Around the League - '23-24 Season

[FNG]

Toronto crushing Milwaukee with another poor showing by the Bucks backcourt.

I don’t know, Q, I think the new Bucks starting backcourt might be coming around. They were only a -49 last night compared to -55 the previous game. Bucks fans must be celebrating the improvement.

[KG4Ever]

Spurs beat the Suns twice on the Suns home court. Interestingly, in the first matchup, the Spurs came back from 20 points and won. The next game they met, the Suns came back from 20 to tie the game or even take a small lead, and the Spurs adjusted and retook the lead and the game. I know Finch is no Pops, but Finch needs to do a better job of making in-game adjustments.

I'm not sure if the series is more telling of the Spurs or of the Suns, but probably a bit of both. I think the Suns are vastly overrated and if the injury bug that has hit them endures all year, the season could end up mirroring Durant's stint in Brooklyn. I really thought the Suns made a dumb move giving up so much for Durant, who is old and injury plagued. Bridges, alone is a franchise type player, and Cam Johnson is a good young player, plus all those picks. But the Suns are built with three injury riddled stars. Booker and Beal have been out of the lineup most and all of the year, respectively. The rest of the roster is pretty underwhelming.

I have watched all of Wembayana's games so far and I have a rooting interest as he is on one of my fantasy teams, but he can be both infuriating and incredible. He really can't be guarded vertically given his height and reach, but his jumper so far is streaky. I questioned Pops putting Sochan as point guard ahead of Tre Jones as Jones is capable of hitting Wemby for alley-oops and Sochan is challenged that way as he is not a natural passer. Vassell was injured so maybe Tre will get to have more time with Wemby and that is potentially a lethal combo. I never would have thought that the Spurs were even a playoff contender before the start of the year, but their sweep of the Suns makes me think they might have a chance. Anway, since i have Wemby, Tre and Collins on one of my fantasy teams and Vassell on the other, the Spurs are probably my second favorite team this year after the Wolves of course.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Spurs beat the Suns twice on the Suns home court. Interestingly, in the first matchup, the Spurs came back from 20 points and won. The next game they met, the Suns came back from 20 to tie the game or even take a small lead, and the Spurs adjusted and retook the lead and the game. I know Finch is no Pops, but Finch needs to do a better job of making in-game adjustments.

I'm not sure if the series is more telling of the Spurs or of the Suns, but probably a bit of both. I think the Suns are vastly overrated and if the injury bug that has hit them endures all year, the season could end up mirroring Durant's stint in Brooklyn. I really thought the Suns made a dumb move giving up so much for Durant, who is old and injury plagued. Bridges, alone is a franchise type player, and Cam Johnson is a good young player, plus all those picks. But the Suns are built with three injury riddled stars. Booker and Beal have been out of the lineup most and all of the year, respectively. The rest of the roster is pretty underwhelming.

Durant is averaging 36 minutes over the first five games. He's averaging 27 ppg on 54% fg.

Beal and Booker have combined to play only 72 total minutes.

[Monster]

I would argue KAT woulda been more valuable as a rental because nobody thinks he's a supermax guy.

I think it's fair pay. KAT as much as he gets ripped on is still a damn good player overall and elite offensively. We rag on him more because he hasn't lived up to his potential. He could be an MVP type player like Jokic and Embiid and he's not. The expectations were too high and he never made the leap from All Star type to MVP type player.

I'm with Cool though as well. I was ready to trade KAT years ago. Once he stagnated making progress as a Wolf. I still think there is potential upside on another team which will help his trade value.

I would be shocked if KAT didn't get a much better return then Harden. Harden has more recently been even worse then KAT in the playoffs too and much older. He's a bigger headcase and worse on defense. A worse teammate.

I'm not sure anyone views KAT as having upside because they're too turned off by his personality. Wolves rag on him for the same reasons everyone else does but everyone else rags on him worse. Like I've said before, KAT doesn't seem to have many friends outside of his existing teammates who publicly vouch for him the way other guys have.

Are you talking Twitter/fans/social media or people actually in the league?

[Q-is-here]

Good to see Wemby and San Antonio get crushed tonight. Nothing against Wemby, but the last thing we need is another Western Conference team taking a big leap this year.

[WildWolf2813]

Matt Ryan becoming a reliable three point shooter in New Orleans is killing me.

[kekgeek]

Matt Ryan becoming a reliable three point shooter in New Orleans is killing me.

He was a very solid shooter for the wolves also. Now if the wolves don’t have injuries or Minott plays well if they do. The nix signing will be the correct one

[KG4Ever]

Good to see Wemby and San Antonio get crushed tonight. Nothing against Wemby, but the last thing we need is another Western Conference team taking a big leap this year.

I found that depressing. I love the Spurs! They are my second favorite team this year and my favorite non-Wolf, Wemby. Hopefully, Wemby posts 40 soon, with the rare triple double (points, rebounds and blocks). I hope Spurs do well except for when they play the Wolves.

[KG4Ever]

Matt Ryan becoming a reliable three point shooter in New Orleans is killing me.

He would collect DNPs here and will once Trey Murphy returns from injury. He did shoot 1 for 8 in one game, so I don't know how reliable he is, though I have seen him string a few good shooting games together now. If he goes on a heater for long, I'm sure teams will starting defending him better.

[FNG]

James Harden doing what Harden does in his debut with the Clippers...17 points and 6 assists and a team-worst -18. It's almost like playing defense matters or something...