The Official 2023-2024 NBA Regular Season Discussion Thread

thisistheshow

Let's do this
🏀👍👍🏀👊💪👊💪🏀

thisistheshow

I'm just here to see which team is going to come in second.

ETA: because it's time for #18 in Boston

thisistheshow

I'll start this discussion off by linking a recent article from The Athletic talking about my two favorite current players. https://archive.is/2023.06.15-143556/https://theathletic.com/4611813/2023/06/15/celtics-jayson-tatum-luka-doncic-mavs/

Edited for spelin

erikthredd

Michael Jordan finally sold off his majority stake as owner of the Hornets. He bought in for 275M in 2010 then 13 years later sells out for 3 Billion. Not a bad deal at all when he's leaving the team worse off than when he bought it lol.

galaxy27

did little toe start hitting the bottle?

didn't the season just end? 😅

thisistheshow

@galaxy27 said:
did little toe start hitting the bottle?

didn't the season just end? 😅

...
This snippet of lyrics by Isaac Brock might help it all make sense. I have to say, he is not a believer in the way that I am, so his words don't necessarily reflect my thoughts.

The universe works on a math equation
that never even ever really ends in the end
Infinity spirals out creation
We're on the tip of its tongue, and it is saying
We ain't sure where you stand
You ain't machines and you ain't land
And the plants and the animals, they are linked
And the plants and the animals eat each other

thisistheshow

@galaxy27 said:
did little toe start hitting the bottle?

didn't the season just end? 😅

....
Actually, there was a toe to toe conversation in another thread that inspired this one's unusually early arrival.

erikthredd

We needed one of these threads just for my own rambling basketball Thoughts/Meme/GiFs alone.

galaxy27

just busting some chops stepping on some toes

i actually like getting things kickstarted early and having a place to park random hoops thoughts

plus, this place needs ALL the help it can get during the summer months until the NFL season commences

erikthredd

Pretty crazy shiat when your once in a lifetime player leads you to your fisrt NBA championship in team history and you thank him by pegging his wife's face with a beer can.

https://twitter.com/ClutchPointsApp/status/1669404853678792705?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1669404853678792705%7Ctwgr%5Ee106230d9de1fe577aea7f54ab9dfb4082f8a6c3%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fnypost.com%2F2023%2F06%2F15%2Fnikola-jokics-wife-natalija-hit-with-beer-can-at-nuggets-parade%2F

@galaxy27 said:
plus, this place needs ALL the help it can get during the summer months until the NFL season commences

You know that its been pretty slow around here sports-wise when a Taylor Swift thread is getting the most activity. 🤣

erikthredd

Wow,first the Suns give up the farm for KD then turnaround after their playoff exit to trade Chris Paul for Bradley Beal.
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/37873714/sources-suns-finalizing-trade-wizards-bradley-beal

Steven59

Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green has declined the $27.5 million player option for the 2023-23 season and will enter free agency, his agent, Rich Paul of Klutch Sports Group, confirmed to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.

erikthredd

@galaxy27 IDK if you've seen this yet but there's a Blowout Forum member from/in France and over this past basketball season he made a concerted effort to seek out as many Wembanyama autographs as he could get after purchasing season tickets for VW's home games.
Its sort of a long read (2 pages) but, by his last count, he's managed to get 16 autographs on many different VW personal items while also landing a few selfies with Victor. As a fellow autograph seeker yourself (IIRC at golfing events) I thought you'd appreciate the effort this gentleman put into this one of a kind collection.
https://www.blowoutforums.com/showthread.php?t=1559639

erikthredd

@Steven59 said:
Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green has declined the $27.5 million player option for the 2023-23 season and will enter free agency, his agent, Rich Paul of Klutch Sports Group, confirmed to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.

