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

lmao, that is awesome, frogbs.

Got thanasis too. Turn it on folks I’m right by the bench

ppl are always saying you're like the long lost antetokounmpo brother

I played the same amount of minutes

as you can imagine it was an awesome experience, almost certainly a once in a lifetime thing. basically the company my wife works for has these courtside seats which they give away through a bunch of promos and contests. well she won one of them so we got the choice of one of 4 different games. at first I said Spurs because of Wemby but a friend talked me out of it because he thought he probably wouldn't play...which turned out to be true. so we picked the Sixers to get to see Embiid lol.

anyway..vibe report from the bench:

Giannis - was locked in the whole time. didn't say much to anyone, just stared off into space when he was resting. I imagine MJ and Kobe were like that too. ties his shoes a lot. his hands are insanely big to the point where it's weird to see them up close.

Dame - he was at the far end but he didn't engage with the team a whole lot. kinda slacked off until the 4th too. one bench guy's job seemed to be keeping him hydrated. I kept hearing "Hey! Dame is thirsty! I need water for Dame!"

Brook - largest person I have ever seen in real life. really animated and funny, has a hot temper though. complained a lot about the refs. I asked him if he spoke Spanish and he said no. also he took up 3 chairs

Pat Bev - seemed to be a cool dude. was talking hoops a lot with Jae I think. kept saying stuff like "no that was backwards" when someone drove to the hoop in a weird way

Thanasis - probably the biggest Bucks fan on the planet. seemed to have secret handshakes with everyone. him and Gallinari had something going every time his brother hit a free throw. he actually looked pretty good in warmups though tbf he was probably trying harder than everyone else.

Bobby - a lot bigger than I expected. really intense dude but he seemed friendly. when he came out I gave him a high five and said "good work Squidward" and he thought that was funny

Marjon - didn't play and seemed a bit checked out...outside of Thanasis most of the bench dudes weren't really reacting to much. but there was one funny moment where Brook got a dunk in which he CLEARLY travelled - I looked over at the bench to see how they reacted to that and he just kinda shrugged his shoulders, gave me this "I didn't see anything" look and tried not to laugh

Doc - just paced back and forth a lot and made the "are you kidding me?" gesture a bunch. probably needs to be on blood pressure meds. bunch of Philly players came to talk to him, seems like he had a good relationship with everyone there.

oh yeah there was one Sixers possession where they called a foul on Giannis with like 2 seconds left on the shot clock. I actually couldn't see what happened because there were some very large men blocking my view but I yelled "He's innocent! He wouldn't do that!" (again I should mention, free beer) and then I think Pat Bev yelled out "He's innocent! Guys he's innocent!"

fuckin awesome

great recap, sounds like a blast.

amazing

incredible recap frogbs, so awesome you got to do that. i've also been following your dj escapades on the prog thread, you are winning life right now

love it

everything's coming up Milhouse these days

by the way one thing I noticed watching from there is I was never really aware what the score was at any moment. if it's not in front of your face you're not really thinking of the game like that you're just seeing it possession by possession. at least until the end where it really does matter. I wonder how aware NBA players are of the score at any given moment. when I played softball I never knew what the score was, though tbf I was drunk a lot of the time

Damn what an experience! Very jealous.

that is also my experience watching basketball frogbs. i have to make myself look at the score, whereas on tv even if i’m not looking at it consciously i feel it in my bones

The NBA shared with teams one of league’s focuses in competition committee meeting had been on offensive players hunting for fouls and veering off paths into defenders – and how those recent points of officiating emphasis have impacted a decrease in league scoring, according to…

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) March 15, 2024

nice

i guess they put out a video like a month ago detailing that and some other stuff but no one watched it so everyone was like the league is doing secret stuff lol

been watching games over the last month and the flow feels much better. players seem mad they arent getting the touch calls but they get over it cos they see its both ways and it just makes the game better. get points like a normal person

the reviews still take way too long is the next thing to tackle

stars still get those fouls imo

those plays are nice as a no call, if theyre really egregious then fine offensive foul but if the ball handler knocks the defender off balance a lil its a good physical play imo i like it, calling it a defensive foul is terrible needless to say

i like the way this ref gave vogel a tech last night

frank vogel technical foul pic.twitter.com/dJWEXhb36u

— ◇ (@2MANYBRIDGES) March 15, 2024

its the annual ayton-cares-right-now-for-some-reason stretch of the season

Deandre Ayton over the last 4 games:

29.0 PPG
16.8 RPG
61% FG
50% 3P
91% FT pic.twitter.com/myIvG0ty93

— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) March 15, 2024

dominayton

a staggering 3 free throw attempts per game in that stretch

Ethical hooper

Must admit Zion is looking in shape

yup

pelicans two games back of the clippers for the 4th spot

I like their roster they have flexibility and can play multiple styles

they have some really nice wing players that every team in the league would love to have but ultimately the playoffs are about your best players so who among CJ ingram and zion is stepping up. what’s the pecking order there, who can actually get buckets when it’s needed etc. would be cool if that person is zion but gonna need to wait and see that one in action first

The pellies' ceiling is the WCF, but that would be an awfully nice gift for their fans if they get there.

well that’s every team in the west’s ceiling aside from one team so i’m not sure that’s saying much

I'm not thinking the Kings, Suns, Mavs, Lakers, or Warriors are very long shots to get to the WCF this year, but OK.

not thinking

zion is their most unstoppable guy work through him keep the ball popping get ingram and cj in secondary actions, its not elite offense but combined with their other stuff they could win a couple playoff rounds

tho tbf if the zion getting in shape and caring trendline continues it could be elite offense or close to it, particularly if they play rudy gobert

hes even been getting steals and blocks recently which is amazing for them cause if he gets the ball in the open court hes scoring

Wolves and Thunder could make the finals if everything breaks right

i dont think the wolves are going anywhere considering the kat situation

kat could be back after the 1st round and it's not like his game needs explosiveness

yeah but coming off of surgery or even just the long layoff jumping into the playoffs and playing well seems pretty unlikely, and even more so when you consider his bad playoff history

i didnt like the wolves to make a big run even before he was injured

the wolves have kept surprising me all season, so I finally decided they must be almost as good as their record indicates

meanwhile, tonight on ABC the nation is treated to another nail-biting match up between the two teams battling for the 9 & 10 seed in the west

Amazing update frogbs. I sat court side a couple 4th quarters back when they didn’t care if you moved down when no one was there. I remember watching Reggie miller punish his defenders by constantly moving. I also remember being terrified for Tracy mcgrady’s ankles. Never seen such thin ankles on a man that size

Wolves and Thunder could make the finals if everything breaks right

listened to the zach lowe pod from tuesday about the pelicans and one of the main things they talked about is how the zion/ingram/CJ trio is essentially a net zero in terms of point differential over the season, and the team is a lot better once those guys get broken up and integrated with some of the bench guys notably trey lance but also nance and some others. lowe was complimentary of willie green’s ability to stagger those 3 so that they’re still going on a prolonged run of good play even with a starting line up that doesn’t actually provide them with any advantage. that’s great and you do need to mix and match in the playoffs so green having the ability to do that bodes well, however it’s not usually your three best players who are supposed to be mixed and matched out of the line up in the playoffs

good to see that trey lance has reinvented himself

hmmm what’s his name. oh trey murphy