Just got back from that Bucks-Suns game. Place was sold out with tons of Bucks fans in the building. Suns were sparked by the play of Oubre, Ayton and Tyler Johnson. Very fun evening.
Lolz, is there anything more 2019 Lakers than Josh Hart driving for a last-second layup with his team down 10 after the Clippers had taken a shot clock violation with 3 seconds left?
You know who cared out there tonight? National TV Rondo.
Doc gave him a little bit of love sometimes during timeouts - wonder how much affection he still harbors for the guy.
Doc gave him a little bit of love sometimes during timeouts - wonder how much affection he still harbors for the guy.
That entire Suns organization is a tire fire from top to bottom and Arnovitz' research just hammered home how badly everything is handled from the layout of the practice facility to the entire structure of the front office and management. Oddly enough while the article was seemingly there as a takedown of Sarver and his failures as an owner, it was really McDonough and James Jones that came off particularly poorly. McDonough seemed unwilling to challenge ownership on their constant meddling and failed to implement any sort of long-term strategy or vision for the team. Then you have James Jones, who many peg as an actual leader and calming voice, showing no apparent interest in the day-to-day minutia of being a GM and being quite open with his apparent lack of effort. Truly mind-boggling that they'd be this inept, but again that does start at the top with Sarver.
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The funny thing is that from a resource standpoint the franchise isn't in that bad of shape. With Booker and Ayton they have two young studs (Booker is still only 22), plus a great chance to land Zion or another top pick, plus cap space. They blew it with Bender and Chriss, but Phoenix has a good foundation moving forward when it comes to players. Management is another story.
Yup. They had a brutal stretch where they whiffed on 3 straight lotto picks (Bender, Chriss, Jackson). Jackson was probably the worst miss of them all because Fox and Markkanen were taken right after. Took Bender over Hield/Murray. Chriss wasn't that bad of a miss since the guys after him outside of Sabonis are meh.
And despite all that, they're still going to be sitting there with a core of Ayton, Booker, and possibly Zion/Ja/Barrett/Reddish with max cap space. Problem is that their organization is so dysfunctional that the odds of them putting it all together are next to nil.
But after reading that article you have to wonder how much of the failures of Chriss, Bender and Jackson is on the players themselves and how much is on the front office for not identifying the right guys for their system and then failing to develop them once they were there. When you read about their disorganization and the lack of synergy between front office and coaching, you start to wonder. Some guys succeed or fail no matter what, but given their constant misses at the top you start to wonder where the problem lies.
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Chriss really hasn't done much since leaving Phoenix, and it wasn't like he spent many years in that cesspool.
I've said before that I would happily take a flier on Bender simply because he has played in Phoenix because it doesn't seem to be the best atmosphere for player development.
I've said before that I would happily take a flier on Bender simply because he has played in Phoenix because it doesn't seem to be the best atmosphere for player development.
Trending up: Rockets, Pistons, Clippers, Celtics (yeah, one game, but a beatdown of that magnitude on the home court of the league standard-bearer should constitute a trend)
Trending down: Warriors, Raptors, Bucks, Thunder, Nuggets, LOLakers
Alive?
Trending down: Warriors, Raptors, Bucks, Thunder, Nuggets, LOLakers
Alive?
I feel like the Warriors are just really bored. Obviously health is important and they missed Klay last night; but throughout the season I've gotten the sense that with the exception of a few games, they have become comfortable just coasting during the regular season and disinterested in really fighting it out with teams. A team with their pedigree and talent level understands how unimportant the regular season can be, especially when it looks like they are going to cruise into home court advantage. They are so talented that they can coast for most of the season and still wind up with 55-60 wins, and they know they can bring it up a notch in the playoffs.
I will say that if one guy gets hurt, things become really interesting. The halcyon days of Mo Speights, Leandro Barbosa, Harrison Barnes, hell even Nick Young, are over and they rely A LOT on unproven young players. I don't know who beyond Curry/Klay/Durant can get them 20 points. Draymond's shooting is terrible, Boogie comes and goes and might have trouble staying on the court in the playoffs if he is a defensive liability, Iguodala isn't much of a scorer, Livingston is getting up there and has missed some games. Jerebko maybe, and possibly Quinn Cook, who has had some nice games filling in for Curry but his playtime is sporadic when Curry is healthy.
Also, Durant is only shooting 35 percent from three. He is a career 38 percent shooter and shot 41 percent last season; so that is kind of weird considering he has to be getting a lot more open looks in Golden State then in OKC.
I will say that if one guy gets hurt, things become really interesting. The halcyon days of Mo Speights, Leandro Barbosa, Harrison Barnes, hell even Nick Young, are over and they rely A LOT on unproven young players. I don't know who beyond Curry/Klay/Durant can get them 20 points. Draymond's shooting is terrible, Boogie comes and goes and might have trouble staying on the court in the playoffs if he is a defensive liability, Iguodala isn't much of a scorer, Livingston is getting up there and has missed some games. Jerebko maybe, and possibly Quinn Cook, who has had some nice games filling in for Curry but his playtime is sporadic when Curry is healthy.
Also, Durant is only shooting 35 percent from three. He is a career 38 percent shooter and shot 41 percent last season; so that is kind of weird considering he has to be getting a lot more open looks in Golden State then in OKC.
What is funny is that after game when Kerr shook Stevens' hand he had a big smile on his face and laughed about something; and I remember thinking "Well, it doesn't look like it is a big deal that they just got their asses kicked."
Maybe. But if there is any team that probably feels like the regular season is just a prologue to the playoffs, it's the Warriors. Teams have had varying success with "flipping the switch" come playoff time of course but I have a feeling this team will be playing a bit more intensely in a playoff series against Houston or whomever than in an out-of-conference game in the dog days of March.
