NBA Playoffs - Joker's Wild

[Wilbur]

1 hour ago, Maithanet said:

I think that it is extremely unlikely that Luka will be bouncing around teams to the extent that Harden is, as that is extremely unusual.  Is it possible that Luka will have a similar career with one MVP and no rings, although it's really too early to say.  I don't think Luka will stay in Dallas too much longer, they have made some big swings and mostly wiffed on them.  Where Luka goes after that will play a huge role in how successful his career is. 

I wouldn't want to live in Dallas either, but surely the reason that Luka will leave the Mavs is because they have done such a poor job of constructing a team during his time with the team.

He may have some odd on-court facial expressions, but I bet they are outdone at the beginning of each season when he looks at the team sheet and sees...what the Mavs are putting out on the court.

They farted away the years of Rick Carlisle as coach with lumpy lineups, and then when they finally had Luka, they chose as his coach...Jason Kidd?  And some more poorly configured teams.  At least they finally rid themselves of Donn Nelson.

It isn't that they have had terrible players other than Luka, it is just that the lineups have been so obviously bad constructions as a whole for this entire century.  (Even their championship-winning team shocked me by winning it all - Dirk, Kidd, Marion, Butler, Terry and Chandler is not a group that leaps out as obviously well-balanced or dominant.  Carlisle balanced them on a knife's edge all season to win that one.)

You have to wonder if maybe the owner gets too involved in personnel decisions.

Edited November 1, 2023 by Wilbur
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[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

Wolves hand Denver their first loss in convincing fashion. The Nuggets always struggle when Joker can't control the game with his passing. Pretty weird seeing him only have three assists. 

Meanwhile Boston wins by 51. This team is a nightmare if they can stay healthy. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

Wemby with a 38/10 night as the Spurs upset KD and Booker. 

[BigFatCoward]

Just read the following stat 

Players are shooting 20% FG and 6.7% 3PT when guarded by Victor Wembanyama.

Jesus, small sample size, but fucking hell. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

15 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

Just read the following stat 

Players are shooting 20% FG and 6.7% 3PT when guarded by Victor Wembanyama.

Jesus, small sample size, but fucking hell. 

His defense was expected to be high end from the jump. It's his offensive game that's going to take some time. He's not as good of a shooter as people think and he's too thin to bang in the post consistently. And then there's the obvious injury worries. I didn't realize he played so few games the last couple years. I'd bet he plays fewer than 60 games this year and probably won't average a ton of minutes, but that's fine, there's no need to rush him too quickly. 

[Slurktan]

Wemby is incredible to watch, in other news Scottie Barnes is making a leap.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

Wooooo! Wild Wolves win over the Celtics in OT. Ant dropped 38/9/7. Also, he looks like he's grown a bit. Brown is listed at 6'6 and Ant looked like he was just as tall. 

[Relic]

6 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

Wooooo! Wild Wolves win over the Celtics in OT. Ant dropped 38/9/7. Also, he looks like he's grown a bit. Brown is listed at 6'6 and Ant looked like he was just as tall. 

He takes some of the worst fucking shots down the stretch I've ever seen. Did the same during Fiba too

[BigFatCoward]

Why are there some days where there are only 2 games and others when there is about a billion?  Is Monday night a big night for basketball?

[Relic]

11 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

Why are there some days where there are only 2 games and others when there is about a billion?  Is Monday night a big night for basketball?

Thursdays there are fewer games due to TNT broadcast reasons. There are fewer big games on Sunday in the first few months of the season due to the NFL. Tonight there are no games because its election day in the USA. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

3 hours ago, Relic said:

He takes some of the worst fucking shots down the stretch I've ever seen. Did the same during Fiba too

Thing is he makes a lot of those shots and was doing so earlier in the game. But my guess is if he didn't have five fouls he would have attacked the rim more like he did in OT. 

Ant's ceiling is a better, more athletic version of Wade.

2 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

Why are there some days where there are only 2 games and others when there is about a billion?  Is Monday night a big night for basketball?

This is part of the reason why I think the season should be dramatically shortened. There are so many nights where the majority of the games are unavailable to most audiences. 

[BigFatCoward]

4 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

This is part of the reason why I think the season should be dramatically shortened. There are so many nights where the majority of the games are unavailable to most audiences. 

Yeah, you could get rid of 1/4 of the games and still have more than enough to cover the whole season with about 4 matches a night, so the TV deals would still make sense, less player burn out, fewer sit outs, more teams at full strength in the playoffs.  

it would have the effect of pretty much ending anyone having a chance of breaking any of the existing records (other than per game averages).  

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

1 minute ago, BigFatCoward said:

Yeah, you could get rid of 1/4 of the games and still have more than enough to cover the whole season with about 4 matches a night, so the TV deals would still make sense, less player burn out, fewer sit outs, more teams at full strength in the playoffs.  

I've long advocated for adding two more teams, one in Seattle and one in Vegas, and then moving to a 62 game PL model where every team plays each other twice, one home and away. That way you could spread the games out and give teams a few days break so there's no need to rest healthy stars. The product would be so much better. Four games sounds like a good number on average. There were 12 games last night which is nuts. 

