Works fine for me JTM.

from the game thread

This is a really good read on the Wizards' issues: http://bballbreakdown.com/2016/11/29...button-in-d-c/

fantastic post with a picture-perfect response.

there was obv plenty of synergy previously. curry is one of the best offensive players ever, but the dubs wouldn't have had one of the best team offenses ever w/o having other great offensive weapons. they had (have) people who can handle playmaking responsibilities and another dead-eye shooter, which allowed curry to play off the ball a lot, thereby increasing his frequency of catch and shoot shots and the like. these were certainly always credits to the system. the woyas were plenty capable of good offense without curry and he benefited from the skills of klay, dray, etc.

at the same time you've noted it's the combination of ball handling and shooting that makes curry elite. if we think about classic curry or go back and review his scoring barrages there will be footage of him getting it done off ball, but we'll see him doing a lot of work off ball screens, isos (off switches), or just pulling up from wherever he felt like. as elite and pretty as the dubs offense looked, it didn't have a ton of scoring across the board. curry's combo of on/off ball skills made the machine go as you said, and i don't think durant's play thus far makes that any less true.


durant is thriving within the system, but it's a different offensive environment. dubs secondary offensive players were good as noted above, but now the defenses have to negotiate two elite scorers and three elite shooters. think the dubs have also made it relatively easy for durant to integrate, or as easy as it could be anyway. it's come at the expense of the production and play style for curry and dray in particular, but it makes sense for them to be the guys to adjust. as an org you should accommodate the player you courted and curry/dray have versatile enough skillsets to allow it.






agree w/him (them) working out the kinks, but i also think that if we contextualize his production with his modified role then the extent to which he is struggling is overblown. curry is still killing it offensively, but his game has lacked the eruptions we've come to expect. he's shooting a little worse, but not a lot worse, and it's largely due to role.



proportion of play off the ball is way up and his assertiveness is generally down. former point is expected with durant's addition. they can afford to play him off ball more than in the past, and should. quick look at his % of assisted buckets gives some insight-- 37% vs 50% on 2s last year to this year; 37% vs 55% on 3s. 2pt % is basically the same, down from ~45% to ~40% on 3s. i've seen some people say the 3pt shooting dip may be due to lack of rhythm. that seems plausible b/c the dip in his 3pt shooting looks to be completely from pull ups. earlier post noted he's shooting 29% on pull up 3s so far; he is shooting about the same as last year on catch and shoot attempts (48%). taking 2 fewer pull ups per game, so we are also not talking about that many shots. wouldn't write it off as variance though.

latter point regarding looking for his shot is more of a recent development i think; last 2-3 weeks. also coincides with the dip in 3pt shooting, but then the minutes are also down. rhythm or otherwise kerr should let him bring the ball up more, but it falls mostly on curry not to be overly deferential. imagine he still has the greenest light in the league even w/durant out there, but as of late it feels like he's trying to figure out how to get his looks while durant is rolling. don't want to go too nuts w/that narrative though as he is generally shooting a lot


also for the record, i do think durant has been the woyas best player, but in relation to curry that is mostly a function of defense where durant has been very good and curry has been poor.


also, curry's shooting is less of a concern than the turnovers. shooting is very likely to revert, whether it is noise or b/c he gets more comfortable. no reason for him to be having games with 4 or 5 turnovers with these lineups

*disclaimer there is that i have always thought kerr should run curry in a little more pnr, esp when teams are being physical off ball

Wolves have swept the Hawks two years in a row.

The Hawks stole a first rounder from them for an Adrien Payne, I think the Hawks still have their number

Top post on /r/NBA
https://streamable.com/whbe4

Hawt

Just a little grown man grabass

Aint nothin wrong with that.

Just a lil slap and tickle

We'll see if that pick ever conveys. Joke could be on them still.

As nice as Embiid is, Hinkie was awful as GM. Not only did he do a bad job at drafting, he hired a crappy coach and alienated agents/gms/players. Getting that absurd lakers pick and the sac pick are all well and good but those were deals offered to him and anyone could have clicked that button.

Fact is, **** the process; except for Embiid who is apparently that dude

Getting assets has always been relatively easy if you're willing to lose games in the short run, turning assets into a contending team is always the hard part

If it's so ****ing easy why can't the Kings, Nets, Hornets, Bucks, Bulls, Wizards, Magic, Pelicans, Mavericks, etc. do it?

