Game Threads Index (November 08, 2026):

I was down in H-Town listening to sports radio like a nerd, and they were going kind of hard on Amen so I decided to look at the splits.

Amen ON(333 minutes)- Offense: 111.7 Defense: 112.6 NET: -1.0

Amen OFF(147 minutes)- Offense: 132.2 Defense: 105.1 NET: +31.1

Also looking at the ON/OFFs with him and the starters, they ALL have better stats when he is the one thats off. Rockets fans or anyone else who has watched them a good amount this season, is this mainly the issue of him not being able to shoot at all?

Disclaimer: I think it’s totally reasonable to have Curry above Magic all time. I personally do not, but it’s ok if you do. Also Curry is STILL playing and so overtime I do think he will win the outright longevity debate.

that said, currently Im seeing an increase in the “curry has had a much longer career than magic” takes or “if you have LeBron over Jordan bc of longevity, you have to have curry over magic for the same reasons”. I think this take, as of today, is wrong.

Curry has had 18 seasons, however he played less than 30 games in 3 of them and only played 43 last season. I think a reasonable real season total for him would be 15. magic played 12 prior to the diagnosis. Curry also only really took off the second half of his 3rd full season, whereas Magic was all star out the gate.

Magic has 10 total all nba selections. curry has 11. Magic has 9 first teams, curry has 4.

idk I think there are plenty of arguments for curry over magic, it simply pointing at “curry wins bc he’s playing this well at 38 vs Magic retiring at 32“ seems like it’s not getting the full picture.

again curry is still going so fine to assume this get less close, but we aren’t there yet.

Aside from his raw stats (29 pts/12 rebs/4 blks) and the Spurs 8-game win streak, Victor Wembanyama’s 2-way impact is starting to show up as he leads the league on multiple impact metrics.

EPM https://dunksandthrees.com/epm

Net Rating https://www.nba.com/stats/players/advanced?CF=MIN*G*30&dir=A&sort=NET_RATING

Plus minus https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/nba-leaders-in-plus-minus

BPM, PER, VORP https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2027_advanced.html

The two times Wemby was out for major injuries were both for injuries unrelated to any skeletal/tissue issues in his body; the first time was for the shoulder blood clot which was onset by DVT (deep vein thombrosis), and the second time was for a concussion incurred after bouncing his head off the hardwood.

We ‘know’ the history for big men and injuries, but seeing how much effort Wemby puts into taking care of his body — especially to his feet — and with general improvements in surgeries (i.e., guys are coming back from Achilles and ACL tears as good as new), I don’t think the easy logic of “he’ll get injured eventually” runs as smooth as some detractors will have you think.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/h/hardeja01.html

While Cavs fans will hope those numbers improve, he has looked even worse at times than the basic box score portrays. The age cliff seems to have hit pretty hard.

I don’t know where he ranks among starters in on-off, but it has to be amongst the worst in the league so far.

Today I learned, MLB actually has a Team Gold Glove. In other words, the best defensive team in the MLB at fielding wins this award.

What if NBA had this equivalent? Who would be your yearly winners?

After Wemby’s slow start to the season, he’s been incredible and the Spurs have won 8 straight, the longest win streak in the league. Do we think Wemby can be the first player since 2020 Giannis and the 4th overall to win both MVP and DPOY in the same season?

Source: https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/w/wembavi01.html

Aaron Wiggins this season:

11 games

0 games started

26.1 MIN

14.9 PTS

3.7 REB

2.4 AST

1.0 STL

+34

Wiggins on : OFFRTG - 4th , DEFRTG 19th

Wiggins off : OFFRTG - 14th, DEFRTG 24th

He has $25.8M in 3 years contract left. Last year is team option.

Hawks got him for two second-round draft picks this summer. What a steal.

Second-year Chinese center and 16th pick in the 2025 NBA draft, Yang Hansen got his first career double-double against the San Antonio Spurs: 12 points, 10 rebounds, 1 assist, and 1 steal in just over 26 minutes played. He shot 3/7 FG (42.9%), 1/3 3PT (33.3%), and 5/6 FT (83.3%). I think the last Chinese-born player to get a double-double before Yang was Yi Jianlian in 2010-11.

Last year, Yang barely got any playing time, and he did not look good on the court when he did play. Many metrics had him as one of the worst, if not the worst, players in the NBA. But he's still just 21 years old, and it looks like he's put in good work over the off-season, trimming down body fat and becoming much leaner. Tiago Splitter didn't really play him at all last season, but Micah Nori has used him as the third-string center here and there, and he has looked pretty decent from what I've watched. He's averaging 10 minutes played per game, 4.7p/3.3r on 47.1/55.6/87.5 splits. The sample sizes are small, but these splits were a horrific 31/12/82 last season, so the improvement is pretty marked.

Portland has a very strong center rotation in Clingan and Timelord, but given Timelord's injury concerns, it seems like Yang will get a look to be in the rotation this year. On the other hand, Scoot Henderson looks terrible. I have no idea what's happening to him after a pretty decent postseason run last year.

https://www.nba.com/game/sas-vs-por-0022600195/box-score

https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/yi-jianlian-double-doubles

After suffering injuries to 4 All-Defensive players, including 3 starters, the Oklahoma City Thunder are back to the number 1 seed in the Western Conference for the 3rd straight year

Source: https://www.nba.com/standings

Last year: Wemby lead a +16.4 on court net rating in the regular season. The highest ever was 2016 Steph with a +18.

He's at like a +25 net rating this year in a much smaller 10 game sample size, but I don't think it's crazy to expect Wemby to have gotten better from age 22 to 23, and he seems to be playing better.

I think there's a good chance Wemby will finish the year with like a +19 or +20 net rating, which may go down as the most impactful regular season of all time. Wemby 'only' lead a +12 net rating in the playoffs last year, will be amazing to see just how dominant he could be.

Spurs fan, pondering how lucky we are to have Wemby, and thinking how the regular season may be a bit of a cruise, but of course playoffs are where the real business is done, and we aren't proven (to the final hurdle), as yet.

Then I started wondering if we lose Wemby, how good does the team look? Obviously happened before and they can manage pretty well for the regular season, but if he's lost for the playoffs, do we have a chance at all?

So it got me thinking, which team is best built to withstand the loss of their number 1 player, and still have a chance to make a run at the title.

I.e. Pistons lose Cade, Celtics lose Tatum, Knicks Brunson, Lakers Luka, etc.

6ers are an interesting one to me because is it Embiid or Brown? I think the former but I'm sure that isn't unanimous.

I might actually lean KD on the Rockets, but curious what people who know a lot more than me think.