From what I've read he's likely to re-sign back with the Warriors but there maybe a strong push by the Pistons to try signing him. He's from Michigan and played for Michigan State in college but unless its a massive overpay he's probably not signing there.
The only teams with real cap space are all lottery teams and if he wants to keep contending for another ring his best option is likely back with the Dubs.

galaxy27

@erikthredd said:

@galaxy27 IDK if you've seen this yet but there's a Blowout Forum member from/in France and over this past basketball season he made a concerted effort to seek out as many Wembanyama autographs as he could get after purchasing season tickets for VW's home games.
Its sort of a long read (2 pages) but, by his last count, he's managed to get 16 autographs on many different VW personal items while also landing a few selfies with Victor. As a fellow autograph seeker yourself (IIRC at golfing events) I thought you'd appreciate the effort this gentleman put into this one of a kind collection.
https://www.blowoutforums.com/showthread.php?t=1559639

i dig you bringing this to my attention because i dig (and can relate to) the endeavor, but what i do not appreciate is the quality of his autograph. if i chased this guy, it would completely offset any joy that the journey provided. he doesn't even really have a John Hancock -- it's just a cluster of indecipherable scribble.

will all of that chicken scratch be worth a lot of $ someday? highly likely. i guess if you're a grapher and that's your modus operandi, more power to you. but let's face it, that makes you a dealer, not someone who truly cherishes the ink and all that it encompasses. i just so happen to fall into the latter category.

look at Wemby's signature and compare it to the ones i received from 83-year-old Jack Nicklaus and 87-year-old Gary Player a couple of months ago. the disparity could not be more stark. and those old farts have signed their names more times than the number of shits Victor Wembanyama will take in his lifetime. yet they still take their time and write legibly. because they get it.

i personally couldn't stomach looking at those jerseys, no matter how great the kid becomes or how much they appreciate in value. it would be like staring at Medusa's head. furthermore, i do not envy any authenticator faced with the future challenge of determining whether or not fresh ink came from the hand of Victor Wembanyama............or an infant who got his paws on a sharpie.

erikthredd

@galaxy27 said:

@erikthredd said:

@galaxy27 IDK if you've seen this yet but there's a Blowout Forum member from/in France and over this past basketball season he made a concerted effort to seek out as many Wembanyama autographs as he could get after purchasing season tickets for VW's home games.
Its sort of a long read (2 pages) but, by his last count, he's managed to get 16 autographs on many different VW personal items while also landing a few selfies with Victor. As a fellow autograph seeker yourself (IIRC at golfing events) I thought you'd appreciate the effort this gentleman put into this one of a kind collection.
https://www.blowoutforums.com/showthread.php?t=1559639

i dig you bringing this to my attention because i dig (and can relate to) the endeavor,but what i do not appreciate is the quality of his autograph. if i chased this guy, it would completely offset any joy that the journey provided. he doesn't even really have a John Hancock -- it's just a cluster of indecipherable scribble.

I thought the same myself. The main thing about Wemby's autos that I didn't like was how he sort of skipped out his last name on the left/center ones then on the right one he did the same but connected them. When I first saw them I thought he might have been signing the jerseys with no backing behind them which is probably the case.

In all fairness how he signs compared to your golfers, you could probaby combine JackGary NicklausPlayer and that is closer to what Victor is dealing with compared to those two lol. I'm guessing signing his autograph has turned into a PITA probably like it has for Giannis having so many letters in his surname, there's not much he can do about that.

I do agree thought that Jack has a great compacted auto that he's perfected over the years but like you said the kid is young and this has to be all still new to him. Just going off that BO member lauren's storyline it sounds like VW went from a handful of autograph seekers after a game to many by the time the season ended and that number is only going to grow once he gets to SA. I'll be curious to see what his on card autos looke like once he sitting down and comfortable compared to rushed in a crowd immediately after a game.
Giannis has changed his auto quite a bit from 2013 compared to 2023
going from this

to this

VW is likely going to head down that same path.

I'm not getting dealer vibes from that guy Lauren on BO,its almost more like not only pride in amounting that many sigs from VW but also pride in that this is could be the guy from his country that could someday be on the level of Joker/Serbia or Giannis/Greece. (just think of a 3way on card auto of those 2+VW or even a 4way with Luka too😲)
I will give Lauren credit though, he jumped on this pretty quickly and amounted a pretty nice assortment of signed stuff, in a very short amount of time. We'll see if Wembanyama makes it valuable or not.

