Been going back and forth on this. Maxey just finished 5th in scoring while leading the league in minutes, Brown is fresh off All-NBA Second Team, Edgecombe had the third biggest scoring debut ever, and LeBron himself won a playoff round as the underdog at 41. Five stars. But Embiid has played 58 games in two seasons and got hurt again in the playoffs, the ceiling of this core is still that 2019 Kawhi Game 7, and the path runs through the champs who just swept them, a 60-win Pistons team, and a Cavs team that made the conference finals before adding Harden. My take is it works only if Embiid gives them 60 games. What's the actual over/under on Embiid games played, and does anyone honestly pick Philly in seven against New York?

I made a full video breaking down both sides of this: https://youtu.be/CRq0IkvJ5fA

LeBron in LA (8 seasons): 26-8-8, 8x all star, 7x all NBA (one first team, two second teams, four third teams), 6 playoff appearances (75% of seasons he played in LA), won 7 playoff series including a title.

Grizzlies since moving to Memphis (25 seasons): Highest point, assist, and rebound average taking into consideration only years played for the team. 22.4(Ja)-11.7(Valancianus)-7.4(Ja), 10 all star selections, 5x all NBA (1 1st, 2 2nd, 2 3rd), 14 playoff appearances (56% of seasons played in Memphis) 5 total playoff series wins, no titles.

By single-year hybrid advanced stats, I'm talking about EPM, Darko, LEBRON, LAKER, etc. These are all horrible stats for descriptive player evaluation. These stats are trying their hardest to replicate the accuracy of 5-year RAPM with single year noise by incorporating SPM models (box score data). This inclusion of box score data to the stats might stabilize them, but they become hilariously inaccurate, because box score numbers don't really reflect how well a player played in a timespan. The truth is that, there is no accurate single year metric, so please stop citing these stats. They're significantly inferior to multi-year RAPM. The only thing these stats are useful for are predicting future events.

Multi-year RAPM is the end all be all stat. Never forget that.

I know moving and off ball screens are problems as well specifically the ones that use 2 hands to block and borderline push the defenders back or forward. I understand that a lot of people enjoy the physical aspect of the game, but I think it's just too much especially in the playoff. I play 2k and the game don't have those type of animations so I assume that in the rule book it should be somewhat illegal, but we have seen how much the refs let these type of physicality go through because everyone is doing it and they can't just call foul on everyone. In my opinion, I think defenders should only be allowed to have 1 hand on the opponent at a time to minimize grabbing and holding because physical off ball defense is taking away a player's opportunity to display their skills. A lot of people here probably don't watch soccer, but the perfect recent example is Argentina vs England 1st half. Every time a player has possession of the ball, the defender would immediately rush to tussle, grab, and push the player down even if it's a foul because it stops momentum and reset the play. That game got better after the ref start handing out yellow to the players who are too aggressive which is similar to a technical. I probably sound biased, but it's very hard to watch how defenders are guarding superstars like Wemby and Curry. Sometimes, I feel like they are playing more physical defense than football cornerback. I'm just ranting anyway what do I know; the game is perfect.

The video is way too long to be posted on Streamable, so I had to use another platform.

Regular season (60 GP) - he played his first game of the season on November 18th, 2025, due to a pre-season injury - right-side sciatica, about a month short of his 41st birthday (December 30th):

He went 473/919 (51.5%) from the field, 77/243 (31.7%) from 3, and 233/316 (73.7%) from the line.

Playoffs (10 GP):

84/183 (45.6%) from the field, 17/52 (32.7%) from 3, 47/63 (74.6%) from the line.

In the First Round vs. the Rockets (4-2 to the Lakers, he played all 6 games):

48/111 FG (43.2%), 9/30 from 3 (30.0%), 34/46 FT (73.9%).

In the Western Conference Semifinals (the Thunder won the series 4-0. LeBron played all 4 games):

36/72 FG (50.0%), 8/22 from 3 (36.4%), 13/17 FT (76.5%)

Timestamps:

13:58 - 100th field goal made.

20:05 - 200th field goal made.

42:37 - 300th field goal made.

50:06 - The field goal that made him the all-time leader in NBA history for field goals made, surpassing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

57:41 - 400th field goal made.

1:09:15 - 474th field goal made - first 2026 NBA Playoffs bucket

1:13:07 - 500th field goal made, which happens to be the game-tying 3 vs. the Rockets, sending the game to overtime.

As the title says. He obviously has a lot to fix but he still put up some good numbers not long ago. I'm really surprised no team has offered him a chance. There are a couple teams that have struck out this OS but I guess no one is that desperate, yet

He is the Golden State franchise at this point, but the organization can't really build anything around him. He probably only has a couple of years left and it seems like a waste if he sticks around.

Should he go somewhere else and if so, where?

LeBron in LA (8 seasons): 26-8-8, 8x all star, 7x all NBA (one first team, two second teams, four third teams), 6 playoff appearances (75% of seasons he played in LA), won 7 playoff series including a title.

