2021-22 NBA "REGULAR" SEASON THREAD

10. “I’mma give him the shot,” Harden once joked of Irving. Now that seems like less of a joke.

Photo from locker room:

https://media.bleacherreport.com/w_800,h_533,c_fill/br-img-images/003/543/006/f7677101f60d5f44095f494f3fb8dd0b_crop_north.jpg

suns vibes check:

This team is special. pic.twitter.com/oG2sGkQqor

— pia (@sofiasunss) February 11, 2022

vibes: exquisite

is that saric lol

yes!

yup lol

suns dance party is a joy, i appreciate that saric is just hanging

Dallas Mavericks F Dorian Finney-Smith has formally agreed to his four-year, $55.5M extension, including a player option and a trade kicker, his agents Michael Tellem and Jeff Schwartz of @excelbasketball tell ESPN.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) February 11, 2022

love to see an undrafted guy really get paid

Huge news

The Boston Celtics are planning to sign F Sam Hauser and C Luke Kornet to deals for the rest of the season, sources tell ESPN. Celtics have five open roster spots after Thursday's trades.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) February 11, 2022

I don't really get the Finney-Smith deal tbh. What is the plan there? They seem closer to tanking than competing.

idk if they know their plan yet, trading porzingis kinda resets their clock. but finney smith is a good player at the league's most scarce position (3 and D wing who actually does both those things) and they got him at market rate or below. kind of a no brainer deal for any team i think

has anyone offered any sound reasoning for this dinwiddie/zinger deal?

Even after the KP trade they're still over the cap for next season. Hardaway 20mil, Dinwiddie 18mil, Bertans 16mil, Powell 11mil. I just hate that roster haha. I guess they are in 5th place though.

cubes and widdie doing nft deals man, it’s business

its a brutal roster. whos their second best player now.. brunson??

clearly it's finney-smith, an incredible 3 and D guy who absolutely must be paid his market value right now.

has anyone offered any sound reasoning for this dinwiddie/zinger deal?

― Spottie, Friday, February 11, 2022 3:18 PM (six minutes ago)

basically that breaking zinger's one big bad contract into two separate smaller bad contracts gives them more flexibility to make moves in the offseason. and i guess that dinwiddie gives them some insurance if they don't end up resigning brunson

also that they might feel like healthy zinger is just never going to happen, they couldn't rely on him to be healthy in the playoffs this year, and they wanted to get off that contract whenever they possibly could

idk we'll see. i think it's a pretty bad trade. i guess i understand the logic of breaking one contract into two but i wish they had found a player who is even a semblance of a good fit w/ their current roster which i don't think dinwiddie is at all. i don't understand in what playoff scenario he is giving them minutes

clearly it's finney-smith, an incredible 3 and D guy who absolutely must be paid his market value right now.

― reggae mike love (polyphonic), Friday, February 11, 2022 3:29 PM (six seconds ago)

there's lots of criticisms you can make about the mavs, signing finney smith before he hits free agency to a contract that he could get from every team in the NBA isn't one of them

and i guess that dinwiddie gives them some insurance if they don't end up resigning brunson

― J0rdan S., Friday, February 11, 2022 1:29 PM (twenty-one seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

just brutal lol. brunson is cool but hes more of like a 5th best player on a roster that has deep run intentions.

finny smith deal seems like market value pick, no issues with that really. but they coulda waited until the offseason, he could get hurt and he's pretty replaceable.

^^

finney smith got 4/55 which comes out to $13.75 per year. these are cap hits among SFs this year in that range. it is easily market value and almost certainly under than that. he's better than basically all of these players, arguably all of them, and he fits on every team in the league, so the contract is eminently tradable. and there was really no reason for them to wait until FA, they would've gained nothing

Duncan Robinson - $15,650,000
Marcus Morris Sr. - $15,627,907
Will Barton - $15,625,000
Doug McDermott - $13,750,000
Joe Ingles - $13,036,364
T.J. Warren - $12,690,000
Kelly Oubre Jr. - $12,000,000

I would take him over all of those guys for sure

But also, most of those are bad contracts imo

but they coulda waited until the offseason, he could get hurt and he's pretty replaceable.

