2020-2021 NBA Game Thread

Euclis20

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But Reddish hasn't played a game for Nate, and Hunter only came back for two (ineffective) games before being sidelined again. Gallo and Bogdanovic have been big recently, but overall I'd say Nate has had worse cards to play with if only because Hunter was on fire at the start of the season and hasn't figured under McMillan at all yet.
Advantage Nate. I look at Reddish and I see Adam Morrison.
 

bsj

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Looking back at his stats, I didnt realize how good he was and for how long. Did I miss this because he played most of his career in smaller western conference markets? Or maybe because it seems he played nearly his entire career behind one or more superstars that really took the attention away?

It really does seem, looking at his career, he is right there in the HOF discussion (and basketball ref accordingly has him as a 50:50 shot to get there)
 

Cellar-Door

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Damn. Smart decision and glad there wasn't a Reggie Lewis situation with him. Very good player and seemingly nice guy from people at Spurs I know who interacted with him.
Yeah, he has Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome had issues early in his career and then in 2017. THis late in his career sounds like he decided it was time to call it
 

Cesar Crespo

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Damn. Smart decision and glad there wasn't a Reggie Lewis situation with him.
Yeah, especially since LMA is near the end of his NBA career anyway and has made over $200 million. It sucks he was forced into retirement but there's no reason for him to risk playing.

I was 11 when Hank Gathers died. I never actually saw him play live and have only seen few clips. I also wasn't a CBB until the Fab 5 (hated them), so I'm not sure how good he was. I didn't know who he was until I saw the movie about his life a few years later (Fatal Shot). I've been watching the NBA since I was in diapers so I do remember Reggie and his death. That was the first death of a local player I could fully process, as I was only 7 when Len Bias died.

Anyway, heart conditions are no joke and don't really go well with basketball. I'm sure the decision was very difficult to make but I'm glad he made the right one.
 

Cesar Crespo

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Looking back at his stats, I didnt realize how good he was and for how long. Did I miss this because he played most of his career in smaller western conference markets? Or maybe because it seems he played nearly his entire career behind one or more superstars that really took the attention away?

It really does seem, looking at his career, he is right there in the HOF discussion (and basketball ref accordingly has him as a 50:50 shot to get there)
He was good for a long time but I'm not sure if he ever cracked the top 20. Plus he was a player that was hardly ever targeted in trades or talked about because he's a mid range jump shooter playing in the 3 point era. He would have been a huge star in the 90s.

An extremely effective mid range jump shooter, but still a mid range jump shooter. He would have been hated here I think.
 

BigSoxFan

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Yeah, especially since LMA is near the end of his NBA career anyway and has made over $200 million. It sucks he was forced into retirement but there's no reason for him to risk playing.

I was 11 when Hank Gathers died. I never actually saw him play live and have only seen few clips. I also wasn't a CBB until the Fab 5 (hated them), so I'm not sure how good he was. I didn't know who he was until I saw the movie about his life a few years later (Fatal Shot). I've been watching the NBA since I was in diapers so I do remember Reggie and his death. That was the first death of a local player I could fully process, as I was only 7 when Len Bias died.

Anyway, heart conditions are no joke and don't really go well with basketball. I'm sure the decision was very difficult to make but I'm glad he made the right one.
Yup. Probably could have hung on for some MLE money for a couple more years but why risk it? He's mid-30's and loaded so focus on the heart. I know I couldn't play if I knew I had a potential ticking time bomb situation. That would scare the hell out of me. The Reggie Lewis collapses and others are just so horrifying to watch.
 

Cesar Crespo

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Yup. Probably could have hung on for some MLE money for a couple more years but why risk it? He's mid-30's and loaded so focus on the heart. I know I couldn't play if I knew I had a potential ticking time bomb situation. That would scare the hell out of me. The Reggie Lewis collapses and others are just so horrifying to watch.
Plus I'm sure there is a spot for him in the NBA as a non player if he really wants to continue with basketball. He has a GF and 2 sons as well.
 

Cesar Crespo

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He made all NBA 5 times (two 2nds, three 3rds). Not that it is a great judge of the actual best 15 players in the league, but he must have cracked the top 20 in at least one of those years
Maybe I've always underrated him too because he's a mid range jump shooter.
 

coremiller

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He was good for a long time but I'm not sure if he ever cracked the top 20. Plus he was a player that was hardly ever targeted in trades or talked about because he's a mid range jump shooter playing in the 3 point era. He would have been a huge star in the 90s.

An extremely effective mid range jump shooter, but still a mid range jump shooter. He would have been hated here I think.
Plus he didn't combine his jump shooting with elite passing and defense. LMA wasn't bad at those things, but to be a superstar as a midrange jump shooter, you need to be great at everything else (Garnett is the model here).
 