McKinnie is also banged up and it was clearly impacting his play - the Celtics knew it and went at him. And Kerr had him on a short leash early as a result.
As I noted in the gamethread, had you turned on the team's flagship station post-game, you might have thought that the hosts and callers were discussing this season's Celtics rather than the repeat world champs. Lots of talk about chemistry issues, bad defense, lazy offense and a team not properly ramping up for a tough playoff run.
That said, until the Warriors actually show they are vulnerable in a playoff series, talking about their demise is a bit premature.
Probably one of your best posts. Between the starters being bored, for whatever reason this being a great matchup, this being our first game of a road trip, and the Warriors second unit last night being comprised of deep bench depth......I wouldn’t go so far to say this result was expected only that it wasn’t shocking.
Bulls take down Sixers... thanks Zach Lavine, you owed us that one!
Edit: hang on, players being called back on the floor to replay the last 0.5 seconds as the clock started prematurely on the game-ending in-bounds play. Wow... This was after TNT interviewed Lavine on the floor
Edit 2: lots of fans left at the horn. As we learned in the confetti game, Sixers home arena endgame protocol could use some work.
Edit 3: Sixers fail to score again. Bulls win. That was crazy.
Edit: hang on, players being called back on the floor to replay the last 0.5 seconds as the clock started prematurely on the game-ending in-bounds play. Wow... This was after TNT interviewed Lavine on the floor
Edit 2: lots of fans left at the horn. As we learned in the confetti game, Sixers home arena endgame protocol could use some work.
Edit 3: Sixers fail to score again. Bulls win. That was crazy.
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LeBron might switch to bowling. Lets the inbounds pass roll out of bounds near his 3 point line.
Rondo chilling in the front row sitting courtside away from his teammates. This team is hilarious.
Rondo provides a pearl clutching moment for Mark Jackson and Stan Van Gundy. What a legend.
Rondo provides a pearl clutching moment for Mark Jackson and Stan Van Gundy. What a legend.
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On another highly entertaining NBA evening, this is the absolute highlight. Rondo forever.
For all the good things Jokic does on the court he really struggles creating his own shot. Aside from his superfans is there really talk about him actually getting MVP votes? That seems kinda absurd.
Edit: Nevermind just looked at BetOnline and he’s 40-1 in between Embiid and Durant. Answered my own question.
You can say that about every team in the NBA. By record, the Nuggets are a top 10 ten road team. Road records are shit this year around the league.
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He's going to finish in the top 5 if that qualifies as getting votes to you.
He is? Does each ballot have only 3 slots for 1st, 2nd and 3rd? Every ballot obv will have Harden and Giannis on it so for Jokic to get any 3rd place votes someone would need to bump George from 3rd.
If these anti-George voters exist (I’m sure a couple will because they always do silly stuff) that 3rd place voter would also have to select Jokic over Embiid, Curry, Durant, Kawhi, LeBron, and Simmons. I suppose any of these guys could finish “top-5” with a single 3rd place vote depending on which voter decides to go off the deep end.
Edit: Each ballot has 5 slots so yeah I’m sure Jokic will have some 4th and 5ths in there with the third tier grouping above. When I kept hearing “MVP votes” I was thinking each ballot had 3 slots in which case no, Jokic shouldn’t get any votes.
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I would select about 1/2 dozen other players over Simmons. Not sure how he gets any top 5 votes and especially not over Jokic
Kirk Goldsberry:
Andrew Wiggins can't shoot: 1) Out of 133 players with at least 500 FGA this season, he ranks 132nd in TS% 2) Out of 46 players with at least 500 FGA beyond 8 feet, he ranks 45th in FG%
Andrew Wiggins can't shoot: 1) Out of 133 players with at least 500 FGA this season, he ranks 132nd in TS% 2) Out of 46 players with at least 500 FGA beyond 8 feet, he ranks 45th in FG%
Does he even have any average NBA level skills? He's below average to terrible in all facets of the game.
More numbers in this article: https://deadspin.com/andrew-wiggins-update-ah-hm-well-the-thing-is-1833135884.
The Timberwolves have 17 games remaining on their schedule. Assuming Wiggins stays healthy and appears in all 17 (a likely but not sure thing; he’s missed six games so far), he is on pace to finish with around 1,244 total shot attempts and 358 three-point attempts on the season. In the NBA’s three-point era—so, going all the way back to the 1979-80 season—there have been 188 instances of individual players recording at least 1,200 total shot attempts and 350 three-point tries over the course of a single season. Wiggins’s .483 True Shooting Percentage, if it holds up, will rank worse than 184 of those.
The holistic figures are even worse, as befits a player who takes a lot of shots, makes a historically low percentage of them, and contributes almost nothing else of note.
The holistic figures are even worse, as befits a player who takes a lot of shots, makes a historically low percentage of them, and contributes almost nothing else of note.
- Wiggins’s Player Efficiency Rating (PER) is 11.9; if it holds up, that will be nearly a full point worse than the next-worst PER (12.7, Klay Thompson in 2012-13) by any of the 188 players on the aforementioned list.
- Wiggins’s -0.6 VORP (Value Over Replacement Player) will be the worst on that list by a healthy margin; before now, Devin Booker in 2016-17 (-0.2) was the only player ever to have recorded a negative number for VORP in a season in which he attempted at least 1,200 shots and 350 threes.
- Wiggins’s .012 Win Shares per 48 minutes is less than half that of the next-worst player (Isaiah Rider, 1994-95!) out of those 188.