Golden State Warriors, Stephen Curry, Pacific Division, Atlantic Files

September 21, 2022 by Alex Fischbein

Will the Golden State Warriors repeat? | TAF244

This week on The Atlantic Files, we continue our division previews with the defending champ Golden State Warriors and the Pacific Division, Doc Rivers gets horny on Twitter, a lot of new statement jerseys have been revealed, is the NBA’s punishment for the Phoenix Suns owner enough, additions and adjustments to the CBA, and Dennis Schroder heads back to the Los Angeles Lakers.

The divisional preview series continues as this week we take a look at the Golden State Warriors and the Pacific Division. While a lot of people seem to think the division goes through Los Angeles in either the Lakers or Clippers, we lean towards Golden State yet again. The top four teams in the Pacific all have some aging and health questions with all of their superstars, so it could just come down to a battle of who will be injured less.

Doc Rivers had a bit of a Twitter goof over the weekend. People found a handful of pornographic tweets in his likes and then the entire internet grabbed hold of it. The Sixers PR team said that his account was hacked, but come on now. Just say you accidentally liked some Tweets that you probably shouldn’t have and you’d probably get some more respect.

Statement jerseys, classic jerseys, and more have been released by most of the teams across the NBA. We took a look at most of them and said whether or not we actually liked them. Some of these jersey designs really need work because they’re going to have their team looking like garbage.

Then, there’s the terrible news of Robert Sarver, the Phoenix Suns owner. His punishment came down to a one-year suspension, but many big-name players didn’t agree with only one year. Many believe he should be kicked out of the NBA altogether.

Finally, the league and the player’s association are talking about some CBA adjustments. The eligible draft age is lowered back down to 18, there will be a more punitive luxury tax, and mental health will be an injury designation. The game keeps evolving!

Timecodes:
00:00:00 Intro & Fantasy Football
00:06:18 Doc Rivers likes some explicit tweets
00:15:35 CBA adjustments – Lowering draft age, Mental health designation, etc.
00:33:50 Phoenix Suns owner, Robert Sarver, is the punishment enough
00:43:06 Thoughts on the new NBA statement Jerseys
00:55:33 2022-23 Pacific Division Preview – Golden State Warriors repeat chances
01:20:17 Dennis’s F/M/K scenario
01:24:49 Would you rather, Steph Curry edition

September 18, 2022 by Alex Fischbein

The Nikola Jokic Denver Nuggets vs Carmelo Anthony’s Nuggets

The Denver Nuggets are coming into the latest NBA season with high expectations. Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, and company look like a top-four team. They’ve also been rumored to bring back a familiar name in Carmelo Anthony. Remember the days when Carmelo Anthony was in the race for scoring titles while in Denver?

Of course, that got the gears moving. In the NBA atmosphere, we love comparing eras of basketball and different basketball players that probably shouldn’t be compared. So, we needed to debate who would win in a seven-game series between the current Denver Nuggets team and the Carmelo Anthony Nuggets that reached the Western Conference Finals in 2008-09.

Think back to the 2008-09 season for a minute. The Denver Nuggets traded away Allen Iverson after that failed experiment and they brought in the services of Chauncey Billups to run the offense. Billups, Carmelo Anthony, Nenê, Kenyon Martin, and JR Smith all averaged double-digits in scoring for this squad.

Melo was only 24 years old and was putting up a stat line of 22.8 points, 6.8 rebounds, 3.4 assists, and 1.1 steals per game on 44.3% shooting from the field and 37.1% from three. Interestingly, this was the only season in a stretch of 11 seasons that he didn’t make the All-Star game. During that post-season, however, his stats boosted up to 27.2 points, 5.8 rebounds, 4.1 assists, and 1.8 steals per game.

The team has two surefire Hall of Famers in Anthony and Billups. So, looking at the current team, it does seem like there’s only one player that is surefire Hall of Fame. Nikola Jokic is the one that obviously stands out, but does that necessarily mean the 2008-09 team is better?

