Tucker trade is underrated IMO

I think Giannis needs to play a lot of minutes at C if they're gonna compete/beat BK. He can help unlock that.

Unless he's washed.

GO NY GO NY GO!

Randle with 17 assists tonight. A career high and the most by a non-guard in KNACKS HISTORY!

How does ATL get an 8 game West coast road trip???

Brutal.

Just win on Saturday. I'm already tired of this Lebron MVP narrative they are pushing now that he's beaten four mediocre teams on B2Bs.

What's more interesting than the MVP discussion* to me is if LeBron's defense will be recognized. He is playing absolutely elite defense, far better than he has any right to be playing at this stage/mileage.

*LeBron is clearly both the best player and the player who impacts winning more than anyone in the league. The 76ers/Nuggets/any team all get better if you replace their best player with him and it is not close. Maybe that isn't "MVP", who knows? This is a pretty unique case and there's never been a clear definition of what the award is anyway. But him getting it, should he keep this up, would be more than fine.

Yup. I hope it happens just to see BKN/Milwaukee. All of a sudden they can trot out Jrue/Khris/Tucker/Giannis which is 3+ 3 pt shooters & 2 capable secondary creators to put around Giannis, and 4 ++defenders to match up with Kyrie/Harden/Durant.

A team that can somewhat slow Brooklyn down is going to give them big problems, because Brooklyn is not gonna be able to stop anyone.

I agree with this 1,000%.

I also hope for a healthy Embiid and for Philly vs. Bucks to happen first which would be A LOT of fun.

GO NBA!

Oladipo will very likely be traded but to where iyo guys?

Turns out Anthony Edwards + an actual coach is a pretty good combo

I could not disagree with this more, but it's impossible to argue. I think that you're conflating peak Lebron with the guy we see today, and they aren't remotely close to the same player.

48 year old Lebron is better than peak Ben Simmons.

Truth.

Hey Brad, feel free to ride off to Hoosierville.

It's just Deangelo being out for 6 weeks

at least he's not crying about it or pushing for it seadood!

Seadood rest easy, as NBA.com recognizes JOKIC:

Kia MVP Ladder: Nikola Jokic takes over as new No. 1

Cliffs:

1. Jokic
2. DAME
3. Giannis
4. LeBron
5. Embiid

The Next Five
6. James Harden, Brooklyn Nets

7. Luka Doncic, Dallas Mavericks

8. Kawhi Leonard, LA Clippers

9. Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors

10. Jimmy Butler, Miami Heat

And five more: Kyrie Irving, Brooklyn Nets; Devin Booker, Phoenix Suns; Zach LaVine, Chicago Bulls; Rudy Gobert, Utah Jazz; Donovan Mitchell, Utah Jazz

good. we are agreed. f brad.
looking at it, bucks get a versatile defender for a playoff run. tucker has been hampered by rocket bs this year. he needs to commit. he is a sick corner 3 shooter. he defensive numbers have fallen. is this age/nba catching up to how to play?

NBA.COM > the big-market-biased ESPN.



My hot take from watching many less C's games than you guys is that perhaps we just overrate their top guys to begin with. When they were awesome it was more of a 2004 Pistons or dare I say 2012-13 Nuggets model of 7 guys who are better than their opponent's 7 but not necessarily as top heavy. I'm not sure this is a Brad issue, but can definitely see their FO owning most of the blame for this season.

Cade playing right now. Would look great to the warriors uniform.

If say, we had switched Jokic and Millsap with Lebron and Gasol (to account for differences in position; Millsap > Gasol, but I think they are close enough in value and the role they play other than position at this point to make this work), isn't it fairly obvious the Nuggets are a lot better and the Lakers are a lot worse? I mean I think it's great that centers are among the best players in the league again, but having a center that isn't great defensively has been one of the issues the Nuggets have faced in constructing lineups. Lebron even now is literally playing every position (he's a really good small-ball 5 as well) and having your offensive centerpiece being a 5 is quite limiting - you can't really go bigger or smaller. I think the Nuggets would be just as good offensively with Lebron (Lebron + Murray + MPJ is like a better fitting version of Lebron + Kyrie + Love and probably the best offensive supporting cast Lebron's ever had) and I think their defense gets a lot better because Lebron can plug nearly any gap, which means all these lineups that Malone put out for much of the season that just don't work defensively (remember when I pointed out that MPJ needs to play 4 back in December?) - those all go away. Lebron probably gets Malone fired too so that's a bonus (or not) depending on how you feel about him.

I just think a lot of the edges Stevens was grinding from '15-17 are basically gone now. Still think he is a pretty good coach, Celts even w/ all their issues this year are 1 of the better defensive teams in the league. Tatum got the rona, Smart got hurt, Kemba is prob damaged goods on some level, it happens.

He just had tons of hype early and now people are struggling to recalibrate it. I remember that '18 playoffs it was basically becoming consensus opinion he was the best coach in the game.

This team made 3 of the last 4 conference finals fwiw....Also, East got way better. Bucks, Nets and Miami/Philly to a lesser degree. The first year the Celts made the conf finals they beat the Wizards to get there. Last year Philly wasn't the same and they beat a Raptors team that was far less talented than them.

I’m not sure any coach can fix the Celtics the way this roster is currently built. Tatum and Brown are overrated, especially in Boston, and their supporting cast may be the worst in the league. Everyone should be on the trade block

Boston is 22nd in defensive rating; God awful 4th quarter team.