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

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

The hawks have gone from terrible but fun to watch to overall terrible.

but like he also didnt really get to the hole in europe where guys are much slower/less athletic so idk, he might just not have the knack, which is weird since he seems to have the rest of the knacks, but his feet are kinda comically slow so

hawks have some interesting young players but its unclear whether any of them will top out as more than solid starters, they are fun tho

they might be a lil more competitive once collins gets back in the groove

btw i think young and collins are diff levels of the same pokeman

https://i.imgur.com/GtesfN1.png https://i.imgur.com/hEKGmTm.png

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.

― J0rdan S., Saturday, November 24, 2018 1:32 PM (thirteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

arthur_fist.jpg the way people misunderstand cp’s playoff career seriously fn drives me up a wall

traditionally players like cp3 and nash have not been quite enough to win a title or even make the finals \(o_O)/

doncic is bigger than those guys but his athleticism makes him play smaller

idk about "traditionally" or what that really means, seems like you could cherrypick cases and just lump them together however you want. I mean for one thing chris paul is so much better than steve nash was it's really not close, but even then nash's suns might make the finals in 2007 if it weren't for that amare suspension, chris paul for instance has legitimately some of the best playoff numbers of all time and has had absurdly bad injury luck both with himself and teammates, also notably has played in the western conference his whole freaking career, like if he played in the east I wonder how this whole narrative goes

I mean take a player who is maybe even more like nash - steph curry - and it hasn't exactly stopped him from dominating the league and winning a ring even before KD arrived

in conclusion I reject the premise and humbly request that chris paul slander cease

yeah steph is the exception but if the exception to guard led teams winning titles is being the best shooter of all time then that's a pretty high bar to clear

idk I mean what does it really mean to "lead" a team in 2019 when all serious contenders are composed of at least 2 superstars, paul or westbrook or nash etc would all definitely benefit from having another stud next to them but then again who wouldn't?

also I assume you mean point guard because I can think of a couple of notable guards who have led teams to titles in the past 25 years or so

nash was a better offensive player than cp3

maybe, but not by that much imo and his peak was so much shorter, and paul is one of the best defensive point guards of his generation

yeah its a tough call imo like paul was a super solid all around player for so long, but nash was really a transcendent offensive player while also being awful on D and injury prone a late bloomer etc, but he was on like 6 of the top 10 offensive trams of alltime

that real gm article is good stuff

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DszdjhFVAAAiogm.jpg

hate to strain my groin

The Celtics and Warriors are bad but the terribleness of the Rockets is inspiring.