Bucks and Raptors make me feel ok about Mitchell+Ant.
I have someone on Reddit agreeing with me? Giddy up, put me down for 10 SoSH points!
I think a lot of the Bucks improvement is schedule related. They’re something like 1-5 against teams with winning records this month and 6-1 against teams with losing records.
I’m not looking at W/L records for when a team is turning the corner. The improvement that I’m referring to came in their losses which then carried over to their wins. This was similar to last years Harden trade to LA when they were making big gains with each game that they ended up losing prior to that crazy winning stretch that followed.
The BUCKS are taking advantage of the EC underbelly & home court.
Real bummer. Shoulder charge on Tatum aside, he was playing really well and contributing to that team, and I wish him well. Hope he gets a good recovery but man that sounds like a total shredding of his knee. ACL and meniscus and other stuff besides... big yikes.
Is it more than just the ACL? Everything I've seen just references the one ligament, not like that's not bad enough. Good thing for him is that he's signed through 2027 for a team that's not seriously trying to compete so he's got plenty of time to recover.
There's conflicting info:
It's not the kind of injury that would look career ending. An MCL tear to go along with an ACL (aka, Tom Brady) is certainly possible, however. Wouldn't call it career ending just yet.
I guess I didn't mean career ending just because of the injury itself but more because Grant was already on such a razor's edge with his athleticism. Remember his second season when he was out of shape and suddenly couldnt stay in front of anyone?
Haliburton is playing like a borderline all-star on offense, not looking anything like the modern Steve Nash that he resembled at times over the last couple of years. Combine that with his bottom of the class defense, and there you go. They match up well with Boston because of their speed, but they need more from Hali.
Thanks. That's consistent with what I remembered, though you are certainly closer to it.
This is a great post. It’s awesome to have someone on the board who can speak with this level of authority about a rival franchise. I defer to your perspective!
Thanks for posting that. The Celtics are unbeatable when Jrue/Jaylen go extra physical, full-court, body-bumping the ball handler defense
The East has a lot of weak teams (at least by current record), and Cleveland and Boston can't play themselves.
I’m guessing that if both teams are healthy and face off in the playoffs, top end talent will win out, assuming Boston can get good play out of Hauser and PP off the bench. The Cavs have a good bench.
The ORL win was the second game ORL played without Banchero and at home - is ORL a top 10 team under those circumstances (I know you said by record now) - they are currently 2-6 on the road without Banchero (although ORL hasn't lost at home since apparently last April).
Cleveland is shooting 41.5% from 3 and 52% overall. If they can keep shooting at historic rates they are a problem, but those #'s will probably come down a bit though as only two teams have shot over 41% from 3 in the last 10 years and no one is close to 52%.
I will not stand for this 76er blasphemy, no way they end up in the TOP6
In terms of your conclusions, I'd think it's a combination of all those things.
Excellent timing for this post as the Clippers defense has been among league best since Kris Dunn was inserted into the starting lineup a couple weeks ago.
I hate to kick someone when they're down, but not sure Grant was playing "really well". He is not very good and has continued to be not very good this season. When he gets his 3PT% over 40% he has some value there, but this season he was at 36%.
Yeah, it just hasn't happened for him. Brad definitely was smarter than I am on that one. Although, I suppose Dallas was able to trade him as at least marginally positive value.
kind of delusional.It's funny, because when I saw that report, my first and overwhelming reaction was, "Oh come ON, they WON that game, probably in significant part because Trae didn't play, the C's had a little "opposing star is out" let-down, and Daniels was awesome at both ends and he and Jalen Johnson were really effective as the primary playmakers." (The rookie who started in Trae's place also had 8 assists, but that felt secondary to me, and is probably covered in the "C's had a let-down with the opposing star out" point...).
Au Contraire, Maybe ATL wanted to win so badly that they were willing to risk a fine.
I thought picking up full court was seen as too taxing on defenders and too likely to lead to the defense being poorly set up once the ball got across half-court (usually because the guy on-ball got beaten, so the defense is briefly playing 4 on 5). What's made those concerns go away?
This is where I am at. I think some stars (Embiid, Young, etc.) want to be the focal point so bad and are so embedded in their team that they get all the offense and everyone else is clearly a roleplayer on their team. When those guys miss a game, suddenly everything opens up, is a bit more democratic and every possession is not "give the ball to [player X] and let them do what they want". Combined with a probably more than a little hubris on the Cs part looking past this game on the schedule and the fact that stuff happens over an 82 game season, it was disappointing but not completely shocking.
Could have avoided the fine by not playing Trae in the two games surrounding the IST...and maybe have another win or two...Au Contraire, Maybe ATL wanted to win so badly that they were willing to risk a fine.
I think when teams pick up (1) I think teams have to have a guy who is both good at full court pressure plus has the stamina to do it (good thing Cs have at least 3 guys who do it and don't seem to tire - Jrue, PP, and JB), (2) the pressure isn't necessarily to steal the ball but slow offenses down, which helps prevent defensive breakdowns, and (3) realize that letting most modern day NBA teams go through 3 or 4 sequences on offense is going to be really hard to guard on a regular basis.
The old full court pressure was what Pitino tried bringing to the NBA which is the part that leaves you susceptible to numbers and wouldn’t work with todays elite offensive players. What teams are doing now is utilizing ball pressure from one defender in preventing the offense from getting started until :14 or so left on the shot clock while his teammates are positioned properly to defend a short shot clock in the halfcourt. It is increasing the value of these specialists in a money ball type of way.
Iirc his first knee surgery didn’t go well and they had to go back in. It’s too bad as he worked to turn himself into a contributor out of nothing.
Avoid Spoelstra's pixie-dusted players: Vincent, Strus, Caleb Martin
It's okay because Bontemps said on multiple occasions - which his other Hoop Collective hosts never fail to mention - that PHI had the best Big 3 in the league.
