glduck Posted October 10, 2014 Share Posted October 10, 2014 do we already have a thread? ah fuck it, i don't care. commence predictions that will be swiftly proven wrong and invalidated: glduck's top five! 1. san antonio. i mean, come on. the spurs could draft me, stash me away in europe for a few years, and i'd come back and average 16/9/4. nobody does it like them. i think they return, like, everybody from a team that just mindfucked opponents through the postseason, and are really one fluky ray allen miracle away from going for The Phil Jackson (that's a 3-peat, fools). 2. los angeles. we are of course talking about the clippers here, not that other team that shares their building and occasionally contributes something of note to the basketball landscape. i really thought last year was their year to unseat OKC as the consensus challenger to san antonio's throne, but then donald sterling and his weird alien mistress decided to sabotage the playoffs. i love the spencer hawes signing, insomuch that i hate it because he was reportedly this close to signing with portland before LA made the same offer. since deandre jordan can't step out and hit a shot to save his life, having hawes open things up for paul & griffin is going to be a giant headache for everybody else. 3. cleveland. ah yes, this bunch. unless derrick rose is 100% -- and he looked anything but this summer -- i think the east is cleveland's to do with as they please. are they young? kinda, i guess, but i'd rather be young and stupidly talented than moderately talented, kinda stagnant, and full of vets (that's you, chicago). and i mean fuck, it's not like irving is a rookie. it's like season four for him. and he's the third option. bron bron and k-love are the two best passers in the nba at their position. line-up i want to see: kyrie/waiters/lebron/thompson/love. WHO DO YOU GUARD? waiters and thompson can both score on anyone. 4. oklahoma city. the sun has not set on the thunder, and it won't as long as durant and westbrook are in their prime. sending sefolosha away will help, because he was quietly terrible last year. is anthony morrow enough to lift them past LA? eh. they already had shooters. 5. portland. homer pick in the hooooooooooooooouse! honestly, i went back-and-forth on this. on the one hand, they've got the best, most well-rounded starting five in the league, lead by one of the best two-headed monsters in the game, and one of 'em -- aldridge -- is playing for a max contract. on the other hand, that starting five was ridiculously healthy last year (lillard, matthews, batum, and lopez all played 82 games) -- it can't be reasonable to expect that again, can it? the chris kaman and ****** blake additions AT BEST make the bench criticism go from, "oh damn, that's d-league level" to "meh." i guess we'll see. the only team i felt also deserved mention at the five spot was golden state, but really, go to hell all hail. on the cusp: golden state (love me the shaun livingston signing), houston (lol @ going all in on carmelo and bosh and only coming away with trevor ariza, an older and less talented version of a player you let walk in order to clear cap space), chicago (unless rose is back back, more of the same -- good-to-great frontcourt, ridiculously underwhelming perimeter play. hey, kirk hinrich), and memphis (if gasol was healthy they were their usual 4/5/6 last year, and convincing vince carter -- who has quietly become of the better perimeter bench players in the game -- to leave dallas was a steal). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KUGRDON Posted October 10, 2014 Share Posted October 10, 2014 http://www.limejs.com/static/roundball/index.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spaniard Posted October 13, 2014 Share Posted October 13, 2014 I still think you have to have Miami somewhere in that prediction. The East is still the East, and Miami even after losing Lebron still has Wade, Bosh and now they have Deng. I'd put Cleveland atop the East, followed by Miami and Chicago. Indy is going to have some struggles because of George's injury, but they will still make the playoffs, because it's the East. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glduck Posted October 13, 2014 Author Share Posted October 13, 2014 there are seven teams in the west i'd take in a 7 game series over miami. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spaniard Posted October 13, 2014 Share Posted October 13, 2014 I wouldn't put Memphis or Portland above Miami. That's just me. I get what LeBron leaving did, but they still have a solid core, they did well in the draft, and they have a deep bench. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glduck Posted October 13, 2014 Author Share Posted October 13, 2014 oh, man. definitely disagree on both. pdx has way too much firepower for miami, and everything the blazers are normally susceptible to (point guard penetration, depth, low block scoring) miami can't do. I think the heat would have even less success against memphis, who is way too physical. problem with the heat is that all those problems that plagued them with lebron are still there. they still have no front court, still no point guard, still no depth, only now they're going about things without the best player in the game, who masked a whole lot of deficiencies. And given the state of wade's knees and how ineffective he looked in the playoffs... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clpp01 Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 I don't trust a team whose best player is Chris Bosh. We have seen what a Bosh led team can do and that is fail to get out of the 1st round of the playoffs the east. While wade is better then anyone he played with in Toronto who knows how many games wade will miss this season with his knee problems. The east is even worse now than it was during his Toronto years so he might be able to get Miami out of the 1st round but then I can't see him getting past Cleveland, Chicago and in future seasons Indiana (exclude this season obviously). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PAC MAN Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 I had a thread for this season but there were hardly any posts. Let's go with this thread in this case. Kevin Durant (KD) has a broken bone in his foot and will be out for sometime. That means Westbrook will be OKC's mainstay until KD comes back. I think the Heat will be just fine. Bosh has been the go-to player before he landed in Miami and with Wade back, two superstars is still quite a handful to handle. Some past NBA championship teams did fine with just two superstars. As for the local Nuggets, will the Manimal's performance with the USMNT lead to a breakout season? He just got a new five year extension worth $60M. I'm still pretty far away from being basketball ready at this point. Given that CU plays USC and UCLA in their next two games, it's proable that CU might be out of the running for a bowl game in early November which is around the time basketball begins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PAC MAN Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/11700335/brooklyn-nets-boston-celtics-play-44-minute-preseason-game Preseason game between the Nets-Celtics will test 11 minute quarters and one less timeout. If we go down to 10 minute quarters, it will be the same time as college basketball games. Maybe the NCAA will go from two halves to four quarters if the NBA gets it down to 10 minutes per quarter. Or is this a ruse for more advertising money to line the NBA's pockets after getting that new TV deal? