2022-23 NBA Thread: “you’ll never let me down like the Heat did”, Miami fan says to giant pile of cocaine (4 Viewers)

[Jayrod]

This Luka kid is something else.

Dismantling the Suns.....again.

 

[ShamrockPride]

This Luka kid is something else.

Dismantling the Suns.....again.

Another serving of the Luka Special?

 

[Frostillicus]

Wolves looked exactly like a team that never had their whole team play together in the preseason. When things clicked, it was beautiful though. Luckily it was against the Thunder so they ended up pulling it out in th end. I'm already in love with Rudy.

 

[Jayrod]

Wolves looked exactly like a team that never had their whole team play together in the preseason. When things clicked, it was beautiful though. Luckily it was against the Thunder so they ended up pulling it out in th end. I'm already in love with Rudy.

I think Gobert gets a bad rap.

He's great at what he does, it is just a specialized role and atypical in today's NBA. I really liked watching that Jazz squad the last couple of years and hope he can make the Wolves a real contender.

 

[jvdesigns2002]

It’s unfortunate that the Thunder have been and will be in tank mode for Shai. That dude is one of the best players in the NBA—but has been spending much of his premium seasons playing in basketball purgatory.

 

[Frostillicus]

Wolves looked exactly like a team that never had their whole team play together in the preseason. When things clicked, it was beautiful though. Luckily it was against the Thunder so they ended up pulling it out in th end. I'm already in love with Rudy.

I think Gobert gets a bad rap.

He's great at what he does, it is just a specialized role and atypical in today's NBA. I really liked watching that Jazz squad the last couple of years and hope he can make the Wolves a real contender.

He's very unique. The bad rap comes from a single playoff series where his weaknesses were brilliantly taken advantage of, but considering he had zero defensive help on that team I'm not sure we can put that one on him. Wolves have much better defensive wings than utah ever did, so we'll see what happens in the playoffs this year.

 

[jvdesigns2002]

Great comeback win for the Suns. I hate to say it—but Ayton being on the court for much of the second half after being in foul trouble for much of the first turned things around for the Suns imo. I would have liked to have seen Luka attack the basket on the last possession. He seemed to get to the basket at will, and even if he got fouled—his foul shooting looked great tonight.

 

[Bluesbomber]

Woof. Season hasn't even begun and things looking bleak in Chicago (again)

They still don't have a clue what's wrong with Lonzo who looks poised to possibly miss the season. And now Lavine is already out the first 2 games for left knee management on his knee he underwent surgery on in May and previously indicated no restrictions.

How so? 2 all stars out and beating Miami with a very strong center duo? Great guard production from 2 young point guards. Getting nothing from Patrick Williams was a drag. As far as Lonzo they did find damage around the surgery so went in and cleaned it up. Billy Donovan ran three hard practices to finish the preseason and chose to hold out Zack to keep from stressing out his repaired knee. Team is deep and talented at all but the 4 position and the pressure they can put on with DeMarvelous and Zack from wing will offset that. 17 rebounds from Vucevich shows he is adapting to his role and Drummond off the bench looked good.

 

[Craig_MiamiFL]

Wound up going to Suns opener tonight. 1st half felt like a continuation of the Game 7 playoff debacle last year. I think everyone in the building was stunned they actually pulled it out in the 2nd half. Great game. Basketball is back

 

[thecatch]

Well the Kings lost their home opener to a bad Blazers team, so it appears my optimism was misplaced. On the positive side, they did run some fun 4 guards + Sabonis lineups and Fox was mostly great.

 

[identikit]

This Luka kid is something else.

Dismantling the Suns.....again.

Not so fast....

 

[scoobus]

Obviously massive, massive if, but New Orleans could be pretty nasty if they stay healthy.

 

[Juxtatarot]

Ainge is going to need to break up the Jazz.

 

[Juxtatarot]

Well the Kings lost their home opener to a bad Blazers team, so it appears my optimism was misplaced. On the positive side, they did run some fun 4 guards + Sabonis lineups and Fox was mostly great.

I’m not confident the Blazers are bad. I guess a lot is riding on Lillard getting his shooting mojo back. Maybe he’s too broken down.

 

[Craig_MiamiFL]

All is well in Brooklyn

 

[Jayrod]

This Luka kid is something else.

Dismantling the Suns.....again.

Not so fast....

I went to bed after first half...he WAS dismantling them and they looked shook.

Monty is a really good coach, though, so it isn't that surprising they turned it around.

 

[Capella]

Overreaction time but man Paolo looks like the franchise-caliber player the Magic haven’t had since Dwight left. Franz seems like he could be a very good player for a playoff-caliber team and Suggs was not the 2021 Suggs last night.

With Carter, Isaac, Fultz and two first-round picks this year they could seriously have a foundation. Only took them a decade.

