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Game Thread Jan 17, 2025 06:00PM MT: Utah Jazz @ New Orleans Pelicans

Added to Calendar: 01-17-25

Sexton is averaging 23 points per game in the last 6 games and doing it efficiently.
 
I just don't understand why all of the crap teams are STILL in the East. It has always been 10 times harder to build in the West, because they have been the stronger conference for at least 4 decades now.
Also, you would think that if being bad and getting rewarded with better draft positioning is a good thing for turning around a franchise then the East should have been getting the good picks/players and evening things out.
 
how does cody williams at least not get rebounds. it's one thing to suck at basketball and suck so bad you can't even take shots, let alone make them, but if you're 6'8" and not doing anything else out there, go get 5 gd rebounds. this guy averages 2 rebs a game. that's one thing he should be able to control at least to an extent. good hell what a horrible player.
 
of course collier continues to struggle shooting - i mean, he sucks at shooting, but 11 assists and 2 turnovers is encouraging. it will be a shame if he never becomes a respectable shooter because it's clear he's an nba caliber talent. but at a certain point, it doesn't matter what else you're good at, you just can't have a 30% FGs guy on the floor. that is unless you're tanking.
 
how does cody williams at least not get rebounds. it's one thing to suck at basketball and suck so bad you can't even take shots, let alone make them, but if you're 6'8" and not doing anything else out there, go get 5 gd rebounds. this guy averages 2 rebs a game. that's one thing he should be able to control at least to an extent. good hell what a horrible player.
More than once in a GLeague game he got zero rebounds.
 
I got busy and missed several Jazz games so it was nice to see if anything has changed. Our rookies are slowly getting more comfortable and the game is slowing down for them. However, no one seems to be breaking out: the progress is very incremental.

The team seems to be weirdly breaking into two categories: Cody and Harkless defend but never get the ball on offense, while Brice, Svi and Keyonte don't care much about defense and hog all offense to themselves. Collier now is trying to make simple, short passes and it works: his size and strength give him so much advantage. If he improves either his finishing at the rim or shooting he could stick long-term.

Not sure what is the value of playing Cody since the team does not trust him on offense at all: he would be developing faster in the G-League. But any real improvement would probably come only after he gains strength and works on his shot in the summer.
 
how does cody williams at least not get rebounds. it's one thing to suck at basketball and suck so bad you can't even take shots, let alone make them, but if you're 6'8" and not doing anything else out there, go get 5 gd rebounds. this guy averages 2 rebs a game. that's one thing he should be able to control at least to an extent. good hell what a horrible player.
Because he is strictly a perimeter player at the moment, both on offense and defense. There are no rebounding opportunities on the perimeter.
 
Thank you.

There are those that are so focused on nitpicking things they don’t like about something that they are blinded to how vastly worse other outcomes can be.

We have never had more parity at the top of the league than right now. We have had a different NBA champion every single year since 2019. In those six years, we’ve had ten teams play in the finals (only the Celtics and Heat appearing more than once in those six years). We haven’t had a major free agent defection since 2019 (maybe I am forgetting something here). There are no “super teams” (three max players that force their way to a single team and a bunch of scrubs and ring-chasers) burning up the league.

We have basically gotten rid of low-scoring, stagnant, boring offenses that consist of one or two guys iso-ing and bricking a bunch of mid-range garbage. We used to hear belly-aching about low-scoring games that resembled football and had restrictive illegal defense rules that protected players that lacked talent. Now, teams can employ any team defense they please which makes games much more dynamic. Allowing these complex defenses forces teams to shoot better, run faster, jump higher, and pass better on average. There has never been more movement and action in the game than now. But now the criticism is that the games are too high-scoring or that we should be mad that we traded the bad mid-range shots for bad three-pointers.

Basketball as a game has never been better. The players might not be as interesting as they used to be (or maybe we’re all just trapped in nostalgia), and the game isn’t as physical as it used to be. Those changes and actual parity emerging makes the playoffs less dramatic as it isn’t Lakers-Celtics every other year, or the supposed best ever drubbing everyone for most of a decade. It’s just not as dramatic. But are we watching for drama, or because we like basketball?

Anyway, if the odds were flattened, most small market teams would be ****ed. I don’t get how we can’t all see that.
The lottery was implemented to ensure that tanking would not be rewarded with the top pick or picks in the draft. It has since been modified several times so that tanking has again become somewhat profitable. I think every team in the lottery having an equal shot at say the top 4 picks in that lottery could substantially improve the watchability of the whole league. The first 4 picks are drawn by lottery the rest go by inverse order of the final regular season standings. To really stop tanking let every team all 30 have a ball in the lottery for the first four picks and then draw by record. That would eliminate any real reason for anyone to tank and leave the top picks totally up to chance.
 
The lottery was implemented to ensure that tanking would not be rewarded with the top pick or picks in the draft. It has since been modified several times so that tanking has again become somewhat profitable. I think every team in the lottery having an equal shot at say the top 4 picks in that lottery could substantially improve the watchability of the whole league. The first 4 picks are drawn by lottery the rest go by inverse order of the final regular season standings. To really stop tanking let every team all 30 have a ball in the lottery for the first four picks and then draw by record. That would eliminate any real reason for anyone to tank and leave the top picks totally up to chance.
The only true way to abolish tanking is to put every team in the lottery, and that ain’t happening.
 
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