jeff ayres, just mixing things up a bit

jeff pendergraph world peace

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0aPXO2UwLY

:-O

is this our new favorite player matt?

yeah man maybe haha

dirking!

Flaveroni looked pretty decent in the two quarters I caught of the C's game.

you lie!!

He got a couple of dunks from hustling down the floor and cutting to the basket off the ball. Looked like his basic defensive rotations were decent. And he has an absurdly soft body for an NBA big and a goofy haircut. What more do you want?

as i said, i am still not convinced he is real

Actually, I have one more request. I want everyone to call him Flaveroni.

tenderoni

dirking!

― lag∞n, Wednesday, October 9, 2013 6:22 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

omg this guy!

Damn is it too late to hop on the Giannis train?

Dude looks like an 18(!) yr old Durant

yeah durant was my first thought too. dude must weigh 150 pounds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmOhk8Fv5ZE

12:15pm
giannis gets his twitter account verified

Still mad at the bucks for stealing him. I don't even think they worked him out.

last years draft was pretty crazy, doesnt look like the right guys went in the right order at all

giannis tell me your wish

http://cherryarea.blogspot.com/2013/10/in-preparation-for-2014-season.html

fellow pavement fan

olynyk looks like an nba player tho

― lag∞n, Wednesday, October 9, 2013 8:04 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

do you mean his performance of basketball maneuvers or his hair

because that part looks like he dropped out of uc boulder bc he needed more time to snowboard and play xbox

ha he has a bad case of rookie hair if ever there was one

im gonna go with cad on vitor flavoroni and say he's not real until he gets a tommy point, because i remember when greek baby shaq was gonna come to the league and be awesome for like five straight years and then he didn't

of course tiago splitter did become real after years of being chad ford fairy smoke so what do i know

chad ford fairy smoke lol

Just a lovable teddy bear
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/kendrick-perkins-allegedly-punched-woman-face-earning-misdemeanor-234819444--nba.html

jeez

weird he always looks so cheerful

im gonna go with cad on vitor flavoroni and say he's not real until he gets a tommy point, because i remember when greek baby shaq was gonna come to the league and be awesome for like five straight years and then he didn't

― z-time champion (agent hibachi), Thursday, October 10, 2013 11:25 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Baby Shaq is a huge waste of talent. Remember when he went beast mode vs. team USA?

Magic Johnson no longer working for ESPN, it is morning in America

thank god

Jonathan Givony ‏@DraftExpress 29m

Really starting to feel bad for draft "experts" who staked their reputation on Antetokoumpo being a bust, despite never seeing him play...

Michael Beasley is pretty hard on himself sometimes. Beasley received his first minutes of playing time and he was great. He scored nine points in his first five minutes of action and was diving on the floor and doing things coaches generally like to see out of players trying to make a roster. Of course, Beasley also did something a little odd after one offensive play. Upset with himself over missing a shot, Beasley started punching himself in the head while running back on defense. He punched himself so hard that he needed treatment after the game from the Heat's trainer. Steel compresses (like the ones cut doctors use in boxing) were applied to Beasley's brow in the locker room.

Read more here: http://blogs.herald.com/miami_heat/2013/10/three-things-from-tonight.html#storylink=cpy

wow

Kevin Pelton ‏@kpelton 12m
It's SCHOENE surprise day, as we reveal the teams picked 5th in each conference: the Timberwolves and the Pistons.

t-wolves no way but i could see the pistons either working pretty well or being a mess

really, i feel like the wolves are a better bet, i mean theyve at least performed at that level for stretches before, the pistons lack of shooting seems majorly problematic

i mean
drummond
monroe
smith
?
jennings

yikes!

i'm assuming the projection can't account for how totally wacky that frontcourt is.

yeah i hate how those pieces fit

basically setting up a situation that requires josh smith to be a jump shooter

no wonder he wanted to play there

yeah i mean it's likely going to be a mess, otoh there is a lot of talent there and they play in the eastern conference. the wolves even if they stay healthy are not going to be a 5 seed in the west

i am totally watching that team on league pass, they will either be awesome or totally lols

i could see the wolves breaking through to the next level, i mean its not likely but i could see it, maybe

tho i guess that would be two levels theyre breaking through

but really they were a playoff team w/o all the millions of injuries so maybe just one, if you squint

no`

yeah come on

lol accidental submit

i mean they still weren't really that good and had piles of injuries, but to me it's not like if they are just magically healed they will suddenly vault into top contention in the west, playoff experience is kind of overrated but they have literally zero of it

im just kind of sad that i get fired up to make them a league pass team every year and every year its the same thing

i want one or more of excellence, intriguing talent or pure lols from my lp teams and they have basically had none b/c of injuries and KAAAHN for years

yeah i mean they're just not gonna be that great, love will be great, pek and rubio do cool things, but who's their best player after that? barea?

oh forgot they had kmart

theyve got a bunch of perfectly decent 4-7th type guys

anyway just too many good teams in the west and too many question marks for them imo, next

you cant just give martin that nickname its already in use

thats what we said about phx last year

xp

martin brewer shved budinger barea - these are p good nba players!

yeah they could be a poor man's nuggets i guess, 5th seed is like a best case scenario

Amin Elhassan ‏@AminESPN 16m
The infamous Slam magazine that also served as photo ID: pic.twitter.com/9baaZZoA0G

Amin Elhassan ‏@AminESPN 17m
...and they let him in the country!

Amin Elhassan ‏@AminESPN 18m
[cont] Border agent says "dont you have anything with your picture & name on it?"; Odom pulls out copy of SLAM magazine w/ him on cover..

