NBA 2022-23 Part 2: Everyone Scores 50

[Kingspoint]

Most players won't say anything because their wives get mad at them for getting fined, but here's the reality...

The Raptors, who lost by eight points, were called for 23 fouls compared to 18 for the Clippers, Youngmisuk notes. That’s not a huge disparity, but Los Angeles shot 17 more free throws than Toronto (31-14) and VanVleet was called for a technical foul by Taylor in the third quarter.

“I don’t mind, I’ll take a fine, I don’t really care,” VanVleet began (Twitter video link via Faizal Khamisa of Sportsnet.ca). “I thought Ben Taylor was f—ing terrible tonight. I think that on most nights, you know, out of the three (referees), there’s one or two that just f— the game up. It’s been like that a couple of games in a row. Denver was tough, obviously.”

The Raptors suffered a five-point loss on Monday in a game in which they were called for 20 fouls, compared to just 12 for the Nuggets. With Denver up by one point in the final minute of the game, referee Scott Foster whistled Raptors forward Scottie Barnes for a technical foul and ejected him.

“Most of the refs are trying hard,” VanVleet continued. “I like a lot of the refs, they’re trying hard, they’re pretty fair, they communicate well. And then you got the other ones who just want to be d—s and it just kind of f—s the game up. Nobody’s coming to see that s–t. They come to see the players. I think we’re losing a little bit of the fabric of what the NBA is and was.”

VanVleet also referred to his technical foul on Wednesday as “bulls–t” and pointed out that Taylor has been responsible for several of his techs this season. Of VanVleet’s eight technical fouls this season, five have occurred in games Taylor was working, and three of those were called by Taylor himself, per Youngmisuk.

“At a certain point as a player, you feel it’s personal,” VanVleet said. “It’s never a good place to be.”

https://www.hoopsrumors.com/2023/03/...-clippers.html

[Kingspoint]

SAC continues to get no respect around the league. When you look at the DARKO stats, they're clearly one of the seven best teams in the NBA, but nobody talks about them. They don't even get a blip on the national radar. They can put all of that to bed by winning their first round series and advancing to the final eight in the playoffs, and then going from there into the rest of the playoffs this season and into the regular season and playoffs next year.

[Kingspoint]

Most of the Blazers seem to have packed it in for the season. 4-6 in their last 10 doesn't sound too bad, but it's largely against The NBA's Sisters of the Poor. 6 of those 10 are out of the playoffs currently and have records below .500. A 7th team, Atlanta, is the 8th seed in the East and at .500 exactly-- not exactly great shakes there. Even one of the "good" teams-- the current 5th seed in the West Golden State-- was without two starters and reeling when they faced Portland. The only two good clubs they faced-- Boston and Sacramento-- absolutely pulverized them.

It's all Billups (and like you said, Grant can't play any Defense...4th worst DARKO Defensive Rating among all Forwards in the NBA, which places about 130 Forwards ahead of him Defensively). Doesn't help that Dame and Ant are 6th and 7th worst in DARKO Defensive Ratings among all Guards, with Ant's poor Offensive skills giving him a DARKO Net Rating of -2.2, about 7.8 points below league average. Ant is Jamal Crawford at best for his future and should not be starting for any team, nor playing Starter's minutes. Dame, at least has the #2 DARKO Off Rating among all Guards, but is actually #1 as Haliburton, who is #1, has a much worse DARKO DEF Rating.

Despite Nurk having the 2nd best DARKO DEF Rating among all Starting Centers, if you combine that with the two Can't's, Grant and Ant, and Dame, even if you add Thybulle to the group, the Defense is easily exploited. With Ant out, however, it's a different story. I'm hoping Ant's Grade-2 ankle sprain keeps him out forever, as Cam Reddish, is a decent #2 to place alongside of Dame. Thybulle's DARKO OFF Rating is in the 130's since he became a Blazer, while Cam's Net Rating is 5 points higher here than what it was in New York. Grant, though....man,...POR is going to overpay for him like they did Simons. While POR might be stupid enough (it's Paul Allen's college roommate, Bert Kolde, who is the main decision-maker since Allen died, which explains a lot, as Kolde was a heavy influencer when Allen was alive, too), again, POR might be stupid enough to trade their only paint protector in Nurk instead of recognizing the problem that is Simons and the problem Defensively that is Grant. Watford, who has a better DARKO Net Rating by 6 points over Grant, had the light turn on for him Feb 1 when he played in front of his parents @ MEM. He's displayed ever since the skills that made him the Summer MVP. He needs more of Grant's minutes at the "4", as he's played his entire season at the "5", not his position. With Nurk's return yesterday, Watford got his first minutes at the "4", even playing alongside Eubanks for the first time this season (who has a team-best DARKO Net Rating of +29.4, becoming the team's most improved player this season, but he needs to come off the bench. With him in, it's layup drill all game long. With Nurk in, all layups die in the paint and become passes back outside in desperation). Yesterday, Watford had a +2 +/- in 25 minutes. The 23 minutes he was off the floor was a -24. Jabari Walker needs some of Grant's minutes, too. Chauncey's rotations are horrible.

