Hey Jaybee: the 2021 NBA season has started.

[Jaybee]

I posted the above before Doc Rivers and Embiid threw Simmons all the way under a moving train in their postgame interviews. What we saw on the court and the mental block around not wanting to shoot free throws was bad enough. Now they've completely trashed his trade value, and I don't see how you bring this team back together again.

[XXtwindad]

Originally Posted by Jaybee

I posted the above before Doc Rivers and Embiid threw Simmons all the way under a moving train in their postgame interviews. What we saw on the court and the mental block around not wanting to shoot free throws was bad enough. Now they've completely trashed his trade value, and I don't see how you bring this team back together again.

I have a lot of empathy for him. He's being absolutely trashed on social media. What a cess pool. Yes, he should learn how to shoot a friggin free throw. If he could shoot 75% from the line and perhaps 35% from deep, he might have a chance to be the best player in the league.

As it stands, I worry about his mental health. When you read about athletes and depression, the onslaught of vitriol with Simmons is a prime example.

Frankly, at the risk of descending into "touchy-feely land," perhaps Simmons needs a more nurturing, supportive environment. There is a famous one right over the Bay Bridge from me. I think Kerr, Curry, and Co. could set him up for success.

[Jaybee]

Originally Posted by XXtwindad

I have a lot of empathy for him. He's being absolutely trashed on social media. What a cess pool. Yes, he should learn how to shoot a friggin free throw. If he could shoot 75% from the line and perhaps 35% from deep, he might have a chance to be the best player in the league.

As it stands, I worry about his mental health. When you read about athletes and depression, the onslaught of vitriol with Simmons is a prime example.

I feel the same way. Sports fan social media is trash, and I didn't expect more from them. I hope Simmons (and any other superstar athlete) are smart enough to stay off that ****, or at least have the ability for compartmentalization.

It's also fine for Embiid and Doc to decide they want a different direction. But it's so counter-productive to do it in public. Now there's zero hope of repairing the relationship and every other GM in the league knows it. He's still an All-Star. Someone is going to get him for pennies, and I hope he does really well there. If it's GS, as you suggest, I think he'd be a pretty solid fit but they'd have to send back a lot to match salaries.

[Spaghetti Legs]

I thought it would have been interesting to have a Simmons trade value meter tracking along with the game, bottoming out when he made the pass to the wing while standing under the basket.

I feel bad for him, his body language and face were not good in the second half. I hope he can find a situation with a better role for his skills. I suspect we’ll see him bounce around a little like D Rose before settling into a similar solid, but less than top tier player.

That was an ugly game last night. Kudos to Atlanta for holding it together to finish strong at the end.

[FlashUNC]

Originally Posted by Jaybee

I posted the above before Doc Rivers and Embiid threw Simmons all the way under a moving train in their postgame interviews. What we saw on the court and the mental block around not wanting to shoot free throws was bad enough. Now they've completely trashed his trade value, and I don't see how you bring this team back together again.

I would wager there's been a lot more behind the scenes and it finally bubbled over after Game 7. The non-dunk really just is the absolute nadir. But also Doc Rivers is a terrible coach that's been terrible for a very long time. He's ridden one title run with one of the most stacked teams of the last 25 years to some kind of on-going employment. If the Sixers bring Doc and that staff back after that series they're all fools.

I hate to say this, but I do think Shaq had a point in the post-game. Ben came out and handled the post-game as well as he could, but after three post seasons of this and even two horrendous games into the series, it's time to show up and do what you can. Instead he just totally fell apart.

He needs to go do the equivalent of Dirk's RV trip to the Outback for a summer to figure out what's going on. Never mind a competent shot, he lost any of his sense of aggressiveness.

There's very little room in the modern NBA for someone who cannot credibly shoot for their position, and pretending he's a point guard is doing no one any favors right now.

[Jaybee]

While we are on the subject, Doc and Embiid don't exactly come off as blameless either. Embiid coughed up the ball 16 times in games 6 and 7. He can't stay on the court long enough to establish any consistency. His game and Simmons game just don't really work together . Go ahead and look up Docs record in elimination games since KG and Paul Pierce made him look like a genius. There's an awful lot of Doc teams that end up dissolving with some really ugly chemistry.

[FlashUNC]

Originally Posted by Jaybee

While we are on the subject, Doc and Embiid don't exactly come off as blameless either. Embiid coughed up the ball 16 times in games 6 and 7. He can't stay on the court long enough to establish any consistency. His game and Simmons game just don't really work together . Go ahead and look up Docs record in elimination games since KG and Paul Pierce made him look like a genius. There's an awful lot of Doc teams that end up dissolving with some really ugly chemistry.

I don't blame Embiid as much for the turnovers because he's asked to carry such an enormous burden offensively, including being the primary playmaker from the elbow and the nail, and that's really not his skillset. It would be Simmons skillset if anyone respected his shot from any distance at all, but instead Embiid has to be the primary rim protector defensively and the primary initiator on offense. And he was on one good knee.

Dropping 31 points on 21 shots in 41 minutes isn't the reason you lose Game 7. It's Simmons and the fact their next best offensive option all series was Curry.

And that's 100% on Doc for sticking to baffling rotations (Dwight Howard should be exiled at this point), never even trying Simmons at the 5 while Embiid sat. I mean, that's literally how the Warriors discovered the Death Lineup, desperation and a "well, why not?"

Meanwhile Doc's old team is in the WCF despite losing their best player to a knee injury. Really makes me reassess Lue as a coach.

