The NBA basketball thread 2013-2014

[manni_t5488]

[quote name='TheGameChanger' timestamp='1394930686' post='8879637']
I'm Starting to Doubt Melo going to Chicago. TBH I think the Bulls will grab Stephenson in Free Agency and Bring Nikola Mirotic over and Resign DJ Augustin and Kirk Hinrich.

Rose-Stephenson-Butler-Gibson-Noah is a great starting 5 with Mirotic,Augustin,Hinrich and Dunleavy Jnr off the Bench
[/quote]


I agree with this. I would rather have Stephenson over melo, he cost to much for my liking since we would get amnesty boozer (which I like), trade Gibson or dunlevy, or both depending if melo would take a pay cut. We also most likely wouldn't be able to bring over Mirotic which I don't like either.

[MtlJeff]

[quote name='manni_t5488' timestamp='1395181881' post='8900041']
[quote name='TheGameChanger' timestamp='1394930686' post='8879637']
I'm Starting to Doubt Melo going to Chicago. TBH I think the Bulls will grab Stephenson in Free Agency and Bring Nikola Mirotic over and Resign DJ Augustin and Kirk Hinrich.

Rose-Stephenson-Butler-Gibson-Noah is a great starting 5 with Mirotic,Augustin,Hinrich and Dunleavy Jnr off the Bench
[/quote]


I agree with this. I would rather have Stephenson over melo, he cost to much for my liking since we would get amnesty boozer (which I like), trade Gibson or dunlevy, or both depending if melo would take a pay cut. We also most likely wouldn't be able to bring over Mirotic which I don't like either.
[/quote]

Tom Thibodeau will be spinning in his urn before Taj Gibson gets traded anywhere. I would imagine he and Noah are borderline untouchable

[TheGameChanger]

[quote name='manni_t5488' timestamp='1395181881' post='8900041']
[quote name='TheGameChanger' timestamp='1394930686' post='8879637']
I'm Starting to Doubt Melo going to Chicago. TBH I think the Bulls will grab Stephenson in Free Agency and Bring Nikola Mirotic over and Resign DJ Augustin and Kirk Hinrich.

Rose-Stephenson-Butler-Gibson-Noah is a great starting 5 with Mirotic,Augustin,Hinrich and Dunleavy Jnr off the Bench
[/quote]


I agree with this. I would rather have Stephenson over melo, he cost to much for my liking since we would get amnesty boozer (which I like), trade Gibson or dunlevy, or both depending if melo would take a pay cut. We also most likely wouldn't be able to bring over Mirotic which I don't like either.
[/quote]

I personally would prefer to trade for Aaron Afflalo. I Think the Magic move him this off season.

[MtlJeff]

I keep hearing about Houston for Carmelo. I just don't get it....Daryl Morey is a smart guy, Dwight Howard made perfect sense, he can be a defensive presence without having to carry the team because of James Harden. Houston really works right now. They probably won't win this year, but another year of development for Parsons and Beverley, plus a couple of moderate additions if they can move Asik or Lin (you know, a guy like Spencer Hawes or Luol Deng or whoever) and they are a genuine title threat

Spending 20M on Carmelo means losing basically everyone on the team except Harden/Howard/Carmelo. And 2 of those 3 guys don't play defense, and they are ALREADY a great offense.

I don't know, if i'm a Houston fan, screw Carmelo....i'd rather go after a Luol Deng type and hope to keep Chandler Parsons and Beverley long term. To me that's a better team because they'll score and have good defenders. You can't, can't, can't, can't win a title if you don't defend. To me that Houston team reminds me too much of last year's Lakers team

Carmelo in Chicago makes sense to me. Surround a great offensive player with grinders and defensive talent. It's like Dallas a few years back

[MtlJeff]

Anthony Davis not playing tonight versus Toronto....don't know why yet....Maybe he came down with "tank-like symptoms"

He's been averaging 32-14 over his last 6 games. That kind of play will NOT make you friends in your organization when you are trying to lose

[TheGameChanger]

[quote name='MtlJeff' timestamp='1395277571' post='8908077']
Anthony Davis not playing tonight versus Toronto....don't know why yet....Maybe he came down with "tank-like symptoms"

He's been averaging 32-14 over his last 6 games. That kind of play will NOT make you friends in your organization when you are trying to lose
[/quote]
Anthony Davis is just so likeable off the court. So its easy to root for him.

[tocino]

[quote name='TheGameChanger' timestamp='1395277806' post='8908111']
[quote name='MtlJeff' timestamp='1395277571' post='8908077']
Anthony Davis not playing tonight versus Toronto....don't know why yet....Maybe he came down with "tank-like symptoms"

He's been averaging 32-14 over his last 6 games. That kind of play will NOT make you friends in your organization when you are trying to lose
[/quote]
Anthony Davis is just so likeable off the court. So its easy to root for him.
[/quote]

except for yesterday when I needed his 32 points and 14 boards to help win my fantasy b-ball league playoff game...

