The NBA Thread

[HarVeeGee13]

It's a hard matchup. They gave us fits in the regular season. I think the Spurs are a lot better now, but I think OG is the most effective defender on Wemby in the league.

I don't think the Knicks playoff run is just crap opposition, I think they're a championship level team. Would have beaten the 2023 Nuggets, 2021 Bucks, 2019 Raptors, and I think it's a coin flip vs the 2022 Warriors, 2020 Lakers. A similar team in a lot of ways to the 2024 Celtics but with a better coach and a true closer.

I think you're underestimating Brunson, I think he gets underrated because yeah defensive limitations, but he's one of the most scheme/coverage-immune offensive players in the league. Whatever you throw at him he's got an adjustment, I think because he's always had to work hard for his offence instead of rely on just one OP trait. Great on ball, great off ball, great within the flow of a team offence, great taking over and going iso into a middy or pull up 3. I'm kind of scared of him tbh. People seem to gloss over this but I'm pretty sure he averages more PPG on better efficiency than Shai in the playoffs since he got to New York vs Shai since returned to the playoffs after they tanked.

Robinson caused problems because one of the Spurs few weaknesses is vs teams that crash the offensive boards, so if their offence stalls they absolutely just have the option of taking contested jumpers and crashing the boards and possessionmaxxing their way to good offence.

I legit think it's a coin flip. Have so much respect for this Knicks team & we forget that 2 years ago a team construction of five very good to great players + a few impactful bench role players let the Celtics cruise to a title, after which people were talking dynasty. I don't think that team construction suddenly became less effective because the 2025 finals was a matchup between two teams which rolled 10+ deep.

In the conference finals, 3 Spurs wins were: Wemby playing out of his mind, Vassell consistent, and then one or both of Harper & Castle having a hugely impactful game. A lot of the other guys really struggled in the first 6 games. Wemby had 4 average games (by his standards), and out of those, only in game 7 did you get Champagnie, Fox & Keldon all having really good games. It's been glossed over but Wemby had one shot attempt zero rebounds in the fourth quarter of game 7 - he was completely bushwhacked and his role just became protecting the paint and drawing doubles. His guys got it done for him. I think in the finals, the Spurs will need two games like this from the supporting cast. Not one.

Also: More Harper minutes plz. It's crazy to me he's not getting over 30.

 

[HarVeeGee13]

Haha yeah I don't want to go the early crow - I hated him in the draft and thought he was gonna bust, and I very often have take lock with these sorts of things, reluctant to give up my bias even though he's clearly been a good NBA player - but yeah I think he's just a role player. A handy, unique one, but way closer to like a Myles Turner with some sliders adjusted than the "white KD + perennial all defensive player" he was hyped as.

And yeah that's a dilemma for them. Being the 2nd draft pick who has panned out as a good player almost guarantees it's gonna be very hard to keep him on significantly less than a max. Look at the bag Jalen Green, who arguably isn't even good, got.

And you could very likely get a huge haul for trading him, and keep churning through draft picks. They'd be able to keep all of Dort, Wallace, Joe & whoever else they like who isn't in the rotation yet, plus they'd be able to keep bringing in new young Cason Wallaces and Lu Dorts. And they looked like contenders without him too. It's been very funny to me listening to pundits talk about how good the Thunder were "when they didn't even have Chet in the lineup" - honestly I think he's at most their fifth best & most important player right now. Dort and Caruso impact winning more. Advanced stats point to Hartenstein being a better player too. But that shows the regard he's held in, and it's inflated by the draft hype.

Shai, JDub & 5-6 very good role players is an every year contender for about 8 years. Shai, JDub, Chet and a handful of average to poor role players? I don't know that that's still a contender.

Haha here’s my Chet take from a year ago, feel like I owe an apology to Myles Turner!

Hot take I don’t think Chet’s defence is actually that good, it’s elevated by system/situation. How often does he just get bumped out of the way around the rim?

For me Cason Wallace is actually their best defender and he’s the guy they should be trying hardest to cling onto.

The actual “second best defender in the league” after Wemby is not Chet. I would say it’s either Mobley, Anunoby or Ausar Thompson.