NBA Regular Season 2015/16

padraig_f

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4faGW099qYM

Paully D

Great to have it back!

Prediction time before the big tip-off.

East

1) Cavs
2) Bulls
3) Hawks
4) Heat
5) Wizards
6) Bucks
7) Raptors
8) Magic

Cavs over Bulls.

West

1) Warriors
2) Spurs
3) Thunder
4) Rockets
5) Clippers
6) Grizzlies
7) Pelicans
8) Jazz

Warriors over Spurs.

Surprise Team(s) (good): Orlando Magic/Milwaukee Bucks/Utah Jazz
Surprise Team(s) (bad): Indiana Pacers (maybe not enough of a surprise to include here, but I think they'll do well to win 30 games hence selecting them)

Finals: Cavs over Warriors
MVP: LeBron James
Rookie of the Year: Jahlil Okafor
Coach of the Year: David Blatt/LeBron James :pac:
Defensive Player of the Year: Kawhi Leonard
Sixth Man of the Year: Joakim Noah
Comeback Player of the Year: Chris Bosh
Most Improved Player: Giannis Antetokounmpo
Executive of the Year: John Hammond

NufcNavan

NufcNavan

30 wins? Really? Pacers were injury plagued all of last year, missing their franchise player and still managed 38 wins!

Pacers this year will be give or take a .500 team this year IMO

That_Guy

Still new to basketball but I know enough that my choice in team (Nets) was solely based on black and white uniforms due to my allegiance with Newcastle United.

And like Newcastle United, they will take a few scalps throughout the season but will flatter to deceive in every other game and pick up a ridiculous amount of injuries as is evident with Jarret Jack allegedly out already against the Bulls tomorrow night.

Watched 3/4 of their pre-season which was hit or miss really. Shane Larkin despite his height looked impressive and is almost playing with a chip on his shoulder it seems.

Brook Lopez looked impressive. His stature is monstrous.

Amazing insight.

NufcNavan

That_Guy wrote: »

Still new to basketball but I know enough that my choice in team (Nets) was solely based on black and white uniforms due to my allegiance with Newcastle United.

And like Newcastle United, they will take a few scalps throughout the season but will flatter to deceive in every other game and pick up a ridiculous amount of injuries as is evident with Jarret Jack allegedly out already against the Bulls tomorrow night.

Watched 3/4 of their pre-season which was hit or miss really. Shane Larkin despite his height looked impressive and is almost playing with a chip on his shoulder it seems.

Brook Lopez looked impressive. His stature is monstrous.

Amazing insight.

The Nets will live and die by the health of Brook Lopez, which is bad more than it is good.

Morrison J

Rockets over 54.5 wins looks an absolute lock to me.

D2D

Jesus, it's felt like an absolute age but it's finally back!!

3 games for tonight: Pistons/Hawks; Cavs/Bulls and Pelicans/Warriors

Cavs/Bulls and Pelicans/Warriors are both on BT as well tonight (12 and 2.30 starts)

Oh and my predictions:

East

1) Cavs
2) Bulls
3) Hawks
4) Raptors
5) Wizards
6) Bucks
7) Heat
8) Pacers

West

1) Warriors
2) Rockets
3) Spurs
4) Thunder
5) Clippers
6) Grizzlies
7) Pelicans
8) Jazz

Surprise Team(s) (good): Bucks & Jazz for me. Maybe the Kings at a stretch as well.
Surprise Team(s) (bad): I can see the Mavs really struggling this year. The West is stacked and the Mavs roster is a complete mesh that doesn't really seems to fit together.

MVP: LeBron
Rookie of the Year: Mudiay
Coach of the Year: David Blatt
Defensive Player of the Year: Anthony Davis
Sixth Man of the Year: Enes Kanter
Comeback Player of the Year: Has to be Bosh
Most Improved Player: Greek Freak
Executive of the Year: David Griffin (I'm a homer on this)

Overall prediction: Cavs over Warriors in 7

NufcNavan

Pacers are not going to lose more games than we did last year, when we had no PG, George Hill out for a big chunk of the season, and a disinterested-when-he-wasn't-hurt David West. Monta Ellis is a plus too.

