2018 NBA Game Thread

Kliq

Kliq

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HomeRunBaker said:
Young looks like he has a ton of bust potential for a pick that high. Imagine if they had Dunn and weren't desperate for a 1 so they could add Doncic instead?

Stop with those names. That is silly talk. The #3 pick in the draft with ton of upside who he breakout 2nd year is going to be passed over by Mudiay? Ok
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If Kris Dunn was my point guard I would be desperate for a point guard in the draft.

Trae Young has limitations, but is averaging 16-8 as a 20 year old. In Dunn’s “breakout” year last year he averaged 13-6 and he’ll be 25 this year. I’m not completely against his potential, and even said last year he could potentially end up with a career like Kyle Lowry as a late-bloomer, but at this point he hasn’t shown to be anything more than a solid guy that can fill some minutes on a very bad team, and at his age it’s fair to question if he has a ceiling that’s much higher than what he’s currently shown; especially if he can’t shoot.
 
DeJesus Built My Hotrod

DeJesus Built My Hotrod

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Sam Ray Not said:
Also: are the Mavericks now the best basketball team in Texas?
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Smith Jr. and Luka are such a great pairing and are playing extremely well together tonight. The Mavs are fun to watch even if I don't know the answer to your question.

Also, this just happened.

 
Sam Ray Not

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the moops said:
He is signed for 5 years and 145 million. He is also not good anymore
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Yeah, the contract is horrific, but Love just turned 30 and is coming off possibly his best season ever statistically. And it's not like Utah is ever going to attract top talent through free agency. Love if healthy makes them marginally better for the next 2-3 years. Isn't that their current goal?

Edit: Luka, just wow.
 
the moops

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HomeRunBaker said:
Young looks like he has a ton of bust potential for a pick that high. Imagine if they had Dunn and weren't desperate for a 1 so they could add Doncic instead?

Stop with those names. That is silly talk. The #3 pick in the draft with ton of upside who he breakout 2nd year is going to be passed over by Mudiay? Ok. I take it you didn't pay much attention to the Bulls last year and that's alright. Your opinion differs greatly from many of those who did......including his own coach and Bulls beat writers.
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He was #5 pick in the draft. I think every GM in the league would take Trae Young over Dunn. And this breakout year had him only playing 53 games with subpar shooting
 
the moops

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Sam Ray Not said:
Yeah, the contract is horrific, but Love just turned 30 and is coming off possibly his best season ever statistically. And it's not like Utah is ever going to attract top talent through free agency. Love if healthy makes them marginally better for the next 2-3 years. Isn't that their current goal?
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Well, he hasn't played basketball since Oct 24th and only played 59 games last year, and 60 the year before. I don't know, I feel like you can find Kevin Love level talent without having to pay 145 million dollars for it
 
BigSoxFan

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Spurs need to see if they can find any takers for Aldridge or DeRozan. This franchise needs a full teardown.
 
Cesar Crespo

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Also, Collin Sexton is quietly having a really good rookie season so far. Another 19 year old.

Westbrook had 23 points, 19 rebounds and 15 assists.
 
Sam Ray Not

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Wow, I should have said: "the Mavericks are the best team in Texas, and it's not close." (Though in fairness, the Rockets were without CP3).

I think this might have been posted here last season, but it's such excellent trivia it merits a repost. Who is the last Western Conference team not from California or Texas to win the NBA title?
 
cheech13

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Sam Ray Not said:
Hmm, I'm kinda surprised Utah didn't make a play for Kevin Love, who seems like a pretty good hoops fit there (better fit alongside Gobert than Favors, e.g.) and if healthy moves the needle more for them than 37.5 year-old Korver will. IIRC, Rubio and Love were close in Minny, too.

I wonder if it was discussed. Favors+Burks for Love would have worked salary-wise, and imho helped out both teams (Cleveland with their tank/rebuild, and Utah with their push to get back in the top half of the West).
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Zach Lowe discussed the Love to Utah trade idea on his podcast earlier in the season and IIRC his takeaway was that Utah wasn't interested in taking on any big long-term contracts. They prefer to keep their balance sheet tight and pay the guys they develop within the organization.
 
Cesar Crespo

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DeJesus Built My Hotrod said:
Smith Jr. and Luka are such a great pairing and are playing extremely well together tonight. The Mavs are fun to watch even if I don't know the answer to your question.
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BigSoxFan said:
They haven’t meshed well. If it doesn’t improve, at some point Mavs may need to move on from DSJ.
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I think they've played well together but Doncic has limited Smith's game some. DSJ has been a much better shooter this year in the early going, anyway.
 
DeJesus Built My Hotrod

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Big John said:
Luka is playing lights out, but DSJ really isn't.
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BigSoxFan said:
They haven’t meshed well. If it doesn’t improve, at some point Mavs may need to move on from DSJ.
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A few things. They have played a grand total of 17 games together - that may be enough for some folks to make a determination about the pairing as well as Smith Jr.'s play but its a tiny sample size from my perspective. Add in the facts that one is a 19 year old rookie while the other is a just-turned-21 year old, second year player and I think giving them a bit more time to evaluate is only fair. I don't think Dallas is going to make any decisions off of less than a quarter of seasons worth of games for two very young players either.

I took a look at the on/off/advances line-ups data and you guys are correct that thus far, the Mavs better net rating line-ups feature Barea and Doncic vs Smith Jr. and Doncic. However this shouldn't be a surprise. Barea is a seasoned NBA ball-handler who is comfortable enough with his role and savvy enough to know that he gets paid for making others around him better while occasionally going off (like against the Celtics a few nights ago - damn you JJ!).

