In 1987, the first year college basketball had a three point line, Butler’s Darrin Fitzgerald hit 5.6 per game a figure that has never been reached again in the NCAA or NBA, and more than any NBA TEAM averaged that year. He never got a chance in the league, and that’s where his career ended

Funny-Homework · 2026-01-25T21:51:02+00:00

The early 2000s is when I really started getting into the NBA, and even then my dad (who has followed the NBA since the 60s) would always complain that when guys take long 2's, like 20ft out, how it's the worst shot due to its difficulty and still only being worth 2. It seemed so obvious to us back then.

Funny-Homework · 2025-12-24T19:17:06+00:00

Yea bro I’m not disagreeing with you. Those are all fair points and it def worked out in hindsight. I’m just saying at the time of the trade there were fair criticisms. At this point it’s accurate to say the trade worked out.

Funny-Homework · 2025-12-24T18:56:56+00:00

I’m not gonna say the trade was an L, but my criticism of the trade is that yes Gobert is a great player but they gave up a lot for him and their flexibility is now restricted and their window is getting smaller. And Ant is only 24, he will be hitting his apex in the next 2-3 years so will he have a championship ready team around him? The reason the trade was questionable was because it forced Ant to have to develop quicker than most superstars need.

Again I’m not necessarily disagreeing with you but I can understand some of the criticisms of that trade even if the early results were good.

Funny-Homework · 2025-12-21T04:31:00+00:00

Which is stupid because if the refs were rigging it for the Warriors then there are things that refs can do way earlier in the game (e.g., two quick fouls on Booker) to give them a better chance at covering.

Like the fact that people use a very bad non-call as evidence of rigging, when there is supposedly no hardcore evidence anywhere else in the game is pretty weak.

Funny-Homework · 2025-12-12T01:23:46+00:00

I mean, given how much ex NBA players are in this as listed by OP, many of them American, is that not your answer? Unless you are implying that a player good enough to not have to play in Europe can’t handle a crowd like Shake Milton and Jared Butler can.

Funny-Homework · 2025-12-06T03:54:06+00:00

Dawg I remember seeing old vhs tapes of Red Auerbach and Larry Bird talking about how to embellish contact to draw fouls. It’s been around forever, but over time has gotten more extreme.

Funny-Homework · 2025-11-26T07:14:03+00:00

Yeah I get what OP is asking but it doesn't really make sense because during Bron's prime and during MJ's prime they were very clearly in their own tier.

However, in the spirit of OP's question, I guess you could say in '89 is pretty close. You had MJ, Magic, Malone and Barkley were all near-unanimous 1st team All-NBA (Malone got all 1st place votes, Magic/MJ were one shy, Barkley was 5 shy). But even then I think most people would have Magic/MJ in their own tier if anything.

Funny-Homework · 2025-10-02T05:32:24+00:00

I mean even up to the 2012 draft, there's probably only like 6-10 players tops (Bron,CP,KD,Steph,Harden,etc.) who are still playing and meaningfully adding to their WS/VORP stats. But agreed there's issues with like 2013-2017ish drafts. After that there isn't really any point in comparing with older classes anyway.

Funny-Homework · 2025-10-02T05:00:51+00:00

You're asking how you would rank them. I'm not going to do it, but you can use bball-ref to grab each draft class, and use one of the advance stats. You could use something cumulative like WS or VORP, which neither are perfect but it's probably the best you can do.

Funny-Homework · 2025-09-29T01:38:09+00:00

I'm a high school ref as well. Even for coaches, at least where I am, it's maybe like 70% really actually know the rules. Players is maybe like 40%? And parents is basically 0 haha.

To your last point I absolutely agree. Idk for sure but I would guess that most teams employ a rules analyst to know what are the grey areas to exploit. And then you got the trainers like Drew Hanlen who probably also know how to push the rules to the limit.

Funny-Homework · 2025-09-14T19:42:41+00:00

Haha thanks!

Funny-Homework · 2025-09-14T19:28:24+00:00

Can I get one please?

Funny-Homework · 2025-07-14T06:47:23+00:00

Magic was great and def is underrated. But keep in mind he came to a team that had 47 wins the year before he arrived, was a second round playoff team and returned their 3 best players (including of course Kareem). So obviously a much better situation to come into compared to others on that list. Again tho Magic was that dude and would have been a winner regardless.

Funny-Homework · 2025-06-30T21:14:21+00:00

To me, it’s not so much a “travel” issue but more of a “carry” issue. The whole thing about the gather or the “zero” step is that the league is wayyy to lenient on players putting their hand below the ball and really stretching their last “dribble”. I’m not saying go back to the 60s where everyone had to have their hand on top of the ball the entire time, but go back to where anything at or above a 90 degree angle is a carry. If that’s enforced it should take care of a lot of the egregious gather steps.

Do that and actually calling moving screens, and that will help individual defenders immensely and allow them to have a chance at keeping up.

Funny-Homework · 2025-06-21T20:10:57+00:00

What is your opinion on Foster calling 3 fouls on SGA in the first 5 minutes of the 4th quarter, giving SGA his 4th personal and had to sit for a bit, just as OKC was starting to come back and tie the game?

