Around the League: Week 22 (3/14 - 3/20)

[Superbone]

But he also found out that the grass isn't always greener on the other side:

This the real shit they don’t tell you though. The truth is, there were times where I got too in my head. The role I took on the Hawks came with a lot of extra pressure. You get that kind of number by your name, suddenly everybody’s like, “Why aren’t you leading the team? Why aren’t you this or that?”

Everything becomes your fault, your responsibility.

And I can be a man now and say that some of it was my fault. But that’s a 40-year-old man talking. If you asked me back then? Which a lot of people did in the media, I probably deflected more of that responsibility than I would today.

That’s why I always say you have to have older people around you. Especially guys who’ve been through the wars and the battles that you’re currently in, or going through, or gonna face, who can help you through those crossroads.

I didn’t really have that. There were plenty of guys that I had played with that I could have asked for help, but I’ll be honest, I really never reached out or sought guidance. I came up in a different era. A different NBA. We didn’t talk about things like the mental side, like they do now. That wasn’t a part of the culture yet.

So, I just kind of dealt with all those challenges in the best way I knew how: I didn’t say nothing to nobody.

[Aztec Sunsfan]

Wow, he could have thrown the Suns under bus, and instead owned his decision, a very mature and honest approach.

The second part quoted is pure gold, a cautionary tale about leaving a good team situation just for the sake of shining more as an individual.

The eternal debate about being the mouse’s head vs lion’s tail debate.

[Superbone]

KAT goofs on Westbrick's airball:

https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/15 ... mp4?tag=12

[ShelC]

Bey dropped 51 last night with 10 threes.

[ShelC]

More Mavs drama

[The Bobster]

Something needs to be done to swing things back a little towards the defense. My first choices would be to tighten up the carrying and traveling rules, which have been relaxed a great deal over the years. Also, some of the blocking fouls when the offensive player barrels in and initiates contact should be called the other way.

[The Bobster]

The Suns are in some prestigious company. Here are the teams which finished 8+ games ahead of the rest of the league in the regular season -

1970-71 - MIL - 14 - Won Finals
1963-64 - BOS - 13 - Won Finals
1991-92 - CHI - 10 - Won Finals
1959-60 - BOS - 10 - Won Finals
1946-47 - WSC - 10 - Lost Semifinals
2021-22 - PHO - 8 - ???
1999-00 - LAL - 8 - Won Finals
1995-96 - CHI - 8 - Won Finals
1983-84 - BOS - 8 - Won Finals
1972-73 - BOS - 8 - Lost EC Finals
1966-67 - PHI - 8 - Won Finals
1957-58 - BOS - 8 - Lost Finals

[Split T]

Something needs to be done to swing things back a little towards the defense. My first choices would be to tighten up the carrying and traveling rules, which have been relaxed a great deal over the years. Also, some of the blocking fouls when the offensive player barrels in and initiates contact should be called the other way.

I’m ok with offense being more advantaged…though there are a few areas I’d look at, like the offensive player creating all the contact stuff that you mention. If the defender doesn’t play it 100% perfectly it’s a blocking foul currently. I do think we could adjust that a bit. I personally wouldn’t change the carrying or traveling rules though.

[Mori Chu]

The Suns are in some prestigious company. Here are the teams which finished 8+ games ahead of the rest of the league in the regular season -

1970-71 - MIL - 14 - Won Finals
1963-64 - BOS - 13 - Won Finals
1991-92 - CHI - 10 - Won Finals
1959-60 - BOS - 10 - Won Finals
1946-47 - WSC - 10 - Lost Semifinals
2021-22 - PHO - 8 - ???
1999-00 - LAL - 8 - Won Finals
1995-96 - CHI - 8 - Won Finals
1983-84 - BOS - 8 - Won Finals
1972-73 - BOS - 8 - Lost EC Finals
1966-67 - PHI - 8 - Won Finals
1957-58 - BOS - 8 - Lost Finals

I was like, who is WSC? Turns out it's the Washington Capitols, a team that played in the 1946-47 inaugural season of the Basketball Association of America (BAA), a precursor to the modern NBA. The Philadelphia Warriors beat the Chicago Stags to win the title that year. After its third season, 1948-49, the BAA merged with the National Basketball League (NBL) to form the NBA.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1946%E2%8 ... BAA_season

[bajanguy008]

[Indy]

Something needs to be done to swing things back a little towards the defense. My first choices would be to tighten up the carrying and traveling rules, which have been relaxed a great deal over the years. Also, some of the blocking fouls when the offensive player barrels in and initiates contact should be called the other way.

