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NBA Season 2015-2016 Discussion


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We are about to start the NBA season next week, what are your predictions for the year?

 

Being a Lakers fan i am mildly positive this year. We have Randle coming back, Bryant should be starting as well. I think Lou Williams, Hibbert and Bass are decent pickups on FA. Clarkson should improve over his last year and we also have the #2 draft pick in Russell. I think Huertas is a good backup point guard with big international experience. The West is packed, so we will probably miss the playoffs again, but who knows, if Bryant can stay healthy and play efficient basketball and our rookies develop how they should, plus Hibbert becomes the defensive force he used to be, we could be an outsider for the 7th or 8th spot.

 

Personally i still think the Warriors are the team to beat, with Cleveland and the Spurs being the next 2 challengers.

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The Suns are in a similar position as the Lakers(without Kobe of course) Lots of young talent like Booker, Warren, and Len. Plus with the addition of Tyson Chandler the team looks poised to contend for a 7 or 8 seed. Right now I'm just hoping these young guys progress and get some playing time. Maybe Chandler can teach Alex Len a thing or two. My biggest issue is with the backcourt. You would think the Suns orginization would learn from last year(3 starting point guards) but they signed Knight to a 5yr 70 million dollar contract when we already have a PG with great upside in Bledsoe. I was hopeful a few years back that they would hand the reigns over to Bledsoe as the leader of this new young team but they seem to be doing him more harm than good with all these guards coming and going. These kinds of things make me skeptical about the future of the team.

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Shoutout to Lamar Odom who is fighting for his life. I hope he can still recover

 

 

 

On the other hand, LETS GO MAVS! STAY HEALTHY FFS

 

Man, i read about Lamar today, lets hope he can recover from that.

 

 

 

The Suns are in a similar position as the Lakers(without Kobe of course) Lots of young talent like Booker, Warren, and Len. Plus with the addition of Tyson Chandler the team looks poised to contend for a 7 or 8 seed. Right now I'm just hoping these young guys progress and get some playing time. Maybe Chandler can teach Alex Len a thing or two. My biggest issue is with the backcourt. You would think the Suns orginization would learn from last year(3 starting point guards) but they signed Knight to a 5yr 70 million dollar contract when we already have a PG with great upside in Bledsoe. I was hopeful a few years back that they would hand the reigns over to Bledsoe as the leader of this new young team but they seem to be doing him more harm than good with all these guards coming and going. These kinds of things make me skeptical about the future of the team.

 

I am not sure what the Suns are doing. I think letting Isaiah go for basically nothing was dumb, his contract value was fantastic. I know he and Bledsoe are small guards, but it often worked fine. Chandler should be a very good addition to the teams D and will also add the needed leadership they were missing. I think the Suns should be an outsider for the 8th spot.

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  • 2 weeks later...

West:

 

1. Golden State

2. San Antonio

3. OKC

4. LA Clippers

5. Houston Rockets

6. Memphis Grizzlies

7. NO Pelicans

8. Sacramento

 

East:

 

1. Cleveland

2. Miami

3. Toronto

4. Atlanta

5. Chicago

6. Milwaukee

7. Washington

8. Boston

 

 

West Conf Finals: Thunder > Warriors

 

East Conf Finals: Heat > Cavs

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Golden state is looking fantastic this year, in particular Curry.

 

Also as a Lakers fan, not taking Okafor to get Russell seems to be a mistake already. I say this because I watched the 76ers last game vs the cavs. Okafor is a bit old school with his basketball, however to me that is not a problem, He does what he does very effectively and who cares if the guy is a throwback to the 80s or 90s, his post game is about as good as anyone, even now at 20y of age, he has good hands and control, his IQ is high, he just needs to learn the pick and roll and he needs to develop a mid range shot, but both of those are teachable.

 

Russell on the other hand is a project, he should not even be starting in my opinion (Huertas is better at this point) + I reject the notion that you should spend a #2 pick on a project, the guy should be able to start on a poor team. We also had to move Bryant to SF to accommodate Russell, which means even more size on an aging star and that is not helping our D at all.

 

Also I heard the thing that the reason we rejected Okafor was due to Randle being a post player. My view? bullshit, Randle likes to run at players and pick the ball on the free throw line, Okafor likes it lower, a high low game could easily be developed. We would lack stretching from those 2 positions, but who cares, if you have players like Clarkson, Bryant and Young/Williams, all of which prefer the mid range/long range game, you have no problem.

