NBA 2024-2025: Celtic Pride

[Betterread]

Nobody had scored more than 104 or shot better than 42% against the Thunder so far this season.
The youngest team in the league, OKC, is easily the best team in the West. POR, the 2nd youngest team in the NBA, can hold its head high, at least for the 1st Half. They are still in the early stages of their rebuild, so playing like this is huge.

Just from reading box scores, I notice that the Blazers are playing some solid D on centers/ PFs this year. In this game Holmgren was ineffective.
Why do the Blazers keep featuring Grant and Simons? They will not be a playoff team with those 1-2 options on offense.
In my opinion, This year, the Blazers really need to feature Sharpe and Scoot to see what they have with them. Both have the special ability to break down defenders and beat them 1 v 1 but other parts of their games are seriously deficient. Key years for both.

[M2]

Why do the Blazers keep featuring Grant and Simons? They will not be a playoff team with those 1-2 options on offense.
In my opinion, This year, the Blazers really need to feature Sharpe and Scoot to see what they have with them. Both have the special ability to break down defenders and beat them 1 v 1 but other parts of their games are seriously deficient. Key years for both.

I assume they're looking to trade all of Grant, Simons and Ayton over the next year. They've got a couple hundred million tied up in those guys. Gotta play them if you want to trade them. Otherwise they're eating a fortune. Ayton might be the highest priority guy to trade because Donovan Clingan looks ready out of the box. Sharpe's out with a shoulder injury right now.

[Kingspoint]

Just from reading box scores, I notice that the Blazers are playing some solid D on centers/ PFs this year. In this game Holmgren was ineffective.
Why do the Blazers keep featuring Grant and Simons? They will not be a playoff team with those 1-2 options on offense.
In my opinion, This year, the Blazers really need to feature Sharpe and Scoot to see what they have with them. Both have the special ability to break down defenders and beat them 1 v 1 but other parts of their games are seriously deficient. Key years for both.

Multiple reasons for playing Grant and Simons often, but at the same time, they are getting minutes for the 20-year old Rayan Rupert (2nd round pick from last year), Jabari Walker, Jr. (3rd year), Kris Murray (2nd year), Clingan (leads the league in blocks/36 and near the top in rebounds/36), Scoot (he's better off the bench right now and has already shown great growth after last season...he leads the NBA in both drives to the paint (think he was 4th last season, so he knows his bread-and-butter), and is 4th from shots within 5 feet of the rim), and Toumani Camara, a permanent piece in the Sharpe/Scoot/Clingan/Adjiva/Rupert timeline).

They are trying to showcase Grant and Simons so at least one of them is traded mid-season, likely Grant.

Chauncey is in the final year of his gauranteed money (team option next season), so he's trying to show that he can win, while also sticking with the plan of development.

Nothing is scarier than watching teams that tanked for too long and put a losing culture into the minds of the players, so they want to try to play the right way and that takes some Veterans to play, though Simons is easily the worst Defender on the team, while he doesn't make those around him better Offensively overall. Simons is really one-dimensional in a Buddy Hield kind of way. He would help any team best by being a scorer off the bench, more specifically, a 3-point shooter. Grant or Simons is on the floor at all times. Never are they both off of the floor. Simons is one of these players that has one good game out of five, where he makes a difference in the outcome with a 7-11 night from "3". Blazers had 9 guys hit "3"'s in the win in the new Clippers forum, so they don't need that anymore. They spread the ball around better this year, which is a stark contrast to the last two seaon's of Grant and Simons playing Iso ball for the majority of the game. Chauncey is actually coaching pretty well. It's all Drive-Kick, Drive-Kick, Drive-Kick. Simons doesn't drive, then Kick, he drives and throws up a ridiculous shot that gets blocked or he somehow manages to make it, but he's really pretty stupid on both ends of the floor. He just doesn't get it. He's got great Offensive skills that he doesn't know how and when to use them. He really needs someone who demands discipline like a Spoelstra to turn him into an All-Star (on one end of the floor, at least).

Even with Grant and Simons playing a lot and Chauncey Coaching, the team's ceiling is still 34 wins, a mid-lottery team at best as you referenced. Sharpe isn't getting any minutes because of his pre-season injury that's keeping him out until Thanksgiving. When he gets back, he'll play. Unfortunately, that takes away minutes from Kris Murray, Rupert, Camara and Adjiva, even Scoot, and definitely Walker. You'd think it would take away minutes from Simons and Grant, but there's this NBA thing where Veterans get minutes they shouldn't be getting, and they will still be showcasing both before the trade deadline. I think there's a 99% chance that one of them is traded at the deadline for the exact reason that you asked the question, and it's probably an 80/20 chance that it's Grant and a 50/50 chance that it's the Lakers. The Blazers have to free up minutes in the 2nd Half of the season for Avdija, Camara, Rupert, Sharpe & Scoot.

When Sharpe comes back, rather than have him play out of position, he'll start moving Toumani Camara to the bench, which removes the team's best Defensive option (where he guards the point and/or the best player). Avdija will continue to play the "3", as he's the most important Offensive piece on the team, he makes the hockey assist, he drives to the basket more than any player on the team other than Scoot, he rebounds (Grant doesn't, so he's needed), he blocks shots, he gets to the free-throw line helping with transition, and he gets great Assists on the drives. At times, Chauncey will start Camara because the cost of not having him play the point from the opening tip is too costly and gets the team into holes too difficult to come out of.

When Grant gets traded, Deni Avdija moves to the "4" and Camara to the "3", Sharpe continues to start at the "2", while playing some "3" in a 3-Guard lineup. As of right now, POR is the tallest team in the NBA, so they generally are winning the rebound battle (but not last night as OKC dominated them with effort in the 3rd Quarter). Grant is playing the best Defense of his life. Don't know if he's showcasing his trade value or buying into Chauncey's system, but I think it's the latter. The Defense is much better with Camara and Advija on the floor at the same time. So far, Shaedon Sharpe is a below-average Defender. He needs all of this season to improve upon that. Sharpe is not even close to as good of a player as Camara. He's much younger, though and has the higher ceiling, of course. When Sharpe comes back the team will be worse as far as winning games, but Sharpe's development is a must, possibly the most important thing this season for POR other than to make certain that they get a Top-7 lottery pick, with Top-4 a preference.

Grant getting traded is also going to open up the opportunity to see Ayton at the "4" alongside Clingan. They have to know by the end of the Summer whether to trade Ayton or keep him (and how much to offer). Keeping him means that he'll play the "4" mostly with Clingan starting at the "5". As much as Ayton wants, his reality of what he'll get offered is far less. Other than Walton, Ayton is the only Blazer to start every game of the season with double-double's through 4 (now 5). Walton did it 32 times (that was probably the year he got injured when POR was 50-10).

While Joe Cronin will certainly take an offer for Simons if it's decent at the trade deadline, there's no rush this year. Injuries happen (Thybulle will be getting minutes here, soon, as will RWIII (likely traded before the trade deadline along with Grant, but to different destinations). The injuries that will happen that are yet to be seen will play a part in where minutes are distributed, and they tend to unblock any logjams as any REDS' fan is totally aware of. Simons can't be on the team in 2025-2026, as the quality 2025 1st Round lottery pick will need minutes, too.

Sorry about the length of this, but these are all the reason why Grant and Simons are still playing a lot. Positively, they are not playing anything like they did the last two years with both of them having significantly lower usage rates (if I understand how usage rates are calculated, which I honestly actually don't), but I know they have the ball in their hands a lot less as it's moving more, and that main reason is because of the addition of Deni Advija. The ball gets to Deni and then good things happen. Advija is easily the most efficient player on the team. Everything he does leads to higher field goal percentage opportunities for everyone else. He's the ultimate player in "making your teammates better around you". I imagine that his on-floor/off-floor stats are going to be the best on the team at the end of the year, rivaling Camara's, but probably better because he can do so many more things. Camara's learning fast as evidenced by his excellent 3-pt shooting already this season, drives the basket and usage of both hands around the basket. Camara already gets the Defensive respect by Officials that an All-NBA Defensive player would receive. The Blazers have never had anyone get that kind of respect in the last 30 years.

Btw, great win for the T-Wolves. They are only going to get better and better as they adjust to their new players and new style of play...it has to be a different style without Towns and with their new players.

MIN, OKC and DAL are locks as top-3 in the West. Should be a battle for who gets to host the 1st Round as the 4th Seed. M2 may be 100% correct and that it could be the Warriors. I was thinking HOU, but it could be SAC, HOU or the GSW. LAC, LAL, NOP, MEM will all be competing for the play-in. I was wrong about PHO (which I believe you were right about them). The additions of Tyus Jones and Monte Morris has completely transformed the team from last season. The lack of a PG last season was disastrous. Had no idea that Bradley Beal had struggled that badly. Always new Booker was bad at it (as bad as Simons and worse than C. J.). Tyus Jones was heaven-sent. HOU is going to have to look elsewhere if it wants to land a major piece at the trade deadline because they aren't getting Durant now.

PHO is definitely in the conversation for 4-5-6 in the West, along with HOU, GSW and SAC. That pushes one of them into the play-in, which knocks one of LAC, LAL, NOP & MEM into the lottery. I think POR will finish ahead of UTA & SAS in the West, but behind LAC, LAL, MEM & NOP. In all of this, I forgot about DEN. I'll throw them into the HOU, GSW, SAC & PHO mix of the teams competing for 4-5-6, which now knocks two of LAL, LAC, MEM & NOP into the lottery. Those four teams should be active at the trade deadline.

[Kingspoint]

I assume they're looking to trade all of Grant, Simons and Ayton over the next year. They've got a couple hundred million tied up in those guys. Gotta play them if you want to trade them. Otherwise they're eating a fortune. Ayton might be the highest priority guy to trade because Donovan Clingan looks ready out of the box. Sharpe's out with a shoulder injury right now.

Clingan looks like he'll be Starting at Center next year, but I think POR knew this when they drafted him. The only scenario where Ayton stays, and they will explore it after they trade Grant, is if Ayton at "4" and Clingan at "5" can work together. Give Ayton half a season to work on his 3-point shot (he was 2-2 against the Clippers...he was 2-10 all of last season...Clingan was 1-1 against them) and Clingan half a season to ramp up his minutes in addition to getting a look at all the teams in the league once, and then when Grant is traded, they can explore how it looks.

POR also has to have a good understanding of who to protect when the expansion draft hits. They have more than they can protect (any players acquired in trades of Thybulle/Ayton/Simons/Grant/RWIII, plus what they have on the roster plus their 2025 lottery pick).

Only 8 players can be protected:

Sharpe, Scoot, Deni, Cling, 2025 1st round pick. (Our future starting lineup !?)

Then Simons, Grant, Ayton because they are trade assets we can't lose for nothing. But if we trade all of those 3 we should get back at least 1 player we don't want to lose. So, there's 6.

I would then add Camara and Rupert to make up the 8.

The sooner we can trade Simons, Grant and Ayton, the less likely we need to protect one of them and end up choosing between keeping them and keeping Camara or Rupert.

BTW, Zubac has scored 20 points against every team except POR this season. POR's size can't be matched. OKC showed how it can be ineffective by having six hands going after every pass into the paint. Tonight POR flies to PHO on a 2nd of a back-to-back for POR. The Suns have to regret enormously trading away Camara and Ayton for Nurkic. PHO will be rested after beating the Clippers on Thursday.

[M2]

BTW, Zubac has scored 20 points against every team except POR this season. POR's size can't be matched. OKC showed how it can be ineffective by having six hands going after every pass into the paint. Tonight POR flies to PHO on a 2nd of a back-to-back for POR. The Suns have to regret enormously trading away Camara and Ayton for Nurkic. PHO will be rested after beating the Clippers on Thursday.

That's turned into a great trade, largely thanks to Camara.

On the expansion list stuff, I don't think it's going to be an issue until 2026 at the earliest. Even if the NBA announces Seattle and Vegas franchises at some point this season (I've seen some speculation that it could be done right before Christmas), they won't be ready to play by the start of the 2025-26 season. They've got to assemble their front offices, do a ton of scouting and, on the business side of things, sign a few thousand contracts just to get ready to operate.

[texasdave]

Nowadays, MJ would have tried a step-back 3.


https://www.facebook.com/reel/1082395773556673

[M2]

Buddy Hield just entered the NBA's all-time top 20 in 3-pointers made, passing J.J. Redick. Will be past #17, Jason Kidd (with Dirk Nowitzki and Joe Johnson in there), in 2-3 weeks.

[redsfan9988]

Rockets are disrespecting the game of basketball tonight by showing absolutely no effort while getting run out of their own gym by the Warriors.

GS will be pretty good if they shoot 60% from 3.

[M2]

Rockets are disrespecting the game of basketball tonight by showing absolutely no effort while getting run out of their own gym by the Warriors.

GS will be pretty good if they shoot 60% from 3.

This game is yet another proof point that no lead is safe in the NBA. Should be a wild finish.

[redsfan9988]

Rockets are disrespecting the game of basketball tonight by showing absolutely no effort while getting run out of their own gym by the Warriors.

GS will be pretty good if they shoot 60% from 3.

Eh… nevermind.

[redsfan9988]

Rockets lose…

Tari Eason is a championship player. If he can ever get healthy enough to play 82, he’s gonna be real.

Got his 5th foul with like 8 to go in the 3rd. Proceeded to play the rest of the game and OT (minus a 2 minute rest) and scored 16 more points.

27 points, 9 boards, 5 steals, 3 blocks. He collapsed on the floor after the game ended. Gave 140% effort playing 21 of the last 23 minutes and dominating on both ends.

It’s almost comical how much better he is than Jabari Smith. Time to start that guy.

[M2]

Hopefully Steel or goreds2 rolls in to talk about the Sixers soon. This crew doesn't seem to work without Embiid or PG. Doesn't look like Maxey's ready to be an ace yet.

[redsfan9988]

Donovan Mitchell with a big shot to keep the Cavs unbeaten in Milwaukee.

Bucks are 1-5. I still think they’re fine. 5 or 6 seed. I’d be more concerned if Indiana and Philly weren’t equally horrible.

[M2]

Donovan Mitchell with a big shot to keep the Cavs unbeaten in Milwaukee.

Bucks are 1-5. I still think they’re fine. 5 or 6 seed. I’d be more concerned if Indiana and Philly weren’t equally horrible.

Indiana's the slow starter in the East that I think will get their act together (though Myles Turner could be a lingering problem). Yet let's say that none of Indiana, Philly or Milwaukee get their acts together. Who comes rushing through that door?

[redsfan9988]

Indiana's the slow starter in the East that I think will get their act together (though Myles Turner could be a lingering problem). Yet let's say that none of Indiana, Philly or Milwaukee get their acts together. Who comes rushing through that door?

Bulls? Magic once Banchero is back?

[Mitri]

Bulls? Magic once Banchero is back?

I think M2 assumes Magic will be a top team in the East. They may even finish top 3 (though I'd argue it will be the Celtics, Cavs, Knicks then Magic).

The Heat will stick around and I agree that the Pacers will figure it out and be in the mix for a top-4 seed.

Injuries will continue to hamper the Bucks and Sixers and we could very well see them both in the play-in.

My prediction for team who could surprise in the East: the Raptors. Barnes, Barrett and Quickley are an interesting trio and they aren't tanking. I wanted to pick the Bulls, but their defense is awful and I think they'll find a trade partner for Levine. The Hornets are another interesting team that could sneak into the play-in. The Pistons, Nets, Wizards are locks to finish in the bottom. And I have no idea what the Hawks are doing.

[SteelSD]

Hopefully Steel or goreds2 rolls in to talk about the Sixers soon. This crew doesn't seem to work without Embiid or PG. Doesn't look like Maxey's ready to be an ace yet.

Not much to talk about, really. Without Embiid and George, they're doing about what I expected. No gravity elsewhere to free up Maxey, who's forced tough shots all season long because other teams know all they need to do to suppress scoring is to plaster a defender to him and dare other players to create shots. Right now the team is too short, limited offensively, and everyone is being called on to do too much.

On the plus side, it's giving minutes to Jared McCain, who played well last night. On the downside, who knows when Embiid and George will return. And when that happens, Embiid will probably be facing a game or two suspension for shoving a reporter, who recently implied that Embiid was disappointing his son for not playing and referenced Embiid's late brother (for whom his son is named), last night.

[M2]

I think M2 assumes Magic will be a top team in the East. They may even finish top 3 (though I'd argue it will be the Celtics, Cavs, Knicks then Magic).

The Heat will stick around and I agree that the Pacers will figure it out and be in the mix for a top-4 seed.

Injuries will continue to hamper the Bucks and Sixers and we could very well see them both in the play-in.

My prediction for team who could surprise in the East: the Raptors. Barnes, Barrett and Quickley are an interesting trio and they aren't tanking. I wanted to pick the Bulls, but their defense is awful and I think they'll find a trade partner for Levine. The Hornets are another interesting team that could sneak into the play-in. The Pistons, Nets, Wizards are locks to finish in the bottom. And I have no idea what the Hawks are doing.

I was assuming the Magic would be in the top 6, though what they are without Banchero will be interesting to see. It's definitely opened up a lane for the Heat. Yet they haven't beaten anybody except a handful of the worst teams in the league (Wizards, Hornets, Pistons). The teams that would seem to have a sudden ray of sunshine are the Bulls, Nets and possibly Hornets. Saw the Hornets a bit the last two days and LaMelo's playing out of his skull. Tre Mann is a microwave. Maybe something will click now that Brandon Miller's back. Chicago's D rating (9th) is way better than it's scoring defense (22nd). No idea what's up with that. The reverse is true for its offense. Tough with 3 guys who should be 20+ (LaVine, White and Vuce), I'm thinking buckets won't be their problem. Brooklyn is the shocker. Cam Thomas (28.2 ppg) has been more than just empty calories. Dennis Schroder (22.0 ppg, 8.0 apg) has been awesome. Their .560 team eFG% is 6th in the league. That bubble probably will burst, but if all they've got to be is competent then they have a chance.

[M2]

Not much to talk about, really. Without Embiid and George, they're doing about what I expected. No gravity elsewhere to free up Maxey, who's forced tough shots all season long because other teams know all they need to do to suppress scoring is to plaster a defender to him and dare other players to create shots. Right now the team is too short, limited offensively, and everyone is being called on to do too much.

On the plus side, it's giving minutes to Jared McCain, who played well last night. On the downside, who knows when Embiid and George will return. And when that happens, Embiid will probably be facing a game or two suspension for shoving a reporter, who recently implied that Embiid was disappointing his son for not playing and referenced Embiid's late brother (for whom his son is named), last night.

Seems like Yabu and KJ Martin are meriting more minutes, and maybe Caleb Martin needs to sit down and think about what he's done.

[Betterread]

Multiple reasons for playing Grant and Simons often, but at the same time, they are getting minutes for the 20-year old Rayan Rupert (2nd round pick from last year), Jabari Walker, Jr. (3rd year), Kris Murray (2nd year), Clingan (leads the league in blocks/36 and near the top in rebounds/36), Scoot (he's better off the bench right now and has already shown great growth after last season...he leads the NBA in both drives to the paint (think he was 4th last season, so he knows his bread-and-butter), and is 4th from shots within 5 feet of the rim), and Toumani Camara, a permanent piece in the Sharpe/Scoot/Clingan/Adjiva/Rupert timeline).

They are trying to showcase Grant and Simons so at least one of them is traded mid-season, likely Grant.

Chauncey is in the final year of his gauranteed money (team option next season), so he's trying to show that he can win, while also sticking with the plan of development.

Nothing is scarier than watching teams that tanked for too long and put a losing culture into the minds of the players, so they want to try to play the right way and that takes some Veterans to play, though Simons is easily the worst Defender on the team, while he doesn't make those around him better Offensively overall. Simons is really one-dimensional in a Buddy Hield kind of way. He would help any team best by being a scorer off the bench, more specifically, a 3-point shooter. Grant or Simons is on the floor at all times. Never are they both off of the floor. Simons is one of these players that has one good game out of five, where he makes a difference in the outcome with a 7-11 night from "3". Blazers had 9 guys hit "3"'s in the win in the new Clippers forum, so they don't need that anymore. They spread the ball around better this year, which is a stark contrast to the last two seaon's of Grant and Simons playing Iso ball for the majority of the game. Chauncey is actually coaching pretty well. It's all Drive-Kick, Drive-Kick, Drive-Kick. Simons doesn't drive, then Kick, he drives and throws up a ridiculous shot that gets blocked or he somehow manages to make it, but he's really pretty stupid on both ends of the floor. He just doesn't get it. He's got great Offensive skills that he doesn't know how and when to use them. He really needs someone who demands discipline like a Spoelstra to turn him into an All-Star (on one end of the floor, at least).

Even with Grant and Simons playing a lot and Chauncey Coaching, the team's ceiling is still 34 wins, a mid-lottery team at best as you referenced. Sharpe isn't getting any minutes because of his pre-season injury that's keeping him out until Thanksgiving. When he gets back, he'll play. Unfortunately, that takes away minutes from Kris Murray, Rupert, Camara and Adjiva, even Scoot, and definitely Walker. You'd think it would take away minutes from Simons and Grant, but there's this NBA thing where Veterans get minutes they shouldn't be getting, and they will still be showcasing both before the trade deadline. I think there's a 99% chance that one of them is traded at the deadline for the exact reason that you asked the question, and it's probably an 80/20 chance that it's Grant and a 50/50 chance that it's the Lakers. The Blazers have to free up minutes in the 2nd Half of the season for Avdija, Camara, Rupert, Sharpe & Scoot.

When Sharpe comes back, rather than have him play out of position, he'll start moving Toumani Camara to the bench, which removes the team's best Defensive option (where he guards the point and/or the best player). Avdija will continue to play the "3", as he's the most important Offensive piece on the team, he makes the hockey assist, he drives to the basket more than any player on the team other than Scoot, he rebounds (Grant doesn't, so he's needed), he blocks shots, he gets to the free-throw line helping with transition, and he gets great Assists on the drives. At times, Chauncey will start Camara because the cost of not having him play the point from the opening tip is too costly and gets the team into holes too difficult to come out of.

When Grant gets traded, Deni Avdija moves to the "4" and Camara to the "3", Sharpe continues to start at the "2", while playing some "3" in a 3-Guard lineup. As of right now, POR is the tallest team in the NBA, so they generally are winning the rebound battle (but not last night as OKC dominated them with effort in the 3rd Quarter). Grant is playing the best Defense of his life. Don't know if he's showcasing his trade value or buying into Chauncey's system, but I think it's the latter. The Defense is much better with Camara and Advija on the floor at the same time. So far, Shaedon Sharpe is a below-average Defender. He needs all of this season to improve upon that. Sharpe is not even close to as good of a player as Camara. He's much younger, though and has the higher ceiling, of course. When Sharpe comes back the team will be worse as far as winning games, but Sharpe's development is a must, possibly the most important thing this season for POR other than to make certain that they get a Top-7 lottery pick, with Top-4 a preference.

Grant getting traded is also going to open up the opportunity to see Ayton at the "4" alongside Clingan. They have to know by the end of the Summer whether to trade Ayton or keep him (and how much to offer). Keeping him means that he'll play the "4" mostly with Clingan starting at the "5". As much as Ayton wants, his reality of what he'll get offered is far less. Other than Walton, Ayton is the only Blazer to start every game of the season with double-double's through 4 (now 5). Walton did it 32 times (that was probably the year he got injured when POR was 50-10).