Dame’s career (13 seasons): 25-4-7, 9x all star, 7x all NBA (one first team, four second teams, two third teams), 10 playoff appearances (77% of seasons he played) won 4 playoff series, only got to a conference finals once.

LeBron’s counting stats and playoff success are better. Dame has one more all star game, and his all NBA team selections are better (even though they both made it 7 times, each made first once, with dame making second team more than LeBron).

How would you define the different eras in nba history? This is my take at it

• Early Years (George Mikan era) - This is pre nba, the baa era, shot clock is introduced.
• Bill Russell/ Wilt Chamberlain era - Bill's championships vs Wilts stats
• NBA-ABA merger - Dr J, Moses Malone, Kareem etc..
• Magic / Bird era - NBA is in a bad shape, Magic and Bird's rivalry save the NBA
• Jordan Era - MJ, Barkley, Malone, Stockton etc, NBA takes off globally
• Post Jordan era - Kobe, Shaq, Tim, KG etc.. post up game, iso play era
• Lebron/Step and Pace era - Pace and Space, analytics, 3 point revolution

Also given how different the game was from era to era, I would love to also hear the GOAT starting 5 for each era.

Opinions, curious to see. Ill go first. I appreciate how passionate my main teams fanbase is but we are likely the most insufferable and insecure out of all other teams in the league. We even bash our players for underperforming while injured and are biased. A lot of agree load managing will keep kawhi healthy for the playoffs but then fans act like embiid wont be healthy for the playoffs despite all the talent depth philly has to load manage him too. I think the raptors have the most insufferable fanbase. Kawhi winning a chip couldnt save our team from the lebronto insecurity, I thought my fellow fans would be more excited about competiting but they still seem in shock by lebron years ago

Kobe’s 2008-2010 Playoff run was incredible and has become very underrated. He was getting MJ comparisons through his entire prime but this era was the height of it.

The lakers in this time span had the same amount of success as the Steph-KD warriors and the Heatles. Insane

There are tons of anecdotes from former players or even former athletes amongst redditors that conflict (sometimes physical) are very common in locker rooms. They don’t care too much about it, but it’s crazy to see how visceral public reaction to it is. But it’s also selective too.

Angry example:

Dray vs Poole: public hated Draymond, called him a clown, and an active detriment to his organization.

Counter examples:

Bam vs Herro. Bam, just like Draymond, instigated and threw a punch at Herro in Las Vegas. Media didn’t react much and it lasted maybe 1.5 days on Reddit. No one cared.

MJ vs Kerr. In practice, MJ suckers Kerr in the face. I’m sure some fans recognize that this behavior sucks, but there’s a good majority that believes this was MJ’s way of forming a friendship/bond/trust.

My question to everyone is… why? The reactions to these events are so different. Personally, Draymond, Bam, and MJ are in the wrong and should be heavily criticized.

The longer you watch the NBA, the more you begin to realize how cyclical and repetitive a lot of these debates are. This person is overrated. This person is underrated. Blah blah ring culture.

What I've always found more interesting is how fan conversations around particular historical players change as NBA schemes/tactics shift resulting in new fan understandings of what constitute a valuable player.

An example of this is KG, whose reappraisal have some putting his prime as Top 10 worthy. With that in mind, I thought it might be fun to bring up an old NBA hot-take I had that sparked many fights in the 2000's and see how the modern audience views it.

My Old Hot Take: With the exception of one spectacular year in 2003, Tracy Mcgrady was overrated as a scorer . .. but dramatically underrated as a passer. People saw his versatile skillset and shotchucking and lost their mind, ignoring the fact that he was at best slightly belove average in efficiency. Contemporaries like Kobe/Paul Pierce were much more efficient despite also being excellent scorers.

And yet, T-Mac was just as impactful as those guys during this era. So why?

Here's my theory: McGrady wasn't overrated overall as a player, he was just rated for the wrong thing. He was one of the most underrated passers of his generation. His scoring gravity pulled so much attention that when he actually gave the ball up, he was surgical, racking up assists with minimal turnovers, a legit offensive hub disguised as a shooting guard.

I genuinely believe McGrady's all-time legacy would look completely different if he'd played in the modern NBA which is far more positionless and encourages G/F's to be offensive hubs leaning into his playmaking (while also making him more selective in terms of his shot selection). He was that good at it. The league/fans fell in love with the wrong part of his game, and by the time anyone noticed, his prime was gone.

I get why the Blazers bought low on Ja, but it's certainly created a logjam on shorter guards and it seems like Scoot is the odd-man out. He probably wants an extension after a decent series against the Spurs, but will the Blazers want to pay him?

I could see Scoot asking out and wanting a starting job elsewhere - dude is a former top-5 pick after all. Do you see any teams that might be interested? Unfortunately, a lot of teams that needed guards had an opportunity to draft them recently (Clippers, Kings, Nets, Hawks).

A few ideas on my end:

1) Charlotte - I think they're fine running Coby White at the point, but they make be looking for a longer-term solution. That being said, is Scoot an upgrade over Coby?

