Topic: American Sports

@Ravix Lol, ah man, yeah I got side tracked and then forgot to post some reactions but… wow, what a game! It didn’t have quite the nail-biting back-and-forth of game 1, but it had all the drama, excitement, and energy that we could hope for. Also, it helps that it ended with the outcome of a Spurs win, but it was just a good game regardless. There were still a couple really questionable calls that OKC got, but props to SA for just pushing through (although Castle almost lost it when Caruso basically did a UFC Jujitsu take down on that one fast break. I think it was Harper who held him back and kept him from reacting for a possible tech). I was so impressed with their poise for such a young team.

I do think the “flopper” comments and reactions really got into SGA’s head. He had a good enough game though, but there were times when he didn’t quite look as comfortable out there as he should, being the 2-time MVP. But Chet was the absolute worst about not showing up. Good grief, that was a bad game from him.

And how about Kornet going down forever in Spurs lore with that crazy block on Hartenstein! That was lowkey the play of the game, honestly. The Thunder were making a late game surge and that dunk would have got them to like within 3 or 4 in the closing minutes but the block then the SA bucket basically put the game on ice. I figured you were beaming with pride at your boy Kornet in that moment. 😄

I think we’ve got a really good finals coming. I’m pulling for the Spurs, but Knicks look really tough. I’m really anxious to see the NY offense against the SA defense. It could be epic.

@Th3solution great reaction, and yeah summed it up pretty much perfectly. I do think Shai started to try and not flop as much in some games after it became obvious that is his natural game, and it made him look awkward as hell, as I mentioned before, I think. Of course he was also trying to be their only real threat with no help from their number 2. It kind of showed their squad maybe isn't as unbeatable as people made out, too. And is Jaylen W's injury and recurring problem now? Thigh/hamstring can be a bi*** if it keeps failing (I believe that was his issue?)

Kornet is just a guy everyone likes, so it was good to see him have his moment. (Did I hear his new nickname he gave himself is "Non-Wemby Minutes" he has a great outlook and sense of humour 😅) The timing of that play was perfect on the fast break denial. And a pivotal moment, as you say. He also had the nuns who attend SA games (yeah, me either?) Bless him before one game

I think NY have Mitchell Robinson missing with a mystery non-basketball hand injury, too! Could be pivotal in the big positions. Although maybe he punched a wall on purpose so he doesn't have to get hacked in the final and miss free-throws on the biggest stage as it really gets in his head (that's my conspiracy for today)

Should be a good match up, eiher way. And interesting to the see the rest/rust vs playoff intensity/emotionally drained type matchup with NY sitting around and SA being battle ready but having spent a lot of energy.

Do you have any predictions at this point? I assume you still want SA to win. But it is a hard game to call because of all these factors that could go either way.

Match-up wise I have no idea on Kat vs Wemby. Kat is obviously stronger physically when he goes downhill, but he is also clumsy and fouls way too much. So, personally, I'd target Kat to draw foul trouble and then leave NY with the third-string big for most of the game and take away a big threat.

@Ravix Yeah, I think J Dub’s injury is hamstring and I doubt it will be a lingering problem, but he clearly came back too soon and those things just take time and it was not in the cards for him. Ajay Mitchell’s injury sounded less serious but still not something he could play effectively with. I suspect they’ll both be back next year, but it will be very interesting to see what the team does — whether to run the same team out there again next year and blame untimely injuries, or rather try tweaking the roster. If I’m not mistaken Mitchell is due a new contract, so I see them letting him go. They have tons of money tied up in their big 3, and need to shed some salaries. I think Hartenstein is also rumored to be let go this offseason or next. They have two first round draft picks so I guess they’ll load up with youth again, but there’s never a guarantee those will work out.

As for the finals, it might be recency bias but it’s hard for me to see NY beating SA. But what do I know because I predicted OKC to win it all. 😅 It’s just that I do think Wemby will neutralize KAT. And I think the combination army of young energetic guards, led by Castle and Harper, will give Brunson fits defensively. I’m sure Brunson will get his points, but like what they did to SGA, it will wear on him and he might have a couple games where he has to rely on his role players. I haven’t watched much of the Knicks this season, so I’m just pulling this out of thin air, but I’m leaning toward the Spurs in 7. I do predict some rust to affect NY in the first game. What do you think?

Welp, so much for what I know. San Antonio looked pretty poor tonight. I didn’t see anything showing me they are ready to win the championship. In classic fan overreaction mode now, but it’s over. Knicks in 5. 😛

@Th3solution I keep telling you NY's team should be expected to be winning everything (on paper) I don't even think Mikal Bridges did much and they still looked strong enough. OG didn't even play great for long stretches but then went nuts when needed, same as Brunson.

