NBA Season 2024-25

[CelticSooner]

70 points from Curry/Butler and you are barely holding on against the Grizzlies? Not a good look for your playoff run.

[blink]

70 points from Curry/Butler and you are barely holding on against the Grizzlies? Not a good look for your playoff run.

Yeah if that is what you need going forward against OKC, Houston, LAL, Denver, Minn....I don't see the warriors being able to sustain that against the better teams of the west.

[blink]

Memphis pathetic turnover....lol

[Who]

38pts for Jimmy
36pts for Steph

Two surprise bench contributors

12pts for G Payton II
11pts for Q Post

Nobody else scored in double digits for GSW.

3pts for Podz
2pts for Buddy Hield
4pts for Draymond

9pts for Moody
2pts for Looney
3pts for Gui Santos

This is why Steve Kerr needed to find a way to get Kuminga into that roation. They need a reliable 3rd scorer. Podz and Hield are missing in action too many nights. Kuminga has that self-creation that the others do not have. He also has that size & athleticism at forward that the others do not have. Those are valuable traits. Kerr's failure to integrate Kuminga into the rotation will hurt their title chances. They need that reliable 3rd scorer.

[Who]

Fair play to Memphis. They played GSW tough. Great job to comeback from a 20pt deficit early. Pushed GSW to the limit in Q4. Great effort.

I hope Memphis get the 8th seed. They are a much more talented team than either Dallas (without Kyrie) or Sacramento.

[Who]

Z Edey 14pts 17reb
D Bane 30pts 6reb 4ast 1stl 1blk
JJJ 18pts 6reb 4ast

Pippen 9pts 5reb 5ast
Aldama 14pts 8reb

Morant 22pts but only 3ast. 22pts on 9-18 FGA which is good but also 3-3 FTA and with a negative 5 turnovers. So 22pts on 24 possessions with only 3 assists. That is not enough from a supposed superstar PG. Morant needs to do more.

I think both Bane and JJJ are now playing at a level comparable to Morant. JJJ has probably been their best player this season.

[CelticSooner]

70 points from Curry/Butler and you are barely holding on against the Grizzlies? Not a good look for your playoff run.

Yeah if that is what you need going forward against OKC, Houston, LAL, Denver, Minn....I don't see the warriors being able to sustain that against the better teams of the west.

I?m leaning towards Houston winning the series. Udoka will do his best to eliminate either Curry or Butler from games. As Who pointed out they need another scorer to offset that. Kerr will be forced to play Kuminga in that series. There?s just not enough scoring from the others. Houston will beat GS up regardless and the Lakers will finish them off if they do survive.

[SparzWizard]

Fair play to Memphis. They played GSW tough. Great job to comeback from a 20pt deficit early. Pushed GSW to the limit in Q4. Great effort.

I hope Memphis get the 8th seed. They are a much more talented team than either Dallas (without Kyrie) or Sacramento.

Memphis should just lock up the 8th seed. Dallas and Kings no good this year.

[slightly biased bias fan]

Shams Charania
@ShamsCharania
?
15m
Hall of Famer Joe Dumars is finalizing a deal to become the new president of basketball operations of the New Orleans Pelicans, sources tell ESPN. Dumars was president of the Pistons from 2000-14, building the 2004 Detroit championship team. Now returns home to Louisiana.

Seems like a good choice by NOP.  Will be interesting to see what he does with Zion.

Not really.

When Joe Dumars was the Pistons GM, he made some horrendous decisions:

- Picking Darko Milicic over Carmelo Anthony

- Traded for washed up Allen Iverson

- Drafted Greg Monroe over Gordon Hayward & Paul George

- Drafted Brandon Knight over Kemba Walker (who was literally next player selected)

- Traded away Khris Middleton after only one season

- Cycled through 5 head coaches in 7 years during the Pistons successful period (2003-2010)

Given Joe Dumars is from Louisiana, this seems like a hometown favour.

