2018 NBA Season

[pinhigh27]

the thing I see with tatum is he never really takes over. like say kyrie is having an off game and tatum just decides ok I'm going to do this. he will have games where he gets 25 but usually its in a blowout or etc.

 

Not saying he's not good, just saying I'm not sure if he will ever be a superstar.

[MtlJeff]

I wonder if the Lakers and Celtics both playing uninspired basketball has anything to do with most of their teams wondering if they will be traded for Anthony Davis this offseason. I get that they are professionals but it's hard not to be affected by this. I know in LA the young guys are getting their numbers but maybe defensively it's hurting their focus....I don't watch a ton of Lakers games due to having a young baby and being on the east coast....The Celtics have been a mess. Some of that is probably related to Kyrie Irving trashing his teammates in the media pretty much every week for the past couple of months

 

It's been funny to hear Bill Simmons slowly turn on Kyrie this year. I mean it's funny that a few weeks back he talked about all these great lessons he learned from Lebron, and then he went out and bashed his teammates in the press. He REALLY did learn something from Lebron!

 

I really dont know about the Celtics. Part of me wonders if they would be better off if Kyrie left, no Davis trade happens and they just do a longer rebuild around Tatum, Smart, Brown and another piece they can add. Most people who watch the Celtics seem to say there's a different energy when Kyrie isn't on the floor. They play harder and more as a unit....again, i hate to play the Lebron card here, but it's amazing how Kyrie wanted out of Cleveland and has become a lot of the same things he wanted to get away from (bashing teammates, noncommital about future with his team). It's like in Black Panther when T'Challa yells at Killmonger "You have become them!!!!"

[CaddiesFault]

Kyrie and Lebron have not done a very good job in their leadership role. MTL is right on imo. A leader makes a unit more cohesive and neither of these players do that. The trade rumors definitely played a part in it as well. How would you feel going to work every day knowing your expendable and not really wanted? Id be looking for a new gig.

 

Lebron's play can make players better, but his words and actions negate a lot of the great things he does on the court. Maybe that's why hes 3-6 in NBA finals or whatever.

 

 

Also, since they put chips in the jerseys we get alot of awesome metrics, like average defensive speed. Here are the 3 slowest/least effort players in the NBA this year:

1. Dirk Nowitzki. Makes sense right? hes like 50 and 7' tall. he can barely move anymore.

2. James Harden

3. Lebron James

 

LA plays absolutely no defense, Even Rondo is a negative defender this year, and he used to be known as a really good on ball defender. i just checked and hes 327th in def rating out of 346 qualifiers.

[pinhigh27]

I wonder if the Lakers and Celtics both playing uninspired basketball has anything to do with most of their teams wondering if they will be traded for Anthony Davis this offseason. I get that they are professionals but it's hard not to be affected by this. I know in LA the young guys are getting their numbers but maybe defensively it's hurting their focus....I don't watch a ton of Lakers games due to having a young baby and being on the east coast....The Celtics have been a mess. Some of that is probably related to Kyrie Irving trashing his teammates in the media pretty much every week for the past couple of months

 

It's been funny to hear Bill Simmons slowly turn on Kyrie this year. I mean it's funny that a few weeks back he talked about all these great lessons he learned from Lebron, and then he went out and bashed his teammates in the press. He REALLY did learn something from Lebron!

 

I really dont know about the Celtics. Part of me wonders if they would be better off if Kyrie left, no Davis trade happens and they just do a longer rebuild around Tatum, Smart, Brown and another piece they can add. Most people who watch the Celtics seem to say there's a different energy when Kyrie isn't on the floor. They play harder and more as a unit....again, i hate to play the Lebron card here, but it's amazing how Kyrie wanted out of Cleveland and has become a lot of the same things he wanted to get away from (bashing teammates, noncommital about future with his team). It's like in Black Panther when T'Challa yells at Killmonger "You have become them!!!!"