While Joe Cronin will certainly take an offer for Simons if it's decent at the trade deadline, there's no rush this year. Injuries happen (Thybulle will be getting minutes here, soon, as will RWIII (likely traded before the trade deadline along with Grant, but to different destinations). The injuries that will happen that are yet to be seen will play a part in where minutes are distributed, and they tend to unblock any logjams as any REDS' fan is totally aware of. Simons can't be on the team in 2025-2026, as the quality 2025 1st Round lottery pick will need minutes, too.

Sorry about the length of this, but these are all the reason why Grant and Simons are still playing a lot. Positively, they are not playing anything like they did the last two years with both of them having significantly lower usage rates (if I understand how usage rates are calculated, which I honestly actually don't), but I know they have the ball in their hands a lot less as it's moving more, and that main reason is because of the addition of Deni Advija. The ball gets to Deni and then good things happen. Advija is easily the most efficient player on the team. Everything he does leads to higher field goal percentage opportunities for everyone else. He's the ultimate player in "making your teammates better around you". I imagine that his on-floor/off-floor stats are going to be the best on the team at the end of the year, rivaling Camara's, but probably better because he can do so many more things. Camara's learning fast as evidenced by his excellent 3-pt shooting already this season, drives the basket and usage of both hands around the basket. Camara already gets the Defensive respect by Officials that an All-NBA Defensive player would receive. The Blazers have never had anyone get that kind of respect in the last 30 years.

Btw, great win for the T-Wolves. They are only going to get better and better as they adjust to their new players and new style of play...it has to be a different style without Towns and with their new players.

MIN, OKC and DAL are locks as top-3 in the West. Should be a battle for who gets to host the 1st Round as the 4th Seed. M2 may be 100% correct and that it could be the Warriors. I was thinking HOU, but it could be SAC, HOU or the GSW. LAC, LAL, NOP, MEM will all be competing for the play-in. I was wrong about PHO (which I believe you were right about them). The additions of Tyus Jones and Monte Morris has completely transformed the team from last season. The lack of a PG last season was disastrous. Had no idea that Bradley Beal had struggled that badly. Always new Booker was bad at it (as bad as Simons and worse than C. J.). Tyus Jones was heaven-sent. HOU is going to have to look elsewhere if it wants to land a major piece at the trade deadline because they aren't getting Durant now.

PHO is definitely in the conversation for 4-5-6 in the West, along with HOU, GSW and SAC. That pushes one of them into the play-in, which knocks one of LAC, LAL, NOP & MEM into the lottery. I think POR will finish ahead of UTA & SAS in the West, but behind LAC, LAL, MEM & NOP. In all of this, I forgot about DEN. I'll throw them into the HOU, GSW, SAC & PHO mix of the teams competing for 4-5-6, which now knocks two of LAL, LAC, MEM & NOP into the lottery. Those four teams should be active at the trade deadline.

That is a thorough analysis of the blazers! When I get a chance to see them play, it will help me appreciate the contest better.
Agree with you on OKC. Right now, they are the class of the West.
The Twolves are not “there” yet, they are playing very jnconsistently. Ant is the clear #1 option and he is shooting a lot. Percentages are OK, but I would like to see him take it to the hoop more. But I understand that he is frequently getting doubled and the jumpers are the shots that emerge from the offense. Very impressed with Randle on offense, disappointed (and sometimes shocked) at his defense. McDaniels, Conley and DDV have shot threes poorly, and below career averages. I think they need to acquire another big that can play about 15 min game to help with clogging the lane on Defense. They lost important length in the KAT trade.

[SteelSD]

Seems like Yabu and KJ Martin are meriting more minutes, and maybe Caleb Martin needs to sit down and think about what he's done.

Because Embiid's out, they've basically had to use Yabu as a backup small-ball center. Not really his role and while he's a big dude, he really has no vertical game, which holds down his value on the interior on both ends. I have hope for the guy, but I think it's early to rely on him for 30+ minutes per night. KJ Martin really shouldn't get the minutes he's been getting thus far; doesn't space the floor at all, has no handle to speak of, and is an offensive black hole if he's not cleaing up on the offensive glass. Caleb's game is probably suffering worse than anyone else's due to having to do too much. He's shot poorly and isn't normally a high-end guy from deep, but I simply don't remember him hoisting the volume of contested shots (many late in the shot clock) he's had to thus far. I don't really think there's a fix for thing on the current roster, especially knowing how poorly the team fared with Embiid out last season combined with the fact that two bombers (Batum and Hield) haven't really been replaced.

[M2]

Rockets lose…

Tari Eason is a championship player. If he can ever get healthy enough to play 82, he’s gonna be real.

Got his 5th foul with like 8 to go in the 3rd. Proceeded to play the rest of the game and OT (minus a 2 minute rest) and scored 16 more points.

27 points, 9 boards, 5 steals, 3 blocks. He collapsed on the floor after the game ended. Gave 140% effort playing 21 of the last 23 minutes and dominating on both ends.

It’s almost comical how much better he is than Jabari Smith. Time to start that guy.

Smith question: is he really more of a stretch 5? Seems like whatever he might bring onto the court doesn't really work when there's another quality big out there.

[Kingspoint]

That's turned into a great trade, largely thanks to Camara.

On the expansion list stuff, I don't think it's going to be an issue until 2026 at the earliest. Even if the NBA announces Seattle and Vegas franchises at some point this season (I've seen some speculation that it could be done right before Christmas), they won't be ready to play by the start of the 2025-26 season. They've got to assemble their front offices, do a ton of scouting and, on the business side of things, sign a few thousand contracts just to get ready to operate.

Yes. Figure they begin the 2026-2027 season. So, the latest that POR needs to have traded Grant, Simons, Thybulle, RGIII, Ayton and anyone else they think they'd lose for nothing in the expansion draft who would be outside their top-8 protected by the trade deadline of next year.

[Kingspoint]

This game is yet another proof point that no lead is safe in the NBA. Should be a wild finish.

POR came back from 26 points late in the 3rd quarter @ PHO last night and almost pulled off the upset. A Dalano Banton 3 with 30 seconds left would have put POR up by 1 (and given Banton 15 pts for the Quarter, Banton the 15th player on Portland's roster), but the shot spun around dipping inside the rim for a complete circle before flipping out. POR has outscored their opponents in Quarters 1, 2 & 4 this season by 20 points. It was again the 3rd Quarter last night that did them in with PHO outscoring them 44-16. PHO had 16 Assists in that Quarter and 9 "3"'s. It was another good effort by POR, holding the high-scoring Suns to 43 1st half Points and 103 overall. POR only shot 19% in the 1st Quarter, got down by 13, but managed to have another strong 2nd Quarter and took a 47-43 lead at Halftime. The reserves didn't play well in either half, which is why the 3rd-string Banton got into the game late in the 3rd. Starters were reinserted to begin the 4th to see what would happen and they started hitting a couple of "3"'s and getting some stops, and then it steamrolled on PHO. POR only had 6 Turnovers through 3 Quarters.

POR's height isn't paying off on either Offensive Rebounds or Defensive Rebounds. They are still getting beat to the ball by smaller opponents. It's resulting in fewer transition attempts than they would like to have.

Baby steps. Baby steps. Last night's game was the 2nd consecutive back-to-back's making their comeback even more impressive. The other was a comeback win in LA vs the Clippers. Clippers would go on to lose their next two after that. It's demoralizing to give up a huge lead at home and lose. There's a carryover effect.

This was also Game 5 of 9 straight games in differenct cities. Lot's of early season traveling that doesn't give them a chance to work on anything.

If POR ever figures out how to limit the damage of the 3rd Quarter, they're going to start winning more than losing. They currently have the 5th best DEF rating for 1st Halves in the NBA. If that happens, then Cronin is going to start removing Starters from Chauncey's options because the goal is still to get a Top-5 pick in the 2025 draft.

- - - Updated - - -


Rockets lose…

Tari Eason is a championship player. If he can ever get healthy enough to play 82, he’s gonna be real.

Got his 5th foul with like 8 to go in the 3rd. Proceeded to play the rest of the game and OT (minus a 2 minute rest) and scored 16 more points.

27 points, 9 boards, 5 steals, 3 blocks. He collapsed on the floor after the game ended. Gave 140% effort playing 21 of the last 23 minutes and dominating on both ends.

It’s almost comical how much better he is than Jabari Smith. Time to start that guy.

Eason was one of two choices at Center I wanted POR to get in that draft. HOU drafts really well.

[M2]

The Pelicans have been almost wiped out by injuries. Tonight they're starting Yves Missi, Jose Alvardo, Javonte Green and Jordan Hawkins. To their credit, they're ahead 59-58 at the half against the Hawks.

[Revering4Blue]

The Pelicans have been almost wiped out by injuries. Tonight they're starting Yves Missi, Jose Alvardo, Javonte Green and Jordan Hawkins. To their credit, they're ahead 59-58 at the half against the Hawks.

They could be a real pain when (if) they’re relatively healthy. Portland, with Timelord and Reath in a crowded front court, could be a logical trading partner.

Indiana, with both Wiseman and Jackson sidelined for the year, could also pursue either of the aforementioned bigs.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Kingspoint]

The Pelicans have been almost wiped out by injuries. Tonight they're starting Yves Missi, Jose Alvardo, Javonte Green and Jordan Hawkins. To their credit, they're ahead 59-58 at the half against the Hawks.

There was no Zion. Hope he misses tonight vs POR. This is the 3rd time POR vs NOP has happened this season. I do like the changes to the NBA schedules that COVID has effected. It's still weird, though.

Robert Williams III is "questionable" for the first time this season.

[Kingspoint]

“Yeah, Stephen A., I don’t understand how people even listen to Stephen A.,” Durant told Haller. “I’ve been in the league for 18 years. I’ve never seen Stephen A. at a practice, or a film session, or a shootaround. I’ve never seen him anywhere but on TV talking s–t about players and holding them to standards that he don’t even hold himself to or other people to. He’s a clown to me. He’s always been a clown. You can write that, too.”

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5894224/2024/11/03/kevin-durant-suns-leadership-stephen-a-smith/

[Kingspoint]

There's rebuilding and tanking for the 2025 draft, where there's only a 50% chance of getting a Top-4 pick even if you do finish with the worst record, and then there's this...

Poor shooting is behind a historically bad start for the Jazz, per Andy Larsen of The Salt Lake Tribune. Utah is the NBA’s only winless team at 0-6 and has dropped its last five games by a combined 110 points, making it the worst stretch in franchise history. They rank last in the league in three-point shooting and are 29th in two-point percentage.

You don't want to enter that kind of futility. How you get everyone to work together is a staggering task. Can't be done. No growth can occur this way. Ainge will be making changes soon.

[M2]

There's rebuilding and tanking for the 2025 draft, where there's only a 50% chance of getting a Top-4 pick even if you do finish with the worst record, and then there's this...

Poor shooting is behind a historically bad start for the Jazz, per Andy Larsen of The Salt Lake Tribune. Utah is the NBA’s only winless team at 0-6 and has dropped its last five games by a combined 110 points, making it the worst stretch in franchise history. They rank last in the league in three-point shooting and are 29th in two-point percentage.

You don't want to enter that kind of futility. How you get everyone to work together is a staggering task. Can't be done. No growth can occur this way. Ainge will be making changes soon.

I think Utah's terrible by design. They've basically letting Keyonte George sabotage the whole team on a nightly basis. He's got a -35 Net Rtg and -25.4 +/- per 100. He's taking 15 shots a night (highest on the team) with a .371 eFG%. He's only making 3's at a 23.5% clip and he's firing up 8.5 a game. There might be five studs in the 2025 draft and the Jazz seem determined to get one of them.

[Kingspoint]

I think Utah's terrible by design. They've basically letting Keyonte George sabotage the whole team on a nightly basis. He's got a -35 Net Rtg and -25.4 +/- per 100. He's taking 15 shots a night (highest on the team) with a .371 eFG%. He's only making 3's at a 23.5% clip and he's firing up 8.5 a game. There might be five studs in the 2025 draft and the Jazz seem determined to get one of them.

How does that teach the younger players anything, or help move the franchise in a forward direction? Ainge understands everything, including maintaining a winning culture. He's not going to let that continue.

The outburst by the Head Coach the other day about nobody giving effort lets one know that it's being addressed.

[M2]

How does that teach the younger players anything, or help move the franchise in a forward direction? Ainge understands everything, including maintaining a winning culture. He's not going to let that continue.

The outburst by the Head Coach the other day about nobody giving effort lets one know that it's being addressed.

It doesn't teach them anything, but they may not be overly enamored with their current crop of kids. I'm sure Hardy, who's a good coach, will keep trying to light a fire under their butts, but if the offense is running through George, then the beatings will continue regardless of whether morale improves.

[Kingspoint]

Maybe the good outputs in Quarters 1, 2 & 4 aren't just a Blazer thing, but something in the water here. The Oregon Ducks have the exact same problem. They suck in the 3rd Quarters, too.

[Revering4Blue]

It doesn't teach them anything, but they may not be overly enamored with their current crop of kids. I'm sure Hardy, who's a good coach, will keep trying to light a fire under their butts, but if the offense is running through George, then the beatings will continue regardless of whether morale improves.

While I absolutely agree, you have to believe Ainge didn’t engineer the Obaji/Olynyk deal with Toronto for the rights to PG Isaiah Collier - an overpay, IMO, unless Collier really is another John Wall- level talent, which some scouts believe to be so - without the thought of lightening the ball-handling duties of all of their combo guards (George, Clarkson and Sexton) at some point during the season.

It also doesn’t help that Hendricks ( now out for the season) and Williams are nowhere near nightly rotational- ready players.

It’s not going to be pretty for a while. For comparison, think back to those awful Jazz teams from their first three years or so in Salt Lake, when it was Adrian Dantley, Rickey Green, a young Darrell Griffith and not much else. It’s that type of deep rebuild. And for as much as I like Markkanen, they don’t have a Dantley-level talent at this point. But they will likely be in a position to add another Dominique Wilkins level talent in this upcoming draft - and actually keep said player this time.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[M2]

While I absolutely agree, you have to believe Ainge didn’t engineer the Obaji/Olynyk deal with Toronto for the rights to PG Isaiah Collier - an overpay, IMO, unless Collier really is another John Wall- level talent, which some scouts believe to be so - without the thought of lightening the ball-handling duties of all of their combo guards (George, Clarkson and Sexton) at some point during the season.

It also doesn’t help that Hendricks ( now out for the season) and Williams are nowhere near nightly rotational- ready players.

It’s not going to be pretty for a while. For comparison, think back to those awful Jazz teams from their first three years or so in Salt Lake, when it was Adrian Dantley, Rickey Green, a young Darrell Griffith and not much else. It’s that type of deep rebuild. And for as much as I like Markkanen, they don’t have a Dantley-level talent at this point. But they will likely be in a position to add another Dominique Wilkins level talent in this upcoming draft - and actually keep said player this time.

It's definitely a lot like that down-to-studs rebuild from the early '80s.

Not sure what they think of Collier. They traded for the pick in February. So it wasn't specifically for him. Though I'm sure he'll get some minutes as some point.

[Revering4Blue]

It's definitely a lot like that down-to-studs rebuild from the early '80s.

Not sure what they think of Collier. They traded for the pick in February. So it wasn't specifically for him. Though I'm sure he'll get some minutes as some point.

Man, I had totally forgotten it was a February trade. That makes it seem even more an overpay.

But the point - no pun intended - remains: They lack a true floor general. Even a Monte Morris/ Tyus Jones type would be a monumental upgrade.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[M2]

Man, I had totally forgotten it was a February trade. That makes it seem even more an overpay.

But the point - no pun intended - remains: They lack a true floor general. Even a Monte Morris/ Tyus Jones type would be a monumental upgrade.

And, right on cue, Utah wins their first game of the year with Keyonte George dropping 33 while dishing out 9 assists. They beat the Bulls, who didn't have Zack LaVine, which is no excuse.

Just thinking out loud about that February trade is that maybe its true value is the Jazz are the only team left with cap space, which might enable them to pick up another 1st rounder at the deadline (from a 2nd apron team looking to free itself up to make another move).

[Kingspoint]

And, right on cue, Utah wins their first game of the year with Keyonte George dropping 33 while dishing out 9 assists. They beat the Bulls, who didn't have Zack LaVine, which is no excuse.

Just thinking out loud about that February trade is that maybe its true value is the Jazz are the only team left with cap space, which might enable them to pick up another 1st rounder at the deadline (from a 2nd apron team looking to free itself up to make another move).

Yes, but George was a -1 +/- in 39 minutes while UTA was +10 in the 9 minutes he was on the bench. John Collins was +11 on 12-17 from the floor w/ 13 Rebounds and 5 Assists. Kessler was +7, Patty Mills +9, Sexton +7 and Williams +16. George got Chicago in serious foul trouble getting to the line at will, while shooting lights out from "3" (6-13). The team overall gave a great effort from everyone. Heck of a win and on the road. This was a building block for them.

71 Assists in the game between the two teams. That's great ball movement. I consider a win on the road in Chicago, even without Lavine, a quality win again.

[Kingspoint]

Chauncey may have invented a new weapon never before tried in the NBA...a pure Closer. Someone who doesn't play at all until the 4th Quarter and then, fresh as can be, takes over the game.

D. B. Hooper has been found along the Columbia River!

Dalano Banton came into this game scoring all of his points this season in the 4th Quarter, more 4th Quarter points than guys like Sabonis and Brunson.

After being the Blazers' player of the game two nights ago in PHO with his 12 pts, 2 Stls, a block and great Defense on Durant or whoever the 6'-9" PG tries to cover during POR's 26-pt comeback (that fell just short), came in again at the Start of the 4th Quarter and exploded for 20 pts, 2 Stls, 2 Blks and great Defense again. He personally outscored the Pelicans in the 4th Quarter on 8-9 from the field and a +21 +/- in 12 minutes. New Orleans subs played great the first 3 quarters, but POR began in the 2nd Quarter double-teaming Ingram, but others hit shots until the 4th quarter when the length and aggressiveness and switching abilities of Banton/Camara/Rupert/Avdija/Grant/Ayton/Clingan took over.

RWIII didn't play, but he was available. Chauncey referenced before the game that nobody's every tried playing 3 Centers before, and probably because it doesn't work. It's going to give him an opportunity to try some things. This means somebody is going to have to have minutes at the "4", and that could be Ayton first, and RWIII second with one of the three at Center. I imagine that it will be short spurts of 3 minutes at a time...like the last 2+ minutes of the 1st and 3rd Quarters and first 2+ minutes of the 2nd Quarter.

Also guessing that they will want to give RWIII 6 weeks of playing time before moving him. It's been 365 days since he last played. He'll need 2 weeks just to remember how and get comfortable, 2 weeks to get fully realize the pace that Chauncey wants and 2 more weeks to combine the new pace with Portland's plays so he's in the right spot at the right time. He won't get it in 6 weeks, but after that, he won't be looking lost at this point. Then POR and the rest of the league can see where he's at and make their offers for him. There's no need to move Duop Reath as he'll settle back into being the #3 Center after RWIII is traded, which is where he belongs, especially when either Ayton or Clingan or both start missing some time.

[texasdave]

Zach Edey last night: 25 pts, 12 reb, 4 blks.

[Revering4Blue]

Zach Edey last night: 25 pts, 12 reb, 4 blks.

And he hit his only three-pointer attempt of the night. He is 2-4 from 3 this season. His free throw shooting % is down from his college days so far. But that should normalize to about 72%.

I also found it interesting the Grizz started a frontline of Aldama, JJjr and Edey against the Nets, who were missing both Simmons and Sharpe.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Revering4Blue]

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20241106/d7f8cf67318055d7990738a57a27446a.jpg


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Chip R]

Warriors at Celtics tonight. The Jays may have a little extra to play for tonight.

[Kingspoint]

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20241106/d7f8cf67318055d7990738a57a27446a.jpg


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Note what Tyus Jones has done on Defense, too, for them.

[texasdave]

Jerami Grant to the Rockets? Maybe? https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nba/trail-blazers-predicted-to-cut-ties-with-160-million-scorer-via-trade-to-rockets/ar-AA1tzZIg?ocid=widgetonlockscreen&cvid=1dc0e6d2008f4013883d247fb4c344e6&ei=23

[Kingspoint]

Jerami Grant to the Rockets? Maybe? https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nba/trail-blazers-predicted-to-cut-ties-with-160-million-scorer-via-trade-to-rockets/ar-AA1tzZIg?ocid=widgetonlockscreen&cvid=1dc0e6d2008f4013883d247fb4c344e6&ei=23

Anything is possible. This guy just picked two random names out of his head and didn't even bother to check if it's legally possible, how it could possibly happen if it isn't, and never mind the fact that there's never been a report about POR and HOU being in discussion about any player from either team.

This version of Grant, where he plays Defense, would attract Ime, but any year's previous other than Grant's rookie season would have Ime staying far, far away. Can a player change his ways for a full season? Probably not. Will he revert to his old ways when the pressure of playoff basketball happens? Probably so. I don't believe Ime will be looking at adding any major piece that costs this much unless that person has a history of at least being an average Defender AND above average scorer, or an above average Defender AND average scorer. Some teams don't care, like the Lakers.

I would love to trade Grant to HOU as the Rockets have an abundance of riches in both players and picks that would interest POR. How that could work, I have no idea. I don't understand the 1st Apron (HOU is over), the 2nd Apron and all of the other rules now in a trade, and how exceptions can be used.

[M2]

The Splash Buddies are for real. If you go on that ride, you will get soaked.

[Kingspoint]

The Splash Buddies are for real. If you go on that ride, you will get soaked.

+20 for Hield tonight.

They blew away BOS if you just look at the fast-break points.

[Rojo Rijo]

Man, I was so pumped for Orlando this season and now we've lost Paolo, we've lost 5 straight, and we have at least 16 games if not more before he returns. Looking at the schedule and the way we've been playing this team could potentially be 10+ games under .500 by the time he returns. If that happens it has to be a glaring concern for that team. Sure losing your star player is going to set you back but you've handed out big contracts to Suggs and Franz, contracts where the amounts say this team should still be capable of winning a good amount of games.

Who knows, maybe this will light a fire under management and they'll go out and trade for a big talent, not sure who may be available come Jan/Feb but Orlando has the pieces to meet almost any asking price with the draft picks and young talent they have.

[M2]

Man, I was so pumped for Orlando this season and now we've lost Paolo, we've lost 5 straight, and we have at least 16 games if not more before he returns. Looking at the schedule and the way we've been playing this team could potentially be 10+ games under .500 by the time he returns. If that happens it has to be a glaring concern for that team. Sure losing your star player is going to set you back but you've handed out big contracts to Suggs and Franz, contracts where the amounts say this team should still be capable of winning a good amount of games.

Who knows, maybe this will light a fire under management and they'll go out and trade for a big talent, not sure who may be available come Jan/Feb but Orlando has the pieces to meet almost any asking price with the draft picks and young talent they have.

