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

defense now, like much of the league, is more about optimization than really imposing your will or whatever

you gotta have guards, wings, and bigs who can guard up and down the positional spectrum and you gotta be able to mix and match line ups. the one outlier might be the bucks who are a more traditional defense built around huge rim protector type guys. and i guess we'll see about the cavs

schlenk wanted to build warriors east it made some sense at the time. hindsight says not so much. but they got a franchise guy and will be competitive-to-great for a long time depending how things shake, so its not a total loss.

suns decision is still one of the all time fumbles. luka cried so he didnt have the right mindset... so they picked a notoriously un-serious local big.

re mavs: they have for sure been more successful than the majority of the league and getting luka alone moves them into the top half/third range. i think it's that they had one of the all time greats and only got one chip, and now they've got another and we're skeptical they know what to do. they got a little success last year and then didnt retain their 2nd best player and brought back christian wood. the team is worse than last year, but luka is likely better so it may be a wash.

the christian wood trade was unambiguously good? what am i missing. also if you go by net rating they've so far been twice as good as they were last year

luka coming into the season ready to go is a big reason.

wood is fine but keeping brunson woulda been better

speaking of poor franchises... the nets name Vaughn their head coach

i think it's that they had one of the all time greats and only got one chip, and now they've got another and we're skeptical they know what to do

i feel like these are just really high bars of success to clear & some teams do clear them historically but also not clearing them can still mean you're a very successful franchise. do we shit on the jazz and knicks franchises of the 90s for not being able to win w/ malone and stockton, ewing etc? those great pistons teams won one title. the KG era celtics won one title. winning two titles is really hard! not many teams can pull it off. the mavs were in a conference w/ one of the true dynasties in NBA history. i mean we can go thru every series the mavs lost in that era, it's not really all that damning to me

2001 - lost to the spurs in round 2... no shame in losing to the spurs
2002 - lost to the kings in round 2... webber era kings were one of the best teams in the league
2003 - lost to the spurs in WCF... ditto again on the spurs
2004 - lost to the kings in round 1... don't really remember this kings team but you can prob ding them for this one
2005 - lost to the suns in round 2... d'antoni/nash era suns, great teams
2006 - lost to the heat in the finals... made the finals & we all know what happened in this series
2007 - lost to the warriors in round 1... ok we know this one was bad
2008 - lost to the hornets in round 1... lmao uhh
2009 - lost to the nuggets in round 2... the one great melo team, don't remember this series but i'm sure the mavs could win. fine.
2010 - lost to the spurs in round 1... losing to the spurs, whatever
2011 - win the championship... ok let's remember they won the title
2012 - lost to the thunder in round 1.. the west starts shifting here to the KD era thunder + spurs revival teams. great teams. idk

and then from here they fall off as we know towards the end of dirk's career. it's a bit of a mixed bag no doubt, some bad losses, some acceptable ones, made the finals twice, won the title. the 2004-2010 stretch has some early losses... they also made the finals in there. the idea that this is some particularly objectionable stretch for an NBA franchise i just don't buy, i'm sorry. dirk is great but he wasn't magic johnson or larry bird something. a lot of players as great as him or better (barkley, malone, KG etc) did not win more titles than him

and as far as the luka era goes... luka is 23. that the mavs don't have everything quite lined up for him at this stage in his career is far from abnormal historically speaking in the NBA. let's see what happens over the next 3-4 years

agree! but im skeptical

they need another guy

interesting to see all those playoff wins/losses laid out like that. i do not remember a few of those, that 08 hornets team was good

mavs have all their draft picks from 2024-2030 and have no one besides luka set to make more than $20 million after this season and the cap is going up. they're set up well to make a big move whether it's thru a trade or FA or both. let's see how it plays out

yeah theyve got the ammo just need to nail it, wait for the next young(ish) star to shake loose

luka needs to start recruiting

another way you could look at the dirk era mavs historically is like... ok who were the great dynasty-esque teams in the west of the 2000s and early 2010s

duncan spurs... won a bunch of titles, they're clearly in a different tier than the dirk mavs
kobe lakers... won a bunch of titles w/ two diff eras of teams, also had some stinker teams, but we'll put them in a different tier as well

