AROUND the NBA:

[CooPerFan]

Still not sold on wemby’s offense. I still think cooper will be a much better player than wemby

[dirkfansince1998]

Highest scoring regular season in forever followed by playoffs that feel more like a throwback to the late 90s/early 00s.
Still trying to figure out if the slugfests this year are more about good defense, refs allowing more contact or just horrible offense and bad spacing. Probably a combination of all listed factors but I cannot remember the last time that I saw so many teams using lineups with multiple non shooters for extended minutes. At the same time those lineups might be among the biggest and most athletic ones I have ever seen.

[HoosierDaddyKid]

Still not sold on wemby’s offense. I still think cooper will be a much better player than wemby

Wemby is a generational talent on both ends of the court. Cooper is good, but not a game changer like Wemby is.

[Smitty]

Wemby is a generational talent on both ends of the court. Cooper is good, but not a game changer like Wemby is.

Yet.

[CooPerFan]

Wemby is a generational talent on both ends of the court. Cooper is good, but not a game changer like Wemby is.

Yes wemby is a generational talent but henis lacking offensively. Cooper might be a better all around player than wemby.

[Chicagojk]

I did not watch the DET vs Clev game, but it looks like another Harden stinker.   The 3-13 shooting game.  Seems like those happen all the time in the playoffs.   But my big question is Mobley.   36 minutes and finishes with 9 points and 1 rebound.  Time for him to step up and be the guy.  

I can't tell you how hard it is to coach a extremely deep team and keep people happy (I know first world problems).  It is also hard for players to be ready when your number is called and produce.   What OKC does is incredible.   They mentioned it like 10 times last night but McCain played 22 minutes in total in the first round and then hits the court running in round 2.   They can look like the best team in the league when J-Dub is out with injury and SGA is in foul trouble.  Just amazing.   There two high picks the past two years haven't even played yet (or just played briefly) and they have a lottery pick this year.   Just crazy stuff.

Lebron James is just so good.

[HoosierDaddyKid]

https://x.com/ohnohedidnt24/status/2052564893144944762


Here are Harden's stats for the first two games. Draw your own conclusions...

[HoosierDaddyKid]

https://x.com/HunterPatterson/status/205...4106238232


Atkinson on Jalen Duren.

[Chicagojk]

I saw a graphic yesterday on SportsCenter with the fastest players with the most playoff points in their first 50 games with their teams.   Luka was 2, I believe.   Brunson was also on the list.  Nice job Mavs.

[Chicagojk]

how fast things can change in the NBA part 100.   Cleveland looked positioned well to be good for a long time two years ago.  Now they are at a crossroads with little playoff success.  They traded a lot of assets already for Mitchell.  At a time, that looked like late firsts.  That still may be the case but more doubt now.    They switched out 26 year old Garland for 36 year old Big Game James Harden.   Donovan Mitchell is entering his last year on his contract.   The following year is a player option, but he could be in the same boat as Giannis this summer is he does not sign an extension.    Things could get interesting there quickly.

[Smitty]

@TheSteinLine
The Raptors say Brandon Ingram has undergone season-ending right heel surgery.

[DallasMaverick]

Sixers getting a big bag of nothing from their bench.

How big should Quentin Grimes’ next contract be?

[dirkfansince1998]

Wolves simply cannot score in the paint when Wemby is on the floor. Tried everything. Even benched Gobert to close out the game. But even against 5-out spacing the Spurs always find a way to have Wemby in the paint when it matters. One-man zone defense in the paint with four guys switching and rotating around him.

[KillerLeft]

Wolves simply cannot score in the paint when Wemby is on the floor. Tried everything. Even benched Gobert to close out the game. But even against 5-out spacing the Spurs always find a way to have Wemby in the paint when it matters. One-man zone defense in the paint with four guys switching and rotating around him.

Because he's not just long...he's long and can MOVE. 

If choosing between the two (not a ton of options for both out there, even in the pros) give me the guy who can MOVE. But, the Mavs have someone who's both - Lively. And that's why you don't give up on him until you absolutely have no other choice. He's not Wembenyama, but he's a franchise altering role-player, possibly even qualifying as a star, imho.

[KillerLeft]

In other news...seems like a decent chance Nick Nurse might be available soon. Just sayin'.

[F Gump]

Because he's not just long...he's long and can MOVE. 

