2023/24 NBA REGULAR SEASON THREAD "THANKING FOR WEMBANYAMA"

everyone wants to be new steph when its doing sick dribbles and taking a 30 footer, no one wants to be new steph when its running around a bunch without the ball and taking a 30 footer

(and playing defense)

the most unpleasant part of all

gotta push back a little bit on that. while he's still the same size his effort and smarts on the defensive end has improved. i'm sure someone could look at stats, i can never figure that shit out

hesitant to post r*nger content but i like kyle mann and these rookie write ups are nice and thorough (if a bit annoying from a prose perspective), w/ clips attached. i liked this section on scoot

https://nbarankings.theringer.com/rookie-rankings

ANALYSIS
Scoot’s offensive game is like a tangled ball of Christmas lights right now. We’d all love to see it wrapped around Portland’s scheme so that it could beam festive light on everyone, but some things need to be straightened out before that can happen.

A heavy dependence on dribble pull-ups was one of my chief worries about Scoot before the draft. It’s difficult to be efficient enough to justify those shots at volume, especially for someone of his size. Those shots have not only tapered off in the NBA, but they’ve been removed entirely, like someone pulled the chair on his play style. In their absence, we’ve been left with a shot chart imbalance that’s leaning away from rim pressure, in the direction of perimeter attempts. Neither has gone particularly well.

Henderson was brutal from 3 in Year 1 with the G League Ignite (22.2 percent on 45 attempts, most of which were catch-and-shoot opportunities), and he was only slightly better in Year 2 (28.6 percent on 49 attempts), when more of those shots were self-created. He’s somehow been even worse through five games in Portland (9.5 percent on 21 attempts). To hit his ceiling, he’ll have to take (and make) some of those shots. But until he starts seeing some of them go down, he’ll have to be more careful with his choices.

Development can often come down to discernment—knowing when an option is available not out of happenstance, but because it’s what the defense prefers. And there are plays in which Scoot is obviously hunting a pull-up 3 because the defense is offering it to him on a platter. We’ve seen flashes of his powerful, balletic trips to the rim, and whenever he opts out of seizing those moments, defenders are thinking, Thank God. This is also putting a strain on his ability to make more advanced reads and place passes.

Henderson’s defensive effort also needs improvement. His hand activity on the ball cannot be ho-hum, he can’t have sauntering closeouts where he looks like someone in a crosswalk speeding up just enough to beat the flashing light, and he has to run hard in transition and navigate screens better. His resting heartbeat on that side of the floor just has to be higher.

It’s normal for lead guards to drive on the rumble strip upon entering the league. This whole season could be like that for Scoot, especially if a recent ankle sprain continues to impede his progress. Based on what (I think) I know about him, he’ll get the car back between the lines and play quality basketball.

I’ve seen two really nice, high-difficulty passes from duncan robinson in the past 5 mins, is he evolving?

call him james neutron now

you can check out my heat bløg for a post on duncan looking better than ever w/ added elements to his game

if steph has to miss any extended period of time the warriors will miss the playoffs right?

sick no look pass by cp3 at the end of the half there

if steph has to miss any extended period of time the warriors will miss the playoffs right?

i don't think the old klay is coming back

i was shocked last year that he made himself halfway decent but it wouldn’t shock me if he was just actually done now

he was incredible the last three months and when steph/wiggins missed time. he just completely fell apart in the lakers series and hasnt regained anything.

last three months of last season*

he wasn’t really that involved w/ the ball much but i was impressed with cason wallace for OKC last night. totally looks like a guy who has been in the NBA for 5-6 years. feel like there’s a lot of jrue holiday vibes there in terms of his size/body type & skillset

I think Klay is playing 4D chess by lowering his market value and making it easier for the Warriors to re-sign him.

i think old klay will come back, but only for brief cameo appearances

not a great start to the season for brad

INJURY UPDATE: The Phoenix Suns today announced that guard Bradley Beal will be out and re-evaluated in three weeks as he continues to rehab a low back strain. This timeline was determined following further evaluation and consultation on his injury.

— Phoenix Suns (@Suns) November 17, 2023

i'm still thinking about how rudy gobert said he went into the warriors game knowing draymond was going to be acting like an ass because he tries to get ejected when steph isn't playing & then people looked for statistical evidence of this claim and found that it was overwhelmingly true

i'm not sure there is a funnier sequence of events to me than

rudy gobert seeing steph isn't playing and realizing draymond is gonna be on some fuck shit -> draymond immediately trying to choke gobert out before the score even gets to 1-0 -> rudy calling out draymond for being a baby when his boy isn't on the floor -> everyone looking up the stats and being like "wait, that is actually true". it's just perfect i don't know what else to say

it’s still hasn’t totally hit me how fight broke out 90 seconds into a november school night game

they did play each other the game before had something to do with it prob

And dray and ant were chirping heavily that game

a game in which dray tried and failed to get under ants skin and came off looking like as gobert would say "a clown"

lol xp

yeah the wolves are winning the battle vs dray very clearly.

he went to the well one too many times

he forgot he was 33 and that the 22 year old super athlete was going to cook him repeatedly

there was that one play where ant spun left to right and pulled up in the lane for a fadeaway jumper and he elevated so effortlessly meanwhile draymond didn't even jump at all. i think ant's knees were at draymond's eyes

I think when he kept repeating "what are you going to do about it??" to Ant and Ant just said "Ain't nobody worried about you bruh" that hurt his feelings

that is pretty rough tbf

yeah dray was clearly testing his mettle and learned ant isnt one to be shaken. props to ant

if he had been able to shut ant down the words would be meaningless, it's ant telling him and showing him that does it

watching celtics pregame theyre doing an extended sponsored betting segment thats formatted to just be part of the show talking about the lines and so forth who they got, turn to espn pregame theyre doing same thing

hopefully once the winners and losers shake out the industry will stop spending quite so much money on advertising this shit sucks

A couple plays before Draymond choked Gobert he was loudly complaining and gesturing to the refs that Rudy was hooking him with his arm and I remember thinking "damn, Dray, the game just started, chill out"

dray had been really good this year too

scal and matt bonner in the booth together, the most not baller

the not ballin brothers

hopefully once the winners and losers shake out the industry will stop spending quite so much money on advertising this shit sucks

― lag∞n, Saturday, 18 November

i would not expect this at all. all gambling products are basically the same so the only way to stand out or grow is to spend a shit ton on marketing

yeah i mean lots of industries are like that but eventually some companies win and some go out of business

between all the advertising and the intro deals theyre offering these companies must be absolutely burning money right now

thats the business model you give people a bunch of free money in the hope they get hooked. so yeah it turns into an arms race since you can't afford to not win

its especially crazy since it was illegal then one day became legal, immediate total war

celtics are good btw raps were up 6 at the end of the first celtics flipped the switch in the second theyre up 16 at the half

they're going to win the in season tournament at this rate

toronto's tournament court doesnt look so bad, gray is at least not garish

feel like the dark courts dont read that well on tv but yeah at least its not bright red

they're going to win the in season tournament at this rate

― ciderpress, Friday, November 17, 2023 8:41 PM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

i want them to win the in season tournament best regular season record and of course the nba playoffs, we call this the nba treble since we are euros now

it's called "the hat trick" i believe because in america we wear hats