PAC MAN Posted October 14, 2017 Share Posted October 14, 2017 Guess I'll have to wait until Tuesday to know if games are getting shorter...no big deal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glduck Posted October 16, 2017 Share Posted October 16, 2017 On 7/6/2017 at 8:42 AM, glduck said: alright after most of the big moves have been made i see it like this: west tier 1 golden state tier 2 san antonio, houston, oklahoma city tier 3 nuggets, blazers, clippers, wolves, grizzlies (no specific order) tier 4 jazz, pelicans, mavs, lakers, kings, suns (no specific order) barring two major gsw injuries, there will be no one else jumping into tier 1, even if the spurs have one of their 65-win seasons. but tier 2 looks a lot stronger next year than last year. the spurs are still a viable 60-win threat, i have questions about chris paul joining the d'antoni system BUT it's also hard to imagine a team adding chris paul and getting worse -- you know? they'll figure it out. and paul george may not be KD but he's ridiculously good and he should fit in very well next to westbrook. i don't think okc will be quite as good as when the KD/westbrook train was when healthy, but that's a good one-year experiment presti has put together. tier 3 teams all look solid to the point where the 8th seed should finish a lot closer to 50 wins that last year's 8th seed (portland, 41-41), and you'll notice that there are 9 teams in the top 3 tiers. a very good western team is going to be left out of the playoffs this year. the blazers are still the second youngest team in the nba despite returning a core that's played together for two full seasons now, plus they were something like 12-3 with nurkic last year. they're in cap hell and don't really have the means to truly compete with the elite, but hopefully continuity matters. the clippers are going to take a big step backwards whereas the wolves should finally take a step forward with teague and butler joining wiggins and anthony-towns. hard not to like the milsap/jokic frontcourt in denver, and the grizz still have conley and gasol. tier 4, i could be off on the jazz, gobert is still one of the better big men in the nba, but rubio is a big step down from hill and no one they may be able to bring back from boston in the proposed sign and trade is going to be in hayward's stratosphere. i can make cases for the pelicans, mavs, and suns being better than last year but i just don't see the playoffs for any of them. lakers are going to suck for one more year before hitting the open market. east tier 1 boston, cleveland tier 2 raptors, wizards, bucks tier 3 hawks, sixers, heat, pistons, hornets tier 4 knicks, nets, pacers, bulls, magic while the east can at least provide a little intrigue regarding its eventual champion, it's also a 2-team conference and everything prior to the ECF is going to be utterly pointless. i think boston can absolutely knock off the cavs this year; cleveland just seems wobbly to me. maybe i buy into the lebron-is-looking-to-leave conspiracy. don't know. but the rest of the conference is hot garbage, comparatively. nba starts tomorrow. i stand by these predictions i made pre-carmelo, pre-kyrie trades. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mano Posted October 16, 2017 Share Posted October 16, 2017 48 minutes ago, glduck said: nba starts tomorrow. i stand by these predictions i made pre-carmelo, pre-kyrie trades. Maybe it is just me being homerish, but I like the Jazz in tier 3 of your rankings above. They lose Hayward, but Mitchell seems like he is going to be very good and they should be a very good defensive team, led by Gobert who may be the defensive MVP. I like them competing for a playoff spot and being in the 6-9 range in the west. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
All Hail Posted October 16, 2017 Share Posted October 16, 2017 West. 1. Golden State - It feels weird to say this about I team I root for but we are just too damn dominant. There are no weaknesses of any kind. We might be looking at the best basketball team of all time. The Warriors were all-time good with no continuity between KD and everyone else. Now KD will be on his 2nd year and Jordan Bell is looking like an absolute steal -- the guy has been awesome. The Warriors bench is even better than at any point in the past 3 years. There's no reason they shouldn't win it all. 2. Houston - I thought Houston was loaded before they got Chris Paul. They should have taken down the Spurs last year and they added a guy who has taken down the Spurs in a playoff series almost by himself. They can shoot 3's from everywhere, they have several capable big men, and they can beat anyone on any given days if they hit there 3's. Harden is still a major liability on defense but now he can be hidden against most teams with Paul on the floor. 3. Spurs - Ole Faithful will find a way to win 55+ games. I think KL should be the favorite in the west to win MVP as Westbrook is now competing with Paul George. They have a couple of talented younger guys who if they contribute, can take this team to the next level. As long as Pop is coaching, I will fear his team. 4. OKC - They have two great pieces but they've traded away a lot of their depth. Who else on that team can shoot besides George and Westbrook? Their defense was really bad last year, will Paul George help it that much? Can George play second fiddle to Westbrook? There's just too many questions here and poor depth so I can't pick them any higher in good faith. 