2023 NBA Off-season

@CUPackFan posted:

And I'm in the minority but I think Dame is part of the Blazer's issue.  It's difficult to build around an undersized shooting guard that is a liability on defense who does not make the players around him better.  And yes, Dame is a shooting guard in a point guard's body.

I will die on this hill - NBA teams should avoid building a team around a scorer who is a liability on defense and does not make the players around him better.

Agree on Dame. He's a better version of Trae Young or Bradley Beal. Guys that will score 30, but also have the chance to give up 35 consistently.

The media framing is also an issue. They are framing it as if the Blazers owe Lillard so much for staying with them for years that they need to accept pennies on the dollar for his value. Like it's their job not to ask Miami for too much in return that would make it difficult for Lillard to win a title with the Heat.

The Blazers have either already paid or have agreed to pay Lillard 450 million dollars, and they don't want him to leave. Now they are supposed to give him away for Tyler Herro and some picks that they don't know the value of down the road?

The issue with Miami is Herro doesn’t help Portland as that team is already guard heavy.   That being said, if Boston called and said we’d swap out Brown for Dame that’s way better than Miami could offer.

The issue is trading star players depletes the team they are going to.  Look at Phoenix with Durant.  They gutted all of the quality depth.  

Dave Sinykin said on KFAN this morning that he's heard a rumor that the Bucks are interested in trading for Collin Sexton from the Jazz.

Group of teams for the NBA play in tournament have been announced

Eastern Conference

Group A: Philadelphia 76ers, Cleveland Cavaliers, Atlanta Hawks, Indiana Pacers, Detroit Pistons

Group B: Milwaukee Bucks, New York Knicks, Miami Heat, Washington Wizards, Charlotte Hornets

Group C: Boston Celtics, Brooklyn Nets, Toronto Raptors, Chicago Bulls, Orlando Magic

Western Conference

Group A: Memphis Grizzlies, Phoenix Suns, Los Angeles Lakers, Utah Jazz, Portland Trail Blazers

Group B: Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles Clippers, New Orleans Pelicans, Dallas Mavericks, Houston Rockets

Group C: Sacramento Kings, Golden State Warriors, Minnesota Timberwolves, Oklahoma City Thunder, San Antonio Spurs

Group play will begin Nov. 3 and all games will count toward regular season records and statistics. Each team will play four group games, two home games and two road games. Group play games will be held only on Tuesdays and Fridays in November, except for Nov. 7, which is Election Day and no games will be held. The group play schedule, along with national TV broadcasts, will be released next month.

The team with the best record in each group and two wild-card teams will advance to the knockout stage. The wild cards will be the team in each conference that finished with the best record in group play but was second in its group.

The knockout round consists of single-elimination quarterfinals on Dec. 4-5 hosted by teams with the best group-play record. The semifinals and championship will be held at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Dec. 7 and 9. The championship game is the only game that will not count toward the regular season record and statistics. For the two teams, it will count as Game 83, one more than every other teams’ 82-game slate.

The teams that do not advance to the knockout round will play two additional games on Dec. 6 and 8 to fill out their 82-game schedule. The teams that lose in the quarterfinals of the knockout round will play one additional regular season game on Dec. 8.

I hear a lot of people criticizing the play in tournament but it should create a lot more buzz to meaningless early season games.  

Most fans don’t even tune in until Christmas so this is another way to generate interest.

I agree, it can't be any worse than the regular season games that would have occurred at that time.  Early season games are pretty uneventful, most teams are still playing into shape and figuring out what they have.  And legit championship contenders are doing their best to stay healthy and fresh.  May as well force some competition. 

Do the winners get anything?  If not it'd be a good way to stoke the fire.  Maybe the winning team gets an extra pick at the end of the first round or early in the second, or a few extra ping pong balls in the lottery.  And maybe cash prize to the players.  Yeah it wont motivate the max guys but it's something. 

Don’t write off the Sixers.

https://www.theonion.com/ben-s...or-season-1850814418

@Pikes Peak posted:

Don’t write off the Sixers.

https://www.theonion.com/ben-s...or-season-1850814418

Simmons has been the Nets problem since the Harden trade.

It appears Harden has decided to hold out until he's traded to the Clippers.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story...show-sixers-practice

As we all know, Harden was a potentially an unrestricted free agent but decided to sign a one-year contract with the Sixers and immediately demand a trade to the Clippers.

In other words, he could have signed with the Clippers for a minimum contract but didn't want to give up the money, so he opted in to make sure he got 36 million which forces the Clippers to trade assets back to get him. Then, when they don't want to do that he blames the Sixers.

