I did not see a thread dedicated to this NBA season and considering that All Star weekend is days away, what better time to start one?
There haven’t been any major surprises so far this season, which is pretty much the state of the NBA now what with the formation of superteams. The Warriors will meet the Cavs in the finals for the 3rd time in a row.
But wait! The Raptors traded for Serge Ibaka. Could he be the piece that’s been holding Toronto back from finally beating the Cavs? No, I don’t think he is.
Anyone else out there watching the NBA? I’m not as much as I have in years past, but I do still follow along. The most entertaining storyline has been, by far, the dysfunction of the Knicks. Derrick Rose skips a game without telling anyone why. Melo is a selfish ballhog (surprise!). Phil Jackson has apparently morphed into a 12 year old boy, emoting on Twitter. Oh, and that whole thing with Dolan and Charles Oakley. What a mess.
I thought NBA fans were barred from the Dope… sure seems that way.
Lakers fan here (the real kind; been following since Magic’s rookie year). Umm, was a pretty cool first 20 games, then, well, less so. Disappointed with the development of our kids so far this season, and a little with Luke Walton as well, whom most Laker fans – myself included – were really excited about as Byron Scott’s replacement.
Pleeeease trade Lou Williams to a contender for a first so we can go into tank mode keep our own first – as well as the one that otherwise goes to Orlando in 2019 if we fall out of the top 3. The Wizards could desperately use him. We need to develop the kids.
Generally agree on your points, though, Willis: GS vs. Cleveland in the finals, not a ton of wiggle room there. Maybe something strange happens or somebody gets hurt.
Looking forward to Swaggy doing Swaggy things at the 3-Point Shootout at ASW. I imagine he’ll knock down his first 15, but then run out of time to finish because he’s busy celebrating each make. And finish one point out of the final round or something.
What else? I think the brand of NBA basketball is just about the best I’ve ever seen, if perhaps a little 3-point happy for my taste. Those that want to reminisce about the 90’s and the Jordan era neglect to recall the horrible offenses and butchering defenses most teams employed. If they’re about the 80’s, they forget how lopsided the league was and that defensive schemes were virtually non-existent.
Pacers fan checking in. Seven-game winning streak was nice, but we’re currently in a four-game losing streak. 29-26 record, good enough for second place in the Central Division, nine games behind the Cavs. I wish we’d show some consistency. I mean the good kind of consistency.
I get that Indiana will never be a highly sought-after free agent destination, but we’ve gotta get some help behind Paul George and Myles Turner.
I don’t mind the 3 pointers as much as I do the superteams, to be honest. I say this as a Nuggets fan with very little hope of ever becoming a superteam. The thing is, you used to be able to draft one stud (e.g. LeBron, Carmelo, DWade) and build around him with nice pieces. That ain’t gonna cut it now. The days of Allen Iverson single handedly carrying a team to the Finals are over.
Back to this season…I hear the Celtics don’t want to trade a 1st round pick for Jimmy Butler. Why not? They C’s are good now, adding Butler might make them a true contender to knock of Cleveland in the East. He’s not old and I think he’s locked in for 2 more season after this. The Celtics have the Nets’ first round pick, which might end up being #1 overall. But I wonder, will there be a guy in the draft as good as Butler?
I doubt that anyone picked at #1 is going to be as good as Jimmy Butler is now, but perhaps the #1 pick has a higher ceiling. The risk you take trading away draft picks: Planning for the future vs. trying to win it all now. I pay no attention to college basketball, though, so.
The Blazers have been very disappointing this year. Some of the bigger players got sweet paydays and it sometimes appears that they retired. They’re defense continues to be disgraceful in most games; either the defensive coach needs to be fired, or the players do. To compensate for the huge cash layout to players, they just traded center Mason Plumlee, who has arguably had his best defensive season to date, despite not being able to hit a meteor crater with a basketball unless he’s standing in it, to Denver for an out-of-shape Nurkic and a draft pick. They also traded for an injured Festus Ezeli, who will likely never play for the team.
