The Official 2018-19 NBA Season Thread

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by stevew

Also Looney has to get at least 5-7million a year after this series, right? He's a free agent at a good time after a fairly strong performance.

He will get a lot more than that. Ian Mahnimi gets 15 mil a year. Someone will give Looney a 4/65 or something like that.

[stevew]

I was looking at Mahimni or Solomon Hill as comps but soending has been fairly chill lately. Then again the Knicks got money to burn so.

[stevew]

Lakers dumpster fire is popcorn worthy.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by stevew

Lakers dumpster fire is popcorn worthy.

Yeah, though one thing I didn't care much for was ESPN sub-headline attempt to throw a few more bags onto the fire. (Turned out to be mostly clickbait from them since the article put plenty of blame on Magic's ... but most people aren't going to get that far)

I forget the exact wording but it was something like "ownership fails to respond to Magic's comments". I can't really see why they would right now.

Magic gonna Magic, so why bother trying to respond? It's gonna be he said, she said b.s. and people are going to believe whatever they believed beforehand no matter what they say.

[bob]

Has a team ever blown 3 17 point leads on the way to be swept?

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by bob

Has a team ever blown 3 17 point leads on the way to be swept?

Just heard they had the lead 51% of the time in the series and got swept.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Just heard they had the lead 51% of the time in the series and got swept.

54.9% of the series. 101 minutes with the lead, 83 minutes without it.

[albionmoonlight]

Wall Street Journal with a Hot Take on what has made the Warriors so successful:

The Warriors would not be a dynasty without Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, Andre Iguodala and Kevin Durant https://t.co/9Po7NDjWWX

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) May 21, 2019

[stevew]

Wow. Cutting edge

[miami_fan]

Hmm, so I guess Portland has to give Damian Lillard 4 yrs/$191 mil and Charlotte has to give Kemba Walker 5 yrs/$221 mil, right? Right?

[stevew]

Bucks take too many garbage shots.

Maybe someone could put a body on Vanvleet at some point?

[stevew]

How do you miss that call. Ball obviously hit the rim and I don't have my glasses on. Also missed an obvious offensive GT earlier.

[bhlloy]

NBA refereeing is the most arbitrary thing ever. And it’s not even because it’s a fast sport and it’s hard to referee. They just randomly decide to not call things at random times and others you can’t even breathe on someone without a whistle.

[Lathum]

This may make me sound like a cranky old man but the NBA needs to step in and do something about Drake. I don't care who you are, no fan should be able to go in the areas he does.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Lathum

This may make me sound like a cranky old man but the NBA needs to step in and do something about Drake. I don't care who you are, no fan should be able to go in the areas he does.

Just add him to the staff or the roster at this point.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Just add him to the staff or the roster at this point.

Its just not fair to the other team. Easy to say they are professionals and should be able to tune it out, but they are also humans. Any other fan who acted like that would be escorted out.

Hope he pulls this shit with Draymond

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Its just not fair to the other team. Easy to say they are professionals and should be able to tune it out, but they are also humans. Any other fan who acted like that would be escorted out.

Hope he pulls this shit with Draymond

Oh I'm in agreement with you. I'm just saying that they ought to be required to either control his ass or pay him like he's part of the team (since that seems to be what the idiot believes ... and maybe has been led to believe at this point)

He's not enough to have me pulling for GS but he was plenty to have me wishing for a MIL win just so he could vanish.

[stevew]

He’s a fan ambassador or some shit. They should T him up for interference if it’s a problem. But anyways I’m happy for the people of Toronto.

[stevew]

Probably going to have another horribly wrong take, but I can’t imagine Toronto wins more than 1 game here. Golden State has battle tested dogs with a fuck you edge. It maybe goes 5 games. Assuming they don’t absorb another injury.

[Groundhog]

Kawhi is going to need to be the best player on the court and the Raps are going to need to hold Golden State under 100 to have a chance, I think. Kinda reminds me of the Cavs-Warriors series, strangely. Kawhi has a better supporting cast overall outside of a #2 option at Irving's level arguably.

[Vince, Pt. II]

I think this series is going to be much closer than some people are giving it credit for. The Raptors will be the best defense, by far, that the Warriors have faced in the post-season so far. Without KD for the first part of the series, Kawhi can sag off Iguodala and play free safety on defense, making it much harder for the Warriors to get their offense flowing. Lowry is long and athletic enough to bother Curry, and as long as they can manage the pick-and-roll, they should be able to slow down the Warriors' offense more than enough to manage a win. Whether or not they can get enough offense on the other end is another matter entirely. I don't think VanVleet is going to continue to have as much space to continue his torrid shooting, but Leonard will be hard to stop and Lowry has been playing very, very well.

I think this goes six games, minimum.

[Logan]

Warriors in 5 close games would be my guess.

[Chief Rum]

Terrific description of the madness within the Lakers' organization at the moment, although almost all of it is unfortunately anonymously sourced.

Lakers In Disarray

[miami_fan]

I have the game on in the background as I finish up some work. It sounded like the Raptors were up by 10-15 points. Then I look up to catch the halftime score.

[Vince, Pt. II]

It's crazy that it's only 5 points after the shooting the Warriors had. Toronto's too good to let themselves get torched, but it's definitely got the feeling that the Raptors might have let them hang around too long.

[miami_fan]

How the hell did the Raptors lose this game?!

[Vince, Pt. II]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

...Toronto's too good to let themselves get torched...

That run in the third was everything.

[PilotMan]

You know, I don't watch a lot of pro basketball, but the game is so different from the college game and so different from even a decade ago. To me, it looks like there are fouls and traveling on every single drive and nothing gets called, so I wonder if I just really don't know this game at all. I mean, I really suck at reading this game. It's nothing like I feel like it should be.