How hard is it to get autos from golfing events? Got a fight thru a crowd or is it more trying to sneak them in inbetween holes?
The only autograph that I ever got in person was Jason Varitek's back when he was still catching for the Sox on his rookie card. I went to a Sox/Yanks game with some coworkers and brought a bunch of cards of that current team hoping to at least get Nomar's auto who was my favorite Sox player at the time.
I was in a small crowd pregame right by the dugout with about 2-3 kids in front of me when Nomar was signing. He for most of the group along the wall and eventually said just a couple more then it came down to me & kid half my size standing directly between Nomar & I,literally 2' away. I couldn't ruin the kids day so I backed away lol. I still came away ahead w/Varitek's auto plus two batting practice balls hit by Bernie Williams and a Sox win.

Steven59

@erikthredd said:

@galaxy27 said:

@erikthredd said:

>
Giannis has changed his auto quite a bit from 2013 compared to 2023
going from this

to this

VW is likely going to head down that same path.

So Giannis couldn't even spell his last name so he just went to Initials?
Victor Wembanyama already has his signature perfected meme ...............

erikthredd

@Steven59 said:

@erikthredd said:

@galaxy27 said:

@erikthredd said:

>
Giannis has changed his auto quite a bit from 2013 compared to 2023
going from this

to this

VW is likely going to head down that same path.

So Giannis couldn't even spell his last name so he just went to Initials?
Victor Wembanyama already has his signature perfected meme ...............

Well played. He could be the perfect ad man for VW, just maybe not in France. 😉

erikthredd

Damn, Celtics fans get pretty sad/pretty good news with this major trade.

Boston: Kristaps Porzingas plus a 2023 Memphis 1st (#25) & GS 2024 1st
Washington: Tyus Jones from Memphis/ Danilo Gallinari & Mike Muscala from Boston
Memphis: Marcus Smart plus Boston's 2nd rounder in tomorrow's draft (#35)

i love adding Porzingas and those two 1st round picks but I realy hate seeing Marcus Smart go. 😔

SanctionII

Chris Paul to the Warriors in return for Jordan Poole to the Wizards.

Steven59

@SanctionII said:
Chris Paul to the Warriors in return for Jordan Poole to the Wizards.

Plus GS sends Ryan Rollins and 2 draft picks to Washington. Not sure about the trade - isn't Paul around 38 and always injured?

erikthredd

GS could release CP3 by 6/29,the date that his 30M salary becomes fully guaranteed, and would only have a 15M cap hit on their 2023-24 books but that move alone would save them roughly 55M in tax savings.

They could obviously hold onto him as an all in attempt at one more championship but trading for him likely had more to do with getting off that horrible Poole contract while lowering their cap hit significantly than it did expecting Paul to be a major contributor this season.

If it is an all in move,Draymond is likely to be brought back at a lower salary than the 27M he just turned down.

erikthredd

The day after last night's Marcus Smart/Kristaps Porzingas trade has been kind of weird here in NE. We have a large portion of the fanbase commiserating over seeing Smart go while all of the fans who hated him are prectically partying right now.
Either way Boston got a great return for him in Porzingas,who's a better player, and they also came away with two 1st round picks,one being the Warriors 2024 1st.
Its top 4 protected but if the Dubs take a step back by failing to bring back Draymond or if Curry or Klay (or CP3) get hurt and they're record is worse than expected, that could make that 1st pretty valuable depending on where they land in the draft,

erikthredd

This is absolutely insane, here's the Phoenix Suns draft picks status for the next 10 years and which teams control their picks.
2023: 1st Nets / 2nd Suns
2024: 1st Suns (Wiz can swap picks) / 2nd Wizards
2025: 1st Nets / 2nd Wizards
2026: 1st Suns (Wiz can swap picks) / 2nd Wizards
2027: 1st Nets / 2nd Wizards
2028: 1st Suns (Nets can swap picks) / 2nd Wizards
2029: 1st Nets / 2nd Thunder
2030: 1st Suns (Wiz can swap picks) / 2nd Wizards

They do still own four 1st round picks (in bold) but the Nets or Wizards have the options to swap picks in those years.
If Durant or Beal start to physically break down the Suns are screwed.