[MtlJeff]

San Antonio: 3rd in offense, 4th in defense, 1st in assists, 6th in defensive rebounding, 2nd in both effective FG percentage and true shooting percentage, 4th in assist/turnover ration, 9 players averaging over 8 points per game, 2nd overall in shooting percentage inside 9 feet, and 1st in 3 point percentage, 4th in FT percentage

They are an absolute friggin machine

[MtlJeff]

Westbrook left the game tonight with another knee injury, not sure how serious yet

sigh.....hopefully he's OK. You'd hate to see guys like Rose, and then Russell get derailed so early in their careers by stuff like this

[MtlJeff]

LOL@ Anthony Davis.....34-11 with them trying to tank....He's probably going to develop another "injury".

And ho-hum Kevin Durant with 51-12-7

[tatertot]

After watching his performance against Baylor, what does everybody think Doug McDermott's ceiling is in the NBA?

[MtlJeff]

I mentioned a few pages ago, but basically if i said "he's the next Kyle Korver" people would think that's an insult. Yet Korver is a 10 year NBA vet who's averaging 10-12 a game and shoots 46% from 3, and is a genuine starter on a good team in the league. That is something you are lucky to get if you pick 8th or 9th in the draft or whatever.

That's my main concern with the draft. There was so much hype. I was a victim of it too. Wiggins was McGrady, Jabari was Carmelo....etc.

At the end of the day if Jabari turns into Glenn Robinson , and Andrew Wiggins becomes a taller Demar Derozan, you are still getting all star caliber players. Ask Cleveland how hard that can be even at the top of a draft

So yeah, if Mcdermott ends up as Kyle Korver 2.0, he should be happy

[tatertot]

[quote name='MtlJeff' timestamp='1395701337' post='8942235']
I mentioned a few pages ago, but basically if i said "he's the next Kyle Korver" people would think that's an insult. Yet Korver is a 10 year NBA vet who's averaging 10-12 a game and shoots 46% from 3, and is a genuine starter on a good team in the league. That is something you are lucky to get if you pick 8th or 9th in the draft or whatever.

That's my main concern with the draft. There was so much hype. I was a victim of it too. Wiggins was McGrady, Jabari was Carmelo....etc.

At the end of the day if Jabari turns into Glenn Robinson , and Andrew Wiggins becomes a taller Demar Derozan, you are still getting all star caliber players. Ask Cleveland how hard that can be even at the top of a draft

So yeah, if Mcdermott ends up as Kyle Korver 2.0, he should be happy
[/quote]

That's what I was thinking ... unfortunately, I also think he could be Adam Morrison 2.0. No defense, can't get off his shot.

I think Wiggins has a chance to be special. Not so sure about anybody else in the upcoming draft.

[MtlJeff]

Yeah i think Wiggins has the most upside, at worst he's a lockdown defender who can give you 15-17 points as a #2 or #3 option. Guys like that help you win championships. I'd definitely go with him first

as far as sure things, I think Parker will be a 20ppg guy but how he defends will be key. A 20ppg guy who doesn't play defense needs to be in the right situation. Of course you still want a guy that can do that. Randle i think will be very good too, but word is his wingspan is not that long, he'll probably never be a rim protector. One thing i did see with Randle though is the potential to play away from the basket, i wonder if he could become a bigger Josh Smith type player

I also think Marcus Smart will be an exceptional defensive player, but i wonder what position he plays, not sure he's a good enough creator to play PG, and he's a tad undersized for SG

Embiid is obviously super enticing as a project, but i just would never draft an injured raw big man with a high pick. Too many horror stories

[tatertot]

They list Randle at 6-9, but he doesn't look that big to me. I see him as a tweener between the 3 & 4, and I don't know if he's quick enough for that.

I live in Big 12 country, so I saw a lot of Smart this season. I don't know if he has the head to be a big time NBA player. Mentally, he reminds me of Ricky Davis.

[tocino]

[quote name='MtlJeff' timestamp='1395451106' post='8922213']
Westbrook left the game tonight with another knee injury, not sure how serious yet

sigh.....hopefully he's OK. You'd hate to see guys like Rose, and then Russell get derailed so early in their careers by stuff like this
[/quote]

I've always thought that rose and russel were an injury or two away from being all-nba to quality starter status or worse. You can't rely on your athletic ability forever and you have to adapt (i.e. CP3). Hopefully they can find ways to contribute without having to out run or out jump anyone

[baseballfrk8998]

I'm a Mavs fan and a Thunder fan so the game tonight has been fun for me. I'm HUGE fans of Dirk and Durant.

