2017-18 NBA REGULAR SEASON THREAD PART 1 ALL OF AMERICAS FAVORITE TEAMS ARE BACK

can jokic not be hurt

And yet he made like a gazillion free throws the other night against the wiz in the 4th even though his brain is fighting itself over his form, it's so bizarre

I take it back he only made like half of them which is why Scotty glasses went hack a Simmons for like two hours of real time and now I hate him again

Yes I was watching that game and it looked exciting when I turned it on and rapidly turned to mush

Re lebron ejection he's always been treated with kid gloves by the refs, he never even fouled out of a game until a couple of years ago iirc

I don't mean that to be controversial I think he also knows when to dial back on yelling at the refs and how not to foul out but it just seems mathematically impossible that he fouls out so infrequently

And all of the bron/wade heat teams yapped at the refs A LOT and got away with it in a way I think they would not today

yea I think both things are true. its kind of tough to officiate fairly when one of the players is a mega-talented speed hulk

^prob the biggest point, peak lebron must have been impossible to officiate, dude took Shaq level hacking and breezes right thru like it's nothing

Still does really

after watching last nights game i have some thoughts about ben simmons, i think his inability to shoot is a major problem which will make him stoppable by prepared good defensive teams ie the type of teams you meet in the playoffs, he takes all these crazy running hooks weird angled layups etc because teams can clog his driving lanes as they dont have to defend his jumper, these already difficult but makable by a skilled player shots become not that makable once the defense cranks up resulting in a westbrookian situation where a guy crushes the regular season but then shoots 41% in the playoffs

i wonder if it might be best to play him at center where he receives the ball closer to the basket is matched up against slower players and can punish double teams with his genius level passing, of course the sixers already have a center

or he could also try shooting with his right hand, the hand he already shoots almost all of his non jump shots with which is also the hand his body clearly wants to shoot with, switching shooting hands when youre already in the nba wld def be one of the craziest things ever attempted but since hes basically not taking jump shots now he might as well be shooting with neither hand whats he got to lose

switching shooting hands when youre already in the nba wld def be one of the craziest things ever attempted

tristan thompson did it!

all respect to TT but hes got a single digit career scoring average

the sixers play super fast which is smart bcuz all the questions about simmons jumper become moot when the game is being played in transition... looking at some stats on nba.com they get tons of transition opportunities but score them at a very inefficient rate... i'll chalk that up to their age. to goon's point tho the game always slows down in the offs & that would def present problems for ben

playing him at 'point guard' def seems like one of those goofy early career experiments that ppl take seriously for whatever reason

there's a level of passing/seeing the floor that can almost negate one's bad shooting even in the halfcourt tho. pretty much no one has ever respected john wall's jumper but he's prob the best in the NBA after lebron at finding open shooters out of the pick and roll by throwing the ball to the opposite side of the floor. simmons will prob get close to being that good.

teams guard walls jumper, simmons doesnt even take any!

tho him being the primary ballhandler prob has a lot to do w the fact that their #1 pick point guard is out with morgellons disease

playing him at 'point guard' def seems like one of those goofy early career experiments that ppl take seriously for whatever reason

― lag∞n, Friday, December 1, 2017 2:04 PM (one minute ago) Bookmark

i think he needs to be the primary ball handler when he's on the floor, he moves too well to just stick him down low and obv playing him off the ball on the perimeter would be useless. so i get it

it's funny reading/listening to stuff where ppl give simmons credit for not even trying to shoot from outside, like yeah good know your limits but uh this might be a *tiny* problem in the future.

fultz should still be able to play off the ball in theory if he can start shooting jumpers again and not look like the kid from rookie of the year after he hurts his arm again and his magical powers go away

also his savant like ball handling and passing, seems like the ball should be in his hands

xp lol

you can still take advantage of simmons passing without him needing to initiate the offense

having someone who doesnt take threes ever dribbling around the three point line is not ideal

btw heres a piece by someone who thinks they had the same thing as fultz http://www.masslive.com/celtics/index.ssf/2017/12/i_think_i_had_markelle_fultzs.html

idk why you’d treat Simmons much different than young bron like not the pg but you want the ball in his hands as much as possible

i'd let simmons run the offense too for the time being. not a lot to lose doing so.

ITS BECAUSE HE CANT SHOOT

get him coming off screens going towards the basket then he can make reads and pass or finish, get him the ball at the elbow with an advantage and hell destroy ppl, having him operate where hes not a threat to score is doing the defense a favor

ben simmons is not young lebron

next time u watch philly notice he doesnt really get to the basket in the half court, theres a lot of 15ft hook shots happening, hes got a really weird uneven skillset

yeah i have noticed that, i just think that the long-term rewards of letting him run the point now are potentially compelling. it's not like they're blocking some pg prospect right now.

like i wouldn't make any decisions about the guys on the sixers based on what they're doing today. let em play for a while. they're not winning a playoff series this year.

yeah thats what makes it a goofy early career experiment

ben simmons is not young lebron

― lag∞n

Report: Nikola Jokic to miss multiple games, but MRI on injured ankle is negative

. @ZachLowe_NBA on Chris Paul is just fantastic. https://t.co/KCMOZUz4PR pic.twitter.com/w4Fq00Ns3f

— Cristina Daglas (@cristinadaglas) December 1, 2017

lol

Stephen Curry still noticeably grimacing, bothered by ring finger on shooting hand. He tells ESPN it hasn’t gotten better. “It’s not going away anytime soon. It’s something I’ll have to play through.”

— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) December 1, 2017

kd's ankle still isn't right

it's right ankle that's not right, right?

just filling in here:

New Orleans Pelicans forward Anthony Davis had to be helped off the court after suffering a left groin injury in the fourth quarter Friday night against the Utah Jazz.

Feel like the right hybrid fit for Simmons until he figures out his shot is to have the ball in his hands asap off rebounds / inbounds and let him try to immediately create and, if nothing is there, handoff to someone and go head toward the elbow. IE, point guard for everything but halfcourt sets. Hack-a-Simmons might end up being an even bigger problem than his jump shot, though; hope they make him tear down and rebuild his ft/jump shot over the summer, esp. if that's what keeps the 76ers from being a 40+ win team that flames out in Round 1 from a 50+ win team that can challenge.

Judging by Simmons' shot chart, at least it's clear that he knows his shot is too broken to shoot.

i agree w that, the sixers are really good at getting out and running but they dont have the wisdom to covert at a very high rate yet

such a fascinating team they cld easily turn into the next dynasty but cld also totally flame out, like the bucks have an emerging mvp candidate and a bunch of solid guys some of whom cld sniff an allstar game or two, the sixers have two potential mvp candidates who cld also easily never get there plus a number one pick who is a huge question mark and another guy who cld max out at a borderline allstar level but might also just be another euro weirdo, the fit of their two potential mvp bigmen is a lil imperfect their center can shoot but their pf cant, both orgs seem kinda iffy, which wld you take, the sixers ceiling is higher but the bucks are locked in a with a superstar for years to come

how is there a celtics game at halftime this is way too early for basketball

right

Good job good effort

Suns defense 😩 pic.twitter.com/PIWEM5pEje

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) December 2, 2017

wow lol

Tyson chandlers hand never even came up above his elbows on that whole sequence

yall need to get on this jordan bell bandwagon w me.

can you bench an entire team

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uheKTIwNxqo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vM7-MWFH9N0

Tyson is already relaxing on his favorite beach. Mentally.