The Official NBA 2019-20 Season Thread
 

It’s Opening Night!

Predictions
East:

Sixers
Bucks
Celtics
Heat
Pacers
Nets
Raptors
Magic/Bulls

West

Clippers
Rockets
Jazz
Nuggets
Lakers
Spurs
Mavericks
Kings/Warriors

Champions: Clippers over Sixers
MVP: Giannis
ROY: RJ Barrett

Who you got?

Predictions
East:

Sixers
Celtics
Bucks
Pacers
Raptors
Nets
Heat
Pistons

West

Nuggets
Clippers
Rockets
Lakers
Warriors
Jazz
Blazers
Mavericks


Champions: Rockets over Bucks
MVP: Giannis
ROY: Morant

I am still in preseason shape when it comes to staying up for the West Coast games.

In a bar watching Lakers-Clippers, surrounded by the usual idiot Lakers fans I see at the restaurant.

Reinforces my belief that the Clippers are fighting for good lol.

In all seriousness, I'm cracking up at Lakers fans drunkenly saying, "Jeez play defense!"

Get used to it, guys.

I hope that everyone who bitched about the lack of traveling calls is happy now.

After watching a fair bit of the first half of NO-TOR last night while at dinner, I honestly don't know how anybody watches regular season NBA right now. 3p or dunks mentality has created a league of guys who can't fucking shoot normal shots. It was like watching really tall pee wee teams.

Fultz looks really good

Efficiency Jon. The buzzword in all sports in efficiency.

Whatever it is, it's damned ugly to watch.

If you can hit from 45 feet, it kinda figures you oughta be able to hit from 15 feet.

*clarifying -- my complaint isn't about the scarcity of 2 point tries, it's about the abysmal success rate I saw while taking them (a surprising number of times, mostly forced by what the defenses were giving up)

Honestly, it might be efficient but it's made the NBA less interesting to watch for me progressively. I bought league pass this year because it's a wide open season with some interesting new-look teams, but watching the games yesterday reminded me exactly what I'd been (intentionally) missing by not subscribing the last few years.

Jokic is always fun to watch.

I thought the Rockets were supposed to stop Russ from trying to take over these games.

Both teams been pretty undisciplined down the stretch. Westbrook/Harden looked about how I expected it to - good enough to win a ton of regular season games, but I don't see it doing much outside of the first round of the playoffs.

Steph looks so lonely out there.

Yeah, some of the new Warriors have looked OK in spurts, but boy does this Warriors team play differently, and Curry is not looking super comfortable as a result.

It's just one game, against arguably the best team in the league...but woof that defense looks really, really bad.

Arguably the best team, with Paul George still yet to play. Kinda scary, really.

Ayton suspended for 25 games. Ouch

I like what they've done with that roster though. A nice mix of shooters and defenders added to the core talent.

Don't worry Nets fans, known Alpha Kevin Durant will be back eventually to keep him happy! Nets officials concerned about Kyrie's 'mood swings,' per report

KAT decided he was not taking any of Embiid's shit.

Steph Curry leaves Warriors game after falling on wrist

I mean, it's probably nothing serious, right?

But that might be a #1 overall contender if he was out long-term.

Honestly, with a healthy Curry this Warriors' team has looked like a #1 pick contender. Without Curry they'll look barely a step above the Tankapalooza Sixers' teams.

Broken hand... not sure what the healing time on that is, but they're almost certainly headed to a high pick at this point. Might as well not rush him back and either get another piece or use the pick as a trade chip. Probably best case scenario given how they've started the season.

I love the thoughtful critique that a strip club review rating is a flawed metric to measure strip club quality across different markets.

That whole sequence is gold.

So I suck at watching basketball. Especially the pro game, my eye just isn't tuned to everything going on, and everything I see that looks like something isn't. The game has just changed. Anyway. This is easy to see. What the hell kind of strategy is this?

Literally arrest everyone in the organization https://t.co/Gnhfzn7Qhk

— Turkbert Cransauceko (@AlbertBurneko) November 10, 2019

Cavs have been reasonably entertaining.

Wow, and to think I had some respect for the Rockets at one point...

They have been my least favourite team to watch for years. A blatant attempt to min-max "game" the way the NBA is played and officiated.

