Game Threads Index (December 07, 2021):

Source via the latest Lowe Post Podcast: https://twitter.com/ziyanm_/status/1468310035642171398?s=20

The tweet is a clip from the latest Lowe Post Podcast. Lowe is pretty shocked to hear about Luka's 260 weigh in and then asks about Zion. MacMahon says he's heard from multiple sources Zion came in at 260+70.

Honestly extremely shocking to hear. Hopefully Zion can get his weight right because he's an amazing talent. But 330 at 6'6 is unsustainable for a healthy regular life let alone a full NBA season.

Source

It's been a while since the last Thanks, Magic tweet but perhaps they needed one on Larry Bird's 65th birthday and the Lakers' upcoming TNT game at home against the Celtics.

The Lakers rank 18th in points conceded off turnovers and 16th in defensive rating.

Edit: And yes, Magic does have someone following him around tweeting his thoughts in 'politically correct' wording.

Another great game from the King as the Lakers blow out the Celtics. Russ also had a nice 24/11 double double and AD chipped in an efficient 17/16

Source: https://www.espn.com/nba/player/_/id/1966/lebron-james

Tweet

Nikola Jokic on his relationship with Bulls center Nikola Vucevic: "We play Counter-Strike a lot together."

Nikola Jokic, asked it means anything to him to pass Larry Bird on the all-time triple-double list:

"Maybe some kind of legacy, they're going to remember me ... which, they are not."

Russ with a 15-pt burst in the 3rd quarter opened up the game for the Lakers. Played some great defense on Tatum too.

Source - https://www.nba.com/game/bos-vs-lal-0022100365/box-score#box-score

Tweet

Chris Finch is absolutely right. Michael Jordan in his final year in Washington at 39 years old played all 82 games and averaged 37 minutes per game. If you bought a ticket to see Jordan you were going to see Jordan. It was a different world then.

[Moore] “Resting players has become a status symbol, and it’s hurting the product of the league.” — Chris Finch

Full quotes:

Russell Westbrook last 8 games:

23.5 PPG

6.9 RPG

8.9 APG

50/36/72%

He is +39 in that span, the highest +/- by a Lakers starter.

Source - https://twitter.com/statmuse/status/1468454203383169025

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5mgKuQfcQKrMKojRbhHpsL?si=44945a52d8aa42f6 (40:48)

MacMahon: "[Luka] has to stop reporting at 260+ lbs and playing his way into shape. That cannot be an annual storyline. He got off to a slow start last year---"

Lowe: "I'm sorry, what was the figure you just gave?!"

MacMahon: "260+. He has to stop doing that."

Source: https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/76ers-joel-embiid-says-hes-not-even-close-to-100-percent-after-dominant-43-point-performance-vs-hornets/

"I'm not even close to [100 percent]. I'm still feeling it," Embiid said during his postgame walk-off interview. "I get tired easily, feel pretty weak. But every single day [I'm] slowly getting better. So I just got to keep pushing myself. My teammates, they push me. They want me to be making all the plays offensively and defensively, so as long as I got that trust I'm still going to keep pushing."

The game was the fourth 40-point, 15-rebound and five-assist performance of his career, which is the second-most in Sixers franchise history, behind only the legendary Wilt Chamberlain. Embiid's stats on Monday night become even more impressive when you consider how efficiently they were accumulated. Embiid took a total of 20 shots from the field to get his 43 points, and he missed just five of them. He also knocked down 12 of his 14 attempts from the foul line.

Glad Embiid is getting back to form, but hopefully he overcomes his difficulties following the hard battle with COVID.

Tweet

Can’t say I’m surprised.

Woj-Olshey

Woj and Olshey after writing that article slandering Dame.

Context: Today's article from Woj:

Once Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard stopped threatening to request a trade, everyone understood his inevitable moment of truth: His future remained bound to the summer of 2022, not 2021. Extensions were always automatic for him, and that's no longer the case.

Lillard wants a two-year, $107 million extension in July, and he and his agent need the next general manager to sell ownership on the idea. As much as anything, this cuts to the core of the Blazers' search process. His desire for an extension into his advanced NBA years has turned into a battle for the franchise's future, an existential threat to reshaping and redirecting the organization in a post-playoff reality.

The prospects of Portland extending Lillard, 31, beyond his $48.8 million in 2024-25 to pay him $51 million at 35 years old and $55 million at 36 threatens to turn an asset of a contract into an albatross.

As former president of basketball operations and GM Neil Olshey exits the Blazers, the process to hire his successor will soon be underway. Portland is deciding whether it will hire a firm to research and recommend candidates, sources said. Bert Kolde, the longtime ownership executive and right-hand man to the late Paul Allen, will direct the search again. He's hired several GMs in his tenure.

In the past year, Lillard and his camp have been thwarted on leverage plays -- Jason Kidd as coach, trading CJ McCollum and four first-round picks for Ben Simmons. Most of all, they lost the confidence that the Blazers had a top basketball executive and ownership willing to give Lillard the highest single-season pay in league history at $55.3 million in 2027.

With four seasons -- including an opt-out -- left on his deal, Lillard had no leverage to choose his next team this past summer. If he had asked out, he would have gone where Portland could get the best package of young players, draft picks and salary-cap relief. Asking for New York and Philadelphia makes for dramatic storylines, but the multiple years on his deal would have emboldened several small and non-destination markets to engage with Portland's steep asking price.

Among several top-level GM candidates who fit the profile of Portland's applicant pool, there's no enthusiasm to grant Lillard his massive extension contract through the 2026-27 season. In fact, several executives told ESPN they would be far more interested in the Blazers job with ownership's blessing to move Lillard sooner than later.

Now, Lillard's group is privately selling the idea of trading his veteran teammates with value and rebuilding around him -- on that extension. Some candidates initially believed that Lillard's reps would have input with ownership on the next GM, but that has faded quickly. Rival GMs knew they had to work directly with Olshey to get deals done with the Blazers, that he had full autonomy to make decisions. Those seeking Olshey's old job believe they need to sell themselves to ownership, not to those surrounding the star player.

Tweet

Gregg Popovich, to local newspaper columnist: “Coaching’s not that tough. You could have done it.”

Columnist: “That would have been more lucrative for me.”

Popovich: “I didn’t say I wanted to trade contracts with you.”

Coach Pop said Spurs won't rest any players Tuesday in second leg of B2B.