To be fair, odds aren’t that far off
Last two winners were Daigneault and Mike Brown (RIP) who won at decidedly non-glamour franchises
And not like Cleveland is glamorous
There’s those places and then there’s Detroit. There’s a difference between meh and “we don’t like you”. The only team that has had the league change rules twice after winning titles.
(I don’t completely believe that it’s the NBA marketing vs. Detroit but it’s a good narrative.)
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Cade’s back!
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I was having this discussion with a friend we agree it will probably be Atkinson but doesn’t mean he should.
23-24 Cavs 48 wins
Mitchell missed 27 games
Mobley misses 32
Garland misses 25
24-25 Cavs win over 60
Mitchell and Garland play over 70 games
Mobley may hit 70 plus games
Atkinson has done a very good job but much better health this year which clearly contributed to some of this success.
We really missed Duren (and Tobias) tonight. Memphis outrebounded us 64-44 and won by 6.
Didn’t watch the game, but just seeing Edey’s stat line of 6 pts, 21 rbs, 6 asts … wow
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TIL
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Without Duren and with Stewart in foul trouble, Ausar got some minutes at center against an Edey-JJJ frontline.
Hopefully that’s adjusted for the quality of FT shooter taking shots… I would imagine the overall sample of second FTs is higher because on average better FT shooters get more second attempts
I always wondered if icing the shooter had any evidence
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It works for me on 2K so it definitely works irl
TPTSNBN Superlatives for 2025 (their opinions, not predictions), just for some debate grist:
MVP (“The closest race since the start of the pod”): (an interesting thing here is they track “passing creation” - the number of shots they create for others, and Jokic is third in the NBA after Halliburton and Trae Young) - they honestly kind of call it a split, but based on having played 8 more games…Shea Gilgeous-Alexander (the caveat is “I think Jokic is probably a better player”). The ballot went SGA, Jokic, Tatum, Giannis, Mobley.
All NBA 1st team: SGA, Jokic, Tatum, Giannis, Mobley (duh)
All NBA 2nd team: Curry, Lebron, Garland, JJJ, Donovan Mitchell
All NBA 3rd team: Brunson, Edwards, Cade Cunningham, Jalen (Jaylen?) Williams, and then a split between the two hosts between KAT and Halliburton
Coach of the year: Split between the two of Daigneault and Atkinson (those were both guys top two). They do note that Bickerstaff last year was hamstrung by the injuries to the big guys as @JD1 noted. Bickerstaff is both of their 3rd choice, with Udoka 4th. They do note that their top two are driven by OKC’s historic net rating and Cleveland being elevated to title contender.
Most Improved Player: they both sort of swear to avoid 2nd year players. The unanimous choice is Evan Mobley, they both have Cade Cunningham 2nd, then a split between JJJ and Austin Reaves. They do mention Malik Beasley here.
Rookie Of The Year: Split between Jaylen Wells and Zac Rissacher (Nate’s tiebreaker is generally “who do I think will be better pro” - thus Zaccharie
Sophomore Of the Year: Wembanyama, then Amen Thompson, then Chet.
6th Man: Peyton Pritchard, Malik Beasley comes in #2
DPOY and All-Defense come out in a different episode
They also make up some:
“Executive of the Year” and a “Not Executive of the Year”, and amusingly the affirmative case is Pelinka and the derogatory one is Nico Harrison. Dunleavy and Arturas Karnisovis are 2nd respectively.
Disappointing player: Joel Embiid (also considered: Dejounte Murray, Jaime Jacquez, Reed Sheppard, Devin Booker, Bradley Beal)
Surprise player: Evan Mobley (Al Horford gets some shine here, as does Lonzo Ball, Toumani Camara, Steven Adams, Jordan Poole)
Suprising Team: Never settle on one here, but mention Cavs, Rockets, Pistons, Clippers
Disappointing team: Never settle here either: Pelicans, Magic, Sixers
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Hard to argue with any of these honestly. Cleveland and OKC had historically successful seasons, so their coaches are valid choices for COY. Detroit has had one of the best turnarounds ever, but awarding the coaches at the top of the league makes sense.
The one I’d probably climb the hill on is Beasley over Pritchard. If you remove Beez from Detroit, I think they are far worse off than if you removed Pritchard from the Celtics. The stats are almost a wash between the two of them, but the importance of Beasley to his team I think is far greater than Pritchard, which should factor into the 6th man of the year definition.
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I don’t love their last All NBA slot (Halliburton stunk pretty badly early before coming on, and I just don’t think KAT is that good)
but I’m having a hard time coming up with an alternative (a point they made) given the 65 game floor, which knocks out Doncic, Kawhi, Victor, AD, Kyrie, Porzingis
maybe Siakam?
Most improved is a weird award because there doesn’t really seem to be any consistent criteria for the winner. I know they have JJJ 3rd so whatever probably irrelevant, but he has previously been an NBA All Star and DPOY. How established can a player be and still win a MIP award?
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… Herro? … He definitely wouldn’t scream ALL NBA to me, but his stats are almost identical to Mitchell and he’s doing it without as nearly strong a supporting cast. Maybe that gets him more stats, but the whole Jimmy Buckets drama didn’t help the Heat.
I think established is less the thing and just how big a jump?
The case for JJJ is that last year he went from an efficient 16 shots per game to a middling efficiency 20 shots per game, and this year he turned those 20 shots in middling efficiency to 20 shots on high efficiency
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Just feels a little silly to give an MIP award to a player who has made an All Star team, won DPOY as best defensive player in the entire league, and also made another NBA All-Defense team. If already being really good and having a better season than previously is the criteria, you could include superstars in that mix some years.
Mobley and Cade make way more sense as players who have never even made an All Star team and are now in line to be All-NBA.
But again, likely much ado about nothing since I doubt JJJ is going to win the award.
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