2024-2025 NBA thread: who wants to buy a Duck Boat?!?!

[Woodsy]

Jazz sign Lauri long term to continue storied tradition of losing in the playoffs.

[brutah]

Jazz sign Lauri long term to continue storied tradition of losing in the playoffs.

meh, I'm happy we kept Lauri. Its hard to find players that want to stay in Utah and Lauri said before signing that he likes Utah so seems like a win-win. I'm also glad we didn't trade him to the warriors for kuminga and wiggins.

Rarely does going into full-on tank mode work out (see the Philly process) and either way, young players usually need solid vets around them to help them to reach their full potential. We lucked out in this year's draft with some great pick ups, i still hope we miss the playoffs again this season but things are looking up!

[brutah]

Also, not NBA related....

Did anyone catch any 3v3 olympic basketball? I still need to watch the women's and men's gold medal games, but damn the games i watched were disappointing. For whatever reason, I thought this event would have been a fun watch and I was disappointed.

in contrast, the 5v5 basketball has been great. I love that the level of competition has risen outside of the US, and there have been some great games like Serbia's comeback over Australia.

[MarcusBrody]

I'm worried about Denver's ability to compete going forward. Jokic will continue to keep them competitive, but Murray is due an extension an they can't really do much but pay him as losing him in free agency only would free up a fraction of his salary as cap space. (hopefully try for less than the full max, but we will see). Gordon has a player option after this season and he - compared to what other guys in the league are getting paid - has outplayed his contract, so I'd expect him to opt out for something longer and better paid. That basically gives them no way to improve and they keep losing pieces of the championship team. Murray can get super hot, but they can't count on it as a rule (or on his health). MPJ and Gordon are really solid 3/4 options. I agree with everyone that MPJ is overpaid, but I don't think it's by as much as people think (I think he's a 30 mi. He's improved every season in his overall game (defense, rebounding, somewhat on the offensive versatility and a tiiiiny bit on passing). I really doubt that MPJ makes a more substantial leap, but it is somewhat possible and I think it's what could put the Nuggets back in championship contention.

i might be the only person in the world who thinks this way, but I actually like the Westbrook addition. For several seasons now, the Nuggets have had a pretty atrocious bench unit. Even when they ran Murray with it, he wasn't very good at getting any offense out of it with Jokic off the floor (which has been one of my criticisms of Murray). For all Westbrook's problems and his decline, he still seems able to get something when you send him out there with a bunch of spare parts and tell him to create offense. Not nearly as well as he could in his prime, but he only needs to be a bit under mediocre to be an improvement. When Jokic was on last year, the Nuggets scored 122 pts/100 possessions. When he was off, they scored 104. In the playoffs when defenses tightened up, they scored 113 with him on, and 85(!) with him off. All Russ has to do is lead the bench unit to mid-bottom 5 offensive output and it would be a real improvement. The hard part is convincing him that he should be a bench player behind Christian Braun, who fits much better in the starting lineup, so we will see.

[EWG]

I'm worried about Denver's ability to compete going forward. Jokic will continue to keep them competitive, but Murray is due an extension an they can't really do much but pay him as losing him in free agency only would free up a fraction of his salary as cap space. (hopefully try for less than the full max, but we will see). Gordon has a player option after this season and he - compared to what other guys in the league are getting paid - has outplayed his contract, so I'd expect him to opt out for something longer and better paid. That basically gives them no way to improve and they keep losing pieces of the championship team. Murray can get super hot, but they can't count on it as a rule (or on his health). MPJ and Gordon are really solid 3/4 options. I agree with everyone that MPJ is overpaid, but I don't think it's by as much as people think (I think he's a 30 mi. He's improved every season in his overall game (defense, rebounding, somewhat on the offensive versatility and a tiiiiny bit on passing). I really doubt that MPJ makes a more substantial leap, but it is somewhat possible and I think it's what could put the Nuggets back in championship contention.

i might be the only person in the world who thinks this way, but I actually like the Westbrook addition. For several seasons now, the Nuggets have had a pretty atrocious bench unit. Even when they ran Murray with it, he wasn't very good at getting any offense out of it with Jokic off the floor (which has been one of my criticisms of Murray). For all Westbrook's problems and his decline, he still seems able to get something when you send him out there with a bunch of spare parts and tell him to create offense. Not nearly as well as he could in his prime, but he only needs to be a bit under mediocre to be an improvement. When Jokic was on last year, the Nuggets scored 122 pts/100 possessions. When he was off, they scored 104. In the playoffs when defenses tightened up, they scored 113 with him on, and 85(!) with him off. All Russ has to do is lead the bench unit to mid-bottom 5 offensive output and it would be a real improvement. The hard part is convincing him that he should be a bench player behind Christian Braun, who fits much better in the starting lineup, so we will see.

I agree with pretty much all of this. Though I also worry about spacing with Russ' outside shooting.

[EWG]

Watching Jokic play the US team with a few peripheral NBA guys and a handful of dudes that were working at the Serbian equivalent of Target 2 weeks ago is mind boggling.

[brutah]

I'm also worried about the nugs. Murray looked bad in the olympics and they have had back-to-back bad offseasons, losing Bruce Brown and KCP both key players in their championship run.

Less concerned about paying Aaron Gordan and MPJ as the salary cap is going to increase soon

[EWG]

Watching Jokic play the US team with a few peripheral NBA guys and a handful of dudes that were working at the Serbian equivalent of Target 2 weeks ago is mind boggling.

