part two of the nba 2020-21 anything but regular season

the alien-replaced imposter who looks a lot like julius randle should win rookie of the year

if campazzo is eligible julius randle might as well be

just looking at randles numbers and a lot of his improvement there is just 3pt shooting, both taking and making more, and tbf his overall usage is up, but i was thinking he kind of sucked before but he was putting up like just sub allstar numbers, and now hes putting up solid allstar numbers, on a dece team too which he never had before, havent watched the knicks much this year or last so not sure really about his role changing, wld imagine hes handling the ball more too as his assists and shots are both up, anyway not sure what my point is here kudos to him

yeah they just give him the ball a lot and let him go to work but it’s the outside shooting that really unlocks it. he can take some tough ones off the dribble now and make them.

i will be happily taking the proverbial under on all julius randle expectations for next season

yeah tough to believe at least some of this isnt a heater, especially when the whole league is on one

he’s extension eligible this offseason so the knicks will likely do something insane like give him $100 million

well yeah then theyll have everything in place to lure a top free agent

Pacers are suspending assistant Greg Foster for one game and fining Goga Bitadze for exchange on court Wednesday, sources tell ESPN. Foster and Bitadze have had a strong working relationship this season and that’s expected to continue, but emotions are running high in Indiana.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) May 6, 2021

just two fiery competitors

strong "i have 40 fucking points" lavine vibes from bitadze on that one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bx48bMoPhco
problem is... he's not a 'star' so the coach can bite back.

idk coaching having to be held back on the sideline prob not going to come out the winner on this one

yah it was a bad look.

micah, any inside scoop on bad vibes in pacer land these days?

mcmillan thriving in atlanta gotta be kinda tough for them lol

they're too busy trying to figure out what a pacer is

pace car?

saw some talk on twitter that bjorkgren might not make it past this season, feel like somethings got to be going on there more than just losing for a first year coach to already be on the hot seat

it sounds like he's just an asshole

a player taunting his own coach after scoring a single basket after being chastised for not contesting a shot doesn't seem like an interaction that happens if there is mutual respect between the team and the staff

yeah lol

not much of an article but

ESPN story on Pacers coach Nate Bjorkgren's uncertain future amid turmoil within locker room and organization: https://t.co/5oYZj7JQ3d

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) May 5, 2021

ok here we go

"Nor did they consult with last year's Orlando Bubble breakout player T.J. Warren—who played under Bjorkgren in Phoenix—according to sources. When news of Bjorkgren's hire became public, Warren requested a trade from the Pacers, according to sources."

Woah. https://t.co/73jzKdN6Jg

— Ryan Eggers (@EggersNBA) May 6, 2021

ayoooo

!

"Longtime Pacers assistant coach Billy Bayno resigned in February ... And while Bayno’s decision was announced to be a result of personal and health reasons, league sources said he departed Indiana because he was personally no longer able to work under Bjorkgren."

Woah x2.

— Ryan Eggers (@EggersNBA) May 6, 2021

"He’s just very different," said one league executive who has worked previously with Bjorkgren. "He’s not a d--k; he’s just completely out of his element as a leader."

oh

seems like a pretty bad fuck up by their organization. can't imagine a single argument for keeping him around, you should be able to find plenty of assistants who are at least as good of a coach w/o also being hated by everyone

yeah, you pretty much waste a year of everyone's time with a hire like this. kevin pritchard has been around long enough to know better but i'm starting to wonder about him too.

part of this seems to be that the pacers front office thinks they have a better roster than they actually do

feel like it's an especially bad screw up to hire a coach everyone hates who also takes you out of the playoffs (probably) when your whole deal as a franchise is "we may not do everything humanly possible to contend for an NBA title but we're going to be solidly in the playoffs every year with overall good vibes". should be an easy enough fix if they can him but the vibes have been weird in indiana for a minute now dating back to oladipo marketing himself to his opponents while on the court

pacers roster is fine if they could stay healthy. good enough for a top 6 seed imo

theyre talking about contending in that article tho

the roster's exactly at the level that a good coach could get a lot out of, and a bad coach could ruin

theyre talking about contending in that article tho

― lag∞n, Thursday, May 6, 2021 11:10 AM (eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

oh... then well yeah

looking for their nick nurse to level them up, forgot about the getting kawhi part

The talent base of the pacers, to me, is a contending team. But there are clearly some chemistry issues to say the least.

Brogdon/Caris/Warren/Sabonis/Turner just makes so much sense. Really nice bench players too. But sometimes things don’t work I guess.

well warren elected to sit out the year instead of play for the coach so that's one wrench in the plan

if that team stayed healthy for a full normal season i think they could win 48+ games but i don't think there's enough top end talent to truly be considered a "contender"

the pacers have a lot of nice players but no superstar seems to be the issue, but on the bright having a lot of nice players could put them in position to get a super star should one become available

diantoni actually cld be interesting for that team

if that team stayed healthy for a full normal season i think they could win 48+ games but i don't think there's enough top end talent to truly be considered a "contender"

― J0rdan S., Thursday, May 6, 2021 2:26 PM (thirty-six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

accurate. they could trade one of lavert/warren and one of turner/sabonis to get that player, but as constructed they're at best a surprise 2nd rnd entry.

if that team stayed healthy for a full normal season i think they could win 48+ games but i don't think there's enough top end talent to truly be considered a "contender"

ok matt, let's go--what's their ceiling?

56 games

no

for ppl not immediately going to bball-reference, pacers havent won more than 48 games since 13-14 when they won 56 with the world famous pg, lance, hibbert, david west, george hill starting lineup. the current pacers are not as talented as that team was in 14.

were talking ceiling here!

the ceiling is winning 82 games and the floor is winning 0 games, i checked real quick

lol

i mean that horford hawks team won 60 games these things do happen, everything going right and so forth, maybe it would be more instructive to talk about 90% ceiling idk, a stat i call not totally unlikely ceiling, but i agree with matt their roster is pretty good

its just not a contending roster, i think they could put together a solid second round team, depending on what the other teams are doing