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https://x.com/LGottesdiener/status/1645262877815873537

It’s interesting since people seem to think the NBA pays the way for the WNBA. But the owner of the Atlanta Dream is saying he doesn’t get any money from the NBA to support his team.

Do you think Adam Silver should provide an update on the WNBA’s finances? It’s been 7 years since the last update when he said they were unprofitable.

Is there an incentive to make it seem like the WNBA is still unprofitable to suppress player expenses?

Here is a place to have in depth, x's and o's, discussions on yesterday's games. Post-game discussions are linked in the table, keep your memes and reactions there.

Please keep your discussion of a particular game in the respective comment thread. All direct replies to this post will be removed.

It would be much easier to swallow stuff like Embiid being allowed to play through multiple obvious flagrant fouls in one game or not suspending Murray if the NBA just openly said they couldn't do the normal punishments because they had to salvage the series as entertainment products. People would be less upset.

They know the Nuggets are desperate and without Murray this series would be a quick one. In almost any other scenario he would be suspended.

Body text. I think I have to type 100 words. NBA fines should go to League Pass Subscribers at random. Everyone in America would sign up.

OKC blue

Nuggets bue

Wolves blue

Mavericks blue

Boston green

Knicks Orange

Pacers Yellow

Cavaliers red

There is a consensus opinion circulating around that Celtics have no excuse for not winning the East. (Barring any Major Injury for Tatum). And with that roster, I think they will win the East.

So, why not match them up with the remaining 4 Western Playoffs Teams. Which Team will they beat? Which team will they lose to?

Let's go one by one:

1.Nuggets- I think Nuggets win this. Because Unlike Minny, Boston only have 1 quality 7'0 big in KP. And he cannot do the defending alone against Joker.

2.Timberwolves - With the way Wolves are playing right now. I like Wolves Chances against Celtics.

3.OKC - SGA VS Tatum. Celtics should have an edge cause of experience. OKC is very very young.

4. Mavs - Luka VS Tatum will decide this series. Whoever outplay the other. Wins. So 50-50.

What do you think?

Especially you guys boston fans, setting aside your bias?

After watching jokic have a total shambolic performance on the defensive end of the ball over the past two games. It got my wondering. When did this false narrative and lie start about jokic defense being improved and him now being very good on defense and it not being a liability anymore? What objective stats or metrics were used for that?

Source

In the regular season of his rookie Euroleague season, Nunn averaged 15/3/3 on 54% TS, and an amazing 98% FT% (54/55).

He's now the second high profile Euroleague rookie to sign a mid-season extension this season, since Jabari Parker signed a two-year one as well with Barcelona a few weeks prior.

Nunn's contract reportedly includes an NBA out option for this summer.

The Suns have Bradley Beal on possibly the worst contract in the league with a no trade clause. KD not getting any younger and none of their own picks for the next 5 years. So they can't even tank for the lottery pick.

This experiment clearly hasn't worked and they've mortgaged their future. Would you trade KD for picks or 2/3 younger players and start thinking towards the future. Or are we thinking that these 3 can run it back and really take on teams like the Nuggets, Mavs and Timberwolves?

Odds are if you know a ref by name he’s bad.

Dude was atrocious tonight.

Thunder constantly getting ticky tack fouls through the 1st half while Gafford and others would get hit by 2 defenders at once and no call

He should not be in playoff games, period.

I'm not talking about achievememts, I'm talking about latent ability. Is current Wemby a Top 75 player of all time? I'd think so because I can name 3 MVPs and one perrenial allstar I would not rather build around over Wemby- Harden, Westbrook, Melo and Wes Unseld.

It's already been pointed out that no team has scored 100 on OKC yet in the playoffs. This is partly due to OKC trouncing their opponents in the fourth. In the past four fourth quarters, the Pelicans scored 16 once and 18 twice, while the Mavs put up 16 tonight. That, my friends, is an average of 17 points. Coach Daigneault was asked why OKC has been so good in fourth quarters, and he said he didn't know but he hopes it keeps happening. Why haven't teams been able to score in the fourth? Is OKC's youth factoring in in such a way that these kids just have more left in the tank and can ratchet things up?

OKC was able to dominate Mavs in Game 1 of their series.

SGA outplayed Luka for the Superstar Matchup.

But for the battle of the Bigs. Both Chet and Gafford have good games.

We know Lively and Gafford alternate for each other though. And might alternate who will play more mins every game.