[nilodor]

Originally Posted by miami_fan

How the hell did the Raptors lose this game?!

Klay was on fire in the first half and kept the Warriors in contact (which is also why they were close). Second half the Raptors had a few unforced errors and passed up a lot of decent shots mid-clock to get worse ones at the end of clock. This was in contrast to game 1 where a lot of the end of clock looks were pretty good. Raptors played well enough to win, credit to Golden States defense from eliminating a lot of the primary and secondary actions and grinding Toronto's offense down.

[Young Drachma]

Why hasn't Nick Nurse played Jeremy Lin at all?

[Groundhog]

Raptors looked like the Warriors in the first half, and the Blazers for most of the 3rd Q.

[stevew]

Filing a personal logo claim vs Nike during the NBA finals is a less than ideal look for Kawhi. Unless there’s some legal issue of timing, this couldn’t wait 2 weeks? Or

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by stevew

Filing a personal logo claim vs Nike during the NBA finals is a less than ideal look for Kawhi. Unless there’s some legal issue of timing, this couldn’t wait 2 weeks? Or

I am assuming that he needed to do something personally as there were reports that the Clippers were going to buy the logo rights from Nike. Surely a salary cap and/or tampering violation, right?

[miami_fan]

Oh wait. I forgot. It would a salary cap/tampering violation if he signed there (wink, wink)

[nilodor]

Originally Posted by Young Drachma

Why hasn't Nick Nurse played Jeremy Lin at all?

He played his way out of the rotation. Basically the 8th and 9th man spots were an open competition between Lin, Powell, OG, McCaw and Meeks and Lin might have been the 5th best of those guys. Shot 20% from 3, struggled to find his own shot and struggled to set up others. That's not to say he's washed or anything, just for whatever reason didn't fit it well enough to perform.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by miami_fan

Oh wait. I forgot. It would a salary cap/tampering violation if he signed there (wink, wink)

I actually think it was a clever ploy on the Clips part. They know they can't buy the logo and give it to him, because it would be an extra benefit in violation of the sal cap. They also likely knew that Nike wouldn't sell. But make an offer and leak it to the press? Why not. It's shady as fuck but that's what I think they are doing.

Probably the most interesting thing to me, though, is that it tells me they don't think they have Kawhi in the bag, despite all they have going for them. If they had received indications from his people that he was likely coming, they wouldn't have gone to these lengths.

[JPhillips]

Paul Pierce admitted that the wheel chair incident was really just an excuse because he had to go poop.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Klay out. I don't see how it happens, but if the Warriors can manage to steal this game...

[bhlloy]

Love Bogut, but he would have been a bit of a dinosaur in his prime in today’s NBA, let alone now with age and injuries. He’s got to be close to one of the least effective players in the league - I’m sure GS didn’t anticipate him getting close to the floor but here we are. I remember Jerebko being better than this as well.

[Groundhog]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

Love Bogut, but he would have been a bit of a dinosaur in his prime in today’s NBA, let alone now with age and injuries. He’s got to be close to one of the least effective players in the league - I’m sure GS didn’t anticipate him getting close to the floor but here we are. I remember Jerebko being better than this as well.

Before joining the Warriors again he was playing in our league for my local team, and even against non-NBA competition he really struggles against the pick and roll at this stage of his career, despite being in the best shape he's been in for a long time. He dominated defensively in general down here and basically locked down the key against most teams, but the better teams in the league definitely targeted him in the high pick and roll game, which is an obscenely large part of NBA basketball.

[Lathum]

Courtside fan ejected for shoving Raptors' Lowry

Watch the guy in the blue shirt 2 seats over at about 18 seconds. Guy should never be allowed in an NBA arena again.

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Courtside fan ejected for shoving Raptors' Lowry

Watch the guy in the blue shirt 2 seats over at about 18 seconds. Guy should never be allowed in an NBA arena again.

Not just a fan. Curious what is the distinction between investor and minority owner?

[albionmoonlight]

I'm cheering for Toronto b/c I like to see teams that have never won before win a title.

But I feel for the Warriors. As a sports sim guy, I know the feeling of doing everything right, assembling your team with big ability bars across the board, hitting Sim Season, and then having your guys get injuries in the playoffs. It's like, why the fuck do I keep playing these games, anyway?

[Vince, Pt. II]

Durant a game time decision tonight.

For those who aren't biased observers, does the media narrative surrounding him and this injury change your opinion of him at all?

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

Durant a game time decision tonight.

For those who aren't biased observers, does the media narrative surrounding him and this injury change your opinion of him at all?

My opinion has not changed as I thought this was a month to six week injury when it first happened. Also, Kawhi's situation with the Spurs is still fresh in the memory. Not sure if that makes me biased but...

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

Durant a game time decision tonight.

For those who aren't biased observers, does the media narrative surrounding him and this injury change your opinion of him at all?

Not sure what narrative you are talking about, but my opinion hasn't changed. I think he is still an amazing player who is also a ring chasing, wanna be heel, mental midget.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Not sure what narrative you are talking about, but my opinion hasn't changed. I think he is still an amazing player who is also a ring chasing, wanna be heel, mental midget.

Yea that sounds about right.

[Vince, Pt. II]

There have been a ton of articles / radio shows / videos with thinly veiled implications that the only reason Durant isn't already playing is because of his impending free agency, not because of the injury.

These cheap whistles could ruin what has a chance to be an amazing game.

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Not sure what narrative you are talking about, but my opinion hasn't changed. I think he is still an amazing player who is also a ring chasing, wanna be heel, mental midget.

I remember when Durant stood for what was right in the NBA, wasn't about chasing rings like Lebron, and was a lock to retire with OKC like the true legends before him.

[jbergey22]

Welp Durant's calf let him down and Toronto fans cheer.