Remember when Jokic got picked last in the All Star game?

So does Jokic.

Holy crap he's got this Serbian team ready to play.

And I agree - the Nuggets brass have got to be watching this, and the Canada games, and wondering if Murray is actually a good player or if they should pay more attention to the fact that somehow, Jokic has 7 assists at halftime and Serbia is shooting over 50% from both the field and the arc against the fucking United States. Good god.

Aaron Gordon never shot over 47% from the field in Orlando, and usually more like 44%. In Denver he's never been below 50% and is averaging around 54%. KCP has only been over 43% 3 times in 11 years. 2 were the last two years with the Nuggets. He only shot over 40% from the arc 3 times - 2 of them with Denver. Hmmmm...

[bearcub69]

i take back what i said about embiid

him and curry keepin the usa alive against serbia

[MultiVerse]

Watching Jokic play the US team with a few peripheral NBA guys and a handful of dudes that were working at the Serbian equivalent of Target 2 weeks ago is mind boggling.

Giannis and Greece is even more lopsided. The worst 3pt% team in the Olympics and perhaps the worst supporting cast. Just give the ball to Giannis and watch him get pummeled isn't much of a game plan. They had a good run tho before falling to Germany.

[brutah]

Remember when Jokic got picked last in the All Star game?

So does Jokic.

Holy crap he's got this Serbian team ready to play.

And I agree - the Nuggets brass have got to be watching this, and the Canada games, and wondering if Murray is actually a good player or if they should pay more attention to the fact that somehow, Jokic has 7 assists at halftime and Serbia is shooting over 50% from both the field and the arc against the fucking United States. Good god.

Aaron Gordon never shot over 47% from the field in Orlando, and usually more like 44%. In Denver he's never been below 50% and is averaging around 54%. KCP has only been over 43% 3 times in 11 years. 2 were the last two years with the Nuggets. He only shot over 40% from the arc 3 times - 2 of them with Denver. Hmmmm...

Yea, I always thought players would be lining up to play with Jokic. Play a few years in Denver, boost your stats, sign a bigger contract because Jokic made you look so good. Just like KCP and Bruce Brown did.

I also think the Serbian coach deserves some credit, Karl Pesic has a solid resume.

[MultiVerse]

Bogdanovic playing for Serbia is very good too. They have a good team. Today's game was probably the real, albeit unofficial, gold-and-silver medal game.

[54-46]

meh, I'm happy we kept Lauri. Its hard to find players that want to stay in Utah and Lauri said before signing that he likes Utah so seems like a win-win. I'm also glad we didn't trade him to the warriors for kuminga and wiggins.

Rarely does going into full-on tank mode work out (see the Philly process) and either way, young players usually need solid vets around them to help them to reach their full potential. We lucked out in this year's draft with some great pick ups, i still hope we miss the playoffs again this season but things are looking up!

Agree from Dubs’ POV, too. Seemed like Danny was asking for too many picks. Dubs are not going to be good. They’ll need the picks.


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[TahoeJ]

Agree from Dubs’ POV, too. Seemed like Danny was asking for too many picks. Dubs are not going to be good. They’ll need the picks.

They’ll be better than last year. Probably a first round exit.

[54-46]

They’ll be better than last year. Probably a first round exit.

With decent health, I think they’ll be better also, but it may not show up in standings.


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[riser4]

Watching Jokic play the US team with a few peripheral NBA guys and a handful of dudes that were working at the Serbian equivalent of Target 2 weeks ago is mind boggling.

I don't consider Bogdanovic "peripheral".

[Brock Landers]

He’s not even the better bogdanovic

[TahoeJ]

Can we talk about France having to pull Rudy Gobert? Lol… Minnesota fans are like, fuck. Haha.

[t-the-east]

Was there any players on Serbia without a Vic ending in their name? Aside from Jokic.
That was a fantastic game to watch. Kerr can eat a bag of dicks for benching Tatum the entire game, especially with a lot of people struggling to find any flow and being down by 15. I hope Tatum absolutely destroys GS next year

[54-46]

Tatum had a great seat!


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[TahoeJ]

The Tatum thing is interesting. Even a huge Boston homer like Bill Simmons said he agreed with Kerr’s decision. Tatum is a jack of all trades, master of none. That makes him one of the very best players on the planet, but when it comes to matchups and the other guys on the roster he just doesn’t quite fit. His shot has also been way off. So you’re going to pull LeBron KD or Curry to give him those minutes? Nope.

[Brock Landers]

Considering they barely squeaked by fucking Serbia, with its 2 nba players (one of the peripheral ) maybe Kerr and his matchups…kind of sucks? The players clearly don’t suck.

Also nobody gives a fuck what bill simmons says. He’s never played or coached basketball at any level above 7th grade. He also said the warriors were done so I guess it’s back to 40 years of anonymity. Sorry.

[54-46]

Players stoked


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[TahoeJ]

Considering they barely squeaked by fucking Serbia, with its 2 nba players (one of the peripheral ) maybe Kerr and his matchups…kind of sucks? The players clearly don’t suck.

Also nobody gives a fuck what bill simmons says. He’s never played or coached basketball at any level above 7th grade. He also said the warriors were done so I guess it’s back to 40 years of anonymity. Sorry.

Maybe go outside for a walk or something?

[plugboots]

Kerr knows what he’s doing. Accept it and move on you dumbasses.