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

Showstopping. 🎬

It's the 2023 #ATTSlamDunk contest champion Mac McClung Mixtape#StateFarmSaturday pic.twitter.com/c2ClPqNO77

— NBA (@NBA) February 19, 2023

three point & dunk contests were both fun tonight. dame beat hield on a buzzer beater

love to heat

After clearing waivers, Kevin Love plans to sign with the Miami Heat, his agent Jeff Schwartz of @Excelbasketball tells ESPN. pic.twitter.com/c1Ff4tLfKP

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) February 19, 2023

also signing cody zeller off the street… welcome back cody

Nikola Jokic will be the first player in #NBA history to start an #NBAAllStar game on his birthday, per @TheSteinLine.

Happy birthday to Joker, who turns 28 today. pic.twitter.com/oAU1WiZCs9

— Joel Rush (@JoelRushNBA) February 19, 2023

big birthday honey

lebron does not really have the live entertainment charisma gene

he really tries but it’s just not there

he's a cornball, really

embiid and jokic being on the same team is a good subplot

kyrie getting arguably the most cheers from the crowd okay

lebron and silver seemed pretty excited to announce him too

surely there's a way to make all star basketball actually watchable

not really, no. new fourth quarter logic usually gets pretty intersting

burna boy halftime show is an inspired choice

oh wow it's a whole afrobeats show

just turned it on and the two celtics are playing one on one very nice

the weird scoring format has failed to trick the players into playing hard this year they got used to it

salute to joe mazzulla for playing tatum the entire game so he cld get the mvp

so much fucking around, thankfully dame put a stop to it

yeah there was no trying at all this year, had to be one of the worst ones ever

I couldn’t even watch, had it on mute and when I looked up it was just some dude dunking on no one or a 45 footer clanking back to the arc

I would rather watch 8 teams of 3 on 3 playing a one night half court 21 tournament.

they should just full-on embrace a 2K collab, 2v2, 3v3, 1v1, ProAm with the best streetball players teaming up w established stars, BlackTop etc

russ 2 clips

ESPN story on Russell Westbrook committing to sign with the Clippers: https://t.co/ynhsDDCoTg

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) February 20, 2023

I would rather watch 8 teams of 3 on 3 playing a one night half court 21 tournament.

― papal hotwife (milo z), Monday, February 20, 2023 1:45 AM (eight hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

they should just full-on embrace a 2K collab, 2v2, 3v3, 1v1, ProAm with the best streetball players teaming up w established stars, BlackTop etc

― Tracer Hand, Monday, February 20, 2023 3:29 AM (seven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

there are def lots of cool things they could do, i think a four team tournament of nine man teams would be nice get more players in mix, but the main problem is the players dont care about the game and you cant make them

maybe a big cash prize would do it but it would create all sorts of other problems, you dont really want too much complaining about the refs getting selected for the game etc in this fun exhibition, also it just might not work since the best nba players are for the most part already extremely rich

what are the clippers doing

https://i.imgur.com/37XQ70r.png

I love this for the other west contenders

i was gonna say, if youre phx this is a great move

btw nba pundits seem to think that phoenix is a tru contender now that they have kd but im not seeing it theyre soft shallow kd is overrated (but tbf still very good) one of their main guys is deandre ayton another is 37 y/o chris paul none of their guys get to the rim they lost all their wings

on the other hand the west is pretty wide open, but im def not picking the suns

I think they’re terrifying tbh particularly in the playoff and in crunch time. of course they’re an injury away from flaming out, but I would not want to play them

They’ve also got like 20 games to figure it out and gel, that’s really hard to do with basically a whole new team hierarchy and scheme

i lean more towards lagoon’s side of the argument. it feels like a lot has to go right for them and very little can go wrong. it’s hard to argue w the theoretical upside but the margin of error seems very small to me. even when fully healthy they’re gonna be relying on guys in the playoffs that would barely get on the floor for other contenders & we know one of their 3 main guys is getting hurt for some period of time at minimum

also maybe it was simply a bad match up but we just watched KD look extremely mortal in the playoffs last year

suns below grizz nuggets mavs in playoff chances imo

also do have to wonder how they’re gonna guard ppl. the best defender on their team is KD?

Torrey Craig and Okogie can guard especially okogie but can either provide anything else cos they’ll be left completely unguarded

the only recent champion that would match them for lack of depth is the bubble lakers, who were a great defensive team (this suns team is not ending the season 3rd in defense)

I think Suns have a better chance than Dallas, but probably match up poorly with Memphis who has so much depth and energy

the lakers bubble team isn’t a bad comparison insofar as the west feels similarly wide open… main difference is what they would see in the finals. that lakers team had more depth actually but the suns are also better at the top. and you knew lebron was never gonna get hurt

lakers bubble champ was a fluke that would not have happened without them suddenly transforming from a bad to great shooting team in the bubble

suns below grizz nuggets mavs in playoff chances imo

― ciderpress, Monday, February 20, 2023 12:29 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah thats how i feel not sure how it shakes out after that

“ Torrey Craig and Okogie can guard especially okogie”

Okogie is such a fun defender

Seeing Capela out-rebound Ayton 15-0 a few weeks ago really brought home how weak ayton is

soft as kitten fur

also maybe it was simply a bad match up but we just watched KD look extremely mortal in the playoffs last year

― J0rdan S., Monday, February 20, 2023 12:25 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

people tend not to notice or care cause hes so productive but that injury took a lot from him his game has gotten really one dimensional hes mostly operating from the elbow taking a dribble or two and shooting a middy, celtics played him physical denied him pushed him off his spots doubled him and dared him to find the open man which he was constantly late doing

most teams dont have the personnel to do that as well as the celtics did but theyll prob try anyway

memphis youd think could prob execute that plan pretty well

As the West is shaping up, Ja seems increasingly justified in being so cocksure about the Grizz having little trouble getting to the Finals. The Warriors don't look deep enough, healthy enough, or together enough to get it done this year and every other West contender has obvious ugly flaws that can be exploited in the playoffs.

yeah theoretically it makes sense but the griz need to play up to their potential for it to work