That is the worrying thing, NY did not hit top gear or anywhere near it, this was a warm-up 😭

I'm hoping SA play out-of-their-skins, though because I want to see the young guys win it all at the first attempt.

Anything can happen, SA can clearly win 4 games vs NY, but they will have to play absolutely great basketball for 6 games to do that, now. Absolutely no off-days, as NY will still be able to win 2 vs a great SA performance, imo by themselves stepping-up.

Thankfully NY can sh** the bed out of nowhere as good as anyone (they are due at this point) but it needs to come from KAT in foul trouble and crying about it, and Brunson doubled out of the game, while OG, Mikal and the bench shooters aren't shooting lights-out.

SA need to get the Nuns on the case!

@Ravix I do wonder how much difference the 14 games vs 18 games played makes, and more recently over the last two rounds — 8 games played vs 13. Spurs looked a bit gassed, especially toward the end. They came out on fire but quickly faded after the adrenaline wore off and seemed to not have nearly as much in the tank. I didn’t see the scrappy, scrambling intensity that they showed versus the Thunder and Twolves.

And here’s where the inexperience may come back to bite them. Knowing how to close out a playoff series is something that takes some maturity. Here’s hoping they reboot and come back better.

Yeah, it’s scary to see that KAT, Bridges, and OG didn’t even have their best showing, so it could get ugly. I was also disappointed that the crowd had quite a lot of Knicks fans for a SA home game.

@Ravix Did you catch game 3? I didn’t get to see all of it, but it turned out to be a really good one. Actually the whole series so far has been tight and competitive games. Hopefully the Commander-in-Chief keeps showing up to the NY games as it seemed to be a bad luck charm for the home team. 😂

@Th3solution I did, actually! Having missed most of game 1 and all of game 2. I picked a good one to see through, at least 😄

I always like to see NY in their own building as it adds needless pressure onto their own players as they hype everything up so much, and that seems to have been the case last night! I think SA do have a good plan on Brunson, too. OG was balling which is why it was close again, I guess. And I have no idea why KAT was just chilling after being dominant in the first 2. Maybe the pressure of home? Maybe they got a little shellshocked and forgot what was working? To me, it just seemed like normal, so I kind of rue not having seen KAT go beast mode in the other games, as it doesn't feel like it actually happened, to me 😅

I was going to say something about the orange one, but I won't. I'm sure he will post an AI video where he got the winning basket by dunking on a combination of people he is weirdly obsessed with. [Redacted]

@Ravix I…. Can’t…. Believe… this….
What a colossal collapse by the Spurs.
Definitely showed their youth tonight. They need to learn how to close out games. These blown leads are ridiculous.

@Th3solution oh dear, San Antonio. OG is going to be the finals MVP, or at least he should be. (It'll be Brunson 🫤)

I think we all know what went wrong there. SA kept taking threes that got worse and worse and acted more like turnovers and completely killed their momentum and no one recognised what was happening. Something I've seen many times at Boston. After Champagnie shot one within about 3 seconds of their offense initiating they should have all got given a slap and told not to get drawn into that type of game, and that is when I knew there was a potential.collapse coming. "But they were going in in the first half" is always the trap, but in the first half they were executing actual offense. Then, as it gets closer, you are out of rhythm and have no idea how to close the game out and start looking very stupid 😅 They looked so inexperienced at the end, didn't they? 😭

They could be 3-1 up, but they are 3-1 down. Oooooof.

Wemby's post game interview... okay, He is p****ed. He mentioned greediness being one problem that had cost them. Any chance he tries to get teammates traded that he thinks cost them the win (Fox) 😬 it feels like the kind of game that can ruin a team if they don't sort it out internally right away.

What was Fox doing? 😬 the guy with actual experience can't be playing like that and reading the game so badly. Double oooooof.

At least if was more sporting history 😂 The most threes in a finals 1st... oh, and the biggest collapse. Triple ooooof!

At what point did you see it coming? Or was it like "no, they can't... they'll eventually come good, again.... right?" I'm imagining an emotional roller coaster for you, but for me I was like, "oh, this is happenening then, oh well". seen it too many times in Green 🥺

@Th3solution to be fair, I think Kat tipped the inbound play and that is what messed it all up, Castle (I think) had got free and he has proven to be clutch most of the time, but the ball kind of fell with no pace on it and he had to scramble.

I think everyone expected the in-bound alley-oop though, because there is no basket interference on those inbounds and you'd think Wemby could finish over the rim even if he just stood still and jumped in that one spot while he is guarded, honestly.