They’re in tenth place now with very slim hopes of making the playoffs. This despite all the hype in pre-season and early games. Too many of their players are inconsistent, including Lillard and Aminu, with McCollum, Crabbe and Davis being about the only ones who seem to show up to play. Mo Harkless is coming on strong, but it’s too little too late. Very disappointing, as Coach Stotts is reduced to starting bench-warmers in a desperate attempt to throw off the competition. It ain’t working.
On the contrary: that era of basketball was the most relevant to my interests.
I still watch two games a night, on average, because I’m a fucking junkie, but I’m not getting the same “high” that I used to, in large part because I loathe the three-point shot. I mean, even centers are shooting threes now: that’s bullshit on a stick, is what it is.
Oh, the game today does not require a team to have a true center. I mean, GS can trot out JaVale friggin’ McGee as a starting center for 15 minutes a game and suffer no consequences. I don’t know how much the allowance of zone defense plays into it, but post play is definitely not what it used to be.
2017 has been pretty good for the [del]Bullets[/del] Wizards. They’re going to severely burn out by the time the playoffs roll around, but it’s been a pretty good month-and-a-half run nonetheless.
Well…I’m a Warriors fan these days, so yeah :). However I totally get the Warriors-Cavaliers fatigue. If the shoe was on the other foot I’m sure I’d be right there with those bitching about the super-teams. I do think there are a few that could sneak in and upset the apple-cart ( San Antonio is always dangerous ), but I don’t recall the lack of parity ever being this glaring.
Still I must admit I find the current incarnation of the Warriors very entertaining to watch, something I wouldn’t have said a few years back. I was a Stockton-Malone-Hornacek era Utah Jazz fan back in the day, but as that period wore down I found myself pretty much abandoning the NBA for the NCAAW. I find I prefer fluid guard play with a lot of ball movement to watching either endless iso plays or lumbering centers camping out under the basket waiting to be force fed the ball - highly efficient perhaps, but kinda boring to me. The current Warriors renaissance sort of pulled me back into being a fan. And I admit it - I prefer three point shots to thundering dunks ;).
The Blazers continued exerting their non-existent defense against the Jazz, nearly losing by 30 points before both teams put in their scrubs. Nurkic is actually showing some promise and can at least finish on his baby hooks and medium jumpers. Lillard and McCollum had only scored a combined total of 26 by the middle of the 3rd and Hayward was punishing them relentlessly from everywhere. What a cock-up.
Heard some complaints about Nurkic’s attitude in Denver, so maybe the change of scenery is what he needed.
The Nuggets head to All Star weekend at 25-31 and, amazingly, would be the 8th seed in the West if playoffs started today.
Sounds like the complaints stemmed from replacing him as a starter with Jokic. That’s when his game started to slide, as well. Portland is still starting Meyers Leonard, but it won’t be long before that changes. Leonard is a nice guy and is one of the few 7 footers in the NBA who can hit from beyond the arc, but he doesn’t have the bulk and presence inside. And then there’s his case of “Portland Disease” (inconsistency).
Ezeli definitely was a flop, but I understand you guys wouldn’t have been able to keep Plumlee next year anyway due to salary issues. Under those circumstances Nurkic plus a pick doesn’t seem awful - better to at least get something now, than nothing later. With three first-round picks stockpiled at least you have some chance at a rebuild since folks are claiming this will be a deep draft ( don’t follow NCAA much myself ). So a bad season, but perhaps hope on the horizon.
The Bulls are under .500 again, yet still in the playoff hunt. They have a spurt of a couple games where they look passably decent, and then drop turds for a week straight to remind me that my heart hurts. Now that football is done for the year, and hockey on TV is only good for a nap, basketball is all I have, and it sucks. Bleh.
DeMarcus Cousins traded to New Orleans for a 2017 1st and 2nd round pick, Buddy Hield, Tyreke Evans, and Langston Galloway. Pelicans also get Omri Casspi.
Wow. That is a remarkably imbalanced trade, just about any way you look at it. Is Vlade Divac on crack? Or was he really so desperate to get rid of Cousins?