The team will never get out of the lottery until Chauncey is gone, and truly, probably not until the team is sold, which would get rid of Bert Kolde.

[M2]

as Cam Reddish, is a decent #2 to place alongside of Dame

They should pay him like he's the new Allen Crabbe.

[Kingspoint]

They should pay him like he's the new Allen Crabbe.

They already did that with Simons.

Would love to see them get Reddish on the same type of contract that they have Little,...4yr/$28M, but to be honest, I don't think there's going to be enough time to evaluate him properly to make that type of offer, and so it's going to have to be a 2/$10M-$14M. They have to resign Eubanks to a 4/$28M, and I hope that gets it done for him. He grew up in Portland (Troutdale/Gresham) and went to Oregon State, so we could probably get a home-town discount. We already signed Watford to a cheap 3-yr contract last year, so there's two years left on that. Sharpe is cheap for the next four years. Nurk is getting paid exactly what he's worth, but he should be worth more to us because of the bad Defense of the Can't's and Dame. Thybulle needs to be added to a 4/$24M-$32M. They need to not bid against themselves (like they have so many times) when it comes to Grant. Nobody is going to offer Grant more than what we offered him in January. They need to trade Simons (plus picks) for a Starting Wing. When it comes to Thybulle's hopes, I hope he can put up a league-average DARKO Net Rating of about +5 to +6 with his DEF Rating below 105.00. That makes him playable as a Starter if we don't get a trade done involving Simons. Watford has the potential to be a plus-double-digit DARKO NET Rating for his career. He stands there right now this year, and this year has not been good for him overall, as the light didn't go on for him until Feb. 1st.

Man, you look at the DARKO ratings for Poetl, and you can see why TOR gave up so much for him. He's an excellent Center right now, and is going to be a stud over the next half a dozen seasons or more.

[M2]

They already did that with Simons..

Double down!

[Kingspoint]

The league announced (Twitter link) that it is fining Raptors point guard Fred VanVleet after he took umbrage with the work of referee Ben Taylor following a loss to the Clippers on Wednesday.

VanVleet will be docked to the tune of $30K for his criticisms, per the NBA statement.

- - - Updated - - -

Double down!

That was the Simons move (after the failed philosophy of drafting McCollum to play alongside Dame when they already had a much taller Wil Barton and the need to draft Adams or Gobert).

Or, you could say it was the Evan Turner move. Take your pick.

[Mutaman]

9 blocks for Brook Lopez tonight, 8 short of Elmore smith's single game record.

[M2]

That was the Simons move (after the failed philosophy of drafting McCollum to play alongside Dame when they already had a much taller Wil Barton and the need to draft Adams or Gobert).

Or, you could say it was the Evan Turner move. Take your pick.

I don't think there's a limit on bad moves by the Blazers' front office. FWIW, I would not list C.J. among them. Not adding more dynamic forwards to play with Dame and C.J. was criminal. The sad attempt at a reload last summer was an obvious blunder (they're as lackluster as most thought heading into the season). Billups is a bad coach. I expect the hits to keep coming, and Reddish has "they will pay too much for his sorry ass" written all over him.

[Kingspoint]

Pretty good Knicks @ Kings game tonight.

No two teams playing better than the Knicks and Kings over the last month.

Knicks with the best Defense in the NBA got blasted out of the water by the Kings in the first half to the tune of 69 points. Down 20, Knicks come back to get within 5 a couple of times in the 3rd, as close as 1 in the 4th, but SAC found life behind Fox as he began to take over the game half-way through the 4th. Still 6:19 to play and a 7-pt game, this should go down to the wire.

[Kingspoint]

On their 10th Steal of the Night, Barnes secures the win for the Kings by swiping it from Randle.

[Mutaman]

No two teams playing better than the Knicks and Kings over the last month.

Please! Milwaukee has won 19 out of their last 20 games.

[Kingspoint]

Please! Milwaukee has won 19 out of their last 20 games.

After them, of course.

[Mutaman]

After them, of course.

Bucks' next 3 are at GS,Sacramento, and Phoenix. That could cool them off quick, particularly if Giannis has a serious wrist issue.

[Kingspoint]

OK, this is really weird.

March 17 @ home vs BOS and March 19 @ home vs LAC, the Blazers are going to offer fans two separate live broadcasts, one on Root Sports, and the other on Root Sports+. One will feature the regular team of Kevin Calabro, Lamar Hurd, Brooke Olzendam, Michael Porter and Cory Jez. The other will feature Neil Everett, Terry Porter and Antonio Harvey along with other former Blazers who will be interspersed into the broadcast. Neil Everett currently does Blazers road games only from a broadcast booth alongside Francis Williams (whom I really love). Everett and Antonio Harvey are excellent, too. Calabro grew on me as he's pretty good at laughing at everything, which is about the only way one can view the Blazers' organization.

This is the strangest thing I've ever seen in sports broadcasting. It's strange enough that their broadcast team lives in Seattle and Los Angeles (Neil works in L.A. for ESPN, and lives in Hawaii when he gets a chance), while Calabro and Williams both live in Seattle. Everyone else lives in Portland.