 

[Navin Johnson]

I watched the Lakers vs Warriors game last night and I didn’t think that the Lakers had a massive lack of talent outside of Lebron and AD. They had solid moments where they played good defense and when they were disciplined and stayed in their lane on offense—they showed flashes. However—imo their biggest problem was shot selection. Even at his age—Lebron is at his best when he aggressively attacks the basket. AD‘s biggest advantage comes from when he uses his size and quickness to get to the basket. Even Westbrook had his best moments when he was aggressive and tried to get to the basket. However, the Lakers seemed to shoot themselves in the foot by launching three pointer after three pointer. I think Lebron took 9 or 10 himself. Out of the Lakers 93 field goal attempts last night—40 were 3’s. If you remove their 3 point attempts—they went 30/53 from the field from 2 point range. If they stay healthy, and if Darvin Ham can manage to keep them disciplined on the offensive end—I think the Lakers could be a playoff team. However—if they continue to jack up 30-40 three point shots per game—this team will be gone fishing by the time the playoffs start.

I thought the same thing. None of those three are at their best shooting jumpers.

They have to play inside out, with the emphasis on inside, scoring around the basket, running breaks to finish at the basket. They simply don't have the personnel to run a modern, analytics optimal style offense that emphasizes 3 point shooting. They don't have competent 3 point shooters. They'll have to lean into that, focus on what they do have, or there are going to be lots of nights like last night and they'll be a sub .500 team.

Ham obviously has no idea what his rotation will be, what his most cohesive personnel groups are, where people are supposed to be on offense or defense. He gets a bit of a grace period since they gave him essentially an entirely new set of puzzle pieces that haven't played together, but he'll need to figure it out in a couple months.

Pretty sure this will be another wasted season for LeBron and Davis though. The Warriors' 10th guy is better than the Lakers' 4th guy, this roster just isn't good enough.

I agree with most of what you said. A well coached team is one where the coach emphasizes to the players to understand the strengths of the team —and to utilize those strengths to impose their will on the game. In regard to the offensive end of the floor, the biggest weakness of the Lakers is 3-point shooting. Everybody (including the Lakers players) knows this. If the best way to be successful is to feast on your strengths and to minimize the effects of your weaknesses—the formula for the Lakers needs to be to limit how many 3-point field goals they take. Looking at last nights game. The Warriors will probably be the best (or one of the best) 3-point shooting teams this season—and can possibly go down as one of the better 3-point shooting teams in the history of the NBA. They took only five more 3-point field goal attempts than the Lakers did last night. Their biggest strength on the offensive end is 3-point shooting, and the Lakers biggest weakness on the offensive end is 3-point shooting—yet the Lakers took only five fewer 3-point field goals than they did. This is not a talent problem—this is poor decision making. This is an identity crisis problem.

It's a lot easier said than done. Your opponent likely knows you can't shoot the three as well and will be jamming the lane, limiting the effectiveness of whatever interior tactics you are utilizing and daring you to shoot the three. Probably easier to teach your guys to shoot than to come up with a scheme that might work against 2-3 guys playing you one-in-one-out.

 

[SWC]

the fakers built a great team for 1994 too bad the nba isnt played that way anymore take that to the bank brohans

 

[Nathan R. Jessep]

What a game by my Pels!! And I think this is without having full all-together chemistry yet with Zion having been out for so long. I was happy to see him plug right in without the overall team chemistry from last year being disrupted. KD's block of BI was masterful and he had several unbelievable finishes. KD is really damn good at basketball. And maybe my favorite play of the game was Herb Jones block of KD's 3. Herb has insane hops. He's done that multiple times over the last year.

We have some really good depth and we are going to be a problem in the West. League officially on notice.

A couple of cool stats reported by our insider after the game:

• Pels finished with 36 2nd-chance points. - Most they had in any game last year was 33 - 36 is tied for 2nd most in a game by ANY team in the last 25 years - They are +32 in 2nd chance points - that's the 2nd-largest differential by any team in the last 25 years
• Zion Williamson has 20 points in the paint so far tonight. This is career game No. 86. Tonight is the 45th game in his career when he's scored at least 20 in the paint. Despite the missed games, that's 2nd most in the league since 2019-20 (Giannis - 74).

Hornets up next Friday. Should be a fun one!

 

[Nathan R. Jessep]

Ja Morant is so fun to watch. I always stop and watch his highlights if I'm scrolling and see something with his name on it.

Exhibit A: https://twitter.com/TheHoopCentral/status/1582917698421280768

Exhibit B: https://twitter.com/TheHoopCentral/status/1582892384504844288

 

[Schmeabs]

T

Well the Kings lost their home opener to a bad Blazers team, so it appears my optimism was misplaced. On the positive side, they did run some fun 4 guards + Sabonis lineups and Fox was mostly great.

Too early to say the Blazers are bad IMO. They won last night despite Lillard having a bad game by playing much better defensively and Grant looks like he fits on very well. Sharpe looks like he could be a steal at pick 7.

 

[thecatch]

Well the Kings lost their home opener to a bad Blazers team, so it appears my optimism was misplaced. On the positive side, they did run some fun 4 guards + Sabonis lineups and Fox was mostly great.

I’m not confident the Blazers are bad. I guess a lot is riding on Lillard getting his shooting mojo back. Maybe he’s too broken down.

I’m moderately confident they will be bad (not like worst in the league bad but not good). I suspect Lillard is very much on the downside. I’d love to blame the Kings loss on the fact they played a good team but I just wasn’t impressed.

 

[Craig_MiamiFL]

Isaac

Crazy he's not played a regular season game in almost 3 years. Dude went out before COVID even started.