I'm way beyond arguing, but the Venn diagram of people who think Sam Hinkie did a 'bad' job (I'd accept slightly above average if you want to argue how important keeping your job and the optics are) and people who are too results oriented to win at poker is a circle

I wouldn't concede that hinkie had a bad result. the new CBA has LBJ/CP3s fingerprints all over it, and is going to heavily incentivize players to re sign with their own teams since they can make a significant, possibly prohibitive, percentage more. the sixers will have embiid, simmons, and a boatload of players from the next couple of drafts under even more years of control than before.

put it this way: which team is most likely to come out of the east after lebron stops doing his thing? 1. celtics. 2. bucks 3. raptors 4. 76ers?

also this:

Kings are super incompetent. They've rarely gotten bad enough to get a great pick and they still owe Chicago a first rounder from a trade for JJ Hickson in 2011, plus the pick they gave away in the Stauskas trade. It's relatively easy to acquire assets, but not automatic, and the Kings are one of the worst run franchises in sports.

Nets tried to contend with a very old team and gave away all their picks to do it.


A bunch of these teams made the playoffs, but the Magic and Bucks have assets, and the Magic are a pretty good example of what I'm talking about. They ended up winning the Dwight-Bynum trade pretty hard, right? And what'd they do. ****ed it up by drafting a bunch of guys at the same position and then squandering those assets on nothing.



Hinkie didn't do a 'bad' job, but he didn't do a great one either. Note the Bucks crash to get a good pick occurred AFTER The Process started and now they have their Giannis-Parker core surrounded by some decent role players.

Idk how you can put 1. Celtics with Danny Ainge making these draft selections

At this point..... Its not a debate about whether Hinkie was good or bad, its a debate about how bad hinkie was

Thank you for being one of the few sane people in this thread. Hinkie did a good job. Made one terrible pick in Okafor and the reasons for why the pick was made are uncertain. (Rumors of ownership not allowing him to draft Porzingis.)

Anyway, he accumulated assets in creative ways when he had nothing of value at the start of his tenure in Philly.

The Saric pick was also terrible but all in all he did a good job but ran bad

the cleveland browns couldnt **** up where the celtics are picking this year, with the supposed talent available.

Wizards have been great at drafting, and collected the right assets, only Vesely was a bust, Wall, Beal, Porter considering their draft class are A drafts.

They are just hold back by the bad decision to take the next step, Gortat sucks, they need to buy a rim protector, they need to hire a great coach, but that's because they sucks at improving the team, not because they collected the wrong assets through draft to build a great team.

Wizards with a good coach like Brad, Quin or Carlisle and a Robin Lopez or better center are probably not far from toronto

Hornets missed Davis while they were favourites, you talk about being result oriented ? They picked MKG who could be way better without injury issues. They moved on and now they are also 1 positive center away from being a top3/4 team in the east.

Philly was worse at drafting than those teams, if Ben Simmons isn't a big hit (like top 20 NBA player before the end of his rookie contract), nothing will be constructed on that Process, except an unhappy Embiid leaving the team.

All of that depends 100% on the health of a man that missed 2 years before his career started

Hinkie's two misses were MCW (should have drafted Giannis) and Okafor (should have drafted Porzingis). I can't blame him too much for Giannis as several teams passed him after the Sixers drafted. And he corrected MCW's lack of development by trading him for what is going to do turn into a 5-10 pick this year in a great draft.

Embiid - Perfect
Dario - Got their own future 1st back by trading down one spot and Dario is looking like he will be a solid 6th man
Noel - He was the right pick; he is going to develop into a top 5 defensive center

And he was the reasons they got Simmons.

That is a pretty damn good job. The Okafor pick puzzles me to this day. He was such an anti-Hinkie player. I am guessing he was trying to flip him and never got the right deal. Still confused by that one.

Results matter in sports, thats what you fail to realize. Furthermore, 76ers tickets are 2x+ what they were at the start of Hinkie's regime and the team is still the worst in the NBA.

How can you be the ~ worst team 4x years in a row and people still be like "oh yea did a good job, just ran bad" its like you n AEJones are clinically ******ed.

God, this is such stupid nonsense from a Jazz fan who probably thinks Gobert > Embiid. The process was THREE YEARS of tanking. That's it. They already have a superstar from that period (as long as he stays healthy) and Ben Simmons (who is considered one of the better prospects to come out over the past 10 years).

The NBA is about superstars and the Sixers acquired two guys who have great shots at being that. They sacrificed THREE years. Not to mention they will have a great pick next year and they will have the lakers pick this year (5-10 probably) and the KINGS unprotected pick the year after Boogie leaves.

The sixers went through a decade of mediocrity post-Iverson. They were going nowhere until Hinkie arrived.