NBA Season 2022-23

[GreenBoomer]

It's the overall lack of effort that is concerning.

[Kernewek]

I got to say though I respect that the Bucks, a team that won it all two years ago, are still playing every night hard and like they have a chip on their shoulders, no matter who the opponent and what the situation is. Even when there's some adversity in games or their schedule, they handle it head on and at times they also play selfless basketball.

C's could learn a thing. They haven't won anything yet, yet still act like they can coast and "flip a switch" when needed. The Bucks are taking care of business against bad teams while the C's can't even beat the Rockets nowadays

The Bucks are doing what Boston did last year. They want home court and play like it is a goal. The Celtics are just cruising like the bucks did last season. They have flip flopped.

Not really. The Bucks lost Middleton last year, and its tough to win a title when your second best player is out.

The difference between the Bucks and the Celtics is the difference between Giannis's leadership and Tatum's. Giannis is the most valuable guy in the league in large part because he always brings it, every single game.

Tatum loves to play, but he's not on that level competitively. He has games where he gets frustrated, or doesn't bring enough energy. That's normal. That's what most players do. But the Bucks get something more from Giannis.

Well, I think it’s more than that. I think raw talent has a lot to do with it. Tatum is ridiculously talented, and because of that talent I think he’s got by a lot of times without having to go full energy and intensity every play. He can generally score effortlessly against anyone with his combination of footwork, ball handling, and size.

Comparatively, Giannis is less talented, but is substantially more physically gifted. But to maximize his physical gifts, he has to play harder most of the time.

So I think that has a lot to do with it. JT is going to have to learn to rely less on his talent and up his overall energy and intensity more frequently to truly get in that conversation for best in the league/MVP. I think hos inconsistency is the only thing holding him back right now.

So if Tatum looked like the game was harder for him, we'd appreciate his talent more?

He needs to act grumpier to win MVPs

Don't care much about that, but it would be nice if he gets to the kind of competitive consistency where he summons the will to finish off the likes of the Houston Rockets in a March regular season game.

It is a weird thing - every single NBA player is going to regret the shots that don't go in, right? But visible effort is something that is plainly obvious  at times, but -  equally as often and just as plainly - can also make people come across like nothing so much as Joey from Airplane!

("...but my dad says you don't work hard enough on defense. And he says that lots of times, you don't even run down court. And that you don't really try... except during the playoffs.")

Should we all be telling our collective old man to drag Walton and Lanier up and down the court for 48 minutes?

[gouki88]

In random news, Pat Beverley on his podcast claims to be the best offensive rebounding point guard in league history.

In reality he is 13th in overall offensive rebounding as a point guard, and 10th in offensive rebound percentage. The #1 guy for the latter is Darrell Walker, a guy I would not have thought of ahead of Magic or Westbrook.

[Roy H.]

In random news, Pat Beverley on his podcast claims to be the best offensive rebounding point guard in league history.

In reality he is 13th in overall offensive rebounding as a point guard, and 10th in offensive rebound percentage. The #1 guy for the latter is Darrell Walker, a guy I would not have thought of ahead of Magic or Westbrook.

Where's Rondo?

[gouki88]

In random news, Pat Beverley on his podcast claims to be the best offensive rebounding point guard in league history.

In reality he is 13th in overall offensive rebounding as a point guard, and 10th in offensive rebound percentage. The #1 guy for the latter is Darrell Walker, a guy I would not have thought of ahead of Magic or Westbrook.

Where's Rondo?

Rondo was a fair way down the leaderboard (still on the Statmuse graph!), but still decently with a career average of 1ORB per game. Magic and Alvin Robertson are the standouts for individual season offensive rebounding for a guard. It was an interesting little rabbit-hole

[Phantom255x]

In the Sixers-Cavs game, Embiid picked up an obvious 6th foul BUT PHI challenged and they overturned the call 

What a rigged league

[Neurotic Guy]

Glad to see Rockets beat the Lakers. Houston’s 2nd rounder still in play.

[celticsclay]

Glad to see Rockets beat the Lakers. Houston’s 2nd rounder still in play.

If you are a lakers fan you have to be fairly frustrated in a must win game davis can’t even give you 20 minutes in a back to back and has to rest. Wouldn’t be surprised if they dumped him this off-season.

[jpotter33]

In the Sixers-Cavs game, Embiid picked up an obvious 6th foul BUT PHI challenged and they overturned the call 

What a rigged league

Just saw that. What a joke. This league officiating is so awful right now.

Bickerstaff let the officials have it afterwards, too.

[Goldstar88]

Marcus Morris just threw Draymond Green to the ground.  Ejected.

Good game.

[gouki88]

In the Sixers-Cavs game, Embiid picked up an obvious 6th foul BUT PHI challenged and they overturned the call 

What a rigged league

Just saw that. What a joke. This league officiating is so awful right now.

Bickerstaff let the officials have it afterwards, too.

Philly and Milwaukee are being allowed to play gridiron out there

[celticsclay]

Curry with 50 in a loss. Green is now suspended the next game. They really need wiggins back.

[gouki88]

Curry with 50 in a loss. Green is now suspended the next game. They really need wiggins back.

Clippers are climbing. Could easily make #4 seed - they're the hottest team in the West. Westbrook has been playing decently enough for them too

[Birdman]

I pick Clippers to win the West after the trade deadline.. they just need time to jell..getting Westbrook, Gordon & Plumlee was huge..they got good bench to help Kawhi, George, Zubac,Powell

[Moranis]

Curry with 50 in a loss. Green is now suspended the next game. They really need wiggins back.

Clippers are climbing. Could easily make #4 seed - they're the hottest team in the West. Westbrook has been playing decently enough for them too

I haven't looked at the schedules, but they could theoretically catch Memphis for the 3 seed given Ja is out another 7 games and I heard the teams have 2 games against each other.  They have a lot of ground to make up, but the 2 head to head can certainly help with that.