Yeah, I can't believe it. I've already watched more full games of Cavs ball this season than last season. Tristan playing out of his mind in a contract year just frustrates me though, knowing what more he had to offer all these years. I wonder what team is going to overpay him for 3 years this offseason - please not Cleveland.

Throw in the Suns as well to the "entertaining" group. It was torture watching this team the past 5 years, now they are actually fun. It's amazing what replacing talented head cases (Josh Jackson, Marquise Chriss, Dragen Bender, DeAnthony Melton, TJ Warren) and Vets who didn't give a crap (Ariza, Anderson, Chandler) with actual real NBA players can do to a team.

Yep, Suns too. Each time I've tuned into a Suns game it's been to watch whoever they are playing, and every time the Suns have gone on to win that game. :)

How about that Garland juke layup delay drive the other day on Simmons? Obviously he needs to start hitting shots but that’s some superstar type shit.

I'm assuming the Suns I saw last night was largely a product of Ricky Rubio being out, because that did not live up to the hype the Suns have been getting ;)

Also, what's the reason behind Ty Jerome not getting any minutes? Is he injured?

Getting on this late...

You can look back in past NBA threads and see my commentaries on this before but I'll say it again.

D'Antoni sucks in just about every way. As an arrogant human being and as a destroyer of a normally beautiful game. He should not be coaching in the NBA but he got lucky to be matched with Harden, the perfect superstar for his system and nearly the same level of (or lack thereof) self reflection and awareness.

15 years ago this year, the Malice at the Palace happened. I checked out the archive. The thread is still there ;)

Yeah, he has a bad ankle injury (atleast 2 more weeks). it's a shame as the team had a pretty solid PG rotation in the preseason with Rubio, Jerome and Tyler Johnson. Now, you get a lot of Jevon Carter when Rubio is hurt (not good). This team doesn't have the depth to sustain 2-3 big injuries against a team the caliber of Boston. Without Rubio, Jerome and Ayton (plus a very gimpy Baynes), 90% of the scoring/playmaking falls to Booker and Oubre.

Last night against the Kings, the issue was having no PG or bigs. Both Ayton and Baynes didn't play (and Rubio could only manage 15 min). So, we got a lot of Cheick Diallo, Elie Okobo and Frank Kaminsky. The Suns just have to find a way to ride out these last 13 games before Ayton comes back (and hope Rubio and Baynes get healthy). They are fun when mostly healthy, but if Rubio, Booker or Ayton/Baynes can't play - the quality drops pretty quickly.

Doncic might end up being a decent player.

Seems there are a lot of injuries from players randomly running into other players. Hope Kemba is okay.

Reports are he doesn't have any injuries other than "concussion-like" symptoms.

Melo Ball just notched up a triple double in the Australian league. I thought he would be a gimmick/spot contributor in this league - and I definitely wasn't alone on that - but boy has he proven me and a lot of other people wrong. His three ball is also improving.

That thread had some unique bedfellows.

He grew about 5 inches it seems.

Lonzo looked great in college too.

My understanding is that Melo has a weird shot too. Is that right? That could give some of the same problems Lonzo has trying to shoot and score in the NBA.

Of course if Melo isn't as injury prone, that right there give him a better ceiling than Lonzo.

There's a big difference between college and our league, though. He's doing this against men, in one of the strongest leagues outside of the NBA talent-wise, especially the top 4 teams.

He started the year with a shot that looked almost identical to Lonzo's out of college, but it's started to shift a little. Still looks like he shoots it with his arms more than his legs, but he's been putting in a lot of work with the coach he brought down here with him and it's starting to pay off the past couple of weeks. He needs to get better defensively, but in terms of his passing and playmaking ability it's NBA-level already IMO, so if he can make that 3 ball consistently I'd say he's already ahead of Lonzo at 18 years of age.

Playing the Hawks is like going on Oprah

"And you get a basket ... and you get a basket ... and you get a basket ... you ALLLLLLLL get a basket ... many baskets ...soooooo many baskets"

To be fair, the Rockets also gave up 158 this year.

The real question is can the Hawks score 158 in a game at some point this year.:p

Jabari Parker definitely found the perfect team. I'm not sure he's one of the 5 worst defenders on this Hawks team.