Amin Elhassan ‏@AminESPN 19m
True story (from the @AlvinGentry archives): Odom forgot his passport on trip to Canada, doesnt have drivers license (NYC kid!); [cont]

faverani is like, zaza pachulia potential.

haha xp

hey royce white is over here playing for the sixers

he'll be really useful if all their games are against the allentown ballers and cherry hill dunkerz

watched him for a few mins, comes off super nonchalant, not in a good way

Dion Waiters hired a chef and "gave up candy" during the offseason

that stuff always cracks me up, like in the story abt jason collins yesterday apparently he got a bunch of the wizards young bigs to quit fast food in the locker room

i know these dudes are like 23 and i was an idiot then for sure but like you have exactly two jobs, play basketball well and stay in the best shape you can, and you might get rewarded with zillions of dollars if you do it right, and one of these is totally under your control

the crazy thing is a lot of guys can eat really poorly and drink a ton and stay up late and still be the best at basketball, they are magical basically

http://espn.go.com/nba/truehoop/miamiheat/story/_/id/9809948/michael-beasley-miami-heat-says-bruise-not-self-inflicted-punch

loving this new stat but it really needs to incorporate foul shooting there somehow http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/77702/shooting-blanks-the-players-with-the-worst-shotscore

embarrassed to not know this but if youre fouled in the act of shooting, that doesn't count as a shot attempt right, unless it goes in, in which case it does?

right

interesting that russell grades out really poorly EXCEPT on the midrange elbow shots off the PNR that everyone goes crazy about every time he attempts one

The good news is that in the same way that Peyton Manning and Tom Brady can be great without being great runners, it is possible to be a great NBA point guard without being a great shooter. In fact, Westbrook and Derrick Rose, two of the world’s best point guards, prove this on a regular basis. Still, Westbrook’s game, as great as it already is, could improve if he just stopped shooting all those 3s.

not sure i buy this. if i understand this system correctly, if westbrook turned some of his 3 point attempts (where he's below average) to midrange PUJITs (where he's above average), his shot score would go up, correct? not sure that would actually lead to more points though

xp that's sort of what i'm getting at, i have a feeling that shooting slightly below average at one of the most efficient shots in the game is better than shooting slightly above average at the worst shot in the game. russ might convert those PJUITs at a higher % than most, but it's still a bad shot

only got halfway through the original shotscore article but i wonder if they differentiate between shots taken in a halfcourt set v shots taken on a fast break, or if any meaningful statistical differences exist if you split the set that way

k3v otm tho, shooting a bit above average on a terrible shot means he's still shooting a terrible shot

yeah ok i mean look at monroe's shot score/his chart. he's slightly below average around the rim, but the vast majority of his shots are in this area, which is the most efficient area of the floor from which to take a shot! this is exactly why he has value, but his shot score has no idea of this. he's not "inefficient" near the rim, as goldsberry says -- he's actually very efficient because most of his shots are high-value

yeah prob under the original data you can organize players by region of the court

like his system would make sense if each player took the same amount of shots from each spot on the floor, but they don't. the reason players like james harden and manu are so efficient is that all of their shots are layups, 3s, and free throws -- the highest value shots in the game. they happen to be very good at all these shots, but even if they were just average from all these places, they would have value just by virtue of avoiding bad shots

imo a good measure scoring efficiency has to have some sort of product of ts% and usage rate as its backbone

i think the formula accounts for volume of shots taken at a place

it does but it punishes players for taking high-value shots! the question goldsberry sought to answer with this system was "who is the best shooter" which i admit is a different question than "who is the most efficient scorer", but some of the statements he makes seems to make it sound like he's conflating the two

just to make it easy, let's say player x takes 100 shots from 18 feet, where the league average fg% is 40%, and makes 50% of them. player y takes 100 shots at the rim, where the league average fg% is 60%, and also makes 50%. who's the more efficient scorer?

they're both the same, but player x has a shot score of +20, while player y has a shot score of -20. player x is more skilled at shooting from his particular favorite places on the floor, but player x makes up for this with his superior shot selection

otm this is crying out for a new stat adjusted shot score

i mean i think its very good at telling you how good players are at shooting, but then he uses it to argue all sorts other efficiency etc issues

yeah

yeah you could probably insert a multiplier that depends on what area of the court the shot is taken from

"The Portland Trail Blazers are in support of the Freedom to Marry and Religious Protection ballot initiative. We do so as believers in individual choice as a fundamental right of all people."

The Trail Blazers are now the biggest pro sports team, apparently the first from a big four pro league, to formally endorse a marriage equality ballot measure.

pr cool

Kelly Olynyk fit a charity visit to Canobie Lake Park into his dream summer.

lmao

Blazers should just concentrate on social justice this year imo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_N5rY3Ve5s8

oh no, they're not really calling him "the alphabet" are they

haha

I like when they call him "A to Z" at the end. I approve of that as a nickname. Fuck the Alphabet though.

his name is giannis, that's enough

it's too bad the pistons got a dude named "gigi" in the same year

people trying hard with nicknames whether it be in sports or everyday life is so uncomfortable

not looking forward to the nickname jersey games

yeah if guys want nicknames on their jerseys they shd have to legally change their names, nba basically shitting on all the hard work done by nene and metta world peace

If Giannis amounts to anything he'll be called something horrible like G-Po or G-Unit.

the alphabet is dope imo, f the haters mlkvy-esque

f the haters COMMA very mlkvy-esque

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/more/news/20131013/bill-simmons-magic-johnson-espn-media-circus/

simmons is totally lying in about half of this, but thank god magic's gone anyway

SI.com: Deadspin reported last Thursday, via unnamed sources, that you were responsible for Magic Johnson being removed from Countdown. What is your response to that assertion?

Simmons: Those unnamed "sources" are liars. Someone planted a fake story to try to make me look bad, and there's a 99.3 percent chance it came from someone in Bristol (which presents its own set of concerns). I was upset; I can't lie. Maybe this happens to people more often than I realize, and maybe it comes with the territory, but man ...

wow

office politics huh

i think his candor in that interview (when he's not lying) points toward the job security he's got at ESPN

first of all, Bill Simmons totally sucks on that show

second, did he really have the juice to get Magic Johnson off the show? really?

simmons was the best part of the show imo, but the show did suck tbf

i don't doubt he had that power at all. dude basically has a hand in every part of that empire, and the complaints about how bad magic was stinking the place up were pretty loud. whether he actually DID force magic out obv who knows

If Giannis amounts to anything he'll be called something horrible like G-Po or G-Unit.