 

lol excellent man

[MtlJeff]

^^^ I haven't checked those stats for a while but they were always fun. Patty Mills was the "fastest player" in the league for a while I recall, meaning he was always running really fast when on the court

 

Lebron i think at his age he can be forgiven for taking defense off as a way to preserve his body. He did it in Cleveland last year for 2 months and he's still obviously a massive net positive. But the challenge can be if he's not surrounded by good defenders obviously building a team defense can be a tough one. If LA was as good defensively as last year they are in the playoffs even with Lebron's injury

 

Rondo isn't great and has openly admitted not playing hard on defense in the past. I wonder if when his name came up in trade talks he went back into that mode. In the past what, 7 years, the only time he's been good is in Chicago when playing against his former team in the playoffs, and for a 1/2 season in New Orleans in a good situation. He basically torpedoed what was the best offense in the league (Dallas) at the time, and that was after openly saying he wasn't trying in Boston

[CaddiesFault]

^^^ I haven't checked those stats for a while but they were always fun. Patty Mills was the "fastest player" in the league for a while I recall, meaning he was always running really fast when on the court

 

Lebron i think at his age he can be forgiven for taking defense off as a way to preserve his body. He did it in Cleveland last year for 2 months and he's still obviously a massive net positive. But the challenge can be if he's not surrounded by good defenders obviously building a team defense can be a tough one. If LA was as good defensively as last year they are in the playoffs even with Lebron's injury

 

Rondo isn't great and has openly admitted not playing hard on defense in the past. I wonder if when his name came up in trade talks he went back into that mode. In the past what, 7 years, the only time he's been good is in Chicago when playing against his former team in the playoffs, and for a 1/2 season in New Orleans in a good situation. He basically torpedoed what was the best offense in the league (Dallas) at the time, and that was after openly saying he wasn't trying in Boston

 

I forgot about the dallas debacle. he completely nuked that team. Bron has a net rating of 1.9 this year, currently #172 on the list. I agree hes older and needs to conserve more than he used to but his actions clearly trickle down to the other players. Id like to see a little more effort.

 

fyi patty is still 8th fastest this year, haha. alex poythress #1

[pinhigh27]

I'm sure Melo is going to make the Lakers good..

[pinhigh27]

No one ever learns. He doesn't make your team better

[MtlJeff]

Well, they can't get much worse defensively. Maybe this is the perfect situation.

[deadsolid...shank]

Adding him is a good way to tank the season.

[MtlJeff]

Granted LeBron said he didn't want to sit, but the ultimate irony would be the Lakers sitting LeBron out multiple games after klutch sports threatened the NBA with a grievance if the Pelicans sat Davis

[scratchswinger]

Granted LeBron said he didn't want to sit, but the ultimate irony would be the Lakers sitting LeBron out multiple games after klutch sports threatened the NBA with a grievance if the Pelicans sat Davis

 

Hahaha How would that work? It's okay if the player agrees to it? I don't think they sit him but just reduce his minutes. What a disappointing season for the Lakers, the Magic and Rob plan was just starting to take shape and the team looked very good in December and then all the injuries just started pouring in on top of the great trade debacle. LeBron has obviously slowed down but until his injury he looked very good and was in the MVP race. I think since then he has not gotten back to full strength, he hasn't seemed to have the same explosiveness. Maybe it's just later in the season and his legs are tiered or maybe he is still not back to full strength, hard to say. When is Lonzo coming back? He might just sit so he doesn't have to play for Luke again.... It will be an interesting off season for sure....

 

It appears that Kyrie really does not enjoy being the main guy and getting all the attention as much as he thought he wanted it. I could see him coming to LA so he can kind of just play ball and let LeBron be the focal point, If he really dislikes the attention then NY is not the place to go. If he does leave then what are the chances of Boston offering Tatum and given BI's play (assume he finishes the season this way) who is a better young player at that point BI or Tatum?

[raynorfan1]

It appears that Kyrie really does not enjoy being the main guy and getting all the attention as much as he thought he wanted it. I could see him coming to LA so he can kind of just play ball and let LeBron be the focal point, If he really dislikes the attention then NY is not the place to go. If he does leave then what are the chances of Boston offering Tatum and given BI's play (assume he finishes the season this way) who is a better young player at that point BI or Tatum?

