It is the years 2018-19 in the National Basketball Association (NBA) - The Regular Season

Yeah, the league stays around 35%, but attempts in 2000 were a hair under 14 a game. This season so far it's 31 a game. That's not gonna drop.

Adopt the international goaltending rules so the ball is live above the cylinder. Eliminate corner threes. Make it about quality of shot not quantity.

jfc

Dame 4.6 Lillard! pic.twitter.com/4SWNO9L7tV

— Michael Gallagher (@MikeSGallagher) November 24, 2018

He's the best facsimile of Steph Curry.

i think int'l goaltending rules are fine. but eliminating corner 3s altogether will really gum up the game.

Yah not good

Warriors found their identity there in the first half a bit. Let Quinn Cook try and replicate a little of what steph does and Jordan bell a little bit of what dray does.

I think the game is mostly unwatchable as it is so I'd be happy to see how teams adapt.

xpost to cad

And really, is eliminating standing in the 5 feet at the very corner going to change much? That player will be in line with the restricted arc instead of in line with the rim.

The jazz have got themselves some issues.

if you think the game is unwatchable as it is now idk what to tell you. the league is in a pretty great place

Otm and there’s plenty of variety in style of play

The best athletes ever playing some of the least interesting basketball ever. There are a few exceptions but on the whole I'd rather watch basketball from almost any era since I started watching in the early 80s.

why?

huh

easy EZ, that kind of iconoclasm will get you...

yellow carded

lol

Luka Doncic, the one and only, displaying his complete package in this one work of art.

Basketball IQ, passing skills, physical attributes, ball-handling, P&R science/magic, ability to manipulate defenses.

Primary ball-handler with solutions for any problem. Superstar archetype pic.twitter.com/5nZ9MpWFZd

— NBEinstein (US) (@NBEinstein) November 24, 2018

i dunno about all those buzzwords but doncic is very good as advertised

hes really good but he cant get to the rim which is decidedly not a ~superstar archetype~

he's already like the same player as pre-injury gordon hayward at 5 years younger

i guess he's prob worse on defense though so maybe not

i know gordon could make some plays as a ballhandler but luka already seems like he's in a different league with that.

yeah hes got insanely slow feet i dont think theres much hope for him as an nba defender, if youre talking about mvp level play the only path that really makes sense to me is for him to become s steph level shooter who can do all sorts of crazy moves on the perimeter to create looks, which is tbf is prob an actual possibility

in conclusion hes insanely good at basketball but will prob be held back some by very bad athleticism, tho i am curious to see how he looks once he gets into better shape, cld make a big difference

paul pierce was very unathletic by nba standards, too. not just below average, but near the bottom of those playing his position. the only way to find out doncic's limits are for him to play a lot more than just 20 games.

pierce had perfectly fine athleticism was "some country strong" and dunked on fools from his first game in the league

Another #mississipibomb:

Derrick Rose dined at Ruth Chris Steakhouse in downtown Minneapolis with his gf recently, left my friend's wife a $300 tip

His stats this year are kind of astonishing considering how we was widely considered completely cooked, the last thing I would have seen coming

yeah pierce was strong af

.008% of doncics made baskets so far have been dunks

i wish i cld find this stat but just based on watching almost all of his —complete game highlight— youtubes i feel confident in saying that doncic has fewer than ten made layups/dunks in the halfcourt this season, wldnt be surprised if its fewer than 5 tbh

i mean maybe he can get by with a killer floater game a la cp3 (and to a lesser extent steve nash) but dunking is better

seems just about as likely to me that in three years ilhers will be saying "remember when we worried that doncic not dunking was going to be a big limitation on his ceiling? that seems so long ago now"

ok

Going for my yellow card here (might as well earn it this time).

I hate that the league has become a min-maxing experience, a math equation over all else. We joked last year about the Celtics trying to roll out a 6’8” lineup where everyone is completely interchangeable. It’s a fun idea in the abstract but a sad inevitability of the current direction of the league.

What I miss is players having defined roles with some overlap with those around them. A shooting guard who has some point and small forward skills, a small forward with some shooting guard and power forward skills, etc. Because of the min-maxing, it’s a point guard, three interchangeable wings and some type of big, who may just be a large slow wing as far as skill set is concerned.

There are of course exceptions (as well as teams slow to adapt to the inevitable), but those get called out for being an exercise in futility. “You can’t have two non-shooters, even if they’re Embiid and Simmons.”

There used to be more variety in how teams were built. More specialists and less generalists. More about maximizing an individual’s skillset and less maximizing one skill for all.

It’s s matter of taste. The current NBA may be exciting for most people but it’s less enjoyable for what I have always liked about basketball.

there are so many good players now and everyone is so skilled which i like but yeah the league does seem to be converging on some generic logical style of play consensus which unfortunately results in a lot of just running back and forth and chucking and when those —efficient— 3s dont dont go down it can be pretty tedious, i think overall this is one of the best eras of the nba ever and compared to the late 90s early 00s riley bully ball its pure joy and light but there are def some concerning trends

lots of ball movement is good too, one emerging trend that kinda interesting is starters playing fewer and fewer minutes all the time, one reason for this is that teams discovered that it keeps players fresh for the offs, but also the game is just more demanding now, theres so much more movement on both sides of the ball and defensive loafing is nearly untenable, that averaging 40mins a night just doesnt work anymore, so its become more of a team sport a little more soccerish than before

i guess just... move the 3pt line back idk

remember when they moved the 3pt line forward lol

That was the stupidest shit. We’ve stopped calling fouls so let’s artificially enhance scoring

recent piece on style of play concerns https://basketball.realgm.com/analysis/251704/Scoring-Explosions-And-The-Risk-Of-Stylistic-Homogeneity

i wonder if they moved the line back if it wld just make guys who can really bomb super valuable, like justin holiday wld be a max player

cp3 is an interesting comp for doncic in that if he was the undisputed best player on your team i think you might be topping out in the second round or so every year, but if he got matched alongside another top 10 level player i think you could really have something.

yeah was thinking doncics ideal role is prob paired with a more traditional athletically monstrous superstar

That article says what I was feeling better than I could express it.

Watching teams run the weave like I did in fourth grade doesn’t seem like a good thing for the sport.

Move the line. Call moving screens if you’re gonna call grabbing and holding. Make the Val alive on the rim. Try to make all skills matter to some extent

The Val? The ball

i think he will absolutely singlehandedly win games based off his intellect and skill alone... he'll have a lot of 35-15 games i think. i just think he tops out more as like a top 8-12 level player as opposed to top 5 or above. hard to complain about that tho.

wonder abt prepared teams being able to bump him off his preferred shots when its comes playoff time, a common tho not ubiquitous issue with difficult shot makers

He’ll get stronger and with his size it’ll be hard to muscle him off his spots

modern defenses are designed to give up midrange shots which is what can make cp3 so deadly when he's coming off screens and hitting those little midrange jumpers like he's playing pop a shot. it wouldn't surprise me if doncic was the next elite guard at that kind of thing tho maybe more w/ floaters and push shots and weird kinda stuff as opposed to pure jumpers

he does have a nice large frame, will be interesting to see what he can do when hes in better shape/if he can get really strong and figure out how to use that strength, his game is def more finesse now but if he can start to move defenders out of the way he might be able to get to the basket a lil more