NBA Chatter Thread

Genghis Khan

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He was very impressive. If he can stay healthy and continue to build on what he did last night, he's going to be scary.

It's been so long since we've last seen him play that I forgot just how good he is. I don't remember him handling the ball like that or moving that well and showing that kind of footwork while at Kansas. There were times last night where he looked like the spitting image of Olajuwon. It was very nice to see; even at the expense of my beloved Thunder.
Yep. It's amazing considering he picked up basketball relatively late, played less than a year at Kansas, and missed his first two years in Philly. He's apparently a savant.

The injury concern is very real unfortunately.
 

NoDak

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Sixers Acquire Ilyasova, First-Round Pick from OKC
Posted: Nov 01, 2016

PHILADELPHIA, PA - November 1, 2016 - Philadelphia 76ers President of Basketball Operations Bryan Colangelo announced today the team has acquired forward Ersan Ilyasova and a conditional first-round pick from the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for forward Jerami Grant.
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[MENTION=6]1bigfan13[/MENTION], you're the OKC guy, right? What do you think of this trade from OKC's perspective?

Is this Ilyasova any good? I don't know anything about him.
 

1bigfan13

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Sixers Acquire Ilyasova, First-Round Pick from OKC
Posted: Nov 01, 2016

PHILADELPHIA, PA - November 1, 2016 - Philadelphia 76ers President of Basketball Operations Bryan Colangelo announced today the team has acquired forward Ersan Ilyasova and a conditional first-round pick from the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for forward Jerami Grant.
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[MENTION=6]1bigfan13[/MENTION], you're the OKC guy, right? What do you think of this trade from OKC's perspective?

Is this Ilyasova any good? I don't know anything about him.
I can't really give you much info on him. This was his first year in OKC. So basically we only got 3 games out of him. He really wasn't that impactful. He's a decent 3 point shooter, nothing spectacular, but he at least stretches the floor some.
 

1bigfan13

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Looks like we jumped the gun on the 76ers turn around. 0-7 on the year and chants of "trust the process" have faded away.
 

Jiggyfly

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James Harden Is Free To Be Great

Tom Ley

The Houston Rockets, while in the final throes of the failed partnership between James Harden and Dwight Howard, transformed from a contender into one of the saddest-ass teams in the NBA last year. Now Howard is gone, Mike D’Antoni is the new coach, and James Harden is, uh, holy shit, look at James Harden.



Those are highlights from last night’s Rockets-Spurs game, which the Rockets won behind Harden’s 24-15-12 triple-double. Harden was installed as the Rockets’ point guard this offseason, and D’Antoni told Bleacher Report that he hoped Harden could average something like 15 assists per game. The moment turned into a fun preseason soundbite when Harden responded to D’Antoni’s projection by saying simply, “Coach trippin’.”

Turns out, D’Antoni wasn’t so far off. Harden has dished 15 or more assists in five games this year, and is averaging 13 per game, which combines with his 30 points and seven rebounds per game to create one of the more ridiculous stat lines of the young season. Someone could look you in the eyes right now and declare that James Harden is both the best current point guard and player in the NBA, and you’d have few meaningful ways to refute such a claim.


Harden’s obviously been a great point guard through the first eight games of the season, but he’s also been a stunning one. All the things that make him such a devastating isolation player—all those nearly imperceptible feints, reflexive twitches, and seamless shifts of weight and direction—are also what have allowed him to play this season like some kind of Steve Nash-Michael Jordan hybrid.

Passes leave his hands without ever compromising the fluidity of his motions, and each one is perfectly weighted and timed. It’s harder for me to light a match than it is for James Harden to throw a perfect lob or drop pass while running at full speed and dribbling through a defense.


In hindsight, it seems sort of stupid that a guy like Harden—a player who can make those passes, go by any defender he wants to, and squeeze off a beautiful jumper from any spot on the floor—wasn’t empowered to run the Rockets’ offense long before this. The Steph Curry archetype has been around for a while now, and yet the Rockets thought it was a good idea to have Patrick Beverley be their point guard in years past.

No matter, Harden has the reins now and he’s responded by playing the best basketball of his career. More than that, a great player who was once an avatar of groan-inducing isolation play, lazy defense, and failed teamwork is now simply a great player. Nobody can say they aren’t having fun watching James Harden play basketball these days.
 

Jiggyfly

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How a simple change made James Harden the most dangerous player in the NBA
Harden's move to point guard has him as an MVP front-runner.


By Dieter Kurtenbach

Nov 9, 2016 at 5:13p ET

James Harden didn’t need a rebirth — he was already one of the best players in the NBA — but he’s in the midst of one anyway.

In first-year Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni’s system, Harden is now the primary ball handler — call it point guard if you want — and the results have been staggering for not only the eighth-year guard but also the Rockets offense.

