2022-2023 NBA Season Thread

[Cobra Mgr]

Originally Posted by rudel.dietrich

I do not know who those people are. But yeah, he has not been great. He is by no means bad. But he just does not seem to grasp that he is 7’1 and built like a Greek god.
His motor is not there in most games.

Tim Legler & Jason Williams, analysts on ESPN.

I saw a couple highlights where Joker beat him down the court, which should absolutely NEVER happen unless Ayton started from the parking gate.

[Cobra Mgr]

Ayton out tonight with a rib contusion. Or maybe a "rib contusion".

[Cobra Mgr]

Has the NBA ever had a bigger villain than Bill Laimbeer?

[dsvitak]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

Has the NBA ever had a bigger villain than Bill Laimbeer?

Isiah Thomas, Laimbeer, McHale, Rodman, and Dumars were a GREAT team.

...but the Bulls were better.

[dsvitak]

Man. Jason Tatum grew up about ten miles from where I live. I watched him play in high school, and knew he was an excellent player.

Tough to see him go O-for the half, but he has nailed three straight three's, and it looks like we're going back to Boston for game 7.

[Cobra Mgr]

Originally Posted by dsvitak

Isiah Thomas, Laimbeer, McHale, Rodman, and Dumars were a GREAT team.

...but the Bulls were better.

McHale?.....................................

[Syd Thrift]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

Has the NBA ever had a bigger villain than Bill Laimbeer?

He coached in the WNBA for a while too, and was actually very good - it seems he never got a regular NBA gig outside of an assistant job in Minnesota because the entire league hated him so much - but outside of the fact that he kept his nose clean, his personal life is… pretty much exactly what you’d expect Bill Laimbeer’s personal life to be.

Also, I have to say that Gilbert Arenas came out and kind of ripped into Laimbeer and the Bad Boys, saying that that brand of defense wouldn’t play in the modern league. I’m not sure that’s actually true in general - Thomas, Dumars, Rodman, and John Salley all strike me as guys who could play great defense in the modern game - but to Laimbeer in particular he just wasn’t that good of a defender. He liked to play dirty and commit hard fouls, which pissed a lot of players off, but with him in particular the hard fouls tended to come after guys beat him, which happened a pretty good amount. And for all the hard fouls, he absolutely was not an intimidating shot blocker at all.

I guess he was fine as a straight up post defender - not fantastic, not even close to the level of a Ewing or Admiral or Hakeem, but average - but back then a lot of teams tried to funnel penetrators in to try and finish against their big man and Laimbeer simply didn’t alter shots. I mean, again, he fouled those guys a lot, especially when he got big mad that they kept penetrating on him, but other than the cheap shots he didn’t actually discourage guys from driving on him.

[rudel.dietrich]

He was always well liked by the players on the WNBA teams he coached.

[rudel.dietrich]

Nugget are the first team to make the conference finals.
They look really good right now.

I still like them as my pick to make it to the finals.

[Syd Thrift]

Originally Posted by rudel.dietrich

He was always well liked by the players on the WNBA teams he coached.

Apparently not true in the case of Las Vegas.

[rudel.dietrich]

Originally Posted by Syd Thrift

Apparently not true in the case of Las Vegas.

Oh? I had not heard that

[Cobra Mgr]

Brunson 14 of 22
Rest of Nix starters 5 of 33

Every one of Brunson's teammates should carry his bags of the plane cause he carried them in this game.

[Ragnar]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

McHale?.....................................

He probably meant Adrian Dantley.

Just my best guess.

[Cobra Mgr]

Originally Posted by Ragnar

He probably meant Adrian Dantley.

Just my best guess.

Sure. I can see how he would mix those 2 up.

[Ragnar]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

Has the NBA ever had a bigger villain than Bill Laimbeer?

There were a few players that weren't liked, like Isiah Thomas. But Bill was on a different level. You'd probably have to go back to the early to mid 70s to find someone who played close to as dirty. I was too young to watch, but I remember my father mentioning some players.

[Cobra Mgr]

Originally Posted by Ragnar

There were a few players that weren't liked, like Isiah Thomas. But Bill was on a different level. You'd probably have to go back to the early to mid 70s to find someone who played close to as dirty. I was too young to watch, but I remember my father mentioning some players.

There were dirty players. But there were almost always opponents to make excuses for them. I've never heard any opponent try to be diplomatic about the way Laimbeer played.

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

McHale?.....................................

When you have lived a long life, you tend to periodically conflate the myriad datapoints that you have experienced. No worries if not too often; a major source of concern if it happens regularly.

In this case, from some things that dsvitak has said, I believe he is around my age. If so, then I think he has confused Rick Mahorn with the old TV show McHale's Navy.

[Cobra Mgr]

So he might confuse Kirk Cousins w/Cousin It?

[Cobra Mgr]

So are we going to talk about the series Klay Thompson had?

34-99 in the 6 games. Take away game 2 & he was 23-81, 28%.

[rudel.dietrich]

Originally Posted by Ragnar

He probably meant Adrian Dantley.

Just my best guess.

I was thinking he meant Rick Mahorn.

Adrian Dantley was a supremely gifted offensive player. And at 6'4 he played mostly as a post player with an array of post moves, baby hooks, shots over his shoulder, fakes, spins and up and under's.
I don't think we will ever see a player at his size play him again.

But he was also one of the worst defensive players in NBA history who played over 15,000 minutes.

During the pandemic, I went back and watched a lot of old basketball games and he was one of the more interesting players I watched. A one of a kind.