2021-22 NBA "REGULAR" SEASON THREAD

refs are wilding! refs calm down

celtics are wilding

woww

probably good

decent at least

celtics have been up 20+ in all three games of this road trip so far

lol devner starting its bench in the 2nd half, malone mad?

we shd get a jazz fan

― lag∞n, Sunday, March 20, 2022 8:05 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

love this in theory though i assume most jazz fans are defensive

we shd get a jazz fan to antagonize

btw who could have predicted

DeAndre Jordan’s effort in 5 minutes of play was unacceptable. Counted at least 3 shots in the paint in which Jordan didn’t even jump to contest.

— Austin Krell (@NBAKrell) March 21, 2022

hes totally cooked, should be out of the league once his contract expires

Shoulda been 3 years ago haha. That contract the nets gave him was completely insane

there's a pretty prominent ilx poster who lives in utah we just have to get them into basketball and boom xps

celtics have been up 20+ in all three games of this road trip so far

― lag∞n, Sunday, March 20, 2022 9:19 PM (fifty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

celtics have won all three games of the road trip by 20+

Everyone just assumes that the playoffs will start and the Celtics will just turn into a pumpkin but they probably believe in the whole thing at this point. Derrick White a huge addition too.

not sure what reason people would have to disbelieve them at this point, having said that obvs the east is stacked so who knows how it will play out

tatum even remembered how to shoot

tatum's shooting amnesia for all those months was the weirdest thing

not sure what reason people would have to disbelieve them at this point, having said that obvs the east is stacked so who knows how it will play out

which celtics does the discourse underrate def horf marcus

tatum's shooting amnesia for all those months was the weirdest thing

― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Sunday, March 20, 2022 10:30 PM (six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

he looked bad he was just out of rhythm taking off balance shots, some of it mightve had to do with the coaching change being asked to do different stuff he looked tentative but hes in the zone now god bless, hes really playing better than he ever has imo particularly from a general soundness style of play perspective being really decisive not pounding the ball making good passes manipulating the defense and so forth, a lot of that has to do with that new coaching so kudos to ime et al

well I was looking forward to this game but fell asleep before it started. doesn’t count because I missed it

pretty good game dece game lol

dubs got screwed by the refs lol

ah yes the famously pro-san antonio refs

The foul call that put Wiggins to the line was just as whack tbf

KELDON JOHNSON WINS IT FOR SAN ANTONIO 🚨 pic.twitter.com/iuTHQ0sokt

— NBA TV (@NBATV) March 21, 2022

BIG BODYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

finally an end to all the "why isnt jamal crawford on a team?" pandering posts by ex players:

“ Goodbye to the game, all the spoils the adrenaline rush.”

Thank you basketball, I owe you everything …..✌🏾 pic.twitter.com/PpKYjoqz9p

— 🏁 Jamal Crawford (@JCrossover) March 21, 2022

i didn't realize his fg% was so dreadful 41/35/86

https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/c/crawfja01.html

playoffs even worse 38/30/86 in 64 games yikes

but the shots looked beautiful

he did do some sick stuff on the court of course and his signature move is very cool
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vxCWBL-eRU

omg i thought you were citing his %ages in his last stint or something, did not realize that was career. it was a different era, lol

nevertheless, contender for a first ballot role player holla famer for sure

def the last of a dying breed

hollinger column on the jagged start in philly

https://theathletic.com/3199707/2022/03/21/sixers-have-more-questions-than-answers-cinderella-saint-peters-scouting-ncaa-prospects-hollingers-week-that-was/

Heading into an alleged showdown against Miami tonight (one that may fizzle if Joel Embiid takes his first DNP-rest since the All-Star break), the Sixers are a somewhat encouraging 11-5 since trading for Harden, but that mark hides deeply underwhelming supporting stats.

Philly has just a +1.3 net rating since the deadline despite playing 10 times at home and is a mere 17th in offensive rating in that time. At the Sixers’ best, they’ve had some good moments, including a win in Milwaukee with the Bucks’ three stars in the lineup and a thrashing of a good Wolves team. Alas, they got absolutely smoked by the Heat, Nets and Celtics, and then there was Sunday’s debacle.

