2023-2024 General NBA Season Thread
- Thread starter BigSoxFan
- Start date
Unless he cracks the code of how to make Lillard stop playing defense like an older Trae Young, this team will be incredibly flawed. On defense he's short, weak, slow, lazy, and selfish. They're gonna run into multiple high scoring all-star guards in the playoffs, and those guys are all gonna average close to 40 against this backcourt.
Killing me. At one point this season I was going to ask if Hauser or Nesmith was a debate for this iteration of the C's, but it seems like a no brainer now. Granted we got the Brogdon run and all that, not second guessing the move.
He’s not what he was offensively, either. He’s great, but he’s not Curry-lite anymore. 7-24 from the field tonight. I think it’s more likely that the Sixers and Knicks overtake Milwaukee than Milwaukee passing the Celts.
I think it’s one of those things that’s not worth second guessing as Nesmith was never going to get the kind of run needed to develop and he was not looking like a Hauser type who could do his thing in limited minutes. Had to be kicked out of the nest to see if he could fly.
His offensive efficiency has definitely gone down, but his impact on the Bucks' offense has been massive. Even when he's missing shots he creates a ton of space for Giannis to operate (Giannis' 2p fg% has quietly jumped almost 50 points), and he's generating a ton of open looks for the likes of Lopez/Portiz/Beasley. As much of an anchor as he's been (and likely will continue to be) on their defense, he's had the opposite effect on their offense. Milwaukee is 3rd in offensive rating this season after finishing 12th last year, and this doesn't feel like fools gold in the way that Indy sometimes does (or Sac last year), they're extremely effective in the half court. They're hell to stop in crunch time, and that's all Lillard.
And even with the decline in his stats, I'd argue that Lillard is still Curry-lite. Curry is having his 2nd worst shooting season of the last decade, and his points/rebounds/assists are all way down from last year. Maybe it's age, maybe he's wearing down (he's only missed 3 games season after missing 26 last year), or maybe the Warriors decline is dragging his whole game down (Curry also has oddly terrible on/off numbers so far this year, after being one of the best every year in that regard since the Warriors run began). Regardless of the reason, both he and Lillard are on a similar [gentle] path downward.
It's definitely very cool (even if I'm not personally watching the women's game -- not for any stupid reason, there's just so many hours in a day) because it shows how much these guys respect their talent. Steph wanting to challenge her is awesome and it's good for the game all around.
Dame is entering the Kemba Zone defensively.
He picks up his man well below the 3pt line, floats, & rarely challenges in transition
He picks up his man well below the 3pt line, floats, & rarely challenges in transition
The Hawks, gave up 121 points, over the last 3 Quarters 
18-27 leaves them firmly stuck in purgatory.
If you're a fan how can you watch Luka just drop 72 in your gym, while stuck with a squirrelly Trae Young?
Imagine the media may get rough on ATL's owners kid (esp. after they sell Murray for 50 cents on the dollar)
BUT Travis Schenk (with the Wizards now) needs to own some of this mess.
18-27 leaves them firmly stuck in purgatory.
If you're a fan how can you watch Luka just drop 72 in your gym, while stuck with a squirrelly Trae Young?
Imagine the media may get rough on ATL's owners kid (esp. after they sell Murray for 50 cents on the dollar)
BUT Travis Schenk (with the Wizards now) needs to own some of this mess.
Moving these to the general thread.
I think based on the schedule, there is a real chance the Bucks don't finish top-3 in the East.
Not crazy at all: even with their cupcake schedule, they've had a mediocre net rating and are pretty lucky to not be 26-18 or so.
Add a tough schedule and a long season to that regression, and it could get rough.
I was just looking at the net rating, they are 10th in the NBA at +3.8, and I would expect that to fall further between now and the ASG.
I wrote something up on them a month ago in Silver Dollar. They were playing really well for a couple weeks but aside from that I’ve never had them as a top tier EC team nor had Lillard rated very high overall. They seem like an early out in the playoffs, winning one series could be their cap, as casuals point the finger at Doc which is going to be hysterical.
Definitely. Seems like a weird situation for Doc to swoop in on, but maybe I'm missing something.
You really think it’s about money? He probably makes a ton as a broadcaster.
1. Money
2. Challenge
3. Misses being inside the game rather than outside if it.
4. Wife is getting on his nerves being home so much
The 4 key factors….which order depends on YPOV
Doc met with the team and gave them an inspirational speech Friday morning, so all is good.
BUCKs will probably surpass their pre-season win total of 54.5
unless their age/mileage rears its head.
Doc is bringing in his two top assistants, Joerger and Kalamian. Tough spot for those Griffin brought in….they will be looking forward to the 1st and 15th to CTC with pretty much no meaningful responsibility moving forward.Doc met with the team and gave them an inspirational speech Friday morning, so all is good.
