Random NBA Observations 2022 - 2023
- Thread starter Big Jo
- Start date
Illin Degenerate
All Star
youre up 9 with 33 seconds left why not play the foul game youself? why are you even letting them take the first 3 pointer to cut it to a 2 score game?
Play in question was Plumlee rolling to the rim, and Donte ended up sinking in to help (which he didn't need to do) and the moment Dray saw Donte's man was open in the corner, he fouled Plumlee (the Warriors were over the limit) instead of giving up the open shot in the corner, which PJ actually hit in the midst of the ref blowing the whistle.
Plumlee then proceeded to miss both FTs.
The way he hedged on LaMelo suggests he was forcing the pass to Plumlee, and I wouldn't even be surprised if he always had intentions on fouling him from the start.
It's by no means the smartest defensive play he's made, but it certainly speaks to him being one step ahead of everyone else on that end. Even in his reduced physical state, he still finds a way to be arguably the most impactful player on that end of the floor.
Last edited:
It's so wild to me that there are actually people that won't recognize how impactful he is.
Yes, he's a loudmouth, yes he's had some 'questionable' plays, yes he's an absolute moron for the entire Poole debacle, but he's really an amazing player in how he sees/manages the game.
People letting his brashness cloud their vision, missing one of the best defensive minds OAT.
As an aside, the modern evolution of the big man has been amazing.
You can argue small ball expedited it, since the simple explanation for that play style was to mazimize spacing for your best player vs advanced defenses (i.e. LeBron) yet big men of that era weren't skilled enough shooters for defenses to honor.. hence the downsizing strategy with forwards (i.e. Battier) at the 4 and 5. This of course became a trade off with compromised rebounding and post-defense.
But once bigs started to level up (i.e. Brook Lopez, Marc Gasol, etc) all of a sudden the end goal of small ball could be accomplished without the compromise.
To your point, there was a concurrent evolution where heliocentric ball (i.e. Bron-ball, Harden-ball, CP3-ball, Luka-ball, etc)... having your best player apply constant pressure on defenses with scoring and facilitating... was typically perimeter oriented. Downside is this would often turn dexterous big men (i.e. Bosh, Love, Ayton, etc) into basic bytch spotup shooters or rim rollers. Not really maximizing any other abilities.
But once again big men have leveled up (i.e. Jokic, Giannis, Zion, etc) where they can assume the role of heliocentric ball as needed but can also switch back to off-ball and conventional play as well (PnR, post-ups, etc). Such bigs are more versatile bc they naturally have other skills for off ball, whereas guards struggle with what to do if they aren't dribbling air out the ball.
VegetasHairline
Veteran
VegetasHairline
Veteran
VegetasHairline
Veteran
VegetasHairline
Veteran
VegetasHairline
Veteran
IIVI
Superstar
Yup.
The next generation of passing bigs who can also do so much more are pretty much on the way.
Everyone knows about Wemby, however there are others the next couple of drafts:
7'0 former pure point guard this draft:
Next few drafts:
7'3 cat from Spain
China got one lined up:
Next step will be the United States building these cats up. Fallen behind a little, but you can't count out the U.S. There's cats right now in America studying Jokic, Giannis, etc.
Last edited:
Yikes
staticshock
Veteran
Please get this toxic nikka outta my city
