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

I went to a Final Four game at the Vikings stadium, it is a weird vibe. The weirdest thing is they were piping in "basketball sounds" like shoes squeaking or maybe they had mics by the floor to catch it and then play it over the speakers

yeah its not a good way to watch hoops. i went to a final four game at a football stadium and i wont be doing that again.

his dribble game is basically a long series of hesitation moves with bumping guys off balance mixed in xp luka

yeah all about angles and balance and he's superior at those compared to whatever defender is in front of him

then he hits difficult shots or makes perfect passes

lot of rumblings about the hawks' owner meddling in decision making. in familiar territory here gotta love it

lol jae waiting til the suns are down to speak out
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10061547-nba-insider-notebook-jae-crowder-confused-and-hurt-by-situation-in-phoenix

i too am confused and hurt by my decision to not show up to work

luka moves like he's working off the last of a late lunch and isn't positive what time the laundry closes

lot of rumblings about the hawks' owner meddling in decision making. in familiar territory here gotta love it

― Heez, Friday, January 13, 2023 2:33 PM (one hour ago)

the sam amick article in the athletic today about this situation was very alarming. their front office now is basically landry fields, the owner's 27 year old son and two of his friends

General manager Landry Fields, the 34-year-old former NBA player who was elevated from his assistant general manager role in June, who now heads the front office after the shakeup and who previously worked for the San Antonio Spurs as a scout and general manager of their G League team.

Nick Ressler, the 27-year-old son of Hawks owner Tony Ressler who has had increased influence on roster and staffing decisions during his time as the team’s Director of Business and Basketball Operations (starting in December 2020), according to league sources who like all the other sources in this story were granted anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the situation.

Ryan Silverstein, the team’s coordinator of cap strategy and administration and a close friend of Nick Ressler’s who, according to his LinkedIn page, became a front office assistant for the Hawks in September 2017.

Grant Liffmann, the 35-year-old who spent his last six seasons covering Golden State as a media member for NBC Sports Bay Area and who was hired as a pro personnel scout in June and is close friends with Fields.

dejounte murray is basically gonna be spelling out SOS on the court w/ tree branches soon

But now, amid all these on-court struggles, Murray now finds himself navigating an environment that is wholly different from the only other NBA spot he’s ever known. He spent the first six seasons with a San Antonio Spurs organization that is known for its lack of drama. As he admitted, the transition from there to here has been challenging.

“I mean, there’s a lot going on (that’s) non-basketball,” Murray told The Athletic. “And then with basketball, you’ve got guys in trade rumors. It’s obviously more than…”

He paused to deliberate his message before continuing.

“I wouldn’t say more than what I expected, but more than where I came from in San Antonio where everything was just not as loud,” Murray continued. “There’s a lot going on, but for me I’m just trying to keep guys together with my leadership, showing up to work, working hard, being vocal and keeping us together, and trying to keep the outside noise the outside noise.

“But at the end of the day, we all see it. You can’t hide. You can’t run from it. For me, like I say and I always preach, adversity shows what you’re built of and who you are. I love adversity. From where I come from to make it to the NBA, getting overlooked, getting hurt, being out a whole year — just fighting. No matter what. Adversity, it helps build you up. So like I said, there’s a lot of noise, but at the end of the day, winning takes care of it all. So we need to control what we can control, continue to come together as brothers, and try to go out and win basketball games.”

“I’m trying to figure this out,” Murray said when asked about his big-picture view. “I’m trying to figure this out and kind of find my niche in Atlanta, get comfortable in Atlanta. Obviously, it is a business — like you said. At the end of the day, when that (free agency) time comes, that time comes. I’m focusing on basketball right now. They brought me here to win, so I’ve got to continue to grow, continue to get better, learn, figure out my teammates, and try to get us to win games.”