 

[Moe.]

Wolves looked exactly like a team that never had their whole team play together in the preseason. When things clicked, it was beautiful though. Luckily it was against the Thunder so they ended up pulling it out in th end. I'm already in love with Rudy.

Words hurt buddy

 

[Moe.]

It’s unfortunate that the Thunder have been and will be in tank mode for Shai. That dude is one of the best players in the NBA—but has been spending much of his premium seasons playing in basketball purgatory.

He feels a lot older - he’s only 24. I don’t think the Thunder are going to actively tank this year like the last two. There is really no need to, they’ll lose plenty enough, and I don’t think they can be as bad as the bottom 3. Giddey, Dort, and SGA need to start learning how to win games together. That’s more worthwhile than 5-10 extra losses, particularly with the lottery odds smoothed out like they are now.

 

[Moe.]

I also think the organization wants to see SGA get all-star buzz, and you can’t get that when you’re getting drilled every night. I could be wrong and lot of people disagree with me but I think they win as much as they can this year - still won’t be a lot.

 

[Capella]

Isaac

Crazy he's not played a regular season game in almost 3 years. Dude went out before COVID even started.

Yea he’s pretty much found money if he can contribute at all. Should be an elite defensive player if he makes it back.

 

[jvdesigns2002]

I watched the Lakers vs Warriors game last night and I didn’t think that the Lakers had a massive lack of talent outside of Lebron and AD. They had solid moments where they played good defense and when they were disciplined and stayed in their lane on offense—they showed flashes. However—imo their biggest problem was shot selection. Even at his age—Lebron is at his best when he aggressively attacks the basket. AD‘s biggest advantage comes from when he uses his size and quickness to get to the basket. Even Westbrook had his best moments when he was aggressive and tried to get to the basket. However, the Lakers seemed to shoot themselves in the foot by launching three pointer after three pointer. I think Lebron took 9 or 10 himself. Out of the Lakers 93 field goal attempts last night—40 were 3’s. If you remove their 3 point attempts—they went 30/53 from the field from 2 point range. If they stay healthy, and if Darvin Ham can manage to keep them disciplined on the offensive end—I think the Lakers could be a playoff team. However—if they continue to jack up 30-40 three point shots per game—this team will be gone fishing by the time the playoffs start.

I thought the same thing. None of those three are at their best shooting jumpers.

They have to play inside out, with the emphasis on inside, scoring around the basket, running breaks to finish at the basket. They simply don't have the personnel to run a modern, analytics optimal style offense that emphasizes 3 point shooting. They don't have competent 3 point shooters. They'll have to lean into that, focus on what they do have, or there are going to be lots of nights like last night and they'll be a sub .500 team.

Ham obviously has no idea what his rotation will be, what his most cohesive personnel groups are, where people are supposed to be on offense or defense. He gets a bit of a grace period since they gave him essentially an entirely new set of puzzle pieces that haven't played together, but he'll need to figure it out in a couple months.

Pretty sure this will be another wasted season for LeBron and Davis though. The Warriors' 10th guy is better than the Lakers' 4th guy, this roster just isn't good enough.

I agree with most of what you said. A well coached team is one where the coach emphasizes to the players to understand the strengths of the team —and to utilize those strengths to impose their will on the game. In regard to the offensive end of the floor, the biggest weakness of the Lakers is 3-point shooting. Everybody (including the Lakers players) knows this. If the best way to be successful is to feast on your strengths and to minimize the effects of your weaknesses—the formula for the Lakers needs to be to limit how many 3-point field goals they take. Looking at last nights game. The Warriors will probably be the best (or one of the best) 3-point shooting teams this season—and can possibly go down as one of the better 3-point shooting teams in the history of the NBA. They took only five more 3-point field goal attempts than the Lakers did last night. Their biggest strength on the offensive end is 3-point shooting, and the Lakers biggest weakness on the offensive end is 3-point shooting—yet the Lakers took only five fewer 3-point field goals than they did. This is not a talent problem—this is poor decision making. This is an identity crisis problem.

It's a lot easier said than done. Your opponent likely knows you can't shoot the three as well and will be jamming the lane, limiting the effectiveness of whatever interior tactics you are utilizing and daring you to shoot the three. Probably easier to teach your guys to shoot than to come up with a scheme that might work against 2-3 guys playing you one-in-one-out.

Disagree wholeheartedly. You are saying that it’s easier for players to completely reconfigure their offensive game to transform their biggest weakness into a strength than it is to feast upon the strengths they already possess? The NBA has been transitioning to being a 3 point shooting league for many years now—and there aren’t that many consistent sharp shooters out there. If your claim was true—every NBA player would be an adequate 3 point shooter now. Did you watch the Lakers v Warriors game? Never once was I watching the game and said “wow—that Golden State interior defense is so good that they are forcing the Lakers to shoot outside”. The numbers actually show otherwise. The Lakers shot over 60% from the field in 2point range in that game. Many of the 3’s that the Lakers took were not late in the shot clock—so they had time to attack the basket.

