The Thread of the 2009-2010 NBA Season
 

Action kicks off in about 2 weeks.

My early prediction for the most annoying video montage:
Lebron highlights fused with JayZ's "Empire State of Mind"

hahahahaha...

For the non fans-that is the Song with the Alicia Keys hook "Now you're in New York, New York, NeW York"

Kickass song even though I have a bad feeling bout this.

I played it after you said it. LOL.

I'm more excited than I usually am about the start of the season, and I'm a big NBA fan.

A lot of strong teams this year on paper in both conferences.

Ah yes, the part of the year where a Clippers fan can still have hope. I believe it was right around now this time last year that I was pointing out to stevew how much talent we had.

And I was right. We had a lot of talent. The problem was, stevew was right that they were injury prone and, well, still the Clippers, and still coached by Mike Dumbleavy. Ugh.

I think we have even more talent this year. So I am not saying a damn word.

As a Warriors fan, this season's already had a huge LOL factor. I can't wait to see what else comes about.

Big Lakers fan here hoping for the back-to-back.

Phil Jackson hasn't won a title without following up with 2 more. :) Alas, there's always a first for everything.

NBA on traveling: Two steps are better than one - ESPN

I thought this was a joke when first reading it on some lesser known nba page but apparently it´s not, freaking unbelievable ...

Next couple FIBA tournaments should be fun once they adjusted to the 2-step rule and have to unadjust on the fly. Rest assured they´ll be watched even more closely now ;)

Hoping on a good year for oden, hoping for a good rookie campaign for Curry and a ressurgence of the Suns with a fine last run for 7 seconds or less, other than that will be following the Blazers and Rockets who have lots of likeable role players likely to play some very old school ball with a likely PPG Ratio of 80 for both teams, don´t let last night fool you as it was against the Raptors.

With all the media love for the Cavs and Celtics it will be fun watching Orlando win the East again, and not so fun watching them lose to the Lakers in the finals again.

Getting really excited to see how DeMarre Carroll does at Memphis. The coaches have been really happy with his play. He's been putting up better numbers than Thabeet in less minutes.

The Simmons "kick off the NBA season" article on ESPN/Page 2 shares your sentiment. He has them in the playoffs this year and actually had nice things to say about Dunleavy (well, sort of).

Pistons will be 7th in the NBA in scoring and end up as a 7 or 8 seed, if not miss the playoffs altogether, as they feature perhaps the worst defense in Detroit sports. Think about that for a second.

How do you figure? Frankly I think we're in for a long year. We have no front court period. Gordon's going to get his 20+ a night off the bench but who else is going to score? Rip's going to have to share minutes whether he wants to or not so I would be surprised to see him score as high as he used to. I think we're lucky to be 8th in the conference. Orlando, Cleveland, Boston are the top 3 for sure - Chicago, Washington (assuming Arenas stays healthy), Atlanta I would put in front of Detroit. Then you've got Philly, Toronto, Miami and Detroit for those last two spots. I have to say if all parties are healthy I don't like Detroit's chances in that race. I put Detroit more on par with Indiana and even they might be better than the Pistons if Hibbert continues to develop.

I hope I'm wrong but I have a hard time seeing it. We traded Billups and blew up the team chemistry last year to get a bunch of cap space and then promptly blew it on a 6th man and a guy who couldn't even get significant minutes with a bad Milwaukee team and said bad Milwaukee team didn't even bother to offer him a qualifying offer so they could match an offer.

I'm going to say it right now Rip + Gordon is not going to work - somebody has to go between Rip and Tayshaun so we can get a big man. A team with Kwame Brown, Chris Wilcox and an aged Ben Wallace manning the middle isn't a playoff team.

I don't think being a 7th or 8th seed is good. I am just saying the team will probably score a lot but give up a whole lot more then it scores.

I'm with you this team is awful, but the East is still not that deep so the Pistons can sneak in to the playoffs.

Joe has done a terrible job constructing a team, but that is how it goes.

I mean, Stuckey and Gordon are going to be expected to play D together for 20 or so minutes a night.

How scary is that?

I can't wait until I get to see Shack O Neal on my favorite team

Steve Blake beats out Andre Miller for the starting PG spot in Portland. Bit of a shock, but with how much Roy handles the ball, maybe not a massive surprise. Does Miller get traded now? His contract matches up very nicely with Shane Battier...

I am really nervous about the ankle injury that has kept Derrick Rose out of the entire preseason.

So am I. He's a key player on both of my fantasy teams.

