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

[Going Commando]

I wouldn't call LeBron an underachiever. I think he shucked that label when he won his first ring. After he did that, he's only lost playoff series to teams that were better. And for his second ring, that Spurs team was evenly matched.

Twenty years from now, young people might ding LeBron for his Finals record. But in doing so, they'll be forgetting that the West has been the far superior conference throughout LeBron's career. He played a legit opponent every finals, and his team could not have been called the favorite in three out of six series. And if he makes it against Golden State again, then he won't be the favorite in this one either. His only egregious loss and performance in the Finals was against the Mavs in 2011. But even that's not really that terrible. The Mavs were running off one of the greatest individual postseason performances in NBA history from one of the league's all time great players. Dirk mowed down a whole lot of great players that year, ending the Lakers dynasty and putting off the ascent of OKC and Miami.

[Mr. Sinister]

No excuse for 2011 and maybe 2009, but the rest of those losses were expected.

And honestly, the 09 Magic put on some of the best shooting I've ever seen (didn't translate to the Finals) and just rained threes from everywhere while Dwight overmatched Cleveland's interior.

That being said, underachiever is quite frankly a stupid term to describe him. He's unquestionably one if the greatest players to ever live, and played on many teams that were dwarfed by teams other stars if his calibre played on

[Destino]

Lebron's narrative would be better if he'd won more championships. All those losses muck up a great story and the media really likes the old "the best player on the floor wins the series" line. So with that thinking it's easy to arrive at the underachieving claim.

Problem is that the best player doesn't win. The best organizations with the right mix of talent and coaching do. If the best players always won, that OKC team with two MVP caliber players would have won some by now.

[Gamebreaker]

From what I recall of that off-season when Mark Jackson was fired, he would've got another coaching gig for next season but Jackson is also a Pastor of a church in California and he didn't want the coaching position interfering with it. That essentially put him out of the running for every position that isn't the Kings, Lakers, Clippers and Warriors. 

[Taco Bell]

Sorry haha, I forgot that I dropped a hot take in here without realizing that there has probably been more long running nuanced discussion about these players along the way.

 

But, to be honest however,  I definitely stand by my remarks about Lebron.  I mean, obviously when I use the term "underachiever" it's relative and specific to his talent, history, and expectation, so, taking the word on it's own like it's sacrilege is fine but there aren't better descriptors to use for what I am saying.  Just replace it with "He could have accomplished so much more" if you'd like, I'm not sticking by underachiever like it's some sort of label.  Like more a Peyton Manning type underachiever where regular season success and pedigree are at an odds with championships attained yet there is still no doubt how great of a player he is. 

 

I think so people can get a better sense of my overall stance, I also root for him when push comes to shove over everyone else since he's still the player currently in the NBA with the potential to have the greatest legacy based on where he's at both past and future... so criticism of him is more in the constructive sense.  

 

I know he's getting up there in years now, but he still has plenty of time to re-write his history, and yes, he is indeed a top 10 or better player of all time, but that's the thing about him - he "should" be a top 1-2-3 player of all time unequivocally given his skillset.  

 

Here's another reason as to why, for me at least, it's easy to root for lebron.  It's that unlike other players, lebron "feels" more human quite literally because he's shown he could cave under pressure in huge moments.  That first finals appearance against the mavs with the heat revealed a player, even as good as he is, actually try to stay away from the ball when the pressure rose.  There were so many possessions where Lebron wasn't even on the t.v. screen he was so far away from the action.  

 

And look, this type of behavior has always coincided with the long running narrative about Lebron passing the ball away in crunch time.  He can say it as many times as he wants, we get it, if he thinks he has a "matchup" he likes, he justifies passing the ball away due to something like that.   But the problem is, everyone in the arena knows that "should" be Lebrons shot.  Including the players that pretty much get the pressure passed on to them that aren't necessarily ready for moments like that.  Sure, there are times when the paint might get collapsed to the degree it makes sense to kick the ball out, but I'd say far more than 75% of the time Lebron should have been taking the last shot instead of kicking the ball out.  Second, Lebron doing his 1 on 1 shot stuff instead of driving the ball to the basket for last shots is the same boat.  Again, sometimes, it makes sense to do a jumper instead of drive, but there are so many times where he took a bad shot when he could have done a better one, and that again deals with overall apprehensiveness.  And again, this isn't only about last shots, it's about key moments in general.

 

After the back to backs in miami, I really hoped that he would have had the capability of putting his team on his back against the 2014 spurs.  But again, there's always some sort of narrative going on, like cramps for that one.  Sure, the Spurs were a nice team, and the heat were injured, but he doesn't always play like the force of nature he can be on each and every possession.  The heat were straight up outclassed in that series and with the best player in the world on your team the fight should be tougher.  And then again with this 1st Cavs one, it's that he's "fatigued" down the stretch.  

 

I know some people thought he absolved himself with his performance against GS "putting the team on his back," but to me he got off easy due to the "volume" of stats he provided.  Again, contextually within the games, there were way too many specific possessions where he again, does the whole "basketball genius" thing and gets too cute instead of just being aggressive.  And then he would talk about how he's not used to the volume vs. efficiency he was putting up, but, there were tons of missed opportunities there.  And then further, I also get it, maybe he really was at his 100% physical output limits where each and every possession he settled for a bad shot or less than favorable pass was because he had no other resort, but given Lebron's history, apprehensiveness more than likely played a part.  There were winnable games to be had in that series, even without Kyrie and Love.  As great as his stats looked in certain games, that was the point, he could have dropped 50+ some of those games. 

