I dunno, that seems fine to me. Cavs, Pacers, Celtics, and Grizzlies are all top 15 teams by SRS. And more importantly, they benched Jordan yesterday and went with AD at center which will help them a lot. Given all the injuries and absences they've dealt with so far as well as the general fraudulence of the West, I'd say they are as a good a candidates as any to be in that 4/5 slot.
On the other hand, LeBron could get injured again.
or AD which is very likely. Thinking they're going to need those 2 for every remaining game to avoid the lower seeds. I can see Luka hitting a hot streak and taking those Mavs on a run so that's another team that'll be on their ass
I think we need a poll on who (re) opened the tuna sandwich handle. The only hint we have is that they went to a warriors game a couple years ago and were not impressed by JP. Hmmm….
People keep saying this but should one reasonably expect Kawhi to make a full return to form so late in the season, if he comes back at all, and propel the Clippers to contender status?
Honestly, a lot depends on what degree of ACL tear he has. if he has a lower grade tear (like the one Dinwiddie had this past season), then coming back should be doable. If it is a full tear (like Klay's), then coming back is a very low probability proposition. The Clippers are also super obscure with the health of their players.
Idk, he could come back at 70% and make the Clippers quote solid. Probably not Warriors/Phoenix level, but with their already good defense I imagine they’d be a solid 4th seed and at least be better than the lakers.
Wouldn't it be a terrible risk to try to come back at 70%? Better to wait and be sure he's not only healed but in NBA game condition, even if that means next season.
Honestly, it kinda is. Kerr's offense has spoiled me. It can be rough when guys aren't hitting shots, but when they are, the Motion Offense is a thing of beauty, and there's not another team in the league that runs something like it.
Nets down by 11 going into the 4th. Only scored 75 points thus far. Is the East actually surprisingly deep as people are claiming or just surprisingly mediocre from top to bottom?
I think the Nets are better than they've shown thus far this season, but to date, it really just feels that the entire conference is underperforming as a whole.
Nets very well may win. Dallas isn't looking super impressive themselves. But from what I've seen thus far Nets just haven't played up to their supposed potential thus far.
I doubt it’s old habits. I’ll bet it’s pressure from teams lobbying for their players to get the calls they feel they deserve. The nba was already far too gone in the rot of “kick head back, get two freethrows” for any real cleaning up of the rules to stand. That’s why many of us were guessing they’d be right back to the old calls in a few months.
Imagine the pressure on an organization like the Nets to make sure their stars they’ve already signed can keep performing at their expected level. I doubt the Warriors (or any other team trying to play real basketball) do anywhere near as much lobbying to make sure Draymond can play defense the way he wants to, for example.
I suspect the players have learned they have to at least draw real contact by making a real basketball play instead of gimmicking it, figuring out how to get calls again, just not quite as many, and not as cheap.
My favorite go-to stat to look at is in the "Per 100 Poss" section of bbref, ORtg and DRtg. I find that they usually tell a pretty decent story of a player if you can only look at one thing. This is the first year of Wiggins' long career that he is showing a positive differential, offense over defense: 112 ORtg to 104 DRtg, vs. career numbers of 104 to 113, respectively. It's also the first season his DRtg has been under 110 and the first season his ORtg has been over 110.
I was delighted at the Wiggins trade, never had much love for Russell. Then the Warriors immediately stank and I had to look away.
It is awesome to see Wiggs improve. Sometimes players get better, sometimes they get worse, sometimes they get banished to Croatia. Once in a while they listen to coaches. The unexpected happens. The wished for huge steaming bowl of awesome you ordered comes out and is delicious.
Myers, Kerr and company have already served us many treats. I will bask in the glow.
Like you, I was thrilled with the Wiggins trade. I could have lived with DLo for Wiggins straight up. That juicy Minnesota 1st rounder was a tasty side.
Driving back from Texas with mom in tow. Ordered a specific mattress from Amazon for it to arrive today and be setup prior to arrival tomorrow. She's got Multiple Myeloma so there's only a few select mattresses she can sleep on. I have no idea where this mattress is. There is no record of cancellation no email nothing just a note on my account saying not all orders are loading and of course can't get through to a rep right now. Stressing the freak out cause I don't have an adequate backup plan
Try a medical supply company in your area and get a hospital bed delivered for in the meantime - they should be able to get something to you immediately and will take it away whenever you are done with it.
I’m so sorry to hear this. I’ve had good luck oddly enough with Amazon chat. Keep choosing other (or no, you did not answer my question, something like that, can’t remember the phrase precisely) to get through the bots and usually you’ll get to a real person who is empowered to help.
I may be the only person on the planet who has never even been on Amazon. [I have had to drive defensively around the packs of delivery vans near the distribution center in Omaha.]
