this is a basketball thread

If anyone was recording the GS-Houston game AND recorded the first few commercials after is was over, please check the “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” commercial that aired like 1 minute after the broadcast ended, I glanced up from my phone and I swear there was a typo in the promo text.

Warriors-Rockets is the antithesis of aesthetically pleasing basketball.

Houston has always been a trainwreck, but we are just a shell of anything we used to be in this dynasty. The Warriors are a bunch of supremely talented burnouts sleepwalking across the court.

https://madison365.com/two-bucks-and-a-snub-nba-hall-of-fame-announces-2019-class/

But for the third straight year Chris Webber was snubbed by the Hall of Fame Committee. Webber, who has been on the ballot since 2016, is arguably the greatest eligible former player not in the Hall of Fame.

Webber was one of the most iconic players of his generation. He spearheaded Michigan’s Fab Five, a controversial group that incited intense racial backlash while at Michigan. Webber brought into vogue the wearing of baggy shorts and black socks. His athleticism and versatility made him one of the early unicorns of college basketball. Webber led the Wolverines to back-to-back NCAA championship games, falling short both times. Webber famously cost Michigan a chance to win the 1993 championship game by calling a timeout that the Wolverines did not have, which led to a technical foul and gave opposing North Carolina the title.

Still, Webber’s brashness and unique skill set at 6’9” made him one of the most popular NBA players with youth in the 1990’s. He led a squad of amateurs in defeating the fabled 1992 Dream Team in a scrimmage, did an around-the-back dunk on Charles Barkley that was featured in commercials, and led the Sacramento Kings in an intense rivalry with the Los Angeles Lakers.

first time I'm hearing about this!

chrondog wrote: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.

Love a quality take like this

Looking forward to all the articles tomorrow morning that are 98% “What went wrong with Boston this season” and 2% “The Bucks are a really good team”.

Yeah, but is KD rpi?

How long have I been saying Kyrie is the most overrated point guard in the league?

The Warriors are gonna continue to dunk on everyone's bitch asses, with or without Kevin. The will of this team is unstoppable.

chrondog wrote:The Warriors are a bunch of supremely talented burnouts sleepwalking across the court.

chrondog wrote:The Warriors are gonna continue to dunk on everyone's bitch asses, with or without Kevin. The will of this team is unstoppable.

One of these things is not like the other?

I made that same post yesterday afternoon but deleted it after a few minutes.

Shouldn't have. Chrono needs to get called out for this shit!

It's almost like I'm a fan who will say fucking anything

The former refers to my lived experience of watching this team all season

The latter refers to my optimistic believe built up over years of success

Chrono's the Walt Whitman of Boarding. Does he contradict himself? Very well, then he contradicts himself. He is large. He contains multitudes.

Back to basketball: ho ly shit.

I'm sorry but I demand perfect consistency.

Excited for those game 7s tho!

Couple of basketball games, today, huh? Damn.

It's still so shocking to me how international the NBA has become. There is this dude from Ghana here who loves the NBA so him and I decided to stream the Blazers game in the TV room. By the fourth quarter there were eight of us watching the game together and almost everyone really knew their shit. A lot of Italians follow the NBA and are more knowledgeable about basketball history than I am, which is super cool.

Also, everyone was aware of the Kawhi laugh.

In the wake of Kawhi's shot, I feel it's appropriate to remember one of the all-time great moments in basketball.

I need to go see some European hoops. Siena used to have one of the best teams on the whole continent but the entire economy is propped up by a bank that went bankrupt a few years ago. They bankrolled both the basketball and soccer teams here so both went into administration and now play in the lower leagues.

More importantly though, I found out that the Bulls have a 12% chance of landing Zion. The changed lottery odds make tonight a lot more interesting. It's still really hard for me to get excited about that team. I probably didn't watch a single Bulls game after like November. Boylen is shit, right? I guess they aren't paying him much and it's only a one-year guarantee, but c'mon...

Fuck the draft.

why's that then?

I was hoping someone else would answer but...

It’s a probability game with some chaotic elements (high impact player trades for draft picks) Teams historically tanked and were almost assured high draft picks. They changed the rules this year to lower the chance that a team which tanked would get a top 3 pick. The rules are meant to stop teams from tanking which is understandable, who wants to spend $80+ to see your team lose on purpose? With that being said teams also need assets to build with, right? So it seems unfair that a poorly performing team wouldn’t have the best chance to get the new talent. They still do, but 14% is a small chance even amongst a small pool. Last night, a worst case scenario event played out and only 1 of the 4 worst teams made it into the top 3 and that was the knicks (won 17 of 82 games) at 3. The New Orleans Pelicans (33 of 82) got #1 and the Memphis Grizzlies (also 33 of 82) got 2. The cavs (19 of 82) got 5, Suns (19 of 82) got 6 and the Bulls (22 of 82) got 7. I’m sure you can see from the numbers that this was an uneven draft lottery. Also, the top picks went to the western conference, the one that is already highly talented and competitive. At the end of the day it’s totally meaningless and I shouldn’t care but watching the home team march through the playoffs can be exciting and at best gives a sense pride and joy and at the least it’s your home team that’s losing, not you, so who cares?

Yeah, he meant the draft lottery.

I'd be in favor of them just getting rid of the draft entirely though to be honest. It doesn't make sense to reward failure in an athletic competition and if you can't attract a fanbase... then why the fuck are you an NBA franchise? I just don't really get it. The league should have like 8-10 less teams probably, but one of the remaining franchises should probably be in Seattle.

I love the draft!