This thread last year got over 3,000 posts. Worked out very well, why not do it again?
Season starts tomorrow with a pretty "meh" tnt doubleheader, but i'm just happy to have basketball back. I have a Cavs vs Clippers Finals this season. Jabari Parker rookie of the year. Lebron m.v.p. Detroit as a surprise team who will find a way into the playoffs this season under stan van gundy. What say you guys?
I think every single team in the east potentially got better with the exception of indiana and miami. It may not be reflected in the records by seasons end, but this is the deepest the east has been in quite a while talent wise.
You weren't kidding. This was a straight up baptism.
This is a crazy season. The usual Top 3 teams (Spurs, OKC, LeBron's team) are all struggling and the Top 2 players (KD and Bron) have been battling injuries and playing worse than usual.
Curry and the Warriors are clearly the team taking advantage. They're a ridiculous 31-5, Curry the MVP favorite, along with Draymond and Klay the MIP co-favorites along with Butler.
They're the team to beat right now. Houston's got 2 of their next 3 against the Warriors, can't wait to see those matchups. Hopefully we can atleast split.
This is a crazy season. The usual Top 3 teams (Spurs, OKC, LeBron's team) are all struggling and the Top 2 players (KD and Bron) have been battling injuries and playing worse than usual.
Curry and the Warriors are clearly the team taking advantage. They're a ridiculous 31-5, Curry the MVP favorite, along with Draymond and Klay the MIP co-favorites along with Butler.
They're the team to beat right now. Houston's got 2 of their next 3 against the Warriors, can't wait to see those matchups. Hopefully we can atleast split.
Holy shit, the Cavs are 20-20? That's insane.
And can we talk about the Hawks a bit? No obvious star, but they're 31-8, 15-1 in their last 16, with the best net rating in the East (+6.8). Everyone moves the ball, everyone can shoot, the defense is 5th in the NBA so far... I don't think they're going to be a 65-win team or anything, but at this point they're a pretty safe bet to finish with 55+ wins. At what point do they stop being a contender and start being the favorite?
Speaking of not nice, Jordan Farmar is now a free agent after being waived by the clippers. I'm sure he would be a solid addition to some rotation
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But the Millsap/Horford duo is the key to this team. Both guys have been underrated "better than their stats" type of players for a long time. I love watching them play with each other. And surround that frontcourt with a real solid PG in Teague (18/7 on .485/.355/.873 shooting) and one of the great shooters in NBA history in Korver (.525 3P% on 5.8 attempts a game), and you have a legitimately good base to build your team around.
But if you were to ask me "who has a better chance to make the Finals, the Hawks or the Cavs?"... I'd still go Cavs. I believe the Hawks are good, but I still don't buy in 100% that they're THIS good.
Curry is the MVP. Klay and Draymond are awesome players. Bogut is always an impact player when healthy. Iggy and Lee off the bench. Barnes with a legit 3pt shot now is just nuts. The Warriors are not only the best team in basketball, but they're the best by a mile right now.
In other news, LeBron's looking like LeBron again. Bad news for the rest of the NBA.
I mean...
santa, Draymond Green straight up for Kevin Love. Forget contracts. Do you make that trade if you're GS? No chance imo.
Curry/Klay/Draymond >>>>>>> Curry/Love
What an awesome no-trade that was by the Warriors.
People had their pitch forks out last year when I called him a loser who was no where near a top 10 player in this league.
Love's #1 skill was his ability to score at a high volume. Guys like that lose a lot of their value when they move to a team where they aren't asked to score as much.
Love can still make a bigtime impact on a team that needs his offense and can live with his D. If he replaced ZBo in Memphis, he'd be an MVP candidate and Memphis would be a Top 5 team because they could use his scoring and he has enough defense around him.
He's so bad defensively that he just can't possibly be a top 10 player imo.
Now? You're probably right... I don't make a Green for Love trade, let alone a Klay for Love one.
When Kobe got hurt it reminded me so much of Jeter getting hurt. Old guys who were just being ridden by their coaches way too hard. Cumulative leg injuries leading to one major injury. And then they worked too hard and wanted to get back too fast, so they got hurt again. And they just never returned to their former glory.
Sucks to see Kobe look so old.
5-14, 5 turnovers, 0 assists at half. Its a shame because even without Butler.... the Bull would be winning if he was even playing decently. He has 0 explosion, and when thats 99% of your game, it may be time to think of the future without him.