It makes so much sense, it’s amazing no one thought of doing it sooner.


Houston is 4-3 on the season — they can thank their porous defense for those three losses — but they have one of the most efficient offenses in the NBA — arguably on par with Golden State and Cleveland — with Harden in his new role. Houston leads the NBA with a 58.6 true shooting percentage and 55.4 effective field goal percentage, averaging 1.13 points per possession.

Make no mistake — this is Harden’s doing — in four games this month, he’s averaged 33.25 points and 14.25 assists per game, with no sign that it’s a mirage or that it will abate anytime soon.

Before the season started, one of the favorites to win NBA MVP was the Western Conference point guard who lost his All-Star counterpart. It’s early yet, but it looks like we had the description right yet probably mixed up the names — we were thinking of Harden, not Russell Westbrook.


What’s behind Harden’s point guard “rebirth”? It’s all scheme — Harden hasn’t added any wrinkles to his game or found a long-lost skill. He’s had this stuff all along — it just needed to be utilized correctly.

Even as an off-ball shooting guard (wing, two-guard — whatever you want to call it) Harden was a frequent ball handler, bringing the ball up the court in his trademark methodical fashion. From there he would either work out of isolation or give the ball to another ball handler so he could be could get to the elbow, where he preferred to do his work.

The Rockets offense was centered around Harden last year, but it didn’t rotate around him — literally. There was no pace, no verve, to the Rockets offense — just Harden and his defender.


This year, the Hardencentrism has some orbit. The Rockets are running a four-out (sometimes five-out) system that has all the trademarks of a modern motion offense (unsurprising, considering that D’Antoni’s 7-seconds-or-less Suns were the league's proto pace-and-space team).

First thing D’Antoni removed from the Rockets’ look last year was the secondary ball handler. Harden had the ball in his hands for six minutes a game last year — the highest number of any non-point guard in the league — and his touches lasted 4.43 seconds and typically had fewer than four dribbles. The world seemed to stand still when Harden had the ball, because the Rockets were playing 1-on-1, or, at best 2-on-2 with a high pick-and-roll.

By taking away the secondary ball handler — whether that be Patrick Beverley or Ty Lawson or Jason Terry — and replacing him with a spot-up shooter D'Antoni is cutting directly to the chase — why bother going through the motions of setting up a play for Harden when, if he wants to go to the elbow, he can just go to the elbow? Why waste steps?

But by keeping the ball in Harden's hands and keeping momentum in the offense, the Rockets are far more dangerous in any set they run, and that’s setting up some wide-open looks for Houston shooters and big men.


Why is it working? Adding a bit more movement doesn’t magically create more points — if it was that easy, every team would do it.

It works because of spacing, and few in the NBA can provide spacing the same way Harden can.

The Warriors’ offense of past years (this year’s offense is still a serious work in progress compared to those teams) was predicated on this concept — Stephen Curry could pull up from anywhere inside half court and sink a 3-pointer, and that forced defenses to come out to greet him, creating more space for him — and the Warriors’ four other players — to work.

But the threat of Curry (and others, like Damian Lillard) to defenses wasn’t solely his ability to shoot from anywhere — it was his ability to get to, and finish, at the basket. Curry led the NBA in shooting percentage on layups last season at 68.7 percent. It’s an inside-out game, and that’s what it does to defenders, too — turns them inside out.

So, a conundrum: if you don’t check him from 30 feet out, he’ll drill a three; but if you guard him too close on the perimeter, he’ll drive past you and finish at a rate similar to LeBron at the basket or draw a foul; and if you double-team him either on the ball or in a pick-and-roll trap, he’ll find the wide open man almost every time.

The same conundrum has always applied to Harden, but it wasn’t as pressing for an entire team defense because he was so often in static isolation sets.

That’s no longer the case.


For what one would expect to be the majority of NBA fans, the revelation of this season isn’t Harden’s ability to be an exceptional dribble-drive ball handler — he’s always been that — but rather his incredible court vision and passing ability.

In Oklahoma City, they were more frequently seen, but both skills had been stifled upon his arrival in Houston. They broke through every now and again, but they weren’t critical components of his, or Houston's, game. The new Rockets system requires them, as well as excellent judgment, and Harden is providing and thriving.

Harden leads the league in assists with 12.7 per game because of not only his ability to put a defender on his hip and drive to the basket, drawing help from all directions (and often a foul), but also his ability to spot the open man — even at a distance, while both parties are moving — and hit him with a pass, often through traffic.

Those players weren’t necessarily open last year — typically, Harden would drive and four teammates would stand around and wait for him to make the basket or go to the line. There weren't many outlets.

With those outlets now there — and hitting open shots — and Harden’s full offensive game actualized, the question is how does a defense stop it?

