NBA 2020-2021, Let the Season Begin

[Woodsy]

Alright I like that
Dwayne Wade buying into the Jazz, I dont hate it.

[TahoeJ]

That Warriors / Celtics game last night was awesome. Curry is absolutely unreal right now (twisted his ankle and was still knocking down shots), and props to Tatum for stepping up with Brown out.

I'm pretty convinced now that the Warriors are trying to win games and no longer in development mode since Wiseman is done for the year, with Klay they'd be legit contenders. Not favorites, mind you, but in the mix for sure. Anxious for next season.

Seems like Boston was sort of in a lull for a while there, but they are looking great lately. Playoffs in the East looking better now between Brooklyn, MIL, Philly and Boston. Any of those teams could make the finals.

[The Reverend Floater]

I thought Boston looked really solid the other night against PDX. Lots of weapons.

[cinnepa]

But they have nothing for any team with a big.

[TahoeJ]

But they have nothing for any team with a big.

We'll see... they'll need to try to small-ball run the bigs off the floor. Can't really do that against Embiid however.

[Danno]

Thompson will get more play against the bigs, that's why they signed him.

[cinnepa]

Emvbiiiiiid makes Thompson look like a child.

[Danno]

Embiid makes almost everyone look like a child.

[TahoeJ]

Curry is the fucking MVP and I don’t care. He just outplayed Jokic and Embiid this past week.

Just another 49 points on 28 shots. He’s unreal. So I guess he can carry a team?

[Woodsy]

Curry is the fucking MVP and I don’t care. He just outplayed Jokic and Embiid this past week.

Just another 49 points on 28 shots. He’s unreal. So I guess he can carry a team?

6 games with 10 3s this season.

Steph has more games with 10 threes *this season* than anyone else in NBA history has in their career.

[BobMc]

Feeling a lot better about the Pistons future. Killian Hayes is back from injury and is playing well for a rookie. Saddiq Bey and Isiah Stewart look like competent NBA starters if not future all stars. Jerami Grant has proven to be a good pickup, shouldering the offensive load.

They’ve got a good mix of rookies and cast offs that I hope when combined with a high draft pick can be molded by Casey into a decent team. I’d be happy with a playoff appearance next season.

[54-46]

If the NBA had a Most Outstanding Player or Most Entertaining Player award, then Curry should get it. Dude is killing it and is a pleasure to watch. Can’t miss TV for hoop heads.

MVP? Not going to the best player on a .500 team.

Jokic or Embiid? I’d go Jokic at this point. ~14 games left...

[TahoeJ]

Yeah I mean the award is going to Jokic for sure as long as he doesn’t get hurt. He’s played way more games than Embiid.

The only way Curry would have a chance is if they finish on a tear and end up as the 6th seed.

The overall win percentage thing can be offset to some degree by pointing out that the Warriors are 1-8 when Curry doesn't play.

[Danno]

For those of you who don't read the Athletic:

The transcendent Stephen Curry is not the MVP — he’s something much more

Stephen Curry should not be MVP.

His numbers are ridiculous, for sure — a league-leading 31.4 points per game at age 33. And he has now outdueled two MVP favorites in the last eight days — hitting Joel Embiid’s 76ers for 49 points in Monday’s 107-96 win in Philadelphia, and Nikola Jokic’s Nuggets for 53 on April 12. And the Warriors are 28-22 when Curry plays, a win percentage good enough to be in the mix for the No. 5 seed. And you could make a strong case no one is playing better, especially with what he has around him and the defenses he’s seeing.

Still, this isn’t an MVP season. What Curry is doing is bigger than that. A trophy can’t begin to encapsulate what we’re witnessing.

The Warriors are four games back of Portland for the No. 6 seed with 14 games remaining. If Andrew Wiggins didn’t foul Bradley Beal for a game-winning four-point play in the final seconds against Washington on April 9, and if Kent Bazemore makes his free throws against Boston (or Draymond Green makes that layup) on Saturday, the Warriors could be riding an eight-game win streak and breathing on Portland’s neck for the No. 6 seed. If somehow Curry leads the Warriors from a 53-point stick-a-fork-in-them loss to Toronto on April 2 all the way to the sixth seed, voters may be swayed.

