Thx Steven. That's all it was - a thought exercise. No, Haliburton was not being considered by anyone to be a top 3 or 4 pick in that draft. Some draft sharps at the time were saying things like 'Haliburton is gonna surprise people with how good he is' and suggesting he should be in that top tier conversation, but generally he wasn't. All I was saying was that in hindsight that would've been quite a pairing had the Warriors had the scout and the foresight and the cojones to make it. There were certainly PLENTY of red flags about James Wiseman. But had they not gone Wiseman, of course it's still very unlikely they would've picked Haliburton. I never meant to suggest anything otherwise.Solid post, Jason.
You mention LaMelo Ball having had injuries. I’m well aware of his older brother’s plethora of serious injuries, but I didn’t know it had happened to LaMelo as well. Could you provide a bit more info on that? Thanks.
P.S. Tommy is one of the sharpest posters on DBR. He almost always has what I believe to be very accurate and insightful posts. Sure, his mention of the Warriors having made a mistake by not choosing Haliburton at #2 was a bit of a reach — considering no team had him even remotely that high on their draft board — but it’s still a fun thought exercise.
NBA 2024-25 General Discussion Thread
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bundabergdevil
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I think he was probably just thinking of Lonzo’s seasons’ long injury. Sounds like a hell of an ordeal and was much more visible to the average fan. That family has had a time. Didn’t Lavar lose a leg?
Bulls’ Lonzo Ball meets family of the man who donated knee cartilage he received in transplant
Ball signed jerseys and took pictures Wednesday with the family of the late Alex Reinhardt of Dakota Dunes, S.D., who died at age 20 in late February 2023.
Matches
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You could have ended your post with the word “noise” and it would still have been accurate.
I can’t imagine what the Clippers would be able to send back that the Hornets would actually want. I have a sinking feeling the Hornets/ LaMelo situation will end poorly, but I can’t see them giving him away for 40 cents on the dollar.
Two All-NBA players (four total selections between them), plus another two all-stars: that's actually pretty good top end talent for one draft.
2019 only has one All-NBA selection, Ja Morant, once, along with three other all-stars.
The talent does drop off from there, of course. But I wouldn't put 2020 among the truly bad draft classes like 2024.
Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15
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Nuggets only scored 8 points against the Thunder in the first quarter of Game Four.
That OKC defense is for real.
Ready for the worst NBA finals ratings in a long time? Maybe TNT or whomever puts the OKC/Indy series on "tape delay" similar to 1970's broadcasts.
This is what you get when you have playoff games that look a lot like football instead of basketball. I'll be pulling for the Pacers because I like the way the push the pace but if OKC is going to be allowed to break most rules every time down the court, just give them the trophy and skip the finals. Those OKC/Minn games were embarrassing for the league.
I love that it is mentioned a good bit in WNBA broadcasts that the league is putting an emphasis on freedom of movement (except when setting screen, they seem pretty determined to call more moving screens, which is good).
Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15
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I'm curious what teams you enjoy watching. Not a criticism, just a sincere question. Having watched the Thunder stomp the Nuggets and Wolves, I'm very interested to see how they shackle Halliburton ans whether they can continue a fairly dominant season.
I agree that ratings are likely to be poor, but I attribute that to the smaller market teams, as well as the lack of a Big Star, a la Lebron, Steph, Tatum, Jokic, etc. But this is how Big Stars are made - taking a team to a new high on the biggest stage.
Oh, I’m absolutely ready. For Oklahoma City, Chet Holmgren is must-watch TV. As for the Pacers, I think they are the most exciting team since the Steve Nash Phoenix Suns.
I’m going to be in Austin on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, though, so I won’t be able to see any games during then (if there are any
) because our schedule is loaded from the moment we step off the plane until we return to Chapel Hill. P.S. This is assuming Indiana wins the series with the Knicks, which I expect they will.
Fairly dominant? There are only five teams in the history of the league who had a better regular season than did the Thunder this year. And three of the five were by a half game or a single game. And while Denver did take them to seven games, the Thunder just breezed through Minnesota in the conference finals. This is a dominant team. Maybe Indiana can push them, but I'd expect OKC to be solid favorites to win the championship at this point.
The NBA finals ratings have been on a steady decline (ignoring the anomalous, COVID-impacted years of '20 and '21) since their 2015 local high watermark, so they would probably be the worst ratings in a long time regardless of which teams made the Final.
Putting that aside, while big market media writers like to harp on the necessity of having big market teams playing at the end, there seems to be little evidence of correlation between market size and Finals ratings. The Cleveland-Golden State finals all had far better ratings than Boston-Golden State. Chicago-Utah in '98 had the best ratings of all time. Was that because Chicago is a big market (ignoring that Utah is the smallest market in the league), or because MJ was playing his last game? If the Lakers and Celtics get better ratings, is it because they are "large markets", or because they are the most storied franchises in NBA history?
I think compelling teams and compelling players attract more eyeballs than big market teams.
I'm not saying that OKC isn't very good and deserving and I do like watching them. The problem is not the teams, it's the way the games are being called. If called properly the teams would adjust and play basketball that's more fun to watch. OKC just did a great job of realizing they weren't going to call anything and playing to that style. I think that if the games are called like the OKC/TWolves games, the Pacers don't have a chance. My favorite team to watch is the GSW, I'm a big Steph fan and I really like the style of ball they play (movement and passing). I really like watching Denver because of Jokic, the Bucks because of Giannis, the Fever because of Caitlin, the Pelicans when Zion is playing. A lot of teams I like watching have to do with Duke players on the roster (Zion, Pablo, Grayson, Tatum, etc). I know I'm like a broken record because I say the same thing for the NCAA tournament where teams (Houston, Tenn, USC) have beat Duke by fouling so much they dare the officials to keep up...and they don't (unless you're Cooper in which case they make a weak call to give the game to the other team).
I think Indiana is very compelling.
I didn’t say so in my post, but I think OKC and Indy are both very compelling.