I say we get the 5 seed, upset the 4, and get beat by Cleveland in a fun but ultimately disappointing playoff series. That's my (very) optimistic outlook. Realistically we are 7-8 seed.

The Kings will be fun to watch on and off the court. So many characters on that team, with so much potential for it to go tits up as well.

Leaders of the following.

Points per game- James Harden
Rebounds per game- Drummond
Assists per game- Chris Paul
Steals per game- Westbrook
Blocks per game- Drummond

M.V.P.- LBJ
R.O.Y.- Herzonja
D.P.O.Y.- Drummond
6.M.A.- I. Thomas
M.I.P.- Meyers Leonard

Paully D

Terrible first few minutes but a nice first quarter for the Bulls overall, hopefully they keep it going for the next 3. The way too early signs look good for the bench with Noah and Gibson bringing serious energy. There'll be Dunleavy to add to that in a few weeks too. Hard to see (m)any teams rivaling that bench if everyone stays healthy.

Oh man, Rose is hurt again. Please, please don't be bad. It could well just be nothing but it's hard not to be immediately pessimistic given his history. EDIT - he's back about 5 minutes later. Phew!

Ridiculous flop by Mozgov which the refs buy to give Mirotic his 3rd foul :rolleyes: One of the biggest floppers in the league at it already.

It's going to be hard to get used to the Bulls constantly pushing the ball on offense :pac:

NufcNavan

McDermott looking good.

NufcNavan

Enjoyable opening game.

Nice to see Pau stuff Lebron's ****

Paully D

Fell asleep just before the 4th quarter (I'm not in basketball mode with regards to sleep yet :pac:) so just catching up now.

Nice way to start things off. The Bulls are a very deep team if everyone can stay fit.

Noah did nothing offensively but was huge bringing the energy off the bench defensively and finished joint top on the boards for the Bulls. The injury didn't look great but Hoiberg says the trainers told him it's a bruised knee so hopefully he won't miss too many games. Gasol did nothing offensively either but came up big defensively on LeBron at the end which was a pleasant surprise considering how poor defensively he was last year. Mirotic really looked like he belongs as a starter last night too.

The one statistic that really stood out to me was Derrick Rose only taking 2 3-point attempts. It used to drive me crazy last year when he'd pass up the opportunity to drive into the paint to take on a long range FG or 3-pointer (he was shooting almost 6 3-pointers per game last season), but he was driving at the rim a lot more last night so that's very encouraging and something I hope continues. I also hope he'll start to get foul calls when he drives as officials are always reluctant to give him calls for some reason IMO.

Nets tonight at their house. It'd actually be only the 2nd time in 13 years the Bulls would start 2-0 if they win. :eek: It'd be huge for Chicago if Noah could play some minutes as I think he'd be a big advantage in keeping Lopez as quiet as possible offensively. Bookies make the Bulls 5.5 point favourites for what it's worth.

padraig_f

Good start to the season. I wanted to win this one, it doesn't mean anything in the bigger scheme of things (both teams were rusty as hell, which always happens at the start of the basketball season), but just for the new team to get some positive feedback.

One good sign I saw was Rose repeatedly attacking Mo Williams off the dribble, which he was sometimes reluctant to do against guards last season. Good indication of his confidence and how he feels physically.

limerickfc

Delighted it's back, been such a long summer

padraig_f

Rose highlights...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f66Ma3-HwbE

The new court is nice as well.

padraig_f

Lebron highlights



Seriously...I'd be a bit concerned about that, how much of the back-treatment he was doing. I know it's more of a precautionary thing than anything else, but it's game 1 of the season, and I didn't see him doing it that much before.

That_Guy

There were a few other Cavs players doing the same too IIRC. Bit early to jump to any conclusions. Both teams looked extremely rusty and lethargic for the most part.

NufcNavan

Ryan Wolstat ✔ @WolstatSun
Even though Scola starts, minutes likely split pretty evenly between he and Patterson all year, barring Bennett takeover.
10:49 PM - 28 Oct 2015


This tweet makes me think the Raptors are really going to suck this year.