G-Bo looks like the odds on favorite right now

nooooooooooooooo.com

the alphabet is so dope why does everyone hate cool nicknames

Because someone will call him Alphabet Poop when he has a shitty game.

SI.com: How well do you get along with your father-in-law?
Simmons: He's a New York Giants fan. So it's always been rocky. But I don't need to misquote him -- it's much more fun to misquote his daughter.

is there something i'm missing here?

a joke about rick reilly

i think i'm into g-unit improbably

He does play on a two bit team...

yeah just got to that reilly diss, yoooooo.

oh ok lol

dude obviously has no qualms about taking shots at people, either on network or off. i'd say his job security is ok

I thought "Scrabble" was a fun nickname for Nnamdi Asomugha

oh ok lol

― call all destroyer, Monday, October 14, 2013 12:27 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark

check out the http://images.chron.com/blogs/askacat/hatcat.JPG thread

http://bleacherreport.com/tb/dbtSf

damn

rookie hair no more

boooooo

last time simmons negotiated his contract w the worldwide leader he parlayed his complaints into his own personal sub-brand so don't think he isn't planting seeds for 2016 or whenever his deal runs out

espn running w the sub branding, Nate silver and Whitlock both getting their own sites now, cool innovation imho

so many subbrands, fox sports is all like WE'RE HERE TO FUCK SHIT UP IN THE TV SPORTS GAME and espn is off selling armadildos and financing home mortgages where the real cash is, brilliant

JJ hickson is stealing Faried's starting spot

wait, fuckin whitlock has a website now?

yes it is called fuckinwhitlock.com it is a porno site

now that grantland kind of functions it's something they can use to lure big names - whitlock is kind of weirdly big plus his whole pitch boiled down to "black grantland" which means he hit them right in their diversity problem

simmons has a lot of power on the production/content side and not as much on the exec/biz side

"the alphabet" would be a cool nickname for a guy whose initials are a-b-c or something but "giannis" is cool enough not to need a nickname and a nickname like that boils down to "lol foreigners with funny names" aka americans are illiterate and can't take four seconds to learn a long name

otm

whitlock is a clown, obv

glad the celtics are paying attention to this, always seemed insane to me that teams would get on a plane right after playing a game instead of just going to bed http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2013/10/13/celtics-hope-get-more-catching-more/JVooJNkjk4l3YCBSitCrKP/story.html

maybe they shouldn't do that this year...

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/15/sports/basketball/spurs-stay-consistent-by-thinking-globally.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1381860397-eHiWziBxMMfact4qsY2i9g

on the spurs and their global scouting

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/9827704/lebron-james-two-role-models-michael-jordan-allen-iverson

<3

man paul pierce playing against the celtics, end of an era

corey maggette couldn't make the spurs and said he would retire if they waived him- in much less interesting end of an era news

that dude was such a perfect good stats/bad team guy but man did he draw some fouls in his clips heyday

yeah he was a real good scorer

one of the best nicknames ever - corey 'bad porn' maggette

ha what

reason was that watching maggette play was like watching bad porn - terrible but you can't stop watching

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqZHIr_D3kE

cooooooorreeeeeeeeeeyyyy

i think that was the same contest where corey wore a perforated jersey - the idea being that he would rip it off right before or after a dunk - but he didn't advance far enough to have the chance

maggette and monte together on the w's was the most ridiculous thing

Open Court is so good. I'm loving Barkley and TMac arguing about Riley Cooper.

Rick Fox haha

one of the best nicknames ever - corey 'bad porn' maggette

― 乒乓, Tuesday, October 15, 2013 6:19 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha wtf

Always kinda liked Corey. Dude was a bulldozer, half the time wouldnt even look for the shot, just looked for someone to jump into. He's only 33, seems a little early no? Always thought he had the best physique in the league as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xN_ljDfevB0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxhJvgKNUCI

lol @ that second video

there was one season where the refs just decided to stop giving Maggette continuation calls all the time and he dropped off like 80% as a player

Yeah that was of course after the dubs gave him that 5 year 50 milli deal

one of the best nicknames ever - corey 'bad porn' maggette

― 乒乓, Tuesday, October 15, 2013 9:19 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

dawg u made this up cmon

lol i admit it, i hope u guys never find my secret corey maggette fanpage

lol

http://www.geocities.ws/clips2k/thefreak.html

anyway

Corey Maggette: I read in the AP game notes that Maggette is still out with that strained right hamstring and that he's played in only 16 of the Warriors' 25 games. This reminded me of an email I recently received from Basketbawful reader Mark L, who claimed to have a new nickname for Mags: "They've started to call him 'Bad Porn' at various Warriors boards. Their justification? 'Sure, there's penetration and scoring, but are you really happy with what you're seeing?'" I loved this one so much that I wanted to lock it in my storage space and keep it from the rest of the world. Then I realized that the rest of the worlds' needs are greater than my own. There's not need to thank me. (But really, there is. So, you know, thank me and stuff.)

oh warriors boards ok sure

lol a geocities maggette fanpage, the internet is the best

spottie otm though, maggette looked like the strongest dude in the league for his size for a long time

i had the thought that he would probably get converted into a tight end and quit basketball if he was in college now

if you have the option of choosing between football and basketball you should always choose basketball right? higher salaries, no risk of CTE

LOLLLLLLLLLLLL

https://twitter.com/KevinClarkWSJ/status/390484008171085825

if you have the option of choosing between football and basketball you should always choose basketball right? higher salaries, no risk of CTE