@Slobknocker posted:

Group of teams for the NBA play in tournament have been announced

Eastern Conference

Group A: Philadelphia 76ers, Cleveland Cavaliers, Atlanta Hawks, Indiana Pacers, Detroit Pistons

Group B: Milwaukee Bucks, New York Knicks, Miami Heat, Washington Wizards, Charlotte Hornets

Group C: Boston Celtics, Brooklyn Nets, Toronto Raptors, Chicago Bulls, Orlando Magic

Western Conference

Group A: Memphis Grizzlies, Phoenix Suns, Los Angeles Lakers, Utah Jazz, Portland Trail Blazers

Group B: Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles Clippers, New Orleans Pelicans, Dallas Mavericks, Houston Rockets

Group C: Sacramento Kings, Golden State Warriors, Minnesota Timberwolves, Oklahoma City Thunder, San Antonio Spurs

Group play will begin Nov. 3 and all games will count toward regular season records and statistics. Each team will play four group games, two home games and two road games. Group play games will be held only on Tuesdays and Fridays in November, except for Nov. 7, which is Election Day and no games will be held. The group play schedule, along with national TV broadcasts, will be released next month.

The team with the best record in each group and two wild-card teams will advance to the knockout stage. The wild cards will be the team in each conference that finished with the best record in group play but was second in its group.

The knockout round consists of single-elimination quarterfinals on Dec. 4-5 hosted by teams with the best group-play record. The semifinals and championship will be held at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Dec. 7 and 9. The championship game is the only game that will not count toward the regular season record and statistics. For the two teams, it will count as Game 83, one more than every other teams’ 82-game slate.

The teams that do not advance to the knockout round will play two additional games on Dec. 6 and 8 to fill out their 82-game schedule. The teams that lose in the quarterfinals of the knockout round will play one additional regular season game on Dec. 8.

I'm coming back to this after a few months with some questions.

So, the two teams in the final of the mid-season tournament end up playing 83 games instead of 82. So, what happens if at the end of the season, two teams end up with the same number of wins for the #1 seed, but the loser of the mid-season tournament ends up with one more loss?

Team 1: Doesn't qualify for the midseason final and ends the year 60-22

Team 2: Loses in the midseason final and ends the year 60-23

Doesn't that mean that Team 2 would lose the one seed because they advanced to the final of the mid-season tournament and lost?

I'm so glad the Harden fail train has never made a stop in MKE. It was bad enough cheering for Grayson Allen.

this can’t be good……..

With the start of the 2023-24 NBA season just days away, the Milwaukee Bucks received some surprising news with ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reporting that assistant coach Terry Stotts has resigned from the team.

A former head coach with the Atlanta Hawks, the Bucks and the Portland Trail Blazers, Stotts had sat out the previous two seasons after mutually parting ways with Portland following the 2020-21 season. The 65-year-old returned to join new Milwaukee head coach Adrian Griffin’s staff this past offseason, but won’t ultimately be with the team when it opens its upcoming season against the Philadelphia 76ers on Oct. 26 — and beyond.

https://l.smartnews.com/p-Savwj/AEKWr4

Terry Stotts Resigns From Bucks’ Staff Cause He Hates Damian Lillard

Not everything is so black and white. Not everyone is as blunt as I am and will say the first inane thought that comes to their head. For better or for worse that’s how I operate 99% of the time. This is one of those gray areas that isn’t flat-out said, but the writing is on the wall. Or you have to read between the lines. Terry Stotts has resigned from the Milwaukee Bucks staff. Think about that. The Bucks, a title contender already, just might have increased their chances to win a championship by getting Damian Lillard, and one of your assistant coaches resigns. Fishy.

https://l.smartnews.com/p-7tqcG/mTRRL4

If that's true I'll take Lillard over Stotts.

Yep, fuck that guy.

Something is fishy for sure. When the head coach says "you will have to ask Terry about that" after the assistant resigns this wasn't a pleasant businesslike decision.

The reporting out there is that at a recent practice the Bucks team had a huddle and that during the huddle in front of everyone Griffin told the assistant coaches he wanted to talk to them separately immediately after the whole team huddled.

After the full team huddle broke, Stotts ignored the request and went off to talk to Dame and Giannis. Stotts could have just called out to Dame and Giannis that he wanted to talk them before they left and then gone into the huddle. Instead, he was showing the whole team that he was the one who had Giannis and Dame's ear. Griffin couldn't let that ride and yelled at Stotts to come over to the conversation that Griffin had already asked him to join.

Stotts could have de-escalated this by just saying he was just trying to catch Giannis and Dame before they left to ask them to hang around a couple of minutes and then come over. Instead, he got pissed off that he was being shown he was not above the other assistants and he was implying that Griffin wasn't completely in charge.

