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NBA
Aug 14, 2020 17:27:11 GMT
Post by Kapitan on Aug 14, 2020 17:27:11 GMT
The Bulls fire Jim Boylen. I'm not surprised, especially as they brought in a new GM in Arturas Karnishovas, but I am a little surprised they waited this long and only now just did it.
Poor Zach LaVine: he can't ever seem to have the same coaching staff for more than about 20 minutes at a time! Flip Saunders, Sam Mitchell, Tom Thibodeau, Fred Hoiberg, Jim Boylen in six seasons in the league.
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NBA
Aug 14, 2020 18:10:42 GMT
Post by Sheriff John Stone on Aug 14, 2020 18:10:42 GMT
We'll see how many follow Jim Boylen. Since the season resumed, Brett Brown has been on a continuous hot seat.
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NBA
Aug 14, 2020 18:29:51 GMT
Post by Kapitan on Aug 14, 2020 18:29:51 GMT
Also now that New Orleans is done ... did they just tank or what? The NBA clearly developed its whole restart system to ensure NOP (meaning Zion Williamson) got there, and then he only played five games, 20 mpg, in short spurts. Before the restart all we heard was he was in PHENOMENAL shape. Then he briefly leaves the bubble and returns looking ... not in phenomenal shape. At all. And they went 2-6.
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NBA
Aug 15, 2020 19:03:40 GMT
Post by Kapitan on Aug 15, 2020 19:03:40 GMT
And now the Kings fire Vlade Divac as GM, the Pels fire Alvin Gentry as coach.
Blazers off to a nice start against the Grizzlies, not that this is a huge surprise. Memphis, especially without either Jaren Jackson Jr or Tyus Jones, is in a tough spot against a talented and somewhat surging Portland (and on-fire Damian Lillard).
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NBA
Aug 15, 2020 19:28:55 GMT
Post by B.E. on Aug 15, 2020 19:28:55 GMT
Blazers off to a nice start against the Grizzlies
You were saying? I hope this is a close one down the stretch. Edit: Better yet, I hope the Grizzlies win and force a 2nd game.
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NBA
Aug 15, 2020 19:30:46 GMT
Post by Kapitan on Aug 15, 2020 19:30:46 GMT
Wasn't ready for the Jonas V show! But definitely glad to see it become a closer game again.
It's a shame Tyus Jones is out, because he and Gary Trent Jr were one-time high school teammates! It would be cool to see them head-to-head in a pro (kind-of) playoff game.
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NBA
Aug 15, 2020 20:25:37 GMT
Post by Kapitan on Aug 15, 2020 20:25:37 GMT
Wasn't ready for the Jonas V show!
Also wasn't ready for the Brandon Clarke show! But that's what the 3rd was.
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NBA
Aug 17, 2020 11:10:03 GMT
Post by B.E. on Aug 17, 2020 11:10:03 GMT
The Playoffs are here!
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NBA
Aug 17, 2020 11:59:38 GMT
Post by Kapitan on Aug 17, 2020 11:59:38 GMT
Yes!
Jazz v Nuggets and 76ers v Celtics are the most interesting matchups today, I think. Though I'm curious to see whether Dallas can compete with LAC.
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NBA
Aug 17, 2020 20:33:52 GMT
Post by Kapitan on Aug 17, 2020 20:33:52 GMT
Utah v Denver was great! Donovan Mitchell was spectacular throughout the second half especially, and Jamal Murray was unreal from the final few minutes of the 4th through the end of the game. That will be a tough one to top.
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NBA
Aug 17, 2020 23:22:00 GMT
Post by B.E. on Aug 17, 2020 23:22:00 GMT
I know it's not fair to pick out one play here or there, BUT that 8 second violation against the Jazz probably cost them the game. At least, it felt that way when it happened. They were up 4, with the ball, around 2 minutes left... Murray took over.
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NBA
Aug 18, 2020 18:10:37 GMT
Post by Kapitan on Aug 18, 2020 18:10:37 GMT
SJS, while I know it means nothing at all, I thought I'd share that ESPN's new 2-round mock draft has Philly taking TWO Minnesotan kids in the 2nd round: center Daniel Oturu of U of MN and Cretin Derham Hall HS; and Tre Jones of Duke and Apple Valley HS. Both are sophomores.
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NBA
Aug 18, 2020 20:44:59 GMT
Post by Sheriff John Stone on Aug 18, 2020 20:44:59 GMT
SJS, while I know it means nothing at all, I thought I'd share that ESPN's new 2-round mock draft has Philly taking TWO Minnesotan kids in the 2nd round: center Daniel Oturu of U of MN and Cretin Derham Hall HS; and Tre Jones of Duke and Apple Valley HS. Both are sophomores. Good! Trade Joel Embiid and Shake Milton and draft Daniel Oturu and Tre Jones.
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NBA
Aug 19, 2020 14:31:09 GMT
Post by Kapitan on Aug 19, 2020 14:31:09 GMT
I referenced my annoyance with the modern NBA’s analytics-and-copycatting driven style. I thought I’d expand on it here.