― 乒乓, Wednesday, October 16, 2013 10:46 AM (57 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah no brainer

lol dwight never change

and Rockets shooting guard James Harden to Courtney Lee and Rockets shooting guard James Harden to Courtney Lee and Rockets shooting guard James Harden to Courtney Lee and Rockets shooting guard James Harden to Courtney Lee and Rockets shooting guard James Harden to Courtney Lee and Rockets shooting guard James Harden to Courtney Lee and Rockets shooting guard James Harden to Courtney Lee and Rockets shooting guard James Harden to Courtney Lee and Rockets shooting guard James Harden to Courtney Lee and Rockets shooting guard James Harden to Courtney Lee and Rockets shooting guard James Harden to Courtney Lee and Rockets shooting guard James Harden to Courtney Lee and Rockets shooting guard James Harden to Courtney Lee and Rockets shooting guard James Harden to Courtney Lee and Rockets shooting guard James Harden to Courtney Lee and Rockets shooting guard James Harden to Courtney Lee and Rockets shooting guard James Harden to Courtney Lee and Rockets shooting guard James Harden to Courtney Lee and Rockets shooting guard James Harden to Courtney Lee and Rockets shooting guard James Harden to Courtney Lee and Rockets shooting guard James Harden to Courtney Lee and Rockets shooting guard James Harden to Courtney Lee and Rockets shooting guard James Harden to Courtney Lee and Rockets shooting guard James Harden to Courtney Lee and Rockets shooting guard James Harden to Courtney Lee and Rockets shooting guard James Harden to Courtney Lee and Rockets shooting guard James Harden to Courtney Lee and Rockets shooting guard James Harden to Courtney Lee and Rockets shooting guard James Harden to Courtney Lee and Rockets shooting guard James Harden to Courtney Lee and Rockets shooting guard James Harden to Courtney Lee and Rockets shooting guard James Harden to Courtney Lee and Rockets shooting guard James Harden to Courtney Lee and Rockets shooting guard James Harden to Courtney Lee and Rockets shooting guard James Harden to Courtney Lee and Rockets shooting guard James Harden to Courtney Lee and Rockets shooting guard James Harden to Courtney Lee and Rockets shooting guard James Harden to Courtney Lee and Rockets shooting guard James Harden to Courtney Lee and Rockets shooting guard James Harden to Courtney Lee and Rockets shooting guard James Harden to Courtney Lee and Rockets shooting guard James Harden to Courtney Lee and Rockets shooting guard James Harden to Courtney Lee

man if courtney lee was anything like james harden the celtics would be in the mix for like the 5 or 6 seed in the east this year

Dwight looks pretty bad, but I guess they did just get back from China

you mean taiwan, bruh

haha sorry

the republic of china

@tomhaberstroh: Wanna know something crazy? Stephen Curry shot 48 percent between 28 ft and halfcourt lastseason

new goto move pullup 35 footer

interesting windhorst piece http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/9824938/how-lebron-james-dwyane-wade-coexist-heat-espn-magazine

mostly about wade being sad/depressed/angry

aw

lol what is this

http://a.espncdn.com/magazine/Insider/131028_cover_275x330.jpg

espn mag is just like "yeah we're purely a write off, hey lebron throw these novelty sunglasses on cool thx"

It's not natural for two alpha males to coexist -- in the wild or in the NBA.

interesting stuff

yeah the opening is... a bit much

yeah windhorst is ok but i didn't read past that either

alpha males dont coexist in the wild because the alpha male is completely a product of captivity, in the wild wolfpacks are family groups where the alpha male would be more accurately referred to as the dad

whos the heats daddy, is is it lebron, is wade the mom, omg

#mindblown

ONE CHINA YOU MFs.

Chicago announcers have somehow managed to confuse Paul George for David West FOR A WHOLE QUARTER and it's ruining the end of my vacation.

lmao

ONE CHINA YOU MFs.

― Matt Groening's Cousin (Leee), Friday, October 18, 2013 6:09 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

the parties on both side of the strait both acknowledge that there is but one china and that taiwan is a part of china

;)

Wish I'd thought of this

http://nbacatwatch.com/

ahahahahaha

NBA CATWATCH followed you

B-)

i think they will unfollow u once they realize u have no nba cats

NBA CATWATCH ‏@NBAcatwatch 5h

Gary Neal did post a meme about stress w/ a picture of a cat on it, which seems like a cat person thing to do, but no other evidence.

amazing

http://s3.thejournal.ie/media/2013/03/zach-galifianakis-nikola-pekovic-500x500.jpg

http://www.kirotv.com/news/news/police-nba-legend-bill-russell-had-gun-airport/nbR5D/

jeez

http://www.latimes.com/sports/lakersnow/la-sp-ln-nod-kobe-bryant-twitter-avatar-1225-20131019,0,1374660.story#axzz2iBxCz4ss

maybe he's saying he'll be back on christmas

that's how many german children his new achilles was made out of #vino

It's not natural for two alpha males to coexist -- in the wild or in the NBA.

interesting stuff

― Clay, Friday, October 18, 2013 4:56 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

windhorst probably gets a free pass from his editor since he's basically written about lebron for a decade but getting that literal about drawing parallels between animal kingdom dynamics and the working/power relations of (mostly) black athletes is a little disgusting, even if it happens regularly at the ww leader

also i think we can cool it with the "will these two nba titans FIGURE OUT HOW TO WORK TOGETHER" thing since basically every nba star under 30 openly admits that they would rather play with other great players (hello team usa) and probably need another top 20 player with them to really compete

everyone's attempts to make westbrook-durant into the new garnett-marbury notwitstanding

drawing parallels between animal kingdom dynamics and the working/power relations of (mostly) black athletes is a little disgusting,

it's dumb but this seems like a biiiit of a reach

humans are part of the animal kingdom, iirc

im down for any criticism of white ppl as unrepentant racists, court lets the ruling stand

lol aimless i totally forgot that

thanks sixth grade science class

I was homeschooled, so I don't get the fuss.

It's not natural for two alpha males to coexist -- in the wild or in the NBA.

watching last night's clippers/blazers game and deandre jordan appears to have figured some stuff out over the summer. this group is probably my preseason pick out of the west. just too much talent all over the place.

i haven't seen them play yet but i'm thinking they're my pick too

they're still gonna be a disaster down low on defense

memphis and/or duncan, tiago etc will school them in the playoffs again unless deandre can somehow stay on the floor in close playoff games or the clippers swing a trade or birdman-style veteran pick up

i think clippers will be a top 2 seed but i think they'll lose in the second round

it'll depend on who they draw and also we haven't really seen the team play at all

WHY SO MANY PREASEASON GAMES ????

