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

or mccollum played well with dame, hes a pretty easy guy to play with, runs a round a bunch, hits tough shots

that was also like 5+ years ago that dame doesn’t exist anymore

i seem to remember that an undercurrent of the dame portland marriage at the end was not just that dame felt loyal to portland but also that he liked being the franchise’s center of attention and the undisputed no 1 guy on the court. that seemed to melt away as he actually pushed for a trade and it then needed to be cloaked in the guise of wanting to win, but he may just not enjoy the basketball experience that he never seemed to really want in the first place. he seemed to have a personal relationship with bam and to some extent jimmy which may have eased some of that in his mind, it doesn’t seem like him & giannis really knew each other

yeah wanting to go to miami but going to milwaukee has to factor in to the current sitch

feel like bam and jimmy were for sure telling him he was gonna be the #1 guy, which is a good plan basketballwise tbf, and i dont think jimmy cares

Not too late for that Lillard for Herro/Duncan wojbomb to finally drop

they have terry "baby dame" rozier now

had to be p humbling to stick your neck out like “I call the shots” and then welp not so much

it’s not exactly The Decision

dame thought he was just gonna get away with it, pretty funny how portland was like fine we are never going to trade you to miami

maybe more importantly. miami offered way too little and riley just wasn't that interested, no matter what jimmy or bam told dame

pretty funny a big sentiment of disappointment in grant williams is welling up, mavs were weirdly stoked on getting him and he played really well to start the season, but now he sucks, but the thing theyre failing to understand is its just grant williams dont too excited, he was the 9th man on the celtics how good do you think he should be

it was nice to see all the celtics quotes about him when they played you could tell the missed razzing him, also jayson unnecessarily blocked the hell out of his end of quarter heave lol

yeah it's interesting, taking a quick look at the stats his 3 point % is down a little bit (39 to 37) but his 2 point % is down a lot (55 to 49), and his free throw rate is also down a lot....all while actually taking more shots on a rate basis, specifically more 3s. so the 3s aren't falling quite as well and whatever 2 point looks he's getting are probably of worse quality than they were on the celtics. these aren't crazy differences but you really live on the edge as an nba role player sometimes.

i think playing with luka is tough youre just kind of waiting around for him to get you the ball, hard to get in the groove that way

mavs are weird, i wonder if/when The Discourse will turn on luka or if the mavs sorta halfassed approach to team building will continue to take the heat off him. like he's putting up all-timer numbers and is still crazy young (about to turn 25) but they're on pace to finish in the bottom half of the playoff picture again and might be another 1st round exit. like i dont blame him for the fact that he's only been out of the 1st round once, his playoff numbers are bananas. at some point hes gotta start wondering if this team will ever figure out how to put a contender around him and i dont think he's loyal to the soil like dirk was.

xp yeah, i'm guessing even the occasional pump fake and drive opportunities he would get are less available on the mavs

i think to a certain sentiment has already shifted on luka but its more about his icky comportment than his play, but if people have already decided they dont like you its a lot easier for them to start feeling like youre not actually that great as a player

i think probably even his fans are hoping he grows up at this point

btw speaking of player perception just heard tim macmahon chalking up embiids playoff failures to injuries, joel cant keep getting away with this

there is discussion about grant williams on the new lowe pod with macmahon and the point that macmahon makes that i think is key is that grant hasn’t actually made the mavs defense better. the idea of grant as a plus value player is based on the idea that he is a versatile, above average defender. but if he’s not that and he’s just a guy who shoots mid 30s on mostly corner threes, that’s not very valuable

i also think he’ll have a similar arc to what he had last year where he suddenly becomes a mainstay in the playoff rotation. he’s just a playoff kinda player & i don’t mean that he’s good necessarily just that his game and personality are suited for when the games start to turn into rugby

he didnt even play in every game for the celtics last playoffs fwiw

yea the Mavs not winning or ever being particularly good is definitely a strike against Luka, he puts up insane numbers but just seems like a very difficult guy to build around. was trying to think of a comparison and all I could come up with is Kyrie lol

i think grant makes sense in that context, but i was surprised the mavs didnt go for a more typical wing defender/shooter (idk is derrick jones jr a defender?)