Russell still could prove to be a good player, but so far I see a guy which has a long way to go still. He lacks speed, athletic ability, which in this league is key, his shot is ok, but nothing exceptional, he has a pick and roll game, but his lack of athletic ability stops him from going to the paint, so he usually pops from mid range. A lot has been said about his creative passing, but so far I have seen very little of that, put it this way, it is too irregular to have a serious impact in a game.

 

I do not think he is a bad player (in fact i think he is a pretty good player), just at #2 I think we could had picked better and Okafor seems a more guaranteed bet at this time. In Okafor you at least know you have a high end offensive big man, which is not something you can easily find this days. With Russell you only really have hope he will get better. The Lakers have been relying way too much on hope the past few years.

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I hope the Bulls can do some damage in the playoffs this year, Rose and Butler are looking great.

Here in Chicago they are worried about how horrible Rose has looked so far this season and how terrible the defense has been under the new coach. Rose did have his first really good performance Thursday, so maybe he's shaking off the rust still.

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  • 2 weeks later...

West:

 

1. Golden State

2. San Antonio

3. OKC

4. LA Clippers

5. Houston Rockets

6. Memphis Grizzlies

7. NO Pelicans

8. Sacramento

 

East:

 

1. Cleveland

2. Miami

3. Toronto

4. Atlanta

5. Chicago

6. Milwaukee

7. Washington

8. Boston

 

 

West Conf Finals: Thunder > Warriors

 

East Conf Finals: Heat > Cavs

 

Well NO probably isn't going to make it. Based on what I've seen so far this season I would amend my 7th and 8th picks out west to Dallas and Phoenix. I'll still stick w/ my picks in the east but am surprised at how good Indiana and Detroit have done so far this season.

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Well NO probably isn't going to make it. Based on what I've seen so far this season I would amend my 7th and 8th picks out west to Dallas and Phoenix. I'll still stick w/ my picks in the east but am surprised at how good Indiana and Detroit have done so far this season.

Detroit's got the must underrated coach (maybe 2nd-3rd best) in the NBA, that doesnt surprise me. Indiana is playing much better than I would have thought. It's great to see Paul George coming back strong from his injury.

 

My Magics are playing well for a team that young too, I dont think they have a guy who is going to develop into a superstar. They will have to find that guy in FA and getting good players to come to Orlando as a FA seems to be a tough sell since Hill/T-Mac.

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Rookie of 2015-2016 season is Kristaps Porzingins. I guess JLP you are mad as fuck right? :)

I saw him play for the first time last night. Tall, decent athlete. Shot horribly in the game, but is known as a good shooter. No where near physical enough to be a good NBA player yet. Always seems that that is the area that European guys are just not ready for when they arrive. I wouldnt be surprised to see him wear down and be less effective as the season goes on.

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Okafor is the best player among the rookies, although i heard he got into trouble recently off court, not sure how that will play out. Kristaps Porzingins is easily the biggest prospect though, he has length, is fast for a big guy, can shoot and has a decent hook at his age. He should become a beast if he can work on his physicality a bit. I see him as playing center over time, his shot blocking is probably already there and rebounding he is not bad, just needs a little more muscle.

 

Kobe has been terrible this year, i was expecting (ok, hoping) he would change his game somewhat considering the expectations for the team, the young lineup etc, but it is pretty much all the same with him, taking bad shots over and over, shooting his team out of any respect. He shot 1 from 14 in his game against GS!!! I mean 1 from 14, how bad can it get right?

 

About GS and the doubt in regards to them going 73 wins to break the Bulls record? Lets just put it this way, who is going to beat them 10 times this year? The only way i see that happening is if they get injured (I heard Barnes was hurt in the last game, he limped off) or if they decide they do not need it. The last wont happen, they seem focused as hell. They are not simply winning games, they are winning with an average of over 14 (or is it 15 now) per game. I did not look at the Bulls stats back then to see how easily they were winning, but as i see the league now, there is only a handful of teams which can get a W over them. Curry is also probably the most unguardable player in the league for the past 20 years for sure. He can get his shot off from any range and hits with an efficiency around 50% (51 to be precise) even though he is scoring 34 per game. But it is not only him. I think Ezeli and Bogut are the best 2 punch modern era centers, perfect for their system. Green and Barnes the perfect combo forwards. Livingston can play multiple positions, Klay is an all star, Igodala is probably having his best season for years and is off the MVP of the playoffs year, you also have Barbosa which fills his role in the system. Speights is not even playing most the time and could probably start at center for afew teams! (Note: I probably spelt half the names wrong). Considering the depth that GS also has, besides injury nothing will stop them from getting to 73 wins i think.