Steven59

@erikthredd said:

If Durant starts to physically break down the Suns are screwed.

Durant is gonna be 35 in September - He's another one that has had injuries the last few years -

Steven59

Anthony Black:

I've seen this hair before - Oh yeah:

erikthredd

Well the Celtics clearly let Bill Belichick handle their draft tonight with 3 trades back. They went from one 1st round pick to one kid taken in the second round plus at least 4 future 2nd round picks.

thisistheshow

@erikthredd said:
Well the Celtics clearly let Bill Belichick handle their draft tonight with 3 trades back. They went from one 1st round pick to one kid taken in the second round plus at least 4 future 2nd round picks.

...
I don't hate it.

erikthredd

@thisistheshow said:

@erikthredd said:
Well the Celtics clearly let Bill Belichick handle their draft tonight with 3 trades back. They went from one 1st round pick to one kid taken in the second round plus at least 4 future 2nd round picks.

...
I don't hate it.

I don't either by moving out of the 1st round it meant not having to payout any guaranteed money. Now it opens up their 5M MLE to sign a free agent. Before these trades they owned just 1 2024 2nd round pick during the years 2023 to 2029, now they should have at least 5.

The Mavs stole the guy I wanted right before we were to pick lol.

thisistheshow

I'm calling it now. My Celtics will take home championship number 18 in 2024.

erikthredd

This is the first time that I've ever seen a shooter thow down a dunk off his own missed three.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QeKhvu1KKE

Steven59

"BREAKING: 76ers G James Harden is picking up his $35.6 million option and sides are beginning to work together in exploring trade scenarios, sources tell ESPN. It’s expected that Harden has played his last game for Philadelphia,"

Steven59

Free Agency starts at 6:00 PM tomorrow? (Friday 30th)

erikthredd

@Steven59 said:
"BREAKING: 76ers G James Harden is picking up his $35.6 million option and sides are beginning to work together in exploring trade scenarios, sources tell ESPN. It’s expected that Harden has played his last game for Philadelphia,"

He plays a part in Philly dumping Doc Rivers, a coach Embiid liked, then decides he wants out. Reports have him possibly wanting to go team up with Kawhi & PG on the Clippers. I don't see any deal between those two teams where it actually benefits them come playoff time.
The Clippers would roll out a lineup with Harden/Westbrook/Paul George/Kawhi that will ultimately fail like every iteration before them while Philly's yearly playoff run will now end in the 1st round ,not the second. 🤣

And we can't leave out that great Nets team of KD.Kyrie & Harden that was going to own the NBA for the foreseeable future.
[Erik Slater] Harden, KD, and Kyrie have combined for 7 trade requests in less than two seasons. Historic numbers.

Steven59

Draymont Green signs back with the Warriors for 4 years 100 Million.

thisistheshow

Since the end of the season, I've seen a bunch of stars which are supposed to tell me that the Mavericks, with Doncic and Irving on the floor together, are a great offensive team. I am not a fan of Kyrie, but now they signed him for 3 years. To get Kyrie, a bad defensive team gave up their best defender. Still, maybe it will work out.

I do like that they resigned Seth Curry.

I really don't care if they win or not, but I like watching Luka when he is happy. He seemed miserable after Kyrie came. 🤷

erikthredd

@thisistheshow said:
Since the end of the season, I've seen a bunch of stars which are supposed to tell me that the Mavericks, with Doncic and Irving on the floor together, are a great offensive team. I am not a fan of Kyrie, but now they signed him for 3 years. To get Kyrie, a bad defensive team gave up their best defender. Still, maybe it will work out.

I do like that they resigned Seth Curry.

