NBA 2022-2023

Wolves had higher expectations going into this season but clearly they are still as immature as the last years.

While it's still an immature team, it's worth mentioning that they played the majority of the season without their best player. And injuries to key players have been an issue all season long.
 
I haven't paid any attention to the Mavericks during the last month. Did they tank or were they subpar?

From the little I have seen, they are just a highly flawed team. They can't really defend anything whether we are talking about the paint or the perimeter, they can't rebound and offensively the chemistry between Irving and Doncic isn't natural, I'm pretty sure that with an offseason these two could become unguardable but the defensive issues would remain.
They fecked up so badly with the trade for Irving that their season went down the gutter. When it became clear how badly they fecked up, they started tanking for the last few games. But none of this was planned. It’s the consequence of mismanagement.
 
While it's still an immature team, it's worth mentioning that they played the majority of the season without their best player. And injuries to key players have been an issue all season long.
I don’t think Towns is their best player. I think Edwards has already taken over that role.
 
I don’t think Towns is their best player. I think Edwards has already taken over that role.

Town is their best player, it shouldn't even be debated. Edwards is the player they should build around because he clearly has all the tools to be their best player in the near future but today Towns is the most consistent and complete player of the two. It's not going to last because Edwards improves continuously but he hasn't overtaken Towns.
 
Town is their best player, it shouldn't even be debated. Edwards is the player they should build around because he clearly has all the tools to be their best player in the near future but today Towns is the most consistent and complete player of the two. It's not going to last because Edwards improves continuously but he hasn't overtaken Towns.
I only slightly disagree. Mainly because I think Edwards is already better and more consistent on defense than Towns ever was. Otherwise we’re in agreement.
 
They fecked up so badly with the trade for Irving that their season went down the gutter. When it became clear how badly they fecked up, they started tanking for the last few games. But none of this was planned. It’s the consequence of mismanagement.

The funny thing is it didn’t really crash the way one might have expected it to, given who’s involved. At least from what I saw (don’t know if the numbers would back this up), Irving was actually playing very well and not in a way likely to cause chemistry problems. He wasn’t ball hogging, he was picking his spots and scoring efficiently, I guess similar to the Kyrie that found a role alongside Harden and KD.
That’s not to say it wouldn’t crash and burn longer term if he stayed, but short term it seemed to work well enough.

Their problem, which was also predictable and predicted, was of course a terrible defense meaning that they need to be historically good on the other end, and the fact that the trade stripped them of any assets they might have had to address that imbalance. I also got the impression Luka was not at his best those few games before they started tanking, and they needed him to be, they have no margin for error.

I guess this likely 10th pick is an asset, but who the feck knows what they do with the Kyrie situation. Can they afford not to re-sign him?
 
I only slightly disagree. Mainly because I think Edwards is already better and more consistent on defense than Towns ever was. Otherwise we’re in agreement.

Towns is a good defender when he isn't asked to do things he can't do, like drop coverage, he also spent the vast majority of his career without help on defense since the Wolves somehow couldn't find perimeter defenders. Towns is at worst a slightly below average defender while being an elite scorer. Edwards is a very good but worse scorer and while he is turning into a good to very good individual defender, he is still lacking when it comes to team defense.

But we are talking about a 21 years that is getting closer to a 27 years old with every passing weeks. So it won't last and he will be better than Towns, it's just not the case yet.
 
They fecked up so badly with the trade for Irving that their season went down the gutter. When it became clear how badly they fecked up, they started tanking for the last few games. But none of this was planned. It’s the consequence of mismanagement.

It was ludicrous they took him and it is they are thinking to keep him for the long run as well: it basically means depleting an already depleted team to serve two ballhandlers that will also share the numbers, declining for both.
 
I'm a bit surprised that they didn't go for someone like Naz Reid, maybe they will find a way to get him this offseason but it's the kind of player that I believe suits Doncic, he can shoot, he tries defensively even if he isn't great and he is going to cut and move on offense which is what playmakers like Doncic or Jokic love, I wouldn't be surprised if he averaged 25 points with the Mavs before the Irving trade.

To me Russell and Reid was the move for the Mavs at the trade deadline.
 
No one man should have all that power. And if there is such a man, it shouldn't be Perkins

Yep, Dude is an idiot but First Take and all that shite must love him, he is driving engagement. The whole media circus that Stephen A Smith and Skip Bayless popularized always needs new useful idiots as provocateurs.

