2022/23 NBA REGULAR SEASON THREAD "TANKING FOR WEMBANYAMA"

wow prayers up for the nets sales guys

they should move to seattle and become the sonics bring KD full circle

does really feel like a chargers in l.a. thing where there's no inherent fanbase

mbas commissioning studies that say yes there are a lot of people in this area

*danny ainge voice*

"Somebody cautioned me before the season: If this [Utah Jazz] team gets off to a good start, don't be surprised if they hang on to some of these veterans for awhile. They don't need to be in any hurry to start this rebuild."

🗣️ @ramonashelburnepic.twitter.com/xSUmFmaQC6

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) October 24, 2022

James Harden has dribbled the ball 1,507 times through three games this season for the Sixers.

The rest of the roster combined: 1,242 dribbles 😳

(via @ESPNNBA) pic.twitter.com/E3d4x9SBD0

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) October 24, 2022

loving it

hes winning the dribbles title

76ers, nets & lakers blessing us

the superteam era is over baby

hollinger not loving what he's seeing from the hawks:

Next year, Hunter’s contract puts the Hawks in a bind, especially if one presumes Bogdan Bogdanović will pick up his $18 million player option. (Bogdanović had knee surgery in June, at which time the Hawks announced, “He is expected to make a full recovery before the start of the 2022-23 season.” Bogie hasn’t completed a full practice yet, and I didn’t see him on the floor before any of the Hawks’ three home games this week. Yikes.)

The out years don’t get any better, especially if one presumes the Hawks have interest in re-signing Dejounte Murray in 2024 after trading three first-round picks and two swaps to acquire him. (Murray has been as advertised through three games as a secondary playmaker and defensive pest.) Without another deal, the Hawks are likely to be limited to using the taxpayer midlevel exception and still ending up several million into the tax in 2023-24, and then landing much deeper in the tax to retain Murray in 2024-25.

All of this circles back to Sunday and the Hawks’ jarring 126-109 home loss to a Charlotte team that was missing LaMelo Ball and Terry Rozier. While Atlanta won the first two games in its low-hanging fruit early-season slate (home dates with Orlando and Houston), those weren’t exactly dominant performances either. Atlanta won 44 games and lost in the first round a year ago; is this really going to be a team worth paying millions in luxury tax for?

And if not, is it too early to discuss how to reshape the roster before it drives off the tax cliff?

I know what you’re thinking — more John Collins rumors! — but I’m actually wondering about another spot instead. Because while Collins is balling out thus far, Charlotte scored at the rim on Sunday over and over and over again, with Nick Richards (9-for-9) in particular seeming completely undeterred. That points the finger at another optimistic extension of yore — the two years and $43 million added onto Clint Capela’s deal. Capela led the league in rebound rate and blocked 6.0 percent of opponent shots in 2020-21 but hasn’t been at the same level since. In a related story, Atlanta slipped to 26th in defense last season.

This is perhaps focusing too much attention on Capela; Atlanta’s defense basically requires him to be awesome because of all the hemorrhaging at the point of attack. Part of the idea behind bringing in Murray, and to a lesser extent Aaron and Justin Holiday, was to fix that. So far it seems unfixed; Atlanta has allowed 34.7 percent of opponent shots to take place within three feet of the rim and permitted 63 dunks and layups through three games. The Hawks’ overall defensive numbers look OK mainly because of unsustainable Jedi 3-point defense (29.5 percent); again, this is with arguably the league’s softest opening week schedule.

Bogdanović’s situation obviously doesn’t help either; he’s not going to upgrade the defense, but Atlanta’s basic formula to win is with awesome offense and average defense. Bogdanović was arguably the league’s best sixth man in the second half of last season, but in his absence, the Hawks have gotten absolutely zippo from the bench. One potential answer may be sitting in front of their faces — after watching rookie A.J. Griffin shoot 99 percent on pre-game warm-up 3s from all kinds of platforms and locations this week (all numbers approximate), he finally got some game run on Sunday and proceeded to do the same. He needs to play.

yeah they maxed out a mid roster, lot of overpaid guys in there

kinda wild to write off a team thats only 3 games into the season and is 2-1 lol. if anything tho they need to fire mcmillan asap

they are cooked. donezo

i wouldn't say he was writing them off...