I really don't care if they win or not, but I like watching Luka when he is happy. He seemed miserable after Kyrie came. 🤷

Let Kyrie build up his trade value then when it eventually doesn't work for the Lakers or Suns, trade him there. All of these new signings can't be traded until mid December so by the time the trade deadline comes around and the Lakers aren't where Lebron wants them to be they'll make moves. If Dallas could turn Kyrie into an Austin Reaves/Rui Hachimura trade that would be good for both teams.

erikthredd

i doubt that Wemby wanted one of his first memories in America to be one of his bodyguards smacking Britney Spears across the face.

https://twitter.com/TMZ/status/1677380953101180930

erikthredd

Two new NBA rule changes starting this season...
1. Coaches will get a 2nd Challenge if they win the first.
2. Flopping will result in free throws for the other team.

I've been waiting to see that first change for years and now that Boston's only two floppers have been traded elsewhere I'm all for change #2. 😉

thisistheshow

@erikthredd said:
Two new NBA rule changes starting this season...
1. Coaches will get a 2nd Challenge if they win the first.
2. Flopping will result in free throws for the other team.

I've been waiting to see that first change for years and now that Boston's only two floppers have been traded elsewhere I'm all for change #2. 😉

....
I'm curious how strongly this flopping rule will be enforced, as well as how exactly, and what the evolution of it will be.

erikthredd

@thisistheshow said:

@erikthredd said:
Two new NBA rule changes starting this season...
1. Coaches will get a 2nd Challenge if they win the first.
2. Flopping will result in free throws for the other team.

I've been waiting to see that first change for years and now that Boston's only two floppers have been traded elsewhere I'm all for change #2. 😉

....
I'm curious how strongly this flopping rule will be enforced, as well as how exactly, and what the evolution of it will be.

I'm guessing it would only be for the most egregious examples where a player is straight out acting but charges/picks/actual hits to the head should be fine. Many will be challenged but if there's actual contact its going to be hard to determine if its a flop or not.

SanctionII

One of my favorite video compilation of instances of NBA players flopping stars LeBron James.

It shows James flopping throughout his career.

One instance clearly showed James flopping (successfully and getting a referee to call a foul on the opposing player James was defending) when there was absolutely no contact between the two players. The video shows about 1 foot of distance between the players at the moment James commenced his flop (dramatically with his head, body, arms and legs flailing backward as he landed on his back.

When the referee called the foul on the opposing player and James became aware of the call the look on his face was like that of the Cheshire Cat.

I wonder how star players who flop will react when referees call flopping fouls on them during the coming season?

erikthredd

There have been quite a few flops where he either never got hit or acted like the contact was so much more than it really was. I think his worst one was when Dillon Brooks swiped up at the ball and Lebron flinched like he got hit and got the call from the ref. This was the play, the quality isn't that great and it doesn't show the other angle where you clearly saw that Brooks hand never made contact at all but you could hear the crowd reaction when they saw the replay.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iddy40UBDQU

I know Lebron gets flak for pretty much anything these days but this is the type of stuff that always what puzzled me the most. He's an unquestionable top 5-10 player ever,some may even say top 1-2 and the case for that is legit but there's no need for him to do this crap. He's been the PITA for everyone else for a long time,just play your game and the refs are going to give you the call 99 times out of 100 (that is unless you're Eric Lewis during a LA/Boston game in midseason. 😎)

thisistheshow

They don't enforce the current flopping rules, so I'm not sure that this will do much.

LeBron has a long and assorted history of commenting on flopping, from saying he doesn't do it, to he needs to do it, to he needs to do it better.

I think that his flopping should relegate him out of consideration for GOAT.

They could definitely enforce it if they wanted to. Yes, some calls would be missed. But...plenty of camera angles.

Were they enforcing the fines? Even if they were, fines up to 35k (I believe) were the max, and it was after a warning. 35k? Might as well be 5 dollars.

erikthredd

Looks like Jaylen Brown's record setting contract lasted a whole week, Anthony Davis just signed the richest annual contract extension in history with a 3yr/186M deal. He still has 2yrs on his current contract.

erikthredd

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/38190379/disgruntled-76ers-star-james-harden-slams-liar-daryl-morey
This guy lol. James needs to clearly self evaluate here and realize that his buddy Daryl & the Sixers were expecting him to play like he's worthy of a 4yr/200M extension last season. He didn't and ownership wasn't about to give him 50+M a year.