Cesar Crespo

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Plus he didn't combine his jump shooting with elite passing and defense. LMA wasn't bad at those things, but to be a superstar as a midrange jump shooter, you need to be great at everything else (Garnett is the model here).
He was never really the best player on his team either, or at the very least, not the most exciting. There was Brandon Roy, Dame and Kawhi.
 

Cellar-Door

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People definitely underrate Aldridge.
He was on a good not great team in a small market, and both his personality and play were kind of boring.

He was however... really good. He was definitely the best player on his team for his time with Roy, who was more exciting, but quickly got hurt and wasn't very good.

Aldridge was unfortunate in that he played at the same time as players who did what he did (Garnett, Duncan) but were also elite defenders (Aldridge was average) and top 5 players all-time at the position
 

Cesar Crespo

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People definitely underrate Aldridge.
He was on a good not great team in a small market, and both his personality and play were kind of boring.

He was however... really good. He was definitely the best player on his team for his time with Roy, who was more exciting, but quickly got hurt and wasn't very good.

Aldridge was unfortunate in that he played at the same time as players who did what he did (Garnett, Duncan) but were also elite defenders (Aldridge was average) and top 5 players all-time at the position
He wasn't better than Roy until Roy got injured. You think LMA was better than Roy between 07-10? I think you are underrating Roy.

Roy wasn't around long but for the time he was, he was better than LMA and soon after, Dame came on board.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/r/roybr01.html

https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/a/aldrila01.html


I don't think you can say LMA was definitely the best player, debatably maybe. He clearly had the better career.
 

Cellar-Door

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He wasn't better than Roy until Roy got injured. You think LMA was better than Roy between 07-10? I think you are underrating Roy.

Roy wasn't around long but for the time he was, he was better than LMA and soon after, Dame came on board.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/r/roybr01.html

https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/a/aldrila01.html


I don't think you can say LMA was definitely the best player, debatably maybe. He clearly had the better career.
That's fair... Roy was the best player for 3 years, then LMA for 3-4, then probably Lillard, then definitely Lillard.
 

Euclis20

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People definitely underrate Aldridge.
He was on a good not great team in a small market, and both his personality and play were kind of boring.

He was however... really good. He was definitely the best player on his team for his time with Roy, who was more exciting, but quickly got hurt and wasn't very good.

Aldridge was unfortunate in that he played at the same time as players who did what he did (Garnett, Duncan) but were also elite defenders (Aldridge was average) and top 5 players all-time at the position
Aldridge also came along about a decade after Garnett/Duncan (both are 9 years older). I have little doubt that at least Garnett (had he come into the NBA in the mid 2000s or later) would've added a 3 point shot at some point in the last 5-8 years. He's got the same profile of a lot of big men (good FT shooter and very proficient in deep 2s) who added that shot later in their careers. No such excuse for Aldridge, although looking at his stats he did add a 3 point shot at the very end (3 attempts per game since the start of last year, hitting almost 39%). I don't think anyone penalizes Garnett/Duncan (historically) for not having 3 point range, because it wasn't expected of big men to do that until they were either retired or well past their primes.

Regardless, Duncan/Garnett are two inner circle HOF'ers and easily the best power forwards of the last 20 years (maybe Nowitzki gets mentioned too). Aldridge can be well below those two and still be HOF caliber.
 

lovegtm

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People forget how big a get it was for the Spurs when they signed him--he was really good. That Kawhii+LMA team was good enough to win a championship imo, but thanks to Zaza, we'll never know.
 

Kliq

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LMA was really good. He made some All-NBA teams and to do that at forward during his career was no joke. People talk about him being boring but he had some just crazy games where he never missed from 18 feet and it didn't matter how well he was being defended. IIRC, he hit the Celtics a few years ago for 45+ and they could just not do anything with him.

View: https://twitter.com/ZachLowe_NBA/status/1382709825231065092?s=19
 

BigSoxFan

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People forget how big a get it was for the Spurs when they signed him--he was really good. That Kawhii+LMA team was good enough to win a championship imo, but thanks to Zaza, we'll never know.
Don’t even get me started on Zaza. The Spurs were smoking the Warriors in that game. Warriors still probably win but it would have been a dogfight.
 

cheech13

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My POV is probably skewed since I live in Portland but I always considered Aldridge an easy Hall of Famer and definitely one of the 15 best players in the league in his peak years. He was underrated because he played in small markets and always had a top 10 superstar talent playing next to him.
 

Cesar Crespo

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I was just looking at Jokic's page and I guess I never knew just how great of a shooter he is because it's masked by a career .350 3 point %.

for his career
0-3ft: .688
3-10 ft: .547
10-16 ft: .484
16'-3pt: .455
3pt: .350

This year, he is shooting .738, .574, .458, .524, .418.

