NBA 2021-2022 Season Thread : Offseason Drama Filler Episodes

[Koyangi]

Yeah.

[Andalusian girls]

with no regard for human life

[Krandor]

[KuroTsuki]

Pretty good video on our earlier topic of drawing fouls, and also how more contact is affecting players.

Didn't even realize Lillard had a huge drop in fouls. I knew he was struggling shooting wise, but I figured it was just the injury he supposedly has.

Looks like Booker may have been affected too, leading to -9% on rim finishings.

He also concludes that it has affected Harden the most and is leading to Harden driving less to the rim. But, I don't know if that can be said for sure or if it is his hamstring cause he was clearly not all there at the start of the season. Maybe a bit of both.

I would've liked to see more on Curry(he shows clips but doesn't talk about it), but to be honest this guy is a known Curry lover lol, so I don't know if he chose not to look at it, or genuinely didn't find much when it comes to affecting him.

[Andalusian girls]

tbh i like thinking basketball but the bias against Harden seems blatant given he's now averaging all of .3 fewer free throws per game than last year, he doesn't lead any of the metrics chosen to show the impact of the new rules (rip Keldon Johnson), and is dealing with lingering injury issues / being a fat sack of shit to start the season.

like i don't even know if you're trying to hide the bias when you argue shit like this isn't a foul


Vuc is way out of position and got his hand in the cookie jar while Harden is collecting on his two steps to the rim. i'd yell and 1 on that on blacktop like damn come on.

[Andalusian girls]

it's kinda funny i don't even like Harden that much, nor do i think the rules aren't impacting him. a lot of his flailing rip throughs on drives aren't getting called and i think it has impacted his lower field goal % and turnovers ticking up a bit (though it's tough to disentangle from his hammy). but i really don't see any stats or the eye test pointing to him being the most impacted by the rules. i don't think people recognized how much he altered his game to play in Brooklyn. he's not playing all that differently than he did last year.

[Krandor]

Harden on the rockets was the poster child for foul baiting antics. It wasn't some great conspiracy that led to many people decrying rockets games as being nigh unwatchable. It was even brought up as a point to why he didn't get MVP for some of those seasons despite putting up historic scoring numbers because media members didn't want to give him credit for how he was putting up the points.

The rest of the league seeing him get away with it led to the explosion we saw with others like Trae Young (and yes Curry during the previous season) taking advantage of it to the point that the NBA had to finally step in.

Harden had already gotten away from it a bit last year when he went to Brooklyn even before the new mandate came down. I'm pretty sure I had made a comment in the previous seasons thread saying as much (and I am far too lazy to check). Once he was no longer the sole offensive engine of a team he wasn't as obligated to foul bait to get points on the board.

Edit : I was taking so long typing that I see ag already made the same point as my last paragraph.

[Andalusian girls]

oh yeah peak-scoring Houston Harden was the worst foulbaiter i have seen in the history of the NBA, no argument there. Trae and Embiid were worthy contenders but lacked the visionary flopping. he just ain't that guy anymore with Durant and Kyrie leading the scoring attack when they play together.

[KuroTsuki]

tbh i like thinking basketball but the bias against Harden seems blatant given he's now averaging all of .3 fewer free throws per game than last year, he doesn't lead any of the metrics chosen to show the impact of the new rules (rip Keldon Johnson), and is dealing with lingering injury issues / being a fat sack of shit to start the season.

Yeah, that's why I was saying I don't know if Ben Taylor can really say that "for sure." Especially knowing Harden came in like that. It's better to make that sort of call at the end of the season when we have a larger sample size and is possibly back to 100% health wise.

Either way, it's pretty crazy how much the emphasis on these rules has changed so many different players' effectiveness. I think I saw a post on Reddit saying that the league average TS% is the lowest it's been since 2015? Something like that.

[Krandor]

Whatever the stats may say at the end of the day the only part that matters is that games are so much more watchable now. Less breaks for ticky tack foul calls and players being able to put in more effort on defense.

[Andalusian girls]

word. Harden's brand of fuckery had really spread through the league even guys who didn't touch it previously (like Curry) started baiting a bit. nice to see everyone reverting to real basketball even if it is hammering some of my favorite dudes like Booker and Luka.

[Krandor]

LeBron suspended for 1 game, Stewart for 2.

Notably the suspensions do not cover when the teams meet again on the 28th

[archibaldcrane]

So I know everyone is kinda over Jokic given that he got that MVP last year but isn't on a championship-caliber team

but the top 13 NBA seasons by Player Efficiency Rating (PER) of all time are all between 31.00 and 31.99 - and it's 100% all-time greats - Jordan x4, Wilt x3, Lebron x3, Giannis, Steph (and Jokic once) - and that's it, nobody else has ever put up a 31.00 PER season in history - and none of them have topped Giannis's 31.86.

Jokic's PER this season through 14 games is THIRTY FIVE POINT THREE ONE

sure sure he'll probably regress a little bit but what the fuck

[kisada]

ya, jokic is insanely good and i feel like he doesn't get the same recognition other stars get

still mind boggling a guy this dude went so late in the draft

[archibaldcrane]

ya, jokic is insanely good and i feel like he doesn't get the same recognition other stars get

still mind boggling a guy this dude went so late in the draft

Eh it's just like Giannis, he was very young

well not quite like Giannis, he was better when he was drafted and had at least finished growing heightwise and was still only a 2nd rounder instead of a late lottery pick

[Deejay]

jokic is still a turnstyle on defense which kinda brings him down a notch when you compare him to the all time greats

[Krandor]

It's also still the whole thing where some teams don't trust euro players because they have it in their minds that the NCAA produces superior players to these dudes growing up playing against professionals.

[Krandor]

Also

[Andalusian girls]

Jokic hasn't been a bad defender in a couple years now. was 4th in defensive win shares last year and 4th in defensive box plus/minus. this year he's 7th and 1st (!).

those stats overstate the case, obviously, but turnstyle is ridiculous. his positioning is quite good, has active hands, pulls the chair better than anyone this side of Embiid, closes out possessions with elite defensive rebounding. he's clearly a net positive on that end for the Nuggets. hell he's the most valuable piece of their defense, which ain't exactly great but it's fine, top half of the league.

ya, jokic is insanely good and i feel like he doesn't get the same recognition other stars get

def not. some guys have a playoff gear they can ratchet up to that Jokic hasn't entirely shown yet (though he's been very good in the postseason including going 30-12-5 last year), but he's the best player in the NBA in the regular season and it isn't especially close.

[Andalusian girls]

if only someone could have defended Kuzma from that sweater