 

The Celtics have somehow worked themselves into a really weird spot.

 

I think most of the fans would be fine if Kyrie walks in July. He's a perfect fit for then Knicks...

 

It's funny, when Kyrie fell into the Celtics' laps, everybody recognized that stylistically he didn't fit but the pure talent level was so high you couldn't say no. Now I think we're coming to the conclusion that all that talent isn't so helpful if you don't fit with the rest of the team.

 

So if Kyrie walks...then you've got a good young team (Hayward, Tatum, Brown), but it's not clear that trading for Davis (especially if it's a rental) makes you a contender. It's really not obvious what the next move for Danny should be.

[jerebear21]

Kyrie will be fine once the playoff begins. You need stars in the playoff. Celtics are better with him than without when the lights goes on.

 

Watching Lebron sabotage this season was predictable. I did say he was better off in the east and got flamed for it. This is awesome.

[Shilgy]

LeBron showed his true colors last night. And why he does not deserve the goat label. He passed MJ for 4th all time scoring, in a blowout loss, and talked about how it meant about as much to him as titles.

He never made the players around him better.

[MtlJeff]

I think Jordan had issues making those around him better too, he developed a great relationship with Pippen it seemed but a lot of that was because Pippen was the clear #2 option and fit perfectly (great defender, secondary scorer). Even when Jordan retired Pippen wasn't a volume scorer. Truthfully Pippen is probably the all-time greatest true second banana

 

LeBron had a bit of that with Wade in Miami. When it became clear Wade was #2 and not 1B it seemed to work better

 

I think the thing that's held LeBron back the most is that he needs to control everything. Jordan had a pathological need to win. LeBron has a pathological need to control everything, I think because he hates the owners so much he turns everything into a power struggle. And it often hurts the team

 

 

[Hawkeye77]

Kyrie and Lebron have not done a very good job in their leadership role. MTL is right on imo. A leader makes a unit more cohesive and neither of these players do that. The trade rumors definitely played a part in it as well. How would you feel going to work every day knowing your expendable and not really wanted? Id be looking for a new gig.

 

Lebron's play can make players better, but his words and actions negate a lot of the great things he does on the court. Maybe that's why hes 3-6 in NBA finals or whatever.

 

 

Also, since they put chips in the jerseys we get alot of awesome metrics, like average defensive speed. Here are the 3 slowest/least effort players in the NBA this year:

1. Dirk Nowitzki. Makes sense right? hes like 50 and 7' tall. he can barely move anymore.

2. James Harden

3. Lebron James

 

LA plays absolutely no defense, Even Rondo is a negative defender this year, and he used to be known as a really good on ball defender. i just checked and hes 327th in def rating out of 346 qualifiers.

 

Just stopped in here because reading these posts once in awhile catches me up on pro basketball so I don't have to watch it.

 

Are these chips in jerseys a real thing? Just wondering.

 

Just sitting here imagining some sort of tracking device in Frazier's "Clyde's".

[pinhigh27]

I think Jordan had issues making those around him better too, he developed a great relationship with Pippen it seemed but a lot of that was because Pippen was the clear #2 option and fit perfectly (great defender, secondary scorer). Even when Jordan retired Pippen wasn't a volume scorer. Truthfully Pippen is probably the all-time greatest true second banana

 

LeBron had a bit of that with Wade in Miami. When it became clear Wade was #2 and not 1B it seemed to work better

 

I think the thing that's held LeBron back the most is that he needs to control everything. Jordan had a pathological need to win. LeBron has a pathological need to control everything, I think because he hates the owners so much he turns everything into a power struggle. And it often hurts the team

 

he's a blessing and a curse at the same time. if you want to win titles I don't think he's the best buy available. if you want to be relevant then yeah he is

[zip7111]

How about some love for the Bucks? Fear the Deer!

