Ongoing pro/college basketball thread (2023-24)
 

Celtics were favorites this year.



Today, the Milwaukee Bucks acquired Lillard.


Now?


(krustytheclown'sWHATTHEHELLWASTHAT.GIF)

Yeah not great for the Celtics that Yannis / Dame pick and roll will be tough. Sure the Bucks are taking a hit on the defense but if Yannis, Dame, Middl3ton and Portia stay healthy they will. Be tough out. I still like the Celtics matchup but I wish they had gotten some defensive help this offseason. I think for the Celtics there fortunes are tied to the heath of Kristin Porzingkis and Brogdon:banghead:

Celtics trade Brogdon and Timelord Williams, the 2024 1st rounder from Golden State and an unprotected 2029 first rounder to get Jrue Holliday.

Not sure I like it, but we'll see how it goes.

Are we sure Jrue is better than Brogdon? I know last year Jrue’s numbers were better but his numbers will be down next year playing with Boston just like Brogdon’s were down this year.

I think we need to give the Blazers GM credit: When Lillard did his "Miami or nothing ultimatum", it seemed like everyone expected them to take a puu puu platter for him. The equivalent of trading a dollar for 6 dimes.

This is what they actually got.

Deandre Ayton
Robert Williams (on a pretty team friendly contract!)
Malcolm Brogdon
Toumani Camara,

three first-round picks: 2024 (Golden State, Top-4 protected), 2029 (Bucks and Celtics unprotected)

2028 and 2030 Milwaukee pick swaps.

That's rather impressive.

Yeah basically Boston swapped Grant Williams, Derek Smart , Timelord,Brogdon, two first rounders and Galinari for Jrue and Porsingis. They are now very thin depth wise and a little older. There bugs are oft injured KP, 37 year Horford and Kornet. Good luck Celtics yikes.

Yes the Trailblazer's made out like bandits between this and the draft.

And the Portland haul will grow with whatever they trade Brogdon for

True.

Best line coming from last night's "Dillion Brooks gets ejected for punching an opponent in the groin

Dillion Brooks was ejected because of DEEZ NUTS Oh wait, he was ejected because of (Daniel) Theis's nuts. Never mind

Not really basketball-related but Calipari-related. And funny.

From Zillow in Lexington today… 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/rvoBzRjwlX

— Matt Jones (@KySportsRadio) October 10, 2023

Preseason thoughts: This Wembanyama seems like he will do okay in the NBA.

The look on that face!

Thomas Bryant’s reaction to Victor Wembanyama dunking on him�� pic.twitter.com/oZWv4ITF3f

— Tatum�� (@CookHimTatum) October 14, 2023

I understand the look. Wemby took off outside the restricted area which is four feet from the basket, dunked the ball and still landed with most of his body outside of the restricted zone. He barely moved forward. Game manufacturers get crushed for releasing games with glitches that allow stuff like to happen.

Celtics/Bucks in the East Finals.. God if I know who is making the West Finals, other than Denver.

Which one of you had Chuck asking Adam Silver the question about the league's response to domestic violence incidents involving its players on your opening night bingo card? Good on Chuck for bringing it up. I will probably rip him for something else he brings up later in the season but he gets a thumbs up today.

Weird Dwight Howard (gay) sex story developing. Seems Spacey-esque

Can we get Wemby to force his way to a better team yet?

Putting this over in this thread just to make Fozzie happy :)


I'm more of a casual NBA fan these days with Rik Smits long gone from the league, but how about the Pacers putting up 143 points in their first game? Been a long time since I could feel excited about their prospects for a season.

I was a huge Pacers fan back in the day. Somewhere I still have a Chuck Persons jersey.

24 hours into Wembymania and thanks to Twitter I'm already sick of his fanboys.

The guy is a physical/athletic wonder, no doubt about it but goodness gracious.

With the arrival of Wembanyama, I have consumed more Spurs games in the last two weeks than I have in the last two or three years combined. Given the discussion in the other thread about Jaden McDaniels, is Devin Vassell worthy of 5 yr(s) / $135,000,000? I don't know much about him at this point.

Yeah I get he's kinda of a freak of nature, so I get why they are talking about him all over, but so far I think the only place I've seen talking about what the Pacers did was on their own team Twitter. Guess they need to score more than 140 points every game before people start talking about them

I don't know if I have done a good job filtering the noise at this point but I have been pleasantly happy with most of the Wembanyama takes so far this morning. Pretty reasonable takes for a pretty reasonable debut.

Yeah I followed Smits from Marist College near where I grew up to the NBA and the Pacers, so yeah Chuck Persons, Reggie Miller and the like

I feel like Zach Collins is on the all NBA first team punchability list. He’s been injured quite a bit, and I had forgotten how much distaste I had for him

The NBA should force the Sixers to play Harden tonight. Let him come off the bench but he definitely needs to play 25-30 minutes.:lol:

NBA investigating if 76ers, James Harden violated participation policy - ESPN

I support the spirit behind the load management rules but I hate the idea of the central office deciding when a team's players should or should not play. Everyone knows why James Harden is still in Philadelphia and not with the team. It has nothing to do with load management. Hopefully I am jumping the gun and this is more the league telling both the Sixers and Harden to cut the bullshit and resolve this dispute. At the very least I hope this is the league figuring out if the Sixers are preventing Harden from playing for "disciplinary" reasons and the NBAPA should file a grievance or if Harden is refusing to play for which he should be disciplined in accordance with existing rules that govern those things.

I think Philly is trying to manage the load coming out of his mouth, so I think it fits within the spirit of the rule.

And do you really want to see James Harden the way he would look after the offseason with 10 more days off after having played only 1 preseason game?

Took the family to the Bucks/Sixers game last night and had a great time. Ironically this was the same matchup my older son & I saw last winter/spring when the Sixers came back to win.