Oh, that last shot was definitely Fox, too. Though it made him look like a very dumb rookie or someone who has never played actual competitive basketball before 😬😅 although I think he may have actually been fouled, but he made it a bang-bang play that means it relies on refs seeing it, rather than just waiting to be intentionally fouled. The layup os the weakest of choices if you are going to do that, too. Dunk it and get cleaned out if you really must score it. He was also terrible all-round making lazy plays in the clutch, so he deserves the spotlight 😅

Oh no, not football! Ah, who knows, I might successfully get into it this time around, though probably not. Who sre you following this year 👀

@Ravix Ah, I didn’t realize KAT tipped the ball on that inbound. And sure enough… that was Fox who screwed up that last possession. What a disappointment he has been. I really liked him at Sacramento, but he’s not making very good decisions out there when he needs to be the veteran leader.

As for NFL, I mostly follow the NFC and will be curious about Packers, Eagles, Saints, and then to see if Seattle can repeat.
I also am interested to see Las Vegas and how Mendoza adjusts to the NFL. And I always mix in some college football too, which I know you probably don’t really have much those teams. The college football playoffs were great last year though and with college, there’s always new teams that come out of nowhere to surprise, like Indiana did last year.

@Ravix Let the offseason begin!

Spurs definitely are just too young and inexperienced right now. They fell apart in the 4th quarter over and over in this series.

Kinda glad it’s over. It will be a crazy offseason with trades and draft.

@Th3solution yep, definitely inexperience cost them big. Here's what I wrote earlier 😛

i'm just going to write this mid-game. But the more I see of SA, the more I think they don't know how to use Kornet. He is an elite pick and roll/2 man game player, and they just stick him in the low-post and every so often flap a pass at him that he isn't expecting, or have him as an outside pivot (I don't know what it is called in basketball. It isn't just DHO's, it is kind of they throw him the ball and then expect a pass to the wing) and it kind of makes him look overly clumsy. This is a player who was 2nd only to Jokic/murray in the 2-man game with Tatum, and the SA guards just don't use him for that at all. Those Non-Wemby minutes could be so much more efficient if Castle or someone just played off the Kornet screen and roll. It would also extend Mitch Robinson more and force mismatches.

Hopefully they win the game, but it is just something I noticed the first half and it made me ponder why they haven't been doing that, or if they even know that is what he is elite at as a sub.

Dylan Harper is awesome, though! And I hope his bro Ron Harper Jr gets even more chances next year for Boston. They definitely have something about them, Dylan has more talent, yes, but I mean they clearly have great genes and a good basketball upbringing via their 5-time champion father 😅

And urgh, I keep seeing the Giannis rumours swelling. I thought they had died down for a while and that he would instead go to Miami 🤞 I don't know why but I just don't feel Giannis in Boston. We're not the Lakers. I can see all 3(?) Antetekounm-bros(?) in Miami (or Orlando) though. They can chill on the beach while needlessly filling extra roster spots.

Oops, looks like Wemby was too focused on the face-guard block out on Mitch instead of actually using his long arms to try and get the ball for a rebound off the free throw 🤦‍♂️

Not actually sure what went wrong this time as SA had a fairly consistent 10-point lead during the game but then I had to take the dog out and NY had got ahead once again.

I'm writing them off, but technically Castle just got the inbound put-back dunk. Brunson just nearly flopped into a backcourt violation 😬 (okay maybe a foul) but still.. it feels like it's done.

Oh, Booooo 😅 and that is that. Oh, well. NY by far the best overall healthy roster, looks like all they ever needed was a coach to play more than the 6 players in the playoffs, because now they can even win with KAT laying multiple eggs/being in foul trouble all the time.

Yeah, not sure a Tatum/Giannis 'super team' would be the best way to combat the Knicks.

I wonder if Josh Hart gave brunson the old congratulatory finger again 😅

So yeah, bring on the off-season, as you can tell my mind was already wandering during the game to various trade stuff. Hmm, I wonder if SA would take Brown for Harper, Kornet and Vassell 👀 if it has to be a trade, anyone but Giannis 😭

@Ravix I feel like some team is going to overpay for Giannis, and I don’t think it will be Boston. Who knows though. There’s several of these older and oft-injured big men which teams like to overpay for in the hopes they resurrect former dominance — Giannis is about to join the likes of Embiid, Anthony Davis, and KP. Dominant big men who can change the game are rare, but also might be a dwindling archetype. KAT was mostly a no-show for finals (although he had a great year) and NY was able to dominate with a 6’2” undersized ball-dominant point guard. Everyone has been trying to think about how to counter Wemby and finding the Wemby stopper, but maybe they need to just have a little muscle in the middle to push around the occasional Wemby or Jokic and then have an elite crafty point guard and a couple athletic wings to control the game and play good defense.

