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***2021-2022 NBA Season Thread***


RonArtest15

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So for those who watched the Wiz/Cavs game right now, you see what I'm saying about not even noticing that Kevin Love played? I just don't see how he signs long term for that.

 

There is no room for a third star with Kyrie and Lebron looking for their own shot.  Easy to see why his numbers are way down after watching that team play. 

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Speaking of Bubble, his Hornets went into the 4th up 15 on the magic and gave up 41 in the final quarter and lost.

There's been a lot of posters who have been permabanned over the years that i genuinely miss(ed) (including the unquestioned "King of the Tailgate Empire", his majesty, MSF) but I don't think I'd ever get over a Bubble Screen permaban. Hell I'd even consider starting an online petition to present to the ES Mods to get him reinstated. He was such one of the things that made this forum awesome. And honestly, with Irving, with his top-tier Hornets, with the awesome foundation of success Braves, a permaban would be too easy for him (which is why it also wouldn't shock me if it wasn't a permaban, he was reinstated weeks ago and he's just too much of a **** to come back and own it. Shame is something a lot of folks can't get over. They're all pussies of course.

Edited by G.A.C.O.L.B.
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Nene ate Kevin Love's lunch. I loved seeing Love try and post up Nene. Dude sat their like a rock while Love flailed against him like a child before chucking up some wack fall away shot. Nene is a man. And this Cavs team is a mess. LOL at the predictions they'd win 60+ games this season. LOL at Vegas for making them title favorites.

Wall ate Kyrie's lunch too. LOL at the people that thought and still think Kyrie is better than Wall. I'm never changing my signature. David Falk is a horse's ass.

And LeBron is done as a player capable of carrying a sorry team to conference contention. The guy is clearly worn out. And he's not the best player in the world any more either. The future was now last year with Durant.

Toronto is scary good.

Yeah they're legit. Stevemcqueen1's preseason prediction for the #1 seed is doing work.

This season is going to be fantastic. The Knicks, Celtics, and Lakers are going to be three of the worst teams in the league. And we're going to get a Final between the Clippers or Warriors vs the Raptors or Wizards. Think about where these franchises were just four years ago and let that sink in. Parity lives.

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Sacramento and New Orleans have fallen out of the playoff picture. OKC sits at the bottom of the conference.

The 8 teams in the postseason picture now are 8 of the 9 teams who won 48+ last season and were in the playoff discussion then too. Continuity matters.

OKC has played 14 games, most in the league so far. That's unfortunate scheduling considering their two best players are set to return in December. They're going to fall short of the 9 win number I figured they would need to hit before Durant's return in order to keep in the playoff picture. For them to make the playoffs now, I think they have to rip off an impressive five or six game winning streak after Westbrook gets back. And I don't see that happening. I still think they'll find a way to squeak into the playoffs. But I now agree that they are in serious danger of missing it.

KD2DC is going to pick up a lot of steam and legitimacy by this summer.

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By the end of this season there are only going to be five playoff worthy teams in the East: Toronto, Washington, Chicago, Cleveland, and Miami (in that order). Atlanta, Milwaukee, and Orlando as playoff teams is sad. Not a one of them is actually good.

And it's sad that the likes of those teams might make the postseason while OKC, Sacramento, and New Orleans might have to stay home.

The NBA can now send 16 worthy teams to the playoffs, but not 8 from each conference. It's time to seed by record and not record within conference.

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So for those who watched the Wiz/Cavs game right now, you see what I'm saying about not even noticing that Kevin Love played? I just don't see how he signs long term for that.

I love it. The Emperor's New Clothes are gone with that dude. Just like they are with Kyrie Irving and James Harden. People are seeing just how limited his game really is when he's not gunning for personal numbers on a lousy team.

I said it many a time before, but never in the history of competitive basketball has a team with a legit great big man ever out and out sucked. Never has an NBA team with a legit great big man ever finished with the worst record in the league in a season where he was healthy. It violate the basketball law of non-contradiction. It does not compute. And yet that's what happened with Kevin Love in a year when the basketball world crowed him one of the five best players at his position.

The dude is a super specialist. He's an excellent shooter and undersized scrapper of a rebounder with a little bit of a post game and some nifty outlet passing ability--a skill that's not nearly as rare as the people carrying his jock (Bill Simmons) make it out to be. Love has been wildly overrated because of a confluence of factors:

1.) He's the best white American to come along in forever and the basketball world has been very hungry for good white American players since Larry Bird retired.

2.) He's got an unusual mix of strengths (outlet passing, three point shooting, and rebounding) that people find really appealing because of how odd the mix is, and how old school some of them are.

3.) He put up gaudy scoring and rebounding numbers in Minnesota, the two box score stats that essentially all advanced metrics are primarily derived from--giving him the blessing from advanced stat nerds and tricking people into thinking he was a lot better than he really was despite the big holes in his tool kit other players of elite stature do not have.

Also the Minnesota FO and ownership has no credibility whatsoever, so people were very willing to sympathize with Kevin Love and blame the FO and surrounding talent for the team's shortcomings and give Love a pass.

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Boston is remarkable. They've got the third best offense in the league and the third worst defense. At first blush you might wonder how a team with Avery Bradley and Rajon Rondo could be so utterly dreadful defensively. But a team starting Jeff Green, Jared Sullinger, and Kelly Olynyk doesn't have a chance at guarding anyone. That's probably the worst defensive front court in the NBA by a country mile.