At the center of this is the idea that Harden can still be the leading man on an elite offense, a concept for which the Sixers paid dearly. He shot 5-for-12 with six turnovers on Sunday, repeatedly struggling to finish at the rim against length. Harden averaged over 30 points a game for three straight seasons in Houston; as a Sixer, he doesn’t have a single 30-point game to his credit.

further...

Of course, the question here isn’t just about Harden. Embiid is an MVP candidate, one of the three best players in the league this season at a minimum, but is the supporting cast around him enough?

Most notably, they’re paying Harris $36 million to turn down open 3-point looks (check out how unworried the Raptors were about him on the game’s final play); he’s slated to make $77 million in the two years after this one. Trading for him and then splurging on a max deal was this franchise’s original sin.

It goes beyond Harris, though. Danny Green is showing his age at 34, and the departure of Seth Curry has left a shooting void; suffice it to say Furkan Korkmaz (29.1 percent) and Shake Milton (29.3 percent) haven’t filled it. Even second-year revelation Tyrese Maxey shows his warts, still getting targeted on defense (at least when Georges Niang isn’t around to attack). Thybulle, of course, is an awesome defender, but he leaves Philly playing four-on-five on offense.

In a familiar story, the non-Embiid minutes remain a massive problem. Including Andre Drummond in the Harden trade has left Philly scraping the barrel with a well-past-his-prime Jordan. (Jordan has had a great career, but he can’t jump anymore. This is getting painful to watch.) Not that other options have proven any better; Philly has been outscored by 141 points in the non-Embiid minutes this season.

seems bad

This was why I said I didn't think they have enough horses. Embiid and Harden and Maxey are fine. Niang has had a good season and I think is under contract next year. Morey needs to fix everything else. Shooting, shooting, shooting, shooting.

imo the bigger issue for them is harden declining

yup

you have to wonder what the negotiations were like for the peripheral pieces around simmons and harden. we'll probably never know for sure if philly had the option to send thybulle instead of curry, but as hollinger points out, drummond was a loss for them too. would've been nice for them to get back an actual rotation player who could fill one of their needs at least a little rather than millsap.

like if BKN had decided they were willing to push the button on the central Harden/Simmons swap, feels like Philly probably had some leverage on what else was gonna be involved. although maybe I have it backwards, as the Nets undoubtedly had plenty of other Harden offers whereas teams probably got the hint from Philly to stop calling if they didn't have a star to offer

def seems like philly was a lot more motivated to do the deal than the nets

lol right on cue... harden resting now for tonights game..

after the trade went down there was this wave of "well you've gotta give morey credit, he stood his ground and got his star" but i felt like it was a pretty huge asterisk that in order to do that they needed to trade two first round picks and the third best players on their team. if this team had seth they would be a lot better, and the two firsts they had to give up curbs their ability to make meaningful upgrades moving forward. daryl is obv a great GM and is very creative on top of that, i don't doubt that he will be able to improve the roster going into next season but it's a question of how much he will be able to improve the team if he's only able to make small moves on the margins

we could argue until the cows come home about whether the bigger issue is "went all in on a 32 year old star player who is obviously not as good as he used to be" or "the surrounding cast can't shoot or play defense well enough" but since it all relates to the same trade i just consider it one general problem. a problem which some ppl said was going to be a problem the day the trade went down!

its true many people did say it

im not sure if morey is a great gm tbh, i feel like i may have detected a flaw in his swing for the fences philosophy, tho tbh its more of a problem for the teams hes employed by than it is for him

he put a great team together in houston & the moves he made his first offseason in philly were pretty excellent too. i don't think we'll be sitting here in a year being like "god what a bad offseason morey had, this sixers team is even worse" but whether he can overcome the structural issues built into the team via this trade is another question

Morey seems to think that once you meet your minimum roster requirement of having two superstars how hard could it be to fill up the margins of the roster from the very long list of not-superstars?

the moves he made his first offseason in philly were pretty excellent too.

― J0rdan S., Monday, March 21, 2022 5:30 PM (seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

oh are you a big fan of moreys 2021 offseason name your top three moves

lol anyway he did put together one really good season in houston that came very close to winning it all but within two years the team was in flames, a big part of which was trading chris paul and two firsts for russell westbrook, he def made one really good move which was trading for harden when most people didnt think he was a star, after that its pretty mixed, and i do think his its time for some game theory nerd ass approach to risking it all for a ring is misguided, theres a lot of value in keeping your window open and doing deals that dont totally leverage your future