Scottie Barnes’ shooting leap has rightfully garnered tons of attention, but De’Aaron Fox is having a similar, if not bigger, shooting leap.He’s hitting 40% of his 3s and taking 9 of them each game. 40% on pull-ups and catch-and-shoots! Insane numbers.— Jackson Frank (@jackfrank_jjf) December 29, 2023
― slob wizard (J0rdan S.), Friday, 29 December 2023 19:55 (nine months ago) link
As the league gets ever friendlier to the offense and more difficult to defend, what used to be first team All-NBA PG stats are becoming almost commonplace. The talent level among starting guards and the blurring of distinctions between point and shooting guards means the kind of separation Steph Curry achieved between himself and his nearest peers isn't possible any more. Half the starting PGs can put up point god numbers now.
― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Friday, 29 December 2023 20:04 (nine months ago) link
i think my three toxic opinions regarding these guys are as follows1. i believe in ja the basketball player a lot more than you guys 2. fox is an ultimate dog in the chest x ray player to me & has been since he was punking lonzo on national TV in college. the widespread acceptance that the kings “traded the wrong guy” feels very premature to me 3. i’m taking cade over like half of these guys so my rankings are …1. anthony edwards only guy on this list who sometimes looks like michael jordan. i do think the real team playoff success will come down the line when this roster has turned over almost completely. i don’t actually see him as a PG, i think you’ll need a real secondary ball handler who can shoot at guard with him but the derrick whites of the world are out there. i think he’s showing this year at the end of games that he is hitting the point of “getting to my spot and you can’t do shit” on offense and top tier on ball individual defense. SGA has been mentioned as the current d wade equivalent previously but like…
pic.twitter.com/vSwOpC6vq2 https://t.co/vJKInChuvS— Brett Usher (@UsherNBA) December 29, 2023
― slob wizard (J0rdan S.), Saturday, 30 December 2023 02:38 (nine months ago) link
I will just say that Fox was the guy I wanted Philly to take at 3 the year they traded up for Fultz.
― il lavoro mi rovina la giornata (PBKR), Saturday, 30 December 2023 02:42 (nine months ago) link
I forget who the other big pg in college was that year, but Fox took it personal and ate him up in tournament game.
― il lavoro mi rovina la giornata (PBKR), Saturday, 30 December 2023 02:43 (nine months ago) link
Lol, I think it was Lonzo. Put up 39/3/4 on him. Lonzo had 10 points.
― il lavoro mi rovina la giornata (PBKR), Saturday, 30 December 2023 02:48 (nine months ago) link
yes my love of fox is rooted in that game
― slob wizard (J0rdan S.), Saturday, 30 December 2023 02:53 (nine months ago) link
that fox/monk kentucky team was so much fun, only right that they’re teammates again
― kissinger on my list (voodoo chili), Saturday, 30 December 2023 02:55 (nine months ago) link
i don’t like the way he plays basketball & it feels like this iteration of their team is smacking its head against the ceiling and there is blood running down its face.
i love everything about this sentence
― polyamerie "it's more than this 1 thing" (m bison), Saturday, 30 December 2023 03:06 (nine months ago) link
:) upon further consideration i think i was too hard on halli in terms of my comps — you definitely would have to throw dame in there for him too, and the main reason why people never soured on dame the same way they did/have to whatever extent on harden/trae/luka is primarily because dame is just a stand up guy & halliburton def seems cut from that same cloth. i could easily see halli getting to a similar spot where the pacers aren’t a real threat to come out of the east but winning a playoff series is a realistic goal most years & everyone is pretty cool with that because he’s just a good guy who plays a fun style of ball. i don’t get the sense that pacers fans are the championship or bust types. i think i’m just not sure i see what clearly separates him from ja and fox to pick at least those two, beyond the shooting, which does matter but isn’t the end all be all & also does seem to be one of the more improvable skills (i.e. scottie barnes). like fox and ja can close the shooting gap on halli (fox possibly already is) but there isn’t a way for halli to i.e. attain fox’s speed or ja’s athleticism
― slob wizard (J0rdan S.), Saturday, 30 December 2023 10:06 (nine months ago) link
well he is a bunch bigger than those two and i dont think they are getting taller
― micah, Saturday, 30 December 2023 13:27 (nine months ago) link
pacers defensive woes are mostly a personnel issue. there are about 3 plus defenders on the whole roster. the team is in a transitional mode right now and i expect they will find more of a balance in the next season... and hali will be continue to be great.
