2018-2019 NBA Season

[kskate2]

The only one out East with upset potential is Philly because Embiid doesn't seem healthy. Philly has a ton of talent even outside of Embiid but they haven't put it together and Brooklyn with very little talent is still a hot team that has been playing every game like it's a playoff game for a month now.

Pacers are too weak without Oladipo no surprise. That is quietly the most important injury of the season as Indy definitely would have the 3 seed if he didn't go down. Now they are nothing.

After getting torched, most of the first half, Philly shows up in the last few minutes and cuts the lead to single digits w/ a buzzer beating 3 by the Butler. With Joel on the sidelines, it's time for Jimmy to earn his pay.

 

[DarthFed]

Didn't take long for Walton to get scooped up. I thought he did a good job with the Lakers last year and this year...wasn't his fault. The team was looking good and then LeBron got hurt on Christmas and then he killed team chemistry trying to get everyone and their grandpa traded for AD.

And now LA is talking about Ty Lue and even Jason Kidd. What exactly have those clowns done recently to convince anyone they should be head coaches

 

[kskate2]

Yikes! The Magic are good. And DJ is an assassin. I remember when he was a Bull.

 

[Murat Baslamisli]

Yikes! The Magic are good. And DJ is an assassin. I remember when he was a Bull.

Raps are allergic to game 1s...They are 1-10 now. I think they will take care of business though.

 

[DarthFed]

Raps are allergic to game 1s...They are 1-10 now. I think they will take care of business though.

That was quite surprising though. It's kind of interesting that you had a couple teams that have been playing playoff games for awhile now against two teams that have more or less been locked into their seeding for a few weeks. Bucks vs Detroit is the same so Milwaukee needs to come out ready to go. Detroit is definitely the weakest of the 3 teams but Bucks need to match their intensity.

I think Philly is in a lot more danger than Toronto but Orlando is probably the toughest team in the East outside the top 4 at this point.

 

[Federberg]

Well that was a day of upsets. How do you folks think the Nets, Magic and Spurs stack up? Are the Nets and Magic as good as the Spurs? I would have thought not, although I've been impressed with the Nets all season and the recent run of the Magic. Seems to me the Raptors and 76ers really underperformed. I doubt anyone is that surprised the Nuggets lost

 

[DarthFed]

Well that was a day of upsets. How do you folks think the Nets, Magic and Spurs stack up? Are the Nets and Magic as good as the Spurs? I would have thought not, although I've been impressed with the Nets all season and the recent run of the Magic. Seems to me the Raptors and 76ers really underperformed. I doubt anyone is that surprised the Nuggets lost

The major shock was the Raptors as they are clearly better than the other two teams that were upset. I do agree that Spurs winning isn't too shocking. Pops is still the best coach in the league and one of the best all-time. This year just reaffirms that. The Nets are decent but that series is about Embiid's health. Magic are just surprisingly dangerous, they beat a lot of good teams this year, sometimes convincingly.

 

[Federberg]

So Westbrook goes 2nd on the all time triple double list. Well done to him. Lost the game though. In the closing minutes he left Dame free to shoot a 3 pointer. Kudos to him for padding his stats but could someone tell him getting the W is what really counts?

 

[DarthFed]

So Westbrook goes 2nd on the all time triple double list. Well done to him. Lost the game though. In the closing minutes he left Dame free to shoot a 3 pointer. Kudos to him for padding his stats but could someone tell him getting the W is what really counts?

Portland has been hearing from everyone around the league that they ain't good enough in the playoffs. They have an even bigger chip on their shoulder than the average playoff team. Still a long ways to go of course but really good opportunity for them to make the WCF. If they can't make a run here then it's hard to take them serious without getting a couple extra big pieces.

EDIT: I mean OKC has the good opportunity not Portland.

 

[kskate2]

they are 40 pts north. why is the freak still in the game. he needs to sit down and not risk injury

 

[kskate2]

I blame the GM and owners in OKC. Jeepers you had Harden, Durant, Westbrook, even Oladipo. And no rings? Really??? That's not just bad... it's negligent

They had Iblocka too.

 

[DarthFed]

They had Iblocka too.

And that was a factor too. They signed Ibaka to a big contract that year and then they had KD and Russ down the road. They couldn't spend huge dollars on Harden and hope to keep the others. In hindsight signing Ibaka instead of Harden looks like one of the dumbest moves in NBA history but at the time it made a lot of sense. Ibaka was great that year, big time defense and provided a decent amount of offense on a team that already had the scoring down just with KD. Ibaka just didn't improve upon where he was in that 2012 season when they made the finals and Harden was just their talented 6th man at the time. He seemed more expendable than Ibaka at the time.

I guess the real argument would be if one believes that Russ wasn't the main reason KD left. Maybe management failed KD in some way but not sure I buy that. I don't think OKC being a crap city factored in either but who knows. Oakland is at least close to nice places for an NBA megastar.

 

[Federberg]

Is it time to start asking if Ben Simmons is overrated?

 

[DarthFed]

Is it time to start asking if Ben Simmons is overrated?

Yeah it has to be said he really didn't develop too much from last year and the more alarming thing thus far has been his playoff performances. He was awful against Boston last year and had a really bad game yesterday to start. That said he did just average 17, 9, 8 on 56% shooting at age 22 without having any kind of a jump shot. At worst the guy is set up to be a borderline superstar but I still think he becomes a mega superstar if not better. It's all proof that the Kardashian curse is strong. Going home after a tough game and giving it to Kendall Jenner would make me care a bit less about bball too.

 

[Federberg]

Yeah it has to be said he really didn't develop too much from last year and the more alarming thing thus far has been his playoff performances. He was awful against Boston last year and had a really bad game yesterday to start. That said he did just average 17, 9, 8 on 56% shooting at age 22 without having any kind of a jump shot. At worst the guy is set up to be a borderline superstar but I still think he becomes a mega superstar if not better. It's all proof that the Kardashian curse is strong. Going home after a tough game and giving it to Kendall Jenner would make me care a bit less about bball too.

 

[kskate2]

Simmons is playing alot better tonight. Why does he have to lay an egg first? He should have been aggressive out of the gate on Sat (especially knowing Joel is not healthy). :scratch:

 

[kskate2]

Even though they are playing better, Philly is still getting bossed on their home floor by these young guns.

 

[DarthFed]

Even though they are playing better, Philly is still getting bossed on their home floor by these young guns.

Winner of this game takes the series I say.

 

[kskate2]

Especially if that winner turns out to be the Nets. They would be 2-0 with 2 home games to play

 

[kskate2]

Embiid got lucky. That should have been flagrant 2.