( ( ( ( ( nba bubble ball 2020 ) ) ) ) )

There’s something to be said for drafting a guy with the understanding that you probably only get 5 years from him. The trailblazers got one healthy season out of Walton and it was a title.

I loved Nikola Pekovic. I rooted for Nikola Pekovic. But I knew what would happen. That much weight in nba basketball doesn’t last. Look at the statistics for 7 footers over 300 pounds.

― Matt Armstrong, Tuesday, August 4, 2020 12:30 AM (one hour ago)

ok but pekovic played in europe for 6 years before he came to the NBA. im reading his wikipedia.... he was first team all euroleague at age 23... zion is 20. and this is before we even get into the obvious athletic differences between the two

the idea that zion is going to play 5 years in the NBA... i'm not sure what that's based on. there would have to be something medically wrong w/ his knees like on a brandon roy level but we've never heard that about zion

the precedent i guess is like andrew bynum? i really don't put zion in that category

philly is going to escape with a 1-point win over the spurs

― call all destroyer, Monday, August 3, 2020 10:49 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

The mojo around this team is so bad right now. I watched the Butler interview on Reddick's podcast again this week and it just convinced me that the team needs to be blown up: trade Simmons, fire Brown, bring in shooters to space the floor for Embiid seems like the smartest move I guess. Not going to happen though, which is discouraging.

unless they make a run this year you gotta think brown is gone at least

they have a good shot of beating the celtics in the first round considering theyve got 3 guys bigger than the celtics biggest guy

the way the celtics supporting cast was assembled this year, not great!

We'll see. I would love to play the Celtics because I hate them and it will be easy to get hyped to exorcise their recent losses to them. But I think the Sixers would find a way to lose.

celtics are def a better team but the matchup is not great for them

the precedent i guess is like andrew bynum? i really don't put zion in that category

6' 6" nose tackles play at like 325-330... i think zion can hold 280-300 and jump around and be fine. he just needs to trade fat for muscle and get in better shape conditioning wise. i would be worried if we knew a. there were off court concerns about his work ethic or mentality b. he had something structurally or medically wrong w/ his knees. otherwise i'm willing to roll the dice on him making his body work in the longterm

there's a great clip in hollinger's most recent athletic article of shake milton and embiid blowing a defensive assignment vs indiana, arguing about it as they inbound the ball and walk up the court, and then tj mcconnell stealing the ball from milton and passing it to TJ warren for a wide open 3

i guess until we see them lose there will be ppl who delude themselves into thinking the sixers will do anything in the playoffs, but we watched them for a whole year and i think we can feel safe in saying that moving simmons to the 4 and putting milton in the starting line up isn't a panacea that's suddenly going to fix all the structural problems w/ the team/franchise. if they get a 3-6 w/ boston they'll be lucky to win 2 games

to start the second half of the spurs game they ran a bunch of postups for embiid, and he scored on a few of them and i think passed out once for a 3. san antonio couldn't do anything against it.

then they got away from it and the spurs got back in the game and almost won. they'll be a tough out for boston if embiid is the best players for 5 or 6 games in a row. but what are the odds of that happening?

They've been terrible at the end of games for years (thinking of the especially painful Game 2 v. the Celtics a couple years ago). Some of it is construction in that they don't have a guy who can create his own shot off the dribble, which is what you want. But some of it is just terrible execution and/or coaching.

I am just so stunned how good Toronto is this year.

their defense is sick and offense good enough

to start the second half of the spurs game they ran a bunch of postups for embiid, and he scored on a few of them and i think passed out once for a 3. san antonio couldn't do anything against it.

then they got away from it and the spurs got back in the game and almost won. they'll be a tough out for boston if embiid is the best players for 5 or 6 games in a row. but what are the odds of that happening?

