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  1. m0ckduck

    2023-24 Celtics

    From ESPN: This is kinda crazy because: 1. It's not hard for a team to hit 33.3% of their threes. In fact, all NBA teams average better than this mark. 2. The odds of Boston not being able to reach this threshold consistently in the playoffs look slim, given that they've hit it in 72% of...
  2. m0ckduck

    3/25 - Celtics @ Hawks

    Wonder if Springer will get some run this game with BOTH starting guards out (per ESPN). He's not exactly known for his handle— but after Pritchard, they don't have another ball-handling guard until the very dregs of the bench. And I doubt they want Tatum bringing the ball up a whole lot in...
  3. m0ckduck

    2023-2024 General NBA Season Thread

    That's a weird one. LAL has shot a lot of free throws (#3 and #1 respectively last two years) and allowed even fewer relative to the opposition (#1 both years). Interestingly, Lebon hasn't been in the top 20 among players either season. Also, the teams that have taken the most foul shots...
  4. m0ckduck

    Xavier Tillman to Celtics for 2 2nd round picks

    Yeah: he's Grant, with less variance, fewer headaches and a cheaper price tag.
  5. m0ckduck

    Wembanyamarama

    Yeah, let's keep our shirts on. The Ringer Top 100 currently has him at 24 (last updated 11 days ago). You can make the case that he's vaulted Lillard (23), Sabonis (22), Bam (21) and maybe a couple others... but high teens is as high as I can reasonably put him right now. Starting with Anthony...
  6. m0ckduck

    Pritchard Extended

    Presumably. The Lakers teams of the early 70s had a Pat (Riley), Happy, Gail, and Flynn. That's all I got.
  7. m0ckduck

    Following Former Celtics & Cs Nostalgia

    If DARKO had a career plots for players pre-1996, which player (from any era, now or then) would Reggie Lewis resemble through age 27 season? Who's an advanced stats comp for him? Edit: Mikal Bridges? If Bridges had continued to evolve and hadn't hit a developmental brick wall in Brooklyn?
  8. m0ckduck

    2023-24 Celtics

    35 min mark
  9. m0ckduck

    2023-24 Celtics

    Great pull about the FT% percentage. I was surprised to learn both: (1) the C's are shooting 80.9% as a team (the handwringing about JB and others having colored my perspective) and (2) 80.9% only ranks 6th overall among teams this year. It made me realize that free-throwing shooting overall has...
  10. m0ckduck

    The Bill Simmons Thread

    There's also a particular riff he does in every podcast following a Boston loss (these have become must-not-listen episodes for me) where he makes a big show of grabbing every stock Celtics criticism by the lapels and violently shaking it to show he's not afraid to confront the truth about this...
  11. m0ckduck

    The trouble with Kobe. An Appology

    Interesting how DARKO for this era has: 1. Duncan as the consensus best player 2. KG as a close second to Duncan (DARKO loves KG) 3. Dirk and Shaq as weirdly comparable, with Shaq's peak a bit higher but Dirk's much longer. Do we commit a Moneyball-esque fallacy of attributing so much to Shaq...
  12. m0ckduck

    2023-24 Celtics

    If we're going to run ISO, then I agree that timing it to leave nothing on the clock is the best approach. And, agree that one of the benefit of ISO is that it's easy to control exactly when the shot goes up. But my issue is with the bolded. Generally, yes, for teams with an elite scorer...
  13. m0ckduck

    2023-24 Celtics

    Yeah, I don't really get this. In a typical end-of-half scenario, taking a shot with time on the clock could result in a scenario where you miss + give up an opponent's basket and grade out at -2 or -3. But in the Celtics situation last night, anything between 0 and -3 results in the same...
  14. m0ckduck

    2023-24 Celtics

    I don't understand why they don't run PnR action with Porzingis with the game on the line, since it's, you know, the most efficient play in the NBA this season (KP in the post). But I'm quite sure— with all the investment into the coaching braintrust this season— that there is indeed some reason...
  15. m0ckduck

    Al Horford - the Celtics' Resurrected Saviour of the Season

    I shan't forget that. I was just pushing back on the implication that the Horford deal was pure heist for the C's. You could argue that the trade "cost" us Alpert Sengun. I'm not, because (a) Al has been exactly what we've needed the last few seasons, and (b) butterfly effect. But the poster I...
  16. m0ckduck

    Al Horford - the Celtics' Resurrected Saviour of the Season

    Giddey wasn't added via the Celtics' pick— OKC got him with their own first (#6). The C's pick (#16) turned into Alperen Sengun, whom OKC traded to Houston for additional draft picks. So, it worked out for all three teams to varying degrees. One could argue that trading a mid-first for an...
  17. m0ckduck

    Al Horford - the Celtics' Resurrected Saviour of the Season

    It's a good point. You can plainly see how the gameplan on offense would be to put KP in pick-and-roll actions with basically anyone who isn't being guarded by Aaron Gordon. WTF are the Nuggets going to do with Jokic switched onto, say, Derrick White and Murray on KP?
  18. m0ckduck

    Al Horford - the Celtics' Resurrected Saviour of the Season

    What do Horford's minutes look like in a hypothetical Finals matchup with Denver? Can you get 20 creditable non-Horford minutes of defense on Jokic out of the rest of this roster? (edit: obviously Tillman helps here, but I doubt we want him on the floor for more than 10 min in a Finals game)...
  19. m0ckduck

    2023-2024 General NBA Season Thread

    An annoying plausible scenario is that they fall into the 9-10 spot but start working Embiid back in April and wind up at full strength matched against the C's in round 1. Not that we should be terrified of out-of-shape Embiid, but I'd still rather face, I dunno, the Hawks.
  20. m0ckduck

    All NBA Teams so far

    Another random oblique reminder of how better then league is than 20 years ago: 2003-2004 MVP ballot results Yikes! Includes Jermaine O'Neal (3), Peja Stojakovic (4), Ben Wallace (7), 19-year-old rookie LeBron (9), Sam Cassell (10), Andrei Kirilenko (13) and Michael Redd (3-way tie for 14, so...