Finally, over the last few games, a Smith Jr./Doncic pairing is actually better than a Barea/Donic pairing offensively which makes sense. Net rating is still horrible as Smith and Doncic are not good defenders at this point of their respective careers which also makes a lot of sense.

TL/DR version: We have too small a sample size to judge but Smith Jr. is showing some improvement from a rough rookie season and given that their games are somewhat complimentary and they appear to have some chemistry, I would be surprised if they don't start playing more effectively together.
 
HomeRunBaker

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Chris Sheridan expands on his earlier report on Beal.

@sheridanhoops
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He had a blowup in practice. Team hierarchy is preaching patience, see where things stand in another 3-4 weeks. The practice at which Beal blew up was especially heated. He and Austin Rivers went at it.
 
DeJesus Built My Hotrod

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HomeRunBaker said:
Chris Sheridan expands on his earlier report on Beal.

@sheridanhoops
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He had a blowup in practice. Team hierarchy is preaching patience, see where things stand in another 3-4 weeks. The practice at which Beal blew up was especially heated. He and Austin Rivers went at it.
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I don't dislike Austin Rivers and he has made himself serviceable as a rotation player in the league. However if I recall correctly, he had problems with other players in the Clipper organization.

To be fair, I also recall some of it stemming from his dad being the coach and the rest of the squad being generally dysfunctional. But if this report is accurate its a bad look for Rivers.
 
ElUno20

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DeJesus Built My Hotrod said:
I don't dislike Austin Rivers and he has made himself serviceable as a rotation player in the league. However if I recall correctly, he had problems with other players in the Clipper organization.

To be fair, I also recall some of it stemming from his dad being the coach and the rest of the squad being generally dysfunctional. But if this report is accurate its a bad look for Rivers.
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Yup i could see it. He can rub people the wrong way. He has a real dog like mentality and that doesnt vibe with the pampered stars (blake, cp) or the lazy ones (wiz).

He also legitimately believes he's a superstar so that adds to the problems.
 
The Social Chair

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The Athletic had an article about Rivers refusing to shoot mid range jumpers. Every shot he's taken this year is a 3 or in the paint. Great idea but unfortunately he can't shoot.
 
DeJesus Built My Hotrod

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Pascal Siakam's improvement is crazy given his length and ability. We knew that Kawhi would be good if he was healthy and though he has some warts on his resume, Lowry is still a very good player. But with this Siakam leap, I think Toronto has the pieces to challenge even a full strength Warrior team.
 
Kliq

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So are we ever really going to know what happened to Kawhi? Like San Antonio’s doctors said he was healthy and he said he wasn’t; then he bailed out of playoff games and then got traded, and he immediately came back to his old self in Toronto?
 
DeJesus Built My Hotrod

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Kliq said:
So are we ever really going to know what happened to Kawhi? Like San Antonio’s doctors said he was healthy and he said he wasn’t; then he bailed out of playoff games and then got traded, and he immediately came back to his old self in Toronto?
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Pop throwing shade at him just adds to the intrigue. I cannot recall Pop ever making a comment like that.
 
DeJesus Built My Hotrod

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DeJesus Built My Hotrod said:
Pop throwing shade at him just adds to the intrigue. I cannot recall Pop ever making a comment like that.
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Including the quote:

"Kawhi was a great player, but he wasn't a leader or anything," Popovich told reporters of Leonard, the 2014 NBA Finals MVP and two-time Defensive Player of the Year. "Manu and Patty were the leaders. Kawhi's talent will always be missed, but that leadership wasn't his deal at that time. That may come as he progresses, but Manu and Patty filled that role last year, and LaMarcus [Aldridge] came a long way in that regard also."
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JakeRae

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Kliq said:
If Kris Dunn was my point guard I would be desperate for a point guard in the draft.

Trae Young has limitations, but is averaging 16-8 as a 20 year old. In Dunn’s “breakout” year last year he averaged 13-6 and he’ll be 25 this year. I’m not completely against his potential, and even said last year he could potentially end up with a career like Kyle Lowry as a late-bloomer, but at this point he hasn’t shown to be anything more than a solid guy that can fill some minutes on a very bad team, and at his age it’s fair to question if he has a ceiling that’s much higher than what he’s currently shown; especially if he can’t shoot.
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Trae Young is shooting .383 from the floor and .254 from 3. His TS% is .483. That he is scoring at a high volume is a bad thing, not a good thing, because it means that a horrifically inefficient shooter is taking a ton of shots. Like, imagine someone who is significantly worse at shooting than Marcus Smart but who thinks he is Steph Curry. That is Trae Young right now.
 
Kliq

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JakeRae said:
Trae Young is shooting .383 from the floor and .254 from 3. His TS% is .483. That he is scoring at a high volume is a bad thing, not a good thing, because it means that a horrifically inefficient shooter is taking a ton of shots. Like, imagine someone who is significantly worse at shooting than Marcus Smart but who thinks he is Steph Curry. That is Trae Young right now.
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I’m not that concerned about Young’s shooting percentage 25 games into his career. Buddy Hield shot horribly for more of his rookie season but nobody doubted he could really shoot.
 
Kliq

Kliq

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I think I’ve had my fill of Drake being featured during NBA games.
 
Kliq

Kliq

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I think Durant forgot for a second they needed a three; and was like “oh shit, we need three” and turned around and hit a fade away over the best perimeter defender in the game.

This is an old-fashioned DUEL.
 
Kliq

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So Giannis, Kawhi, LeBron and Durant is going to be a tough vote for All-NBA.
 
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