Random NBA Observations 2022 - 2023

[Flight]

Winning player

 

[LezJepzin]

what a comeback

 

[Primetime]

Denver's defense failed them big time coming down the stretch of this 1

Sacramento hunted Jokic on defense every time.

 

[ALonelyDad]

Warriors winning without Steph instead of going on a 20 game losing streak

 

[Flight]

 

[The God Poster]

Sacramento hunted Jokic on defense every time.

Negged

Coli gets mad when Jokic flaws are brought up

 

[eXodus]

Twolves some of the biggest crybabies in the league

 

[GunRanger]

Warriors have the best home record in the league

They also have the worst road record in the league

 

[NOSaintsFan02]

Can't lie, we jacked TF out the 49ers with this lol

 

[Nero Christ]

Sacramento hunted Jokic on defense every time.

yep that pnr action...truthfully Denver can't have both him & MPJ out there in clutch time

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.

Getting back to this point earlier...It's funny 5-8 years ago...folks feared the big man was going extent and to see now that a skilled big is still who after all these years what teams want to build around is amazing. Goes to show as great as a guard can be...you still need more parts to make everything fit whereas a top tier Big affords a team more room to make a championship contender.

 

[T.he I.nformant]

Nuggets blew it

Terrible play calling down the stretch

Not enough imagination

Have Bones dribble out the clock then make a move off a Jokic pick and either keep it or dump it to Jokic

Yuck, it’s no Jamal-Jokic combo

Plus it just takes everyone else out of the game

 

[Conscious Pilot]

 

[Gil Scott-Heroin]

Warriors winning without Steph instead of going on a 20 game losing streak

4-3 ever since Steph went down (three of those wins have been against teams with winning records too). They've been missing Wiggins as well. I know TheColi is furious they can't get off their Dray/Kerr hot takes.

 

[Gil Scott-Heroin]

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.

The very next night -


He just keeps on delivering.

 

[Thavoiceofthevoiceless]

I dunno what the solution is tbh but i mentioned it last year that altho the title was unquestionably the best thing for Giannis's career, it could also end up being damning because of the false sense of legitimacy it gives his core supporting cast.

i.e. Mgt will stick with them longer than they should.

If LAC is highkey brittle, then MIL is lowkey brittle. Their big 3 routinely miss 15-20 games a season, and at least 1 of them are always hobbled in the playoffs.

Honestly, the majority of the league and their big 3 is brittle and not just the LAC and Bucks. You're going to be hard pressed to find a Big 3 that is able to be on the court together over an 82 game season. Get to the playoffs and they'll be fine as the only real threat to them is the Celtics as Cleveland isn't ready yet with a hole at the 3 and lack of wing defenders/