Dirk has been good and Durant has been outstanding. Westbrook has had an above average game (meaning he's played pretty well) but I still question his decision making. He got called for a charge in the 1st half when he had Durant wide open for an oop if he would have just given it up. In a 3 on 2 situation in the 4th he got called for another charge with Durant trailing and waiting for a pass and an easy dunk. 2 minutes later he does THE EXACT same thing but was fortunate enough to get a call after blowing the layup with Durant trailing.

He's gotta make better decisions if they want to have a chance at a championship. Scott Brooks just looks annoyed every time Westbrook makes a bonehead play.

[baseballfrk8998]

4th quarter and OT was a total flip flop for Dirk and Durant. OKC didn't have an answer for Dirk and Durant didn't shoot the ball great late in the game.. Calderon was huge for Dallas down the stretch. He and Ellis are proving to be valuable pickups for Dallas. Hopefully they can sneak into the 8th spot and we can see OKC and Dallas play at least a handful of games.

[MtlJeff]

Yeah the Mavs/OKC game was great yesterday. I like Dallas a lot, i picked them to make the playoffs before the season, and also said i expected Monta ellis to have a really good year, today on Grantland they posted a Kirk Goldsberry piece about them that basically was very complimentary of how everyone has meshed. Rick Carlisle is a very good coach

OKC is probably the biggest mystery of any of the top seeds/quasi contenders. It's hard to gauge them, they will likely win 60 games but they haven't played well against top competition for almost a month now. A guy like Thabo Sefalosha, who i'll admit i probably didn't appreciate enough earlier, is clearly missed. They had to call up Andre Roberson because their wing defense was hurting so much with him out. Also it's hard for Westbrook to get in rythym when he's sitting out back to backs and has his minutes limited. He's the worst kind of person for that because then he comes out and tries to do too much, and it results in turnovers

There has been too much "bad Westbrook" since he's been back. This i believe is his second 8+ turnover game in the past few weeks. They'll go through lulls of 2-3 minute stretches where he just kills them with poor decisions. Of course there was also a stretch yesterday where he scored 8 straight points and got 2 steals in like 2 minutes. He finished with 23-8-7 on 8-18 shooting. A good statline if not for the turnovers. These are also the types of games they used to still win, but now their defense isn't up to snuff for a few reasons (arguably having Sefalosha and Perkins out is playing a role), and the Russell problems become more evident

They will be very interesting to watch in the postseason. As some people have said, fully healthy they are the best NBA team on paper. I could also see them getting upset in the first round

[MtlJeff]

So 10 games left in the regular season.....here's my 3 all NBA teams and first team all defense. A blurb provided when needed

1st team
C: [b]Dwight Howard[/b] (at the end of the day Houston is a top 10 defense with a lot of bad defenders, and he can score)
F: [b]Durant[/b]
F: [b]James[/b]
G:[b] Steph Curry[/b] (you could go a few directions here, but Curry's shooting changes entire defenses, and there are not many dominant 2 way guards
G: [b]Chris Paul[/b] (he's played enough games)

2nd team
C: [b]Joakim Noah[/b]
F: [b]Blake Griffin[/b]
F: [b]Paul George[/b] (he's slumping, but you have to remember he is one of the top 1-2 defensive wing players in the NBA, that has tremendous value. In the real world i would 100% take him over Carmelo Anthony or Kevin Love)
G: [b]James Harden [/b](i hate doing this because he is TERRIBLE on defense, but he is so good offensively)
G: [b]Demar Derozan[/b] (laugh away, go ahead laugh. He plays 39 minutes a game, gets to the line a ton, averages 23ppg and is the best player on a team that since the Rudy Gay trade has the record of a 50 win team, and he plays defense OK)

3rd team
C: [b]Al Jefferson[/b] (hard to put him over the slumping Roy Hibbert, but you gotta admit, he's made a BIG difference in Charlotte)
F:[b] Carmelo Anthony[/b]
F:[b] Anthony Davis[/b]
G: [b]Goran Dragic[/b]
G: [b]John Wall[/b] (yes , yes, i didn't pick Damian Lillard. I guarantee you the majority of GMs pick Wall over Lillard with a gun to their head)

1st team defense
C:[b] Joakim Noah[/b]
F: [b]Paul George[/b]
F: [b]Lebron [/b](he's actually slipped this year, but he is still Lebron)
G: [b]John Wall[/b]
G: [b]Jimmy Butler[/b]

MVP: Durant
MIP: Lance Stephenson
DPOY: Joakim Noah
Coach: Tom Thibodeau
6th man: Reggie Jackson
Rookie: Victor Oladipo

[TheGameChanger]

[quote name='MtlJeff' timestamp='1395876310' post='8958195']
So 10 games left in the regular season.....here's my 3 all NBA teams and first team all defense. A blurb provided when needed

