2024 NBA Season and Playoffs

[Moranis]

Boston will play Hawks.

[Who]

Klay can really only guard like a power forward now and he can’t even do that well. If he is a 38% shooter from 3, is 34 and doesn’t give you anything else, how valuable is that?

This is where Klay's lack of rebounding kills him. It makes it hard for him to slide up a position nevermind two positions to PF.

It puts so much pressure on the rest of the lineup to make up for his poor rebounding. Then you have Draymond who is undersized at the five. You have Steph who is now 36 years old. So huge pressure on the other two players in that lineup to be big rebounders. We know Wiggins doesn't rebound well. Neither does Kuminga. Podz is surprisingly scrappy at pulling down boards as an undersized 6-3 two guard. Then they had the tiny backcourts with CP3 & Steph which couldn't get a rebound if their lives depended on it.

Klay's poor rebounding hurts his ability to be a multi-positional player. That has been the case throughout his career.

[Who]

I was looking at Steph's stats last night when I saw he had just turned 36 years old. Another key indicator of that physical decline was apparent in his stat line.

Steph once led the league in steals. He had multiple seasons among the league leaders (3 yrs top 5 in steals) and was regularly in the top 20 (7 years) for his first 9 seasons. Since then his steals, have yo-yoed between 1.0 to 1.3spg. It went down to 0.9spg last year and down to 0.7spg this year.

He is not making the hustle plays he used to make.

His rebounding is the lowest in about 6-7 years despite GSW playing terrible rebounding lineups where Steph is asked to contribute more.

He is largely a non-entity on defense. What I mean is he is sound positionally and in the right place but not able to make those extra effort plays anymore. He can only guard smaller spaces. He is older. Doesn't move as well. And as a 6-2 guard, those deflections and steals helped him be more useful on defense and make up for his lack of size. Now he doesn't have that anymore.

People focus on his improved strength and one-on-ones but I think his active team defense was more valuable to the Warriors in the past than this.

It has made Steph even more of an offense-only player. I always thought he didn't get enough credit for his defense & rebounding. Not that he was a high end one but he was a lot scrappier than he got credit for. He is not that anymore. He is more reliant than ever on his scoring.

He is used less as a ball-handler and passer than ever which makes his offense even more reliant on scoring. More one dimensional than ever before. And he has always been a streaky offensive player because so much of his offense is generated from long distance shooting which is the most variable type of offense.

[Phantom255x]

Boston will play Hawks.

I'd be ecstatic if we played them or Chicago first round. Would mean one of PHI/MIA is out and also that our path is pretty easy (Chicago/Atlanta, Cleveland/Orlando, then hopefully ECF + Finals maybe even with all of PHI/MIL/MIA knocked off beforehand)

[Who]

Did you see this loophole in the 65 games played to qualify for awards?

It's been well established since last offseason that candidates for the major leaguewide awards have to appear in a minimum of 65 games to be eligible. However, for a game to count toward that total, players have to log at least 20 minutes of playing time.

DiVincenzo finished the regular season with 62 such appearances. The league allows for a tiny bit of leeway, giving players credit for up to two more 20-minute showings if they log between 15 and 20 minutes of playing time.

DiVincenzo had 66 games in which he logged 19½ minutes or more -- including four appearances that fell less than 30 seconds short of the 20-minute total -- but the NBA doesn't round up official minute totals.

A couple of award voters, including ESPN's JJ Redick and The Ringer's Michael Pina, wrote that they'd planned to include DiVincenzo on their ballots before realizing they couldn't vote for him.

This is despite DiVincenso playing 81 games and averaging 29.1mpg for the season.

[celticinorlando]

One thing is for sure. If Miami is who Boston plays, the Celtics are going to see every kind of junk defenses Spo can come up with.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

Did you see this loophole in the 65 games played to qualify for awards?

It's been well established since last offseason that candidates for the major leaguewide awards have to appear in a minimum of 65 games to be eligible. However, for a game to count toward that total, players have to log at least 20 minutes of playing time.

DiVincenzo finished the regular season with 62 such appearances. The league allows for a tiny bit of leeway, giving players credit for up to two more 20-minute showings if they log between 15 and 20 minutes of playing time.

DiVincenzo had 66 games in which he logged 19½ minutes or more -- including four appearances that fell less than 30 seconds short of the 20-minute total -- but the NBA doesn't round up official minute totals.

A couple of award voters, including ESPN's JJ Redick and The Ringer's Michael Pina, wrote that they'd planned to include DiVincenzo on their ballots before realizing they couldn't vote for him.

This is despite DiVincenso playing 81 games and averaging 29.1mpg for the season.

Yeah, this is unfortunate. I like the idea of a 65-game minimum, but it wasn't intended to ding a guy who played 81 games and averaged 29.1 mpg.

[liam]

Will the Lakers play LeBron on Jokic? He'd be the best match up but LeBron might not have the gas. AD isn't strong enough to defend the Joker.

[Phantom255x]

Will the Lakers play LeBron on Jokic? He'd be the best match up but LeBron might not have the gas. AD isn't strong enough to defend the Joker.

Lebron's gonna get wiped out if he has to defend the Joker, and remember the Nuggets also have some other athletic forwards that the Lakers have to account for.

Even last night Lebron looked pretty tired in the 2nd half, and Zion put up 40/11 on the Lakers before leaving to injury.

The Lakers best bet to win the series or at least take it 6-7 games is if their guards go off. AD and Lebron can put up numbers some games but that's almost negated by Jokic and their frontcourt too. Lebron had some stellar games against Denver last May and they still lost them

[liam]

Will the Lakers play LeBron on Jokic? He'd be the best match up but LeBron might not have the gas. AD isn't strong enough to defend the Joker.

Lebron's gonna get wiped out if he has to defend the Joker, and remember the Nuggets also have some other athletic forwards that the Lakers have to account for.

Even last night Lebron looked pretty tired in the 2nd half, and Zion put up 40/11 on the Lakers before leaving to injury.

The Lakers best bet to win the series or at least take it 6-7 games is if their guards go off. AD and Lebron can put up numbers some games but that's almost negated by Jokic and their frontcourt too. Lebron had some stellar games against Denver last May and they still lost them

I remember Grant Williams giving Joker some problems with his strength
and girth. I don't see anyone else on the Lakers roster that can give Joker anything.

[Phantom255x]

Zion's out tomorrow, so Pelicans' season is likely over. Is that the first time a 7-seed has not made the playoffs at all as a 7 or 8 seed if it happens? Maybe it has but I can't remember. I know a few teams have lost the first game but then won the next one to get the 8 seed.

[SparzWizard]

Zion's out tomorrow, so Pelicans' season is likely over. Is that the first time a 7-seed has not made the playoffs at all as a 7 or 8 seed if it happens? Maybe it has but I can't remember. I know a few teams have lost the first game but then won the next one to get the 8 seed.

Won't matter. Lakers got the 7th seed, and Warriors are out all that matters. Kings/OKC will be boring. Though I'd love to see the Kings make a playoff push.

[RJ87]

I'd like to play Philly.

Not because Miami are better but because I want to see a good series of basketball. Philly are a quality opponent. Miami are a pushover.

I think we can beat either one, but there's just something about shutting up the Heat KuLtUrE bros that makes me happy.

[Goldstar88]

Early tip-off tonight. This should be a good game between Philly and Miami.

[Phantom255x]

In the first two minutes, Bam with a super obvious and vicious illegal screen (no call of course...) that sends a Sixers player flying, and then Butler elbows Maxey on the cheek on the pass with no call either, and Maxey looks shaken up

Might have to prepare for this if we play Miami first round