Question is:

Do you think Chet is a better player than Both Gafford and Lively individually? Or it is the other way around?

Do you think Chet will win this matchup? Or he will lose against The Mavs Big Man Duo?

What do you think?

PS: Maxi is out. So he is not included.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/04/magazine/english-soccer-american-owners.html

“If you went back and looked at N.B.A. owners in 1980, they were the local Budweiser distributor, or they owned car dealerships, or they’d been successful in real estate,” says Wes Edens, the owner of the N.B.A.’s Milwaukee Bucks, who partnered with the Egyptian businessman Nassef Sawiris six years ago to buy Aston Villa. “And that might have been OK when your franchise cost $20 million. Once it becomes a billion-dollar business, though, it’s no longer a hobby. And the financial demands of a billion-dollar business are so different. And so, what’s happened is a very natural changeover, from the local guy who ran a car dealership to the guy who ran an equity fund” — someone like Edens himself.

https://www.nba.com/stats/player/1628369/career

• 7th year as a pro, 3 Eastern Conference Finals appearances, 1 ECF MVP award, 1 Finals appearance

Don't challenge Celtics fans to an edging contest.

Amongst all players with more than 400 FGA this regular season, only seven were 'volume-efficiency optimal', meaning that they had a higher FG% than every single player who took more shots than them. Perhaps not surprisingly, the last four of them are most people's top-four MVP candidates.

1. Daniel Gafford - 72.5% - 480 FGA
2. Rudy Gobert - 66.1% - 614 FGA
3. Jarrett Allen - 63.4% - 819 FGA
4. Giannis Antetokounmpo - 61.1% - 1369 FGA
5. Nikola Jokic - 58.3% - 1411 FGA
6. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander - 53.5% - 1487 FGA
7. Luka Doncic - 48.7% - 1652 FGA

I've also labelled a few of the players who came close to cracking this list in the linked graph.

I doubt it will surprise anyone that the highest field goal percentages belong to big men, or that perimeter players are better at generating shots for themselves, but I think it's neat how clearly the data shows that.

The Thunder's bigs also outrebounded the Mavs bigs by 1 as well.

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This is the Mavericks bigs stat line for Game 1:

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This is the Thunder's bigs stat line for Game 1:

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Just some Game 1 statistics.

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https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401657231

Oh my goodness. Let me get this straight.

Gobert...
--dominates the defending NBA champions in Game 1 of the WC semis
--flys back to MN to see the birth of his son while missing game 2, where his team plays the "best defense" Barkley has seen in years
--named NBA defensive player of the year for the fourth time, tying the all-time record
--apparently, 9 months ago, he made a joke about a made three feeling like losing his virginity, and SB Nation runs a very funny, widely shared story about it.

Does anyone else feel like there's something a little weirdly magical about Gobert?

Like he's always in the right/wrong/bizarre spot? He's like Forrest Gump or Zelig. Such incredible timing all the time. Sometimes it's the worst possible timing, but that in itself is remarkable.

• 92 points allowed in Game 1 against Pelicans

• 92 points allowed in Game 2 against Pelicans

• 85 points allowed in Game 3 against Pelicans

• 80 points allowed in Game 4 against Pelicans

• 95 points allowed in Game 1 against Mavericks

source

Just absolutely crazy defense by this young OKC team!

Really an incredible rookie season, making huge contributions for a team with real title aspirations, and one of the main reasons they’ve leveled up.

Box score: https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401657231

Lots of talk about how the Thunder were too small for the Mavs, but they blew them out on the boards (despite an awesome game from Gafford). If OKC plays like this, and Luka remains hobbled, it could be a sweep.

https://www.espn.com.au/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401657231

Luka Donicic’s night ends with 19 points on 19 shots (6-19 from field, 1-8 from 3) 6 boards, 9 assists, 5 turnovers. He was a team worst -21.

https://www.espn.com/nba/game?gameId=401657231

Absolutely an arrival by the thunder. They join the 2024 wolves being the first western conference team since the 2017 warriors to start the playoffs 5-0.

On top of that they’ve won these 5 games by an average margin of +17.

Unprecedented work by such a young team.

On tonight’s episode, the guys recap Tuesday’s Game 1’s and preview Game 2 between the Knicks and Pacers.

Pretty incredible showing from this young squad. Team played with a sense of resilience that most veteran playoff teams aren’t able to tap into