First and foremost, copycatting in general annoys me. I’ve seen it several times in the NBA. The first thing I recall was when in the early-to-mid ‘00s, the triangle became the magical solution to everyone’s problems. (And remember all the success Dallas had with the triangle!? Jim Cleamons went 28-70 in his one-plus seasons with the team before getting fired. Bill Cartwright, Frank Hamblen, Kurt Rambis, and Brian Shaw all used it to some extent, as well … and all failed.) We also saw the iso-heavy game in the ‘90s as player movement was hard to come by thanks to lax enforcement of hand-checking and bumping; next thing you know, Tony Campbell is averaging 23 ppg by backing down smaller off-guards, wasting the shot clock to get his mid-post points.
The fact that someone succeeds with some approach doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll do the same. Everything else matters, too: personnel, management, resources, attitudes, and even dumb luck.
It’s also simply boring. Just as the spread offense has come to dominate football means there’s less of interest to watch, so too has the spread offense come to dominate basketball … and there’s less of interest to watch.
This is an aesthetic argument, but it still stands as my opinion. It’s more fun to see a grind-it-out, post-oriented team match up with a run-and-gun team; a triangle team against an iso team; a full-court-pressing team against a pack-the-paint team.
Further along the same lines, as the trend moves toward Steph Curry-style (or now, Damian Lillard style) pull-up-3s, you get guys who are most certainly NOT Steph Curry or Damian Lillard jacking 35-footers…with less than spectacular results.
In the 90s, bigs were probably overrated. The proof is in the results of guys drafted high. Let’s take a look at some of the bigs who were drafted in the top 15 picks in the mid-90s, roughly corresponding to modern lottery picks, which is usually (though probably unfairly) considered the range in which a player is expected to become a serious contributor: a star, a starter, at least a key role player. (Guys in parentheses are picks who almost certainly deserved their draft position; guys outside of them are those who probably didn’t.)
1994: (Juwon Howard) Sharone Wright, Brian Grant, Eric Montross, Carlos Rogers, Yinka Dare 1995: Joe Smith, Antonio McDyess, (Rasheed Wallace, Kevin Garnett), Bryant Reeves, Kurt Thomas, Gary Trent, Cherokee Parks 1996: (Marcus Camby, Shareef Abdur-Rahim), Lorenzen Wright, Samaki Walker, Erick Dampier, Tod Fuller, Vitaly Potapenko
I’m not saying these non-parentheses guys were trash, but they probably weren’t good enough to warrant their draft positions. (Especially guys like Smith and McDyess, but also Grant, Wright, and Damipier were good. Just not that good.)
But in those years, an average of seven bigs were drafted among the top 15 picks. In the past three drafts, we had three, five, and one bigs—an average of three—taken in those spots.
On one hand, it is probably fair to say that we have more good smaller players just because there are more smaller people: 7-footers are a rare breed, and in the past we probably overvalued them. Guys got taken because they were tall. Meanwhile, there have always been excess 6-0 to 6-4 guys who, all things being equal, probably were better than their taller counterparts.
But the question is, are we swinging the pendulum too far? This year, James Wiseman and Precious Achiwura of Memphis and Onyeka Okongwu of USC are the only traditional bigs rated among the top 15 prospects. But outside of that range are the super-skilled 7-footer Aleksej Pokusevski; versatile Jalen Smith of Maryland; big and powerful Isaiah Stewart of Washington; dominant inside player Udoka Azubuike of Kansas; super talented Vernon Carey Jr of Duke; 20-and-12 guy Daniel Oturu of Minnesota…those guys would all absolutely be first-rounders in the past, and mostly lottery picks. And that’s far from all!
I worry that things have swung too far, that teams will be passing on more talented bigs because they believe post players are extinct. But are they extinct because there is no use for them, or because copycats won’t use them?
Of the 15 teams who took the most 3s, six were not playoff teams. Five of the best shooting 3-pt teams (by percentage) were not playoff teams. The former is the same percentage of non-playoff teams among the best passing teams (by assists). The latter is the same percentage of non-playoff teams among the best rebounding teams, and of best at taking care of the ball (by least turnovers).
In other words, the new measures of winning aren’t particularly different from the traditional ones.
While it might be true that a team trotting out an old-school, rugged power forward alongside a big, talented center will have a hard time defending some 3-pt shooting small ball team, the opposite is also true. And that same dynamic has always been true in basketball! That’s the beauty of coaching, of adjustments, of strategy.
A diverse league with different teams using different systems and valuing different kinds of players is more interesting. It’s also more versatile, able to account for different years’ crops of talent. And a more flexible, diverse team is the same, on a smaller scale.
Marriage to a system is bad for the team and the sport—and it doesn’t seem that results prove the modern system is necessarily the best way to play (unless you’re a fully healthy Golden State Warriors).
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NBA
Aug 20, 2020 12:01:43 GMT
Post by Kapitan on Aug 20, 2020 12:01:43 GMT
SJS, I've come around to think Brett Brown is out of a job--at least if he doesn't make a miracle happen and come back from this 0-2 hole and really look good. I used to back him because I thought his untalented teams played hard back during the Process, but now I wonder. He can't seem to settle on lineups (though to be fair the franchise keeps shuffling his deck), and even without Ben Simmons, this franchise was not built to lose in Round 1.
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