Jokic has led the Nuggets in win shares every single season since 2015-16. This past season, Jokic had a historic year, especially for a big man, and grabbed his second MVP trophy in a row. He finished with averages of 27.1 points, 13.8 rebounds, 7.9 assists, and 1.5 steals on 58.3% shooting from the floor.

As a team, on the other hand, health has been a big problem. The second and third options of the team Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. have failed to play more than 50 games in a season at the same time since the 2019-20 season. When they were healthy during that season, the team also reached the Western Conference Finals and coincidentally also lost to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Who do you think has the better team? Let us know in the comments of the video below!

September 18, 2022September 18, 2022 by Alex Fischbein

Adam Silver & The NBA propose a mid-season tournament, keep it or leave it?

In case anyone hasn’t heard, Adam Silver and the NBA put together a proposal to introduce a mid-season tournament to the NBA schedule. This tournament is supposed to only add one more game to the schedule which would only be for the championship. Is this actually needed and would it even make fans want to watch?

Let’s just get one thing straight, the die-hard basketball and NBA fans are going to be watching no matter what. Those aren’t the fans in question when it comes to all of these changes that Adam Silver is proposing.

The NBA is worried because their Finals games are getting fewer viewers than an NFL pre-season game. Viewership golden standard comes from the NFL and the millions upon millions of viewers they get for every game, especially the Super Bowl.

So, Adam Silver and company’s response is always trying something new to boost viewership. In reality, a lot of the casual basketball fans have cited the evolution of the game, the off-court campaigns, and the players resting during games that they either paid their hard-earned money for or set aside valuable time.

This could mean either something needs to change in those departments, or the league has to wait for the younger generation of fans to continue growing up and then have kids who become fans as well. Older generations are used to the Michael Jordan days and those aren’t coming back any time soon.

September 17, 2022 by Alex Fischbein

LaMelo Ball or Cade Cunningham, who’s a better centerpiece of a team?

Take some time right now and live out a dream that a lot of basketball fans have. Become a fake General Manager for a startup NBA franchise. There’s one single condition: you have to choose between either Cade Cunningham or LaMelo Ball to lead your team.

LaMelo Ball has been a dynamic point guard even since his high school days, so it was no shock when he came into Charlotte and brought the same flair. In just his second season in the NBA, he already made an All-Star game after he put up 20.1 points, 6.7 rebounds, 7.6 assists, and 1.6 steals per game. He also made players around him look even better like Miles Bridges, PJ Washington, and Jalen McDaniels.

On the other side of things, Cade Cunningham was no scrub in his first season in the league. He essentially was thrown into the fire and expected to lead a terrible team right away. The Detroit Pistons haven’t been a good team in what feels like ages. 17.4 points, 5.5 rebounds, 5.6 assists, and 1.2 steals per game is nothing to make fun of. He had a little rough start to the season, and then put up a great 21/6/5 stat line post-all-star break!

Age wise, the two of them are actually only about a month apart. LaMelo Ball just turned 21 and Cunningham is turning 21 at the end of September. So, that brings the question, who are YOU taking to lead your new team?

September 15, 2022 by Alex Fischbein

New York Knicks or Cleveland Cavaliers, which trade package was better?

Rumors came out about the type of trade packages that the New York Knicks offered to Danny Ainge and the Utah Jazz. Some of them seemed so good that Ainge was insane NOT to accept them. So was Cleveland’s trade package actually better?

Ultimately, the Cleveland Cavaliers gave the deal that Ainge liked the most. They gave more unprotected picks than the Knicks, and one can argue that Collin Sexton is better than RJ Barrett. What about the rest of the trade package though?

There’s Obi Toppin vs Lauri Markkanen, which currently favors Markkanen. Then, there were different combinations of Immanuel Quickley, Quentin Grimes, Evan Fournier, and Mitchell Robinson offered by the Knicks.

