Around The NBA : 2023-24 Season #2

[Chi town]

My bingo card did not have a team with Jarrett Allen (above-average center), Evan Mobley (above-average #4), Darius Garland (pretty good guard), and Donovan Mitchell (truly good guard) getting blown out two straight games by a #6 seed. Given that Cleveland melted in last year's playoffs, I think I need to re-rate some of these players. If you flop in the playoffs repeatedly, you just aren't that good.

On the flip side, congrats to Franz and the Magic for being a fun young team that is exceeding most expectations. Including mine.

Mitchell just isn’t that good

[kodo]

Durability is an underrated superstar quality.

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[Kurt Heimlich]

Maybe I'm just a cranky millennial who's lost the ability to deal with commercials, but between that awful wing stop commercial and the commercial with Shai and Holmgren singing I have to mute the commercials whenever I'm watching the playoffs, or turn it off all together once I hit my limit of muting/unmuting.

[kodo]

My bingo card did not have a team with Jarrett Allen (above-average center), Evan Mobley (above-average #4), Darius Garland (pretty good guard), and Donovan Mitchell (truly good guard) getting blown out two straight games by a #6 seed. Given that Cleveland melted in last year's playoffs, I think I need to re-rate some of these players. If you flop in the playoffs repeatedly, you just aren't that good.

On the flip side, congrats to Franz and the Magic for being a fun young team that is exceeding most expectations. Including mine.

Mitchell just isn’t that good

And Orlando is the #2 D in the league. And the officiating switch after the ASG has been a huge factor in every series, really favoring teams that can play physical.

[2weekswithpay]

My bingo card did not have a team with Jarrett Allen (above-average center), Evan Mobley (above-average #4), Darius Garland (pretty good guard), and Donovan Mitchell (truly good guard) getting blown out two straight games by a #6 seed. Given that Cleveland melted in last year's playoffs, I think I need to re-rate some of these players. If you flop in the playoffs repeatedly, you just aren't that good.

On the flip side, congrats to Franz and the Magic for being a fun young team that is exceeding most expectations. Including mine.

The Cavs starting lineup needs to be broken up. They just don't fit together. Two non-shooting bigs cause spacing issues and Garland hasn't been great playing off Mitchell.

[Chi town]

My bingo card did not have a team with Jarrett Allen (above-average center), Evan Mobley (above-average #4), Darius Garland (pretty good guard), and Donovan Mitchell (truly good guard) getting blown out two straight games by a #6 seed. Given that Cleveland melted in last year's playoffs, I think I need to re-rate some of these players. If you flop in the playoffs repeatedly, you just aren't that good.

On the flip side, congrats to Franz and the Magic for being a fun young team that is exceeding most expectations. Including mine.

Mitchell just isn’t that good

And Orlando is the #2 D in the league. And the officiating switch after the ASG has been a huge factor in every series, really favoring teams that can play physical.

Huge. Magic are huge and their length and physicality makes a big difference.

[step]

Isaac seems like an attainable FA target who would be great at the 4.

Yea there is baggage, but he is excellent when he's playing.

He just rarely plays. I like his talent too but last thing we need is a player that can’t play.

Sounds like he'd fit right in

[step]

Who are you talking about? Amazon or the NBA? In the case of the NBA, they like long deals because it allows them to weather lean economic times.

Lean times? The NBA hasn't really had that in a rather long time and TV rights deals have exploded exponentially.

2002 - 6 year deal with ESPN and ABC for 2.4B
2008 - 8 year deal for $7.4B
2016 - 9 year extension for $24B
2025 - 10 year deal...

I may be off, but my thoughts are that the streaming TV services landscape is going to have drastically change by then, a shrinkage/consolidation/mergers of sorts. Too many players and not chairs for when the music stops. So many people I know have started slimming down the amount of services etc, e.g. having one main package (Disney/Netflix) and rotating another as they get bored.

I just think that those companies left standing would become somewhat desperate to add to their offerings that they may get more in 5 years.

Do you forget how the league not too long ago used to have to take out loans for their franchises to remain solvent years ago? There was a reason we had a lockout in 2011 to right-size the financials. They had a lot of owners who couldn't even really afford their teams (George Shinn, Bob Johnson, Chris Cohan). Even with the explosion of the TV deal, the Hornets were still at one point owned by the League. And their two current primary partners are in severe debt. The regional sports networks were on the verge of collapse (before Diamond Sports Group was rescued by Amazon).

Just because we haven't seen the extreme in a while, doesn't make the NBA not mindful of the possibility.

That's true, I did largely forget all that. I did recall Charlotte being in strife, but not many others. The below reveals it was much worse than I remembered.
https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2011/01/17/Leagues-and-Governing-Bodies/NBA-loan-pool.aspx

[TyrusRose2425]

7 of 26 playoff games have ended within single digits. This product has become so bad. It’s just a 3 point shooting contest at this point.