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Irving is a good player but he's basically this generation's Stephon Marbury. He'll put up big #s but won't win anything. Remember Marbury even with Kevin Garnett couldn't win. Some guys are just #s guys and never actually win anything.

 

He's clearly not a PG. He's a shooter who excels at creating his own jumpshots. He doesn't seem especially effective driving in the paint either, nor does he look interested in doing it.

 

I think the reason Wade and LeBron played so well together was because Wade is primarily a slasher. He used the lanes opened by double teams on LeBron to attack the rim. Kyrie likes to dribble for 10 seconds until he finds separation to shoot. In this role, he's not much different than what LeBron got with Mo Williams.

 

They really need to figure out in Cleveland who the primary ball handler is. The offense looks completely different when Kyrie is handling the ball or when LeBron is.

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Irving is a fantastic scoring guard. I'm not going to pretend that's a bad thing. He's just not an especially willing passer or much of a defender other than jumping into passing lanes, which he does well.

They should trade him for Jennings and Monroe. It let's the Piston put Smith at the 4 where he belongs. It gives the Cavs a PG that can score but won't try to one up Lebron, and it gives them a scoring big that is much better around the basket than Love. They still get no defense though....

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If they deal Irving, it has to be for a defender IMO. LeBron and Love can be your offensive foundation, so a defender makes the most sense. Irving for Hibbert maybe, but a higher minute player would be better. Their depth is lousy, which is why they're running their stars into the ground.

Love doesn't have much of a place on a team with Irving and LeBron. But with just LeBron? Seems like they could really play off each other with pick and pop and pick and rolls and drive and kicks, and Love is a good shooter curling off screens. Love is a finisher. That's how he needs to be used. And LeBron is a facilitator. It's a natural tandem. What is Kyrie?

A couple of 3 ball shooters and/or defensive stopper guards that can play off the ball would be fine for Cleveland. Matrix at the 2 is an awkward fit for Cleveland. And Varejao is not going to be reliable for long playing 30+ minutes a game.

PG: Jose Calderon

SG: Iman Shumpert

SF: LeBron

PF: Love

C: Hibbert

Seems like a pretty good and balanced lineup to me. Not sure exactly how they get that done, but Irving would be a major trade chip.

And also I think Paul George and Kyrie Irving could be a pretty good tandem in Indy.

Edited by stevemcqueen1
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What the hell happened to Charlotte? I thought they were going to be good this year.

 

They are not that good, nor were they ever. We only had Charlotte talk in this thread because Bubble Screen thought that a new color scheme would suddenly give Kemba Walker super powers. 

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They are not that good, nor were they ever. We only had Charlotte talk in this thread because Bubble Screen thought that a new color scheme would suddenly give Kemba Walker super powers.

They overachieved last season. I remember the arguments about the different playoff experiences that their team and our team had.

You were right, the fact that they were trying to max out Gordon Hayward was an indication of how desperate they were for high end offensive talent. They have a lot of good role players but not a great foundation. And as Jefferson declines, they're going to be directionless.

They made a huge blunder picking MKG over Beal. MKG's was better this year before he got hurt, but he's not going to be half the player Beal is.

Or with the full benefit of hindsight, they should have taken Damian Lillard. That team is totally different with him instead.

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By the end of this season there are only going to be five playoff worthy teams in the East: Toronto, Washington, Chicago, Cleveland, and Miami (in that order). Atlanta, Milwaukee, and Orlando as playoff teams is sad. Not a one of them is actually good.

And it's sad that the likes of those teams might make the postseason while OKC, Sacramento, and New Orleans might have to stay home.

The NBA can now send 16 worthy teams to the playoffs, but not 8 from each conference. It's time to seed by record and not record within conference.

Eh, it goes in cycles. It will turn around eventually. East playing East and West playing West creates more rivalries. If you do that for the playoffs you may as well have no divisions or conferences and just line them up 1-30, which would suck.

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They overachieved last season. I remember the arguments about the different playoff experiences that their team and our team had.

You were right, the fact that they were trying to max out Gordon Hayward was an indication of how desperate they were for high end offensive talent. They have a lot of good role players but not a great foundation. And as Jefferson declines, they're going to be directionless.

They made a huge blunder picking MKG over Beal. MKG's was better this year before he got hurt, but he's not going to be half the player Beal is.

Or with the full benefit of hindsight, they should have taken Damian Lillard. That team is totally different with him instead.

 

They have some decent prospects in Zeller and Vonleh but they badly lack high end talent. At best I see them becoming a Milwaukee Bucks style perennial 8th seed thats playoff practice for 1/2 seeds.

 

You really can't win in any conference unless you have high quality wing players. The Hornets have a combo guard (Walker) who is at best a 6th man and Lanthe who is the prototypical role player, except he's crazy and thinks he's a superstar.

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They have some decent prospects in Zeller and Vonleh but they badly lack high end talent. At best I see them becoming a Milwaukee Bucks style perennial 8th seed thats playoff practice for 1/2 seeds.

 

You really can't win in any conference unless you have high quality wing players. The Hornets have a combo guard (Walker) who is at best a 6th man and Lanthe who is the prototypical role player, except he's crazy and thinks he's a superstar.

Zeller has taken a big step back this season statistically, wonder what his issue is?

Vonleh is really really raw. He's years away from becoming a complete player. Their future is probably better than their present, but you're right. I think they need to make a move to get a legit big time perimeter player.

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