It shouldn’t take a statistical analysis to know that all of those younger and more talented players favor the Knicks trade package. On top of Quickley and Barrett, Leon Rose even offered a couple unprotected picks and some pick swaps. That seems like a trade that would interest any rebuilding team.

Let’s take the main piece of each trade first. RJ Barrett is already the younger of the two compared to Collin Sexton. Barrett is also 6’6, more versatile, and is just as good of a playmaker as Sexton. Sexton, however does have the shooting efficiency nod and is a much better three-point shooter right now. They essentially play the same position at shooting guard, which is where the 6’1 player usually doesn’t have as high of a ceiling as the 6’6 player.

We’ll let you listen to the part of our podcast where we talked about all of this. Then let us know what you think!

2022-23 NBA Northwest Division, Atlantic files, Nikola Jokic, Karl Anthony Towns

September 13, 2022 by Alex Fischbein

2022-23 NBA Northwest division preview | TAF243

This week on the Atlantic Files podcast, we begin our yearly division previews! This time, for the 2022-23 NBA season, we start with the Northwest division. We also talk about the proposal for an in-season tournament, the 2022 Hall of Fame inductees that includes Manu Ginobili and Tim Hardaway Sr., Danny Ainge’s comments about the Utah Jazz, and our weekly “Whatchu Got” segment!

In case you’ve just started tuning into the Atlantic Files, every year leading up to the start of a new season, we preview a division each week until we get to the best division of them all. Yes, that division is still the Atlantic.

This week, we kick things off with the Northwest division. Minnesota, Denver, Portland, Oklahoma City, and Utah all are included in this division for those who may not know off the top of their head.

We give our thoughts on the final standings of the division, which players and teams might be surprisingly good, and the others that will probably be terrible. It’s probably not too hard to guess the ones that won’t make the playoffs. Could this even be the worst division in the NBA?

There’s been talk of an in-season tournament that was proposed by the NBA. Could this really help the ratings for the NBA or would it just be another gimmick that no one will care about because it’s not the playoffs nor a real NBA Championship?

Manu Ginobili and the other 2022 Class of the Basketball Hall of Fame were inducted! The list had a bunch of great names that brought up some great memories. Congratulations to all of those that are now in the Hall!

Finally, we finished things off by talking about Danny Ainge’s comments on the Utah Jazz when he first got there and our weekly “Whatchu Got” segment. We brought up a Denver Nuggets discussion between current and past teams, as well as gave our thoughts on the new NBA 2K23 that came out.

Timecodes:
00:00:00 Intro
00:04:27 NBA in-season tournament proposal
00:27:31 Hall of Fame class of 2022 was inducted
00:37:49 2022-23 NBA Northwest division preview
00:51:33 Danny Ainge’s comments about the Utah Jazz
00:58:19 Thoughts on NBA 2K23 so far
01:01:17 Current Denver Nuggets vs Carmelo Anthony Denver Nuggets
01:08:05 Outro

September 10, 2022 by Alex Fischbein

Does Donovan Mitchell make the Cleveland Cavaliers a top-three team?

The Cleveland Cavaliers have obviously improved their team after the Donovan Mitchell trade. This team is getting the full hype train treatment now. Not that the hype is undeserved, but should we all pump the brakes a little?

Cleveland did not give up all that much to go and get a top talent shooting guard like Mitchell. They gave up a couple players that were non-factors last season and a player that has seemingly reached his ceiling in Lauri Markkanen. They did, however, give up a bigger amount of unprotected picks and pick swaps.

If we’re talking about starting five, the Cavaliers have one that can go toe-to-toe with a lot of teams. Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell, Caris LeVert, Evan Mobley, and Jarrett Allen is a very good, all-around lineup.

Then, when the conversation moves to depth, that’s where this team might start to lack some talent. Kevin Love and Ricky Rubio are serviceable players, but do they match up well to the benches of the top teams that made the playoffs last season?