i was gonna compare luka to harden but luka does show up for the playoffs in a way that harden never has. but i think their ball dominance and insane productivity is still the closest.

similar games def

the last time luka was in the playoffs he went to the conference finals, so i’d at least let this year play out before i started branding him as a loser. his team tanked against his will (rightfully so, of course) last year, it’s not the same thing

he’s singlehandedly won several playoff games playing vs peak kawhi and only has two round one losses on his resumé because he ran into a healthy kawhi in two straight years so i find this whole line of argument to be ridiculous

the last time luka was in the playoffs he went to the conference finals, so i’d at least let this year play out before i started branding him as a loser. his team tanked against his will (rightfully so, of course) last year, it’s not the same thing

― slob wizard (J0rdan S.), Monday, February 5, 2024 9:36 PM (six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

why'd they tank

Luka definitely seems like he could be a really great playoff performer who could singlehandedly win a series think it's more that it might be really hard to build an offense around him for whatever reason. most likely Kidd not figuring it out. or who knows he may just be uncoachable. Harden imo is kind of a different story, his all time winning percentage is 65% vs. 55% for Luka. I agree though best to see how this year shakes out

harden's win % benefits from the kd-russ okc years plus having morey custom build 'maximize james' rosters (and then being 2nd or 3rd fiddle on good teams after that). i dont think luka's quite had that kind of roster depth on the margins.

luka's obviously a stellar talent, but his offensive game requires that all of his teammates to be subservient to him. except kyrie, who just plays his own game without reference to luka, when he and luka are on the floor together.

its a dumb way to play basketball but tbf he is very good at it

worth noting that the mavs let two guys go in brunson and zinger who have been thriving since

yeah its p funny if youre not a mavs fans

checks out i think its funny and im not a mavs fan

good chance both those guys are in the allstar game this year haha

Luka definitely seems like he could be a really great playoff performer who could singlehandedly win a series

Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid underwent a left meniscus procedure on Tuesday and will be re-evaluated in approximately four weeks.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) February 6, 2024

paging m bise: can we get an autocorrect for x.com -> twitter.com ?

the last time luka was in the playoffs he went to the conference finals, so i’d at least let this year play out before i started branding him as a loser. his team tanked against his will (rightfully so, of course) last year, it’s not the same thing

― slob wizard (J0rdan S.), Monday, February 5, 2024 9:36 PM (six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

why'd they tank

the problem with drawing comparisons between harden and luka in terms of heliocentricity and playoff performances is that we may find out the issue wasn’t the heliocentricity it was that james harden has a mental block that causes him to forget how to play basketball in the most important games. not an issue that luka has

tbf harden was one cp3 hammy from a title tho obvs his overall playoff history is very bad

re the mavs run they were a second round quality team who eeked out a win to advance to the conf finals then got wrecked by the eventual champs, its a pretty common pattern, lakers last year for instance, heck the hawks even did it, dont think it says too much about luka either way, other than he is very good at basketball which we already knew, tho i guess it does say that his reg season performance does carry into the playoffs which isnt nothing, but stars who choke in the offs tend to be the exception

we prob wont get too much luka playoff data past the first round for a while tho lol

i do think heliocentric is a bad dumb way to play luka might be able to make it work just through force of talent but doesnt mean its the best approach, iirc saw some stat where he gets worse as games go on which makes a lot of sense having the ball all the time is very taxing, and he plays a very physical style, getting some nice catch and shoot threes no and then how could that not be better than what hes doing, its effect on his teammates is prob greater tho, like how does zinger go from the worst post up player to the best in one season, didnt really watch him dc but i know the celtics work on getting him good looks on switches in his preferred spot, with luka none of the that is happening, youre playing luka ball all the time

that mavs conf finals team did have bruson and zinger three allstars lol

the thing to do would be to play normal basketball for three quarters then unleash fresh helio luka vs a tired defense, but that would require luka to do more offball than stand five feet behind the three point line waiting to get the ball back

also just vibes wise luka making a pass then when his teammate doesnt make a play immediately clapping demanding the ball back and getting upset if it doesnt happen is real bad