That_Guy

So.... the Nets are even worse than I thought. There is absolutely nobody outside to shoot for 3. Movement all over the place.

Boo!!

Paully D

So many sloppy ****ing turnovers. New offense or not, the vast majority of them have been absolutely avoidable. Look after the ball FFS.

You might want to close out on Lopez there too, Pau. :rolleyes:

That_Guy

I retract my earlier statement. Hooray for Brooklyn!!

EDIT: I had my doubts about Shane Larkin but he really offers a lot going offensively. Defensively he will cost us a lot of points due to his height disadvantage.

Rondae Hollis Jefferson looks very lively and is having some outstanding minutes.

Hopefully they keep the intensity and aggressiveness after the break.

Paully D

Excellent 3rd quarter for the Bulls after an abomination of a 2nd in which they gave up 36 points. Finish the job now.

That_Guy

Nets haven't scored a 3 pointer all night. :eek:

NufcNavan

Pacers Raptors has been horrible to watch tbh.

NufcNavan

I already hate Jordan Hill. Awful player.

limerickfc

I don't even care about the win in just delighted KD came through the game fine

me and the biz

The splash Cousin arrived against the Clippers!
https://streamable.com/ar4s

4/5 from 3 pt range and his usual 32 points and 13 rebounds. Also had his usual 6 fouls and a few tantrums thrown in.
https://streamable.com/i4yz

Kings bench vastly improved and kept it close til the end. They may quietly improve their win column but I don't see them breaking 40 wins, 35 wins maybe. Blake played unreal, his mid range shooting is day and night from a few years ago.

Josh Smith didn't really add anything last night, had 1 point and 5 turnovers. Lance didn't get enough minutes to impact the game too much.

Paully D

Great to see Chris Bosh back in action.

That_Guy

Brooklyn @ Spurs is an absolute masterclass in how to miss shots... over and over again.

NufcNavan

Anyone catch OKC @ Magic? Only the 2nd set of games but that game will be hard bet this season. What a game!

padraig_f

@jack_hamilton: "this is an incredible quote that makes me wonder if kevin garnett is ghostwriting towns' postgame interviews"

NufcNavan

KAT seems the real deal in every aspect. In his micd up video he was saying all the right things.

Early doors but I may have to concede Paully D was right about the Pacers. Every game so far they have fallen apart in the 2nd half. Bird has to take the blame for assembling an imbalanced roster.

NufcNavan

The problem with viewing this season as a rebuild for the Pacers is Monta's multi year deal. Having most of your scorers be ball dominant type players is that they're all pretty worthless while another ball dominant player is dominating the ball.

I don't have a problem with small ball in theory, but you have to have the right types of players in certain roles and the Pacers don't have those types of players.

Stretch players are usually catch and shoot type players with length. Not 2s being asked to play 4s because he can get hot every so often. CJ Miles is the perfect bench streaky shooter, not a spread em out stretch because he needs too many shots to be effective.

And I'll skip the defensive issues. The roster construction made defense and rebounding pretty much impossible.
To be honest, I don't think Bird planned to get a 4 during the off season at all. At least not a starting calibre one anyway.

I think Bird and maybe Vogel banked on Paul George being down with playing at the 4, but he clearly isn't. So CJ is being used as a stop gap to keep Paul George happy.

I'm not blaming PG btw because I mean sh#t, he's not a power forward and never will be. He is a wing FFS, just like CJ is. As you said, CJ is a player who will throw up 3s and will get hot at times and at other times he won't.

It just strikes me as piss poor planning by Bird and maybe it's a result of a guy who isn't 100% sure of what philosophy he wants from his team other than 'small'. I understand this is a rebuilding season of sorts, but surely any roster has to consist of players comfortable playing the role that they have been given.

What we have is an imbalance of a couple of centers combined with ball dominant wings, and we don't even have one pure point guard on the roster. It's a bit of a mess to be honest, and I have to say I expected a lot better from Larry.

