NBA 2024-25 Thread

[Hewson]

Hopefully that was a wale up call. Still not a fan of Crazy Joe Mazzulla's offensive philosophy of just keep chucking 3's. Bit them in the ass hard last night.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Thibs playing guys a lot of minutes all year really came back to bite the Knicks in the ass last night. They looked so tired and everyone is hurt.

Oh wait, the opposite happened. Interesting.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Hopefully that was a wale up call. Still not a fan of Crazy Joe Mazzulla's offensive philosophy of just keep chucking 3's. Bit them in the ass hard last night.

I don't necessarily disagree, but I think it's a bit deeper than that. Their pace just crawls to a stop when they go up big. They stop moving the ball. They always shoot a lot of threes - but instead of getting open shots with ball movement and penetration, they just seem to settle for contested threes when they go up. It's the exact opposite of what you'd want a team to do. And hey - it has mostly worked for them, but it's still weird and leaves them susceptible to getting picked off.

Still think they win the series, probably in 6 - but they've left the door open.

 

[phanan]

Losing Porzingis certainly didn't help.

 

[Hewson]

Losing Porzingis certainly didn't help.

This guy and his mystery illnesses.

 

[Hewson]

Home court advantage is very important in round 2.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

 

[mikal]

Mikal is really taking it to the Celtics so far.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

What a day to be alive.

I still think the Celtics likely win the series - but what we're seeing here is analytics being taken to the extreme, and being exploited by a good coach.

 

[Hewson]

Crazy Joe Mazzulla being severely outcoached by Thibs.
The 2 straight fouls taken with 2:43 left on Robinson was one of the stupidest coaching moves I've seen in decades of watching NBA hoops. They were fouls 3 and 4 of the quarter, so did not put Robinson at the line, therefore no point in fouling him. Then Thibs subbed him out and ended up in the bonus with good FT shooters on the floor for the balance of the game. And Thibs had tipped his hand that he was sending OG in after the first foul by Tatum, but Crazy Joe goes and has Horford foul immediately after Thibs decides not to sub. Without that stupid strategy, Holdiay's foul on Brunson at 12.1 seconds is the first in last 2 minutes and not a shooting foul, Celts still up 1 and Knicks inbounding.
This looks like a sweep, and if so, doubtful but hopeful it results in Crazy Joe getting canned and the organization rethinking the reliance on the volume 3 analytics theory.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

https://www.instagram.com/stories/evehewson/3629639815848988074?utm_source=ig_story_item_share&igsh=MTYza2EyMDczZWN6cg==

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Live by the three, die by the three

 

[U2inUtah]

Huge night tonight!

C’mon frozen envelope!

 

[Hewson]

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

 

[U2inUtah]

Rigged!!!

 

[DaveC]

Flagg looks thrilled.... lol

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

I'm going to be sick

 

[mikal]

Good for Dallas. They made the right decision with the trade knowing they had the #1 pick locked up.

 

[Hewson]

Rigged!!!

That result certainly won't dissuade any conspiracy theorists.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

That result certainly won't dissuade any conspiracy theorists.

And it's as stupid as most of the other conspiracies.

Dallas was actively trying to make the playoffs in the play in tournament. If they had a wink wink deal, they wouldn't have done that.

It's not rigged. It's just dumb.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

So the "oh it's rigged" bullshit is flying around like wildfire.

The Mavs were a playoff team before Kyrie tore his ACL. Shit - they were in the play in, won a game and were competitive in the second game.

So, what - was Kyrie blowing out his ACL part of the conspiracy?

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

That is absolutely an Achilles

 

[Hewson]

That's all folks.

 

[Hewson]

So the "oh it's rigged" bullshit is flying around like wildfire.

The Mavs were a playoff team before Kyrie tore his ACL. Shit - they were in the play in, won a game and were competitive in the second game.

So, what - was Kyrie blowing out his ACL part of the conspiracy?

Conspiracy is that once Mavs ended up in the lottery it was rigged for them after trading Luka (just like the Cavs winning the lottery the year after LeBron left). Or just that it was rigged so Flagg didn't end up in BB hell like Utah, Charlotte or (sorry man) Washington.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

The game was effectively over when it happened, too.

Sucks for so many reasons - obviously Tatum's health being first and foremost. For the Knicks I would prefer to win the series at full strength (Boston still capable of winning without Tatum, but obviously much harder now).

But everyone kinda knew that Boston needed to make some moves this off-season with the money they're paying. Now they'll be without Tatum for a season. They could be in a tank situation next year, all because of one bad step.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Conspiracy is that once Mavs ended up in the lottery it was rigged for them after trading Luka (just like the Cavs winning the lottery the year after LeBron left). Or just that it was rigged so Flagg didn't end up in BB hell like Utah, Charlotte or (sorry man) Washington.

Which makes zero sense.

NBA knows they need to balance the star power as it's again too top heavy in the West.

So they .. rig it so the top two picks for out west?

 

[Hewson]

. They could be in a tank situation next year, all because of one bad step.

You mean all because Jaylen Brown can't handle the ball cleanly.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

A world exists where they trade Brown this off-season and Tatum sits out the year and next year everyone is claiming the NBA rigged the draft for the Celtics.

 

[Hewson]

A world exists where they trade Brown this off-season and Tatum sits out the year and next year everyone is claiming the NBA rigged the draft for the Celtics.

Until they end up picking 5th and the Spurs get #1.