NBA 2020-21 reg season 1st half thread

wiseman showing off his unicorn horn there.

has there been a single good national TV game so far this year? i guess the bucks-celtics from last week. feels like it's just been a series of dreadful games

yeah it hasn't been amazing

Julius Randle is ballin. 24/10/6 through 4 games

it looks like he's in great shape just from a physical perspective

has there been a single good national TV game so far this year? i guess the bucks-celtics from last week. feels like it's just been a series of dreadful games

ratings are a disaster surely

Wiggins probably the best game I’ve ever seen him play tonight. Has like 15 or 17 in the 4th. Compare that to last week where he looked like completely lost. Gonna be a wild ride having to cheer for this dude.

ratings are a disaster surely

the steph vs cp argument... it isn’t even close lol y’all are crazy.

feels like the pandemic permanently killed sports ratings? dunno when/why they will come back if not now. how's football doing

yeah it's weird -- in theory everyone is home and has already watched the queen's gambit so what else is there

people didn't start reading did they

maybe sports bars are a bigger deal than I thought

I do remember hearing the NFL was doing really well this year

the steph vs cp argument... it isn’t even close lol y’all are crazy.

― Spottie, Wednesday, December 30, 2020 1:08 AM (thirty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I promise you it is

football is doing fine and every other sport tanked.

https://www.theringer.com/nba/2020/12/30/22205663/trae-young-atlanta-hawks

Article up at the Ringer today that touches very closely on the debate about exactly who Trae Young should be modeling himself after that spurred this Steph vs CP3 digression.

Part of their conclusion is that the path to more team success is in his Harden-esque foul drawing. While it’s hard to mount a compelling disagreement, those are (obv) the least enjoyable parts of Trae’s game to watch. There’s an alley oop montage in that article that closely recalls the early years of lob city and is exciting as hell. The excitement is then canceled out by another one of Trae drawing three shot fouls.

Julius Randle is ballin. 24/10/6 through 4 games

be strong matt

Yeah Trae’s ability to draw fouls is not my favorite part of his game

no one likes the old free throw line its boring, yet! it is also the best way to get points

it's funny because he's really good at that kind of pinball style of taking contact where he bounces dramatically off a player but still has the composure to get a good shot off

they cld change some rules to make fouls/fts less central maybe add another foul before the bonus and do away with fouling out, 3pt shots only getting 2fts would be nice mostly but it wld incentivize teams to foul in end of game sitches, one foul shot for all the points is good too

YES. i hate the pull up midway through a high pick and roll where the defender is still trying to get around the screen. they need to change that

yeah im not sure what you can do about that one i mean its a foul, its funny that it took this long for guys to figure that play out

def pretty cheap tho

i guess just shooting 3s off of screens used to be much less common and mostly defenders went under perimeter picks so the situation just didnt arise that much

one of these days the nuggets are going to want to rethink their “let the other team shoot as many threes as they want” strategy

The nuggets have a Hartenstein problem tho, he’s just been terrible and it’s hard for me to believe that Nnaji is worse

NBA is pleased with opening-week TV ratings. It's the most-watched opening week since 2012 with combined viewership on TNT, ESPN and ABC up 67% vs. last season's opening week. League Pass viewership also up 67% vs. last season's opening week.

— Jeff Zillgitt (@JeffZillgitt) December 30, 2020

wld be more edifying to compare it to last years christmas week thooo

no one likes the old free throw line its boring, yet! it is also the best way to get points

― lag∞n, Wednesday, December 30, 2020 11:19 AM (one hour ago)

it's honestly criminal that our idea to ban high fives after free throws has not caught on this year of all years, during a pandemic!

Players build their games around repetition. Take away their hand slaps after free throws and their world will wobble on its axis.

Pops looks a bit like Immortan Joe these days

Bucks getting smoked by the team they just beat by 40

I really like the Hornets. Lamelo ball plus 8 boring players who are good at defense is really a perfect formula

these back to back matchups are going to hammer home how much individual NBA games come down to make/miss randomness

the trae young/john collins pick and roll is looking very well oiled

kyrie just too much

hornets shredding mavs by 30 in dallas weird stuff

Season is super weird but I’m kinda into it

it is a very bizarre first two weeks

i feel like orlando starts 4-0 every year

miles bridges with a 20-16 ?!

he also dropped his debut album last week

speaking of nba-adjacent music i keep hearing that "tyler herro" song on the radio and the first time i thought he maybe actually had something to do with it but apparently not.

i think stotts is gonna get fired which is dumb to do in this environment (that being that the nba is weird)

i think he shows up in the music video xp

i watched it and [white rapper voice] im tyler herro now

harlow is terrible.

Separately:

“Shit, it’s hard to breathe in that mask,” Kawhi Leonard said, referring to the odd-shaped protective plastic mask he wore on his face Wednesday.

“Serge can’t talk too much, we’ve got him on the trading block right now,” Leonard said. “Whoever wants him, let us know. We’re trying to trade Serge.”