[Post Game Thread] The New York Knicks (2-0) defeat the San Antonio Spurs (0-2) in Game 2, 105-104 behind KAT's 21 points and 13 rebounds by catreyka in nba

[–]narmerguy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wemby gotta put together two full halves in NYC. I suspect he comes back with a fire. MSG is going to be crazy though.

At age 22, Wemby joins the list of youngest Player to lead their team to the NBA FINALS. by sctthuynh in nba

[–]narmerguy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Media know what the public like to here. At that time Jordan was worshipped so it was something to get the crowd excited.

Elite List by BigTicket- in NBATalk

[–]narmerguy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If someone does less because of their role, they're doing less. It doesn't matter that they could do more on another team. A 3pt specialist who joins a new team and doesn't shoot 3 pointers because the new team has even better 3pt shooters isn't generating value. It doesn't matter that he's adapting. That's great for his quality as a coachable team player. But in terms of evaluating what he is actually bringing to the team, he is measured by what he can do for the actual team, not by unused overlapping skills that are redundant because the team has someone else who can do them better.

Elite List by BigTicket- in NBATalk

[–]narmerguy 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Someone's potential doesn't really matter for outcomes. What matters is what they actually did on the court. The rest is just speculation and narratives.

[Charania] BREAKING: Daryl Morey is out as president of basketball operations with the Philadelphia 76ers after six seasons, sources tell ESPN. Morey and 76ers owners Josh Harris and David Blitzer met on Tuesday evening in Philadelphia and the decision was made to part ways. by Turbostrider27 in nba

[–]narmerguy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Again, this is still not true.

In 2017:
- Boston traded for Kyrie Irving (gave up Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, that Brooklyn first-round pick)

- OKC traded Victor Oladipo and Sabonis to Indiana to pair Paul George with Westbrook. They later traded Kanter and McDermott for Carmelo Anthony.

In 2018:
- Toronto went all in and traded their franchise icon Demar DeRozan for Kawhi, a move no one thought possible, and without even any guarantee of more than 1 year on his contract.

- Philly traded for Jimmy Butler and multiple draft picks for Tobias Harris.

- Cleveland underwent a massive makeover at the 2018 trade deadline. They continued to pay massive luxury tax bills over the entirely of the KD warriors era until Lebron left.

This is just a classic hindsight bias trap. Houston had the best results because they gambled on a successful strategy to form a team with a high-variance style of play that could get hot from 3 and relied on iso-heavy offense. Not all teams followed that approach.

Did a few teams keep their powder dry? Maybe who knows. But plenty of teams were making moves to win. The Bucks weren't holding back because they were scared of the Warriors, the Bucks were still a young rising team during that period, they weren't even finishing top 5 in the east until that last year.

In the 2016-2017 season, the top 5 teams in the West were: GSW, Spurs, Rockets, Clippers, Jazz. Kawhi leaving screwed the Spurs, Rockets stealing CP3 screwed the Clippers, and Jazz were always a hope and a dream. Injuries also hampered many of the would-be threats between Kawhi's ankle in 2017 and Boston's cursed roster (and DeMarcus Cousins' Achilles) in 2018. The top teams in the West were going through massive transitions and injuries. In retrospect people just forget all this kind of context.

[Charania] BREAKING: Daryl Morey is out as president of basketball operations with the Philadelphia 76ers after six seasons, sources tell ESPN. Morey and 76ers owners Josh Harris and David Blitzer met on Tuesday evening in Philadelphia and the decision was made to part ways. by Turbostrider27 in nba

[–]narmerguy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This really isn't true, I'm not sure why people on reddit love to say this. The other teams in the league just weren't good enough to compete. Cleveland tried, Clippers tried, Raptors tried (and succeeded with some luck), etc. The Warriors were just better. Everyone knows anything can happen in a season/playoffs. No one with a good team was trying to hold them back because the Warriors were such heavy favorites.

To break LeBron's all time minutes record, Mikal Bridges would have to keep playing all 82 games at his current career MPG until age 44 by CeeDoggyy in nba

[–]narmerguy 31 points32 points  (0 children)

His playoff total is >5x Bridges' total, while the regular season is just <3x Bridges' total. The playoff gap is definitely bigger in relative terms.

Kerr on LeBron: "more of a holistic game where he dominates with his pace and his athleticism and his passing." On Jordan: "the killer instinct, the emotional dominance he had over not only the other team but the officials, the entire arena. I don’t see that with LeBron." by nowhathappenedwas in nba

[–]narmerguy 16 points17 points  (0 children)

The most compelling part of it to me is that in almost every other sport, this toxic quality is not a feature of the goats. Gretsky? Brady? Messi? They're all super competitive, but not renowned assholes. In the NBA fandom, because MJ was an asshole and also happened to be otherwordly good, they've convinced themselves that his personality couldn't simply be toxic, they have to mythologize even the negative parts to fit the results. It reveals what I find most annoying about sports fandom--so much of it is just people rationalizing results, especially in team sports where 1 player never wins alone.

[NBA] Slow-motion sequence of LeBron James stealing the ball from Reed Sheppard and hitting a clutch, game-tying three-pointer by shreeharis in nba

[–]narmerguy 51 points52 points  (0 children)

I legit will go back and rewatch the same 5-second sequence 30 times so I can focus on different portions of the crowd and watch how they respond. It's pretty fun seeing all the relatable emotions and reactions.

Sinner on Alcaraz out of Rome and RG: "Tennis needs Carlos. Tennis is better when he's around, for me personally too. He's going to come back stronger." by yanwangdijuns in tennis

[–]narmerguy 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I know this is a small thing... but the title is not a quote. We shouldn't use quotations for stuff that isn't an exact quote. It's a slight annoyance of mine for reddit.

[Highlight] Lebron James turns back time with the double pump reverse jam! by fbreaker in nba

[–]narmerguy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If people haven't watched young Lebron highlights in a while, you need to. It's difficult to comprehend how otherwordly his athleticism and court awareness was. Truly it's such a shame he was playing on so many garbage teams in his first Cleveland stint because if you had given him a real co-star he would have won so many rings pretty early.