Much the same this time, with the Bucks taking a lead through the 3rd quarter. Then Embiid did his thing where he does a step-back jumper from the foul line which appears impossible to stop. Maxey was also having his way with the defense, increasingly.

But the difference for the Bucks was absolutely Dame. Last year when they fell behind they just started giving it to Giannis and he'd dribble into 4 people and see if his athleticism could get him a bucket or a foul. Last night about mid-way through the 4th quarter it looked like it was going to be the same, and then the coach took Giannis off for about 90 game seconds (longer due to timeouts). When he came back on they went back to running actual plays, and it looked like the difficulty of having to deal with both Dame & Giannis at the same time was too much for the Sixers.

Hilarious to hear the Bucks fans around us. They're clearly not used to someone who can consistently pull up from 3 and sink it. In the last 2 minutes every time Dame crossed midcourt they were yelling "Shoot it!"

No NIT automatic bids for regular-season conference champs - ESPN


Instead, the NIT will guarantee two teams -- based on the NET rankings -- from each of major six conferences, the Atlantic Coast, the Big East, the Big Ten, the Big 12, the Pac-12 and the Southeastern.

The top two teams in the NET rankings not qualifying for the NCAA tournament from each conference, regardless of win-loss record, will be selected. Additionally, the 12 teams automatically selected will be guaranteed the opportunity to host a game in the first round of the NIT.

Kind of weird. Thought the old system provided some interesting matches on campuses that normally don't get the attention. Just don't have a ton of interest in watching the 10th best Big 10 team play the 9th best ACC team.

Context Alert!

Here are the teams that received the automatic bids last year.


And the teams that would have received automatic bids using the 2024 criteria.


I am not sure how significant this will be tbh. This policy only became a rule in 2017 from what I can tell so this is not breaking with longstanding tradition. All of the schools that would have gotten automatic bids in 2024 made the tournament in 2023 with the exception of Texas Tech which was 16-16 (5-13 Big 12) and Ohio State which was 16-19 (5-15 Big Ten). I get why it sucks for the mid major schools but maybe Texas Tech or Ohio State would be too embarrassed to take the invitation in the same way UNC did last year.

I mean the semis and finals are not even going to be in MSG this year. It will be held in Hinkle Fieldhouse on the Butler campus in Indianapolis. WTH?

Last year had 3 mid majors make the semis so I'm guessing they want to avoid that. Problem is that the big schools don't seem to really care as much about the NIT.

They can lose money in some cases just by hosting, I'm not sure this is going to up their enthusiasm much.

It's still the NIT. They are already doing everything they can to get the Power Five schools into the field of 68. There is only so much they can do to get undeserving P5 teams into the NIT. As much as it bothered people last year, I sort of respected North Carolina's decision to decline the NIT invitation. Not because I think North Carolina is too good for the NIT but because given all the advantages that are provided to a basketball program like UNC, they did not earn a NIT bid with the season they had.

Trust me, the NCAA knows they were already scrapping the bottom of the P5 barrel and it showed. I think this will cost a team like Washington State its spot before one of the mid major schools.

I'll note that the NIT television deal with ESPN is due to expire, best I can tell, at the end of the 2023-24 season.

And it was ESPN who had pushed for name programs to try to keep the tournament viable for television back before the NCAA bought it. (Led the way in removing the must-be-.500-or-more eligibility requirement)

I suspect this latest change is being made to try to find a way to get some sort of TV deal renewal.

I don't know what the hell the NBA is doing, but their in season tournament courts and city jerseys are god awful.

In case you were wondering if Louisville basketball could be worse this year than last year... they just lost an exhibition game to Kentucky Wesleyan, 71-68. Wesleyan is a DII school picked to finish 8th in its conference.

This is one of those times when Twitter is entertaining.

They just had to one-up St. John's I guess.

Kenny Payne in his presser said that he needed more than 2 rebounds out of guys like Emmanuel Okafor.

He did not play Okafor for a single minute tonight.

Louisville basketball ladies & gentlemen.

Trying to make sense of this Harden trade. Basically just picks and a lot of salary fodder?

Unlike Ben Simmons, James Harden was definitely going to blow that entire situation up if he was not traded. As long as Harden was away from the team, Morey could wait for the best deal. Once Harden is willing to sit on the bench and remind everyone of how dysfunctional the team is, Morey has to get him out of there ASAP. Morey now has to turn the salary fodder into an actual team built around Embiid and that Maxey maintains his early season form for the entire season.

That 2028 unprotected first may have a lot of value. kmart Jr is a decent rotational piece. The expiring contracts either open the door for them having some cap space or gives them ammo for a trade.

Considering that the Clippers were really the only team that interest in Harden I think Philly did well here. It was clear Maxey hated playing with him and getting him away from the team had value in itself.

Isn't the plan to flip those picks into a quality player to join Embiid and Maxey, and sooner rather than later?

That's what I read earlier anyhow.

Oh Chris Broussard, we hardly knew ye.

I'll let y'all find it on Twitter, just {shakes head} damn

edit to add: (No, he ain't dead or nothing ... just probably his career is lol)

That is a name I haven't heard in years. I forgot he existed. And now he probably won't.

Ok, Philly moved off of a guaranteed year of Tucker. Also by doing it now, those guys can be reallocated together or with other players before the trade deadline. It’s a 60 day waiting period. I guess if they waited too much longer, they couldn’t spin them off(deadline was something like 12/8-12/10)

RIP Bob Knight at age 83. Sounds like he had been battling Alzheimer's. No matter what you think of his personality, he's probably one of the top basketball coaches of all time.

I haven't even looked yet but there have been so many opportunities for him to lose his job because of his Twitter rantings. Let's see what he has done now.