I agree that was the single biggest obstacle to get really into basketball. The last few minutes of a tight game and the amount of stops and commercial . . . Ugh
2016-2017 NBA Game Thread
- Thread starter Kliq
- Start date
Ya know you hate to throw that "100" number out there.......but if all the stars align one cold night this winter there is a non-zero chance this happens.
And Anthony Davis only had 45 points,17 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks last night.
In another loss... poor guy.
In another loss... poor guy.
Yeah, too bad he's so inefficient and his teammates disappeared. Adams and Kanter had off games, so yeah, Russ ended up picking up the slack.
I got to catch some of the game last night and my god the Brow is awesome. He's playing with 4 guys who should be starting for a team only someone like HRB has heard of.
And he's doing this against double teams all night long, on his own, and damn near beat the Warriors by himself. We need this guy to get sick of Nawlins immediately and for the Pelicans to REALLY want a couple Brooklyn picks.
Hey we had Tim Frazier in training camp a few years ago but choose to go with Phil Pressey in the 3rd PG role instead.
They were in 6 minutes of the Celtics game. Milwaukee is missing Middleton, and also are not that good to begin with. Very lazy defense, especially Jabari Parker, who just kind of stands there occupying space.
It took Kris Dunn exactly two NBA games to begin closing out games for the Wolves over Rubio. Tight game down the stretch in SacTown.
Edit: Found out this morning that Rubio left with elbow injury in 4th quarter.
Edit: Found out this morning that Rubio left with elbow injury in 4th quarter.
Last edited:
Don't forget old friend E'Twaun Moore, who apparently has to count on the plus side of DA's drafting ledger as he hit 48% from three last year in 59 games (averaged 21.4 minutes a game). http://www.theadvocate.com/new_orleans/sports/article_82559eb0-9cb3-11e6-8f96-6b78e8b24aaf.html
Best as I can find, current NBA Rookie stats are here: http://www.insidehoops.com/nba-rookie-stat-leaders.shtml. When just looking at Jaylen's draft class (i.e., no Embiid), he's certainly holding his own, particularly compared to the guys the Cs were considering in that position.
As many people thought, Wade Baldwin looks impressive. Apparently he was the first rookie since 1983-84 to have a "5x3" debut: seven points / five rebounds / six assists / three steals / three blocks.
Understand it's early but the last draft was so intriguing I am interested in seeing how the class performs this year.
As many people thought, Wade Baldwin looks impressive. Apparently he was the first rookie since 1983-84 to have a "5x3" debut: seven points / five rebounds / six assists / three steals / three blocks.
Understand it's early but the last draft was so intriguing I am interested in seeing how the class performs this year.
Zach Levine is so ridiculously off the charts sick of an athlete and now he's learning the game. Look out league!
Dieng is playing well too. That's a pretty good starting 5 with Dunn.
And while Davis may win some games by himself, NO looks like a contender for worst record in the early going.
And while Davis may win some games by himself, NO looks like a contender for worst record in the early going.
This group has a chance to be special together. Kris got the start in the home opener with Rubio out and handled himself well.....hit 2 three's early, 5 steals, some rebounds and assists with a 35-point win.
So I'm watching some GS/Portland and I figure GS is still the favorite to win the title but who are the bigs on this team? Zaza and Java? It seems like a big drop off from last year. Does Durant make up for that? It's not like they had problems scoring points last year. I don't know man, Clips and Spurs might have a much better shot than I thought.
Edit: Lillard is so good. Absolutely my favorite non Celtic
Edit: Lillard is so good. Absolutely my favorite non Celtic
I don't expect Golden State to win the title this year and if they didn't make The Finals it wouldn't shock me. Not enough basketballs for the 4 of them.
This league is so stacked with talent right now. Portland, who will be what? 4th or 5th in the west, is really good. Which cities are looking for a team because there seems to be enough talent to expand.
Curry is going off. Portland not playing very tough D. Curry has 5 threes in the 3rd that were nothing but net and then he had a total fucking air ball (was weird to see)
I don't see them beating a heathy Cavs team and the Spurs could give them a ton of trouble out west. This is a worse team with Durant imo while recognizing how historically great they were last season. More talent doesn't necessarily make them a better team.
I'm confused. For the last year the narrative has been that there's no place for traditional bigs in today's NBA, and now Golden State isn't going to win a championship because they have a weak link at the 5?
Dont get me wrong, I like Andrew Bogut just fine, but he played 16 minutes a game in the playoffs last year. I think they'll manage to replace those minutes.
Dont get me wrong, I like Andrew Bogut just fine, but he played 16 minutes a game in the playoffs last year. I think they'll manage to replace those minutes.