Stop bashing Joe Dumars. He has built up one hell of a team. The team in Denver.

Denver has Carmelo because Dumars drafted Darko.
Denver has Billups instead of AI last year or the garbage FA out there this year.
Denver has a major upgrade over Dhaney Jones with Afflalo.

BTW, Pacers fans, you'll despise Jones within the first two weeks. He's simply horrible. Horrible. He does good against Paul for one series and people think he's the greatest defensive stopper ever.

started a fantasy league, kind of short notice

Yahoo Fantasy Basketball - Front Office Football Central

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that the Atlanta Hawks upset somebody and make it all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals.

Joe's lost it - the Afflalo trade was stupid. I thought we got a steal when we picked him. He's going to have a long, productive career as a 4th-7th man who plays good defense and does some scoring.

The Billups trade wouldn't have been so bad if he would have a) let Iverson come here and play like Iverson wants to play b) would have taken the next step and sent Rip packing instead of giving him an extension and c) not blown all the cap money on two players who didn't even get offers from their own teams.

The Darko thing...I've said it before and I will be consistent. If I was drafting that day I would have passed on Melo too and I still don't think that was a bad move. I would have taken either Darko or Bosh. Of course knowing what we know now there's no way in hell anyone would have taken Darko there but it's hard to pass on a 7 foot 18 year old who had a ton of hype especially when you already have a championship level team and you can afford to sit on a guy for two years maybe before you really need much out of him. Of course the fact that Wade, Bosh, Melo and others were drafted behind them really makes that pick look bad but that's just how it worked out that it happened to be the biggest bust in one of the best drafts ever.

Bottom line is that Joe started reading the headlines about what a genius he was and then started outsmarting himself. Now we're an afterthought in a fairly weak conference with our future mortgaged for Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva...yeah, we're screwed.

I think Jones' reputation on D is derived from the fact that he clearly puts 100% effort on the defensive end each possession, while being pretty passive on the other end.

Indivdually he's not a particularly great defender. He did a fairly good job on Kobe in the playoffs, but he's no Battier, and is even more one-dimensional.

He looked more aggressive with the ball in the preseason, so maybe he's looking to show there's a little more to his game this season.

On the subject of the Pacers, I'm very interested to see what kind of season Hibbert has. I thought he was destined to be an immobile stiff coming out of college considering how robotic he looked even against NCAA competition, but man, he's REALLY worked on his touch and had some fantastic games in the preseason.

If he's being more aggressive, you'll hate him more. He didn't do a good job on Kobe either. Kobe destroyed him. Here are some numbers for consumption:

Last year Jones had a -9.1 Roland rating.
He had an adjusted 39% FG% on jump shots.
Opposing SG had a 58% adjusted FG% against him.
The Nuggets gave up more points per 100 possession with him on the floor than when he was off it.

Essentially, here is the deal with him:

You are dead right, you will get effort every night.
He'll blow you away with a huge dunk every now and then.
He'll fire off a cheap shot on an opposing player at times. (you be the judge on how good that is)
When he's on the court, you are playing 4-5 on the offensive end.
There are a handful of players in the league that get frustrated with his type of defense. Most of those players calm down, adjust and destroy him the rest of the game. . . but he'll get under the skin of some and they'll do some stupid things.

This is strictly my opinion:

As a 10 minute a night player on a team full of scoring options, he's good to have. As a 20 minute a night rotation player, you'd better hope everything else goes right for your team or he'll get exposed. At 4 years for 11 million dollar? I'm glad he's someone elses problem.

I got a chance to see him a couple of times this preseason. He looks very, very good. I dunno, maybe 15-8? That sound right?

No chance Hibbert does 15 and 8. I'd say 10 and between 6-8 rookie year

Didnt Jones nearly foul out in a half vs Kobe in that Western Finals?

I think it all depends on how well he manages to avoid foul trouble. If he can stay on the court, 15-8 with 2 or 3 blocks a game is certainly reachable. One of the most promising young bigs in the league IMO.

Yup. Kobe went after him and used his aggression against him. He fell for Kobe's pump fakes just about every time, which is probably the key to defending Kobe - do your best to keep your hand in his face, force him towards help defense, and don't bite on his shot fake. Courtney Lee actually did a better job than Jones IMO, especially considering he was a rookie.

Brook Lopez is twice the offensive player Hibbert is and couldn't reach those numbers with the Nets.

Shane Battier is probably the best Kobe defender in the league. And he really couldn't stop him, just make things very, very difficult. Force Kobe to his left, never bite on pumpfakes, and keep a hand on his face at all times.