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glduck Posted October 14, 2014 Author Share Posted October 14, 2014 i don't think miami has two superstars. i think they have one superstar and chris bosh, and that one superstar has nick van exel knees. we'll see. i imagine they'll be trying to prove doubters like me wrong, and they do play in the east, but... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PAC MAN Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 i don't think miami has two superstars. i think they have one superstar and chris bosh, and that one superstar has nick van exel knees. we'll see. i imagine they'll be trying to prove doubters like me wrong, and they do play in the east, but... After making the NBA finals for four straight years, I believe the toll taken on the bodies of those players might be too much to ignore. I'm thinking maybe the Heat and Cavs will not make the NBA Finals this season. Perhaps the Bulls could be the favorite for that as long as Derrick Rose stays healthy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveLAztec Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 Life long Laker fan here that will also be following the Clippers close this season for the first time. I used to be one of the biggest NBA fans around for decades...Do people still watch the NBA? Ugly product for those of us who used to watch real basketball. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PAC MAN Posted October 15, 2014 Share Posted October 15, 2014 http://espn.go.com/dallas/nba/story/_/id/11706974/dirk-nowitzki-dallas-mavericks-says-favor-shortening-nba-season Perhaps ******Aztec is on to something here. Perhaps with teams playing four games in five nights, that might have caused the product to suffer. Look at college basketball...we don't have that many games in consecutive nights and college basketball is great. So is college football and the NFL. But $$$ rules in sports and that will be probably the reason why we don't see that many changes in sports scheduling for MLB, NHL, and the NBA in this case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
All Hail Posted October 15, 2014 Share Posted October 15, 2014 The product "suffered" because Michael Jordan retired. Although how much suffering can the NBA be doing when they just signed a 24 BILLION dollar TV deal with ESPN and TNT -- 2 billion annually. Perhaps the product isn't suffering. Perhaps ******Aztec isn't on to anything and he's just just expressing an unpopular opinion that you happen to share. Perhaps the NBA is more profitable than ever before. Of course Dirk wants to work less. If my boss asked for my opinion I'd say the same thing, "I'd like to trim my schedule down to 180 work days a year and I'd like to keep the same salary too!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PAC MAN Posted October 15, 2014 Share Posted October 15, 2014 Reading is FUNdamental AH. The point I was making doesn't have anything to do with the number of games. It has more to do with playing games the day after a game has been played especially when you are playing four games in five nights (Dirk's point in the article). Does it affect the player's performance? Undobutedly yes. If we were to have days off before and after any game along with a longer regular season, I don't see any problems with that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
All Hail Posted October 16, 2014 Share Posted October 16, 2014 Reading is FUNdamental AH. The point I was making doesn't have anything to do with the number of games. It has more to do with playing games the day after a game has been played especially when you are playing four games in five nights (Dirk's point in the article). Does it affect the player's performance? Undobutedly yes. If we were to have days off before and after any game along with a longer regular season, I don't see any problems with that. I guess reading is selective for you as you only addressed the joke at the end of my post and not the content within my post. I'll ask the same question, how is a league that just signed a 24 billion dollar TV deal suffering? Is attendance down? Are more eyeballs on the product than ever before? What is "******Aztec on to" or is he just expressing an unpopular opinion? Here is Jordan's response Lebron and Dirks idea. "I love both of those guys, but as an owner who played the game, I loved playing,'' Jordan, who owns the Charlotte Hornets, told ESPN during a telephone interview. "If I wasn't playing 82 games, I still would've been playing somewhere else because that's the love for the game I had. As a player, I never thought 82 games was an issue. "But if that's what they want to do, we as owners and players can evaluate it and talk about it. But we'd make less money as partners. Are they ready to give up money to play fewer games? That's the question, because you can't make the same amount of money playing fewer games.'' And the ultimate answer to that question of course would be no, no they are not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PAC MAN Posted October 16, 2014 Share Posted October 16, 2014 http://espn.go.com/new-york/nba/story/_/id/11712310/new-york-knicks-amare-stoudemire-finds-rejuvenation-bathing-red-wine Amare Stoudemire feels refreshed by red wine baths at the local spa place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
All Hail Posted October 16, 2014 Share Posted October 16, 2014 An absolute must read -- Blake Griffin chronicles what it was like playing for a Donald Sterling owned team. http://www.theplayerstribune.com/blake-griffin-the-boss/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KUGRDON Posted October 16, 2014 Share Posted October 16, 2014 Not unlike the experience of working for any crazy old rich white man. I've sure done it. I didn't get paid what Blake did though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
All Hail Posted October 16, 2014 Share Posted October 16, 2014 Not unlike the experience of working for any crazy old rich white man. I've sure done it. I didn't get paid what Blake did though. Agreed. I don't think he's asking for sympathy though, I think he's just satisfying peoples curiosities by giving them a closer look at a public figure with great intrigue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.