Paolo's loss highlights their offensive deficiencies. The Magic are now 29th in O Rating, 28th in eFG%. This is why I wasn't wild about that KCP pickup. They needed another guy who can create his own shot, or for others. They made need to make an all-in trade at some point to get one (hey LaMelo Ball, looking at you).

[Kingspoint]

Paolo's loss highlights their offensive deficiencies. The Magic are now 29th in O Rating, 28th in eFG%. This is why I wasn't wild about that KCP pickup. They needed another guy who can create his own shot, or for others. They made need to make an all-in trade at some point to get one (hey LaMelo Ball, looking at you).

It's also been a huge statement of what Paolo's Defense means to the team. The dropoff Defensively has also been huge.

[Kingspoint]

It's about time! Assistants must have been repeatedly telling Doc, as it states in the article "The sample sizes are tiny, but the Bucks have been dreadful when Trent has been on the court and have outscored their opponents in Jackson’s minutes."

Here's the stats that details it (The eye-test should make it obvious, especially if you just look at Gary Trent's history in the NBA up to this point. Trent was the biggest problem in Toronto, but few people would acknowledge this.)

https://www.nba.com/stats/team/1610612749/onoffcourt-summary?Season=2024-25&dir=D&sort=DIFF_NET_RATING

These stats also support my suggestion that trading Bobby Portis would not only make them better by subtraction, but give them the chance to get a true rim-protector, something they badly need. There's a Negative 26-point swing when Bobby Portis on on the floor or off the floor. Negative 13-point swing for Trent. A Positive 22.5-point swing for Jackson.

Other players with large minutes: Dame Positive 4.3-pts, Lopez Positive 4.6-pts, Giannis Positive 2.4-pts, Prince Negative 8.7-pts.

On Court/Off Court Offensive and Defensive Ratings key numbers: Dame has the best Offensive Difference of Positive 16.4 followed by Prince of 11.9, Lopez of 11.3 and Giannis is flat at 0.8. On the negative side of the Offensive Ratings Portis is the biggest drain on the team at a Negative -14.8. Defensively, as expected, the team is better off the court with Dame by an improved Defensive Rating by 12.1. When Prince is off the floor, the Defense improves by 20.5. Things improve Defensively with Portis off the court by an improved rating of 11.2, but things really improve when Trent if off the court by an improved Defensive Rating of 18.2, easily the biggest difference on the team. The Bucks have 6 reserves where the Defense gets dramatically better when they're on the court versus when they are off the court, and by dramatically, I mean the Defensive Rating improves from between 19 and 45.

Bucks are taking one of the correct steps in fixing things by removing Trent from the Starting unit. They next need to trade Portis for someone who is not only better Defensively, but someone who also makes those around him better Offensively if possible. But, bottom-line, there are a dozen players in the G-Leauge that would be better than Trent and Portis for this MIL team to succeed.

They should try to limit Trent's future playing time to less than 8 minutes per game, and that's only if he's hitting his "3"'s that night, otherwise, it's 4 minutes (to see if he's hitting them) or none. He really belongs as the 15th player on the roster to only be used if you're looking for a 3-pt spark over a very short period of time, and never in the last 5 minutes or first 5 minutes of a game or half.

Andre Jackson To Replace Gary Trent Jr. As Bucks Starter

November 7th 2024 at 1:17pm CST by Rory Maher

The Bucks are making a change to their starting lineup, according to NBA insider Chris Haynes, who reports (via Twitter) that second-year wing Andre Jackson is expected to replace Gary Trent Jr. at shooting guard.
It’s unclear if the move will be permanent or temporary. Haynes says the lineup change will take place on Thursday vs. Utah, but didn’t elaborate beyond that.

https://www.hoopsrumors.com/2024/11/andre-jackson-to-replace-gary-trent-jr-as-bucks-starter.html

The No. 36 overall pick of the 2023 draft, Jackson isn’t known for his shooting ability, but he’s very active in other aspects of the game. The 22-year-old is an excellent athlete, strong rebounder, and solid multi-positional defender. He’s also a better play-maker than Trent.


Because MIL is above the 2nd Apron, they have very limited options on any kind of additions they can make to the team. Portis offers their most flexibility as far as acquiring talent that better fits the team, in addition to removing another huge negative on the team like Trent.

That it's taken Doc Rivers this long to recognize that Trent should have been nowhere near the Starting Lineup, yet alone be part of the rotation, in addition to his usage of Portis, shows just how bad a Coach Doc Rivers is. I'm certain that it's his Assistants that pointed out the obvious to him. Now, the G.M. needs to step in and get something done about Portis (and release Trent, replacing him with someone from the G-League and moving the entire bench up one notch in the pecking order).

They can't be putting all of their eggs in the Middleton basket. Middleton should be looked at as a bonus, not something to be relied upon.

[Kingspoint]

Man, I was so pumped for Orlando this season and now we've lost Paolo, we've lost 5 straight, and we have at least 16 games if not more before he returns. Looking at the schedule and the way we've been playing this team could potentially be 10+ games under .500 by the time he returns. If that happens it has to be a glaring concern for that team. Sure losing your star player is going to set you back but you've handed out big contracts to Suggs and Franz, contracts where the amounts say this team should still be capable of winning a good amount of games.

Who knows, maybe this will light a fire under management and they'll go out and trade for a big talent, not sure who may be available come Jan/Feb but Orlando has the pieces to meet almost any asking price with the draft picks and young talent they have.

They have too many good Defensive Players and too good of a Defensive Coach that this heavy losing is more of a short-term adjustment to losing their star player. They'll flip things around and at least get back to playing .500 very shortly.

This is going to turn out to be more of a positive than a negative. It's clear that they needed to be able to figure out how to win together when Paolo isn't on the floor and when he's missing for a game or two. They were clearly too reliant on him as players. This extended time gives the entire team a chance to improve individually and collectively, and when the playoffs begin, they'll be that much stronger and better because of it. The small sacrifice of not hosting a 1st Round series is well worth it.

[Kingspoint]

While Scoot Henderson has improved a lot this season, he was so bad last season that the bar was set extremely low. He's still the worst player on the team, but the only true PG on it, too. If he continues to improve like he has, then by next year he can be starting. But, Starting now would be a huge negative for everyone on the team. There's so much room for improvement that he can experience just by learning to come off the bench. He's been getting a ton of playing time, and he'll actually improve by getting less playing time now that Shaedon Sharpe is back (available tonight). Unfortunately, with the return of Sharpe and RWIII, that's almost eliminated the minutes of Kris Murray, Rayan Rupert and Jabari Walker, three players that also need to be developed. They'll get their opportunities again and they received a lot more than they were expected to receive to begin the season because of the injuries to Thybulle/RWII/Sharpe, with them getting 127/88/77 for Murray/Rupert/Walker. Ideally, each of them could get 800 minutes for the season. Realistically, they can still improve if they can get at least 400-600 minutes each. Their opportunities were always meant to come after a trade of Grant/RWIII/Simons/Thybulle, or an injury or two.

Banton, on the other hand, has been so good...the most impactful player on the team in the 4th Quarter and among the league leaders in 4th Quarter points and Defensive measures, too, that I don't know how Chauncey can't continue to use the game-plan of having Banton not play the first 3 Quarters and then springing his high energy on the other team to begin the 4th Quarter. With players who have played at least in six 4th Quarters or even two 4th Quarters AND 7.1 minutes per quarter, Dalano Banton leads the entire NBA in Net Rating at +43.6. Banton is the most dominating player in the NBA in the 4th Quarter so far this season through one-tenth of the season's games. (There's obviously a lot more stats, some better, some worse, that would tell a more complete story about who the best player in the 4th Quarter is this season.) Jaylen Brown is 2nd under these conditions at +40.2, Tari Eason 3rd at +38.4, but with 1/2 as many minutes per 4th Quarter as Brown and 2/3rd's as many minutes per 4th Quarter as Banton. POR's Donovan Clingan is 4th at +34.4 with same number of minutes at Eason. Chet Holmgren is 5th at +33.3 with a minute less than Banton per 4th Quarter. Amen Thompson is 6th at +32.8 with 2 minutes more per 4th Quarter than Clingan. Holmgren's teammate, Dort, is 7th at +31.1 with the same number of minutes per 4th Quarter as Thompson. So, in the Top-7, there are two Blazers, two Rockets, two Thunder, and one Celtic.

22082

[Kingspoint]

Somebody has to win tonight...

The Jazz should get some reinforcements back on Thursday in Milwaukee. Lauri Markkanen (back), Jordan Clarkson (heel) and Isaiah Collier (hamstring) have all been upgraded to probable, tweets Andy Larsen of The Salt Lake Tribune. Markkanen has missed Utah’s past three games, while Clarkson has missed the past two. Collier, a first-round pick earlier this year, has yet to make his regular season debut.

- - - Updated - - -

Sixers guard Tyrese Maxey is expected to miss around two weeks due to a right hamstring injury, reports Shams Charania of ESPN.

Maxey will receive a full evaluation later on Thursday. Philadelphia plans to take a cautious approach to the soft-tissue injury, per Charania.

Embiid will soon be back very in less than a week.

“Joel Embiid is ready,” Charania told Malika Andrews on “NBA Today.” “Sources tell me he will make his season debut next Tuesday at home against the Knicks in the Sixers’ NBA Cup opener. He’ll serve his three-day suspension tonight against the Clippers, Friday against the Lakers, Sunday at home against the Hornets, and then the attention can finally be on basketball for Joel Embiid.”

“We know how great he is when he’s on the court, former league MVP,” Charania continued. “(Sixers head coach) Nick Nurse said it the other day: they need him to re-focus everything about this season on the court, and to play the game of basketball.”

[Kingspoint]

Michael Malone has high praise for another aspect of Westbrook’s game, according to Bennett Durando of the Denver Post. “I think defensively he’s been a rockstar,” Malone said. “And what I love about Russell Westbrook: 17-year vet, leopards don’t change their spots, but he is trying so hard to be disciplined. He’s trying to do the things we’re asking him to do, and I appreciate that so much. Because a lot of times at 17 years in, you are who you are. But he cares, man. He is so invested in this team and what he’s bringing to this team, and he’s so hard on himself. I can coach a guy like Russell Westbrook any day.”

- - - Updated - - -

“The truth is, with Paul not coming back, we were able to upgrade our team,” Ballmer said. “We don’t (sign) Derrick Jones Jr. if Paul comes back. We don’t (sign) Kris Dunn, (or have) our new defensive identity. Might not have (signed) Kevin Porter Jr., Nico (Batum). … You could say, well, they’re not Paul George. No, they’re not Paul George. … (But) we were able to get three guys who are tough, hard-playing guys. And we still have the ability to consistently make ourselves better. So it was the right choice for us.”

[Kingspoint]

Shaedon Sharpe making his season debut tonight.

His Sophomore campaign was reduced to 32 games last season from a partial tear in his labrum.

The 21-year old needs to have a big growth year across the board defensively, offensively and efficiently.

Wisely, Chauncey has him coming off the bench, where he'll be placed in a greater chance to succeed.

[redsfan9988]

Smith question: is he really more of a stretch 5? Seems like whatever he might bring onto the court doesn't really work when there's another quality big out there.

Sorry, just getting around to this thread after being… “busy”

Smith is a bench big. He doesn’t do anything in the post in the half court offense, so playing with another big is fine. His role is to catch-and-shoot corner 3s and crash the offensive boards. He’s not a back-to-the-basket scorer and his handles (while decent for a big) aren’t good enough to get him to the rim when he’s face up. He’s not an especially adept pick-setter either, and he’s better in pick-and-pop than PNR for sure.

He’s an okay defender. He can offer a bit of rim protection and he he has the length to make life difficult for shooters - especially in the mid-range.

To bring it all home… he’s a backup big. No reason he can’t play 25 minutes and give you 11 and 7 with some shooting and okay defense. His best path is a 3-and-D bench guy.

Contrast that to Tari, who’s going to be an absolute monster on defense. His ability to leave his man to double in the post and then recover to disrupt the shooter is some of the best **** I’ve ever seen. He’s also a better ball-handler than Smith and will eventually be a better shooter. He’s just a much better basketball player. Health has been an issue, but at full strength, he’s a borderline 2nd-team All-Defense guy right now. He’s got some Iggy in him.

[Kingspoint]

Gary Trent was a -14 +/- in his 8 minutes on the floor tonight. The team was +37 over the 40 minutes when Trent sat the bench.

Bobby Portis was a +2 +/- in his 27 minutes on the floor tonight. The team was a +21 over the 21 minutes when Portis sat the bench.

Get rid of these guys.

Dame was +27, Giannis +27, Prince +23, Lopez +19 and the new Starter Jackson, Jr. +19 in 28 minutes (team was +4 in the 20 minutes he was on the bench).

The new backcourt of Damian Lillard and Andre Jackson, Jr. had ZERO TURNOVERS, 8 STEALS, 11 ASSISTS, while shooting 15-26 and 5-12 from "3", 6-7 from the Free Throw Line with the opposing Guards Sexton and George missing 15 of 23 shots, only 3-4 from the Free Throw line, 5 Turnovers, and getting outrebounded by Dame and Andre.

Yes, it's UTA, but it's the beginning of change for MIL.

[redsfan9988]

Gary Trent was a -14 +/- in his 8 minutes on the floor tonight. The team was +37 over the 40 minutes when Trent sat the bench.

Bobby Portis was a +2 +/- in his 27 minutes on the floor tonight. The team was a +21 over the 21 minutes when Portis sat the bench.

Get rid of these guys.

Dame was +27, Giannis +27, Prince +23, Lopez +19 and the new Starter Jackson, Jr. +19 in 28 minutes (team was +4 in the 20 minutes he was on the bench).

The new backcourt of Damian Lillard and Andre Jackson, Jr. had ZERO TURNOVERS, 8 STEALS, 11 ASSISTS, while shooting 15-26 and 5-12 from "3", 6-7 from the Free Throw Line with the opposing Guards Sexton and George missing 15 of 23 shots, only 3-4 from the Free Throw line, 5 Turnovers, and getting outrebounded by Dame and Andre.

Yes, it's UTA, but it's the beginning of change for MIL.

Dude they lost twice to undefeated Cleveland by 3 TOTAL points.

They’re fine. They had a couple of bad losses early and they’re struggling a bit to find their footing.

It’s the East.

I’ll bet any amount of money right now that the Bucks win 45+ games.


It’s happening.

[KoryMac5]

Dallas and Golden State should be a fun watch Tuesday with Klay back in the house for the first time as a visitor.

[Kingspoint]

Coach Will Hardy relied heavily on his veterans in Thursday’s loss at Milwaukee, per Andy Larsen of The Salt Lake Tribune. Kyle Filipowski, Isaiah Collier and Brice Sensabaugh all found themselves out of the rotation as Utah slipped to 1-7. “I have the long view in mind for all of these guys. The reality is that we can‘t play every young guy every night. That’s not how this is going to work. This is the NBA, and there is a level of earning minutes that has to happen,” Hardy said. “I think this notion of like, just getting minutes helps you get better is not true. Just playing for playing’s sake doesn’t just make them better. That’s why we have practices. That’s why we have the G League. There’s so many ways that we’re going to use all of our resources to help all these guys get better.”

https://www.hoopsrumors.com/2024/11/northwest-notes-sharpe-jazz-edwards-conley.html

While I love the talent and assets currently in POR by quite a margin over what is in UTA, I'd swap everything Portland with everything Utah in a heartbeat. The Owners are the polar opposites of each other in terms of quality. The front offices and administrations are polar opposites in terms of quality, too. The Coaching staffs are polar opposites in terms of quality, also. Long-term, Utah is shaped as good as it gets on the Ownership/Administration/Coaching Staff front. I would place them 1st over Miami. Portland is worst in the league, in my opinion. It is what it is. I'm used to rooting for crappy Ownership/Administration/Coaching Staff being a fan of the REDS and Bengals and Blazers for a long-time under the Allen group (before Allen, Portland was easily the best in the NBA from their inception their first season). Bengals have been on the rise since Marvin Lewis was ejected and Mike Brown gave up a lot of responsibilities. The REDS have operated, basically the same way, for the last two Ownership eras, and the one before that had it's own major issues.

As a result of how I feel about the leadership in UTA, I enjoy following them. There's a long history of epic battles between the two organizations in the playoffs that offers it's own version of respect for those who were present at the games back then.

[Kingspoint]

Dude they lost twice to undefeated Cleveland by 3 TOTAL points.

They’re fine. They had a couple of bad losses early and they’re struggling a bit to find their footing.

It’s the East.

I’ll bet any amount of money right now that the Bucks win 45+ games.


It’s happening.

I gave MIL every bit of credit (and presented some detail in doing so, unlike your, "Dude, they lost to CLE by 3 points twice. They'll be fine". Why will they be fine? Nothing that's happened on the court shows that "they'll be fine". 45 games is a pretty mediocre ballclub and represents a team that's likely one-and-done in the playoffs, especially if you're giving MIL excuses as to why they lost badly to TOR and BKN as "it's the East". How are they going to advance in the 1st Round (or even get into it) against the "great East", which isn't that great. Only 2 teams have a winning record, yet the Bucks only have two wins, one against the worst team in the NBA! Yeah...the East is great. 11 of the 15 teams have losing records. 11 of the 15 teams have given up more points than they've scored. The East is pretty weak. Results speak for themselves.

Now I outlined the reason why MIL has sucked all season. Bobby Portis AND Gary Trent and no rim protection and no Defense by either Guard. I suggested dumping Trent off the team or at worst dumping him to 8 minutes off of the bench, and that's only if he's hitting shots. The next game, Trent was dumped to the bench and played 8 minutes. I suggested that they use their only available assets that any team could possibly want and that the Bucks are able to trade, and that's to get rid of Bobby Portis AND Brook Lopez, but that Portis is the one who really has to be gone. Portis did his best to try to lose to UTA and not make those two CLE games close. Not that he did it on purpose, but just that he's a complete doofus when it comes to playing winning basketball. Some idiot G.M. will look at his scoring numbers and confuse that with positive Offensive production, so they could move him for someone who can actually play Defense around the rim. Do that, and then you can start thinking about MIL winning more than 45 games and playing for that 6th Seed.

There's zero indication of when and if Middleton will actually be a productive member of the Bucks this season. Even if he does come back, how long will it be before he's injured again? Back-to-backs? Forget it. Lopez is probably worth keeping, but if he could be moved for a Wing that could hit a "3" and play average Defense (better and taller than Connaughton), then that's something that should be done, too.

Even with the move of Trent to the bench, he is still on the team and will be a poison in the lockerroom. He just has always had a bad attitude when it comes to doing the things that needs to be done for a winning team. Before the Trent move, MIL was a 30-win team, a very bad team. With the Trent and Jackson move, this makes them a 40-win team. Portis will have to be moved before MIL can think of getting 45 wins this season. Do that though, and they could hit 48 wins and get that 6th, maybe 5th Seed.

When you have an idiot Head Coach like Doc Rivers, the G.M. is going to have to do the work for him and get rid of Trent so that Doc doesn't end up using him again. Here's insight into the dull mind of Doc Rivers: “I think eventually Gary will work his way back,” Rivers said. “Just trying to give him room to breathe and get out of his little thing. Because I know he will.”

[redsfan9988]

I gave MIL every bit of credit (and presented some detail in doing so, unlike your, "Dude, they lost to CLE by 3 points twice. They'll be fine". Why will they be fine? Nothing that's happened on the court shows that "they'll be fine". 45 games is a pretty mediocre ballclub and represents a team that's likely one-and-done in the playoffs, especially if you're giving MIL excuses as to why they lost badly to TOR and BKN as "it's the East". How are they going to advance in the 1st Round (or even get into it) against the "great East", which isn't that great. Only 2 teams have a winning record, yet the Bucks only have two wins, one against the worst team in the NBA! Yeah...the East is great. 11 of the 15 teams have losing records. 11 of the 15 teams have given up more points than they've scored. The East is pretty weak. Results speak for themselves.

Now I outlined the reason why MIL has sucked all season. Bobby Portis AND Gary Trent and no rim protection and no Defense by either Guard. I suggested dumping Trent off the team or at worst dumping him to 8 minutes off of the bench, and that's only if he's hitting shots. The next game, Trent was dumped to the bench and played 8 minutes. I suggested that they use their only available assets that any team could possibly want and that the Bucks are able to trade, and that's to get rid of Bobby Portis AND Brook Lopez, but that Portis is the one who really has to be gone. Portis did his best to try to lose to UTA and not make those two CLE games close. Not that he did it on purpose, but just that he's a complete doofus when it comes to playing winning basketball. Some idiot G.M. will look at his scoring numbers and confuse that with positive Offensive production, so they could move him for someone who can actually play Defense around the rim. Do that, and then you can start thinking about MIL winning more than 45 games and playing for that 6th Seed.

There's zero indication of when and if Middleton will actually be a productive member of the Bucks this season. Even if he does come back, how long will it be before he's injured again? Back-to-backs? Forget it. Lopez is probably worth keeping, but if he could be moved for a Wing that could hit a "3" and play average Defense (better and taller than Connaughton), then that's something that should be done, too.

Even with the move of Trent to the bench, he is still on the team and will be a poison in the lockerroom. He just has always had a bad attitude when it comes to doing the things that needs to be done for a winning team. Before the Trent move, MIL was a 30-win team, a very bad team. With the Trent and Jackson move, this makes them a 40-win team. Portis will have to be moved before MIL can think of getting 45 wins this season. Do that though, and they could hit 48 wins and get that 6th, maybe 5th Seed.

When you have an idiot Head Coach like Doc Rivers, the G.M. is going to have to do the work for him and get rid of Trent so that Doc doesn't end up using him again. Here's insight into the dull mind of Doc Rivers: “I think eventually Gary will work his way back,” Rivers said. “Just trying to give him room to breathe and get out of his little thing. Because I know he will.”

I agree with you.

It’s just the way I talk, man.

I’m just saying, the mere presence of Giannis and Dame will secure a top-6 seed for them.

One and done in the playoffs? Maybe. I could see it. Entirely possible.

They might trade Giannis to the Thunder and then we’re in a different spot for sure. I will fully acknowledge that this team has zero more title runs in it. I’ll stipulate to that. I’m just saying, there definitely aren’t six better teams in the East.

[M2]

I agree with you.

It’s just the way I talk, man.

I’m just saying, the mere presence of Giannis and Dame will secure a top-6 seed for them.

One and done in the playoffs? Maybe. I could see it. Entirely possible.

They might trade Giannis to the Thunder and then we’re in a different spot for sure. I will fully acknowledge that this team has zero more title runs in it. I’ll stipulate to that. I’m just saying, there definitely aren’t six better teams in the East.

I think they've got structural issues which aren't going to go away. The Cleveland games were close, but the Knicks wiped them out tonight (KAT's starting to look like a great fit). The Bucks were 18th in Net Rating heading into tonight and that's probably going to drop a bit. I don't think their top two fit together and I don't think the pieces around them make any sense. Top 6 in the East is only on the table for them because the East is a mess right (only two teams with winning records and only one other at .500) now and it's anyone's guess which teams will sort themselves out.

The one thing I don't think they should do is trade Giannis. Cut bait on Dame either at the deadline or next summer. Though first they need to make a trade to get below the 2nd apron to make that kind of deal. Until then they're handcuffed. Yet figure out how to shop for length and shooting around him and sell him on the idea that you are never going to stop trying to find ways to make sure he's on a contender.