I noticed Deandre looked a little more polished on the block as well. Defense is more of his issue tho.

i haven't seen them play yet but i'm thinking they're my pick too

Ha half the game I was thinkin "k3v has to see this he's gonna get super pumped."

Austin Rivers shooting 36-29-59 in the preseason

his ft% is up at least

He worked hard over the summer to get that good.

doc is probably the best thing that could have happened to deandre save kevin mchale or thibodeau since he'll have to learn thibs-lite style defense

i think the doc-cp3 combo is gonna be incredible and they loaded up on great wings for doc's system

that huge hole at the third big spot is totally looming though- they really need something like 2009 lamar odom to plug in but obviously real lamar odom was a disaster last year

lol poor austin rivers, when eric gordon gets hurt he'll get good minutes which will serve him well as an iowa energy

ya id be more optimistic abt the clips if they werent so thin, front court bench is lookin p dire too

Wonder if Kobe comes back before Deandre makes his first jump shot.

does blakes J look any better preseason clips viewers? thats p key too

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/philly-fan-buys-18-tickets-76ers-pacers-72-153944098--nba.html

lmao

wait that is old nvm

watching rose highlights

http://24.media.tumblr.com/044c8db6c4f65f4675c04f9d8e1a4fe2/tumblr_muk2sf9wWc1rdqggno1_400.gif

nba.com now has shot charts??

http://stats.nba.com/playerShotchart.html?PlayerID=201939&zone-mode=basic&viewShots=true&Season=2012-13

i hate Noah but lol at his giant cartoon character hands

Noah is the best.

he is so deeply unchill and in need of constant attention

yeah but still funny, they cant all be lame chill bros like Rose.

http://www.terezowens.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/noah-clap.gif

no different than rodman or whatever

noah is the best

the bulls would be very likable if not for the whole boozer thing

Lowe and Simmons were talking about a possible bulls-hawks trade where the bulls get Noah and Horford back together for two first rnd picks, boozer and some overseas dude everyone's raving about

noah is such an abhorant try hard

no different than rodman or whatever

― Me & Mahomies (Spottie_Ottie_Dope), Monday, October 21, 2013 12:16 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

no way rodman was a heal and he played it up to the fullest, noah spends all day trying to be cute

i have warmed to noah, part of that might be his retiring of the six-shooter thing which i thought was cool of him

no way rodman was a heal and he played it up to the fullest, noah spends all day trying to be cute

― lag∞n, Monday, October 21, 2013 10:27 AM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

both were/are attention seeking try hards though.

true

noah is obv great but hanging out with him would be extremely draining. I just want his dad's manhattan apartment.

i love and hate joakim hes a really good player and goes super hard and i wish he would cut his fucking hair and the sarcastic clapping at bosh & supermario was amazing

also he always did bad things to the celtics so i hate him

everyone otm really, he is one of those polarizing players and there's been times I've hated him but overall he is pretty lovable and fun. And yeah he backs it up and plays hard so that's a big bonus. Overall ILH is pretty sympathetic to lunatics of the league so I dont see why he would be viewed as such a douche. I mean, you guys all love and adore JR so...

Joakim is incredibly punchable, which is part of why I love him.

otm

i hate jr for the record but im glad he exists

I mean, you guys all love and adore JR so...

― Me & Mahomies (Spottie_Ottie_Dope), Monday, October 21, 2013 2:55 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark

to be clear, i am the only one on ILH who loves JR

I'll support and defend most any non-violent weirdo including Noah, but dude had a bad case of "needs to turn 30 and chill a lil ASAP" disease, but that's okay it'll come eventually. league is better off with Noah playing at a high level for an excellent team imo.

*has

anyways imagine Noah on like the kings, I'd just tune out the whole situation for years, he'd be just infinitely worse if his team sucked

while we're on the subject of non-violent weirdos, #TEAMBOOGIE represent!! this will be the year..

I'm hoping has some sort of Randolph-like epiphany at some point.

Boogie has

thing is randolph always put up sick numbers, his attitude changed some and he prob got better at the little things, which is pretty standard when gaining experience, boogie shoots like 30% on his fav shots

he is still v much at the this guy looks like he should be good at basketball but is not really at all stage, zbo was always good at basketball

His fg%'s have gone .430, .448, .465 over the last three years. Seems like he's improving.

Randolph is a career .472 who shot .460 last year. Obviously Randolph has a much much better midrange game but I don't think they're THAT bad of a comparison.

I'm not doing TS% because neither guy shoots threes really.

Ricky Rubio ‏@rickyrubio9 6m
Thank you for all the bday wishes. 23!!! I'm getting old! SMILING FACE WITH OPEN MOUTHPARTY POPPERWRAPPED PRESENTCONFETTI BALL

Cousins looks like he's in better shape this season. But he still has a lot of skill development to do.

The whole "Zach Randolph has changed!" thing was driven by people who had mocked and vilified him for years having to deal with the harsh reality of him winning a playoff series.

Yah agree. Him winning and being part of a good team/culture allowed a platform for the media to roll the "he's changed" story lines.

NBA tests for marijuana now, ergo "Zach has changed" is true. Also, iirc aren't several members of his old posse now in jail or on probabtion.

booooo

Some of the details from his sexual assault arrest were pretty heinous so here's hoping he's changed.

NBA tests for marijuana now, ergo "Zach has changed" is true. Also, iirc aren't several members of his old posse now in jail or on probabtion.

― Aimless, Monday, October 21, 2013 10:06 PM (44 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

from what I've read he's imported most of his portland crew to Memphis.

The whole "Zach Randolph has changed!" thing was driven by people who had mocked and vilified him for years having to deal with the harsh reality of him winning a playoff series.

I don't know how you could watch him on the Knicks vs. now and think he's the same guy.

Sam Amico ‏@SamAmicoFSO 1h

Sixers coach Brett Brown says rookie Nerlens Noel's return from knee injury is "slow," indicates Noel likely to miss entire season.