I really love that you can pinpoint the exact moment Wiggins elevated his game as the moment he dunked on KAT. It's like he exorcised a demon and was free to start using his athleticism like nature intended.
Hope he keeps it up because if Wiggins is going to shoot 42% from three on 5 attempts a game, no one is beating the Warriors.
No one deserves to take victory laps on Wiggins resurgence more than Daniel. Great article. I'm a Wiggins convert, though they keep stamping "denied" on my application to visit Wiggins island.
I'm pretty shocked, but not so delusional that I've got anything bad to say about Wiggins at this point. He's doing so well here! I just can't wait for the full squad.
Hey Duby, can we go back at look at comments from when the trade was announced? I am pretty sure I *cough, cough* thought Wiggins was a steal... well, I wasn't as distraught as I thought I would be. Though I may be totally misremembering it completely...
I'm quite certain my attitude was, and is, that Wiggins is a perfectly acceptable 3rd option and people should forget about the salary. I've been pleasantly surprised by the defense though.
lol go to the main page and look at "top" articles. Our #1 article of all time is still all of us arguing .. err sorry, I mean "having a roundtable chat"... about the trade
I thought it was a good trade just to have a placeholder at small forward so Klay wouldn't have to move to the 3, keep the max slot open, get rid of DLo's matador defense, and a get a pick. I thought Wiggins would have a shot of being unlocked because of this coaching staff.
I'm still camping on my property on Wiseman Island. Most of the island is undeveloped and the power plant shut down last year but we hear it will be restarted early next year and we can start building. I still think it's a good long-term investment though.
Oh yes, a sizeable island with a lot of natural resources undeveloped and with a small population. People make fun of us now but you just wait, we gonna be champions.
From your caves high on the mountain I bet you can see Kuminga Island and Moody Island, also mostly undeveloped. Someday we'll have a thriving economy between the three.
Feel good article - just what the doctor ordered. Two thoughts:
- How dare Wiggs not get better in FT%? Trade him I say /s
- Steph-Poole-Klay-Wiggs-Dray would be an offensive juggernaut especially with Poole getting better and better with passing. They are going to be good defensively as well if Klay is anywhere close to what he used to be.
I've noticed that in games where he isn't shooting well, he really ups his assists. Shows that he recognizes the importance of passing and is trying to develop that in order to still cause an impact even when he isn't hitting his shot.
Also, Jordan has been doing a better job navigating screens lately which is important for defense.
Making some slinky, slithery moves too. That one last game on the baseline for the layup... I would not have guessed even last season that he had that in him.
Holy Crap this is not good at all.
12/07/2021, 5:27 PM
CJ McCollum: Has collapsed right lung
McCollum has a collapsed right lung and needs to undergo further evaluation, Shams Charania of The Athletic reports.
Discussed 12 hours ago down below. (It’s VERY unlikely to be as bad as it sounds.)
Yeah, 2-3 weeks, sounds like.
http://instreetclothes.com/2021/12/07/understanding-cj-mccollums-pneumothorax/
…
Still: secular prayers up for CJ!
The one downfall of this site. Hard to follow and I'm sure I'm not the only jerk to repeat something.
I think KD is playing too much. It's december, there are 5-6 months to go and he will be 34 next year
Lakers are 8-5 with LeBron in the lineup. If they win against the Grizzlies on Thursday they are a half game back from fourth.
It shouldn't have been that easy for them to get back to the top 4 of the West but there's just too much fraudulence in the West this season.
fwiw, those eight wins were: MEM (+3), CLE(+12), HOU (+10), HOU (+2), DET (+5), IND (+8), DET (+4), BOS (+15)
And LAL has had the second easiest SOS
I dunno, that seems fine to me. Cavs, Pacers, Celtics, and Grizzlies are all top 15 teams by SRS. And more importantly, they benched Jordan yesterday and went with AD at center which will help them a lot. Given all the injuries and absences they've dealt with so far as well as the general fraudulence of the West, I'd say they are as a good a candidates as any to be in that 4/5 slot.
On the other hand, LeBron could get injured again.
or AD which is very likely. Thinking they're going to need those 2 for every remaining game to avoid the lower seeds. I can see Luka hitting a hot streak and taking those Mavs on a run so that's another team that'll be on their ass
Yup, the Lakers are so old I remember when lebron was out again for 3 weeks in March of 2022
Dray (live podcast) is predicting Steph will put up 30 3PA tomorrow lol...
Saw that! 13:16 mark of this video. Also says that he'll know in the first possession if Steph is coming out to gun for the record or not. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MF4NimYEbhw&ab_channel=TheVolume
I'm afraid Wiggs and I are going to have to part company. Lately, people are saying he's so much more than a tuna sandwich. I'm offended.
Sorry, Charlie.