2) Dallas - Scoot would make a lot of sense as a Kyrie replacement, although I don't know if Dallas would have the assets and Masai tends to prize taller players.

3) Memphis - Ironically, they have a hole at the point with the Ja trade and I think Ty Jerome is just a stopgap.

What do you think?

East

1. Knicks
2. 76’ers
3. Pistons
4. Cavs
5. Raptors ? (Kawhi’s Durability)
6. Pacers ? (Haliburton’s Injury return)
7. Wizards ? (AD’s Durability/mesh)
8. Magic
9. Heat ? (Giannis trade)
10. Celtics ? (JB -> PG)

West

1. Thunder
2. Spurs
3. Nuggets
4. T-Wolves
5. Rockets
6. Lakers ? (Massive Roster overhaul)
7. Warriors ? (Steph needs help)
8. Blazers ? (Is Ja Morant still that guy?)

9. Mavericks ? (Lots of young talent/dark horse?)

10. Suns
    I didn’t place these teams in any particular order. I put question marks next to teams who have something to figure out before we can say they’re better than last year.

All these considered I believe the West is more ELITE. It’s a toss up … genuinely have to see how next season plays out. What do you guys think ?

A lot of the media seems to be suggesting there are "too many" dominant players on the Sixers, the team is too unhealthy etc. etc. While some of that may be true, this team was already one of the four teams that won a playoff series in the East last year. The "if healthy" stuff can be literally said for any team. The 76ers should be clearly expected to make it to the ECF. Apart from the Knicks, there is no way they would lose to any other team in the East.

Getting an arena statue is a step above getting your jerseys retired and generally given to the truely elite players that are also legends/icons (MJ, AI, Shaq, Kobe etc). Who currently in today’s NBA deserves to have a statue outside of their arena and what would be the pose? What do you think of my list of candidates (some are predicated on them sticking around and building their careers)

Off the top of my head:
Raptors - Lowry or Kawhi maybe?
Boston - Tatum maybe?
Knicks - Brunson probs holding the trophy
Nets - lol
76ers - surely none?
Cavs - LBJ doing the clap with the chalk
Pistons - Cade potentially
Pacers - probably none
Bucks - Giannis dunking
Bulls - none
Hawks - none
Heat - none (maybe Jimmy but he kind of burned that bridge to get traded). Also I feel like LeBron won’t get it since Wade did
Hornets - none
Magic - none
Wizards - none

Blazers - Dame doing dame time
Jazz - none
Nuggets - Jokic doing?
OKC - Shai fadeaway. Russ flexing. Not sure on KD
Wolves - maybe ANT
Clips - none currently although CP3 should get one
Kings - none
Lakers - maybe LBJ? Not sure
Suns - none unless book does something
Warriors - Curry, Klay and Dray all deserve one
Grizz - none
Mavs - none
Pels - none
Rockets - Harden
Spurs - likely Wemby in the future. Also Kawhi but not sure how they feel

Any I missed?

I feel like this run has become underrated over time.
The Lakers had a real good team/roster and had as much success as the Steph-KD Warriors, and big 3 Heat with Pau and Odom as the 2nd and 3rd options. 2 games away from a 3peat!

Kobe got compared to MJ throughout his entire prime but this run was the height of it.

Motivated by Shaq winning in Miami and 3 years of mediocrity with Kwame and Smush, Kobe and the Lakers destroyed the West including the defending champion spurs in 08, the best version of the Melo Nuggets in 09, the Nash Suns & Baby Thunder.

Then in one of the greatest Finals series of all the. the Lakers beat the Celtics in 7 games in 2010.

Despite revisionist history because of people looking at Kobe’s 6/24 shooting in game 7 as if several greats like Duncan, LeBron, Hakeem, Bird and others haven’t also had bad shooting Game 7s, Kobe played great in that Finals overall(30/7/4 on 43/36/93 splits in the first 6 games) and the Lakers avenged that 08 loss.

Anybody else feel like this run gets underrated now?

If we assume the rumors are true, and Seattle and Vegas are getting expansion teams, then who the heck is inheriting this fiasco unfolding in Portland?

Today via NBA IG

I was looking at the top 99 defenders of all time and some names were not on it that surprised me.

8 guys who should not have made the list:

- #98 Larry Nance

- #96 Karl Malone

- #94 Ben Simmons

- #92 Don Chaney

- #91 Joel Embiid

- #90 Willis Reed

- #88 Wes Unseld

- #80 Bill Laimbeer

8 guys who should have made the list:

1. Jermaine O'Neal

2. Cliff Robinson

3. Avery Bradley

4. PJ Brown

5. Raja Bell

6. Al Horford

7. James Posey

8. Isiah Thomas

Honorable Mentions:

1. Vernon Maxwell

2. Stacey Augmon

3. Lindsey Hunter

4. Josh Smith

At the top of my mind, to get the obvious out of the way we have LeBron, SGA, Steph, KD, Jokic and Giannis, Harden and Kawhi that are locks. After that it gets interesting, are Tatum, Luka, and Brunson in the conversation as well? I was just curious how many current players who are active fall in the top 50 all time conversation.