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

so it looks like the clippers fucked up and got the 5 seed which pushes the warriors to the non-denver/phoenix side of the bracket. bad break for denver

Minnesota wins against New Orleans, setting up the play-in tournament.

Tuesday: Hawks at Heat, Wolves at Lakers in the 7-8 games

Wednesday: Bulls at Raptors, Thunder at Pelicans in the 9-10 games

— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) April 9, 2023

Silas out as rockets coach

― four square ups... no punches thrown (Spottie), Sunday, April 9, 2023 6:09 PM (thirteen seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

that kinda sucks to be given no chance to win then be fired

stashing assets for the 2023 nba offseason

come on

Minnesota Timberwolves F Jaden McDaniels -- who was seen punching a wall on his way to the halftime locker room – has a fractured hand, sources tell ESPN.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) April 9, 2023

what a day

jfc

wild

Minnesota President of Basketball Operations Tim Connelly on Rudy Gobert: “We made the decision to send Rudy Gobert home after the incident in the second quarter. His behavior on the bench was unacceptable and we will continue handling the situation internally.”

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) April 9, 2023

KAT’s gotta put the team on his back

lol dray was waiting

pic.twitter.com/kSsBNGsk0a

— Alexis Morgan (@alexismorgan) April 9, 2023

so it looks like the clippers fucked up and got the 5 seed which pushes the warriors to the non-denver/phoenix side of the bracket. bad break for denver

― J0rdan S., Sunday, April 9, 2023 6:10 PM (thirty minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

wait why is this bad for denver?

golden state scares me as much as phoenix tbh from a matchup perspective. I also don’t really think GS would stand much of a chance against PHX in a series

i dont think theres anyway to figure phoenix they traded two guys for kd and he basically hasnt played since, im skeptical but they could be good idk

ESPN Sources: Minnesota’s Rudy Gobert escalated a verbal argument to a physical encounter after Kyle Anderson told him to “Shut the f--- up, bitch.” The disagreement started with Anderson telling Gobert to block some shots, Gobert telling him to grab a rebound – and ended with a…

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) April 9, 2023

those are serious fighting words from kyle tbh

yup not showing a ton of respect for rudy there

Sources: After bench incident, Timberwolves' Rudy Gobert and Kyle Anderson had a heated verbal exchange in halftime locker room as well, with Anderson challenging the center at one point saying, "I'll knock your a-- out."

Updated story at @TheAthletic: https://t.co/kYHEod0MJd

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) April 10, 2023

well at least they got him for almost nothing

I’m on team slomo lol

The most famous moment of Gobert's entire NBA career was acting like a total asshole at the very moment most US'ers really became aware of the accelerating spread of covid and its devastating effects, so it's no surprise his fan base has plummeted to near zero in spite of his belated PR efforts to reverse the damage.

The Wolves pawning their future to get him was entirely their disastrous mistake, but he's so hated now that he bears most of the blame in the eyes of most fans. Can't say my heart bleeds for him. He can already buy a mansion on the Riviera and sit in the sun for the rest of his life.

we need a report on exactly why all his teammates hate him

maybe because he's a broken, bitter, angry man

maybe idk maybe hes just really annoying we need the facts

he doesn't seem like any of those things. he's a weird version of the nba big man psychosis where he plays hard but constantly wants credit for doing so and acts like a baby when he doesn't feel like he gets it.

seems like he’s just kind of an asshole yeah

I’d wager a season of playing 4 against 5 on offense doesn’t really make you love the guy either

why? because fucking of course

rudy gobert took a pic with joe rogan at his anti-cancel culture comedy club the other day and now they're both getting cooked in the instagram comments pic.twitter.com/9CiCd9lmSQ

— jon (@deathisforming) April 9, 2023

o god

lotta things making even more sense now

Gobert later sent an apologetic text to teammates in a group chat, per Mike Conley. “We'll speak about it and move on,” he said. “We're grown men.”

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) April 9, 2023

Honestly tho the jaden McDaniels wall punch might be the dumbest wolves thing from today

so it looks like the clippers fucked up and got the 5 seed which pushes the warriors to the non-denver/phoenix side of the bracket. bad break for denver

― J0rdan S., Sunday, April 9, 2023 6:10 PM (thirty minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

wait why is this bad for denver?

Not sure why people feel so confident about the suns.

mo the best outcome for denver was a warriors-suns 4-5 bcuz it guaranteed that one of them wasn’t making it out of the first round. now it’s on the table that denver has to beat both in consecutive rounds just to make the finals
― J0rdan S., Monday, April 10, 2023 12:47 AM (ten hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

oh yeah I see what you mean. just hoping the t wolves cooperate and make the 8th spot

The Hawks’ front office has the green light from ownership to consider trade opportunities involving Trae Young, per @KevinOConnorNBA pic.twitter.com/ryLoN9Yn8W

— NBACentral (@TheNBACentral) April 10, 2023

wow, prob wise tbf

No pg to start the series

Sources: Clippers star Paul George is expected to be sidelined to begin the first-round playoff series against the Suns, but is making some tangible progress from his March 21 knee injury.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) April 10, 2023

who out there is signing up to give up a bunch of assets for malcontent trae young and the 4 years & 178 million left on his contract

just looking thru the standings... the wizards maybe? the lakers? the magic?

the number of teams who have assets to trade & have a hole at point guard & also don't already have a star on the team is minuscule

i think atlanta and trae are stuck w/ each other

even a lot of the bad and/or small market teams who would normally have to be intrigued by the opportunity to get a star on a longterm deal would turn that down, i think. detroit, charlotte, houston, okc... none of these teams need to be adding a ball dominant scoring PG

wizards wld be perfect lol

honestly i could see trae young for brad beal making a lot of sense for both sides. wiz would have to throw in some assets prob but the fit would be fairly clean on both ends of it. teams don't seem to make those kinda trades anymore tho

wow

Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert isn’t traveling with team to LA and won’t play vs. the Lakers on Tuesday in the Play-In tournament, sources tell ESPN. pic.twitter.com/Gey3twxchn

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) April 10, 2023

he can handle it. he's a grown man.

well obviously i don't care about him at all but it's an interesting organizational decision

what a disaster

you're right, ofc. they seem to have decided that his presence with the team is more detrimental than his absence. which is nagl for a team that sold the farm to get him.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FtXsv_ZXoBg6uza?format=jpg&name=small

hard for me to believe they would be doing this if they were in the 9/10 game instead of the 7/8.

from an outside perspective, gobert throwing a punch (not even to the face...) seems like a fair reaction to what anderson said to him. it seems like organizationally they are taking anderson's side and kinda going out of their way to publicly shame gobert, which makes me think this isn't really about what happened in that huddle