Good game.
Yeah, that was definitely not a good play for him. And credit to Hinrich to nail the ensuing three pointer.
I don't get why the Warriors didn't turn to David Lee more when their jumpers just completely stopped falling. He'd been very productive and was one of the few Warriors getting to the line. They had only 12 FT attempts, and only made 6 of them.
Curry's built a big enough lead in the MVP race though that I still think he's got this barring injury. But the guy with next best chance at the MVP is LeBron.
I'll rep Harden/Houston all day and I think Anthony Davis has about 1000 or so days left as a human before he fully turns into Cthulhu. But the King is still the King and he has the best chance of reeling Curry in.
I can't wait to see him have to work hard every single round in the playoffs this year. This is the best NBA regular season in recent memory. The West is stacked and the East is much better than expected. Hopefully the playoffs deliver this year.
Curry's built a big enough lead in the MVP race though that I still think he's got this barring injury. But the guy with next best chance at the MVP is LeBron.
I'll rep Harden/Houston all day and I think Anthony Davis has about 1000 or so days left as a human before he fully turns into Cthulhu. But the King is still the King and he has the best chance of reeling Curry in.
I can't wait to see him have to work hard every single round in the playoffs this year. This is the best NBA regular season in recent memory. The West is stacked and the East is much better than expected. Hopefully the playoffs deliver this year.
Agree 110%. Lebron is just beasting right now, and the Cavs are back as the clear favorites in the East. I know Atlanta and Toronto and Washington are nice stories, but they dont have anyone who can even slow down Lebron. Chicago isnt healthy enough to compete with them.
Whats going to be interesting in the East is who wins the Central. Because the loser of the Chicago/Cleveland race will be the 5 seed most likely. Thats means that one of top teams in the east potentially can face Lebron in the first round.
Could you imagine a Chicago-Cleveland first round matchup (which is very possible since they are the 4-5 seeds right now.) IMO, I still think Chicago and Cleveland figure it out somehow and grab the 2 and 3 seeds.
Whats going to be interesting in the East is who wins the Central. Because the loser of the Chicago/Cleveland race will be the 5 seed most likely. Thats means that one of top teams in the east potentially can face Lebron in the first round.
Could you imagine a Chicago-Cleveland first round matchup (which is very possible since they are the 4-5 seeds right now.) IMO, I still think Chicago and Cleveland figure it out somehow and grab the 2 and 3 seeds.
I just can't call a team that's still 26th in DRtg a favorite to do anything based on a six-game stretch, especially not when the alternative is the Hawks. Atlanta and Golden State are the only two teams in the league to be top-5 in ORtg and DRtg. And I think the Hawks' style will hold up well in the playoffs because it's really hard to scheme against - everyone shares the ball, everyone can shoot, you can't really hide a bad defender anywhere, there's no one guy to key on.
The list of teams that have won at least 16 straight games in the NBA is almost entirely comprised of teams that either won the title or had a legitimate chance of winning the title (there are a few exceptions - the 07-08 Rockets come to mind). At this point we can be virtually certain that the Hawks are a very, very good team. That doesn't mean I'd feel comfortable picking against the Cleveland LeBrons, but the argument in favor of Cleveland basically boils down to "LeBron looks like LeBron again" when that's only been the case for about two weeks.
Their D is still a big concern. But Mozgov, Shumpert, and healthy LeBron should help them improve a little bit on that end.
I think they're back to being the East favorites. The Hawks are playing fantastic Spurs-like basketball. Teague/Milsap/Horford + all that depth. Really good team. But in a playoff series I'd still side with the Cavs.
But I don't see the Cavs beating the WC team in the Finals unless Kevin Love figures out how to assert himself in the Cavs offense.
Their D is still a big concern. But Mozgov, Shumpert, and healthy LeBron should help them improve a little bit on that end.
I think they're back to being the East favorites. The Hawks are playing fantastic Spurs-like basketball. Teague/Milsap/Horford + all that depth. Really good team. But in a playoff series I'd still side with the Cavs.
But I don't see the Cavs beating the WC team in the Finals unless Kevin Love figures out how to assert himself in the Cavs offense.
