this is a basketball thread

Jabari is Greg Monroe as a 4. The way he plods is unbelievable. IMO he's terrible and a minus asset.

I don’t disagree with that statement. It’s just the position he’s used to and he apparently can’t adapt to being a small. He’s been entertaining the last few games, which, for the Chicago Bulls at this moment, is a unicorn. I think Portis and Markkanen should stay and Parker can go. As far as the three comment, we gave away Justin Holiday who was our starting 3 and now we basically have Chandler Hutchinson and that’s it. To have Parker adapt into that role as a 6th man woulda been nice but he wants to start. I don’t know what team would want him as a starter though... like you said he’s slow.

No one can play 3 or 4 in the modern NBA without being able to shoot 3's or stay in front of guys defensively. It absolutely has to be one or the other. Holiday can shoot 3's and that's why he was starting.

All the intel on Jabari is that he's not dedicated to conditioning or improving on defense. He was already slow footed, then had two ACL tears. He's not coming back from that. To me, it was obvious if you watched/followed him on the Bucks at all that he would be an all-empty-counting-stats, defensive turnstile. 

Jabari has game, but it's better suited to a much less athletic league. He'll be in China in a few years.

You guys are in major unfunsville at the moment (GARPAX ). Markkanen is dope, but he would be developing a lot more if he had to play competitive games to improve his team defense.

I’m watching Duke play right now. Zion isn’t at his best today but he’s still miles ahead of anyone else playing in this game.

If you’re an NBA team with 20 wins or less you should do everything in your power to tank the second half of the season.

Just think of NYK with KD, Kyrie & Zion!

LOL he finished with 29 points and had 3 dunks where he launched above the rim.

Nick wrote:Just think of NYK with KD, Kyrie & Zion!

They'd get beat by the Bucks in 5 lol

Robert Portis is God.

zappo wrote:Robert Portis is God.

Yeah, I was gonna edit that last post to say gone... couldn’t bring myself to do it

I never really cared for Bobby that much. He went off in those first two playoff games against Boston a couple of years ago when it looked like Hondo was going to lead the Bulls to some playoff magic. And he would have the random game where he would go off for like 25 and was a solid rebounder, but he was never going to be more than a rotation piece. The consensus is that Porter Jr. is probably overpaid but it is definitely a positive that they've gotten rid of two redundant players, neither of which were going to be on the team next year anyway, for a much needed long-term piece, which is a 3&D/SF.

The 76ers are my team for the post season in the east. Gotta see how Tobias Harris is gonna gel, but if he does, him and Redick will dominate outside. Simmons and Embiid often get doubled leaving one of those shooters open. The top 4 in the east are pretty strong this year.

I hate the post-process Sixers. They've got squad, but IMO they've mortgaged their long-term future in less than two years of Colangelo front office dumpster fireness. Jimmy is gonna leave in free agency and then Ben Simmons will head to the Lakers next year. They'll lose Tobias or overpay him. Joel will have to reconsider his future once he realizes they blew on their assets on rentals when they can't even win the title.

To me, there's trading a few assets to "go for it" in a year where you're well positioned and then there's this, where the Sixers are throwing asset at anyone who will take them and decimating their roster long term. They've been at this ever since Hinkie got pushed out.

I also love Robert Covington and Landry Shamet and believe you can't be successful long term by undervaluing those homegrown guys and trading them for peanuts. I honestly believe this Sixers team with RoCo and Shamet is 85% what they are with Butler and Tobi, and next year they would'e been better. Now, next year they're almost guaranteed to be worse.

They're gonna get beat by the Bucks OR Raptors in the playoffs this year. They made the biggest trade and I still have them third among that group. I'm not 100% confident in that though, I could see Embiid and Butler smashing on the Bucks in some scenarios.

