NBA 2024-25 Season Thread

2.5 games between 4 and 8 in the West.

Still alive for the never before seen Battle of LA / Kawhi vs. Luka quadrilogy.

Still no word on why that coach got canned?

I'm waiting on leaks but nothing so far.

Which to me is the oddest part.

Is it too much to ask that the East finishes like:

1CLE
8 Whomever

4IND
5DET

3NYK
6MIL

2BOS
7 Whomever

It's where we're at now, and I feel like that would be the Pacers' best chance to possibly get back to the ECF. Plus, that BOS/NYK 2nd round series would be pretty great.

I think DET would beat NYK first round if paired…

Welcome 2 Detroit City!!!

Avoiding the Bucks is all I ask. They don't have an answer for Giannis.

Nobody does.

He’s the NBA equivalent of Hulk.

Doc Rivers: Time to be a freak Giannis.
Giannis: That’s my secret Doc, I’m always a freak.

Knicks are way better than the Bucks

Pistons won the last two meetings vs Knicks.
2/3 total this season.

Knicks haven't figured out how to play Towns and Mitchell Robinson together yet. Brunson could be coming back less than 100% and possibly get a bit banged up during a first round series.

But OG and Mikal Bridges have unlocked their offense as of late without Brunson, so maybe the Knicks CAN beat Detroit if they meet.

Onlydo2Days,

Do you think the Knicks are drawn dead to title? Or is there a chance?

The Knicks have lost exactly 3 games by 25+

Right on the cusp. One more, and they're drawing dead.

There’s no way they can beat the Celtics in a best of 7 and I had a dream recently with Spike Lee ib it where we talked about the Knicks.

So yeah. I know the Knicks.

I'm not sure that (when it comes to blowouts) using "never happened before" statements really work.

Game is different now. Scores are up. Blowouts are getting more and more common.

20 point+ losses below.

Even since then, no team has shipped that's lost more than 3 games by 25+ points.

Maybe it wouldn't matter if the playoffs were one and done, but the better teams tend to win in best of series, and the better/great teams get blown out far less often.

It's gone up 50% in the last 9 years. So we are really only talking about 4 years. Not exactly a large sample size.

I'm just trying to save people money from making bad bets. You do you.

The Lakers are a bad bet to win the championship and mispriced for loads of reasons, not that single data point. Their differential is marginal (which sucks in the bad blowouts you are focused on), they have no credible answer to size inside - oh and they are on track to have to play OKC in round 2.

The Lakers price is being driven by intangible vibes based stuff around Luka / LeBron playoff feats of the past. It’s very logical to fade that as a concept.

This is 2002-2015 for the number of teams that averaged > 110 pts/game

Spoiler

Show

Here's 2016-Present

Spoiler

Show

We went from barely any teams averaging over 110 pts/gm to now averaging 2/3rds of teams doing it in the last 7 years. So it makes sense that we've seen an increase in blowouts, but it doesn't change the fact that the teams getting blown out aren't the same teams that are winning championships.

I agree there's a multitude of reasons they're a bad bet.

Sorry McMuffin, I hope your health care provider can fix you up.

Sadly, there is no known cure.

It's the other way around. They fear us.

Assuming each of these gentlemen reaches 65

First-team
Gilgeous-Alexander
Jokic
Tatum
Antetokounmpo
Curry

Second-team
Jackson
Mobley
Brunson
Mitchell
Garland

Third-team
Edwards
James
Towns
Haliburton
Cunningham

The interaction between the 65 game rule and the super max eligibility stuff for making AllNBA is gonna be fun.

I like Knicks chances better than most, probably get owned by Celts rd 2 but not like Celts are KD Warriors level.

But Knicks did take a hit in equity with Dame blood clot, Cavs path to ECF much easier now whereas Bucks had best chance to upset them.