NBA Is Good Right Now and We Continue to Focus on the Wrong Things

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Welcome to the NBA Hangover. We jot down NBA stuff mostly from last night that we want to talk about. Check it out.

The NBA returned on Thursday night and Trae Young promptly scored 50.

(PHOTO CREDIT: John Amis/AP.)

There was something that caught my eye yesterday. Stephen Curry still planned to return on March, which a lot of people seemed to disagree on. This tweet by The Shrillest really describes how I feel:

And I came back with this:

I think people are jaded for a lot of reasons that they forget how much they fell in love with the game in the first place. Seriously, when ANY form of basketball comes on TV or even in real life, I stop and watch for a bit. It could be the NBA, the WNBA, college hoops, EuroLeague, or even just a regular pick-up game at the park. I watch. That’s how much I love the game.

The NBA was the league I fell in love with early in my life. It was a little weird to not have games play for a few days. I missed having it on. So it felt awesome when it came back on Thursday night. Sometimes, I wish a lot of the people in the industry would realize how good the NBA is (there may be some bias in this but I’ve seen enough NBA that I KNOW what’s good). Obviously, Charles Barkley‘s identity is basketball but then he spends half the time ripping the league. A lot of people on ESPN would rather talk about what Giannis Antetokounmpo is going to do on the summer of 2021 than how his team is hitting on all cylinders at 47-8. We’re way too focused on the negatives than the positives and too locked in on what can happen in two years instead of looking at what’s in front of us now.

The way the news cycle is right now, Trae Young is going to be talked about potentially leaving in 2022 and THEN 2026. But can we talk about how he could be the evolved version of Stephen Curry and Damian Lillard? This guy’s range is around 30-33 feet on the regular. Remember when we thought Dan Majerle was nuts for putting up shots from 28 feet? We even called him CRAZY RANGE.

But look at Trae Young go. Putting up shots from everywhere. Dribbling the rock between his opponent’s legs. Making the sweet pass to his teammate. Yeah, his team isn’t great but Curry’s teams weren’t great to start, either. You can’t tell me that Trae Young couldn’t be in the same position later. He’s so fun to watch. He dropped 50 points against the Miami Heat. I wish we’d focus more on that sort of thing instead of how much the game sucks (it doesn’t; I lived through the mid-to-late 90s, ya know) and where a star player is going in two years (we don’t even know what we’re going to eat for lunch!).

I’m happy that Stephen Curry is coming back in a couple of weeks. I know some people are clamoring to save him for next season because of potential injuries but, dude, we could get injured walking on the street. Besides, don’t you want to see one of the best back on the court? Do you LOVE basketball?

The NBA has an amazing product right now (look at the young stars like Trae, Zion Williamson, Luka Doncic, Ja Morant, Jayson Tatum, Bam Adebayo, etc.). Let’s not take it for granted if the NBA goes on a downturn in a decade or whatever.

Bullet Passes

Remember when Jimmy Butler gave a little shot to Trae Young after the Heat won a crazy game that Young prematurely said was over? Well, the Hawks got their revenge on Thursday. Like I said, Trae dropped 50 points. And then he had this to say on Twitter:

Butler has yet to respond. It could be spicy if he does reply back.

John Beilein has resigned as Cleveland Cavaliers head coach. His coaching style just didn’t work for the NBA. He was already in hot water with the players (the whole thing about Beilein calling the guys thugs). We saw that Kevin Love wasn’t exactly happy with what was going on. It just didn’t work.

It is pretty hilarious that they already had a succession plan in place. J.B. Bickerstaff, the former coach of the Rockets and Grizzlies, was there as an assistant and was pretty much the next guy in line after Beilein was done coaching. That coaching tenure was done waaaaaaaay sooner than they expected.

Kyrie Irving is done for the season as he will have shoulder surgery. It has been a pretty eventful season for Irving but most of it happened off the court as he had things to say to the media that were… interesting and has battled injuries all year. All the best to Kyrie. The Nets aren’t going to make much noise in the postseason (provided they don’t fall out) but next season should be something with the return of both Kyrie AND Kevin Durant.

Russell Westbrook was ejected after this.

That big dude, though.

That Nets/Sixers game was something. Philly got off to a 20-4 start before the Nets countered with a 44-10 blast. Yet the Sixers came back to win in OT. The NBA can be really strange and fun! FUN, GUYS. FUN. THE NBA IS FUN.

Joel Embiid went for 39 points and 15 boards. Let’s see how Embiid does in the last third of the season.

Basketball is so bad in Detroit that it even extends to this:

The Scoreboard

MIL 126 (47-8) @ DET 106 (19-39)
MIA 124 (35-20) @ ATL 129 (16-41)
BRK 104 (25-29) @ PHI 112 (35-21) (OT)
CHA 103 (19-36) @ CHI 93 (19-37)
MEM 125 (28-27) @ SAC 129 (22-33)
HOU 135 (35-20) @ GS 105 (12-44)

Watch This Play

DeAndre Jordan can still throw it down. LOB CITY EAST.

Brandon Knight is having flashbacks. Woof.

GG.

Rey-Rey is on Twitter at @TheNoLookPass.

TNLP on FaceBook.

I sign off “GG” which means “good game” but also to honor Gianna “Gigi” Bryant.


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