The NBA Thread

MikeH said:
I still maintain that giving him control over personnel decisions was the nail in the coffin. He wanted to bring in players he liked, then give those guys minutes to prove that he did a good job with contract signings. Yes--subs/minutes are an issue (it's becoming an issue in NY although we have had a ton of injuries so far that are not Thibs-related). I do think that he took his time off to try to start adapting better. We are still near the last in 3PA per game but at least our shot chart has been way better (lots of corner 3s and shots at the rim). Our ball movement has been pretty good too so far and Randle has been an extremely willing passer. Needs to cut down on TOs but the guy has been balling and playing good defense too.

Saunders isn't too much of an upgrade over Thibs from what I have seen. But last year was a pretty weird/unprecedented season for a coach in his first full season.
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Totally agree that he shouldn’t have had personnel control (never works out for a coach to have that power). His anachronistic on-court philosophy and stubborn game management should not be underestimated - he’ll grind out some wins, but I don’t think he’ll turn a team into a contender.
I’ll take Saunders any day over Thibs for this Wolves team. The players love him, he has them actually shooting 3s and getting up and down the court. Wolves have other issues right now - Kat out for a while, no D, a key player being a rookie who had basically no training camp and a pretty weird college season last year...
 
Psymon said:
Totally agree that he shouldn’t have had personnel control (never works out for a coach to have that power). His anachronistic on-court philosophy and stubborn game management should not be underestimated - he’ll grind out some wins, but I don’t think he’ll turn a team into a contender.
I’ll take Saunders any day over Thibs for this Wolves team. The players love him, he has them actually shooting 3s and getting up and down the court. Wolves have other issues right now - Kat out for a while, no D, a key player being a rookie who had basically no training camp and a pretty weird college season last year...
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Yea--I'd probably take Saunders for that team too right now. He seems like a much better fit. I think Thibs is a weirdly good fit for the current Knicks team though. Most of our young guys are workaholics. Thibs has also been playing young guys pretty heavy minutes so far. I also think it helps that we got two great development assistants in Kenny Payne and Johnnie Bryant and Thibs seems like he has adapted a bit. We still have a ways to go and I don't think that Thibs will be the coach to get the team to the Finals anytime soon, but I do think right now he's instilling good habits in our young guys.
 
I think The Knicks will be better this year because the roster makes a little more sense and Thibs has a certain floor for competitiveness, but early season performance outliers can usually be explained straight up by 3pt noise. Knicks opponents are currently dead last in 3pt% at .295 compared to the league average of .363. And RJ and Randle being top 2 in the league in minutes per game should be a little concerning.
 
sahomerrocks said:
I think The Knicks will be better this year because the roster makes a little more sense and Thibs has a certain floor for competitiveness, but early season performance outliers can usually be explained straight up by 3pt noise. Knicks opponents are currently dead last in 3pt% at .295 compared to the league average of .363. And RJ and Randle being top 2 in the league in minutes per game should be a little concerning.
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The Knicks overall have the 5th best defense in the league I believe and the eye test backs some of that up. Sure--some of it is because of opponents shooting poorly. I don't really think the roster makes all that much more sense this season. It's not too different from last year...the biggest changes in personnel are Burks, Rivers + IQ but those guys have all been out for multiple games already.

A lot of this is on Thibs/Kenny Payne/Bryant's coaching and development. Randle is actually looking like a real basketball player on both sides of the floor this season. He is fully buying in on defense and is a willing passer unlike last season when he spun into a wall of defenders and turned it over seemingly 5x a game.

RJ and Randle having heavy minutes right now are partially a result of us having so many injuries...Obi and Burks are both out and they would be taking some of those minutes. We'll see if it continues (maybe it does) but it has also been refreshing to see Thibs leave guys like Quickley in when they are playing well instead of going to vets or back to Payton simply because he's the starter.
 
MikeH said:
The Knicks overall have the 5th best defense in the league I believe and the eye test backs some of that up. Sure--some of it is because of opponents shooting poorly. I don't really think the roster makes all that much more sense this season. It's not too different from last year...the biggest changes in personnel are Burks, Rivers + IQ but those guys have all been out for multiple games already.

A lot of this is on Thibs/Kenny Payne/Bryant's coaching and development. Randle is actually looking like a real basketball player on both sides of the floor this season. He is fully buying in on defense and is a willing passer unlike last season when he spun into a wall of defenders and turned it over seemingly 5x a game.