[Redsfaithful]

Uh hell yeah Cavs, keep that rolling. Getting far enough along that I'm beginning to believe they've taken the next step.

ESPN:


... as the Cavaliers routed the Golden State Warriors 136-117 on Friday night, becoming the first team in NBA history to win its first 10 games and score at least 110 points in each of them. The Cavs also are the first team to start 10-0 since the 2015-16 Warriors.

Atkinson's high-powered offense has been a great fit for Cleveland, which leads the league in points per game at 124.5 and with a .526 field goal percentage.

Under now-Detroit coach J.B. Bickerstaff last season, the Cavaliers averaged 112.6 points and shot .479 from the field -- with the same top nine players on their roster.

[Kingspoint]

I agree with you.

It’s just the way I talk, man.

I’m just saying, the mere presence of Giannis and Dame will secure a top-6 seed for them.

One and done in the playoffs? Maybe. I could see it. Entirely possible.

They might trade Giannis to the Thunder and then we’re in a different spot for sure. I will fully acknowledge that this team has zero more title runs in it. I’ll stipulate to that. I’m just saying, there definitely aren’t six better teams in the East.

I have hopes that if they can improve the rim protection (did you see what Towns and the Knicks did in that area tonight?), then that will fix a serious flaw with the team. Giannis and Dame could win a Championship, but there has to be a couple of things addressed first. Since Portis is their biggest trade chip (being over the 2nd Apron makes it basically impossible for them to trade Giannis or Dame, so they are stuck trying to find a way for that to work) that offers them the best chance to get the pieces they need (rim protection and a Defensive Wing that can Guard Point...that's a lot to ask of Jackson, but maybe he's up to the task...I don't know much about their other reserves that haven't seen much playing time this year, but it appears that one or two of them might offer up more Defensive Resistance than Portis, Connaughton, Prince and Delon Wright. I believe that player could be found in the G-League. There's some quality Defensive players in that league.

Because MIL doesn't have any 1st Round picks available to trade, the only team's interested in Portis are playoff teams, which is still 2/3rd's of the teams. I would focus on acquiring a rim-protector for Portis over focusing on the Point Defender. Jackson may turn out to be that guy at Point. Trent didn't play tonight. That was good to see. Same with Delon Wright. Portis only played 17 minutes (-14 +/-).

When they get the Rim Protector, I'd bring Lopez off the bench and offer scoring with the 2nd Unit. 24 minutes for the new Starting Center (for each half, and Doc can go with the flow to see who closes out games) and 24 minutes for Lopez.

3rd Year Guard, A.J. Green from Northern Iowa is shooting 59% from "3" on 4 attempts per game in short minutes. I would have him coming in the first half for 3 minutes to close the 1st Quarter and 3 minutes to open the 2nd. A player's 3rd year is the year of biggest growth. Get this guy some playing time in the 1st half of meaningful games and see what he can do. Give him until Middleton gets back to the lineup. Dame will get him open shots. (He shot over 41% each of his 1st two seasons...the guy's a shooter, and he's going to hustle Defensively because he's hungry as a 3rd year player.) I see they are trying A J Green as he played 25 minutes tonight (and made 3 of 6 from "3", his +/- was -4 on the floor and MIL was -18 in the 23 minutes he was off the floor, so Doc and his staff is figuring this out, but at only 6'-4", he's not going to be able to protect the rim, which was the major problem tonight).

One player who can put pressure on the ball, in the passing lanes and help on Defense is another 3rd Year player, Wing Marjon Beauchamp (+6 tonight in 8 minutes). At 6'-7", he offers the length at the Wing the team needs until they can find something through the trading of Portis and/or Lopez. He can't cover someone strong like Prince can, but he's going to be lights out quicker and offer a better chance at help Defense, but he needs to get on the floor and get the experience. I'd be playing him in the 1st Half, bringing him in for Portis, if I could, but since Portis needs to keep playing some before he's traded, I'd bring him in for Prince at the same time Portis comes in. He has 1200 minutes of NBA experience, but I have a feeling half of that was in blowout situations. He needs to be getting some playing time with the Starters. It wouldn't hurt anything to have him Start as no scoring is needed from him except Offensive Rebound put-backs, but he'd be better off for the team getting back in transition and/or disrupting whoever gets the ball in transition. That's who I would have him attack relentlessly while he's in the game. With him, Jackson, Lopez, Giannis and Dame, there's a lot better Defense than with Prince

[M2]

Uh hell yeah Cavs, keep that rolling. Getting far enough along that I'm beginning to believe they've taken the next step.

Kenny Atkinson deserves a lot of credit. He's figured out their spacing and ball circulation. It's no longer just passing to Spida or Garland and telling them to do something.

[M2]

Denver's won four straight (last two against OKC and Miami). Russell Westbrook's also settling in - 18.7/5.3/7.3 over his last three games. He's not going to keep up a .700 eFG% (yes, you read that right, .700 eFG% over his last 3 games), but Denver needs depth. Russ being feisty (he's playing his tail off on defense) will help. Also helps that Jamal Murray and Michael Porter have woken up. In fact, that surely helps more.

Side note, Denver let Jay Huff (stretch 5 putting up 10.2 ppg in 15.3 min/g for Memphis with a .754 eFG%) walk during the summer. That's looking like a mistake. Makes you wonder how many more guys like him are lurking out there. Probably more than a few. The NBA ought to expand just because the player pool is so deep.

[M2]

All right, injuries have wiped out the Pelicans. They have Zion Williamson, Dejounte Murray, Trey Murphy, CJ McCollum, Herb Jones and Jordan Hawkins are all on the shelf. By the time this crew gets healthy it's going to be functionally eliminated. Their season is over. However, they could make waves in the trade market. There's a lot of teams that could use Brandon Ingram. FWIW, I think he'd be a good fit next to Giannis. Memphis or Houston could be interested.

And it's time to shop Zion. There's teams that will talk themselves into him. Murray, Jones, Murphy and Hawkins give them a perimeter crew to build on. What they need is skilled bigs, and some plain old rim-protecting/running bigs as well. Have a bad season, get a good draft pick in what looks like a great draft, add players that make for a more rational roster.

[M2]

Two furious 4th quarter comebacks tonight. The Cavs stayed undefeated with a 35-18 4th against a game Nets team. Evan Mobley had a 23-16 night. The Bulls hung a 35-15 4th on the Hawks. Ayo Dosummu (19 pts, +11) and Julian Phillips (10 pts, +14) had big nights off the bench.

[RedTeamGo!]

The people of Cleveland are calling stretches like the 4th quarter tonight “Cavalanches”

[Kingspoint]

Denver's won four straight (last two against OKC and Miami). Russell Westbrook's also settling in - 18.7/5.3/7.3 over his last three games. He's not going to keep up a .700 eFG% (yes, you read that right, .700 eFG% over his last 3 games), but Denver needs depth. Russ being feisty (he's playing his tail off on defense) will help. Also helps that Jamal Murray and Michael Porter have woken up. In fact, that surely helps more.

Side note, Denver let Jay Huff (stretch 5 putting up 10.2 ppg in 15.3 min/g for Memphis with a .754 eFG%) walk during the summer. That's looking like a mistake. Makes you wonder how many more guys like him are lurking out there. Probably more than a few. The NBA ought to expand just because the player pool is so deep.

Westbrook's continuing to put up stats (he always has), but the team is still better with him off the floor than on the floor, even with him playing with the Starters.

[Kingspoint]

Durant is out for at least a couple of weeks.

Morant is going to miss multiple weeks.

Zion is out indefinitely.

Pelicans possibly getting Trey Murphy back Monday.

[Kingspoint]

Players who recently signed as free agents or had their two-way contracts converted:

A player who signs a free agent contract typically becomes trade-eligible either three months after he signs or on December 15, whichever comes later. That means a player who signs on September 1 would become trade-eligible on Dec. 15, but one who signs on Sept. 22 wouldn’t be eligible to be dealt until Dec. 22. Similarly, players who have two-way pacts converted to standard contracts can’t be dealt for three months after that happens.

Here are the affected players, who signed free agent contracts or were converted from two-way deals after Sept. 15, along with the dates their trade restrictions lift:

December 17:

Isaac Okoro (Cavaliers)

January 2:

DaQuan Jeffries (Hornets)

January 15:

Scotty Pippen Jr. (Grizzlies)

January 16:

Doug McDermott (Kings)

January 28:

Jay Huff (Grizzlies)

January 31:

Malevy Leons (Thunder)

February 3:

Jaylen Nowell (Pelicans)

February 5:

Ariel Hukporti (Knicks)
Matt Ryan (Knicks)

Players who sign free agent contracts or have their two-way deals converted to standard contracts after November 6 this season won’t become trade-eligible prior to the 2025 trade deadline, which falls on February 6. That restriction doesn’t yet apply to any players, but we’ll update this story as needed to list the recently signed free agents who won’t become trade-eligible this season.

Players who recently signed veteran contract extensions:

A player who signs a veteran contract extension can’t be dealt for six months if his new deal exceeds the NBA’s extend-and-trade limits by meeting any of the following criteria:

Includes a first-year raise greater than 20% (or greater than 20% of the estimated average salary, for players earning below the average).
Includes a subsequent annual raise greater than 5%.
Includes a renegotiation of the player’s current salary.
Secures the player for more than four total seasons (including both his current deal and the extension).

A player can sign a veteran extension and remain trade-eligible as long as his new deal doesn’t meet any of those criteria. Timberwolves big man Rudy Gobert, for instance, remained eligible to be traded after signing a three-year extension that featured a pay cut in the first year and raises below 5% in the second and third years.

Here are the players whose recent veteran extensions exceed the extend-and-trade limits, along with the dates their trade restrictions lift:

January 6:

Bam Adebayo (Heat)
Jonathan Isaac (Magic)
Derrick White (Celtics)

January 7:

Donovan Mitchell (Cavaliers)

January 12:

Jalen Brunson (Knicks)

January 23:

Sam Hauser (Celtics)

January 26:

Andrew Nembhard (Pacers)

February 2:

Jarrett Allen (Cavaliers)

Ineligible to be traded before this season’s February 6 deadline:

Wendell Carter Jr. (Magic)
Joel Embiid (Sixers)
Aaron Gordon (Nuggets)
Lauri Markkanen (Jazz)
T.J. McConnell (Pacers)
Jamal Murray (Nuggets)
Ivica Zubac (Clippers)

Additionally, when a player signs a super-max contract extension, he becomes ineligible to be traded for one full year. That means Celtics forward Jayson Tatum won’t become trade-eligible prior to the 2025 deadline despite signing his extension in July. Tatum is the only player who signed a super-max (designated veteran) contract this summer.

[Redsfaithful]

The people of Cleveland are calling stretches like the 4th quarter tonight “Cavalanches”

This has been a fun year already, I'm not usually watching this much NBA until late winter/spring.

[M2]

This has been a fun year already, I'm not usually watching this much NBA until late winter/spring.

I find the skill level in the modern game to be amazing. There's big guys with guard ballhandling ability and the ball movement and shot-making is off the hook. Every team is watchable at some level. Every game features some outrageous athleticism. No lead is safe. Basketball is a really great game and it's being played at a super high level.

[Revering4Blue]

All right, injuries have wiped out the Pelicans. They have Zion Williamson, Dejounte Murray, Trey Murphy, CJ McCollum, Herb Jones and Jordan Hawkins are all on the shelf. By the time this crew gets healthy it's going to be functionally eliminated. Their season is over. However, they could make waves in the trade market. There's a lot of teams that could use Brandon Ingram. FWIW, I think he'd be a good fit next to Giannis. Memphis or Houston could be interested.

And it's time to shop Zion. There's teams that will talk themselves into him. Murray, Jones, Murphy and Hawkins give them a perimeter crew to build on. What they need is skilled bigs, and some plain old rim-protecting/running bigs as well. Have a bad season, get a good draft pick in what looks like a great draft, add players that make for a more rational roster.

I’d normally suggest the they will wind up as a play-in team. But the West is a gauntlet. Too bad they’re not in the Eastern Conference (Where I expect them to be after the next round of expansion).


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Revering4Blue]

Denver's won four straight (last two against OKC and Miami). Russell Westbrook's also settling in - 18.7/5.3/7.3 over his last three games. He's not going to keep up a .700 eFG% (yes, you read that right, .700 eFG% over his last 3 games), but Denver needs depth. Russ being feisty (he's playing his tail off on defense) will help. Also helps that Jamal Murray and Michael Porter have woken up. In fact, that surely helps more.

Side note, Denver let Jay Huff (stretch 5 putting up 10.2 ppg in 15.3 min/g for Memphis with a .754 eFG%) walk during the summer. That's looking like a mistake. Makes you wonder how many more guys like him are lurking out there. Probably more than a few. The NBA ought to expand just because the player pool is so deep.

The Nuggets letting Huff go for sure looks bad. But they certainly shouldn’t didn’t expect to lose their first round pick big man Holmes from Dayton to a torn ACL in the Summer League. That said, keeping Nnaji - who could have been dealt for a future 2nd for salary relief - over Huff looks indefensible now.

And an emphatic YES from me on expansion. It’s simply mind-boggling how far we’ve come globally talent-wise since 1995, when adding two teams before the worldwide infrastructure was strong enough almost single- handedly lowered the quality of play. In fact, from ‘96 - ‘13, only in one season - I believe it was ‘09 - did average team scoring reach 100 points or above.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[texasdave]

Nikola Jokic tonight - 37/18/15.

[M2]

- Today's Celtics game was one of those contests where Jrue Holiday won the thing without it showing up in the boxscore. He shuts dudes down and accelerates the ball circulation. He tilts the floor.

- In his third game back, Paul George became the team's primary playmaker (9 assists) and it got the 76ers their second win of the year. Their leading scorers were Jared McCain (27 pts) and Guerschon Yabusele (20).

- Bennedict Mathurin (38 pts, 8 reb) and Tyrese Haliburton (35 pts, 14 assists) scored 10 and 9, respectively, in a 40-point 4th quarter to get a win over the Knicks. This is an example of why I continue to think the Pacers have a high ceiling. They've got firepower few teams can match. Specifically, they outgunned Brunson and KAT tonight, and that's not easy.

[M2]

Big games in the West tonight with the Warriors beating the Thunder (36 from Steph), the Kings beating the Suns (DeRo with 34) and the Nuggets beating the Mavs (Jokic going 37-18-15)

[KoryMac5]

I love Doncic but a 30 footer as time expires might not be the best option especially with the game Kyrie was having.

[M2]

Chet Holmgren's out for 2+ months with a hip fracture. Ouch. Also not great news for the Thunder, which lack size, rebounding and rim protection without him.

[Kingspoint]

Chet Holmgren's out for 2+ months with a hip fracture. Ouch. Also not great news for the Thunder, which lack size, rebounding and rim protection without him.

Of all those 1st Round picks that OKC has acquired over the last half a dozen years, I believe they have only traded away 1 or 2 of them. They should be buyers, but I don't think they'll be buying anything that includes giving up a 1st Round pick.

With the expansion being brought up again in this thread, remember that each team can only protect 8 players. So, any of the young teams that have been collecting assets will lose one good player with potential. I assume that Seattle is one expansion team. Who is the other?

[Kingspoint]

Orlando has poured on the Defense the last two games and figured out the Offense, too. Now, this team is figuring out how to win without Banchero. That's going to make them a whole let better when he returns. Just like the Clippers are doing without Leonard.

Kerr is giving a lot of the credit to Stotts, but prognosticators around the league are giving Kerr all the credit for what the Warriors are able to pull off. They are like the Pacers, but with much better Defense.

Pacers are getting hammered by injuries. Jackson and Wiseman already done for the year and now Nesmith out for at least a month and Nemhard out for at least a couple of weeks. They're trying to catch the Pelicans on the injury front, though with the Pelicans, it was all Starters.

[Kingspoint]

After Cam Reddish was mentioned here about not seeing any playing time, he made his season debut last week and has since taken off for the Lakers. Playing the position of Point Defense, he's excelled at it. He's always had the length and has shown flashes of this capability, but it was a change of heart and Reddick's bluntness that Defense was the only way he was going to see the floor for the Lakers. Cam embraced it as a journeyman who has changed his game in order to stay in the league. That's the kind of Veteran you want on a team, not one that plays out his time whining that he's getting a raw deal (they don't know how good I am).

[Kingspoint]

Chet Holmgren's out for 2+ months with a hip fracture. Ouch. Also not great news for the Thunder, which lack size, rebounding and rim protection without him.

I hate to say it, but every time I would see him fall, I've been waiting for this to happen. You're just not going to last in the NBA very long without hitting the weight room on a regular basis. There are exceptions, but generally, they are very rare, and they tend to be guards. It works both ways. Too much fat from not hitting the weight room and you aren't going to last, either.

[M2]

After Cam Reddish was mentioned here about not seeing any playing time, he made his season debut last week and has since taken off for the Lakers. Playing the position of Point Defense, he's excelled at it. He's always had the length and has shown flashes of this capability, but it was a change of heart and Reddick's bluntness that Defense was the only way he was going to see the floor for the Lakers. Cam embraced it as a journeyman who has changed his game in order to stay in the league. That's the kind of Veteran you want on a team, not one that plays out his time whining that he's getting a raw deal (they don't know how good I am).

Reddish's problem is teams will start to defend the Lakers with a scheme that dares him to shoot, at which point he's going to lay a bunch of bricks. Long, young, energy guys can find a role in the NBA, but without a working shot he's not going to keep getting starter's minutes. Also, pretty much every season of his career he's had an early fool's gold game or two before his liabilities catch up with him.

[Kingspoint]

Kenrich Williams, Auser Thompsen ready for season debuts.

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/nba/pistons/2024/11/11/ausar-thompson-blood-clot-detroit-pistons-chris-bosh-brandon-ingram/76195509007/

https://sports.yahoo.com/kenrich-williams-set-2024-25-194434814.html

[M2]

I think I've figured out the Cavs' strategic plan.

https://media.tenor.com/7MOJO_mG7lsAAAAM/never-lose-again-streak.gif

[Kingspoint]

The baton will be passed next week to either Allen, Mobley or LeVert for Player-of-the-Week.

Garland won this week. Mitchell won last week.

[Kingspoint]

Having easily taken care of POR on Friday in Minnesota, the T-Wolves get to feast on the Trail Blazers Tuesday and Wednesday in a back-to-back (that's 3 times in 4 games). A good time for the T-Wolves as they try to work out their rotations with their new players. Should they be able to pull off the rare feat of 3 wins against a club in the regular season over 4 games, they will place themselves in a good position at 8-4.

Chauncey just publicly ripped every player a new one for their effort on Sunday against MEM. The inclusion of Sharpe, as I knew it would, completely changed the entire rotation and ability for POR to win games. Laying a Pooper for Cooper is back on.

[Kingspoint]

Some records of EAST teams vs Western Conference opponents:

BOS...(0-1), 9-1 vs East
ORL...(1-3), 4-3 vs East
NYK...(0-1), 4-4 vs East
MIA...(1-3), 3-2 vs East
CHI...(1-5), 3-2 vs East
PHI...(0-4), 2-3 vs East
WAS...(0-3), 2-4 vs East
TOR...(1-7), 1-2 vs East


Some records of WEST teams vs Eastern Conference opponents.

OKC...(3-0), 6-2 vs West
PHO...(2-0), 6-2 vs West
DEN...(4-0), 3-3 vs West
HOU...(3-1), 4-3 vs West
MIN...(3-1), 3-3 vs West
LAC...(2-0), 4-5 vs West
SAC...(3-1), 3-4 vs West
DAL...(2-1), 3-4 vs West
UTA...(1-1), 1-6 vs West

[Kingspoint]

The Gods are telling the Pelicans to "blow it up".

Alvarado now out at least 6 weeks.

Sell everything that isn't nailed down. Have a fire sale. Don't drag it out to the Summer when many teams are selling.

Since luxury tax penalties are calculated by determining a team’s total cap hits at the end of its season, a team that starts the year above the tax line could get under it before the end of the season by completing trades or buyouts. The Pelicans did just that in 2023/24, moving out of tax territory by salary-dumping Kira Lewis‘ expiring contract in January.

New Orleans is one of just two NBA teams that has never been a taxpayer (Charlotte is the other) and is operating only narrowly above the tax line this season, so it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the team make another mid-season deal to duck the tax.

[Kingspoint]

November 12th, 2024 at 9:17am CST by Luke Adams

https://www.hoopsrumors.com/

With the NCAA men’s basketball season underway, draft experts Jonathan Givony and Jeremy Woo have updated their 2025 NBA mock draft at ESPN.com (Insider link), projecting next June’s top 30 picks based on their own scouting and intel from executives around the league.

There are no surprises at the top of ESPN’s latest mock draft. The projected picks at No. 1 (Cooper Flagg), No. 2 (Ace Bailey), and No. 3 (Dylan Harper) remain unchanged since Givony and Woo published a mock in June, and V.J. Edgecombe and Nolan Traore are still in the top five. Still, there are some notable risers or fallers elsewhere in the first round. Duke freshman Kon Knueppel (No. 17 in June) is up to No. 6, while Ratiopharm Ulm guard Ben Saraf comes in at No. 13 after not showing up in June’s mock draft. Conversely, Real Madrid wing Hugo Gonzalez has slipped from seventh to 12th, while Miami freshman Jalil Bethea is down to 25th after having placed 13th in June.

[Kingspoint]

Christian Wood has setback...out 4 more weeks.

That should be enough time for Robert Williams III or Jeremi Grant to improve their tradeability. New Orleans should be in the picture here.

[M2]

The Gods are telling the Pelicans to "blow it up".

Alvarado now out at least 6 weeks.

Sell everything that isn't nailed down. Have a fire sale. Don't drag it out to the Summer when many teams are selling.

Since luxury tax penalties are calculated by determining a team’s total cap hits at the end of its season, a team that starts the year above the tax line could get under it before the end of the season by completing trades or buyouts. The Pelicans did just that in 2023/24, moving out of tax territory by salary-dumping Kira Lewis‘ expiring contract in January.

New Orleans is one of just two NBA teams that has never been a taxpayer (Charlotte is the other) and is operating only narrowly above the tax line this season, so it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the team make another mid-season deal to duck the tax.

All right, group project time. Let's find teams for Zion Williamson, Brandon Ingram and CJ McCollum.

I'll start with a jot list for CJ. Here's the wannabe playoff teams with 3-point shooting issues: Sacramento, Houston, Philly, Lakers, Orlando.

[Kingspoint]

All right, group project time. Let's find teams for Zion Williamson, Brandon Ingram and CJ McCollum.

I'll start with a jot list for CJ. Here's the wannabe playoff teams with 3-point shooting issues: Sacramento, Houston, Philly, Lakers, Orlando.

And, all is forgiven regarding rules about aprons, etc., because honestly, does anyone understand it all?

Try to use the spotract trade machine. They at least have some restrictions involved and use the aprons, but they don't list trade exceptions that can be part of trades, nor do they list draft picks. We can assume that if it's at all possible, teams will try to get a 3rd team involved to make some things work.

https://www.spotrac.com/nba/trade-machine/

But, this sounds like a good exercise. I would think other G.M.'s are circling right now.