I‘ll bring up Joel Embiid. A few seasons back—he was taking a lot of jump shots and 3’s. While he made some of them—the reality of the situation was that him taking his game away from the basket was a negative for the team. The opposing team was less likely to be in foul trouble, the number of free throws that Embiid and the Sixers were taking were going down, the opposing defense would have more energy at the ends of games because they weren’t getting bruised and battered by physical play that Embiid is more than capable of dishing out. A year or two later—he focused on going back inside and limiting how much he settled for jumpers and 3’s—and he had an MVP caliber season. I agree that the Lakers should practice on their outside shooting—but even with that—they should only shoot outside enough to make defenses know that they aren’t scared to shoot—and are capable of hitting some from time to time. Otherwise—they really need to force things inside and use their biggest strength—size and physicality.

 

[Zow]

Lebron is just so good. Still. He should have like 10 titles and MVPs.

If only he were a better GM.

 

[jvdesigns2002]

It’s unfortunate that the Thunder have been and will be in tank mode for Shai. That dude is one of the best players in the NBA—but has been spending much of his premium seasons playing in basketball purgatory.

He feels a lot older - he’s only 24. I don’t think the Thunder are going to actively tank this year like the last two. There is really no need to, they’ll lose plenty enough, and I don’t think they can be as bad as the bottom 3. Giddey, Dort, and SGA need to start learning how to win games together. That’s more worthwhile than 5-10 extra losses, particularly with the lottery odds smoothed out like they are now.

They will absolutely tank this season. The past couple of seasons—the Thunder have basically made up/exaggerated injuries to key players solely because the team was too competitive. Even if all of their guys played every game this season-I’m not saying they are playoff caliber—but they are a team that is pesky and will be in a position to win enough to where they wouldn’t have a high likelihood of the first pick. The Wolves are a really good team this year—and the Thunder effectively played them super tough for like 44-45 minutes. I don’t think it’s easy or healthy for a great player like Shai to waste 2-3 of his really good years for an organization that is losing by design.

 

[Zow]

Wolves looked exactly like a team that never had their whole team play together in the preseason. When things clicked, it was beautiful though. Luckily it was against the Thunder so they ended up pulling it out in th end. I'm already in love with Rudy.

I think Gobert gets a bad rap.

He's great at what he does, it is just a specialized role and atypical in today's NBA. I really liked watching that Jazz squad the last couple of years and hope he can make the Wolves a real contender.

Yeah.

As a Wolves fan, I'm happy we got him. We got a good player that may push us into serious contention for the first time in almost 20 years.

The above sentiment is not mutually exclusive to the sentiment that we overpaid for him.* Nonetheless, that isn't Rudy's fault. And, us fans can still be happy on he's on the team.

* I'm a huge Mets and Vikings fan as well so I'm just used to overpaying (Bonilla, Mo Vaughn, Herschel Walker, Cousins, etc.).

 

[jvdesigns2002]

Overreaction time but man Paolo looks like the franchise-caliber player the Magic haven’t had since Dwight left. Franz seems like he could be a very good player for a playoff-caliber team and Suggs was not the 2021 Suggs last night.

With Carter, Isaac, Fultz and two first-round picks this year they could seriously have a foundation. Only took them a decade.

The Magic have young talent at a lot of positions. Paolo certainly looked good last night. He won’t be that good every night—but the talent is clear. Suggs looked like he took a step forward as well. I agree with you there. I’m glad you brought up Carter Jr. I just find him to be a really good young big man. He rebounds well, is a solid defender, is good around the basket, but also has range. He’s one of those guys that might not be the most exciting—but he’s just really solid. Franz also has a lot of talent and I think he’s likely to get much better as his career progresses. I don’t know if they are playoff bound this year—but I do think that it could be a very fun year if the team can stay healthy.

 

[Moe.]

It’s unfortunate that the Thunder have been and will be in tank mode for Shai. That dude is one of the best players in the NBA—but has been spending much of his premium seasons playing in basketball purgatory.

He feels a lot older - he’s only 24. I don’t think the Thunder are going to actively tank this year like the last two. There is really no need to, they’ll lose plenty enough, and I don’t think they can be as bad as the bottom 3. Giddey, Dort, and SGA need to start learning how to win games together. That’s more worthwhile than 5-10 extra losses, particularly with the lottery odds smoothed out like they are now.

They will absolutely tank this season. The past couple of seasons—the Thunder have basically made up/exaggerated injuries to key players solely because the team was too competitive. Even if all of their guys played every game this season-I’m not saying they are playoff caliber—but they are a team that is pesky and will be in a position to win enough to where they wouldn’t have a high likelihood of the first pick. The Wolves are a really good team this year—and the Thunder effectively played them super tough for like 44-45 minutes. I don’t think it’s easy or healthy for a great player like Shai to waste 2-3 of his really good years for an organization that is losing by design.

I am a fan of the team and follow them closely, trust me I’m well aware of how the last couple years have gone. We will see how this year plays out. I expect SGA, Giddey, Dort, and Williams to play a ton all season.

 

[Craig_MiamiFL]

Lakers open roster spot

 

[General Malaise]

Well the Kings lost their home opener to a bad Blazers team, so it appears my optimism was misplaced. On the positive side, they did run some fun 4 guards + Sabonis lineups and Fox was mostly great.

That's because the Blazers are a better team than the Kings.

