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No, not the Patriots. The Warriors.

It is VERY early in the season, but in the last 3 games: Steph Curry 51 points against Washington, Kevin Durant 41 points (25 in the 4th quarter) in New York, and Klay Thompson 52 points in Chicago. Thompson's 52 included 14 3's, eclipsing Curry's record. Curry got the assist on the bucket that tied his record.

Klay Thompson is not as pure as shooter as Curry, but Thompson has great mechanics. Klay rarely wastes time when he shoots. On his 14 3's last night he took a total of 9 dribbles. His mechanics are so consistent there is rarely any hesitation, so when his shooting eye gets dialed in, look out. He has scored 37 in a quarter, 60 in 3 quarters, and was taken out with a few minutes left in the 3rd quarter in the game against the Bulls.

Now the Bulls defense was atrocious. The Warriors scored 98 points in the first half, and loafed through the 4th quarter. But consider the quandary that faces the team that defends the Warriors when Thompson gets hot: Who do you drop off to double team? Are you gonna leave Curry or Durant unguarded to double Thompson? Put in any competent player of height along with Draymond Green and this team will find the open man.

And if that competent player of height becomes Boogie Cousins in about 2 months this monster will have grown another arm.

Now there are obviously a lot of ifs this scenario. Cousins is coming back from an Achilles tendon, where players rarely get it all back. Buy if there is one fortunate aspect of Cousins playing for the Warriors, it's that he can come back at his own pace. I expect him to do short minutes early on, while Coach Kerr and the team gradually figure out how this mix will work.

I have a lot of respect for both Toronto and Boston. And Milwaukee is undefeated with a win over Toronto that both Kawhi Leonard and Giannis Antetokounmpo sat out with injuries. Injuries can always be the determining factor, but if Golden State stays healthy they have a core unit of 4 All Stars with a 5th slowly recovering on the bench. Oh, and 2 of those all stars are also MVP's. Coach Kerr is careful to rest his core players, now all veterans at the peak of their careers. They will probably win as many games as they need to get to the 1 seed, but perhaps not. They will probably some time getting Cousins integrated into the lineup, and that could be a rough period. Kerr is a coach who has done a pretty good job of keeping his teams loose and happy.

So again, VERY early in the season, the Warriors rolled through an easy road trip, blah, blah blah. But if this is how well the team is playing in October, it will sure be interesting to see them in January.

NBA is a bucket of chum as the league insists on making it an offensive circus. Ball handling and selfless play have been regulated out of the game....women's college ball may be the last fortress of integrity for this truly American sport.

I've always liked Women's College B Ball. A lot of the game is played below the rim, where passing and execution matter as much has height.

The 3 point line has existed since 1979. In the '86-87 season, Larry Bird became the first player to make 90 3's in a season. In 2015-15 season, Steph Curry made 402 3's. Even when the baseball and his body were juiced, Barry Bonds 73 home runs was 119.67% of Roger Maris. Curry's 402 is 446% of Larry Bird's total. Look at a championship basketball game from the 80's. There was no recognition of the 3 point line, except maybe at the end of the half.

The Warriors have changed the way basketball is played, spreading out the court, stretching the defense. Compared to the Detroit Pistons Championship Teams, I'll take the Warriors game as the one I like to watch. It is passing and movement, with very little back-to-the-basket collapsing around the rim.

subgenius wrote:NBA is a bucket of chum as the league insists on making it an offensive circus. Ball handling and selfless play have been regulated out of the game....women's college ball may be the last fortress of integrity for this truly American sport.

The current NBA has the most selfless style of basketball we’ve seen in decades. Offensive counting numbers are up because pace is way up and analytics have helped teams play more efficient sets.

Pace is up because teams have gotten smarter about taking early good looks and it paradoxically cuts down on how much running around players have to do. This is important because ball movement focused sets make players run around a lot. No more standing around while a single star goes to work.

My gripe with the current NBA is the focus on 3 point shots has created more variance and therefore more boring blowouts.

I’m a big basketball fan. The Bucks are legit this year. I haven’t been this jazzed for an NBA season in a long time.

Yeah, but, is Lebron better than Jordan?

EAllusion wrote:The current NBA has the most selfless style of basketball we’ve seen in decades.

I disagree.

EAllusion wrote:Offensive counting numbers are up because pace is way up...

Agreed, and this is because of previously mentioned criticisms...thanks for the redundancy.

EAllusion wrote:... and analytics have helped teams play more efficient sets.

You are confusing faster with "more efficient". Team play has been regulated to heavily favor offense, to heavily favor the single shooter, and heavily favor the player over the team...(reference also NFL and quarterbacks)

its worth noting that corporate America is manifest at no greater level than NBA, NFL, MLB, etc.

subgenius wrote:

EAllusion wrote:The current NBA has the most selfless style of basketball we’ve seen in decades.

I disagree.

By "selfless" I mean more ball sharing, role interchangeability, and more even distribution of usage. This is all considerably up compared to, say, the iso-ball era. What do you mean by it? The opposite?

You are confusing faster with "more efficient". Team play has been regulated to heavily favor offense, to heavily favor the single shooter, and heavily favor the player over the team...(reference also NFL and quarterbacks)

I'm not confusing higher pace with greater efficiency. That's why I separated the two. By "more efficient" I mean that efg% of shots is up as are points per possession. The past three years have been the highest efg% seasons ever. The last two seasons had the highest ORtg ratings ever. This current young season is outpacing even that. That's a measure of points per 100 possessions scored. Those are by definition what it means to be more efficient.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/le ... stats.html

You're disagreeing with math. The change to hand-check officiating some time ago opened up outside offense, but that doesn't explain the recent explosion in offensive efficiency we've seen in the last few years. That's about strategic evolution driven by data coming in from advanced analytics. Defenses are getting more sophisticated too, but they aren't keeping up with offensive improvements. It's hard to defend ball-movement and optimal shot selection.

I'm skeptical you're even watching basketball. This isn't an esoteric topic only stat nerds know about. Even announcers comment on it from time to time.