Here's a link that will help...everyone's future 1st Round picks...

https://basketball.realgm.com/nba/draft/future_drafts/team

[Kingspoint]

With Chauncey Billups trying to figure out how to manage 3 Centers, one of the solutions is to give one of them a night off.

Tonight, Donovan Clingan makes his first career Start against Rudy Gobert and the T-Wolves. Ayton will get his first game off this season. Not a bad idea with a back-to-back against MIN tonight and tomorrow. Already know that Robert Williams won't be playing in any back-to-back's real soon, so he'll probably get tomorrow off after coming in for Clingan tonight. Foul trouble may dictate how much Clingan plays, but I imagine that Chauncey will want to try to stretch him out and get more than 20 minutes out of him tonight. He probably doesn't want to play Robert Williams III for 28 minutes, so I imagine that POR will go with a no-Center lineup when Gobert is out of the game.

[15fan]

Without Young, Hunter and Bogdonovich, 4-7 Hawks go to Boston and knock off 9-2 Celtics 117–116.

Dejountay Murray for Nance Jr, Dyson Daniels and picks looking like a solid return for Hawks.

[M2]

Mason Plumlee had a 15-14 night in 26 minutes against the Jazz. BTW, Plumlee's on the Suns (which I only know because I looked at the boxscore). I still don't like Phoenix's roster all that much, but they're off to a 9-2 start. Will be interesting to see how they do without KD the next couple of weeks against teams that aren't the Jazz.

Meanwhile, Steph went 37-6-9 and put away the Mavs tonight. He's amazing.

https://i.imgur.com/BkPsvpT.gif

Yet there's nothing anyone seems to be able to do about him.

[Kingspoint]

Without Young, Hunter and Bogdonovich, 4-7 Hawks go to Boston and knock off 9-2 Celtics 117–116.

Dejountay Murray for Nance Jr, Dyson Daniels and picks looking like a solid return for Hawks.

It's amazing how much better a team becomes when you remove a bottom-of-the-league Defender who also makes many questionable decisions Offensively as far as team chemistry and gameflow. Same thing happened for POR tonight.

A little background:

As I mentioned earlier, Chauncey publicly criticized everyone on the team after Sunday's lack of effort against MEM (missing Morant, Bane and another rotation Guard). He told them that if anyone can sleep tonight, that they're a Loser. POR shot 9.5% from "3" in that game (4-42), but that wasn't the issue. They mailed it in from the start of the game, a game that was their 9th Straight in a different city. They've done nothing but travel since Oct 27, and it was their 9th game in 15 days. They hadn't had time to have a single practice at home (I think they had one on the road, maybe) since before the season began.

Yesterday, with a new attitude, they were able to have a full practice, and it showed in their play today. After the worst 3-pt shooting performance in the NBA this season, they had the best 3-pt shooting performance in the NBA this season. It's a good thing because they couldn't get a foul call from the refs and didn't shoot their first free-throw until 3 minutes were left in the half.

So, here's why tonight's win was like ATL's. Early in the 1st Quarter Anfernee Simons buckled over with breathing problems (initial tests came back OK, but more will be done tomorrow). Scoot comes in early for him and picks up 3 quick fouls. So, in comes D. B. Hooper, Dalano Banton, 6th in the NBA in Pts/36. He immediately started doing what he does...play great Defense, run the Offense, get into the paint, nail shots from every spot on the court, but in this case he was hitting "3"'s, (4-4 in the 2nd Quarter). Having to focus so much on Banton, that left POR with open "3"'s, which others began hitting. POR finished 18-32 after spending much of the game above 60% from "3".

Scoot came in the 2nd Half and lifted his game two levels on both ends of the floor from his short stint in the 1st Half. After Billups had to call a timeout a minute or so into the 4th Quarter when Sharpe just stood around and watched as MIN hit two "3"'s to cut the lead to 13, Shaedon raised his game two levels on both ends of the floor. Scoot was good enough to keep Banton off the floor until 3:42 of the 3rd having pushed POR's lead from 7 at the Half to 12 at that point. Then Deni Avdija took over. He nailed another "3". Then he had a couple of drives to the basket earning four foul shots and making them all. Then the icing on the cake was taking the shot-clock down from 16 seconds with Edwards draped all over him, and pulling up for a bottom-of-the-net buzzer-beater for 10 points over the final three minutes to put POR up by 19.

Even with all that, the Star of the Game was Robert Williams III. I do not want to trade this guy. I want to keep him around for the next six years. We cannot get enough in return to justify trading him. Coming off the bench, this is the first game this year that Time Lord spent all of his minutes in the game at Center. He had been playing the "4" just to get onto the court before this, something he had never done before (and he hit his first career "3" in his first game at the "4"). Time Lord was 9-10 from the field in 25 minutes. He added 9 Boards, 3 Blocks, 3 Steals, 3 Assists, with only 1 TO and only 1 personal foul. Naturally, he was a +13 in a 14-pt victory. It's yet to be seen if he plays tomorrow. Has to go through all of the medical checks and then see about Ayton's "spraine index finger" to see if Ayton is ready to go.

Henderson and Sharpe have to get playing time. Getting playing time the right way like tonight is better than any 10 games of playing time last year. Having a mix of Veterans that play the right way will speed up the growth, such as the way Grant has played all year, getting RWIII onto the floor, having Avdija on the floor, and not having Simons with Scoot or Simons with Sharpe (Simons with Toumani can work, though Simons still gets badly exposed on switches). Scoot and Sharpe had 6 Steals tonight, while shooting 5 of 7 from "3". They couldn't get a foul call, though, nor could RWIII.

The most deadly lineup POR could have right now: Grant/RWIII/Advija/Camara/Banton,...that's one 6'8", three 6'9" and one 6'10" on the floor together. All five can switch and guard all five positions, and four of the five can hit "3"'s (they were 13-22 tonight). They had 7 Steals, 6 Blocks and at least a dozen deflections.

At this point, Chauncey has proved this season that he's made huge strides Coaching. At worst, he should finish the year at worst "below average" when it comes to Head Coaching abilities, and that's a huge jump from where he was the last three seasons, including last year. I'm guessing that POR will pick up his 5th year option, which they should. I'd also pick it up by the All-Star break if I were them.

[Kingspoint]

Mason Plumlee had a 15-14 night in 26 minutes against the Jazz. BTW, Plumlee's on the Suns (which I only know because I looked at the boxscore). I still don't like Phoenix's roster all that much, but they're off to a 9-2 start. Will be interesting to see how they do without KD the next couple of weeks against teams that aren't the Jazz.

Meanwhile, Steph went 37-6-9 and put away the Mavs tonight. He's amazing.

https://i.imgur.com/BkPsvpT.gif

Yet there's nothing anyone seems to be able to do about him.

I've watched two PHO games this year against POR, and, of course, I watched Plumlee over 100 times for complete games, so I know what he's good at. He's a top-of-the-league Pick setter. Of course, he's not going to finish as a pop, but maybe a roll. But, he clears plenty of space for the ball-handler to get an open look for a "3". He's also more physical these last couple of years and especially this season, than he has been in the past. Plumlee has always been a good passer from the post, too. His weakness was always Defensive switching and being able to come out of the key and guard. To compensate for that, he bull-rushes and commits a lot of fouls, not giving up baskets, but sometimes getting a Defender to get rid of the ball before he can be taken advantage of. He's a quality backup to Nurkic. He still can't hit a free throw very well, shooting them left-handed for the last year-plus. Very weird.

Tyus Jones is the key right now while Durant is out. He'll be asked to pick up his scoring, which he's capable of doing. I haven't seen the details of Plumlee's points tonight, but I'm going to guess that there were 10 points from lobs by Tyus Jones or Booker and 4 more points from Offensive Rebound put-backs, along with 1-2 from the free throw line. Looked it up and it was 10 points between assists at the rim by Jones and Beal, and more more from an Offensive Rebound put-back, along with 3-4 from the free throw line. 10 points a night might be sustainable for Plumlee the way PHO is moving the ball this season. I would think they are Top-5 in the NBA in Assist ratio.

[Kingspoint]

1st night of the "NBA CUP".

Here's the winning percentages of the six groups going into tonight:

East A: .400
East B: .333
East C: .574

West A: .519
West B: .588
West C: .577

[Kingspoint]

The 8 Winners (and Losers) tonight in the NBA Cup:

ATL (BOS)
DET (MIA)
ORL (CHA)
NYK (PHI)
MIL (TOR)
PHO (UTA)
GSW (DAL)
POR (MIN)

[Kingspoint]

22097

22098

New Orleans receives 2027 PHX 1st Round pick (via HOU, via BKN)

[Kingspoint]

New Starting lineup for HOU:

Zion/Sengun/Brooks/Thompson/VanVleet and to complete the playoff rotation Eason/Green/Sheppard/Whitmore

New Orleans begins the rebuild. Ingram will bring someone back who can Start soon, if not right away and/or a 1st Round pick. C. J. won't be able to be moved, but he should be OK coming off the bench.

[M2]

22097

22098

New Orleans receives 2027 PHX 1st Round pick (via HOU, via BKN)

I don't think Houston would want to put Jalen Green in there. Maybe swap in Reed Sheppard instead. Or, even better, Cam Whitmore and Jeff Green. Yet the Rockets definitely would be an interesting landing spot for Zion.

What say you, Houston fans? Would you go above the second apron next season (though back under it in 2026-27) for Zion Williamson?

[redsfan9988]

I don't think Houston would want to put Jalen Green in there. Maybe swap in Reed Sheppard instead. Or, even better, Cam Whitmore and Jeff Green. Yet the Rockets definitely would be an interesting landing spot for Zion.

What say you, Houston fans? Would you go above the second apron next season (though back under it in 2026-27) for Zion Williamson?

The first issue I see is trying to play Sengun and Zion together. They both want to score in the same area and are both pretty ball-dominant bigs. Not to say that it can’t work, but it’s not optimal.

I’m fine with dealing Jabari Smith and Jalen Green for the right fit.

Bari is a high-floor, low-ceiling guy. Jalen’s 3-pt shooting has not improved as much as it needs to. Bari is probably a bench guy or fringy starter and Jalen is a 3rd (or bad 2nd) option for a winning team.

I have more interest in McCollum. We’re a bad 3-pt shooting club and he fixes that instantly. He also can give us some ball-handling (Amen Thompson isnt really a backup PG), and playing him with the bench unit with Eason, Thompson, Adams could make for some interesting looks.

My main target is Dame. I’m hoping he becomes available. He’s not what he was in his prime, but he’s one of my favorite non-Rockets players. I’d deal Jalen Green and picks - and perhaps a prospect like Whitmore. Brooks and Adams would need to be included to make the money right, so a third team would likely be required.

Fred VanVleet is actually pretty great off the ball and provides plenty of shooting and defense, so I’m not worried about him sharing the court with Dame. They’d be staggered anyway. Having one of Lillard or VanVleet on the court for 48 minutes would add a lot of stability.

[Rojo Rijo]

Orlando has poured on the Defense the last two games and figured out the Offense, too. Now, this team is figuring out how to win without Banchero. That's going to make them a whole let better when he returns. Just like the Clippers are doing without Leonard.

Kerr is giving a lot of the credit to Stotts, but prognosticators around the league are giving Kerr all the credit for what the Warriors are able to pull off. They are like the Pacers, but with much better Defense.

Pacers are getting hammered by injuries. Jackson and Wiseman already done for the year and now Nesmith out for at least a month and Nemhard out for at least a couple of weeks. They're trying to catch the Pelicans on the injury front, though with the Pelicans, it was all Starters.

Its been fantastic to watch Orlando right the ship and win 3 in a row.

[M2]

My main target is Dame. I’m hoping he becomes available. He’s not what he was in his prime, but he’s one of my favorite non-Rockets players. I’d deal Jalen Green and picks - and perhaps a prospect like Whitmore. Brooks and Adams would need to be included to make the money right, so a third team would likely be required.

I think the Bucks would be all over that. The just need to get under the second apron so they can make deals.

[Revering4Blue]

Its been fantastic to watch Orlando right the ship and win 3 in a row.

Very likely 4 in a row tonight against Indiana, who doesn’t have the requisite size - even with the Magic also banged up - to deal with the Magic. As an aside, the Pacers look like fools for giving Bitdaze away.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[M2]

Very likely 4 in a row tonight against Indiana, who doesn’t have the requisite size - even with the Magic also banged up - to deal with the Magic. As an aside, the Pacers look like fools for giving Bitdaze away.

That game is going to be a real clash of styles. Indiana's likely playing 5-out with Ben Sheppard starting. So it could be an awkward night for Orlando's bigs. If it's high scoring, then the Pacers are likely to win. If it's low scoring, then that favors the Magic. I'm thinking Siakam could be a major factor in this one.

Some smart team should try to pry Goga off the Magic in exchange for a shooter. In fact, Indiana would do well to get him back. No idea why Carlisle didn't play him more.

[Chip R]

The Lakers are only letting Bronny play G League home games.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10143244-nba-rumors-bronny-james-set-to-only-play-in-home-g-league-games-for-south-bay-lakers

[Kingspoint]

The Lakers are only letting Bronny play G League home games.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10143244-nba-rumors-bronny-james-set-to-only-play-in-home-g-league-games-for-south-bay-lakers

This way, he can stay with the Lakers and practice with them, and then just go and play the G-League games when they are at home. It's a more veteran environment for learning, but gets him some playing time.

[Kingspoint]

I agree with everyone about Goga. I think he's a great complement when Banchero is there. He hasn't been productive without him.

Over this stretch of 3 games where the Magic have found their Defense AND Offense and a successful formula for not only winning, but dominating without Banchero, here's the on floor/off floor numbers:

22099

[Kingspoint]

The Magic have been so dominant that even though Goga is 3rd to last on the team, even on the floor, he's got a positive Net Rating of 10.2.

[Kingspoint]

Now that the first 10 games of the season have passed, here's a look at the Top-53 4-player lineups ranked by Net Rating (OFF/DEF/NET) that have 50+ minutes together (and covering at least 5 games) with total minutes listed last:

1. Durant/Nurkic/Tyus Jones/O'Neale ... 120.3/79.0/41.3 ... (60)

2. Sabonis/Fox/Monk/Murray ... 130.9/94.7/36.2 ... (67)

3. Gobert/DiVincenzo/NAW/Reid ... 114.5/83.1/31.4 ... (76)

4. DeRozan/Sabonis/Monk/Murray ... 132.9/103.4/29.5 ... (95)

5. Paul/Champagnie/Wembenyama/Castle ... 117.8/88.9/29.0 ... (65)

6. Sabonis/Fox/Murray/Ellis ... 109.3/80.3/29.0 ... (52)

7. LeVert/Niang/Merrill/Mobley ... 121.9/93.0/28.9 ... (52)

8. Durant/Beal/Booker/O'Neale ... 128.7/100.0/28.7 ... (50)

9. DeRozan/Sabonis/Murray/Ellis ... 129.4/100.8/28.6 ... (63)

10. Conley/Gobert/NAW/Reid ... 115.9/88.1/27.8 ... (52)

11. DeRozan/Sabonis/Fox/Monk ... 125.2/97.8/27.4 ... (32)

12. Durant/Jones/Booker/O'Neale ... 115.9/89.8/26.1 ... (62)

13. Paul/Barnes/Champagnie/Castle ... 117.1/91.5/21.6 ... (57)

14. Holiday/Tatum/White/Queta ... 129.4/103.7/25.6 ... (52)

15. Towns/Anunoby/Hart/McBride ... 121.3/96.3/25.0 ... (53)

16. Horford/Tatum/White/Queta ... 126.0/101.0/25.0 ... (51)

17. Paul/Barnes/Wembanyama/Castle ... 114.5/90.5/23.9 ... (71)

18. Barnes/Champagnie/Wembanyama/Castle ... 115.2/91.9/23.3 ... (54)

19. Anunoby/Hart/Brunson/McBride ... 114.4/92.0/22.4 ... (50)

20. Morant/Aldama/Edey/Wells ... 116.7/94.5/22.2 ... (58)

21. James/Russell/Hayes/Knecht ... 125.4/104.3/21.1 ...(54)

22. Jokic/Murray/Porter/Braun ... 136.9/116.1/20.8 ... (168) ... #1 for any 4-man lineup w/ 100+ minutes together

23. Horford/Brown/Tatum/White ... 127.2/106.5/20.7 ... (121) ... #2 for any 4-man lineup w/ 100+ minutes together

24. Conley/DiVincenzo/NAW/Reid ... 113.9/94.5/19.3 ... (53)

25. Jokic/Porter/Braun/Watson ... 136.3/117.8/18.5 ... (100) ... #3 for any 4-man lineup w/ 100+ minutes together

26. Horford/Holiday/Brown/White ... 125.1/106.8/18.3 ...(115) ... #4 for any 4-man lineup w/ 100+ minutes together

27. SGA/Dort/Williams/Wallace ... 120.8/102.8/18.0 ... (95)

28. Horford/Holiday/Brown/Tatum ... 124.2/106.3/17.9 ... (125) ... #5 for any 4-man lineup w/ 100+ minutes together

29. DiVincenzo/NAW/Reid/Edwards ... 118.0/105.5/17.5 ... (94)

30. Conley/Gobert/DiVincenzo/NAW ... 109.0/92.0/17.0 ... (55)

31. Clarke/Aldama/Pippen/Wells ... 110.7/93.7/17.0 ... (50)

32. Gordon/Jokic/Porter/Braun ... 128.1/111.2/16.9 ... (166) ... #6 for any 4-man lineup w/ 100+ minutes

33. Randle/NAW/Reid/Edwards ... 125.2/108.5/16.7 ... (66)

34. Turner/Siakam/Nembhard/Mathurin ... 114.2/97.7/16.5 ... (63)

35. Batum/Dunn/Zubac/Coffey ... 109.0/92.6/16.4 ... (64)

36. Randle/DiVincenzo/NAW/Edwards ... 123.3/106.8/16.4 ... (62)

37. Curry/Green/Wiggins/Payton ... 119.5/103.3/16.2 ... (57)

38. Batum/Dunn/Coffey/Porter ... 107.6/91.6/16.0 ... (101) ... #7 for any 4-man lineup w/ 100+ minutes

39. Bridges/Brunson/McBride/Sims ... 110.0/95.0/15.0 ... (59)

40. Gordon/Murray/Porter/Braun ... 131.7/116.8/14.9 ... (118) ... #8 for any 4-man lineup w/ 100+ minutes

41. Gordon/Jokic/Murray/Braun ... 131.1/116.6/14.5 ... (140) ... #9 for any 4-man lineup w/ 100+ minutes

42. Dort/Holmgren/Williams/Wallace ... 110.0/95.5/14.5 ... (68)

43. Vucevic/LaVine/White/Dosunmu ... 123.2/108.7/14.5 ... (60)

44. Holiday/Brown/Tatum/White ... 120.9/106.5/14.4 ... (142) ... #10 for any 4-man lineup w/ 100+ minutes

45. Siakam/Nembhard/Haliburton/Mathurin ... 115.2/100.8/14.4 ... (61)

46. Randle/DiVincenzo/Reid/Edwards ... 122.0/107.7/14.2 ... (79)

47. Niang/Mitchell/Merrill/Mobley ... 105.8/91.7/14.0 ... (72)

48. Shroder/Finney-Smith/Claxton/Johnson ... 117.9/104.0/13.8 ... (99)

49. Batum/Zubac/Coffey/Porter ... 109.8/96.0/13.8 (60)

50. Gordon/Jokic/Murray/Porter ... 131.7/118.7/13.0 ... (124) ... #11 for any 4-man lineup w/ 100+ minutes

51. Shroder/Finney-Smith/Claxton/Thomas ... 117.7/105.4/12.3 ... (103) ... #12 for any 4-man lineup w/ 100+ minutes

52. Finney-Smith/Johnson/Claxton/Thomas ... 117.7/105.5/12.2 ... (101) ... #13 for any 4-man lineup w/ 100+ minutes

53. DeRozan/Sabonis/Fox/Murray ... 122.4/110.4/12.0 ... (225) ... #14 for any 4-man lineup w/ 100+ minutes

[M2]

If Philadelphia without Embiid, George and Maxey is the team that hands the Cavs their first loss, that would be pretty funny. They've got a 6-point lead at the half. Certainly would reinforce the "any given night" aspect of the league.

[RedTeamGo!]

If Philadelphia without Embiid, George and Maxey is the team that hands the Cavs their first loss, that would be pretty funny. They've got a 6-point lead at the half. Certainly would reinforce the "any given night" aspect of the league.

Not so fast, my friend

Cavs now 13-0. Wild. They are really fun to watch.

[Kingspoint]

As expected, RWIII is not playing in a back-to-back. Guess Ayton's injury was real. He's not playing tonight. No word on the further tests of Anfernee Simons, but he's not playing tonight. To counter, Mike Conley is getting rest tonight.

This means that it will be the same starting five of last night, Grant/Clingan/Camara/Sharpe/Scoot. The major change will be playing time for Jabari Walker and Duop Reath, while Rupert should get a few extra. But, the biggest difference will be the increased minutes by D. B. Hooper, Dalano Banton. I can see him getting 20+ minutes tonight. He's easily the most efficient player this season for the Blazers (can't disregard Grant's 8 Assists last night). Banton runs the Offense so well that the team shoots 38.1% from "3" with Banton on the floor (and when he's on the floor, he's running the Offense), and 30.7% from "3" when he's off the floor. Without Conley to harass Banton and Scoot, this should help offset the loss of RWIII. But, the loss is still too great as MIN's entire team are aggressive Defenders that harass everyone on the floor.

With POR winning last night, MIN will have all the incentive tonight. I definitely expect MIN to play very well tonight. I have no idea what will happen with POR.

Guessing:

MIN 118
POR 104

Hoping for:

MIN 105
POR 108

[M2]

Giannis with a 59-14-7 night in an OT win against the Pistons (who haven't been terrible). And this is why whatever happens in Milwaukee, the one guy who's staying is Giannis.

[Redsfaithful]

Not so fast, my friend

Cavs now 13-0. Wild. They are really fun to watch.

6 games up on the 3 seed on November 13th is crazy.

50 for Wemby tonight - he hit 8 3-pointers.

[RichRed]

In a preview of the 2031 NBA Finals (stop laughing), Wemby hung half a C-note on the Wiz in a 139-130 Spurs win.

[Kingspoint]

...and, on cue, Goga has a great night.

[Chip R]

The Bucks are 2-0 in games started by AJ Green.

[redsfan9988]

Big night in the Association…

Cavs stay unbeaten.

Giannis drops 59.

Wenby drops 50.

KAT hits a million 3s and goes for 46 but the Knicks lose at home because they play their starters 45 minutes/night.

Of course, I’m more excited about three Rockets going for double-doubles en route to beating the Clippers.

Hot takes:

The Pistons will be a play-in team

OKC will win 60+ games

Thibs will get fired before the end of the season

Cavs won’t hold the 1-seed

Nuggets will end up with the 2nd best record in the West

[M2]

Challenge: without looking, do you know the first names of any of three guys named Jones on the Kings' roster?

[redsfan9988]

Challenge: without looking, do you know the first names of any of three guys named Jones on the Kings' roster?

