2022-2023 NBA Season Thread

[Cobra Mgr]

Originally Posted by Syd Thrift

Just to be clear though, the term “thug” is heavily associated with the inner city and racism directed towards it on the 80s and 90s. Im not sure you can just change it to mean “stuff I don’t like” without removing that. To be fair, I also deliberately repurposed the word to refer to a white player who plays dirty and who graduated from a university that seems to produce nothing but dirty white players, but tbh even that’s probably just keeping the word out there and not helping the lexicon.

Thug is a term from India describing criminal gang activity & most of the time violence. That's why it is best to be careful in using the word. Two guys fighting each other like Rivers & Bomba isn't thuggery. Or Mitchell & Brooks. What happened in Memphis w/the Pacers after the game was fixing to be thuggish is some thing got set off.

[Antonin]

My Cleveland Cavaliers looked good last night against the Wizards, but it was sad to see Kevin Love sitting meekly on the bench. I've seen reports that they are "looking to move" him before the trade deadline because of that "expiring contract" analysts like to talk about. It could be that he will be bought out or waived by his next team, and that the Cavs will re-sign him to a more team-favorable contract next season, the way they did with Ricky Rubio last year.

I had forgotten that Kristaps Porzingis is with Washington now. He makes our Jarret Allen look small. It looks like he has finally found a home. I always thought he would work out in Dallas, but I guess it wasn't a good fit.

Donovan Mitchell looks like his groin injury is feeling better.

Trade deadline in the NBA is always interesting, but this season it makes me nervous. Another Cav who might not be here much longer is Dylan Windler, who is a really good player but has been injured so much he has barely played. I know you have to give up something to get something, but I would make a lousy GM because if a guy is a decent player, a good citizen and wants to be here, I would probably let him spend the rest of his career here.

Oh well.

[Cobra Mgr]

What do you guys think about Draymond Green - Head Coach?

Whenever I hear him just talk basketball, his knowledge of what is going on on the court sounds 2nd to none.

[CONN CHRIS]

I follow the NBA only tangentially. (I need to pick a team someday!)

As a kid, I absolutely loved Corny Thompson. He was from a place just a few towns over here in CT and was an absolute superstar in the state both at Middletown High and at UCONN. When he was drafted by Dallas, I became a Mavs fan instantly. He got hurt right away and was released. Happy to know that he had a nice career in Italy and Spain but my budding NBA interest fizzled fast.

I live near Hartford where we are forever the ugly step-sister to Boston and New York, finding a routing interest can be complicated.

[Syd Thrift]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

What do you guys think about Draymond Green - Head Coach?

Whenever I hear him just talk basketball, his knowledge of what is going on on the court sounds 2nd to none.

Draymond is really smart and he definitely wouldn’t get PJ Carlesimo‘d, but I’d prefer to see him not beat up a teammate for a calendar year before calling him coaching material…

[Syd Thrift]

Originally Posted by CONN CHRIS

I follow the NBA only tangentially. (I need to pick a team someday!)

As a kid, I absolutely loved Corny Thompson. He was from a place just a few towns over here in CT and was an absolute superstar in the state both at Middletown High and at UCONN. When he was drafted by Dallas, I became a Mavs fan instantly. He got hurt right away and was released. Happy to know that he had a nice career in Italy and Spain but my budding NBA interest fizzled fast.

I live near Hartford where we are forever the ugly step-sister to Boston and New York, finding a routing interest can be complicated.

Andre Drummond was raised in Connecticut! He’s also a fun player to watch - hard-nosed, enjoys contact, puts up big old dunks. Unfortunately the Bulls don’t play him much but they might be moving him soon.

[CONN CHRIS]

Originally Posted by Syd Thrift

Andre Drummond was raised in Connecticut! He’s also a fun player to watch - hard-nosed, enjoys contact, puts up big old dunks. Unfortunately the Bulls don’t play him much but they might be moving him soon.

Moved to Corny Thompson's hometown at 7! There are some newfound Bulls fans around here since Tom Thibodeau's stint there as coach - possibility for a rooting interest.

[rudel.dietrich]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

What do you guys think about Draymond Green - Head Coach?

Whenever I hear him just talk basketball, his knowledge of what is going on on the court sounds 2nd to none.

Once you get past the machismo and the sometimes over-the-top passion, he is a great basketball mind.

Seems like he will try media first. But if he does try coaching, I think he will do well. Part of coaching is man management and dealing with the front office. And Draymond is more of a take everything head on sort of personality. Which like all personalities has it’s own pros and cons.

But smart people can adapt and he is a smart person.

He will succeed at whatever he wants to take on next.

[rudel.dietrich]

Originally Posted by Syd Thrift

Andre Drummond was raised in Connecticut! He’s also a fun player to watch - hard-nosed, enjoys contact, puts up big old dunks. Unfortunately the Bulls don’t play him much but they might be moving him soon.

