2021-22 NBA "REGULAR" SEASON THREAD

the knicks stink

32 from derozan and 30 from lavine in a game the bulls gave up 131 and lost, feels like there’s gonna be a lot of these kinda scenarios coming up for them

fourth seed jazz now 3.5 games behind memphis and only 1.5 games ahead of dallas and 2 ahead of denver

Glad to see Grayson Allen back in the lineup. He was recently a solid backup, but is now a decent starter!

He looks like the nephew of the murder victim in an 80s Agatha Christie movie where you know he did it in the first five minutes.

i liked this hollinger article ranking the 25 best defensive players of all time, some good history in here about stoppers and the ebb and flow of big man play and roles across eras. didn’t realize jason kidd was considered this good of a defender. i can post in the c/p thread if anyone who doesn’t have athletic access wants to read

https://theathletic.com/3093939/2022/01/27/nba-75-a-history-lesson-on-defense-and-ranking-the-25-best-defenders-of-all-time/

I’d like to read that one yeah thank you!

that last ranking is some basket-awww content

one thing that is clear from listening to/reading hollinger since he's been back in the media is that he would jump in front of a bullet for tony allen, marc, or mike conley. he really loves those guys.

great raps triple OT win

Vibe check on the wizards….

"I spoke up a little bit early on. It wasn't necessarily welcomed. So I try to do whatever's asked of me. End of the day, everybody has a role to play. It's about being accountable in your role”

Spencer Dinwiddie on taking leadership role with Wizards 👀
pic.twitter.com/uUebdjuLoe

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) January 30, 2022

Holy ****, Siakam. pic.twitter.com/NBRhW3Ak0C

— John Schuhmann (@johnschuhmann) January 30, 2022

He’s been awesome of late

one just hates seeing the lakers blow a big 4th quarter lead to the hawks

I’m getting super excited about Okongwu

hes so good, hawks will probably have to trade capela this summer

8 assists in the first quarter for jokic. the fact that the nuggets, without their 2nd and 3rd best players, are outplaying the full-strength world champions should underscore how silly the MVP conversation this year has been

lol i was fumbling around with some numbers a few minutes ago and came here to post "jokic quietly is running away with mvp rigth now right?" and got xposted that very thing

when there is a clear MVP, such as this year with nikola jokic clearly being the MVP, they should have a separate competition for the 2nd-MVP, so people can have fun debates about stuff. personally I think giannis and embiid are making strong cases for 2nd MVP

he's just as far away from the pack as he was last year in all the advanced stats

yeah it’s just not close

i think chris paul would be my vote for second most valuable player

ooh a man after mine own heart

giannis is averaging 29-11-6 and we also know he’s the best player in the NBA food for thought

sure, extremely cute averages, interesting how he’s outplayed by the actual MVP head to head, who’s averaging………better than that…… just putting that out there

the only vote that matters—mine—is firmly for the joker as of now

*it doesnt matter who the best player is the award is for who has played the best, unless one guy has played the best for too many years in a row

joker loses points for getting it last year, giannis loses points for getting two of the last three, as of now embiid is prob leading in the real standings

yeah I mean as we all know the only reason jokic wouldn’t win it this year is because he won last year. voters generally don’t take voting on this seriously which extends to fans and some ILH posters I suppose

this conversation is about the second most valuable player, not the most valuable player (nikola jokic of the denver nuggets)

I mean there no reason to get all galaxy brain about this stuff, jokic is the best player in the league. obviously they don’t award the larry o’brien trophy to the team with the best player, that’s why they play the games and so forth

jokic is a great mvp choice, as is the best player in the NBA who is putting up monster stats — giannis. jokic ppl have an insatiable desire for there to be no debate over who is having the best season in the NBA, makes you wonder what else might be going on there

nikola jokic is definitely the best player whose team is located in the mountain time zone

I’d just love to see like some supporting evidence for anyone but jokic, like seriously invent your own stat or something, I’m open minded, it’s just tough to make the case for anyone but jokic without looking like you’re…reaching

i would *certainly* say he’s the best player whose team got swept in the second round of the playoffs

ahh the ringzzzz argument. the most advanced of positions

as all the big brains know if your team is bad you also must be bad

pretty easy to build the giannis over jokic MVP case. he’s on a better team in a harder conference, scores more points, is a top 3 defensive player in the league at minimum, and is simply a better player when it really comes down to it

yes, scores more points, has better teammates, I too love to watch sports in the year 2000

scoring points is an important part of basketball this may surprise

personally I’m a big fan of the “box score stats”

again, totally reasonable to look at both players and think jokic is the mvp. it’s also totally reasonable to look at both players and think that two time MVP, reigning finals MVP, and best player in the NBA giannis is the MVP. yet only one side wants to say there is no discussion to be had

advanced stats are wonderful. the ppl who created them and whose livelihoods are based on them will readily tell you they exist to be parts of the conversation and not the ends of them. it’s also well known that all publicly available advanced defensive stats are dubious at best which is a convenient factor in the debate between two players in which one is universally agreed upon to be a much better defensive player.

anyway, as our very own stephen a smith makes his narrative contrarian MVP case, jokic is dominating on the road vs the full strength world champions

the thing about advanced stats in basketball is that they often disagree. this year however…

anyway like I was saying before, I’m not trying to take anything away from giannis — I’m a big fan and he’s having a great year. he should be recognized for that somehow that isn’t dishonest about who the best player actually is

anyway now that the nuggets are up 22 on the road vs the world champs I expect this coversation to slow down a bit

Something is not right with the Bucks right now

I sort of see advocacy for anyone other than jokic as analogous to someone advocating against the covid vaccine. like clearly they have their own internal thought process that makes sense to them, so it’s challenging to reason with that. but it’s clearly an insane position.

Jokic has 18-9-15-3-1 in 28 minutes against the defending champs

that’s good, but did you know that giannis is widely considered to be a better defender