RJ and Randle having heavy minutes right now are partially a result of us having so many injuries...Obi and Burks are both out and they would be taking some of those minutes. We'll see if it continues (maybe it does) but it has also been refreshing to see Thibs leave guys like Quickley in when they are playing well instead of going to vets or back to Payton simply because he's the starter.
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I've only gotten to watch them play against the Sixers when they had a lot of players out and RJ got put in prison so I've assumed that game didn't mean anything, but yeah some of the spacing around lineups with both RJ and Randle, nominally the most important players, still make me want to scream.

Shooting gaps that big are always due for some regression to the mean. Last year the worst opponent 3pt% was .337
 
sahomerrocks said:
I've only gotten to watch them play against the Sixers when they had a lot of players out and RJ got put in prison so I've assumed that game didn't mean anything, but yeah some of the spacing around lineups with both RJ and Randle, nominally the most important players, still make me want to scream.
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That was by far our worst game this year and it's a terrible matchup for us. Simmons locked up RJ and we have nobody to guard JoJo. RJ also had a really bad streak of shooting (something like 23 missed 3's in a row before the Pacers game). I believe Quickley was out that game too and he's one of our better shooters. Lineups with Quickley in them have much better spacing than with Payton. There's actually some really nice ball movement when we have a lineup like Quickley, Rivers, RJ, Knox and Randle. Even swapping Knox for Mitch leads to some nice movement. Mitch is near impossible to guard in the PnR. Randle has become much better at passing out of doubles. Burks coming back will be a big lift too because he's been a flamethrower for us.

I wouldn't say we're a very good team at all, especially on offense, but we've been grinding out some nice wins against some decent teams. There was no way I thought we would be above 500 so far. Our defense looks pretty legit too so far against most teams.
 
MikeH said:
That was by far our worst game this year and it's a terrible matchup for us. Simmons locked up RJ and we have nobody to guard JoJo. RJ also had a really bad streak of shooting (something like 23 missed 3's in a row before the Pacers game). I believe Quickley was out that game too and he's one of our better shooters. Lineups with Quickley in them have much better spacing than with Payton. There's actually some really nice ball movement when we have a lineup like Quickley, Rivers, RJ, Knox and Randle. Even swapping Knox for Mitch leads to some nice movement. Mitch is near impossible to guard in the PnR. Randle has become much better at passing out of doubles. Burks coming back will be a big lift too because he's been a flamethrower for us.

I wouldn't say we're a very good team at all, especially on offense, but we've been grinding out some nice wins against some decent teams. There was no way I thought we would be above 500 so far. Our defense looks pretty legit too so far against most teams.
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Yeah I was bummed when Quickley was out I was looking forward to watching him
 
sahomerrocks said:
Yeah I was bummed when Quickley was out I was looking forward to watching him
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He's looking like a pretty good draft steal. Great shooter, controls the pace VERY well for a rookie and just makes the right play. He's also great at drawing fouls right now and is a fantastic FT shooter. He has shades of Lou Will in him with how he is able to draw fouls. Also not a bad defender.

I wanted us to take Maxey (and it's why I suspect we moved up in the draft) but I also liked Quickley after Maxey got taken by yall.
 
sahomerrocks said:
They just let Daryl Morey take Tyrese Maxey at 21
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I’m so surprised he was still there. I think the Knicks moved up to hopefully take him and he went right before our pick.

Also 39 points on 33 shots isn’t amazing. But I still think he’s gonna be great
 
MikeH said:
I’m so surprised he was still there. I think the Knicks moved up to hopefully take him and he went right before our pick.

Also 39 points on 33 shots isn’t amazing. But I still think he’s gonna be great
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59% TS is pretty damn good on that usage with 0 FTA, while also considering he was the only playmaker on the floor. His FTr is concerning to me but it was much better at Kentucky. I don't think he'll ever be an above average 3 pt shooter but having the ability to pull up instead of just being a catch and shoot guy matters.

Denver's defense is bad-bad though
 
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Jonathan Y said:
HOLY SHIT!!!! MY SEASON ISNT TOTALLY OVER!!!! HARDEN IS A NET

KYRIE
KD
HARDEN

dare i say......OKC 2.0?!?!?!
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MikeH said:
man. what a trade. 4 1sts + 4 pick swaps?? if the nets don't win it in the next year or two this could go REALLY poorly.

OKC 2.0 might be exactly what happens. No rings with 3 MVP type players haha.
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TenderLovingKiller® said:
As in they will be just good enough not to win an NBA Championship? Sure, why not.
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BKN can enjoy losing in the second round.
 
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