Can't really feel bad for the guy when he put himself in this situation with his 3rd trade request over the past 3 seasons.

Sure he could holdout until he's traded but there's new changes to the CBA that could make him beholden to Philly if he decided to sit out the season.

https://twitter.com/BobbyMarks42/status/1691064721825513474

Knowing that James isn't going anywhere for awhile,he'll probably go looking for Snickers. Not the candy bar Snickers but rather his favorite lady at his local gentleman's club, he better hurry though because she might already be shacked up with Zion by now. 🤣😂🤣

thisistheshow

What is he referring to as Morey's lie? Does he feel that he was promised a new deal?

erikthredd

@thisistheshow said:
What is he referring to as Morey's lie? Does he feel that he was promised a new deal?

I think so. Last offseason he signed for roughly 70M total over 2yrs with the second year as a player option when he could have signed a 4yr/210M. Supposedly he took less money so Philly could sign two of his former teammates in PJ Tucker & Daniel House.

it could be that Morey lied or this could just be karma coming back on Harden for how he handled his last two departures lol.

thisistheshow

@erikthredd said:

@thisistheshow said:
What is he referring to as Morey's lie? Does he feel that he was promised a new deal?

I think so. Last offseason he signed for roughly 70M total over 2yrs with the second year as a player option when he could have signed a 4yr/210M. Supposedly he took less money so Philly could sign two of his former teammates in PJ Tucker & Daniel House.

it could be that Morey lied or this could just be karma coming back on Harden for how he handled his last two departures lol.

....
It is funny how the market for him dried up and he had to exercise his option. I'm sure he thought it would end up differently.

erikthredd

@thisistheshow said:

@erikthredd said:

@thisistheshow said:
What is he referring to as Morey's lie? Does he feel that he was promised a new deal?

I think so. Last offseason he signed for roughly 70M total over 2yrs with the second year as a player option when he could have signed a 4yr/210M. Supposedly he took less money so Philly could sign two of his former teammates in PJ Tucker & Daniel House.

it could be that Morey lied or this could just be karma coming back on Harden for how he handled his last two departures lol.

....
It is funny how the market for him dried up and he had to exercise his option. I'm sure he thought it would end up differently.

He really screwed himself last offseason by passing on that extension, NBA players grab the bag then after a year or two ask to be traded. Not only does he know this but he also opted out of his final year of his previous contract at 47M just to sign the current 2yr/68M he's on. The thing is Philly ownership doesn't think that he's going to age well if they gave him 50+M,he turns 34 in a couple weeks, and I don't really blame them.

If the front office reneged on a contract promise it will be interesting to see how this effects the Sixers in free agency over the next few seasons. The players remember stuff like this,just look at how many times where we've heard someone mention Ainge trading Isaiah Thomas while he was injured. It cost him his best shot at a major contract, had he already been paid beforehand no one would have said a word.

I'd honestly say that Harden's situation is similar to Dennis Schroder's from 2 offseasons ago where he passed on a 4yr/84M extension with the Lakers to instead bet on himself in free agency. It didn't go well and he ultimately had to settle on a 1yr/5.9M salary with the Celtics. Most of the players ridiculed him for blowing that opportunity but i bet in Harden's case those same players will probably see it as Morey & the Sixers screwing him over when in reality James fumbled the bag,hard. 😎

erikthredd

Looks like NBA ref Eric Lewis recently retired after the league looked into a couple of twitter accounts that had been defending calls made by Lewis and other refs.
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/38291889/nba-ends-investigation-ref-eric-lewis-retiring
Lewis was the ref that didn't blow the whistle at the end of a Lakers/Celtics game in Boston midway thru the season where Lebron was fouled by Jayson Tatum on the final play of regulation, Eric Lewis was positioned right in front of them on that play. The game went into OT where Boston won and the world was forever left with this lovely gif of Lebron. 😎