― call all destroyer, Tuesday, August 4, 2020 12:31 PM (thirty-four minutes ago)

yeah i'll take the under on that

the plan also goes out the window in any game where you can put fouls on embiid early

6' 6" nose tackles play at like 325-330... i think zion can hold 280-300 and jump around and be fine. he just needs to trade fat for muscle and get in better shape conditioning wise. i would be worried if we knew a. there were off court concerns about his work ethic or mentality b. he had something structurally or medically wrong w/ his knees. otherwise i'm willing to roll the dice on him making his body work in the longterm

The thing about being 300 pounds is that your knee ligaments don’t become bigger. This is why the only 300+ nba player who didn’t have a shortened career (or play himself out of the league) was Shaq

Here’s a question about his work ethic: there was a 4 month quarantine and he showed up out of shape
― Matt Armstrong, Tuesday, August 4, 2020 1:34 PM (thirty-one minutes ago)

eh... he also missed most of "training camp" for some personal matter. i'm not going to judge him too harshly for being out of shape right now. people are really hysterical about him... i was just listening to the 1 day old windhorst/marks/goldsberry podcast and they're all talking about how zion shouldn't even be playing, he looks awful... meanwhile the same night he goes out and puts up 23-7-5 in 25 mins

you might be right about zion, he also levitates in the air unlike anyone who has ever carried that weight. the dude is not tractor traylor

On a summer camp field trip to NYC in 1998 a friend and I saw Tractor Traylor in the Nike store and exchanged "What's up"s. Our camp then went to see improv group Chicago City Limits that night and they based a long form sketch around it.

40 year old jamal crawford played 6 mins today before pulling his hammy ._.

Here’s a question about his work ethic: there was a 4 month quarantine and he showed up out of shape
― Matt Armstrong, Tuesday, August 4, 2020 1:34 PM (thirty-one minutes ago)

eh... he also missed most of "training camp" for some personal matter. i'm not going to judge him too harshly for being out of shape right now. people are really hysterical about him... i was just listening to the 1 day old windhorst/marks/goldsberry podcast and they're all talking about how zion shouldn't even be playing, he looks awful... meanwhile the same night he goes out and puts up 23-7-5 in 25 mins

you might be right about zion, he also levitates in the air unlike anyone who has ever carried that weight. the dude is not tractor traylor

The reason Zion looks awful is the defense btw. Out of breath, zero effort

Bucks are gonna get roasted for this performance

You seem to have this idea that vertical leaping ability is correlated with longevity. I don’t think that’s true.
― Matt Armstrong, Tuesday, August 4, 2020 3:17 PM (eight minutes ago)

no but i am saying that zion specifically leaps in a way that to me is totally unique... it's violent bcuz he's so big but also graceful and he appears light in the air. i dunno maybe his knees will become turkey meat but i'm just going with "zion is a 1 of 1 human"

Bucks are gonna get roasted for this performance

― Matt Armstrong, Tuesday, August 4, 2020 3:18 PM (eight minutes ago)

i've been internally debating for 20 mins how concerned we should be by the bucks losing to the nets d league squad... even their second unit is getting played to even

i created a poll

2020 east bubble playoffs: bucks vs. the field

You ever just stop and think about Marvin bagley being picked over Doncic

lol its v v v funny and sad, wasnt it bc vlade had beef???

Yeah Vlade hates Luka’s dad

hahahahahahah

honestly, as soon as that story came out, they should have immediately fired vlade for letting his petty personal bullshit get in the way of saving their bum ass franchise. imagine fox and luka, good lord.

i feel bad for bagley, not only did he get sent to the nba development graveyard but he has to carry the burden of having been picked before luka. odds are really stacked against him

34-20-12-2 for luka

seems good

derrick white is avging 20-5-5 in the bubble, could be helpful for the spurs

guards playing a little more freely without LMA maybe?

a lot of that, a lot of pop prioritizing the development of their young guys. their starting lineup has been white-murray-lw4-demar-poeltl which is v small ball but is kinda working with keldon johnson as the 6th man. demar has actually played really well in this setup. tons of driving and kicking on O, lots of switching on perimeter D. poeltl is the perfect pick n roll complement for derrick as well.

spurs fans have been clamoring for this all year. no amount of losing seemed to dissuade pop but the pandemic + injuries to lyles, forbes, and aldridge have kinda forced his hand. and it's working.

feels a little like the fabled EWING THEORY

so many of these games have been awesome it's kind of insane

suns and clips throwing blows in crunch time rn

gonna finally watch a basketball game

devin booker buzzer beater fatality

TJ Warren is doing it again!!!

how do you get to be one of these virtual fans

family and friends of the team & team office from what i can tell

some virtual fan lady let her titties air out the other day

yikes

Grizzlies: Memphis F Jaren Jackson Jr., suffered a meniscus tear in his left knee and will miss the rest of the season.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) August 4, 2020