Teams like the Boston Celtics, Brooklyn Nets, Philadelphia 76ers, Miami Heat, and Milwaukee Bucks are all going to be competing for the top spots. Garland, Mitchell, and Mobley are going to be compared to big threes that include the likes of Kevin Durant, Joel Embiid, Jimmy Butler, Jayson Tatum, and Giannis Antetokounmpo. That’s not just a big task, but to face these star-studded lineups after just forming this trio without the chemistry is a whole different story.

Don’t get this twisted, Donovan Mitchell can score with the best of them. His talent level is not in question. Garland and Mobley are still growing as players, Allen is still reaching his defensive potential, and the team chemistry is going to have to improve quickly. Once all of this comes together and the Cavaliers can sign some more supporting pieces, this team can be a force for years to come.

Right now, though, do you think they’re top three in the Eastern Conference?

Donovan Mitchell, trade, cleveland cavaliers, Atlantic files, podcast

September 8, 2022 by Alex Fischbein

Donovan Mitchell is finally traded to Cleveland | TAF242

This week on the Atlantic Files Podcast, Donovan Mitchell was finally traded and the New York Knicks saga is over. Should the Cleveland Cavaliers be considered a championship team now, Montrezl Harrell heads to the Philadelphia 76ers, Shaq says Kevin Durant is a failure outside of Golden State years, who will the next target be for the New York Knicks, Giannis, Jokic, and Luka all breaking records in EuroBasket, Rudy Gobert flashing improved post game during EuroBasket as well, and our weekly “Whatchu Got” segment!

Trading Donovan Mitchell was an entire saga this off-season. Danny Ainge and the Utah Jazz were holding out for the most draft capital they could get. Finally, they decided to pull the trigger on a non-Knicks deal. The Cleveland Cavaliers swooped in with some more picks and pretty good young players to boot. Now, we might see Mitchell competing for an Eastern Conference Finals title.

Does this trade make the Cavaliers a surefire top-three seed though? Could they even realistically compete for a championship this season?

Now, the New York Knicks have to change their direction of which superstar to target. Which assets are they going to use now to find another disgruntled star? Shai Gilgeous-Alexander may be on the market if the Oklahoma City Thunder continue tanking like they are.

Speaking of players moving teams, Montrezl Harrell is now on his way to Philadelphia. The 76ers have been on the market for a backup big after Andre Drummond left. Especially since Doc Rivers never trusts Paul Reed, Harrell gives them another look behind Joel Embiid.

On Shaq’s podcast, he said that Kevin Durant is essentially a failure outside of his Golden State Warriors days. Is that even fair to say or is it way out of line?

EuroBasket has been moving full steam ahead and some of the NBA’s biggest stars have been showing out. Luka Doncic, Nikola Jokic, and Giannis Antetokounmpo have all been dominating and setting records. Even Rudy Gobert has been flashing an improved post game.

Finally, during our “Whatchu Got” segment, Dennis gives a prepared statement to the commenters on YouTube about Giannis Antetokounmpo, we offer our NBA Finals predictions, and talk about whether we’d pick Cade Cunningham or LaMelo Ball to lead a new team.

Timecodes:
00:00:00 Intro
00:04:27 Donovan Mitchell traded to Cleveland Cavaliers, NOT the Knicks
00:19:19 Are the Cleveland Cavaliers a top 3 seed in the East
00:26:30 The New York Knicks depth would suffer in Donovan Mitchell trade
00:31:10 Who should the New York Knicks target now, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander?
00:36:54 Whose trade package was better, Knicks or Cavaliers?
00:43:28 Rudy Gobert improving post game
00:46:46 Luka Doncic, Nikola Jokic, and Giannis Antetokounmpo dominating EuroBasket 2022
00:50:47 Philadelphia 76ers sign Montrezl Harrell to 2-year deal
00:56:34 Is Shaq correct about Kevin Durant being a failure?
01:04:14 Dennis’ prepared statement about Giannis Antetokounmpo
01:09:05 2023 NBA Finals Predictions
01:12:57 LaMelo Ball or Cade Cunningham to start a new team
01:18:23 Outro

September 2, 2022 by Alex Fischbein

Is Rudy Gobert the missing piece for the Minnesota Timberwolves?