Absolutely not.

I barely know Sabonis’s first name.

[Kingspoint]

The Bucks are 2-0 in games started by AJ Green.

He was -15 +/- in 21 minutes tonight scoring only 3 points, only 2 rebounds, an even worse 1 assist, zero steals and zero blocks.

Andre Jackson was +23 in 31 minutes off the bench.

Pat Connaughton was +24 in 24 minutes off the bench.

Gary Trent got the message that he's only going to play if he hustles and stays focused. He was +18 in 34 minutes off the bench.

Doc used only 3 players off the bench (since three were Starting).

Good game managed by Rivers tonight.

[Kingspoint]

Ralph Sampson
Hakeem Olajuwon
David Robinson
Alonzo Mourning
Tim Duncan
Victor Wembanyama
Donovan Clingan

The only Rookies in NBA history to have a game of 17+ PTS, 12+ RBDS, 8+ BLKS.

Donovan did it in the 2nd Start of his NBA career. His Grandmother was in the stands to see his first NBA game. He played 31 minutes. I don't think he played that many ever in a college game, or not too often, anyway. This was against a team with size in Gobert/Randle/Reid/Edwards/McDaniels/DiVincenzo and NAW penetrating and dishing.

MIN 98
POR 106

The key moment in the game was when Chauncey decided early in the 3rd Quarter to put in Kris Murray, the forgotten about Trailblazer. As Chauncey does, he was mixing and matching in the first half to see what combos were working. Rayan Rupert with 3 minutes. Jabari Walker with 2 minutes, Duop Reath with 8 minutes, out of necessity because of 2 quick fouls by Clingan to start the game. (Donovan managed to play the rest of the game and still get 8 blocks, 5 in the 4th, getting only 1 more foul). Kris Murray had 6 minutes and they were outstanding on both ends of the floor, especially Defensively. He has the same floor intelligence as his brother Keegan. He's going to be hard to protect when expansion comes. But, Murray not only played the rest of the 3rd Quarter, but he played deep into the 4th Quarter helping POR go on a 24-4 run where they just outhustled MIN on both ends of the floor. There weren't easy looks, resulting in a poor 3-pt shooting night (Edwards was 0-9, as it was obvious POR got into their heads, matching them with a toughness that MIN is used to winning over the course of a game). Donovan Clingan wouldn't let them score in the paint, but others were there to help when he had to leave his man. The result was that MIN failed to get to 100 points in a game that they should have had all of the momentum after losing last night convincingly.

Shaedon Sharpe scored a career-high 33 points (Grant's 8 Assists last night were a career high).

It really makes a huge difference with Simons not playing because it opens up a lot of minutes for Dalano Banton, who replaced Scoot midway through the 3rd and never left the game. Scoot wasn't bad, but there were better matchups against MIN with Grant/Banton/Shaedon/Murray/Clingan.

+/- leaders:


Dalano Banton +19
Kris Murray +17
Donovan Clingan +15
Deni Advija +15

The 2-game sweep doesn't change my opinion of MIN. They are still a Top team in the West and it's going to be difficult to keep them from getting back to the Western Conference Finals.

Anfernee Simons will return and the Blazers Defense and Offense will get worse and they'll lose more games than they win as they try to get another lottery pick in 2025.

At this point, I'd pick up Chauncey's option for next season and let him know that we'd like to have a conversation about an extension this off-season. Billups' coaching skills are starting to catch up with his knowledge of the game. It's always so difficult to transmit that to players and to get them to buy into effort (which is why the REDS went out and got Francona).

[Kingspoint]

Challenge: without looking, do you know the first names of any of three guys named Jones on the Kings' roster?

You had me. I didn't know they had anyone named Jones on their roster. Looking it up, I hadn't heard of any of them.

[Kingspoint]

Who will be the first to defeat the Cavs?

Next 3 games:

CHI Friday
CHA Sunday
@BOS TUE

I think the Bulls beat them on Friday. CHI played them twice in pre-season and beat them both times. CHI just played them Monday. It's difficult to beat the same team again after having just played them.

CHI 124
CLE 117

[M2]

Ralph Sampson
Hakeem Olajuwon
David Robinson
Alonzo Mourning
Tim Duncan
Victor Wembanyama
Donovan Clingan

The only Rookies in NBA history to have a game of 17+ PTS, 12+ RBDS, 8+ BLKS.

Donovan did it in the 2nd Start of his NBA career. His Grandmother was in the stands to see his first NBA game. He played 31 minutes. I don't think he played that many ever in a college game, or not too often, anyway. This was against a team with size in Gobert/Randle/Reid/Edwards/McDaniels/DiVincenzo and NAW penetrating and dishing.

MIN 98
POR 106

Clingan tonight and the Time Lord in their last game really are pushing the question of whether the Blazers should be looking to unload DeAndre Ayton.


The 2-game sweep doesn't change my opinion of MIN. They are still a Top team in the West and it's going to be difficult to keep them from getting back to the Western Conference Finals.

Are they a top team? I'm starting to wonder about that. By definition, there's only four top 4 teams in each conference. This team looks like it will need to fight just to stay in the top 6. It's a brutally tough conference. The Warriors, Rockets, Kings and Grizzlies are all better than they were last season. OKC and Denver seem poised to stay in the ranks of the elite. I don't trust the Suns or Lakers to remain consistent, but both are off to quality starts. Dallas is also looking to shake off an uneven start.

I'm not saying the Wolves are a bad team, but it's going to take something special for teams to set themselves apart in that conference. I'm not sure they've got that, even if Ant goes nuclear.

[Boston Red]

This way, he can stay with the Lakers and practice with them, and then just go and play the G-League games when they are at home. It's a more veteran environment for learning, but gets him some playing time.

It's because they don't want him to have to fly commercial. It's hilarious, honestly.

[Chip R]

He was -15 +/- in 21 minutes tonight scoring only 3 points, only 2 rebounds, an even worse 1 assist, zero steals and zero blocks.

Please don't take this the wrong way but I don't care. I'm excited that someone from my alma mater is not only playing in the NBA but has started the last two games. I'm not even a Bucks fan so I don't care how well they do, I just want him to do well.

[RichRed]

Challenge: without looking, do you know the first names of any of three guys named Jones on the Kings' roster?

Caldwell?

[Chip R]

This way, he can stay with the Lakers and practice with them, and then just go and play the G-League games when they are at home. It's a more veteran environment for learning, but gets him some playing time.

So why don't they do this with the rest of the G League players? It's ridiculous. I saw someone say that this almost looks like a Make A Wish thing.

[Boston Red]

Please don't take this the wrong way but I don't care. I'm excited that someone from my alma mater is not only playing in the NBA but has started the last two games. I'm not even a Bucks fan so I don't care how well they do, I just want him to do well.

Your alma mater is coming to my town tonight. Should be a fun reunion for the longtime former conference rivals.

[texasdave]

How much longer does Nikola Jokic have to perform at this level until he starts get mentioned in the ubiquitous GOAT conversations?

As of right now, his is the all-time leader in PER, in WS/48 minutes and in Box +/-.

It doesn't look as if he is slowing down with 3 MVPs in the last 4 seasons.

This year he is trotting out this line: 29.7/13.7/11.7.

That might sound blasphemous, but he's putting up the numbers to back it up.

[Chip R]

Your alma mater is coming to my town tonight. Should be a fun reunion for the longtime former conference rivals.

I know. Should be a good test for both teams.

[M2]

Caldwell?

Speaking of ex-76ers centers, yesterday was the 45th anniversary of Darryl Dawkins shattering a backboard (aka Chocolate Thunder Day).

https://i.makeagif.com/media/8-28-2015/uVPjY0.gif

[redsfan9988]

How much longer does Nikola Jokic have to perform at this level until he starts get mentioned in the ubiquitous GOAT conversations?

As of right now, his is the all-time leader in PER, in WS/48 minutes and in Box +/-.

It doesn't look as if he is slowing down with 3 MVPs in the last 4 seasons.

This year he is trotting out this line: 29.7/13.7/11.7.

That might sound blasphemous, but he's putting up the numbers to back it up.

Watching basketball is a visceral experience. It’s just more fun to watch MJ jump from the foul line and dunk on 3 dudes than it is to see Jokic draw a double team and make a heads up pass to an open shooter.

Jokic is like Votto. He’s fun to watch - especially if you know what you’re looking at… but there’s no substitute for hitting a bunch of clutch dingers.

If he wins a couple more titles, he’ll force his way in to the convo.

[Kingspoint]

Clingan tonight and the Time Lord in their last game really are pushing the question of whether the Blazers should be looking to unload DeAndre Ayton.



The last two games definitely put that on the table. The thinking was always that they'd look into it during the Summer, but these two games has any rational person thinking exactly what you said,...that the Blazers should aggressively pursue moving Ayton beginning right now. Ayton has been putting up double-doubles nightly since last February. He's healthy. And, I can no longer see a future for him with the Blazers. Nobody's ever been able to play two Centers on the floor at the same time. It just doesn't work, even if one of them is a league-leader at the mid-range level. It's the Defensive side of the ball that doesn't work. It's like trying to play 3 small Guards with two of them being sub-par Defenders. It just doesn't work.

I imagine Cronin is thinking what you're thinking. There's got to be at least one team that would want to and has the ability to trade for Ayton and his current salary. They would still have a year-and-a-half to discover if he works for them. He would then be off the books for them if it doesn't work out freeing up a lot of capital. Time Lord would be a better teacher for Clingan by leaps and bounds over Ayton. DeAndre still has that PlayStation mentality in him, much of which has been removed once he got away from his childhood friends in Arizona.

- - - Updated - - -


Please don't take this the wrong way but I don't care. I'm excited that someone from my alma mater is not only playing in the NBA but has started the last two games. I'm not even a Bucks fan so I don't care how well they do, I just want him to do well.

It was/is a great opportunity for him. The Bucks need these young bench guys to develop quickly. Many of them are in that 3rd season of NBA experience where learning takes its biggest jump.

[redsfan9988]

Oh, Dallas… big oof.

Can’t **** around like that in the West, bros. You’re gonna find out.

Is Dallas elite? Is Minnesota? I’m of the mind that Dallas gets it together. But Minny? KAT is gone and is just a different look. They’re not going to sneak up on anyone. I think Minny’s a play in team.

[Kingspoint]

Are they a top team? I'm starting to wonder about that. By definition, there's only four top 4 teams in each conference. This team looks like it will need to fight just to stay in the top 6. It's a brutally tough conference. The Warriors, Rockets, Kings and Grizzlies are all better than they were last season. OKC and Denver seem poised to stay in the ranks of the elite. I don't trust the Suns or Lakers to remain consistent, but both are off to quality starts. Dallas is also looking to shake off an uneven start.

I'm not saying the Wolves are a bad team, but it's going to take something special for teams to set themselves apart in that conference. I'm not sure they've got that, even if Ant goes nuclear.

I've always held the belief that the Top-Echelon of NBA teams consists of 7 teams, like the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World.

So, to list those 7 per how they are performing through the first 1/8th of the season:

CLE
BOS
OKC
GSW
DEN
PHO (with Durant)
HOU

I don't go by win/loss records but, not coincidentally, these 7 teams have the 7 best records.

As the season moves along, I expect MEM to replace one of them, ORL to replace one of them and MIN to replace one of them with GSW, PHO and HOU being the three that get replaced by the time the playoffs begin. Even with Durant, O'Neale and Tyus Jones, PHO is still too soft and too lazy. MIN will beat them easily again should they face each other in the playoffs. MIN is very tough...Knicks tough, even tougher than OKC (because of the difference in age between OKC and MIN). Of GSW, PHO and HOU, GSW will be the hardest to knock out of the Top-7. Ja Morant is still a Super-Star and MEM always has a way they play physically that works out well in the playoffs. They're an Eastern style of team, which is the conference they belong in anyway because of their location (they aren't in Vancouver anymore). (SEA joins the West, MEM moves to the East, and I don't know who the 32nd team is that should go in the West.)


Other teams who could break into the TOP-7:

SAC needs a better backup Center than Alex Len. They can be overwhelmed in the paint.
HOU is still very young and could use another Veteran Starter over Jabari Smith or Jalen Green.
BKN has to figure out how KAT best works for them that results in a win. 46 points and they lose is not the correct way to use him.
DAL needs a rim protector, a good one. Doncic's matador Defense is too toxic. They just gave up 16 Offensive Rebounds to the Jazz and got outrebounded 40-30. Have Lively cover the point, Klay cover the other team's best Wing Scorer, and a good rim protector to cover the mistakes of Kyrie and Luka.

I don't see anyone else competing this season to be one of the Top-7 in the NBA. Through matchups and lucky Seedings (key injury before the playoffs to a higher seed), one non-top-7 team could reach the Western Conference Semi-Finals, while in the East, at least one is gauranteed to and two could make it.

I think MIN is still working out the kinks of the trade (as are the Knicks, who lost two very tough pieces and got in return someone who is kind of soft...I know soft...it's a tradition in a POR uniform, which is why I love Toumani, Rupert, Jabari, RWIII, Banton, Avdija, Clingan, Scoot, Murray and Chauncey,...yes, I left out Shaedon, Ant, Matisse, Ayton and Grant. Shaedon is naturally chill, but he could get tough if he wasn't any longer looking up to Jeremi, Matisse, DeAndre and Anfernee as role models.). Chauncey will continue to try to win games AND develop the future, and he's doing well at both so far this season. It can't be all young players playing, but they also can't rot on the bench. Nobody is being gifted any minutes. All are earned. Some are gifted in the 1st Half because of their potential, but 2nd Half minutes are given to those who have earned them in the 1st Half.

[Kingspoint]

Watching basketball is a visceral experience. It’s just more fun to watch MJ jump from the foul line and dunk on 3 dudes than it is to see Jokic draw a double team and make a heads up pass to an open shooter.

Jokic is like Votto. He’s fun to watch - especially if you know what you’re looking at… but there’s no substitute for hitting a bunch of clutch dingers.

If he wins a couple more titles, he’ll force his way in to the convo.

Shaedon had the #1 AND #2 dunks last night in the NBA. His #2 was more impressive than his #1, but there are scoring metrics now that grade a dunk. About 20-22 points that give a player a score and the #1 dunk was over someone which adds points, but the #2 dunk was the more impressive one visually.

[Kingspoint]

27 of POR's first 29 games are against Western Conference opponents, ATL in POR Sunday, and @ IND Nov. 27th. Their 3rd game against the East doesn't come until they host the 76er's Dec 30th. Scheduling since COVID is weird. There's less total miles for everyone how they do it, so it's good.

[Kingspoint]

The Thunder have been playing 6’5″ forward Jalen Williams at center while dealing with injuries to Isaiah Hartenstein and Chet Holmgren. Even without their traditional big men, their small ball lineups are causing havoc, Joel Lorenzi of The Oklahoman writes. They forced 23 turnovers against New Orleans on Wednesday. Kenrich Williams also saw minutes at the five position off the bench and will continue to be leaned on moving forward, Rylan Stiles of Sports Illustrated writes.

https://www.hoopsrumors.com/2024/11/western-notes-lebron-booker-saric-nnaji-williams.html

[M2]

The Thunder have been playing 6’5″ forward Jalen Williams at center while dealing with injuries to Isaiah Hartenstein and Chet Holmgren. Even without their traditional big men, their small ball lineups are causing havoc, Joel Lorenzi of The Oklahoman writes. They forced 23 turnovers against New Orleans on Wednesday. Kenrich Williams also saw minutes at the five position off the bench and will continue to be leaned on moving forward, Rylan Stiles of Sports Illustrated writes.

https://www.hoopsrumors.com/2024/11/western-notes-lebron-booker-saric-nnaji-williams.html

Though New Orleans doesn't have any size either. Next up is Phoenix without KD, which is also size-challenged. Then they've got Dallas, San Antonio and Portland, all of which can throw some bigs at them. That'll be the real test. Seems like Wemby should be unstoppable against them.

[Kingspoint]

I just realized that I had forgotten all about the Sacramento acquistion at the end of the Summer when they grabbed Orlando Robinson. He's been injured for a while and is now with the G-league affiliate getting in shape. Robinson is a beast and a very good rim protector. He should be able to get on the floor soon and eventually pass Alex Len on the depth chart before the All-Star break, making it unnecessary for the Kings to make a trade before the deadline as they already have on the roster the exact player they need to get them into the elite company of teams in the league.

[Kingspoint]

Well wishes for Popovich.

[Kingspoint]

Speaking of teams needing bigs...

The Celtics continue to have matchup problems with big, physical teams, observes Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe, as the Hawks collected 20 offensive rebounds and scored 38 second-half points in the paint. Atlanta’s center tandem of Clint Capela and Onyeka Okongwu shot a combined 15-of-22 from the field. “They got rebounds and layups on everybody, bigs, smalls, mediums,” coach Joe Mazzulla said. “They just outplayed us at both ends of the floor.”

Don't know when Porzingis is supposed to be back.

https://www.boston.com/sports/boston-celtics/2024/11/14/kristaps-porzingis-rehab-return-celtics-nba/

[Chip R]

Don't know when Porzingis is supposed to be back.

https://www.boston.com/sports/boston-celtics/2024/11/14/kristaps-porzingis-rehab-return-celtics-nba/

I think around Christmas.

[M2]

Speaking of teams needing bigs...

The Celtics continue to have matchup problems with big, physical teams, observes Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe, as the Hawks collected 20 offensive rebounds and scored 38 second-half points in the paint. Atlanta’s center tandem of Clint Capela and Onyeka Okongwu shot a combined 15-of-22 from the field. “They got rebounds and layups on everybody, bigs, smalls, mediums,” coach Joe Mazzulla said. “They just outplayed us at both ends of the floor.”

Don't know when Porzingis is supposed to be back.

https://www.boston.com/sports/boston-celtics/2024/11/14/kristaps-porzingis-rehab-return-celtics-nba/

They're four-deep at center even without Porzingis - Horford, Kornet, Queta and Tillman. They're 10th in the league in DRB%, so I think the Hawks game was a case of them getting outhustled. The next night they were +11 on the boards against the Nets and Brooklyn only got 3 ORBs.

[M2]

The last two games definitely put that on the table. The thinking was always that they'd look into it during the Summer, but these two games has any rational person thinking exactly what you said,...that the Blazers should aggressively pursue moving Ayton beginning right now. Ayton has been putting up double-doubles nightly since last February. He's healthy. And, I can no longer see a future for him with the Blazers. Nobody's ever been able to play two Centers on the floor at the same time. It just doesn't work, even if one of them is a league-leader at the mid-range level. It's the Defensive side of the ball that doesn't work. It's like trying to play 3 small Guards with two of them being sub-par Defenders. It just doesn't work.

I imagine Cronin is thinking what you're thinking. There's got to be at least one team that would want to and has the ability to trade for Ayton and his current salary. They would still have a year-and-a-half to discover if he works for them. He would then be off the books for them if it doesn't work out freeing up a lot of capital. Time Lord would be a better teacher for Clingan by leaps and bounds over Ayton. DeAndre still has that PlayStation mentality in him, much of which has been removed once he got away from his childhood friends in Arizona.

I thought Cronin might get ahead that of this past summer. Clingan was the most projectable guy in the draft. He has a ready-made package of classic big guy skills. The instant defensive impact was a given. Oddly, Cleveland is playing both two bigs and two small guards. Maybe those things cancel each other out?

As for what the Blazers can do with Ayton, I assume they could deal him in a heartbeat for Brandon Ingram if they wanted to clear that cap space next year. Might be more interesting to find a 3rd team in that who wants Ingram and can package up assets. There's a lot of teams that theoretically should want a long wing scorer.

[redsfan9988]

Cavs and Bulls agree to play “All-Star Game rules” tonight.

Good lord.

144-126 in regulation.

[Kingspoint]

I thought Cronin might get ahead that of this past summer. Clingan was the most projectable guy in the draft. He has a ready-made package of classic big guy skills. The instant defensive impact was a given. Oddly, Cleveland is playing both two bigs and two small guards. Maybe those things cancel each other out?

As for what the Blazers can do with Ayton, I assume they could deal him in a heartbeat for Brandon Ingram if they wanted to clear that cap space next year. Might be more interesting to find a 3rd team in that who wants Ingram and can package up assets. There's a lot of teams that theoretically should want a long wing scorer.

The biggest issue with Clingan was the severe lack of minutes played over his college career. The grind and tear of the NBA for a man of his size could easily be 3 to 4 years just to get acclimated to the grind. That was and still is the biggest concern. Big men go down for the season regularly early in their careers. They miss half a season several times early in their careers. I believe holding onto Ayton for one season is precautionary, who wasn't really that attractive of a Center because of his contract and his history of lackadaisical effort and the issue with the Head Coach in Phoenix, Monte Williams. RWIII hasn't played in back-to-back games in about 4 years, so his fragileness is a major question mark, also. When you don't have a quality Center, especially for young players, it makes everything else difficult to accomplish...team Defense, the pick-and-roll on Offense. Covering the pick-and-roll Defensively. Definitely needed a wait-and-see approach for at least another half of a season. There just wasn't enough information available for what POR had to be going ahead and making changes. There are a few teams in that same area right now with changes that were made in the Summer. Teams are going to have to be patient and wait for some injuries to heal in order to get a true look at what they have now before making any trades. I don't really expect any trades to be made in the next month. They normally begin after the New Year. Should be the same this season.

That Chet Holmgren injury was going to happen. He fell from a normal height (for him) and hit the ground and he shattered. I don't know how that wasn't going to happen. He already missed his first season completely, and now he's going to miss a bunch of his 3rd season. The kid needs to seriously hit the weight room. Clingan needs to hit the weight room, too. There's some giraffe-like movements in his body. It's not smooth. With all of the blocks he tries to get, it's when, not if, that he lands on someone's foot and gets a high-ankle sprain. He's already getting hammered on his Offensive put-backs without foul calls.

My biggest concern for the year regarding Clingan was whether or not he could get 1200 minutes of floor time. A huge bonus is if he could get 1600 minutes. That's only 20 minutes per night with 2 games off. I would cap him at 1600 minutes and try to get him to 2000 next season, and then 2400 every season after that.

[Kingspoint]

Regarding the return for Ayton....Blazers will want a young rotation player or a future 1st with limited protection. 18/12/3/1/1 every night Centers who are still young and remain healthy is a good commodity.

[Kingspoint]

With DeRozan (back) and Monk (?) out, Fox took on the job of trying to put as many points as he could on the board against the T-Wolves.

He came up with 60 on 22-35 shooting 6-10 from "3", 10-11 Free Throws in an OT loss.

A big hole was made early with Alex Len having to start, who was removed after a -14 +/- after 9 minutes of play. Sabonis played 40 minutes, Murray 45, Fox 48 and Lyles 41. Orlando Robinson can't get to Sacramento soon enough. The win evens the T-Wolves with the Kings at 7-6.

SAC held a 4-pt lead with 2:07 after Fox assisted Sabonis for a layup. But, after that Edwards had back-to-back and-ones for a 6-0 run as the Kings scored only 2 pts with Lyles missing a "3", Fox missing a 10-footer, then making a 6-footer to tie the game. Conley missed a 19-footer. Keon Ellis then enters the game and turns the ball over with 16 seconds left. McDaniels send the game into OT by missing a "3".