If choosing between the two (not a ton of options for both out there, even in the pros) give me the guy who can MOVE. But, the Mavs have someone who's both - Lively. And that's why you don't give up on him until you absolutely have no other choice. He's not Wembenyama, but he's a franchise altering role-player, possibly even qualifying as a star, imho.

I like the idea of Lively, the theory.

But the Mavs don't really have Lively. They just have some theoretical player. Sad to say, the Oden comp is a good one. In the last 2 seasons combined, out of about 8000 minutes for the center position, the Mavs have had "Lively" for 948 minutes. 

Gafford hasn't been great either (about 2425 minutes over 2 seasons), but I have to wonder if some of Gafford's lack of minutes is connected to tanking.

In any case, a HIGH priority should be to get a reliable center or 2 who can give them 25 mpg night after night.  Obviously AD was expected to eat up a lot of those C minutes, and he didn't. But they need someone (and probably 2 someone's) who can. If I am the Mavs, I would have to explore what the market is for Lively, and if they can get a mid-round 1st in 2026, I might pull the trigger, depending on what his health situation is promising me for this coming season. (Would I necessarily use that 1st to draft a center? Nope, not unless there is a definite top-tier prospect C available. I don't think there is a Lively clone waiting.)

[HoosierDaddyKid]

Yes wemby is a generational talent but henis lacking offensively. Cooper might be a better all around player than wemby.

I really don't see how they compare to be truthful. I don't adhere to the notion that Flagg is better all-around. They say the NBA has become a "positionless league," but one is a 7'5 do-everything Center, and the other is a 6'8 SF/PF with a similar skill set. The difference being, Wemby does everything Flagg does at 7'5 even better. He had 39 pts, shot 3-5 from 3, 15 rebs, and 5 blks last night, in a 115-108 win to take back home court.

[Chicagojk]

My feelings for Kidd are conflicted but I greatly prefer how he handles frustration than coach Fitch. I think coach Fitch has done a great job with the Wolves but boy does he complain and cry a lot.

[mvossman]

I like the idea of Lively, the theory.

But the Mavs don't really have Lively. They just have some theoretical player. Sad to say, the Oden comp is a good one. In the last 2 seasons combined, out of about 8000 minutes for the center position, the Mavs have had "Lively" for 948 minutes. 

Gafford hasn't been great either (about 2425 minutes over 2 seasons), but I have to wonder if some of Gafford's lack of minutes is connected to tanking.

In any case, a HIGH priority should be to get a reliable center or 2 who can give them 25 mpg night after night.  Obviously AD was expected to eat up a lot of those C minutes, and he didn't. But they need someone (and probably 2 someone's) who can. If I am the Mavs, I would have to explore what the market is for Lively, and if they can get a mid-round 1st in 2026, I might pull the trigger, depending on what his health situation is promising me for this coming season. (Would I necessarily use that 1st to draft a center? Nope, not unless there is a definite top-tier prospect C available. I don't think there is a Lively clone waiting.)

Lively is more than an idea.  We saw him be very impactful as a rookie in a finals playoff run.  I'm not ready to assume he will never get back to that because he had two injury riddled seasons assisted by the most incompetent medical staff in the NBA.

Gafford is a good center in the right situations.  But we saw him repeatedly exposed in the playoffs against teams that play with space.  From that perspective he is a situational rotational piece and makes too much money for that role.  I would be thrilled if they can get an asset for him and then replace him with somebody cheaper.

[F Gump]

Lively is more than an idea.  We saw him be very impactful as a rookie in a finals playoff run.  I'm not ready to assume he will never get back to that because he had two three injury riddled seasons assisted by the most incompetent medical staff in the NBA..

FIFY.

Even his rookie season, he was greatly limited in availabiity. That was his "good" year, and he only played in 2/3 of the games, and less than 1300 minutes (of the ~4000  minutes in a season). That year he had 4 separate multi-game stretches of being out, of 4, 5, 7, and 8. It got worse in year 2 (3, 4, and 37 game stretches missed). And even more limited this past season, where he barely played at all the whole season (only 115 minutes stretched over 7 games). 

The fact that Lively is a plus player when available doesn't really do anything for the team, when he's so unavailable. You (and everyone else who is seeing him as the answer to depend on) are indeed NOT basing that on what he is actually doing, but on what he in theory could do - if he played. It's the Oden thing all over again. We like the idea of what Lively can do, but are ignoring the reality of how infrequently he really does it.