It seems like an obvious answer from recent history is the 76ers getting beaten by the Hawks when Simmons passed up the dunk. I know he’s been hurt, but… It seems like if he dunks it and the 76ers start rolling, he might not get stuck in a bad mental spot and the NBA might look a little different now (especially if he’d kept playing and stayed under the supervision of a training staff, then he doesn’t get traded, etc…).

Fultz is the only one who’s not currently on the Pistons?

Get ready to learn Detroit-anese buddy…

I don’t even think that their performance would’ve been such massive surprise to me if Amen or Cam or another one of the young athletes were playing a surprisingly large role, but… It’s a bunch of guys who are known quantities… the only difference is they’re now operating within Udoka’s system.

I really wasn’t expecting Houston to get so much juice out of Sengun, Brooks and FVV this year… I thought Jabari or Green might make a leap, but… I still wasn’t expecting to see them in the playoffs, but that’s definitely the way they’re trending at this point… Double digits on the Nuggets?!?

He “could care less”… So… he cares at least a little… Sounds like a win for Giddey!.. He might need to hold onto any win he can get in the next couple months.

At least a portion of it comes from the idea that the Thunder’s additional picks and longer timeline (because they’re so much younger) will give them additional optionality… Whether they have to draft replacements for some of their guys that get too expensive, or push those picks in for a disgruntled star, they can do that. The wolves have fewer options in that regard, and Gobert has a bunch of miles on his legs and is on the wrong side of 30.

It seems short-sighted to diminish a guy’s legacy because the people around him weren’t as good as the people on other teams. I think rings are probably the least precise way to measure how good someone is at basketball.

I remember last year around this time when I was starting to feel pretty convinced that Zion was unstoppable, the Pels were headed for a deep playoff run and the Lakers were going to ship them a really good draft pick… Lots can change between now and the end of the season.

You should pick at least one bet that’s got super low odds of hitting but… if you’re right, you’ll win a crazy amount… I don’t know what betting odds are right now, but… Something that’s A real lotto ticket… Like… Portland Trail Blazers center Duop Reath winning the scoring title and/or getting his name used in a star wars movie…

Hmm… If you have time to slow play it a bit… Maybe you could just hover around the sub and watch highlights for a while. If you take a month or two, you’ll organically get an idea of the reputations of the teams (the coach for SA is highly-regarded, Wemby is going through his first NBA learning curve, the team has a history of good luck in the draft and thoughtful roster construction, etc…). If you find yourself looking forward to a group of highlights for a team, you can always adopt them after a little bit, and then you don’t have to worry about getting too attached to a team that doesn’t really produce the most opportunities for you to have a satisfying spectating experience.

It’s pretty crazy that 2 years ago his contract was considered an unmovable albatross, and it’s increasingly looking like a bargain.

Those undrafted-dude’s-gonna-ball-out vibes apparently traveled north with Max Strus…

He looks so good.

Hey Magic fans… Goga Bitadze is your highest ranked player at 33 right now… I haven’t had a chance to watch one of your games this season, but… Does that match the eye test?

Spot on. They should’ve given Kornet that 300 million, just the advanced metrics suggest.

Pretty sure the only way the Warriors are going to get off of Klay and get one of those players back is if they package him with Curry and send picks.

They might be able to talk Chicago into three team deal where they send out Klay and picks for Lavine or Derozan, but… There’s a low probability that Chicago’s going to be able to use Klay, so there’s going to have to be a pretty solid sweetner with their picks to make that work. Lavine kinda fits a bit better on their timeline too, so that might be possible.

Wembustyama’s never gonna make it back on here again!

Nah… The spurs haven’t been playing so well, and the teams they’ve been playing against saw what he was doing in the first few games and adjusted… I’d be really surprised if there weren’t a few cycles of [opponents adjust to counter new player’s strengths -> player finds way around adjustments or other ways to emphasize strengths -> opponents adjust] for every rookie…

This wasn’t really the way I expected the Pistons to look this season. Duren’s rise and Cade’s return had stirred some hope…

I feel like it’s way too early to call Cade a bust.

The winner of the tournament automatically gets home court advantage for all their playoff matchups.

Going into the season, Ausar’s shot seemed to be a little less hitch-y than Amen’s… Amen seemed to have gained a reputation as a better athlete… Now that the season has started, it’s easy to see that Ausar is an absolutely exceptional athlete as well, so… I guess once Amen gets healthy, it’ll be interesting to see if his shot can get cleaned up. I’m reserving judgment at this point, but… Ausar looks pretty ridiculous!