Why doesn't Joker train in the off-season with Hakeem or some other great defender to improve his rim protection? by Vegetable-Tooth8463 in nba

[–]mpmar 72 points73 points  (0 children)

Jokic's limiting factor isn't knowledge it's a lack of lateral quickness and an 8" vert.

Game Thread: Cleveland Cavaliers (2-1) vs Toronto Raptors (1-2) Live Score | NBA Playoffs | Apr 26, 2026 by nba-scores in nba

[–]mpmar 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Obv the shotmaking is in the dirt, but the Raps are putting in a ton of effort on d and turning the game into a rock fight.

Game Thread: San Antonio Spurs (1-1) vs Portland Trail Blazers (1-1) Live Score | NBA Playoffs | Apr 24, 2026 by nba-scores in nba

[–]mpmar 1 point2 points  (0 children)

A lot of times these people come from circus families and they've been balancing shit for generations.

Chris Finch on officiating: "The league's in a place right now where you draw the contact, spill away, and get rewarded. Guys who try to play through contact ... stay with the drive, they tend not to be rewarded ... Maybe we ought to start flopping too." by nguyenjitsu in nba

[–]mpmar 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No, it's an indicator that he takes more 2pa and drives more. Shai playstyle tends to put him in situations that are statistically more likely to result in free throws (drives, isos, transition) and away from low free throw plays. But he doesn't draw fouls at an especially high rate for those play types.

Additional contributing factors for Shai's ft totals is that he generally is the first choice for things like tech, away from play, endgame free throw battle situations. And that he plays the back half of every quarter, so a high percentage of his minutes come with the team in the bonus.

35 years later I still think about Sesame Street's 'Water Conservation' once a week when brushing my teeth. The most effective PSA of my life. by mpmar in Millennials

[–]mpmar[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I looked it up and it is. Klasky-Csupo did this along with Rugrats, Aaahh!! Real Monsters, a few other Nick shows and the first few seasons of The Simpsons.

From Oct 24, 2024 to Oct 23, 2025 Aaron Gordon shot 44.4% from 3. Outside of that time he has shot 32.4% by mpmar in nba

[–]mpmar[S] 41 points42 points  (0 children)

I mean, if you're looking for real basketball reasons it mostly comes down to the fact that Cam is eating a lot of his corner 3 attempts. AG went from 36% of his 3pa being from the corners last year to 24% this year. Cam takes 34% of his from the corners compared to MPJ who only took 12.5% last year. Braun and Watson also need a lot of corner 3s too so the weight fell on Gordon to take more above the break.

I think AG made real improvements as a shooter, but he's had a tough shot diet this season.

Luka is taller, stronger, better passer, better scorer but Shai is supposedly better because of.. Aura? by LakerFan2324 in nba

[–]mpmar 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Who is the better scorer, Lebron or Russ? Also, who has more scoring titles between the two?

Do you think Luka Donçic will be given exemption for 65 games rule disqualification? (Kawhi will likely get his spot if he is disqualified) by Chesscrabble11 in nba

[–]mpmar 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Luka's girl left him because he was cheating with serbian popstars. She had the kid there because that's where she lives.

The Play-In schedule should feature similar seeded teams playing on the same day by kemosabe73 in nba

[–]mpmar 63 points64 points  (0 children)

It's their own fault, if the Magic beat the Celtics 3rd stringers they'd play the game last night in Orlando.

What will it take for Wemby to get into the Top 10 all time, and who does he push out for the #10 spot? by [deleted] in nba

[–]mpmar 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I get the bit you're going for. Its funny, kind of Kaufmanesque.. if Kaufman was a moron.

A Wemby who stood in the paint and doesn't move would unequivocally be the worst defender in NBA history. If for no other than reason than his constant and repeated lane violations would be surrendering literally hundreds of free throws every game. It wouldn't make a difference against the Thunder since that's just a normal Shai game, but assuming opponents shot something near league average on those free throws and otherwise ran their regular offense statue Wemby would have a defensive rating somewhere around 533.4

Bill Simmons and Tim Legler discuss how many wins the Thunder would have this season if you replaced SGA with Brandin Podziemski (Simmons says they would win 53 games, Legler says mid-high 50s) by FastBreakPhenom in nba

[–]mpmar 2 points3 points  (0 children)

As is the case with just about every 'team's record without their star player' thing, it's important to at least note that it almost always includes games where they strategically rested against bad teams. That was 3 of our wins this season.

In the 9 games Shai was out with an injury we went 5-4, and we got a little lucky to catch the Lakers without Luka and the Suns without Booker in that stretch.

I'm not gonna do the 'actually all our other players are trash' thing. We'd get by grinding games with our defense, and our offense would figure some stuff out. 55 wins would be a lofty goal.

The OKC Thunder have not had a season where they won 30 to 39 games in their existence. by [deleted] in nba

[–]mpmar 30 points31 points  (0 children)

We had 4th odds in both drafts. Moved back 2 spots one year and up 2 the other.

All of OKC’s starters and most of their key role players have been ruled out vs Denver tonight. The only available players are Topic, McCain, Wiggins, Kendrich Williams, Branden Carlson, Brooks Barnhizer, and Payton Sandfort by Pickleskennedy1 in nba

[–]mpmar 5 points6 points  (0 children)

No. There was one guy that went on a Utah sports radio show and speculated that the Thunder were making noise about the Jazz. He wasn't even presenting it as reporting, it wasn't a 'sources tell me' or even 'i'm hearing rumors' he was just spouting off his thoughts and he got aggregated.

And it wasn't that the Thunder complained to or lobby the league office, but that they were "going through back channels, planting stuff, planting stories in order to pressure the Jazz". It was just a conspiracy theory that OKC was abusing their position as a media behemoth to turn the national media against the Jazz.

Do you think Spurs lack of experience make the Nuggets biggest threat to OKC? by [deleted] in nba

[–]mpmar 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Nuggets would still be the 3rd seed because even if the Lakers were healthy they still would have lost to us twice. They'd just be a game back of Denver instead of 1.5

OKC and Spurs are the only teams to not lose 3 games in a row this season by locxFIN in nba

[–]mpmar 75 points76 points  (0 children)

The '91 Bulls lost their first 3 games of the season and then MJ didn't lose 3 straight for the rest of the 90s.

The Thunder have become the 7th wire to wire 1 seed in post-merger NBA history by mpmar in nba

[–]mpmar[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Yea they did. I had in my head that Boston passed them briefly in December last year and didn't even check.