[HoosierHacker89]

The bucks are solid, and I think they have a great shot to get out of the east. I look forward to the playoffs this year, as it seems like they will be anything but predictable. I'm going out of the shortest limb of all time, basically staying on the trunk of the tree saying that I suspect the warriors the three peat.

[MtlJeff]

The Bucks continue to look awesome, they are basically slaughtering people and their +9 differential is one of the better ones for any season (+10 or higher is like, alltime great teams).

 

That being said, i feel like i have to go down with the ship. I've been saying all season i don't have confidence in their teams ability to produce playoff offense if Giannis is slowed in any way. I would expect teams to try various things, double teaming him immediately and making the other guys beat you....or the inverse, single covering him all game, letting him get 50, and not giving anyone else an open shot all night.

 

Good defensive teams really hurt the OKC Thunder like this back in the Durant-Westbrook and a tire fire years. They were like "Oh you shoot 42% from 3 Thabo Sefalosha? Great, take 20 of them and see if you're comfortable holding the fate of the team in your hands"....or "We'll put a 6'5 guy on you Serge Ibaka, go post up!"

 

The Bucks could win the east for sure. But if they lose in round #2 to the Celtics or whoever, it wouldn't surprise me either. The Bucks won't have the 2nd , 3rd or 4th best player in any series.

[MtlJeff]

I am excited for the playoffs though, more so than any of the Durant/GSW years. It feels like there may be some actual problems there with Draymond and KD and i wonder how that affects chemistry. They are still so talented but who knows, maybe a team like the Rockets, Raptors or Thunder who play hard and know who they are....or an upstart like Milwaukee who has a super duper star etc....could stun them

 

It's exciting to not know what's going to happen. I've forgotten what that feels like

 

I'm a big Steph Curry and Klay fan. I just want Durant out of there so i can like these guys again LOL

[F171615]

How does the NBA handle the disciplining of Russell Westbrook for his latest altercation with fans? I understand how fans can be atrocious towards players, as I have heard the stories about fans saying nasty things to players without them having to worry about any sort of retribution. But Westbrook in this case has been caught on camera acting in the wrong - and this is a case in which the league needs to step in b/c they are dealing with a player who has gotten out of control probably because the league has not properly disciplined him for his past actions.

[padget]

How does the NBA handle the disciplining of Russell Westbrook for his latest altercation with fans? I understand how fans can be atrocious towards players, as I have heard the stories about fans saying nasty things to players without them having to worry about any sort of retribution. But Westbrook in this case has been caught on camera acting in the wrong - and this is a case in which the league needs to step in b/c they are dealing with a player who has gotten out of control probably because the league has not properly disciplined him for his past actions.

 

How does the NBA handle the disciplining of Russell Westbrook for his latest altercation with fans? I understand how fans can be atrocious towards players, as I have heard the stories about fans saying nasty things to players without them having to worry about any sort of retribution. But Westbrook in this case has been caught on camera acting in the wrong - and this is a case in which the league needs to step in b/c they are dealing with a player who has gotten out of control probably because the league has not properly disciplined him for his past actions.

 

I am sure he gets fined and a one game suspension is not out of the question. But more should be done to curb this kind of behavior from fans. Boohing and heckling come with the territory and is to be expected, and I appreciate some good banter. Not everything has to be PC.

 

But to just yell obscenities and insults carte blanche towards athletes just because you are protected by a rope, security, or video cameras is ridiculous. There is a line that can be crossed, and it’s fairly easy to enforce if they cared. But the arenas care more about selling the expensive courtside “experience” that has gotten way too close to the athletes imo.

 

You can expect athletes to act like professionals, and most do. But fans should be expected to act like civil human beings as well. It’s not just for the athletes sake, I think most other fans would rather not have to listen to the idiots run their mouths the whole time.

[F171615]

How does the NBA handle the disciplining of Russell Westbrook for his latest altercation with fans? I understand how fans can be atrocious towards players, as I have heard the stories about fans saying nasty things to players without them having to worry about any sort of retribution. But Westbrook in this case has been caught on camera acting in the wrong - and this is a case in which the league needs to step in b/c they are dealing with a player who has gotten out of control probably because the league has not properly disciplined him for his past actions.