 

Quote

it would have the effect of pretty much ending anyone having a chance of breaking any of the existing records (other than per game averages).  

IIRC most of the career records are already unbreakable which makes Lebron breaking the scoring record so impressive. 

[Proudfeet]

It would be a better product, but I think its very clear that the owners and probably the players as well prefer to have more money.

Speaking of which, seems that there are already a lot of injuries this early into the season. I guess some were carried over from the previous season, but its unexpected considering how early it is. Wonder how it cares to previous seasons. Doesn't feel like they are gaming the new injury rules for rest either as they are projected to miss multiple games.

Think Robert Williams has to get surgery (again) too. Might be why Boston were willing to part with him if they didn't trust him to stay healthy.

[Wilbur]

5 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

Why are there some days where there are only 2 games and others when there is about a billion?  Is Monday night a big night for basketball?

The season used to be built around schedule openings in the local arenas, so the NBA doesn't use a consistent scheduling format.

Basketball teams had to play around AHL/NHL schedules, and other times the floor would come up for the Ice Capades.  Boxing matches, political meetings, and local college or high school tourneys were also scheduled in advance of the NBA schedule as well.

This is why the Celtics used to have to play a handful of games every season up in Hartford, as the Bruins had priority since they owned the building.  And Wilt's 100-point game actually came on a floor use primarily as a roller rink in Hershey, not Philadelphia, as the Warriors bounced around in four different arenas until they moved west.

The best example is the original ABA champions Pittsburgh Pipers (later Condors), who folded in part because they competed for time in the Civic Arena against both Duquesne University and Pitt events, fishing tournaments, the AHL and NHL, endless wrestling tournaments, political meetings, boxing, Motown and rock concerts, etc.

An artifact of the fly-by-night operation of the NBA in the early days and its resulting scheduling inconsistency is that today no one complains about the frequency or periodicity of home games.  None of us expect the NBA to play on a set schedule, whereas Thursday night football is an abomination.

[BigFatCoward]

58 minutes ago, Wilbur said:

The season used to be built around schedule openings in the local arenas, so the NBA doesn't use a consistent scheduling format.

Basketball teams had to play around AHL/NHL schedules, and other times the floor would come up for the Ice Capades.  Boxing matches, political meetings, and local college or high school tourneys were also scheduled in advance of the NBA schedule as well.

This is why the Celtics used to have to play a handful of games every season up in Hartford, as the Bruins had priority since they owned the building.  And Wilt's 100-point game actually came on a floor use primarily as a roller rink in Hershey, not Philadelphia, as the Warriors bounced around in four different arenas until they moved west.

The best example is the original ABA champions Pittsburgh Pipers (later Condors), who folded in part because they competed for time in the Civic Arena against both Duquesne University and Pitt events, fishing tournaments, the AHL and NHL, endless wrestling tournaments, political meetings, boxing, Motown and rock concerts, etc.

An artifact of the fly-by-night operation of the NBA in the early days and its resulting scheduling inconsistency is that today no one complains about the frequency or periodicity of home games.  None of us expect the NBA to play on a set schedule, whereas Thursday night football is an abomination.

Indoor fishing tournaments? Please explain, I'm very intrigued. 

[Rhom]

4 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

Yeah, you could get rid of 1/4 of the games and still have more than enough to cover the whole season with about 4 matches a night, so the TV deals would still make sense, less player burn out, fewer sit outs, more teams at full strength in the playoffs.  

it would have the effect of pretty much ending anyone having a chance of breaking any of the existing records (other than per game averages).  

When the NFL wanted to expand the schedule, I was in favor of just adding a second bye week.  You still have games for 18 weeks of content, so the TV deal is expanded.  But now you're giving more rest and not just giving lip service to player safety.

I've long felt that the NBA and especially MLB schedules are entirely too long.

Part of the reason that college football and NFL football regular seasons feel so much more important is because every game matters.  With 80/160+ games out there, who cares if you drop one on a random Wednesday?

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

2 hours ago, Rhom said:

When the NFL wanted to expand the schedule, I was in favor of just adding a second bye week.  You still have games for 18 weeks of content, so the TV deal is expanded.  But now you're giving more rest and not just giving lip service to player safety.

I've long felt that the NBA and especially MLB schedules are entirely too long.

Part of the reason that college football and NFL football regular seasons feel so much more important is because every game matters.  With 80/160+ games out there, who cares if you drop one on a random Wednesday?

I never found MLB to be more exciting than when they had the 60 game pandemic season. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

Wild stat. Last night Joker passed LeBron to move into fourth all-time in career triple doubles. He's ten years younger. 

[Rhom]

21 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Wild stat. Last night Joker passed LeBron to move into fourth all-time in career triple doubles. He's ten years younger. 

The increase in Triple Doubles in the last decade has been amazing to me.  Like the thought of someone averaging a Triple Double for an entire season felt impossible when I was growing up.  Now its just kind of "Oh yeah?  He did it too?"