On a different note Doncic deserves a lot of criticism, don't like the way he has developed as a player, too ball dominant, no interest in improving his conditioning and defense and his attitude stinks. Hopefully this failure humbles him and he adapts his game, learns to play off ball and work with other ball handlers.
 
The funny thing is it didn’t really crash the way one might have expected it to, given who’s involved. At least from what I saw (don’t know if the numbers would back this up), Irving was actually playing very well and not in a way likely to cause chemistry problems. He wasn’t ball hogging, he was picking his spots and scoring efficiently, I guess similar to the Kyrie that found a role alongside Harden and KD.
That’s not to say it wouldn’t crash and burn longer term if he stayed, but short term it seemed to work well enough.

Their problem, which was also predictable and predicted, was of course a terrible defense meaning that they need to be historically good on the other end, and the fact that the trade stripped them of any assets they might have had to address that imbalance. I also got the impression Luka was not at his best those few games before they started tanking, and they needed him to be, they have no margin for error.

I guess this likely 10th pick is an asset, but who the feck knows what they do with the Kyrie situation. Can they afford not to re-sign him?
They have to re-sign him. Either that or they must go straight into rebuild as they have no talent to put next to Doncic. They have a 14% chance to hit a top 3 pick and 3% chance to get the top pick so they will probably cling to that slight hope.
 
How dumb can Connelly be on this one, Gobert is suspended by the team for the Lakers game but what about the instigator? Are players allowed to insult a teammate without repercussions?
 
On a different note Doncic deserves a lot of criticism, don't like the way he has developed as a player, too ball dominant, no interest in improving his conditioning and defense and his attitude stinks. Hopefully this failure humbles him and he adapts his game, learns to play off ball and work with other ball handlers.

Agree. People don't talk about it a lot, but it is definitely not all rosy if we are talking about his development. Especially not in the context of him reaching NBA Mount Rushmore status or some other hyperbolic crap they love to pin down to great, young players. Zero off ball movement was evident even before, but once Kyrie came it was difficult to watch at times. Than you add the lack of defense, ball-hogging, etc..

He is young and proper coach can definitely move him in the right direction, but he is not above criticism in all this.
 
Agree. People don't talk about it a lot, but it is definitely not all rosy if we are talking about his development. Especially not in the context of him reaching NBA Mount Rushmore status or some other hyperbolic crap they love to pin down to great, young players. Zero off ball movement was evident even before, but once Kyrie came it was difficult to watch at times. Than you add the lack of defense, ball-hogging, etc..

He is young and proper coach can definitely move him in the right direction, but he is not above criticism in all this.

He's been a professional for what, 8 years now? He's going to have to put in a lot of sacrifice and time to change and improve his game for the better, or else he'll just be what he is and that's a supremely talented, on ball scoring point guard, but cannot defend at the perimeter.
 
Agree. People don't talk about it a lot, but it is definitely not all rosy if we are talking about his development. Especially not in the context of him reaching NBA Mount Rushmore status or some other hyperbolic crap they love to pin down to great, young players. Zero off ball movement was evident even before, but once Kyrie came it was difficult to watch at times. Than you add the lack of defense, ball-hogging, etc..

He is young and proper coach can definitely move him in the right direction, but he is not above criticism in all this.

I like point of references for this one but are there many examples of players that have suddenly developed all these facets of the game after 5 or 6 years in the league?
 
He's been a professional for what, 8 years now? He's going to have to put in a lot of sacrifice and time to change and improve his game for the better, or else he'll just be what he is and that's a supremely talented, on ball scoring point guard, but cannot defend at the perimeter.

I like point of references for this one but are there many examples of players that have suddenly developed all these facets of the game after 5 or 6 years in the league?

Tbf, Jordan mindset turned into more collective one in year 6 I think and Luka will be in his 6th NBA season next year. Obviously, when it came to Jordan it was not so much about Jordan being so young, but more about Phil Jackson being there to convince him he has to play a more collective type of basketball and Phil implementing a proper system. Also, he had Pippen who is pretty much a perfect wingman on the court, hard to ask for a better one. Which is why I said Luka needs a proper coach aside from still being young.