That_Guy

The Nets' starters (Jack, Ellington, Johnson, Young, Lopez) are absolutely atrocious. It's been the second unit that has helped either cut the lead or taken us ahead.

Larkin, Hollis-Jefferson and Bogdanovic are really stepping up and should be starting games rather than sending them on when we're chasing teams.

Lot of energy about that second unit in what has been an awful set of opening games. Dreadful.

That_Guy

That_Guy wrote: »

The Nets' starters (Jack, Ellington, Johnson, Young, Lopez) are absolutely atrocious. It's been the second unit that has helped either cut the lead or taken us ahead.

Larkin, Hollis-Jefferson and Bogdanovic are really stepping up and should be starting games rather than sending them on when we're chasing teams.

Lot of energy about that second unit in what has been an awful set of opening games. Dreadful.

celtics have there first rounder unprotected this year as well. how bad have they looked have they been top lottery pick bad? (i know its hard to tell after 3 games but it would be excellent to see them fall apart this year

NufcNavan

That_Guy wrote: »

The Nets' starters (Jack, Ellington, Johnson, Young, Lopez) are absolutely atrocious. It's been the second unit that has helped either cut the lead or taken us ahead.

Larkin, Hollis-Jefferson and Bogdanovic are really stepping up and should be starting games rather than sending them on when we're chasing teams.

Lot of energy about that second unit in what has been an awful set of opening games. Dreadful.

That's probably the worst back court in the league.

That_Guy

NufcNavan wrote: »

That's probably the worst back court in the league.

Gone from one of the oldest teams (I think I'm right in saying) to one of the youngest and it really shows. There's no recognisable leader. Sloppily run team and poor Lionel Hollins looks like he's about to lose the plot.

buyer95

Knocked across a good article on the excellent Spurs website "Pounding the Rock." For any followers of the NBA who like the Spurs its a very good website to keep an eye on.
http://www.poundingtherock.com/2015/11/3/9662624/rehash-spurs-knicks-change

The article just makes the point that Aldridge coming in has forced SA into a major rethink. Pop has had to sacrifice some elements of "the beautiful game," to bring out Aldridge's talents. It is a necessary change, the Spurs could not afford to keep relying on the big 3, playing the same pace and space game, and expect to remain competitive indefinitely. Kawhi and Aldridge make the Spurs a terrifying prospect going forward. Duncan looks like the same Timmy he has the last 3 years, that is to say insanely good for his age, and will be a huge contributer to this team once again. For the Spurs to win a championship this year, T.P will have to play a hell of a lot better than he did last year. He has a lot of miles on those legs, and his play in Eurobasket over the summer didn't exactly inspire confidence. Time will tell.

Love Pop's response when asked if he would be attending the world series in baseball.

"Why would I wanna go to a baseball game when I can go to dinner and relax? Sports are boring."

padraig_f

@robermays: "I had this weird dream that there was no more Grantland and the Bulls gave up 130 to the Hornets. It was...unsettling."

The PER table has an interesting look at this point:
http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/statistics

Paully D

Brian Windhorst: "The Derrick Rose breakup with the Bulls has begun":

https://twitter.com/espn/status/662034850472263680

Bulls 105-130 Hornets. When Jeremy Lamb shoots 90% from the field on 10 FG's you know it's not going to be your night. :pac: Portis was a nice positive on an otherwise rubbish night for the Bulls.

padraig_f

Paully D wrote: »

Brian Windhorst: "The Derrick Rose breakup with the Bulls has begun":

https://twitter.com/espn/status/662034850472263680

Bulls 105-130 Hornets. When Jeremy Lamb shoots 90% from the field on 10 FG's you know it's not going to be your night. :pac: Portis was a nice positive on an otherwise rubbish night for the Bulls.

Seems a bit extreme, but it's true that his stock has fallen among Bulls fans since the high it was on a few seasons ago. His comments about free-agency at the start of this season were a bit depressing. There was me thinking after taking $20m/year for a few seasons while sitting on the sidelines, and signing a huge contract with Adidas ($250m or something?), he might at some point give something back to the Bulls, like Tim Duncan and Nowitzki have done for their teams. You can't expect that of someone, but it would be nice.