[username]

Originally Posted by FlashUNC

Really makes me reassess Lue as a coach.

As someone who watched him coach in Cleveland, he's good. He reminds me of Vogel, in that both of them make huge adjustments as a series progresses (though, as you say, Lue managed to adjust in such a way that his team won without its best player, whereas Vogel couldn't adjust enough to make up for his team losing its second-best player -- not that I blame him).

[FlashUNC]

Originally Posted by username

As someone who watched him coach in Cleveland, he's good. He reminds me of Vogel, in that both of them make huge adjustments as a series progresses (though, as you say, Lue managed to adjust in such a way that his team won without its best player, whereas Vogel couldn't adjust enough to make up for his team losing its second-best player -- not that I blame him).

I will forever be jaundiced in my view of him given his time as an absolutely awful point guard in Atlanta that Mike Woodson trotted out for wayyyyyy too long. Then he was replaced by Mike Bibby's warmed over corpse, which was a huge upgrade. God those late 00s Hawks teams were something else.

[Jaybee]

This is both an amazingly dramatic game and a quintessential example of everything wrong with the 2021 NBA.

[Clean39T]

Originally Posted by Jaybee

This is both an amazingly dramatic game and a quintessential example of everything wrong with the 2021 NBA.

Expand for us rubes….

Edit: my recording stopped w 1:30 left - I missed the drama it seems.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Spaghetti Legs]

Originally Posted by Clean39T

Expand for us rubes….

Edit: my recording stopped w 1:30 left - I missed the drama it seems.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ha yes, I presume he means the roughly half hour it took to play the last minute or so. All the reviews were just silly and in my view the basketball gods expressed disapproval of that out of bounds turnover review with the George missed free throws.

There was drama but I was able to brush my teeth and pee to get ready for bed while they agonized over the last 0.8 seconds, so not exactly edge of your seat drama.

[username]

It feels unfair to make fun of Playoff P after he carried the Clips through the last round, and yet...

[Jaybee]

Originally Posted by username

It feels unfair to make fun of Playoff P after he carried the Clips through the last round, and yet...

The two missed FT's are just awful... but they aren't even there if he doesn't can that huge jumper and pull off that amazing split of the double into a layup. He's absolutely carrying them since Kawhi went out, and I think he's actually better as the lead than as 1B or the second option. Seems more in a rhythm than when he has to cede "your turn, my turn" possessions with Kawhi. This is a common feature of Kawhi teams - there's the let Kawhi isolate offense, and the everybody else offense.

[Jaybee]

Originally Posted by Clean39T

Expand for us rubes….

Edit: my recording stopped w 1:30 left - I missed the drama it seems.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Your recording stopped because the last 1:30 took 30 minutes of real time to play!


...actual highlights here, spoilers below:

1:31, following a beautiful Payne reverse layup (I love lefty layups - there is a certain artistic quality to them, something that feels off yet more elegant as a result), the Clips kinda botch the inbound (why are you inbounding to Zubac anyway) and there is an interminable review while we figure out who's ball it is. Clips ball, Kennard nails a jumper, 100-97 Suns

1:06, Booker elbows Bev on a drive, replay review to decide if it's just an offensive foul or there is some flagrant contact there.

0:57, PG two FT's, 100-99 Suns

0:36, Zubac blocks Payne (who had the game of his life, BTW, and was in China last year. China!) at the rim

0:30, PG with a beautiful split of the double team on PNR, the kind of thing people have been saying he can't do, this is why he's not a 1A scoring option, and amazing body control to convert the layup, Clippers up 101-100. Timeout

0:27, Booker with a beautiful curl into an elbow jumper, perfect form, perfect results, Suns up 102-101. Timeout.

0:22, PG with a beautiful crossover into a mid-range jumper. 103-102 Clips. This still feels good - Booker and PG going at it, going to be a last shot kind of ending.

0:09, Bev knocks the ball out while harassing Booker on the sideline. At least that's what happens for the first 46 minutes. Instead we have another interminable review, and we decide that the ball grazes Bookers finger tips just before going out, a la that Final Four game a couple years ago and I hate hate hate that this operates this way. Beverly knocked the ball out. For 98% of the game, it's clearly Suns ball side out and no one says anything and we move on. For the last two minutes, we get the privilege of Zapruder-ing this **** into oblivion and determining that Booker's molecules touched it just after Beverly's molecules and it sucks. Then, after all that - Clippers Timeout.

0:08, PG fouled, misses 2 FT's (eeek). Suns Timeout. Our 7th timeout or review since 1:31.

0:02, Clippers with some amazing defense, force Booker to give it up, Bridges misses a 3, review on the ensuing rebound to see who's ball sideout in the corner. It's the Suns, with 0:00.9 left. This gives the Suns, who are out of timeouts, time to draw up a play.

0:00.7, amazing play, from the pass to the decoy and design to the execution, to Zubac almost knocking it away, to Book's screen, to the obscure rule that allows it. Find the highlight, it's worth it. Suns win, 104-103 right?

Nope, we have another review to determine the amount of time left, and then the Clips try to game it by subbing which they can't do on a review stoppage, then another review to determine who should be on the court, and instead of basking in the afterglow of the best players in the world doing their thing, we get to witness the bureaucratic end of things.

TLDR; the basketball was amazing, the stoppages and replays are not, and it's killing the product. The league has to get ahold of this ****. Casuals are not sitting through 30 minutes after bed time so we can throw it to Seacaucus for another review.