Personally, I don't see Luka completely solving and developing all the bad traits he has in his game (defense, off the ball play, etc), but with a great coach and proper support cast I could see him toning down on them in the future. But for now all this talk about Jordan, LeBron heights are extremely premature. I actually can't think of any true great that had so many 'flaws' at this stage of his career no matter how crazy talented Luka is.
 
It was a genuine question, the only one that I had in mind was Brook Lopez who went from a scoring big to an all defensive team center after years in the NBA.
 
It was a genuine question, the only one that I had in mind was Brook Lopez who went from a scoring big to an all defensive team center after years in the NBA.

Good example, can't think of any other myself. Especially on that truly elite level.
 
It was a genuine question, the only one that I had in mind was Brook Lopez who went from a scoring big to an all defensive team center after years in the NBA.
Brook is still so confusing to me. When I (re)started watching NBA around 2014-15 he was basically a prolific post scorer with very little else to his game, hardly had any outside scoring threat and his defense was average at best (probably borderline bad). When he was traded to Lakers it seemed like his future was to become a bit part offensive scorer off the bench on a good team / primary scoring option on a bad team yet he re-designed his game to a point of it being almost unrecognizable.
 
Personally, I don't see Luka completely solving and developing all the bad traits he has in his game (defense, off the ball play, etc), but with a great coach and proper support cast I could see him toning down on them in the future. But for now all this talk about Jordan, LeBron heights are extremely premature. I actually can't think of any true great that had so many 'flaws' at this stage of his career no matter how crazy talented Luka is.

He will be thrown the max or super-max wherever he chooses to go, so it just depends on what he is looking for: comfort, looks, beaches, tradition, flair, etc.
 
Good win for the Hawks although I'm tempted to believe the Celtics would prefer this match up since they've struggled against the Heat in the past.
 
The McDaniels incident is by far the most disappointing because he is the Wolves best defender and he is developing into a decent scorer. But what he did, reminds me that he had temperament issues in college and he managed to control himself for three years just to wreck his hand on the last game of the season.

On behalf of Laker Nation we thank you for your service. With Mcdaniels the Wolves win that game.

Way closer than it should have been. The dumbass foul by AD at the end was criminal. Dennis saved us.
 
Tbf, Jordan mindset turned into more collective one in year 6 I think and Luka will be in his 6th NBA season next year. Obviously, when it came to Jordan it was not so much about Jordan being so young, but more about Phil Jackson being there to convince him he has to play a more collective type of basketball and Phil implementing a proper system. Also, he had Pippen who is pretty much a perfect wingman on the court, hard to ask for a better one. Which is why I said Luka needs a proper coach aside from still being young.

Personally, I don't see Luka completely solving and developing all the bad traits he has in his game (defense, off the ball play, etc), but with a great coach and proper support cast I could see him toning down on them in the future. But for now all this talk about Jordan, LeBron heights are extremely premature. I actually can't think of any true great that had so many 'flaws' at this stage of his career no matter how crazy talented Luka is.
Luka’s basically this generation’s AI.
 
Brook is still so confusing to me. When I (re)started watching NBA around 2014-15 he was basically a prolific post scorer with very little else to his game, hardly had any outside scoring threat and his defense was average at best (probably borderline bad). When he was traded to Lakers it seemed like his future was to become a bit part offensive scorer off the bench on a good team / primary scoring option on a bad team yet he re-designed his game to a point of it being almost unrecognizable.
One of the best at boxing out too. There’s a reason why despite his underwhelming rebounding numbers, his team rarely gets out-rebounded and his teammates gets career highs in their rebounding averages.

Thank god the Lakers didn’t keep him, he’s basically the ideal teammate for LeBron.
 
One of the best at boxing out too. There’s a reason why despite his underwhelming rebounding numbers, his team rarely gets out-rebounded and his teammates gets career highs in their rebounding averages.

Thank god the Lakers didn’t keep him, he’s basically the ideal teammate for LeBron.
That too, indeed. BTW his post game is still there, he just doesn’t utilize it as frequently and there was a period of time when he did not use it at all. I remember when Giannis went out against Hawks two years ago he killed them inside in one of the following games which won them the series. He still has these games every now and again where he pulls 20+ down there.
 
