390 sats \ 14 replies \ @grayruby 15 Nov 2023 \ parent \ on: Stacker Sports - Meta Meta Takeover Takeover - NBA In-Season Tournament meta
I am just going with whatever matchup looks best to me. I don't trust the Knicks. Bucks and Suns are not playing well and unlike Siggy I don't think Hakeem the dream is going to keep the Rockets playing at this level. I don't want to use the Nuggets or Celtics yet (especially since the Celtics are playing the giant killers). So the Lakers seemed the obvious choice amongst the remaining games, especially against the Blazers.
As a man from the North, I was tempted to take the Raptors too. But being already down a strike thanks to the inconsistent Mavs, I decided to take a more "safe" choice. After all, a lot of sats are on the line.
It was between taking the Lakers or the Knicks. Yes the Lakers had been doing well in the tournament; maybe Le Coach/GM Bron really wants to add that new trophy to his trophy case. And yes they will be playing a pretty bad team, the Blazers. But like @Undisciplined, I decided to save them for a later round.
The Knicks had been pretty solid, not a very good team, but solid with Brunson leading the way. Also, the way the Wizards had been playing lately was just horrible. Their supposedly star player Poole is playing so bad that their whole team is probably losing trust in him, if they haven't already. You can see it from that game against the Raptors. I like my chances with the Knicks.
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Quality and rational analysis but I am an irrational person and I still don't trust the Knicks. Haha
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Rationality doesn't help when it comes to picking winners. Faithful prayer to the basketball gods and the basketball gods answering that prayer is what matters.
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Often the case. Raps did not look good last night. Yikes.
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I hadn't even thought about how LeBron would want to win the first tournament for legacy reasons. He's looking way down the line when people are making lists of who's won both championship MVP awards and regular season and whatever else. It's another way to separate himself from Jordan.
Now I really wish I had saved the Lakers.
Is there an MVP award for this tournament? There must be. Right?
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Oh, I thought you haven't pick the Lakers yet. Didn't realize you had already picked them.
In term of MVP, I tried searching online about it but didn't find anything. I think since it's a minor tournament and only a few games, the NBA will not give out personal awards.
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I was reading the tournament rules while waiting for my daughter to fall asleep last night, and not only is there going to be a tournament MVP, there will be an All-Tournament Team.
I think LeBron's laser focused on that MVP award.
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Good thing they aren't playing the Kings Friday.
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2nd night of a back-to-back and a non-tournament game
I'm not surprised they got smoked.
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Raptors looked terrible last night. Bucks without Giannis dominated them. Lillard and Beasley couldn't miss from 3. Bucks shot over 50% from 3. Clearly the Bucks had a hot shooting night but there was absolutely no perimeter D and no three point shooting from Raps without OG and Trent.
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Without Giannis, the Bucks aren't a giant, so the Toronto Giant Slayers were powerless against them.
the NBA will not give out personal awards
That seems like a missed opportunity. It's longer than the Finals and that has an MVP award. There's no way these guys don't want to be the first In-Season Tournament MVP (Jimmy and Joker being exceptions), so that would be an easy way to get buy-in.
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I also don't trust the Bucks or Suns to win those games, but I feel a bit differently towards the Knicks.
I'm probably getting ahead of myself, but I'm starting to look ahead. The Knicks should beat the deplorable Wizards pretty easily and they might miss the playoffs because they already have a tournament loss.
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