But this isn’t about a third such award for Curry. That wouldn’t do him justice. How he is performing, at this age, doesn’t belong in the realm of the quantifiable. He’s pulling off feats not seen since Wilt Chamberlain, since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, since Michael Jordan, since Kobe Bryant.

“I don’t know what else to say,” head coach Steve Kerr said. “It’s the same thing after every game. It’s just utter amazement at this guy’s skill level, heart, mind, focus. It’s just amazing to watch.”

There are MVP levels, and then there are basketball history levels. Curry’s essentially one-upping himself, pushing his transcendence to a new pinnacle, and coronating himself as a basketball revolutionary.

MVPs are rational, explainable. What Curry’s doing is not.

MVPs are fodder for comparisons. Rankings are centered on production and data. Curry’s play this season, especially right now, transcends discourse and banter.

Making this about where he ranks and his legacy misses the point. Making this about awards is too typical of how we’ve come to regard greatness.

Curry is provoking a different kind of awe, the kind that reminds you why sports are dope and why basketball is among the coolest. He scored 20 points in five minutes, 37.8 seconds on Monday. He was serenaded with MVP chants on the road, in a city known for throwing snowballs at Santa and booing young Kobe. He hit 10 3-pointers for the fourth time in five games, a few of them over his own brother.

What we should be thinking is what a time to be alive.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anything like the run that he’s been on,” said Philadelphia coach Doc Rivers, who’s been on the receiving end of Curry’s greatness for years. “There are guys I guess that have scored the points in the stretch that he has. But I guarantee you there is no one that has scored them the way he has. It’s been an art watching him play as of late. It’s just been a beautiful thing to watch.”

Art is to be appreciated.

This season, this version of Curry, belongs in mythical tales. In the memories of those who watched it, who felt it. This is one of those you-had-to-be-there-to-understand seasons. Like Michael Jordan in 1996-1997. Like Kobe Bryant in 2005-06. Like LeBron James in 2007-08, or last year.

Years from now, basketball fans should be able to look up this year and see Jokic or somebody as MVP, see the Warriors’ record as mediocre, and have the context of what happened completely lost in the data. But those who are here for this will remember the spectacle being experienced, a level of brilliance that makes adjectives shy. The greatness of this Curry season should be the privilege of those present.

And we reserve the right to embellish this as we re-tell it to a new generation of basketball fans.

“The things he can do on the court is special,” Wiggins said. “He’s one of a kind. When I was on a different team, you could see it from afar, you see what he’s doing, you see all the creative things he’s doing. But being on his team, it’s totally different. Totally different. Watching it in person, every day, every game. Just the dominance of his presence on and off the ball. It’s crazy.”

You can know Curry made 72 3-pointers in 10 games, but that’s not the same as watching it happen, of expecting his bombs to go in yet still getting a jolt when they do.

You can be told he is the greatest shooter of all time. But that’s not the same as seeing how a 6-foot-3 guard warped the game, demoralized defenses and sparked social media frenzies when he got in a groove.

“I’ve seen Kobe Bryant, early in his career had a stretch where he went nuts,” Kerr said. “And, obviously, Michael Jordan had some stretches where he just scored like crazy. But, obviously, nobody’s ever shot the ball like this in the history of the game. And even by Steph’s own lofty standards, this is so above and beyond.”

Some Warriors fans have been testy most of the season, extra critical of Kerr and Bob Myers’ front office. What is happening right now is part of the reason why.

This is what they wanted to see, one of the greatest attractions in sports history. One of the all-time players who makes it clear every game, every shot, you’re watching something that won’t come around again. It’s beyond fantastical to expect Curry to play like this for an entire season. But the Warriors’ development process, Kerr’s system of ball movement, the roster around Curry, felt at times like someone with a big head blocking your view of the comet.

Sports doesn’t offer much better than Curry going off. He’s been doing just that in April — 40.8 points, 54.9 percent shooting, including 50.3 percent from three, 6.2 rebounds, 4.4 assists — and for most of the season.

It was 18 months between the 2019 NBA Finals and the start of this season. He played just five games between, enough of an absence to forget how incredible he was. Enough time elapsed to conclude he’d never be that good again. Kevin Durant was gone. So were Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston. Klay Thompson has now been injured for two seasons. It was easy to presume Curry’s magic was over. Many did.

That’s why all you can do really is shake your head at what Curry is doing. It mocks reason.

