*~*~* 2022 PLAY-IN GAMES THREAD *~*~*

if they could trade him as part of a deal for more general guys it might be good considering they already have their 1-2 scorers in place, they would need to give up picks tho too as not sure theres too much market for dlo at $30m

d lo a guy whos gonna make too much money to contribute on a contendor. unless wolves brass are willing to go wild over the tax like wiggins/warriors (not likely). they might be stuck tho since he and kat are buds? all their hopes really rely on ants development tho. if he turns into an all-nba guy then youve got two of those and roster construction becomes a little easier

idg why the nets are favored

they didn't look particularly convincing last night other than one stretch in the first quarter

public money, baby

my hunch is that the nets are favored in order to juice action on both sides. i think if they were underdogs everyone would be betting them just bcuz the odds would be too favorable

they have the biggest name therefore they must be the better team
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/bf/aa/d8/bfaad899053d6a3c1bf0bbc8487f1fea.gif

the 2 biggest names even

actually their name is so small it is inside another team's name

pat bev is not cool

this is the core difficulty. he constantly plays right up to lines that should not be crossed, but sometimes he crosses the line and that is not cool.

I forgot that Kyrie does fasting

https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/kyrie-irving-explains-how-he-is-able-to-play-for-nets-while-fasting-during-ramadan/amp/

kenny was saying hakeem used to do that and it made him play better

what sort of odds are we looking at as far as kyrie lying about fasting

its only sunrise to sundown, not that hard imo. he can eat before night games or during. harder for a pro athlete that eats like 7k calories a day or whatever tho im sure.

fasting all daylight is pretty hard idk im sure people cheat a lot

been reported that he converted to islam but that quote of him talking about fasting was from his post game interview and the way he was talking was pure new age, ive never heard islam brought into that mix tho it would make sense that itd be a more common element in the black new age mix than for whitey

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkAbP616uYQ

ew he is so grody

eric rahill vibes

God save the queen and god bless London pic.twitter.com/Z7lEAY9WGZ

— Eric Rahill (@ericrahill) April 13, 2022

pretty good piece yesterday on the nets and the current status of the super team concept in todays nba btw https://www.espn.com/nba/insider/insider/story/_/id/33719050/lessons-brooklyn-nets-controversy-filled-season-superteam-era-over

Yet talent comes with cost, especially with Irving. League sources say executives, coaches and players who were present during Irving's time in Cleveland and Boston shared with the Nets negative intel -- his unresponsiveness and truculence with coaches, his lack of self-awareness with teammates, his constant defiance of offensive game plans, his disinterest in playing off the ball. But the Nets, multiple sources say, knew that bringing Irving aboard was the cost of doing business: No Irving, No Kevin Durant.

...

Admire him, loathe him, pity him or be confounded by him, Irving has been a very complicated piece in that composition. One Nets source says it's not so much one single act that weighs on the team or organization, but rather Irving in the aggregate: "It's always something," irrespective of how productive he is when he suits up.

iow, irving is exactly what we all knew him to be

Nets Post game drama!

-Bruce brown says that with Robert Williams out, the Nets can go at #celtics bigs Al Horford and D. Theis.
-Durant finds out, doesn't like it.
-Kyrie says 'I love you.'
KD says it's Brown's "caffeine pride talking."
Then Durant explains why he was mad. pic.twitter.com/9A5bPeAf6l

— DaveEarly (@DavidEarly) April 13, 2022

kd is pretty funny

giving the other team locker room bulletin board material is never good

bruce brown thinking hes just gonna waltz into the lane and loft floaters like he did vs cleveland is very silly! generally people are overrating how much losing rob is going to hurt the celtics all the guys soaking up his minutes are good players

having said that should the celtics play the bucks in round two it would be very nice to have him back

well, yeah

the beautiful game... lamelo/trae/rozier combined 8/36 fg in the 1st half.