[Phantom255x]

Butler has attempted 62 FTs in the last 5 games. Insane. It's so odd how he gets the preferential treatment while the likes of Tatum never do.

[bdm860]

Shams Charania
@ShamsCharania
?
15m
Hall of Famer Joe Dumars is finalizing a deal to become the new president of basketball operations of the New Orleans Pelicans, sources tell ESPN. Dumars was president of the Pistons from 2000-14, building the 2004 Detroit championship team. Now returns home to Louisiana.

Seems like a good choice by NOP.  Will be interesting to see what he does with Zion.

Not really.

When Joe Dumars was the Pistons GM, he made some horrendous decisions:

- Picking Darko Milicic over Carmelo Anthony

- Traded for washed up Allen Iverson

- Drafted Greg Monroe over Gordon Hayward & Paul George

- Drafted Brandon Knight over Kemba Walker (who was literally next player selected)

- Traded away Khris Middleton after only one season

- Cycled through 5 head coaches in 7 years during the Pistons successful period (2003-2010)

Given Joe Dumars is from Louisiana, this seems like a hometown favour.

Would also add:

Used all the Pistons cap room after dismantling the title team to sign Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva. Not surprising, those players and the Pistons all got worse, while the teams they left got better.

Then a few years later in 2013, when they had significant cap room again, used it to sign Josh Smith. And it gets worse when you realize they signed him to roll out a front court of Josh Smith, Greg Monroe, and Andre Drummond. Steph Curry was already averaging 8 3pa per game and just led his team to the 2nd round of the playoffs, and the Pistons decided to go all in on that lineup? Dumars could not have been more wrong as to the direction the league was going. It was so bad they had to waive Smith a little more than a year after they signed him, eating almost 3 years of the 4 year contract they signed him to. That's how bad that was.

[Who]

Statistical comp - Trae Young vs James Harden

PPG = 24.2 vs 22.8

FGA = 18.1 vs 16.4
FG% = 41.1% vs 41.0%
3PTA = 8.4 vs 8.5
3PT% = 34.0% vs 35.2%
FTA = 7.4 vs 7.3
FT% = 87.5% vs 87.4%
TS% = 56.7% vs 58.2%

It is crazy how similar those FG%, 3PT% figures are as well as their 3PTA and FTAs.

APG = 11.6 vs 8.9
RPG = 3.1 vs 5.9
Stocks = 1.4 vs 2.2
Turnovers = 4.7 vs 4.4

Both guys are getting some backers for 3rd Team All-NBA selection. I believe it was the Zach Lowe podcast I was listening to yesterday that was debating which guy should get the nod. Hawks 40 win season. Clippers 50 win season. Clippers much better supporting cast.

Who do you think had the better season?

I'd go with Harden myself. Better defense. Better rebounding. Less ball dominant on offense.

[Who]

Miami were 25 wins 24 losses at the time of the Jimmy Butler trade. They finished 37-45 so they finished the season with 12 win and 21 losses post-trade. That is a win rate for a 30 win season (29.8 wins).

I hope Chicago wins this tonight.

I don't think Miami can give CLE any trouble in a playoff series. Too weak talent wise. Too limited offensively.

[Who]

Miami

G: T Herro
G: A Burks
F: A Wiggins
F: Bam
C: K Ware

I like Burks in the starting lineup. Give them some more offensive creation.

Chicago

G: C White
G: J Giddey
F: K Huerter
F: M Buzelis
C: Vucevic

Tough matchup for Buzelis. Not strong enough to deal with Bam. Vuce too slow to cover Bam.

-----------------------

Ooh, Bam is on J Giddey. Burks is taking Buzelis. A Wiggins is on Coby White - their most explosive scorer. Herro on Huerter.

[Who]

Smart play by Giddey. He saw A Wiggins slipped after the layup. So he inbounded it quickly, passed ahead, ran fast, created a 5 on 4, received the pass, attacked quickly, got to the rim and then the foul line.

All because he saw A Wiggins slipped and he reacted quickly to take advantage. I wish more players did that.