I can't speak for others but to me I don't see any weak link at the 5 I see there being a balance issue with having so many playmakers on the floor together. At some point there can be too much of a surplus that affects the performance of one or more of them and how they react to their new role and lower usage. They had amazing chemistry these past two years and now all that is changed......maybe it will come together and maybe it won't. I'm not saying they are a 5-seed lol.....I simply don't feel they are going to be as good of a team as they were the past two years.
It's not so much about having a traditional 5. I think Bogut matters though. I was surprised how much his absence seemed to matter in the finals. It's realizing that they were already so good on offense that the marginal benefit of Durant seems pretty small and they did give up some guys to get him. I know he is also a good defender. I'm not sure they are going to be a better team which sounds ludicrous when they added a top 5 player. I think they hit diminishing returns. I mean, if they added Lebron right now, how much better would they be?
If Curry no shows in the finals again, having Durant might be YUGE. It will matter then.
Golden State could certainly use a veteran or two that title-contending teams can often add cheaply over the course of the year or after the trading deadline.
Going back to this:
Going back to this:
I think the exact opposite, I don't remember the league being this thin. There is a massive falloff after the top four teams (GS, CLE, SA, LAC) and nowhere near sixteen playoff quality teams. Contraction would be much preferable to expansion, a lot of ugly hoops out there currently.
I don't agree with this at all. There has historically been a massive falloff after the top 3-4 teams going back forever along with a couple dreads at the bottom. The NBA has always had .500 teams and teams with losing records in the playoffs so not having 16 playoff quality teams is nothing new. What IS exciting is the influx of young elite talent into this league between the kids in Minnesota and Denver, Anthony Davis and Embiid/Simmons in Philly along with the exciting second-tier teams like Utah, Indiana, Portland, Houston, Chicago, Toronto, Boston and others. Frankly, I feel the league is as healthy or healthier than it has ever been both fiscally and in regards to talent (especially young up and coming talent).
Last edited:
If they could have had the Bogut of 2-3 years ago, that would have been a big loss. But Bogut is 31, has a long injury history, was slipping noticeably last year and is trending in the wrong direction. The Ws basically traded Bogut+Barnes for Durant which is absolutely a plus move. They will miss his rim protection on defense and his physicality in certain matchups but it's a net gain for sure.
The other issue with GS at the 5 is that their best center is almost certainly Green but he won't get many regular season minutes there because they don't want him to take the pounding. He probably will play less than 10 mpg at center during the regular season (generally the last 3-4 minutes of each half), but during the playoffs it will be more like 20+.
Durant won't make their offense that much better in the regular season (where there wasn't that much room for improvement), but he will in the playoffs. They can stagger him with Curry which means they always have an elite scorer on the floor (the Ws were actually pretty terrible last year when both Curry+Green were out of the game), and he has the ability to draw fouls and get to the line, which is more valuable in physical playoff games than in the regular season.
The other issue with GS at the 5 is that their best center is almost certainly Green but he won't get many regular season minutes there because they don't want him to take the pounding. He probably will play less than 10 mpg at center during the regular season (generally the last 3-4 minutes of each half), but during the playoffs it will be more like 20+.
Durant won't make their offense that much better in the regular season (where there wasn't that much room for improvement), but he will in the playoffs. They can stagger him with Curry which means they always have an elite scorer on the floor (the Ws were actually pretty terrible last year when both Curry+Green were out of the game), and he has the ability to draw fouls and get to the line, which is more valuable in physical playoff games than in the regular season.
He will essentially be replacing Thompson in this role........Thompson avg 24+ ppg last season in the playoffs and was just fine as the ying to Curry's yang. This is what luckiestman means when he speaks of the law of diminishing returns. You are claiming that Durant's elite scoring will help the Warriors in the playoffs when they were already getting this from Klay. #only1ball
I don't buy the diminishing returns thing. This makes them tougher to guard, will create more open looks, and they'll have an extra elite shooter to make those open looks. There's #only1ball, and in Golden State, the person shooting that one ball on any given possession will be very, very good and wide open.
Edit: And I'll add that Zach Lowe's addressed this point directly on his podcast, and the coaching staff in Golden State doesn't have even the slightest concern that Thompson will be frustrated by a reduced usage rate. Lowe even stated that of all of the stars in the league, Thompson's the least concerned about his legacy and public perception.
Edit: And I'll add that Zach Lowe's addressed this point directly on his podcast, and the coaching staff in Golden State doesn't have even the slightest concern that Thompson will be frustrated by a reduced usage rate. Lowe even stated that of all of the stars in the league, Thompson's the least concerned about his legacy and public perception.
