Plies-

I hand tracked Tatum's post fadeaways this season before the game vs the Bulls and he's shooting 55% on them lol. 21/38.

Doesn't include possessions where he was fouled either so that makes it even more efficient. Pretty nice for a difficult shot.

This shit has sold me on the IST.

Also please post the Hauser putback.

You've been given the joke answers but the real answer is that the Suns biggest stakeholders bought Reddit.

Ok but for real, r/nba teamed up with Reddit Community Funds and they're doing a fundraiser for the Boys & Girls Club of America. There's also prizes and shit. And I believe that the two fanbases that donate the most for that week get the sub adorned in their colors for a time. Cavs and Warriors did for the first week.

Pretty cool initiative imo, rare r/NBA mod W.

It's because you guys haven't had a particularly difficult schedule (ranked 28th here fwiw) and are 12th in net rating and 20th in defense.

Logic dictates that the defense and net rating should improve a bit but the lack of PoA defense, wing defense and Middleton looking slower on that end have really hampered the elite rim protection you have with Brook and Giannis. Idk your money situation but you should be buyers at the deadline if any plus wing defender is available.

Your schedule gets a fair bit harder after this month so I'm interested to see if this team can click. You're 7th in offense now but if your coaching staff can start to utilize your pieces better you should be top 3. Middleton (hopefully) easing into more minutes will also help.

But again a lot of it comes down to just lacking personel which might bite you guys since the two rivals in the east are built around wings.

Curry is legit just a better player than KD is in my opinion. I know a few years ago a lot of people would have said the opposite but Durant had it so fucking easy when he was in Golden State.

Durant is an all time offensive player but he's had several series in the playoffs before and after GSW where teams with the right personnel could load up on him and limit his productivity (MEM, GSW and BOS for example). In OKC especially this was a personnel problem as a lot of the time they were playing 3 non-shooters that teams like the Warriors or Grizzlies didn't have to respect with Westbrook, Adams and Roberson. When he played Boston in 22 they warped their entire defense around keeping him away from his spots and they basically had 5 quality defenders in their starting lineup.

When he played next to Curry he got all of the 1 on 1 iso's he wanted because of Curry's shooting, and as he's one of the best iso scorers ever he was incredibly efficient in their title runs. So he obviously looked a ton better and won the FMVPs.

But Curry was and has always been the engine that made that team go. That's evidenced by the Warriors numbers with KD on and Curry off vs with Curry on and KD off.

There's this old Thinking Basketball video that pretty much explains it.

That being said, I'm not a KD hater or anything. I think its incredible how fucking insanely good he is to still be putting up top tier offensive numbers in terms of volume and efficiency at 35 after injuries and age have turned him basically entirely into a jump shooter with little driving game.

When D-White has it going he's awesome as well.

He's a good slasher, has a good floater game, can sneak in a pullup middy, is good at drawing contact. And he's developed into a near 40% catch and shoot 3 pointer guy after struggling before last season. This season he's also developed an in rythm pullup 3 that he'll break out in semi-transition if he's feeling it (36% on the year so far on 2 pullups per game).

And then defensively who doesn't like seeing a guard get crazy blocks lol.

Dude is legit the perfect role player, he only does those above things if he's feeling it. Our win vs the Heat earlier this season is the perfect example of this. He had 28/6/3 on efficient shooting with 3 blocks lmao.

I still can't believe Tatum got a tech because he dunked the ball and then refused to flip on his head and then refused to kick a player in the head lmfao soft ass league.

I'm sure the millionaires will be alright even if they are "taunted"

Feels like almost every game now but this officiating crew was terrible

Inconsistent af. Would call ticky tack fouls then ignore others.

The Celtics had 8 offensive fouls, JJJ got whistled for some weak ass fouls, Biyombo did as well.

I counted 5 slips this game. And he had like 3 of them. Terrible court.

Fuck this court. Several slips and it looked like Brown strained his groin on the last one.

Players are slipping on this Raptors court. I think 2 or 3 times in the first half.

Also everyone is talking about them lol, you live under a rock?