Ooph, that’d require a very specific definition of “play”. I’d say it’s probably about 1.12 per play over the last 5 years, which I’m pretty sure must easily the highest anyone ever had for isolation plays defined this way (with high volume), but overall around average scoring in NBA over those years.

I mean it is true that Spurs suck and OKC rocks, but since when did people care about that lol.

In 2003-04, the best score among rookies was Josh Howard (tbh probably the only rookie that season who was kinda winning in any way). LeBron was close to the bottom.

Last season, the winningest rookie was Christian Koloko, with a ridiculous +9 per 100 net rating in his bench episodes for average Raptors. He actually led all rookies in total score by a lot, even though he played like 13 minutes a game lol. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him mentioned.

I think scores are interesting personally, it’s the goal of the game after all (for some), but since when did anybody else care that much lol.

Their lineup with Booker, Gordon, Grayson Allen and Nurkić looks so good so far that maybe the answer is “nothing” lol. This team is already cooking with 50 million in street clothes.

I am very Beal-sceptical but I can’t say more about Beal on Suns without actually Beal playing on Suns, so we’ll see.

I wouldn’t say they were deeper than many other good teams at all. They were such a big minus without Curry and Draymond on court, and only average with Curry but no Draymond. We’ve seen teams winning much more points with their depth. NBA stats say their bench net rating was just +2 per 100. And that’s not really due to very deep depth, mostly due to Iguodala being bench technically and Iguodala+starters lineups being absolutely historically phenomenally strong.

It was amazing because they won so many close games to get there. A few of them seemed impossible and they still got the W. It made their every game a big event.

It’s almost sad to me that sometimes you get these teams that it seems like nothing can stop them, but one playoff loss turns it into actually a bad memory in NBA culture. 2007 Mavs had a similar vibe. 2002 Kings felt close to that. Beside 2000 Lakers and 2013 Heat, those were maybe the most “they will will it to win… it just feels nothing can stop them” seasons I can remember.

2012 Lakers for sure.

Pass-first, super-smart point guard who’s also one of the best distance shooters of the era.

Shooting guard that shoots a lot, is a MJ-like superstar and is allegedly one of the best defenders ever one-on-one.

Small forward who is versatile, was a first option in a middling team but “doesn’t need the ball”, shoots 40% from three, and is famous for being one of the top defenders.

Power forward who is tall as fuck but also stretches the floor, has a silky touch, post game, very good passer for a 7-footer, class.

Center that is very big, strong, best defender of the generation allegedly, will dunk forever for any amount of points but doesn’t “need the ball” too much.

It’s just… so exactly like people imagine it. Fans of 5 archetype positions must have creamed watching them.

I’m absolutely loving this season and perhaps the most the Clippers. But sadly, it will not make anyone think twice the next time they say “of course if you put this ppg guy and that ppg guy then they obviously win 65 games if healthy, that’s basketball knowledge duh”.

I’m just talking about the facts about MVP, zero opinion. Someone gets voted MVP or not, we know for what, and that’s it.

Durant had results, that’s it, also a fact. For his two first seasons he did not, he was super talented and hyped but overall his play did not make the team overall better, but after that he was. And what a surprise, because of that in 2009-10 season he went from zero MVP votes to 2nd in the voting, because the voters just look at it, it’s not a comment on anything, it’s just what happens, I didn’t want to connect it to anything else.

Hard to say for me really. Football is definitely popular. People just don’t go in as big amounts as in football countries, relatively to the country’s whole population. The only country I found with a lower number among the ones I checked was Ireland, but Ireland definitely has other sports they prefer, in Poland football is definitely the most popular sport overall.

What I can say is that in Germany football is considered way more inclusive entertainment, more people think it’s just a nice way to spend time with your family, “normal” people go to games. In Poland going to games is more associated with being a hooli, an ultra, and most middle-class people really despise the idea. I can say my family would definitely never go to a football game, and tbh even avoid going out on the time of the game to not meet the fans on the street to avoid unpleasantries. Also basically all my friends (middle class) despise football and football fans and think it’s an entertainment for simpletons and would never go to a game. The general popular opinion in this class is that footballers are overpaid lazy do-nothings who are all very bad at their job, and the fans are lowlife who will beat someone up.

I can also say that my hometown club has a stadium of 40 000, which is just too big in general. It was built for Euro 2012, in hopes that the culture will catch up to the facilities. The average last season was 10 thousand people, when they were battling relegation. This season, inexplicably, they keep winning games and lead the league, and the stadium is suddenly full.

Doncić is the next Anthony Davis in the sense that he’ll spend first 10 years of his career as yearly being the first favorite to win MVP and never get really that close lol.

“Portugal outside of Big 3” is really pretty small business lol. The 2nd tier of the Polish leauge also has more attendance than that, and Poland is among the European countries with fewest people going to football games per capita.

The “Big 3” is more than 60% of attendance of whole Primeira Liga.

I didn’t even notice that Wizards have such a nice plus score when Poole is not playing. A good sign for the team.

Lakers are outscored by a ton this season when Davis plays without LeBron on court. I’d say one nightmare matchup in the league is far from the main issue here. Davis will just always need a specific, kinda-hard to get combination of players around, when Jokić needs guys that are easier to come by. Their skills when they stand next to each other are not some main problem for Lakers in my feel.

He sucks, although it is a bit funny that with Ayton people always repeat obsessively “he’s not a bust 1st pick, he has 17 points per game, that’s great career duh!!!”, and the same with some other guys, while with Jordan Poole the ppg does nothing to save him lol.

Same with Wiseman btw. Warriors are like a death’s kiss in that regard, maybe it’s actually bad to play in a team that people actually watch.

It definitely was. The other three series were mainly “competitive” due to bench minutes, if you only count starters’ score then Denver was basically dominating them all completely. With Wolves the starters were much much closer and Nuggets’ bench did more to keep the score. That series’ 1-4 was decided in bigger part by minutes of Kyle Anderson, Taurean Prince and Jaylen Nowell than Gobert and Edwards.

Ah, the daily “he’s not a bust, he just [the dictionary definition of a bust]”.

Matt Bonner used to be a cult icon but also actually a key role player at one point, showing the frightening value of a big who shoots. I saw his name today and was like “oh yeah, Matt Bonner existed”.

I can’t wait until the guy hears about what every other job looks like.

Why does that stat called “free throw rate” so thouroughly disparage the talented guard???

I dunno, because he gets few free throws?

I’m really over all this NBA culture thing to treat “stats” like they’re protagonists of some fascinating story.

Chris Paul is very useful. He’s a plus with starters and a plus as the bench leader, Warriors have the best bench net rating in like forever.

Listing his “filling the boxscore” as an argument is pointless. If Warriors were thinking like that, they would have traded Draymond Green for a Zach LaVine a long time ago, and Kevon Looney for a Norman Powell or whatever.

We all know Klay Thompson is not worth the money he is making currently. But continuity apparently makes the team happy and with a feeling of purpose and class and prestige, and the possibilities of what they’d get in return are not so great anyway.