That's absurd.
 

lovegtm

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Don’t even get me started on Zaza. The Spurs were smoking the Warriors in that game. Warriors still probably win but it would have been a dogfight.
Yup. I think of that Spurs team as a better version of the Rockets team that pushed GSW to the brink in 2018.
 

Cesar Crespo

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Since people mentioned Garnett and Duncan extending their range to 3, would Yao Ming have done the same? He was an excellent FT shooter and got to the line a ton. He didn't even retire that long ago.

I wonder if we'll ever see a 7'5+ guy raining down 3s. I think a lot of the tall guys of yesteryear wouldn't last long though (Eaton, Smits). I could be wrong. Duncan and Garnett do not count as tall guys of yesteryear. I'm talking the 7'4+ division. Yao is the one that gives me pause.
 

HomeRunBaker

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Since people mentioned Garnett and Duncan extending their range to 3, would Yao Ming have done the same? He was an excellent FT shooter and got to the line a ton. He didn't even retire that long ago.

I wonder if we'll ever see a 7'5+ guy raining down 3s. I think a lot of the tall guys of yesteryear wouldn't last long though (Eaton, Smits). I could be wrong. Duncan and Garnett do not count as tall guys of yesteryear. I'm talking the 7'4+ division. Yao is the one that gives me pause.
Smits had a great face-up 17-footer and easy mechanics. I think he would have been a perfect fit in today’s game to extend out to 3. Eaton not so much.
 
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Cesar Crespo

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Smits had a great face-up 17-footer and easy mechanics. I think he would have been a perfect fit in today’s game. Eaton not so much.
Smits is a bit different than the others, alongside Ming. (Bradley, Bol, Eaton, Gheorge, Nevitt, Priest) I think he would have extended his range, I'm not sure how he'd hold up defensively.

Ralph Sampson is listed at 7'4. He was obviously pretty good.
 

Kliq

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Since people mentioned Garnett and Duncan extending their range to 3, would Yao Ming have done the same? He was an excellent FT shooter and got to the line a ton. He didn't even retire that long ago.

I wonder if we'll ever see a 7'5+ guy raining down 3s. I think a lot of the tall guys of yesteryear wouldn't last long though (Eaton, Smits). I could be wrong. Duncan and Garnett do not count as tall guys of yesteryear. I'm talking the 7'4+ division. Yao is the one that gives me pause.
Yao came into the league when Shaq was the dominant player and people expected someone as big as Shaq to play like Shaq, which meant bulldozing guys in the paint and dunking all over them. That wasn't Yao's game, despite his size, he was a very skilled big who could pass, face-up and shoot from the mid-range. In today's NBA he would have been a completely dominant offensive player, his passing alone would have made him an All-Star.

There are very few players in NBA history that are 7'5" or taller, so we won't see a ton of examples of those guys who can stroke it. However, Porzingis is 7'3" and a good shooter, so that is pretty close. Luke Kornet is a 3 point specialist and he is 7'2". Also, there is this:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45czWPhWQOI
 

Cesar Crespo

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Yao came into the league when Shaq was the dominant player and people expected someone as big as Shaq to play like Shaq, which meant bulldozing guys in the paint and dunking all over them. That wasn't Yao's game, despite his size, he was a very skilled big who could pass, face-up and shoot from the mid-range. In today's NBA he would have been a completely dominant offensive player, his passing alone would have made him an All-Star.

There are very few players in NBA history that are 7'5" or taller, so we won't see a ton of examples of those guys who can stroke it. However, Porzingis is 7'3" and a good shooter, so that is pretty close. Luke Kornet is a 3 point specialist and he is 7'2". Also, there is this:


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45czWPhWQOI
Yeah, I just wonder about the defensive end with Yao. Elder Sabonis is 7'3 and his game would be a perfect fit for today's NBA, at least on the offensive side. His game wasn't too different than his son's, actually.
 

azsoxpatsfan

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Bol Bol is 7’2 and is 13/28 in his career on 3s. Guess he doesn’t qualify because he’s not tall enough but he looks taller since he weighs 18 pounds
 

Cesar Crespo

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Bol Bol is 7’2 and is 13/28 in his career on 3s. Guess he doesn’t qualify because he’s not tall enough but he looks taller since he weighs 18 pounds
That and I doubt he sticks around to get much of a sample size. I guess he's still very young tho.
 

Euclis20

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Bol Bol is 7’2 and is 13/28 in his career on 3s. Guess he doesn’t qualify because he’s not tall enough but he looks taller since he weighs 18 pounds
Amazingly, his dad was 5 inches taller and 20 pounds lighter. Most guys that tall look like sticks (especially when they are young). Tacko is one of the exceptions, and even he looks like he could do with a few more pounds (despite being the heaviest player in the NBA, as best as I can tell).
 

jon abbey

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Shades of playoff Reggie Miller, the Pacers just scored 8 points in the final 33 seconds of the first half and are up by 13 in Utah, 69-56, in a rare weekday afternoon game. If Utah loses this, their lead on the #1 seed in the West is down to 1/2 game on PHX.
 

