2024-25 NBA Thread

[pwaldo]

I can see firing the GM as he was horrible but don't get doing that to the coach and once again don't understand these firings so late in the season. Guess all these teams know they aren't doing squat these playoffs. Just makes this whole regular season all the more pointless in the NBA.

[WilyWestbrook0]

I can see firing the GM as he was horrible but don't get doing that to the coach and once again don't understand these firings so late in the season. Guess all these teams know they aren't doing squat these playoffs. Just makes this whole regular season all the more pointless in the NBA.

Yeah, Booth sucked. What's crazy is the team just released a statement saying they fired Malone BECAUSE they want to win a title this year:

Nuggets Ownership Explains Decision to Fire Coach Michael Malone Right Before Playoffs

"'This decision was not made lightly and was evaluated very carefully, and we do it only with the intention of giving our group the best chance at competing for the 2025 NBA championship and delivering another title to Denver and our fans everywhere,' Kroenke said in the statement."

Do some of these higher-ups have no concept of how basketball works? Coaches come up with the strategies and plans of the games, and it takes time for players to adjust to the different styles coaches implement. You can't just fire a coach with a few games left and think some guy is gonna come in and rapidly change everything magically, and that the players will quickly figure it all out through osmosis and adjust immediately to the new coach, and win the whole thing! The fastest I can ever remember a team actually winning a title after a coach firing was in 2016 with the Cavs when they fired Blatt for Lue, but they had months to adjust to Lue. Why on earth these people think a fast coaching change will immediately solve all major problems and bring a team closer to a title is something that boggles my mind. I wonder if they really truly believe this nonsense or if they're just spouting it to make it sound good to the media to cover for their own lack of sports understanding.

[pwaldo]

I can't imagine any scenario where the Nuggets win a title this year with what they would have to go through in the West and it is laughable that they think that a coaching move is what would put them over the top. I can maybe think of some years or sports where a new coach was upgraded with some quality coach that it might make a difference but this isn't one of them. Seems like total desperation to keep Jokic or they realize that their window is done after this season and this is the only move they could make. Can't imagine they would have made this firing if the Grizzlies didn't can their coach a few days ago. Just unreal and wild to go through a whole season basically and then fire the head coach with the playoffs right around the corner.

[WilyWestbrook0]

So Luka really dominated in his return to Dallas and teared up when they ran a tribute video for him.

There was also this local Dallas commercial which is absolutely hilarious:

A commercial played during the MAVS vs LAL game last night : r/nba

[WilyWestbrook0]

Last day of the season. Just wanted to mention that the Thunder have so much depth. It's amazing how often they can win big even when some of their top guys are out, which is why they're one of only four teams to outscore their opponents by an average of 12+ PPG all season (the only other teams to do it, the 70-71 Bucks, 71-72 Lakers, and 95-96 Bulls, all won the championship). You watch teams like Boston get pounded by the Magic a few days ago and the Cavaliers get beat by the Pacers' G-Leaguers today and it's evident the Thunder are the deepest team in the league. That's why they were still a great team even with Chet out for a long portion earlier in the season. Their bench almost never loses to another team's bench. Even guys like Jaylin Williams put up triple doubles. To make matters worse for Boston and Cleveland, both Jaylen Brown and Donovan Mitchell have some injury concerns heading into the playoffs. It just seems like the East will be so irrelevant this year. Even if OKC somehow loses to another West team, which would be due to a lack of experience rather than depth or talent, both Boston and Cleveland might be too banged up to be competitive with whoever comes out of the West.

[pwaldo]

Last day of the season. Just wanted to mention that the Thunder have so much depth. It's amazing how often they can win big even when some of their top guys are out, which is why they're one of only four teams to outscore their opponents by an average of 12+ PPG all season (the only other teams to do it, the 70-71 Bucks, 71-72 Lakers, and 95-96 Bulls, all won the championship). You watch teams like Boston get pounded by the Magic a few days ago and the Cavaliers get beat by the Pacers' G-Leaguers today and it's evident the Thunder are the deepest team in the league. That's why they were still a great team even with Chet out for a long portion earlier in the season. Their bench almost never loses to another team's bench. Even guys like Jaylin Williams put up triple doubles. To make matters worse for Boston and Cleveland, both Jaylen Brown and Donovan Mitchell have some injury concerns heading into the playoffs. It just seems like the East will be so irrelevant this year. Even if OKC somehow loses to another West team, which would be due to a lack of experience rather than depth or talent, both Boston and Cleveland might be too banged up to be competitive with whoever comes out of the West.

