Not as an independent. And an independent would actually have one of the better chances in history of winning in 2024. Half of Republican voters would jump at any non-Democrat besides Trump. And Biden won 2020 largely on the back of being "not Trump", but isn't terribly popular with moderates or even many Democrats.
A solid middle of the road candidate could actually do it in 2024. No idea of Cuban is that guy, but being a household name helps a ton.
Really need to look at "times blocked per attempt" to get much out of this. Guys who shoot a lot are also going to get blocked a lot.
Like, Maxey has been blocked 25 times on 339 attempts - or he gets blocked once every 13.5 attempts. Whereas Mathurin has 26 times on 175 attempts - or once every 6.7 attempts. So they are right next to each other on this list, but Maxey only gets blocked half as much as Mathurin.
He's an undersized SG in the body of a PG. Just doesn't have PG skills so you can't play him there, and he can't defend a lick so it's really tough to play him next to a traditional PG. He can score points, but that's about all he's good at.
He's eventually going to find a home in this league as a solid 6th man microwave type.
It's like 40 games too early to even begin to discuss this topic. This award really ends up being about final records vs expectations, and hot starts mean nothing. Rockets could very easily finish with 38 wins and Udoka's name wouldn't even come up in the conversation.
Sixers have been a 68%, 62%, and 66% WL% over the last 3 years - Nurse pretty much has to blow that mark away to win the award. Which seems highly unlikely. Harden may be more addition by subtraction than anything Nurse is doing.
What's the difference between fouling a player who can't shoot and a star hunting for a switch onto a bad defender?
Both are simply ways of exploiting a weakness in the opposition. Along with 10,000 other ways...
Running up the score in most circumstances is just poor sportsmanship. This is true at every level of sport. But, if the rules are setup to benefit your team doing it, then most people aren't going to complain about it.
That's the classic Grant Williams experience. He'll have stretches where you're like "why doesn't this guy get the ball more?" and then he'll have stretches that perfectly answers the question. Just look at his shooting splits by month over the last two seasons.
This is precisely why the Celtics didn't make a huge effort to retain him.
The good news is he'll bounce back and have better months. The bad news is that this isn't the last time he'll shoot this poorly.
Legally correct - there's no proof they had sex unless one of them are willing to admit to it. And both parties likely have interest in not admitting to it - he doesn't want to go to jail or lose his job, and she will get paid to keep quiet.
That said, based on the timestamps of the stuff they posted online, it will be trivial to figure out if she's underage or not. If so, Giddey is forever fucked in the court of public opinion, and it puts the Thunder in a super weird spot.
And Lavine is a short guy who can't play any defense.
Realistically, for the average person? No. You can train all you want, but at some point you are going to max out, and the size disadvantage will probably doom you. Even if you could hypothetically train to the point of being a knockdown 50% shooter from 30 feet out, you'd score on him but would still have the fundamental problem of trying to stop Lebron with your 5'10 body.
Now, if you were 6'8? Then yeah, if you had 1000 years to build up muscle and train in basketball, you should be a pretty fucking good player. At least good enough to give Lebron a fight.
Remember it's a popularity contest. Lillard is highly likely to grab one of the East back court spots, deserving or not. The other is a bit more up for grabs - Mitchell probably has the biggest name of the possible candidates, but Trae isn't far behind. Haliburton is the most deserving guard in the East, but that's certainly no guarantee of winning the vote.
Ainge doesn’t tank. They’re rebuilding and not that good but he’s not going to totally sell out to go for a better lottery chance.
Putting aside his off the court issues, his complete lack of improvement from last season is concerning. He was poised to really make a leap this year and see his value go through the roof, but now teams are going to be a bit more cautious. It's entirely possible he has plateaued.
Zero chance of Lauri unless the Thunder were throwing in a bunch of picks to go with Giddey.
Rolling in the off court stuff, I'm not sure anybody would trade for him until more info comes out. Even if he skates by legally, no team really wants the PR hit of trading for the player who sleeps with high school girls.