NBA putting the Lakers on the 9pm timeslot on Sunday for Western Europe is just :drool:
 
That too, indeed. BTW his post game is still there, he just doesn’t utilize it as frequently and there was a period of time when he did not use it at all. I remember when Giannis went out against Hawks two years ago he killed them inside in one of the following games which won them the series. He still has these games every now and again where he pulls 20+ down there.
Yeah, post moves rarely disappear, it’s just that he needs to clear the paint for Giannis drives now and he doesn’t have much opportunity to show off those post moves again.
 
Surprised that Hawks beat Heat but those East play-ins basically only exist to provide cannon fodder to Bucks and Celtics as none of those teams will stand a chance against them.

West are much more interesting as I do expect Lakers to give Grizzlies a series, and I won’t even be surprised for the 8 seed to steal 2 or 3 games from Denver. I want OKC to grab it and reckon tonight’s matchup against NO will be very close.
 
West are much more interesting as I do expect Lakers to give Grizzlies a series, and I won’t even be surprised for the 8 seed to steal 2 or 3 games from Denver. I want OKC to grab it and reckon tonight’s matchup against NO will be very close.

Good prediction!

What a win. So excited about this young team.
 
Good prediction!

What a win. So excited about this young team.
Yeah great win for you guys. You have a good shot to get in now, will largely depend on which Wolves team turns up as well. SGA is really shaping up into a true superstar. The Clippers must still be kicking themselves for trading him away so early in his career.

Also, Raptors blowing a 19 point lead, fecking hell. Bulls v Heat is a good one for the last seed in the East, even though it will likely result in a clean sweep by the Bucks either way.
 
Good prediction!

What a win. So excited about this young team.
I like this team a lot too and I think they did the right thing in trying to compete already this season instead of tanking again. They will still have a bunch of good picks coming their way the next few years plus the addition of Holmgren to this core of young players could be huge next season. Between SGA, Giddey, Jalen and Dort they already have a lot.
 
LeBron is an underdog for the first time in his career in a first round series. Pretty crazy stat that.
 
Yeah great win for you guys. You have a good shot to get in now, will largely depend on which Wolves team turns up as well. SGA is really shaping up into a true superstar. The Clippers must still be kicking themselves for trading him away so early in his career.

Also, Raptors blowing a 19 point lead, fecking hell. Bulls v Heat is a good one for the last seed in the East, even though it will likely result in a clean sweep by the Bucks either way.

I wonder if the Raptors are still interested in Gobert. Maybe the Wolves and Raptors can help each others.
 
I like this team a lot too and I think they did the right thing in trying to compete already this season instead of tanking again. They will still have a bunch of good picks coming their way the next few years plus the addition of Holmgren to this core of young players could be huge next season. Between SGA, Giddey, Jalen and Dort they already have a lot.

A good example of why Portland should cash-in on Dame while he has value and how it can be done. If Sharpe hits plus another good pick good year the rebuild would be 1-2 seasons.
 
A good example of why Portland should cash-in on Dame while he has value and how it can be done. If Sharpe hits plus another good pick good year the rebuild would be 1-2 seasons.
If we could get a similar deal to what OKC got for PG I'd be all for it but it's not going to happen with his contract and relative lack of need of most NBA teams. I think what will happen is Dame will gradually fade to become a less vital piece of the team as we get competitive with our young players developing, which would be greatly facilitated with a no. 1 pick in the upcoming draft (fingers crossed). If we don't get no. 1 I'd still be in favor of drafting a player, even someone like one of Thompson brothers or Brandon Miller, and trying to develop them over the next few years. There have been so many young drafted players who have made immediate impact in recent years that it's not unthinkable you could build with that.

Sharpe I have high hopes for. He had a strong finish to the year and I think he could easily become one of the 3 best players of 2022 class. Someone like Mathurin started stronger but just doesn't have the potential to become a true superstar, which only a select few players from that class possess. Banchero is one, then probably Holmgren, maybe Smith, maybe Ivey, definitely Sharpe - but Keegan Murray and Mathurin are more mature players who can contribute now but won't hit the absolute heights of true superstars. You could see him go bust very easily but similarly you could see him blossoming into something special.

I'd however be in favor of a complete rebuild if we could get a young player, 3 unprotected picks and a couple of swaps. I don't see who could even offer that though... he won't go to Orlando etc., maybe Knicks but I don't think even they do that with Brunson playing the way he's been. I literally don't see a team with immediate need for Dame that would be willing to part with significant assets. Everyone has already parted with their assets... I'd for example easily take the Gobert deal today but it's not there anymore.