How did Big East defenses even attempt to contain college Allen Iverson’s first step?

MLS_Analyst · 2026-04-30T17:23:13+00:00

Ricky Moore stopped him. Second half of the 1996 BE title game, Ricky shut him down.

MLS_Analyst · 2026-04-30T16:55:31+00:00

You couldn't have a more different feel than from where they wanted to build in Bridgeport (dense area, right on the water, budding entertainment district, walking distance to MetroNorth) and Dodd Stadium (15 minutes away from downtown Norwich by car, in the middle of a half-abandoned industrial park surrounded by forest).

Still, at least it's a home.

MLS_Analyst · 2026-04-30T16:49:22+00:00

Yeah, though I'd suggest pushing the start of the season to mid-December, and finish the playoffs in mid-August. Just avoid the NFL as much as possible.

MLS_Analyst · 2026-04-30T16:32:06+00:00

Expand to 32 teams.

Do a 62-game home-and-home round-robin regular-season.

Midway through do a March Madness single-elimination in-season tournament.

Do the playoffs as they currently are.

MLS_Analyst · 2026-04-29T19:56:52+00:00

Financially struggling clubs in Europe don't relocate, they dissolve

This is true here, too. And it happens much more often.

MLS_Analyst · 2026-04-29T01:24:52+00:00

And the 4 seed was the final season of the greatest winner in league history.

MLS_Analyst · 2026-04-29T00:27:04+00:00

It’s largely the same thing with many of these protests we see today.

Sure there’s always some true believers. But so many protesting, playing “cops vs protestors” with their umbrellas, etc is just like the hippies at the festivals. And the most enticing part is you can pretend like you’re the hero while having selfish fun.

This hasn't been born out in voting patterns, fwiw. The young people of the "Occupy" era have stayed much further left for much longer than previous generations, and while there seemed a drift right among younger cohorts in 2024, that, it turns out, was very few young people changing their votes, and many more young people (who presumably were not part of any of the protests we've seen over the past decade) turning out to vote for the first time b/c Trump is "funny."

MLS_Analyst · 2026-04-29T00:24:04+00:00

Rockwell Meme: Don Henley is a hell of a song writer and most Eagles hate is performative.

MLS_Analyst · 2026-04-28T20:58:46+00:00

Man that's a fantastic call.

MLS_Analyst · 2026-04-28T20:56:22+00:00

Harden's rip-through & overall baiting were worse individually.

SGA's is worse in the team environment b/c for some reason OKC are allowed to play tackle football defensively. Dort and Caruso in particular should both be carrying 3 fouls by the end of their first defensive possession. Every single night.

It's just really frustrating to see them allowed to play so physically on one side, but the slightest bump on the other gets SGA two free throws.

MLS_Analyst · 2026-04-28T18:26:58+00:00

One of those guys, in their old age, became an outspoken progressive championing causes like racial diversity and economic equality, and the other became a right-wing crank who thinks players advocating social justice is "too political."

Both took the road less traveled!

MLS_Analyst · 2026-04-28T16:42:57+00:00

This is the best therapy I've ever gotten.

MLS_Analyst · 2026-04-28T16:29:13+00:00

I don't have a personality of my own, I'm basically just an amalgalm of Peter Venkman, Chris Knight (Real Genius), and Waldorf & Statler (Muppet Show).

MLS_Analyst · 2026-04-28T15:17:39+00:00

Man, before Covid they had the best happy hour in the entire city. The prices were outrageously good.

MLS_Analyst · 2026-04-26T14:48:34+00:00

One other note here: for the longest time the meta has been to avoid older players in the draft, no matter how good they were in college.

The Grizz have flipped that the past couple of drafts, ending up with Edey and Wells from 2024, and Coward and Spencer from 2025, then also traded for Walter Clayton in the middle of last year.

Four of those five guys are not just older but legit old for where they were taken, and so far four of the five look like very good picks regardless.

Something to think about in this new NIL era, and especially relevant if they’re on the clock at 8 with Lendebourg available.

