2017 NBA OFFSEASON

Donovan Mitchell and Kyle Kuzma seem good.

Duncan had that rolling d20s arm strength it was just his feet that gave him some trouble for a while but he was otherwise p durable. KG too until his early 30s which is not bad for how long he'd been playing already

Embiid is crazy exciting but I'm scared he's going to be a lock for a yearly season ending injury by 27

the embiid contract is structured m/l like philly has a team option every year IF he injures his feet or back and misses x number of games/minutes, otherwise its a normal contract, http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/20985023/joel-embiid-extension-protects-philadelphia-76ers-case-contractually-specific-catastrophic-injury

so if hes playing bad philly has to keep paying him, or if he injures his knee they have to keep paying him, didnt even realize this sort of thing was allowed

I frequently use “predict games played by height” as an example when teaching regression. You really don’t want to be taller than 7' 1" if you’re concerned about injuries. IIRC, Yao, Bradley, and Bol are the only noteworthy outliers. Joel Embiid is 7' 0".

(However, I’m a Bayesian, so with his existing injury history I’d bet he won’t have a substantial career.)

think I mentioned it here at the time, but when I saw Embiid play in person he fell to the ground at least 7 times in the 25 mins or so of game action, earning the nickname of "the baby giraffe" from my friend. iirc the falls were mostly on defensive end.

didnt even realize this sort of thing was allowed

― lag∞n, Wednesday, October 11, 2017 11:39 AM (six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah if i'm the players assoc i'm....not thrilled with this. i wonder if there are any other examples that may have flown under the radar?

this is a fun read w/kerr diagramming plays on a charcuterie board: http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/page/enterpriseWarriors/how-steve-kerr-revolutionized-golden-state-warriors-offense-charcuterie-board

And then, as Fraser looks on, Kerr swipes clear the wooden board, casting the handle in the role of a basket. He positions the board's dried cranberries and marcona almonds into two five-on-five teams in a half-court setting, with the cranberries relegated to defense.

hah yeah the bartender from that story posts over in the SA forums nba threads and has told it before, it reads like a movie scene or something

when they make the Moneyball-esque movie about this team it'll be really key in the narrative

i like the specific detail that they were marcona almonds

the best of the almonds obv

you are forgetting jordan almonds

watching mediocre coaching and management talent who backed into one of the most talented teams ever gas themselves is ugly

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71TX7nBYszL.jpg

*shudders*

draymond and curry are the two best GMs in the league

That book should just have two sentences

Do: draft steph curry & sign him to a cheap contract while his ankles are still made of tissue paper

Don't: try to lowball him on a contract after he wins two mvps and two championships

our advanced silicon valley science tells us that our allstar point guard who we signed to a discounted contract because of a chronic injury should suddenly transform to the best offensive player for two seasons in the second of which which we will be on the wrong end of end of the biggest upsets in sports causing the second best player in the league to sign with us, also a second round pick we were planning on backing up david lee will turn into the best defender in the league

our coaching genius will install a motion offense instead of just running maybe the most unstoppable play ever over and over

lol xp

goon why u think Kerr is a mediocre coach I guess we have evidence that a clipboard with glasses on it (mike brown) can coach them to insane heights but I don't take that as conclusive evidence that he's NOT good

Oh xp I guess that's probably ok reasoning do u mean a curry kd pick and roll because honestly they could have several plays that u could call most unstoppable ever including "give ball to curry 30 ft from rim" "run a couple screens with three of the deadliest shooters ever hanging around" and "get dray in the middle with those guys just doing some stuff around him"

Hey I had one q from lowes article- who does he think the Celtics are keeping their powder dry for, apologies if I'm missing the obv

It's not Paul George is it I don't want it to be Paul George

Maybe it's BRON lol

Hah yeah spottie draymond probably should have been gm of the year for clutch "u up" text to kd right after losing the title

my case against kerr
evidence of bad player relations via his ongoing fued w dray
using a fancy motion offense that has his players running way more than necessary instead of just doing the unstoppable steph/kd steph/x kd/x pnr over and over
team performing noticeably worse when he took over from walton
slow to understand his best lineups in the offs

i dont think hes bad but def not a top guy either

Hey I had one q from lowes article- who does he think the Celtics are keeping their powder dry for, apologies if I'm missing the obv