I think they lucked out that Stotts left on his own (if that's really true). The first time they had a short losing streak during the year you could imagine Stotts encouraging a coup against Griffin. Stotts was in Milwaukee as an assistant to George Karl. I'm guessing he wouldn't have ever thought to ignore George Karl in the same way.

That sounds totally plausible and if true better to weed that out before it becomes a problem.

@Goldie posted:

Terry Stotts Resigns From Bucks’ Staff Cause He Hates Damian Lillard

https://l.smartnews.com/p-7tqcG/mTRRL4

You're going to have to C/P that article because I'm not installing another app on my phone to read it.

EDIT: Nevermind, I found it elsewhere

So now what? How do we get a replacement Assistant this close to the regular season after all the off season moves have been already made? Seems like anybody remotely good has already been hired. Might be slim pickens.

They could take Gard?

Joe Barry?

The scuttlebutt from Frank Madden on Locked on Bucks is that he believes Terry Stotts and Joe Prunty were at each others throats.  Prunty apparently has some history of being difficult to work with so I’m more likely to believe that than Stotts “hating” Lillard.   Let’s also not forget that Stotts didn’t exactly have a great exit from Portland.   I’m sure as a former head coach (versus Griffin as a newbie) may have caused some strife as well in terms of control and authority.

All I know is Lillard looked fantastic versus Memphis last night.   Both he and Giannis abused Jaren Jackson and the interior defense of a pretty good Memphis team.  Beauchamp also looked really good on both ends of the court.  

The one thing I’ll say is the difference between Holiday and Lillard offensively and simply as a PG is pretty substantial.  Dame operates at a much different pace and the amount of pressure he puts on the defense isn’t even comparable to Holiday.   His ability to break down defenders off the dribble and hit 30 foot jumpers is crazy. In a half court set Jrue would try to post up or back down his defender and it disrupted the flow of the entire offense.  Dame is always facing and moving forward and his vision and decisiveness and quickness is pretty incredible.   You play off of him and he’ll drop a 3 point bomb on you.  You get up on him and he will go past or around you and either take it to the hoop or kick it out to an open shooter.  

@Tschmack posted:

The scuttlebutt from Frank Madden on Locked on Bucks is that he believes Terry Stotts and Joe Prunty were at each others throats.  Prunty apparently has some history of being difficult to work with so I’m more likely to believe that than Stotts “hating” Lillard.   Let’s also not forget that Stotts didn’t exactly have a great exit from Portland.   I’m sure as a former head coach (versus Griffin as a newbie) may have caused some strife as well in terms of control and authority.

All I know is Lillard looked fantastic versus Memphis last night.   Both he and Giannis abused Jaren Jackson and the interior defense of a pretty good Memphis team.  Beauchamp also looked really good on both ends of the court.  

The one thing I’ll say is the difference between Holiday and Lillard offensively and simply as a PG is pretty substantial.  Dame operates at a much different pace and the amount of pressure he puts on the defense isn’t even comparable to Holiday.   His ability to break down defenders off the dribble and hit 30 foot jumpers is crazy. In a half court set Jrue would try to post up or back down his defender and it disrupted the flow of the entire offense.  Dame is always facing and moving forward and his vision and decisiveness and quickness is pretty incredible.   You play off of him and he’ll drop a 3 point bomb on you.  You get up on him and he will go past or around you and either take it to the hoop or kick it out to an open shooter.  

Good post.

I love Holiday, but as you say, Holiday's offense was based on isolating on a smaller player and then physically backing him down into the paint and getting to the rim. It was either that or step back 3. There was no mid-range game.

He was the same as Eric Bledsoe (without the step back 3s). The problem is that the guys you can back down into the paint at their size don't play minutes as you advance in the playoffs. And once Holiday got doubled in the post, he wasn't a great distributor.

Dame is a top 75 NBA player all-time for a reason. He's 90% of Steph Curry at the 3 point line and he's much quicker on the move. I'd say the best comp is that's he's Isiah Thomas (80s Pistons) with a top 5 all-time 3 point shot. He's not as good off the ball (Steph is probably the best player I've ever seen getting open without the ball).

The question will be whether Dame can hold up on defense especially when he's playing with Beasley or Connaughton. Ironically, the type of player they need to pair with his is Jrue Holiday (a premier defender with just enough offense to keep defenses semi-honest).

Best case scenario is Beauchamp becomes the 2 guard as he could be a disruptive defender.  His shot needs some work, but he’s gotten stronger and doesn’t appear to have as many issues finishing near the rim.

If I had to guess they will have Beasley start the season.  He’s been solid offensively and when they want more D and rebounding my guess is Pat C and Beauchamp may get some minutes at the 2.