I think we need a poll on who (re) opened the tuna sandwich handle. The only hint we have is that they went to a warriors game a couple years ago and were not impressed by JP. Hmmm….
You think there's something fishy about this?
You have to admit that it smells...
"I enjoy every single day, because finally I found a spot where I feel comfortable and very happy."
- Nemanja
The West is trash outside of the top 3 teams.
Unless Kawhi comes back
People keep saying this but should one reasonably expect Kawhi to make a full return to form so late in the season, if he comes back at all, and propel the Clippers to contender status?
Earnestly asking
Honestly, a lot depends on what degree of ACL tear he has. if he has a lower grade tear (like the one Dinwiddie had this past season), then coming back should be doable. If it is a full tear (like Klay's), then coming back is a very low probability proposition. The Clippers are also super obscure with the health of their players.
Idk, he could come back at 70% and make the Clippers quote solid. Probably not Warriors/Phoenix level, but with their already good defense I imagine they’d be a solid 4th seed and at least be better than the lakers.
Wouldn't it be a terrible risk to try to come back at 70%? Better to wait and be sure he's not only healed but in NBA game condition, even if that means next season.
Probably not, realistically. But you never know.
Gooooooood. Verrryyyy goooooood.
*The NBA is trash outside the Warriors.
But I'm a bit biased.
*The world
*the universe
Honestly, it kinda is.
Honestly, it kinda is. Kerr's offense has spoiled me. It can be rough when guys aren't hitting shots, but when they are, the Motion Offense is a thing of beauty, and there's not another team in the league that runs something like it.
Nets down by 11 going into the 4th. Only scored 75 points thus far. Is the East actually surprisingly deep as people are claiming or just surprisingly mediocre from top to bottom?
I think the Nets are better than they've shown thus far this season, but to date, it really just feels that the entire conference is underperforming as a whole.
And the Nets win.
Nets very well may win. Dallas isn't looking super impressive themselves. But from what I've seen thus far Nets just haven't played up to their supposed potential thus far.
Doncic was over 260 pounds at the training camp for the second consecutive year, instead of 230....
Durant played 41 minutes and Harden 42.....
Luca rockin the dad bod.
Have the refs backslid in their fouls calling? Seeing lots of offensive created contact getting calls again. Don’t love the trend.
Harden has had a few games with 10+ ftas the last couple weeks, so I'd say, probably.
Old habits are hard to break. I'm sure we'll see the pendulum swing back and forth on it while they try and figure it out.
I doubt it’s old habits. I’ll bet it’s pressure from teams lobbying for their players to get the calls they feel they deserve. The nba was already far too gone in the rot of “kick head back, get two freethrows” for any real cleaning up of the rules to stand. That’s why many of us were guessing they’d be right back to the old calls in a few months.
Imagine the pressure on an organization like the Nets to make sure their stars they’ve already signed can keep performing at their expected level. I doubt the Warriors (or any other team trying to play real basketball) do anywhere near as much lobbying to make sure Draymond can play defense the way he wants to, for example.
I suspect the players have learned they have to at least draw real contact by making a real basketball play instead of gimmicking it, figuring out how to get calls again, just not quite as many, and not as cheap.
I don't want this to be true but it's unpleasantly plausible.
Yea. It's happening.
My favorite go-to stat to look at is in the "Per 100 Poss" section of bbref, ORtg and DRtg. I find that they usually tell a pretty decent story of a player if you can only look at one thing. This is the first year of Wiggins' long career that he is showing a positive differential, offense over defense: 112 ORtg to 104 DRtg, vs. career numbers of 104 to 113, respectively. It's also the first season his DRtg has been under 110 and the first season his ORtg has been over 110.
I was delighted at the Wiggins trade, never had much love for Russell. Then the Warriors immediately stank and I had to look away.
It is awesome to see Wiggs improve. Sometimes players get better, sometimes they get worse, sometimes they get banished to Croatia. Once in a while they listen to coaches. The unexpected happens. The wished for huge steaming bowl of awesome you ordered comes out and is delicious.
Myers, Kerr and company have already served us many treats. I will bask in the glow.
Like you, I was thrilled with the Wiggins trade. I could have lived with DLo for Wiggins straight up. That juicy Minnesota 1st rounder was a tasty side.
Charts and graphs and stats! Excellent focus on Wiggins.
Substack is having some impact from a broad AWS server issue (thanks for nothin' Jeff Bezos!!).
So if you're running into weird site issues right now, just know that:
1) it's us not you, and;
2) the people who know what to do are aware of the problem.