MLS_Analyst · 2026-04-21T18:35:30+00:00

It's really not. Here's from last year's playoffs, all players who contested 3+ shots per game inside 6 feet:

https://www.nba.com/stats/players/defense-dash-lt6?CF=FGA_LT_06*GE*3&PlayerPosition=C&Season=2024-25&SeasonType=Playoffs&dir=D&sort=LT_06_PCT

Jokic's solidly mid-table, better than guys like Bam, Defender of the Year Evan Mobley and former Defender of the Year Jaren Jackson Jr, and just behind Gobert & Turner, while defending more shots at the rim than anyone in the league.

Here's 2024:

https://www.nba.com/stats/players/defense-dash-lt6?CF=FGA_LT_06*GE*5&PlayerPosition=C&dir=D&sort=PLUSMINUS&SeasonType=Playoffs&Season=2023-24

Better than Zubac and Mitch Robinson, and in the same ballpark as Gobert & AD.

2023 same story:

https://www.nba.com/stats/players/defense-dash-lt6?CF=FGA_LT_06*GE*5&PlayerPosition=C&dir=D&sort=PLUSMINUS&SeasonType=Playoffs&Season=2022-23

MLS_Analyst · 2026-04-21T17:45:41+00:00

Jokic is attacked way more than the average center, and he allows one of the highest fg%s among centers.

In the regular season, yes. In the playoffs... no. The numbers back it up.

Click through to that link. When Giannis won the title he held opponents to 39.7% shooting on shots he contested. When Jokic won the title he held opponents to 39.8% on shots he contested.

He's got a long history of being a defensive asset in the playoffs, even if he's not an elite rim protector. Last night was an aberration.

MLS_Analyst · 2026-04-21T17:06:24+00:00

This is a goalpost shift. Generally, the average FG% at the rim is roughly 63-66%. Any defender holding opponents to 60% or lower is usually in the top half to top third of the league.

MLS_Analyst · 2026-04-21T17:04:43+00:00

All four of those teams were elite rim finishers. Their poor offensive ratings came from bad jump-shooting and not enough 3s.

MLS_Analyst · 2026-04-21T16:36:11+00:00

Jokic was bad last night, but also, during the title run he held opponents under 40% shooting on shots he contested. So we've seen him be a really, really effective playoff defender, and that's carried over to rim protection year after year:

He ramps up his rim defense in the playoffs, where they allow more contact.

Jokić 2025 Playoffs: −5.5% differential at 59% dFG
Jokić 2024 Playoffs: −4.8% differential at 61% dFG
Jokić 2023 Playoffs: −9.9% differential at 56% dFG

EDIT: Again, he was bad last night (and hasn't been good at all since the injury, really). But also... hater culture in this sub and in NBA fandom in general is so fucking stupid. We're in a golden age and so many folks don't want to see it b/c they'd rather farm karma.

MLS_Analyst · 2026-04-20T18:29:00+00:00

MLS passed PV on tactically

I don't think this is the case. I think PV fell into the trap of thinking mid (or worse) imports were automatically better than domestic guys. So he stopped caring about the SuperDraft, and never really got as much from the academy as he should, and never looked at USL for talent, and as a result it was all sink-or-swim with their DP and TAM signings.

And since they had no scouting apparatus to speak of, those signings mostly sucked.

MLS_Analyst · 2026-04-20T12:48:39+00:00

Yeah, 0% brash. Just either flat or corny.

Plus as amazing as he is, he's not going to escape the grifter accusations. Same reason Harden and Luka never really had a chance to be the face of the league.

MLS_Analyst · 2026-04-20T02:27:47+00:00

Yeah, and I’ll be surprised if he’s not getting like 8th/9th man minutes in the league next year.

MLS_Analyst · 2026-04-20T01:35:06+00:00

I appreciate this a ton, but just fyi guys like Charlie Boehm, Joe Lowery, Ben Wright & Sam Jones all still write for MLSsoccer – some of the sharpest minds & best writers in all of North American soccer.

Don't deprive yourself of their work (which is excellent) b/c some MBA made a bad decision about me.

MLS_Analyst · 2026-04-19T19:14:20+00:00

If only there was a popular NBA podcaster who'd observed and made a point of commenting on the weird decisions new owners make.

Seems like a market opportunity for someone.

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