With the draft starting tonight, and trades already going on, might as well start the new season thread.

The T-Wolves have the 1st pick tonight, and I have absolutely no idea what they are going to do with it. Nor do I really have a strong feeling towards making the pick (probably Edwards or Ball) or trading back.

Wolves trade for Rubio. Of course. Why not. It worked so well the first time, why not run it back again.

My one annoyance with the NBA draft is I never really know who my team picked. There are so many trades that unless you follow (and only follow) Woj or Shams on twitter, you have no idea who is picking where and with whose pick. I'm pretty sure the Wolves drafted Edwards, then they used their later picks to maybe pick up a bunch more PGs and/or wings?

I think they ended up with Bolmoro from Argentina and the forward from Washington.

This Lakers/Knicks game reminds me why I can’t stand watching the NBA.

MrsAliceKramden @ 12/5/2021 4:49

Spin @ 12/5/2021 0:45 This Lakers/Knicks game reminds me why I can’t stand watching the NBA. knicks baby

I only caught the last 5 minutes and the overtime, but every single Knicks offensive possession was DRose dribbling it up, handing the ball to Randle, and Randle bullying guys only to throw up a wild shot with the clock running out. They were playing 2 on 5, and go figure, it didn't work.

Ahoda Destroyer Of Worlds @ 12/5/2021 8:39

Spin @ 12/5/2021 9:19 MrsAliceKramden @ 12/5/2021 4:49 Spin @ 12/5/2021 0:45 This Lakers/Knicks game reminds me why I can’t stand watching the NBA. knicks baby I only caught the last 5 minutes and the overtime, but every single Knicks offensive possession was DRose dribbling it up, handing the ball to Randle, and Randle bullying guys only to throw up a wild shot with the clock running out. They were playing 2 on 5, and go figure, it didn't work. You're a Wolves fan. You haven't watch basketball since Garnett.

I was in attendance at the last meaningful postseason win in Wolves history: Game 5 of the 2004 Western Conference Finals. They've made the playoffs exactly once since then, getting destroyed by Houston in 2018.

Who’s excited for Phoenix / Milwaukee finals?

I'm still riding strong on the Wolves bandwagon. We lost a couple of axles, our oxen wandered off, and we lost a couple of people to cholera around 2004, but a repair wagon will be along any day now and take us to the promised land!

Go Phoenix, I guess.

The NBA playoffs are way too long. I lost interest a month ago. If this goes to 7, it’ll enter its 3rd month of just the playoffs. That’s insane.

They could easily play best of 5, and do back-to-backs for games 1-2 and 3-4 in each series with a travel day in between. Cut the 2+ months down to a much more manageable month, and maybe they could drive up some interest again.

The playoffs lasted a full 2 months in 2019, so the only difference here is they started a month or so later than normal.

im317 @ 19/7/2021 12:06

well sadly they will never get shorter. less games per round means less money and that will never happen. maybe the regular season will get cut down to 72 games again but be offset with the play in tournament becoming permanent and maybe some other gimmick.

Teams right now can play a maximum of 28 games (30 if they go through the full play-in scenarios) in the NBA playoffs. Their regular season is normally 82 games. This means the playoffs are equivalent to 34% of a regular season. This is just too much.

For comparison:
MLB: 162 games - 20 games max playoffs (12%)
MLS: 32 games - 7 games max playoffs (22%)
NFL: 16 games - 4 games max playoffs (25%) -- this year it'll be 17 total games (23%)
NHL: 82 games - 28 games max playoffs (34% - same as NBA)

If MLB can play twice as many games in a season and can finish their playoffs in a little more than half the games, the NBA (and NHL) can do it too. By having so many playoff games, it diminishes the regular season (see: all the stupid rest of players in the regular season), as teams and players know that they may have another 1/3 of a season come playoff time. Series should not be any longer than 5 games, except MAYBE the championship series.

This is the last NBA jersey I bought...

Go Wolves	+

(I know this isn’t the right year, but whatever)

This T-Wolves team is beyond frustrating. Blew two different 20+ point leads in the same stupid game.