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

very possible that they have two top-10 players next year at the rate chet is improving

all i see on twitter is ppl freaking out about okc, which i understand when your three best players score 90+ points on like 60% shooting

also they p much own the nba draft, they should just call it the okc draft

reading articles listening to pods and its funny seems like the critical consensus hasnt yet shifted in favor of the obvious truth that the sixers are better than the bucks, theyve just been much better their roster is solider bucks have a huge defensive problem that they have little ability to fix, philly doesnt have any major problems and they have a lot of resources to fix them, can understand being weary of the sixers history of post season struggles but you know who else has had some post season struggles its the bucks

celtics and sixers are lapping the league in point differential, okc creeping up tho

xp This is my thinking but I keep looking at the standings and the Bucks have a better record.

bucks have been really good in close game, dame time, but theyre living dangerously

sixers going from utter offseason turmoil to being really good is wild, salute

It's been better than I could have imagined. Maxey seems like he is coming back to earth a little - definitely been streakier lately - but he started the season like a Top 10 player. They have the assets to get another piece, which they definitely need, even if it's not a star.

makes me wonder what could've been had the Bucks landed Nick Nurse rather than a guy who's basically making all the exact same mistakes Kidd made when teams were scoring like 125+ a game vs. them

bucks have had the easiest schedule so far lots of games beating up the pistons, bulls, etc

they ought to have a good record if they're not a garbage team

dunks and threes has both bucks and sixers as playing very easy scheds so far

They have the assets to get another piece, which they definitely need, even if it's not a star.

― il lavoro mi rovina la giornata (PBKR), Thursday, December 28, 2023 11:48 AM (eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

kinda think theyre playing so good that they might want to just target a quality role player or two, incorporating a star or near star midseason isnt easy, tho if they could get anunoby theyd certainly have to think about it, but just signing him in the offseason might be even better

Agreed. They've had so much turmoil/turnover in the Embiid era, Nurse plus continuity might be the best thing for now.

looking at the bucks schedule its extremely backloaded they dont have their first long west coast trip until late january and then from there to the end of the season is quite a gauntlet

makes me wonder what could've been had the Bucks landed Nick Nurse rather than a guy who's basically making all the exact same mistakes Kidd made when teams were scoring like 125+ a game vs. them

― frogbs, Thursday, December 28, 2023 11:54 AM (four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

the players needing to have an intervention to make him put lopez in drop was not the best early season sign

griffin handpicked by giannis, never great when players start gming

I don't remember if it was here or somewhere else, but I read a week ago or so that the Sixers have had the 26th easiest schedule so far. Also, I see they are 9-8 against >.500 teams. Celtics are 20-4, lol.

part of that is that embiid likes rest against good teams lol

yeah on the other hand celtics have mostly played real teams so far theyve got a lot of games vs the bottom 10 teams left on their schedule

celtics have been clearly the best team so far, 16-1 when their starters play, undefeated at home, have played the toughest sched in the league

spurs actually passed them for toughest schedule

plus theyre about to play the pistons which will dip it a little more

tough draw 4 spurs lol

a lot easier to have the toughest schedule when you're an awful team and don't get to play yourself

ah true

i think the bucks rotation is gonna look a lot different in the playoffs, i just think they’re gonna scoop up several veteran types who are gonna take the place of malik beasley & some of their other fringe rotation guys they have. sometimes those vets aren’t good (jae crowder last year) but i don’t think we’re seeing what will be the bucks’ actual team

i think the sixers will also add some pieces BUT i do think ultimately they’re big game hunting and i don’t see them parting w/ real assets for the kinda marginal rotation upgrades i expect milwaukee will make

all that being said, the sixers are a tier 3 east playoff team to me. i still don’t think they have enough shooting — tobias, melton, covington, marcus morris, pat bev, oubre… you’re rolling out the red carpet for any of these guys to shoot open threes in the playoffs. and then their two best players are 1. a big guy whose body immediately starts breaking in the playoffs and whose brain eventually follows suit, and who has also openly discussed how he can’t generate good shots at the ends of playoff games and 2. a 6’ 1” 23 year old PG who doesn’t play defense. so idk. their coach is a lot better. maybe embiid gets the glory. but they’re squarely in the “will believe it when i see it” box for me and i would not favor them in a 7 game series over boston, milwaukee or miami