Fox's heroics continued into OT with him tying the game with another "3" at 1:15, but MIN prevails.

[Redsfaithful]

Cavs only the 6th team ever to start 14-0. Ties longest ever winning streak in team history.

4 out of 5 previous teams to start 14-0 went to the NBA Finals.

[Betterread]

The last two games definitely put that on the table. The thinking was always that they'd look into it during the Summer, but these two games has any rational person thinking exactly what you said,...that the Blazers should aggressively pursue moving Ayton beginning right now. Ayton has been putting up double-doubles nightly since last February. He's healthy. And, I can no longer see a future for him with the Blazers. Nobody's ever been able to play two Centers on the floor at the same time. It just doesn't work, even if one of them is a league-leader at the mid-range level. It's the Defensive side of the ball that doesn't work. It's like trying to play 3 small Guards with two of them being sub-par Defenders. It just doesn't work.

I imagine Cronin is thinking what you're thinking. There's got to be at least one team that would want to and has the ability to trade for Ayton and his current salary. They would still have a year-and-a-half to discover if he works for them. He would then be off the books for them if it doesn't work out freeing up a lot of capital. Time Lord would be a better teacher for Clingan by leaps and bounds over Ayton. DeAndre still has that PlayStation mentality in him, much of which has been removed once he got away from his childhood friends in Arizona.
.

Twolves played the blazers theee times in a week and I was impressed with the energy, athleticism, interior defense and the number of intriguing players you have. Sharpe, Scoot, Camara, Banton and Avdija all deserve 25+ min a game, and that is just the guards and wings. Your interior/paint defense frustrated Randle, who had been shooting about 60% before these games, and Rudy.
I think Aston and Simons sitting out the last two games helped the team so they could experiment with minutes for different players. RW III was very effective (with another big to free him up) and even made a three pointer, which I think was a career first. But you know he will come down with some kind of ailment sooner or later, so I think if you can move him while healthy, you can get a good return from him. Right now, he is a luxury for a non-playoff team.

[texasdave]

1) Who gives a rats behind about the NBA Cup?

2) Draymond Green should be kicked out of the league.

[Kingspoint]

https://www.hoopsrumors.com/2024/11/warriors-rockets-viewed-as-two-teams-most-likely-to-make-big-in-season-trade.html

As for the Rockets, the impressive young duo of Tari Eason and Amen Thompson has been made off limits in any trade talks, according to Windhorst. The Rockets at 9-4 are also not in any sort of rush to make a deal, per Windhorst, and Eason and Thompson have helped the team rank third in defensive efficiency in the early part of the season.

In theory, as noted by ESPN, the Rockets have strong assets that wouldn’t require moving a young piece. Steven Adams is on an expiring $12.6MM deal and Houston retained Jeff Green ($8.0MM), Jock Landale ($8.0MM), Jae’Sean Tate ($7.6MM) and Aaron Holiday ($4.7MM) this offseason despite their lack of playing time. Houston has several draft picks at their disposal from Phoenix that could be enticing. Reports this offseason suggested they may be interested in trading those picks back to the Suns for Kevin Durant. While Durant is almost certainly off the table, perhaps some of those assets could be used elsewhere.

[Kingspoint]

1) Who gives a rats behind about the NBA Cup?

2) Draymond Green should be kicked out of the league.

Agree 100% on Green. He's a black mark on the league and always has been.

Ironically, the players seem to care a lot about the NBA Cup. The games I've seen have an intensity level of playoff games. Because of the point-spread differences to determine tie-breakers, Starters are playing to the last minute in an attempt to influence the final point-difference. That Golden State/Sacramento game last season was great and it set up their meeting in the playoffs, making it more intense than it would have been, otherwise.

The MIN/POR game on Wednesday was as close as the Blazers are going to sniff a playoff atmosphere this season. The courts are beautiful, which inspires both the fans and the players. It's just not possible, with the competitive nature of the players, for them not to get up for these games. All the games are playing out this way.

[Kingspoint]

Twolves played the blazers theee times in a week and I was impressed with the energy, athleticism, interior defense and the number of intriguing players you have. Sharpe, Scoot, Camara, Banton and Avdija all deserve 25+ min a game, and that is just the guards and wings. Your interior/paint defense frustrated Randle, who had been shooting about 60% before these games, and Rudy.
I think Aston and Simons sitting out the last two games helped the team so they could experiment with minutes for different players. RW III was very effective (with another big to free him up) and even made a three pointer, which I think was a career first. But you know he will come down with some kind of ailment sooner or later, so I think if you can move him while healthy, you can get a good return from him. Right now, he is a luxury for a non-playoff team.

While the frustration was there for Randle, his intensity was pretty impressive. He simply tried to raise the level of his game to match the situation. This is a much stronger and tougher team with DiVincenzo and Randle. The T-Wolves just keep coming at you, no matter how hard you might play against them. They don't back down. Again, I think they are the most physical team in the NBA, over OKC because of so many Veterans. Missing Conley was the biggest loss of either team that 2nd game that effected the final outcome. Just look at MIN's reaction in their play after the two Blazer losses. Did they pout? Of course, not. They were even more intense and really turned up the Defense. Edwards went into MVP form. Randle isn't going to be stopped for very long. NAW has been one of the greatest resurrection projects in the NBA. He was showing the guts to do what it takes to stay in the NBA. His problem was that he was a tweener for any position. Was he a PG, a shooter, a Defender. Nobody could figure it out. The talent was there, but difficult to manage into a winning formula. His identity now is like so many others on MIN...intensity for 48 minutes. Which brings me to the most important player not named Edwards on the team and that's McDaniels. He commits about 25 fouls a game, like all of the Championship-caliber players, but the refs aren't going to call them all and consider it as "how he plays". As a result, he punishes and injures other players, and that intimidates them. Add in the best 3-pt shooting big-man in the league the last three years in Reid and Towns isn't missed one little bit. Addition by subtraction with Towns. By the time the playoffs begin, MIN will be one of the Top-7 teams going in. I see no additions needed other than a G-League PG, who can mix in with Dillingham to see who is better on a given night. I wonder if Ingles will ever get healthy enough to activate and suit up?

Just like Trey Young, the Hawks are better without him and the Blazers are better without Simons. Look at what the Bucks have done without Dame on the floor. All three of these teams have much improved Defense, and in the case of ATL and POR, the Offense is much better because there's so many more touches to go around, and while Young is a better distributor, he's still a score first player who makes stupid decisions because of it, especially at the end of games. Teams need true PG's to succeed. Dame has done as well as I've ever seen for a non-true-PG, but he's still not a true PG. Bucks would be better off with a true PG who can play Defense and have Dame play the "2". Lillard would still get a high usage-rate as that PG wouldn't be on the floor at all times, while Dame could run the Offense with the 2nd Unit during that time. Lillard is still trying to adjust to not having control of the team from start to finish, something he admits has been a tough adjustment.

[Kingspoint]

SAS @ DAL

Who wins tonight?

The Mavericks who can't close out a game?

The red-hot Spurs, whose Defense right now is among the league's best?

I'll always go with the hotter team, especially if they're hot because of Defense.

Mavericks' Defense, btw, has also been good. They just can't close out a game.

[Betterread]

The biggest issue with Clingan was the severe lack of minutes played over his college career. The grind and tear of the NBA for a man of his size could easily be 3 to 4 years just to get acclimated to the grind. That was and still is the biggest concern. Big men go down for the season regularly early in their careers. They miss half a season several times early in their careers. I believe holding onto Ayton for one season is precautionary, who wasn't really that attractive of a Center because of his contract and his history of lackadaisical effort and the issue with the Head Coach in Phoenix, Monte Williams. RWIII hasn't played in back-to-back games in about 4 years, so his fragileness is a major question mark, also. When you don't have a quality Center, especially for young players, it makes everything else difficult to accomplish...team Defense, the pick-and-roll on Offense. Covering the pick-and-roll Defensively. Definitely needed a wait-and-see approach for at least another half of a season. There just wasn't enough information available for what POR had to be going ahead and making changes. There are a few teams in that same area right now with changes that were made in the Summer. Teams are going to have to be patient and wait for some injuries to heal in order to get a true look at what they have now before making any trades. I don't really expect any trades to be made in the next month. They normally begin after the New Year. Should be the same this season.

That Chet Holmgren injury was going to happen. He fell from a normal height (for him) and hit the ground and he shattered. I don't know how that wasn't going to happen. He already missed his first season completely, and now he's going to miss a bunch of his 3rd season. The kid needs to seriously hit the weight room. Clingan needs to hit the weight room, too. There's some giraffe-like movements in his body. It's not smooth. With all of the blocks he tries to get, it's when, not if, that he lands on someone's foot and gets a high-ankle sprain. He's already getting hammered on his Offensive put-backs without foul calls.

My biggest concern for the year regarding Clingan was whether or not he could get 1200 minutes of floor time. A huge bonus is if he could get 1600 minutes. That's only 20 minutes per night with 2 games off. I would cap him at 1600 minutes and try to get him to 2000 next season, and then 2400 every season after that.

Clingan is a big man. I think he is even wider and taller than Nurkic. He should work all his rookie year on how to set good picks. If he learns how to do that effectively, he is so massive it will clear Interstate-wide lanes to the hoop.

[Betterread]

1) Who gives a rats behind about the NBA Cup?

2) Draymond Green should be kicked out of the league.

My impression is that you get an easier schedule if you don’t advance in the tournament. Last year the Twolves played Memphis an extra 2X because they finished second. Memphis sucked last year, so it was like being handed two wins.

[M2]

1) Who gives a rats behind about the NBA Cup?

Teams seems to care, which in turn is reason for the fans to care. The games were good last year. They've been good this year. It's pretty harmless. Just a little bit of sugar sprinkled on early season contests. I'd like to see the winner get a draft lottery slot (8th-best odds), but I'm not gonna get mad at the league trying something new to market itself during the early portion of a long season.


2) Draymond Green should be kicked out of the league.

Don't see the point in getting overly worked up over him grabbing a guy's foot. My guess is he'll get an extra game or two suspension and we can all go on with our lives.

[M2]

I think the 76ers have crossed over the invisible line between it being early/waiting on their star talent to get on the court at the same to it's going to be hard to dig themselves out of this hole.

[KoryMac5]

SAS @ DAL

Who wins tonight?

The Mavericks who can't close out a game?

The red-hot Spurs, whose Defense right now is among the league's best?

I'll always go with the hotter team, especially if they're hot because of Defense.

Mavericks' Defense, btw, has also been good. They just can't close out a game.

Mavs can't rebound and they are banged up missing Exum and PJ Washington...plus Luka looks slower than usual, though he is still averaging 30/8/8 he is a huge liability on D. Unreal how a guy who plays ball non stop can be this out of shape year after year to start a season.

[SteelSD]

I think the 76ers have crossed over the invisible line between it being early/waiting on their star talent to get on the court at the same to it's going to be hard to dig themselves out of this hole.

That 14-point fourth quarter last night against a Banchero-less Orlando team is one of the most painful things I've ever watched. The 8 minutes of bricks between the end of the 3rd through the first half of the 4th was "Catwoman" bad. I don't normally turn off games just under halfway through the fourth quarter, but I was happy to close out of NBA.com last night during that turdfest.

Maxey's out, but that can't even be used as an excuse given that Jared McCain has filled Maxey's role to the tune of 26+ PPG over his last five outings (a couple of them starts). With McCain, George, and Embiid on the floor, the offensive ineptitude is simply inexcusable. Paul George looks lost much/most of the time. Embiid is clearly not in game shape and his movement is so limited that he can't even begin to figure out how to escape even poor attempts at double teams. The supporting cast can't shoot and the bench is so full of washed vets, they should nickname it "The Laundromat". Hell, of the the two guys you'd trust to take threes right now, one was playing college ball (McCain) and the other (Yabu) was in Europe a season ago.

I wish I had the energy to linger and discuss the emergence of Jared McCain, who looks eerily Brunson-esque right now, but watching the Sixers try to play basketball has just sapped all my strength.

[M2]

I wish I had the energy to linger and discuss the emergence of Jared McCain, who looks eerily Brunson-esque right now, but watching the Sixers try to play basketball has just sapped all my strength.

This is shaping up to be a classic "it looked good on paper" situation.

[M2]

Off night for De'Aaron Fox. He only scored 49.

[Kingspoint]

I think the 76ers have crossed over the invisible line between it being early/waiting on their star talent to get on the court at the same to it's going to be hard to dig themselves out of this hole.

4 games back from 3rd in the East in the loss column.

[Kingspoint]

Don't see the point in getting overly worked up over him grabbing a guy's foot. My guess is he'll get an extra game or two suspension and we can all go on with our lives.At the rate he's piling up technicals, he's going to miss a few games. But, then the NBA will magically review them the last month of the season and take 2 or 3 of them away to place him just under the required number to start missing games. But, Green won't help and he'll pile up 8 more the last month and get suspended every other game for the last two weeks of the season.

- - - Updated - - -


Mavs can't rebound and they are banged up missing Exum and PJ Washington...plus Luka looks slower than usual, though he is still averaging 30/8/8 he is a huge liability on D. Unreal how a guy who plays ball non stop can be this out of shape year after year to start a season.

Turns out the Wembanyama wasn't available so that the winner was decided ahead of the first tip.

[Kingspoint]

That 14-point fourth quarter last night against a Banchero-less Orlando team is one of the most painful things I've ever watched. The 8 minutes of bricks between the end of the 3rd through the first half of the 4th was "Catwoman" bad. I don't normally turn off games just under halfway through the fourth quarter, but I was happy to close out of NBA.com last night during that turdfest.

Maxey's out, but that can't even be used as an excuse given that Jared McCain has filled Maxey's role to the tune of 26+ PPG over his last five outings (a couple of them starts). With McCain, George, and Embiid on the floor, the offensive ineptitude is simply inexcusable. Paul George looks lost much/most of the time. Embiid is clearly not in game shape and his movement is so limited that he can't even begin to figure out how to escape even poor attempts at double teams. The supporting cast can't shoot and the bench is so full of washed vets, they should nickname it "The Laundromat". Hell, of the the two guys you'd trust to take threes right now, one was playing college ball (McCain) and the other (Yabu) was in Europe a season ago.

I wish I had the energy to linger and discuss the emergence of Jared McCain, who looks eerily Brunson-esque right now, but watching the Sixers try to play basketball has just sapped all my strength.

They could really use Batum.

[M2]

Julius Randle's 35-4-7 beat Devin Booker's 44-6-7 because Randle got help and Booker didn't. The Suns are now 1-4 without Kevin Durant.

[M2]

The Pacers continue to be among my "gonna figure it out" teams, getting an important win tonight over the Heat. Myles Turner went 34-9, Pascal Siakam went 23-4-3, Bennedict Mathurin went 21-12 and Tyrese Haliburton went 16-3-13. Collectively they went 33-57 from the floor. When that team is good, it's VERY good. Sooner or later it's going to go on a run.

[RedTeamGo!]

Will the Cavs go 82-0? I’m just joking. But maybe…..

[redsfan9988]

Bulls, fresh off giving up a buck 44 to Cleveland in regulation, give up a buck 43 to the Rockets in regulation tonight..

Rockets absolutely murdered them in the paint. It was gross.

[M2]

Will the Cavs go 82-0? I’m just joking. But maybe…..

Tuesday's tilt against the Celtics is gonna feel huge for a game on Nov. 19.

[KoryMac5]

Mavs beat OKC without Luka, PJ Washington had a huge game 27 pts and 17 boards.

[M2]

Mavs beat OKC without Luka, PJ Washington had a huge game 27 pts and 17 boards.

Absolutely killed them on the boards: 53-29. OKC's DRB% was only 55%. I think the Mavs just showed everyone the secret of how to attack this undersized Thunder team.

[M2]

Last night James Harden passed Ray Allen for 2nd place all-time on the 3-pointers made list. Other active players in the top 10:

1. Steph, and he keeps pulling away from the field
4. Dame
6. Klay, he'll pass Reggie Miller in roughly another dozen games
8. LeBron, should pass Kyle Korver this week

And if Paul George can stay healthy for two weeks, he should pass Jason Terry to break into the top 10 (followed a few games later by passing Vince Carter for the #9 slot).

[klw]

Will the Cavs go 82-0? I’m just joking. But maybe…..

Nah, at some point they will lose to Detroit.

[Kingspoint]

Anthony Edwards setting up the atmosphere for when MIN is @ SAC in the playoffs. Being a Divison Foe, there's going to be many opportunities to get together.

https://x.com/ClutchPoints/status/1858202709104734219

- - - Updated - - -


The Pacers continue to be among my "gonna figure it out" teams, getting an important win tonight over the Heat. Myles Turner went 34-9, Pascal Siakam went 23-4-3, Bennedict Mathurin went 21-12 and Tyrese Haliburton went 16-3-13. Collectively they went 33-57 from the floor. When that team is good, it's VERY good. Sooner or later it's going to go on a run.

Overcoming season-ending losses to rotation players is very difficult to do.

[Kingspoint]

Will the Cavs go 82-0? I’m just joking. But maybe…..

Franz Wagner interrupted the string of CLE Players-of-the Week Awards.

[Kingspoint]

Absolutely killed them on the boards: 53-29. OKC's DRB% was only 55%. I think the Mavs just showed everyone the secret of how to attack this undersized Thunder team.

It also takes a PG who can overcome the pressure of Lou Dort and the rest of the Thunder. They just don't let opposing teams get into their Offense or any kind of rhythm.

[dubc47834]

Will the Cavs go 82-0? I’m just joking. But maybe…..

Here's a hot take, they won't even finish 1st in the Eastern Conference.

[M2]

Here's a hot take, they won't even finish 1st in the Eastern Conference.

I'm not sure that's all that hot a take. Boston should win 60+. Predicting that the Cavs don't even finish 2nd would be a little spicy, as they've got a 6-game lead on 3rd place.

[M2]

Credit to the Magic for putting together a six-game win streak without Paolo Banchero. It was a fairly soft schedule (Pelicans, Wizards, Hornets, Pacers, Sixers, KD-less Suns), but it's still easier said than done to bank those wins. Franz Wagner has really stepped up to be the team's ace.

[RedTeamGo!]

Here's a hot take, they won't even finish 1st in the Eastern Conference.

lmao that isn't remotely a hot take.

[Kingspoint]

Doc's done a good job making adjustments the last five games. He managed to find ways to filter in Trent that makes him more useful while getting Trent to increase his Defensive intensity. All the Bucks have increased their defensive intensity over the last 7 games. Even Dame's return didn't change the overall Defense. He'll have to be watchful as the natural tendency isn't there for some of these players like Trent and Portis to follow the Coach's instructions and sacrifice their games for the betterment of the team. Doc hasn't put too much pressure on any one or two of the younger players and mixes them in and out pretty well right now trying to find what works. Giannis definitely has a hand in this, as does the overall play of Lopez. Another month or two of mixing and matching to find what can work and the Bucks can better identify what they need to try to add to the mix to improve their playoff chances for this season. Everyone admits that it's going to have to be Portis and Connaughton, as they are their only trade pieces that can be moved and bring back an asset that will help.

[Kingspoint]

I've been waiting for it to happen since he took over the mess that Trey Young created, but Quin Snyder finally has the entire Hawks' team playing Defense. There's been a major shift in thinking around the league that a weak link in a lineup can be easily exploited, and if two weak links Defensively are on the floor at the same time, all of the NBA teams are too good Offensively now to take quick advantage of this. While Nate McMillan had the Hawks playing Defense (after that Coach was fired thanks to Trey Young's refusal to give any effort on that side of the ball or to admit that he's the major problem on the team's ability to win games), Young got McMillan fired, too. Atlanta thought that if they'd bring another Defensive-minded Coach to the team in Snyder, while getting rid of the defensively-challenged John Collins and adding the good Defensive player in Dejonte Murray, that this would be enough to hide Trey Young's league-worst Defense. It didn't. Young continued to refuse to even try to play Defense. All the numbers point to Young being the problem, but they get rid of Murray (probably because they could get more for him than Young as there's fewer teams now that want players who are league worst Defensively). Analytics have made their mark in the league and are driving choices by G.M.'s now. There's not many left who don't understand the negative values of players like Harden and Westbrook and Young, all who put up "MVP" numbers, but it's all stats that don't lead to winning. Too much information is out there now, and the best teams have always been and are still based on the ability to play with intensity on the Defensive side of the ball as this leads to higher percentage shots at the other end of the floor by a very large margin. The team that wins this battle wins the game. It takes intensity and some quickness and length to guard a 3-pt shooter and knock them off of the line or at least make their attempt a difficult one. Stotts and Kerr and Carlisle and Haliburton and Tatum, Pritchard, White and Brown, and OKC are demonstrating the half-court type of Offenses that teams have to try defend (BOS just attempted 60 "3"'s the other night and won the game despite having an overall shooting percentage 8 points less than their opponent on the night).

Back to Quin Snyder...he's got ATL playing great Defense, led by the Master Thief Daniels (acquired in the Murray trade). He's got Clint Capela playing his best Defense since his first 3 years in the league. Trey Young still doesn't play Defense, but Young is giving more effort, is whining a little bit less when he doesn't get a call (when there was clearly no foul) he thinks that he should after he intentionally runs into an opponent and flails his arms in the air and throws the ball out of bounds. Daniels full-court pressure on the ball removes most of the clock and another team's ability to find Trey Young in order to take advantage of him. With everyone but Young playing Defense with intensity, they've found a way to turn Trey Young's time on the floor into a positive team result. Young can focus more on distributing, while ATL's Defense is giving everyone on the team open looks in transition that rewards the Defense that they're playing.

I had ATL as a lottery team. It looks like they can change places with PHI. PHI looks like a lottery team and ATL can vie for the 5th, 6th or 7th seed that PHI was going to be playing for when the season began.

- - - Updated - - -


Credit to the Magic for putting together a six-game win streak without Paolo Banchero. It was a fairly soft schedule (Pelicans, Wizards, Hornets, Pacers, Sixers, KD-less Suns), but it's still easier said than done to bank those wins. Franz Wagner has really stepped up to be the team's ace.

They kicked everybody's ass in all of those games.

[Kingspoint]

The Kings provided some positive medical updates on three key players, Jason Anderson of the Sacramento Bee writes.

DeMar DeRozan, Malik Monk and Domantas Sabonis didn’t play on Monday but are close to returning. All three have been cleared for individual on-court workouts. They could return for Sacramento’s game against the Clippers on Friday.

DeRozan has been sidelined for three games due to lower back tightness. Sabonis missed his second straight contest for the same reason, while Monk missed his fifth consecutive game on Monday after suffering a moderate right ankle sprain on Nov. 10.

[Kingspoint]

NBA Cup games tonight.



Malcolm Brogdon played 22 minutes in the Wizards last game. He was the first player off the bench.

[klw]

Celtics up 18 early in the 3r but are shooting 68% from 3. Have to figure the Cavs will get back in the game once the C's start missing from deep

[M2]

Celtics up 18 early in the 3r but are shooting 68% from 3. Have to figure the Cavs will get back in the game once the C's start missing from deep

You were correct, sir. I have seen these two teams play versions of this game before and it usually goes to overtime.

[RedTeamGo!]

Celtics shot the lights out at home and only won by 3. Crazy.