does really feel like a chargers in l.a. thing where there's no inherent fanbase

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, October 24, 2022 2:39 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

s much as knicks fans clown on nets fans, it did feel like they were making inroads with the community with that team. i was definitely more likely to buy a ticket to see the nets back when they were a fun little team with d-lo, jarrett allen, levert, and my boy rodians kuruc. now, they're just an island of misplaced superstars with terrible vibes playing for a franchise with perhaps the least distinctive identity in the whole league. the irony is that the very thing that is repelling new fans is inflating the value of these tickets.

they tried and failed to build two super teams instead of just playing it cool and building a team the fanbase could grow with

the celtics did use their picks to select jayson tatum jaylen brown and marcus smart tho which is nice

never realized that lmao Nets

OK, hi again NBA thread, it's been a minute. please allow me to parachute in and ask this earnestly:

can Darvin Ham not just bench Russ? i mean, i realize he's a rookie head coach and Russ has starpower, etc. i fully understand how Russ will react, what (even more of a) circus it will cause, etc. but the whole world can see that the Lakers are significantly worse with Russ on the court. so ... be a basketball coach and bench him? that's an option, right? it's an option with consequences, but it's an option.

am i missing some legit reason this isn't even *talked* about? is it just that ... like, do people think Ham will lose LeBron and AD if he benches Russ?

apologies if this has already been discussed.

a big part of the lakers' brand is that they're an extremely star-friendly organization, which allows them to get guys like lebron and davis and whoever else to go to the team even when they suck. LA culture, etc. if they send russ off to a hermitage it could hurt the lakers' long-term viability as a team that can always turn it around when, say, vic wembanyama decides he's sick of playing for the wizards and wants to sprint to hollywood, baby

- they probably thought last year was an outlier and that he would be at least a little better this year. they want to build up a hair of value so they can trade him and maybe only have to include one of their 1st round picks and not two. but thats backfired and hes worse and theyre worse so his already non-existent value is now 'can we even take this guy on for a season?'. so likely a team would just cut him once they get him, but two picks might not get the return that they want now anyway.

- benching a past superstar who players around the league 'respect' never looks great on an organization, future stars could say 'look how they treated russ' and look down on it. this is really doubtful now cos the whole league has seen the fit doesnt work. (basically what clay just said)

- ham prob thought he could get him to buy in or get something more out of him. prob thought he could convince him to be a 6th man too but that didnt go over. so likely if they are gonna move him to the bench they might as well tell him to get away from the team until they can work out a trade.

- im sure lebron and ad want him out but everyone has to bite their tongue on this one cos lebron is the one that actively recruited him to come to the lakers and bought off on the trade. so it looks bad on lebron to outright kick him while he's down but hes doing it in his own passive aggressive way (body language, saying they have zero shooters on the team, etc)

they should have never started this season with him on the roster, the vibes are killing them and they might not be able to recover them even once he gets moved.

it's such a disaster lol

defense is like hey wait this wasnt in the scouting report

Harden with a backcut? WHAT??? pic.twitter.com/BnJWwaPOeD

— Mo Dakhil (@MoDakhil_NBA) October 24, 2022

all great points, thanks. agree w/ and understand all.

re: hurting their star-friendly rep ... no one will remember this in 2 years. Wembanyama (or whoever) certainly isn't going to give a shit what they did to Russ in 2022 when it's his time. not disputing Clay at all - agree w/ that 100% - but if that's holding them back, they're doing it wrong. they'll still be the Lakers and they'll still be in L.A.

the solutions in my head, of course, are infinitely simpler in my head than they would be in real life. but if they can't bench him or just say "you're in the second unit now, deal with it" they should send him home.

but i suspect Spottie is right ... this may have already effectively ended their season. that answer LeBron gave last night when someone asked him about the Russ 2-for-1 shot smelled of death.

i def agree it's dumb as hell if they're motivation is the star-friendly stuff but my understanding is that's literally a mandate put forward by jeanie buss (and makes sense as that was her dad's #1 M.O.)

