2023-2024 General NBA Season Thread
- Thread starter BigSoxFan
- Start date
Would love for the 1-6 stay this way. 2/3 Cleveland and Milwaukee, 4/5 New York and Orlando and Miami as a 6.
Philly will be lucky to land the 8 seed at this point. So both the 3/6 and the 2/7 are hardly cakewalks especially if Indy gets their mojo back.
Philly will be lucky to land the 8 seed at this point. So both the 3/6 and the 2/7 are hardly cakewalks especially if Indy gets their mojo back.
View: https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/status/1765740182198722833
KAT out indefinitely with a torn meniscus in his left knee
KAT out indefinitely with a torn meniscus in his left knee
That sucks. I like what the Wolves have put together and thought they had a shot to be the team everyone ignored until suddenly they were in the finals. But KAT is pretty important to what they do. It’s not an Embiid situation, where they go into free fall, but gotta think they wind up 4th now and maybe don’t even win that first round.
Things really seem to be lining up for Cs-Nugs. Clips are the wild card, but they seem lethargic without Westbrook to hit the gas with the second unit.
Things really seem to be lining up for Cs-Nugs. Clips are the wild card, but they seem lethargic without Westbrook to hit the gas with the second unit.
Miami has a really light schedule, but their net rating is the worst among the blob of teams within a game of each other between #4 and #8. I still say they end up #4.
I have no idea if he has a nerve impingement or not, but we can all agree the primary issue with Ben Simmons is located elsewhere....
The good news for him and his family, even if they're just realizing now that the end is near, he's still making $40M next year. When most players hit that point, the generational paychecks are gone.
According to Spotrac, by the time his current contract runs out, he will have made more than $203 million. Assuming he's not a total dummy, he and his family should be pretty set....forever.
Remember when there was a rumor being floated around that the Simmons could be traded to the Kings for De'Aaron Fox?
Between Simmons, Durant, Kawhi and Harden, we have some of the oddest careers of "great" NBA players in some time. They are all odd for very different reasons, but its hard to compare any of them to other players in terms of legacy and accomplishments.
Between Simmons, Durant, Kawhi and Harden, we have some of the oddest careers of "great" NBA players in some time. They are all odd for very different reasons, but its hard to compare any of them to other players in terms of legacy and accomplishments.
He’ll play next year and he’ll be at least enticing. He’s not done yet IMO
Caleb Martin redux.
I have no idea what Simmons injury is or what his pain tolerance is….but this guy wasn’t brittle when he first entered the league and he came into the season in shape and ballin’ once he was cleared. Yes there is obv something lacking above the neck but it doesn’t pass the smell test that he’d come here in great shape, playing with passion then simply quitting. I’d have to think there is a serious injury here. Who know with this kid though.
And you didn't even mention Kyrie, perhaps the oddest one of all. It's been entertaining, at least.
Remember when there was a rumor going around that Simmons could be traded for Jaylen Brown? And some of us, myself included, were onboard?
Dean Wade has shot 40.3% from 3 this season, above the 90th percentile for wings (per DARKO). He's your prototypical 3-and-D guy, in fact most of his value comes from his defense. But the performance on Tuesday didn't come out of nowhere.
By game score (24.0) it was quite literally the best game of his career, by a lot (2nd best was 21.0, way back in April 2021 against a terrible Pelicans team). It's not the biggest shock in the world that he hit a bunch of 3's, but it's more than fair to say that this came out of nowhere.
Outside of the game against Boston, he's shot .208 from 3 over his last 10 games.
It’s easy to forget how good Simmons was in his 2nd(?)/3rd(?) year in the league when he was like 21.
Simmons at his best was always going to be a tough fit (in terms of a deep playoff team, that is). There were some at the time that felt you needed to surround him with shooters and he'd be fine, build a roster around him like you'd build one around Giannis. 3 point shooting centers were in short supply, so that wouldn't have been easy. I felt that maybe if Embiid were willing to shoot more 3s -- his FT% suggested/suggests he could be a good 3 point shooter -- that fit might work.
So much of this stuff is what the star players are willing to do. Back when Giannis was about to be a free agent before he extended the first time in Milwaukee just prior to the title, I thought he should go to Dallas. Doncic and Giannis together may have won multiple titles by now. But in retrospect it's clear Giannis had no interest in setting 40 screens a game -- or playing center defensively. And maybe it wouldn't have worked quite as well as I thought it would given how things have gone with Dame (though Doncic is on another level offensively from Dame). I think maybe the idea of Giannis as a screener is better than the reality.
So much of this stuff is what the star players are willing to do. Back when Giannis was about to be a free agent before he extended the first time in Milwaukee just prior to the title, I thought he should go to Dallas. Doncic and Giannis together may have won multiple titles by now. But in retrospect it's clear Giannis had no interest in setting 40 screens a game -- or playing center defensively. And maybe it wouldn't have worked quite as well as I thought it would given how things have gone with Dame (though Doncic is on another level offensively from Dame). I think maybe the idea of Giannis as a screener is better than the reality.
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It would've never worked with Embiid, because Embiid is far too efficient a scorer from inside the arc. He's a perfectly solid 3 point shooting center (.360 from 3 over the last 4 years, on just over 3 attempts per game), but him taking more 3's means he's not going to the line as much. He's one of the most efficient high volume scorers of all time, it doesn't make any sense for him to change his offensive game to accommodate a guy who at his best couldn't even average 17 ppg.