[Betterread]

Celtics up 18 early in the 3r but are shooting 68% from 3. Have to figure the Cavs will get back in the game once the C's start missing from deep

The threes the Celts were shooting and making in the second quarter were pretty much all uncontested, wide open shots. It would have been more notable if they missed a lot of them. The Cavs three pt defense was awful.
But garland was something worse than awful. 3-21 from the field. He should never ever be compared with JRue Holiday.

[Kingspoint]

"Win One for the Gipper."

Spurs continue to play inspired Defense, even without Wembanyama as they are holding the Thunder to one of their lowest outputs of the season while holding a double-digit lead for much of the game. It ain't over, but there's not much time left. And, doing so in a playoff atmosphere of the NBA Cup.

[M2]

Russell Westbrook just became the first NBA player to log 200 triple-doubles.

[KoryMac5]

Russell Westbrook just become the first NBA player to log 200 triple-doubles.

I know people love to hate on Westbrook but that is an unreal achievement...he sits alone next closest for active players is Joker at 136 which is equally impressive for his size. Lebron is at 117, Harden is at 78 and Luka has 77. Just shows how the NBA has evolved over the years.

[Chip R]

Celtics shot the lights out at home and only won by 3. Crazy.

CLE's defense was pretty impressive, save for the 3s but there isn't a lot you can do about that.

[Rojo Rijo]

Last night was another reminder of my disappointment when the Lakers took Dalton Knecht #17 in the draft, one spot before Orlando picked.

Last 4 games since he moved into the starting lineup - 33 MPG / 21-31 3P - 67% / 24.2 PPG

[M2]

Last night was another reminder of my disappointment when the Lakers took Dalton Knecht #17 in the draft, one spot before Orlando picked.

Last 4 games since he moved into the starting lineup - 33 MPG / 21-31 3P - 67% / 24.2 PPG

It was insane that he dropped as far as he did in such a weak draft. He was the most obvious ready-to-score guy in the class.

[Betterread]

Jokic is 4th is scoring, and first in Rebs and assists per game. He is shooting 56/56/84. The NBA is too easy for him.

[Kingspoint]

If I were the Sixers, I'd grab Jaylen Nowell before somebody else does and cut some of the fodder on that team. Nowell was just waived by NOP who added Elfrid Payton and have players returning shortly (while trying to stay under the tax threshhold, something I believe they would have been over after adding Payton.

There's a few teams that could use Nowell.

[Kingspoint]

Last night was another reminder of my disappointment when the Lakers took Dalton Knecht #17 in the draft, one spot before Orlando picked.

Last 4 games since he moved into the starting lineup - 33 MPG / 21-31 3P - 67% / 24.2 PPG

Blazers would have taken Dalton Knecht at #14 before LA, if POR hadn't desired (it was the correct decision) to acquire Deni Avdija with the pick (plus Brogdon and a future 1st).

- - - Updated - - -


Jokic is 4th is scoring, and first in Rebs and assists per game. He is shooting 56/56/84. The NBA is too easy for him.

I imagine his on-floor/off-floor is high, too.

[M2]

If I were the Sixers, I'd grab Jaylen Nowell before somebody else does and cut some of the fodder on that team. Nowell was just waived by NOP who added Elfrid Payton and have players returning shortly (while trying to stay under the tax threshhold, something I believe they would have been over after adding Payton.

There's a few teams that could use Nowell.

The Pelicans have come full circle. They're terrible again and they've got Elfrid Payton.

[Kingspoint]

The Pelicans have come full circle. They're terrible again and they've got Elfrid Payton.

It is the dog biting its own tail, for sure.

[SteelSD]

Good lord is this current Sixers team a dumpster fire.

I may have to find a pet team to root for, which ain't as easy as it sounds because nba.com thinks I should be blacked out for a lot more teams than I should be.

[M2]

Good lord is this current Sixers team a dumpster fire.

I may have to find a pet team to root for, which ain't as easy as it sounds because nba.com thinks I should be blacked out for a lot more teams than I should be.

I feel like the Warriors are a good Brazil option (once upon a time everyone's first or second favorite soccer playing nation).

[redsfan9988]

Good lord is this current Sixers team a dumpster fire.

I may have to find a pet team to root for, which ain't as easy as it sounds because nba.com thinks I should be blacked out for a lot more teams than I should be.

Rockets!

Young, high effort defensive team. I’m having a lot of fun. They’re very watchable. Make Daryl Morey mad!

- - - Updated - - -


I feel like the Warriors are a good Brazil option (once upon a time everyone's first or second favorite soccer playing nation).

I would root for the Warriors if the other 29 teams weren’t an option.

[M2]

I would root for the Warriors if the other 29 teams weren’t an option.

I get that from a Rockets fan standpoint. You were thisclose, twice.

[Betterread]

I feel like the Warriors are a good Brazil option (once upon a time everyone's first or second favorite soccer playing nation).

No. Brazil is streetwise, favelas, not Napa Valley. Soccer comp for the warriors is Arsenal, California Chardonnay and babycham.

[texasdave]

Do basketball players get the shooting yips? Halliburton carried an eFG% of .572 into the season. So far, in 19 games, it stands at .454.

[Chip R]

Do basketball players get the shooting yips? Halliburton carried an eFG% of .572 into the season. So far, in 19 games, it stands at .454.

They do but it's usually temporary.

[SteelSD]

Rockets!

Young, high effort defensive team. I’m having a lot of fun. They’re very watchable. Make Daryl Morey mad!

That could happen. I'd like to watch more Pacers games, but nba.com won't let me. Morons.


I would root for the Warriors if the other 29 teams weren’t an option.

Draymond Green and up till midnight most of the games? Pass.

[M2]

Do basketball players get the shooting yips? Halliburton carried an eFG% of .572 into the season. So far, in 19 games, it stands at .454.

He's been flummoxing to be sure. Seems like the Pacers on any given night vary dependent on which version of Haliburton they're getting.

[M2]

No. Brazil is streetwise, favelas, not Napa Valley. Soccer comp for the warriors is Arsenal, California Chardonnay and babycham.

I was thinking in terms of they revolutionized how the game is played with a more flowing and high scoring style, and they've won everything a bunch of times. Brazil did that. Arsenal didn't. If I had to compare them to a club, I'd go with Rinus Michels' Ajax. They've got some Total Football vibes.

[KoryMac5]

Luka out for a week or more with a wrist according to Shams. Might be a blessing in disguise as that knee needs time as well.

[M2]

Worth noting that Isaiah Hartenstein made his Thunder debut last night, collecting 13 pts, 14 reb and 4 blocks in 28:33 for a +16. I question whether he'll maintain a double-double pace, but he definitely fixes their lack-of-a-center problem.

[KoryMac5]

Hubie Brown to retire at the end of the season...heck of a career and one of my favorite national announcers. So much knowledge of the game.

[M2]

You don't run into many Hubie/Huberts these days. I once worked with a guy named Hubert and for whatever reason I liked to say his name while doing a Boris Karloff imitation. Huuuuubert, please retrieve a package at the loading dock. We're waiting for you, Huuuuubert.

[Kingspoint]

Worth noting that Isaiah Hartenstein made his Thunder debut last night, collecting 13 pts, 14 reb and 4 blocks in 28:33 for a +16. I question whether he'll maintain a double-double pace, but he definitely fixes their lack-of-a-center problem.

Have yourself a debut, why don't you.

He was diving and jumping after every loose ball, and getting to them first and obtaining possession. He was the MVP of the game easily. The Thunder forced POR into something like 27 TO's leading to 30+ points. POR lost by 10, but it was closer than that. It's only the 2nd time this season that POR has lost a game where they hit more "3"'s than their opponent. POR also played good Defense for the 4th straight game. Hartenstein was a beast. His passing was excellent.

The Knicks would be so much better off had they just paid Hartenstein and kept Randle and DiVincenzo.

Hartenstein instantly became a fan-favorite last night. It pissed me off when he was available a few years ago (and every year for the last 5 years) when POR desperately needed Centers, but the Paul Allen family has always placed a moratorium on adding any Oregon Duck to the roster. Their hatred for that program has always been obvious.

[Kingspoint]

What's been more disappointing based on expectations?

The Sixers' season or the Bengals' season?

Personally, of course, the Bengals' season.

If I didn't have a dog in the fight, I'd say the Bengals' season because the Sixers seasons are always filled with drama and their drought of getting to a Conference Championship extends all the way back to 1995. The Bengals season is worse because compared to everyone else in the NFL, they've had a healthy campaign. They just flat out suck with the expected players available. There's no fix for that.

[M2]

Charlotte got big nights from Brandon Miller (38-7-4) and LaMelo Ball (35-6-9) on their way to a 2-point win over the Pistons. Still looking to see which teams put things together in the East. There's 8 teams currently within 1.5 games of each other in the 5-12 slots, with Philly still harboring visions of getting itself together. Four of those teams are making the playoffs and I could believe it being any of them.

[M2]

Big win for the Magic on the road against the Lakers. With a two-point lead and 18 seconds to play, AD missed two free throws. Then Franz Wagner had an iso at the top of the arc and hit a 26-foot stepback 3 to given Orlando the lead with 3 seconds left. After a timeout, AD missed a potential game-winner and that was all she wrote.

[redsfan9988]

Big win for the Magic on the road against the Lakers. With a two-point lead and 18 seconds to play, AD missed two free throws. Then Franz Wagner had an iso at the top of the arc and hit a 26-foot stepback 3 to given Orlando the lead with 3 seconds left. After a timeout, AD missed a potential game-winner and that was all she wrote.

The Magic are going to be a nightmare for Boston or Cleveland in the ECSF. Doubt they can win a series against either, but they’ll give them a bloody nose for sure.

It’s always nice to see the Lakers lose at basketball. Life’s little pleasures.

[M2]

The Magic are going to be a nightmare for Boston or Cleveland in the ECSF. Doubt they can win a series against either, but they’ll give them a bloody nose for sure.

I'm not sold on that. They played a tight series against Cleveland last year, but the Cavs are playing offense on a different level now. And the Celtics have ridiculous firepower. They're 12-3 on cruise control. The Magic can make them both work (on that I totally agree), but Cleveland and Boston also can play lockdown defense. So I'd think the clear differentiator in both of those matchups would be the dramatic scoring advantage. So I'm not sure they'd have to sweat the series so much as they'd have to play a full 48 in each of the games.

[Mutaman]

Hubie Brown to retire at the end of the season...heck of a career and one of my favorite national announcers. So much knowledge of the game.

I once sat behind the Knicks' bench back in the Bernard era. Watching Hubie coach was quite an experience. And i heard him scream words that I have not heard before or since.

[Kingspoint]

The Magic are going to be a nightmare for Boston or Cleveland in the ECSF. Doubt they can win a series against either, but they’ll give them a bloody nose for sure.

It’s always nice to see the Lakers lose at basketball. Life’s little pleasures.

That's one of those things where you have to get there first and lose before you can get there and win. CLE and BOS have both been there. But, the experience will be necessary for ORL to advance next season past that level.

[Kingspoint]

Simons is back. POR got cooked. Though it wasn't Simons' fault. HOU is really good. Collectively, POR can't rebound worth a crap even though they are the tallest team in the NBA by far. They get to try again in the same building tomorrow.

[M2]

The Clippers just went to 10-7, placing them 5th in the West. What's even more impressive is they've done this while playing the 2nd toughest schedule in the NBA. It's them and the Wizards way out in front, then a big drop to the Jazz and Bulls, and then another big drop to the next tier. Unfortunately, life in the Western Conference means their schedule is never going to get easy, but it's been brutal so far and they're doing well.

That brings us to how are they doing this with James Harden and a collection of dudes. Well, allow me to make the case that collecting dudes who play defense over the summer has turned into a real market efficiency play. The Clippers are doing it with defense. Heading into tonight they were 6th in D Rating and 22nd in O Rating. They will improve on the defensive side after holding the Kings to 88. Over the summer the Clippers brought in Derrick Jones Jr. (you might remember him as the defensive stalwart in Dallas' starting 5 that went to the last season's finals), Kris Dunn and Nic Batum. Those guys will get after you on the perimeter. Most of all, they're giving the Clips an identity as a team with some real dog in it. And they cost less than $20M combined.

[Kingspoint]

The Clippers just went to 10-7, placing them 5th in the West. What's even more impressive is they've done this while playing the 2nd toughest schedule in the NBA. It's them and the Wizards way out in front, then a big drop to the Jazz and Bulls, and then another big drop to the next tier. Unfortunately, life in the Western Conference means their schedule is never going to get easy, but it's been brutal so far and they're doing well.

That brings us to how are they doing this with James Harden and a collection of dudes. Well, allow me to make the case that collecting dudes who play defense over the summer has turned into a real market efficiency play. The Clippers are doing it with defense. Heading into tonight they were 6th in D Rating and 22nd in O Rating. They will improve on the defensive side after holding the Kings to 88. Over the summer the Clippers brought in Derrick Jones Jr. (you might remember him as the defensive stalwart in Dallas' starting 5 that went to the last season's finals), Kris Dunn and Nic Batum. Those guys will get after you on the perimeter. Most of all, they're giving the Clips an identity as a team with some real dog in it. And they cost less than $20M combined.

I know Derrick Jones, Jr. because the Blazers still owe the Bulls a lottery-protected 1st Round pick for trading for him (and they gave them more than that, too....ah...Neil Olshey). Of course, we had Kris Dunn in 2022 (Simons keeps getting in the way of people). Batum just plays well wherever he goes.

[Kingspoint]

One more amazing fact about Michael Jordan...

I never realized it until Donovan Clingan passed Bill Walton tonight on the list of All-Time players who began their careers with a block in every game.

Walton had one in his first 15 games.

Jordan had one in his first 16 games for 4th on the list (now tied with Clingan).

Shaq is 3rd with something like 18.

Pau Gasol is 2nd with something like 21.

Alonzo Mourning is 1st with 57 games.

Clingan may end up being the 2nd best Center POR has had since Walton (Arvidas being the best since Walton, while in the running for topping a very long list of "what could have been"'s).

May as well list them.

Win the coin-flip and draft Olajuwon.
Draft Jordan instead of Bowie.
Draft Barkley instead of Boie.
Keep Moses Malone after his pre-season performance in the Championship season when he had 20 Rebounds....in the first half, instead of letting him go for monetary reasons ($250K at the time).
Draft Durant instead of Oden.
Draft Gobert or Adams instead of McCollum, thus keeping Will Barton as the "2" next to Dame with Gobert or Adams at Center.
Draft John Collins AND Bam Adebayo instead of trading those picks that could have gotten them to the Kings to draft Zac Collins. We wouldn't have had to pay Adams or Gobert's 3rd contract.
Draft Larry Bird instead of Michael Thompson in 1978 because of Walton's injury and POR chasing a Center.
Draft Bill Laimbeer instead of Mickey Fox in the 3rd Round of the 1979 NBA draft so Laimbeer doesn't come back and haunt them in the NBA Finals a decade later.
Draft Kiki Vandeweghe with the 10th pick of the 1980 draft (went 11th to DAL) instead of trading up from the 10th to the 4th to take Kelvin Ransey. Then they wouldn't have had to trade away the farm to get Vandeweghe.

The list is long.

[redsfan9988]

Simons is back. POR got cooked. Though it wasn't Simons' fault. HOU is really good. Collectively, POR can't rebound worth a crap even though they are the tallest team in the NBA by far. They get to try again in the same building tomorrow.

Revenge!

Rockets played perhaps the worst 48 minutes of basketball I’ve ever seen anyone play in history (including at the Y).

Absolutely abysmal.

They wouldn’t have beaten you and me 5 on 2 tonight. Just horrendous. Portland played good D and hit some big 3s, so credit to them. But that was one of the worst things I’ve ever watched, and that’s coming from a Reds fan.

[M2]

The last time the T-Wolves won in Boston, their starting 5 was Kevin Garnett, Latrell Sprewell, John Thomas, Troy Hudson and Trenton Hassell.

[Chip R]

Porzingis is back. :D

[Kingspoint]

Revenge!

Rockets played perhaps the worst 48 minutes of basketball I’ve ever seen anyone play in history (including at the Y).

Absolutely abysmal.

They wouldn’t have beaten you and me 5 on 2 tonight. Just horrendous. Portland played good D and hit some big 3s, so credit to them. But that was one of the worst things I’ve ever watched, and that’s coming from a Reds fan.

Still, 100% of the credit goes to POR making them look that way. Over the last 5 games, POR has the 5th best DEF rating in the NBA. They frustrated the Rockets and frustration makes players do things like get fined (VanVleet) $50K by the NBA for saying derogatory comments to all 3 officials AFTER getting tossed and the pointing your finger in the face of one of them close enough that the official had to duck. I guess 43% more free throw attempts by the Rockets weren't enough for VanVleet. He's lucky he wasn't fined $100K. Frustrating enough that Dillon Brooks grabs Shaedon Sharpes arm and pulls him down to the ground (officials called a foul on Sharpe because of Brooks' overblown reaction of an incident that he was 100% responsible for). Anfernee Simons, of all people would have none of that and grabbed Brooks and pulled him away, turned him around and pushed him away taking him one-on-one at that point standing up for his teammate (Simons and Brooks each got techs,...standard NBA outcome, even though it should have been a flagrant-2 on Brooks). Simons then went medievil on HOU and single-handedly ended the game.

A play where Sengun doesn't flop and whine will be the first play that it's ever happened. Sengun commits about 25 Offensive fouls per game, but gets called for one at the most...the James Harden/Luka Doncic rule. Obviously a European thing, though, as it seems to be standard practice among many of them.

Even in the loss the night before where HOU destroyed POR on the boards and in transition, POR played good Defense. Like Saturday, they got out on the shooters making it difficult to get good looks on "3"'s, while Clingan dominated the paint Defensively two nights in a row. POR came out with a mission to fix their Achille's Heal (poor rebounding on both ends of the floor), at least for one night, outrebounding HOU 18-8 in the 1st Quarter.

HOU isn't used to other teams matching them for intensity. In the first game, POR succumbed to it about 5-6 minutes into the game and that was all she wrote. But, Saturday, POR not only matched them with intensity for 48 minutes, but they beat them into submission in the end with a well-earned road win in Texas. To get a win against one of the 7 best teams in the NBA in their building after being blown out the night before was another great step forward for the rebuilding process of POR.

Now, the Blazers play MEM tonight,...the source for what started the renewed Blazers, having lost by 45 points to them 15 days ago. Morant rejoins them tonight after missing the last 8 games, including the 45-point win in POR. Unfortunately, Clingan is going to miss some time after Sengun got tripped up by Camara on a drive to the basket and landed on the helping Donovan's foot, making certain (the dirty player that he is) that he stayed sat on the foot not letting it move as Clingan's movement of falling then stretched the outside of his left knee, clearly straining the tendons in the knee. The Blazers made a mistake after determining in the lockerroom that he could come out and play as I don't think they saw the video from the right angle to see the potential damage that Clingan incurred. He came back in and played a couple minutes only to have it get reinjured just from landing on it, sending Clingan to the ground. Unable to call a timeout and get posession, HOU came back down from the other end to face a Clingan who got up, challenged the play and prevented HOU from scoring, all while dealing with this injury. There's no timetable, but if I were the Blazers, I'd keep him out for two weeks. There's also no Ayton tonight, so it's RWIII and a bunch of forwards against MEM. Kris Murray, who's made a huge Year-3 leap this season and is 2nd on the team (in the last 9 games) behind D. B. Hooper in on-floor/off-floor Net rating (Toumani is 2nd on the team for the entire season), is also out tonight. HOU will beat you up. You know you've played them afterwards and POR just played them back-to-back. Can't see how HOU doesn't make it to the Conference Finals while finishing the season as at least a Top-3 Seed in the West.

- - - Updated - - -


Porzingis is back. :D

Morant is back tonight against POR.

Durant and Beal are back tomorrow night.

[Kingspoint]

It's a small sample-size, 5 games, but it was a small sample-size two years ago that showed me ORL was turning a corner for their franchise and were beginning to make a mark Defensively on the league. Now ORL is an elite Defensive team two years later, being one of the best last season (until experiencing how the playoffs are different than the regular season). I'm hoping that these signs of better Defense are signs of things to come. It's going to come and go with a young team like POR (not everyone can be great AND young Defensively like OKC). As can be seen by the numbers, of the top-12 Defensive Teams, only one has a negative NET Rating, and that's POR. Partly it's because of poor rebounding, the 2nd lowest Defensive Rebounding rate among the 12. Mostly, because of poor shooting (the lowest of the 12 in both eFG% and TS%).

Before Saturday's HOU game Chauncey made it a major point to get the team's best scorers involved. Sharpe has been scoring, but ANT had been shooting below 29% from "3", while his confidence in other areas was down, too. Grant had his lowest scoring total of the season the night before and hadn't been scoring well the last 10 games. Both got going on Saturday. Simons had a breakout game while dominating down the stretch against the league's #1 Defense in HOU. Grant hit 4-7 from "3" and was aggressive Offensively. Sharpe shot well and combined with And and Grant to have a trio of 20+ point scorers. They'll continue to try to build on that Offensively againt MEM (ranked 13th DEF over the last 5 games).

And, it's not like POR was playing patsies over these 5 games. Back-to-back in POR against a fully healthy MIN team (missing Conley in the 2nd game, but POR missed several of their own). ATL came into POR playing really well and healthy. Then back-to-back @HOU, also extremely healthy and playing better than anyone in the NBA. Just looking for small groupings of 5 games here and there where they can put up sustained effort. To get the kind of night-in/night-out effort that teams like OKC/HOU/MIN/BOS/LAC/ORL/CLE/GSW put in, that's a step that can't happen until they first put small runs together. Last year, it was rare when they would get just one game, and it was more about trying to get games where they put two quarters together for stretches of 5 games.

22130

[RedTeamGo!]

Troy Hudson.

Now, that is a name I haven’t heard in some time

[Kingspoint]

LaMelo Ball is in MVP form right now. CHA is only 6-10, but that puts them into position to make a run for home-court in the 1st Round of the playoffs in the East. Great test tonight hosting ORL and early they are up to the task.

IND gets a breather facing NOP tonight.

DAL @ ATL last season would have been all about Offense, but that's no longer the case. Both teams could be under 108 tonight.

BOS playing a team that can match their intensity tonight with the LAC in town.

Malik Monk will see if he can go tonight. He's badly needed for the Kings as there's little bench scoring without him. They face OKC.

NYK @ DEN a matchup of two teams on the upswing.

[Kingspoint]

"They've got a Cave Troll!"

Marcus Smart returns for the Grizzlies tonight, too. He's missed 4 games from food poisoning.

[Kingspoint]

West Coast late-night games watched by voters? No way. They're going to bed.

Donovan Clingan is 3rd in the entire NBA (he leads all rookies) in block and rebound rate, yet he doesn't have a single vote for ROY.

[M2]

BOS playing a team that can match their intensity tonight with the LAC in town.

Porzingis is back tonight. Hasn't done a ton yet (8-3-2, 2 blocks in 13 minutes), but this game is unfair. The Celtics are up 78-49 at the half and might be making a run at the single-game record for 3-pointers (it's 29 and they've already drained 16). It is hard to put words to how overwhelming they've been.