[Andi Obst]

7 of 26 playoff games have ended within single digits. This product has become so bad. It’s just a 3 point shooting contest at this point.

How is this your takeaway from the playoffs so far?

The Wolves are doing it with insane defense and one of the most fun young stars the league has seen in a while. The Nuggets basically can't hit a 3 yet, still up 3-1. The Knicks and Sixers are quite literally fighting. Mavs and Clippers has been a physical, defense-first series as well. Cavs/Magic has been all blowouts, yeah, but at least it's a close series.

Only thing that sucks so far are injuries. No Giannis and injured Dame for the Bucks, no Jimmy for the Heat, no Zion for the Pels. This first round had the potential to be epic across the board and we won't see that.

Considering it's the first round, this has been awesome so far IMO. The product is great.

[Ice Man]

Yes, I agree, the first round has been better than I have expected. Very physical play + the youth emergence + some close series make this one of the better first rounds. Two other points -

1) There's playing with competence and playing with complacency. So far, Denver has crossed that line in this year's playoffs. Yes they will beat the Lakers, thanks in part to a couple of late-game heroics, but losing by double digits in every first quarter is no way to go through life. Do that for long enough and you'll run into a team that is good enough to punish you for that behavior.

2) Spo is a genius when his team makes 55% of its 3s but a dumb cluck when it makes 32%.

[Michael Jackson]

Maybe I'm just a cranky millennial who's lost the ability to deal with commercials, but between that awful wing stop commercial and the commercial with Shai and Holmgren singing I have to mute the commercials whenever I'm watching the playoffs, or turn it off all together once I hit my limit of muting/unmuting.

Both of those are so bad it is unreal. The game threads on the GB constantly complain. What a pro wants…. Doesn’t even make sense.

[Michael Jackson]

Yes, I agree, the first round has been better than I have expected. Very physical play + the youth emergence + some close series make this one of the better first rounds. Two other points -

1) There's playing with competence and playing with complacency. So far, Denver has crossed that line in this year's playoffs. Yes they will beat the Lakers, thanks in part to a couple of late-game heroics, but losing by double digits in every first quarter is no way to go through life. Do that for long enough and you'll run into a team that is good enough to punish you for that behavior.

2) Spo is a genius when his team makes 55% of its 3s but a dumb cluck when it makes 32%.

This is also a major generational passing of the torch feel. I mean small things like this being a very likable Knicks team, just a lunch pail team instead of a glitz and glamour go nowhere team. OKC, Orlando really cool to see the youth. NOP is actually really solid just need Zion. Indy showing up granted it is against injuries but the experience is valuable and they must resign Siakim.

[kodo]

I think the playoffs have been a great balance of 3s & inside play. A lot of the winning teams are shooting poorly from 3 and instead getting the job done inside.
Denver: 27%
Minny: 32%
Dallas: 32%
Magic/Cleveland: 30%-33%

Dallas just won shooting 25% from 3. We've got 7 teams averaging 100 points or less. It's really been a more physical product than the regular season.

One thing for sure, Center and Power Forward are really back. Even on Haliburton's Pacers, Siakam is averaging 33 points to Hali's 13.

[Ice Man]

If you think about it, it's a bit strange (at least to me) that inside scoring is up when the play is more physical. At least on the surface, you would think that "more physical" means defenders banging attacking players near the basket, so that offenses need to get further from the hoop, where they aren't being hit.

But that's not what's occurring. For one, a lot of the physicality is on the perimeter. Hand checking may not be allowed these days, but body checking certainly is. Defenders are leaning into ballhandlers. For example, Brunson is getting pushed all over the court. The other thing is that "physical" often means an attacking player plowing into a defender near the hoop. The strong guys aren't just pushing around the weak ones when on defense, they are also doing it with the ball in their hands.

[Dan Z]

Mitchell just isn’t that good

And Orlando is the #2 D in the league. And the officiating switch after the ASG has been a huge factor in every series, really favoring teams that can play physical.

Huge. Magic are huge and their length and physicality makes a big difference.

Are you saying that size matters in the NBA? I hope AK is watching and taking notes!

[TheSuzerain]

Caruso would be Philly's 3rd best player pretty easily which is wild.

[jc23]

Was not a fan of Luka giving kahwai the "too small" gesture. Not while he is hurt.

[Ice Man]

Josh Hart at 6 '4" had 17 rebounds today. In 74 combined minutes, Oubre & Tobias had 11 rebounds. I knew even before the game started that I only wanted one of those three guys on my team. Now I really know.

[kodo]

Defenders are making a huge impact this playoffs. Hart for sure, Terrence Mann is draped all over Luka like Payton on Jordan, Luka is 4-21 with him basically hugging him all series. It's a shame Caruso isn't in the playoffs, this is really his type of game.