 

How does the NBA handle the disciplining of Russell Westbrook for his latest altercation with fans? I understand how fans can be atrocious towards players, as I have heard the stories about fans saying nasty things to players without them having to worry about any sort of retribution. But Westbrook in this case has been caught on camera acting in the wrong - and this is a case in which the league needs to step in b/c they are dealing with a player who has gotten out of control probably because the league has not properly disciplined him for his past actions.

 

I am sure he gets fined and a one game suspension is not out of the question. But more should be done to curb this kind of behavior from fans. Boohing and heckling come with the territory and is to be expected, and I appreciate some good banter. Not everything has to be PC.

 

But to just yell obscenities and insults carte blanche towards athletes just because you are protected by a rope, security, or video cameras is ridiculous. There is a line that can be crossed, and it's fairly easy to enforce if they cared. But the arenas care more about selling the expensive courtside "experience" that has gotten way too close to the athletes imo.

 

You can expect athletes to act like professionals, and most do. But fans should be expected to act like civil human beings as well. It's not just for the athletes sake, I think most other fans would rather not have to listen to the idiots run their mouths the whole time.

 

 

In this case the team said they issued warnings to fans - which seems totally useless, and even liable (basically saying we know this guy crosses the line, but we're letting him stay anyway)? There should be a rules for conduct - and when you cross the line, you get removed from the crowd.

[MtlJeff]

I think they'll go easy on him. A couple of weeks ago he was grabbed by a fan (not in an aggressive way but still, a fan reached out and grabbed him) and he openly talked about the league needing to do more to protect the players.

 

Silver is a players commissioner, at the end of the day they have to show they care about the fans so maybe a minimal fine or at most 1 game suspension , but he's not going to do something that would piss off the players and others have also talked about the things Westbrook did

[legitimategolf]

I feel that Lebron, stuck on the Lakers for the next three years, is probably done winning championships. Still a top five or so offensive player and can score at will but seems that his stock as a teammate is on the decline as a result of this past year. I.e. players might be leery at this point of teaming up with Lebron and/or Lakers management.

[MtlJeff]

It really looks like it's Anthony Davis or bust there. Because if they don't get him, it does not appear that they willl get Kyrie, or Kawhi, Klay etc...

 

They might benefit from Kyrie leaving Boston though

 

Zach Lowe said on his podcast the other day that a lot of people believe now that Davis might end up on a mystery 3rd team, kinda like how Durant ended up in Golden State when half way through that season it was supposed to be OKC or Washington

 

Like if Philly or Milwaukee have disappointing playoffs I wonder. Or of the Clippers get Kawhi would they trade picks and SGA for him etc

[scratchswinger]

 

[MtlJeff]

Anthony Davis makes me like basketball less. I get he's 25 but man , how clueless is this guy?

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/26482426/ad-wears-all-folks-shirt-season-finale

 

I get that it's a business. I totally understand the flipside too as a Raptors fan, watching them trade Demar Derozan (a guy who loved Toronto) 2 years into his contract, a guy who wanted to be the best Raptor ever, who didn't take meetings with other teams, who adopted Toronto etc....and then got shipped out for a mercenary. Leaving me as barely even a Raptors fan this year (Gasol, Danny Green and Kawhi? These are the Raptors?)...

 

But geez, this guy is just friggin dense. He's getting 27M this year , just torpedoed a franchise, sat out back to backs, played half games when he did play. Said he'd play anywhere but New Orleans (while taking his full paycheck), left games early, wore stupid shirts like this....went on Lebron's show and said "i'm just the CEO of Anthony Davis Basketball" and might as well have urinated in the mouths of everyone who buys tickets to Pelicans games

 

I honestly like basketball less after this season....both for the Mercenary Raptors and this dolt in New Orleans. He and Lebron deserve each other. I just feel dumb caring about this stuff when it's all a joke or a branding move with everyone in the league.