 

[General Malaise]

T

Well the Kings lost their home opener to a bad Blazers team, so it appears my optimism was misplaced. On the positive side, they did run some fun 4 guards + Sabonis lineups and Fox was mostly great.

Too early to say the Blazers are bad IMO. They won last night despite Lillard having a bad game by playing much better defensively and Grant looks like he fits on very well. Sharpe looks like he could be a steal at pick 7.

Jason Quick had a good article today in the Athletic about their small-ball lineup being the difference maker last night. Let me know if you want me to shoot it over to you if you don't have a subscription.

 

[Zow]

Well the Kings lost their home opener to a bad Blazers team, so it appears my optimism was misplaced. On the positive side, they did run some fun 4 guards + Sabonis lineups and Fox was mostly great.

That's because the Blazers are a better team than the Kings.

Friendly wager that the Kings have a better record?

*Not a Kings fan, I am just drinking the Bill Simmons Kool-Aid and think you're wrong.

 

[SWC]

kevin garnett was a cheapshot artist take that to the bank brohans

 

[thecatch]

Well the Kings lost their home opener to a bad Blazers team, so it appears my optimism was misplaced. On the positive side, they did run some fun 4 guards + Sabonis lineups and Fox was mostly great.

That's because the Blazers are a better team than the Kings.

It's possible, but if so, it will be because they are both just different shades of bad, IMO.

 

[Capella]

I’m glad you brought up Carter Jr. I just find him to be a really good young big man. He rebounds well, is a solid defender, is good around the basket, but also has range. He’s one of those guys that might not be the most exciting

Reminds me a lot of a Horace Grant type, but a better shooter. Quiet, dependable player who plays good defense and can hit shots. Another guy that a lot of good teams have. They don’t all have to be stars.

 

[Schmeabs]

T

Well the Kings lost their home opener to a bad Blazers team, so it appears my optimism was misplaced. On the positive side, they did run some fun 4 guards + Sabonis lineups and Fox was mostly great.

Too early to say the Blazers are bad IMO. They won last night despite Lillard having a bad game by playing much better defensively and Grant looks like he fits on very well. Sharpe looks like he could be a steal at pick 7.

Jason Quick had a good article today in the Athletic about their small-ball lineup being the difference maker last night. Let me know if you want me to shoot it over to you if you don't have a subscription.

I don't have a subcription to the Athletic and would be curious to see it thanks.

 

[General Malaise]

Well the Kings lost their home opener to a bad Blazers team, so it appears my optimism was misplaced. On the positive side, they did run some fun 4 guards + Sabonis lineups and Fox was mostly great.

That's because the Blazers are a better team than the Kings.

Friendly wager that the Kings have a better record?

*Not a Kings fan, I am just drinking the Bill Simmons Kool-Aid and think you're wrong.

I like it. $25 or something more interesting like Oregon's finest IPA vs Arizona's best (I don't know what Arizona does well other than scream VOTER FRAUD)

FYI, Vegas Odds for O/U win totals have Portland at 40 and Sac at 33.....

 

[General Malaise]

T

Well the Kings lost their home opener to a bad Blazers team, so it appears my optimism was misplaced. On the positive side, they did run some fun 4 guards + Sabonis lineups and Fox was mostly great.

Too early to say the Blazers are bad IMO. They won last night despite Lillard having a bad game by playing much better defensively and Grant looks like he fits on very well. Sharpe looks like he could be a steal at pick 7.

Jason Quick had a good article today in the Athletic about their small-ball lineup being the difference maker last night. Let me know if you want me to shoot it over to you if you don't have a subscription.

I don't have a subcription to the Athletic and would be curious to see it thanks.

Sent via PM.

 

[Navin Johnson]

I watched the Lakers vs Warriors game last night and I didn’t think that the Lakers had a massive lack of talent outside of Lebron and AD. They had solid moments where they played good defense and when they were disciplined and stayed in their lane on offense—they showed flashes. However—imo their biggest problem was shot selection. Even at his age—Lebron is at his best when he aggressively attacks the basket. AD‘s biggest advantage comes from when he uses his size and quickness to get to the basket. Even Westbrook had his best moments when he was aggressive and tried to get to the basket. However, the Lakers seemed to shoot themselves in the foot by launching three pointer after three pointer. I think Lebron took 9 or 10 himself. Out of the Lakers 93 field goal attempts last night—40 were 3’s. If you remove their 3 point attempts—they went 30/53 from the field from 2 point range. If they stay healthy, and if Darvin Ham can manage to keep them disciplined on the offensive end—I think the Lakers could be a playoff team. However—if they continue to jack up 30-40 three point shots per game—this team will be gone fishing by the time the playoffs start.

I thought the same thing. None of those three are at their best shooting jumpers.

They have to play inside out, with the emphasis on inside, scoring around the basket, running breaks to finish at the basket. They simply don't have the personnel to run a modern, analytics optimal style offense that emphasizes 3 point shooting. They don't have competent 3 point shooters. They'll have to lean into that, focus on what they do have, or there are going to be lots of nights like last night and they'll be a sub .500 team.