They probably can’t. And if the Rockets defense ever finds a way to stop their opponent — a big ask, no doubt — Houston could turn into a serious contender in the Western Conference with Harden as the league's MVP.
 

Genghis Khan

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Looks like we jumped the gun on the 76ers turn around. 0-7 on the year and chants of "trust the process" have faded away.
They are a young developing team, with both Okafor and Embiid on severe minutes restrictions, Ben Simmons, Jarred Bayless and Nerlens Noel all out due to injury,
 

Genghis Khan

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And I don't think anybody expected the Sixers to be any good yet. It's only the beginning still.

And they have likely 2 high picks next year to help round out the backcourt.
 

1bigfan13

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And I don't think anybody expected the Sixers to be any good yet. It's only the beginning still.

And they have likely 2 high picks next year to help round out the backcourt.
I expected about 30 wins this year. That's not a ton but that's a significant jump for the Sixers.

Another team that has got off to a surprisingly slow start is the Timberwolves. With Thibadeau on board I thought they'd finish with about 45 wins and sneak into the playoffs as a 7th or 8th seed.
 

Genghis Khan

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I expected about 30 wins this year. That's not a ton but that's a significant jump for the Sixers.

Another team that has got off to a surprisingly slow start is the Timberwolves. With Thibadeau on board I thought they'd finish with about 45 wins and sneak into the playoffs as a 7th or 8th seed.
Not without Ben Simmons they weren't winning 30.
 

1bigfan13

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The last 2 games Russell Westbrook has pretty much validated KD's decision.

He has incredible talent but his decision making is awful.

Wednesday night versus the Raptors, OKC rallied and were within 5 of the Raptors with about 4 minutes to play. They have all the momentum in the world and Westbrook comes down and jacks up a 3 pointer from Steph territory (about 5 feet behind the 3-point line). He misses badly and the Raptors rebound and score easily on the other end.

A couple of possessions later the same thing happens. Plenty of time on the shot clock and the Thunder need a score to keep things close and Westbrook pulls up from the top of the key near the center court logo and misses badly. Raptors rebound and score again, pretty much icing the game.

I didn't mention it but mixed in with all those bad 3 point shots he completely hogged the ball the final 5 minutes of the game. He may have passed to a teammate one time and it felt like he took every shot down the stretch.

Just God awful decision making.

Fast forward to last night. Close game against the Clippers. More questionable decision making by Russ but not quite as bad as Wednesday night. On the final possession the Clippers are leading by 2 and OKC has the ball with about 8 seconds to play. Russ takes the inbound pass and instead of at least attacking the basket he pulls up for a 28 foot 3-pointer when there was still plenty of time on the clock to get a better shot. He missed badly as usual. As I mentioned, he had enough time to either get into the paint for a closer shot or he could have done what other great players have done which is pass it to an open teammate for a clean shot. But that would require checking his ego and that ain't happening.

We're not going to win many close games if this is the attitude he's going to play with.

Honestly we need a real PG. Someone who can actually make smart decisions in crunch time so that we're not always handcuffed by Westbrook's wild antics.
 

1bigfan13

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OKC got Serge'd last night.
I'm fine with that.

Serge is still a fan favorite in the city. Even after he was traded he made a few trips back to OKC to interact with the community. My mom goes to the church that he attended in OKC. Back in September he swung through one last time to attend service and officially say goodbye.

We'll hang his jersey in the rafters before we hang cupcake's.
 

Texas Ace

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So Phil Jackson uses the word posse and suddenly the world bursts into flames?
It's this new generation of men.

They wear skinny jeans, women's clothes, and they are super thin-skinned.

Lebron James, Cam Newton, Russell Westbrook, etc.

These guys would not have survived in the spotlight if this were the 80's or 90's.
 

Cowboysrock55

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It's this new generation of men.

They wear skinny jeans, women's clothes, and they are super thin-skinned.

Lebron James, Cam Newton, Russell Westbrook, etc.

These guys would not have survived in the spotlight if this were the 80's or 90's.
No kidding, if someone referred to my friends as a posse I wouldn't even bat an eye. I mean do people really have to pick their words that carefully. Calling them an entourage would have been ok, but posse is racist?
 

Texas Ace

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No kidding, if someone referred to my friends as a posse I wouldn't even bat an eye. I mean do people really have to pick their words that carefully. Calling them an entourage would have been ok, but posse is racist?
They can't take criticism at all and they view everything as an attack.

Even their mannerisms are very childish or feminine.

I mean, did you see Jaylon Ramsey's post-game interview after the Baltimore game?

Imagine him doing that in 1993 in a locker room like the kind the Eagles had back then.
 

dallen

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I'm not going to tell someone whether they should be offended, but when I hear the word 'posse' I think of frontier towns and westerns. I never thought of it as a racial word
 
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