WTF

its pretty slow like could take another year man wow

Perfect replacement for Bynum

wait didn't we know he'd miss most of if not all of the season?

i mean, that was the whole point of trading for him right, the double-tank

it was presumed he'd miss the first half.

the whole point of trading for him is that Jrue kinda sucks

part of it was selling high on jrue definitely but a big part of it was the double tank, that's why everyone was saying take him first

but you could play him and double tank guy is a 19 y/o rookie big man w very nascent offinsive skills hes not gonna help you win games

otm

imo tanking in the NBA is almost always done during the season, not before it. Sixers and Celtics are just blowing things up (quite well imo).

guys guys this was widely discussed at the time, the idea was to take noel and encourage him to take his time coming back, thats why i'm not surprised

i usually agree but the noel thing in particular is kind of tanking in part because the sixers wanted him both because he has potential to be good (rebuilding) and he absolutely cannot help them win games any time soon due to injury (tanking)

xp, right, k3v is right

also rebuilding teams dont usually trade their best and still very young asset (holiday) the second he starts to break out! that's definitely tank-ish

im surprised he out for the whole year tho, figure give him some run in the 2nd half of the season at least

i bet we're gonna see nerlens for like 20 games in april hopefully just so they can sell 2015 season tix on him and next year's #1

yeah that makes sense to me, if hes out the whole year its worrying

def and much more worrying than when blake missed his rookie season- when did nerlens have his surgery?

almost a year ago!

gtfo no way

ok thats crazy he really is damaged goods or that is the most blatant tanking ever

btw ive been working my way through the simmons & jalen previews, i know, i know, but they're actually p good

jalen has really grown on me in all contexts other than national tv where he is still so weirdly stiff and terrible

well like ten months maybe, he only played like six college games right

this is all from memory guys so grain of salt

if only there was some worldwide database of information i could access

i dont think that exists, maybe we could connect some tape drives at the various universities where these college basketball games were held, perhaps into some kind of world-wide web

idk sounds like a lot of trouble

guys guys this was widely discussed at the time, the idea was to take noel and encourage him to take his time coming back, thats why i'm not surprised

― k3vin k., Tuesday, October 22, 2013 12:02 AM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it was widely discussed by armchair GMs months before the draft when there was this weird consensus that Nerlens was the only good player in it.

I would be more amenable to this line of thinking if the Pelicans hadn't made the insane decision to include the 2014 pick.

hey man pellies are playoffs or bust that pick aint gonna be worth jack mannng

also eric gordon is playing 82 games, lock it

everyone agrees davis is gonna own shit this year so who knows, maybe gordon will even play lol

xp ha

also it might be that they're just managing expectations with Nerlens and think he might look like shit if they bring him back at the end of the season, but it's more likely that the coach means what he says: the rehab is slower than expected.

only vaguely related i still don't actually believe derrick rose is going to play real live nba basketball in about ten days

oh and i know we've busted on zach lowe awkwardly shoehorning pop culture references into his writing since joining grantland but his fake jayden smith tweets gave me a genuine lol

rose has been killin it in preseason, kinda psyched to have him back actually, chicago my preseason title pick

Bulls appear pretty tough. Would kill for a clippers v bulls final maybe. Just would murder humans to see that.

if u murdered the right humans you could make it happen

I am imbued with so much power today

i'd love for a team other than the heat to win the title this year but tbh none of the other 3 serious contenders (pacers, bulls, nets) are terribly exciting. maybe if rose is playing back at 100% and jimmy butler develops they'll be a fun team to watch but even when they were good their games could be brutality some times.

in the west otoh spurs/clips/okc//houston/gsw are all super fun teams, although i bet you we'll see the clips slow down a little with doc coming in

3 serious contenders in the east, that is

i'm keen to see what happens to the Nets, could be legit

we should prob do a predix thread before the season starts?

4 sure

The 2013-14 Nets are what happen when billionaires get an itch that must be scratched. In that they resemble the:
http://holidayblog.easyjet.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Trevi-Fountain.jpg
Trevi Fountain.

would be kinda hilarious if prokhorov managed to spend his way to a title after all those hilarious short sighted moves

first ever new york team I will be rooting for re pierce an Garnett also kinda cause they play around the corner from where I lived for ten yrs

wow I think I just missed ny for the first time

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1820047-tyler-hansbrough-has-a-change-of-heart-when-he-realizes-whos-messing-with-him?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=programming-national

hahahahha

that is beautiful

Psycho-T meets bona fide psycho.

XD

the nerlens thing would be NBD imo if he hadn't gone 10 picks later in the draft than anyone thought he would

oh wait he went 6 not 9 n/m, nonetheless

still, the guy went behind alex len AND cody zeller

i'm convinced his medicals do not look good

nerlens tore his ACL in february, theoretically he should be ready to go by christmas. even if they were taking it easy on him... february?

if he's out for the entire season it better be because they're tanking like no other team has ever tanked

are the sixers still under the minimum salary commitment?

looks like they're still about 9 million under lmao

J0rdan S.
Posted: October 22, 2013 at 2:47:29 AM
still, the guy went behind alex len AND cody zeller

i'm convinced his medicals do not look good

ya reasonable theory

Psycho-T meets bona fide psycho.

― Aimless, Monday, October 21, 2013 7:20 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lmao

Metta World Peace ‏@MettaWorldPeace 10m
Tyler Hansbrough is a tough kid . Stop be silly people!!! He is going to be a champ one day. Keep being tough Tyler!!

aw

He is so weirdly zen sometimes.

Hansbrough had a really nasty dunk later in the game

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtaX3WNlVvw

http://31.media.tumblr.com/37ed31d008c60b9e4bc8ef0a743d7a86/tumblr_mv1ta4yKiD1qk9zbko1_500.png

#NBArank going all in on steph curry

I support this

he is a major GAME CHANGER

hadn't checked that in a few days, but nbarank has Westbrook at 5 and harden at 4, giving the thunder 3 of the top 5 guys a year ago, and harden over Westbrook is some presti suicide watch shit. Poor fella.

If Curry plays like he did the last half of the season then it's justified.

