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

its happening

Jay Williams on Austin Reaves’ growth on the ball:

“How do you bring back LeBron?”

(h/t @jswissa8 )

pic.twitter.com/7IKFp2cATl

— NBACentral (@TheNBACentral) March 23, 2023

idea: cancel the MVP award so I don't have to read all these stupid tweets about it

yes

the mvp is me for dunking on... the media

good stuff

Craziest sequence to win the game pic.twitter.com/XcrzxICjxh

— Ahmed/The Ears/IG: BigBizTheGod 🇸🇴 (@big_business_) March 24, 2023

that's a nice moment for okoro given his struggles to play offense in the nba. great find by levert across the court too.

yah i love how he just kind of nonchalantly just relocates to the corner amidst the chaos

ah i see

Nets say Ben Simmons now has nerve impingement in his back and will remain out of action while sides determine best course of treatment.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) March 24, 2023

that injury will last until his contract is up then hes done
https://www.basketball-reference.com/contracts/BRK.html

He's had issues with his nerves for a while now

i do think it is a real injury that exists

mavs lost to the hornets lol

Luka and Kyrie are 3-7 as a duo.

The Mavs are currently out of the play in. pic.twitter.com/GybSVNmwlm

— StatMuse (@statmuse) March 25, 2023

honestly one of the better possible outcomes

lmao that all of the Big 3 Nets are on different teams now and Harden is the one with both the best team and injury situation

He's been out a couple games, but lol.

Also, who would have thought the Sixers actually sold high on Simmons?

besides every single person on ILX?

I didn't realize that was the prevailing view. I thought it was more that the Sixers overpaid for Harden.

i was trying to remember and i think youre right tho maybe it was more about the picks than giving up simmons idk our opinion of simmons simply must have been higher than it is now

I mean I still don't think the Sixers are going to win anything with Harden, but they clearly won that trade even with the picks, Curry, and Drummond. At least when taking into account what the Nets gave up to get Harden:

In the trade, the Nets send center Jarrett Allen and forward Taurean Prince to Cleveland, and guard Caris LeVert and forward Rodions Kurucs, as well as three first round draft picks (2022, 2024 and 2026) and four first round pick swaps (2021, 2023, 2025 and 2027) to Houston

But let's look on the bright side:

and Brooklyn acquires a 2024 second round draft pick from the Cavaliers to complete the deal.

I mean, Simmons is doing some heavy lifting in that second deal, lol.

I don't know if I've ever seen another professional athlete play at such a high level and then suddenly decide he didn't really want it

the picks were a 2023 first and a 2027 top 8 protected first, not exactly a haul

it was a really good trade and if the sixers can’t ever make it to the finals with him on the team no one will care

it would prob take two firsts for the nets to get off simmons contract let alone while getting back a player of harden’s caliber, even in this somewhat diminished state

but if they don’t win and he walks or wastes embiid’s prime years the harden era in philly won’t be about how they made a great trade to get him it will be about how they didn’t trade for someone else. remember that daryl morey went on the radio and said it was absurd to expect him to stoop to the level of trading simmons for a player as lowly as tyrese halliburton. we’ll see how that assessment looks 3-5 years from now

Embiid shoots a lot of free throws huh

Kyrie Irving on boos in Dallas: "So what? ... You obviously want to play well, but you it's only five people on the court that can play for Dallas Mavericks. If the fans wanna change places, then hey, be my guest. Got years of work ahead to be great enough to be on this level."

— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) March 25, 2023

“You get up here and see if you can do a better job” is not where you wanna be as an entertainer

pic.twitter.com/1ihvnnfNaq

— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) March 25, 2023

lol :(

Mavs in 11th now. Suns 3 Ls in a row now in 5th and tied w warriors

Oooof

Mavericks' Luka Doncic expressed that he doesn't feel the same joy on the court lately. He mentioned there's "a lot going on" beyond basketball. pic.twitter.com/tgpViirHEo

— Grant Afseth (@GrantAfseth) March 25, 2023

Seems somewhere between plausible and likely that Kyrie walks if the Mavs don’t win a playoff series, let alone don’t make it out of (or even into!) the play-in. They’re pretty fucked then in terms of maintaining a team that will keep Luka happy. Maybe shouldn’t dance with the devil when you actually have something to lose…

I'm not even asking for the Sixers to make the Finals with Harden. It's looking like they're going to have to beat one of the Bucks or Celtics in the second round just to make an ECF. They haven't shown they could beat one of them in a 7 game series, let alone both.

J0rdan, you're right, Morey didn't exactly cover himself with glory with the Simmons trade. My comments more about how diminished an asset Simmons was than how smart Morey was.

wheres kyrie gonna go if he doesnt resign with the mavs who has the cap space and desire to sign him

i feel like eventually teams will realize that having him on your team isnt good, evenutally

i was thinking about that this morning. with the lakers putting it out that they’re all set i have no idea where else he could go.

if lebron tells the lakers he wants kyrie, they’re getting kyrie

how do they get him tho

they basically have to bail on all the guys they acquired in season to get close

maybe sign and trade but fwiw lebron already said he wanted kyrie and the lakers did not get him so

yeah and then he got injured, going against lebrons wishes is bad karma

thats a real wake up call for the lakers

Kyrie laying down the "let's see you get out there and play" card, what a fuckin loser

Irving said. "I've been in New York City, so I know what that's like. You obviously want to play well, but it's only five people on the court that can play for the Dallas Mavericks. If the fans want to change places, then hey, be my guest. Got years of work ahead to be great enough to be on this level.

I think it would take me more than years of work

i think i could do it i havent played in a few years but just give me a couple weeks to get back in shape and im ready to go

is there any good rumor stuff out there about what’s going on w/luka outside of basketball?

Luka doncic takes legal action against mom in battle for trademark control https://t.co/dLbgYPPeT6 #trademarks

— TMchecks (@TMchecks) March 19, 2023

You obviously don't know what happened today. She was at the game today and tweeted a pic of the score when the mavs were down big. Hee might have had problems before but any problem can become bigger. His mom actively showing up at work to mess his mind shows what's happening

— Somesh Narayan (@NarayanSomesh) March 25, 2023

Wow that is sad