Actually, Brook did get to the 8 boards and would have gotten to 14 if he'd have played more early in the season.

The question is really minutes. I think he'll average around 20 points per 48 minutes. (he actually averaged 23.5 points per 48 last year. At 30 minutes that's about 12.5 points (my projection of 20 per 48). At last year's production it's over 14.6 points per game. Provided he gets more minutes, I'm pretty comfortable with my scoring prediction.

The boards are where my question really comes in. Last year he was at 11.6 boards per 48. I think he can increase that a bit.

But again, it really comes down to minutes. He played 25 or more minutes in a game 4 times last year. He had 14 or more points in every game. 7 or more rebounds in 3 of the 4 games.

An offseason of practice and 25+ minutes consistently a night? I think I'll be closer than you think I am.

Griffin out for up to 6 weeks with stress fracture. This team is completely snake bit. Once Kaman goes down with inevitable injury it will be time to shut it down for the season and start thinking about that high draft pick again next year.

Amazing, isn't it? You couldn't make up such constant misery.

Well that sucks. :(

It was a hell of a dunk that he injured himself on:

YouTube - Blake Griffin-Block and sick Dunk

(embedding never works with this lousy WYSIWYG editor)

It is worth noting that Bill Simmons specified in his NBA preview that if Griffin were to roll around on the court clutching a broken right ankle within three weeks, we should not mock him with copies of the paragraph he wrote in which he intimated that becoming a Clipper was one of the best things that could have happened to Griffin.

Nothing, however, was mentioned about a left kneecap. Ought to be fun to see the mail, at least.

Gerald "Crash" Wallace 2.0

Clippers should be exempt from the draft and trades as it´s just not fair to the players .

Simmons full preview, not much actual information but some humourous points : Bill Simmons' NBA season preview and 33 most intriguing NBA people - ESPN

btw, has anyone seen Nowitzki´s new haircut ? :D

Just now purchased the International League Pass , so i´m good to go for the start of the season. Can´t watch a ton live with the time difference and having to work, so that replay option is a nice option. Just have to keep clear off of sport pages during the day and watch after work.

Man. God hates the Clippers.

I'm surprised nobody else commented on this story. I'm sure it's not unique. As your typical average middle class guy, comments like this make me absolutely hate professional athletes -

"Walker’s mother, Diane, said her son does not have a gambling problem. She added that “he doesn’t party any more than the next person’’ and “what you do with your life is your business.’’

“Antoine doesn’t owe anybody any explanation,’’ said Diane Walker. “He’s not out here hurting anybody. He’s trying to live his life peacefully. That’s all he’s doing . . . My son is young. Why can’t he just enjoy life, go where he wants to go?’’


AND...

"When asked about her son’s recent, well-documented financial and legal problems, Diane Walker stood stoically outside her front door. She made a sweeping gesture toward the mansion, moving her hand past a giant brick “W’’ embedded in the driveway.

“Antoine is doing great,’’ said Diane. “I have my home. He has his home. If he’s doing so bad, then how could we still be here?’’


What a POS. What a slap in the face to anyone who works for a living and struggles to do the right thing and pay their bills month to month.

On the other hand, I would put dollars to donuts that Walker was taken advantage of by a lot of people. The book on him (in Boston at least) has always been that he's a big hearted guy but not too bright. Sad to say I wasn't too surprised to read the article.

Of course, I don't mean that to excuse running up debts you can't pay at all. Just makes it kind of sad, to me.

poor toine. he never should have left boston...we would have taken care of him.

Oh I agree with you. My anger surprisingly enough isn't towards Walker, but the people who took advantage of him, namely his Mom.

Do you think his Mom told him "Hey, that's ok, I think I'll be alright with 5 bathrooms instead of 10"? Of course not.

said in the story that he authorized 5 people to make charges on his credit card and it looks like most of the charges came from one of those people - so there's definately some anger to be directed towards that person too (whether it was his mom or his best friend or what)

there's definately a great business opportunity here though to be like....financial advisor for professional athletes. and not to sponge money off them and embezzle it or anything, but to teach them and advise them on how to live responsibly and make sure this type of thing doesn't happen to them

Geez bad day for Celtics fans. First, Rondo turns down the Celtics last offer and he and his agent announced he will be going to at least restricted FA. Secondly, Big Baby broke his thumb in a fight with an ole LSU teammate. so much for saving Garnett for the playoffs.