NBA Regular Season & Playoffs 2017-18

Simmons with another triple double.

Harden with 56 - a career high. I was surprised 56 was his career high though, thought he went higher before.

brady23 wrote: »

Quick comparison of some of the best NBA rookies in the past 30 odd years puts what Simmons is doing in some great company.
Comparable to Duncan, Shaq, Iverson and Blake while a tad behind MJ.

I genuinely think we could be looking at a multiple MVP winner in the future.
I know Blake hasn't really progressed much in terms of overall impact since his rookie season but one could argue he's a slight outlier from that perspective.

Simmons weakest point is obviously his shooting but even with everyone dipping under his screens he's still finding players with space and getting to the rim at ease with incredible efficiency.
I was high on him before but every game that passes he just gets more and more impressive.

I'm so disappointed I couldn't get to the game in London especially after being offered tickets :mad:

+1 on not going to London, regret it now esp. as it's Boston too.

Will catch both at some stage during the season in the US though so that'll make up for it.

Going to Miami in 2 weeks and will see the Celtics play the Heat on the 22nd so looking forward to that.

brady23 wrote: »

I think we are witnessing the passing of the guard to a point this season.
It's probably a tad premature given it's unlikely that any of these younger players are going to make waves in the post season.
However I do think the likes of Porzingis, Towns, Embiid, Giannis, Davis, Simmons are fast becoming the poster boys of the NBA.

The championship will obviously be decided by LeBron, Durant, Westbrook, Harden, Curry, Kyrie(could be in the younger group) etc but I think the gap has shrunk alot more than I expected over the summer.

LeBron, Durant, Kawhi etc could be challenged as the NBA alphas alot sooner than expected

+1.

The shift towards youth has been astonishing, both in terms of the shift itself and also the relative quickness in which it happened.

You have players in the first 3 years of their careers truly dominating, and a large number of them.

Gregk961 wrote: »

Id say we another 2 years of Golden State/Cleveland dominance and then these younger superstars can start battling for championships.

Hopefully. TBH the real interesting story this year has been the Rookie class. I'm a bit fed up of the GS (and to a lesser degree Cavs) dominance, even if I can appreciate the individual and collective brilliance of what they're doing.

brady23 wrote: »

Bledsoe for Monroe, 1st round protected(not sure what num yet) and 2nd rounder.

Given the relationship that has developed, it's not horrific provided it's not like Top 12 protected.
Monroe will be a FA after the summer so he's essentially a rental.
Sun's are ****e so who basically cares, McDonough is essentially running them into the ground at every opportunity.

As far as the Bucks go it's a weird move imo. I mean Bledsoe is a poor enough 3pt shooter, he hasn't displayed particularly good play making ability and his touted defensive chops are more theoretical than anything else.

Perhaps he'll get some sort of renaissance but I'm not completely sure he's the most complimentary piece to Giannis given Brogdan shoots 40% from 3. He should be an upgrade on the defensive end given Brogdan is a total liability but I suppose Kidd has been great so far so it's hard to be know. It's a tough one to assess I think

How he hasn't been fired is a mystery.

I still think the Cavs are in the worst place.

There doesn't appear in hindsight to be any logic to the roster that the Cavs have put together. They put players based on names and what they did in the past, rather than actual needs.

I've said Lue is a joke from the start, basically a fraud in the Mike Brown league - it's clear LeBron is effectively running the whole show there. When you see the transformation of Kyrie under Stephens in a well run offence and at both ends of the court, you really have to wonder WTF Lue is doing from coaching and motivational standpoints - apart from nothing of course. On Kyrie, I was very concerned Boston gave away too much, now it looks like they got the better deal. It also raises the question of how intimidating LeBron is to his teammates being the fulcrum through which everything revolves around....and does he make them better or scare them into freezing. Kyrie looks a much better all-round player freed from under his shadow tbh. Maybe Kyrie was lazy or didn't respect the coaching staff in Cleveland too (Brown, Scott, Blatt, Lue - in fairness would you blame him?), but he just looks like a star reborn in Boston.

They (the Cavs) could still pull it together and win the East outright on Lebron's back alone, but they will get hammered by any team coming out of the West. Hammered. I wouldn't rule out some major activity at trade time or before then as they seek to improve the roster.

The team I fear in the East is Washington IF they can swing the Boogie trade. They're one of the few teams with assets to do so, and the window for them is now.

2smiggy wrote: »

the nets are 4-6 so far. I think part of the thinking was that Danny Ainge thought they were not going to be as bad again, and the draft pick was not as valuable as people were thinking.

I can't say I know who all the teams with worse records than the nets have played, or the difficulty of their schedules, but they are far from the worst records so far !! The only bad part of the trade for the Celtics is Crowder IMO

Was reported after the trade on numerous pods the Celtics analytics team did their win projections on Brooklyn and had them being outside the top 5 (maybe even 7, I'm not 100% sure) sovthey figured the Nets pick wasn't actually all that valuable in reality. Dealing it pre-season when many thought the Nets would still be bottom 3 was in hindsight a master stroke from Ainge if it holds that they land after the 5 pick.

Meant to post this earlier but never hit the "Post Reply" button.

Celtics win 12th straight sans Kyrie and with DeRozan missing two relatively easy shots at game winners.

Gobert out a month with a leg injury. Will hurt the Jazz.

For me, it's Pop, always Pop. What he's done with his teams consistently over a long period of time, the 50+ win seasons, the culture he's instilled, the managing minutes and rest (he was way ahead of anyone on this), and the team philosophy make him the greatest ever. They could even have had a 70 win season last season if they didn't take the foot off the breaks in the last few weeks - without Duncan. And I say all this a Celtics fan.

Stevens however looks the heir apparent. He's no doubt helped by the talent he has at his disposal and the roster that he and Ainge have put together, but he looks like the real deal. I wouldn't give anyone COTY in November though as a lot can happen between now and May.

ctrl-alt-delete wrote: »

I was in Boston recently and went to the Celtics v Hornets game,

What an experience it was, Loved it. Watched their game on the Sunday in a Sports bar and it was a great experience too.

Do many of you watch the games live or just catch up on youtube?

Also how does one afford a season ticket there :eek: not that I know how much it it, just basing it on the price of general ticket prices.

+1 on what previous poster said AND there's a LOT of very rich people in the states. An awful lot. I work for an American company and I'm there a lot with work. It never ceases to amaze me the amount of wealthy people there are there.

Joel Embiid has a good night.

46 Pts, 15 Rebs, 7 blocks and 7 assists in 34mins.

Simmons also almost had another triple double, missed it by 1 rebound, Md also had 5 steals.

Trust the process.