I’m ok with offense being more advantaged…though there are a few areas I’d look at, like the offensive player creating all the contact stuff that you mention. If the defender doesn’t play it 100% perfectly it’s a blocking foul currently. I do think we could adjust that a bit. I personally wouldn’t change the carrying or traveling rules though.

[aside]

In a sport where the offense scores most of the time, the offense is already supremely more advantaged than the defense. I assume that is something people like about basketball. I mean, even in the extremely slowed down, defense heavy Knicks/Heat days of the late 90s/early 2000s, they still gave up a score on 45% of shot attempts.

Imagine if any other major sport had that. If half of the shots on goal ended up scoring, NHL scores would be 15-13. If half of the batters scored a run, baseball scores would be similar. NFL games get tricky because of field goals, but if you just look at touchdowns and assume every other drive ends in a touchdown, we would be pushing 100 points per game.

[Indy]

Something needs to be done to swing things back a little towards the defense. My first choices would be to tighten up the carrying and traveling rules, which have been relaxed a great deal over the years. Also, some of the blocking fouls when the offensive player barrels in and initiates contact should be called the other way.

The carrying and travelling rules are crazy and I hate them. But they would take away a lot of excitement in today's game. They would have to find other ways to do that, and Eddie Johnson's favorite critique of killing the fast break and And 1 plays is a good place to start.

[Indy]

The Suns are in some prestigious company. Here are the teams which finished 8+ games ahead of the rest of the league in the regular season -

1970-71 - MIL - 14 - Won Finals
1963-64 - BOS - 13 - Won Finals
1991-92 - CHI - 10 - Won Finals
1959-60 - BOS - 10 - Won Finals
1946-47 - WSC - 10 - Lost Semifinals
2021-22 - PHO - 8 - ???
1999-00 - LAL - 8 - Won Finals
1995-96 - CHI - 8 - Won Finals
1983-84 - BOS - 8 - Won Finals
1972-73 - BOS - 8 - Lost EC Finals
1966-67 - PHI - 8 - Won Finals
1957-58 - BOS - 8 - Lost Finals

If you put his in order of years and look at how long between occurrences (X = 1 year), it is pretty crazy nobody has done this in so long.

1946-47 - WSC - 10 - Lost Semifinals
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
1957-58 - BOS - 8 - Lost Finals
X
X
1959-60 - BOS - 10 - Won Finals
X
X
X
X
1963-64 - BOS - 13 - Won Finals
X
X
X
1966-67 - PHI - 8 - Won Finals
X
X
X
X
1970-71 - MIL - 14 - Won Finals
X
X
1972-73 - BOS - 8 - Lost EC Finals
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
1983-84 - BOS - 8 - Won Finals
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
1991-92 - CHI - 10 - Won Finals
X
X
X
X
1995-96 - CHI - 8 - Won Finals
X
X
X
X
1999-00 - LAL - 8 - Won Finals
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
2021-22 - PHO - 8 - ???

[Superbone]

Reposting this as the link was broken before. This is hilarious.

KAT goofs on Westbrick's airball:

https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/15 ... mp4?tag=12

[Indy]

Did they call a timeout there? The clock wasn't moving so I was confused.

[Superbone]

Did they call a timeout there? The clock wasn't moving so I was confused.

Didn't notice that but no, play continued on.

[iLLmatic]

Well.....
Don't think I need to encourage anyone to read this

And here it is:

Come summer, I was a restricted free agent — and I’ll put it this way: I don’t think anyone was surprised that I wanted a bigger role. With Shawn, Amar’e and Steve, they was all gonna be All-Stars for a while. That was understood. So if I was gonna take the next step as a player, I knew I needed to find a place where I could have those types of expectations.

Atlanta made an offer, and let it be known they wanted me to be that guy. I asked Phoenix not to match. Sarver wasn’t about to let me walk for nothing, though, so they worked out a sign-and-trade.

Was it tough leaving? Yeah, man, it was. But I believed in my abilities. And I wanted to play for an organization that believed in me the same amount.

Honestly makes me feel better about it. JJ really wanted to be the man and have a role that he couldn't have with Nash/Amare/Matrix. I had read that at the time but now the man himself verifies it.

He could've won a ring here first before wanting that.

[Superbone]

He could have but that wasn't the young man's thinking.

[bajanguy008]

What sorcery is this ?!?

[bajanguy008]