The NBA season is right around the corner, and you know what that means: Time for another preseason survey in which the league's 30 general managers answer various questions of varying degrees of inanity. You'll note that, way down at the bottom, the NBA asks an especially weird one:

"Which player makes the most of limited natural ability?"
This year, Kevin Love came in first, with 24.1 percent of the vote. Marc Gasol came in second; Matt Bonner and Jared Dudley tied for third, and J.J. Barea rounded out the top five. In a league where nearly four of five players are black, four of these five guys—Love, Gasol, Bonner, and Barea—are white. (Dudley's biracial.)

smh @ execs

that's not a "weird" question tho

I love how people think Kevin Love is a scrappy overachiever when he's been a coddled thoroughbred since he was like 13.

wow Love got a lot of votes for best PF

Love makes the most of his ability, but considering how much he's made out of it, it seems strange to rate him as "limited", as if, were he playing at a more normal level for his gifts, he'd barely be clinging to some team's bench or be bouncing around in Latvia, Greece or Israel. The guy is not just some effort player with few nba skills.

people underrate strength as a talent

matt bonner really does have naturally limited ability though

outside of sandwich hunting

marc gasol absolutely does not have limited physical abilities though, that dude is a horse

he just can't jump over a phone book but who cares abt that

Bonner and Dudley are fine choices for sure

Drummond is having a totally bananas preseason, but those damn FTs

http://www.brewhoop.com/2013/10/22/4867396/giannis-antetokounmpo-bucks-gm-john-hammond

we we we so excited

gigi

Pablo S. Torre ‏@PabloTorre 10m
As said on @AroundTheHorn today: There was no major change in Nerlens Noel's recovery. 76ers (rightfully) want to tank. Noel wants to play.

WHOA

I wonder if the league will investigate

good for the Sixers tho

Can the league make you play a guy even

yeah i'm not sure the league can be like "you must play this player!"

nerlens could file a grievance or something but obv this isn't going to come to that (hopefully)

could see the nbapa maybe getting involved but what're they gonna do, feels like if an organization is like "sorry we suck this year sorry everyone" it's their prerogative?

The league can investigate if a player on injured reserve is truly injured or not and force a team to activate the player if the evidence fails to show sufficient injury to prevent their playing.

the league can do whatever they want, that's what the past 3 years have taught us.

Why not let the man play a little tho? Like the last third of the season for like 10-15 mins a game? Get some experience.

but that knee

opening tip off, gather ball, call TO, noel get outta here, send in 19 year old kid from drexel who just played call of duty for 12 hours, play him 47 minutes.

http://www.brewhoop.com/2013/10/22/4867396/giannis-antetokounmpo-bucks-gm-john-hammond

we we we so excited

― Matt Armstrong, Tuesday, October 22, 2013 10:20 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

ok i know what i said about giannis nicknames but "greece lightning" is p sweet

yep i'm all in for that one if it's got a shot

stop trying to make nicknames happen everyone

so wiggins not v. impressive at kansas practice, apparently :(

Maybe he'll wind up getting there this season, but he's a long, long way off right now," said another NBA guy who came through Lawrence in the preseason. "He looks like just another player. I've seen him a few times in the past, and to be honest, he hasn't been off-the-charts any of those times. I love his athleticism, but I worry about his intensity -- as well as other aspects of his game. He doesn't shoot it great, and he's got zero aura about him. Again, I'm not saying he can't get there -- but people are making far more of this kid than they should."

http://www.nj.com/sixers/index.ssf/2013/10/post_2.html

oh no zero aura!

more intensity!!

Sean Highkin ‏@highkin 23s
76ers coach Brett Brown says team has ‘six NBA players’ http://usat.ly/17fNC6a

cold

anyway seems like first college practices are porb not a good way to judge any player, prob just trying to adjust at this point, good thing they play a whole season of games tho

also maybe zero aura is part of what makes him so good, defenders cant sense his presence

or maybe that NBA guy had indigestion/low blood pressure and missed the aura.

but yeah obv first practice says nothing but it's good to hear some deviation from all the CW "concensus #1 pick" hoopala

def guys who are super hyped in high school have tended to in the past turn into more ordinary nba players, like remember when oj mayo was suposed to be the shit, which makes sense not everyone can be lebron

anyway im sure one of the super hyped high school players in this deep ass draft will end up being legit #1 worthy

well there's like a dozen of em so odds are

The diff between high school phenoms and nba stars is that a high school player can blow people away on pure athletic ability, but no matter how amazing your pure ability or how explosive your first step is you have to hone your skills to a fine edge and master the nuances of the game to be a legit nba star.

http://i.imgur.com/1U0ItsI.jpg

point guards especially

p sure scouts take into account skills not just how good guys play against hs competition

for instance everyone knew telfiar would suck, when he was drafted in the middle of the 1st round it was considered a reach

great, another harrison barnes debate

uh you guys, Faverani is dominating this game

the celtics are.... kind of fun to watch? What is going on here.

lol Hubie says "Faveroni"

Oden played

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/metta-world-peace-movie-screech-eve-marc-maron-000541091--nba.html

Michael Beasley just had 13 seconds of playing time in the first half, I bet something cool happened.

Matt Armstrong
Posted: October 24, 2013 at 12:28:46 AM
the celtics are.... kind of fun to watch? What is going on here.

purely illusory i assure you

:D

I mean fuck him forever for choosing the Heat, but dude deserved this dunk.

http://images.ftw.usatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/odendunk.gif

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aTdAiuOmvw

lol @ these globetrotter antics

that's at least two carries on lebron

man i can't even watch a gif of oden dunking without wincing and expecting him to collapse in a heap at the end of it

really tho

love this oden quote

"I’m happy my first shot was a dunk and I made it."

'those guys got some kinda symmetry between them'

sounds like the reg season thread title to me xp

Royce White cut

Man, if you can't make it on this Sixers team...

Looks like Oden is gonna step foot on a court before Royce.

did we wanna do fantasy this year, i hadn't even thought about it

I'm down of course

based mod gotta renew the league. better be quick about it because the season starts in like a week!

well shit

i thought someone else was commish now

im a dad i aint got time for fantasies

is dayo commish now? like i can remember anything from a whole year ago.

