NBA Season/Playoffs 2025-26

[Who]

Sixers fans must be sick seeing J McCain doing this in the WCF. 18pts of his 20pts in the 2nd half.

[Goldstar88]

Has it gotten to the point yet where we talk about Alex Caruso as being one of the best defensive PGs in league history? What he is doing year after year is incredible.

I don?t really see him as a PG, but I do think Caruso is one of the most underrated players in the NBA. Seems like he is always making plays on both ends.

[Kernewek]

Tom Dundon (new Portland owner) defends his decision to lay off 70 Trail Blazers employees,

People are happier when they are busy and productive. And more people just creates more problems, usually. I think Portland just had too many people... The business I am going to run like you run every other business.

Yeah this deserves its own thread because this is insane for all sorts of normal boring reasons, but we should chat about it separate to the playoffs?

[Moranis]

Tom Dundon (new Portland owner) defends his decision to lay off 70 Trail Blazers employees,

People are happier when they are busy and productive. And more people just creates more problems, usually. I think Portland just had too many people... The business I am going to run like you run every other business.

Yeah this deserves its own thread because this is insane for all sorts of normal boring reasons, but we should chat about it separate to the playoffs?

the way he phrased the first part is a bit odd, but I don't think he is necessarily wrong.  A lot of businesses have too many employees or at least employees doing the wrong things.  Lots of waste in sports.  And Dundon has shown immense success in Carolina doing many of the same things (cutting staff in sone areas, while adding in others), while also investing close to a billion dollars locally.  The Hurricanes have about 200 staff which is lean, but it is working.  The team hadn't been to the playoffs for 9 straight years when he bought the team in 2018 and they haven't missed the playoffs under him. They are up 2-1 in the ecf and are the favorites to win the cup (even though Vegas is already in the finals). Sometimes people from the outside of sports that run sports teams like businesses do actually know what they are doing.  Time will tell in Portland, but he is at least a present active owner that does want to win.  He also doesn't appear to meddle a whole lot in the game play area. 

[Who]

Jason Timpf of Hoops Tonight has a video on Donovan Mitchell saying it might be time for the Cavs to trade him. His reasoning was that he thinks D Mitchell is at that edge of his career where he is about lose some of his quickness / athleticism. And at that point, his value will go way down. At the same time, he is due for a mega contract which will put CLE in a bind if Mitchell does decline.

I think Timpf raises a good point. I would be shocked if Mitchell was not carrying an injury during the playoffs because he didn't look himself at all. He didn't have the same quickness. The same one-on-one ability. And that version of Mitchell is the fear.

I mentioned in the past that I thought Mitchell was going to have to adjust his game in the near future to deal with getting older. That he would have to change from a SG to more of PG. Play PG full time. Accept the role. As he loses that athleticism, it will get harder and harder for him to survive as an undersized SG.

I would be looking at Mitchell more as a 2nd / 3rd option moving forward. Someone that needs to play off of a bigger star. I am worried too that this decline is going to hit him soon and if he doesn't prepare for it (or his team doesn't prepare for it), it is going to leave without any chance of real team success in the future.

[Phantom255x]

Jason Timpf of Hoops Tonight has a video on Donovan Mitchell saying it might be time for the Cavs to trade him. His reasoning was that he thinks D Mitchell is at that edge of his career where he is about lose some of his quickness / athleticism. And at that point, his value will go way down. At the same time, he is due for a mega contract which will put CLE in a bind if Mitchell does decline.

I think Timpf raises a good point. I would be shocked if Mitchell was carrying an injury during the playoffs because he didn't look himself at all. He didn't have the same quickness. The same one-on-one ability. And that version of Mitchell is the fear.

I mentioned in the past that I thought Mitchell was going to have to adjust his game in the near future to deal with getting older. That he would have to change from a SG to more of PG. Play PG full time. Accept the role. As he loses that athleticism, it will get harder and harder for him to survive as an undersized SG.

I would be looking at Mitchell more as a 2nd / 3rd option moving forward. Someone that needs to play off of a bigger star. I am worried too that this decline is going to hit him soon and if he doesn't prepare for it (or his team doesn't prepare for it), it is going to leave without any chance of real team success in the future.

If they don't trade Mobley + role player(s) + picks for Giannis then they might as well. Not sure who else is out there to the level of Giannis for them to acquire besides a Lebron reunion. And their issue isn't depth or size, they have that, yet they still seemingly come up short. Harden didn't change much either, and they still had to go 7 games in round 1 as well so it was dicey from the start.

Lebron's best shot honestly is a Cleveland reunion and joining with Mitchell and Atkinson and going through the East instead of the West. That probably is what CLE will hope for along with a Giannis trade if Lebron doesn't happen.

