2024/25 NBA in-season thread

[BigbadB]

8 hours ago, We Got The Whole 9 said:

Holy horsefeathers Cade Cunningham took 45 FGA today and got only 46 points. 

Meanwhile, he became only the second player in NBA history (MJ) to have 40 points, double digit rebounds and assists and 5 steals in a game.

[Old Style]

Nico Harrison is looking for work. Should have fired him the moment he mentioned trading Luka. 

[We Got The Whole 9]

So the defending champs are 18-1, which is absolutely absurd in itself. They have done that without Jalen Williams. They have 3 first rounders in next year's draft, 2 of which are going to be lotto picks. Probably a top 3 pick from the Clippers.

 

I am not sure any modern sports team has been so well set up for a dynasty run. I am so jealous of the way that Sam Presti runs that team.

[soccer10k]

On 11/27/2025 at 9:53 AM, We Got The Whole 9 said:

So the defending champs are 18-1, which is absolutely absurd in itself. They have done that without Jalen Williams. They have 3 first rounders in next year's draft, 2 of which are going to be lotto picks. Probably a top 3 pick from the Clippers.

 

I am not sure any modern sports team has been so well set up for a dynasty run. I am so jealous of the way that Sam Presti runs that team.

It’s pretty wild. I think I heard somewhere that they’ve played a pretty weak schedule so far but like you said, they haven’t had their second best player at all yet.

[We Got The Whole 9]

This Jalen Johnson kid is horsefeathers ridiculous. Stuffing the hell out of the sheet every night.

 

21/18/16 

[We Got The Whole 9]

Whatever the record is for fewest 4th qtr minutes played in an MVP season, SGA is going to blow it into smithereens.

[Tryptamine]

They're going to destroy 73-9 aren't they?

[soccer10k]

21 hours ago, Tryptamine said:

They're going to destroy 73-9 aren't they?

The main argument against it is they’ve played the easiest schedule in the league so far. In the West, there are 6 teams that are 9-16 or worse. They have 20 games scheduled against these teams and have already played 13 of them. Meanwhile, they’ve only played 3 games against the 9 teams that are 15-10 or better. They still play those 9 teams 25 times.

Of course they’re also 24-1 despite their second best player only playing in 6 of those games and they won 68 last year despite Chet missing over half the year.

74 is a lot of wins. I’d be shocked if they don’t get to 70 though.

[imb]

[Derwood]

the NBA is a great example of how a hard salary cap in no way creates parity

[imb]

8 minutes ago, Derwood said:

the NBA is a great example of how a hard salary cap in no way creates parity

i actually think the opposite of this is true. Additionally, the CBA is so new its impacts on parity (it was specifically designed to defeat dynasties) hasn't been felt yet. OKC just did a good job of being ready for it, in no small part because it's GM was part of the CBA committee as it was being built.

in the last 10 years, only the warriors (3 titles) have won more than 1, and they got that based on the last CBA allowing them to add KD to a team that had just won 73 games, followed by a fluky unexpected win in 21-22. 

 

[soccer10k]

Yeah, I don’t see how you can look at a league that has seen 7 different teams win the title in the last 7 seasons and 11 different teams make the finals in that span and say there’s no parity.

[Derwood]

I’m looking at the current WL records with five teams at or below a .250 winning oct while another has 1 loss

Edited December 12, 2025 by Derwood

[imb]

1 hour ago, Derwood said:

I’m looking at the current WL records with five teams at or below a .250 winning oct while another has 1 loss

what does the salary cap have to do with bad teams? I love you and i say this with respect, you seem to just be saying stuff

Edited December 12, 2025 by imb

[Bobson Dugnutt]

1 hour ago, Derwood said:

I’m looking at the current WL records with five teams at or below a .250 winning oct while another has 1 loss

I’m not sure how anomalous this is. Looking at standings on this date in both 1996 and 1997, to use a few of the Bulls dynasty seasons as points of comparison, 6 of the then 29 teams had winning %s under .300.

[Derwood]

40 minutes ago, imb said:

what does the salary cap have to do with bad teams? I love you and i say this with respect, you seem to just be saying stuff

Not saying the salary cap causes lack of parity, I'm saying it clearly doesn't fix a league where regardless of the salary rules, most players want to play for the same 6 teams

[Bobson Dugnutt]

7 minutes ago, Derwood said:

Not saying the salary cap causes lack of parity, I'm saying it clearly doesn't fix a league where regardless of the salary rules, most players want to play for the same 6 teams

But the teams with the two best records are in Oklahoma City and Detroit.

[imb]

1 hour ago, Derwood said:

Not saying the salary cap causes lack of parity, I'm saying it clearly doesn't fix a league where regardless of the salary rules, most players want to play for the same 6 teams

Sure but the team you were griping about being too good is in oklahoma and can’t sign real FAs

[soccer10k]

Watched the whole 4th quarter of Spurs-Thunder. Phenomenal.

Well, until the last 15 seconds when it turned into a foul fest. After SGA made a dunk with 14.9 seconds left, each team shot 6 free throws. How have we not fixed this yet? Just make a rule that in the last XX seconds, if a team is up 3, any foul on that team is a shot and the ball. Because the last 15 seconds sucked to watch after watching the rest of the 4th quarter.

Or institute the Elam Ending. That would get rid of fouling on both sides and they'd be forced to just play defense.

[imb]

On 12/13/2025 at 11:07 PM, soccer10k said:

Watched the whole 4th quarter of Spurs-Thunder. Phenomenal.

Well, until the last 15 seconds when it turned into a foul fest. After SGA made a dunk with 14.9 seconds left, each team shot 6 free throws. How have we not fixed this yet? Just make a rule that in the last XX seconds, if a team is up 3, any foul on that team is a shot and the ball. Because the last 15 seconds sucked to watch after watching the rest of the 4th quarter.

Or institute the Elam Ending. That would get rid of fouling on both sides and they'd be forced to just play defense.

yeah, the foul up 3 thing is the right thing to do, but it makes the end of the games terrible slogs. It won't stop until the league decides to stop it. 

[17 Seconds]

cooper flagg is so good 

[soccer10k]

On 12/12/2025 at 11:08 AM, soccer10k said:

The main argument against it is they’ve played the easiest schedule in the league so far. In the West, there are 6 teams that are 9-16 or worse. They have 20 games scheduled against these teams and have already played 13 of them. Meanwhile, they’ve only played 3 games against the 9 teams that are 15-10 or better. They still play those 9 teams 25 times.

Of course they’re also 24-1 despite their second best player only playing in 6 of those games and they won 68 last year despite Chet missing over half the year.

74 is a lot of wins. I’d be shocked if they don’t get to 70 though.

Well since this post they've played 3 games against those good teams (two vs SA and one vs Min) and lost all three. Definitely don't expect that to continue but I think 74 wins is off the table now. They'd have to go 48-4 to get to 74, which is what the Warriors started the year they won 73.

[soccer10k]

Don’t want to overreact to 2 1/2 games but the Thunder certainly seem to have a Spurs problem.

[CubinNY]

Barkley looks like he went a little overboard on the Botox and dermal abrasion. 

[We Got The Whole 9]

Thunder 6-6 since their impervious start. Lost to the Hornets by 27 tonight.