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

malik monk wtf!

I’m angered

lmao

https://i.imgur.com/xWT7UGk.png

"the idea of the lakers becoming a good to great team is him becoming the third member of some sort of big three" --zach lowe

science needs to study what austin reaves did to basketball peoples brains

theyre both scoffing at the idea of trading him for zach lavine

"i didnt see them as having as high a ceiling as some of the other contenders" idk who this guy is but does he know what a contender is

the logic behind the idea of not trading reaves for lavine is the same explanation the heat gave for why they didn't trade for beal -- that the difference in salary between beal & herro is far greater than the difference in quality of play. you're paying a big premium (in salary) for a marginal upgrade. i think i'm less convinced of the argument in the case of the heat (the difference between beal & herro could potentially put them over the top imo) than i am in the case of the lakers, but if lavine could play well off lebron, which rivers has had trouble doing this year, then maybe it would be worth it

i can certainly understand not trading for lavine but they were scoffing jordan absolutely SCOFFING

the lakers prob should trade for lavine tho hes pretty much what they need

im unclear where the hype comes from his stats look like that of a decent rotation SG not a pending star.

i'm intrigued by the idea of him being your third best player if you have a real defensive infrastructure

im unclear where the hype comes from his stats look like that of a decent rotation SG not a pending star.

― ciderpress, Wednesday, November 29, 2023 3:41 PM (forty-eight seconds ago)

he can really jump and really shoot, he has verifiable high level basketball skills

he can shoot idk about really shoot, thats yet to be seen, his best thing is prob feel for the game/playmaking stuff and foul drawing, i think hes you know a rotation player maybe gets to solid starter, aka not a guy that should be having a podcast segment on a freaking podcast over here

he's 38% career from 3 and i feel like he's taking a lot of pull up/off the dribble threes, if he was playing w/ a lebron type facilitator i could see him being an elite catch and shoot three guy

ive got his stats here and hes at 35.9% from 3 for his career, which is pretty much league average, hes taking 3.9 this year which is his personal record, none of this screams elite shooter

if he was playing w/ a lebron type facilitator i could see him being an elite catch and shoot three guy

― slob wizard (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, November 29, 2023 4:04 PM (five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

are you havin a laugh

i'm looking at espn and bball ref and i'm seeing 38.2% career from three. maybe i am extremely high right now

and no i really do think that if zach lavine was getting a steady diet of open catch and shoot threes that he would be one of the better guys in the league at that skill, if a bit overqualified

ah i see i was talking about austin reaves and you were talking about lavine

the if he was playing with lebron thing makes more sense now too lol

ahhhhhh ok. yeah :)

lmao

yeah my post about a person being able to jump really high was not related to austin reaves, just to be clear

it all makes sense now, weirdly reaves can jump higher than you might think but its not the kind of noteworthy jumping of a zach lavine

i think if he could fit into more of a play finisher role rather than initiator lavine could be good for the lakers, they need scoring

feel like i took that thought directly from the podcast i mentioned upthread, regardless i stand by it

be kind of hard for them to trade for him tho they dont have any big contracts to move would have to be a bunch of guy

oh lol i was talking about reaves as well, confusing

im much more aware of zach lavines game

i would not have guessed that hes been in chicago for 7 years though i would have said 4

that does seem like too long

being in chicago isnt that bad if you dont have to play for the bulls. nice city

we need an inverse of the shaq meme that says “actually, i was familiar with your game”

one thing I do appreciate about the Bulls doing nothing but spin their wheels post Jordan is it gives me hope the New England Patriots will be awful for the next 30 years

should be pretty doable if they keep drafting qbs with noodle arms haha sigh

to answer the original question

i think the reaves hype stems from the fact that he’s 6’ 5” and was handling and scoring with efficiency last year. even this year with his shooting being inconsistent he still has a 5/2.5 AST/TO ratio. a guy at that size who can distribute w/ that level of efficiency and can shoot mid 30s from three is a good player. and if you caught lakers games when he was an unknown he was always making plays, putback dunks and stuff. there was one game in golden state where he went crazy

the white guy on the lakers stuff takes it to another level but i don’t think the appeal of him as a player is that hard to locate

ah i see i was talking about austin reaves and you were talking about lavine

I figured this out several posts before this and was lmfao!

ILH has truly found it's "who's on first" moment.

people calling him austin rivers several times is an extra layer of confounding

yeah my post about a person being able to jump really high was not related to austin reaves, just to be clear

― slob wizard (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, November 29, 2023 4:22 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

I was so confused up until this post lol

reaves seems like a really nice player especially on his current contract, though I think he’s probably closer to his ceiling than people seemed to hope for. he’s acquitting himself fine with a higher usage this year but his free throw rate has come back down to earth and he’s turning it over a little more as one might expect of a guy with his pedigree who has to take on a larger role. if his shooting can stabilize (career 3pt% 35.9 confirmed btw) he’s a really nice 4th starter type which again on his contract is a championship piece. but I sort of think we think of him as a guy who’s 22 and might have a huge leap coming up but he’s actually in his age 25 season and steady production for the next few year might be a more reasonable projection

lavine is injury prone. you could maybe justify an overpay if he is the best you can get but he just wont ever be worth it for 60 games per year

this is like all the times you listen to a sports podcast and zone out and then having no idea who "he" is referring to

he’s turning it over a little more as one might expect

his assist percentage has jumped more (15.7%->23.8%) than his turnover percentage (14.0%->17.3%)

something is clearly off this year, though.

here's the net rating on the bron-brow-reaves 3 man line up...

22-23 regular season: +14.3
22-23 playoffs: +6.1 (lakers' most used 3 man line up by 70 minutes)
23-24 regular season: -2.8

the -2.8 rating is actually pretty good for the lakers this year if you look at all their 3 man line ups. but i think you can see why people were excited about reaves as the third piece given last year's numbers.

i think a good lesson to take from reaves is that these guys who kind of come out of nowhere shouldn't get treated like they have the same improvement trajectory as guys with a pedigree.

linsanity!

or with guys who are four years younger xp

i think a good lesson to take from reaves is that these guys who kind of come out of nowhere shouldn't get treated like they have the same improvement trajectory as guys with a pedigree.

hes fine a perfectly ok player i dont even remember why were talking about him

He’s our 2024 Grayson Allen

last night someone asked who is still on austin reaves island and he’s much much better than grayson allen