2021-22 NBA "REGULAR" SEASON THREAD

it’s already been reported that no team asked for an investigation. it’s not like the nets want anyone looking into what they’ve been doing.

Thibs should be happy he found that sports almanac from the future, instead he’s getting T’d up.

not sure about the sixers D particularly in the backcourt harden/maxey is pretty weak at the point of attack and its unclear who theyd throw out there to beef it up thybulle is such an offensive liability, danny green idk

they do have some good defenders but overall its just not a super mobile or athletic roster

lol

oh my god are there james harden foul merchant defender bot accounts pic.twitter.com/GnZgO1tLDr

— 𝕜𝕚𝕝𝕝💀𝕥𝕚𝕞💀𝕗𝕒𝕦𝕤𝕥 (@crulge) February 27, 2022

i have a hard time worrying about the defense of any team with joel embiid on it but i do think you got a preview at the end of that game how their offense can get gummed up in crunch time with teams forcing the ball to their role players to hit make or break shots

fournier and quickley not exactly two of the leagues premier guards were getting past the first line of D at will today

and yeah joel is a great defender but you really want to limit the amount of defense he has to play

End of game offense, which has been terrible since 2018, is one of things I think will be absolutely improved from Simmons - FTs if nothing else.

getting big men end of game looks is always difficult, good news is they do have a guard now who can get his shot whenever he wants, however that particular guards history of crunch time play.....

yeah i thought the same about quickley goon. instill think the issue is that you actually have to score at the rim with embiid in the paint. barrett got him at the end by stacking joel on his back and just laying it up but he absolutely freaks guys out just by being around the rim… guys start taking weird paint jumpers and shit.

it kinda makes me think about the strategy we saw beat the jazz by just going 5 out and repeatedly breaking down bad perimeter D and then kicking out for wide open threes while the legendary rim protector gets stuck in no man’s land. the major difference is that if you go small vs the sixers you still have to figure out how to stop embiid on the other end whereas gobert presents no such issue

yeah going five out could work but also just taking it at embiid and trying to foul/tire him out seems worth a shot too

fwiw celtics do have a guy who can guard joel and hit 3s, mightve done it before even

i do worry for the bucks if they see the sixers bcuz it doesn’t seem like brook lopez is gonna play this year? embiid will repeatedly stuff guys like ibaka and portis into the trash, and giannis doesn’t seem to love defending in the paint in that way. i think joel put up 43 or something on them right before the break.

otoh i could see jrue holiday harassing harden into multiple like 2-13 games so maybe they figure it all out

My personal opinion is there are several terrific teams entering these playoffs and any one of them can win. #nba

i will be bumping my thread from last year about how many teams can *actually* win the title in a year where people are like “anyone could win the title!”

relatedly, some recent podcasts about the top 75 players triggered discussion about the warriors and cavs finals era and shoutout to the warriors but the league is in a much better place right now, the playoffs are gonna be intense from the jump

amen (otm in church talk, its sunday)

not monty williams’ finest moment at the end of the game here

Yah that was rough

i don’t know if the downgrade from porzingis to bertans was, like, that huge

the 1 seed in the west feels up for grabs again

pretty awful choke by the warriors to blow a 20 point fourth quarter lead but against teams without a traditional big man the mavs are better without zinger. they switch everything on D and then go 5 out and luka is getting you a good shot every time down. it’s a bit like the formula the clippers were using

dubs score 2 points in the last 10 minutes? yikes.

very weird offense in the 4th

hornets got k o'd

Kelly Olynyk with the DAGGER to put the Hornets away in OT 🙌 pic.twitter.com/6BnjjoeuQA

— ESPN (@espn) February 28, 2022

the 1 seed in the west feels up for grabs again

― J0rdan S., Sunday, February 27, 2022 9:04 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

it’s a huge long shot i think, suns would have to cough up a 6 game lead in 21 games

yeah i think the fight is the two seed and the 4-6 placement

beautiful shot by jelly k

salute to our boy jelly

you’ve come a long way, jelly

yuck
https://i.imgur.com/0FxBv4o.png

Lakers doing a nice Washington Generals impression tonight… think they just had their 20th turnover with 4:15 to go in the 3rd

Oh yeah and they’re losing by 29 to the Pelicans

the 1 seed in the west feels up for grabs again

― J0rdan S., Sunday, February 27, 2022 9:04 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

it’s a huge long shot i think, suns would have to cough up a 6 game lead in 21 games

lakers are the worst team of all time

deandre jordan with what has to be the worst pass of the season

pic.twitter.com/Fs5SzMBWSi

— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) February 28, 2022

lakers are pain

at what point does bron shut it down? im kinda thinking he might not cos he wants that scoring title and who knows how many more seasons hes got

Since starting the season 3-16, the Pelicans – including this win tonight – are 22-20.

During the same time frame, the Lakers – including tonight's loss – are now 18-23.

— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) February 28, 2022

xp i think theres a non-zero trade he forces a trade out of LA this summer

i’m sure his mentality is still “we’ll win the play in and have me and AD healthy for the playoffs and i like our chances vs anyone”

ppl seem to think he’s really gonna pressure the lakers to make big moves again in the offseason and they will have more flexibility but if it goes completely sideways like maybe they somehow fall all the way out or lose their first play in game who knows

i dont see what the lakers have that will put them in a position to get better next year. they have jack shit for draft picks for the next 6 years, westbrook is a negative asset, its just rough.

yeah they have russ's massive expiring but nothing to package it up with to incentivize anyone to take it

they’ll be able to trade 27 and 29 firsts. they’re far out so they’d have to find someone who valued them but it’s an extra first that they couldn’t trade at the deadline & those could easily be juicy picks if the lakers go all in on the final years of lebron and then have to rebuild

oh wow didnt know you could stretch it all the way to 7 years out. thought it was like 3-5 or something/

a good front office could figure out how to reshape the team a bit by selling stuff off and targeting the right replacements… we all know what kinda players work with lebron it’s not some mystery and plenty of guys wanna play in LA obv. but the lakers don’t have a good front office

my point

like the lakers 2020 championship has nothing to do with pelinka being good at running the lakers (see: all the pre-bron years) it comes down to bron saying "i want to go to la to do movies" and now hes won one championship for the least deserving fanbase in sports and made space jam 2 the space jamening featuring the warner bros ip squad and now its time to fuckin DIPSET

bron should join bronny's hs team