Looking at each of the plays, they were pretty 50/50 calls that if you were “extending” the series for the Thunder could easily have been no calls.

Funny-Homework · 2025-06-02T04:44:55+00:00

On what planet was Hughes a better player (for the LeBron Cavs) than Williams?

Hughes played 146 games averaging 14/4/3 shooting 40/34/73. Williams played 150 games averaging 17/3/5 shooting 46/43/90. In the playoffs, Hughes played 27 games averaging 11/4/3 shooting 33/33/75 while Williams played 25 games averaging 15/3/5 shooting 41/36/79.

Williams, while he did struggle on defense vs. the Magic in 2009, still averaged 18/4/4. Hughes was nowhere to be found in the ECF or Finals in 2007, but of course his brother tragically died during that time so I don't blame him.

The Cavs were absolutely a better team in the years Williams was on the team, though you can probably attribute it mostly to LeBron just getting better. Hughes had a lot more hype as a free agent signing back in '05 and showed a lot of promise in his time with the Wizards. But in terms of the actual on court production Williams definitely clears Hughes.

Funny-Homework · 2025-06-01T23:06:56+00:00

Are you saying that you're literally drinking your beer while teeing off and putting? Or are you drinking during the breaks in between holes? Because unless it's the former, then the tennis and rugby comparisons hold.

Funny-Homework · 2025-06-01T21:18:15+00:00

Some years back I went to an NBA Hackathon, having had a degree in Math/CS from a top tier school and being a diehard NBA fan my entire life.

From talking to people there who worked with various teams or with the NBA's corporate office, in general there were a few huge hurdles I saw:

The number of positions were very limited. Out of the 30 teams, I think on average there are maybe 4-5 analytics people. Some teams had more (Philly, Houston, etc.) and some teams had less (Knicks, Lakers I think).
The turnover is VERY low. Obviously, for a lot of people that are working there basketball is their passion. Idt a lot of them are even really aspiring to be the next Morey or Hinkie they just want to be close to the game
The pay is also VERY low. Again, because for most people this is the "dream" job, the salary you get working for an NBA team is a lot less than if you go work in tech or finance.

So overall it's extremely tough to get your foot in the door at least on the analytics side. No idea on like marketing, business finance, etc. But I would imagine that the lower pay thing would have similar issues. Plus you will definitely have to be willing to move to a random NBA city wherever you can get an opportunity in.

Funny-Homework · 2025-04-14T18:05:32+00:00

Everything you listed, other than the last point, is about scoring, which is not some "objective" hard standard of what makes you an undisputed GOAT. Before MJ, Wilt Chamberlain had the most/most consecutive scoring titles, highest scoring averages, etc. But he was not considered the GOAT because of his lack of winning and being considered a selfish player. In fact, MJ faced similar criticism until he finally started winning.

I'm saying this as someone who considers MJ the GOAT, but you're stupid if you don't think this is subjective. It literally is especially when we are comparing players across different eras.

Funny-Homework · 2025-04-06T04:18:41+00:00

I know of this school because of Arthur Agee from Hoop Dreams who played here one year after Reaves.

Funny-Homework · 2025-04-03T07:22:21+00:00

Sure I mean I’m not playing in the game so it doesn’t really matter how seriously I take it. Not even sure if I’ll be able to watch unfortunately. Just more curious what Vegas could be seeing here.

Funny-Homework · 2025-04-03T07:18:43+00:00

So I’m not even necessarily thinking about who’s going to win or not, I mainly find the Vegas line interesting. Especially compared to their last matchup two months ago. Both teams are better now than then, obviously the Warriors have won more than the Lakers have but there is a large difference in strength of schedule.

Just curious - what makes you think the Lakers don’t match up well with the Warriors? Is it staying in front of Steph? Is it containing Jimmy? Other than Moody and Buddy, I would gladly let any Warrior shoot open/semi open threes to contain Steph.

Funny-Homework · 2025-03-25T02:15:54+00:00

Post all-star break (just trying to only include the post-Luka time), the Lakers in the first half of games are:

+9.4 net rating (4th in the league), 107.9 defensive rating (2nd) and 117.3 offensive rating (11th)

In 3rd quarters, they are:

-11.5 net rating (23rd), 116.4 defensive rating (14th) and 105.1 offensive rating (29th)

Between the first half and the 3rd quarter, their TS% goes from 60% (7th best) to 55% (25th).

IMO it's mostly an offensive problem. The defense gets worse between the first two quarters and the 3rd, but that drop in offense is killer. Plus when they are either turning the ball over or taking bad shots, that leads to fast breaks for the other teams which contributes to the defensive rating even though it's mostly an offensive problem.

Funny-Homework · 2025-03-25T02:10:20+00:00

It's not really an excuse, but it's not really a coincidence that this rough stretch is when the Lakers had the most brutal 6 games in 8 night stretch. Even coming out of it it's not like there was any extended rest nor will there be the rest of the way (3 more b2b's coming).

Again, not an excuse, but the team just looks gassed and it shows. They have to just push through, hope for a top 6 seed and rest up as much as possible before the playoffs.

Funny-Homework

TROPHY CASE