BUCKs will probably surpass their pre-season win total of 54.5
Makes sense. Also, I doubt he gets fired, since Milwaukee won't pay 3 guys to not coach (probably?).
Wasn't Dave Joerger the coach of the Kings when Boston owned that extra Fultz/Tatum pick?
I have no inside information, but do know the media biz is in freefall, with cuts and layoffs all over the place for any org that’s substantially ad-supported. And those media contracts aren’t guaranteed. The money definitely has to be part of the thinking.
I like the Bk-Ref Team Ratings page because it offers strength of schedule adjustments to the O, D and Net ratings.
https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2024_ratings.html
By that, Milwaukee's rating is only +2.85, because of how easy a schedule they have had. Closer to the #11 Pacers at +1.75 than to the #9 Cavs at +4.05.
I'm not high on Mil either, but assuming Doc definitely wanted to coach again.... what could be realistically better than the Bucks? I don't see any of the other top 8-10 teams in the league as options for a variety of reasons.
Maybe he could hope the Lakers fire Ham (though that's not a top 8-10 team anyway most likely)? Where is the better option in the next year likely to be?
At least with the Bucks he's in the mix, a for sure playoff team with an MVP level player and another All-Star. The rest of the roster isn't exciting, but the overall team is still probably better than 75% of the league. Don't think he could afford to be too picky unless he simply wasn't interested in coaching.
Last edited:
I wonder if, during a playoff series, we're going to see the other team really lean into pointing this out during home games. Most officiating complaints are judgment calls and the league comes after teams for showing close replays, etc. but it's pretty hard for them to really defend this one as ten seconds is ten seconds...and (for example) a clock on a side screen (not the official one) is a factual thing, not a judgment thing. I expect the league has pushed teams not to make a thing of it ---and I think other teams should, it's ridiculous.
And after all that waiting, he’s still just another a shitty FT shooter.
https://hoopshype.com/rumor/daniel-gafford-on-knicks-radar/
Gafford makes sense, as a poor man's MRob
I would love for this to happen because then the Knicks fans could contemplate the fact that we traded Smart and the 35th pick and got Porzingis AND 2 firsts while they had to give up 2 firsts to get Daniel Gafford and get rid of the guy they poached from us.
+1...the wizardry of Brad on full display
I loved the Wizards fans reaction on the day the KP deal went down...The most Red-like move in a long time
Too bad so sad.
View: https://twitter.com/hoopshype/status/1751285641017462933
Kyrie Irving is no longer eligible for end-of-season NBA awards this year.
View: https://twitter.com/hoopshype/status/1751285641017462933
Kyrie Irving is no longer eligible for end-of-season NBA awards this year.
I think there is zero chance of NY trading for Gafford because they need to use Fournier to salary match the tertiary scorer they badly need, like Brogdon.
I remember folks did this with Jermaine O'Neal back in the day. I don't think they ever called it
they could use Grimes (as suggested in the article) + Achiuwa/Flynn for Gafford
save Fournier (+ a couple of 2nds) for Brogdon
https://www.espn.com/nba/tradeMachine
Good day of hoops coming up. Heat-Knicks at 3, then Sixers-Nuggs at 5:30. Pels-Bucks later, as well as Lakers-Dubs. Along with Celts-Clips.
Edit: Kings-Mavs too
Edit: Kings-Mavs too
If Obi Toppin keeps playing like this the Pacers with Siakam and a healthy Tyrese are gonna be a problem:
Obi Toppin Goes for 23 | Highlights and Live Video from Bleacher Report
Obi Toppin Goes for 23 | Highlights and Live Video from Bleacher Report
The Pacers helped their defensive profile with Siakam but it remains to be seen whether they can actually defend - they are one of the worst teams in the league defensively at present. They can definitely win track meets though.
Sure Luka's better than Trae but neither of them guard (Trae probably gives more effort but is at a huge disadvantage) so we'll see just how big of a deal it was to make that trade.The Hawks, gave up 121 points, over the last 3 Quarters
18-27 leaves them firmly stuck in purgatory.
If you're a fan how can you watch Luka just drop 72 in your gym, while stuck with a squirrelly Trae Young?
Imagine the media may get rough on ATL's owners kid (esp. after they sell Murray for 50 cents on the dollar)
BUT Travis Schenk (with the Wizards now) needs to own some of this mess.
Probably the bigger issue for ATL was having #4 and #10 in the next year's draft and ending up with Hunter and Reddish (instead of for example Cam Johnson and PJ Washington).
Of course in retrospect people are going to put Ayton in the Greg Oden / Sam Bowie category of draft day decisions.
This isn’t totally clear, reflected in the fact that the NBA turned down NY’s request for a disabled player exemption for him. There have been no public updates since.
The fact that NY requested it after it was leaked he was going to be out for the year is stronger than a NBA declining imo unless those were smoke screens.