 

Remember, and I'll reiterate again, I root for Lebron first and foremost being a casual NBA fan so let's just all agree that even if you disagree with my thoughts, that we can agree that it's more of a tough love thing on my end whether I am being too hard on him or not. I'm still the dork sitting here hoping he gets 6 rings.  So, I guess you can see why I get annoyed with each and every finals loss.  

[Predicto]

I'm sorry, but I'm not buying it.  LeBron is the farthest thing from an underachiever that I have ever seen.  More than any other player I have ever seen, he carries teams to better results than should be expected given the overall talent of the team around him vis a vis his opponents.  

 

Dirk Nowitski carried the Mavs to a title in 2011.   Dwayne Wade carried the Heat to a title in 2006.  But it generally doesn't work that way, not at all.  The league is too good, too deep.  To say things like "Lebron should have just dropped 50 in some of those games against the Warriors" shows that you don't understand how difficult that is to do.   The Warriors were the best defensive team in the NBA last year.  Criticizing a great player for passing to open teammates instead of ball hogging is also just not a compelling argument. 

[Mr. Sinister]

So, um, if any of you happen to spot Blake Griffins ghost wandering aimlessly, be sure to contact your nearest priest/medium.

I think KG killed him

Edited December 8, 2015 by Mr. Sinister

[Going Commando]

Turnabout is fair play.

[CRobi21]

So, um, if any of you happen to spot Blake Griffins ghost wandering aimlessly, be sure to contact your nearest priest/medium.

I think KG killed him

Last known photograph..

https://vine.co/v/i7DTTwumHY5

Edited December 8, 2015 by STBonecrusher21

[Going Commando]

Slick pass.

[Dr. Do Itch Big]

Warriors with a 44 point first quarter

[Destino]

A lot of chatter on ESPN about the Pacers beating the Warriors tonight.  Seems unlikely. 

[Momma There Goes That Man]

Just ridiculous. Up 30 at the end of 3. The Pacers are arguably the best team in the East

This is madness

[Dr. Do Itch Big]

Nope

[Dr. Do Itch Big]

13 poing game

[Momma There Goes That Man]

Cut it to 9 with 1:20 left. George with a 32-8-6

Curry with a 25-10-6

And Klay Thompson with 39

Edited December 9, 2015 by Momma There Goes That Man

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

They've got a back to back in Boston and Milwaukee coming up. If they win the next two, I don't know when they are going to lose. I know everyone has Christmas circled, but I can't imagine them losing that game on that day in that arena.

 

Just as an FYI, win 33 would be against Denver at home on Jan 2nd.

 

Win 34 would be Charlotte at home on the 4th.

 

That's an impossibility, right?

Edited December 9, 2015 by Lombardi's_kid_brother

[Hersh]

I think every team coming up for Golden State doesn't want the media to say a damn thing about being the team that ends the win streak. It's just constant bulletin board material for GS...though they don't really need it.

[Dr. Do Itch Big]

They are 27-0 if you go back to last years regular season. 

[Destino]

This is an entirely new experience. I've never wondered when an nba team would finally lose their first game. It usually happens soon enough that it never becomes much of a story. These guys have people watching regular season basketball before Christmas.

If they are undefeated after Christmas I think you start wondering if they'll break the lakers record for longest win streak.

[Hersh]

With all that is going on with GS, it's amazing that the Spurs are on a pace to win 67 games and no one really even notices. For 15 years or so they have had the best Franchise in all of sports. Ahead of the Patriots even. As far as I am concerned, they can just put the Spurs and Warriors in the actual finals.

Edited December 9, 2015 by Hersh

[Fergasun]

Byron Scott just removed Julius Randle and D'angelo Russell from the starting line-up for Larry Nance Jr. and Lou Williams.  Their replacements played 10 more minutes a game - Randle still got a double-double.

[StillUnknown]

Byron Scott just removed Julius Randle and D'angelo Russell from the starting line-up for Larry Nance Jr. and Lou Williams.  Their replacements played 10 more minutes a game - Randle still got a double-double.

 

This is why you almost have to look at this season as a red-shirt year for D'Angelo Russell. Been a great rookie class, but he is in the worst place to showcase any immediate success.

[MattFancy]

With all that is going on with GS, it's amazing that the Spurs are on a pace to win 67 games and no one really even notices. For 15 years or so they have had the best Franchise in all of sports. Ahead of the Patriots even. As far as I am concerned, they can just put the Spurs and Warriors in the actual finals.

 

I noticed that yesterday when checking out the standings. It's crazy they they could win 67 games and still not win the conference.

[RonArtest15]

I feel bad for the young lakers.  Byron Scott is the worst coach in the league...by a longshot, and we all know he's there just to appease Kobe on his farewell tour.  They're letting Kobe, who's washed, do whatever he wants at the detriment of developing the younger players and actually rebuilding.  It's a shame as to what's going on.  Anyone else would have found a healthy balance between developing guys like Randle, Russell, Clarkson and letting Kobe be Kobe.