[Donoghus]

https://x.com/thestrickland/status/2059755273292546390?s=46&t=cFAQIuWEg12FaJRo2itehw

James Harden arrives at Madison Square Garden for a pivotal Game 5 with the series analytically tied at 2-2! 🍿

⏰ 8 PM EST
📺 ESPN
📲 NBA App

[Moranis]

Brown for Mitchell, thoughts?

[Vermont Green]

Brown for Mitchell, thoughts?

5 years ago, sure. Not now. Mitchell always wears down.

[Moranis]

Brown for Mitchell, thoughts?

5 years ago, sure. Not now. Mitchell always wears down.

He does, but I do think a lot of that is because he has to carry such a heavy load. He has never been a secondary offensive player.  Maybe he isn't cut out for that, or maybe it really unlocks him. 

[Goldstar88]

 

Underdog Sports, a sports prediction market and fantasy sports company, received a cease and desist letter regarding a promotion that makes fun of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander?s efforts to draw fouls. Underdog created a version of the board game Operation in which the buzzer went off for a foul anytime Gilgeous-Alexander was touched. The game was called Unethical Hoops. The company had a contest to give away 100 copies of the game during Game 3 of the Western Conference finals between Gilgeous-Alexander?s Oklahoma City Thunder and the San Antonio Spurs.

The letter also asks that all board games be destroyed and that Underdog not use Gilgeous-Alexander?s name, image or likeness without his permission. Underdog did not immediately comment on the letter.
New York Times

[SparzWizard]

Jason Timpf of Hoops Tonight has a video on Donovan Mitchell saying it might be time for the Cavs to trade him. His reasoning was that he thinks D Mitchell is at that edge of his career where he is about lose some of his quickness / athleticism. And at that point, his value will go way down. At the same time, he is due for a mega contract which will put CLE in a bind if Mitchell does decline.

I think Timpf raises a good point. I would be shocked if Mitchell was not carrying an injury during the playoffs because he didn't look himself at all. He didn't have the same quickness. The same one-on-one ability. And that version of Mitchell is the fear.

I mentioned in the past that I thought Mitchell was going to have to adjust his game in the near future to deal with getting older. That he would have to change from a SG to more of PG. Play PG full time. Accept the role. As he loses that athleticism, it will get harder and harder for him to survive as an undersized SG.

I would be looking at Mitchell more as a 2nd / 3rd option moving forward. Someone that needs to play off of a bigger star. I am worried too that this decline is going to hit him soon and if he doesn't prepare for it (or his team doesn't prepare for it), it is going to leave without any chance of real team success in the future.

Pacers could use a #2 or #3 guy behind Haliburton

[Phantom255x]

If you look around the league, a lot of teams either have a superstar big man, or they have a great, solid duo. Knicks have KAT-Robinson. OKC have Chet-Hartenstein. Cavaliers have Mobley-Allen. Wolves have Reid-Gobert and in the past KAT-Gobert. 2024 Celtics had Horford-Porzingis.

And then some of the other teams like Denver, Philly and San Antonio obviously just have that one elite big man (Jokic, Embiid, Wemby).

Kind of goes to show how bad it was for the Celtics going in. Queta-Vucevic wasn't even close to being good enough and Embiid just had his way too, it was at times a hopeless-looking situation in that series. Still no excuse to choke it, and there were other issues (especially White all series), but it's gonna be the key going forward as well. They don't have to acquire a superstar big, but they just need someone who they can pair with Queta at least. I still like Queta, but he's clearly not a star big, but he's solid. They need another guy though.

[SparzWizard]

If you look around the league, a lot of teams either have a superstar big man, or they have a great, solid duo. Knicks have KAT-Robinson. OKC have Chet-Hartenstein. Cavaliers have Mobley-Allen. Wolves have Reid-Gobert and in the past KAT-Gobert. 2024 Celtics had Horford-Porzingis.

And then some of the other teams like Denver, Philly and San Antonio obviously just have that one elite big man (Jokic, Embiid, Wemby).

Kind of goes to show how bad it was for the Celtics going in. Queta-Vucevic wasn't even close to being good enough and Embiid just had his way too, it was at times a hopeless-looking situation in that series. Still no excuse to choke it, and there were other issues (especially White all series), but it's gonna be the key going forward as well. They don't have to acquire a superstar big, but they just need someone who they can pair with Queta at least. I still like Queta, but he's clearly not a star big, but he's solid. They need another guy though.

Heard you wanted a big- Giannis 

And u know what it will take to get him, and I am all for paying that price. His name starts with a "Jay"