We’re about 20% of the way through the season now with most teams having played ~16 games. Do you have any hot takes so far on the season?
- Rockets will be a play-off team.
- OKC will have the home court advantage.
- Clippers and Memphis won’t make it to the play-offs.
- Lakers will finish in Top 2.
Two out of these four are true.
Clippers and Memphis won’t make it to the play-offs.
I think this is a good bet right now. The West is simply too deep and strong this year to recover if you dig yourself too big of a hole. The Clippers bad record has been bolstered by 5 games against the Blazers, Grizzlies and Spurs so far already (although they lost to Memphis), but their upcoming schedule for the next month is pretty brutal. They need to turn it around immediately or they could be in deep shit. And Memphis missing Ja along with all their injuries probably has just doomed them to a lost season this year.
Wemby is a bust
a rookie averaging 19p/9r/2a/1st/2,5b is a bust?
He came from a different world with all basketball eyes on him and his playing for a really bad team!! what more do you want him to do at 19y ?chef stats are 17p/8r/2a/1st/2,3b while playing on a good team on his “second” year
He certainly isn’t as good as everyone said he was.
Absurd media hype shouldn’t be what decides whether you’re a good player or not. As teenage rookies go, Wemby is playing really, really well.
Yeah maybe now. He’s a rook. Chet’s playing better but he benefits a ton playing with an mvp candidate. He gets tons of wide open looks especially from 3.
Wemby is shooting like a league worst percentage. And isn’t as dominant on defense as advertised cause he’s such a string bean.
Just looking at the duo itself, KD and Booker are the best duo in the league. They just don’t have the best supporting cast around them.
Tepid take
I know there are injuries but Grayson Allen is averaging 32.5 minutes, previous career high was 27.5
Grayson Allen has been good. What are we supposed to takeaway from your comment?
Casual Grayson Allen hater. Dude is a good role player.
Luka won’t be a top 5 PG by the end of the season
My take that Kidd would win coach of the year got me laughed out of /r/mavericks, but it’s reasonable at this point. I don’t think he wins it over Ime or Mosley, but he’s in the conversation.
Ime is totally the frontrunner. COTY is the most narrative driven award. Going from bottom feeder with Silas to one of the better teams on all measures when everyone expected them to be near the bottom is the narrative that the voters love
I think if we’re a top 6 seed, Ime should be a lock for COTY. If we’re in the play-in, maybe not a lock but it’ll be a tight race between Ime and Mosley, and given how the Celtics are looking, if Mazzulla can get those guys to over 60 wins, that’ll be hard to take the award away from him.
Finch gotta be up there if they maintain form.
Scottie Barnes is the best player in Toronto
Asked for hot takes not general knowledge. Happy to see SB shining though
Magic Knicks is your 2023 Eastern conference finals. I’m only half having a take here too.
Why are people so hyped up on Wembanyama as a perimeter scorer? He is absolutely an amazing rim protector and inside scorer, but why do people expect him to become KD or KP?
Because there are a lot of players that come in the league and have to improv their shooting. His shot looks good, he just isn’t dropping them right now.
My point is that he so far has been an atrocious outside scorer on virtually every level he has played on. While guys like KP or Durant were struggling early on in the NBA, they were outstanding shooters before coming to the league, so there was some kind of a track record already.
Some of that is the kinds of shots Wemby can even take compared to other bigs. His combination of fluidity, agility, and finesse let him take shots that players six-to-eight inches shorter usually try to master.
I’ve always seen these as nice-to-have skills to compliment a normal big man diet at the rim, but others feel he’ll master those shots and become virtually unguardable.
Chet will beat out Victor for ROTY
I don’t think that’s even a lukewarm take, let alone a hot take. Right now Chet is clearly playing better than Wemby is.
I made 3 bets this year. Chet RotY, Pacers season over and Magic season over.
Payday.
Wolves are legit. Same with OKC.
I’m gay.
That’s a cold take you twink.
Derrick White is and will continue to be a more valuable player than Jrue Holiday. Jrue is great but inefficient and DWhite is comparable defensively for the most part. J think the entire offense will be better when JT initiates more and everyone sort of settles in with actual sets and movement for lobs, cuts, etc. but I don’t know that Jrue will be as valuable because of his inability to be a catch and shoot threat. His ability to initiate off the dribble is good but the ball needs to be in Tatum’s hands more for those anyways because Jrue doesn’t really break down a defense w dribble penetration.
We still have no idea. We will either win the title or flame out in the play-in/ 1st round
SGA is better than Jayson Tatum and Luka.
I’d go with tatum. Wouldn’t go as far as luka though.
100% on board with him being better than Tatum. The Luka take is a spicy one.
Raptors will make playoffs.
This is honestly one of the hottest takes I see in this thread. I want to give em a chance and root for them from a distance since they’re kind of an underdog right now and I like some of their players and the system they seem to be headed towards, but it just seems futile realistically. I can’t imagine this squad doing anything more than just racking up some meaningless stats and having another play-in type of ~.500 season at best; they’re trying too much and there’s no guarantee of improvement (except for Barnes) - OG seems to be hitting his peak performance (which is really solid 3&D play) and Pascal is definitely at his peak which is really good but we’re talking ISOs and not great efficiency. I don’t see the Raps going anywhere meaningful from here.
Sad but true. I agree entirely.