― gis for westbrook shark jump (agent hibachi), Wednesday, October 11, 2017 1:30 PM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

gotta be brow

yeah it's brow

Ah thanks that's been bothering me for a solid 24 hrs

Is it bad that I don't even think of him when I think about top ten-fifteen guys or whatever or is it just that he's trapped on a superfund site

yea i was wondering the same thing xp

I dunno if the celtics still covet him but they did for a while

ha yeah theres been ongoing low level speculation/fake rumors abt brow to boston for a while, seems p dubious imo u youd have to be crazy to trade him and his contract runs for three more seasons, tho i guess nola cld a. be crazy or b. we cld have a situation where he tells them hes not gonna resign two years in advance or something

brow, kyrie, hayward wld certainly not be a terrible core

thing is celtics remaining draft picks are not of nets picks caliber, maybe if all the stars align like brow demands a trade that lakers pick hits at #2 brown tatum smart etc whoever theyre going to trade all have sick seasons it cld happen but seems like a mighty longshot

my case against kerr
evidence of bad player relations via his ongoing fued w dray — feel like this is blown out, think he's struck a good balance w Draymo, he lets dray be dray but also has the balls to try and wrangle his bad tendencies a bit. i think theyve figure it out. i worry more about how he left steph out of his parade speech and has forgotten to praise steph and overpraised durant at times. hes really lucky steph has more tim duncan in him than kobe
using a fancy motion offense that has his players running way more than necessary instead of just doing the unstoppable steph/kd steph/x kd/x pnr over and over while i agree and have strongly agreed at times (to the point of thinking #fireKerr) i have softened of late and generally am down with kerrs philosophy that getting others involved makes for better team chmistry and everyone being ready/willing to contribute on both ends when the time comes. I think tho that when the things get thick he should be a little quicker to abandon that and just let the boys cook w some PnR.
team performing noticeably worse when he took over from walton could be a lot of factors but yeah. after the streak ended im sure they let off it a bit too
slow to understand his best lineups in the offs ill never forgive him for those Ezili and Andy V minutes in the 16 finals

― lag∞n, Wednesday, October 11, 2017 10:32 AM (eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the players seemed to really love walton where they mostly respect kerr it doesnt seem like theyre ride or die w him

small point but the article was abt kerr designing the offense when he took over the job and getting away from mjax isoball. so there was no steph/kd pnr, they could (and did) still run high pnr with steph and other guys but also wanted to take advantage of their good-passing frontcourt and get everyone more involved, all of which were reasonable things to do.

i know everyone clamored for more kd/steph pnr last year but at least during the reg season i recall it not being as effective as ppl assumed, one of the main reasons being that kd is a bad screener.

anyway kerr is prob not an elite coach but it was a fun behind the scenes piece.

he's top 5 imo

the players seemed to really love walton where they mostly respect kerr it doesnt seem like theyre ride or die w him

― lag∞n, Wednesday, October 11, 2017 10:54 AM (five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

walton was more of the friend. not sure how that woulda worked out long term.

idk from what ive read abt walton in both gs and the lakers it seems like hes got the stuff players talk abt him like hes their therapist who theyre also madly in love with

i know everyone clamored for more kd/steph pnr last year but at least during the reg season i recall it not being as effective as ppl assumed, one of the main reasons being that kd is a bad screener.

― call all destroyer, Wednesday, October 11, 2017 1:56 PM (seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

running a new player combo pnr occasionally as an afterthought then being all hmm that doesnt work as well as one might think is the definition of a self fulfilling prophecy

xp players def love him, idk if he can actually coach

he seems p smart abt the Xs n Os too i think hes good

time will tell.

hope the lakers stick him long terms instead of getting worried abt a young team losing, seems unlikely considering how dramatic they are tho

i think he's the real deal

I gave wade about 12 games before he's coming off the bench

JR Smith 'absolutely frustrated' by benching, vented to Tristan Thompson @clevelanddotcom https://t.co/0uvgsIf6fZ

— Joe Vardon (@joevardon) October 11, 2017

because of this thread, i got some jordan almonds today

I subscribe to Basketball Intelligence and they send a daily email with links to all the hoops articles of the day. have found it very useful for catching things that might not have crept across my twitter feed or w/e. thought i would share w the ilh crew

http://basketballintelligence.net/

the rest of the league is on the hunt for the next draymond and the warriors just up and bought one in the 2nd round of the draft

Jordan Bell did all this in less than three fourth quarter minutes the other day: 11 points, two steals, one chasedown block pic.twitter.com/sIm8xsjoA3

— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) October 11, 2017

has every team had a chance to cut bennett yet?

Suns have waived Anthony Bennett and Peter Jok. pic.twitter.com/gVdc5WRCbk

— Rob Lopez (@r0bato) October 11, 2017