sheesh

Obviously, it is a business

you know its bad when this line starts getting dropped

lol complete insanity, letting a 27 year old failson run a team

Xpost - ha yeah warning sign for sure

https://i.imgur.com/C3nmqxY.png

seems like there's only one solution for the hawks: hire the posters from esteemed message board i love hoops to make all personnel decsions

this

hawks will win the nba playoffs (if they make ilh the gm)

spurs playing in the dome brings back many childhood memories 4 me

so to fit all these people rather than do the basketball configuration they used when the spurs played theyre using the football configuration with some extra seats squeezed in near the court

yeah its a mess, just like the 90s

seems like the difference is they used to bring the baseline seats in

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DY_j7_mVMAAZ3EA?format=jpg&name=small

David Robinson just announced to the crowd here at the Alamodome that the official attendance is an NBA regular-season record 68,323.

— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) January 14, 2023

great job san antonio

kawhi playing and jokic not, must be opposite day

haha i had no idea jokic was dealing with something until i saw deandre huffing and puffing before tipoff

poor zeke nnaji has gotten posterized by post-acl kawhi and post-acl john wall twice in about 5 minutes

the nuggets currently lead the league in vibes

in the last two weeks the thunder have beaten the celtics by 33, the wizards by 17, the mavs by 11, the sixers by 19, and the bulls by 14. now a half game out of the play in.

i love it!

Josh Giddey and Jalen Williams both look really good.

Thunder have their fair share of injuries too. They're missing Holmgren and Dieng, rookies who could both develop into top-tier players. They're also missing some of their taller players like Poku and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl.

There are some fun scenarios if OK squeak into the playoffs and get a good draft pick anyway via the Clippers.

OKC are only a couple of wins behind LA and have had a tough schedule so far. According to Tankathon LAC have the 4th toughest remaining schedule while OKC has the 3rd easiest.

OKC also lead the league in starting Jalen/Jaylin Williamses.

love when u get a tru baller in one of these

pic.twitter.com/IG8sajYDH3

— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) January 14, 2023

light the beam

make a free throw and get $3k is a nice contest

i’ve never been a huge giddey believer but he’s had some big games recently

hes really talented great feel for the game a true baller etc just a question of if he could overcome the terrible combo of being bad at shooting and defense and hes started hitting threes so if thats real he should be pretty good

idk about the defense but maybe he can chip away at that try to get it to not awful having one major flaw isnt the end of the world

yeah if you can’t shoot or play defense there’s a hard ceiling on what you can be in the league nowadays and i still don’t think he can or will be able to shoot or play defense. but his passing ability will always play in the regular season and he figures out how to get his own buckets

he cld learn to shoot and get better at d both have been done lots of times

tho i doubt hell ever be a good defender

and he is over 40% from 3 since the start of december, pretty small sample but its also not nothing

idk about the defense part with him i don’t see it physically tho he is tall so that helps inherently. and he’s a guard so it only matters so much anyway. his shot is also hideous. but if he can actually establish himself as a 35% shooter from three he’ll be a real weapon on the offensive end. it’s certainly possible. he’s more ricky rubio than star to me but ricky rubio is prob more the floor of what he could turn out to be

i was watching him play d and he just looked so out of it confused not in a stance playing with zero physically lol its bad

just the way the game is played now in the playoffs he will get targeted in switches every single time down the floor and then on offense basically nobody will guard him. he’d still be able to make plays and such in a rondo sense, you prob can’t let a guy with his kinda feel just have a wide open look at the game. but there would be stretches of games or end of game scenarios where his lack of shooting and/or turnstile defense would put him on the bench. but obv this is all a longterm concern and as of now he’s developing pretty nicely, in the regular season that stuff pops up way less anyway or coaches will just let it ride

he def has to become a good shooter for it to work, i just watched a bunch of his 3s and they look bad from the pov of hes just not smooth and comfortable with it but the basic technique looks right compact one motion shot, clearly a work in progress but it cld happen idk

he shoots like he’s playing pop a shot and the basket is at eye level 3 feet from his head

its ok to shoot like that its normal now

Halliburton has one of the nastiest shots I’ve ever seen and yet