The 2016-2017 NBA basketball thread

[scratchswinger]

So basically it's an experiment and then next year LeBron, George, CP3, Wade (not sure about Carmello) will all be free agents.

[WHC888]

I don't think Houston improved at all. Their defensive definitely got worse.

 

And why did New York wait till after the draft? Was the he picked the last straw? Monk and Dennis smith were still on the board I believe with a few other really good prospects.

 

Maybe Melo will get a superstar. I've always enjoyed watching him play he's just never had any help at all.

 

Chris Paul is a great defender, they definitely got better on paper IMO. It just depends on how they gel at this point. I mean they added a first ballot HOF player that is still on the outer edge of his prime. CP3 get's it done on both ends of the court, he shoots, he can create for himself, he is a great passer, he can close, and a leader. The only knocks on the guy is that he has not gone deep in the playoffs, he dribbles a lot, and he is hard to get along with. Two of those knocks (dribbling and hard on teammates) are the same things people said about MJ and Kobe so they really are not bad things (two great champions). He is an all time great PG with the only thing missing from his resume are the playoff runs. Can't see how they are going to get worst when adding a player of his caliber and only removing role players.

 

Agree completely. Beverley a great defender but who was the other first team guard?

 

It was Paul

 

Rockets should be very good next year.

 

Worst case it's like Paul, harden, Gordon, Ariza, Capella... That's the second best team in the west right?

 

The trade has weakened Rockets' bench. One reason for Rockets' success this year is because they have Gordon(16.2 PPG), Lou(17.5 PPG) and Dekker (first half of the season at least) coming off the bench (Gordon and Lou both 6th man of the year IMO). They have one of if not THE best bench scoring avg. in the league.

 

This year,

Starting 5 : Beverley - Harden - Ariza - Anderson - Capela

Bench : Gordon - Lou - Nene - Dekker - Harrell

 

Now,

Starting 5 : CP3 - Harden - Ariza - Anderson - Capela

Bench : Gordon - Nene(injury issue highly possible) - who else

[MtlJeff]

They'll sign some jabronis to minimum contracts and hopefully hit on one of them. Or they'll get a ring chasing vet David West-style.

 

You just need to make it through the slog of the regular season. The playoffs you trim down to a 7 man roster mostly anyway

 

The Warriors supposedly killed their depth too, but they got solid play out of Shaqtin-a-fool sensation Javale McGee and guys like Ian Clark

[scratchswinger]

^ Exactly. Lou was also only there for the last third of the season.

[MtlJeff]

Zach Lowe also just wrote that Houston has all of their "exceptions" for example the midlevel exception, where they can offer an 8M dollar deal to a veteran.

 

He mentioned guys like JaMychal Green, Mike Muscala, PJ Tucker type guys who you could get for that. Those are decent 7th men on a team like this

[scratchswinger]

NBA free agency is more interesting than the playoffs

[chickenpotpie]

Love this tweet from the Trailblazers. Their social media guy gets it....but may have some questions to answer from management, LOL

 

[MtlJeff]

Lol that's awesome

[pinhigh27]

still dont think houston got any better