Last edited:
That's what I see plus the quality of the euro players is an additional element. There are a lot of good players. You could build a super team from guys whose teams didn't make the playoffs (Harden, Wall, Davis). I don't remember that being the case before (maybe I'm just forgetting).
Edit: and what about those years where the Nets were making the finals? Those teams sucked. The Blazers of this year would probably beat them.
Edit 2: the more I think about this the better the league seems right now. The 76ers with AI and almost no one else made the finals. The Pacers with Austin Croshere(sp) playing big minutes made the finals. No, I'm sure if it, the league is way better now.
Last edited:
No, this isn't quite right. Klay is a very good scorer but he's not a guy who can consistently create his own shot. That means he benefits by playing with good teammates who draw defensive attention and create looks for him, but struggles outside those situations. Klay was not very good carrying the scoring burden with the second unit -- the Warriors tended to get killed in the first 6 minutes of the 2nd/4th quarters when Curry and Green got their usual rest. Lineups with Thompson but w/o Green/Curry had horrible results. Durant solves this problem.
I think where we disagree is the team part, the talent is spread out in most cases so that most teams aren't especially enjoyable to watch. I think that last season and this season the 5th-16th teams (off the top of my head) were worse than usual and I don't agree with most of your list of 'exciting second-tier teams' above. Maybe you enjoy watching Harden controlling the ball the entire game, but I don't (although I am perfectly fine watching my man Westbrook do it).
It certainly could just be me, even in my biggest NBA fanboy days, I thought the season was too long, so maybe I'll be more into some of those teams by February or so.
.......just as they were the past two years.
I don't care if Lowe addressed it we will see how it plays out. Early on the results are poor in regards to Klay's performance and I pointed out going back to when Durant was signed that his role will be much different and he will be affected the greatest. Can he adjust? Sure he can just as Ray Allen did when his role changed once he came to Boston. Has he adjusted yet? Well, he's 0-13 shooting three's in his last two games so it is going to be a work in progress.
Is the bolded actually true? Because while they're giving some of Klay Thompson's shots to Kevin Durant, and the impact there is not as great, they're also giving pretty much all of Harrison Barnes' shots to Klay Thompson, as well as some of Andre Iguodala's. And I just fail to see how that's not going to end up a net positive in the long run, regardless of how many balls there are. Two game sample sizes aside.
Warriors are averaging 83 shots per game through 4 games. Same as last year.
Seems as though the big three from last year (Curry, Green and Thompson), are all sacrificing about 1 fewer shot per game. Iggy is doing the exact same thing as last year (27 MPG, 6 FGA), and Zaza has replaced Boguts 4 FGA.
So where else is Durant getting his shots from? As GMB said, Harrison Barnes (with a little helping of Brandon rush too). Barnes and Rush combined for 14 FGA last year. Durant taking those shots, combined with the three he is getting from Green/Thompson/Curry, amazingly equals 17 FGA, the exact number Durant is attempting this year.
Seems as though the big three from last year (Curry, Green and Thompson), are all sacrificing about 1 fewer shot per game. Iggy is doing the exact same thing as last year (27 MPG, 6 FGA), and Zaza has replaced Boguts 4 FGA.
So where else is Durant getting his shots from? As GMB said, Harrison Barnes (with a little helping of Brandon rush too). Barnes and Rush combined for 14 FGA last year. Durant taking those shots, combined with the three he is getting from Green/Thompson/Curry, amazingly equals 17 FGA, the exact number Durant is attempting this year.
Of course we are talking ridiculously small sample sizes agreed. It is however a substantial negative from the defensive end without Iguodala and the versatile Barnes on the floor. If Klay doesn't produce as he has in the past then they will be worse off.......if he is the same player with his historical numbers how much better will they be offensively to offset the defensive shortcomings? Iggy was a huge factor for this team on that end of the floor. Losing him changes this teams entire DNA.
How exactly are they losing Iggy?
He is most likely going to play the same number of minutes as last year because will see a decent amount of small ball Draymond at center, with Durant at the 4.
He is most likely going to play the same number of minutes as last year because will see a decent amount of small ball Draymond at center, with Durant at the 4.
They already had one of the most efficient offenses in the history of the sport and improving the offensive talent on the team doesn't guarantee improvement. If they lose half a step on defense it could have a significant impact on the season, and the drop off from Ezeli and Bogut to Zaza and West as rim protectors is real.
They also led the league in defensive efficiency for 80% of the year and ended up as a top 5 defense. I'm not sure how you define "half a step," but they can be worse in terms of defensive efficiency and still finish in the top third of the league.