Curry is still dazzling. He’s in his physical prime with a dynastic basketball IQ and nothing to lose but haters. The NBA is still in possession of an all-time treasure, one many presumed was gone. He is again provoking his particular brand of euphoria with his particularly unreal skills, his dominance another reminder to cherish the greats while you’ve got them.

That doesn’t make him MVP. It makes him something more.

[Woodsy]

Buddy in Philly who is a huge 6ers fan but also just a huge hoops fan texted me this morning

"About as much fun as you can have watching your team lose. What a show"

[Woodsy]

Think Ikon or Epic have the cash to do a naming rights deal?
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/...a-city-thunder

[cinnepa]

Buddy in Philly who is a huge 6ers fan but also just a huge hoops fan texted me this morning

"About as much fun as you can have watching your team lose. What a show"

Me too as a sixers fan....just watched in awe. Only savior was that simmons and Harris did not play, so they weren't at full strength. That helped a bit in losing.

[plugboots]

This is what it was like during the MJ years. Th MJ road tour effect. The joke was you went to a game hoping MJ would get 40, but your team would win.

[Mustonen]

^^^

My son is a Bucks fan. I flipped on that game and he rolled his eyes a bit at Curry. I told him that I still remember watching Jordan at his age, and I wish I’d watched more. It’s cool to see the best be the best. Not that Curry is Jordan, but....

Giannis isn’t there yet.

[plugboots]

Prolly because I got to see Jordan 2nd row courtside when I was young, (Mom was the secretary for Gatorade's Executive Director), I have a weird gotta go see "it" live obsession. Flew to see Hamilton, Sunset Boulevard and Book of Mormon on Broadway w/ original cast, UCLA v. Gonzaga w/ Morrison crying, Ernie Banks, Ferguson Jenkins and others at Wrigley before they retired, Bears v. Packers and other games at Lambeau, etc.
worth it

[Duffman]

Me too as a sixers fan....just watched in awe. Only savior was that simmons and Harris did not play, so they weren't at full strength. That helped a bit in losing.

Yep. It was amazing to watch. Frustrating because the sixers should have been up big before that 4th Q, but I don't know if any lead would have been safe from that Curry onslaught.

[TahoeJ]

Prolly because I got to see Jordan 2nd row courtside when I was young, (Mom was the secretary for Gatorade's Executive Director), I have a weird gotta go see "it" live obsession. Flew to see Hamilton, Sunset Boulevard and Book of Mormon on Broadway w/ original cast, UCLA v. Gonzaga w/ Morrison crying, Ernie Banks, Ferguson Jenkins and others at Wrigley before they retired, Bears v. Packers and other games at Lambeau, etc.
worth it

I definitely feel the same about sporting events, although I never actually saw the KD Warriors live because it was just insane what tickets cost. They're selling tickets at the Chase Center for the Warriors final 6 games in May. I'm planning to go to at least one - hope Curry is still on this hot streak then. Get my second Pfizer shot next week so good timing (you have to be vaccinated to attend, no rapid testing or anything like that).

[plugboots]

They're selling tickets at the Chase Center for the Warriors final 6 games in May. I'm planning to go to at least one - hope Curry is still on this hot streak then.

Yeah, I have no plans to be in the Bay Area then, but I would make that happen if I did.
I just watched the last 8 minutes of the 76ers game last night. Looney just killed Embid, and Steph made me laugh at least 3-4 times. It’s probably just so hard for them to maintain that energy and focus all the time.

[fool]

Thanks for the article, Danno, especially since I don't have the Athletic. Here's a WSJ article that adds on nerdy stats that I was craving from the Athletic (the link should work): https://www.wsj.com/articles/stephen...hare_permalink

"The numbers can get dizzying. The NBA’s other players have five games this season with 10 threes. Curry has six. There have been 25 games in history when a player hit 11 threes or more. Klay Thompson and Damian Lillard have two. Curry had two in the last week. The rest of humanity combined has 10. Curry has 11."

"The really astonishing thing: He’s been more efficient from 30 to 40 feet than Zion Williamson inside 5 feet."

[stealurface831]

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...g-car-accident

an absolute fkn tragedy. i didn't know terrence but we had common friends and they love the kid. we were almost classmates at brewster. what a shame. he was a hell of a talent.