TripleOT

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The last time I saw Manute Bol in person was at a Celtics-Bulls game years ago, when his countryman Luol Deng was starring for Chicago. We got to our section early, and it was mostly empty, except for a guy sitting side saddle in the seats. It was Manute.

We shook hands when I went to talk to him, and his hand seemed to be big enough to wrap around my hand twice, and I have hands that take an XL glove.

Manute was a great man who did so much to help create the country of South Sudan, which was formed a year after his death. He devoted so much time and money to his homeland. I wish he could have been alive to see South Sudan achieve independence.

Manute had been on my radar a long time, from when local TV news reported in RI on him playing college ball in Connecticut. I went to every game when he played in a local minor pro summer league in Newport RI, with teammates Spud Webb and John Hot Rod Williams, and used to enjoy chatting with him back then.

I hope his son can find some NBA success. I don’t know if he can ever guard at an NBA level, as a 7’2” wing.
 

HomeRunBaker

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NYK end up being 4/5 seed - don't you think the Cs would rather play NYK than MIA or ATL? NYK seems like they won't be able to score enough to seriously challenge the Cs.
Yeah I’m not too concerned with the Knicks. They are competint with playoff intensity as others are going through their normal reg season grind. This is a staple of Thibs coached teams but when you get to the playoffs and the oppositions intensity now rivals yours the talent will ultimately win out.
 

chilidawg

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NYK end up being 4/5 seed - don't you think the Cs would rather play NYK than MIA or ATL? NYK seems like they won't be able to score enough to seriously challenge the Cs.
I think Atlanta is the weakest of those 3, they just don't play the defense you need to win in the playoffs. Miami certainly has the pedigree, but they're not playing well going into the home stretch, hard to know what to think about them. Randle and Barrett have really taken a step up in terms of offensive production, and Rose is a good scorer off the bench.
 

lovegtm

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Yeah I’m not too concerned with the Knicks. They are competint with playoff intensity as others are going through their normal reg season grind. This is a staple of Thibs coached teams but when you get to the playoffs and the oppositions intensity now rivals yours the talent will ultimately win out.
This. Their scorers are incredibly vulnerable to increased defensive intensity.
 

jon abbey

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Yeah I’m not too concerned with the Knicks. They are competing with playoff intensity as others are going through their normal reg season grind. This is a staple of Thibs coached teams but when you get to the playoffs and the oppositions intensity now rivals yours the talent will ultimately win out.
As a Knicks fan (who deep down still wishes they were awful again because they need more high picks), completely agreed with this, and especially with no Mitchell Robinson.

One thing that is kind of interesting about them is that they bring three scoring guards off the bench, essentially together, which I find kind of fascinating. Alec Burks is in Covid protocol now and missed yesterday but he is leading the Eastern Conference in 4th quarter points in April, just ahead of Tatum, plus Rose, plus Quickley. It's clearly driven by NY's personnel, but it's an interesting approach to game management that I haven't seen discussed anywhere yet.

View: http://twitter.com/TommyBeer/status/1382698846866829318
 

HomeRunBaker

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As a Knicks fan (who deep down still wishes they were awful again because they need more high picks), completely agreed with this, and especially with no Mitchell Robinson.

One thing that is kind of interesting about them is that they bring three scoring guards off the bench, essentially together, which I find kind of fascinating. Alec Burks is in Covid protocol now and missed yesterday but he is leading the Eastern Conference in 4th quarter points in April, just ahead of Tatum, plus Rose, plus Quickley. It's clearly driven by NY's personnel, but it's an interesting approach to game management that I haven't seen discussed anywhere yet.
I like this approach and this may be the direction Brad takes with Jabari on the second unit with Fournier in that their defensive deficiencies aren’t as exploitable by opposing second units. Then you can mix and match in the 4Q based on game situation, matchups and their flow on that particular night.
 

coremiller

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Steph Curry missed 5 games in March with a bruised tailbone. In the 10 games he's played since he returned, he's on an all-time hot streak, averaging 39.1 ppg on .739 TS%, including shooting 48.6% on 14 3PA/G.

There have only been 25 times a player has made 11+ threes in a game. Curry has 11 of those games, including two his last three.
 

Cesar Crespo

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Pacers/Hawks game today. Hawks up at home, 78-69 half way thru the third. C's currently 1/2 game up on the Hawks for the 4 spot, and 4 up on the Pacers.

Go Pacers!

Knicks are up at home, 59 to 54 vs NO, 2 minutes thru the 3rd. Knicks are 1 game behind Boston. Go NO!

We may even want to start cheering for the Bucks to lose. C's down 4.5 with 15 to play.

Nets vs Heat and Portland vs CHO tonight.