7 seconds or less suns... never made the finals
webber/vlade kings... never made the finals
KD/wesbtrook thunder... made the finals one time, no titles

the mavs fall neatly in between these two groups as a team that made the finals twice and won the title once. again i just don't think this is damning of them at all & actually speaks to the fact that they cleared hurdles other franchises did not

luka needs to start recruiting

― im a beacon of light (Spottie), Wednesday, November 9, 2022 12:40 PM (thirteen seconds ago)

i think a legitimate concern is that luka's style of play prob will make it hard for them to attract another star thru recruitment. i think the more likely path for them is using their picks to acquire a star & then using their cap space/first round picks they're not allowed to trade to get the high level role players you need to flesh out a roster

you know who would be amazing for the mavs and also maybe available is siakam

yeah that would be an ideal combo. if the wolves move on from KAT he and luka would be nearly unstoppable as an offensive combo but the defense aspect might be too bad to wanna do that

there's some wing guys like anunoby and jaylen brown who are gonna hit FA in the next few seasons for various reasons that would make tons of sense for them to target

they could be a KD team if he goes on the trade market for real. does brow get put out there? paul george? if the sixers go upside down and embiid wants out, suns and booker same thing. idk

luka + kat would be the GOAT whining to the refs team

theyd have to have three plus defenders to play kat and luka together

all those other pairings make sense. do those guys wanna play luka ball tho is the question

feel like they should not go for old guys like kd or brow, they gotta build for the long term

yeah but does luka want to wait?

just get siakam or kat

they simply need a second guy whos better than 'average role player' doesnt really matter who as long as they can play off ball

it would be good if theyre a good fit who doesnt like that

to their favor none of the teams in the west are particularly scary so the best player on the floor any given night or in the series thing might have more power.

their idea w/ the porzingis trade was for the second star who is a big who could play w/ luka in the pick and roll as a floor spacer. i think the issue they ran into was that talented big men who can space the floor don't necessarily want to *only* do that. also the bigs who are dynamic on offense esp as shooters and also can hold up on defense are few and far between and if they're star level players are gonna be really hard to acquire. i would love to see them learn from that and target a wing player or shooting guard instead and stick w/ the kleiber/wood kinda bigs who can do the pick and pop thing from a role player perspective.

i agree they should get a wing idk who though

siakam (big wing, best type of guy)

the problem with zinger more than anything was that he was bad because of injuries

also a black hole

Just checked the standings, didn't know the Pelicans are also underwhelming out the gate

LeBron James says rest is the only way to get over his left foot pain, but says that he doesn’t have the luxury to take more time off. He says he will plays tonight against the Clippers.

— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) November 9, 2022

pels have a good point diff and have had starters in and out of the lineup i think

the problem with zinger more than anything was that he was bad because of injuries

LeBron the stat-chaser

he should, all time career points leader is the only thing left he can accomplish on that team

ive watched a pels game and they were not convincing. coaching is an issue and starting cj and jv doesnt work

xp - lebron chasing the all time scoring record is about the only reason for fans to come to the laker games this season, too

ive watched a pels game and they were not convincing. coaching is an issue and starting cj and jv doesnt work

― micah, Wednesday, November 9, 2022 1:21 PM (seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

im not sure zion and ingram maximize eachother out there either. might just be a matter of finding the right rotations cos they have pieces that make sense

they should trade for hield and myles turner

yeah seems like a tema that might b e able to mutually improve trading with the right team

i mean even i can admit the hawks fucked up not taking Luka. i get it and still think Trae is, skill-wise, just as good as Luka but you can't teach size and Trae is tiny.

maybe the hawks just had pictures of them where they looked the same size

pels have that lakers pick right. should be worth something

unclear how the pels went from scrappy borderline playoff team to having all these expectations but i say give em a minute to figure it out

im a pacers fan i know when a team is doomed to mediocrity

lol fair

btw theres a game on due to tropical weather

Bol Bol has reasonable defensive adaptability on the perimeter & does a great job of being patient against Luka@bballbreakdown pic.twitter.com/uxgbK0gybB

— BBiomechanics (@BBiomechanics) November 9, 2022