2023-2024 General NBA Season Thread
- Thread starter BigSoxFan
- Start date
Loved this line from Hubie about Brunson's game: "For those of you who haven't seen him play; this is how he plays." I love Hubie, he's 90 years old so it's damn impressive he's doing NBA games, but he lost his fastball about 20 years ago.
He also absolutely loves the game of basketball which is still very obvious even after all these decades he’s been doing it.
Yes, Hubie is a genuinely inspiring person and he is still perfectly lucid and at worst, a net neutral announcer. I'll take that for his 20 games a year or whatever.
I've been out on Hubie ever since the 2019 playoffs against Indy. Late in game 4 Tatum had a breakaway layup, Corey Joseph hacked him hard in the head and neck going for the block, the refs called it a flagrant 1. Hubie spent several minutes praising Joseph for his hustle, "forcing Tatum to earn it at the line", excusing the contact as "brushing Tatum's head," and "he hit him in the arm," crying about how basketball was different in the 70s and 80s. That was almost 5 years ago, time to put him out to pasture. Here's the play, sadly without the old man complaining about how different things were in his day:
View: https://twitter.com/NBAOfficial/status/1120053511352352768?s=20
View: https://twitter.com/NBAOfficial/status/1120053511352352768?s=20
In Hubie's defense, he coached against the 1984 Celtics. My guess is that McHale's play on Rambis would be called a flagrant 7 in today's NBA. To be honest, while I laughed about the clothesline play at the time, I have no issue with league removing those plays from the game.
IIRC there were several of those in the NYK-BOS series, one involving Ainge. But that was 1984.
I can't help but wonder what punishment "Ainge Bites Draymond" would get now.
(I still can't believe people thought Ainge was the biter, when it was "Tree Bites Man")
(I still can't believe people thought Ainge was the biter, when it was "Tree Bites Man")
Watched this game because my son feels sorry for Pistons and Cade.
Ivey missed two wide-open foul line jumpers and Cade missed a third harder one. Despite Cade trying to pull his team to victory (scored 30 in 2nd half), DET couldn't get stops when it needed to.
Have a bad feeling about THURS. Duran really helps them and someone on DET always seems to get hot while playing BOS.
Is there a number this losing streak could reach that would make Pistons ownership say enough is enough? 35? 45?
They paid him so much I don’t think they can move on. But it’s clear he’s just an awful fit and his coaching works only with the Point God.
He should probably resign and I honestly wouldn’t be shocked if he did if they could work out a settlement
I was hoping that Detroit pulled this out. I want nothing to do with ending this losing streak. There's an odd pressure to not be the one that does it.
Ivey missed badly. Ugh, he looks really bad. OTOH Cade looked great, and he should provide some hope
I was hoping to see Ausar play but Monty was going with a whole bunch of Bojan/Burks. Trying hard to break that streak.
The Celtics' will take care of business, White/Jrue bring it nightly.
OKC handles the Big Bad Wolves. Forgot that SGA and NAW were cousins
Thunder shot 60.5%(!) -- won by 23 points. I'm not sure whether OKC shooters were just lucky or the TWolves defense was subpar.
Ivey’s minutes have been completely fucked with by Monty. It’s truly hard to put into words just how bad he’s been and how awful of a match he is for that organization
Minnesota had a collective Christmas hangover on D imo. SGA's line is stupid with 34 points on 19 shots as well as nine dimes and two steals (also a block). Holmgren played great, cooking Gobert in the process - he was kind of a mismatch, especially vs Rudy.
Grizzlies went with the 3 guard, 2 center starting lineup. I'm intrigued.
Ivey is a completely different player from last season
Looks like his confidence has been swindled by 3-Card Monty
For a young team OKC is a great shooting team, 3rd in 3 pt% and FG%, first in FT%. They're going to be fun to watch.
They are going to be a problem for every team they play the rest of the way. Marcus is playing out of his mind. He has five steals and is taking charges left and right. Ja looks like he hasn't missed a beat.
Smart's intensity is off the charts tonight. The Morant-Bane-Jackson-Smart core is a pleasure to watch.
Ivey is terrible. He has zero understanding of how to play offense or defense within a scheme. If it wasn't for being on a 2-win team he wouldn't be playing at all.
He's "thinking" and not "reacting" bc he doesn't know what he's doing out there. I thought last year he showed some promise if he could make a leap but he's making a young JR Smith look like TJ McConnell out there. Completely lost on both ends in every game I've seen him this year.
If Memphis plays the rest of this season at last year's pace (51 wins), they'd finish with 43 wins. Reasonable chance that's enough for a play in spot (if we get a play-in tournament out west with the Lakers/Warriors/Suns/Grizzlies, that would be just perfect).
Absolute vintage defensive performance by Marcus. Capped off by a game-sealing charge he drew on Zion Williamson who was barreling down the lane at full speed, so it was brave as f&ck while also being as skilled as you'd expect. Just great to see from him.
Someone post his highlights when ya see 'em.
Someone post his highlights when ya see 'em.
