Locker room talk: rolling basketball thread

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
You know, the nice thing about arguing with Padraig about basketball is that next year, barring injuries, when Ws put forward one of their strongest lineups ever, and go on to pick up another handful of championships, I can just be vindicated for being right—the same way my claims (dating back to the beginning of the season) that Ws were a championship-level core, and only a slim margin below their 2016 peak, have already been vindicated.
buddy I never disputed yr preseason claims, which I know cos 1) I didn't even know you were a Ws fan til like two weeks ago 2) I wouldn't have really disagreed with them. I would've said they were made through the lens of homer optimism - I needed to see how Klay came back from that very long injury layoff, and Wiggins and Jordan Poole have been better than I (and most people, I think) thought they'd be - but not crazy homer optimism, just toward the high end of likely outcomes. if you're not a Suns believer - and I never was - the West was pretty wide-open, and as I always say, I will never bet against a healthy Steph/Klay/Dray core.

the nice thing about arguing about anything with gus is that sooner or later (usually sooner) he'll impart an opinion to you that you never expressed and don't hold, then congratulate himself for proving you wrong about that opinion that you never held
 

sus

Well-known member
it will take a handful of championships to redeem your 2nd option otto porter comment
Bruh his Wiz stats are IDENTICAL to Dinwiddie

Fine maybe Dinwiddie is a third option but he's a third option on a WCF team. Not just any scrub team.
 

sus

Well-known member
Bruh

Padraig

You have made fun of me in every response in this thread

I'm making zero concrete claims it's about the ATTITUDE
 

sus

Well-known member
My point is we believe basically the same things, except my "optimism" could alternately be phrased as WATCHING this Ws squad day in and day out

NO ONE who watches Ws like that was remotely surprised by Poole this season

And yet despite us basically agreeing you gotta throw in some elbows. What the heck man? Can't we be friends?
 

linebaugh

Well-known member
Bruh his Wiz stats are IDENTICAL to Dinwiddie

Fine maybe Dinwiddie is a third option but he's a third option on a WCF team. Not just any scrub team
prime dinwiddie averaged 20 a game on a playoff team and he's still barely a 3rd option. Does otto porter even know how to dribble?
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
And yet despite us basically agreeing you gotta throw in some elbows. What the heck man? Can't we be friends?
who's throwing elbows - I just don't buy into homer takes

my harshest criticism of the Ws has been that they're not clearly the 3rd-best team of all time to me, yet. not exactly a savage rebuke.

stuff like arbitrarily saying guys are All-Defense - a very small and elite grouping - is a serious homerism

there's no shame in being a homer really as long as you acknowledge it, like linebaugh or leo

I lived with a Knicks fan during Julius Randle's annus mirabilis and he was forever going on about how all Knicks fans saw it coming

idk dude, Ws just won their 4th title, reasserted themselves as kings of the league, and cemented their place as one of the all-time great dynasties

you'd think very mild criticism - not even criticism, just pushback on wilder claims - wouldn't spark this like, winner's fragility
 
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padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
like it's not enough to win everything and have the best shooter of all time and the best post-00s enduring championship core and a solid chance to win another title or two AND a bunch of young talent - which may or may not pan it, but is legit talent - and an owner willing to dispense largess?

you have to also have pretend All-Defense spots and Otto Porter be actually good and idk whatever else

like it's kinda insufferable yunno - just be happy with having ruled the NBA for going on a decade now
 
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padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
prime dinwiddie averaged 20 a game on a playoff team and he's still barely a 3rd option. Does otto porter even know how to dribble?
that take will live forever in infamy

I just found out about the Christian Wood trade btw - I like that for yall a lot

I see what you were saying above a bit more, I think that does a lot to put Mavs at the head of the 2nd-tier West teams

probably one more two-way wing piece away from being a serious contender, but a very good move
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
for the record, there were absolutely Bulls fans like this in the 90s - I grew up a Bulls fan during that era and I remember them well

like it wasn't enough to have the greatest player ever and the best team and the best coach and 6 titles and all the rest

they were adamant that you admit BJ Armstrong or whoever was good, that Toni Kukoc should be a perennial All-Star, etc

it was equally insufferable
 

sus

Well-known member
I'm not being a sore winner. Padraig is arguing that I'm being a big homer by claiming that literal all-defense players are all-defense players. It's bizarre. It's incoherent. He's deeply confused
 

sus

Well-known member
GP2 and Wiggs played like all-defensive team members in that playoff run, and the stats back it, and the eye test backs it. There's no world in which Timelord or Marcus fucking Smart—both All-Defense members this year—were a serious tier above either of them, in that series. I dunno what games you were watching.
 

sus

Well-known member
Come on @Leo you watched the series. Timelord was fantastic all around, even playing injured. Smart is a baller, no question. But was Wiggs defense up there and competitive with 'em? Absolutely. Guy locked up Tatum, held a first-teamer to 30-something percent all series. Guy lead both teams in rebounds and shots contested, and was second in blocks. What the heck else do you expect from a defensive player? Guy had the 4th-lowest defensive field goal percentage among opponents all season. The guy is an elite defender. It's insane to claim otherwise.

 
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luka

Well-known member
None of the Americanos will be laughing at that they'll be absoutely fuming! 😀
"That ain't no basketball!"
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
For some weird reason I keep getting this newsletter thing about basketball in my email lately. And if you put something in front of my eyes I read it, I simply can't help myself. But the reason I mention this is cos, this time around they mention something that I wondered about but didn't mention cos I thought it might make me look stupid. But obviously there is no chance on earth that that could ever happen so I don't really know what I was worrying about. Cos I remember that we had a couple of lessons at basketball when I was maybe thirteen years old or something, or even we didn't play they explained the rules to us, or some of them - but I kinda wish they hadn't bothered cos whenever I see it on telly I feel like, I only know three rules of basketball and they break all of them every time they dribble. Part of this is why I was asking about the number of steps they are allowed before they throw it, cos it often seems to me that they take several. And relatedly I thought that you when you dribbled that your hand had to be above the ball and you hit it down so it bounces up, but people often seem to me that they do this thing where their hand comes up under ball and then rolls round it before pushing it down. I can't articulate that particularly well so I didn't mention it, but, judging by the picture that accompanied the article in my latest issue of Basket Cases Weekly, it may be that I'm talking about palming.

Is Palming the ball now legal in the NGA? The refs don't ever seem to call it any more and it make the cross over dribble hard to stop
Yes, it is “legal” in the sense that it is almost never called. Somebody got called for palming in the NBA playoffs and it was a good thing I was sitting down.At this point players are really running with the ball. No wonder defenders struggle to keep up.Will the NBA start calling this? Not a snowball’s chance.Just like guys at all levels catch the ball, take two steps and shoot. Should be a travel. Nobody gonna call it.,

Anyone know what I'm on about here?
 
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