i seriously cannot believe isiah thomas gets minutes for the hornets. sadly he looks like one of the worst players in the NBA, like just strictly negative plays

the most interesting thing that’s happened in this game is me learning that ted turner has a “jersey” hanging in the rafters of the hawks arena

gotta give the rich man his propers

When Ted Turner bought the Hawks, his basketball men asked what their first move should be. Turner just smiled and said "Get someone who looks like me only a lot bigger." The men laughed. "Do I look like I'm fucking joking?" said Turner. pic.twitter.com/Wt5y3yRQL1

— Super 70s Sports (@Super70sSports) October 8, 2018

tweet i've never been able to get out of my head

i have a weird soft spot for ted as i live near and honestly enjoy one of the only northeast location's of ted's montana grill (tm)

good riddance to the hornets. please learn how to play something that resembles defense

they need a lot of re-engineering to be a serious team and i'm not sure how it happens

this is why i circle back to them finding a new coach. it’s the easiest potential fix. no idea if it’s barrego’s fault or not but they prob need to try something else. the hayward contract has ended up playing out like we thought it would

it's too soon and i am sorry but free lamelo

re: firing the coach, you know it's not going to fix anything, right? who on this roster is ever going to play defense?

like they will move on from borrego and that's fine but their incredibly passive approach to team building is what created this.

they need more guys

i know i said it the other day but it still amazes me--there is no principle or point of view about what they're trying to be. they've found a completely random assortment of ok players.

I know it's dumb to have these sub-.400 teams in the playoffs but watching them play this hard & constantly panicked is fun, like a mini-March Madness before the real playoffs start.

they don’t have any good defensive players on their roster but their guys could also… try? maybe a different coach gets through to them, or gets them more organized on that side of the floor? i don’t think it’s a crazy thought. barrego seems like a fine coach but he might just be mismatched with this roster. their offense barely needs coaching meanwhile they need a massive effort on the defensive end. there’s prob someone who could squeeze more out of them

or now what if, just hear me out, mike dan tony

i hear thibs may be available soon

xp i'm sure there is but effort and organization is like 20% of the problem and personnel is like 80%. as usual it comes down to what the teams goals are and i'm not sure the hornets really have any.

Clint Capela’s been quietly bringing a lot recently. Glad to see Hunter have a game but yeah this was mostly cringing at the hornets

idk, on defense i’m not sure the split is necessarily 80% talent and 20% effort. on offense, sure. but there’s plenty of guys with defensive potential who don’t try or aren’t on teams that promote good defense. maybe not on the hornets (tho i might put bridges in that bucket) but i just find it hard to believe that this group of guys couldn’t get somewhat better on that end. they were by a significant measure worse than orlando and OKC, for instance. that’s not a personnel issue that’s a coaching (and by extension an organizational) issue.

last year dallas was 21st in defense, minnesota was 28th. this year those teams were 7th and 13th, without making significant roster changes or having any noteworthy defensive players on either roster, barring arguably finney smith but it’s not like anyone mentions him in all defense discussions. the one thing both those teams did was change coaches. i don’t think you just look at your roster and go “well we don’t have any good defensive players on here so we just gotta wait 3 more years until we can change this team over and then maybe we will play defense”

i understand that point (as much as i think it might speak to high variability in defensive rating year to year) but in the case of the hornets, they've cast their lot with so many veterans who are known quantities that i do think the talent is doing a lot of work here--they play herrell and plumlee at center, neither of whom have ever played effective defense. rozier hasn't played defense for a few years. hayward can't be expected to be impactful there going forward.

their cornerstone players are lamelo, who isn't playing defense anytime soon, and bridges, who could play some defense but he's had such an explosion on the offensive end that i'm going to assume his effort is weighted there in the future.

i do agree that a different coach could improve defensive performance, but the structural problems in the roster are real.

the crowd in NOLA has been bringing it tonight

mccollum 25 points in the first half