AROUND the NBA: Jokic Wins 3rd MVP in 4 Years

[SleepingHero]

@dimealerts
Steve Kerr says Andrew Wiggins is dealing with a personal matter, per
@WillardAndDibs
.

“We do expect him to be back but we just don’t exactly know when.”

[MarkAguirreWrathofGod]

https://twitter.com/statmuse/status/1762710386636124289


This is what the 2nd youngest team in the league is doing.

Great coach. And have been one of the healthiest teams in the league I would have to imagine. Can’t remember any of their main rotation guys missing time. SGA is great but the talk of him for MVP over Luka is lunacy. I almost want to see it happen just to watch the Luka playoff revenge tour. I would love to see OkC in round 1. I think we would dispatch of them in 6 games.

[SleepingHero]

@dimealerts
Steve Kerr says Andrew Wiggins is dealing with a personal matter, per
@WillardAndDibs
.

“We do expect him to be back but we just don’t exactly know when.”

I hope whatever is bothering Wiggins he overcomes and can deal with it. With that said, it's absolutely inexcusable to me that a guy making over $300,000 a WEEK is having issue working 6 months out of the year. 

I am not trying to discount his experiences and whatever he's dealing with, but at some point you have an obligation and are being paid an incredible (literal mind bending) amount of money a week to do said obligation.

[SleepingHero]

https://x.com/sixfivelando/status/176302...94022?s=46&t=Fmdr94oXagcEyy75KJqaFg

For all the shit we give Josh Green about not shooting, at least he's never been this bad.

[omahen]

Great coach. And have been one of the healthiest teams in the league I would have to imagine. Can’t remember any of their main rotation guys missing time. SGA is great but the talk of him for MVP over Luka is lunacy. I almost want to see it happen just to watch the Luka playoff revenge tour. I would love to see OkC in round 1. I think we would dispatch of them in 6 games.

Very good post. OKC found a great coach and his work was noticed also in previous seasons, always overperforming expectations. Kind of like Utah. 

Also very true they have been healthy. I think it is very underrated how much of an impact that has. Looking at top of the standings, Minny, OKC, Denver and LAC have all been reasonably healthy this season. The only real exception is Cleveland, which were playing great even with half of their starting unit injured.

[omahen]

Very fair of Indy to give same treatment to all West teams battling for playoff spots. Defeated NOP tonight. Sacramento lost to Denver and fell behind Mavs in standings.

There are still plenty of games left, but it might be that Denver and LAC finish 3rd and fourth in the West. I am not really sure being 5th or 6th is really so great within those circumstances. I would rather play OKC or Minny than those teams.

[omahen]

Phoenix has a very rare 4 days between two games. Not sure Mavs ever had that luxury this season. They have next two games against Houston and lets hope Houston wins at least one of them. They have OKC immediately after Houston in a second leg of the B2B

[Halfnir]

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/3960...e-too-good

The NBA is looking for ways to curb scoring.

Funny that the obvious measures are not even mentioned ...

- Start calling travels and carrying strictly as per FIBA rules. If the refs can't do it, invest in better referees. Makes it way too easy for the dribbling player to beat their defender. In many of the NBA slow-mo highlight reels you will spot a violation.
- Get rid of defensive 3s (again, use FIBA rules)

[bodhisattva]

Boys I know play-in is a risk, but if OKC finishes second, I would rather see Mavs finish 7th.
I think they are Memphis type pretender from last year and Mavs would match up good with them. Out of all top seeds in the west my favourite choice would be OKC.

[SleepingHero]

Funny that the obvious measures are not even mentioned ...

- Start calling travels and carrying strictly as per FIBA rules. If the refs can't do it, invest in better referees. Makes it way too easy for the dribbling player to beat their defender. In many of the NBA slow-mo highlight reels you will spot a violation.
- Get rid of defensive 3s (again, use FIBA rules)

I can't imagine how impossible it would be to score against the Spurs with Wemby sitting in the paint with no defensive 3 seconds.

[omahen]

I can't imagine how impossible it would be to score against the Spurs with Wemby sitting in the paint with no defensive 3 seconds.

Definitely more difficult

However, as the article also pointed out, modern basketball and scoring has evolved mainly because players have vastly improved their skills. Players are more athletic, can shoot better and have higher level of skills. It is especially relevant that bigs have also evolved. Non shooting strong centers are becoming more and more obsolete and relatively easy to exploit in the playoffs. Modern player is tall, athletic, can move his feet and we see more and more of those guys that can also shoot the ball at least averagely if not better. 

In this regard, standing in the paint wouldn't really help, as that guy would be exploited with 5 out lineups. Same way Gobert has always been much less impactful in the past, when it came to playoffs. I don't think the real limitation of modern NBA basketball is the defensive 3 seconds. I think it is the much improved spacing. Of course not every team can afford to have 5 out lineups (number of shooting bigs still limited) and such tactics could help during regular season. But less each year, imho, when more and more tall guys that can shoot will enter the league

[HoosierDaddyKidd]

Boys I know play-in is a risk, but if OKC finishes second, I would rather see Mavs finish 7th.
I think they are Memphis type pretender from last year and Mavs would match up good with them. Out of all top seeds in the west my favourite choice would be OKC.

Glad you feel confident that they would beat them. I'm not so sure. Kidd can be outcoached, and I consider Daigneault to be better.  Dallas defense isn't good enough to put the clamps on teams that are younger, better and more athletic. Dallas has two of the best scorers in the game, no question. What Luka is doing is insane, but I worry about fatigue and injuries with him and Kyrie. But for them to perform at a high level every game just to give them a chance to win, is asking a lot.  But what happens when they don't get help from the bench, which happens often?  You need balanced scoring to consistently beat good teams.  Now if you're playing the lack of experience game, that may be justified. But sometimes, talented young teams don't know or don't care they aren't good enough to win games they're not supposed to.

[StrandedOnBeauboisHill]

You get the privilege of trying to jockey for seeding if you’re in the top 4, the play in has taken that away from the bottom 4. The idea of trying to get the 7th seed is an insane thought with the current set up. You simply don’t risk your ticket to the dance.

[RGP1981]

Boys I know play-in is a risk, but if OKC finishes second, I would rather see Mavs finish 7th.
I think they are Memphis type pretender from last year and Mavs would match up good with them. Out of all top seeds in the west my favourite choice would be OKC.

8th is more preferable IMO.

1st round vs Minnesota
2nd round vs Clippers-Suns?
WCF vs Nuggets?

[SleepingHero]

I just want to avoid the play in and the clippers. Give me whoever else.

[SwisherPrice]

Cavs lost to the Bulls and Max Strus shot poorly...just like in the previous 8 games before he played the Mavs 

[KillerLeft]

I just want to avoid the play in and the clippers. Give me whoever else.

This. I can understand a difference in preference about teams to face, but you have to avoid the play-in, if you can.

[HoosierDaddyKid]

Cavs lost to the Bulls and Max Strus shot poorly...just like in the previous 8 games before he played the Mavs 

Shit happens, that's the NBA. Pacers lost at home to Raptors after beating the Mavs. Mavs just beat Raptors. Cavs lose to the Bulls, after the Bulls lose at home to Detroit.

[HoosierDaddyKidd]

https://twitter.com/WolvesRadio/status/1...9805143076

How dominant has the T-Wolves' defense been?

[RGP1981]

I just want to avoid the play in and the clippers. Give me whoever else.

And give up the opportunity of being the 1st play-in team who wins the chip? Where's your sense of adventure, SleepyHero?