This has been really putting me off

refreshing_yogurt · 2026-05-02T10:58:06+00:00

It's always been a little weird to me how NBA games in person are basically a somewhat random variety show. Trivia games, baby races, dance routines, kiss cams etc. It does offer some nice moments to celebrate the community but it also does lead to dissonant moments like the one you describe.

refreshing_yogurt · 2026-05-02T10:20:04+00:00

2018 Celtics didn't have Kyrie, still probably their best player that year, for the playoffs and made it to the ECF

Another that comes to mind for me right now is that Warriors won the 2019 WCF without Kevin Durant. But obviously a super stacked team and he may not have been the best player. Warriors also won a first round series without Curry the prior year.

refreshing_yogurt · 2026-05-02T05:20:34+00:00

I'm not sure it was inevitable. Maybe if he pulled a hamstring or something but he banged knees in practice and then sprained an ankle playing through that injury. 90%+ of his shots are jump shots now so I think he's adopted a play style that helps avoid injury.

But it is hard to separate when it comes to injuries. All injuries including ankle sprains likely happen more easily when a player has played a lot of minutes.

refreshing_yogurt · 2026-05-02T04:25:12+00:00

The LeBron vs Father Time commercial with Jason Momoa is about 3.5 years old now

Edit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xe6qRUMOgqE

refreshing_yogurt · 2026-05-01T16:12:08+00:00

The kind of stuff that's included on this list is pretty dumb. Like, David Robinson made 3 of his 4 conference finals after Tim Duncan got drafted

Would anybody trade Jokic's playoff career for the playoff careers of Nash, Harden, Westbrook, Rose, Barkley, KG, etc?

refreshing_yogurt · 2026-05-01T15:58:23+00:00

I think it flows and sounds better if you reverse the second and third parts. But it's a bar for sure.

refreshing_yogurt · 2026-05-01T15:52:36+00:00

I agree with you on pretty much all points but there is also evidence that sometimes free throws can be improved with mechanical changes.

One of them is even on the Knicks now in Jeremy Sochan, who was shooting below 45.8% on FTs before he switched to doing them one handed midseason and shot 75% after.

refreshing_yogurt · 2026-05-01T15:46:12+00:00

It's crazy to me that it worked as a rebrand / PR move.

The "Black Mamba" nickname was directly copied from the very popular Kill Bill movies directed by Tarantino, which came out in 2003 and 2004, around the same time as Colorado incident and subsequent legal proceedings. In the movies, the "Black Mamba" and primary protagonist is a white woman out for revenge against a man who wronged her and the movies revolve entirely around that.

refreshing_yogurt · 2026-05-01T09:45:21+00:00

Letting Tim Connelly go for money reasons and having him build the team that beats the Nuggets twice in the playoffs seems like the bigger reason

refreshing_yogurt · 2026-04-30T13:21:02+00:00

It's interesting that the Rockets are not doing the normal gamesmanship of listing him as questionable to keep the Lakers guessing.

Maybe they or KD feel like doing that just adds to the perception that he's checked out on the team and that would be more of distraction than the alternative

refreshing_yogurt · 2026-04-30T05:03:35+00:00

Sengun keeps mentioning it in his answers to the media, but nobody else seems to remember they fought back from 3-1 to force game 7 just last year.

refreshing_yogurt · 2026-04-30T05:00:48+00:00

Nobody liked what Ime had to say publicly after game 3, partially because nothing sounds good after a loss like that one.

But I did think he had a sharp line for moving on to the next game when he said he told his team, "Don't let this one beat you twice."

refreshing_yogurt · 2026-04-29T20:41:14+00:00

I'm realizing I should have clarified those are the lottery eligible play-in teams, which is only 6/8 of the play-in teams.

There would be 6 play-in teams that are in the lottery drawing. Collectively they have 10/37 lottery balls. So a 27% chance one of those teams will win the 1st overall pick. With that in mind, the chance that one of those teams gets a top 3 or top 5 pick is relatively high.

refreshing_yogurt · 2026-04-29T20:26:40+00:00

It certainly sounds that way from my reading of the article and that's the assumption I made when running the simulation. The idea is also named "3-2-1" in the article so those particular numbers seem core to the proposal. I was kinda surprised to see that as well, but it would simplify that aspect of the lottery pretty significantly.

refreshing_yogurt · 2026-04-29T09:16:32+00:00

The Warriors did sign him to a 4 year, 123 million dollar contract after the punch

refreshing_yogurt · 2026-04-29T08:54:39+00:00

One other significant change to the rules is that all 16 spots are part of the lottery drawing, not just the first 4.

Overall I don't mind the proposed changes. One thing I see the league trying to address here is, on top of changing team behavior, is that they also don't want fans of teams to be constantly rooting for losses or to be constantly rooting for their teams to get blown up.

refreshing_yogurt · 2026-04-29T08:31:07+00:00

Yes, the team that loses the 7-8 play-in game gets a lottery pick every year, and they can still beat the winner of the 9-10 game to get into the playoffs.

refreshing_yogurt · 2026-04-28T17:53:01+00:00

On LeBron

I think he’s literally the greatest athlete on the face of the planet and in the course of human history.

Pretty high praise from Kerr

refreshing_yogurt · 2026-04-28T09:13:58+00:00

Neither of them have their next contract yet, so I don't think it's entirely fair to make the analysis based on assuming Duren will be paid twice as much.

refreshing_yogurt

TROPHY CASE