... that's a fair retort. I just see too many holes on that team that LeBron, for all his greatness, is going to have a lot of difficulty trying to plug. Even with an actual functional defensive center in Mozgov (who isn't great but is at least decent), this team is going to have a really hard time fashioning a top-10 defense. I don't mean top-10 overall by the end of the season - that ship has already sailed - I mean, say, top-10 post All-Star break. The offense is going to have to carry them. And it definitely can, the offense has been ridiculous of late, but you can gameplan in the playoffs against a team that's increasingly reliant on one guy - even if that guy is LeBron - to an extent that just isn't possible against a team whose offense is as diverse as Atlanta's.
If I had a guarantee that a potential Cavs-Hawks series would feature the real Peak LeBron at the height of his powers - the guy we've seen recently - then I'd probably lean Cavs because Peak LeBron can seemingly bend time and space to his will, and mortals have no chance against an actual living god walking the earth. But we don't have a guarantee that LeBron will be the best possible version of himself in May, and if Cleveland's offense is something less than otherworldly in the playoffs I think it won't be enough, because I don't have any faith in their defense.
But reasonable minds can disagree :)
By far and away the Eastern Confgerence Favorites. Mozgov has really been a huge addition.
Aaron brooks is a better player right now. Thibs needs to do the right thing and bench rose if they want any shot this year.
And guess what people Thibs is an overrated head coach as well. When you get beat constantly by teams that are taking g, you have issues.
I would not be opposed to both rose and Thibs gone at the end of the season.
I dunno, be careful what you wish for and all that.
I dunno, be careful what you wish for and all that.
Check their losses. This team is getting worse and worse.
I know Lillard will probably be an All-Star with Kobe not playing. But it's still a shame that he wasn't selected. I'm not exactly his biggest fan after the shot he hit vs. Houston last year, but he's a stud. CP3 is still doing his thing so hard to say Lillard deserved it over him though.
Teague/Horford/Millsap all making the All-Star team is cool. But it sucks that Korver didn't make it. What he's done this year is special.
This guy is one of the best shooters ever. 52% on off-the dribble 3s?!?!?! That should be impossible.
It's tough to rank the 4 top Atlanta Hawks in terms of importance. I feel like I could rank them 1-4 in pretty much any order. Millsap is probably my choice out of those 4 but Korver's definitely in the mix. His ability to stretch the floor makes life so much easier for everyone else on that team.
He's made an All-Star impact this year.
I really hope he can keep this type of form up through 2016, seeing him in the Olympics would be awesome.
Great article on him from Grantland today.
http://grantland.com/the-triangle/modern-goon-jusuf-nurkic-denver-nuggets/
Nurkic has only been playing basketball for about six years. The oft-told creation story goes like so: A Bosnian sports agent contacted his family after reading a newspaper story about how his father, a 7-foot, 400-pound policeman in Tuzla, whupped 14 attackers in a fight. Soon after, Yung Nurk was in Slovenia, learning to shoot baby hooks and waiting for those IED genes to explode.
Literally the only reason he's in the NBA is because his dad is the toughest mofo on the planet.
Butler vs. Harden should be a real treat.
Rose chucks bad shots all night.
Gasol plays less defense than Boozer.
Hinrich worst player in basketball.
Thibs does nothing.
They need to blow this entire team up. They are pretenders. IMO, they shouldnt even sign Butler to a LTD.
And they still won by 14. Curry goes for 51. Had 26 in the 3rd quarter.
Amazing squad
MVP Rose + All-Star Butler = ridiculous backcourt
You need to give Rose a chance to get back. He was the youngest MVP in NBA history. We know that was LeBron's award but still, Rose used to be a special talent and you need to give him time to try and get back. Atleast 1 more year.
Right now the Bulls are the 5th best team in the East with Noah and Rose both playing like shit. If those two both come alive and play like All-Stars, they're the best team in the East. And maybe the best team in the league. I'm still not counting out the Bulls because of that possibility as unlikely as it is based on how Rose has looked.
MVP Steph Curry dropped 51 in a W over Dallas tonight. It's a shame the absolute primes of Dirk and Curry never really crossed. We could've had some of the most epic shooting showdowns ever. The Warriors are sick. The West is sick. I think Houston and Dallas are probably the respective #7 and #8 teams out West right now. Like Duncan, Dirk's just not what he once was and Monta/Parsons is far from Parker/Manu.
This happened with under a min left and the Wolves up by 1.
What?