The Minnesota Timberwolves shocked many people by trading a boatload of assets for Rudy Gobert. Whether that was a smart move or not is still up in the air. One of the other pressing questions is whether or not Rudy Gobert was even worth all of those assets as a player.

The Timberwolves finally made the playoffs last season by the skin of their teeth via the play-in games. They took two games off of the Memphis Grizzlies but fell short in the first round. So, the person to take them from losing in the first round to a championship is Rudy Gobert?

Parting ways with the leader and heart of their team in Patrick Beverley, the young talent in Malik Beasley and Jarred Vanderbilt, the new draft pick in Walker Kessler, and FOUR unprotected picks with an added pick swap is a helluva lot of assets. This means that Minnesota thinks this team is winning a championship within the next couple of seasons.

One question is, who takes the role of leader and dirty work guy? Beverley played that role perfectly for this team. Karl-Anthony Towns is not that kind of player along with D’Angelo Russell and Rudy Gobert. So, does that mean Anthony Edwards has to grow into it?

As we all know, defense is one of the biggest needs in Minnesota. Gobert does satisfy that need, but does he make their defense good enough to limit high-powered offenses all while being able to outscore the other team?

Maybe a four-out, one-in type of offensive scheme works well with Gobert inside. This would force Towns to play primarily from the perimeter, which wouldn’t be a problem until you realize that 58.8% of his field goal attempts come from 0-10 feet from the rim.

Clogging the lane as a defensive scheme starts to sound quite successful.

That being said, we aren’t too confident in Gobert being the missing piece for this Timberwolves team. What do you think, let us know in the comments on the video below!

September 1, 2022September 1, 2022 by Alex Fischbein

Gilbert Arenas isn’t entirely wrong about Giannis Antetokounmpo

So Gilbert Arenas, on his podcast, had some things to say about Giannis Antetokounmpo. He mentioned how Giannis doesn’t know how to train his body and that he doesn’t understand basketball nor how to get better at the game. These are some very big words against a player who has won MVPs, a ring, a Finals MVP, and Defensive Player of the Year.

Are all of Arenas’ thoughts incorrect though?

If one would go through and dissect each one of Arenas’ statements, some actually turn up quite true. One of the easiest truths to point out is that Giannis has not improved his three-point shooting.

Time and time again, every media outlet, podcast, and fan alike has said something along the lines of “If Giannis could shoot threes, he’d be unstoppable.” Now, heading into his tenth season, we’re all saying the same exact thing!

I know what a lot of you are going to say, “He’s still won multiple MVPs and a championship without having to add a three!” That’s great, honestly, that’s a feat in and of itself to be this good without having much of a shot at all from outside of three feet. My question to everyone saying that is, wouldn’t you still want him to improve and be even better?!

Giannis only has two seasons in his career where he shot over 40% from between three and ten feet from the hoop. While it hasn’t exactly slowed him down from tons of accolades, his weaknesses are starting to get exploited more and more come playoff time. Over his career, he’s shooting 36.1%, 36.9%, 36.2%, and 28.8% from three to ten feet, ten to sixteen feet, sixteen feet to the arc, and behind the arc respectively. Imagine if those percentages were above 40% from midrange and then 35% or better from three! A lot more space on the floor would be unlocked for him and his teammates.

Now, Arenas also talked about having to train your body just to play 37 to 40 minutes per game. This is quite irrelevant. We’ve seen Giannis play games in the playoffs where he was on the court for over 40 minutes and he held up just fine. Averaging a specific amount of minutes per game doesn’t make anyone great.

What do you think about Giannis’ game, does he have room to improve?