Yeah I agree about the Thunder being in a class by themselves but I will say that basically having the Cavs/Celtics coast to the ECF is a huge advantage for the Cavs/Celtics. They can basically rest and take it easy while you could have a scenario where the Thunder have to play a tough opponent every round before the Finals. Not saying that should put an east team over a west one but that Nuggets/Wolves match up basically destroyed both teams chances of winning after that. Both teams would have been super gassed coming out of that and the Mavericks were able to take advantage of that. So I could see a scenario where the Thunder have to go to game 7 a bunch of times and are banged up / injured and the Celtics "upset" them. If the Thunder were in the east instead of the Celtics or Cavs I'd basically be penciling them to be winners already. But the western conference is once again loaded and has potential landmines all over the place whereas the east is just 2 teams as this point at best.

[WilyWestbrook0]

Yeah I agree about the Thunder being in a class by themselves but I will say that basically having the Cavs/Celtics coast to the ECF is a huge advantage for the Cavs/Celtics. They can basically rest and take it easy while you could have a scenario where the Thunder have to play a tough opponent every round before the Finals. Not saying that should put an east team over a west one but that Nuggets/Wolves match up basically destroyed both teams chances of winning after that. Both teams would have been super gassed coming out of that and the Mavericks were able to take advantage of that. So I could see a scenario where the Thunder have to go to game 7 a bunch of times and are banged up / injured and the Celtics "upset" them. If the Thunder were in the east instead of the Celtics or Cavs I'd basically be penciling them to be winners already. But the western conference is once again loaded and has potential landmines all over the place whereas the east is just 2 teams as this point at best.

Hmm, that's a fair point. I think the Thunder's youth may help them a bit in that regard as they can withstand fatigue better than the older teams, although there's an exception in one case: I think a skinny and often injured guy like Chet could become more likely to get re-injured since he's already so intrinsically fragile with his body type. If all the playoff wear and tear gets to him and he has to miss games, that would really put their title chances in jeopardy as he's the one big guy they have who commands a lot of defensive attention and can help space out to the perimeter. IHart is a great facilitator on offense but he does nothing in scoring except lob dunks and his push shot.

[pwaldo]

Yeah it isn't a big concern for the Thunder as I think not winning the championship this year will be a big letdown but they are going to have a much more difficult route than say what the Celtics will have to face. That's the only thing stopping them at this point.

[pwaldo]

Both #2 seeds get brutal opponents to face. You get the Rockets drawing the Warriors who I could see pulling an upset and the Celtics getting the Magic who could be a tough first round match up for them. Not good enough to beat the Celtics but they should make the Celtics work for their series win.

Also the west looks like we are going to get a Thunder versus Lakers showdown in the WCF with the way the seeding went but hopefully I'm wrong on that one because sadly I don't see the Thunder overcoming the refs + Luka + Lebron.

[WilyWestbrook0]

Both #2 seeds get brutal opponents to face. You get the Rockets drawing the Warriors who I could see pulling an upset and the Celtics getting the Magic who could be a tough first round match up for them. Not good enough to beat the Celtics but they should make the Celtics work for their series win.

Also the west looks like we are going to get a Thunder versus Lakers showdown in the WCF with the way the seeding went but hopefully I'm wrong on that one because sadly I don't see the Thunder overcoming the refs + Luka + Lebron.

Yeah I was just thinking about how the Warriors could beat the Rockets. The Rockets are a gritty team with some young athletic players, but Dubs have all the playoff experience. Could potentially be a really competitive series. Maybe even nasty with Dillon Brooks and Draymond Green.

I really hope to avoid a Lakers/Thunder series. Lakers fans and org are still angry over the technical on Luka that got him thrown out in their last regular season matchup when Luka appeared to be yelling at a ref but was actually yelling at a fan. That's another series that, if it happens, could get nasty quick, although not so much fights but debates over reffing. Lakers generally get more calls but they'll never make anyone forget the Luka tech and people love to complain about SGA's FT attempts, so we'll never hear the end of reffing if that series happens.