He is a bit washed.


There is only one current player born in CT and that is Kris Dunn.

Current players who played in a CT HS or are UConn are kind of thin at the moment.

The days of Calvin Murphy are long gone

[Cobra Mgr]

Originally Posted by rudel.dietrich

Once you get past the machismo and the sometimes over-the-top passion, he is a great basketball mind.

Seems like he will try media first. But if he does try coaching, I think he will do well. Part of coaching is man management and dealing with the front office. And Draymond is more of a take everything head on sort of personality. Which like all personalities has it’s own pros and cons.

But smart people can adapt and he is a smart person.

He will succeed at whatever he wants to take on next.

Dealing with egos, especially in the NBA, would be a problem. He's not going to sugarcoat stuff & a lot of these prima donnas aren't going to like that. IDK how many T's he'd get per year.

But like I said, when he just talks b-ball, there is nothing on that court that he is not aware of.

[rudel.dietrich]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

Dealing with egos, especially in the NBA, would be a problem. He's not going to sugarcoat stuff & a lot of these prima donnas aren't going to like that. IDK how many T's he'd get per year.

But like I said, when he just talks b-ball, there is nothing on that court that he is not aware of.

Draymond is 100% not above that stuff himself 😂
He has a number of high profile pouts and look at me moments.

But he is indeed a good basketball mind.

[Antonin]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

Dealing with egos, especially in the NBA, would be a problem. He's not going to sugarcoat stuff & a lot of these prima donnas aren't going to like that. IDK how many T's he'd get per year.

But like I said, when he just talks b-ball, there is nothing on that court that he is not aware of.

Draymond would probably be a great head coach if he is willing to put up with all the aggravation. Or he could keep his finger in the game and get paid a lot of money just by being an analyst, like Kendrick Perkins.

Back when the Cavs brought Perkins in as a player, word was that they wanted him mainly as a kind of unofficial assistant coach, to help the young players learn the NBA game.

[Syd Thrift]

That's also kind of the role Derrick Rose is in with the Knicks.

I don't think you usually see bigs turn into long-term coaches, although maybe that trend is changing. Of course, the obvious exception to all of that is Bill Russell, and in the last 20-30 years you've seen a lot of guys like Danny Ferry, Kevin McHale, and Calvin Booth move into prominent front office roles, but... who else is there? Does Ewing's (not very good) run at Georgetown count?

[monkeyman576]

LeBron may be the scoring champion, but Jordan is still the GOAT. 4-7 in NBA Finals vs. 6-0 for Jordan. 5 First Team Defensive Player of the Year vs. 9 for Jordan. Defense is pretty much non existant in the NBA today vs. the 90s. Jordan would have probably averaged 40 PPG today.

[David Watts]

Is defense non existent today, or does it just appear that way, because the players are so much more spread out?

[Déjà Bru]

NYT has some great graphs about How LeBron James Outscored Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and All the N.B.A. Greats. Check this one out — it is interactive in the article:



https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...smid=share-url

Gift article; available 14 days; does not count toward your allotment of free articles.

[Déjà Bru]

A record is a record, of course (see Barry Bonds) but this is a bit sobering:

[monkeyman576]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

A record is a record, of course (see Barry Bonds) but this is a bit sobering:

I'll still take Jordan myself.

[thehef]

Happened to catch the Lakers/Thunder game last night. Kind of a rarity in that I watch some Celtics games, but rarely tune in to more than an ending here and there for other games, and I wasn't really aware that James was that close to Jabbar yet... Anyway, not being a James fan in the least, I was heartened to see that his "All About Me" night culminated with his team collapsing after the big moment, making a late-game run with him curiously on the bench, and his collection of hand-picked vets ultimately losing to a young team that was completely unfazed by the LeBron Hoopla. (The only thing that would've made it better is that if he had needed to make FT's to break the record, and missed the first one...)

Personally, I was pretty turned off by his me-me-me celebration immediately afterwards like some medieval king soaking up the adoration of his subjects (well, he calls himself The King, so... I guess it fits). I realize the NBA would've insisted that he go along with the subsequent game stoppage & ceremony, but - unlike some greats from bygone eras - I don't imagine he'd have wanted it any other way.

Get off my lawn... ...

His performance in breaking the record last night was reminiscent to me of Kobe's final game: bringing his A-game when it suits him. (I suppose the diff was that Kobe was throwing up bricks for three quarters and then went nuts in the fourth, contributing - as an aside - to the win... whereas James was pretty dang good until he broke he record, then basically shut it down.)

Anyways, what surprised me was a) just how good Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is, and b) what a really nice crop of young players the Thunder have... (Josh Giddey's got a really well-rounded game, and Isaiah Joe can shoot!) ... There's some good GM-in' goin' on in OKC

[Cobra Mgr]

I told friends last summer OKC & Utah are about to take over the NBA in 5 years.