2021-22 NBA "REGULAR" SEASON THREAD

TRAE
GP MIN FG% 3P% FT% REB AST BLK STL PF TO PTS
73 34.9 45.9 38.3 90.2 3.8 9.7 0.1 1.0 1.6 3.9 28.2

LUKA
GP MIN FG% 3P% FT% REB AST BLK STL PF TO PTS
62 35.6 45.6 35.3 74.4 9.1 8.7 0.5 1.2 2.3 4.5 28.3

cool players, we are blessed

trae is really good he needs to find a way to not be the worst defender in the league tho which is gonna be tough cause he just so small and i do think hes prob also gonna always have problems vs playoff defense for that same reason

frank van vleet is small. its all about being in good position and not being lazy. trae is generally just very lazy on defense, hits a screen and dies on it, etc.

"fred" van vleet is really strong hes prob 40lbs heavier than trae

but i mean yeah trae should play better D too, tho it might not help that much, or it might not be worth it from an energy expenditure perspective, would be cool for atlanta if they had another guy who could dribble score and so forth

trae's actually showed a lot more effort on D this year, but yeah the physical limitations are what they are. he's really having an incredible season and it's a shame people don't get to watch him more

i would think steph would be a better model than fvv for trae to look to as a model for where he needs to go defensively. of course as you said lagoon steph has benefited from getting to conserve energy playing with other great players

steph is also several inches taller than trae and prob 20 pounds heavier. i feel like eventually most small thin offense first PGs can generally get to a point in their careers where they aren’t outright killing their teams on defense. my understanding of trae’s defensive issues is that it’s not just the physical limitation but also the mental aspects of how he should play, position himself etc so as to minimize the damage as much as possible & i feel like that stuff generally comes with a half decade or whatever of experience

steph & dame are interesting comparison points tho as one has played on teams that were some of the best defensive teams in basketball and the other has always been on teams that were fatally flawed defensively. i don’t think one is hugely better or worse than the other on defense individually but the contexts are so different. warriors of course have had guys like draymond, iggy who are outright elite defenders but i think as important is that klay gave the warriors a guy immediately next to steph who could really play D whereas the blazers put two sieves next to each other and could never get it right. utah kinda has the same issue with conley & mitchell at least it pertains to the playoffs tho it’s all slipping now for them. the hawks have paired trae with bogdan, huerter etc types who don’t bring any defense next to trae which i think is one of their main issues. not sure you can win at a major level if your point of attack defenders are complete matadors

steph is just a flat out good (sound) defender tho, soooo much better than dame!

agree trae should emulate him. i remember an article way back about his defense and all the principles he was trying to live by on that end + some stuff he picked up from iggy.

found it!
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/12648764/how-stephen-curry-developed-top-flight-defender

one thing trae has in his favor is that he has a super competitive streak. i've seen him lock in on D and, when he has, he's pretty capable. i have no doubt he'll improve

im not sure that trae really has a defensive comp hes considerably smaller than everyone whos been mentioned itt, hes smaller than kemba walker, hes basically like a child out there, i mean maybe he should just go on the juice but still his frame is so tiny

https://i.imgur.com/nhAb4es.png

it like hes made out of twigs hes a twig man

I'd have arms like those if I went to gym five, maybe six days in a row.

Not really.

kemba was kinda trae sized when he came into the league and he bulked up maybe trae can too, tho kemba remained a pretty bad defender even while getting bigger working his way to being fundamentally sound, tho he prob did do enough charge taking and stealing to make himself not just a flat out zero on that end, but still its just real hard for the very small guys

On the latest injury report, the 76ers list Matisse Thybulle as “ineligible to play” tomorrow’s game in Toronto.

— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) April 6, 2022

wow

interesting

Remember, Lakers' first round pick, which is now a lottery pick, goes to the Pelicans (most likely) or Grizzlies.

— Shaun Powell (@Powell2daPeople) April 6, 2022

there should be more outrage over the knicks wearing black uniforms and having a black court at home

shows heavy disrespect for the game

Matisse Thybulle was the last Sixer I imagined was unvaccinated. What a fucking dumbass.

interesting the sixers didnt cover for him with a fake injury

knicks just lost a 17 point lead to the nets in like four minutes lol

I was ok with it at the time, but it's increasingly looking like the Sixers should have kept Curry and traded Thybulle.

yeah currys better but wouldve been a pretty rough defensive fit next to harden

Yeah, my concern was taking the two best perimeter defenders off last season's playoff team.

Matisse Thybulle was the last Sixer I imagined was unvaccinated. What a fucking dumbass.

― reassessing life after bookmarking a Will Smith thread (PBKR), Wednesday, April 6, 2022 9:27 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

yeah well…

pretty cool:

First ever points in the NBA scored by a Danish person. pic.twitter.com/JtTyCiECoW

— Mike Vigil (@protectedpick) April 7, 2022

this was the other night when lundberg got his first minutes:

Yes, I'm a mess.

No, I don't care. pic.twitter.com/L2EUsQBkR2

— Morten Stig Jensen (@msjnba) April 4, 2022

Matisse Thybulle was the last Sixer I imagined was unvaccinated. What a fucking dumbass.

― reassessing life after bookmarking a Will Smith thread (PBKR), Wednesday, April 6, 2022 9:27 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

i have no evidence to back this up but i feel like the australian national basketball team might be a place where you could get indoctrinated against vaccines

Lol bogut

yeah i would love to hear aron baynes and matthew delavadova’s thoughts on vaccines

I think I was over reliant on the fact that his name was Matisse.

on the other hand if you get the 3 youre probably playing the bucks on the road in the second round

when we say the eastern conference is all about matchups, the celtics, sixers, and bucks are all jockeying for 2-4. here’s what’s at stake:

2 *may* mean a date with the nets but could be cavs, hawks, or hornets
3 is almost definitely the bulls
4 is almost definitely the raptors

— Michael Pina (@MichaelVPina) April 7, 2022

playing the bulls would be pretty nice tho

post raid press conference

Quin Snyder does NOT like the narrative that Donovan Mitchell is intentionally not passing the ball to Rudy Gobert. pic.twitter.com/J4X4tFpbBg

— Dana Greene (@dana_greene) April 6, 2022

yup, just coming off a long shift with the SWAT team

didn't Bogut recently come out and say the Warriors were setting illegal screens all the time? god he seems like such a shitty teammate

lame guy for sure

is Snyder not a good coach?

feel like hes well regarded, will prob have his pick of jobs if utah lets him go

hard to tell for sure since hes had some of the same core guys the whole time but his teams win 50 games every year with pretty medium looking rosters

i think he’s considered one of the better coaches in the league, the jazz just need a reset on several fronts

The Celtics say Al Horford and Jayson Tatum won’t play tonight against the Bucks. Horford is out with lower back soreness and Tatum with right patella tendinopathy, which he’s been listed with repeatedly lately.

— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) April 7, 2022

yup

not sure if i agree with the decision tbf, feel like home court in the 2nd round is more important than ducking the nets