Don’t know if you guys are watching (watched) the 76ers/Celtics game but coming back from commercial, at the start of the 2nd quarter, I swear I heard one of the announcers say, ‘He’s a dickhead. (Other announcer) Yep. It was while Jimmy Butler was on camera so it seemed like they were talking about him. Then they sorta ‘came back from commercial’ and started taking about what Brett Brown may have said during timeout. Fun live TV fuck up.

https://streamable.com/as40y

They don't seem to be talking about Jimmy in that clip, but it is funny nonetheless. I'm in complete agreement with Chrono about the Sixers. There are already rumors of Simmons wanting to leave for the Lakers...

It was edited slightly different for national tv. It basically cut in when he said dickhead and jimmy was on screen. You’re right though in the fuller clip it has a different feel.

Guys, read my post, I said post season. The post warriors super team NBA is like this now. You guys may be right about Simmons next season. But for the end of this season he’s in Philly. I agree about both Shamet and Convingron. With that being said teams either have to wait out this era or buy great teams which is what philly did this year. Fans lose out the most because the idea of a team, like the warriors, growing organically is absurred with what’s going on with free agency. Teams can’t grow young players because they become assets for a quick finals win. Or players just leave for bigger markets when they reach free agency.

I hear you on this season, I was expanding it out to a broader point.

The thing I can't understand, more than anything, is trading for Tobi after already trading for Butler. I think they realized as soon as they made the Butler trade they fucked up and are now hedging. In a vacuum that's smart, but in the context of their front office's overall vision it speaks volumes about their ineptitude. They never needed Jimmy (and I think he's a fantastic player). Tbh, I also question Brett Brown at this point because he seems to be a good not great coach. He does fine when there are no expectations, but he seems unable to maximize the teams' talent.

Conversely, Budenholzer is making some fresh ass lemonade out of some some shitty concentrate, somehow. The Bucks have way less talent, but they're a modern team that understands spacing, has a clear pecking order, and players are in proper roles. Toronto is a bit of both compared to Philly: they have some absolutely sick talent AND more players fitting more nicely into their roles.

From a poker metaphor standpoint, it's confusing to me that this is the year you wanna push your chips in if you're Philly. If it doesn't work this time around (which it doesn't feel like it will), you're locked into being worse next year. But the new conventional wisdom in the NBA seems to be based around this idea of "looking like a favorable destination for free agents." By making the playoffs and being competitive, you convince players to sign because they think they have a chance at a title. I also don't think that's untrue in a vacuum, but it feels vastly overvalued to me. Very very few teams will come out of the playoffs looking good, so to bank on that is a mistake IMO. I think you're much better of projecting vision/stability from your front office (which Philly hasn't done lol).

If the dunk contest and 3 point contest are put on YouTube in their entirety tonight/after tonight, can someone post links to them here?

Looking to enjoy these as spoiler-free as possible.

edit: Ximo Pierto has this covered.

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/25980368/how-former-ref-tim-donaghy-conspired-fix-nba-games

Proud of my Bulls for last night. Good god if you’re a Celtics fan you gotta be thinking WTF?! at this point in the seaso . Before it was just wtf? But now?

If we still had Roberto Portis, we could basically punch our ticket to the Finals, at this point. Oh, what could have been!

Is LeBron gonna miss the playoffs? At this point even if they made em they’d be an 8th seed and would get destroyed by the warriors. Considering his lack of defense and seemingly slower play post groin injury I guess the better question is, will he be the same or is this the beginning of the decline?

It's the beginning of the decline baby!!

I'm sure he'll have another month to two month period where he'll absolutely fucking wow us again (whether it be a wild run to the playoffs this year, a crazy postseason, or something in the next few years when he gets back to peak form), but I don't think he's ever going back to that air of invincibility he had. And I'm loving it!!

He's never really had anything like this groin injury in his career. That has been his calling card. No major injuries ever. No sustained dip in production other than LeCoasting during the regular season. That's over.

It certainly helps us notice the decline more because Magic + Pelinka have been an unmitigated disaster thus far 

That was another solid game last night. Next season is gonna be the beginning of something nice for Chicago. Otto Porter has been huge. Seems like he’s added some confidence/leadership to the team and he plays like a vet. Zach and Lauri, on the other hand, are developing a nice two man game. Lotta give and go especially if Zach gets in trouble in the paint. Get on the boat now boys!