Ham obviously has no idea what his rotation will be, what his most cohesive personnel groups are, where people are supposed to be on offense or defense. He gets a bit of a grace period since they gave him essentially an entirely new set of puzzle pieces that haven't played together, but he'll need to figure it out in a couple months.

Pretty sure this will be another wasted season for LeBron and Davis though. The Warriors' 10th guy is better than the Lakers' 4th guy, this roster just isn't good enough.

I agree with most of what you said. A well coached team is one where the coach emphasizes to the players to understand the strengths of the team —and to utilize those strengths to impose their will on the game. In regard to the offensive end of the floor, the biggest weakness of the Lakers is 3-point shooting. Everybody (including the Lakers players) knows this. If the best way to be successful is to feast on your strengths and to minimize the effects of your weaknesses—the formula for the Lakers needs to be to limit how many 3-point field goals they take. Looking at last nights game. The Warriors will probably be the best (or one of the best) 3-point shooting teams this season—and can possibly go down as one of the better 3-point shooting teams in the history of the NBA. They took only five more 3-point field goal attempts than the Lakers did last night. Their biggest strength on the offensive end is 3-point shooting, and the Lakers biggest weakness on the offensive end is 3-point shooting—yet the Lakers took only five fewer 3-point field goals than they did. This is not a talent problem—this is poor decision making. This is an identity crisis problem.

It's a lot easier said than done. Your opponent likely knows you can't shoot the three as well and will be jamming the lane, limiting the effectiveness of whatever interior tactics you are utilizing and daring you to shoot the three. Probably easier to teach your guys to shoot than to come up with a scheme that might work against 2-3 guys playing you one-in-one-out.

You are saying that it’s easier for players to completely reconfigure their offensive game to transform their biggest weakness into a strength than it is to feast upon the strengths they already possess?

No. Are you saying NBA players can not add to their skillsets? Why even practice?

 

[Navin Johnson]

I watched the Lakers vs Warriors game last night and I didn’t think that the Lakers had a massive lack of talent outside of Lebron and AD. They had solid moments where they played good defense and when they were disciplined and stayed in their lane on offense—they showed flashes. However—imo their biggest problem was shot selection. Even at his age—Lebron is at his best when he aggressively attacks the basket. AD‘s biggest advantage comes from when he uses his size and quickness to get to the basket. Even Westbrook had his best moments when he was aggressive and tried to get to the basket. However, the Lakers seemed to shoot themselves in the foot by launching three pointer after three pointer. I think Lebron took 9 or 10 himself. Out of the Lakers 93 field goal attempts last night—40 were 3’s. If you remove their 3 point attempts—they went 30/53 from the field from 2 point range. If they stay healthy, and if Darvin Ham can manage to keep them disciplined on the offensive end—I think the Lakers could be a playoff team. However—if they continue to jack up 30-40 three point shots per game—this team will be gone fishing by the time the playoffs start.

I thought the same thing. None of those three are at their best shooting jumpers.

They have to play inside out, with the emphasis on inside, scoring around the basket, running breaks to finish at the basket. They simply don't have the personnel to run a modern, analytics optimal style offense that emphasizes 3 point shooting. They don't have competent 3 point shooters. They'll have to lean into that, focus on what they do have, or there are going to be lots of nights like last night and they'll be a sub .500 team.

Ham obviously has no idea what his rotation will be, what his most cohesive personnel groups are, where people are supposed to be on offense or defense. He gets a bit of a grace period since they gave him essentially an entirely new set of puzzle pieces that haven't played together, but he'll need to figure it out in a couple months.

Pretty sure this will be another wasted season for LeBron and Davis though. The Warriors' 10th guy is better than the Lakers' 4th guy, this roster just isn't good enough.

I agree with most of what you said. A well coached team is one where the coach emphasizes to the players to understand the strengths of the team —and to utilize those strengths to impose their will on the game. In regard to the offensive end of the floor, the biggest weakness of the Lakers is 3-point shooting. Everybody (including the Lakers players) knows this. If the best way to be successful is to feast on your strengths and to minimize the effects of your weaknesses—the formula for the Lakers needs to be to limit how many 3-point field goals they take. Looking at last nights game. The Warriors will probably be the best (or one of the best) 3-point shooting teams this season—and can possibly go down as one of the better 3-point shooting teams in the history of the NBA. They took only five more 3-point field goal attempts than the Lakers did last night. Their biggest strength on the offensive end is 3-point shooting, and the Lakers biggest weakness on the offensive end is 3-point shooting—yet the Lakers took only five fewer 3-point field goals than they did. This is not a talent problem—this is poor decision making. This is an identity crisis problem.

It's a lot easier said than done. Your opponent likely knows you can't shoot the three as well and will be jamming the lane, limiting the effectiveness of whatever interior tactics you are utilizing and daring you to shoot the three. Probably easier to teach your guys to shoot than to come up with a scheme that might work against 2-3 guys playing you one-in-one-out.

If your claim was true—every NBA player would be an adequate 3 point shooter now.