The only type of center that would've worked with Simmons would have been an absolute gunner from deep(Porzingis, Towns, etc). Realistically, the only way to build a great offense around someone that cannot shoot outside of the paint is to have them play center. Simmons almost has the size for it (6'10 240), but that's not how you maximize him defensively, he's always been most effective guarding wings and smaller guys around the perimeter, not protecting the rim.
In my defense, these were thoughts from 3-4 years ago (edit: maybe more like 4-5 years ago -- I am old and the years start to speed by). And my idea at the time was around maximizing the output of the Philly roster. Some of that would have come at Embiid's expense. They were pretty obviously a bad fit.
I probably would have picked one and traded the other. I wasn't high on either player's playoff upside at the time, and to be honest I'm not sure which player I'd have chosen. I'm honestly shocked Embiid has played as many games as he has.
I probably would have picked one and traded the other. I wasn't high on either player's playoff upside at the time, and to be honest I'm not sure which player I'd have chosen. I'm honestly shocked Embiid has played as many games as he has.
Even at his best, Simmons had some serious warning signs. He was a nervy free throw shooter and the fact that he never tried to shoot outside the paint, even when everyone knew that he needed to develop some respectability outside of the restricted area was very troubling that put into question his desire to get better.
His flaws, which were clearly mental parts of the game, ended up turning into a black hole that engulfed all of the other things he did well, and the result is a broken player.
His flaws, which were clearly mental parts of the game, ended up turning into a black hole that engulfed all of the other things he did well, and the result is a broken player.
I don't know how to think about what sorts of co-stars would've fit well with Simmons, but Porzingis' lifetime 3P% is .361 (last 4 years: .364), basically the same. Of course, he takes 5.4 per game, vs Embiid's 3.3, and probably takes more of his from 25'+. But I just saw that and thought "wait, KP is meaningfully higher than 36%?", and, well, no, he isn't. Towns (.398) certainly is though.
You already answered it, but it's about stretching the court for everyone, not just about making a reasonable %. KP is far more likely to take contested 3's, and far more likely to take them several steps behind the line. This forces defenders to come out to him, opening up space for everyone else. Embiid typically only takes 3's if the opponent is giving them to him, and rarely more than a step behind the line. KP's percentage suffers accordingly, but I think everyone knows (even Phillly fans, and probably even Embiid) that KP is a far more effective 3 point shooter, and his effect on the rest of his teammates is far better in this regard. KP's release is also a lot higher and quicker than Embiid.
3p% just doesn't work at a glance in this respect, unless we actually think that Lebron (.405) has been just as good as Steph (.409) from 3 this year.
Makes sense. Is there some useful way to see that kind of normalization somewhere? Or do we have to aggregate based on opponent distance, shot distance, etc using the splits? Some sort of Value Over Replacement Shooter?
He went 7-7 from the field, including 5-5 from three, and grabbed 6 rebounds in JUST THE 4TH QUARTER.
For a guy averaging 5.5 points per game, to do that, in one quarter, against the best team in basketball - that performance totally came out of nowhere and will be something that he will never replicate
Yeah he’ll probably bounce around a few years but his impact status basically ended at age 24. Rough.
Everything he posts on social media suggests that he very much enjoys cashing checks, being into fashion/lifestyle, and living between NYC and LA.
I agree he wasn't like that when he came into the league, but it really felt like something snapped after LayupGate against the Hawks, He just completely checked out mentally and started pursuing other interests, while maintaining enough plausible deniability to get the rest of his money.
The bolded is why I think we'll get a pretty good year from Simmons next year and someone will take a chance on him.
Maybe something didn't "snap" but after he decided he wanted out from PHI, he found out that he could still make a lot of money and NOT play basketball. At least for the time being.
One thing about Simmons - never got the feeling he cared a ton about basketball.
remember when Markelle was going to be the final piece to the Philly puzzle?
I think we worried for roughly two weeks until reports that his Uncle Fultz had broken his jumper
Markelle is still cashing NBA checks, Ben will find some sucker
You draft Embiid, have two other Number 1 picks, and can't make it to the conference finals. That's kind of amazing.
TJ McConnell may just end up being the 2nd longest-tenured player from the Philly Process era
Grayson Allen has unleashed himself in DBooker’s injured absence: 26 points in the first half against Toronto tonight so far. 8 for 12 from 3
Jimmy Butler has a "getting blocked" problem. By year, % of FGAs blocked since going to Miami:
2020: 5.9%
2021: 5.7%
2022: 4.3%
2023: 6.0%
2024: 8.4% heading into tonight.
…..but that isn’t how he’s played this year once he returned from injury. He wasn’t mailing it in, he was playing with emotion down the stretch of games, which is why I think this is a real injury.
He really has. Obviously he's had tons of open space this year with Durant/Booker/Beal grabbing all the attention, but it's not like opponents cared about him last few years when he played next to Giannis/Holiday/Middleton. Leading the league in 3P% while taking 5.5 attempts is incredible.
Fultz is an actual nba player now though. Can't shoot from three, and is not anywhere near the level of a 1st overall pick, but he has worked very hard to overcome whatever exactly it was that plagued him. We should celebrate him for that and not shit on him
he's a rarely healthy back-up PG, who's been paid $70MM...knock yourself out throwing the confetti for him