5. Nuggets - They could end up sneaking into the top 4 if Houston or OKC ends up not meshing well. The Nuggets have a superstar player in Jokic and they surround him with a bunch of freakishly athletic PGs and wings. Pairing Milsap with Jokic will be brutal on the rest of the league. What if Murray and Mudiay take the next step? This finished the 2nd half of last season as the most efficient offense in the league. If they can play just a little bit of defense, they will be in great shape. 6. Wolves - On paper, this team looks like they have top 4 talent. But I keep wondering, how is it going to work out? Nobody on that team except for Butler plays any defense and they might be the worst shooting team in the Western Conference. Seriously, who is going to hit from outside with regularity on that team? Teams will once again flood the paint, making life harder than it needs to be for Townes. I don't see this team winning a playoff series or doing anything noteworthy until they step up their defensive intensity and find some shooters. 7. Griz - Conley and Gasol are too good when healthy to not make the playoffs. They are still an elite defensive team and they finally have some decent shooting. 8. Blazers - Portland just squeaks into the playoffs over the clippers. The defense is still really bad and I don't think they rebound too well either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glduck Posted October 18, 2017 Share Posted October 18, 2017 nooooo that hayward injury was awful. oh man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PAC MAN Posted October 18, 2017 Share Posted October 18, 2017 That didn't look good. I fractured my left fibula and tibia when I was 14 and it took two surgeries and about a year if not a year and a half to really recover from it. Hope he gets back soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrBug708 Posted October 18, 2017 Share Posted October 18, 2017 Talk about a deflating win as I thought that shot was off way before the buzzer, but apparently not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mano Posted October 18, 2017 Share Posted October 18, 2017 Kobe with a classy message to Hayward: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PAC MAN Posted October 18, 2017 Share Posted October 18, 2017 http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2738589-why-did-lebron-and-kyrie-fizzle-they-didnt-follow-the-rules-of-the-1-2-punch?utm_source=cnn.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=editorial Terrific article explaining what went wrong in Cleveland between LeBron and Kyrie. You need a good 1-2 combo in the NBA and they do well when both know who is no 1 and who is no 2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrBug708 Posted October 18, 2017 Share Posted October 18, 2017 Nice letter but mostly self serving to Kobe. Kobe could have called up GH and told him the same thing. It's not like the phone call would be ignored Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glduck Posted October 19, 2017 Share Posted October 19, 2017 long season and all, yada yada, but it'd sure be nice if $1.5 million pat connaughton can give us exactly what $18 million allen crabbe could. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glduck Posted October 22, 2017 Share Posted October 22, 2017 suns fire earl watson 3 games into the season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clpp01 Posted October 24, 2017 Share Posted October 24, 2017 Watson was clueless and should have never been hired in the first place but that is what you get when you hire your coach without actually interviewing a single candidate. Still I can't put too much blame on him for the Suns current situation as he never really had a chance to succeed with the lack of talent on the roster and official mandates from ownership to sit players in order to tank for the draft. As mentioned in another thread a few months ago there is a reason why the Suns head coaching gig is so far down the pecking order in Arizona sports, Sarver has been extremely cheap on what he pays the HC position to the point where any halfway decent candidate would not even bother trying for the gig. Sarver has slowly been building the Suns franchise up (well down) to becoming the NBA's Cleveland Browns. The hiring decisions he has made since assuming ownership have been a complete disaster for the franchise, outside of hiring ****** Kerr as GM, every coach/FO executive he has brought in have done nothing but fail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PapaG Posted November 3, 2017 Author Share Posted November 3, 2017 Lillard shuts out Lonzo Ball and hits the game-winning three. He had nice things to say about Lonzo after the game though. Almost protective of him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrBug708 Posted November 4, 2017 Share Posted November 4, 2017 Ball still had the highest +/- for the Lakers last night Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PapaG Posted November 4, 2017 Author Share Posted November 4, 2017 2 hours ago, MrBug708 said: Ball still had the highest +/- for the Lakers last night Shows what a shitty stat that is for a single game. Lonzo wasn't even defending Lillard on the last play, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrBug708 Posted November 4, 2017 Share Posted November 4, 2017 Fake news Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glduck Posted November 6, 2017 Share Posted November 6, 2017 carmelo was just kicked out of the game and i’m kind of concerned that just made OKC better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtd Posted November 9, 2017 Share Posted November 9, 2017 h8 Lillard the chucker. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glduck Posted November 9, 2017 Share Posted November 9, 2017 lillard for wiggins straight up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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