I really don't know why you are making this leap in logic given the diva mentality that has been rampant in the league for some time

 

[Navin Johnson]

I watched the Lakers vs Warriors game last night and I didn’t think that the Lakers had a massive lack of talent outside of Lebron and AD. They had solid moments where they played good defense and when they were disciplined and stayed in their lane on offense—they showed flashes. However—imo their biggest problem was shot selection. Even at his age—Lebron is at his best when he aggressively attacks the basket. AD‘s biggest advantage comes from when he uses his size and quickness to get to the basket. Even Westbrook had his best moments when he was aggressive and tried to get to the basket. However, the Lakers seemed to shoot themselves in the foot by launching three pointer after three pointer. I think Lebron took 9 or 10 himself. Out of the Lakers 93 field goal attempts last night—40 were 3’s. If you remove their 3 point attempts—they went 30/53 from the field from 2 point range. If they stay healthy, and if Darvin Ham can manage to keep them disciplined on the offensive end—I think the Lakers could be a playoff team. However—if they continue to jack up 30-40 three point shots per game—this team will be gone fishing by the time the playoffs start.

I thought the same thing. None of those three are at their best shooting jumpers.

They have to play inside out, with the emphasis on inside, scoring around the basket, running breaks to finish at the basket. They simply don't have the personnel to run a modern, analytics optimal style offense that emphasizes 3 point shooting. They don't have competent 3 point shooters. They'll have to lean into that, focus on what they do have, or there are going to be lots of nights like last night and they'll be a sub .500 team.

Ham obviously has no idea what his rotation will be, what his most cohesive personnel groups are, where people are supposed to be on offense or defense. He gets a bit of a grace period since they gave him essentially an entirely new set of puzzle pieces that haven't played together, but he'll need to figure it out in a couple months.

Pretty sure this will be another wasted season for LeBron and Davis though. The Warriors' 10th guy is better than the Lakers' 4th guy, this roster just isn't good enough.

I agree with most of what you said. A well coached team is one where the coach emphasizes to the players to understand the strengths of the team —and to utilize those strengths to impose their will on the game. In regard to the offensive end of the floor, the biggest weakness of the Lakers is 3-point shooting. Everybody (including the Lakers players) knows this. If the best way to be successful is to feast on your strengths and to minimize the effects of your weaknesses—the formula for the Lakers needs to be to limit how many 3-point field goals they take. Looking at last nights game. The Warriors will probably be the best (or one of the best) 3-point shooting teams this season—and can possibly go down as one of the better 3-point shooting teams in the history of the NBA. They took only five more 3-point field goal attempts than the Lakers did last night. Their biggest strength on the offensive end is 3-point shooting, and the Lakers biggest weakness on the offensive end is 3-point shooting—yet the Lakers took only five fewer 3-point field goals than they did. This is not a talent problem—this is poor decision making. This is an identity crisis problem.

It's a lot easier said than done. Your opponent likely knows you can't shoot the three as well and will be jamming the lane, limiting the effectiveness of whatever interior tactics you are utilizing and daring you to shoot the three. Probably easier to teach your guys to shoot than to come up with a scheme that might work against 2-3 guys playing you one-in-one-out.

The Lakers shot over 60% from the field in 2point range in that game.

No they didn't

 

[Gr00vus]

I watched the Lakers vs Warriors game last night and I didn’t think that the Lakers had a massive lack of talent outside of Lebron and AD. They had solid moments where they played good defense and when they were disciplined and stayed in their lane on offense—they showed flashes. However—imo their biggest problem was shot selection. Even at his age—Lebron is at his best when he aggressively attacks the basket. AD‘s biggest advantage comes from when he uses his size and quickness to get to the basket. Even Westbrook had his best moments when he was aggressive and tried to get to the basket. However, the Lakers seemed to shoot themselves in the foot by launching three pointer after three pointer. I think Lebron took 9 or 10 himself. Out of the Lakers 93 field goal attempts last night—40 were 3’s. If you remove their 3 point attempts—they went 30/53 from the field from 2 point range. If they stay healthy, and if Darvin Ham can manage to keep them disciplined on the offensive end—I think the Lakers could be a playoff team. However—if they continue to jack up 30-40 three point shots per game—this team will be gone fishing by the time the playoffs start.

I thought the same thing. None of those three are at their best shooting jumpers.

They have to play inside out, with the emphasis on inside, scoring around the basket, running breaks to finish at the basket. They simply don't have the personnel to run a modern, analytics optimal style offense that emphasizes 3 point shooting. They don't have competent 3 point shooters. They'll have to lean into that, focus on what they do have, or there are going to be lots of nights like last night and they'll be a sub .500 team.

Ham obviously has no idea what his rotation will be, what his most cohesive personnel groups are, where people are supposed to be on offense or defense. He gets a bit of a grace period since they gave him essentially an entirely new set of puzzle pieces that haven't played together, but he'll need to figure it out in a couple months.

Pretty sure this will be another wasted season for LeBron and Davis though. The Warriors' 10th guy is better than the Lakers' 4th guy, this roster just isn't good enough.