Driving back from Texas with mom in tow. Ordered a specific mattress from Amazon for it to arrive today and be setup prior to arrival tomorrow. She's got Multiple Myeloma so there's only a few select mattresses she can sleep on. I have no idea where this mattress is. There is no record of cancellation no email nothing just a note on my account saying not all orders are loading and of course can't get through to a rep right now. Stressing the freak out cause I don't have an adequate backup plan
Try a medical supply company in your area and get a hospital bed delivered for in the meantime - they should be able to get something to you immediately and will take it away whenever you are done with it.
I’m so sorry to hear this. I’ve had good luck oddly enough with Amazon chat. Keep choosing other (or no, you did not answer my question, something like that, can’t remember the phrase precisely) to get through the bots and usually you’ll get to a real person who is empowered to help.
Oh my goodness. Good luck!
I’d sleep her on the couch if it meant the Warriors getting Myles Turner though
Hahahah, good to see you haven’t lost sense of humor jz
AWS issue you say? Maybe I should check in with work.
Or maybe I will pretend I didn’t see this….
<slinks out of thread>
Am I giving money to JEff Bezos? Again??! Geez you almost can’t not
Amazon Web Services is huge. It is pretty impossible to avoid anyone using them.
I may be the only person on the planet who has never even been on Amazon. [I have had to drive defensively around the packs of delivery vans near the distribution center in Omaha.]
Your soul is pure.
I really love that you can pinpoint the exact moment Wiggins elevated his game as the moment he dunked on KAT. It's like he exorcised a demon and was free to start using his athleticism like nature intended.
Hope he keeps it up because if Wiggins is going to shoot 42% from three on 5 attempts a game, no one is beating the Warriors.
If he keeps shooting 42% and keeps only shooting 5 attempts, I'm going to be pissed at him and the team for not pushing it up to 7-8.
No one deserves to take victory laps on Wiggins resurgence more than Daniel. Great article. I'm a Wiggins convert, though they keep stamping "denied" on my application to visit Wiggins island.
I'm pretty shocked, but not so delusional that I've got anything bad to say about Wiggins at this point. He's doing so well here! I just can't wait for the full squad.
Hey Duby, can we go back at look at comments from when the trade was announced? I am pretty sure I *cough, cough* thought Wiggins was a steal... well, I wasn't as distraught as I thought I would be. Though I may be totally misremembering it completely...
I'm quite certain my attitude was, and is, that Wiggins is a perfectly acceptable 3rd option and people should forget about the salary. I've been pleasantly surprised by the defense though.
lol go to the main page and look at "top" articles. Our #1 article of all time is still all of us arguing .. err sorry, I mean "having a roundtable chat"... about the trade
I thought it was a good trade just to have a placeholder at small forward so Klay wouldn't have to move to the 3, keep the max slot open, get rid of DLo's matador defense, and a get a pick. I thought Wiggins would have a shot of being unlocked because of this coaching staff.
But even this was beyond my expectations.
Went back and read your article from Feb 6th. Certainly had some angry comments but our great ServantOfLuna had this to say:
ServantOfLunaFeb 6, 2020
Maybe they can revive Wiggins's career like they did with McGee and Chriss. I dunno. I'm being blindly optimistic. But who knows?
Probably the most positive and clairvoyant of all comments.
Right there with ya! Luckily I made it onto GP2 atoll before it was too late.
I'm still camping on my property on Wiseman Island. Most of the island is undeveloped and the power plant shut down last year but we hear it will be restarted early next year and we can start building. I still think it's a good long-term investment though.
The rest of us are still in our hermit caves high on Mount Wiseman. Is there an island too?
Oh yes, a sizeable island with a lot of natural resources undeveloped and with a small population. People make fun of us now but you just wait, we gonna be champions.
From your caves high on the mountain I bet you can see Kuminga Island and Moody Island, also mostly undeveloped. Someday we'll have a thriving economy between the three.
Feel good article - just what the doctor ordered. Two thoughts:
- How dare Wiggs not get better in FT%? Trade him I say /s
- Steph-Poole-Klay-Wiggs-Dray would be an offensive juggernaut especially with Poole getting better and better with passing. They are going to be good defensively as well if Klay is anywhere close to what he used to be.
I heard that Rick Barry is going to teach all the Warriors except Curry and Poole how to shoot FT's underhanded.
Poole is definitely passing better, I've noticed that.
JP just gets better at everything, by the month. He’s burgeoning.
I've noticed that in games where he isn't shooting well, he really ups his assists. Shows that he recognizes the importance of passing and is trying to develop that in order to still cause an impact even when he isn't hitting his shot.
Also, Jordan has been doing a better job navigating screens lately which is important for defense.
Making some slinky, slithery moves too. That one last game on the baseline for the layup... I would not have guessed even last season that he had that in him.
I remember him pulling a couple of those moves his rookie year but would mostly miss or get blocked at the rim
If you're talking about that spin move, it was amazing. He's definitely coming into his own.
Yes that one. I was gobsmacked.