There’s not many centers in this years draft. Aday Mara is the main guy tempting everyone with his 7’3” frame and long reach, but he’s not very quick on his feet and I don’t think he’s much of a shooter. There’s several athletic guys that are around 6’10” and so it’ll be interesting how teams react to the need for not just a “Wemby stopper” but needing a “Brunson stopper” and an “SGA stopper”.

@Ravix So the Giannis drama has finally ended with the trade to Miami, and the first round of the draft is in the books. Your Celtics came away with a decent prospect in Cenac, really long center with decent upside. From what I can tell he should fit the mold for the Celtics brand of basketball.

The bigger issue is whether the bridges have been burned with J Brown after Boston openly tried to ship him for Giannis. It feels like the relationship of JB with the organization is under strain right now. I wonder if they will still end up having to trade him somewhere else if he’s not happy about being dangled as bait for the Greek Freak.

The rich got richer though in the draft, at least in the West. Both San Antonio and OKC got some really nice young players that they didn’t even really need. OKC ended up taking the 7’3” Mara and so it seems like a clear reaction to try to get another skyscraper to counter Wemby in the years to come. OKC also got a solid point guard Stirtz to add to the mix. SA picked up two more big men… as if they needed more! Quaintance and Reed, both big bruisers who play defense and hang out around the rim. The Spurs defense could possibly get even better. Crazy stuff. At least NY Knicks traded away their first round pick as clearly they don’t need anything to improve.

@Th3solution (oops, forgot to refresh as i've left this page open since last night having put a few thoughts down, and you already posted. Will read that now) NBA Draft. First off, we can all breathe a sigh of relief that Giannis and all of his brothers aren't coming to Boston. I've had some thoughts on what it will mean for Boston, but at the moment I think Brad Stevens will have to be making changes, and I think smaller deals rather than one big gamble will probably be a better outcome overall. He may still need to trade Brown, but who knows. But if they do, Brown for Giannis I feel would have been less favourable than Brown for multiple players/draft stock, and I can't imagine all the other moves they would have had to make if Giannis was acquired. It would have been cool to have been a fly on the wall, or to eventually find out what the plan would have been for other positions of need, though.

Weird observation, but based on highlight packages alone, my prediction is Keaton Wagler gets blocked a LOT in the NBA. Seems to have a really low release for jump shots and layups and something looked off, to me 🤷‍♂️ I am very tired when i'm writing this so don't hold me to it, if we even remember 😅 it was a bit of a random thought.

What do you make of the teams picks? Any surprises you think will outperform their pick number? Any question marks?

@Ravix Yeah, I do really wish I could be a fly on the wall during some of these negotiations. I wonder if teams just flat out lie to other teams in order to get what they want and screw each other over. There’s a certain level of trust they have to exercise when they’re doing all the crazy pick swapping and machinations to try to get their guy.

As far as the outcome so far, I think besides OKC and SA getting great prospects that they don’t really need (well… I understand they “need” them to use as replacements for more expensive veterans, but they don’t “need” more talent like the bottom feeders do), the winners coming out are the teams who got the top 4 picks, as those are the players which have more predictable upside. I think Dybantsa, Peterson, and Boozer will be duking it out for rookie of the year honors, along with maybe Acuff and Mikel Brown. Wagler at #5 did feel like a bit of a gamble for Clippers. His upside comparison is Haliburton, but I think you’re right about his game being a bit off, although people criticized Haliburton’s shooting release too. But it just seems strange that Wagler is like 6’5” and didn’t dunk the ball a single time all season. Who knows though. He might be great.

As far as who might outperform their pick number, I’m thinking Cameron Carr to the Lakers is one who should do well. The other I’m hearing is Karim Lopez to the Grizzlies. Those two guys went in the mid to late 20’s whereas some people had them in the top 10-15. Lopez is more of a project I think, but Carr seems like a dynamic slasher who will be getting lobs for dunks from Luka and open 3’s from his double teams. Another one is Labaron Philon who went around 22 and he had been projected in the top 15, and went to the 76ers. He’s a fast-playing walking bucket spark plug apparently. I think he’s just a bit small and skinny and so his draft stock dropped. It’s too bad he’s stuck on Phili though where he’ll have to share minutes between Edgecombe and Maxey and Grimes. Sometimes I think good players have mediocre careers simply because they aren’t in a good situation where they can shine within a team’s system.