I agree with most of what you said. A well coached team is one where the coach emphasizes to the players to understand the strengths of the team —and to utilize those strengths to impose their will on the game. In regard to the offensive end of the floor, the biggest weakness of the Lakers is 3-point shooting. Everybody (including the Lakers players) knows this. If the best way to be successful is to feast on your strengths and to minimize the effects of your weaknesses—the formula for the Lakers needs to be to limit how many 3-point field goals they take. Looking at last nights game. The Warriors will probably be the best (or one of the best) 3-point shooting teams this season—and can possibly go down as one of the better 3-point shooting teams in the history of the NBA. They took only five more 3-point field goal attempts than the Lakers did last night. Their biggest strength on the offensive end is 3-point shooting, and the Lakers biggest weakness on the offensive end is 3-point shooting—yet the Lakers took only five fewer 3-point field goals than they did. This is not a talent problem—this is poor decision making. This is an identity crisis problem.

It's a lot easier said than done. Your opponent likely knows you can't shoot the three as well and will be jamming the lane, limiting the effectiveness of whatever interior tactics you are utilizing and daring you to shoot the three. Probably easier to teach your guys to shoot than to come up with a scheme that might work against 2-3 guys playing you one-in-one-out.

You are saying that it’s easier for players to completely reconfigure their offensive game to transform their biggest weakness into a strength than it is to feast upon the strengths they already possess?

No. Are you saying NBA players can not add to their skillsets? Why even practice?

Generally not during the season. That's stuff you do in the offseason. Also, most guys don't have the drive to expand their games significantly once they get to the NBA. It's work.

 

[Zow]

Well the Kings lost their home opener to a bad Blazers team, so it appears my optimism was misplaced. On the positive side, they did run some fun 4 guards + Sabonis lineups and Fox was mostly great.

That's because the Blazers are a better team than the Kings.

Friendly wager that the Kings have a better record?

*Not a Kings fan, I am just drinking the Bill Simmons Kool-Aid and think you're wrong.

I like it. $25 or something more interesting like Oregon's finest IPA vs Arizona's best (I don't know what Arizona does well other than scream VOTER FRAUD)

FYI, Vegas Odds for O/U win totals have Portland at 40 and Sac at 33.....

Oh. Uh oh I should have checked that.

But for those stakes let’s do it. Arizona makes some great IPA!

I’ll get you some local mother road or dark sky if Lillard surprises me.

 

[Zow]

I watched the Lakers vs Warriors game last night and I didn’t think that the Lakers had a massive lack of talent outside of Lebron and AD. They had solid moments where they played good defense and when they were disciplined and stayed in their lane on offense—they showed flashes. However—imo their biggest problem was shot selection. Even at his age—Lebron is at his best when he aggressively attacks the basket. AD‘s biggest advantage comes from when he uses his size and quickness to get to the basket. Even Westbrook had his best moments when he was aggressive and tried to get to the basket. However, the Lakers seemed to shoot themselves in the foot by launching three pointer after three pointer. I think Lebron took 9 or 10 himself. Out of the Lakers 93 field goal attempts last night—40 were 3’s. If you remove their 3 point attempts—they went 30/53 from the field from 2 point range. If they stay healthy, and if Darvin Ham can manage to keep them disciplined on the offensive end—I think the Lakers could be a playoff team. However—if they continue to jack up 30-40 three point shots per game—this team will be gone fishing by the time the playoffs start.

I thought the same thing. None of those three are at their best shooting jumpers.

They have to play inside out, with the emphasis on inside, scoring around the basket, running breaks to finish at the basket. They simply don't have the personnel to run a modern, analytics optimal style offense that emphasizes 3 point shooting. They don't have competent 3 point shooters. They'll have to lean into that, focus on what they do have, or there are going to be lots of nights like last night and they'll be a sub .500 team.

Ham obviously has no idea what his rotation will be, what his most cohesive personnel groups are, where people are supposed to be on offense or defense. He gets a bit of a grace period since they gave him essentially an entirely new set of puzzle pieces that haven't played together, but he'll need to figure it out in a couple months.

Pretty sure this will be another wasted season for LeBron and Davis though. The Warriors' 10th guy is better than the Lakers' 4th guy, this roster just isn't good enough.

I agree with most of what you said. A well coached team is one where the coach emphasizes to the players to understand the strengths of the team —and to utilize those strengths to impose their will on the game. In regard to the offensive end of the floor, the biggest weakness of the Lakers is 3-point shooting. Everybody (including the Lakers players) knows this. If the best way to be successful is to feast on your strengths and to minimize the effects of your weaknesses—the formula for the Lakers needs to be to limit how many 3-point field goals they take. Looking at last nights game. The Warriors will probably be the best (or one of the best) 3-point shooting teams this season—and can possibly go down as one of the better 3-point shooting teams in the history of the NBA. They took only five more 3-point field goal attempts than the Lakers did last night. Their biggest strength on the offensive end is 3-point shooting, and the Lakers biggest weakness on the offensive end is 3-point shooting—yet the Lakers took only five fewer 3-point field goals than they did. This is not a talent problem—this is poor decision making. This is an identity crisis problem.

It's a lot easier said than done. Your opponent likely knows you can't shoot the three as well and will be jamming the lane, limiting the effectiveness of whatever interior tactics you are utilizing and daring you to shoot the three. Probably easier to teach your guys to shoot than to come up with a scheme that might work against 2-3 guys playing you one-in-one-out.

The Lakers shot over 60% from the field in 2point range in that game.

No they didn't

“Well no, but it would be pretty cool if they did.”

- #RIPFarley