1st team
C: [b]Dwight Howard[/b] (at the end of the day Houston is a top 10 defense with a lot of bad defenders, and he can score)
F: [b]Durant[/b]
F: [b]James[/b]
G:[b] Steph Curry[/b] (you could go a few directions here, but Curry's shooting changes entire defenses, and there are not many dominant 2 way guards
G: [b]Chris Paul[/b] (he's played enough games)

2nd team
C: [b]Joakim Noah[/b]
F: [b]Blake Griffin[/b]
F: [b]Paul George[/b] (he's slumping, but you have to remember he is one of the top 1-2 defensive wing players in the NBA, that has tremendous value. In the real world i would 100% take him over Carmelo Anthony or Kevin Love)
G: [b]James Harden [/b](i hate doing this because he is TERRIBLE on defense, but he is so good offensively)
G: [b]Demar Derozan[/b] (laugh away, go ahead laugh. He plays 39 minutes a game, gets to the line a ton, averages 23ppg and is the best player on a team that since the Rudy Gay trade has the record of a 50 win team, and he plays defense OK)

3rd team
C: [b]Al Jefferson[/b] (hard to put him over the slumping Roy Hibbert, but you gotta admit, he's made a BIG difference in Charlotte)
F:[b] Carmelo Anthony[/b]
F:[b] Anthony Davis[/b]
G: [b]Goran Dragic[/b]
G: [b]John Wall[/b] (yes , yes, i didn't pick Damian Lillard. I guarantee you the majority of GMs pick Wall over Lillard with a gun to their head)

1st team defense
C:[b] Joakim Noah[/b]
F: [b]Paul George[/b]
F: [b]Lebron [/b](he's actually slipped this year, but he is still Lebron)
G: [b]John Wall[/b]
G: [b]Jimmy Butler[/b]

MVP: Durant
MIP: Lance Stephenson
DPOY: Joakim Noah
Coach: Tom Thibodeau
6th man: Reggie Jackson
Rookie: Victor Oladipo
[/quote]

Pretty Good. However i Would have Noah in 1st team all nba with Dwight in 2nd. Its a Deadset shame you can't put Blake in the 1st team either. Thanks to Durant and Lebron. I've got Blake 3rd in the MVP count right now.

[MtlJeff]

i look at the list, realize there are no Spurs on the top 3 NBA teams (Tony Parker has an outside chance)....and then want to smack myself for not putting Gregg Popovich as coach of the year.

[tocino]

[quote name='MtlJeff' timestamp='1395884213' post='8959091']
i look at the list, realize there are no Spurs on the top 3 NBA teams (Tony Parker has an outside chance)....and then want to smack myself for not putting Gregg Popovich as coach of the year.
[/quote]

Pop probably deserves it every year much like jerry Sloan should've won all those times during his career

[TheGameChanger]

The Spurs are just a machine. They just keep finding the rights parts all the time. Great Front Office,Great Coaching Staff,Great Superstars

[MtlJeff]

is there a player in the NBA, who in the streets would look like less of an NBA star then Goran Dragic? With his new beard he kind of looks like the Shermanator from the American Pie movies.

I also love watching the Suns. Eric Bledsoe (along with John Wall) are my Westbrook insurance in case i ever need to disown him because he blows a playoff series by shooting more then KD in every game. I think they all share freaky guard DNA like Jean Claude Van Damme in double impact.

But they are super fun to watch. As i said before, Miles Plumlee tries to dunk everything, Dragic has a bevy of white guy moves, Bledsoe is a freak, Gerald Green is a threat to hit his head on the rim on every alley oop, and is shooting with no conscience...

fun team, hope they make the playoffs. They also have oodles of cap room and 4 1st rounders

[TheGameChanger]

Indy are falling apart

[MtlJeff]

[quote name='TheGameChanger' timestamp='1396319584' post='8991501']
Indy are falling apart
[/quote]

they are like the Jamaicans in Cool Runnings carrying their sled to the finish.

[KCTitleist11]

Looks like the pacers are falling out of the 1 seed in the east. I dont think Miami can take them down in the ECFs w/o having the 1 seed. Indiana seems to come to play every time they play the heat and fall asleep against Detroit lol

[TheGameChanger]

Indy will be lucky to make it past the 2nd round.

I See Demarcus Cousins is going to put out music now.

[baseballfrk8998]

[quote name='TheGameChanger' timestamp='1396415028' post='9000887'][b]Indy will be lucky to make it past the 2nd round.[/b]

I See Demarcus Cousins is going to put out music now.[/quote]

I don't think so.. I mean they were the best team in the NBA over the course of the 1st 2 months of the season. They're in a lull right now, it happens.

Personally, I think they'll be fine. I don't think there is another team in the east outside of Miami that can play with them for 7 games.