― micah, Saturday, 30 December 2023 13:31 (nine months ago) link
― micah, Saturday, December 30, 2023 8:27 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink
hes also an elite passer, and while the competition might improve their shooting theyre just not gonna get to halis level
― lag∞n, Saturday, 30 December 2023 14:34 (nine months ago) link
you look at guys who can really pass and really score and really shoot and its a pretty nice mix your steve nashes nikola jokices your luka donices, not saying hali is on their level but he is 23 years old averaging 25-4-12 50/42/85, which is not some wildly out of trend year for him, his ceiling is very high, on offense at least lol
― lag∞n, Saturday, 30 December 2023 14:46 (nine months ago) link
the thing about combining elite passing with great scoring is it makes you very hard to double team which is the traditional method for stopping a guy who is scoring too much
― lag∞n, Saturday, 30 December 2023 14:50 (nine months ago) link
other elite passers on the list are trae and lamelo, neither of whom have quite put it together in the way youd like
― lag∞n, Saturday, 30 December 2023 14:51 (nine months ago) link
trae cause hes just too committed to the heliocentric life and lamelo cause he cant stay healthy
― lag∞n, Saturday, 30 December 2023 14:52 (nine months ago) link
hali turning into what i thought lamelo would be
― lag∞n, Saturday, 30 December 2023 14:55 (nine months ago) link
suns big three played last night and they beat the hornets brad beal had six points in 30 mins
― lag∞n, Saturday, 30 December 2023 16:15 (nine months ago) link
incorrect thread
sorry to see that cade is now under the well known “ILH j0rdan poll curse”, I will be praying for him
― truly humbled underdog (k3vin k.), Saturday, 30 December 2023 17:20 (nine months ago) link
fair point re halliburton’s size tho it’s a bit meaningless if he doesn’t actually put that to use on defense. his block and steal rates aren’t much or any better than fox or ja — halli’s steal rate has actually cratered this year, must just be the offensive burden. i should have given him more credit for his lack of turnovers, that’s a big thing. but those other guys aren’t slouches as passers either. he’s amazing at a lot of the stuff that works in today’s league maybe i’m just overthinking it. i think i just will have trouble judging him until their style of play stops feeling like one of those experimental high school basketball teams bcuz it feels a bit like fantasy land to me. but maybe halli is the next steve nash revolutionary! i cannot rule that out. carlisle’s track record the last handful of years of defensive basketball is completely horrid btw, does this ever get fixed? does he care about defense i’m legitimately not sure 23 indy - 28th d rating22 indy - 26th 21 indy - 28th 20 dal - 21st19 dal - 18th
― slob wizard (J0rdan S.), Saturday, 30 December 2023 20:46 (nine months ago) link
he is capable of caring about defense. he has coached good defensive teams further in the past. cubans gm issues are well known and i think any coach would have struggled to field a capable defense around starting center dwight powell for instance
― micah, Saturday, 30 December 2023 21:39 (nine months ago) link
could see how he mightve settled into a if you get me good defensive players i will coach defense but until then i will only dream of getting buckets mode
― lag∞n, Saturday, 30 December 2023 21:40 (nine months ago) link
totes. i think hes maybe more of a realist than most coaches and is happy to just punt defense if he doesnt have the roster for it and isnt going to be in title contention anyway
― micah, Saturday, 30 December 2023 21:45 (nine months ago) link
isn’t myles turner supposed to be a good rim protector? was that overstated or is he just worse now? is every player on the pacers so bad at D that his rim protection is meaningless? the stuff about the mavs personnel being bad falls on deaf ears for me given how they played defense when j kidd got there and despite even more horrific decisions by the front office including one of the worst moves in the NBA period over the last 3 year (letting brunson walk) have still been better as a team overall since carlisle left even taking last year into consideration
― slob wizard (J0rdan S.), Saturday, 30 December 2023 21:48 (nine months ago) link
yes - every player on the pacers is so bad at D that his rim protection is meaningless.
and he is maybe a bit worse now.
― micah, Saturday, 30 December 2023 21:50 (nine months ago) link
yeah i’m gonna have stop you guys here and say that i don’t thinking punting on defense is chess not checkers coaching lol. i guess it’s hard for me to watch spo teach a bunch of g leaguers how to consistently play good defense when his best players are constantly in and out of the line up and not think that punting on defense is an abdication of coaching duties. you’re the coach!
