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

also seeing hollinger write today that the worst teams this year are worse than ever and i’m wondering what everyone’s stats would look like if you filter out games against detroit, portland, washington, san antonio

cause you still have to guard it, there are a lot of guys who can shoot an effective pull up if they can just walk into an open shot xp self

i could definitely see increased training on harder threes having a knock on effect of making guys better at normal threes, and if there’s any group that has prob trained the most at extreme distance shooting i would imagine it’s guards & small ones specifically

having to consistently go over on pick and rolls to guard against pull up threes has got to be tough on defenses, not very long ago that approach was reserved for only a handful of guys

flip side of all this crazy offensive skill is its become hard to play defensive specialists you really need skilled guys who can shoot handle etc so thats hurt defenses too

none of it really explains why offense is spiking particularly this year tho

just spitballing here but i wonder if there’s a bit of a feedback loop where offense first guards who are not great at defense to begin with are also not expected to do much on defense because of everything they have to do on offense, and then you start getting two guys like that matched up in half the games every night & point of attack defense is barely a concern on either end

otm: https://defector.com/the-wizards-leave-you-nothing-to-root-for-but-the-other-guys

i'd completely forgotten that the wiz took the celtics to 7 games in the second round not that many years ago

kelly o game seven baby

oh lol i do remember the kelly o game but forgot who it was against

classic game lol

sixers are putting batum on jokic to start

looks like its harris that first bucket was a switch

Nuggets cleaning the glass

embiid agree to play the back to back on the condition that there will be no defense

i assume we’re talking protections out the ass here but…

Developing: The Raptors and Pacers are in active talks on a trade centered on two-time All-Star Pascal Siakam for package that includes three first-round picks, league sources say.

Full details at @TheAthletic with @sam_amick: https://t.co/o925VL5r3g

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) January 17, 2024

78-78 the normal halftime score

insane half of basketball

i’m not sure i mean that positively lol

kinda felt like a lot happened while also nothing happened

yeah there were just a lot of shots that fell

assuming siakam is willing to resign with the pacers if theyre willing to give up three firsts for him, its been out there that hes not making any promises as far as resigning, i think hed be a nice fit for them but its alot to give up hes kind of an uneven player and is six years older than hali, tho they do have one really bad first thats the worst out of three different teams picks so if thats one of them maybe its not so bad

that Wizards article was amazing

ya good piece

stan van speaking truth to embiid god bless

hooo stan spittin

doris could never

lol hes not stopping

lol

Listening to this game on mute… 🤦🏻‍♂️

— Drew Hanlen (@DrewHanlen) January 17, 2024

joel killin em

sixers played better tonight

congratulations to nikola jokic and the denver nuggets for ending joel embiid’s 30-10 streak

i watch a game like that and find it hard to get worked up about denver. they had like 3 straight mins of offense in crunch time where they were basically just running around randomly, jokic catapulting balls from 3 with 18 on the shot clock, aaron gordon dribbling all the way across the court and into the corner by himself and then bouncing the ball off his foot etc. just don’t think they’ll have possessions like that in important playoff games, that is not a locked in basketball team

couldn’t help but notice the stark difference between when embiid was playing from the elbow (unbothered, swishing midrange jumpers like a 7 ft chris paul) vs when he tried to go back into the post at the end (inventing mario basketball and turning the “bananas on the court” slider all the way up)

the question comes in the playoffs when teams figure out ways to send doubles and make him uncomfortable in the high post too

it’s very frustrating but jokic’s teams have done this every year, you learn to live with it

he also seems quite content to take a backseat in this particular match up for whatever reason

yeah he just doesn’t care about that stuff it seems like. otoh, me and every other online nuggets fan every year when they play in philly:

Lmao throwback to the last time Nuggets played vs the 76ers and we got this gem by @DLineCo 🤣😂
pic.twitter.com/GvgFsNchVW

— Tatiana (@Tatianaclinares) January 16, 2024

might wanna turn on Suns Kings now

Suns down 17 w 5 min left

Grayson Allen big game

paul george and james harden both look great as like… not the second or third best player on the team but somewhere in between. or maybe it changes by possession. but it’s like they both have 25% less to do and w/ kawhi playing well it looks good

very good game rn

neither shai or chet are having particularly good games and yet they’re only down 1

Every bucket from the Suns 32-8 run that lead them to a huge comeback victory 👀 pic.twitter.com/ddTM0asLR8

— NBA (@NBA) January 17, 2024

keep seeing kawhi do insane stuff on defense

Kawhi basically looks like his old self the question always can be sustain it for ~60 more games

I never thought this clippers group would put it together in the slightest so color me impressed

they need to find a real big man imo… zubac, thiess, plumlee is not gonna get it done. but the rest of the roster is believable to me

PG was awesome tonight damn