One of my question marks is what Milwaukee is doing. Obviously they are in rebuild mode with trading Giannis, but they took Burries (seems solid but not spectacular) and Ament (has received a lot of criticism for underperforming to what the predicted potential is). Especially Ament feels very overrated and they spent a top 15 pick purely on potential upside that could take a few years to materialize, if at all.

We have round 2 tonight, although much less drama for it. After the first 10 or so selections it will be a bunch of dudes that are random and unlikely to ever play. Maybe there’s another Brunson or Jokic second round hidden gem somewhere. But 70% of the guys whose name is called tonight will never make it into a team’s rotation.

@Th3solution i'd imagine Milwauke would be bad for a year and then go for maybe 1 or 2 big-time free agents?

The more rumours build the more it seems Brown will be traded. Could all be nonense, but probably not. I think I managed to pull of a mock-trade as I was experimenting what could be done if Brown was to leave vs if he stayed, and I think there is a way to get Evan Mobley in a 3 team trade. I ended up with...

Point Guard: Davion Mitchell / Derrick White / Payton Pritchard /

Shooting Guard: Derrick White / Luke Kennard / Baylor Scheierman

Small Forward: Jayson Tatum / Jordan Walsh / Hugo González

Power Forward: Evan Mobley / Dean Wade / Jordan Walsh

Center: Neemias Queta / Evan Mobley / Luka Garza

There are some weaknesses, but the line-up would get way bigger, and be defensively sound using White and Mitchell and keeping Kennard as the new Hauser from the bench (or as a starter in name only) Then you just switch Pritchard in to the 4th Quarter line-up as they do anyway. And you have a few double-big options, too.

Of course, it was just random speculation of a way you could get Mobley. I think I used a third team, and boosted with free agency/a Hauser ttade. And I can't remember in all honesty how I did it, now. But Brown didn't end up in Cleveland.

But if the league wanted a new super-team San Antonio could use JB! And they have desirable players they could give up, but unlikely. I'd not mind Kornet back and Vassell. I'd love Dylan Harper but that isn't happening. And it would still mean we aren't super strong at PF/Center. Ideally if it is a Tatum Line-up you want either a top tier Center, or to have him start at small forward and thus whoever came in at PF/C it would probably make us a quite a tall team that doesn't give up rebounds or get pushed around inside.

Oh, I think I used SA and their picks and a couple of players for Clevelands haul to get them to trade Mobley, but that would require Cleveland to want to drop back for a year or so and use those picks. And then Hauser was traded which only works if Miami are mad and value his shooting/spacing for Giannis over a PG haha. And free agents were able to sign because of being under the luxury tax etc.

I do not envy GMs. And I may have used AI to assist me with the cap space/contracts etc hence it probably being nonsense 😅

The long and short of it is there are options to get multiple players which we would need to finally replace what we lost over the last few seasons.

The sad thing is Derrick White's name keeps popping up in rumours, but he should be untradable because who else is going to defend?! Haha. We have 2 real guarding Guards, and I don't think Scheierman alone would be able to handle everything 😭 And I think Mil wanted Schiereman and Hugo so i'm extra glad we didn't fall for that kind of overpaying for Giannis and need to find more defensive players out of nowhere.

Secretly I think JB is due an injury too. He has been struggling with a knee and thigh for 2 seasons, and obviously he played a lot this year 😬 I think we have a record of players we trade away getting injured, instantly too.

Players i'd not mind seeing here in some way or another: Mobley (obv) Harper (obv) Naz Reed, Norman Powell, Kornet return, Jrue Holiday return. Siakam? That'll do for now. I could see one or two of those actually happening because Portland and SA might be trade partners for something, and Minn definitely want White, but that would have to be some trade to lose such an integral part of our defensive identity and Reed isn't any use in that scenario as we'd need 2 new guards.

It does make me wonder about the fly on the wall thing again. I assume Joe and Brad have a meeting where they kind of rank who we could use to step up if trades come, and who we can't risk losing in all kinds of scenarios. Like: if we lost X can Y make up for it, or would we need to pivot to something else and maybe lose Z to get a new X and make up for Z in free agency whilst keeping Y in their current role.

Hopefully Bam falls out with Giannis... Bam i'd not mind in Boston if Tatum is going to be point forward in an overall taller team. Siakam would work for that, too but he is older. I do think our need for a center could actually be filled by a good Power Forward who can play center but has more value at PF. Queta and Mobley would be a good tall line-up with JT at SF/Point Forward.

Today's rumours is we want 4 picks worth for JB. So you could leverage two more trades and keep one pick with those, perhaps? I doubt we will be asking for picks to hold on to them all, that's for sure.