Andre Drummond turns back the clock for NBA BIGZ with 24 pts + 25 rebounds!
The Bulls are 9-4 since the LaVine sabbatical commenced.
The Bulls are 9-4 since the LaVine sabbatical commenced.
You may be right. Ivey may be a historic bust.
Here’s the issue..on that team it doesn’t matter. They have no one better. The team is a fucking disgrace….and somehow Monty manages to push every wrong button possible.
The team sucks ass. Alec Burke should be traded. Same with Bogdanovich. There’s 0 upside in playing them. Monty couldn’t figure out his ass from his elbow. He’s an all time awful coach that was saved by a great roster who made him a ton of (unearned) money.
2/8 from 3, 3 assists and 3 turnovers. 5 steals and leads the team in +/- with +9.
Thats our Marcus.
Found this quote from Monty when asked about Ivey's role and if he know what he needs to do to get more minutes.
“I think everybody here does,” Williams said. “I’m pretty clear about objectives. The way we want to play is a team style of basketball. I’m more inclined to talk to guys about defensive rebounding than I am about offense. I think when you defend and rebound, all that other stuff takes care of itself. As it relates to JI, he’s still a young guy.
“As I’ve said before, I’m not giving minutes out. Minutes are precious, and he’s not the only guy that has seen his minutes and all of that reduced because of mistakes on the floor. It’s happened with JD. It’s happened with Cade. It’s happened with everybody, because I think the standard should be excellence. You can’t have excellence if guys feel like they’re being gifted minutes. So, it’s not just JI. Overall, we need guys to play at a certain level and hold them accountable to that every night.”
Grizz make it 5 - 0 since Morant returned. Nice to see Smart have a moment. I enjoy rooting for him from a far. Like really far away from being on the Celtics.
View: https://twitter.com/ClutchPoints/status/1739856052055642233
View: https://twitter.com/ClutchPoints/status/1739856052055642233
The Hornets' home announcers are entertaining, as long as I don't have to listen to them every game. The genuine, Gus Johnson-like enthusiasm is a nice way to get me to give enough of a crap about the game as they roll to a comeback from down-10 to now up-7 against the Clippers on the road. "for people who like the runs, this game is for you!", man, even the unintentional comedy.
edit: and Theis gets a T, somehow. The officials' eternal whipping boy.
edit: and Theis gets a T, somehow. The officials' eternal whipping boy.
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Cade was 15-21, the rest of the team went 25-69 (.362). I haven't been his biggest fan, but this was pretty rough.
On an unrelated note, I was surprised how many of the 2016 Sixers (10 wins) are still around and kicking in the NBA today:
-Ish Smith
-Robert Covington
-Jerami Grant
-TJ McConnell
-Richaun Holmes
-Christian Wood
On an unrelated note, I was surprised how many of the 2016 Sixers (10 wins) are still around and kicking in the NBA today:
-Ish Smith
-Robert Covington
-Jerami Grant
-TJ McConnell
-Richaun Holmes
-Christian Wood
That's pretty scary. Dog bite to his shooting hand, depending on the size of the dog I'd be worried about nerve damage.
An early discussion regarding Jaquez and PODs (Merry Xmas @Sam Ray Not) re-draft.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWLQqK4nTMA
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWLQqK4nTMA
So weird catching up on this thread, and reading this, and then the Aaron Gordon news.
All we need now is a Marv Albert reference.
It's time for Durant to return to OKC.... The Thunder are close to being a contender and have a serious stash of draft picks....LOL, maybe not.
I know the finances make it almost impossible but I can’t believe Monty Williams is keeping his job through this. It is the most disgraceful stretch of basketball in recent memory. He should be fired or sent home on a sabbatical or reassigned to the front office, whatever to get him away from this group of players. They should be working the phones finding new homes for Bogdanovic, Burks and Harris and maybe even Killian and Bagley, too. Forget maximizing return, they just need a new identity now.
You can't replace bad ownership. The rot starts from the top. They could get rid of Monty Williams, but then they'd just be paying some new, useless sap to steer this aimless franchise. Nothing's going to change until Tom Gores points the finger at himself for hiring useless dolts like Arn Tellem to run the team. The issues are so, so, so much deeper than the coach or even the GM.
Monty has walked into a crap situation, he hasn't helped, but this has been years in the making. Everything the Pistons do now is reactionary.
They should have been working the phones last year & traded Burks/Bojan (22ppg scorer) when they were offered draft capital for them. BUT supposedly they wanted to keep "vets with a winning culture around to teach the youngsters how to play the right way". Babysitters in my neighborhood cost a lot less, but I digress. We saw other non-competitive NBA teams do similar head-scratching moves this summer IMO
I actually think that there’s a case to be made against the min/max tankathon philosophy that is primarily around the impact of purposeful losing on culture.
How many recent champions were true tankathons? What’s the most successful tank in terms of the ultimate success of the team? The ‘can’t get out of the second round’ 6ers?
Even then, pistons should have traded Bojan