2018_nba_reg_szn_thread_v2.svg

they need kawhi to save them!

true, he is the prophet

https://i.imgur.com/VKE5BDf.png

tank standings as tight as the western conf playoffs

dame just hit 4 3's in 4 possessions in spectacular to take the lead in a weird ass game against the lakers

remeber like two years ago when no one took shots like this lol that was a stupid time

BAHAHHAHHAA LILLARD IS JUST PULLING FROM THE LOGO NOW pic.twitter.com/rQluO8vs7G

— Damian Wobbard (@World_Wide_Wob) March 6, 2018

blazers don't really have any under 25 talent that looks likely to develop into really anything above 'solid rotation guy' tbf

gonna take this back, forgot that nurk is 23, but idk how much better he is than solid rotation guy and he's fated to constant injury risk

it might be hard to defend a guy who can shoot from like 38 feet out idk maybe

spurs 2-8 over last 10, worst ten game stretch since 96-97

Lillards been rolling. Has turner been starting on their streak?

i appreciated k love's thing on mental health in the players tribune https://www.theplayerstribune.com/kevin-love-everyone-is-going-through-something/

embiids game is wildly undisciplined, gets by on insane talent, but has shown no signs hes interested in doing the actually good basketball things eg hes shooting 30% from 3 on 3.5 attempts commits 4! tos, also throws his injury prone body around like a rag doll
simmons cant shoot, at all, like literally cannot shoot
(both of those things are kinda cute in the regular season but are very exploitable by prepared playoff opponents)
simmons and embiid are prob both centers
their #1 draft pick pg is on some sort of quest to destroy his jump shot?? and has barely played nba basketball
they might be a garbage organization

― lag∞n, Monday, March 5, 2018 8:17 PM (yesterday) Bookmark

the final 2 of these things are the only parts of this argument i find compelling even slightly

aside from embiid injury stuff but that's sort of its own thing

good 2 know lol

"gets by on insane talent" is a hell of a concern

https://i.imgur.com/K36ap2F.png

as a t-wolves fan i feel philly is cool and fascinating in a way that some wolves teams have been that makes them boner material for "league pass team" junkies but somehow will stop short of being actually good

whereas this years wolves are actually *better* and sometimes *good* but less fashionable

the wolves have two really good players and the rest of the team is kinda just normal, not sure what their path to contending is, other than andrew wiggings keeping his promises

the sixers are already actually good tho

theyre not that good!

they're 7th by net rating and 8th by point differential \(o_O)/

+1.9, wow

.3 ahead of the powerhouse indiana pacers

they're one of 4 teams that wouldn't shock me if they won the East, so I'd call them "good"

+1.9, wow

― lag∞n, Tuesday, March 6, 2018 12:15 PM (three seconds ago) Bookmark

so you'd say there's what... 4 good teams in the NBA?

jordan stop being obtuse this second, theyre bunched up in the standings whichever way you want to slice it with a bunch of other okay teams

Goon's definitions of 'good' and 'bad' are very different than others, is what I've gathered. He's referred to klay as 'bad' many times so I now read his 'bad' as 'very good but dont want to praise'. Helps his posts make a lot more sense.

what ive always said klay was good, im the big klay guy around here

anyway i think ive been pretty clear and am actually the only one here who has said anything of substance about the philadelphia basketball team

i think they are good not great and will lose in the first round. but they will get better. I worry that simmons could go the way of michael carter williams. embiid health concerns are very real tho and imo that makes their window smaller and sooner than a normal young team arch. Like his prime is gonna be 24-27 not 26-30. Fultz the big question mark here obv.

they need a klay type player imo

i guess reddick is filling that role rn but feels like they need a lil more firepower

they should be able to lure talent like reddick in the future.

reddick is doing a ton for them this year they def need to fill that role on a more permanent basis

Ever since covingtons finger injury he hasnt been the same

they need someone a bit better than him is what I'm saying. klay, mccollum, that sort of tier of shooting guard

the whole composition of the team is just kinda weird and janky, they shd trade all their dudes except for simmons for more draft picks, the decision pt 2

well everyone needs that but cant afford it, those are max players. xp

the thing about the sixers and whether they're good or not is.....it's embiid. it's all embiid. they're bad when he is off the court. i think you have to project a bunch of things to figure out how they become elite from here, because at the moment they're only pretty good and that's entirely because of one very large very injury-prone dude.

i keep seeing talk of him getting defensive player of the year

that's why i think they need another all star level player to be a real contender

the sixers starting line up of simmons-redick-covington-saric-embiid has a net rating of 18.8 in almost 500 minutes, there's very few lineup combos across the NBA that compare to that in a similar amount of minutes. their bench depth is shaky and inexperience will prob flare up in the offs this year but their core group smokes people, it is what it is

right now they'd match up w/ the cavs in the playoffs and will lose but they just blew them out in cleveland like 3 days ago and there's no one on cleveland who has even a prayer of guarding embiid

series would be good but bron would win out yea

the sixers starting line up of simmons-redick-covington-saric-embiid has a net rating of 18.8 in almost 500 minutes, there's very few lineup combos across the NBA that compare to that in a similar amount of minutes. their bench depth is shaky and inexperience will prob flare up in the offs this year but their core group smokes people, it is what it is

― J0rdan S., Tuesday, March 6, 2018 12:37 PM (fifty seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

they run past sleepy teams and generally do a lot of weird shit that wont play against a prepared good playoff teams, it might not really be what it is, not to mention redick is prob gone after this year and convington just had a weird hot streak

i mean what happens when all those weird running hooks simmons takes are pushed a couple steps further out

what they want to do is get that matchup with the pacers

that line up just makes a lot of sense on paper to me. on offense you have two elite shooters (saric for his size anyway) and embiid is unstoppable. i don't personally buy the logic that all of a sudden ben simmons will be exposed in the playoffs as if teams are just letting him score now for fun. i buy into his sheer talent & understanding of the game regardless of his shooting, he's a special player... rondo was good in the playoffs and straight up took over some games for instance. and covington is a pretty good 3 and D guy, several teams especially in the east have worse 5th players. and that line up has been good defensively too, they should be able to switch just fine.

they will def have that problem where it feels like they're hanging on for dear life when embiid is sitting but for a team whose three best players are all 23 and younger that's a pretty ok place to be?

simmons is def a special player but playing very tall guys who cant shoot at all as yr primary ballhandler, well theres a good reason you dont see it a lot, and maybe he can overcome these fit issue but it is very much a situation where he has to overcome them, whereas if you had a team whos construction could accommodate a tall non shooter that wld be easier and simpler, long term youd assume theyll play fultz at the 1 then have a three man front court rotation with embiid/simmons/saric, the embiis/simmons fit isnt totally ideal cause of the lack of shooting but theyre both so good that it'll still be doable, obvs a lot depends on fultz coming around, anyway circling back to my original point they have a ton of talent but theres also a ton of question marks, way more so than most talented young teams, like its not hard to game out all of that stuff working out for them, but also thats not usually how it happens

i really think simmons cld be amazing at center btw, in transition where hes by far the most dangerous at this point he can still handle the ball and just be a positionless guy, then in the halfcourt you play four out and put him in all sorts of actions facing up posting up coming off screens and let him attack the basket and create slice up the defense with his passing hed still be a major ballhandler but just not really operating on the perimeter where he has to deal with the fact that defenders can play off him, hes shown signs that he can be a really good interior defender too, and the fit with saric who can shoot is good, but of course phillys best player is already a center