NBA 2020-2021 Season Thread

[Birdman]

Luka can’t do it alone..if he had Davis, he would win a championship

[Atzar]

I thought Dallas overachieved last year, with a lot of fungible guys playing over their heads.  This year appears to be regression to the mean for some of those guys.  Also, Josh Richardson has been pretty awful to start the season, which hurts because he should probably be their second-best player with as much time as Porzingis misses. 

I do have something to say about Doncic though... and this also applies to Tatum.  Lebron was drafted in 2003, won his first championship in 2012.  Kevin Durant was drafted in 2007, won in 2017.  Stephen Curry was drafted in 2009, won in 2015.  KG, Dirk, Shaq, Hakeem, MJ... all of these guys took many years to finally get over the hump.  On the other side, I can only think of one guy in the last 30 years - Tim Duncan - who came into the league and won a championship in his first few years as the best player on his team (and having a HoF sidekick, albeit an aging one, certainly helped).  Kobe is sort of a gray area, because while he won fairly early in his career, he wasn't the best player on those Lakers teams - Shaq was. 

Yet we expect guys like Doncic and Tatum to be ready to drag teams to championships out of the cradle.  It almost never works like that.  Strap in, because it's likely to be a long journey.  This is why I'm not crazy about most of these all-in trades that want to sell out for a chance to win this year.  Yes, we need to improve the roster... but we also need to improve the Tatum, lol.  And there's no shortcut for that.

EDIT:  Dwyane Wade is another guy who won pretty early.  Like Duncan, he had an aging-but-still-excellent HoF sidekick to help him carry the load.  Anybody got one of those lying around?

[footey]

I thought Dallas overachieved last year, with a lot of fungible guys playing over their heads.  This year appears to be regression to the mean for some of those guys.  Also, Josh Richardson has been pretty awful to start the season, which hurts because he should probably be their second-best player with as much time as Porzingis misses. 

I do have something to say about Doncic though... and this also applies to Tatum.  Lebron was drafted in 2003, won his first championship in 2012.  Kevin Durant was drafted in 2007, won in 2017.  Stephen Curry was drafted in 2009, won in 2015.  KG, Dirk, Shaq, Hakeem, MJ... all of these guys took many years to finally get over the hump.  On the other side, I can only think of one guy in the last 30 years - Tim Duncan - who came into the league and won a championship in his first few years as the best player on his team (and having a HoF sidekick, albeit an aging one, certainly helped).  Kobe is sort of a gray area, because while he won fairly early in his career, he wasn't the best player on those Lakers teams - Shaq was. 

Yet we expect guys like Doncic and Tatum to be ready to drag teams to championships out of the cradle.  It almost never works like that.  Strap in, because it's likely to be a long journey.  This is why I'm not crazy about most of these all-in trades that want to sell out for a chance to win this year.  Yes, we need to improve the roster... but we also need to improve the Tatum, lol.  And there's no shortcut for that.

TP, this is a very healthy reminder. It usually takes time. Not to mention how long it took Boston's big 3 to win one.

[Goldstar88]

Luka can’t do it alone..if he had Davis, he would win a championship

They have a PF named Porzingis averaging 20ppg and 8reb....Those two are one of the best duo’s in the game. They have other good players too and a solid coach. Let’s not make it sound as though he’s on an island, alone...

[Atzar]

Luka can’t do it alone..if he had Davis, he would win a championship

They have a PF named Porzingis averaging 20ppg and 8reb....Those two are one of the best duo’s in the game. They have other good players too and a solid coach. Let’s not make it sound as though he’s on an island, alone...

Zinger has played in half of their games.  When he doesn't play, Tim Hardaway Jr is their second-best player. 

[W8ting2McHale]

Luka can’t do it alone..if he had Davis, he would win a championship

They have a PF named Porzingis averaging 20ppg and 8reb....Those two are one of the best duo’s in the game. They have other good players too and a solid coach. Let’s not make it sound as though he’s on an island, alone...

How many games have the actually played together?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dallasnews.com/sports/mavericks/2020/02/09/kristaps-porzingis-luka-doncic-have-shined-separately-what-will-it-take-for-the-mavs-stars-to-flourish-together/%3foutputType=amp

This article says that a year ago, February 2020, they had played a total of 32 games together. Luka was hurt at the time. When he returned, Kristaps missed 10 games before the season ended. In the Bubble he went down again and missed several playoff games. This season Porzingis started out on a minutes restriction when he returned this season and has played 12 games since January 2021.

It looks like in 3 seasons they’ve played about 50 games together.

[tazzmaniac]

I thought Dallas overachieved last year, with a lot of fungible guys playing over their heads.  This year appears to be regression to the mean for some of those guys.  Also, Josh Richardson has been pretty awful to start the season, which hurts because he should probably be their second-best player with as much time as Porzingis misses. 

I do have something to say about Doncic though... and this also applies to Tatum.  Lebron was drafted in 2003, won his first championship in 2012.  Kevin Durant was drafted in 2007, won in 2017.  Stephen Curry was drafted in 2009, won in 2015.  KG, Dirk, Shaq, Hakeem, MJ... all of these guys took many years to finally get over the hump.  On the other side, I can only think of one guy in the last 30 years - Tim Duncan - who came into the league and won a championship in his first few years as the best player on his team (and having a HoF sidekick, albeit an aging one, certainly helped).  Kobe is sort of a gray area, because while he won fairly early in his career, he wasn't the best player on those Lakers teams - Shaq was. 

Yet we expect guys like Doncic and Tatum to be ready to drag teams to championships out of the cradle.  It almost never works like that.  Strap in, because it's likely to be a long journey.  This is why I'm not crazy about most of these all-in trades that want to sell out for a chance to win this year.  Yes, we need to improve the roster... but we also need to improve the Tatum, lol.  And there's no shortcut for that.

Duncan is a big asterisk.  The Spurs had won 55+ games in the prior 3 seasons and 47+ games in the prior 7 seasons.  And of course they already had an established star in Robinson. 

[gouki88]

Luka can’t do it alone..if he had Davis, he would win a championship

They have a PF named Porzingis averaging 20ppg and 8reb who plays 50% of games....Those two are one of the best top 10 duo’s in the game. They have maybe one or two other good players too and a solid declining coach. Let’s not make it sound as though he’s on an island, alone...

Fixed all that for you

[liam]

The Nets center court logo looks like someone spilled a ton of cocaine all over it.

[liam]

The Nets play zero defense....

[liam]

The Refs in Raps/Nets game are not good at their jobs....

[liam]

Zion is just amazing to watch. I've never seen anyone that big explode like that.

[liam]

Anyone who wants Arron Baynes back in Boston, I hope you're watching him tonight. He's missed 4-5 easy layups and keeps getting called for little touch fouls.

[tstorey_97]

Five on Durant.

[liam]

Five on Durant.

They take away the foul, which looked clear, but now he's out with healthy and safety protocols.  What a mess.