in these, the waning days of stern: 2013-2014 NBA regular season thread (part 1)

it's giannis

hayward otoh looks like he needs a new situation pronto, really ugly year for him so far

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLnLkScFWWQ

wow

giannis!

Bynum highlights are pretty darn impressive

man that bennett tape is gruesome

that missed dunk against the timberwolves is like the nba version of "the scream"

also when he makes a basket the cavs announcers act like he's a 13 year old cancer patient who is playing in an nba game thanks to make a wish

that said i still feel like even in watching that tape you can tell why he was the no. 1 overall pick

his shooting form is really good and for a guy his size he looks good off the dribble. hopefully it's just a combination of conditioning and wild pressing.

milwaukee now 2-0 vs. boston, 1-13 vs. everyone else

they shd play more often

celtics lurking in that highly undesirable territory of not quite bad enough

people saying theres maybe 7 franchise players in this super draft, lol prob not, but still try to get in say the bottom four or five worst records and youre in good shape

yeah lots of time for bos to put on the afterburners for the bottom

plus the worst record almost always gets dumped out of #1 lottery position right?

related did u notice that in gif above giannis totally outhustled the husk of gerald wallace

Seems like they're exporting them exclusively to China. When I'm there next year I'm gonna see if I can buy a bottle. I'll drink it and liveblog it on ILH

― 乒乓, Saturday, November 30, 2013 8:17 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

can u bring wine back from there bc if so i will totally pay you to bring a couple yaocabs back for me

hous-spurs was good, totally hoping we end up with them and okc-warriors as playoff series in the west

agreed

Every time I watch the Clips play I wonder why some other pg/pf/c trios don't figure out those restricted area alleyoops. Guess it starts w/ having a pg who can kinda chill in the paint for a few seconds to draw help defenders, which is a rare ability, but still.

Xxp would be just as happy w clips/dubs too. More bitterness there. But the okc ws games have been the two best games I've watched this season.

Yeah that inside oop thing is cos cp is so good at stalling in the lane and buying that extra second or two to make defenders chose. Also he's wiling to throw it way early cos he knows Blake/Dre will have no prob getting it. He had that w chandler in NO too.

pacers will go 81 -- 1 this year.

it is not impossible, technically

They'll prove themselves over the next few weeks IMO. Pdx, okc, spurs, heat x2, Houston.

they're proving themselves today, too, no?

Yes but no MVP reddick for the clips.

that's true. maybe LAC can somehow trade for nate the great© to replace reddick. a significant upgrade, really, since nate's the nba's biggest star.

Xxp would be just as happy w clips/dubs too. More bitterness there. But the okc ws games have been the two best games I've watched this season.

Clips/Blazers would be fun

ok, if the pacers can advance the ball with that timeout then i guess i just don't understand the rules

The only good thing chuck klosterman ever wrote was about the absurdity of that rule

^i swear I've seen this done wrong by the refs at least three times this year

Xp and it is totally a dumb rule also coaches at the pro level shouldn't be able to call time during live ball scenarios

haralabob is mocking the clips announcers for asking the same question, so i'm thinking it's us who have it wrong. still, i swear there was a rule that said that if you did anything with the ball, ie dribble, pass, etc, you couldnt' advance via timeout

xps I guess I just wonder why more pgs don't spend serious practice time w/ their bigs working on timing/awareness for the play. Not to get all NBA Moneyball but those in the line pass-or-shots are totally underutilized and working in some designed lobs is an easy way to pick up a few extra points per game. It's the only thing in the NBA close to a play-action pass and a really efficient way to get a clean pass straight to the basket for a high% shot.

haralabob is mocking the clips announcers for asking the same question, so i'm thinking it's us who have it wrong. still, i swear there was a rule that said that if you did anything with the ball, ie dribble, pass, etc, you couldnt' advance via timeout

― k3vin k., Sunday, December 1, 2013 6:13 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

Oh I don't know about this rule. The rule that is dumb is the rule that you can advance the ball with a timeout if there's under 2:00 to play in the 4th. Total warp zone

Could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure there are sub-2:00 rules where any timeout can advance the ball to midcourt (or wherever the team chooses).

haralabob is also kind of a humorless ahole so w/e the timeout and advancement rules are totally confusing and it definitely was true that you could not dribble or move and still timeout-warp at least until fairly recently

Compu I think one other reason more pgs don't have the lob connection is partly that in order to get a lob in a half court set usually requires the pg to

Whoops-- to get in the lane and draw a double or pull both defenders on a pick and roll, keep those defenders on hi and find a clear lane for the pass plus enough communication with the big to get him to go up. Just keeping a live dribble during a double team at the nba level is super-hard and Chris Paul is basically one of the best at it

So like, jrue holiday isn't someone you want diving between two forwards with a live dribble while keeping his eyes up to look for the lob usually

Doc rivers also totally runs set lob plays in practice specifically for end-of-game situations and broke them out occasionally in boston

yeah the clips ran a play on their second to last possession that got DJ a lob out of a timeout that looked really nice

Denver choosing Mozgov over Koufos is looking like a solid move

brutal sequence for grievis vasquez, who just threw the worst lob in NBA history, then got dropped by steph curry at midcourt

everything seems to be working for denver, i wonder if they'll try to trade javale

I would just treat Javale like a lotto ticket

Rivers went so far as telling NBA.com's Scott Howard-Cooper on Friday that he is "hoping things work out” with re-signing Odom.

"I honestly haven’t focused on it a lot," Rivers said in the interview. "But he’s somebody that I’ve always liked and I like him more now after hearing from Phil Jackson to Vinny [Del Negro] to all the players the type of guy he is in the locker room. When I hear that stuff, without saying exactly what I heard, you want him in your locker room.”

wonder what it was about odom that doc can't say...

lebron time

terrible call there lol

cole-chalmers crunchtime backcourt is pretty dire