NBA 2020-21 reg season 1st half thread

yeah saw that, almost surely unsustainable, but that doesnt mean he cant hit them at a good rate like 45-50%, cause he def is generating good looks

as for the extra attempts from that range, his scorings gone from 20 last year to 27 this, gonna be hard to make that jump while keeping yr shot distro to only the finest shots

tho all this is prob somewhat academic cause with kemba and jayson back theres gonna be fewer shots to go around and he can be more judicious

whether that trio ever really figures out how to play together idk yikes, wld be cool if kemba could be more of a distributor but his game is really about just going balls out and idk if it will work for him to try to do something different, they can obvs stagger their minutes but in crunch time you want them to be working well together, which over a year into their relationship, tho really not many total games due to many injuries, they still have no idea how to do, theyre kinda all iso players

crunch time in that last game was ugly as hell

lol in NBA2K the canned commentary always says, when referring to boston's opponents, "they're going to try to make kemba shoot the ball instead of be a creator, they think that's the key to containing what he brings to this offense" which is like the opposite of what you're saying (and i think what you're saying is right, from what i've seen of this season)

lol yeah get it together video game guys

One thing is clear about Jaylen tho: he really is a very good three point shooter. Which considering his other gifts makes him an all-star.

on this point 2K agrees

yeah jaylen on track to breeze into the allstar (game?) this year

did anybody explain on this thread what the hell is wrong with oubre? like is he just bad or

theres no explanation. he just cant buy a bucket. he's probably never been so open so maybe its messing with his head. his energy and defense is still good but i think he's dumb as rocks. 20 games in and he still has no idea where to go/be on the offensive end... which is horrible in a read and react offense. he's also allergic to passing the ball. i think he has something like 2-3 assists to curry on the season...

his stats just don't make sense to me but kerr appears to have committed and seems to think he'll figure it out.

by any measure oubre is bad and not getting better. kerr "appears to have committed" because the front office committed him. kerr "seems to think he'll figure it out" because he is chained to oubre and cannot state what he is thinking without actively making the whole thing worse than it already is.

lol fair

jfc KAT what a horrible year

https://www.tmz.com/2021/01/29/karl-anthony-towns-car-crash-drunk-driver-nba-minnesota-timberwolves/

man seriously he should shut it down for the season.

yeah the 2021 Timberwolves are nothing to sacrifice for

Apparently this was the second time that Oubre sued this lady

Embiid is 2/9 from the field but has 11 pts with 2+ minutes left in the first.

He's now 55/40/83 for the season.

I wish the Timberwolves were never born

the spurs just beat the nuggets to move into 4th seed in the west, a thing i definitely thought would happen

I really really like the Spurs. I think people are way too skeptical about them.

including me! i had them 9-12 seed this year.

which to be clear can still happen bc the west is tight. but the success of the spurs is:

--demar increasing his playmaking and becoming a serviceable 3pt shooter
--offense-by-committee elsewhere with 7 players in double figures
--replacing two of the worst players in the league (marco belinelli and bryn forbes) with a rookie defensive phenom who can shoot 3s as accurately as the aforementioned (vassell)
--reducing the minutes and role of aldridge
--dejounte murray being fully healthy and becoming a real point guard
--keldon johnson being really fucking good in very little time
--mills being a flamethrower and leading the best bench unit in the league (mills, vassell, rudy gay, jakob poeltl)

theyre a top 10 defense this year and theyll be ever better once aldridge is out.

When does white come back?

tomorrow night against the grizzlies!

i imagine theyll ease him back as a bench guy, but he's too good to not start. that'll probably bump lonnie to bench duty which would probably suit him better bc he gets kinda lost in that starting unit and hes not good enough defensively to cover the best wings.

Might need to start watching more spurs.

Elsewhere the jazz are on an 11 game win streak and the mavs suck bad.

continuing to be concerned with jokic's minutes

You can’t cut jokic’s minutes when every game is close

denver needs to make a trade imo

you can't cut back on jokic's minutes! you will regret this!

Elsewhere the jazz are on an 11 game win streak and the mavs suck bad.

― a nice controlled drift (Spottie), Friday, January 29, 2021 9:56 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

I watched this game, it threatened to be a good game for a bit in the second period where Dallas closed the gap but was immediately definitely over almost as soon as the second half commenced.

The schlubby Australian guy who looks like a suburban dad,Clarkson and Gobert looked great for Utah.

imo dallas sucking or being not that good makes more sense than them being good because their roster is just not that good

maybe if zinger finds some form and health they could be decent but past their top two they just dont have a lot of good players

last year they were relying on a historically great offense which is a hard thing to keep doing

I'm curious to see how they'll do now that some of their guys are back. They're still better than this.

yeah the josh richardson trade is not working out for them as well i thought

Big issue with the Nuggets has been Barton. Is he just washed? Every other part of the 8 man rotation has made sense.

just seems like he's a guy who is never going to be fully healthy

also their games haven't been particularly close... honestly think you have to find ways to play him less or sit him out every few weeks. it sucks because he's a legit MVP contender but they're not winning the 1 seed and I also feel like their chances of finishing outside the top 4 are pretty slim. the team will get better as MPJ is better integrated and murray improves, and presumably they make some sort of deal

resting is especially important this year with the short offseason and compressed schedule

he’s also 25 and in the best shape of his life idk

also their games haven't been particularly close... honestly think you have to find ways to play him less or sit him out every few weeks. it sucks because he's a legit MVP contender but they're not winning the 1 seed and I also feel like their chances of finishing outside the top 4 are pretty slim. the team will get better as MPJ is better integrated and murray improves, and presumably they make some sort of deal

insane

Jayson Tatum with the perfect behind-the-back pass/save to Robert Williams: pic.twitter.com/p1JqzCZhu5

— Chris Grenham (@chrisgrenham) January 31, 2021

whoa!

Assist of the year from Tatum?pic.twitter.com/QBHPAZZvWg

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) January 31, 2021

dammit