― Spottie, Friday, February 11, 2022 3:35 PM (fourteen minutes ago)

well, they don't have cap space so he's actually not really replaceable unless they're trading off their roster to replace him which wouldn't make any sense when they could just sign him to a very fair contract, and there's not many teams out there just looking to trade 3 and D wing players. i guess if he tears his achilles and is out for 1.5 seasons it will be bad but you can't really build a team around worries about catastrophic injuries to players w/ little to no injury history

as always i'm more bullish on the mavs than the rest of ILH. they have the number one longterm asset in the league & the west is still dominated by teams w/ key players well into their 30s. once you start looking 2-3 years down the road it's dallas, denver, memphis, and maybe phoenix if they can lure someone there to replace chris paul

The Nets asked James Harden if he was happy. “Don't believe any of the rumors," Harden would say. "If there's a problem, you'll hear from me directly." As Thursday’s deadline approached, he finally told them—FaceTime to FaceTime. Story w/ ⁦@wojespn⁩ https://t.co/81WwrGK8xx

— Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) February 11, 2022

The Nets asked James Harden if he was happy. “Don't believe any of the rumors," Harden would say. "If there's a problem, you'll hear from me directly." As Thursday’s deadline approached, he finally told them—FaceTime to FaceTime. Story w/ ⁦@wojespn⁩ https://t.co/81WwrGK8xx

— Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) February 11, 2022

now you've gone too far

but they coulda waited until the offseason, he could get hurt and he's pretty replaceable.

― Spottie, Friday, February 11, 2022 3:35 PM (fourteen minutes ago)

well, they don't have cap space so he's actually not really replaceable unless they're trading off their roster to replace him which wouldn't make any sense when they could just sign him to a very fair contract, and there's not many teams out there just looking to trade 3 and D wing players. i guess if he tears his achilles and is out for 1.5 seasons it will be bad but you can't really build a team around worries about catastrophic injuries to players w/ little to no injury history

― J0rdan S., Friday, February 11, 2022 1:50 PM (twenty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

they have his rights tho cant they go over the cap? i just dont see the rush to sign him is all. unless they just wanted to do him a solid which is fine i guess. in general locking dudes up midseason is always a little weird to me unless you anticipate them making a big jump and want to lock them up for cheap before anyone else notices. you have a few more months + playoffs to see more why not let it play out. i just always shudder when i think back to the bucks signing bledsoe to that extendo midseason then he completely wet the bed as soon as it was signed. this really isnt a big deal tho, the risk is minimal and its a good contract. but of course i just dont believe in anything the mavs have done/are doing and i dont rate luka quite as highly as you, too many harden parallels and i honestly just dont really love watching him play.

yeah they did go over the cap to sign him i'm just saying they couldn't replace him in FA bcuz of the cap. it was either him or replacing him w/ no cap space

he's also been w/ the mavs his entire career i think it's a bit different than the bledsoe situation. and the role he plays is really static, it's not like he's a ballhandler and your team changes and all of a sudden the guy is a bad fit, which is basically what happened w/ bledsoe.

one major difference between luka and harden is that luka's career playoff average is 33/9/9 and harden's is pooping his pants repeatedly on national TV

yeah luka looks like a world beater in the playoffs for sure, big game hunter it seems. harden feasts in the reg season. luka has a chance to be better than harden, just has some habits to break to be his best self, not unlike harden. both show up out of shape and get tired at end of games. both arent good defenders. both have to show that they can share the court with other stars and be willing to do stuff without the ball in their hands.

yeah he def needs to learn how to modulate his energy in playoff games. he goes off for like 25 points every first half, there basically isn't anyone in NBA history regardless of body fat percentage who can play like that for a full playoff series let alone three or four series in a row

When Philadelphia wouldn't include Mattise Thybulle, Brooklyn insisted on two first-round picks.

man they shouldve kept the picks and used them to get a better player than thybulle

what an immature baby. he makes ben simmons look like winston churchill

b-b-but babies notoriously look like winston churchill, which is just very confusing

philly really love thybulle

i personally prefer players who have basketball skills or even a basketball skill

they saw him hang with curry for one game and coronated him as a made man

wonder how theyll feel when teams simply do not guard him in the playoffs

i guess the thought is that if he ever does learn how to shoot he’s immediately an elite 3 and D player on the level of like mikael bridges but given the whole reason he fell in the draft was that he never has been able to shoot it seems a bit pie in the sky

he just doesnt do anything except play d he cant even rebound not they type of guy i would bet on suddenly getting good at basketball

6/2/1 50/31/68 27mpg

i’m with you

i watched a good video on his defense, he is obvs extremely impressive but also does some weird unsound things like falling behind his man a lot and chasing

he hunts steals like crazy, works against lazy passing teams like the warriors

yeah he does that think where he falls behind the ball handler to block from behind

he’s also kinda small, not like he can guard PFs or play small ball center

i feel like last year in the hawks series their best defender on trae was actually simmons but i could be misremembering