"they're" lol nice work from my plodding dead brain

this doesn't seem tenable and i do think ultimately russ will get separated from the team, but it probably happens more at game 15 or 20 than game 3

i think it really just boils down to the fact that russ is going to make the day to day lives of everyone on the coaching staff & front office even more miserable if he’s benched and there’s no real upside in exchange for that given the state of their roster. he said the other week in the preseason that his hamstring got hurt bcuz his routine isn’t adjusted to not starting and last year when he got benched in the fourth quarter he said his back got hurt from sitting that long and i believe he sat out a subsequent game? he’s already let it be known what they’re in store for if they don’t start him

i think it would be one thing if the lakers actually had a real team and russ was taking minutes or a starting role away from 2-3 guys who needed to be on the floor more. but i think the staff is probably looking around like, ok i’m gonna make this situation even more toxic all to get kendrick nunn in the starting line up? austin reaves?

of course a real franchise would tell russ to suck it up or even better just send him home until they can agree on a buyout. but the lakers are broke and desperate and overall not normal

oh yeah there's no way he comes off the bench, he starts or he goes home and waits for a trade or buyout. if lebron tells them to do it (and it's obviously on the tip of his tongue) i think they will

i def agree it's dumb as hell if they're motivation is the star-friendly stuff but my understanding is that's literally a mandate put forward by jeanie buss (and makes sense as that was her dad's #1 M.O.)

― Clay, Monday, October 24, 2022 8:14 PM (twelve minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

one other thing about the lakers is theyre still basically run as a family business in an era where every other team is private equity, the inferiority of this set up is somewhat offset by their ability to... attract stars

the lakers and by extension media people around the lakers still trumpet that last kobe extension which singlehandedly tanked the franchise for 5 years as a momentum to the laker way. but there’s no evidence that any of that shit actually matters. they got lebron bcuz he wanted to move to LA and got davis from a trade. they could act like a real franchise if they wanted to

monument not momentum*

Starting to think Ja Morant will win mvp

lebrons combo of bad gming and tendency to team hop has caught up to him which would be even more obvious if he hadnt fluked into a title cause of the global pandemic, really dates back to cleveland refusing to trade for paul george, now the lakers dont want to move their picks with russ even tho bron is 37

spurs up double digits on the wolves, what is happening

― terence trent d'ilfer (m bison), Monday, October 24, 2022 7:56 PM (fifty-four seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

the lakers and by extension media people around the lakers still trumpet that last kobe extension which singlehandedly tanked the franchise for 5 years as a momentum to the laker way. but there’s no evidence that any of that shit actually matters. they got lebron bcuz he wanted to move to LA and got davis from a trade. they could act like a real franchise if they wanted to

― J0rdan S., Monday, October 24, 2022 5:39 PM (thirty minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

otm. honestly one of the worst run franchises ever since the pau titles. lebro wanting to live in LA + the bubble saved them a bit.

Starting to think Ja Morant will win mvp

― Matt Armstrong, Monday, October 24, 2022 5:40 PM (thirty-six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

he was in the mix last season for a while too. just gotta sustain it and not get injured and hes got a good shot

Hyped on Sochan, fun roster which is much more enjoyable to watch than anticipated, slightly worried Spurs are too good for the Wemb sweepstakes.

Hope the Wolves get the ship right (yes I know it's early days, but this fan base deserves something good).

praying the hoops gods will honor us a la pels getting zion

It’s not Gobert’s fault but I just don’t think you can have a good defense with Towns chasing 4s around. And they never punish the mismatch, he just shoots with Gobert around.

spurs up by 31 on the wolves, jesus

Collins is a great creator for this bench unit - just need to pray for fitness.

tre jones is a real pg, devin is making a leap, keldon looks like a seasoned vet, poeltl is still my tall austrian son, sochan having the game of his life (he was p bad on offense in the first 3 games). jrich is playing with fire, primo looks good in spurts. this is a fun team!! theyre supposed to be shitty but if they keep winning, fuck it

lebron’s “that’s not who I am” response to the reporter’s question about russ’s shot seems like it’s gonna be part of a meme before long

bise, your enthusiasm about the scrappy spurs who are not supposed to be good is basically mirroring what i would tell blazer fans when i was arguing the team should just be dismantled. the fun part of being bad is you find some guys to root for! it's a joy when you win over a good team! you look back on those years later like "that's what we went through to become the contenders we are now!" it honestly feels so much better than being some perennially hopeless 6 seed type

my favorite random nuggets subplot is MPJ stealing defensive rebounds from jokic

turns out Simmo is just too savage for this league

somehow completely forgot that chauncey was the blazers head coach

Ja Morant just hilariously baited Ben Simmons into fouling outhttps://t.co/pU9Em4dJRC pic.twitter.com/tH7fAzQmtp

— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) October 25, 2022

poor ben begging his coaches to challenge the call…the coaches are like yeah we’re good actually