Then at media day in the pre-season, when free-agency is 2 years away, and you think he should at least be thinking mainly about basketball, he says 'I'm looking forward to 2017 with all that money going around'. As Windhorst said, tone-deaf at the very least.

Seems increasingly like Jimmy is the leader on the team, correctly setting the tone after the Hornets game the other night:

"We ain't been playing no defense," a frustrated Butler said after the game. "Other teams have just been missing shots to tell you the truth, to be honest. [Shoot] we score enough points, that's not the problem. But when you don't stop nobody, they put up 130 or whatever they did, we got to nip that in the bud now because that's not winning basketball. It will never be winning basketball here and it never has been winning basketball here. We've always prided ourself on playing hard and not being pretty. Tonight, we were pretty, we were soft. Got our asses whipped."

padraig_f

On a lighter note, the cursive jerseys make their return tomorrow night...

@chicagobulls: "For 60's night tmrw, & all Decade Nights, we will be wearing our Hardwood Classic jerseys! http://bit.ly/1JGyniH "



Hopefully we do them justice and don't give up 150 points to the Thunder

ButtersSuki

hey folks, good to see y'all back on the thread....I miss Ade though

Late to the party this year (been working like a beeyatch), but how about that start by GSW? I said last year (and the year before) that despite the flash (and there's plenty of that) they are a very good defensive team too. On current form (and barring injury to any key player) it really is hard to look beyond them repeating. The only slight concern I'd have would be they seem at peak pace/condition already in the season, and it's a long way to the Play Offs.

One other thing I said last year was their 67 win season in the stacked West was hugely, hugely impressive. if they had been in the East last year they would in all likelihood have broken the 72-10 record of Jordan's Chicago.

I'll try and get my predictions in in the next few days.

#bringbacknuri!

NufcNavan

Rose is surely gone from the Bulls after his contract runs out. Best for both parties to move on. He's not even the 2nd best player on that team anymore.

Th0mas Shelby

ButtersSuki wrote: »

hey folks, good to see y'all back on the thread....I miss Ade though

Late to the party this year (been working like a beeyatch), but how about that start by GSW? I said last year (and the year before) that despite the flash (and there's plenty of that) they are a very good defensive team too. On current form (and barring injury to any key player) it really is hard to look beyond them repeating. The only slight concern I'd have would be they seem at peak pace/condition already in the season, and it's a long way to the Play Offs.

One other thing I said last year was their 67 win season in the stacked West was hugely, hugely impressive. if they had been in the East last year they would in all likelihood have broken the 72-10 record of Jordan's Chicago.

I'll try and get my predictions in in the next few days.

#bringbacknuri!

Fantastic start by GSW, felt they set down a real marker in the west lastnight. Couple of points down with 2 minutes to go, who would you rather have in your team than Curry? 72-10....I've seen stranger things happening but it's again an extremely strong Western Conference so will be tough to top last years 67. Great start though and looking strong defensively.

Paully D

Can we just skip to the Warriors vs Cavs final now and save everyone the time?

That_Guy

Paully D wrote: »

Can we just skip to the Warriors vs Cavs final now and save everyone the time?

Having watched the trainwreck that is the Brooklyn Nets up until this point, I will vote in favour of this.

The worst team in the NBA by far.

That_Guy

That_Guy wrote: »

Having watched the trainwreck that is the Brooklyn Nets up until this point, I will vote in favour of this.

The worst team in the NBA by far.

that trade with the celtics looks a tad insane right around now

That_Guy

Valentina Raspy Tummy wrote: »

that trade with the celtics looks a tad insane right around now

If the Nets owned a restaurant, it wouldn't be mints they'd be giving out at the end of a meal. It'd be a bowl of picks.

honest question to celtics fans would you rather another average season an a playoff spot likely ending with a first round exit again but allowing the many many young players to grow and have a bit more playoff experience or for the team to fall apart a bit along with the nets and get two high lottery picks?