I think the whole “the east is weak” narrative has been a little over emphasized this year. I kinda like several teams haha And in the west, outside of Denver and OKC, you can find flaws in every team.
There was some Jokic is putting up empty stats narrative (compared to his previous standards that is) last year, though not significantly. I think people had a little Jokic MVP fatigue. Wemby is still so new and makes it all look so jaw dropping, plus the Spurs have also been bad so I don’t think people question the opponent as much. the media does seem particularly fixated on Giannis going elsewhere though, I’ll give you that. That being said I think if I were to pick from a list of superstars in their prime that would be most likely to leave their team, it probably would be him. His public comments saying he’ll stay as long as they’re competitive is a double-edged sword. It’s puts the pressure on the front office to make moves (which they have always tried to stay competitive), but it also gives the dumb talking heads something to latch on to.
It is. I can see the argument for “just be .500 and sneak into the playoffs and Tatum comes back and now you have maybe a little something” but I’ve already kinda written this year off as a transition year anyway. Get the books right, get Tatum back healthy, develop some of your young guys and gear up for next year.
Good initial minutes on the offensive end from Joel tonight. Team defense has been a little shaky, though.
Kelly Oubre's individual defense has been so good. And his offense has been so bad (final minute shot at Boston notwithstanding).
They’re gonna drop when the gambling investigation when they find out one of the defendants is on the Epstein list!
Very early returns obviously, but the Sixers have been outscored by thirty in their two third quarters this year. Not ideal! They're winning the three other quarters by 21.
Sixers are hanging around, but Charlotte has been the better team for the majority of the night, even with the Miller injury. Losing Embiid and Barlow in the second half has certainly not helped Philly, though. Joel had looked quite good before he reached his minutes limit in the beginning of the third.
Final stretch of that game was so frustrating for me haha Hornets missed their last 8 3P attempts while Philly was on fire. On top of Drummond manhandling our guys on the boards in the 4th. And I didn’t love Tre Mann out there in crunch time over Sexton who had been great all game. But definitely a promising start to the season for the Hornets. The ball movement is so much better. The effort on defense has improved greatly. I think we’ll keep improving as the season goes if we stay healthy. But that’s already not happening with Miller.
Good morning/afternoon to fans of the 30th ranked 3 point shooting team! Orlando managed a truly incredible 3/24 from distance last night, and paired it with an astonishing number of misses at the rim on their way to 1-2. I don’t think it's quite panic time, but there's some recurring issues with defensive effort and bad shot selection that seem to be here for the long haul unless Mosley works on them.
Work gave me half court tickets to the wolves game on the 15th which is the first night of the prince court babyyyy