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

not that many players have a big financial incentive to play more basically just the ones who havent made an all nba team but might and are up for a new contract in the next three years

add two expansion teams and play 62 game season home & away vs everyone. the sweet spot

hali really wants all nba cause itll allow him to make tens of millions of dollars over his next contract, but it doesnt matter finically to kat he already signed a five year super max that doesnt even start til next year, tatum made all nba last year so hes set for his next deal

i think players mostly want to play anyway, its the teams who dont want them to, and the teams are right

the league has maybe succeeded in tilting the teams habits a lil via shaming and threats

i'm not talking about incentives i'm talking big picture in that the league has to sign a new TV deal and player salaries derive directly from how much money is in that contract so there is an immense incentive for both owners & players for the league to put its best foot forward this year. i don't think that individual players themselves are thinking about this but if we are to believe what everyone says that load management is a team directive and not a player one then it would follow to me that owners & GMs have stepped in and said that guys need to be on the floor more this year. it also wouldn't surprise me if it was communicated to players thru the union -- which is run by and for the stars anyway -- that it would be in everyone's best interest to get out there and play this year

the in season tourney was the perfect gambit in that it put real but small time money in front of the players to get them to play hard for the bigger bag that will enrich everyone down the line

(or so the league hopes...)

i could see it it makes sense but i kinda think its not happening that way, it seems a lil abstract from the playing games life, ive never heard a player coach gm etc talk about it certainly, it would be nice if everyone cared a lil more about the product tho

xp re tv deal

tried to find info on if star players are playing more this year and how much but i didnt, its prob out there somewhere

guys are playing more but there's zero evidence that the 65 game rule has anything to do with it, the idea came from the right place but it's completely ineffective and offers only downside, they should get rid of it

― slob wizard (J0rdan S.), Monday, January 29, 2024 6:33 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

it’s one of those things like the stepien rule where the league is doing “the right thing” but mostly to protect people (in this case the media I guess) from themselves. the idea itself that value is directly related to availability is sound, and there’s a minutes provision too, it’s not just 65 games. at the end of the day it’s an arbitrary cutoff, but it does force the media to think about playing time as being part of value, which is fine I think. plus, it’s not as though it disqualifies a lot of players, embiid really is a special case in a lot of ways

the one potential downstream effect that worries me and that I haven’t seen mentioned is that it’s going to probably lead to more players in a given span being all-NBA players (since some of the top players will miss the cutoff occasionally), which I worry could bloat contracts for sub-superstar players and make it harder to keep teams together

if you think that rule is about the media and not the players you are crazy

julius randle is a 2 time all nba player i really don't think the media needed more incentive to reward guys who are on the floor a lot, i don't think that is the problem that needed solving here

plus, it’s not as though it disqualifies a lot of players, embiid really is a special case in a lot of ways

― truly humbled underdog (k3vin k.), Monday, January 29, 2024 7:48 PM (four minutes ago)

the league taking the decision out of the hands of the voters and disqualifying the obvious MVP who is putting up one of the most historic big man seasons in basketball history because he missed a completely arbitrary amount of games is actually a complete scandal that the league should be aiming to address ASAP

if you miss a ton of games that uh hurts your value lol

if you think that rule is about the media and not the players you are crazy

― slob wizard (J0rdan S.), Monday, January 29, 2024 7:51 PM (nineteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

maybe I misworded that, the players have the incentive to play the games, the media just has a constraint for who they can vote for

i think its good the media is being prevented from voting for embiid, theyre not trustworthy

and i mean its not like they cant just vote for one of the other guys putting up one of the most historic big man seasons in basketball history

the league taking the decision out of the hands of the voters and disqualifying the obvious MVP who is putting up one of the most historic big man seasons in basketball history because he missed a completely arbitrary amount of games is actually a complete scandal that the league should be aiming to address ASAP

