Official NBA Thread

[Manhattan]

Lebron's scoring record game was the only one I watched all the way thru so far this season. Sound like a grumpy old man when I say the game isn't as fun to watch. Analytics has changed it so much. Over a third of possessions involved the ball being passed around the perimeter for a player to jack up a 3. Not the most interesting thing to watch these guys at target practice.

Seeing just about everyone in the crowd (who paid exorbitantly) with the exception of Phil Knight pull out their cameras presumably for social media clout instead of just taking in the moment is unfortunately a reflection of our society. Video tribute was overused too. Stopped the 'moment' in its tracks for 20,000 crowd to stare at a giant screen.

/rant

[taemo]

saw that, impressive achievement and longevity for LBJ just funny that all the times he achieves these records, Lakers loses lol

[Manhattan]

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saw that, impressive achievement and longevity for LBJ just funny that all the times he achieves these records, Lakers loses lol

It was an awkward game for LA. They were purposely feeding and running plays for Lebron like he's a kid from the make-a-wish foundation trying to score at the end of a meaningless game. OKC also bombed 3 pointers at a 50% rate which will beat out most NBA teams...another one of those random results due to analytics changing the game.

By the way check out AD during Lebron's record bucket...

[Manhattan]

Some spicy trades. Westbrook era in Lakerland is mercifully over KD to PHX to team up with CP3 although they gave up A LOT to get him. Gutted the rest of the rotation almost. CP3/KD/Ayton/Booker is probably most talented starting 5 in the league tho.

[beecue]

wtf how did phx pull that off, wow.

[taemo]

Damn I heard about Westbrook last night, Conley going to the Wolves as well.
Didnt know about Durant til this morning. PHX will be interesting to watch.

[max_boost]

Just cwazy. will see how all this plays out.

[jabjab]

I think KD ruined his reputation for all his movement. Still a great player but his ring with the warriors will have an asterisk beside it. Lakers got slightly better, Dallas is taking a gamble but I think Suns will go deep

[brucebanner]

West got stronger, east got weaker. Lots of movement overall.

I wanted the raps to blow it up to some degree but oh well. Now they can claw to 6th spot maybe?

[Manhattan]

Raps have a pretty good core that's strangely underperforming. Rumors are there's some animosity amongst the team. If they can sort out the internal issues they have as good of a young core as anybody.

[max_boost]

Ya it’s strange. Individually strong but weak as a team.

[sexualbanana]

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Raps have a pretty good core that's strangely underperforming. Rumors are there's some animosity amongst the team. If they can sort out the internal issues they have as good of a young core as anybody.

The rumours I've read centre around the fact that a lot of the core are like undrafted, self-made (however you want to describe it) underdogs - dating back to even Lowry and Derozan who were kind of considered misfit toys around that league at that point. Then Scottie came in as a lottery pick and became the golden child.

How much of that is true, I don't know. Scottie does seem to have lost some of his rookie corniness (watch his intro to the rising stars game last year), but I don't think it's a sign of any kind of regression or anything.

The thing with the Raps is that they are all capable shooters, but can't seem to hit shots. On paper, they should be closer to the middle of the league in 3P%, but for whatever reason, they're sitting near the bottom of the league - and that's been the difference in a lot of their games.

[ExtraSlow]

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They have a pretty good core that's strangely underperforming. Rumors are there's some animosity amongst the team. If they can sort out the internal issues they have as good of a core as anybody.

Sir, please take that talk to the flames thread.

[brucebanner]

First half of the game, raps shot almost 50% from 3, finished the game at 35% annnnd lost the game they led basically until sometime in the 4th.

Wemby here we come!

[Manhattan]

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Dunno how Kyrie & Luka supposed to make them contenders. No size and 2 ball dominating point guards. Kyrie is obviously a bad teammate and nut case.

On another note the playoffs especially the west is WIDE OPEN this year. If Lakers make some moves I could see them sneaking in thru play-in tourney and going a couple rounds deep. Denver & Memphis are not elite or scary teams.

Mavs 1-5 since the Kyrie trade. Only W was against the lowly spurs.

My Lakers prediction turned out way better than I expected with their deadline moves. They've got some ballers now even without LBJ but to get to 6th spot and make a playoff run they need everybody healthy.

[max_boost]

Gotta like the Suns.

[Team_Mclaren]

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Mavs 1-5 since the Kyrie trade. Only W was against the lowly spurs.

My Lakers prediction turned out way better than I expected with their deadline moves. They've got some ballers now even without LBJ but to get to 6th spot and make a playoff run they need everybody healthy.

So you mean Lakers are winning without LBJ? that cant be right, it's all because of LBJ, even tho he's no actually on the court.

[sexualbanana]

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Mavs 1-5 since the Kyrie trade. Only W was against the lowly spurs.

My Lakers prediction turned out way better than I expected with their deadline moves. They've got some ballers now even without LBJ but to get to 6th spot and make a playoff run they need everybody healthy.

If LBJ is out for at least 3 weeks, that's 9 games (with 10 more after that). They only have 2 "easy" games in Houston and Orlando. Toss-ups (vs teams at or around .500) against 5 teams (MIN, GSW, TOR, DAL and NO). And 2 against teams at least 3 games over .500 (MEM and NYK).

Assume they are still favourite to win the two against HOU and ORL. With LBJ, you can realistically expect LAL to go 4-1 against the toss-ups). Without LBJ, they are closer to going 2-3 against the same group. Splitting the winners group, MEM and NKY, and going 1-1 is their best-case scenario.

The good news is 3 of those toss-up games are with play-in spots, so if their 2 wins come from those 2, I can see them getting as high as 8th.

Realistically, I see them going 4-5 without Lebron and staying out of the play-in (let alone 6th) by the time Lebron comes back. NO and UTA have pretty friendly schedules. DAL's is really tough and MIN's could be friendlier.

[Manhattan]

MIN, NO, UTAH are all dumpster fires. Utah wants a lottery pick and never should've been this good - I'm sure they'll strategically rest some players. NO has been sliding hard without Zion (slid from top 1/2 to 10th spot). MIN's 'twin tower' situation has been a disaster. All the potential play-in teams will be limping into the playoffs.

Lakers have a soft schedule to end the season. If they can go 4-5 or something close to .500 and LBJ comes back for the last 10 games or so they'll be in a decent spot. They need AD to avg 30/15 but its a big question mark for sure (I thought he's been super overrated since NO days). Lakers looked so awful to start the season its amazing they're even in this position.

If Lakers finishes with a better record than NO they'll actually get to keep their first round pick this year.

[brucebanner]

Luka & Kyrie cookin' against Philly tonight