*puts finger on nose*

im down for fantasy ball

lets get it going in the kelly olynyk of time

that one's free 'll be here all night

the sixers cutting white has to be due to some off the court shit, it's not like he doesnt have the talent to crack this squad

prolly cos he still wont travel i presume

oh is that still a thing

the sixers cutting white has to be due to some off the court shit, it's not like he doesnt have the talent to crack this squad

― twist boat veterans for stability (k3vin k.), Friday, October 25, 2013 4:04 AM (41 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

he's fat and has played like shit ever since he got drafted.

he averaged 5 pts, 4 rebounds and 3.4 TOs per game in the preseason.

UC Irvine freshman, 7'4 with an 8'1 wingspan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZqBC_n8PLk

that's a big man

lol markief suspended one game for this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOc337P_PrQ

http://imgur.com/gBEfrjd

;_;

http://i.imgur.com/gBEfrjd.jpg

;_;

guys this is the preseason thread not the basketblolz thread

i assume those are spurs digital camo uniforms for like an armed forces night? which is nice but uhhhh get 1 designer)

ibaka should be suspended for flopping? fakery? or checked out by a doctor because i think having your lowest rib connected directly to the bridge of your nose is a rare and serious disorder

bye royce next stop insurance agent

the sixers cutting white has to be due to some off the court shit, it's not like he doesnt have the talent to crack this squad

― twist boat veterans for stability (k3vin k.), Friday, October 25, 2013 4:04 AM (41 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

he's fat and has played like shit ever since he got drafted.

― Matt Armstrong, Friday, October 25, 2013 12:46 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah i watched him and he seemed completely disinterested

chandler parsons's shot chart is pretty sick

Adrian Wojnarowski ‏@WojYahooNBA 11m

Suns sending Gortat, lee, Brown and Marshall to Wiz for Okakor and 2014 1st round pick, source tells Y!

canny move by the suns imo

pick is top 12 protected, like this deal for both sides.

easy move for the suns, less so for the wiz but what the hell

they'd probably screw that pick up anyway... just a terribly run franchise

yah s'alright. altho i thought they might be able to wait til closer to the trade deadline and find a desperate bubble contender with a hurt center or whatever

Uhhhhhhh

Adrian Wojnarowski ‏@WojYahooNBA 18s

Andrew Bogut has agreed to a three-year, $43 million extension with Golden State, league source tells Yahoo Sports.

hey, it's just money

if he's healthy and plays well it's a steal

no it's not

"let's tie up a quarter of our cap on Mr. Glass because hey if he's healthy he might be underpaid by about 10%"

ok the base is actually just 36m, that's a lot better

That's still twelve mil a year for a guy you're thankful if he gets in 60 games a year

When you live and die by Curry's ankles, Bogut prob seems like a solid bet.

but they got a great bargain on Curry's deal because of his injuries.

Bogut makes them a much better team.

kind of like that wiz-suns deal for both sides though a first-rounder in a supposedly deep draft plus okafor's expiring seems like a lot to give up for gortat- who i like more than i should but is also expiring

phx should just trade for every expiring injured veteran this year

also zach lowe totally knew what was up, he talked about okafor all over the place the last couple weeks, all out of proportion with how much impact okafor has ever really had (none)

bogut is p good, centers are always expensive, and i think gs is close enough to the cap for next year that signing a decent free agent big is probably out of the question

plus mark jax probably asked for guidance from above on his injuries and knows the future so cool

Marc J. Spears ‏@SpearsNBAYahoo 2m
Bogut's bonus kicks in on new deal if he meets one of following: AllStar, allNBA, all-NBA def, Def Player of Year or 65 games, source said.

We'll pay you big extra bucks if you're an all-star... or if you just walk onto the court for 65 out of 82 games.

how does the new CBA handle performance bonuses w/r/t capspace?

Did the Warriors HAVE to extend him before the season started?

for purposes of calculating capspace, all bonuses count xp

Did the Warriors HAVE to extend him before the season started?

Nope, both sides wanted each other and were going to extend before the reg. season or else wait for the next offseason.

it's sadly not on youtube AFAICT, but the mavs have this hilarious ad for season tickets which is a montage of like 7 monta ellis assists in the preseason and then he looks in the camera and says "you think you know me but you don't"

Haha perfect

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BXmRBYHCcAADV44.jpg

season starts wednesday!!!

http://i.imgur.com/YEZh1gV.jpg

very excited, happy halloween

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAP_oY2u9jc

season starts wednesday!!!

― shiny trippy people holding bandz (m bison), Sunday, October 27, 2013 6:14 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

tuesday

spurs dont play tuesday, doesnt count imo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmWMz10Ftko

good spot

would be cooler if it was real

lebron is the best human

He's either getting better PR advice, or else he always got good advice, but he only started to follow it after 2010.

he prob just grew up a little

so, the second choice then

http://instagram.com/p/f9p-kRTUAV/#

who wants to do the honors and start the regular season thread?

too much pressure for a hot shit title. but if it helps at all, i'd accept just about anything that doesn't reference the lakers, dwight, metta or kobe.

i liked the greg oden quote upthread

He's either getting better PR advice, or else he always got good advice, but he only started to follow it after 2010.

― Aimless, Monday, October 28, 2013 9:48 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Winning titles cures all

I can still recall the big fracas over the gold-leafed birthday cake lebron rejected after he made The Decision to Take His yada yada. Yes, it happened before The Title. But if he were still pulling crap like that, I think we'd hear of it, with or without the rings.

There was def a lot of piling on going down form the decision until title #1.

Kobe won his first title and still was a PR disaster for years after.

thats because he's a legit terrible person

There's also that thing where he was accused of rape and had a widely publicized legal effort to avoid punishment and ultimately settled and yet this doesn't seem to have much influence on his legacy/popularity right now so his pr guys can't be that bad

even Phil Jackson was pissed off at him for that

Damn Hornacek looks pretty boss on the sideline

http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/qOQOU73JB29vKqUSI_SpQw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTE1Mjk7cHlvZmY9MDtxPTc1O3c9OTYw/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/Sports/ap/201310180046027711633

always liked him

NBA STARTS TODAY

Yessssssssssssssssssss

yeah i'm def rooting for hornacek