― slob wizard (J0rdan S.), Monday, January 29, 2024 7:55 PM (sixteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

if you miss a ton of games that uh hurts your value lol

― lag∞n, Monday, January 29, 2024 8:07 PM (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah I just totally disagree. we can quibble with the exact cutoff and whether there should be one at all, but you can’t be valuable to your team if you’re not playing. if that leads to a guy not winning MVP who otherwise would have (again, a situation that’s only come up once, in the 70s), so be it!

also embiid is a big baby

and a coward, technically speaking. but I digress

i didnt want to use the c word but maybe its time we started having these difficult discussions re joel embiid

we can quibble with the exact cutoff and whether there should be one at all

you're including this as an aside when it's actually the entire argument. nobody is going to argue against there being a direct correlation between minutes played and "value." the question is whether the NBA should be going against its entire history by taking the decision out of the hands of voters and mandating an eligibility number that will have little to no effect other than to disqualify a bunch of star veteran players who understandably want to keep an eye on their longterm health. if you think this is a good idea idk what to tell you

the voters are just media guys i mean who cares a lot of them still think three pointers are bad

sorry i have no idea what you're trying to say. who cares about what?

the voters, why do you care about "taking the decision out of the hands of voters" its not the serious kind of voting

is this creeping fascism is adam silver nba mussolini, could be

well as an NBA fan i care about the historical record of the league and sport and would rather that be consistent than to have to go the rest of our lives saying stuff like "well, remember that was the year embiid played 63 games and was disqualified from MVP" but i guess i should care less, is what i'm being told

the historical record of the league is already wildly inconstant, i mean most of the celtics championships came when their were ten teams

im sure the set up for nba voting has changed many times before, also who cares

me and you or else you wouldn't be posting here sorry i'm not buying this pose from you

i care about the league being good now i literally do not give a shit if were changing rules from when wilt played, in fact its good to change the rules to make things better now

and how has this rule made the game better?

well it hasnt done anything yet because its only been half a season

ok i'll sit tight and wait

you should write a letter

no that would imply caring and what i need is to care less

its usually the best way if you can manage it

well as an NBA fan i care about the historical record of the league and sport and would rather that be consistent than to have to go the rest of our lives saying stuff like "well, remember that was the year embiid played 63 games and was disqualified from MVP" but i guess i should care less, is what i'm being told

― slob wizard (J0rdan S.), Monday, January 29, 2024 8:25 PM (forty-five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

again, prior to embiid, the voters have only chosen a player who’s played less than 65 games (or equivalent in shortened seasons) once, walton in the 70s. the game is changing and star players are adjusting accordingly, and the league is seeing how things are likely to play out if things continue unabated and are putting their foot down and saying: no, we’re not doing this. to me that’s not disrupting anything, it’s getting ahead of a trend and giving the players plenty of heads up. and to pick a bit of disagreement here, if you seriously think embiid would be a worthy MVP pick playing 55 games you’re just clueless! and if media voters need the reminder (which again, in the long history of the league they have overwhelmingly not needed), so be it

jokic has taken 3 3s in the first quarter already, they’re losing

4 threes now, unserious business, smh

yes haha yes

he only does it when the offense is cooked, I’m prob going to bed early tonight

i will check out the doc rivers bucks vs three point jokic after this celtics game is over

btw celtics have forgotten how to score a million points every game but theyre toughing this one out, big 4th quarter comeback vs the pelicans 2nite

nuggets have retaken the lead with jokic on the bench, as usual

and to pick a bit of disagreement here, if you seriously think embiid would be a worthy MVP pick playing 55 games you’re just clueless!

ok but what about 56? 57? 58? 59? 60? 61? 62? 63? 64? at what point do i regain my clue

i think it would be ok to lower it to 60 considering that playing low 70s is pretty standard these days then its like normal resting/minor injuries + one medium injury

i feel like its not being discussed much around the league that zion has totally lost his athleticism idk what the deal is maybe hes just choosing to not jump high or move fast he does look overweight but that never stopped him before