i think i have fewer concerns than some of you guys over even this version of the bucks. if they played the sixers in a series they’d have the two best players imo and i wouldn’t really consider that much of a debate. and their third and fourth best players are still much better than the philly’s best role players. playoff rotations will flatter the bucks imo

but the hurdle i can’t clear with them is that their whole thing last playoffs was how the team-coach relationship essentially broke, or at least that the coach just lost the ability to press the right buttons for this roster. and they almost certainly downgraded severely at that position. like spo vs adrian griffin would be as big of a mismatch as, like, dame lillard vs kyle lowry

i also have zero trust in this bucks team to make it thru 4 rounds healthy. so i guess what im saying is i think we’re getting celtics-heat III if those teams are on diff sides of the bracket

the players needing to have an intervention to make him put lopez in drop was not the best early season sign

― lag∞n, Thursday, December 28, 2023 11:01 AM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Was nice that he actually listened though, what frustrated me so much about Kidd was he never changed shit he just kept insisting his players weren’t executing properly

i think the bucks rotation is gonna look a lot different in the playoffs, i just think they’re gonna scoop up several veteran types who are gonna take the place of malik beasley & some of their other fringe rotation guys they have. sometimes those vets aren’t good (jae crowder last year) but i don’t think we’re seeing what will be the bucks’ actual team

― slob wizard (J0rdan S.), Thursday, December 28, 2023 3:23 PM (fourteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

they really have no ability to get anyone good like maybe they can scrounge up enough to patch holes but all things considered thats not the most likely outcome

if they played the sixers in a series they’d have the two best players imo and i wouldn’t really consider that much of a debate.

― slob wizard (J0rdan S.), Thursday, December 28, 2023 3:29 PM (eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol what

if i was drafting players off that roster for a 7 game series im taking giannis and dame over embiid and not thinking twice about it

er, off both rosters obv

giannis > embiid
dame > maxey
middleton > harris
lopez > umm… melton?

any objections?

ah lol youre talking about the best and third best players not the two best player

no i think giannis and dame are both better than embiid. i think milwaukee would have the two best players in that series.

for the playoffs. embiid obv a great regular season player

separately, i also think if you match the rosters up as i did the talent gap between those teams is noticeable

i would def not take middleton in the third round but regardless the bucks just cannot defend and they have the buyout market and whatever they can get for two second round picks to solve the problem, their coach also seems to be very bad, not feeling them

Embiid is playing better than he was in his MVP season but yeah kinda want to see how he does vs. good teams

no i think giannis and dame are both better than embiid. i think milwaukee would have the two best players in that series.

― slob wizard (J0rdan S.), Thursday, December 28, 2023 3:52 PM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

this uh extremely debatable to say the least, worth noting that dame is the primary cause of the bucks defense problems

yeah but i also know that by the fourth quarter he will still be running up the floor at the same speed as the first quarter and that his brain won’t be leaking out of his ears

look if a clairvoyant told me that a bucks-sixers series took place and the deciding factor was that the sixers coach was >>>>>>> the bucks coach i’d be like, yup. so that part i can’t & won’t debate. but the nuggets just won the title with basically 6 players and when you start looking at each roster thru that prism i like the bucks a lot more

im gonna need to see the bucks play good before i start fantasy drafting them over the sixers

i would def not take middleton in the third round but regardless the bucks just cannot defend and they have the buyout market and whatever they can get for two second round picks to solve the problem, their coach also seems to be very bad, not feeling them

a draft scenario between two teams doesn’t actually accomplish the theoretical goal of ranking the rosters bcuz you start to get into fit issues and stuff. like in some scenarios i’d rather have middleton over maxey but not in others. but i can say with my first pick i would not be drafting off philly’s roster

dame over maxey is the only definitive advantage if youre gonna look at it that way imho, and its meaningful for sure, but i cant get past the bucks defense its just not playoff ready, its not impossible they get it to a good enough level but being at the point a third of the way through the season planning on making your defense good enough at some point in the future is not good, the bucks have been a very good defensive team for this giannis era it was their thing, even their offense is piling up points more based on talent than playing good, idk they dont look like a contender now, obvs a lot of season left, but the sixers do look like a contender

giannis > embiid is a definitive advantage to me but i’ve always been a giannis believer & an embiid playoff skeptic

i mean, the sixers have *always* looked like a contender. maybe enough has changed now!