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

it's all they need really

what a mess lol

incredible week for the mavs, a storied franchise

celtics up 35 on toronto in a game that doesnt matter to them but does to toronto

toronto bottom three vibes team all season lets just put them out of their misery

nurse all but said hes gone wonder what their deal is

they’re low-key doing their own version of two timelines with a bunch of proud vets and scottie barnes, i can see why it would generate some friction.

yeah good call prob when nurse turned the keys over to barnes the vets were done with him

ladies and gentlemen the dallas mavericks

Luka Doncic stayed in to start the second quarter, got a bucket, took a foul and checked out. His season is over, barring a change in plans.

Maybe the Mavs were trying to get him a standing ovation? That didn't happen. There was a smattering of confused clapping.

— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) April 8, 2023

that franchise needs to take a year and reflect

Jeb Doncic

ok

pic.twitter.com/waVfJQLATL

— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) April 8, 2023

kyrie missing please call mark cuban if you see him

Luka Doncic, showered and changed into sweats, rejoined his teammates on the Mavs' bench midway through the third quarter.

Haven't seen Kyrie Irving since halftime.

— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) April 8, 2023

xp lol every sixer knew he wasn't passing

reunited

With 2:33 remaining in the third quarter, Kyrie Irving emerged from the tunnel and sat down in the baseline courtside seat next to Mark Cuban. https://t.co/BWVS2EoIPc

— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) April 8, 2023

Tim McMahon feed over the last few days is just pure gold

that trae thing is simply beautiful

how do you not get a shot off there lol

good lord. i did love rathbun and nique's reaction tho

i'm glad dominique has become a worthy sidekick to bob. he really struggled in the first few years but now is genuinely endearing and occasionally enlightening

kinda crazy when 2/3rds the league makes it

2 of the top 3 scorers this season missed the playoffs. pic.twitter.com/t9VM2PeL43

— StatMuse (@statmuse) April 8, 2023

volume scoring, even efficient volume scoring, isn't as unique a skill as it used to be

^otm

you could write a nice prog concept album about the fates of Harden, Durant, and Kyrie this year

SGA is fourth in PPG and is unlikely to make the playoffs from 10th seed, either.

let's just jot this down btw, the play-in is entering its third year and this marks the first time a team has decided to tank its way out of 10th place, which is exactly what i said would start happening when they instituted this stupid thing

its good tho it really has reduced tanking enough, plus its fun to see the mediocre teams play a little tournament

its like a miniature March Madness, both teams play weirdly hard given their fate is to get donked out in the 1st, idk I think it's fun

yeah you wouldnt want to watch a seven game series but a little quasi single elimination situation sure lets do it

I mean if you're a professional athlete I think you at least have enough competitive instinct to play 100% in a winner-take-all game that actually means something, like look at how hard NFL teams play when all they can do is knock out one of their rivals

admittedly I can only really say that because I'm not sure Ben Simmons is a professional athlete anymore

Luka Doncic will not speak to the media tonight.

— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) April 8, 2023

I can’t remember my position 4 years ago, I was probably against it at the time but it’s grown on me. the annoying thing is the #1 seed gets like 1 day to prepare for their series which is kinda tough

i def thought it was dumb and bad but now i think its dumb and good

I love it even if it’s gimmicky

It's cool that we get to see SGA and OKC in at least one meaningful postseason game

i still think its bad itd be better if they shortened the season a bit

the main thing is it really has reduced the tanking to acceptable levels, now we have the new problem of teams just not playing their players for other reasons

idk — if the ins are such a poor reward that a team like dallas considers it more advantageous to drop out, that’s ugly. there are a lot of necessary myths around team sports, and ‘trying to win’ is one of them

i don’t really think it happened, because it’s not in the individual mavs players’ interests to do so, but it kinda makes you wonder if there was shaving going on in the second half last night

destroy back to backs its not hard

ya I agree it's bogus to have that much of the league in the playoffs and still have to play 82 games, big problem in baseball too

baseball its still only 10 teams and not 20 though right

idk — if the ins are such a poor reward that a team like dallas considers it more advantageous to drop out, that’s ugly.

― mookieproof, Saturday, April 8, 2023 11:11 AM (eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

tbf thats one team thats tanked in four years, doesnt seem too bad

you only need to look as far as the actual 10th seed — okc — to find the story of a team that was expected to tank the season but which instead pushed for a surprise playoff seed after their young nucleus outperformed expectations and put together an exciting season for their fans. so to focus on the mavs dipping out & paint it like there’s some huge flaw in the play-in system is not taking a full view of the situation, to say the least

the NBA is the league that prob has the fewest cinderella playoff runs of any sport. fans also now expect their franchises to take longterm views of situations and to understand the value of “assets.” so when faced with the option of a draft pick or one of the last play-in spots, you’re never gonna get a team to pick the last play-in spot 100% of the time. but there’s ample evidence over the last several seasons that the existence of the play in encourages teams that would otherwise be heavily incentivized to tank to instead play the season out. the mavs are more the exception

yeah basically comes down to that once teams have little to no chance of making the offs theyre going to tank a lot of the time but when they do still have a chance theyre going to tank much less, simple math (not actually math)

in some way it does make a further mockery of the regular season 2/3rds of the teams make it into the draw but in another way it makes the regular season more important in that you really want to get a top six spot in order to stay out of the playin to avoid getting knocked out before the offs even officially start

tho that effect is prob small since getting a higher seed towards the bottom of the draw was already quite worthwhile because you avoid the very best teams so might actually win a series

Warriors been preaching avoid the play in at all costs for the last while. Also the mavs tanked 1-2 games where we used to have teams tanking from day one. The lottery odds bring even for the bottom 3 teams did a lot of good too.

yeah the odds change was good makes the lottery more exciting too

and it gives us stuff like KAT playing in a winner take all game and fouling out in 9 mins and pat bev running around the arena screaming and crying

Lmao a classic of the genre for sure