― slob wizard (J0rdan S.), Saturday, 30 December 2023 21:54 (nine months ago) link
they dont have heat culture tho
― lag∞n, Saturday, 30 December 2023 21:57 (nine months ago) link
at one point the mavs actually out cultured the heat!
― slob wizard (J0rdan S.), Saturday, 30 December 2023 22:04 (nine months ago) link
crazy to think about how so much has changed
― lag∞n, Saturday, 30 December 2023 22:05 (nine months ago) link
the last time carlisle coached a top half of the league defense was the 2016-2017 season
the last time he coached a top 12 defense was 2011-2012
― slob wizard (J0rdan S.), Saturday, 30 December 2023 22:41 (nine months ago) link
In the last 5 games, the Pistons have a net rating of +.7 when Cade Cunningham is ON, and are -37.2 in the 49 minutes when he is OFF.— Duncan Smith (@DuncanSmithNBA) December 30, 2023
― slob wizard (J0rdan S.), Sunday, 31 December 2023 00:46 (nine months ago) link
i’ve seen enough—cade is the mvp
― kissinger on my list (voodoo chili), Sunday, 31 December 2023 00:54 (nine months ago) link
“Even dating a pretty girl gets boring after a while if she can’t guard anybody,” - Rick Carlisle, out of context, about his team.— Tony East (@TonyREast) December 30, 2023
― slob wizard (J0rdan S.), Sunday, 31 December 2023 00:55 (nine months ago) link
I just feel like SGA has proven enough at this point and is playing well enough to annoint him as the winner here. and it truly pains me to point this out but I did vote for him a month ago as documented above
― truly humbled underdog (k3vin k.), Sunday, 31 December 2023 01:21 (nine months ago) link
SGA in december: 32.6/5.5/6.7 with 3.3 steals and 0.8 blocks on .648 true shooting, despite having a weirdly bad 3 point shooting month (.256), just feels like he’s already arrived and planted his flag. hard to see now he ends up out of the top 5 of the MVP discussion at this point
― truly humbled underdog (k3vin k.), Sunday, 31 December 2023 01:29 (nine months ago) link
he’s done enough in the last month to definitively say he’s the best of all these guys?
― slob wizard (J0rdan S.), Sunday, 31 December 2023 01:48 (nine months ago) link
sga was the easy vote just because hes already really good, and also cool, most or maybe all of the other guys will never be as good as he is now
― lag∞n, Sunday, 31 December 2023 06:12 (nine months ago) link
i’m not gonna tell anyone who voted for shai that they’re wrong. but it’s worth keeping in mind that ant edwards is 3 years younger than shai and the gap between them right now is definitely real but i wouldn’t say it’s massive or anything
― slob wizard (J0rdan S.), Sunday, 31 December 2023 06:30 (nine months ago) link
I definitely wouldn’t fault anyone for choosing edwards either, but picking shai just feels like a bird in the hand situation to me. he’s doing it night in and night out, seems like he’s a playoff series win away from breaking into the luka/tatum tier
― truly humbled underdog (k3vin k.), Sunday, 31 December 2023 12:37 (nine months ago) link
yeah its not hard to imagine ant maxxing out as better than shai, hes obvs got the stuff to do it just gotta put it all together
― lag∞n, Sunday, 31 December 2023 13:38 (nine months ago) link
btw just started listening to the thinking basketball podcast best players under 25, they chose luka then ant 1-2 (shai doesn’t qualify), I recently watched the youtube for the channel for the first time and found the voices attached to the faces very upsetting, it seems like they should be reversed and someone should look into it
― truly humbled underdog (k3vin k.), Sunday, 31 December 2023 14:18 (nine months ago) link
lol
― lag∞n, Sunday, 31 December 2023 14:54 (nine months ago) link
hali last two games combined 43 points 43 assists 2 turnovers
― lag∞n, Sunday, 31 December 2023 22:19 (nine months ago) link
fucking hell
― Humanitarian Pause (Tracer Hand), Sunday, 31 December 2023 23:55 (nine months ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Monday, 1 January 2024 00:01 (eight months ago) link
point god shit
― micah, Monday, 1 January 2024 06:53 (eight months ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Tuesday, 2 January 2024 00:01 (eight months ago) link
PBKR gotta be responsible for making the official ILH take maxey > ja
― truly humbled underdog (k3vin k.), Tuesday, 2 January 2024 01:39 (eight months ago) link