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Golden state is insane, Curry can't be a real person LOL

 

Decent start to the season for the Raptors, looking solid... And the Lakers, ugh, poor LA.

Yeah LA is not looking good, Kobe is the only reason people go out to watch them and that's only because of his farewell tour. Plus D'Angelo really doesn't look deserving of the number 2 pick. He'll be a good player but they should have gone for Okafor or maybe even Porzingis. I can see them being All stars. They'll have another high pick for this next draft so we'll see who they take plus it must be nice to see Kobe gone and free up some cap space.

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Yeah LA is not looking good, Kobe is the only reason people go out to watch them and that's only because of his farewell tour. Plus D'Angelo really doesn't look deserving of the number 2 pick. He'll be a good player but they should have gone for Okafor or maybe even Porzingis. I can see them being All stars. They'll have another high pick for this next draft so we'll see who they take plus it must be nice to see Kobe gone and free up some cap space.

 

I was saying all along that the safe option was to go for Okafor. Porzingis was a long shot pre-draft (although i have no idea why, he clearly has the tools). As for that high pick, it could go to the 76ers unless the Lakers can land a top 3 again (if it is a top 3 it is protected).

 

Keeping Kobe active this year is actually good because it will help us land that top 3 spot most likely (because we will end up with the worse record with him on the court). I think that unlike players like Duncan which have learnt to adapt to a new role, Kobe could not take being simply a "good" player. He wants to be the top dog bonifide superstar which he is no longer. Anyway, he did himself and the Lakers a favor announcing his retirement nice and early. At least people will go to the games to watch him leave.

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I was saying all along that the safe option was to go for Okafor. Porzingis was a long shot pre-draft (although i have no idea why, he clearly has the tools). As for that high pick, it could go to the 76ers unless the Lakers can land a top 3 again (if it is a top 3 it is protected).

 

Keeping Kobe active this year is actually good because it will help us land that top 3 spot most likely (because we will end up with the worse record with him on the court). I think that unlike players like Duncan which have learnt to adapt to a new role, Kobe could not take being simply a "good" player. He wants to be the top dog bonifide superstar which he is no longer. Anyway, he did himself and the Lakers a favor announcing his retirement nice and early. At least people will go to the games to watch him leave.

Honestly pre draft I thought Porzingis had the highest ceiling of anyone in the draft plus he's handled the NY spotlight very well even when they booed him at the draft(this really pissed me off, what a bunch of cbombs). Yeah you can bank on Kobe to get you that top 3 pick. Maybe that's why he's so stubborn and jacks up 20-25 shots a game. He wants to give LA one last gift. I will be one of those people to go out and watch him. He doesn't come back to Phoenix until late march though.

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Honestly pre draft I thought Porzingis had the highest ceiling of anyone in the draft plus he's handled the NY spotlight very well even when they booed him at the draft(this really pissed me off, what a bunch of cbombs). Yeah you can bank on Kobe to get you that top 3 pick. Maybe that's why he's so stubborn and jacks up 20-25 shots a game. He wants to give LA one last gift. I will be one of those people to go out and watch him. He doesn't come back to Phoenix until late march though.

 

I watched Porzingis prior to the draft and was unaware why people were ranking him so low, in the end the idiots which booed the decision ended up looking really dumb. I think that Towns did end up being what people thought though, in other words a good defensive modern era Center which should improve over time, so Minnesota got what they wanted. Okafor is pretty much what they expected as well, in other words a good offensive big with good hands but average on D.

 

The thing with Russell though is that when people were rating him i was hearing things related to his creative passing and his size at the PG position. The thing is, how i see him, he is more of a Shooting guard and at that position he is not particularly big. Even at PG he is not your great athlete, so that 1-2 inch advantage kind of vanishes. I think eventually he will become a half decent starter, but if this guy goes on to become an all star i will be surprised, some major development will need to take place in the next few years for him to even get close to the level people were hoping. What sucks for the Lakers is that after 2 years of majorly sucking (winning 20 odd games per year), we look like we are about to repeat again this year!

 

Personally i think the NBA cap system sucks. I am all for making adjustments to balance out the league, such as spreading TV money, having drafts to help the smaller teams etc, but having caps on wages and caps on total pay is basically anti-capitalistic. I know it is to help small market teams, but i see nothing wrong with there being favorites or big market teams. I hear all the explanations as to why it is done, but how i see it? The franchise owners want to earn more money and the best way to do that is to put caps on pay. I know the public were sold on the idea that it is for the better good, but i am not buying into that crap. That is not to say that the Lakers would do well even if they were allowed to pay more! With the way they are being managed, i am pretty sure nothing could save our asses.

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